RAPID RESPONSE: Monday 1/9/06, Jack Abramoff Special

[Ian David]

From: Rapid Response Network [email protected]
Date: Jan 9, 2006 11:06 AM
Subject: {US} RAPID RESPONSE: Monday 1/9/06, Jack Abramoff Special


This Abramoff alert is long but it does follow a
relatively 'most to least important' path. The
Abramoff issue has many tentacles -- it is amazingly
complex and staggering in scope... Thus, it becomes
easy for our media (big and small) to take the quick
route out offering us news consumers false
equivalencies ("everybody did it") and lots of
glossing over ("abramoff-related donations").

It is up to us to keep them honest and call a spade a
spade.


----------------------------
ISSUE: False Equivalency
----------------------------

Here's a piece from Daily Kos on the dangers of how
the press is treating the Abramoff story unless we
shine the light of truth on this matter:

Abramoff: what's next and how you can help bring down
the GOP
by dengre, DailyKos.com
Wed Jan 04, 2006
http://tinyurl.com/akc72

Main points from "dengre":

- The GOP will lie. They will cherry pick slices of
data to support simple-minded myths like "Everybody
Does It" and "Abramoff gave money to Democrats."

- The press will have a very hard time with this
story, because the corruption is so one-sided. Their
"Balance Bias" will lead them to stupid examples of
balance, like treating Harry Reid's legal support from
Native American as equivalent to DeLay's $1
Million from the Russians, $500,000 from the Chinese
owners of sweatshops and God (and Jack) knows what
other bribes.

- The Public will get confused.

SEE ALSO:

The Fast Rise and Steep Fall of Jack Abramoff
By Susan Schmidt and James V. Grimaldi
Washington Post
Thursday, December 29, 2005
http://tinyurl.com/bytus

(Main points from this comprehensive WaPo article are
at the end of this alert.)


** THOUGHTS **

Remember a year ago how Congressional conservatives
wanted to remove ethical guidelines which bar
convicted Congressmen from serving in the leadership?
Remember how a few weeks later they reversed course
with their tails between their legs? Why is it that
the media can't remember that far back?

Luckily, since the Congressional conservatives did
keep some semblance of ethics in place no new laws or
policy guidelines are needed to prevent this
Conservative Abramoff Scandal from happening again on
either side of the aisle. What needs to happen is
simply observance of existing regulations and prompt
enforcement when violations occur... Under the
conservative-controlled Congress that has been
lacking.

Abramoff's tentacles reach in many directions and
through several means (see below) he allegedly bought
influence from the likes of Republicans Bob Ney, Tom
DeLay, etc. That influence came in the form of
political pressure, vote changes, and policy
influence...

See this "Late Edition" (CNN, 1/8/06) video
<http://tinyurl.com/bsyoj> or read this transcript
<http://tinyurl.com/a77m5> to learn how the media's
false equivalency in this matter can be easily and
swiftly shot down.

Be firm in stating that the records clearly show this
is a purely Republican scandal. Yes, Democratic
politicians received legitimate donation from some of
Abramoff's clients and yes, a very few Democratic
staffers left their positions in the government to
work for Abramoff. Those are in fact legitimate
activities which Americans and politicians of all
stripes legally participate in every day -- no big
deal and but a small portion of the many Abramoff
tentacles.

But, the Federal Election Commission
<http://tinyurl.com/duzeo> and IRS records
<http://tinyurl.com/9czmm> show that the political
donations and sham charity gifts connected to Abramoff
himself went solely to conservative politicians,
committees, and activities. While the political
donations are probably somewhat legitimate activity
(whereas fraudulent charitable activities would
clearly violate the law) the cumulative effect does
show precisely where Abramoff's sympathies lie: he is
a conservative through and through.

Moving into the more shadey areas... not a single
Democrat has been found to have received fantasy golf
junkets, trips to tropical islands, expensive dinners
and sports tickets, jobs or favors for family and
friends, etc....

More important, not a single Democrat has been found
to have gone to such great lengths in exchange for
Abramoff largesse as to force vote changes, tweak
Abramoff 'adversaries' in speeches on the House floor,
etc after receiving Abramoff largesse. This is
point-blank evidence of the Conservative Culture of
Corruption, pure and simple.

