DELAY: " CRONY CAPITALISM " & " Pimping of the President "
Republican Tom Delay and his supporters cannot change this fact regarding Travis County District Attorney's Record: " Mr. Earle denied that the investigation had a partisan stench, pointing out that during his tenure, his office's public integrity unit had pursued investigations against 15 elected officials – 12 Democrats and three Republicans."
source:http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/092905dntswdelay.a0903e49.html
-------------------------
EDITORIAL
The felony indictment of Tom DeLay
Travis County grand jury has spoken; now it is up to the courts
EDITORIAL BOARD
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Too much power can be a dangerous thing, as many political leaders have learned over the years. Hubris and overreaching are hazards of the political class.
Wednesday's felony indictment of U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is the latest example of power's pitfalls. A Travis County grand jury indicted DeLay and two of his former operatives, John Colyandro and Jim Ellis, on charges of conspiring to evade the state law barring corporations from giving to candidates.
DeLay sowed the seeds that led to a GOP majority in the Texas Legislature after the 2002 elections, a majority that returned the favor in a mid-census redistricting that gave DeLay a more Republican Congress. But he reaped the whirlwind because he pushed too hard and demanded too much.
An angry and defiant DeLay blamed the indictment, which temporarily cost him his leadership position, on partisan politics by Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle, a Democrat. Coming from one of the most fanatical partisans in the country, that charge is risible.
DeLay also ignores the fact that the indictment came not from Earle but from a grand jury of 12 local citizens who investigated a complex political scheme. They sacrificed long hours for one of the most important duties of citizenship.
Even more difficult to digest was DeLay's assertion in his taped statement Wednesday that the 2003 Legislature's gerrymandered political map was "fair."
That politically inspired redistricting fractured Texas into a crazy patchwork of congressional districts that makes no sense whatsoever. Austin's 10th Congressional District was split into three parts — one reaching to the Houston suburbs and two others stretching to the border with Mexico. You can stand at the corner of West 38th and Ronson streets in Central Austin and spit into three different districts.
DeLay may accuse Earle of playing politics, but the district attorney would have failed in his duty had he not investigated allegations of campaign finance irregularities and money laundering. Earlier this month, the grand jury indicted the now-defunct Texans for a Republican Majority Political Action Committee and the Texas Association of Business in that same fund-raising scheme.
Wednesday's indictment accuses DeLay's political action committee of accepting $155,000 in corporate money, then writing a $190,000 check to an arm of the Republican National Committee. Accompanying that check was a list of Texas legislative candidates and the amounts they were to receive.
Colyandro is former executive director of the Texas political action committee connected to DeLay, and Ellis headed DeLay's national political committee.
In his taped statement, DeLay attacked Earle personally and said , "(As) recently as two weeks ago, Mr. Earle himself publicly admitted I had never been a focus or target of his inquiry. Soon thereafter, Mr. Earle's hometown newspaper ran a biting editorial about his investigation, rhetorically asking what the point had been, after all, if I wasn't to be indicted.
"It was this renewed political pressure in the waning days of his hollow investigation that led this morning's action."
A Sept. 11 American-Statesman editorial questioned why only the political action committees and not the individuals behind them had been indicted. DeLay was not mentioned by name, nor was there an allusion to him. It is either DeLay's hubris or his conscience that leads him to think that the editorial targeted him.
source: http://www.statesman.com/opinion/content/editorial/stories/09/29delay_edit.html
------------------------
Brownwood: Who said " All Politics is Local " ?
---------
--------
----------
3 Charged in Killing Of Fla. Businessman
Boulis Slain After 2000 Abramoff Deal
By Susan Schmidt and James V. Grimaldi
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, September 28, 2005; Page A03
Fort Lauderdale police said yesterday that they charged three men in the 2001 gangland-style slaying of a Florida businessman who was gunned down in his car months after selling a casino cruise line to a group that included Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis was killed on a Fort Lauderdale street on Feb. 6, 2001. Two of the three men charged had been hired as consultants by Adam Kidan, one of Abramoff's partners in the SunCruz Casinos venture.
Anthony Moscatiello (top), Anthony Ferrari (lower left), 48, and James Fiorillo (lower right), 28, were arrested in connection with the ambush slaying of Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis.
Anthony Moscatiello, 67, identified by authorities as a former bookkeeper for the Gambino crime family, was arrested Monday night in Queens, N.Y. Anthony Ferrari, 48, was arrested in Miami Beach. Both were charged with murder, conspiracy and solicitation to commit murder. James Fiorillo, 28, was arrested in Palm Coast, Fla., yesterday and charged with murder and conspiracy.
