Why a plank in the GOP platform: "No minimum wage for the Mariana Islands"? Ask Ralph Reed

[G_j]

Why would a plank in the official GOP platform say "No minimum wage for the Mariana Islands"? Ask Ralph Reed ... or read this latest essay from Bill Moyers and Michael Winship.


Ralph Reed in the Marianas Trenches
http://www.billmoyers.com

A plank in the GOP platform tells just one tale of Reed's heinous hypocrisy.


Ralph Reed in the Marianas Trenches

August 31, 2012

by Bill Moyers and Michael Winship

Entrance to garment factory on Saipan; Credit: WikiCommons

As the sun slowly sets over the Republican National Convention in Tampa, we settle back in the chairs that nice Mr. Eastwood just gave us and ponder some of the other oddities of the week. Like this item in the official GOP platform pointed out by Brad Plumer of The Washington Post:

No minimum wage for the Mariana Islands. “The Pacific territories should have flexibility to determine the minimum wage, which has seriously restricted progress in the private sector.”

This caught our attention (and thanks to colleague Theresa Riley for sending) because it once again reminds us of the sordid past of evangelical and political entrepreneur Ralph Reed who, as this week’s edition of Moyers & Company reports in detail, has emerged from the ashes of epic career fail to reestablish himself as a powerful figure in Republican politics.

As head of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, Reed boasts he’s building a political dynamo of five million members with a massive database, an annual budget of $100 million and full-time lobbyists in all fifty state capitals, a colossal effort aimed at putting in place a right-wing social agenda and identifying and establishing contact with what it estimates as 27 million conservative voters in America. As you can imagine, with clout like that, Reed and his coalition were in high cotton at the Tampa convention.

..more..

[Progressive dog]

1. Can us" Christians" still have slavery, please?

As long as WE get to be the slaveholder, but can't call it slavery anymore.
I really hate these slime.

[Zambero]

2. God wills it

And it is WRITTEN: Those suffering in sweat shops working for long hours for poverty wages will someday reap their eternal heavenly rewards PROVIDED they exceed production quotas, maximize corporate profits, and don't bitch about being screwed over by paid lobbyists who exacted Draconian promises at a certain political convention!

[G_j]

4. the word

of greed

[Octafish]

3. Mammon and Money.

Not necessarily in that order.

[hootinholler]

5. Better to ask Frederick K. Black...

You might ask who Mr. Black is. He was a US Atty in Guam back when Abramoff was doing his thing...

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/08/08/bush_removal_ended_guam_investigation/

In Guam, a US territory in the Pacific, investigators were looking into Abramoff's secret arrangement with Superior Court officials to lobby against a court reform bill then pending in Congress. The legislation, since approved, gave the Guam Supreme Court authority over the Superior Court.

In 2002, Abramoff was retained by the Superior Court in what was an unusual arrangement for a public agency. The Los Angeles Times reported in May that Abramoff was paid with a series of $9,000 checks funneled through a Laguna Beach, Calif., lawyer to disguise the lobbyist's role working for the Guam court. No separate contract was authorized for Abramoff's work.
...

The transactions were the target of a grand jury subpoena issued Nov. 18, 2002, according to the subpoena. It demanded that Anthony Sanchez, administrative director of the Guam Superior Court, turn over all records involving the lobbying contract, including bills and payments.

A day later, the chief prosecutor, US Attorney Frederick A. Black, who had launched the investigation, was demoted. A White House news release announced that Bush was replacing Black.

You see with no wage laws applicable, slave labor (especially in textiles) can be marked as "Made in U.S.A." and sold with none the wiser.