Does Ray Hunt Do This Kind of Fund-Raising, Too?

Via TP, the Sunday Times (of London) has an explosive video, showing Bush crony Stephen Payne effectively selling State Department endorsements for former Central Asian Presidents in exchange for six figure donations to the Bush Library.

A lobbyist with close ties to the White House is offering access to key figures in George W Bush’s administration in return for six-figure donations to the private library being set up to commemorate Bush’s presidency.

Stephen Payne, who claims to have raised more than $1m for the president’s Republican party in recent years, said he would arrange meetings with Dick Cheney, the vice-president, Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, and other senior officials in return for a payment of $250,000 (£126,000) towards the library in Texas.

[snip]

Asked by an undercover reporter who the politician would be able to meet for that price, Payne said: “Cheney’s possible, definitely the national security adviser [Stephen Hadley], definitely either Dr Rice or . . . I think a meeting with Dr Rice or the deputy secretary [John Negroponte] is possible . . .

“The main thing is that he [the Asian politician] comes, and he’s well received, that he meets with high-level people . . . and we send positive statements made back from the administration about ‘This guy wasn’t such a bad guy, many people have done worse’.”

As Kagro X notes, there’s a name for this: it’s called B-R-I-B-E-R-Y.

Now perhaps this is not common practice for those raising funds for Bush’s Library. And perhaps it’s not common practice for those appointed to national security advisory committees like the Homeland Security Advisory Committee (on which Payne serves) or the Presidential Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. But I can’t help but note the similar profile between Payne–who is apparently selling influence–and Ray Hunt. Of course, Hunt isn’t dealing lobbying contracts with dubious foreign figures. Rather, he’s making oil deals. And for some reason, the State Department not only overlooked the fact that Hunt’s premature deal with Kurdistan might destabilize Iraq, but they pointed Hunt Oil to new business elsewhere in Iraq.

Gosh. The State Department sure does like Bush’s cronies who come up with big chunks of cash for Bush’s library, doesn’t it?

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  1. earlofhuntingdon says:

    Oh, I think the boyz saw that 4-Sale sign in front of the White House before Cheney moved in. That revenue Clinton allegedly made from “selling” the Lincoln bed room? Wouldn’t cover the small blind in Bush’s game of political Texas hold ‘em [up]. As with every other attribute that Bush turns into a caricature of the original — from being CEO to “war leader” — he and his band criminally overdo it.

    • Leen says:

      That 250,ooo dollar donation could set up the “torture room” in the Bush library. Try your luck in the water boarding room. Or as the Bush administration likes to refer to it as “the enhanced techniques” room.

      The Bush Library will be whirl wind of revisionism. The neo cons/Pnac crew will have to have a room called “A Matter of Perception”

  2. Tross says:

    So Cheney and Rice have time to put 2 wars (maybe 3) on the back burner long enough to do some fundraising for Bush’s library?

    Nice priorities. It’s not like people are dying or anything.

    Isn’t there some law against private fundraising while in office?

    • skdadl says:

      What a treasure Vidal is:

      let me point out that even a banana Republican would be distressed to discover how much of our nation’s treasury has been siphoned off by our vice president in the interest of his Cosa Nostra company

      There’s a hint in that article that he is enjoying the blogosphere. But of course he is. Wouldn’t it be fun if we could get him to join us?

    • Leen says:

      Vidal Gore “But then I have known for a long time that the media of the U.S. and too many of its elected officials give not a flying fuck for the welfare of this republic, and so I turned, as I often do, to the foreign press for a clear report of what has been going on in Congress.”

      Shine the light Vidal shine the light

  3. rkilowatt says:

    A corollary Kaboom re Corporations As Persons:
    Orthodoxy has it the Supreme Court decided in 1886, in a case called Santa Clara County v. the Southern Pacific Railroad, that corporations were indeed legal persons. I express that view myself, in a recent book. So do many others. So do many law schools. We are all wrong.

    Mr. Hartmann undertook instead a conscientious search. He finally found the contemporary casebook, published in 1886, blew the dust away, and read Santa Clara County in the original, so to speak. Nowhere in the formal, written decision of the Court did he find corporate personhood mentioned. Not a word. The Supreme Court did NOT establish corporate personhood in Santa Clara County.

    In the casebook “HEADNOTE,” however, Mr. Hartmann read this statement: “The defendant Corporations are persons within the intent of the clause in section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment…which forbids a State to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” Here, anyway, corporate personhood was “provided”— in the headnote, instead of the formal written decision of the Supreme Court. But that’s not good enough.

