#abscam

I remember seeing this being mentioned in the news when I was in high school

The FBI was aided by the Justice Department and a convicted con-man, Mel Weinberg in videotaping politicians accepting bribes from a fictitious Arabian company in return for various political favors

Weinberg, supervised by the FBI, created a fake company called Abdul Enterprises in which FBI employees posed as fictional Arab sheikhs led by owners Kambir Abdul Rahman and Yassir Habib, who had millions of dollars to invest in the United States.

Convictions included:

US Senator Harrison A. Williams (D-NJ)

US Representative Frank Thompson (D-NJ)

US Representative John Jenrette (D-SC)

US Representative Raymond Lederer (D-PA)

US Representative Michael "Ozzie" Myers (D-PA)

US Representative John M. Murphy (D-NY)

US Representative Richard Kelly (R-FL)

Mayor of Camden, New Jersey, Angelo Errichetti (D)

Philadelphia, PA City Council President George X. Schwartz (D)

Philadelphia, PA City Councilman Harry Jannotti (D)

Philadelphia, PA City Councilman Louis Johanson (D)

An inspector for the US Immigration and Naturalization Service

This list does not include a number of politicians who faced scrutiny for their questionable involvement with operation Abscam. 

FBI documents later disclosed in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act, consisting of newspaper clippings and letters written to the FBI, revealed a mixed response of the American public. 

Some Americans supported the FBI, but others argued that Abscam was an entrapment scenario ordered by a revenge-minded FBI, which earlier had been stung by Congressional inquiries into acts of police brutality and similar widespread abuses.

Congressional concern about sting operations persisted, creating numerous additional guidelines in the ensuing years:

The Civiletti Guidelines – 1980–1981

The Smith Guidelines – 1983

The Thornburgh Guidelines – 1989

The Reno Guidelines – 2001

On October 2nd, 1980, Michael Myers became the first Congressman to be expelled since 1861.

1970s-era ‘Abscam’ alum indicted on voter fraud charges | News

A former Democratic congressman from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania who served a prison term after being caught in a famous 1970s FBI sting has been indicted for multiple election offences committed over the last six years, federal prosecutors said on Thursday.

The Justice Department said former Congressman Michael “Ozzie” Myers was charged with conspiring to violate voting rights by fraudulently…

Weird Prince is not always great Prince...wait, let me walk that back.

Just about everything Prince put out (especially during his 1980-88 imperial period) qualifies as at least a little bit weird. Most of it is great, the worst of it is merely good. “Annie Christian”, sonically and lyrically, is great...not “Kiss” or “When Doves Cry” or “Adore” great. But second tier Prince great, which is still better than 90% of the music ever made. And weird. He talks instead of sings over video game synthesizers, rips off a distorted guitar solo, and basically sounds 180 degrees different than the dude who cooed “I Wanna Be Your Lover” two years before. We were very quickly being trained to expect the unexpected from Mister Nelson.

“Annie Christian” is an overt political statement, and Prince had yet to make one of those in his then-short career. In brief, rapid-fire bursts, he calls out the Atlanta Child Murders, John Lennon’s death, and ABSCAM, which this entry compelled me to look up on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abscam). He attributes all of these factual incidents to a fictional(?*) character he dubs Annie Christian (aka The Anti-Christ). I’m not sure if Prince was going for a news reporter vibe in his vocal delivery, but his deadpan cadence comes across as quite unsettling. It’s interesting to note that in 1981, some folks appear to have been just as freaked out about the U.S. political situation as we are now. “Nice to know that the gun control argument has gone nowhere in the last thirty-six years,” Prince is probably muttering somewhere in the afterlife.

*given Prince’s religious beliefs, I can’t be sure.

Four star songs between “Angel” and “Annie Christian”: “Angel” (Simply Red feat. The Fugees, 1996...a cover of the Aretha song) | “Angel” (Angela Winbush, 1987) | “Angel Dust” (Gil-Scott Heron, 1978...definitely thought long and hard about giving this one 5 stars) | “Angel Eyes” (The Jeff Healey Band, 1988) | “Angel Eyes” (Roxy Music, 1979) | “Angel In Disguise” (Brandy feat. JOE, 1998) | “Angel Of Harlem” (U2, 1988) | “Angela (Theme From ‘Taxi’)” (Bob James, 1978) | “Angelia” (Richard Marx, 1989...another one I almost went 5 stars on) | “Angels” (Khalid, 2017) | “Angels” (Robin Thicke, 2006) | “Angels Cry” (Mariah Carey, 2009) | “Anger” (Marvin Gaye, 1978) | “Angie Girl” (Stevie Wonder, 1969) | “Animal” (Def Leppard, 1987) | “Animal” (Pearl Jam, 1993) | “Animals” (Emily King, 2015) | “Anna’s Song” (Marvin Gaye, 1978) | “Annabella’s Song” (Everclear, 2000)