The identity of the congressional page supposedly at the center of the Mark Foley message flap has been revealed.

The former page, a Californian named Jordan Edmund, 21, on Wednesday hired Enid attorney Stephen Jones to represent him, the attorney confirmed.

Edmund’s name surfaced on Internet blogs that linked him to the instant message address used in communications with Foley.

How did this carefully guarded secret get out?

One blogger got the instant message address from the Web site of ABC News, which has obtained the instant messages sent between Foley and a former page.

Whoops.

The obvious question: Why does the page in the Foley business need a defense attorney?

Asked why Edmund needed an attorney, Jones said, “You read the blogs. You know why he needs an attorney.”

Jones, who represented Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh in his murder trial in Denver, confirmed Edmund was a U.S. House page.

“I’ve been retained in the last several hours,” Jones said. “I’m still reviewing matters.”

The plot thickens.

UPDATE: Via the DrudgeReport:

**World Exclusive**
**Must Credit the DRUDGE REPORT**

According to two people close to former congressional page Jordan Edmund, the now famous lurid AOL Instant Message exchanges that led to the resignation of Mark Foley were part of an online prank that by mistake got into the hands of enemy political operatives, the DRUDGE REPORT can reveal… Developing…

In light of recent school shootings, a Wisconsin state Republican has floated the idea of arming teachers and school administrators to help them protect their charges from violent intruders and homicidal fellow students.

Frank Lasee (R-Green Bay) announced Wednesday that he plans to introduce legislation early next year that would give teachers and other school personnel the option of carrying concealed weapons. The action was largely prompted by the school shootings in Colorado, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, where Weston Schools principal was killed last week.

“Sometimes when people are intent on harming others, the only reasonable response you could have is to confront them with firepower to stop them,” said Lasee, who believes that school personnel trained in handling weapons could better combat violent intruders or students.

According to Lasee, the method has been successful in Israel and Thailand, where schools were once heavily targeted by terrorists.

Surprisingly, recorded reaction was not hysterical, but somewhat quizzical nonetheless.

“Statistically, the safest place for a child to be is in school,” said Pete Pochowski, director of school safety for MPS. “We have problems in our schools, but not to the point where we need to arm our teachers and principals.”

“In the country we live in, we have a lot of freedom,” Pochowski said, “and we have to expose ourselves to some danger to keep that.”

“I’m sure you’ll understand, Mrs. Smith, that in order to preserve all of our freedoms I have to send little Johnny to class as a sitting duck. I realize there was just a massacre at a school in Pennsylvania, but that is a risk we have to take. Armed teachers will destroy our freedom.”

For those keeping score:

Exercising Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms in defense of self and others= less freedom.

Helplessly (and unsuccessfully) begging for one’s life at the feet of a homicidal lunatic= more freedom.

Meanwhile, other officials suggested that more police and metal detectors would be a better response than armed teachers, apparently with no objection from Mr. Pochowski. The measure would also have to find a way around the federal “schools as gun-free zones” laws.

What say you, readers? Good idea? Freedom reducer? Wild-eyed, Right-wing fanatic proposal along the lines of concealed carry laws or arming airline pilots?

This has been a pretty difficult news week. Nothing has been “comforting”. It seems that each cycle brings more bad news. Nothing has been more heartbreaking than the violent murder of the Amish girls.

Then I read this:

A grieving grandfather told young relatives not to hate the gunman who killed five girls in an Amish schoolhouse massacre, a pastor said on Wednesday.

“As we were standing next to the body of this 13-year-old girl, the grandfather was tutoring the young boys, he was making a point, just saying to the family, ‘We must not think evil of this man,’” the Rev. Robert Schenck told CNN.

“It was one of the most touching things I have seen in 25 years of Christian ministry.”

Could you do that? Could you stand over the body of a dead child and tell the young not to hate her killer? I could not. Please God, make me into the sort of man who could.

I’ve spent the afternoon reading the syndicated opinion wires, looking for a column about the Amish situation. Something, anything to bring meaning out of it. Hope. Tragedy. Pity. Something.

There are more Foleygate columns than you could possibly read. But only one on the Amish. I think that says something about us, or at least our media. The most meaningful thing we have seen all week is not anything to do with Foley or the GOP. No, the most meaningful thing is the image of that grandfather, instructing the young not to hate.

