Cheney Letter Shilled For Stevens' "Clients"
By Cernig Friday Aug 22, 2008 6:30pm
For some strange reason, prosecutors in the corruption case against Ted Stevens (R - VECO) don't want to mention a letter Dick Cheney sent at Stevens' behest, shilling for corporate wheeler-dealer Bill Allen's pet pipeline project.
In a conversation secretly tape-recorded by the FBI on June 25, 2006, Stevens discussed ways to get a pipeline bill through the Alaska Legislature with Bill Allen, an oil-services executive accused of providing the senator with about $250,000 in undisclosed financial benefits. According to a Justice motion, Stevens told Allen, "I'm gonna try to see if I can get some bigwigs from back here and say, 'Look … you gotta get this done'." Two days later, Cheney wrote a letter to the Alaska Legislature urging members to "promptly enact" a bill to build the pipeline. The letter was considered unusual because the White House rarely contacts state lawmakers about pending legislative matters. It also angered state Democrats, who accused Cheney of pushing oil-company interests. The former executive director of Cheney's energy task force had gone to work as a lobbyist for British Petroleum, one of three firms slated to build the pipeline.
Stevens confirmed to NEWSWEEK last week that he asked Cheney to write the letter. "We wanted the federal government to tell the state to act quickly on it," he said. (A spokesman for Alaska's other senator, Lisa Murkowski, said her office also had contacts with Cheney's office.) A Cheney spokeswoman said his office does not comment on pending legal matters.
Now why do you think Bush's Justice Department isn't too keen on using this important bit of evidence? Stevens is charged with offfenses under the Ethics in Government Act. Could it be that following all the leads would open up a big can of worms for the White House?
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Just about anything you can think of is a big can of worms for this WH.
Shilled
They pay in shillings?
No wonder they're called the new Tories.
1 Edwin Hussein Says: Just about anything you can think of is a big can of worms for this WH.
Chef Boyardee spaghetti?
Stop, you're killing my appetite.
My, my, what a surprise that Cheney is involved. Oily old scumbag.
Another day, another scandal. Let me count the crimes. Oops, not enough fingers and toes.
Back when Clinton was president, some of the Right Wing talk show hosts claimed that Clinton had warehouses and warehouse in Little Rock filled with bodies of people he murdered. Ha! You know what I think, the current White House has warehouses and warehouse in every city in the nation filled with cans of worms that this administration wants to hide and doesn't anyone, especially a court of law to open.
The Darth one, again. Nothing to fear as long as Pelosi's onboard.
Cheney and Bush suck bigtime.
Not saying anything new here.
Are you going to vote for Obama?
Do you want real change?
Real change would come from widespread non-voting. Non-participation. Rejection of the system.
You have been returned to your regular programming.
If the Justice Department were to open an investigation into Vice President Cheney's unethical actions, it might mean that Speaker Pelosi will need to put impeachment back on the table and we can't have that now, can we?
God forbid we go impeach real criminals instead of just those receiving blow jobs from someone not their wife.
Mukasey won't comment? He's covering up evidence? Cheney has oil interests? What more will they think of.
If half the people in this country knew the truth about the Bushco agenda and the billions they have stolen, we wouldn't be looking at a possible McCain presidency. But no, we have the corporate MSM campaigning for McSame and "balancing" every report with his "response." Are people that stupid or do the Rethugs have the election sewn up with their voting machine supporters? If the Dems had stood up four years ago and investigated the elections, we wouldn't be seeing this. If the Dems ever questioned the media coverage and ownership, we wouldn't be seeing this.
I just heard a story that of those who never graduated from high school, more than half believe McSame will keep them safe. Biden and Obama need to find low tech ways to inform these people--because clearly the TV is not--and they don't have computers. The line should be: "The Bush-McCain administration have committed massive theft. We have been robbed."
