I still don't think this is what the OP is about, but while we're at it, I LMAO over this one yesterday on FB.
Moderators: Elvis, DrVolin, Jeff
by Nordic » Mon Oct 07, 2013 6:28 pm
by Carol Newquist » Mon Oct 07, 2013 6:46 pm
Native American Chief Talks About Redskins
Several months ago, Prince George’s County resident Stephen Dodson reached out to the Washington Redskins in an effort to share his perspective on the team name.
Dodson is a full-blooded American Inuit chief originally from the Aleutian Tribes of Alaska, and said he was tired of being spoken for as a Native American.
“People are speaking for Native Americans that aren’t Native American. Being a full-blooded Indian with my whole family behind me, we had a big problem with all the things that were coming out [of the discussion],” he said. “I think they were basically saying that we were offended, our people were offended, and they were misrepresenting the Native American nation.
“We don’t have a problem with [the name] at all; in fact we’re honored. We’re quite honored.”
As the eldest member of his blood line, Dodson represents more than 700 remaining tribe members and talked to Redskins Nation about the positive power of the Redskins’ name.
“It’s actually a term of endearment that we would refer to each other as,” he explained. “When we were on the reservation, we would call each other, ‘Hey, what’s up redskin?’ We would nickname it just ‘skins.’”
“‘Redskin’ isn’t something given to us by the white man or the blue eyes, it was something in the Native American community that was taken from us. [It’s] used also as a term of respect, because that’s how we were. We respected each other with that term.”
Despite being thousands of miles away from his family’s homeland, Dodson said that he has continued living and teaching his family traditions in the greater Washington, D.C. community.
“All of us have a proud history of who we are, and I pass it down to my kids,” he said. “We go to powwows, just the normal things for Native Americans. We don’t just celebrate one nation, we celebrate many.”
Part of that celebration is having a sports team in his adopted area that reflects the pride he feels for his own native culture.
“It is [an honor], it’s a heritage. There’s a lot of respect in it. A great pinnacle part of who we are as a nation has to do with pride and honor. And the Redskin name is that,” he said. “That’s one of the things we use as honor and respect toward each other.
“It’s not degrading in one bit and that’s why I sent you guys an email. It just bothered me that somebody would twist something so negatively when it’s a positive.”
Dodson said he was upset that much of the discussion over the Redskins name was being led by people outside of the Native American community.
“[I am] Irritated. Irritated is a polite term to say,” he said. “When you have people trying to represent our nation, you should be from our nation. Don’t represent our nation if you don’t even have an ounce of blood in you.
“It’s wrong, and it’s going to be stopped as long as I’m on this earth—that’s for sure.”
On a personal note, Chief Dodson confessed that while he was raised to be a Washington Redskins fan by his father, he was in fact a lifelong Philadelphia Eagles fan.
But he assured viewers that this did not detract from his appreciation for the Washington Redskins organization. If anything, it enhances the sentiment.
“My father was a Redskins fan. He and I had many battles and war parties in the house,” he said with a fond smile. “But to do the right thing is what he raised me to do, and he loved the Redskins.
“I remember when the Redskins won in ’87 and Ronald Reagan threw to the wide receiver [Ricky Sanders], we were there for that. For my father, when they won, it was a huge deal. I’m an Eagles fan, but we have a division in the NFC East that I would call America’s division.”
Chief Dodson took time away from his job as general manager of Charley’s Crane Service, a company that has proudly served Prince George’s County for more than 56 years.
“It’s an in-house joke because I am an Eagles fan, and the guys that work for me are Redskins fans. We have a rule in the company where I can’t even where Eagles gear, because we support the Redskins,” he said. “You have to support what’s in PG County and DC, and that’s what it is.”
In closing, Redskins Nation host Larry Michael reminded Stephen Dodson that the Washington Redskins’ fight song is ‘Hail to the Redskins.’ Even as an Eagles fan, Dodson said he can sing it with pride.
“That’s a respectful thing,” he said. “A lot of people think that’s a gimmick or a joke, a good song, but that’s a respectful thing, and it’s another thing that helps me appreciate everything you’re doing.”
by Carol Newquist » Mon Oct 07, 2013 6:59 pm
by seemslikeadream » Mon Oct 07, 2013 7:05 pm
THE MASCOT ISSUE
Page created February 17, 1999; Last update - May 20, 2008.
Maintained by Lisa Mitten
This page is intended to be a compilation of web sites and writings on the issue of Indian mascots used by sports teams. Although some of these sites exist on other web pages that I maintain, I felt the time was right to compile these into one place in order to help people find them.
As you may have heard, the U.S. Justice Department has sent a letter to Erwin High School in North Carolina notifying them that they intend to investigate charges of racial harassment as a result of their Indian mascot. This important action by the federal government as well as Susan Shown Harjo's Morningstar Foundation's lawsuit against the Washington Redskins' trademark of the redskins image are finally helping to build momentum among non-Indians to support us in this issue.
The American Anthropological Association (AAA), the major professional organization for anthropologists and archaeologists working with Native peoples, PASSED an anti-mascot resolution at its business meeting on November 20, 1999, in Chicago. Inspired by the earlier action of the Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas, the resolution to be voted on by the AAA membership reads as follows:
PART A:
We, the members of the American Anthropological Association, call upon all educators and administrators of educational institutions to stop promoting the stereotypical representation of American Indian people through the use of sports mascots. The persistence of such officially sanctioned, stereotypical presentations humiliates American Indian people, trivializes the scholarship of anthropologists, undermines the learning environment for all students, and seriously compromises efforts to promote diversity on school and college campuses.
PART B:
We, the members of the American Anthropological Association, will cease to schedule Annual Meetings in the state of Illinois until such time as the administration and trustees of the University of Illinois, the flagship educational institution of the state, replace their "Chief Illiniwek" symbol with one that does not promote inaccurate, anachronistic, and damaging stereotypes of native American people, or indeed members of any minority group."
The Linguistic Society of America voted to censure the administration and board of trustees of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for the continued use of the "Chief Illiniwek" mascot at athletic events and other university functions at its business meeting January 7, 2000. Details can be found here.
American Indian Sports Team Mascots - activist resources and archives. Added 2/20/98; updated 9/29/02
Common Themes and Questions About the Use of "Indian" Logos by Barbara Munson
"Defensive Dialogues: Native American Mascots, Anti-Indianism, and Educational Institutions" - an article by C. Richard King of Drake University, in the online journal SIMILE - Studies in Media & Literacy Education. Added 4/5/02; updated 9/18/05
Indian Mascots in North Carolina Schools - information on the Erwin High School action from the Western North Carolina Citizens for an End to Institutional Bigotry (WNCCEIB) Added 2/22/99
Indians Are People, Not Mascots - resources from the Midwest Treaty Network Added 4/8/02
Native American Mascots: An Examination Added 4/8/02
Louis Sockalexis - a web page giving the real story behind the name of the Cleveland baseball team. Added 7/28/99; updated 4/5/02
National Coalition on Racism in Sports and the Media (NCRSM) - Added 11/1/04
Racism in Professional, College, and High School Sports Teams Added 7/16/99; updated 7/3/00
Resources for Further Research on the Mascot Issue - compiled by the WNCCEIB Added 2/22/99
Society of Indian Psychologists supports retiring of sports mascots Added 7/28/99
Statement of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights on the Use of Native American Images and Nicknames as Sports Symbols (April 2001) Added 10/26/001; updated 9/18/05
Teach Respect - Not Racism - The Wisconsin Indian Education Association
Team Names and Mascots - from Blue Corn Comics. Added 6/9/01
Charlene Teters - the Spokane woman who spearheaded the University of Illinois mascot fight. Added 9/29/02
Trained as Mascots - strong stuff here Added 10/1/99
University of Illinois
Anti-Chief Homepage - from the Progressive Resource/Action Cooperative in Campaign, IL Added 9/10/99; updated 9/18/05
Chief Illiniwek Resolution (PDF document requires Adobe Acrobat) - a statement from the professional academic organization SSILA - The Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas, urging removal of the mascot. Added 9/10/99; updated 4/5/02
Retire the Chief - a web page "...to give those opposed to Chief Illiniwek their say - in their own words, rather than through the filter of a news article or television spot." Added 12/7/02
GO TO:
Information on Individual Native Nations
Native Organizations and Urban Indian Centers
Tribal Colleges, Native Studies Programs, and Indian Education
Languages
The Mascot Issue
Native Media - Organizations, Journals and Newspapers, Radio and Television
Powwows and Festivals
Native Music and Arts Organizations and Individuals - Singers, Drums, Artists, Performers, Celebrities, Actors, Actresses, Storytellers, Authors, Activists
Indians in the Military
Native Businesses
General Indian-Oriented Home Pages
by seemslikeadream » Mon Oct 07, 2013 7:12 pm
Group Sues U. Of Illinois Over Indian Mascot Perpetuates Racial Stereotype"I believe that the hidden agenda behind Indian mascots
and logos is about cultural, spiritual, and intellectual
exploitation. It's an issue of power and control. These
negative ethnic images are driven by those that want
to define other ethnic groups and control their
images. To me, power and control is the ability to
make you believe that someone's truth is the absolute
truth. Furthermore, it's the ability to define a reality
and to get other people to affirm that reality as if it
were their own. As long as such negative mascots
and logos remain within the arena of school
activities, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous
children are learning to tolerate racism in schools."