I read what the Grandfather said and the comment by Rod Dreher. It totally broke my heart. What I mean by that is, I felt so dead in my faith compared to this Grandfather. The Amish are a group of people that live their faith! They literally live it everyday by their simplicity and what they don’t do! How many of us can say that? They don’t flip light-switches or ride in cars to make their life convenient in any way. I don’t think I could not hate this guy if he took the life of one of my family members. I’m having a hard time not to hate him and I’m not personally involved in any way.

Then I read this:

A Kansas-based group that proclaims “God hates fags” plans to picket the funerals of the Amish girls killed in Bart Township.

The Westboro Baptist Church — described as a hate group by the Anti-Defamation League — has made a name for itself by picketing the funerals of U.S. troops killed in Iraq. The troops are dying as punishment for America’s tolerance of homosexuality, the group says.

The Kansas group says the Amish schoolgirls were “killed by a madman in punishment for Gov. Ed Rendell’s blasphemous sins against Westboro Baptist Church.

“Gov. Ed Rendell — speaking and acting in his official capacity to bind the State of Pennsylvania — slandered and mocked and ridiculed and condemned Westboro Baptist Church on national Fox TV,” the group says on its Web site.

The “church” has decided to cancel the protest in exchange for one hour of radio time on Mike Gallagher’s radio program.

First of all, God Bless Mike Gallagher for taking care of these crazies in order to allow the Amish the privacy they wanted.

Second of all, I am beyond words as to even address that “church”. How can a “church” that purports to be “Christian”, which means to follow the love of Christ, spew such hate, venom and outright meanness over literally nothing…

That “church” needs to sit down, shut up and throw themselves on the feet of the Amish and beg for their help so they can maybe find God’s love and forgiveness.

Maybe, just maybe, they might regain their soul because right now, it is missing.

At the moment that I write this, the Houston Chronicle does not exist as a functioning media entity.

VIVA LA REVOLUTION!

UPDATED 6:36 AM– The following appointments have been announced.

• Kevin Whited has been named Acting Editorial Generalissimo
• Anne Linehan is now in charge of the “Star” section, to be renamed “Anne’s Place”
• Laurence Simon is Director of Operational Security

UPDATED 6:43 AM– Rob Booth has asked if he can walk around the newsroom and break things. Sure.

That is all.

UPDATED 12:15 PM– Retreat!!! Retreat!!!

Know-it-all young college students filled with righteous-anger behave badly and betray supposed commitment to free-speech; been there, done that.

But the last sentence in the following passage caught my eye in particular:

Students stormed the stage at Columbia University’s Roone auditorium yesterday, knocking over chairs and tables and attacking Jim Gilchrist, the founder of the Minutemen, a group that patrols the border between America and Mexico.

Mr. Gilchrist and Marvin Stewart, another member of his group, were in the process of giving a speech at the invitation of the Columbia College Republicans. They were escorted off the stage unharmed and exited the auditorium by a back door.

Having wreaked havoc onstage, the students unrolled a banner that read, in both Arabic and English, “No one is ever illegal.”

Funny, I can think of 19 Arabic-speakers who were illegal right off the top of my head.

 Note to young radicals– this is not a winning media strategy.

Missed this one in yesterday’s Dallas Morning News:

A Dallas man was arrested Monday on suspicion of trying to cash a $3,500 check stolen during a recent burglary of state Rep. Fred Hill’s Richardson office, police said.

Anthony Cobb, 48, was arrested on a forgery charge after trying to cash the check at a Dallas business, Richardson police spokesman Kevin Perlich said. Mr. Cobb, who is described as being homeless, gave police a Dallas soup kitchen as his address. Mr. Hill’s office on Coit Road was burglarized Sept. 25, Sgt. Perlich said.

A computer and other stolen items were recovered Tuesday morning near the office, Sgt. Perlich said.

Fred Hill proudly serves as the legislative butt-boy for special-interests so covetous of your money that they threaten your ability to remain in your home… and he ends up having his own property confiscated by a guy who is homeless.

The only way this can get better is if Mr. Cobb is on the streets after recently losing his appeal at the Dallas County Appraisal Review Board.

[Editorial Note: Obviously no one “deserves” to be robbed, and we are genuinely glad Mr. Hill recovered his property and that no one was hurt in the incident.]

Fill in your own caption; consider it a Rorschach Test.

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