Y'know, it might be a good idea to require by law to have Congresscritters wear tattoos on their faces of all their
lobbyists'corporate sponsors' logos. Even better idea... do what the ancient Chinese did to certain criminals: brand their faces with a red-hot iron.I just hope Techno Ted gets nominated again.
how many more cans of worms do we got to open to find self incriminating evidences? this is just another case that will slip through the cracks.
enough @ 10:
I don't think Mrs. Obama would appreciate the Obama/Biden 08 campaign to be spending money in strip clubs. Of course, it would be brilliant marketing move.
Mucousy is clearly a second-rate toady scumbag of the Cheney/Bush junta. And of course, even more despicably, they'll get away with all this with a wave of Dumbya's magic wand of pardons. Liars. Thieves. Murderers. All in the service of Halliburton, the transnational corporatocracy and profit. They simply do not give a good goddamn.
The Constitution (Article 2, Section 2) gives the President the power “to grant reprieves and pardons for offences against the United States except in cases of impeachment.” This power is exercised by Presidential proclamation.
Well, if you prosecute one of these worms, they will finger as many other worms as they can, if it does them any good.
Will they prosecute the WH worms?
Will they prosecute the DoJ worms?
The entire government is corrupt.
if they can jail osama bin laden's taxi driver for jack shit then cheney should be keeping the guy company in the cuban hilton.
What's up with that image in .BMP format? C'mon, PNG that beast if you need it lossless. That image doesn't need to be more than half a meg in size, some people are reading this on their phone or are otherwise paying for internet by the megabyte.
This administration has been nothing less than a cabal intent on destroying any safeguards designed to protect individuals or groups of people from businesses or governments infringement in our lives.
Impeachment is the solution.
the democrats should push this to be discussed in the msm before the republican convention/before cheney speaks.
Blue Buddha @ 11:
Or wear patches on their clothing like NASCAR drivers.
Halliburton has been much more successful with Cheney as President of Vice rather than their CEO of Chapter 11.
White Man's Burton
bob @ 7:
You got that right. Anybody think that the FBI,or the DOJ is going to prosecute Cheney. No way. This guy in particular started an illegal war for profit at the cost of thousands of lives and billions, if not trillions of dollars. As of late this fascist and his cronies started, with the help from the Zionists, another war in Georgia. Just to piss off the Russians even more and to give McCain a platform to act tough. And there is a little oil involved as well. When are the American People going to rise up and put a stop to this psychopath. Pelosi is useless.
Both.
I'm sure there's a copy of that letter he wrote for Stevens in the man-size safe Cheney keeps in his office. You know, the safe that will be totally empty when Joe Biden moves into the office on Jan 20.
bob @ 21:
Require all meetings with Members of Congress and representatives of special interests be recorded on video (audio included (watched too many hearings)).
They work for us, our taxes pay their salary and for their follies.
This Bush / Cheney White house is nothing but a criminal operation ,the biggest in history , they with the cooperation of the Republicans in the Senate and Congress have set their goons up in the justice department so there is no justice . We can only hope that eventually all of them are prosecuted and have to pay ( and pay severely ) but it won't happen as long as they are still in office , no way . Hopefully they will they find themselves in deep deep shit eventually but if McCain wins justice never will be served .It boggles the mind knowing what Cheney and the gang has gotten away with , it's almost unbelievable .They should pay the ultimate price for their crimes .
Now THAT'S some domestic surveillance I can LIVE WITH!
If you of you brain surgeons can cite the federal law Cheney violated in writing the letter described in the Newsweek article - and taking all the surrounding facts in that article as true - I'll PayPal you $5, which is enough to buy a double quarter-pounder with cheese.
I'll check back tomorrow morning; most likely, I'll find nothing, except more invective.
Doubleplusgood.
Mission accomplished, aye Dick?
Brian @ 30:
I dont see any laws broken, just deferrment dickless shilling in the interest of big oil and a corrupt repuke like Stevens. Nothing new to see here.
Another scandal in the Bush/Cheney/Rove crime family. Why doesn't it even surprise me at all anymore? This and their numerous other criminal activities won't be investigated, if they were, the administration has already illegally destroyed much the the evidence , and even if Cheney was nailed with solid proof, nothing would happen. They've already stacked the justice system with more crooked republicans. They may very well be the most successful organized crime operation in history.
