Wampum

Hangs Around The Fort and Stands With A Fish have taken overum Wampum tonight. Will be bloggum big talk of Great White Father.

Hangs: Can't we just watch hoops? UCONN is playing PITT, and if we don't make too much noise the neighbors won't know we're rooting for the Foxwoods team.

Stands: Damn. UConn's up four - too close for comfort, eh? Great White Father Speaks now.

Stands: SCOTUS arrives. He Who Like To Strip Search Papoose now sits with eight other White Fathers. And one woman who thinks Jews okay in Israel, Injuns bad in NY.

Hangs: Looks like"Hand Out Day" at the mission now. Pass the cheese wheel.

Stands: Sound like they've hired ten guys to clap continuously in the background. White Father kisses Second Wife. First Wife not happy.

Hangs: Chief Denny has hatchet ready, just in case.

Stands: Less than two minutes, Jonah demands we go back to Noggin. I don't blame him.

Hangs: One hundred years from now, King George the IXth will still be bringing up 9/11.

Great White Father: Half the world are democracies... the other half house our torture chambers.

GWF: "They're coming...they're coming...they're coming"

Stands: GWF talking about oppressing... Time read up on Korematsu...

Stands: "Rooting out corruption and building a strong economy" Oh, GWF speakum of Iraqum.

Stands: Joementum (no Injun speakum needed there) stands alone. With or without gefilte fish.

Stands: Ooooh, GWF names new superterrorist: BinLadenZarqawi

[Checking UConn score during clap-fest]

GWF: Saudis are gaining freedom. Women can't drive cars, but can ride horses, like us.

GWF: Spreading disease and fighting hope? Watch out for those blankets, Iraqis.

Hangs: Africans. Its their turn.

Hangs: Patriot Act: It's not just for terrorists anymore!

[Now Kezzie wants PBS Sprout. Guest bloggers booted out of studio....]

Update: We were forced for finish this via Wonkette, my reading to Eric while he removed children's guts, ribs and toes.

Wonkette:

9:57 PM "Tonight I ask you to pass legislation to prohibit the most egregious abuses of medical research - human cloning in all its forms … creating or implanting embryos for experiments … creating human-animal hybrids" OMG HUMAN-ANIMAL HYBRIDS! BUSH SAYS NO TO WEREWOLVES. HEAR THAT CONGRESS? The man is taking a stand. To repeat: Hybrid cars: Good. Hybrid human-animals: Bad.

Do not clone Jack Abramoff.

Eric: Why? Is Jack Abramoff part human?

Posted by MB Williams at 08:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

This compilation is of the 222 (+/-) nominations for Best Posts in the Lefty Blogosphere. Voting will open up when all the Koufax nomination posts are complete.

Drumroll please.....

2 Political Junkies: Absolut Corruption

2 Political Junkies: Dreaming With Bush

2 Political Junkies: "The Plan"

12th Harmonic: America's Battered Wife Syndrome by Advena

Adam Kotsko: The Truth Will Set You Free

All Facts and Opinions: Rosa Parks: She Sat, She Inspired

AmericaBlog: A Man Called Jeff by John Arvosis

American Street: The America Haters by Echidne

Arms Control Wonk: Covert Operations by Jeffrey

Attytood: "When the levee breaks" by Will Bunch

BagNewsNotes: Katrina Aftermath: And Then I Saw These

Big Brass Blog: On Tolerance and Responsible Freedom by TheGreenKnight

Big Monkey, Helpy Chalk: Skynyrd Did What They Could Do by Rob Helpy-Chalk

Blah3: Potemkin Photo Op

BlogReload: Chapter 11: Ann Coulter's Iraq War Argument Files for Bankruptcy

Bob Geiger: A Conflicted Veteran On Memorial Day

Bob Geiger: I Know This Little Boy In New Orleans

Body and Soul: Thank you, Bedford Falls by Jeanne

Body and Soul: The German Shepherd and the Salvadoran Pastor by Jeanne

Booman Tribune: George Bush, Goddamn: It Ain't Alright by AP

Bottle of Blog: "America, Meet Your Shithead"

BottleofBlog: You Don't Need To Be A Weatherman To Know How Badly Bush Blows

BradBlog: Death Is Sexier Than Sex (to Ann Coulter) by Lydia Cornell

Carpetbagger Report: A League of his Own

Coeruleus: Tarnier's Basiotribe

Coeruleus: Gettysburg Madness

Confined Space: Of Fish and Men: Corporate Penalties And The Law by Jordan

Creek Running North : Life and Death by Chris Clarke

Daily Kos: Melting the Skin Off of Children by Hunter

Daily Kos: Clinton Moves to End Strike by ilona

Daily Kos: Maryscott's Outrage du Jour (Bankruptcy Bill) by Maryscott O'Connor

Daily Kos: Dear Whoever Comes Up With These Things by Hunter

Daily Kos: Cries from the Lake of Fire by Hunter

Daily Kos: They shot the "wrong man" by smintheus

Daily Kos: How wrong can you idiots be??? by Bill in Portland Maine

Daily Kos: Jesus Tried to Stab Me With a Knife by bluebirdofhappiness

Daily Kos: 10/25/04: What a Difference a Day Makes by ttagaris

Daily Kos: Playing Chicken with the Apocalypse by Devilstower

Daily Kos: This post could cost me my job by Devils Tower

Daily Kos: Playing Chicken With the Apocalypse by DevilsTower

Daily Kos: Autonomous Women by mem from somerville

Daily Kos: Science Friday: Thank Heaven For Little Girls by Darksyde

Daily Kos: Enough Already with Calling Iraq a Mistake by Meteor Blades

Dark Wraith Forums: The Ancient Future

Dark Wraith Forums: La'ana-hum Allah

Dark Wraith Forums: Fire and Seeds

Dark Wraith Forums: An Open Letter to Bill O'Reilly

Dark Wraith Forums: I Am Become Battle, How White Be My Tears

The Decembrist: Miss America Conservatives by Mark Schmitt

Democracy Cell Project: Sweeping it Under the Rug by Suz Krueger

Democracy Cell Project: George W. Bush has more in common with Richard Nixon than with his father Suz Krueger,

Democracy Cell Project: Hitting the Wall by Suz Krueger

Democracy Cell Project: It's not the Sex it's the lies by Casey Morris

Democracy Cell Project Pop Quiz: Please Define "Bribe" for the Class by Casey Morris

Democracy Cell Project: Polly Celebrates American Politics by Polly Sigh

Democracy Cell Project: Preaching to the Choir by Christy Cole

Democracy Cell Project: Our Truly Trivial Media by Casey Morris

Democracy Cell Project: This wasn't in the Sales Brochure by Casey Morris

Democracy Cell Project: Evidence Mounts About July 2002 by Casey Morris

Democracy Cell Project: If Not Now, When? by Suz Krueger

Democracy Cell Project: Coingate by Casey Morris,

And Doctor Biobrain's Response Is: The Problems With Third Parties

Driftglass: Oh, by the way, which one's pink?

