Who can forget poor Leona Helmsley and what she had to endure. Simply for telling the truth that "only the little people pay taxes," she was convicted of Federal income tax evasion in 1989 and served 18 months in prison. What a travesty. She was a saint who paved the way for all those who give their lives for the rights of the wealthy.

Well, apparently now again the misunderstood elite are under attack. Tax shelters have come under fire, facing a groundswell of unfounded accusation.

According the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs:

"The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has scheduled a hearing for August 1, 2006, entitled Offshore Abuses: The Enablers, The Tools & Offshore Secrecy. The Subcommittee has held a number of hearings addressing the issue of tax havens and offshore abuses which are undermining the integrity of the federal tax system, diverting tens of billions of dollars each year from the U.S. Treasury, and undermining U.S. law enforcement. The Subcommittee's August 1st hearings will present case histories on the use of offshore trusts and corporations to circumvent U.S. tax, securities and anti-money laundering laws. Witnesses for the upcoming hearing will be securities firms, banks, law firms, U.S. taxpayers, a trust protector, and tax and securities experts."

They make it sound so awful. In documents obtained by Strumpette, apparently offshore tax shelters for the super-wealthy Americans and corporations only cost the U.S. Treasury as much as $100 billion a year. The Senate panel estimates that wealthy individuals avoid paying between $40 billion and $70 billion in taxes annually and corporations evade $30 billion.

According to The Associated Press, "The scams involve dozens of corporations set up on paper in countries that have no tax laws and weak government oversight, such as the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean Sea, or the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea. Other countries include Belize, the British Virgin Islands, Nevis and Panama."

"Neither their methods nor their purpose will stand the light of day," said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., of the tax shelters, calling them a "total sham."

Ah... there you have it! See... it's just an image problem! And how to fix that? PR, of course!

So as we are clear as to what we mean by that, let's define more clearly the role of PR. There are four types of basic PR engagements:

1. An internal department or a firm is engaged to "Get the word out" about something good for society. This is actually quite rare as there are very few things today that are good for society. Actually, if it's any good, the news tends to pick it up on their own and people find it themselves.
2. Create "buzz" around something potentially harmful. One of the highest paid PR people on the planet works for Philip Morris. Simply said, most if not all of the bad stuff that will surely give you cancer and kill ya, also happens to taste the best and is the most fun. PR is a necessary evil to help downplay the pesky "death" part.
3. Then there's the preverbal "Lipstick on a Pig" situations. All financial transactions are a matter of somebody wanting to get rid of something and somebody silly enough to think it has some value. PR helps gussy up that pig. Without the slippery PR, the financial markets would come to a grinding halt.
4. Lastly, there's "Weasel Couture." Examples of this are all too numerous. Suffice to say simply, Michael Jackson's publicist.

For the purposes of this article, Gimme Shelter is a combination of #s 2 and 4. You've got weasels that need PR representation so as that can be allowed to do something to the greater determent of society. And why not dammit? This is America!

On Wednesday O'Dwyer's announced that...

"Fleishman-Hillard has secured a $520K contract to represent the Cayman Islands in connection with the U.S. probe into offshore financial institutions. The Cayman Islands account is based in F-H's London office. The work is supported by F-H offices in Washington, New York and Brussels. Julie Harris, director of F-H/London is in charge. Her counterpart at the Cayman Islands' Portfolio of Finance & Economics is Ted Bravakis, director of its PR unit."

Gimme Shelter? Gimme a break.