Total DeLay Trip Blogging

Since Tom DeLay seems able to generate one huge scandal per international junket, I decided to look around the internets for old reports of DeLay travel.

One trip got a bit of negative attention at the time (1996). It was a trip to Burma/Myanmar in 1996. Dennis Hastert was along for the ride. The trip was financed by the Asia Pacific Exchange Foundation, a tax-exempt organization in Washington. www.burmanet.org suggests that the Foundation may have been effectively laundering lobbying money for Unocal and its French partner Total.

During part of the trip, Rep. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and an aide flew
by helicopter over the remote area where a U.S. oil company, Unocal, and its
French partner, Total, are building a natural gas pipeline.
That $1.2 billion project, Burma's largest foreign investment deal,
could be in jeopardy because of possible U.S. sanctions against the
southeast Asian country.
The trip by Hastert, House Majority Whip Tom DeLay of Texas, New York
Rep. Bill Paxon and Ohio Rep. Deborah Pryce was paid for by the Asia Pacific
Exchange foundation, a tax-exempt organization in Washington.
The group's president, Richard G. Quick, declines to say where its
money comes from. But Unocal acknowledged it is among the foundation's sponsors.

A lot of interesting looking but mostly dead links are here. The only live link seems to be back to the blurb itself.

This has embarrassing info on Carl Ford and Brent Scowcroft (which means DeLay trip blogging creates complications for Block Bolton Blogging).

My favorit hit is this
diagram of a 2 dimensional scaling exercise in which distance decreases the more often two names appear on the same page. The explanation and disclaimer notes that this technique would make Mother Teresa appear to be at the center of a vast charitable conspiracy.

Note that the Asia Pacific Exchange Foundation is closely linked to Unocal and is linked both to Tom DeLay and Li Peng the Tienamen square smashing hardliner.

The Burma trip does not disappoint. We have DeLay linked to ChiComs, French interests and the use of Non profits to launder corporate lobbying cash.

Also the diagrams are really cool.