    What is a “HEADNOTE?” It is the summary description of a court decision, written into the casebook by the court reporter. It is similar to an editor’s “abstract” in a scientific journal. Because they are not products of the court itself, however, headnotes carry no legal weight; they can establish no precedent in law. Corporate personhood, Mr. Hartmann discovered, is simply and unequivocally illegitimate.

    The court reporter for Santa Clara County was Mr. John Chandler Bancroft Davis, a graduate of Harvard Law School.

    Mr. Hartman has in his personal library 12 books by Davis, mostly original editions. They display Davis’s close alliance with the railroad industry, and they support persuasively Mr. Hartmann’s argument that Davis injected the personhood statement deliberately, to achieve by deceit what corporations had so far failed to achieve in litigation.

    If Davis knew his headnote was legally sterile, though, we can only speculate about his tactics. Perhaps he thought judges in the future would read his headnote as if it could serve as legal precedent, and would thereafter invoke corporate personhood in rendering court decisions. That would be grossly irregular, and it would place corporate personhood in stupendous legal jeopardy if it ever came to light. But something of that sort must have happened, because corporate personhood over time spread throughout the world of commerce—and politics.

    [from a blog on Thom Hartmann’s Protection: the Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights Chapt.6]
    http://www.commondreams.org/views02/1226-04.htm

    • PJEvans says:

      I’m tempted to do a little research on Mr Davis of the suspect ties and the multiple middle names. Back later ….

      • skdadl says:

        and to rkilowatt @ 4: If Mr Hartmann is right, is this not very important to the law? As in earth-shaking?

        (This seems to be my day for reading things that I want to believe but don’t know how to verify myself.)

    • bmaz says:

      A yeah. Hartmann is not on to anything new here. This argument has been around forever. Originally, it may have had some merit; however, the problem lies in the fact that the SCOTUS has been presented with hundreds of opportunities to correct that which is allegedly wrong, and has never even particularly entertained the argument. Irrespective of the validity of it’s beginning, it is the law now.

  4. MarieRoget says:

    BushCo selling their favors like whores? Who could have anticipated this breach of our democratic fantasy…

    OT- I lost a kid today. Ok , now yesterday. One of those that took the GED after a years ago class @ Covenant House L.A. Driving over there, I had the lyrics to Everclear’s Heroin Girl in my head. He liked Everclear. “The policeman said it was just another overdose, just another overdose.”
    But another lyric from an older song creates a dissonance- He was some mother’s darling, he was some mother’s son. Once he was fair & once he was young.

    Care about the least, or care about none. I know your choice so well, BushCo.

    Relatives notified. Funeral pending? You were worth the time on this earth, Jase, even though you always staunchly maintained you never were…

    We need to care about the poor in a way that means something nationally, the way it once did. Important to us all, & to us as a nation.

    • MarieRoget says:

      But this Fed Gov does make a point of showing they don’t care, don’t they. One more national disgrace. 3rd world governmental pov forced onto the essentially good & generous citizens of our nation.

    • 4jkb4ia says:

      Baruch Dayan haEmet. Although that is formula, it is powerful joined to Psalm 82.

      I now have “I Will Buy You A New Life” in my head, which is of course bitter irony.

    • klynn says:

      So sorry to read about your loss…

      I worked with Covenant House outreaches in DC and in NYC…

      Many never “get” how one growing up in poverty views life… A mirror opposite of privilege…a “that must not be for me” view of life in general. This slef view tends to cause an internal spiral of defeat…

      All touched by this loss will be in my thoughts today…

      Thanks for sharing…(((MarieRoget)))

      • MarieRoget says:

        And so very late getting back to you, klynn. Thanks for the work you did (do?) with C House.

        Care about the least, or care about none. Choices in this life do matter so terribly, one of the necessities of survival for us all.

  5. skdadl says:

    Och, Marie, I am so sorry. Intense feeling under such graceful restraint — that’s coming through true and clear in your message above. (We seem to spend our early mornings exchanging condolences, don’t we.)

    • MarieRoget says:

      Thank you for your thoughts, skdadl. After the news of the past couple of days, today has to be a better day. It will be, because we’ll make it be so. Going to take the dogs out for a long walk now.
      Read you all later.

      Just saw yr. post- thank you too, 4jkb4ia.

