Published reports indicate that Barrett Moore was once convicted of deceptively obtaining more than $300,000 in connection with a used car business in Australia. He served prison time for that. Other ventures he founded have gone bankrupt. There have stories alleging that he misrepresented his military background.
In a later venture he was CEO of a private military contracting firm called Triple Canopy, which did business in Iraq. The internet newspaper Michigan Messenger reported that the board of directors fired Moore and charged him with fraud.
That case was later settled out of court. Whatever the facts are, it might seem that a little bit of due diligence was in order before the state fell all over itself to give Sovereign Deed special tax breaks.
But prudence and caution never seemed to enter the heads of Michigan lawmakers. Last year, Democratic State Representative Gary McDowell and Republican State Senator Jason Allen got together.
They drafted a bill to grant Sovereign Deed sweetheart tax abatements. Lansing was a place last year where Democrats and Republicans normally weren’t even talking to each other.
But the lawmakers stopped their trench warfare long enough to unanimously approve Sovereign Deed’s tax abatements, which were then signed by a beaming Governor Granholm.
Well, I shouldn’t have been surprised. These folks are risking destroying a species of trout for a hundred temporary jobs produced by a controversial Upper Peninsula sulfide mine.
Believe me, I know how badly Michigan needs jobs. But what really bothers me is that this is a business that should be highly repugnant to all Americans, especially those who claim to represent the poorer and the downtrodden, namely, the Democrats.
Sovereign Deed’s entire premise is this: In the event of a disaster, some lives are worth more than others, so we are here to save the truly deserving: The rich. This is a company founded on the principle of billionaires first, poor women and children last. It wants people to think that our government is incompetent to save us, and that they need to buy protection. What I worry about is that if we encourage businesses like Sovereign Deed, their advertising slogan will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. If well-off people buy their own services, that will give Congress every incentive to reduce disaster funding for the rest of us.
I can think of nothing more un-American. A few years ago, there was a character on the television series the West Wing who finds out he will be whisked off to a secure bunker if there ever is a nuclear war.
When he finds out his secretary isn’t on the evacuation list, he gets visibly upset and can’t sleep. Today, I suppose he would just l smile, and slip her a number for Sovereign Deed.
So here’s a memo to all concerned:
Just what were you thinking?
Memo to Jack Lessenberry:
Your memory of Josh Lyman's "NSC nuclear attack card" is pretty good. But proof that a little memory is a dangerous thing. About that card -- at the end of that episode (it was Episode 5 of the first season, also called Episode 105, titled "Crackpots and These Women"), it was revealed that the "NSC card" that Josh anguished over was an elaborate practical joke, played on Josh by President Bartlet and Leo McGarry. There were no such cards, and the guy who played the part of Lacey, the supposed NSC agent, was a hoax, revealed at a Bartlet family chili dinner in the East Wing.
I'm guessing that maybe Mr. Lessenberry had fallen asleep by the time that episode ended.
Posted by: Anonymous | January 28, 2008 at 01:09 PM
Ah, a typical Republican reaction; fixated on small details while missing the main point.
Posted by: Jack Lessenberry | January 28, 2008 at 01:19 PM
I didn't want to get too close to the main theme of that column because I thought it might be infectious.
Seriously, on the basis of some unstated principle, Mr. Lessenberry is opposed to people purchasing additional disaster preparedness services in the form of education, training, counseling, and services not so different from private insurance? That is somehow offensive?
My guess is that Mr. Lessenberry is one of those people whom, if he were a Canadian, would be offended that some of his fellow Canucks would ever attempt to pay for knee or hip replacement surgeries out of their own pockets, or who travel to northern-tier states like Montana or Michigan or Washignton State or New York for MRI scanning, because they are sick of waiting for their government-run helath system to get around to them.
From each according to their means, to each according to their place in line, eh, comrade?
Posted by: Anonymous | January 28, 2008 at 04:47 PM
I don't know, I'll ask Pyongyang for permission to consider the issue. I would however be very happy if Comrade Anonymous trusted his life's savings to Sovereign Deed.
Posted by: Jack Lessenberry | January 28, 2008 at 05:23 PM
I find privatized disaster services just as repugnant as for-profit health care - and I'll bet it proves to be just as cost-effective - not that anyone will really know since the private financial records will not be privy to public scrutiny.
Will we ever stop the looting of our treasury for private empire building?
Posted by: Eric | June 12, 2008 at 06:56 AM