!!!
In fact, obviously enough, the progressives aren't in
power. The right-wing is -- and the conservatives are
the politicians who received the vast majority of
Abramoff's largesse (Abramoff's direct donations went
solely to conservative pols, PACs, and activists with
the large bulk of "Abramoff-related" loot going to the
right as well, notably the apparently fraudulent and
influence-peddling loot).


** ACTION **

- Write your local paper and your favorite major daily
- Call-in to radio programs
- Email or call TV shows
- Watch for false equivalency and correct it
- Speak up in 'water cooler conversations' around your
office

Let the bright light of truth shine through.

Park the responsibility for this firmly at the
doorstep of those who have the power to fix it: The
conservatives in control of Congress. It is they who
must end this apparent Conservative Culture of
Corruption and cut Abramoff's tentacles out of the
right-wing's halls of power (not just Congress but
also the White House and right-wing committees, think
tanks and activities). Some of this has begun (with
Abramoff cronies pleading guilty and the Cato
Institute and Copley News Service removing Abramoff's
payola-columnist Doug Bandow
<http://tinyurl.com/b9pnf>). Much more needs to be
done.

Again, who's in charge nowadays? Conservatives control
all three branches of government and Abramoff, a
conservative activist, was one of their own. This is a
mess of their making and unless things change next
November they must be the ones to mop it up.


** ADDITIONAL RESEARCH **

For those of you with more time to delve into this
matter:

What was that about Abramoff giving money to
Democrats?
by John in DC
AmericaBlog
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
http://tinyurl.com/duzeo

Abramoff: The House That Jack Built
Think Progress
(details and links to Politicians and right-wing
Activists which have received money directly from
Abramoff, his firm or his clients)
http://www.thinkprogress.org/abramoff

The DeLay-Abramoff Money Trail
Nonprofit Group Linked to Lawmaker Was Funded Mostly
by Clients of Lobbyist
By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post
Saturday, December 31, 2005
http://tinyurl.com/9czmm

Corruption and the College Republican
Rolling Stone Magazine
Jan 05, 2006
http://tinyurl.com/7jjlh

Hardball's Chris Matthews, FOX's Tony Snow and Britt
Hume helped raise money for shady Abramoff charity
by John in DC
AmericaBlog
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
http://tinyurl.com/add2t

Corruption Inquiry Threatens to Ensnare Lawmakers
By Philip Shenon
The New York Times
Sunday 20 November 2005
via truthout.org

Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer
(interview with Gov. Howard Dean)
CNN
1/8/06
http://tinyurl.com/bsyoj


** POINTS FROM THE WA PO ARTICLE **

Main points to remember from the 12/29/05 WaPo
article:

- ...how Abramoff saw himself --
> the power behind the scenes who directed millions of
dollars in Indian gambling proceeds to favored
lawmakers,
> the puppet master who pulled the strings of
officials in key places,
> the businessman who was building an international
casino empire

- He collected unprecedented sums -- tens of millions
of dollars -- from casino-rich Indian tribes.

- Lawmakers and their aides packed his restaurants and
skyboxes and jetted off with him on golf trips to
Scotland and the Pacific island of Saipan.

- Abramoff offered jobs and other favors to
well-placed congressional staffers and executive
branch officials.

- He pushed his own associates for government
positions, from which they, too, could help him.

- A quarter of a century ago, Abramoff and anti-tax
crusader Grover Norquist were fellow Young Turks of
the Reagan revolution. ...They moved to Washington,
maneuvered to take over the College Republicans -- at
the time a sleepy establishment organization -- and
transformed it into a right-wing activist group. They
were joined by Ralph Reed, an ambitious Georgian whose
later Christian conversion would fuel his rise to
national political prominence.

{Recall that Karl Rove had his rise through the
College Republicans also.}

- In August 1999, he {Abramoff} signed up for the
National Republican Senatorial Committee's "Tartan
Invitational," in which a half-dozen Republican
senators and their aides spent a few days with about
50 lobbyists golfing at the exclusive St. Andrews
Links in Scotland.

The following year, Abramoff figured out how to use
his clients to fund his own trips to St. Andrews with
lawmakers. The first guests were DeLay and his aides.

- Abramoff quietly paid op-ed columnists thousands of
dollars to write favorably about his clients,
including one writer for Copley News Service who
disclosed this month that he had been paid for as many
as two dozen columns

- Bill padding was openly discussed, according to
Abramoff's Greenberg Traurig e-mails that have been
released by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. For
example, in April 2000, Abramoff had lobbyist Shawn
Vasell working on a monthly invoice to the Mississippi
Band of Choctaw Indians, telling him to "be sure we
hit the $150k minimum. If you need to add time for me,
let me know."

