Capitalist perfection

Marilyn's Muffs does some serious shit-talking:

Women who worked in the Marianas Islands’ factories were tricked into signing contracts by being told they would work in “U.S. factories” and some faced forced abortions when they became pregnant. Marilyn helped make this possible.

WTF?!?!?!

Alright. Part of the Tom DeLay-Jack Abramoff scheming was to the Marianas Islands, a US protectorate, exempt from national labor and immigration laws. Can you spell, S-W-E-A-T-S-H-O-P, boys and girls? Only in this case, it's got an American flag sown on it.

As Tom DeLay preached his pro-business/anti-regulation theology in the US, his model of perfection was far from the mainland. The U.S. protectorate of the Northern Mariana Islands -- 14 islands in the North Pacific -- have become something of a free-enterprise petting zoo for DeLay and those he wishes to convert to his way of thinking.

Who can be against these guest workers?

Despite the growing public awareness of work conditions in the islands, Tom DeLay's defense of the status quo remained unshaken. In 1998 DeLay co-authored a letter with House Majority Leader Dick Army (R-TX). The two men, writing to the islands' governor, expressed how "impressed" they were with the Marianas' "commitment to advancing the principles of free markets, enterprise, tax reform and other innovative approaches to governance."

Ship in the Chinese labor. Seize their passports. Keep in sweatshops. Abuse them. Tell them to get backroom abortions if they want to keep their jobs. Ms. Magazine blew the lid off all of this crap.

With few economic options, pregnant workers often feel they have no choice but to visit one of Saipan’s underground abortion providers. At least four acupuncture clinics offer pills to induce abortions, according to a local translator and former garment worker.

“I’ve driven four Chinese women to get abortions here,” he says, pointing to an inconspicuous cement building with red Chinese lettering and an English sign that reads “Acupuncture, Herbs, Massage Oils.” “I see girls whose bleeding did not stop, and on two incidents I had to take the girls to the hospital.”

Now that's what we call Right To Work!

How did Tom DeLay, who called this the "perfect petri dish of capitalism," keep his Congress Cronies from doing anything about this?

Abramoff, using his close ties to Republicans in the House, worked mightily to block such reforms.

Many of his efforts focused on the House Resources Committee, which has jurisdiction over U.S. territories, including the Marianas. Although members of both houses of Congress and both political parties repeatedly pushed to bring the Marianas under federal immigration and minimum wage laws, not a single legislative attempt has succeeded—most killed in the House Resources Committee.

Hello, Mr. Pombo!

Miller has also requested that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and the current House Resources Committee chair, Richard Pombo (R-Calif.), launch a full investigation of Abramoff’s dealings in the Marianas. So far, Pombo has yet to hold a hearing, but Miller says he will continue to push.

“It’s so ironic that people who talk about themselves as having family values are allowing these guest workers to be exploited in the harshest possible ways,” says Miller. “Their money and lobbying allowed the continuation of the worst of human behavior. Hopefully, now DeLay’s influence is diminished and there’s an opportunity to provide some protections.”

Guess who else sits on the House Resources Committee!

America's own Chastity Belt: Marilyn Musgrave.