Bush For Sale
By Nicole Belle Saturday Jul 12, 2008 2:00pm
Download | play 
Download | play (excerpt courtesy of Bill W, full video available at Times Online)
Fundraising for a presidential library has always been controversial, in part because, unlike contributions to U.S. political campaigns, donations to libraries can come from foreign sources, and are easier to conceal.
But this kind of corruption is striking, even by the Bush administration's standards.
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."
Specifically, Payne tells a Kazakh politician he knew as Eric Dos that Payne would come up with "the exact budget," which would be "somewhere between $600,000 and $750,000, with about a third of it going directly to the Bush library." The contribution would "be a show of ‘we're interested, we're your friends, we're still friends.'"
The TimesOnline piece makes no specific mention of the politician that Dos is representing, but both Benen and BooMan narrow it down to former Krygystan President Askar Akayev, and possibly a motive as well:
(T)he prospective client who is being asked to pony up $600,000 - $750,000 ($200,000-$250,000 of which will go to the Bush Library) is former President Askar Akayev, as he is the only exiled former president of Kyrgyzstan in existence. Akayev's human rights record is mixed. For the region, it was better than average, but in the years just prior to his ouster he began to restrict and harass political and media freedoms.
The Times of London sting operation is curious. The video shows a meeting between Stephen Payne, [who is a Bush pioneer, a political appointee to the Homeland Security Advisory Council, and a Senior Advance Representative traveling internationally in advance of and with President Bush and Vice President Cheney], an unidentified representative of Askar Akayev, and an undercover reporter who is surreptitiously videotaping the conversation. It appears that the latter two gentleman colluded in setting up the sting and that part of the agreement was that the Times would not mention Akayev's name or country in print. What possible motivation would Akayev have to embarrass the Bush administration? Let's look at who Akayev blamed for his ouster:
The ousted Kyrgyzstan president, Askar Akayev, last night accused the US of being behind the "anti-constitutional coup" which forced him to flee the country last week, and said he wold only resign if given sufficient a guarantee of his personal safety.
I believe we have what is known as payback time, ladies and gentlemen.
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Videos not working.
:(
[Both WMV and QT are working on my 7 year old pc, Dana. Could be your browser. Thanks. Site Monitor]
Emptywheel over at FDL focused on this issue also
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/07/12/does-ray-hunt-do-this-kind-...
Nicole sorry to push so hard but the "stop loss" clip over at Democracy Now is so worthwhile
http://www.democracynow.org/
Bush For Sale
I think that's illegal in Texas.
2nd that. video doesn't work.
Instant karma gonna get you....smack you right in the face!
"But this kind of corruption is striking, even by the Bush administration standards."
Bush administration standards? You mean those standards that have produced over a million Iraqi dead, 4 million Iraqi refugees, 4500 dead Americans, tens of thousands injured? All done in the name of U.S. and Israeli National Interest
Oh yeah those standards!
Nobody could have predicted that ... oh fuck. We're all fucked. On to Iran. Four more wars. I give up.
It looks like the Methodists don't even want Bush's library on their campus.
http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2008/may/01/bush-library-smu-rejected-un...
Problem is the land is owned by the South Central Jurisdiction and they're going to be voting on the issue at their conference: July 16-19, 2008.
http://scj.umportal.org/main/article.asp?id=1591
If you want to fight Bush's Library send them e-mails, faxes, phone calls, and letters and get others to do the same.
http://scj.umportal.org/main/section.asp?id=551
THEIR MEETING STARTS IN THREE (3) DAYS!
If you want to fight Bush's Library tell these people.
http://scj.umportal.org/main/section.asp?id=551
Tell them Bush's Library is not welcome at SMU.
Dana @ 1:
Oops...my bad. The signal is interrupted uploading to the server and it didn't upload correctly.
Bush library? $250,000? How much does a set of Dr. Seuss books and a tricycle cost?
I think if we get 2500 people all willing to contribute $100 each we can send our representative to meet with one of the A*hulls and tell them what we think.
Corruption!
Dan-in-PA @ 5:
If there were a thing called Karma, Bush would have been long gone.
"... a guarantee of his personal safety." There is extremely little of that happening in Afghanistan, as the AP is reporting that an attack was directed at U.S. soldiers in that country, with the U.S. sustaining 24 casualties, with 9 American soldiers being killed. Americans should wake up to the fact that the so-called good war in Afghanistan is good for neither the Afghans nor those 9 American soldiers who were killed for no justifiable reason whatsoever. Perhaps someone currently in the military can emulate the example of former navy nurse Susan Schnoll who, as documented in the powerful film Sir! No Sir!, helped drop antiwar leaflets on military installations in the Bay area in the 1960s. The same thing should be done in Iraq and Afghanistan so that the soldiers can realize that there is no honor in having died for the lies that they were given by their government. Or as former Marine Dan Felushko noted in Robert Fantina's book Desertion and the American Soldier: 1776-2006, "I didn't want 'Died deluded in Iraq [or Afghanistan]' over my gravestone.
