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The joys of misrepresentation
Jan. 6th, 2006 02:27 pmSo, every so often, I like to do my "conservative tool" trolling and view a former LJ friend's site to see what the self-proclaimed objective conservative patsy likes to put forth regarding current events. This time the topic was the Abramoff Scandal.
Now, Abramoff's crimes are discussed generally here.
He mentions information from here that cites the various Democrats who received funding from Abramoff. However, this site does not address whether these contributions were actual legal ones versus the ones he's actually being investigated for/plead guilty to. I'm not even sure Abramoff himself made these contributions, because the source of data itself says it was from "Abramoff, his associates, and indian tribes". And sadly, the source of this information appears primarily from a site that you must subscribe to, so it's not information readily available.
Case in point, that site says John Kerry received over 98k from Abramoff. I look at the Federal Election Committee site, and I cannot find where Kerry received contributions from Abramoff be it for his Senate campaigns or his presidental campaigns. Here's one link here (that is a list of individual contributors with the last name beginning with A. This data provides historical data as far back as 1994. So, if Kerry received this money, it was not from Abramoff, but from his associates, or from indian tribes (who Abramoff apparently bilked), or, the money Kerry gave was not disclosed, which of course would not show up as public record, and hence would be part of the case, I suppose.
And if you search by Abramoff, you get these results. Still no John Kerry.
I haven't taken time to look into more details and try to cross-reference with other politicians on the list due to time constraints, but the "tool" tries to associate these Democrats directly with Abramoff, and not his firm or his clients. That's not what this scandal was about.
As others noted in the blog trail, Media Matters is on the case.
Now, Abramoff's crimes are discussed generally here.
He mentions information from here that cites the various Democrats who received funding from Abramoff. However, this site does not address whether these contributions were actual legal ones versus the ones he's actually being investigated for/plead guilty to. I'm not even sure Abramoff himself made these contributions, because the source of data itself says it was from "Abramoff, his associates, and indian tribes". And sadly, the source of this information appears primarily from a site that you must subscribe to, so it's not information readily available.
Case in point, that site says John Kerry received over 98k from Abramoff. I look at the Federal Election Committee site, and I cannot find where Kerry received contributions from Abramoff be it for his Senate campaigns or his presidental campaigns. Here's one link here (that is a list of individual contributors with the last name beginning with A. This data provides historical data as far back as 1994. So, if Kerry received this money, it was not from Abramoff, but from his associates, or from indian tribes (who Abramoff apparently bilked), or, the money Kerry gave was not disclosed, which of course would not show up as public record, and hence would be part of the case, I suppose.
And if you search by Abramoff, you get these results. Still no John Kerry.
I haven't taken time to look into more details and try to cross-reference with other politicians on the list due to time constraints, but the "tool" tries to associate these Democrats directly with Abramoff, and not his firm or his clients. That's not what this scandal was about.
As others noted in the blog trail, Media Matters is on the case.
