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A video purportedly showing a congressional staffer having sex in a Senate hearing room has rocked Washington. An element of cruelty permeates these media feeding-frenzies, in which an inopportune moment from a person’s life suddenly rockets through global headlines. The staffer allegedly shown in the video has now left the Senate and is now a character in the Beltway drama factory infamous for cycling through the young and ambitious. For many observers, this latest controversy only underlines how politics has not yet returned to normal under Joe Biden. “Decency is on the ballot,” Jill Biden proclaimed during the 2020 election....

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Word of a new gay nightclub spread rapidly through the nation's capital over the weekend, with the LGBTQ community flocking to line up outside the latest trendy hotspot. "Word has it this is the place," said a man wearing a pair of black leather chaps. "The stories I've heard about what goes on inside this place will make you burst into flames. Because it's really gay." The new hangout has been drawing rave reviews from the gay community due to its neoclassical architecture, with ancient Greek and Roman influences that harken back to some of the glory...

ROANOKE, VA — Local man Kamal Ram found himself this morning pining for the good old days when a guy could log onto the internet without seeing gay Capitol sex tapes. "Ah, those were the days," said Ram wistfully. "We lived in simpler times, last Thursday." According to sources, Ram had enjoyed a morning cup of coffee and had a nice devotional time before innocently opening his laptop to watch some basketball highlights. "Oh, come on!" said Ram as his eyes were immediately assaulted with a gay Capitol sex tape. "I didn't sign up for this! I just wanted to...

The Select Committee to Investigate January 6 has adjourned for a well-deserved summer break. Misleading the public is exhausting work.A careful review of the official transcripts of its eight long hearings shows the committee repeatedly made connections that weren’t there, took events and quotes out of context, exaggerated the violence of the Capitol rioters, and omitted key exculpatory evidence otherwise absolving former President Donald Trump of guilt. While in some cases it lied by omission, in others it lied outright. It also made a number of unsubstantiated charges based on the secondhand accounts—hearsay testimony—of a young witness with serious credibility...

The European Parliament voted 324-155, with 38 abstentions, to condemn the U.S. Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade and demand that abortion rights be enshrined in the EU’s fundamental rights charter. Why it matters: The Supreme Court's decision last month to end federal protections for abortion was widely denounced by world leaders and human rights organizations. -In the wake of the ruling, lawmakers in Israel and France have taken steps to shore up their domestic protections for abortion. The big picture: In the resolution, European MEPs expressed their solidarity with American women and girls and called for the U.S....

New York Times reporter Ali Watkins' past tweets are raising eyebrows after revelations she had a three-year romantic relationship with a Senate Intelligence Committee aide now accused by federal prosecutors of leaking sensitive information to journalists, including herself. (Snip) In an April 2013 tweet, Watkins also tweeted about the fictional Netflix television show “House of Cards,” where a young reporter has an affair with an older member of Congress. “I wanted to be Zoe Barnes...until episode 4,” she tweeted. “Sleeping with your source- especially a vindictive congressman? #badlifechoice #HouseofCards”

Senator Marco Rubio, who announced Monday he is running for president in 2016, withdrew his amendment that would have required Iran to recognize Israel's right to exist. Some lawmakers warned extraneous elements could upend the bill, and Rubio acknowledged the importance of a securing congressional review of the Iran agreement. Washington's powerful pro-Israel lobby AIPAC voiced approval of the measure, saying: "Congress should review any agreement to ensure it meets US objectives, and object if it fails to do so." A final deal, the group said, "must be subjected to the constitutional system of checks and balances that is the...

Thirteen state attorneys general have sent a letter to Congress threatening legal action against health care reform unless a provision in the Senate bill given to Nebraska is removed. The provision is known as the “Cornhusker Kickback,” because it gives Nebraska a permanent exemption from paying for Medicaid expenses that would be required of all the other states. This means that taxpayers in other states would be paying for an increase in Nebraska’s Medicaid population. Medicaid is a federal-state health care program for the poor. “This provision is constitutionally flawed,” the attorneys general wrote. “As chief legal officers of our...

(CNN) – John McCain on Wednesday used his first Senate floor speech since the end of the presidential campaign to urge his colleagues to quickly confirm fellow Sen. Hillary Clinton as secretary of state. "I think the message that the American people are sending us now is they want us to work together and get to work," McCain said. "I think we ought to let Senator Clinton, who is obviously qualified and obviously will serve, get to work immediately." The Senate is expected to easily confirm Clinton Wednesday afternoon, and McCain's particular support of the New York senator isn't surprising....

Boehner speaking (saw on MSNBC). Pelosi apparently gave such a vile, hate-spewing attack of Bush and the Republicans on the House floor, blaming the current financial problems on "Eight years of this administration and its allies in Congress" that, according to one report, the heads of some Repubs who heard it 'exploded' and they 'went berserk.' The attack was so ugly that several dozen Dems bolted, too. That smarmy, bug-eyed old Stalinist ("Riches for me; misery for you") just couldn't keep her bile bottled-up long enough for the vote. All bets are off now. Source on CNBC now saying DOW...

How much do you suppose it costs the U.S. Mint to produce a penny? Let me tell you--with a deeply self-satisfied howl of execration--almost 2 cents. This little brown item of pocket clutter costs twice as much to make as it's worth, and it isn't worth anything. A penny will not buy a penny postcard or a penny whistle or a single piece of penny candy. It will not even, if you're managing the U.S. Mint, buy a penny. The problem is the cost of zinc, which is what a "copper" is actually made of. For the past 25 years...

The Defense Appropriations bill that passed Congress on Nov. 8 did not include a popular amendment to provide $3 billion for border security that included funds for fencing, unmanned aerial vehicles and ground sensors. The border security amendment, sponsored by Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) was approved by the Senate in a 95-1 vote on Oct. 3. When House and Senate leaders negotiated the final terms of the bill in recent weeks, they removed the border security provision and its funding. The defense fiscal 2008 spending bill passed the House, 400-15, and the Senate, in a voice vote, on Nov. 8....

  WASHINGTON -- Rep. Sue Myrick of Charlotte, N.C., a conservative star of the famous Republican congressional class of 1994, has just about had it with the way the world works on Capitol Hill. "It makes you not want to be here. It just makes you want to leave," she told me Friday morning before the House passed the "highway" bill by a veto-proof margin of 357 to 65. What infuriates her is the money provided by this bill that does not have a thing to do with highways.Myrick went before the closed-door House Republican Conference last week to spell...

Berlin (dpa) - A headline-grabbing probe into a drugs-and-prostitutes scandal in Berlin has unearthed evidence that an incriminating phone call came from the German parliament, an official said Friday. The investigation, which has swept up a celebrity TV talk show host in its wake, took on new proportions with the announcement by Berlin law-enforcement head Karin Schubert that one call to underworld pimps originated at the Bundestag parliament. ``There was a call and it was made in January of this year,'' Schubert told ARD television news. ``The identity of the caller is as yet unknown.'' Schubert said Bundestag President Wolfgang...