Excerpt from an article by Dr. Cornel Pewewardy
Comanche/Kiowa1317652, Group Sues U. Of Illinois Over Indian Mascot Perpetuates Racial Stereotype
Posted by seemslikeadream on Wed Mar-16-05 01:40 PM
Suit Claims Mascot Perpetuates Racial Stereotype
POSTED: 9:23 am CST March 16, 2005
CHICAGO -- Opponents of University of Illinois mascot Chief Illiniwek filed a lawsuit against the school's trustees Tuesday, claiming the figure perpetuates a racial stereotype.
SURVEY
Do you think Native American-themed mascots and logos are racially demeaning?
Yes
No
In its suit, filed in Cook County Circuit Court, the Illinois Native American Bar Association and two individuals seek to force the school to stop using the Chief as its sports mascot.
"The use of this mascot is outrageous, it's been going on way too long and it should come to an end," said Kim Edward Cook, association president. "We've tried for a long time to work with the Board of Trustees with the University of Illinois and we haven't been able to get them to recognize that the use of the Chief Illiniwek is a racial stereotype and is damaging to all Native Americans."
The Chief is a 78-year-old tradition in which a student dresses in buckskins and headdress and dances at sports events. The suit alleges the mascot violates Indians' rights under state law and violates the board's own policies against discrimination.
more
http://www.nbc5.com/news/4289963/detail ... ppid=651721318468, GSLIS Faculty Statement on Chief Illiniwek
Posted by seemslikeadream on Wed Mar-16-05 05:49 PM
The Graduate School of Library and Information Science
It has become increasingly clear that the continuing use of the Chief Illiniwek symbol directly hinders each aspect of the GSLIS mission.
Teaching: The use of the Chief Illiniwek symbol interferes with our primary educational mission in many ways. Not only has it made it difficult to recruit Native American students or to work with Native American communities, the continued use of a symbol now widely seen as racist creates a chilling atmosphere for all students who for whatever reason do not see themselves as in the mainstream. Such an atmosphere is not conducive to learning. Moreover, it directly contradicts much of the content of our teaching, especially when addressing the importance of providing accurate information, adopting a service perspective on providing information, and challenging stereotypes in literature.
Research: Our research in library and information science is also negatively affected. In formulating criteria for evaluating information in books, electronic media, and other sources, we stress the importance of accuracy, which is directly contradicted by the stereotypical representation of Native Americans embodied in the Chief. Moreover, we have already seen numerous professional societies declaring our campus off limits for professional meetings. Colleagues throughout the world are aware of the Chief controversy and ask us when will the University catch up with other great institutions of learning. The controversy itself drains energy that could be much better applied to substantive research.
Service: In the area of service the Chief symbol belies our professed concerns about equal access and a service orientation to information providing. How can we provide leadership to library and information professionals on strategies for serving diverse populations or looking beyond stereotypes of library user groups when our own campus promotes stereotypes of a minority population? And what answer can we give when someone asks why we choose to represent people who have repeatedly expressed their opposition to the unwanted appropriation of their culture?
...
By unanimous vote of the GSLIS faculty - 5/10/2000
http://alexia.lis.uiuc.edu/gslis/school/news/chief.html1320660, English Department on Chief Illiniwek - distorted cliché of Indian people
Posted by seemslikeadream on Thu Mar-17-05 02:20 PM
The faculty of the Department of English find Chief Illiniwek an inappropriate symbol or mascot for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. While we understand that in the eyes of many supporters of the Chief Illiniwek symbol, the current version of Chief Illiniwek looks like a more respectful image than many other Native American sports mascots, we strongly believe that such stereotypical, oversimplified, and inaccurate representations are out of place in a university environment, where they miseducate the wider public and the members of our own university community, perpetuating a distorted cliché of Indian people and perpetuating the notion that Indian cultures are a plaything for the dominant culture.
We recognize that the intent of many supporters of the Chief Illiniwek symbol is benign. They see the Chief symbol as a dignified image. But as scholars and teachers of English often note, a cultural artifact, whether a novel or a movie or a university symbol, may mean more than its producers intended or understood. Despite the innocent intent of many Illiniwek supporters, the effect and meaning of the Illiniwek symbol is to present a distorted cliché of Indian people.
We would not honor African Americans by having a Booker T. Washington imitator provide halftime entertainment; we would not honor Asian Americans by having someone in an emperor costume dance before cheering crowds; we would not honor Latina and Latino Americans by having a César Chavez imitator put on a mariachi costume and dance at athletic events; we would not honor concentration camp victims by having someone dress up as a rabbi and do splits at halftime; and we would not honor Catholics by having a student dress up as a pope and perform with miter and incense. Some members of the University of Illinois community may point to the look of intense solemnity in the current Chief logo, a look that the student playing the Chief sometimes puts on as the halftime crowd stands with arms folded in a sign of respect. But the solemn, silent Indian is yet another demeaning cliché that goes along with the dancing Indian and the Chief Illiniwek keychain with flashing lights for ears that is sold at the Illini Union bookstore. Derogatory clichés often come in the form of contradictory stereotypes.
We believe that the Chief Illiniwek symbol offers the wrong image of this great university. It has made the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign an object of scorn to many people across the nation and across the world, misrepresenting both Indian people and the ideals of this great university. It is time for the Board of Trustees and the wider university community to act with courage and vision, to respect our own constituency of Indian people and of the national and world communities and, like so many other schools and universities, give up our Indian symbol and mascot. It is time for this great university to live up to its commitment to community leadership and retire Chief Illiniwek.
http://www.english.uiuc.edu/-announceme ... niwek.html1320647, "First Nation" David Clark
Posted by seemslikeadream on Thu Mar-17-05 02:13 PM
David Clark, July 13, 2004
Opinion: very anti-Chief
I want to thank you in advance for reading what I have to offer. As an educator and scholar, and as a subject of the Sac and Fox First Nations from near Tama, Iowa, and descendent of the Potawatomi First Nations in Shawnee, Oklahoma, I support all efforts to retire Chief Illiniwek and the "Fighting Illini" name. Like others, I use the term "First Nation" (Indigenous works, too) rather than Indian, American Indian, or Native American. We are not "Indians" because we are not from India. Referring to us as "native" Americans really is disconcerting (as well as imprecise) because anyone born anywhere in the Americas in this and the last century rightfully can (and countless many do) claim "native-born" status.