Too bad this will never make it onto our "liberal" media...is it time for American Idol yet?
Isn't this kind of what the right accused Clinton of doing, except far worse? I know, quelle surprise.
Waterboard Stephen Payne.
I guess they'll keep the receipts in the library archives as well as the records of boosh's other successes.
A 250,ooo contribution to the Bush Library of Revisionism will buy you a water boarding room or what the Bush administration likes to refer to as the "enhanced techniques" room.
You could also contribute to the neo-cons/Pnac crowds "A Matter of Perception" room.
Dana @ 1:
it works for me and I have that crappy Vista. I hope ATT tell Microshit!
Required @ 15:
don't touch that dial yet... you need to read Juan Coles Informed Comment
http://www.juancole.com/
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Troops Injured Outside Combat Ignored in Media;
Al-Maliki Gives Away Money
Can you imagine what the Bush library will consist of? Name that room...
A room of "smoke and mirrors" Room
"Where is the WMD" room
The "How many people did I kill" room.
" A couple of hundred thousand dollars or thereabouts, not a huge amount but I think that would get their attention......"
So THAT'S how you get their attention !
Impeach, indict and incarcerate. Let them run the prison library.
What is most telling (and amusingly busted) is the fact that the Boosh-ists are willingly accepting money from despots or dictators
This anonymous shopper for Boosh administration favors could have been any of the world's worst dictators . . which didn't seem to matter to Mr. Payne since three-quarters of a million bucks was the price tag to buy erasing said dictator's bad boy moniker.
Any doubt that this taped sting won't be on the big screen in our very own dictator's library?
Captain Bitter Whiner Husein Kangaroo @ 11:
I think is was the half colored in coloring book Bush attempted to complete as a teenager that drove up the price. I guess it was the coloring outside the lines that made it more valuable.
Kathleen @ 22:
Sorry I didn't bother to grab link but . . .earlier reading this morning in International news links found article about our intrepid military air lifts of our wounded (in Afghanistan) wherein the American pilot of the particular cargo plane discussed - made this statement - on average we airlift over 1,000 wounded per month from Afghanistan and fly them those seven hours to Germany.
That plane is only one of many and as usual in the freedom spreading nation of ours, that math has been ignored here at home.
big deal.
so is obama going to say anything about this? doubt it
what about lame ass conyers? is he going to do anything about it, doubt it.
more to say but a govt car pulled into the driveway...
23 Kathleen Says: Can you imagine what the Bush library will consist of? Name that room…
A room of “smoke and mirrors” Room
Sounds like Studio 54 has reopened.
GC @ 28:
not sure obama needs to say anything...it speaks for itself...... the video that is.
Do we honesty think any able minded person would want to go to the Bush Library? I think the sewer plant in S.F. is more accurate
lol, bush for sale...
Captain Bitter Whiner Husein Kangaroo @ 11:
Well see, they have to buy the very expensive upside-down printing of Green Eggs and Ham, and the only source for that edition is Jeb's publishing company. Of course, the limp-wristed commie pinko socialist America-haters will say "well why don't you just get the regular version and turn it upside down, it's freakin' identical to the stupid upside down version!!!?" but this is AMERICA, and we don't do things half-assed like that here in the greatest country EVER in the 6,000 year history of the universe!
p.s. your science teacher was a Godless liar, the earth really is flat
Isn't this the official George W. Bush Presidential Library website???:
http://www.georgewbush.org/
"Bush Library"?
Does not compute
Where the hell does the rest of the money go? The other more or less $500,000. Perhaps it is a pile of small unmarked bills for the bottom drawer in Karl Rove's desk. You can buy quite a few media hacks for that kind of money.
On the casualty of the US troop in Iraq, it has been known that the serious injured are flown out of Iraq and not counted if they die enroute. It has also been known that the tombstone maker for the military far exceed the number of death reported by the media of the total death of soldiers in Iraq.
What I have learn from your report is that it is a seven hours flight, and I wonder if there is a more serious crime committed for knowingly flying casualty that are in critical condition enroute to a medical care that far away when many hospital are closer by, such as Israel or a floating hospital of the naval ship.
What I still don't know is the real number for loss of life to the us troop from Iraq. If the correlation of the game of renumbering the violence reported in Iraq to show that the surge is working is any indication, then I would bet the actual death of the troops in Iraq is more than double of what they are reporting.
All this talk about the library, makes me wonder if he does construct one that someone should pony up cooperatively and build a real library in the same city. Frankly I would need a real library to keep track of all the data on Bush lies. His whole administration have done so much and so blatantly that a library of this type would be beneficial for children of future generation to learn from our biggest blunder of American history.
