Open Source Foes In Bed With Abramoff

Will Rodger writes, "Citizens Against Government Waste has said some highly critical things about open source software in the past. They've also pounced on supporters of the OpenDocument Format along the way. Alas, it seems their close ties to Jack Abramoff have drawn the (unfavorable) attention of Senate staff."

More info about what exactly they said...

[KingSkippus]

If you're like me, you're probably wondering, "The who said what about what?"

Wikipedia to the rescue [wikipedia.org].

Read on past the Linux stuff. This is the same group that took money from Phillip Morris and then (can you imagine?) complained that the Department of Health and Human Services report on the dangers of smokeless tobacco was a waste of taxpayer money. Go figure.

Abramoff also in bed with software patent trolls

[linefeed0]

This is a repost [slashdot.org] of a comment I have made previously, but I think the connection is important. Jack Abramoff took money to lobby on behalf of a company, eLottery, whose business model basically depends on software and business method patents in order to raise the cash they need to spend on lobbyists. Without the patents, there would at best be a trade association for such companies in a competitive market, probably more open in its dealings with government as well.

An article several months ago in the Washington Post [washingtonpost.com] described more about how Jack Abramoff took money to influence congressional proceedings. In this case, it was to scuttle a bill that would have prohibited state lotteries from going online. As with his work with Indian casinos, Abramoff pulled strings to get otherwise anti-gambling members of Congress to vote against a law prohibiting companies like eLottery from conducting lotteries over the Internet.

Oh, did I say "companies like"? Oops, no, just eLottery. They seem to have some patents [elottery.com] "broadly covering Internet retailing of state lottery tickets". In other words, software patents, or actually business model patents (legalized monopolies) disguised as them. Of course, those patents let them raise capital from investors eager to profit from that legalized monopoly. Where did that capital go? Right into lobbyists' pockets.

Corrupted Windows Filing System

[Doc Ruby]

'"What is most important, however, is that this matter is kept discreet," Abramoff wrote to a colleague [washingtonpost.com] at the Preston, Gates & Ellis law firm. "We do not want the opponents to think that we are trying to buy the taxpayer movement."'

Preston Gates & Ellis [wikipedia.org]: 'The "Gates" in the firm's name is William H. Gates, Sr., father of Microsoft founder Bill Gates.'

Abramoff's gang of Republicans took control of the entire elected government in 2001.

"The DOJ, now under the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush, announced on September 6, 2001 [wikipedia.org] that it was no longer seeking to break up Microsoft and would instead seek a lesser antitrust penalty."

Re:Not to say it's wrong, mind you...

[Doc Ruby]

That article at the Daily Kos to which I linked itself links, in it's third sentence, to the ABC News transcript [globalexchange.org] of 5/24/99 documenting Brian Ross investigating Abramoff's slavery biz in Saipan. But the Daily Kos article was written by someone who's been covering the abuses in the islands for a long time. It includes copies of Preston, Gates lobbyist conspiracies [flickr.com] to protect the Marianas abuses. And compiles lots of other cited evidence into a good picture of the racket Abramoff's Republicans, including Delay and Hastert, were running in their "Conservative Paradise", making a travesty of American borders, Chinese trade, and other "Conservative" values. Read it and judge for yourself. That's the power of the Web. Google the facts presented in DKos, and make your own decision.

So instead of seeing a Daily Kos link and caving in to Republican "shoot the messenger" copouts, just click it [dailykos.com] and see all the facts and logic painting this picture. Not that you [slashdot.org] are copping out, but others reading this thread have to fight off several layers of Republican media brainwashing. We're just here to help.

Re:Not to say it's wrong, mind you...

[Beryllium Sphere(tm)]

http://www.american.edu/TED/saipan.htm [american.edu]
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/05/09/real.delay/ [cnn.com]
http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/sweatshops /saipan/abc040100.html [globalexchange.org]
http://www.msmagazine.com/spring2006/paradise_full .asp [msmagazine.com]

Re:Are They Really *Evil*? ... More Crap in Guam

[Anonymous Coward]

There was even more Abramoff crap in Guam. If this is ever fully investigated, it could lead directly to both the Dept. of Justice and the White House:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Abramoff_Guam_in vestigation [wikipedia.org]

A US federal prosecutor was investgating Abromoff in Guam, which is part of the same government administraion structure as Saipan. He was abruptly removed and replaced by a Republican, who then removed himself from the investigation because one of the targets was a relative! The case was kicked back to the FBI in Washington, which effectively ended the investigation.

Now this had to happen through some combination of White House and DOJ action. There are reports that Rove was directly involved.

This is completly explosive. If it is true that an ongoing criminal probe into corruption was stopped by political intervention a special prosecutor is the only solution. Former AG Ashcroft might end up being indicted, or be an unindicted conspirator. Or Rove could be facing a major criminal case. Tom Delay also had a hand in this. This kind of activity is at the heart of Watergate; someone breaking the law, and then people at the highest level covering it up.

(Delay is going to jail for other reasons. His wife had a no-show job, where she got around 40k per year for doing nothing, so either she goes to the slammer or he does. This is how they got some of the Enron guys, through their wives.)

Re:CAGW once ran a hit piece on me

[touretzky]

The cagw.org article you linked to, nowhere mentions Scientology.

Of course not. These people aren't stupid. But at the time the article came out, Scientology was conducting a defamation campaign against me that included, among other things, anonymous faxes to various media outlets, most of whom were too smart to take the bait. But CAGW was eager to cooperate -- and very sloppy in their "reporting". Failing to contact me or the university for a response is simply inexcusable, but it's what one would expect with a deliberate hit-piece.