  6. MrWhy says:

    Stephen Payne is certainly at fault here, and he takes quite a big chunk of change for delivering access. It is a little less clear that Bush/Cheney/Rice/Negroponte have done anything wrong in this case. Not giving them a pass, but they are being used as bait, and this may be a bait and switch scheme.

    Senator Joe Biden is also mentioned as possibly available for a meeting. What’s up with that?

    • perris says:

      Stephen Payne is certainly at fault here, and he takes quite a big chunk of change for delivering access. It is a little less clear that Bush/Cheney/Rice/Negroponte have done anything wrong in this case. Not giving them a pass, but they are being used as bait, and this may be a bait and switch scheme.

      this is why release of this video so prematurely is alarming, this investigation needed to go forward and the leak prevents that

      • techmom says:

        There was no leak. This was an under cover reporter, not an investigation. The hope is that it may spark an investigation.
        However the DOJ will not be investigating this so our best bet is to go viral and make sure that the access-selling is well covered by the press. I believe there is some resistance to exposing this administration or the corporate hacks who grease it.
        I will be linking to this article and trying to spread the word because there will be no investigation unless the DOJ is shamed into it.

    • emptywheel says:

      True. THere’s no evidence that Bush and COndi et al knew of the quid pro quo.

      So I ‘m sure Bush (and Clinton and Bush !) wouldn’t mind releasing the list of their library donors!!!

      And yes, the Biden thing is troubling.

  7. skdadl says:

    Sorry it took me this long to watch the Payne video (when I’m behind I sometimes read from the bottom up). Classic performance — belongs in the archives with Shiffrin, Haynes, and Addington, at least, guys whose body language tells us more than we wanted to know about their overdeveloped sense of privilege. So he is on the Homeland Security Advisory Committee? Bet that makes everyone feel safer.

    I’m assuming that the former president of Kyrgyzstan that Payne is talking about is Akayev, and Payne isn’t wrong when he says that “others have done worse” (see Karimov in Uzbekistan). I think we think that Akayev was mainly corrupt, although there were some dead bodies along the way. Why, though, would Akayev be trying to resurrect himself now? What an odd thing.

    It’s always worth watching the Central Asian republics. Cheney and the State Department sure do.

      • skdadl says:

        Holy mackerel, and nice piece of detective work. If that is true, that Akayev was behind the sting, well … wow. I’m sort of reluctant to say nice things about Akayev, but wow. What was going on in early 2005 that would have inspired the Bushies to nudge him out?

        Akayev lives in Moscow now. Maybe he’ll want to be careful around people carrying umbrellas with pointy ends.

        • emptywheel says:

          I think we’ve been pushing people out in C Asia since BUsh got in (think Georgia). What’s really going on is a Cold War over hegemony in C Asia and with it access to C Asia’s resources. So I wouldn’t be surprised if Akayev did that (if indeed he did, and the TIme didn’t just pretend they were representing him) with the full backing of Russia. Particularly if Payne, in particular, were becoming a true pain in the ass for Russia.

      • bmaz says:

        Shouldn’t you be wailing about Clinton’s use of the Lincoln bedroom or something the Clenis did instead of this? Really, this stuff is fine, it’s the Clintons that trashed the White House….

        • emptywheel says:

          Actually, Bill’s still working the sales of access to Central Asian thugs, so he’s not exempt either, not at all. Plus, that’s why I said we should call for everyone to release their donor names.

        • bmaz says:

          Heh, I was joking, but you knew that. I agree that all donor lists should be public. My only gripe is that the Bushies have made what Clinton did seem like two penny ante, yet the Goopers facilitate that with impunity and STILL harp on Clinton. The hypocrisy is mind boggling.

  8. perris says:

    we’re talking about this a little bit over at the lake and elliot brings up a great little point;

    Why has this video been released and not held for a deeper investigation?

    we needed to see how far the access would get and if possible, (not likely), we needed to see what informaiton was breached and what kind of promises made for these bribes

    in any event, this is pretty close to treason, offering access to the highest levels of goverment for a few hundred thousand dollars

    since bush has plausable deniability, will he throw them under the buss if challenged>

    I would like to see the following question asked directly to bush;

    “if your staff and aids are proven to be selling access to the highest levels of government for a few hundred thousand dollars contribution to your library, wouldn’t you consider that treason and would you try to prefer charges against all partys involved?”

    he would have some trouble with the language if that question were posed

    • Minnesotachuck says:

      we’re talking about this a little bit over at the lake and elliot brings up a great little point;

      Why has this video been released and not held for a deeper investigation?

      we needed to see how far the access would get and if possible, (not likely), we needed to see what informaiton was breached and what kind of promises made for these bribes

      The “Why Now?” may have something to do with what’s coming up this coming week in Dallas.

