U.S. Rep. John Sweeney vacations with convicted influence peddler Jack Abramoff U.S. Rep. John Sweeney may have violated congressional ethics rules by failing to reveal who paid for a trip he took to a Pacific island with a lobbyist hired by convicted Washington influence peddler Jack Abramoff. In January 2001, Sweeney traveled 8,000 miles to deliver a speech to the Saipan Chamber of Commerce in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), a U.S. territory infamous for its garment sweatshops and prostitution trade. He traveled with Tony Rudy, who had just left the staff of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to work for Abramoff. At the time of his trip, Sweeney had just been named to the powerful House Appropriations Committee, which could potentially direct federal funds sought by the commonwealth. GOP US Rep. John Sweeney travels to sweatshop/prostitute Island to take a look around - with his buddy Tony Rudy - who illegally pays for the trip and works for Abramoff Abramoff wrote to then-CNMI Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio seeking the renewal of his lucrative lobbying contract with the commonwealth. At the time, Abramoff had switched firms and Tenorio was reportedly concerned about the growing costs of Abramoff's services. The lobbyist was charging the commonwealth $100,000 a month, plus costs and fees. Four days later, on Jan. 8, 2001, the Saipan Tribune reported Sweeney would make a trip to the islands that weekend. Well people don’t just pay 100K/month + expenses for nothing. They expect a return – hence the Sweeney trip. "The reputation of the commonwealth is not really what ought to be," Sweeney said. "I come (sic) here and found that the truth projected to me in Washington was not the truth at all." And aid later reply’s "The congressman always believes that firsthand experience is preferable to hearing something from a second source," she said. So peeny weeeny GOP Rep Sweeney takes an illegally paid vacation and sees everything is just fine. well that's funny because... U.S. Rep. George Miller D-Calif., a longtime champion of legislation to change CNMI wage and immigration laws, traveled to the islands in 1998 on a fact-finding mission to document abuses there. Problems were obvious "unless you choose not to look at the facts on the ground," Miller said, adding: "A blind pig could run into the human rights violations and the exploitation of workers on the islands." Miller said he met women "forced into the sex trade, " workers living in barracks behind barbed wire and others who "wanted us to find someone to buy their kidney so they could go home, because they were trapped." Several months after his trip, on April 6, 2001, Sweeney accepted a $1,000 campaign contribution from Abramoff's law firm, Greenberg Traurig. And then sweetened it with $8,850 in campaign aid in 2005 (from the new company called: The Alexander Strategy Group) which closed soon after ..... every penny counts when you’re a crook.
Oh, and of couse the GOP - you know how good of people they are. Righting the wrong. Helping the helpless. When they see that a US Territory is being used for slavery ..... why what do they do......???? With the support of the islands' garment industry, GOP House leaders blocked legislation to federalize the CNMI's immigration and wage laws and stop the islands from producing clothes stamped "Made in U.S.A." I don't understand why Xian-nutter-butters keep voting for them? nutter butter = sucker? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Michael
The right or left, matters only if you can tell what they are and what they believe in beneath the political affiliations/masks. http://www.alternet.org/story/29827/making_sense_of_the_abramoff_scandal I know one thing for sure from life experience is that whatever this place we exist in is evil and uses fraud, lies/deception to cover it up. you cannot trust the surface of anything you see. it's pervasive in every area of society from the contaminated/compromised (often on purpose) food we eat to the people who pretend to be something they are not which is also pervasive and you can't trust. Even people who come on this forum, past, present or future, no matter how they seem or proper/civil, or intelligent or even ethical, you dont really know them either. they could be a monster or evil. that's the real truth of the world.
The "bothsides" meme is being pushed by the corporate authoritarian media influence, to cover the Faction that has captured the Republican Party. The political ideology of the Clintons, either of them, has been to the right of Dwight Eisenhower - about where Nixon was, on a left/right scale, or maybe a little right. On an authoritarian/libertarian scale, about the same hierarchy - a bit muddled by the fact that there is such a thing as a closeted gay CEO, Republican, conservative, etc, and that introduces a certain amount of libertarian confusion into the mix. In no sense are the Clintons "leftwing". They never have been. What they have been are the most intensely assaulted people in the US, by the rightwing authoritarian slander media - even more than the Obamas. That is because, as actual moderate conservatives, they favor functional and representative government - including, for example, taxation of wealthy people's incomes. What they actually do also matters. What they do politically, in their role as elected officials. The OP handed you an example of a worthy and appropriate Federal action proposed by a Democratic politician and with some (insufficient) Democratic Party backing, frustrated by the concerted opposition of the Republican Party organized by Jack Abramoff. There was plenty of corruption in the Democratic Party, but there was no Democratic Jack Abramoff when Abramoff was operating. "Both sides" are not the same, even on the Party level with so many rightwing Democrats - let alone any actual Left/Right "side" division.