Driftglass: You Bought It

Echidne of the Snakes: Feminists to the Rescue

Effect Measure: Biodefense: a (very) bad idea whose time has come? by Revere

Empire Burlesque: The Perfect Storm by Chris Floyd

Empire Burlesque: Clowntime is Over: The Last Stand of the American Republic by Chris Floyd

Eshaton: Crazy Guy at a Bar by Atrios

European Tribune: Can Math : Recycling vs MPG by DeAnander

The Fat Lady Sings: It was the Best of Times, It was the Worst of Times - Part 1 and Part 2

The Fat Lady Sings: Why Do So Many Men Hate Women?

The Fat Lady Sing: Misogyny at its Finest

Feministe: Consider the Hijab: Blogging Against Racism by Lauren

First Draft: Small Men by Athenae

GirlScientist: Tsunamis and Mangroves: The Shrimp Connection

Hullabaloo: Genie in a Bottle by Digby

Hullabaloo: Death in Life by Digby

Hullabaloo: The Resentment Tribe by Digby

Hullabaloo: Revival Hype by Digby

Hullabaloo: The Heart of the Democratic Party by Digby

Hullabaloo: Adults Wanted by Digby

I Blame the Patriarchy: I Dislike Lucy

ILPundit: Open Letter to My Family

Idyllopus: Casualty of Evidence

In the Fray: Things fall apart

Legal Fiction: The Outrage Industry

JABBs: McClellan Misrepresents Bush's Words, Creating Dig At War Critics.

JABBs: Conservatives Love to Discuss Mythical "Angry Left," But Rarely Refer to Actual "Angry Right."

JABBs: Why Didn't Bush Discuss Hurricane Relief From The "Western White House"?

JABBs: Russert Fails To Ask Chertoff Relevant Follow-Up Questions on Homeland Security.

Jesus' General: Twenty-two by Desi

Keeping Watch: Remembering the Obvious

Keeping Watch: Katrina, and the philosophy of Government

The Kentucky Democrat: Interview with Dr. Chuck Pennacchio

The Kentucky Democrat: Interview with New Hampshire State Rep. Peter Sullivan

Kung Fu Monkeys: Learn to Say Ain't by John Rogers

Lance Mannion: An apologia for Republicans, seriously---well, almost seriously

Lance Mannion: No Damn Good

Law Dork: Growing Up Catholic . . . and Gay by Chris Geidner

Lawyers, Guns and Money: GOP: Fetuses Are Rights-bearing Subjects, Adult Women Are Not by Scott Lemieux

Left I on the News: A tale of two generals by Eli Stephens

Left I on the News: The "opposition" party: transcript (and analysis) accomplished! by Eli Stephens

Left I on the News: The "exit strategy" in Iraq is a sham by Eli Stephens

Left I on the News: Resign. Now. by Eli Stephens

Left I on the News: Intelligent design: an assault on religion by Eli Stephens

Left I on the News: What is a life worth? And to whom? by Eli Stephens

Left I on the News: Posada Carriles - why he matters by Eli Stephens

Left I on the News: Birds and politics - the Tale of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker by Eli Stephens

Left I on the News: John McCain - war criminal by Eli Stephens

Left I on the News: The war didn't end yesterday by Eli Stephens

Left I on the News: Did the administration believe in Iraqi WMD? by Eli Stephens

Left I on the News: Terrorist sneaks across U.S. border by Eli Stephens

Left I on the News: "Expert" analysis by Eli Stephens

Left I on the News: Assessing the antiwar movement by Eli Stephens

Left I on the News: Terrorism...and other problems by Eli Stephens

Left I on the News: The function of blogs by Eli Stephens

Left I on the News: WMD - The lies continue by Eli Stephens

Left I on the News: Am I the only one who thinks members of the Iraqi military and resistance fighters are human beings? by Eli Stephens

Left Bank Blog: God To Spare Kansas and Texas by Joe

Legal Fiction: Cultural Lag

Liberally Speaking: Constitutional Crisis

Liberally Speaking: Who Needs the United States Government? (We All Do)

Liberty Street USA: The CIA Archipelago

Little Wild Bouquet; Rosa Parks, Misremembered

Long Sunday: Penguins: Hopping Across the Frozen Bathos

Looking for Someone to Lie to Me: Trolling on the Tsunami by Michael Roston

Mad Melancholic Feminista: "How long did it take you to get over it?" by Antheia

Matthew Yglesias: Patriotism and Nationalism

Michael Berube: The sense of an ending

Michael Berube: The Rhetorics of Violence by John McGowan

Michael Berube: Networking

Michael Berube: Bush Calls for "Disassembling" Gitmo

Michael Berube: Was I ever wrong

Michelle Maklin (Rox Populi): The New Youth Craze

MyDD: An Ode To My Republican Ex-Best-Friend by CarrieCann

My Left Wing: The Lies & Depraved Indifference of Republicans by Maryscott O'Connor

My Left Wing: Whale's Tales and Creationist Lies by DarkSyde

My Left Wing: The Bravest Man Who Ever Died by Chris Kulczycki

My Left Wing: What Is To Be Done? by eugene

My Left Wing: Reproductive Justice, Not Just Abortion, Is What Really Matters by Shanikka

My Left Wing: Abortion is the Right to My Life by Sassy Texan

My Left Wing: Star Trek Socialism by Paul Rosenberg

My Left Wing: The Making of a Martyr: Bunnatine Greenhouse by Shanikka

My Left Wing: Profanity, Propriety, Censorship & Semantics by Maryscott O'Connor

My Left Wing: My Left Wing Manifesto by Maryscott O'Connor

My Left Wing: Sexism, Language and Society by Sassy Texan

My Left Wing: Death in September by Raybin

My Left Wing: Scythe of the Reaper by Raybin

My Left Wing: Obscenity by Maryscott O'Connor

My Left Wing: Blast from the Racist Past by Shanikka

My Left Wing: The Line in the Sand: Freedom vs. New America, by Shanikka

By Neddie Jingo: Greetings from Fort Mudge

By Neddie Jingo: On Bullshit by Al Swearengen

By Neddie Jingo: "Departed This Life"

By Neddie Jingo: Our Harvest Being Gotten In

News Corpse: The Real Fake News

No Blood for Hubris: Bubble Boy: Sending Our Kids to Die for His Right to Remain a Maroon [no URL]

No Blood for Hubris: Bubble Boy Deja Vu: MIA All Over Again"

No More Mr. Nice Guy: Junior Jumps the Shark

Nutopia: Does the president know about this?