With certainty, the name "Fighting Illini" is an uncomplimentary designation for the descendants of the First Nations earlier removed from what became the state of Illinois because it focuses only on aggressiveness and offers no context for the conflict or fighting. "The Chief" undeniably is racist. It is a red face re-formulation of nineteenth-century black face. Both the name and the symbol (or mascot) are symbolic manifestations of the lingering residue of European and (later) American semantic imperialism and racism. The label "Fighting Illini" is an oppressive and patronizing name for the Kaskaskia and Cahokia (whose present-day descendants are citizens of the Peoria-Miami First Nations located in Miami, Oklahoma) as well as other subjects of First Nations coercively displaced or forcibly removed from their lands by the terrorists who occupied their homes. Rather than engage in serious research, and serving ongoing colonialism, most academic historians have imposed the name "Illini" on these diverse peoples. Countless students and UIUC athletic team fans have uncritically accepted the authenticity of the name "Illini" as a signifier for now vanished First Nations. Used alone and only in reference to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and its athletic teams, "Fighting Illini" has no redeeming cultural or social value that could make it a name to feel proud about. Think about it: English-language words synonymous with "fighting" include squabbling, rioting, and brawling, as well as offensive, belligerent, pugnacious, quarrelsome, and evil.
Thus, the name "Fighting Illini" is culturally demeaning. It, and its symbolic counterpart, Chief Illiniwek, are one-dimensional symbols that nourish what my colleagues at the University of Kansas, Cornel Pewewardy and Michael Yellow Bird (following Joyce King), have termed "dysconscious racism"--an uncritical habit of the mind that justifies inequity and exploitation by accepting the existing order of things as given. To valorize images of the "Fighting Illini" without soberly recognizing the degree to which the United States sought--and seeks--to summarily conquer, displace and remove, and control First Nations peoples cultivates dysconscious racism. Numerous scholars have written about its effects. Any institutionalized violation or manipulation (e.g., exploitation) of individual or group identity can be understood as a clear elucidation of oppression. UIUC in many ways is a powerful institution that exploits the identity of the Peoria and Miami (and other) First Nations. Oddly, UIUC also manipulates the identities of the First Nations located still today on the northern and southern Plains (in western Oklahoma and in north-central Nebraska, the Dakotas, and Montana)--the First Nations earlier made popular by wild west shows and Hollywood motion pictures. This all is the subject of a vast scholarship. Many scholars also have written about the role of empowering and disempowering images in shaping the identities (the many heterogeneous individual conceptualizations of self) among Indigenous young people. Once the idea is formed for a young person that she or he belongs to a devalued group (and in today's media-saturated culture this idea does not take long to form), then every subsequent event and encounter is processed through this lens.
http://people.ku.edu/~tyeeme/mascots.html
by Carol Newquist » Mon Oct 07, 2013 7:32 pm
Indian Gaming: More Corrupt Than Ever
While Democrats saw Indian gaming as supporting another downtrodden minority, the GOP saw it like the mob did: as a cash cow.
When sleaze meets sleaze, magic happens. One glance across a crowded room, and they instantly recognize kinship. But when supersleaze teams up with supersleaze, a fusion-like chain reaction flashes to life, consuming everything in range.
And that's what happened when Jack Abramoff met Indian gambling.
Oh, I know the media is all atwitter over the political implications for ruling Republicans, but as usual, they are missing the soul of this saga -- the political correctness and hypocrisy that surrounds Indian gaming.
Let me explain. I have no moral objections to most vices, including gambling, and when I can get away with it, I indulge in several vices myself. So the morality of gaming is not my beef with Indian casinos. It's what I learned way back in the 1980s about what's really going on behind all that helping the poor Indians blather.
While working on our savings and loans book "Inside Job" in 1986, my co-author, Mary Fricker, and I followed one of our S&L crooks to a small Indian reservation outside Palm Springs. It was the home of the Cabazons, the very tribe that took their case for gambling rights to the U.S. Supreme Court and won -- sparking the Indian gaming revolution.
What we found there was unnerving, to say the least. Sure, there were Indians -- about 25 of them -- but they weren't in charge. Instead, a group of Los Angeles-based mafioso were running the operations, people with names like Rocco. The gaming operations were run by a non-Indian "management" company. They would front the money to build, maintain and operate the various gaming operations, with the promise that the tribe would get a share of the "profits" as calculated by Rocco and friends.
This is how Indian gaming began. After being chased out of Las Vegas and New Jersey by state and federal heat, the mob discovered Indian reservations. It was like a gift from the Mob Gods. One mobster testifying before Congress was asked how the mob viewed Indian reservations. He replied, "As our new Cuba."
That's because Indian reservations are sovereign nations within a sovereign nation. The mob could set up casinos, pay off tribal leaders and skim casino proceeds with impunity. If the FBI showed up, they had tribal security usher them out the gate, because they had no jurisdiction on reservation property.
During our short investigation of the goings-on at that Indio, Calif., Blazoning reservation:
Three members of the tribe were found shot in the head a week after threatening to go public with corruption at the gaming facilities
An illicit arms-sales operation was set up peddling machine guns
The non-Indian head of the tribe's gaming management company, John Philip Nichols, was sent to prison on a hire-for-murder charge
The S&L crook who led us to the reservation in the first place, and who had financed the tribe's high-stakes bingo parlor, was charged with running fraudulent insurance companies and running off with customer premiums
The same fellow was later sued by the federal government for tens of millions in fraudulent loans he got from now-defunct S&Ls
There was more. And it's still going on.
We heard reports back then of similar activity on Indian reservations in Florida and Minnesota. Mobbed up management companies were rounding up their own tribes coast to coast. One operator was pitching so many tribes, he referred to his targets as "chief of the week" sessions.
Indian gaming proponents are quick to counter, "That was then; things have changed."
They've changed all right; they got smart. The likes of one-time Republican National Committee chairman Frank Farenkopf, and later, GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff, stepped in. While Democrats saw Indian gaming as supporting another downtrodden minority, something "we have to put up with because of how we screwed the American Indians in the past," the GOP saw it another way. The GOP saw Indian gaming the same way the mob saw it: as a cash cow.
And so Indian gaming really is different now. It's bigger and even more corrupt. The mobsters were shoved into the closet and replaced out front by buttoned-down businessmen, men with the kind of connections that get things done -- and without all that messy " batta bing, batta bang " stuff.
Not only could these guys bring big money and big influence to Indian gaming, but legitimacy, and even a reassuring glaze of morality. After all, would Jesus-boy Ralph Reed associate himself with something sleazy?
Farenkopf made the way safe for fellow Republicans, serving as president of the American Gaming Association. The ASA is the lobbying arm of the gaming industry. It formed in 1995, and hired Frank at a hefty $1 million-plus per year. For his keep, Frank took gambling's case directly to GOP bigwigs, even at the White House.
"He was the best hired gun that money could buy," said the Rev. Tom Grey, founder and executive director of the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling. "There is no doubt that he plays a very skilled Washington game."
When Farenkoph argued his case to fellow Republicans, he surely pointed out two critical facts: 1) Gaming produces tons of free cash, and 2) Democrats have been getting most of the Indian gaming action. (See here).
From 1998 on, the GOP's share of Indian gaming revenues has steadily grown. But Farenkoph played by the rules, so Dems kept their lead, though it narrowed through 2004. It wasn't until Jack Abramoff blended political action with tried-and-true mob techniques that the GOP pulled past Dems.
I mention this because the only way to get to the bottom of a problem is to identify all the elements that created it in the first place. Sure, we need campaign finance reform, and we need lobbying reform as well. But we also need to admit that little has changed since the days when powerful white men set up trading posts on Indian reservations, traded their goods for cheap liquor they knew was poison to them, then, once hooked on hooch, proceeded to exploit them in every way imaginable.
That's all Jack Abramoff and Ralph Reed were doing: simply following in the footsteps of those hardy pioneers. Behind all the altruistic hoopla you hear today, Indian casinos are just the latest incarnation of the old exploitative reservation trading posts.
But don't expect anyone in Washington to admit that. Not the Democrats, who you can bet are rushing to assure gaming tribes -- and those that want to join the party -- that Dems hold no grudges about their little fling with GOP whores. The DNC brothel is right where it always was, and welcomes their indigenous constituents back with open arms -- but do bring wallets.