      Here’s what’s at stake, as described by Andrew Weaver*, at Media Transparency in a new, June 19 2008 story (Media Transparency is a part of Cursor):

      “To obtain the George W. Bush presidential library, Southern Methodist University has been required to accept an autonomous partisan institute on campus. Karl Rove is in the middle of the planning of and fund-raising for this Trojan horse project.The institute will give Rove the resources he needs to try to re-write the narrative of the Bush presidency, as well promoting his larger vision — the domination of the right-wing of the Republican Party in American politics. In July the United Methodist Church, which owns SMU “lock stock and barrel,” has one last chance to stop Rove.” [emphasis mine]

      Needless to say, Karl Rove’s SMU library/partisan think tank would exert a corrosive effect on the neutrality and objectivity of American higher education. The final vote in the Library and attached think tank is due to occur in Dallas on July 15-16.

      Further down, here’s more from the quoted source, Andrew Weaver:

      Unless the UMC takes a stand, neither SMU nor the UMC will have any say over the actions, agenda, or direction of an autonomous $500 million partisan-driven complex at one of its major universities. Karl Rove, who has a long history of hard-ball partisanship, will be in charge and he will roll out a giant Trojan horse and push it right through the front gate. The 99 year lease for a single dollar with a 249 year option (that the Bush foundation has required) means that after July, 2008 the next chance for the church to address the issue is the year 2357…

      Rove has devoted his adult life to one vision — the dominance of American politics by the right wing of the Republican Party at any cost… He will use all the resources at his disposal, particularly the Bush think tank proposed at SMU, to recruit, train, support, organize and deploy the next generation of right-wing political operatives.

      July 15 is Tuesday. Someone may be going nuclear in attempt to keep the Methodists from going over the edge.

  9. der1 says:

    chump change to a republican war profiteer, congress should take him up on it and pay to talk to all those that give them the finger. take chris matthews with you.

  10. JamesJoyce says:

    Corporation are not people. They are legal entities designed by lawyers to minimize the liability of officers within the corporation, while maximizing political leverage with the vast sums of accumulated wealth. Now corporate owned tax exempt libraries do the bidding of fascist below the radar, till it is exposed……

    Kings and corpo cohorts in colonial crime mercantiled our forefathers many a time. In less than 250 years we have become that which we severed our ties from. Rot in hell BUSH/CHENEY and the like………

    • perris says:

      you raise an interesting point and I will give yLOou a factoid almost nobody knows and it is certainly the oposite what we have been taught in grade school;

      the boston tea party was not a revolt against higher taxes, it was not a revolt against “taxation without representation”

      it was a revolt against LOwERING taxes!

      that’s right, the king lowered taxes for his wealthy pals in the china import company (I forget the exat name of the company) which made local competition impossible

      the locals went balistic and THUS the boston tea party and THUS america was born

      interesting factoid, this country was started to prevent that which the republicans market as their very brand

      • JamesJoyce says:

        “interesting factoid, this country was started to prevent that which the republicans market as their very brand.”

        Perris I’ve been saying this for years. “Natural Selection Corporate Treason Executive Oil and the Iraq oil Plot.” Interesting how Findlaw’s Writ has effected censorship? They shut down!!!!

        Unfortunately is is not limited to repugs. Demorats are just a capable of selling out. This hybrid group is referred to as “Asselelephants.” The amended single party beholding to corporate America. The recent FISA vote confirmed and identified the “”dysfunctionals”" and the scope of their treason to America’s Constitution. Will the Judiciary kow tow to defacto fascists??? No wonder Jefferson distrusted corporations and the “scumbags” they employ. Remember the CO. Ludlow Massacre and the parties responsible for the cold blooded murder of coal miners and their families seeking unions to benefit their standard of living and quality of life?? We are brainwashed! The CO militia was employed to kill these Americans as Blackwater is hired to kill Iraqis to forward the corporate oil scam in Iraq!!
        Bush/Cheney……….. rot in hell!!!!

  11. WilliamOckham says:

    If you want to know how close this guy is to George W. Bush, you’ll have to go to google’s cache. There’s a page from Worldwide Strategic Partners website that Google visited July 5, 2008, but has since been scrubbed.

