the friday sneak

once upon a time i was speaking to a fan/friend of mine and asked her why she didn't get more upset about what was going on in the country and in the world. her answer opened my mind to a situation that i had never actually thought about: she said, "ron, i am raising two children, trying to shuffle day care for my youngest and school for my oldest. i am worried about my keeping my job and paying the house note plus putting food on the table and all the other things that come into play with being a single mother. i, like so many other people, just don't have time to think about the state of the country and the state of the world." you see, i assumed that all sharp, intelligent people read the newspapers and kept up with what is going on, but since that conversation several years ago i realize that some of you just don't have the time to read and sift through the news trying to get accurate information. the internet can be overwhelming in it's sheer volumne of information and opinions (many of which are protrayed as fact when they are just opinions) from so many sources that you could read the new york times, the chicago tribune, the london economist and three magazines in the time you would spend on the net each day gathering this piece and that piece of info. bearing this in mind (this is new paragraph but somehow my laptop will not let me start a new paragraph) let me clue you in on a little piece of knowledge that you may not have: FRIDAY IS THE DAY THE WHITE HOUSE ALWAYS RELEASES INFORMATION THAT MAY BE HARMFUL. the reason they do it on friday is that day is the day that most people DON'T READ the paper and the saturday and sunday editions many times do not go back to review friday's news. bearing this in mind, let me tell you what was released by the white house this past friday: THE HOUSE GOVERNMENT REFORM COMMITTEE released a report that said, JACK ABRAMOFF, the lobbyist already convicted of bribery of public officials and now co-operating with federal authorities to get a reduced sentence, had 485 (FOUR HUNDRED EIGHTY FIVE) contacts with the white house. this is newsworthy because the white house and KARL ROVE in particular had denied basically even knowing the guy. rove had described him as a "casual acquaintance." 82 of the contacts were with mr. rove's office and 10 were directly between rove and abramoff. (paragraph) abramoff provided white house staff at least $25,000 worth of free tickets and box seats to sporting events and concerts. mr. rove was mr. abramoff's personal box seat guest for a 2002 ncaa basketball playoff game. after the game, abramoff emailed a colleague describing mr. rove as "a great guy." he said of mr. rove, "HE (ROVE) TOLD ME ANYTIME WE NEED SOMETHING, JUST LET HIM KNOW THROUGH SUSAN." now, susan is susan ralston, who left her job as MR. ABRAMOFF'S SECRETARY in february 2001 to become MR. ROVE'S EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT AT THE WHITE HOUSE. mr. rove was a regualar at mr. abramoff's signature restaurant where he claimed his 'USUAL TABLE" according to mr. abramoff. (paragraph) mr. rove, the house report found, got ms. ralston to get tickets for himself and his staff from mr. abramoff for other sporting events on other occasions. MS. RALSTON RESIGNED HER POSITION ON THE THURSDAY BEFORE THE REPORT WAS MADE PUBLIC. WHAT A COINCIDENCE. (paragraph) did all of this work for mr. abramoff? after one particular intense lobbying campaign involving 73 contacts with the white house between '01 and '02, mr. abramoff took credit for a decision by the administration to allow a $16.3 MILLION grant to a mississippi indian tribe, one of his clients, for construction of a prison. that grant was awarded despite the objection of the justice department. (paragraph) i ask you, does this not smell of corruption? this white house has consistantly tried to operate in secret with no bid contracts going out to cronies from iraq to katrina to construction of prisons. granted the 16.3 million is just a drop in the overall bucket but the real point is that the white house and rove denied over and over again any real contact between them and abramoff. over and over. this administration believes that if they tell us any lie and just keep repeating that lie over and over and over again eventually we will come to believe them. (see weapons of mass destruction in iraq for another example of telling the same lie over and over and over again.) JUST THOUGHT YOU WOULD LIKE TO KNOW