George Bush's "Pay for Play" Legacy

[RepublicanElephant]

blasts from dubya's hypocritical past:

Bush crony Stephen Payne was caught on tape offering access to Dick Cheney and Condoleeza Rice in exchange for donations to the George W. Bush Presidential Library. True to the president's legacy, the Bush Library will be a $500 million partisan institute housed by Southern Methodist University and administered with tax dollars, but accountable only to the library foundation. The library is to be the Mother of All Think Tanks. It will reward the truly loyal Bushies with cushy jobs burnishing the legacy of George W. Bush.
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/workplace/92383/pay-to-play:_karl_rove_taking_lead_on_george_w._bush_presidential_library_/


The US Army Corps of Engineers and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) dispense a lot of these contracts. They smack of cronyism. The BBC has reported, “(M)any of the US firms which won lucrative Iraqi reconstruction contracts are major donors to President George W Bush’s political campaigns.” The Center for Public Integrity (CPI), claims that most of the contractors gave more money to Mr Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign than to any other campaign in the last 10 years. CPI’s report covers 70 companies and individuals who between them have won reconstruction contracts in Afghanistan and Iraq worth up to $8 billion. It reports that 60% of these donors employed people who have worked for previous US governments, members of Congress, or the US army.
http://agauchepress.com/?p=41


Companies awarded $8 billion in contracts to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan have been major campaign donors to President Bush, and their executives have had important political and military connections, according to a study released Thursday. The study of more than 70 U.S. companies and individual contractors turned up more than $500,000 in donations to the president's 2000 campaign, more than they gave collectively to any other politician over the past dozen years
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/10/30/iraq/main580998.shtml


For around $4,000, industry executives can play golf and have dinner with key congressional Republicans at a Phoenix resort today, then "help Congress write its to-do list" on air pollution and energy policy during the next three days. Unfortunately, this is not a joke, but an actual money-for-access transaction to take place at a golf resort in Phoenix, starting tomorrow. They also will hear top Bush administration officials talk about an upcoming rewrite of the federal Clean Air Act and the effect of energy policy on business interests. By the end of the week, "members of Congress, senior administration officials, Western governors' office representatives, miscellaneous policy experts and invited business leaders" will draft a "Top Ten to-do list for Congress" this year, according to a published agenda
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0107-01.htm

[MagickMuffin]

1. Don't forget about Kenny Boy and Enron

Kenny Boy Lay bought access to Bush/Cheney and helping set policy on Energy that Enron benefitted from those meetings.

[MagickMuffin]

2. This didn't seem to get the responses that it should have.....

So, I am :kick: it back up the chain.

We should be sending some of this info to the media and inquiring why these scandals of "Pay to Play" didn't get the media coverage as the Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich scandal. The scandals listed above as well as my reference to Enron and Kenny "boy" Lay and the access he bought so he could meet with Cheney and set policy for the energy needs of Americans has NEVER been fully disclosed or even investigated. Enron and Kenny "boy" Lay hurt a lot of Americans with their greedy schemes. The "Pay to Play" scandals of the Bush/Cheney Cabal were more damaging to more American people and even the Iraqi people got thrown into the Bush/Cheney's Cabal "Pay to Play schemes.

Maybe we should be asking why do the rethuglicons get away with their "Pay to Play" scandals but there is a different set of rules for Democrats.

FrenchieCat has a great thread, asking us to write to the media to express our outrage about the under reported article from the NY Times and how Obama is partly responsible for Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich. The thread has a lot of links to news organizations phone numbers and email addresses. So, help with the campaign to change the media. If we let them know we will not sit back and be silent then maybe they will start doing their jobs. It can't hurt. It only takes a little bit of time to write a letter and since I see so many DUers here on a constant basis I know you have some spare time to write a quick letter to the media Spundits.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x7971781

The OP has already given us a starting off point of reference to include in our letters. Let flood the networks, newspapers, and the blogosphere with the TRUTH.

:hi:

[BeFree]

3. Indeed

What Blago is accused of is child's play compared to what bushco has done.

And if we don't put and end to the injustice the media is displaying it will continue and Obama will be destroyed while bush goes away free as a bird.

[bbgrunt]

4. too late to r, but can definitely kick. Blago is a two-bit player in

this sea of political corruption. The media surrounding this is outrageous.