JackAsstroids, based on the Atari 2600's famous Asteroids game. Your objective is to clean up Washington's culture of corruption starting with lobbyists, then moving on to the politicians and their lackeys (including Rumsfeld of course).

Level 1 is disgraced corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Level 2 is disgraced corrupt Texas Republican leader Tom Delay. Level 3 is Rumsfeld. You'll have to play the game to find out who's next.

Background:

Jack Abramoff
Former Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff is at the center of one of the widest-ranging public corruption cases ever investigated by the Justice Department, Internal Revenue Service, Department of the Interior, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Justice Department and the Interior Department are looking into Abramoff's use of charitable foundations as businesses and nonprofit political groups as conduits for foreign money. The Senate Finance Committee is also investigating Abramoff's use of tax-exempt entities; the Senate Indian Affairs Committee is questioning his treatment of the tribes. He exemplifies the Culture of Corruption that pervades Washington DC, which is one of the reasons Rumsfeld is allowed to Invade.

Here is a brief list of just a few of the corrupt people involved with Abramoff's dealings. 1) House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) resigned after it was shown that Abramoff-related lobbyists and foreign groups paid for him to play golf in Scotland, visit South Korea, and meet with Russian oil tycoons in Moscow. 2) Representative Bob Ney (R-OH) is currently under investigation by the Justice Department for engaging in "a series of official acts" that benefitted Jack Abramoff's clients. 3) Between 2001 and 2004, House Speaker Dennis Hastert received $100,000 from Jack Abramoff and his tribal clients. 4) Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT) serves on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and since 2001 has been the Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior. Between 2001 and 2004, Burns collected $136,500 in Abramoff-related donations, more than any other lawmaker. 5) Steven Griles served as Deputy Secretary for the Department of the Interior, which has jurisdiction over Indian Affairs issues, from July 2001 until January 2005. 6) Grover Norquist is the President of Americans for Tax Reform (ATR). Norquist confirmed that ATR received nearly $1.5 million from Indian tribes since 2000 and that he arranged for tribal leaders to attend annual meetings to discuss tax policy with President Bush between 2001 and 2004. 7) Ralph Reed, Republican activist, former executive director of the Christian Coalition, initially claimed not to know that the money he received came from gambling interests, but emails obtained by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee investigation of Abramoff's activities reveal that Reed not only knew that the money came from Indian casinos, he helped create the scheme to launder money through Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform in order to hide the source of the funds.

Pay to Play- Abramoff's defining innovation on K Street-the Avenue of the Lobbyists-has been to wear his political and business hats at the same time. Now it's your turn to clean up K Street in JackAsstroids.

For more about Jack: Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington http://www.jackinthehouse.org/
For what we can do about it: http://www.commoncause.org

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