"Abramoff's Evangelical Soldiers " Max Blumenthal

[in_cog_ni_to]

This is from yesterday. I hope it hasn't been posted yet. If it has, please delete.

It's a GREAT article from The Nation and VERY long! Are Abramoff and Scanlon lovers? Read paragragh #14, the very last sentence and tell me what you think.:) Isn't Abramoff married? Why would he want to be in the caribbean with Scanlon? Wait until you read the players in this...Dobson, Gary Bauer, Falwell, Robertson, Ralph Reed, Phyllis Schlafly, Tony Perkins, Gail Norton....these people are EVERYWHERE. These 4 paragraphs are not the best part of the article! Please read it!


Abramoff's Evangelical Soldiers Max Blumenthal
Thu Feb 2, 2:40 PM ET



The Nation -- Gambling might not rank as high as homosexuality or abortion on the list of social evils monitored by Focus on the Family found er James Dobson, but its growth has provided many occasions for his jeremiads. The indictment of Indian casino lobbyist and influential GOP activist Jack Abramoff was one such occasion. In a January 6 press release issued three days after Abramoff's indictment, Dobson declared, "If the nation's politicians don't fix this national disaster, then the oceans of gambling money with which Jack Abramoff tried to buy influence on Capitol Hill will only be the beginning of the corruption we'll see." He concluded with a denunciation of vice: "Gambling--all types of gambling--is driven by greed and subsists on greed."



What Dobson neglected to mention--and has yet to discuss publicly--is his own pivotal role in one of Abramoff's schemes. In 2002 Dobson joined a coterie of Christian-right activists, including Tony Perkins, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, to spearhead Abramoff's campaigns against the establishment of several Louisiana casinos that infringed on the turf of Abramoff's tribal clients. Dobson and his allies recorded messages for phone banking, lobbied high-level Bush Administration officials and took to the airwaves. Whether they knew it or not, these Christian soldiers' crusade to protect families in the "Sportsmen's Paradise" from the side effects of chronic slot-pulling and dice-rolling was funded by the gambling industry and planned by the lobbyist known even to his friends as "Casino Jack."

The only Christian-right activist confirmed to be completely aware of Abramoff's rip-off was Ralph Reed. He and Abramoff have a long and storied history together. When Abramoff chaired the College Republican National Committee in the early 1980s, Reed served as the organization's executive director. They reunited in 1989, when Abramoff helped Reed organize the remains of Pat Robertson's failed 1988 presidential bid into the Christian Coalition. In 1997, with the Christian Coalition under IRS investigation and Reed facing accusations of cronyism from the group's chief financial officer, he left to start his own consulting firm, Century Strategies. Reed contacted Abramoff right away. "I need to start humping in corporate accounts," Reed told him in 1998. "I'm counting on you to help me with some contacts."

Though Abramoff apparently was not fond of Reed, he viewed him as useful. "I know you (we!) hate him , but it does give us good cover and patter to have him doing stuff," he wrote in a February 14, 2002, e-mail to his business partner, Michael Scanlon. "Let's give him a list of things we want...and give him some chump change to get it done." Reed thus became Abramoff and Scanlon's liaison to the Christian right, enlisting his evangelical allies into a web of shadowy casino hustles for "chump change."<snip>

http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20060202/cm_thenation/20060220blumenthal;_ylt=A86.I1cE.eJDbwYAPgT9wxIF;_ylu=X3oDMTBjMHVqMTQ4BHNlYwN5bnN1YmNhdA--

[blm]

1. The whole bunch are just pure evil. They hate Democrats and each other.

That tells me they know damn well they are frauds with enormous power because they control most broadcvast media. But frauds always end up being scared to be exposed.

[Frustratedlady]

2. I always get these confused...

but, which came first or is considered the oldest profession, politics or prostitution? I get so mixed up. ;)

[leesa]

3. Gary Bauer...PNAC signatory...they are all in on everything including

the doing of 9-11 to jumpstart their Crusades or Rapture or world control or whatever they want to call it.

[KittyWampus]

4. What did Dobson know and when did he know it? LOL

wouldn't it be great if this ended up with Dobson, Falwell, Robertson, Lavin having to testify in Abramoff case?