Does anybody remember a fella named Jack Abramoff?
For years Jack ran a money laundering operation to move massive amounts of off-the-books funds into the political process to help extreme neo-Conservative Republicans win elections and hold power. Jack was self-funding a private school for his sons (and many others) to get the unique edcational experience Jack thought they should have. It was an expensive hobby. Jack needed a bigger cut of the action and so he took it. Somebody dropped a dime on him and he got caught.
Jack went to prison. And today, most of his co-conspirators are running the same old con—yet again—as elected officials, staffers, think tankers, pundits, lobbyists and all around grifters. The scam is easier to run these days because the Radical Roberts Court has invented new ways to give legal sanctions to political money laundering and new protections for political corruption (if the Roberts rules were in place back in 2004, Jack would still be on K Street).
Jack got out of prison this summer and lives in a half-way house in Baltimore. He works at kosher pizzeria about three miles from my house.
A few weeks ago I stopped by for lunch.
To the jump...
As some may know I began following the career of Jack Abramoff back in 1999 (and since 2004, I've written quite a lot about his scandal at Dkos). I work at a nonProfit in DC concerned with social, environmental and economic justice. Back in the mid to late 1990s we had a campaign to expose and end sweatshop labor. A particularly appalling case was the Chinese owned sweatshops on the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands (CNMI), a US Territory some 40 miles north of Guam (here is a good place to go for details on the Marianas and the legacy of abuse that still goes on).
In 1998 it looked like the sweatshops, human trafficking, forced prostitution, forced abortions and callous disregard for human life and the laws of the United States was coming to an end. Legislation was poised to pass both House of Congress and be signed into law by President Clinton. It passed the Senate and despite a solid majority of Congressmen who were ready to vote yes, the Bill never came up for a vote in the House. The effort died and I wanted to know why.
I found out—it was Jack Abramoff. Working with Tom DeLay, Dick Armey and the rest of the GOP Congressional Leadership he made sure that any effort to protect the workers and harm the bottom line of the Chinese owned sweatshops died in the House.
As I dug into the scandal I learned more and watched in real time as fresh crimes were committed in 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003. Very few reporters were interested in taking on this powerful lobbyist and I still have many ancient emails pleading with some folks to write about the scandal. Finally, the Washington Post took Abramoff on and the rest as they say is history.
Jack went to prison and his co-conspirators did not. Most are more powerful than ever (thick Dick Armey or Grover Norquist). Jack’s future is uncertain. His prison sentence will end in December. Until then, he lives in a half-way house in Baltimore and works at kosher pizzeria about three miles from my house. As I mentioned above, a few weeks ago I stopped by for lunch.
I knew where the pizzeria was and I found myself in that part of town around lunchtime. I decided to drop in. The first thing I noticed was the huge sign for Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley out in front of the joint:
I walked in and looked around. There were two rooms with a large opening in the wall between them. At the back of the first room was the counter where your placed your order. The menu was interesting and pretty diverse for a pizzia joint of any stripe. I ordered a falafel sandwich, paid and walked through the other room to the restroom to wash my hands. As I came out I looked across the second room and there at a table next to a window with a view of the large O'Malley sign sat Abramoff.
I walked over and introduced myself. We chatted for a while. I asked him a generic "what do think of the current political situation" question and he waved it off saying he was through with that stuff and that his only focus was his family and trying to make things right. He seemed sincere, but who can say for sure—this is a guy with mad manipulative skills.
So, I mentioned that if he was on a journey of personal atonement, he needed to make amends with the workers of the Marianas Islands as they were real victims of his crimes. I mentioned that as a result of his work some were forced into prostitution, some had their wages stolen, others their lives ruined and that some died. He looked sad. I mentioned that he should get in touch with a friend of mine, who is a long-time human rights worker for the guest workers of the CNMI. Jack knew her name, in no small measure because Jack and his team spent years attacking her, the workers she defended and her work. Jack mentioned that she had written him a nice letter while he was in prison (she is like that—always willing to reach out and give folks a second chance). He asked for her email. I gave him a phone number. As far as I know he never called.
As I talked with Jack about the CNMI he said something that has stuck with me. He was acknowledging the work he did to oppose my friend and the sweatshop workers, but added:
"At the time I was operating with a different data set than her, but upon reflection her data set may have been more accurate."
That explains a lot—not only about Jack, but of the entire modern wingnut, so-called conservative, TeaBagger, griffter movement. It is all about the willful embrace of a pre-packaged "data-set" as truth—as reality. And it is all about defending that "data-set" against any evidence to the contrary.
Blacks are inferior, Mooslims want to kill us all, brown people are lazy and scary, Democratz is socilispts, science is a myth, ignorance is strength... once a belief—regardless of any facts to the contrary—is added to the data-set, then it becomes Gospel. The wing-nut data-set is sacred and any action is justified if it protects the data-set.
Every now and then, reality has a way exposing the wingnutopia data set to sunlight—to truth—and then it melts. Jack's trip to prison was a moment like that. I imagine that the recent TeaBagger expulsion of Bob Inglis has shaken the 'data-set' of the soon-to-be-former Congressman as well. These days I post most of my musings over at Balloon-Juice and my gracious host there was another who moved to an embrace of reality when he took a good look at the data-set that he used to swear by. There have been many others.
But it is an election year and the same old grifters who ran thick as thieves with Jack year after year are pushing the same old seductive racist, fear based 'data-set' yet again. And because the world is filled with fools they have many folks lining up to once again eat their freshly wrapped shit sandwich and vote the foxes back into the hen house.
Our political fight in America is one between a data-set rooted in facts and one rooted in wingnut fantasies. At any given moment a majority of people here or there can let their fears, hate and ignorance lead them to eat the shit sandwich. The wingnuts count on fools and our Nation is rich in them.
The only way to stop these bastards is to Get Out The Vote.
There are lots of ways to get involved in getting voters to the polls. You can sign up to GOTV here, or here or here or just your contact a local GOTV effort and join in the fray.
We have five days. What are you doing?
Let's fight like our future depends upon it, because it does.
If we let their magical data set back into power we—and our world—are seriously fucked.
Cheers
dengre
[reposted from Balloon-Juice]
Update:
My friend Wendy tells me that Jack has not call yet and she asks for your help in the ongoing struggle to bring justice to the workers of the CNMI.
Wendy and other activists have prepared a petition to send to President Obama asking him to protect the workers from any further abuse and end efforts by the Pirates of Saipan to deport these long-time guest workers before the process to grant them rights is complete.
You can sign the petition here.
Thanks
dengre