Nutopia: Just Jesus

Nutopia: Hustle and Flow

Obsidian Wings: Failures Of Will by Hilzoy

Obsidian Wings: As If She Wanted To Change Her Skin by Hilzoy

Obsidian Wings: Requiem by hilzoy

One Good Thing: Dawn of the Brain Dead by Leigh Ann Wilson

The Opinion Mill: "United Scatinos of America"

Our Word: Monday Afternoon in the Welfare Office by Kactus

Pam's House Blend: Skin and the Color of Money

Pam's House Blend: Letter from Peter LaBarbera

Pandagon: New theory: Maureen Dowd just has Stockholm Syndrome by Amanda Marcotte

Pharyngula: Idiot America by PZ Myers

Pharyngula: Planet of the Hats by PZ Myers

Pharyngula: The proper reverence due those who have gone before by PZ Myers

The Poorman: Where the White Woman At? by The Editors

The Poorman: Institutionalized by The Editors

Printculture: Moving to Norrath by E. Hayott

Printculture: America is in the World by E. Hayott

Professor Kim's News Notes: Meant To Write About This by Kim Pearson

Redneck Mother: Not a Baby Machine by KCB

Science and Politics: I Want Bigger Government by Coturnix

Science and Politics: The Perils of Ideological Continua and Coordinate Systems by Coturnix

Science and Politics: Regressives by Coturnix

Scout Prime: Black Bodies Remain Still Parts I and II

Shakespeare's Sister: Scarred

Shakespeare's Sister: Liberals Will Save America

Shakespeare's Sister: Anti-Choicers: Not So Fast

The Sideshow: Helpless by Avedon Carol

The Sideshow: How you became Crazy

SimianBrain: Miers Begins to Come Into Focus. So too the GOP

State of the Day: This is How They Do It: Lie, Rinse, Repeat by BagelRadio

Street Prophets: Coffeecake by Pastor Dan

Suburban Guerrilla: Sunday Morning Coming Down by Susie Madrak

Suburban Guerrilla: It's a Small World, After All by Susie Madrak

Sufficient Scruples: Bad Math, Bad Character on the Anti-Choice Wing by Kevin Keith

Sufficient Scruples: Feminists Against Women by Kevin Keith

The Talent Show: The Talent Show is dead. Long live The Talent Show by Greg

Tattered Coat: The Great Rovian Sit n' Spin

Tattered Coat: On Looking at Photographs of the New Orleans Dead

Tattered Coat: Cognitive Dissonance, the Bush Administration, Cindy Sheehan, and the War in Iraq

Tattered Coat: Another Military Blogger Silenced

The Terminal Velocity of Sausage: Snakes on a Plame by Glark

Thoughts of an Average Woman:
Descending into the Dark Ages by CE Petro

TomDispatch: Shark Bit World by Tom Engelhardt

Total Information Awareness: Enlightened Hard-boiled-ness by Eric

T. Rex's Guide to Life: Seven Deadly Sins and the American Right

Utopian Hall; Political Parents by Astarte

Unclaimed Territory by Glenn Greenwald: True Tyranny Defined: Bush Admin. v. Jose Padilla

Unclaimed Territory by Glenn Greenwald: Bush's Unchecked Executive Power v. the Founding Principles of the U.S.

WhirledView: A Socratic Inquiry into Judicial Means and Ends by PLS

Whiskey Bar: My Back Page by Billmon

Whiskey Bar: UP Order by Billmon

Whiskey Bar: Scenes We'd Like to See by Billmon

Whiskey Bar: Heart of Darkness by Billmon

Whiskey Bar: Blowback by Billmon

Whiskey Bar: Spring Time for Khomeini by Billmon

Whiskey Bar: Radio Daze by Billmon

Xpatriated Texan: Let There Be Peace on Earth

Yep, Another Goddamn Blog: Assclowns of the Week: Nightmare Team Edition by JurassicPork

Yep, Another Goddamn Blog:
"Emerson, You Magnificent Bastard, She Read Your Book!" by JurassicPork

Posted by MB Williams at 08:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (482) | TrackBacks (1)

The Green Party is going to give one. It will be availabe via podcast on an unused channel of Universal Mundo Satellite Network, available throughout Mexico, and via tape-delay on the Chilean and Easter-Island segments of the Pacific Fibre Internet. The National Congress of American Indians is going to give one. It will be available everywhere people who give a fig about the economy, civil liberties, choice, universal health, Iraq, corporate malfeasence, and ordinary Democratic Party campaign craft and policy also lose sleep over the erosion of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act since Nixon, rural and reservation public health since LBJ, and reform of the BIA since Clinton.

That might fill one bar in Rapid, if random processes coupled with Maxwell's Demon brought all those billiard balls to one corner of a warped pool table.

A fake speach in response to a fake speach is a fake. A better choice is to simply go where the Indian investment in Democratic, and Republican, party politics has been visible, and pound salt. Is Maria Cantwell worth the hire? Is John McCain going to hit off-shore tax havens with the same "nexus" requirement he plans to unload on tribes terminated in the 50's, like the Klamaths, to keep them from operating casinos in states that have lotteries? Who really wants to play the extended Jack Abramoff version of Truth or Consequences with the Chair of the NCAI?

The Greens should work on an annual policy brief. "Section III. Ecological Sustainability, Part G. Water" of the GPUS Platform landed in my inbox yesterday and it ran to 1k of anti-privatization-good-for-eco-everybody mumble and didn't mention Tribal water rights once, which west of Nashville is like forgetting coal in the North American energy diet. The finish to that steller work was a renunciation of fluroidation, because a growing body of research suggests that fluoride may be associated with arthritis, hip fractures, bone cancer, kidney damage, infertility, and brain disorders. I'd never thought of General Jack D. Ripper, USAF, as a Green before. As a contributor to the art of Patriotboy, yes, but Green, no.

Posted by EBW at 10:29 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Inoye and Akaka's votes are for quieting the land claims of the Kingdom of Hawai'i, by way of making Hawai'ian's "Indians", part of the complex Alaskan and Hawai'ian Statehood Acts. See our prior works, here and here. We'll have more on other votes we knew were lost to complex oil, gas, coal, and water back-frauds, as well as the vastly more overt organized crime and Christian casino front-frauds later.

Black Bear Bosin was one of the first generation of modernists. A print of this work hung in my mother's house. As I got older the conservative, traditional limits of the Santa Fe Indian School Stylists -- the Bambi School -- became obvious. Post-modernism is not painting by numbers.

Posted by EBW at 08:17 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I'm currently working very hard to get the Best Post up as soon as I can. I had a computer malfunction (one of the problems working with our limited borrowed hardware) and lost a chunk of the compilations I'd done this morning. Eric is coming home from work to let me continue without significant rugrat interruptions.

