Man! Talk about being caught with your pants down. Holy shit.

Abramoff-Scanlon School of Sleaze

Wednesday's Senate hearings yielded more scandalous revelations about how the dynamic lobbying duo bilked American Indian tribes out of millions and used the money to win elections for their Republican clients.

By Michael Scherer


Michael Scanlon takes the Fifth at a Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Oversight Hearing in Washington Nov. 17, 2004. Jack Abramoff, right, listens to his attorney on Capitol Hill in this Sept. 29, 2004, file photo, as Abramoff refused to answer questions before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.

Up-and-coming Republican hacks would do well to watch closely the ongoing Senate investigations of superstar lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his former business partner Michael Scanlon. The power duo stand accused of exploiting Native American tribes to the tune of roughly $66 million, laundering that money into bank accounts they controlled and then using it to buy favors for powerful members of Congress and the executive branch.

But they sure did know how to play the game.

Consider one memo highlighted in a Capitol Hill hearing Wednesday that Scanlon, a former aide to Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Tx., sent the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana to describe his strategy for protecting the tribe's gambling business. In plain terms, Scanlon confessed the source code of recent Republican electoral victories: target religious conservatives, distract everyone else, and then railroad through complex initiatives.

"The wackos get their information through the Christian right, Christian radio, mail, the internet and telephone trees," Scanlon wrote in the memo, which was read into the public record at a hearing of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. "Simply put, we want to bring out the wackos to vote against something and make sure the rest of the public lets the whole thing slip past them."

ON EDIT: A note from BBJ: Uh, 'hem, wouldn't it be nice if "someone" posted these quotes to the "Christian" blogs so they knew someone was stabbing them in the back? I mean, after all, it's only the "Christian" thing to do!

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/11/03/abramoff/index_np.html

who knew?

discriminate just based on being a member of a tribe with brown skin...oh no, they are equal opportunity discriminators and will screw you regardless of creed, gender, skin color, orientation or religion!

I just hope that meanwhile there is a medicine man (woman) in some of these tribes that is working up some good chants on these scum...and meanwhile, somewhere in a church in a red state is some evangelical that gave money to these guys and realize that they were duped big time....

The GOP doesn't really care about them - they just manipulate them into voting for there way.

Remember when Dean said that he thought Bush was personally more moderate and recalled when Bush was governor he complained to other governors about the wacko right and said he hated them.

President. I don't believe that B* is innocent or ignorant of these political tricks. Just look what they did to Ann Richards!

Lots of parallels, I'd say.

what they really think of them. This is too good.

Many Wackos won't hear this.

"The wackos get their information through the Christian right, Christian radio, mail, the internet and telephone trees,"

It's the decent thing to do.
(snicker)

but please let us know where you post it so we too can enjoy the response.
Edit -sp.

stations - These folks should know THE TRUTH!! (it might set 'em free!)

... publicly, but I suspect they're gonna be pissed. :rofl:

that they are so high on their version of "God" that common sense has fled them all. I don't think we can rely on the religious right EVER admitting they are wrong and were totally used by evil politicians. :(

good and properly pissed at Abramoff and maybe even anyone associated with him...like, oh, say, DeLay.

if you're going to start contacting local Christian radio shows, mebbe start with the ones around Sugarland, TX.

They refuse to see things that differ from their dogma. They'll consider this some type of attack against their beloved George W. Bush. The truth is not important. The pseudo-Christians are lost causes.

Ignorance is a bitch.

people seek holes in the armour. I see that as no different. Its the idiots that don't think for themselves that are to blame.

paying for it with tax money.

Though granted, much responsibility lies with the electorate.

But somehow i don't think Dems would do 100,000 phone campaigns to "educate" their target audience (cost: $330,000). Nor do i think Dems would have lost as many elections as they did if they'd have the equivalent of Christian Radio. Then again Dems might not have the kind of battles to fight that they'd loose if they'd pick TV as their battle ground.

http://indian.senate.gov/2005hrgs/110205hrg/110205exhibits.pdf
(page 119, 120)

more more!

...yesterday. I was laughing my butt off, it was the funniest thing i've heard in a long time.

Cheers!

We saw the WACKOS in action on Schivo. I wonder if Dobson hangs with those guys and gets his WACKOS lined up when they snap there fingers.

on the same team.

Our neighbors across the aisle will definitely be interested in knowing what their people think of them.

:D

Yeah, those measures on the ballot.

Bright shiney things over hear! LOOK! SCOOTER libby!

Don't worry about those ballot measures!

My guess it is quite well already

felt were not as important then the ca$h given to him from the Mariana Islands Sweat Shops.

"Human rights groups, long up in arms over the work conditions on the islands, charged that sweatshop operators did not appreciate it when their female employees got pregnant. Numerous allegations of forced abortions surfaced over the years.

The protests began to reach the ears of Congress. Rep. George Miller, (D-Ca) and others began to demand that US labor and environmental laws be applied to the Marianas. Tom DeLay and his friend Jack Abramoff swung into action and fashioned a vigorous and largely successful counter-attack."

