Ok. I'll admit it I am just here to rip off someone else's fine work.
On April 27th, when this fine diary was published, I was at my son's tournament, so I missed it.

As dengre sez:

In making connections to the Abramoff Scandal, the most tainted funds—the dirtiest money—would come from one of two sources:

  1. A direct donation from Jack Abramoff, his wife Pam, or his inner circle
  2. A direct donation from the Tan Family operating out of Hong Kong and the Mariana Islands.

Who are the Tan family? Well, to quote dengre again

...Money from the Tan Family is worse than money from Jack Abramoff.

Tan Family money is cash directly tied to crimes against humanity. It is money earned off of exploitation and theft of labor. It is money made off of human trafficking. It is the definition of "dirty cash".

Today we got the beeeg event! "Guamania! The primary!" and did anyone hear a peep of questioning yet to Hillary on her shady relations to the Tan Family, via Guam?

Another installment in the Immigration Primer series. Previous editions covered immigration in general, illegal immigration, employment-based immigration, becoming a citizen and family-based immigration.

In this diary, I want to cover an area that is only peripherally connected to immigration law, namely the status of the various US territories, and in particular the Mariana Islands, with Saipan, that have been in the new related to the Abramoff scandal.

As in all the other diaries, I want to cover specifically the situation as it is, not how it should be.

This week, Congressman John Doolittle made the effort to reach out to his constituents by holding a series of town hall meetings. John Doolittle, as many of you may or may not know, has had his share of controversy over the years. From incessant pushing of the Auburn Dam—a boondoggle that will cost taxpayers over $10 billion and promises to be a multi-purpose hydroelectric/drinking water/flood protecting super-dam (ask any water expert and they will tell you that a dam CANNOT be a combination of all three for obvious reasons)—to the Jack Abramoff scandals revolving around Indian Casinos in Iowa and sweatshops on the Mariana Islands, Doolittle has been mired in scandal.

But his partisan, back-stabbing, aloof ways are behind him as the "new and reachable" Congressman John Doolittle is making himself available for town hall meetings. Ripples of Hope attended the last of his series of town hall meetings Friday in Auburn, CA.

More below the fold...

While I was quite amused by Barney Frank's takedown of Patrick McHenry on the House floor, I was left wondering what the hell it was all about.  McHenry, the designated Republican attack dog and the heir apparent to Gingrich and DeLay, was attempting to ask a question about whether American Samoa was exempted from the stem cell research bill that passed the House yesterday.  McHenry is apparently completely ignorant of parliamentary procedure, or perhaps he just wanted to get the words "American Samoa" on C-SPAN.  Because there's a growing shitstorm over a similar "exemption" for American Samoa in the recently passed minimum wage bill.  From the fair and balanced Washington Times:

House Republicans yesterday declared "something fishy" about the major tuna company in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco district being exempted from the minimum-wage increase that Democrats approved this week.

A full examination of this charge, on the flip:

Six Reasons to Contribute your Money and Time (phone from home!) to Jerry McNerney, Democrat for Congress against Richard Pombo in California's 11th District:

1. Because Jerry has over 20 years of experience developing renewable energy across California. If he wins, he'll use his expertise to create new jobs, protect the environment, and strengthen our national security through a Clean Energy Innovation Plan for America.

2. Because it's not just that Pombo is an awful Republican. Jerry McNerney is a good Democrat, with the courage to stand up for his values. Jerry's not running on tired campaign slogan of "I'm not the other guy." (But we are pretty happy he's not the other guy.)

Reasons 3 thru 6 after the jump . . .

Richard Pombo (CA-11) has gotten annoyed enough at the Defenders of Wildlife's efforts to unseat him in his bid for re-election that he's now resorting to petulant name-calling.  Yesterday, the Congressman's hometown paper, the Tracy Press, reported:

The campaign manager for Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, described anti-Pombo campaigners linked to Defenders of Wildlife as "scum" after they accused Pombo in a mailer of refusing to investigate child prostitution, forced abortion and sweatshop labor in the Mariana Islands while he was "under the influence" of convicted felon and former lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

BREAKING!!!! (Sort of.)  This one slipped by in an August Friday afternoon news dump last week.  The legal action in the Abramoff case, heretofore, has primarily revolved around matters related to the several gaming tribes defrauded by Abramoff and his associates.  Several people have already pled guilty about this.

The latest guilty plea is from Roger Stillwell, who formerly served at the Office of Insular Affairs under Gale Norton in the Interior Department.  This is the office with jurisdiction over the Commonwealth of Northern Marianas Islands/CNMI (and other external territories).  As the Tan Family and the CNMI government were amongst Abramoff clients, this was an important point of contact for Abramoff & his corrupt stable of lobbyists.  Mr. Stillwell has pled guilty related to improper gifts received from Abramoff during that time.

Cross-posted to ePluribusMedia

From National Journal's Hotline Blog comes more on the relationship between the ex-director of the Christian Coalition and disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.  The caper?  Getting the "right" appointment to head Insular Affairs at Interior, the office with jurisdiction over Abramoff's major client, the Commonwealth of the Marianas Islands (CNMI):

Reed, an elite "Pioneer" fundraiser for the Bush campaign and a campaign adviser, had already helped Abramoff land his own plum slot on Bush's Interior transition team. Abramoff coveted the slot because Interior was overseeing the lobbyist's two biggest clients at the time -- the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.

Grover Norquist is on the offensive against Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).  Norquist comes off rather poorly in the recently released Indian Affairs report on disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff's felonious dealings with Indian tribes with gaming interests, released June 22.  Full report here - pdf.

Norquist comes off rather poorly in the report, to say the least, owing to "laundering" of funds through his non-profit organization Americans for Tax Reform.  As does Ralph Reed, former head of the Christian Coalition, currently a candidate for Lt. Governor in Georgia.

"We All Live in Pombo's District" - kid oakland

What follows is a cacophony of reasons why Richard Pombo (R, CA-11) must be sent back to private life.  He'll keep his crap up until then:  

• More than a dozen attempts to open ANWR to drilling?  Pombo's the House point man.
  
• Over a decade trying to bring down the Endangered Species Act?  Pombo's personal grail.
  
• Wholesale giveaways of public lands?  Pombo again.  
  
• Curtailing opportunities for public input on government actions?  Pombo, of course.
  
• Blocking all attempts at House hearings and legislation to improve the lot of grievously exploited immigrant "guest" workers in the Marianas Islands?  That's Pombo barricading the door.
• And so much more

1)The GANGLAND STYLE KILLINGS 2) CLINTON-TAN  (0 / 0)
MANDATORY ABORTION!

Let me simply say it is a real possibilty that blood baths are nearing in relationship to the mandantory abortions of females pregnancies in the workers job sites and a gangland style murder-hit happening in Florida. It might be fairly predictable to say the wrong contact was made by whomever contcted whom.