Posted by MB Williams at 02:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

As I've mentioned in previous Indian Trust Fund posts, Sec. Gale Norton's go-to man in her department on Indian issues was Deputy Secretary J. Steven Griles. In fact, as we learned late last week, it was apparently Griles who arranged the picture with Choctaw tribal leaders and Jack Abramoff back in 2003.

We also learned that Griles had a very friendly relationship with Italia Federici, director of CREA (the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy), which funnelled both Indian gaming funds and oil and gas industry contributions to Bush's pet projects, such as drilling in ANWR and destroying environmental regulations. According to a 2001 email [huge pdf] between Abramoff and Federici:

We also learned that Steven Griles was on the Bush Interior Department transition team, where his affiliation was listed as "National Environmental Strategies". National Environmental Strategies (NES) is a lobbying firm located in Washington DC. A quick lookup of Griles clients while he worked at NES, and the few years prior to his joining the firm in 1999, is quite enlightening:

CALLON PETROLEUM CO
CHEVRON U. S. A.
EDISON ELECTRIC INST
HORSEHEAD RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT CO
NATL MINING ASSN
OCCIDENTAL INTL CORP
NATL ENVIRONMENTAL STRATEGIES
THE CHLORINE INSTITUTE, INC.
OXYGENATED FUELS ASSOCIATION
BERGESON & CAMPBELL
WESTERN GAS RESOURCES
FIERCE & ISAKOWITZ
DEVON ENERGY CORP
PODESTA MATTOON
DOMINION RESOURCES
COALBED METHANE AD HOC COMMITTEE
CAITHNESS ENERGY
ADVANCED POWER TECHNOLOGIES
DEVON ENERGY
CUMBERLAND RESOURCES
REDSTONE
PITTSTON COAL CO
PIONEER GROUP INC
COASTAL COAL COMPANY
ARCH COAL INC
YATES PETROLEUM CORP
OXY USA
TEMPICO
SUNOCO
REILLY INDUSTRIES
INTEGRATED WASTE SERVICE ASSN
ENTERGY CORP
ALUMINUM ASSN
BERGESON & CAMPBELL
PENNSYLVANIA POWER & LIGHT CO
OUTLOOK POLICY FORUM
HAWTHORN GROUP
ARISTECH CHEMICAL CORP
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY COUNCIL

One has to wonder just why a man with these many contacts in the energy and mining sectors was nominated for a top position in Interior, with all its Indians and National Parks, and not say, Energy? Unless, of course, your top priority is the Bureau of Land Management, with its hundreds of thousands of federal lands, including Indian Trust lands, nearly all available for lease of its oil, gas, mineral or forestry resources.

Of course, none of the above clients would be at all concerned should the Indian Trust Fund be accurately audited.

Who are Griles corporate clients since he joined Lundquist Nethercutt and & Griles?

CONSOL ENERGY
GOLD FIELDS MINING LLC
NEWMONT MINING CORP
AMERICAN PETROLEUM INSTITUTE
BULL MOUNTAIN DEVELOPMENT CO #1
METTIKI COAL LLC
SHAW ENVIRONMENTAL INC
NEWMONT MINING CORP
KONGSBERG DEFENCE & AEROSPACE

So why are we still only concerned about Abramoff and his "clients"? Let's take a look at the money these folks gave as well.

[image from www.nj.org]

Posted by MB Williams at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Susan and Olympia need to hear from you today. Olympia has a campaign to wage in this cycle, and we're not partial to strip searching 4th and 5th graders, or the Great Disapointment of the Bushs of Kennebunkport.

Susan Collins:

• webform
  
• phone: 202-224-2523
  
• fax: 202-224-2693

• webform
  
• phone: 202-224-1946
  
• fax: 202-224-1946

Toll free in Maine for Olympia: (800) 432-1599

This really is the acid test, for wavering Democrats and sane Republicans. Its an up-or-down on sanity and caution or madness and folly.

[Update from MBW: I added the area code, as when i went to do my duty as a good Mainiac, I couldn't figure out if they were Maine numbers or DC. Also added Olympia's in-state Maine tollfree line.]

Posted by EBW at 09:25 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Sometimes when I'm working on a story and my head gets a-jumbled with all the information rattling around inside, I work backwards through to the beginning, to try and get a clear sense of the history. Then, hopefully, more will begin to fall into place.

So this morning, I pulled up the American Indian Trust Reform Management Act of 1994. It was introduced by none other than Rep. Bill Richardson (D-NM), and was passed in the House by a vote of 353 "ayes", 39 "nays", and 42 "not voting". The list of "nays" was dominated by Republicans (only 3 Dems voted against). Here are a few of the more prominant names:

Wayne Allard (R-CO)
Dick Armey (R-TX)
Bill Archer (R-TX)
Joe Barton (R-TX)
Jim Bunning (R-KY)
Tom Delay (R-TX)
Jack Fields (R-TX)
James Hansen (R-UT)
Dennis Hastert (R-IL)
Joel Hefley (R-CO)
Sam Johnson (R-TX)
Scott Klug (R-WI)
Rick Lazio (R-NY) (???)
Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA)
Jim Sennenbrenner (R-WI)
Edward Royce (R-CA)
Dan Schaefer (R-CO)
Bob Stump (R-AZ)
Jim Talent (R-MO)

So why were so many Texans, where there were no federal Indian Trust lease lands, voting against a full accounting of the Indian Trust Fund?

Posted by MB Williams at 08:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

lundi 30.01.2006, 11:12 (heure de Bruxelles)
L'adolescente kurde irakienne de 17 ans, décédée le 17 janvier à la suite d'une infection pulmonaire, était atteinte du virus H5N1 de la grippe aviaire, a déclaré à la presse le ministre irakien de la Santé Abdel Moutaleb Mohammed Ali.

Scene one, Act 3, of Geo. Bush's costume opera Die Meister Magister nach Nürnberg ("The Master Magician at Nuremburg") opens in the well of the Senate, where tenor William Frist sings the poignent lyrics of caritas del'Hospitalia Corporatione dell'America. In the wings are conta-tenor Donald Rumsfeld, who will be reapearing to sing the familiar foot-stomper Carnage Gumbo Dodah march from Act 1, and baritone Richard Cheney who dominated the stage in Act 2 with his magnificent rendition of The Works of Haliburton.

Posted by EBW at 07:26 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Nahua demons teach us so. I'm sure there are other arguments that support the thesis that pervasive intercept of jurisdiction-crossing flows is consistent with Framers' Intent, but citing Huitzilopochtli as the controling authority is pretty damn compelling. I look forward to Alito's performance when the Left-Handed Humming Bird presents the case of the God of War and the Sun during oral arguments. Deference to a Nahua demon can be very, very consuming. It takes heart.