And don't expect Republicans to say anything but the nicest things about Indian gaming for the next few years -- and for free! Republicans must now do penance for golfing in Scotland on Indians' money, even as Abramoff and his pals gang-raped their tribal clients.
I don't argue that revenues from reservation casinos have helped some Indians. But I am quite certain that tribes never see the lion's share of the cash that flows through those operations. Non-Indian management and politicians do.
A final thought. Cash, in the quantities produced by gambling operations, always attracts two kinds of people: sleaze and politicians.
by seemslikeadream » Mon Oct 07, 2013 8:34 pm
Making Sense of the Abramoff Scandal
It's a sordid tale of Washington corruption and crony capitalism at its worst. Here's a primer to help you understand this growing scandal.
December 19, 2005 |
The ever-widening scandal surrounding Republican super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff threatens to take down at least a half-dozen Congressmen in 2006, more of their aides, Executive Branch employees, and untold numbers of other members of the Republican Beltway hierarchy. At least four dozen lawmakers from both parties are documented as having taken actions favorable to Abramoff clients around the time they received large donations from Abramoff and/or his clients.
It's a sordid tale of Washington corruption, and of crony capitalism at its worst, and it is so dizzyingly complex that few media outlets and even fewer members of the public have yet appreciated just how thoroughly it indicts not just Republican leadership, but the entire bipartisan way of crafting public policy that masquerades as 21st century American democracy.
Abramoff figures in at least four separate, interrelated scandals:
He and partner Adam Kidan have been indicted on wire fraud and conspiracy charges involving the 2000 purchase of SunCruz Casinos, a Florida gambling boat venture;
He funneled money into the PAC run by House Majority Whip Rep. Tom DeLay that has led to Texas charges against DeLay for illegally laundering campaign donations;
He and partner Michael Scanlon are suspected of defrauding and vastly overbilling Native American tribes and other clients with gaming interests; and
He and Scanlon are also suspected of bribing and offering gifts and spousal jobs to Congressmembers and Executive Branch officials in exchange for actions favorable to their clients.
Appallingly, it's hard to tell with many of Abramoff's activities whether they are crimes, D.C. business as usual, or both. Here, then, compiled from The Washington Post and other sources, is a summary in alphabetical order of 25 of the key players involved, how they relate to each other, and what they're suspected of. It's rather long and exhaustive (of what we know so far), but then, the indictments will be far longer. Read it, keep it as a scorecard, and weep for democracy.
Jack Abramoff: Former chair in the early '80s of the College Republicans (his campaign manager was future anti-tax guru Grover Norquist), and close friend of Karl Rove. Introduced to Republican Texas Rep. Tom DeLay by conservative Jewish activist Rabbi Daniel Lapin in the early '90s, Abramoff helped win DeLay's election as majority whip in 1994, a campaign that cemented the bond between the two. The relationship between Abramoff and DeLay is now the target of investigations by the House of Representatives, the Senate, the Justice Department, and a federal grand jury. Abramoff during the Bush administration became the most influential lobbyist in the country; in 2004 he was a Bush "Pioneer," raising over $100,000 for Dubya's re-election.
Abramoff, 46, was indicted along with partner Adam Kidan in August 2005 by a Florida grand jury on wire fraud and conspiracy charges in a Florida gambling boat venture, SunCruz Casinos. Prosecutors say the purchase by the two of a fleet of casino gambling ships in 2000 for $147.5 million involved a fake wire transfer of $23 million and the falsification of loan documents. For the purchase, Abramoff listed Tony Rudy, then a DeLay aide, and Californian Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher as personal references. Abramoff faces up to five years in prison for each of six counts and the forced return of $60 million lost by a casino investor.
Abramoff worked for the D.C. lobbying office of the law firm Preston Gates Ellis from 1994 to 2001, and while there worked with Michael Scanlon and William Jarrell (both former DeLay aides), future General Services Administration head David Safavian, and former Christian Coalition boss Ralph Reed, then a Preston Gates contractor. Abramoff arranged for at least 85 Congressmen and aides to take trips in the late '90s to the Northern Mariana Islands, a Preston Gates client, while attempting to win exemption from minimum wage laws and other legislation favorable to the sweatshops there. The Marianas, a U.S. trust territory in the Pacific, are notorious as the home of numerous sweatshops importing foreign, virtually slave labor that produces products with a "Made in U.S.A. " label.
Among the visitors was DeLay; two DeLay aides' trips were also allegedly illegally paid for. Between 1994 and 2001, the Northern Mariana Islands paid $6.7 million to Preston Gates for lobbying services, of which an auditor later determined $3.1 million was paid without a lawful contract. Rabbi Daniel Lapin's brother, David, who once ran a D.C. area Jewish academy established by Abramoff, had a $1.2 million no-bid Northern Marianas government contract, arranged by Abramoff during his Preston Gates days, to conduct ethics-in-government programs. But near as anyone in the Marianas can determine today, David Lapin failed to provide any services. Abramoff was also the target of a 2002 grand jury probe in Guam, involving influence peddling in a case involving court reform. A day after a subpoena was issued, President Bush demoted the federal prosecutor in the case, and the inquiry stalled.
In 2001, Abramoff was lured (along with some of his clients) with his $175,000 a month retainer to the Miami lobbying firm Greenberg Traurig LLC. After he joined Greenberg Traurig, Abramoff and Scanlon (who left Preston Gates Ellis to start his own consulting service) agreed to join forces and concentrate on Native American casino tribes. Overall, Abramoff and Scanlon collected a staggering $66 million in fees from tribal interests, with another $16 million going directly to Greenberg Traurig.
Investigators are now looking at whether tribes were defrauded of some of that $82 million. Abramoff allegedly arranged for more than $4 million of Preston Gates Ellis Native American client funds to be funneled into antigambling campaigns run by Reed from 1999 to 2003. In one case involving funds from an Indian casino client, as much as $1.3 million may have been used to launch a campaign. At least some of the Preston Gates money was allegedly laundered through an anti-tax group of Abramoff's old friend Norquist, Americans for Tax Reform. The point was for Abramoff's Native American casino clients to pay for campaigns that would shut out potential competition from state lotteries or new casinos.
Abramoff arranged for the hiring of several Congressional wives, including Christine DeLay, wife of the Majority Whip. (Christine DeLay took four years to research the favorite charity of each member of Congress, for which she was paid $115,000. Nice work if you can get it.) Abramoff frequently used his D.C. charity, Capital Athletic Foundation, as a pass-through organization to run lobbying efforts and to pay for expenses, including retaining the services of a firm owned by Republican California Rep. John Doolittle's wife Julie, Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions Inc. Abramoff is also accused of misusing his charity to fund activities like an Israeli sniper school on the West Bank.
Abramoff also allegedly misused a conservative D.C. think tank on whose board he served, the National Center for Public Policy Research. The group was allegedly used to launder $50,000 to pay for a May 2000 trip by DeLay, his wife, Rudy, and another DeLay aide to Scotland. Two months later, DeLay helped kill a anti-gambling bill, the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act, opposed by Abramoff clients. In 2002 the Choctaw tribe, a client of Abramoff's, donated $1 million to the center and in 2003 Greenberg Traurig gave $1.5 million in "grants" that originated from an Abramoff client. In 2003, the National Center paid $1.275 million for consulting services to Kaygold, an LLC controlled by Abramoff.
Former Preston Gates colleague David Safavian, who had been appointed by Bush as head of the General Services Administration, was arrested in September 2005 and charged with lying and obstruction of justice in conjunction with an investigation into Abramoff's seeking of favors from Safavian while he attempted to buy land from the federal government. Abramoff is also being investigated for having illegally paid for three Scotland golf trips and trips to Moscow and London for DeLay, and a 2002 Scotland trip for then-DeLay aide Tony Rudy, Safavian, Norquist, and Republican Ohio Rep. Robert Ney.
Over the years, Abramoff showered members of Congress with donations, trips, gifts, and fundraising events, often as quid pro quo for favorable legislative action. At least four dozen lawmakers from both parties are documented as having taken actions favorable to Abramoff clients around the time they received large donations from Abramoff and/or his clients.
