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AM Feed - June 23: New Senate Report Details Abramoff Corruption

Hot Topics

• A new bipartisan report released yesterday by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee details the extent of the corrupt schemes orchestrated by Jack Abramoff and his henchmen – and their close relationships with high-powered Washington lawmakers. Among other findings, the report concluded that Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) was well aware of the plight of a Texas Indian tribe represented by Abramoff – despite the fact that Ney once told Senate investigators he was unfamiliar with the tribe. The report also details payments in excess of $5.3 million made from Abramoff’s operation to Ralph Reed, the former head of the Christian Coalition. Reed is profiled in the document as a main figure in the lobbying operation. Both Reed and Ney accompanied Abramoff on a 2002 luxury golf trip to Scotland. [link] and [link]
• A new study released yesterday by the Brookings Institution has found that middle-class neighborhoods in the United States are shrinking – a potentially devastating phenomenon for a country that prides itself on equality and opportunity. The study once again demonstrates the widening gap between rich and poor that has accelerated in the last few years. In a not-at-all unrelated move, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted yesterday to cut the estate tax, which is primarily targeted at America’s wealthiest. Conservatives in the House (and President Bush) have long sought to abolish the tax altogether, giving America’s wealthiest yet another tax break. Meanwhile, the House has continued to stifle a proposal to raise the minimum wage for the first time in nearly a decade. [link] and [link]
• In yet another example of the Bush administration authorizing a secret program to monitor American citizens, it has been revealed that government officials have had access to bank records of thousands of Americans following the 9/11 attacks. The Bush team began the program shortly after 9/11 – another program that allows for the vast use of confidential information without obtaining individual warrants. “The capability here is awesome or, depending on where you’re sitting, troubling,” said one former counterterrorism official, who admitted that the “potential for abuse is enormous.” [link]

Morning Snark

• If the Bush administration’s bank monitoring program was really providing useful results, wouldn’t someone have been able to notice all the Abramoff fraud a lot earlier?

1. This administration would only look at the republicans (and Joe Lieberman) bank data in order to change laws to protect them.
   They’re busy looking for ways to throw all those bothersome liberals and environmentalist tree-huggers in Guantanemo.
   
   They would probably love to find a way to get Jon Stewart of the Daily News but unfortunately he’s probably an honest person unlike the average politico.
   — MO    Jun 23, 12:43    #
2. I am so very dissapointed in Lieberman. I guess a Jew can be as bad a hippocrite as a Christian. To bad.
   — Rosalie Stern    Jun 23, 16:24    #
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