Posted by EBW at 10:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Strip'em Dano!

We could take out full-pagers in the journals of record from now until Hell itself is admitted to the Union, and 11 Political Muricans out of 10 would affirm, in the most sincere of bobble-headed bobbles, that William Rehnquist was an exemplar jurist who has shaped and formed modern Federal Indian Law in the most sublime, and best possible forms.

The vote isn't on "values". Its on law. Other than Richard Wilson's regime of terror on the Pine Ridge I can't imagine a Tribal Executive anywhere who'd attempt to authorize the strip searching of 10 year old girls. Neither can I imagine a Tribal Jurist who'd advocate deference, under either an Indian Government Reorganization Act theory, or an inherent Indigneous Soverignty theory of Government and Executive Powers, to an Executive claim of arbitrary caprice due to extenuating circumstances.

Better to lose the entire world than to become lawless criminals, than to become Alito Americans.

Posted by EBW at 04:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

Rob Port at Wizbang! also linked to uber-conservative John Miller's Wall Street Journal editorial on eliminating Indian reservations. Port's take was somewhat different than mine:

To me, this all indicates one thing: We are doing Indians a grave disservice by keeping them on the reservation. Which isn't to say that we're forcing them to say on the reservation, because we aren't. But we are giving the incentives to stay there along the lines of government entitlement and special priveleges, and that has made the problem worse. The handling of the reservation system to this point has only created a series of isolated communities where dependence on government welfare programs is the rule, not the exception. I just don't see why that should continue.

Of course, Port, like Miller, makes no mention of the hundred billion dollars owed Indians in uncollected land, oil and gas, water, and mineral lease royalties. Anyone who truly cared about the "plight of reservation Indians" would think that all that money earned through pure and unfettered capitalism would make a huge dent in those miserable economic conditions.

But in reading Wizbang's comments, you get to see what Conservatives really think about Indians and tribal sovereignty:

Rob Port crossposted this at his home blog (and a proud member of Springtime for Hitler Media), Say Anything. Seagate is currently an advertizer on his sidebar. You can contact them and ask why they hate Indians at:

Corporate Communications

Julie Still
920 Disc Drive
Scotts Valley, CA 95066
(831) 439-2276
FAX: (831) 438-4127
E-mail: julie.still@seagate.com

Forrest Monroy
920 Disc Drive
Scotts Valley, CA 95066
(831) 439-2838
FAX: (831) 438-4127
E-mail: woody.monroy@seagate.com

Brian Ziel
920 Disc Drive
Scotts Valley, CA 95066
(831) 439-5429
FAX: (831) 438-4127
E-mail: brian.ziel@seagate.com

Posted by MB Williams at 10:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Being an Atlantic Coast Indian and all (one of my ancestors was the first Indian at Cape Porpoise to own a "sloop") I really don't understand the significance of water to those in the West. But my spouse, being a fifth generation Californian and all, has no problem reminding me...all the time. Being so well trained educated on the subject now, one can only imagine the warning bells which went off in my head when I ran across this piece of new proposed legislation this morning:

Calendar No. 355

109TH CONGRESS

A BILL TO AUTHORIZE CERTAIN TRIBES IN THE STATE OF MONTANA TO ENTER INTO A LEASE OR OTHER TEMPORARY CONVEYANCE OF WATER RIGHTS TO MEET THE WATER NEEDS OF THE DRY PRAIRIE RURAL WATER ASSOCIATION, INC.

January 24, 2006- Ordered to be printed

Filed, under authority of the order of the Senate of January 18, 2006

Mr. MCCAIN, from the Committee on Indian Affairs, submitted the following

R E P O R T

[To accompany S. 1219]

The Committee on Indian Affairs, to which was referred the bill (S. 1219) to authorize certain tribes in the State of Montana to enter into a lease or other temporary conveyance of water rights to meet the water needs of the Dry Prairie Rural Water Association, Inc., having considered the same reports favorably thereon without amendment and recommends that the bill do pass.

PURPOSE

The purpose of S. 1219 is to authorize the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, Montana, with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, to enter into a lease or other temporary conveyance of water rights recognized under the Fort Peck-Montana Compact with the Dry Prairie Rural Water Association, Incorporated (or any successor non-federal entity) for the purpose of meeting the Association's water needs.

BACKGROUND

The Fort Peck Reservation Rural Water System Act of 2000 (Public Law 106-382) was enacted in October 2000. The two components of the water system project include the Fort Peck Reservation Water System and the Dry Prairie Rural Water Authority, an off-Reservation water system, which are located in northeastern Montana. The Reservation has a population of approximately 10,700 people, of which approximately 5,800 are members of the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes. The Fort Peck water system will serve Reservation populations and the Dry Prairie Rural Water Association will serve off-Reservation populations. The project is authorized to provide municipal, rural, and industrial water to the Reservation and surrounding areas.

The Fort Peck Indian Tribes Agreement with Dry Prairie Rural Water Association, Inc. would provide authority for the Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, Montana to enter into a lease or otherwise make a temporary conveyance to Dry Prairie, without monetary compensation to the Tribes, of a portion of the Tribes' current right to use water under a compact with the State of Montana to meet off-Reservation water supply needs. The Dry Prairie allocation would be approximately 2,300 acre feet of water. The bill further provides that the life of the lease or conveyance shall not exceed 100 years, and that the Secretary is not liable for any claim relating to any lease or transfer terms.

LEGISLATIVE HISTORY

S. 1219 was introduced June 9, 2005, by Senator Burns and was referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and to the Committee on Indian Affairs. On September 28, 2005, the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources convened a business meeting to consider S. 1219 and other measures that had been referred to it, and on that date the Committee favorably reported the bill. At a business meeting held on October 27, 2005, the Committee on Indian Affairs considered S. 1219 and on that date favorably reported the bill without amendment.

COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATION AND TABULATION OF VOTE

On October 27, 2005, the Committee on Indian Affairs, in an open session, adopted S. 1219 by voice vote and ordered the bill reported favorably to the Senate.

SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS OF S. 1219

Section 1. Temporary conveyance of water rights to Dry Prairie Rural Water Association, Inc.

Section 1 provides the short title of the Act as the Temporary Conveyance of Water Rights to Dry Prairie Rural Water Association, Inc.

Subsection (a) In general

Subsection (a) authorizes the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, Montana, with the approval of the Secretary, to enter into a lease or other temporary conveyance of water rights with the Dry Prairie Rural Water Association, Incorporated, in accordance with section 5 of the Fort Peck Reservation Rural Water System Act of 2000 (Public Law 106-382). The Fort Peck water rights were recognized under the Fort Peck-Montana Compact (Montana Code Annotated 85-20-201) agreed to by the State and the Tribes, approved by the Secretary of Interior, ratified by the State of Montana on May 15, 1985.

