I have been researching the Abramoff scandal since 1999 and most of
my Diaries have been connected (in one way or another) to that scandal.
And many other Kos diarists have been focusing their efforts at researching some aspect of the many GOP scandal threads or corporate malfeasance of the Bush era.
One of the strengths of the Netroots is our ability to do this type of research and get it to filter up and out into traditional media and our political narrative. That is a big part of the reason that Bush is at 32% approval in the polls (I think he'll dip below 30% before the Fourth of July).
Our collective research is a BIG asset towards taking this country back. And, as they say: it's time to kick it up a notch.
Part of that effort is to support the calls to Save the Internet from the latest attempt to silence free speech in America.
On the jump we'll find a specific project, a new corporate research tool, and a great research method...
So let's share research tips and strategies, beyond the Google monkey zone.
And let's put that research to good use.
A Specific Project
An important research project is now underway at TPM Muckraker.com. Josh, Kate, Paul, Justin and the crew are compiling a master list of ethically challenged candidates for the November election. It is part of their 2006 Election Project, where they will choose 30 to 40 House and Senate races to follow closely. Here's how Josh explains it:
Mainly, we'll choose the ones that seem genuinely in play, though we'll also probably feature a few that are just inherently interesting, even if the eventual outcome appears fairly clear.
We're setting up a special tabbed blog at TPMCafe, which will run live right through the November election. And there we'll provide wall-to-wall coverage of every race we're tracking -- every poll, every detail about fundraising, who's getting paid what, what's getting said at town meetings, who's running away from their old positions, bamboozling the press and so on.
So the project is getting underway and today they called for some research help:
Here's where we need some help from you, the reader. Is your rep feeling heat about a lobbyist-funded junket, a particularly egregious instance of cronyism, or a sweet kickback deal? Let us know about it. We'll be compiling a master list of muck-heavy races to keep an eye on as part of our upcoming Elections 2006 project.
To help, send in your rep's name, a brief description of the muck, and, if possible, a link to a supporting article.
So far they have an impressive list, but I'm sure our collective research could add more names and provide more corruption details for those already on the list. Here are the folks who have made the cut:
In the Senate:
Conrad Burns (R-MT)
Katherine Harris (R-FL)
Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA)
In the House:
Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH)
Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA)
Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA)
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA)
Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA)
Duke Cunningham special election - Brian Bilbray
Rep. Don Young (R-AK)
Rep. Charles Taylor (R-NC)
Rep. John Sweeney (R-NY)
Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-NY)
Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA)
Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA)
Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-WV)
Have a name to add? Some details to share? A nomination for the TPM 2006 Election Project? Contact TPM Muckraker and share your research. I'm sure that there are many more to add.
Take Dana Rohrabacher for example. Please.
A new corporate research tool
To run the DeLay Inc. GOP Slush Fund the Republican Party needed Jack Abramoff, a slew of lobbyists, Tom DeLay, GOP Senators and House Members, a small army of staffers, RW think tanks and phony nonprofits. And they needed corporations who would pay big money to get the GOP to tilt the playing field to their advantage. And yes, there are Democrats who are more than willing to sacrifice their principles and integrity at the corporate alter.
But what are these corporations getting for their "investment". What are the costs to labor, the environment, civil rights, justice, our Nation and our planet?
Gathering corporate research can be very hard. Details are scattered. And some corporations are so large that one part does something good even as other parts do very bad things.
So how to sort it out is a real problem for researchers, consumers and investors.
Today we got a little help.
Co-op America is a National nonprofit dedicated to harnessing the economic power of consumers, investors, businesses, and the marketplace to create a socially just and environmentally sustainable society.
It is a wonderful organization that has been working on these issues since 1983. They publish The National Green Pages and co-produce the Green Festivals and a host of other programs and projects.
A few years ago they launched a web site to track the good, bad and ugly actions of corporations. Today they released version 2.0 of their Responsible Shopper Web site. It is a great new resource for researching corporation, how to take action and how to find alternatives to supporting them with your dollars. Here it is in a nutshell:
Responsible Shopper reports on global research and campaign information regarding the impact of major corporations on human rights, social justice, environmental sustainability and more.
The purpose of Responsible Shopper is to alert consumers and investors to problems with companies that they may shop with or invest in, and encourage individuals to use their economic clout to demand greater corporate responsibility.
