Jack Abramoff is in
jail and in a final email (passed on to the AP) he writes:
"This nightmare has gone on for almost three years so far and I expect we are not even half way through," [snip]
"Unfortunately, things are going to get worse (starting today no doubt) before they get better, but I am confident that ultimately the turmoil will subside and we will have our lives back"
For Jack, the nightmare has gone on for three years.
For the victims of abuse on the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) the abuse has gone on for twenty years.
It is time to end the system of sweatshops, human trafficking, force prostitution and forced abortion allowed to flourish on one of our US Territories in the Western Pacific.
Democrats have taken the House and the Senate. Voter revulsion of Republican Corruption was a BIG reason that we won and the Abramoff/CNMI story played an important role in many campaigns.
Please help me DEMAND an end to the abuse on the Mariana Islands.
I need your help. To the jump...
For two years
I have posted Diaries to expose the growing Abramoff/GOP scandal. For the last six months, I have been working with many campaigns and outside groups to use this issue in this cycle. I've also worked with quite a number of journalists who have reported on the scandal. It has been a second full-time job (with lots of overtime). I am very glad that the effort helped us take back Congress.
In my day job, I work at a nonprofit in Washington, DC. Our mission is to harness economic power--the strength of consumers, investors, businesses, and the marketplace--to create a socially just and environmentally sustainable society.
We explore issues and help our members use their economic power to solve problems.
Back in 1998 and 1999 we were working on the issue of sweatshops. In our research I was introduced to the extreme abuse on the Mariana Islands. It was appalling. And, by 1999, it had been going on for over twelve years.
As we tracked the issue, it seemed that 1999 would be the year when the abuse stopped. Bills had passed the Senate and had more than enough sponsors to pass the House. Media reports about sweatshops and the abuse on the Mariana Islands seemed to be everywhere.
And then the effort died in the House of Representatives.
I was stunned.
I worked in Washington, so I started heading to the Clerk of the House to look at Lobbying Disclosures (they were not online back then) and to the Library of Congress to look at newspaper reports from the Mariana Islands and stateside. I wanted to know how this happen.
I found Jack Abramoff. As I dug into his background, clients, donations and connections to the leadership of the Republican Party and the larger conservative movement I became amazed at the depth and breadth of, what to me, was a massive scandal.
Suddenly I had a new "hobby". I found myself talking about Abramoff at parties, sending out unread emails and letters to reporters and generally feeling like I was wearing a tin foil hat.
Of course, as time passes the truth will come out. In February 2004 the Abramoff story broke in the Washington Post. Now Jack and his story are part of American pop culture.
Today, Jack Abramoff became inmate No. 27593-112. The AP reports on Jack's new home and how he will have to work to earn his keep:
Like all federal prisoners, Abramoff will be required to have a prison job. Unlike his previous work, which involved chartering jets for exotic golf excursions and facilitating huge campaign donations, he will make between 12 and 40 cents an hour. [snip]
Abramoff will share a dorm with five inmates, many of whom are drug offenders [snip]
Wake-up call is 6 a.m., and prisoners work 7 1/2 hours, five days a week. Free time can mean reading in the prison library, working out in the gym or watching television in a common room. Sometimes, the staff plays G-rated movies
This may be a nightmare for Jack, but I'm struck by how good he has it compared to the tens of thousands of Mariana Islands "guest" workers who were abused by the system of modern slavery Abramoff and his Republican allies protected over the last eleven years.
For gory details, review some of my past Diaries on the subject (and follow the links). One of those links will take you to Congressman George Miller's web site and his work to end the abuse on the rogue US Territory. A 1998 report had many details, such as:
Several young Chinese women told Rep. Miller that they worked seven days a week for five months without pay, confined to their barracks and forced to participate in prostitution with the customers of the bar.
Jack's living arrangement in Cumberland, MD is much better than the conditions endured by the forgotten victims of his rise to power.
It is way past time to put an end to this abuse.
Many, many Bills have been blocked over the last decade. The most recent was H.R. 5550: the Human Dignity Act. It was introduced by Miller earlier this year.
The laws that would extend US labor, immigration and custom laws to the Mariana Islands are written. They are ready to go. All we need is a Democratic Congress with the will to take action..
I need your help to ensure that ending this abuse is a priority for the 110th Congress.
This nightmare has been allowed to continue for twenty years.
The legislative changes that would end the abuse can be part of the planned effort to raise the minimum wage, create a just and fair immigration policy and close the security threat to the mainland poised by allowing a corrupt local government to be in charge of their own custom, labor and immigration laws.
It is time for the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands to become part of the United States of America. It is time for justice.
Please talk about this issue. Please write about it.
Ask your Representative in Congress to support an end to this abuse. If the net-roots demanded this injustice ends, I am certain that Congress would listen.
I also think that this would make it hard for the GOP to oppose Democratic legislation.
Their vote could then be cast as one in favor of protecting a system of sweatshops, human trafficking, force prostitution and forced abortion.
Abramoff's corruption helped us take the House and the Senate.
We owe his victims justice!
Please help.
Thanks.