    Here’s some highlights:

    Mr. Payne’s political career began in 1988 as the Legislative Director for Texas State Senator J.E. “Buster” Brown. During his tenure as Legislative Director, Mr. Payne began his affiliation with the Bush White House by serving as a White House Advance Representative for President George Herbert Walker Bush, coordinating dozens of official White House events across the nation, and serving as George W. Bush’s personal travel aide during his father’s 1988 Presidential campaign. After working in the Texas State Capitol for five years, Mr. Payne expanded on his political base by serving on the special election campaign for then-State Treasurer Kay Bailey Hutchison’s run for the United States Senate. After her election to the Senate, Mr. Payne joined her efforts in Texas, serving as the State Director of Special Projects and Deputy Director of the Southeast Texas Region until 1996.

    Mr. Payne was a vital volunteer member of the Bush 2000 and 2004 campaigns’ Advance operations, in which he spent more than a year traveling with the campaign as a volunteer. Mr. Payne was part of a small team of Bush operatives, including former White House Chief of Staff Andy Card, who coordinated the 2000 campaign’s efforts for the three Presidential debates, also serving as the Lead Advance Representative for the 2004 Vice Presidential debate. Mr. Payne’s national and state fundraising efforts are extensive. In both 2000 and 2004, Mr. Payne was not only one of the top Bush Campaign fundraisers in the nation, but also one of the youngest, earning him select national recognition. Mr. Payne’s fundraising activity includes membership on the Bush for President National Finance Committee, the Republican National Finance Committee, and the 2001 Presidential Inaugural Committee as Deputy Director and Congressional Liaison. Additionally, Mr. Payne served as a fundraiser and statewide Vice-Chairman for Texas Governor Rick Perry’s 2002 campaign, as a Harris County Co-Chair for Perry’s 1998 Lieutenant Governor race and as a statewide Vice-Chairman for Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison’s re-election campaigns in 2000 and 2006.

    I have to go teach my Sunday School class now, but check out Mr. Payne’s activities as advisor and lobbyist for Pakistan, Turkmenistan, and Iraq. Not mention him bragging about setting up a meeting between Cheney and the Azeri President in 2005.

    Btw, ‘personal travel aide to George W. Bush’ during Daddy’s presidential campaign means ‘the guy responsible for keeping him out of trouble’.

  12. WilliamOckham says:

    One more quick hit about Payne and Hunt. The answer to ew’s question is probably no. Hunt doesn’t have raise money for Bush’s library to get his government goodies. He has an independent power base. Payne, on the other hand, has spent his entire adult life doing nothing but selling access to Bush and, later, Cheney. Payne’s gravy train is about to end and he’s milking it for all its worth.

    Please take a look at the Worldwide Strategic Partners web site in Google’s cache. The whole thing was scrubbed sometime between July 9 and today.

    • skdadl says:

      Gosh. Someone should talk to the Latvians. Do you see that Payne is their honorary consul in the U.S.? His history in Pakistan is interesting too, if predictable.

  13. Loo Hoo. says:

    (((Marie Roget)))

    The piano playing in the background adds an eerie touch to this corruption. I like the way he keeps turning around to make sure nobody is listening. And what is the Biden business?

  14. dmac says:

    also posted at the lake on sunday heads thread–

    quote from the think progress article mentioned by perris and linked at 7 by nonplussed–
    PAYNE: The exact budget I will come up with. But it will be somewhere between $600,000 and $750,000, with about a third of it going directly to the Bush library. […]

    ====

    my question is–where’s the other 2/3 rds of that money goin’?

    ======

    marie-well, crap. ((((marie and all of the other people who loved jase))))

    • MarieRoget says:

      Thanks for the hugs, dmac. Much appreciated. Also, thanks, ew, LooHoo, & all for yr. condolences. I was asked by Cov House to make calls to his mother & brother, because I tend toward the stoic in these situations, I guess. He was clean, was in NA, also an AA 12 Step, had progressed to asst. manager @ a Blockbuster, so an od wasn’t in the cards & made us all reel back.

      Jason T.- funny, smart, self-deprecating, convinced from an early age IMO that he was essentially worthless, but fighting that opinion of himself. Thrown out in his early teens when he came out. A smile that lit up the room, whenever you could pry one out of him.
      Dammit.

  15. MarieRoget says:

    Is it my imagination, or are there an awfully lot of server probs in the mornings (PT) around here?

