Slavery is good

Here Michael Medved blithers about the African slaves and how we did them a favor by bringing them to America. One point stood out:

5. WHILE AMERICA DESERVES NO UNIQUE BLAME FOR THE EXISTENCE OF SLAVERY, THE UNITED STATES MERITS SPECIAL CREDIT FOR ITS RAPID ABOLITION.

Which brought me to this book review: Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy:

In this eye-opening look at the contemporary American scourge of labor abuse and outright slavery, journalist and author Bowe (Gig: Americans Talk About their Jobs) visits locations in Florida, Oklahoma and the U.S.-owned Pacific island of Saipan, where slavery cases have been brought to light as recently as 2006. There, he talks to affected workers, providing many moving and appalling first-hand accounts. In Immokalee, Florida, migrant Latino tomato and orange pickers are barely paid, kept in decrepit conditions and intimidated, violently, to keep quiet about it.

A welding factory in Tulsa, Oklahoma imported workers from India who were forced to pay exorbitant "recruiting fees" and live in squalid barracks with tightly controlled access to the outside world. Considering the tiny island capital of Saipan, Bowe explores how its culture, isolation and American ties made it so favorable an environment for exploitative garment manufacturers and corrupt politicos; alongside the factories sprouted karaoke bars, strip joints and hotels where politicians were entertained by now-imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff. The detailed chapter gives readers a lasting image of the island, touted a "miracle of economic development," as a vulnerable, truly suffering community, where poverty rates have climbed as high as 35 percent.

Bowe's deeply researched, well-written treatise on the very real problem of modern American slavery deserves the attention of anyone living, working and consuming in America.

The United States still has slavery?

And this about Bush, Abramoff and the Northern Mariana Islands, John Aravosis of Americablog in 10/16/06:

Remember how just two years ago George Bush claimed he wanted to put a stop to human trafficking - i.e., women being forced into sexual slavery?

Then why was the Bush administration's premiere advocate for stopping such sexual slavery forced out of his job a while back?

According to the Sunday Los Angeles Times, he was fired because convicted criminal lobbyist Jack Abramoff was representing one of the countries that most profits from sexual slavery and human trafficking, the Northern Mariana Islands. Abramoff wanted this Bush administration official fired because the official's anti-human-trafficking agenda - now George Bush's agenda - posed a direct threat to Abramoff's pro-sex-slave client.

But Jack Abramoff doesn't have the power to fire a Bush administration official - all he can do is ask. Someone inside the Bush administration had to do Abramoff's dirty work and fire the official on behalf of Abramoff and his client. According to the Los Angeles Times, that someone was former senior Bush White House official, and now head of the Republican party, Ken Mehlman.

And then my post about the collection of illegal immigrants and others being held in concentration camps in the United States with no oversight.

I've been getting consistent hits on this last year's post about a parody site about slavery being good for the economy. It boggles my mind.

What the hell is going on?

I hope others are beginning to break out in a sweat

Because the phrase 'just following orders' is so 1940ish and 'everybody else was doing it' doesn't work after you're 12.

Welcome to the real world, you wonderful workers of Karl Rove's thousand year reich!:

Washington, D.C. (AHN)-A former Bush administration official was sentenced Tuesday to 10 months in prison for obstructing a corruption probe into now-jailed Washington Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Deputy Interior Secretary Steven Griles, 59, was also ordered by U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle to pay a $30,000 fine and serve three years of supervised release after his imprisonment.

On March 23, Griles was convicted after pleading guilty to obstructing a 2005 Senate investigation into pay-for-play politics in the Department of the Interior, where Griles was the No. 2 official.

Abramoff, who began a nearly six-year prison sentence in November, pleaded guilty to a long list of federal charges, including conspiracy, mail fraud and tax evasion.

Former Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) was sentenced in January to 2 1/2 years in prison, after taking bribes from Abramoff, who was trying to help Indian tribes.

In October, David Safavian, the Bush administration's former top procurement official, was sentenced to 18 months in prison after he was found guilty of trying to cover up his association with Abramoff.

Among the many Washington insiders still under investigation is Italia Federici, co-founder of the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy.

She pleaded guilty to tax evasion and obstruction of a Senate investigation into Abramoff's relationship with Interior Department officials.

Also, there is Congressman Ney's former chief of staff, William Heaton, who has also pleaded guilty to conspiracy. He allegedly accepted lavish trips, meals and gifts as payoffs for helping Abramoff's clients gain congressional favor.

How's the making of your own reality working out for you now?

Update 6/27: Atrios at Eschaton has more.