Well we have gotten the message, it's about "showin me the money". The whole damn thing is going to be hard to expose, mostly due to the bad guys have UNlimited amounts to spend. What may end up being the most mind boggling at some future date is the amounts of money disappeared. In addition, I think the folks backing the Neo-Cons are totally capable of eliminating bothersome individuals w/o the smallest of regret. What we need is an informer. To that end I would like to see a civic minded high roller -- of established Democratic history offer a reward to anyone with impeachment evidence. Widely distributed to enough people to guarantee it's survival. Then we could watch Bush pardon everyone before congress could act.
He's 100 years-old! He will not be living like a king. He'll be living like a rich old man.
Dick Cheney is one man I'd like to see go down in a big way. Where's he been lately- on life support somewhere? It's interesting how they roll him out every so often, and then he seems to disappear for several months. Guess his ailing heart can't take too much. Guess he's already done most of his dirty work and damage, so not much else is required.
The question now is what are they going to do to insure a McCain presidency? A variation of Operation Northwoods to be blamed on Bin Laden? Or maybe they will just manipulate the vote like they did in the last two elections ...
McCain living like a King? Hopefully with scrofula.
OK, I'll take the lack of response to my PayPal challenge to be an affirmative admission that Cheney broke no laws in writing that letter, which is a quite gracious concession by you all.
On another topic, brians (not brian, but brians) wittily refers to Dick Cheney as "deferrment dickless." It's this kind of subtle humor that allows me to hope that the spirit of Noel Coward lives on.
However, I do wonder whether if Cheney had not taken several deferments and instead had enthusiastically killed some enemy North Vietnamese, would he be referred to by the same "brians" and his ilk as a war criminal? Thus, it seems that Cheney is in a no-win dilemma: Dickless or War Criminal.
Of course, at this point, "brians" would reply that it's not Cheney's failure to fight in Vietnam as such that concerns him, but the hypocrisy of advocating wars such as the one in Iraq, when he did not serve. But if alleged hypocrisy is the problem, then I expect you all to embrace every American soldier who killed for America in Vietnam (and Iraq, for that matter.)
To point I'm trying to make is that you people are illogical - basically a bunch of idiots - and the only real constant to be found in your attempts at self-expression is an infantile rage.
Could an investigation "open a can of worms leading to the WH?"
It could, it would, and it will open festering pustules of shit embedded in the WH.
Brian @ 39:
In the case of Cheney, it is his actions in the white house (and previous administrations) that count. If he had been a medal of honor winner it would make no difference in regard to how his behavior, illegal or not (Project for a New American Century, WMDs, domestic spying, torture, suspension of habeas corpus, secret "public" advisory boards, Valerie Plame, corporate cronyism, justice dept. hiring, etc., etc., etc.) is considered.
Cheney's hypocrisy just adds fuel to the fire - costs of "finishing" Gulf War I vs. corporate profiteering in Iraq with Halliburton vs. Iraq a "major success".
Cheney's chickenhawk status is just the icing on the cake. There is no logical problem here, except your trying to spin dislike and distrust of Cheney and the frustration of being able to do NOTHING about it into idiotic "infantile rage". Sounds like another Rovian talking point to me - transparent, illogical and self-defeating for anyone with half a
Brianbrain.Another Cheney-Stevens link.
Papers Detail Industry's Role in Cheney's Energy Report
By Michael Abramowitz and Steven Mufson
The Washington Post:
Lundquist hasn't been implicated in the Veco scandal yet, but given the vast extent of the corruption (seriously, was every Republican who ever existed in Alaska in on that shit?) I wouldn't be surprised if his name came up.
Oh and that lobbying group he's a part of? One of his co-principals at the firm was Steven Griles, the corrupt former Interior Department official who plead guilty to lying to Senate investigators about his close relationship with Jack Abramoff. Yep.
As Det. Freamon would say, "All the pieces matter."
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