Boulis, millionaire founder of the Miami Subs sandwich chain, sold SunCruz to Abramoff and Kidan in September 2000, at a time when Abramoff was one of Washington's most powerful lobbyists. Abramoff and Kidan were indicted last month on charges of wire fraud and conspiracy in connection with a $60 million loan they obtained to purchase the casino company.
Abramoff is at the center of a federal investigation into lobbying for Indian tribes and influence-peddling in Washington. Abramoff used contacts with GOP Reps. Tom DeLay (Tex.) and Robert W. Ney (Ohio) and their staffs as he worked to land the SunCruz deal, interviews and court records show.
The indictment in the Boulis slaying remained under seal yesterday, and authorities declined to disclose details of the charges against the defendants. Michael D. Becker, a Miami lawyer who has represented the men in other matters, said yesterday that he has not spoken to them yet.
Attorneys for Kidan and Abramoff said their clients have no knowledge about who killed Boulis. The two men were on a business trip abroad the night Boulis was shot. "Adam has cooperated with police right from the beginning. He's never been told he is a subject or a target," said Kidan's attorney, Martin Jaffe.
Fort Lauderdale police say they have long been interested in interviewing Abramoff, but he has repeatedly begged off, citing scheduling difficulties. Abramoff's attorney, Neal Sonnett, said after the fraud indictment that his client knows nothing about the slaying but would be willing to meet with detectives. He said he had no comment on the murder charges.
Abramoff and Kidan have been friends since their days as College Republicans in Washington. Kidan, of New York, owned the Dial-a-Mattress franchise in the District until it filed for bankruptcy in the 1990s. Their third partner in the SunCruz deal was Reagan administration official Ben Waldman.
Dealings between Boulis and the Abramoff group were often tense. At key points in the negotiations, Ney placed comments in the Congressional Record -- first sharply criticizing Boulis and later praising the new ownership under Kidan. Ney later said he had been unaware of Kidan's background.
Also during the negotiations, Abramoff brought a lender he was trying to impress to hobnob with DeLay in Abramoff's FedEx Field skybox at a Redskins-Cowboys game. DeLay has said he does not remember meeting the lender.
After the sale, the friction led to a December 2000 fistfight between Kidan and Boulis, who had remained as a minority partner. Kidan told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that Boulis had said, "I'm not going to sue you, I'm going to kill you." Kidan said that SunCruz thereafter barred Boulis from its casino boats.
to read the entire article please visit: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/27/AR2005092700980.html
----------------
Panel Says Abramoff Laundered Tribal Funds
McCain Cites Possible Fraud by Lobbyist
By Susan Schmidt and James V. Grimaldi
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, June 23, 2005; Page A01
Lobbyist Jack Abramoff used money from a Mississippi tribal client to set up bogus Christian anti-gambling groups and to fund pet projects including gear for a "sniper school" in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to documents released yesterday by Senate investigators.
The revelations came in e-mails and testimony made public yesterday by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee at its third hearing on the activities of Abramoff and Michael Scanlon, a public relations executive and former spokesman for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.).
Abramoff, who is also at the center of a corruption investigation by the Justice Department, laundered tribal money by directing the Indians to donate to tax-exempt groups that the lobbyist later used for his own purposes, the Senate committee said. One project involved Abramoff's effort to arrange for military equipment, including night-vision goggles and a "jeep," for the sniper training conducted by a high school friend.
Aaron Stetter, a former Scanlon employee, testified that Scanlon and Abramoff sought to whip up opposition to casinos proposed by rival tribes by setting up bogus Christian phone banks. He said callers would identify themselves as members of groups such as the Christian Research Network or Global Christian Outreach Network and urge voters to contact their representatives.
Material released yesterday also appeared to undermine assertions by former Christian Coalition executive director Ralph Reed, now a candidate for Georgia lieutenant governor.
Reed has acknowledged receiving $4 million from Abramoff and Scanlon to run anti-gambling campaigns in the South. Reed has said he did not know where the funds were coming from, but e-mails suggest that he was aware that some of the money he was getting came from the casino-rich Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.
Other e-mails presented at the hearing -- obtained from Abramoff's former law firm, Greenberg Traurig LLP -- showed that Abramoff and his lobbying team discussed how they would "pump up" their bills and expense accounts to the Choctaws by tens of thousands of dollars a month, raising new questions about the law firm's failure to rein in the lobbyists.
The committee chairman, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), said investigators had uncovered possible mail and wire fraud that should be pursued by the Justice Department, as well as tax issues that would be of concern to the Internal Revenue Service. The Justice Department already is looking into more than $82 million in lobbying and public relations fees Abramoff and Scanlon received from tribes around the country.
Choctaw Chief Phillip Martin did not testify, but he said in a statement that "we were astounded that a senior director at a major law firm would or could engage in misconduct of this sort . . . and that he was able to get away with it for so long."
