DEMOCRATS DO IT IN THE ROAD

I guess it must feel like Christmas for the Republican Bloggers. It appears as if Santa and Jesus Christ himself have together made a special delivery, a sort of domino fed ex, dropping a little gift wrapped package complete with whips and leather restraints right in center of a state oh so red that the few liberals there are generally considered rinos (Republicans-In-Name-Only) by the rest of the liberals in the Democratic party. Out of Durham, North Carolina comes the perfect screw for the right-wing-nut nut cases to turn in this election year, a seeming chimera of their fervently held belief that Democrats are the degenerate tools of Satan. The headlines in the Raleigh “News & Observer” come right out of a Republican reverie; “Official charged in sex case. Democrat faces accessory count”. And, “Another local Democratic official has been charged in a criminal case that includes allegations of sexual assault satanic rituals”. Wow. Thank you, Jesus.

Will God’s bounty never cease? Ah, to see the Godless Democrats naked, bound and gagged on a cross of their own invention, that would be absolutely divine. The Reverend James Dobson, the current surviving Deacon of the Christian right wing - his own group is Focus On the Family - has been predicting this kind of Democratic Party Sex & Sin scandal at every fund raising opportunity since the early 1990’s. What a relief it must be for him to finally have documented facts upon which to base his paranoia. And so far the few details that we know are so juicy as to be described as positively Dobson-ian.
Twenty-five year old Joseph Craig is, or was, a dispatcher at Allied Waste Industries. He also ran an internet site, “theindigodawn.com”, which billed itself as promoting “enlightenment”, “past life reconstruction” and development of “divine potential”, whatever the devil that is. But calm your fleeting fingers children, the site has been taken down. You can't get there from the internet. Joseph Craig has now has been arrested and charged with three counts of second degree rape, three counts of second degree forcible sexual offense, three counts of second degree kidnapping and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon.
His wife and Indigo partner, thirty year old Joy Suzanne Johnson, has been charged with four counts of aiding and abetting, (instigating and encouraging her husband). And thankfully for the right-wing-nuts Suzanne is, or rather was until recently, the third vice-chairwoman of the Durham County Democratic Party and Chairwoman of the Durham County Young Democrats. She also worked ten hours a week as office manager for the “People’s Alliance”, a liberal action group (read "sons and daughters of Satan"!).
According to prosecutors an unnamed man and woman met the defendants online and the man moved into Craig and Suzanne’s home in November. The unnamed woman joined the trio in December. The man told police he was handcuffed to his bed with a chain around his neck for a day, with no food or water. The police observed bruises on his face, around his neck and abrasions across his back, legs, buttocks and arms. He says he was left in a dog cage and taunted for hours at a time. The unnamed woman backs up that story, and tells her own horror story of beatings with a rattan cane, and also says she was raped by Craig on the living room floor while Johnson watched. Now that is what I call real party, party. And, according to the News & Observer, an unnamed prosecutor has alleged that “… satanic worship was part of the case.” Oh, juicy. Fantastic! I can hear the tippy tap of the Republican bloggers fingers on their keyboards right now, reaching a fever pitch. I’ll bet Suzanne and Joe really know how to whip those North Carolina Democrats into shape. Ah, good times
But the cherry atop this conservative sundae treat is that the authorities have also charged forty-four year old Diane Palmer, the first chairwoman of the Durham Democratic Party, with one count of accessory after the fact of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury, because, according to them, she removed evidence from the Craig/Johnson home. What she removed is not clear, but who the hell cares about minor details like that? The important thing is to work the words “Satanic” and “Democrat” into the same story as many times as possible.
However, there are one or two small problems with the case as presented so far by the authorities in Durham. First, on the Satanic front, the News & Observer went to the length of calling the Church of Satan in far off Godless San Francisco to seek a comment on the arrest of their disciples in Durham Country. But the Church of Satan says they never heard of these people. The Satanic official added, “When people break the law in the name of Satan or the devil, we get very angry”.

Huh? Satanists with standards? What kind of Satan worshiping whores are these Satan worshiping whores? But that does bring up one of those little things that always confused me about the Hollywood/Christian portrayal of Satanist; if they really do preach that lying is good, then wouldn’t it be a “good” to lie to them? I mean, if you lie to a Satanist shouldn’t they say, “Good job.” I just have my doubts that only Christianity can lead you to honesty, chastity and charity. But I digress….
Besides, you know, the whole “Satanic” thing and the additional charge against Diana Palmer gives this case the feel of a Nifong job. Mike Nifong was the Durham County D.A. who charged several Duke Lacrosse players with rape. That case held together just long enough for Mike Nifong to get reelected. Then the charges were dropped and Nifong was disbarred and convicted of false prosecution. But surely the people of Durham County would never be so dumb as to fall for a cheap stunt like that again…Would they?
Well, there is this; at the moment the state of North Carolina is a “battle ground state” with very close races for Governor and U.S. Senator. In polls for a possible future leader of the Tar Heel state Lt. Governor Beverly Purdue (Democrat) has a razor thin lead (47% to 46%) over the Republican Mayor of Charlotte, Patrick McCrory. She has also been been endorsed by Andy Griffith, which in North Carolina, is worth about 15 points in any election! On the Senate side, incumbent Elizabeth Dole has just returned to a commanding lead (15 points) over Democrat Kay Hagen -but Hagen’s post primary bump indicates, at lest to me, that Dole’s numbers are soft. And a virtual tie on November 4 in either race could be settled by a single wedge issue, such as the charge that the Democrats are a bunch of sexual deviants… allegedly, of course. So could the prosecutor be blowing brimstone up the public's skirts on this case to sway an election?
One defense lawyer defined the real case against Craig and Johnson as “…a MySpace hookup that went wrong”, and another described it as “…consensual activity that maybe went too far,” which makes this "maybe" the kindest description I ever heard of a rape. But an assistant D.A. seemed to admit at least part of the defense argument when he was quoted as saying of the alleged victims, “This goes well above what they were interested in doing”, implying their were interested in kink until the kink became a rape, and the line between kink and rape may not be so clear a line before the fact, as after.

But the attorney for the alleged accomplice, Diane Palmer, has taken a rather firmer stance. She “denies any knowledge of a crime being perpetrated by the persons previously arrested.” Here’s a hint: when you avoid even using your co-defendants names, it means you will be moving for a separate trial, at which it seems to me very unlikely the whole Satanic thing will be admitted into evidence to stampede a jury, or the press. What the prosecution probably hopes for is a squeeze play on Joy Johnson to get her to implicate her boss. And it might work, if Ms. Palmer is guilty or if she feels the court is stacked against her because she is a Democrat. But will she? Time will tell.

Ah, the nitty gritty details of reality. It just keeps tripping up those who see the world in pure black and white terms; you know, like prosecutors, and Satanist, and ideological fanatics.

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