A library built from concealed donations would be an appropriate example of the legacy of this administration.
It is just one more scandal. The last 8 years saw much worse corruption yet Bush is still in power and won't be impeeched. The White House is teflon coated and Pelosi is making sure all sticky spots are well lubbed.
Nice try but that is the legal bribery called lobbying.
Nothing will change until it is illegal.
So what?
Nothing will be done, everything is off the table.
Live it up BushCo! Free Pass for all!
Does Bush read from his "guts"
"Well, ummm... yeah that's me in the video cuz, ummm... I was working... undercover!!! Yeah, that's it!! I was working undercover... FOR THE PRESIDENT!! YEAH!! Cuz... we knew!! That's right!! WE KNEW you weren't a real politician!! HAH!! And we knew you were recording it too! Yeah..."
An illegally funded library for an unelected illiterate president . . . maybe they can put locks on the doors and bars in the windows, just in case they need some place to hold the overflow from The Hague, if ever these war criminals are brought to justice.
thanks for posting this story, c&l. since i saw this last night in a comment (here possibly?) that had a link to the thinkprogress post on this, i've been posting the link to the sunday times site at other blogs hoping people would front-page it.
i'll be more glad to see it reported on the nightly news but i'm not going to hold my breath.
Alabama, Republican Attorney General Troy King, who's movement "FAMILY FIRST" and his anti-gay, Jerry Falwell type crusade came to a screeching halt 2 weeks ago when his wife came home a day early and caught Attorney General Troy King in bed with one of his men from his office having gay sex. Other than a few local, independent news papers and www.CrookandLiars.com, the story has been squelched by the RNC and John McCain, who's Alabama state campaign is King. My point: the entire republican party operates with double standards: from the Bush Library fund raiser to Troy King. If either of these events had been a democrat it would have been on every news agency across the nation every 15 minutes. The entire republican party is toxic...they are dishonest, deceitful, manipulative, hypocrites...saying one thing and doing something else. I agree with a post I saw the other day, "IF WE Don't Vote this party out of ANY and EVERY elected political office in Nov 08 our children's futures are gone! Nothing but hypocrites, deceit, twisted facts are constantly coming out! If your republican, southern baptist/evangelical nothing you do is wrong and can he explained and justified...none republicans live by and are measured to a different set of rules. Nov, 2008 is our last chance to redeem our nation from the grips of the republicans. I will never vote republican again !
... pony up $600,000 - $750,000 ($200,000-$250,000 of which will go to the Bush Library)...
does anyone know, or can guess, what happens to that extra $4-500k ???
Can we fucking start the war crimes trials already? What is it going to take? If Bush dropped trou in the middle of a press conference and started fucking a dead crippled black midget while singing Freebird, would THAT finally cross the line? A million dead Iraqis isn't enough? 30-plus self-admitted felonies in relation to ONLY ONE OF MANY illegal wiretap programs isn't enough? Pelosi? Nancy Pelosi? Has anyone seen Nancy? Hello, (tap tap tap), is this thing on? Bueller?
surprised no one's curious about the Biden statement (full video on Times site) - what's that about? Hope Joe's not the go-to Dem in on the take
Dunno. The last dictator from asia that tried to play mindgames with BushCo didn't end up so good. Took 'em two generations to do it too.
I think the finances of the GW Bush Presidunceshul Liberry should be monitored closely. Methinks that's where a lot of the post-presidential fortunes begin.
Actually, wouldn't that make it the "Presidential Lie-bary"...?
5 or 6 figures to meet with cheney or condi?!?
they've got to be kidding.
i wouldn't give (shuffles thru hand bag)...$1.75 in change, a wad of lint, and an invader zim pez dispenser for either of those two bozos.
in response to katy @ 48:
$200,000 goes on the books for the library and some of the rest is used to "tip" those officials who actually put their names on things or actually meet with someone and the rest is divvied up wherever it's "needed," laundering it through a variety of places in broken down amounts so it doesn't raise flags and/or put in a slush fund or funds.
Nicole Belle: it's Kyrgystan, not Krygystan. Get a sence of spelling damnit, you sound like Bush.
I'll have your job if you like, couldn't be that hard it seems. Sorry to be rude.
so if the guy ponies up 600,000 and only 250,000 is going to the library... where is the rest going? hasnt Cheney already made enough through haliburton? or is it to pay off the other people for all the secret shit theyve been doing?
I thought Joe Biden was one of the good guys.
Sigh.
toomuchsun, he could well be - still it's strange that his name and no other dem's was brought up - hopefully it was just a random draw thing ...
how many copies of "my pet goat" does 250,000 bucks buy?
the presidential library of the president who couldn't even think, let alone read.
blogenfreude @ 7:
Yup.
Terrorist butchers of a feather.
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