The other day I posted a Diary (The GOP’s sex trade, sweatshops and abuse racket is doomed...) that discussed plans of the Democratic controlled 110th Congress to end the GOP protected system of human trafficking, forced sex, sweatshops, labor abuse and money laundering on the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI).
For too long this rogue US Territory has used their exemption to US labor, immigration and custom laws to enrich the few, abuse the many and destroy the economic infrastructure of the Marianas Islands.
In the post, I mentioned that David Cohen, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior Department for Insular Affairs has been visiting the CNMI. He has been telling the locals that the Democrats will pass the minimum wage, that it will apply to the CNMI and that Bush will not oppose it. Good news.
One reason for his visit was to speak at the annual Saipan Chamber of Commerce Awards dinner. It was during his speech that he decided to poke a little fun at the CNMI’s long history of abuse and those who report it.
To the jump...
It seems to be a GOP tradition to send somebody every year to the annual Awards Dinner for the Saipan Chamber of Commerce. Richard Pombo and Gale Norton went in 2004. And news of John Sweeney’s 2001 attendance at the dinner connected him to the Abramoff scandal and helped lead to his defeat last November.
This year they sent David Cohen of the DOI’s Office of Insular Affairs. As Mr. Cohen told his audience the Democrats in the 110th Congress are planning some big changes for the Marianas Islands:
He reiterated that passage of national minimum wage hike bill, which includes the CNMI is "on an extremely fast track." [snip]
It carries a provision requiring the CNMI to raise its minimum wage from $3.05 per hour to the federal level over four years. [snip]
Aside from the federalized wage, U.S. Congress is also inclined to pass an immigration control bill for the NMI.
"To state the obvious, federalization of immigration could also have a profound impact on the CNMI economy," Cohen said.
As I mentioned the other day, federalization is CNMI pirate speak for the extension of US justice to the lawless islands. It is not a surprise that the Bush Administration official in charge of the Government’s relationship with the CNMI seems to be actively against any justice coming to the Marianas Islands. And because the Democrats are interested in extending US laws to CNMI, Mr. Cohen paints a very bleak outlook for the Territory:
With an impending federalization of the CNMI and the departure of the garment industry, plus other economic woes, the CNMI is certainly headed for a difficult landing [snip]
He told his audience, mostly business and government leaders that, "federalization is almost certain to occur in the near future." [snip]
But under the worst-case scenario, "the transformation of this society will be abrupt and painful."
"I'm sorry to say that in my opinion, the worst-case scenario is much more likely in this case than the worst-case scenario usually is. Can there be federalization without strangulation? I'm afraid that we may find out soon," the OIA official said.
Now Mr. Cohen never holds his Party or the kleptocrats on Saipan responsible for their current economic crisis (even though that together they created the failed economic system).
No, in the land of Bush and the CNMI Kleptocrats it is always somebody else’s fault.
Sure, they raised taxes when GOP protection began in 1995 and increased the size of the CNMI government. And sure government employees make more money on the CNMI than workers in the private sector. And sure, they allowed a modern slave trade to grow on US soil, importing tens of thousands of guest workers whose labor they could easily exploit. And sure, every construction project had to be run through an endless filter of graft and corruption. And sure, they paid millions of dollars they did not have to Jack Abramoff to ensure that the corruption would never end. And sure, they always knew that the Chinese owners of the sweatshops would move the factories to China as soon as the textile quotas were lifted, but never planned for the change.
And I could go on, but as far as the Bush DOI and the CNMI Kleptocrats are concerned none of it matters. Despite endless mistakes and failures any problems that arise are always somebody else’s fault.
And of course their favorite "villain" would be anybody who reported the abuse, or pointed out the corruption, or tried to end it. Cohen made a joke about it:
He said that only about 20 percent of members of the U.S. Congress have heard of the CNMI, and what they have heard was bad news "because they read Ms. Magazine."
"I'm joking of course. Nobody reads Ms. Magazine," he told his audience.
Ba-boom. Cue the laugh track.
It is a lame joke and one that catered to the room filled with the very CNMI pirates who have profited from the system of human trafficking, forced prostitution, sweatshops, labor abuse and money laundering that Mr. Cohen and the Republican Party allowed to fester on the rogue US Territory.
It was also a lame joke because a lot of people read the Ms. Magazine article (Paradise Lost: Greed, Sex Slavery, Forced Abortions and Right-Wing Moralists), especially on Capitol Hill. My guess is that most of the Members of Congress know about the abuse on the CNMI and the connection to Jack Abramoff. In fact, Cohen makes light of that as well:
"Most Americans who have any sort of impression at all about these islands have the wrong one. There was an old country song that went, 'if I didn't have bad luck, I wouldn't have any luck at all.' Well, if the CNMI didn't have bad publicity, it wouldn't have any publicity at all. I'm sure that a lot of people hear 'Northern Mariana Islands,' scratch their heads and say, 'Isn't that where Jack Abramoff is from?" said Cohen.
See, the effort by the CNMI Kleptocrats to use money they did not have, to pay Jack Abramoff, so he could carry the money to his Republican partners, and they could block legislation and pour US taxpayer dollars into the pockets of the CNMI Kleptocrats was just a run of "bad luck".
As Cohen sees it, the only problem is that they got caught.
And of course Cohen has advice for the Pirates of Saipan. He suggested that they lobby Congress. Let the Members get to know the real people of the Islands and how an extension of US Justice to the CNMI would hurt them. Then he added this crazy coda:
The garment factory owners would not suffer-they could simply move their operations to places where workers get paid pennies and have no rights. Jack Abramoff would not suffer. Tom Delay would not suffer," he said.
See, nobody is responsible and the only solution is to keep doing what we have been doing (even though we all know it is a failure).
I’m talking about the Bush Team’s response to the abuse on the CNMI, but I could be talking about Iraq, or New Orleans, or the Climate Crisis, or whatever.
We need to take this Country back. We have a lot of things to fix.
I feel very hopeful about the 110th Congress and that justice is finally coming to the CNMI, but it is one mess among thousands.
It looks like the Democrats can multi-task and that is a good thing because there is a lot of work to do to save our Nation from Republican corruption and incompetence.
And I hope Mr. Cohen gets a grilling when he’s called before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources in the near future.
I wonder if he’ll open his testimony with a joke.
Cheers.