Subsection (b) Conditions of lease

With respect to lease of water rights subsection (b) states that (1) the lease or conveyance shall not exceed 100 years; (2) the lease or conveyance may be approved by the Secretary without monetary compensation to the Tribes; and (3) the Secretary shall not be subject to liability for any claim relating to the compensation or consideration received by the Tribes under this lease or conveyance. (my emphasis)

Subsection (c) No permanent alienation of water

Subsection (c) states that nothing in this section authorizes a permanent alienation of any water rights by the Tribes.

So the Fort Peck Indians are having thousands of acre feet of water transferred from their reservation, to the surrounding towns, without compensation.

Funny, when I first read this, I interpreted it to mean that the Fort Peck water system would serve Indians on the rez, and the Dry Prairie Rural Water District would serve Indians off the rez. Then I went and checked out the US census data: Glascow has a population of 3,253, 114 of which are Indian; Scobey has 1,082 residents, 8 of whom are Indian; Plentywood has a pop of 2,161, 20 of whom are Indians; and Culbertson is a little more diverse, with 716 residents, 43 of whom are Indians. In all toll, 185 Indians live in these communities of a little over 7,000 residents.

Okay, so Indians get screwed all the time, and there might be Indians support behind this. And a quick freeing of the Googling monkeys did in fact show that DPWA (the A actually stands for Authority, not Association as in the legislation's title) was formed with cooperation of local Indians. But a reading of the project's history should leave us a little concerned:

In 1992, the Fort Peck Tribes decided that the water problems on the reservation had to be addressed and began work on a water supply system for the southern half of the reservation. It was soon realized that if all the people on the reservation couldn't benefit from the system, federal funding would be difficult to secure.

In 1994, the system was redesigned to include the whole reservation with a one-phase construction plan to cut costs. It was then presented to Senator Conrad Burns who after study suggested it become a regional water system because areas outside of the reservation were experiencing similar water quality problems.

So essentially, Conrad Burns held much needed reservation improvements hostage so that his local rancher and farming buds could get their hands on clean, treated Indian water - free of charge.

Here's a pic of DPRWA's board of directors:

Look at all those Indians with shovels.

But to be honest, it wasn't the details of the legislation which first caught my eye. See, I'm quite familiar with the name Dry Prairie Rural Water Authority, as I saw it time and time again as I trudged through Greenberg Traurig's lobbying disclosure forms. According to a May, 2005 Great Falls Tribune article:

The Dry Prairie Rural Water System in northeastern Montana spent $510,000 in taxpayer money over five years on a team of Washington, D.C., lobbyists that included Jack Abramoff, who is being investigated for allegations he cheated Native American tribes out of millions of dollars.

The Dry Prairie Rural Water System in Culbertson spent more lobbying for federal money than any other rural water system in Montana or the Dakotas, where most federally funded and managed rural water systems are located, federal lobbyist disclosure forms show.

Jacobs and a spokesman for Abramoff, Andy Blum, said Abramoff never actually worked on the Dry Prairie account.

Another team member, Kevin Ring, said he took the lead and continues to handle the account to this day along with another former Abramoff team member, Neil Volz.

Both Ring and Volz are listed, along with Abramoff, as lobbyists for some of the tribes that now claim they were overcharged.

So not only did Abramoff NOT (wink wink) work on DPRWA with Ring at Greenberg Traurig, despited both being their registered lobbyists, he must NOT (wink wink) have worked on the account while he was at Preston Gates, where he was also listed as their lobbyist, along with Ring. (Ring was one of a group of Abramoff associates at Preston Gates who left with him to join Greenberg Traurig in 2001.) And shouldn't we be asking Senator John "I don't Know Jack" McCain why, when Ring provided the Senate Indian Affairs committee with crappy testimony last June on his relationship with gaming tribes, he didn't question him on DPRWA, particularly before authoring a bill providing his client with FREE Indian water?

From the Billings Gazette:

The Montanans who have hired Ring all praised his work, saying the lobbyist was influential in helping them secure the first major federal funding they ever received. But Ring's lobbying has come under scrutiny in the past. As a onetime associate of Abramoff, Ring is in the middle of an expanding lobbying scandal. Ring and former Burns staffer Shawn Vassell, another Abramoff associate, invoked their right not to incriminate themselves when questioned this summer about what they did and what they got paid when working for Abramoff.

At a hearing in June of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, Ring refused to tell Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., what, if anything, he did to earn $125,000 paid by the Sandia Pueblo tribe in New Mexico. The tribe gave the money to Abramoff's lobbying partner, Michael Scanlon. Scanlon, in turn, gave the money to a consulting firm registered to Ring's Maryland home address.

"In fact, you didn't provide any services (to the tribe) according to the information that we have," McCain said at the hearing. Ring did not respond.

Ring also refused to tell McCain why his club dues at Washington's upscale University Club were charged to the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, one of Abramoff's clients.

McCain read an e-mail that Ring sent to Abramoff in which he asked whether there was any way to "bury" his club dues in the tribe's lobbying bill.

Shawn Vassell was also registered as a lobbyist for Dry Prairie Rural Water Authority. Didn't that make McCain go "hmmmm" before resubmitting Burn's legislation as his own?

More on Ring from the Tribune article:

Ring was critical in persuading the House Resources Committee to approve legislation authorizing the Dry Prairie system in 2000, Tubbs said.

At the time, Rep. John Doolittle, R-Calif., chairman of the Water and Power Subcommittee, was refusing to deal with a handful of bills authorizing rural water projects, including the proposed Dry Prairie and Lewis & Clark projects, Tubbs said.

Ring had just left Doolittle's staff when Dry Prairie hired him and, soon after, the water system's bill got out of committee and passed both houses of Congress, Tubbs said.

"The hiring of Ring was critical," he said. "He knew the pressure cap was about to blow off (the committee) and that the projects would pass. He made sure ours was one of them."

As Eric reminded me just this morning, in some parts of the West, water is more valuable than gold... or oil. As I've been saying regarding Abramoff - follow the money.

Posted by MB Williams at 08:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Now that I've had my daily dose of Abramoff-Indian Trust Fund obsessing, I'll get back to work compiling the next posts. I started Best Post and Most Humorous Post this morning, and will hopefully have one, if not both, up later tonight.

