Posted on 06/26/2006 3:43:30 PM PDT by Spiff
Utahns should take note of the corruption trial just concluded in Washington with a guilty verdict for Congressman Chris Cannon's former chief of staff, David Safavian. With the Safavian trial only one component of the still spreading Abramoff corruption scandal, the talk is of more indictments coming—including of members of Congress.
Will Chris Cannon be one of those members? You have to wonder—especially since the Interior Department, where Cannon got his start in Washington, and where plenty of funny business has gone on, has been drawn into the scandal.
There is certainly enough evidence to launch an investigation. One federal law enforcement agency, after reviewing material on Cannon we provided, declined to act on the matter—not, we were told, because the material didn't indicate criminal activity, but because Cannon was a sitting congressman(!). The agency wouldn't move on it "unless the newspapers pick it up."
Well, the newspapers have begun to pick it up, and it's only a matter of time before even the newspapers in Cannon's district will be printing more than Cannon press releases in their coverage of Cannon. (No sooner had I written the foregoing than this arrived in my inbox from Mark Mendlovitz of Los Angeles: Immigrant funds flow to Cannon campaign; Pro-migrant groups have donated $58,200 in the past 12 days, Deseret News, June 21, 2006...well, shut me up!)
Evidence of corruption
In a successful corruption case it's necessary to show that a public official took something of value in exchange for a particular legislative action or promise.
Is Congressman Chris Cannon corrupt?
As reported in a newspaper called the News India-Times by a person in attendance, Congressman Cannon attended a fundraiser for him at an Indian restaurant in New York, May 21, 2002. Unless the fundraiser took in zero dollars, something of value was exchanged.
At the fundraiser, Cannon was quoted, "I would like to see section 245(i) [the "marriage amnesty"] a permanent feature. Hopefully Senate would pass the legislation extending section 245(i) and we can improve this legislation in the conference. We hope we will have something this year about extension of section 245(i)."
In other words, a promise of legislative action was returned, and, in fact, Cannon did work to accomplish the amnesty. (Section 245(i) allows foreigners to defraud the American people through the abuse of the institution of marriage see: Amnesty an American tradition, says Florida senator, Issue 86: July 29, 2001 and Shamnesty, Issue 103).
So there you have it. Cannon took money and promised legislative action—one promise he has kept, though not to his real constituents back in Utah.
I remember the local news coverage in New York of the circus at the county clerk's office in lower Manhattan when that particular amnesty was running out. Lines formed around the block of loving couples waiting to receive marriage licenses. In the general party atmosphere, a news crew interviewed one couple asking them how long they had known each other. They'd just met that day they explained, and, to laughter all around, the prospective groom explained that in China it is a tradition for brides and grooms not to know one another before marriage. Thanks, Congressman Cannon. Way to protect marriage.
Immigration and Gambling
Immigration wasn't the only area in which Cannon dirtied the nation's capital. Check out this report of Cannon's conduct related to Indian tribes published just one month before the Indian restaurant story, while Safavian was still his chief of staff, and while Safavian's long-time lobbying partner, Jack Abramoff, was in the heydey of his multi-million dollar shakedown of the tribes' casinos, Don't Play the Game If You Don't Know the Rules. (A worthy area for investigation would be the surprising nexus between the gambling industry and U.S. immigration law.)
It's my hunch that Chris Cannon, like the Interior Department, are already the subjects of at least some aspects of the Abramoff investigation, and that those will be exanding.
Cleaning up Washington—a job Americans will do
All Americans are sickened by the corruption rampant in a Washington DC where the U.S. Chamberpot of Commerce calls the shots for the enrichment of a few at the expense of the rest of us and our country.
Utahns are sickened by it, too. Next Tuesday, Republicans in Utah's 3rd district will decide what their role will be in the battle to clean this place up. Will they continue to help dirty the country, or will they throw the lying bum out and spare themselves the greater embarrassment that seems likely to come?
Corrupt adj 1: lacking in integrity; "humanity they knew to be
corrupt...from the day of Adam's creation"; "a corrupt
and incompetent city government" [ant: incorrupt]
2: not straight; dishonest or immoral or evasive [syn: crooked]
[ant: straight]
3: containing errors or alterations; "a corrupt text"; "spoke a
corrupted version of the language" [syn: corrupted]
4: touched by rot or decay; "tainted bacon"; "`corrupt' is
archaic" [syn: tainted]
I don't see one definition there that say "indicted."
