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Fresh Loaf

Atlanta news and views, one slice at a time

What’s it all about, Ralphie?

May 30, 2006 at 5:51 pm by Web Editor in News

Oh Ralphie, what are they saying about you now? First they claimed that you were using money from one Indian casino to try and shut down another Indian casino. But that wasn’t fair! You didn’t know where that money came from. How could you?

Now they’re saying that seven years ago you worked to defeat legislation that would have kept Chinese women from being forced into prostitution.

The Washington Post story says that in August 1999, your firm sent out a mailer to Alabama conservative Christians asking them to call then-Rep. Bob Riley (R-Ala.) and tell him to vote against legislation that would have made the U.S. commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands subject to federal wage and worker safety laws.

The Northern Mariana Islands are located in the North Pacific Ocean, about three-quarters of the way from Hawaii to the Philippines. Chinese women go there to find jobs in textile factories. According to the IRS, garment production is by far the commonwealth’s most important industry with the employment of 17,500 mostly Chinese workers, many of whom are paid wages lower than U.S. minimum wage.

A year before you sent out your mailer, a Department of the Interior report found that many of the Chinese women in the Northern Mariana Islands were "subject to forced abortions and that women and children were subject to forced prostitution in the local sex-tourism industry."

But you didn’t know about that Department of the Interior Report! You didn’t know about prostitution! You just knew that those Chinese women weren’t learning to love the Lord. Just look at how the Post describes the mailer you sent to the Alabama Conservative Christians:

The Chinese workers, it added, "are exposed to the teachings of Jesus Christ" while on the islands, and many "are converted to the Christian faith and return to China with Bibles in hand."

See! "Bibles in hand"! You were just looking out for them. You were just doing the Lord’s work. You didn’t know anything about prostitution or abortions or anything like that. Just like you didn’t know where the money you used to shut down that casino came from.

After all, you can’t know everything.