An exasperated Vasell e-mailed back: "You only had 2
hours. We are not even close to this number . . . ."
Abramoff's solution: "Add 60 hours for me," and "pump
up" the hours for three or four other lobbyists.

- The nonprofit Capital Athletic Foundation, for
example, allowed him to schmooze with Washington's
movers and shakers at charity affairs.

The foundation was ostensibly created to help
inner-city children through organized sports. There is
no evidence money went to city kids, but the
foundation did fund some of Abramoff's pet projects: a
sniper school for Israelis in the West Bank, a golf
trip to Scotland for Ohio congressman Ney and others,
and a Jewish religious academy in Columbia that
Abramoff founded and where he sent his children to be
educated.

- Another Abramoff financial vehicle was the nonprofit
American International Center, a Rehoboth Beach, Del.,
"think tank" set up by Scanlon, who staffed it with
beach friends from his summer job as a lifeguard. The
center became a means for Abramoff and Scanlon to take
money from foreign clients that they did not want to
officially represent. Some of the funds came from the
government of Malaysia. Banks and oil companies there
were making deals in Sudan, where U.S. companies were
barred on human rights grounds. Sudan was among
several oil-rich nations in Africa, Asia and the
Middle East that Abramoff eyed as venues for lucrative
energy deals. Abramoff told associates he wanted to
become a go-to person for U.S. companies seeking to do
business with oil-patch nations.



----------------------------
FYI: All the News that's fit to Email
----------------------------

**
Stewart takes his shot at Oscar hosting
http://movies.monstersandcritics.com/news/article_1073582.php

**
Duo's entrant-aiding hearing gets moved back to
Tuesday
By Stephanie Innes
Arizona Daily Star
Published: 01.07.2006
http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/110288.php

(See also...)
Charged with Possession of a Conscience
by Vivian Pettyjohn
E Pluribus Media
04 January 2006
http://www.epluribusmedia.org/columns/20060104pettyjohn.html


**
A Donor Who Had Big Allies
By Richard A. Serrano and Stephen Braun
The Los Angeles Times
Sunday 08 January 2006
http://tinyurl.com/7gtkb

"DeLay and two others helped put the brakes on a
federal probe of a businessman. Evidence was published
in the Congressional Record."

++ What was that about an apparent conservative
culture of corruption? Why isn't THIS STORY receiving
more media time?

**
The NSA Spy Engine: Echelon
By Jason Leopold
t r u t h o u t | Investigative Report
Monday 09 January 2006
http://tinyurl.com/8awzf

++ Based on what I've read of the NSA's loose
guidelines for whether communications were monitored
or not, I've probably been spied on (I routinely make
international calls for work and, umm, I write emails
like this one).

Makes me feely ooky. And, given that I AM AN AMERICAN
CITIZEN, I shouldn't even have to worry about feeling
ooky like that, dammit. I'm going to have to go back
to using tin can 'telephones', smoke signals, and the
pony express just to avoid Big Brother.



____________________________________________
Support your RR team!

Tell your friends about us and let 'em know where to
sign up:
http://www.rapidresponsenetwork.org

Become a volunteer
http://www.rapidresponsenetwork.org/volunteer.shtml
or donate
http://www.rapidresponsenetwork.org/donate.shtml

____________________________________________
Rapid Response Network (RR) is a group of volunteers
dedicated to advancing the principles of balance and
truthfulness in the media. RR is currently filing for
501c4 status as a non-profit organization.

To contact us: [email protected]
To unsubscribe, send an email to:
[email protected]
____________________________________________

To contact your elected representatives:
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/
*
League of Women Voters Media email database:
http://www.capwiz.com/lwv/dbq/media/
*
TV news addresses: http://digbig.com/4bqmq
*
Addresses for major U.S. daily publications/wire
services/weekly publications:
http://digbig.com/4cqge
*
Major publication addresses by state:
http://digbig.com/4bwxw

[eve_was_framed]

1. excellent post with resources. Much to digest here, thank you!!!! K-N

[NoFederales]

2. Thanks. You're right, the issue is complex and we should NOT

allow the corporate media to cherry-pick and dumb-down the information into bitty-bytes.

NoFederales

[we can do it]

3. This Is Good K&R