independentsforkerry.org

On Friday, Rep. Anthony Weiner said “that he exchanged at least five private messages on Twitter this spring with a 17-year-old Delaware girl who became an admirer of his after hearing him speak during a high school trip to Washington.”

Yes, the whole Weiner scandal took another ugly turn leaving folks wondering “What on earth was he thinking?“ 

Today, amid calls from top Democratic leaders including Nancy Pelosi and DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, spokeswoman for Congressman Anthony Weiner announced “he would request a leave of absence from the House and seek treatment.”

“Congressman Weiner departed this morning to seek professional treatment to focus on becoming a better husband and healthier person,” said the spokeswoman, Risa Heller. “In light of that, he will request a short leave of absence from the House of Representatives so that he can get evaluated and map out a course of treatment to make himself well.

“Congressman Weiner takes the views of his colleagues very seriously and has determined that he needs this time to get healthy and make the best decision possible for himself, his family and his constituents.”

Anthony Weiner clearly has some issues and those issues would clearly benefit from treatment. Just as some people struggle with alcoholism, drug addiction or gambling, there are others that struggle with sex addiction or issues with sexuality. And just as people are ostracized and stigmatized by other addictions, so too are people with sex addictions.

I don’t condone his behavior at all, but I do give him credit for seeking help for his problems and not bowing to the pressure to resign. What Weiner has done by publicly admitting he has issues that need treatment, is to put a public face on the issue of sex addictions.

I can think of more than a few other politicians that could use some help with this issue as well. I don’t recall others before Weiner being as willing to stand up publicly and say they sought help as Weiner has.

Politicians are imperfect people just like the rest of us. We’d like to hold them all up on a pedestal and have them all behave perfectly, but that isn’t going to happen. We’ve seen others in Congress battle their addictions, if they can and stay in office, perhaps Anthony Weiner can too. Time will tell…

The Democratic Daily

Excerpt from a press release posted at the website of the national Green Party:

Georgia Green Party
Saturday, January 1st, 2011

Georgia Greens Demand Answers on Inmate’s Brutal Treatment
Macon State inmate Transported to Atlanta Medical Center

In a New Year’s Eve letter sent to Governors Sonny Perdue and Nathan Deal, officers of the Georgia Green Party asked why the Georgia Department of Corrections withheld from Terrance Dean’s family news of his condition and whereabouts. The letter asks that they “launch an investigation into whether the DoC’s apparent efforts to conceal (Mr. Dean’s) condition rises to the level of a criminal conspiracy”. Reports conveyed by other Macon State Prison inmates and their families have revealed that on or about the 16th of December, as striking inmates were beginning to return to work, employees of the Corrections Department beat and injured the former Bibb County resident serving his seventh year on a 16 year sentence for armed robbery.

“The violent response to the inmates peaceful, non-violent strike is shameful,” said Bruce Dixon, Press Secretary for the Georgia Green Party and managing editor for the weekly BlackAgendaReport.com. “Prison inmates deserve wages for work, educational and self-improvement activities, decent food and medical care. The state should facilitate, rather than obstruct contact with their families. They deserve human rights and a clear path back to being productive members of society. The institutional human rights abuses exposed by the peaceful prisoners strike severely compromise the moral authority of Georgia’s correctional system.”

Information obtained by the coalition suggests that Mr. Dean was assaulted by state employees in the aftermath of the inmate sit down strike. His injuries necessitated that he be transported from Oglethorpe Georgia to the Atlanta Medical Center. The Department of Corrections failed to notify his family. When family members and advocates finally discovered that we was in Atlanta and attempted to visit with him they were denied that opportunity and denied any information as to Mr. Dean’s condition. The DoC website now lists him as being held at the Georgia Diagnostic Center in Jackson Georgia.

The Georgia Green Party has been urging calls inquiring after the welfare of the Georgia-37. These thirty-seven inmates were identified by DoC investigators as ‘instigators’ of last month’s stop-work action by Georgia inmates on the basis of being found in possession of contraband cell phones. They have been subjected to administrative segregation and reportedly transported to the facilities at Jackson, Reidsville and Washington.

Late Friday morning, Mr. Dean’s sister, along with ACLU attorney Chara Jackson and Edward DuBose, President of the Georgia Conference of NAACP branches both representing the Concerned Coalition to Respect Prisoner’s Rights showed up at the Atlanta hospital. They were left waiting, before finally being informed that no information was available on his condition and that Mr. Dean had been transferred to Jackson.

The Georgia Green Party has lent its support to the Concerned Coalition to Respect Prisoner Rights working in solidarity with the striking inmates. Georgia Green Party leadership are actively cultivating a slate of candidates prepared to bring into the 2012 elections the Party’s challenge to public policies which have created black mass incarceration…

Related Stories:

At the Georgia Green Party website:
http://www.georgiagreenparty.org/system/files/Ltr2Gov_TerranceDean.pdf

http://www.georgiagreenparty.org/QDC/Actions/Ga_Governor_urged_Investigate_Inmate_Beatings

At Independent Political Report:
Bruce A. Dixon: ‘Medical Neglect Stalks Georgia Prisons’

Independent Political Report