<http://www.alternet.org/story/13140/>

<>

http://indian.senate.gov/2005hrgs/110205hrg/110205exhibits.pdf

Read page 119. This is real, folks. When word gets out about this, Bush is absolutely fucked.

On page 120, it says:



Oh, okay. Now you are targeting Christian Radio "wackos" to rally against rival casinos, all funded by another casino's money? Is that right, Mr. Abramoff? I bet Christian Radio would LOVE to hear about that!

this than "Bush lied to take us to war"

:rofl:

No?

right?

When will the Freepers and Dittoheads ever stop being suckered by the wolves in sheep's clothing? We have four families like that in our cul-de-sac and I consider them all hopeless. One's husband was the assistant principal of a Christian school that only accepts "believers" until he was caught by the police in the parking lot of a restaurant "stuff" with a teenage hooker.

They all are very sweet but not especially bright people. They always seem to struggle financially, hustling to start small, vendor-like businesses, have multiple generations living under one roof, and are constantly in trouble with the homeowners association for shoddy lawn work, roaming dogs, and crappy, old vehicles.

Last November one told me that things will really take off in this county with Bush and Cheney firmly in charge and that he likes me but he would never vote for a Democrat because they're not compassionate enough. Another tried to get my neighbor to watch some sort of right wing propaganda film. Still, nice folks, just always a little befuddled like the Krishna types I've seen in airports and malls.

I doubt they'll be able to stay in the neighborhood if interest rates continue to and they can't use their houses as ATMs anymore. Sometimes I wonder where they'll go.

I changed the PDF into HTML and all the emails and evidence can be found here:

http://www.chris-floyd.com/jack/

Much quicker and easier to read.

Cheers

DD

It appears that the worse quotes were in reference to an effort to take over the government of Louisiana a couple of years ago.

You can just hear them skulking and cackling.

This is exactly how I always imagined they talked about the Religious Right behind closed doors!!!

This needs to go out in massive emails to all your Christian-right friends. I'm passing it along for sure.

BE POLITE!!! NO HARASSING PHONE CALLS OR E-MAILS!!

List of Conservative Christian churches
http://ccccusa.ccccsitelaunch.com/index.cfm/method/content.9C1BA958-5D0D-4C7A-B614656D074C84EF

Radio station locator
http://www.ontheradio.net/Stations.aspx
Find Conservative Christian radio stations in your area and let them know!!

More churches
http://www.biblebb.com/churches.htm

Texas Conservative Churches
http://fishthe.net/pages/Churches/Texas/index.html

More churches
http://directory.crosswalk.com/directory/Churches/Denominations/Disciples_of_Christ/default.aspx

Christian weblogs and news sites!!!!
http://search.crossdaily.com/list.php3?cat=171

Contact Away!!!!

I KNOW Olbermann would love this!!

Countdown@msnbc.com

Anyone know how to contact The Daily Show??

you have to go to here:
http://www.hbo.com/corpinfo/faq/realtimefaq.shtml
and click the "Contact Us" link.

we've been trying to tell them for years that they were duped, now here's their reps laughing at them behind their backs.

My guess it was about this topic.


http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1515800/posts

Imagine that, pulling the topic.

form of paper and scotch tape graffiti people gett'n down with it lately) wrap it in your neighbors' newspapers, plaster it!

Wingnuts all out to vote yes on &# (parental notification) and they hope they will also vote for Groper's fascist package.

This is old news. Take some time, read my time line, and then tell me if you think it is related to Ohio's coingate, and election fraud.

I know it is!!!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=5271052&mesg_id=5271052

Oh yeah, rec'd.

Franks lays this strategy right out there. They've been working it for a long time!

For what it's worth, here is the "Scanlon Memo" as plain text. OK, then cut, paste, and email to every Christian person/group/pac/radio station you can think of.

******

The especially offensive remark that is derogatory to Christians:

Mobilization

We plan to use three forms of communications to mobilize and win these battles. Phones, mail and Christian radio. We believe that if you are on TV you are generally losing battles like this Our mission is to get specifically selected groups of individuals to the polls to speak out AGAINST something.

To that end, your money is best spent finding them and communicating with them on using the modes that they are most likely to respond to. Simply put we want to bring out the wackos to vote against something and make sure the rest of the public lets the whole thing slip past them. The wackos get their information from the Christian right, Christian radio, mail, the internet and telephone trees.

******

THE ENTIRE SCANLON MEMO

******


MEMORANDUM

TO: KATHY VANHOOF

FROM: MIKE SCANLON

SUBJECT: LOUSIANA POLITICAL BUDGET OUTLINE

DATE: 10/23/2001

CC: JACK ABRAMOFF

Kathy,

In today's meeting the council agreed to immediately move forward with the Louisiana program we proposed in August and to immediately launch a program to fight Delta Downs and Pinnacle.