I did a quick estimation yesterday, and it looks as though we had somewhere around 10,000 individual nominations this year (about 1000 nominators, with an average of 10 nominations each.) That's about twice what we had last year. I was wondering why I felt like I was going blind these past few days

I'm passing the hat yet again, to cover the increasing costs of these awards. In addition to regular contributions, if you happen to know anyone who would like to purchase an ad on our sidebar, a la our wonderful Texas Senate candidate, Barbara Ann Radnofsky, please let us know. Over the next few weeks, a large percentage of the eyeballs which frequent the Lefty blogosphere will land on Wampum at one point or another, so it's a pretty good advertising investment , at a fraction of what the Big Dogs charge.

Okay, back to work. Will update below as needed.

[Update, Thursday 7:10 pm: I just remembered something I wanted to do. Earlier, I was on one of the larger blogs, when a commenter, half-jokingly, I'm sure, said something to the effect of "freeping" the Koufax for their favorite nominee. What I'd like to say for anyone who might take that idea serious, please check out this link, and see the many very committed bloggers for whom this is more than just a potential freeping event. These are the heart and soul of the Lefty Blogosphere, who toil in relative anonymity, in relation to those at the top of the food chain, yet take their work no less seriously. In fact, I was awed by the sense of camaraderie expressed in the "new" and "more deserving" tiers of the blogosphere, the generousity for their peers good fortune, even if they're in direct "competition" for our relatively inane awards.

In my mind, they've already won. I hope anyone who might think to use otherwise unethical means to forward their favorite party's case might step back and rethink their motivations.]

[Update 8:24 am, Friday: Deleted the last update, as Eric checked out PayPal and it's working fine.

I've come to the sad conclusion that this will be the last year for the Koufax Awards, at least here. I just can't afford to run them anymore, at least with some control and security, and the impact on our own bank account is too great. Fact is, I should be looking for a job right now, but am committed to seeing this through this year, so that will be put off for at least a month. Not feeling very chipper this morning, but back to work compiling.]

[Update Saturday 7:37pm: Life and politics have intervened a bit in the compilation of the next batch of Koufax nominees, and for that I apologize. 18,000 pounds of our household goods arrived by tractor-trailer from Maine today, and, to be honest, we were a bit distracted. Now we're just drowning in boxes. Of course, for anyone reading Wampum for more than just the Koufaxes, you might notice I've been perservating (good autism word) on the Indian Trust Fund issue, and will continue to do so as the spirit moves me - I think it's just too important to let slide. Now we've ordered Chinese take-out and will settle in for the night. Tomorrow, I'll get up at my usual 5 am and get a few hours in before the hoards awaken and Eric obsesses on unpacking every box and sticking things where I'll just end up moving them later on.]

Posted by MB Williams at 11:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (18) | TrackBacks (0)

I ran across this little nugget of info the other day, but forgot to write it up, so I'll give Josh the credit:

I'm looking at a list of who was on President Bush's 2000-2001 Department of Interior transition team. It's not just Jack Abramoff who's on the list. Deputy Secretary of the Interior James Steven Griles is on there too. He's also apparently a target of the Abramoff investigation. And there's David Safavian on the list. He was the first guy indicted in the Abramoff scandal, the top procurement official at the Office of Management and Budget until a couple of days before he was arrested at his home in Alexandria, Virginia.

Sort of puts a different spin on Interior's claims that they really "didn't know Jack".

Posted by MB Williams at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

There's a little group in Oklahoma named One Nation United. Well, to be honest, they're part of a now larger, national coalition, with organizations in California, Washington and New York.

Their mission?

To end tribal sovereignty for American Indian nations in the US.

Their Issues?

Taxation - It is legal for tribal businesses to sell goods to tribal members without local, state and federal taxes. It is illegal for tribal businesses to sell goods to non-tribal members with no tax or reduced tax. Unfortunately, this law is not enforced in most states. As a result, the many tates are losing hundreds of millions of dollars a year in sales and excise taxes, and a growing number of non-tribal businesses are unable to compete with their subsidized tribal competition.

Casino Gambling - Tribal casino gambling expansion too often results in harm to surrounding communities' quality of life, as well as having negative impacts on our state and local tax base. Although everyone wants to see tribes succeed economically, their success should not come by causing increased crime, traffic congestion, and harm to the environment. Casino tribes must be required to pay their fair share of taxes, follow all state and local environmental codes, and mitigate the extra expenses tribal casinos cause local governments to incur, now being unfairly borne by
taxpayers.

Environmental Regulation - Tribal governments can attain federal authority for water and/or air quality programs. Thirteen Oklahoma tribes have applied for such programs to EPA. Dozens of tribes in other states have implemented their own regulatory regimes, superceding local, state and federal laws, most with disastrous results for non-tribal businesses and property owners. Such a regulatory patchwork, if put into place in Oklahoma and across the nation, will inevitably drive away investment capitol and stymie local economic growth

Political Contributions - Tribal leaders and members should be involved in the state and nation's political process. However, they should be held to the same state laws prohibiting corporate contributions and requiring that contributors and contributions be reported to the state Ethics Commission and the Federal Election Commission. Tribes should not be allowed to contribute federal tax dollars or money from corporate tribal enterprises to political candidates and causes.

Other issues include the removal of millions of dollars of property from county tax rolls as it is purchased by tribal governments; the protection of land and water rights for landowners and municipalities; and the problematic nature of doing business with tribal enterprises that can't be sued due to sovereign immunity.

Their founding members?

Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association
Oklahoma Petroleum Marketers Association
Oklahoma Farm Bureau
Southern Oklahoma Water Alliance
Oklahoma Grocers Association
United Property Owners

So just why are oil companies so concerned with Indian casinos?

Next question? What, if any, are Ralph Reed's ties to One Nation United?

[Update: I should probably note that there are a lot of federal Indian Trust lands in Oklahoma. And a lot of oil too, under those lands.]

Posted by MB Williams at 09:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I missed this one last week, but it hits hard on the GOP Indians as villains, not victims meme:

Talking point: Blame the Indians for Abramoff

[Note: The picture is of my mom in 1955 at age 16. No, she did not write the editorial (she died in 2002). But it was her birthday that day, and I make the excuse I missed the editorial as I was missing her.]

[Note2: According to the Interior Department, my mom wasn't an Indian.]

Posted by MB Williams at 08:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Since I hope we get nothing done today other than track muddy footprints upstairs, downstairs, and in my ladies chamber, moving children's toys and instruments and art materials and boxes of books (loop: and boxes of books; goto loop) and dressers and winter clothing (shudder) and beds and bedding and tables and chairs and lamps and ... eventually light, from a moving van to a house, today is a good day to die. er, today is a good day to ineffectively attempt, without writing email and trying to get through dozens of aggressive spam filters and authentication schemes, to let prior Koufax winners and near-winners know that I'm asking for publication releases.

Basically, the 2002/2003/2004/2005 Koufax posts in book form, for people who read dead trees, possibly in the bathroom.