Donald Kilgore, attorney general of the Choctaw tribe, said the firm's lobbyists engaged in "a blatant, calculated scheme to defraud a client." He said records and e-mails the tribe has reviewed show a series of kickbacks, misappropriated funds and unauthorized charges. "Mr. Abramoff consistently directed that the bills be padded and pumped up," Kilgore said.
Greenberg spokeswoman Jill Perry said that when the firm learned of Abramoff's activities more than a year ago, it demanded his resignation. "We share others' outrage at this misconduct, which is antithetical to our firm's culture and values," Perry said.
A spokesman for Abramoff said that "any fair reading of Mr. Abramoff's career" would show that he was an effective lobbyist for his clients.
to read the entire article please visit http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/22/AR2005062200921.html
---------------
The Pimping of the President
---------------
September 27, 2005
latimes.com : Opinion : Commentary
Robert Scheer:
When connected turns into corrupted
CRONY CAPITALISM is the name of the Republican game. Their slogan is "take care of your friends and leave the risks of the free market for the suckers." That would be John Q. Public.
From Halliburton's overcharging in Iraq to Enron's manipulation of the California energy crisis and now the emerging hurricane reconstruction boondoggle, we witness what happens when the federal government is turned into a glorified help desk and ATM machine for politically connected corporations.
But the defining case study on the deep corruption of the Bush administration and the GOP is emerging from the myriad investigations of well-connected Republican fundraiser and lobbyist Jack Abramoff. For starters, Abramoff, a $100,000-plus fundraiser for George W. Bush's presidential campaigns, is under federal indictment on wire fraud and conspiracy charges. He is also under congressional and FBI investigations.
In the last fortnight alone, the spreading stain of Abramoff's legacy is seen in the possible undoing of Bush's nominee to the nation's No. 2 law enforcement position, the resignation and arrest of the Office of Management and Budget's former procurement chief and another blow to the already tawdry reputation of top Bush political advisor Karl Rove.
It was reported last week that Timothy Flanigan, Tyco International Ltd. general counsel and Bush's nominee for deputy attorney general, stated that Abramoff's lobbying firm had boasted that his access to the highest levels of Congress could help Tyco fight tax liability legislation and that Abramoff later said he "had contact with Mr. Karl Rove" about the issue.
Flanigan's statement was in response to scathing criticism from Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee — which is considering his nomination — that he had not been sufficiently responsive in his testimony. Records and interviews show that Flanigan supervised Abramoff's successful efforts two years ago to lobby Congress to kill the legislation, which would have penalized companies such as Bermuda-based Tyco that avoid taxes by moving offshore. Abramoff's firm was paid $1.7 million by Tyco in 2003 and 2004.
In his statement, Flanigan said Abramoff also boasted of his ties to Tom DeLay, the House majority leader. DeLay once described Abramoff as "one of my closest and dearest friends" and accompanied him on several foreign junkets. DeLay denies that the Abramoff-arranged trips were political favors. DeLay continues to be tangled in myriad ethics investigations, many of them linked to his relationship with Abramoff.
Another episode in the rapidly evolving Abramoff scandal involves David Safavian, one of the Bush administration's top federal procurement officials. He resigned shortly before being arrested last week for allegedly lying to officials and obstructing a Justice Department investigation in connection with his relationship with Abramoff. Safavian received a golf trip to Scotland with the lobbyist, allegedly as a quid pro quo for helping Abramoff in his efforts to buy federal properties. Safavian and Abramoff once worked together at a powerful Washington lobbying firm.
Before Safavian resigned, he reportedly was working on contracting policies for Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts. Don't expect the GOP Congress to look askance at this. Safavian's wife is chief counsel for oversight and investigations on the House Government Reform Committee, which oversees procurement matters, although she's said she'll recuse herself.
The hurricane season is proving to be a windfall for GOP-connected companies such as Halliburton, which are being rewarded with lucrative contracts despite their shoddy performance in Iraq. In the vocabulary of crony capitalism, the word "shame" does not exist.
The players may change, given the occasional criminal indictment, but the game goes on. On the day of Safavian's arrest, former Tyco Chief Executive L. Dennis Kozlowski was sentenced to eight to 25 years in prison for bilking millions from the company, which we are now expected to believe has been reborn virtuous.
Tyco's current lobbyist, Edward P. Ayoob, who once worked with Abramoff at a Washington law firm, is lobbying for another cause these days: Flanigan's confirmation as the nation's second-highest law enforcement officer. Ayoob insisted last week that he is acting on his own and not on behalf of Tyco. And, oh yes, Flanigan promises that, if confirmed, he will recuse himself from any Abramoff investigation involving Tyco. Sure.
source: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-scheer27sep27,0,5132888.column
<< Home