Re: Pelosi doesn't want tuna with good taste....
To all you Republican Hypocrites,
Were was your outrage when members of the media and concerned citizens were screaming and waving their arms to draw attentions to the conditions in the Northern Mariana Island of Saipan?
Tom Delay, Ralph Reed, Grover Norquist and Jack Amboroff(sp) had dealings with companies operating on the island of Saipan and the mainstream media refused to report this story to the public.
The following is just a sample of Ralph Reed's connection to the companies operating in Saipan. If any of you conservative apologist are interested, just google Tom Delay, Grover Norquist or Jack Abmoroff along with "Saipan Mariana Island", and you'll see this story has been out their for a long time and fell to deaf ears in the MSM. So much for liberal bias.
Marianas Abortion and Prostitution?
The Cagle ad also says "Reed worked with Abramoff to deny women and children legal protection from sweat shops in the Northern Mariana Islands . . . even though our government warned that women on the islands were subject to forced abortions and children were coerced into prostitution." That's also true, though Reed says he wasn't aware of the concerns about abortion and prostitution.
Abramoff lobbied against legislation to impose federal wage and worker-safety standards on garment factories in the Northern Mariana Islands, where Chinese workers were brought in to produce clothing labeled "Made in the USA." Abramoff received just over $4 million for this work from 1998 through 2002.
On May 29 the Washington Post broke the story that Reed, an old friend of Abramoff since college days, had been hired to help in this effort as well. The newspaper described a flyer sent by Reed's marketing firm in 1999 urging Alabama conservative Christians to contact Bob Riley, then a member of the House, to vote against the legislation opposed by Abramoff. The flyer said the legislation would stop Chinese workers from coming to the island where they are "exposed to the teachings of Jesus Christ" and where many "are converted to the Christian faith and return to China with Bibles in hand."
As Cagle's ad says, however, the US Interior Department had found a year earlier that female Chinese garment workers were pressured to have abortions if they became pregnant, and that women and children were being forced into prostitution on the island. In a statement March 31, 1998, President Clinton's Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt said, "We . . . have evidence that at least some of the Chinese workers, when they become pregnant, are given a three-way choice: go home to China, get a back-alley abortion on Saipan, or get fired."
Reed's story is that he was unaware of reports that women were being mistreated, and was only working "to promote the propagation of the gospel" among Chinese workers on the island. Reed's spokeswoman Lisa Baron confirmed to the Post that Abramoff hired Reed's marketing firm for the effort. But she added, As a defender of the unborn, Ralph was unaware of any allegations regarding inhumane or illegal treatment of workers, and he would strongly object to such practices, if true.