Here are some of the players in Abramoff's world:
Edward Ayoob: Former veteran legislative aide to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, hired as a lobbyist by Abramoff. Reid, who undertook several actions favorable to Abramoff's clients, ultimately received more than $66,000 in Abramoff-related donations from 2001 to 2004. Ayoob held a fundraising reception for Reid at the offices of Abramoff's firm, Greenberg Traurig.
Edwin Buckham: Former chief of staff and an old family friend of House Majority Whip Rep. Tom DeLay, involved, along with former DeLay aide Mike Scanlon, in a 1999 effort by Abramoff to allegedly dangle U.S. tax dollars to influence a election for the speaker of the legislature in the Northern Mariana Islands. Along with former DeLay aide Tony Rudy, ran the lobbying firm Alexander Strategy Group, which accepted a number of clients from Abramoff and paid Christine DeLay, wife of the Majority Whip, $115,000 for work from 1998 to 2002 to determine the favorite charity of every member of Congress. Alexander Strategy Group also counted among its clients California businessman Brent Wilkes, one of four unindicted coconspirators in the bribery case of disgraced former Republican congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham.
Sen. Conrad Burns: Republican Senator from Montana. As a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and chair of an appropriations subcommittee that controlled spending for the Interior Department, Burns and his staff met Abramoff's lobbying team at least eight times in early 2001 and collected $12,000 in donations. Burns then voted against a bill that would have ended a "guest worker " program in the Northern Mariana Islands' garment industry; in 1999, he had voted in favor of an identical bill. Abramoff and future assistant Secretary of Labor Patrick Pizzella had both lobbied for the Marianas when working at the lobbying law firm Preston Gates Ellis until 2001.
In addition, two Burns aides accepted an Abramoff-arranged trip to the Super Bowl in Tampa in early 2001, and a Burns aide went to work for Abramoff as an appropriations aide. In June 2001, Burns supported a bill that urged the Interior Department to rescind a requirement that the Marianas provide matching funds for a federal program subsidizing local construction projects. Burns also wrote a letter to the Bureau of Indian Affairs backing a $3 million Indian school building program sought by Abramoff's tribal clients, and helped arrange for Congress to provide money for it.
Overall, Abramoff steered $147,000 to Burns' political action committee (PAC). Abramoff, partner Michael Scanlon, former DeLay aide William Jarrell, and former General Services Administration head David Safavian all once worked for Preston Gates Ellis, the law firm representing the Marianas.
Rep. Tom DeLay: Houston-area Republican Representative, longtime friend of Abramoff, and former House Majority Whip before a campaign financing indictment forced him to at least temporarily resign his post in 2005. Abramoff helped win DeLay's election as majority whip in 1994, a campaign that cemented the bond between the two. DeLay was admonished by the House of Representatives for three separate ethics violations in 2004; his solution was to appoint a new, pliant stooge to head the House Ethics Committee, Washington state Rep. Doc Hastings, a recipient of donations from DeLay's PACs and from Abramoff. DeLay's PACs are under investigation by U.S. and Texas prosecutors; more than 30 PAC-related indictments have already been issued in Texas.
A former DeLay aide, Michael Scanlon, went on to become Abramoff's business partner and has now pled guilty to helping defraud Abramoff's tribal clients and is cooperating in the investigation. Scanlon and former DeLay chief of staff Ed Buckham were involved in a 1999 effort by Abramoff to allegedly dangle U.S. tax dollars to influence a election for the speaker of the legislature in the Northern Mariana Islands. A few months later, DeLay was on a House committee that approved $150,000 in Northern Marianas funding.
DeLay was one of at least 85 Congressmen and aides given late '90s trips to the Northern Marianas while Abramoff was trying to win exemption from minimum wage laws and other legislation favorable to the sweatshops there. Two DeLay aides' trips were allegedly illegally paid for. Another former aide, ex-deputy chief of staff William Jarrell, joined Abramoff at Preston Gates Ellis. DeLay aides also accepted a trip from Abramoff to the 2001 Super Bowl in Tampa, along with aides to Sen. Conrad Burns. And in May 2000, DeLay, his wife, aide Tony Rudy, and another DeLay aide took a trip to Scotland sponsored by the conservative D.C. think tank the National Center for Public Policy Research, one day after two Abramoff clients each donated $25,000 to the group. At about the same time, a Virginia consulting firm registered to Rudy's wife Lisa received money apparently laundered from a $25,000 donation received by a charity of Abramoff and DeLay friend Rabbi Daniel Lapin, Toward Tradition. Two months later, DeLay helped kill an anti-gambling bill, the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act, opposed by the two Abramoff clients, the Mississippi band of Choctaw Indians and eLottery.
The National Center for Public Policy Research was used again by Abramoff; in 2002 the Choctaw tribe, a client of Abramoff's, donated $1 million to the center and in 2003 Greenberg Traurig gave $1.5 million in "grants" that originated from an Abramoff client. In 2003, the National Center paid $1.275 million for consulting services to Kaygold, an LLC controlled by Abramoff. At the time, Abramoff also was on the board of the center.
Abramoff is also under investigation for providing illegal perks to DeLay such as skyboxes for local D.C. hockey and football games and trips to Moscow, London, and, on three occasions, golfing vacations to Scotland. DeLay's wife Christine was hired for $115,000 by a lobbying firm, Alexander Strategy Group that received client referrals from Abramoff. The firm, run by former DeLay aides Edwin Burkham and Rudy, employed Christine DeLay from 1998 until 2002 to compile a list of the favorite charities of every member of Congress. Alexander Strategy Group also counted among its clients California businessman Brent Wilkes, one of four unindicted coconspirators in the bribery case of disgraced former Republican congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham. Wilkes, whose private jet company also was hired three times by DeLay, contributed $15,000 to the DeLay PAC, Texans for a Republican Majority, now being investigated by Texas authorities in conjunction with the campaign donation probe.
As of 2000, Abramoff had funneled at least $50,000 in campaign donations to DeLay. Abramoff has since continued his hefty donations to DeLay, including money for Texans for a Republican Majority.
Rep. John Doolittle: Republican Representative from suburban Sacramento, member of the House Appropriations Committee. Under investigation for possible bribery charges. Doolittle's former chief of staff, Kevin Ring, went to work with Abramoff. Doolittle's wife, Julie, owned a consulting firm, Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions Inc., that was hired by Abramoff and his firm to do fundraising for a charity he founded, Capital Athletic Foundation, at about the time Doolittle undertook legislative actions favorable to Abramoff's clients. Overall, received some $80,000 in donations from Abramoff from 1999 to 2004. Last year, Sierra Dominion received a subpoena from the grand jury investigating Abramoff.
Sen. Byron Dorgan: Democratic Senator from North Dakota, ranking Democrat on the Indian Affairs Committee. Abramoff's firm, Greenberg Traurig, hosted a 2001 fundraising skybox for Dorgan at a hockey game. In March 2002, Abramoff instructed the Louisiana Coushatta Indians to give $5,000 to Dorgan's PAC weeks after the Dorgan solicited support for a school funding program the tribe wanted to use. The check was one of about five dozen the Coushatta sent to various lawmakers' campaigns and political causes at Abramoff's instruction. In 2003, Dorgan pushed Congress to approve legislative language urging government regulators to decide whether the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, an Abramoff client, deserved federal recognition. Dorgan also signed a letter to the Interior Department urging the continuation of a program that had the federal government and tribes sharing the cost of building tribal schools, a program pushed by Abramoff's clients. Dorgan has recently announced he will return $67,000 in donations from Abramoff and his clients.