We draw on information from conventional media as well as reports and campaign briefs from a host of nongovernmental organizations around the world. We also encourage people to shift their purchasing and investing to the most responsible companies though the Green Shift feature of Responsible Shopper.
Responsible Shopper is an important new research/action resource and I encourage everybody to take a look.
A great research method
When it comes to research being done on the various GOP scandals within the progressive Netroots there are some Superstars. One of them is MB Williams over at Wampum. She also posts here at Daily Kos as mbw.
Last week she had a post, Abramoff in the Matrix, that explains a key research secret/tip. She starts out explaining her training as an archaeologist and how she applies that training to digging into the layers of the GOP's culture of corruption:
However, as an archaeologist, I fixate on "provenience" as well. When you're working in the ground, provenience means where an object appears in geological matrix; the belief being that those objects found below are older, those above, younger. But more important are what other objects, including seeds, pollens, etc., you find in and around the object, adding context to the object. Without that context, the object ends up in a museum display case, pretty, but sterile. Add context, and it tells a story, or, if you're a post-modernist/processualist like me, possibly a whole series of stories.
Every layer of the rat's nest of GOP corruption has been preserved in layers and layers uncovered through a review of old news reports, the Congressional Record, Web sites, emails, reports, lawsuits, court filings and the other "junk" one finds as you dig into any area of this enormous scandal. I have found that context is far more important any shiny object. The context leads to the hidden deals. The Bribe. The payback. The off-the-books money. Context creates the Abramoff Matrix that will bring down the GOP.
MB continues:
I find that when I perservate on a particular subject while blogging, I revert to my otherwise repressed archaeologist, placing that subject within a temporal rather than geological provenience. Lately, I've been doing this a lot with Jack Abramoff, searching out articles written while he was doing his dastardly deeds, not afterwards, as we all know, hindsight is 20-20. That's one reason that, for all her other flaws, I'm not displeased that Susan Schmidt won the Pulitzer for her work, along with James V. Grimaldi and R. Jeffrey Smith, on the Abramoff/Scanlon affair. I've referenced the first piece in the series, on February 22, 2004, time and again here on Wampum - the shockwaves set off by that article still reverberate, and I sense they're mere tremors compared with the ultimate potential (I say potential, as who knows if we'll ever realize the full extent of the corruption.)
She is right on the mark. Abramoff was a 25-year bagman for the GOP. His fall from grace happened after the 2-22-04 WP article (and the Pulitzer was well-deserved by the three WP reporters). Since then corners of the internet, Washington offices and GOP memories are being scrubbed and everybody is pretending that the never knew Jack, but as Mr. Abramoff told Vanity Fair:
"Any important Republican who comes out and says they didn't know me is almost certainly lying," he says. Such lies are not just, well, lies, but dumb to boot, he adds, for, as his own humiliations suggest, old e-mails never die; they just sit on hard drives, waiting to be subpoenaed and then to be leaked to the press. "This is not an age when you can run away from facts," he declares. "I had to deal with my records, and others will have to deal with theirs."
And as MB demonstrates time and time again the old records are worth a look for their position in the Abramoff Matrix as more details emerge. I am amazed at the rich details and connections she finds. For example, take a look at this post, If only we paid as much attention to Michael Scanlon's #2 man..., which brings the Abramoff scandal one step closer to the Maryland Republican Party and Bob Erhlich. Just more items floating in the scandal matrix waiting for a good researcher to find them..
And there are mountains of records waiting to be review. Placing the scandal details and players in context is key to unraveling any thread in the rat's nest. Going back and comparing old articles, reports, etc to newly revealed details is always worth ones time. New details and links always seem to emerge when the details are placed in scandal matrix and the unseen patterns emerge. In a nutshell, this type of research is what brought down Duke, Jack and Tom.
And it has the potential to bring down the rest of them.
So grab a scandal thread and start placing the details into context. Dig deep. Some details go back to the 1980s, others to the 1990s. Many of the crimes are too old to be prosecuted by the DOJ, but the court of public opinion is another matter. And the old connections often lead to more recent crimes.
And be sure to pass your tips and muck along to the good folks at TPM Muckraker.
And take advantage of the new corporate accountability research/action tools at Co-op America's new and improved Responsible Shopper Web site.
So here are a few tips and ideas for Netroots research. Please share more in the threads.
Cheers and good luck.