We expressed repeatedly that when we say were going to move -- it meant today. To that end, we have already begun our operations on all fronts. As we expressed to the council two battles, plus implementing the already proposed program would be costly. Because we have already contracted our team members on a great deal of this we wanted to send his memo along immediately outlining the specific costs associated with all three efforts. We are calling the three cumulative efforts the "Battleground Program". The overall requested budget for the "Battleground Program" is $3,170,000.00.

The costs and their descriptions are as follows:

Louisiana Political Targeting Program

As we discussed, we are taking what you built for the compact fight and extend its reach even further. Our ultimate political objective is to control both houses of the state legislature and the governor's mansion. In order to do so, we need to modify your political database into a statewide format. But more importantly we need to do this to have the necessary troops to win the battles in Lake Charles and Delta Downs.

To that end, we will identify supporters and issue voters in every state legislative, state senate and municipal election district in the state (we may want to limit the municipal districts for clarity's sake). This will be done through the same methods that we used for our current database, but we will also identify and classify individuals who have no connection to the tribe. Again, our goal is to ID the requisite number of voters in each district to swing any election OR THE REFERENDUM APPROVING PINNACLE IN TWO MONTHS.

Again, this program will make you the dominant political force in every election district in the state. This is an extremely large task, but very achievable and when completed you will control the political playing field statewide.

Beginning Date: ASAP

Completion Deadline: November 15, 2001

Cost: $1,345,000.00.

Opposition Research

On the way to the airport we called 5 of the best oppo researchers in the business. We are conducting a full-blown oppo campaign including detailed O&S on a number of subjects. Outside of O&S we are conducting "standard" political opposition research on the tracks, their associates, families, and financial backers. The same program will be run on Pinnacle.

We are also conducting "political assessment" studies on the referendum campaigns waged by the tracks in previous years. We must know everything about how they turned the corner on a losing issue last time, including who ran their campaign, who they paid off, and who they are paying now.

Without this information our chances are greatly reduced. We actually have members of this team on their way to Lake Charles as I write this.

Cost $325,000.00

Third Party Allies Program

This part of the program deals primarily with solidifying the support of the Christian conservatives and the minority religious outlets in SW Louisiana. We will provide direct support to these entities.

Cost $575,000.00

Polling and Tracking Polls

We are conducting a series of polls starting on Wednesday in the targeted parishes to get an "honest read" on where both of the projects stand in the court of public opinion. It is imperative that we find out as much as we can about these two projects before any money is spent on either side. This will give us a "true" benchmark of where things stand.

Monday we will conduct strategic polls testing our lines of attack and theirs. The results of these polls will identify our best lines of attack and our vulnerabilities. Once

we have those results in hand we will conduct "messaging" polls. The strategic polls tell us where to attack, but the messaging polls tell us how to best to "phrase" or "package" our arguments for the electorate.

Once this process is complete we will track our progress with bi-weekly tracking polls and "benchmark polls which tell us if we are winning or if they are winning. The tracking and benchmark polls give us a chance to change course if need be, or to increase what we are doing.

Cost: $245,000.000

Mobilization

We plan to use three forms of communications to mobilize and win these battles. Phones, mail and Christian radio. We believe that if you are on TV you are generally losing battles like this Our mission is to get specifically selected groups of individuals to the polls to speak out AGAINST something.

To that end, your money is best spent finding them and communicating with them on using the modes that they are most likely to respond to. Simply put we want to bring out the wackos to vote against something and make sure the rest of the public lets the whole thing slip past them. The wackos get their information form the Christian right, Christian radio, mail, the internet and telephone trees.

Mail

We will communicate with our targeted voters 3 times with Christian alert mail pieces.

Cost: $150,000

Phones

We are going to wage several different phone campaigns in this fight First, we are going to conduct advocacy calls educating or target audience. We expect to complete 100,000 of these.

Next we intend to patch through our targeted voters to the appropriate decision makers and tie up their phone lines. We are going to start with the gaming

commissioners office next week voicing overwhelming opposition to the pinnacle license vote on the 20th. We will follow with a specialized list of targeted officials who we believe will move our way. This is a rather large campaign, we expect to have at least 10 individual patch through phone campaigns conducted alone.

We will also run GOTV (Get Out the Vote) phone calls leading up to the referendum date. These calls go to OUR voters and OUR voters only. We tell them when the polls are open — where they go to vote and how to get there. If they need a ride — we will have a van come and get them.

Cost $330,000.00

Christian Radio

Most likely we will need to create a broad buzz among our supporters, and a quick way to do this is by advertising on Christian Radio. We will produce and, air at least two radio ads that give biblical reasons why Pinnacle should be blocked and the tracks shut down. These will run at the appropriate times and exclusively on Christian radio.

Cost $200,000.00

Key Influential Support

We definitely expect the need to "bring some influential people/ decisions makers on to our team" as we go through this process.

Cost $150,000

These are the people who should know about the Scanlon Memo:

http://www.renewamerica.us/commandments/links.htm