Itallia Federici: Mutual friend of and conduit between Abramoff and Deputy Interior Secretary Steven Griles. Federici worked for a Republican environmental group, Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, founded by Interior Secretary Gale Norton. Abramoff had Federici seek inside information and help from Griles, such as the federal recognition of one of Abramoff's clients, the Mashpee Wampanoag, and the squelching of a proposed casino from the Jena band of Chocaw that would compete with another client. At least 33 lawmakers who wrote letters to Norton opposing the Jena casino received, in total, more than $830,000 in Abramoff-related donations from 2001 to 2004. Between 2000 and 2003, Abramoff poured over $500,000 into Federici's group in his efforts to lobby Griles through her.
Timothy Flanagan: In October 2005, the Bush White House withdrew the embattled nomination of Flanagan as Deputy Attorney General under Alberto Gonzales, in large part because of Flanagan's past dealings with Abramoff. As the lobbyist with Tyco Inc. (an Abramoff client) who worked with Abramoff, Flanagan testified that Abramoff's firm, Greenberg Traurig, promised to repay three-quarters of a $2 million fee that Tyco paid at Abramoff's direction to Grassroots Interactive, a firm owned by Ed Miller, who would become Maryland Republican governor Robert Ehrlich's deputy chief of staff. Ehrlich has received campaign contributions from Abramoff.
Steven Griles: Former Deputy Interior Secretary. Abramoff sought improper help from Griles for tribal clients, including the Mashpee Wampanoag, and in return offered him a job. Abramoff had Griles friend Itallia Federici seek inside information and help from Griles, such as the federal recognition of one of Abramoff's clients, the Mashpee Wampanoag, and the squelching of a proposed casino from the Jena band of Choctaw that would compete with another client. In turn, Abramoff used Griles to seek meetings with and favorable action from Interior Secretary Gale Norton on behalf of Abramoff's clients. Federici's nonprofit, Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, was founded by Norton.
Rep. Dennis Hastert: Northern Illinois Republican, House Majority Leader. Held a fundraiser at Abramoff's Signatures restaurant in D.C. in June 2003 that collected at least $21,500 for Hastert's Keep Our Majority PAC from Abramoff's firm and tribal clients. A week later, Hastert wrote Interior Secretary Gale Norton to urge her to reject a casino of the Jena band of Choctaw that would have competed with an Abramoff client. Between 1999-2004 received $82,000 from Abramoff.
Rep. Doc Hastings: Republican Representative from Eastern Washington, Chairman of the House Ethics Committee. Hastings has refused to allow the Ethics Committee to investigate any of the charges involving Abramoff and House members -- or any of the other ethics scandals plaguing the House of Representatives, for that matter -- since the Republican leadership appointed him to replace a more assertive chairman in February 2005. Hastings, naturally, has received campaign contributions from both Abramoff and from Americans for a Republican Majority, a PAC of former House Majority Whip Rep. Tom DeLay.
Adam Kidan: Met Jack Abramoff in his College Republican days. Attended an exclusive party in House Majority Whip Rep. Tom DeLay's office on Inauguration Day 2001 in Washington. The former owner of a Dial-a-Mattress franchise in D.C., Kidan was Abramoff's partner in a $147.5 million purchase in 2000 of a casino gambling boat company in Florida, SunCruz Casinos. Prosecutors say the purchase involved a fake wire transfer of $23 million and the falsification of loan documents. Both Kidan and Abramoff have been indicted on charges of wire fraud and conspiracy. Kidan pled guilty to the charges on December 15.
The previous owner of SunCruz, Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis, was killed in a gangland-style murder in Fort Lauderdale in February 2001. Three men -- Anthony Moscatiello, Anthony Ferrari, and James Fiorillo -- were charged in November 2005 in the Boulis killing. Kidan had hired Moscatiello and Ferrari to provide catering and surveillance services to SunCruz. Moscatiello, identified by authorities as a former bookkeeper for the Gambino crime family, asserted after his arrest that Ferrari had admitted to him that he and another man killed Boulis after getting a call from Kidan.
Rabbi Daniel Lapin: South African immigrant, conservative Seattle talk radio commentator, and co-chair of the American Alliance of Jews and Christians (whose board members include Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson). Once Abramoff's next door neighbor. Lapin introduced Abramoff to Rep. Tom DeLay in the early 90's. Also a close friend of former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed. DeLay and Abramoff have both been board members of Lapin's charity, Toward Tradition. Abramoff, a founder of the group, at one point proposed using Toward Tradition as a pass-through for tribal money he was funneling from Preston Gates Ellis to campaigns being run by Ralph Reed against antigambling measures, before discovering that Toward Tradition didn't have the appropriate IRS status.
Lapin was also on the payroll of Abramoff's D.C. charity, Capital Athletic Foundation, as one of four people earning a collective $20,000 a month. Capital Athletic is under investigation for hiring a consulting firm owned by the wife of California Rep. John Doolittle in exchange for favorable legislative action by Doolittle. In 2000, Lapin's religious charity received a $25,000 donation from an online gambling company, eLottery, a lobbying client of Abramoff and Preston Gates Ellis. That money was then allegedly used to pay a Virginia consulting firm, Liberty Consulting, registered to Lisa Rudy, the wife of DeLay's deputy chief of staff, Tony Rudy. At that time Rudy had been instrumental in scuttling an antigambling bill, the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act, that eLottery and Abramoff wanted killed.
Abramoff also funneled a lucrative $1.2 million no-bid Northern Marianas Islands government contract to Lapin's brother, Los Angeles businessman Rabbi David Lapin, to conduct ethics-in-government programs there. But near as anyone in the Marianas can determine today, David Lapin failed to provide any services.
Ed Miller: Deputy chief of staff for Republican Maryland governor Robert Ehrlich, a recipient of Abramoff campaign donations. Miller formerly ran the firm Grassroots Interactive; in 2003, his firm was the recipient of $2 million from Abramoff in fees improperly diverted from Tyco Inc. and their chief lobbyist, Timothy Flanagan. Flanagan would later be the Bush administration's choice to become deputy Attorney General under Alberto Gonzales; his nomination would fail because of his ties to Abramoff.
Rep. Robert Ney: Republican Representative from Southeast Ohio, Chairman of the House Administration Committee. Under investigation, along with his former chief of staff, Neil Volz, for possible bribery charges involving Abramoff in October 2000. Ney intervened in the purchase by Abramoff and Adam Kidan of a Florida casino gambling company, SunCruz Casinos; at the request of Abramoff associate Michael Scanlon, Ney twice inserted comments in the Congressional Record, first castigating the reputation of SunCruz's then-owner, Konstantinos "Gus " Boulis, during contentious purchase negotiations, and later praising Kidan's new management.
Ney also took an allegedly illegal 2002 golfing trip to Scotland paid for by Abramoff. (General Services Administration head David Safavian, anti-tax guru Grover Norquist, and former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed were on the same trip.) Ney then provided help to two Texas tribal clients of Abramoff that wanted permission to open casinos. In one case in December 2002, Ney sought help from another unidentified House member for one of the tribes. Ney also allegedly met with a member of a California tribe doing business with Abramoff and agreed to help pass tax legislation affecting the tribe. Received $62,000 from Abramoff from 1999-2004.
Grover Norquist: Guru of the anti-tax, neo-con movement, best known for his desire to reduce government to the size where it can be drowned in a bathtub. Norquist met Abramoff through the College Republicans in the early '80s; he managed Abramoff's successful campaign to become chair of that group. Norquist co-authored Newt Gingrich's 1994 "Contract with America, " and gained influence as a close ally of Gingrich. He worked with Abramoff to lobby for the Northern Mariana Islands sweatshops.
Ralph Reed and Norquist are implicated in the questionable funneling by Abramoff of more than $4 million of Preston Gates Ellis Native American client funds to back antigambling campaigns run by Reed from 1999 to 2003. In one case involving funds from an Indian casino client, as much as $1.3 million in client funds may have been used to launch a campaign. At least some of the Preston Gates money was allegedly laundered through Norquist's anti-tax group, Americans for Tax Reform, which took a cut. The point was for Abramoff's Native American casino clients to pay for campaigns that would shut out potential competition from state lotteries or new casinos. Americans for Tax Reform also laundered Reed money from Abramoff client eLottery to help defeat the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act in 2000.
