Over at Daily Kos, KagroX has a story up from ThinkProgress:
The Sunday Times reports Stephen Payne, a Bush pioneer and a political appointee to the Homeland Security Advisory Council, was caught on tape offering access to key members of the Bush administration inner circle in exchange for “six-figure donations to the private library being set up to commemorate Bush’s presidency.”
In an undercover video, Payne is seen promising to arrange a meeting for an exiled leader of Krygystan with Dick Cheney or Condoleezza Rice. (Not President Bush because “he doesn’t meet with a lot of former Presidents these days,” Payne says. “I don’t think he meets with hardly anyone.”) All it will take for him to arrange this high-level meeting, says Payne, is “a couple hundred thousand dollars, or something like that.”
Let’s take a little look at what bribery means in the context of High Crimes and Misdemeanors.
From infoplease:
Bribery and treason are among the least ambiguous reasons meriting impeachment, but the ocean of wrongdoing encompassed by the Constitution’s stipulation of “high crimes and misdemeanors” is vast. Abuse of power and serious misconduct in office fit this category …
Least ambiguous. Trading access to foreign nationals for money. For the Bush Library.
And Mr. Cheney was involved, as well as Ms. Rice (Mr. Bush being too reclusive nowadays for anyone to gain “access,” supposedly).
Of course I’ve always wondered what kind of bribery was going on in Cheney’s secretive little Energy Task Force a while back (remember Kenny Boy Lay, anyone?).
We already know this misAdministration has been guilty of innumerable acts that would qualify as High Crimes and Misdemeanors. And of course the person caught on tape was not Mr. Cheney, Ms. Rice or Mr. Bush, but a political appointee to Homeland Security.
But I have to wonder, in my silly way, if Mr. Cheney and Ms. Rice had any knowledge at all when they gave “access” to certain folks, how those folks received their “invitations.”
Just another drop in the bucket.
And of course impeachment is such a delicate topic in our halls of Congress — wouldn’t want to give anyone the vapors.
Bribery.
Bribery.
Bribery.
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… wishful thinking, I know.
Impeach. Convict. Imprison. The whole lot of them.
That’s Return On Investment for the non-biz folk. It’s what drives angel investors and early round venture capitalists in the tech biz. The surer a service or product is, the more it costs to get in for the second and third rounds. The two hundred grand mentioned above is the seed money.
A couple hundred grand up front for a private meeting of this type is a good enough “in” to put together a much larger package. You get some buddies, pony up a pool of money, send in a front man, like the former prez of some hole-in-the-wall country for an audience with the decision makers(Cheney, Rice). It’s well known by them that you’ve paid for your audience; they don’t touch the cash, too uncouth. You make a pitch for a no-bid government contract of several gigabucks, with an implied percentage to go back into further campaign, library, 527 or PAC donations. Then you go have a few celebratory cold ones with the buddies who put the pool together.
You’ve just bought a tap into the US Treasury. It’s a well that never runs dry. There are always millions of dumb-ass taxpayers willing to keep it filled up. Best way to take their money is to make them feel fear of the unknown. Televangelists use the same scam. This government uses terrorism. They both play on fears of uncertainty and certain death.
It’s like having an ATM at the US Treasury. You pay an inconsequential transaction fee of a couple hundred grand to withdraw a couple of billion. Out of that two billion you provide some shoddy product or service or in some cases – nothing at all. You spread around several million in the right places, hire the right people and their family members or college buddies. Now you’re connected as they say.
One hand washes the other. Cheney is a master at this game. He’s the water boy for the old money types. The ones who have inherited theirs over the generations and continue to consolidate their hold on not just the US but the entire planet. It’s not just American money doing this.
Some new blood makes it in now and then by sheer luck or creativity. If they don’t fall into place their children will – or their grandchildren.
$200,000 for $2,000,000,000 plus an entry into the club. Your membership entitles you to join in more swindles with other club members. That’s an ROI of $10,000 for every dollar invested. Not bad work if you can get it.
The Dems play this game as well as the Republicans. That’s why impeachment is off the table. They know their time at the trough is coming up. Let’s not make anyone pay a penalty for playing the game, they think. I want mine, too.
Looks like Obama will be more of the same. Younger, intelligent, charismatic. Puts a nice spin on the ball. For the rest of us it’s same old-same old. The Beltway will revolve on its own axis until it’s knocked off it.
Somewhere out there someone will find a way to do it. I pray that it’s a peaceful, non-violent way.
Shanti.
https://www.docudharma.com/show…
Thanks to our Democratic “Leaders” in the Congress, we’re running out of time here in the US.
Fortunately, The Hague is always available.
The butchers of Sudan and Zimbabwe may well be headed for international charges at The Hague.
Hopefully, BushCo, will follow soon after.
Peace.
An ultra-violent snuff film and a bottle of Boone’s Farm. “Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh… We’ll wait til Laurabelle goes to bed then sneak down to the basement and have some fun. Oh, gotta stop by the kitchen first and grab us a bag of pretzels, heh, heh, heh. This is gonna be good. I miss Turdblossom! He loves this stuff.”
Mu . . .