Let me know if you'd like a release form. Let me know if you've got a publisher to suggest.

Posted by EBW at 08:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

The moving van arrives in a few hours and a cat and I are watching the pre-dawn.

Duncan linked to Hoffmainia, where there's a verbatium of the Beeb's piece on IO. That's a good thing. Since that might get some readers I've stuffed some material in the comments to the Hoffmania piece. Something may come out in the WSJ tangential to the piece that Christopher Rhodes called me about on Wednesday. Then again, had I known the WSJ was going to re-run the extermination-is-good OpEds Baum-the-Oz-man wrote to for The Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer, to white-wash the assassination of Sitting Bull, and the massacre at Wounded Knee, by someone previously as indifferent to the existance of Indians and Indian Country as William F. Buckley, but now tasked with being point-white-man on the defensive white-wash of the Trust Fund liability-in-chief -- the independent audit authority of Tribal Governments and Trust beneficiaries, I would have declined Mr. Rhodes' request for my time.

The proper way to refer to South Piikini (South Piegans) is Aamsskáápipikani. That's "Blackfoot" in the Cobell v Norton case.

Via Dawn, the next best starting place on Pakistan on-line and in English after the final posts of Shaheen Sehbai's South Asia Tribune, there is news that David Mulford (Under Secretary and Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury for International Affairs, 1984-1992, large-scale privatisation line of business at Credit Suisse First Boston, 1992-2003), publically linked the nuclear cooperation agreement that everyone knew was the pay for India's vote against Iran at the IAEA and the UNSC, with India voting against Iran at the IAEA and the UNSC.

To be fair, Ambassador Mulford's only got one week to "close" the deal before the IAEA vote, and four weeks to get India whipped into shape before King George visits, and democratic societies are run by small groups of morally dead white men. I read that somewhere on an NSA approved media outlet so it must be true and the way things simply have to be.

To be completely fair, less than 48 hours after David Mulford's bon mot, Condi Rice, not a "morally dead white man", just "married" to one, did one better: In order to move on to a new phase in which civil nuclear power would be available to India, India has to make some difficult choices.

The funniest line in the whole farce was this:

But it's very important to understand that in order to satisfy the concerns of the American Congress and our laws and the concerns of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, that there will have to be some steps taken to make sure that the proliferation risks are not enhanced by this deal.

Headline shamelessly appropriated from the Hindustani Times. A "dots to feathers" nuclear rhetoricology transfer.

Posted by EBW at 06:17 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

So now there are a whopping five links on Technorati which reference "Norton + Indian + Trust Fund" over the past month+. Yet, once again, they're all here. In case you missed them, in chronological order (leaving out the Koufax Open Thread):

Down the Wrong Rabbit Hole
A Clue! A Clue!
Forget About the Little Fish
The Metaphysics of Indian Hating Redux

Think that I won't continue to do this everyday until the story "Abramoff + Federici + Griles + Pombo + Norton + Gillespie + oil/gas interests = Indian Trust Fund Conspiracy" is picked up?

Posted by MB Williams at 01:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I knew it was only a short time before we saw this genocidal sentiment, particularly in light of Democrats shunning us faster than Bush has Abramoff:

The Projects on the Prairie
By JOHN J. MILLER
January 27, 2006; Page W11

The fallout from the Jack Abramoff corruption scandal has all of Washington atwitter about congressional reform -- everything from proposals to restrict travel perks and lunches with lobbyists to a potential shakeup in the Republican House leadership.

A subtheme of the controversy involves not a shakeup but a shakedown -- of Indian tribes by Mr. Abramoff, who used casino cash to throw money around town as well as to line his own pockets richly. The common perception is that once again the white man has cheated the red man.

Perhaps a few expressions of sympathy are in order. Yet Indians would benefit much more from their own sweeping reforms. The Abramoff rip-off should be the least of their worries. The time has come to abolish reservations for the good of the people who live on them.

...

Professional victimologists offer no shortage of explanations for this miserable state of affairs, but most of their analysis boils down to a core grievance: The federal government stole land from the Indians by conquest and treaty. Although Indians once were able to obtain title to specific parcels within reservations, this practice ended in 1934 -- an act that essentially turned the reservations into not-so-little housing projects on the prairie.

...

Maybe we should give land back to the rez-dwellers, so that they may own private property the way other Americans do. Currently, the inability to put up land as collateral for personal mortgages and loans is a major obstacle to economic development. This problem is complicated by the fact that not all reservations have adopted uniform commercial codes or created court systems that are independent branches of tribal government -- the sorts of devices and institutions that give confidence to investors who might have the means to fund the small businesses that are the engines of rural economies.

Tribal ownership of the land is defended as the sine qua non of Indian sovereignty, which many activists regard as sacrosanct. It maintains the semifictional notion that the reservations are separate nations within the U.S. Although tribal members are American citizens, the reservations themselves are exempt from many federal and state laws. This is why so many Indian casinos have sprung up in areas that otherwise curb gambling.

Sovereignty also is understood as a form of cultural protectionism. Without it, goes the thinking, Indians eventually will follow the course of immigrant groups and assimilate into the great American melting pot. Intermarriage between Indians and non-Indians is pervasive, especially off the rez. More than half of all Indians already marry outside their race, according the Census. For racial purists who believe that the men and women of today's tribes should be preserved like frozen displays in natural-history museums, this is a tragedy akin to ethnic cleansing (albeit one based on love rather than hate).

...

Even if casino revenues were able to address these soul-crushing problems -- a doubtful proposition -- most reservations are too isolated geographically to profit from big-dollar gambling. Yet the rise of the casinos may help point the way forward: Their ability to flourish contradicts the tenured Marxists in ethnic-studies departments who claim that communitarian Indian cultures aren't compatible with market capitalism. After all, it takes entrepreneurship to run some of the world's biggest casinos...

Funny how in this entire article, Miller neglects to mention the Indian Trust Lands and the class-action lawsuit brought by Elouise Cobell on behalf of a half-million Indians. Guess the potential 100 billion dollars owed the tribes wouldn't make a dent in that crushing poverty, neh?

This comes out of the Wall Street Journal, the mouthpiece of the GOP and corporate America. If you now think that the Abramoff scandal still doesn't have everything to do with the Indian Trust Fund litigation, I have a bridge to sell you.

More: In case you thought it was a one-time fluke, check out former NM GOP chair John Dendahl's current screed, "Indian Sovereignty Has Outlived Its Usefulness".

[Note: The title of this post refers to Richard Drinnon's seminal work, Facing West: The Metaphysics of Indian-Hating and Empire-Building which I strongly recommend for American non-Indians as background on the history and significance of the tradition of "Indian Hating".]

Posted by MB Williams at 11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)