I stand by my original assesment - - CORRUPT!
Well, you love Texas, and there are Texan separatists, and Basque Separatists have been inflitrated by Al Qaeda so you must love blowing up the WTC! Do you see how assinine your logic is?
Did a Chris Cannon aid get busted for corruption, or not? Unless he did not, you have no point.
Actually it was not a news story that you posted, at least not in the sense of a newspaper article. It was a press release by some organization dedicated to smearing Cannon. We had the same type of thing in our district in California and it backfired, big time, for the smearer. You may be hurting your candidate more than helping. Just a word of advice.
The question should be, did Cannon get busted?. I hear all of this self righteous indignation about "guilt by association between VDARE and ProjectUSA but none about ProjectUSA's guilt by association with a former aid.
The worst I've heard about VDARE is that they want an immigration moratorium (gosh, what an awful idea) and they're racist (because they want a moratorium against immigration and most immigrants are non-white, they must be, according to the FROBL).
I'll look forward to seeing both groups 'tarred' by Texasforever--please, elaborate on the evil VDARE does, Texasforever, we all need to know now so we can see what a clean cut fellow Cannon is!
LOL. I see a lot of slips showing on this thread.
Linkages, you want linkages? Here are some concerning some of the players mentioned in the article. You provided propaganda, no "Linkages" to any "supremest organizations"
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1489869/posts
Even so, Safavian had extra support in his corner that morning. Two congressmen -- one a liberal Democrat, surprisingly enough -- stopped by to cheer him on before the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee.
"I think he will do a great job for the American people in this job," testified Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, who had previously employed Safavian as a top aide.
"I would like to second what Chris Cannon has said," added Rep. John Conyers, D-Michigan, who brought along his chief of staff and two lawyers to add to his cheering section. "We are joined with his wife and his mom, as well as his family and friends, to underscore how fine a decision has been made for this appointment," Conyers gushed. "We hope that the Senate will agree and get him to work as quickly as possible."
SEN. SUSAN COLLINS: Is there anything you are aware of in your background which might present a conflict of interest with the duties of the office to which you have been nominated?
SAFAVIAN: No, ma'am.
Actually, there was one rather glaring matter -- in addition to the shady ties to fellow lobbyist and Norquist crony Abramoff that now have him in hot water. It came in the form of an item typewritten on official lobbying registration papers filed on Sept. 18, 2000, with the secretary of the U.S. Senate. There, plain as day at the top of page two , it states: Client Name: Abdurahman Alamoudi Lobbyist Name: David Safavian
Safavian at the time served as managing partner for Janus-Merritt Strategies LLC, the Washington lobbying firm he started with Norquist and the one that filed the disclosure form that year, as required by law.
Did Safavian once lobby Congress and federal agencies for Alamoudi, a man with far-reaching ties to terrorism and al-Qaida? He insists it was all a mistake and that Alamoudi, a confessed terrorist now behind bars, was "erroneously listed" on the form .
One client Safavian does admit lobbying for is the Islamic Institute in Washington, which was co-founded by Norquist, who recently wed a Palestinian Muslim activist, and Khaled Saffuri, former deputy to Alamoudi, who provided seed money for the institute.
Records show Safavian registered as the group's chief lobbyist beginning June 1, 1999. They also show that on behalf of his Muslim clients, he lobbied Congress to end the Justice Department's use of undisclosed evidence against suspected Middle Eastern terrorists in deportation proceedings. He pushed that issue in both the House and Senate up until the start of 2001.
He also helped his Islamist clients fight terrorist profiling at airports by penning op-eds in Washington newspapers.
But political connections certainly did not hurt. Safavian not only lobbied for the Islamic Institute, he also sat on its board of directors with founders Norquist and Saffuri, who have arranged meetings between Islamic leaders and top Bush officials, and placed Arabs and Muslims in government jobs -- even though Saffuri worked closely with convicted terrorist Alamoudi and now personally sponsors an orphan of a Palestinian suicide bomber.