Norquist accompanied Abramoff, Ralph Reed, General Services Administration head David Safavian, and Ohio Rep. Robert Ney on a 2002 golf trip to Scotland in which Abramoff allegedly illegally picked up the costs for Ney and for Safavian, a former Norquist business partner in the firm Janus Merritt Strategies. Norquist raised big bucks for the 2004 Bush re-election. He also chairs the Ronald Reagan Legacy Project, established to build monuments to Reagan; fellow board members include former House Majority Whip Rep. Tom DeLay, former Attorney General John Ashcroft, Bush political advisor Karl Rove, and Rabbi Daniel Lapin.
Patrick Pizzela: 2001 Bush appointee as assistant Secretary of Labor, was a member of Abramoff's legal team lobbying for sweatshops in the Northern Marianas Islands when both were at Preston Gates Ellis. (Yes, that's right, Bush appointed a former sweatshop lobbyist to the Department of Labor.) Worked for Abramoff to help eLottery stop the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act in 2000.
Rep. Richard Pombo: Republican Congressman from a district east of the San Francisco Bay Area. Pombo has received at least $40,000 from Abramoff and tribal members of the Mashpee Wampanoag, an Abramoff client. Pombo chairs the Committee on Resources that oversees the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. In 2004, Pombo pushed a bill through his committee that would have helped the tribe receive federal benefits and advance its struggle for federal recognition. Federal recognition, by granting a tribe sovereignty, gives it the jurisdiction to open a casino, which many of Abramoff's tribal clients have done.
Ralph Reed: Former Christian Coalition golden boy, former chairman of the College Republicans (where he succeeded Jack Abramoff), high-ranking Bush re-election official, and current candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Georgia. Reed is also a former consultant for Preston Gates Ellis, Abramoff's employer from 1994 to 2001.
In 2000, received money from Abramoff client eLottery to help kill an antigambling bill, the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act; some of the money was routed through Grover Norquist's anti-tax group, Americans for Tax Reform. Reed and Norquist are implicated in the questionable funneling by Abramoff of more than $4 million of Preston Gates Ellis Native American client funds to back antigambling campaigns run by Reed from 1999 to 2003. In one case involving funds from an Indian casino client, as much as $1.3 million in client funds may have been used to launch a campaign. At least some of the Preston Gates money was again allegedly laundered through Americans for Tax Reform. The point was for Abramoff's Native American casino clients to pay for campaigns that would shut out potential competition from state lotteries or new casinos. Reed was also on the 2002 Scotland golf trip with Norquist, David Safavian, and Rep. Robert Ney, allegedly illegally paid for by Abramoff.
Sen. Harry Reid: Nevada Democrat, Senate Minority Leader. Sent a letter to Interior Secretary Gale Norton in March 2002 to urge her to reject a casino of the Jena band of Choctaw that would have competed with an Abramoff client. The next day, the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana issued a $5,000 check to Reid's tax-exempt political group, the Searchlight Leadership Fund. A second Abramoff tribe also sent $5,000 to Reid's group. Reid ultimately received more than $66,000 in Abramoff-related donations from 2001 to 2004. Abramoff also hired as a lobbyist a former Reid legislative aide, Edward Ayoob. Ayoob held a fundraising reception for Reid at the offices of Abramoff's firm, Greenberg Traurig.
Tony Rudy: Deputy chief of staff to former House Majority Whip Rep. Tom DeLay. Investigators are looking into whether Rudy aided Abramoff's clients while working for DeLay. Rudy was instrumental in killing a 2000 antigambling bill, the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act, opposed by Abramoff client eLottery. At about the same time, a Virginia consulting firm registered to Rudy's wife Lisa, Liberty Consulting, received payments from Abramoff clients and associates, and received eLottery money apparently laundered from a $25,000 donation received by Toward Tradition, a charity of Abramoff and DeLay associate Rabbi Daniel Lapin.
That summer, Rudy traveled on two luxury trips with Abramoff, including one with DeLay, DeLay's wife Christine, and another DeLay aide to Scotland partly paid for by eLottery through an intermediary. The other trip was to Pebble Beach, California, on a corporate jet belonging to SunCruz Casinos, the Florida casino gambling boat company Abramoff and partner Adam Kidan were then negotiating to buy. Rudy was listed as a personal reference by Abramoff in that purchase, a purchase for which Abramoff and Kidan have now been indicted on wire fraud and conspiracy charges.
Rudy left DeLay's office in 2001 to work for Abramoff. Later, along with former DeLay aide Edwin Burkham, he ran the lobbying firm Alexander Strategy Group, which accepted a number of clients from Abramoff and paid Christine DeLay, wife of the Majority Whip, $115,000 from 1998 to 2002 to determine the favorite charity of every member of Congress. Alexander Strategy Group also counted among its clients California businessman Brent Wilkes, one of four unindicted coconspirators in the bribery case of disgraced former Republican congressman Randy "Duke " Cunningham.
David Safavian: Bush appointee; as the chief of staff of the General Services Administration, he was in the lucrative position of being the chief procurement officer for the federal government. The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee held up Safavian's nomination for more than a year, in part because of lawmakers' concerns about his lobbying work for two men later accused of links to suspected terrorist organizations.
Safavian resigned when he was arrested in September 2005 and charged with three counts of making false statements and obstruction of justice in connection with an investigation into Abramoff's attempts to buy land from the federal government. Along with DeLay aide Tony Rudy, former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed, anti-tax guru Grover Norquist, and Rep. Robert Ney, Safavian took a 2002 golfing trip to Scotland allegedly illegally paid for by Abramoff; he is accused of lying to investigators by denying that, at the time, Abramoff was seeking to do business with the GSA. Safavian is yet another former employee of Preston Gates Ellis; while with that law firm, he shared with Abramoff as a client the Mississippi band of Choctaw Indians. Safavian went on to found Janus Merritt Strategies with Norquist.
Michael Scanlon: Scanlon, 35, is a former press secretary to Rep. Tom DeLay and business partner of Jack Abramoff. He has reached a plea bargain with federal prosecutors and is thought likely to testify against Abramoff and other former colleagues, breaking the scandal wide open. In particular, Scanlon may be able to specify which Congressmembers specifically agreed to trade actions favorable to Abramoff and Scanlon's clients for donations, gifts, and trips.
Scanlon left DeLay's office to join Abramoff at the lobbying firm Preston Gates Ellis;; he was involved, along with former DeLay chief of staff Ed Buckham, in a 1999 effort by Abramoff to allegedly dangle U.S. tax dollars to influence a election for the speaker of the legislature in the Northern Mariana Islands. In 2001, he left Preston Gates Ellis to start his own consulting service, and joined forces with Abramoff (who had also left Preston Gates Ellis, for Greenberg Traurig) to focus on tribal casino interests. Between the two firms, it is estimated the pair collected some $82 million in highly inflated fees from tribal clients. The pair allegedly defrauded their clients; Abramoff would refer clients to Scanlon without telling them that Scanlon was kicking back a percentage of the fees to Abramoff. The pair would then allegedly use some of the proceeds to bribe members of Congress.
Neil Volz: Former chief of staff for Ohio Rep. Robert Ney; both are now under investigation for possible bribery charges in connection with Ney's efforts to help Abramoff and Adam Kidan buy SunCruz Casinos, a Florida gambling boat venture, in 2000.
Jack Abramoff....Native Americans...Casinos....9/11.....oh my!
