Jack Abramoff's New Book"Capitol Punishment The Hard Truth About Washington"
http://superstore.wnd.com/books/WND-...ment-Hardcover
For those of you who don't know Jack Abramoff, he is was the most famous lobbyist of all time. He served 3 1/2 years in prison for fraud, tax evasion, and conspiracy to commit bribery. 21 people have plead guilty or found guilty since the probe started. The reason I'm making this thread is that Jack was the most famous and high paid casino lobbyist. He and his partners fleeced the Indian Tribes out of millions of dollars in attorney fees and campaign contributions. I feel Jack Abramoff is more relevant now than ever with the Full Tilt Poker scandal and the 3 major sites being shut down it the USA. I say this with confidence after spending 100's of man hours investigating Congress, Lobbyist, DOJ, and the the current B&M casino monopoly.
The term "Gimme Five" was coined by
Jack Abramoff and his partner
Michael Scanlon for their bilking of clients. They conspired to lobby against their own clients to shut them down in order to charge them enormous fees to get them opened up again. They would also charge money to start "astro-turf" "grass roots" movements (similar to Fair Play USA) to reopen them. They also used Focus on Family to sway congress to shut down the tribes Casinos and then reversing the campaign once they were paid the enormous fees. This same game plan is being used by the AGA and the NFL lobbyist group Covington and Burling today against Full Tilt Poker. The NFL used William Wichterman
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...111102935.html to manipulate Focus on Family just as Abramoff did.
Casino Jack Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1igM1mfzPI
Casino Jack and the United States of Money Documentary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRqvrHw2G2w
Jack was played by Kevin Spacey in the movie
"Casino Jack" and was also the subject of a brilliant documentary (although boring in the first 1/2 hour but nevertheless educational)
"Casino Jack and the United States of Money". For those of you with money stuck online, please watch these movies and read the book and maybe it will open your eyes to the corruption that is at hand.
I've come to know Mr. Abramoff a little bit over the last 4 months and to me he seems to be humbled by his jail experience. As some of you may know, I;m starting an advocacy group that is anti-lobbyist. I see (from the quotes) that Mr. Abramoff appears to seek change in the current lobbying rules :
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/1...usaolp00000009
"The reason there are tens of thousands of lobbyists is because the ever-expanding federal government creates ever-increasing opportunities for abuse," he writes. "The more the federal government does, the more lobbyists there will be to protect special interests at the expense of the common interest."
"the lure of post-public service lobbying employment needs to be eliminated," he writes. So: "If you chose to serve in Congress or on a congressional staff, you should be barred for life from working for any company, organization, or association which lobbies the federal government. "
And I would think that the last quote should apply in reverse where if you work for lobbyist group and you should not be able to have high positions like Attorney General. If this were the case we wouldn't have had all of our money frozen by the DOJ because of Eric Holder and his previous employment by Covington and Burling the lobbyist firm that was most instrumental in attaching the UIGEA to the port security bill.
http://www.pokerbloggs.com/2011/05/0...d-attach-uigea
I haven't read the book yet but will be ordering it this weekend. I have watched the documentary and movie about him 4 times each. Each time I watch them it opens my eyes to the current situation. The AGA and Ceasars/Wynn has completely stolen from Abramoff's playbook and are getting away with it. Hopefully, the masses on this site will stop being manipulated by the PPA, AGA, and Fair Play and see what is happening. You are all being used to attach laws to your own conduct. Online poker is our right! Regulated or not there will always be cheating.
I plan on chatting a bit more with Mr. Abramoff but I don't know how he will react to this post. It seems to me from those quotes that he sees how he was expendable to protect high officials, and now may be against his own former profession. And if that's not the case, he has seen the hypocricy from the people who he used to contribute to:
"Most of these legislators had taken thousands of dollars from my clients and firms, and now they were sitting as impartial judges against me. Washington hypocrisy at its best,"
I hope to get him on this thread to answer questions, but I can't make any promises.
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