The top White House procurement job Safavian landed was actually a promotion. He was already working at the White House as a counselor in the Office of Management and Budget when President Bush tapped him for the senior post. And before that, he worked as chief of staff for the head of the General Services Administration, where he says he mastered the procurement process. (Snip)
Vdare is not welcome at FR.
What slips? Go ahead and tell us about that awful VDARE--or did you need time to make up something?
See post 48.
V-DARE
www.vdare.com
V-DARE — shorthand for Virginia Dare, the first English child to be born in what is now the United States — is a web site run by a "coalition" whose most prominent member is Peter Brimelow.
Brimelow, a leading anti-immigration activist and author of Alien Nation, argues that America is historically a predominantly white nation, and that Americans have a right to demand that it remain that way.
A past columnist for the conservative National Review, Brimelow says he once considered adding a fictional end to his Alien Nation, a nonfiction critique of immigration, about the last white family to leave Los Angeles.
V-DARE posts anti-immigration articles by Brimelow's twin brother John; right-wing columnists like Paul Craig Roberts and Joseph Fallon (Brimelow's main researcher on Alien Nation); and defenders of The Bell Curve — a controversial book arguing that whites are more intelligent than blacks — like Steve Sailer.
Both Brimelow and Fallon have defended Jared Taylor, who edits the racist American Renaissance magazine. Taylor's deputy, James Lubinskas, has returned the favor by writing for V-DARE.
Brimelow has close ties to several other leaders on the anti-immigration scene, among them John Vinson of the American Immigration Control Foundation, Llewellyn Rockwell and Jeffrey Tucker of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, and John H. Tanton of the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
ProjectUSA
Long Island City, N.Y.
www.ProjectUSA.org
Started in 1997 by Craig Nelsen, ProjectUSA runs a web site, publishes an E-zine and a regular magazine, and claims more than 3,000 members.
The group says it is concerned only with immigration numbers, not race or ethnicity. But several of its arguments seem to belie that.
"In addition to the environmental degradation with which current immigration policy is saddling our children," ProjectUSA warns on its web site, "we believe there is a very strong possibility that present policy will lead to a balkanized America of hostile and competing ethnic groups."
Nelsen's group also has put up billboards that have drawn harsh criticism, including one in New York City showing a white boy and the words, "Immigration is doubling U.S. population in my lifetime. (Please don't do this to us Congress)."
In comments adjoining a photo of the billboard, ProjectUSA's web site offers up the following comments: "Stop immigration! Why anti-racism is turning us into cockroaches." Then it adds: "The 'white kid' billboard was the one that really roasted their ass."
Amid cries of racism, the billboard was ordered down within days for lack of a proper permit — a move that brought a suit from Nelsen against the city.
Talk about desperation.
And?
I figured that'd be about all you had to say. "Not welcome at FR" doesn't explain WHY they were 'not welcomed.' Perhaps Peter Brimelow peed in JimRob's coffee. Perhaps VDare staked Trixie. VDare has certainly bagged on FR censorship. But why FR censors them, I don't know, the mods won't say, and you don't care anyway--you're intending to simply tar by association without context, as if meeting FR posting requirements gives a site the grand seal of conservative approval and not meeting `em doesn't. People post NYT and SFGate articles here all the time.
Ask Jim. OR go read their forums. Educate yourself.
"...go read their forums. Educate yourself."
Agreed, EVERYONE should read that site, and the book Alien Nation would probably be worth reading, too.
As I said your slip is showing.
The Cannons have been a power in Utah politics for a long time. Frank Cannon is probably the reason Utah is a State, but as my Aunt said about Jake Garn, he was a nice guy but he thought he owned the office.
He got Booted even though his father was in the 12. So lets get real and talk politics.
They are speaking for themselves and I as a United States citizen do not want this guy in Congress voting on measures that will effect me. If he is un-stable enough to blame SATAN for his lack of campaign funds then he shows a complete lack of judgment and should not be entrusted with public office.
Spiff,
Dane, Amishdude and Sinkhole are not gonna like this article!
This could turn the race into runaway for Jacob, instead of a close race...
if the news gets out to UTAH voters before the election tommorrow.
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