65004, Boulis Investigation Dredges Up Big Names - Abramoff
Posted by seemslikeadream on Mon Jan-02-06 09:38 PM
Untangling a Lobbyist's Stake in a Casino Fleet
http://www.democraticunderground.com/di ... id=1436668
SunCruz deal began to sink-Buyers never paid owner (Abramoff, the mob
http://www.democraticunderground.com/di ... id=1447156
AP: Tribe Told to Reroute DeLay Checks
http://www.democraticunderground.com/di ... id=1569610
Figure in DeLay Probe Appears in Court
http://www.democraticunderground.com/di ... id=1697237
AP: Abramoff to be indicted for fraud
http://www.democraticunderground.com/di ... id=1693983
(Newsweek) Abramoff: More Trouble Ahead?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/di ... id=1700154
Abramoff May Meet With Investigators
http://www.democraticunderground.com/di ... id=1705477
Abramoff makes first Miami court appearance on fraud charge
http://www.democraticunderground.com/di ... id=1711313
Abramoff Cited Aid Of Interior Official(Conflict-of -Interest Probe)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/di ... id=1732229
NYT: Demotion of a Prosecutor Is Investigated (Abramoff)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/di ... id=1808038
Boulis killing indictment names fourth conspirator (Abramoff case)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/di ... id=1813408
Three arrested in gangland-style murder of Suncruz founder 'Gus' Boulis
http://www.democraticunderground.com/di ... id=1809114
Ft. Lauderdale judge denies bond for suspect in Boulis killing (Abramoff)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/di ... id=1821145
Boulis Investigation Dredges Up Big Names - Abramoff
http://www.democraticunderground.com/di ... id=1839596
Abramoff investigation has GOP holding its breath
http://www.democraticunderground.com/di ... id=1853045
Ney in investigation of lobbyist Jack Abramoff
http://www.democraticunderground.com/di ... id=1900933
3 enter not-guilty pleas in 2001 murder of Gus Boulis...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/di ... id=1914459
Ex-partner (Scanlon) cooperates in fraud prosecution (SunCruz casinos)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/di ... id=1944690
Feds probing SunCruz links to GOP
http://www.democraticunderground.com/di ... id=1948367
Sun-Sentinel: Witness claims he heard hit plan in Boulis murder
http://www.democraticunderground.com/di ... id=1948304
Kidan is expected to admit to fraud (SunCruz/Abramoff)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/di ... id=1976098
WP: Plea Deal Near With 2nd Abramoff Associate (Kidan will cooperate
http://www.democraticunderground.com/di ... id=1975588
Abramoff ex-partner pleads guilty to fraud charge - this is good
http://www.democraticunderground.com/di ... id=1989452
Lobbyist Nears Terms on Plea Deal 5-7 Years and will testify!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/di ... id=2002300
Motive behind SunCruz affair: good old greed (Abramoff Scandal)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/di ... id=2006166
The Fast Rise and Steep Fall of Jack Abramoff (Wash. Post)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/di ... id=2011168
by peartreed » Mon Oct 07, 2013 8:43 pm
by 82_28 » Mon Oct 07, 2013 9:27 pm
by JackRiddler » Tue Oct 08, 2013 2:39 am
by 82_28 » Tue Oct 08, 2013 4:21 am
JackRiddler » Mon Oct 07, 2013 10:39 pm wrote:Whiteskins, Blackskins, Yellowskins... you really don't see the problem?
Nordic beat me to posting this graphic but...
note also the origin: "American Indian Group Puts the Racism of Some Sports Logos Into Context." More indigenes inconvenient to the New Quisting Caroler.
http://politicalblindspot.com/american- ... rts-logos/
by justdrew » Tue Oct 08, 2013 5:28 am
by Carol Newquist » Tue Oct 08, 2013 7:33 am
by seemslikeadream » Tue Oct 08, 2013 8:45 am
Native Americans take NFL Redskins name-change campaign to Washington
Campaigning groups meet in capital to fight 'vestiges of racist imagery' after President Obama weighs in to debate
in Washington
The Guardian, Monday 7 October 2013 14.44 EDT
Ray Halbritter, National Representative of the Oneida Indian Nation, speaks in Washington. Photograph: Carolyn Kaster/AP
Its cheerleaders may no longer perform a mock rain dance or threaten to scalp opponents, but the refusal of Washington's NFL team to drop the word "Redskins" from its name has become a rallying point for campaigners who feel they are finally on the cusp of removing one of the last “vestiges of racist imagery” in US sport.
Emboldened by the new-found support of Barack Obama, Native American groups met in Washington on Monday to urge the National Football League to intervene in their long-running clash with the team's owner, Dan Snyder.
“If I were the owner of the team and I knew that the name of my team, even if they’ve had a storied history, was offending a sizeable group of people, I’d think about changing it,” Obama said in an interview with the Associated Press that was published on Saturday.
Ray Halbritter, a representative of the Oneida Indian Nation, heralded Obama's intervention as a possible breakthrough moment. “The president's comments were nothing less than historic,” he told reporters. “The Washington team's name is a painful racial epithet first used against my people when we were held at gunpoint; it is a word that tells our children that they are second-class citizens.”
Before the NFL season began last month, several news organisations resolved to stop using the team's name in print, on the grounds that it is offensive. But Snyder has steadfastly refused to stop using the word "redskin", once telling USA Today: "We'll never change the name. It's that simple. NEVER – you can use caps." He claims several public opinion polls show a majority of Americans do not regard the word as offensive.
On Monday, a panel of Native Americans leaders convened by Halbritter heard powerful testimony from those who were on the receiving end of the word as a racial slur when they were growing up.
“This word is an insult that is mean, rude and impolite, and we would like you stop using it just as children stop using something that is impolite,” said Kevin Gover, director of the National Museum of the American Indian. “The 1920s, when these names emerged in sport, were a low point in Native American history. Our people were confined to reservations and this was another way to assert dominance. It was a way to say, 'We own you' and 'We can use your image how we choose'.”
Campaigners also rejected arguments made by the team that it is unfair to single them out, rather than other ice hockey and baseball teams that also use Native American imagery or names.
Lanny Davis, a spokesman for Snyder, had earlier questioned why the president was wasting time on the issue and accused him of double standards. “I do wonder why [Obama is] not talking about the [hockey team] Chicago Blackhawks, who won the Stanley Cup, or the [baseball team] Atlanta Braves … it is a selective decision.”
Halbritter said this argument missed the significance of the word as “redskin” as a racist slur, although he called for a public debate about the appropriate uses of Native American imagery elsewhere in sport.
“The name of the Washington team is a dictionary-defined offensive racial epithet which these other team names are not, but there is a broader discussion to be had about using these mascots generally,” he said.
Gover added: “Of course there are more important issues out there but that doesn't mean this one is unimportant.”
The panel expressed sympathy with fans who were wedded to the name, but said it was time to move on. DC representative Eleanor Holmes Norton said: “As an African American woman and third-generation Washingtonian, I want to say to Redskins fans: no one blames you for using a name that has always been used but they will blame you if you continue to use it.”
She compared the word to racial epithets used against African Americans before it was accepted that they were not the terms of endearment that some claimed. “The only difference between us and our Native American brothers and sisters is that they are two or three percent of the US people and [an] average American does not have the same amount of contact.”
Michael Friedman, a clinical psychologist, said the discrimination was not a matter of taste but a public health issue: “The effects of this kind of textbook bullying and harassment leads to higher levels of mental and physical illness. Even a positive image, if stereotypical, will lead to lower self-esteem.”
So far, such arguments have had little impact on Snyder, who has commissioned polls among Native Americans which he claims show the word is not seen as offensive even in such communities.
Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III prepares to put on his helmet. Photograph: Nick Wass/AP
“[Obama] is unaware of the data,” said Davis, on Monday. “He’s expressing an opinion. He happens to be wrong in not knowing about the data. If he knew about the data, I’m looking forward to him saying, ‘You know, now that I know from Lanny Davis about the data, I favour the Washington Redskins because there is not a sizeable group [offended by the name], by my own criteria.’ So I don’t know why he spoke out at a time like this, but I’m glad that he’s using that criteria. By that criteria, no name change is necessary.”
But with NFL team owners meeting on Tuesday in Washington and the sport looking to expand internationally, campaigners hope that wider public pressure will force the issue.
Gover said football fans may not mean offence when they use the name, but that was no reason to keep using it. “There is an odd and persistent tradition in the US since before the revolution of people dressing up as Native Americans,” he said. “There is a desire to connect but this is an inappropriate way to do it.”
“How about they called themselves the Washington Americans instead?”
by Carol Newquist » Tue Oct 08, 2013 9:33 am
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