    DOS attacks do come to mind after a while…

  16. JohnLopresti says:

    Here is a list which has some biographical information about the members of PFIAB, with links to an individual pedigree sub-page for each member. It is privately built but based on the government site, adding ways to look at the careers of each PFIAB member. The Pfiab has included, over time, people like Les Aspin, Clare Boothe Luce, Brent Scowcroft, Warren Rudman. Here is RLHunt’s page.

  17. PJEvans says:

    OK, wiki has a page on Davis.

    I found a birth record for him, and also census records for 1850-1880 for him. He didn’t leave any children. The 1870 census lists him as assistant Secretary of State, and the 1880 as ‘lawyer and judge C of C’. He seems never to have gotten west of the Blue Ridge … which means he had no real clue what was going on in CA or anywhere else in the west at the time; he only knew what he was being told. (Kind of a Faux News low-information voter of the time.)

  18. dmac says:

    william at 18 and 20

    THANKS!!

    i tried to get the other cached pages of the site, but i don’t know what i’m doing, would like to see the entire list.
    ====
    this is all the scrubbed site says now-bet the windows are now shuttered in houston, too.

    Worldwide Strategic Partners, Inc.

    5847 San Felipe
    Suite 3275
    Houston, Texas 77057

    For Additional Information please call: (713) 783-7783
    Transmit correspondence via facsimile to: (713) 952-1110.
    ==========

    didya notice the chairman, the first board member listed is retired army and ENRON?

    wonder if he knows phil and wendy gramm?
    ummm, yep-looks like-she was on the board while he was exec and pres….he started in 90 just prior to this-
    http://www.villagevoice.com/20…..ron-favor/
    -snip-
    In an apparent response to a 1992 plea from Enron, Dr. Wendy Gramm, then chair of the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission, moved to exempt the company’s energy-swap operation from government oversight. By then, the Houston-based Enron was a major contributor to Senator Gramm’s campaign.

    A few days after she got the ball rolling on the exemption, Wendy Gramm resigned from the commission. Enron soon appointed her to its board of directors, where she served on the audit committee, which oversees the inner financial workings of the corporation.

    -snip-

    ======here’s the part from your #18 link
    Lincoln Jones III
    Major General, USA (Ret)

    Chairman of the Board, Worldwide Strategic Partners

    In July 1998, Jones retired from Enron Corp. while serving as a Vice Chairman Enron Europe. Previous positions
    included Executive to the Chairman, Enron Europe, Ltd. (1990-1991), President Enron Power Operations Corp (1991-
    1993), President Enron Engineering and Construction Company (1994-1996), and President Enron Power Corp (1993-
    1998).

    Prior to joining the international business community, he concluded his thirty two years of active duty as the
    Commanding General, United States Army Southern European Task Force in the Mediterranean. During his carrier he
    saw service in Vietnam, Korea, Italy, West Germany, Hawaii, Fort Carson in Colorado, Washington, D.C., Fort Lewis in
    Washington, and the Panama Canal Zone.
    Mr. Jones also serves as a Board Member of the National Defense University Foundation.

  19. Mary says:

    Well, I’m still in shock that anyone would try to sell off a meeting with Stephen Hadley as being worth anything. Really – he added the NSA like someone would actually, voluntarily, choose to pay money to meet with him? That answers whether or not wonders have ceased yet.

    I can see why Payne pulled Cheney out of the rabbit box, though. He’s been pining for someone to boil people alive for him ever since he had to part company with the Wizard of Uz.

  20. R.H. Green says:

    “…and we send positive statements back from the administration about:’ this guy wasn’t such a bad guy; many people have done worse.’.”
    Seems I recall reading this in a Doonesbury cartoon, only it was the president of Bizerkistan, being packaged by a DC lobby firm.

  21. WilliamOckham says:

    I just got back from a day trip to the beach (in J.E. ‘Buster’ Brown’s old State Senate District, oddly enough). Let me explain the point I was trying to make about Stephan Payne. He was a legacy hire by Buster Brown. Payne’s daddy (Jerry Payne) was Brown’s lawyer. In 1988, the younger Payne was loaned out to the Bush 41 campaign to ensure that George W. didn’t embarrass the elder Bush during his presidential campaign. In 1990, he managed Brown’s disastrous campaign for Texas Attorney General (against Dan Morales). Back then, he was just a minor league slimeball, cheating people out of campaign loans.

    He spent the ’90s bouncing around low-level jobs for various Texas Republicans and getting a few state-level lobbying deals. In 2000, he rides Bush’s coattails to D.C. and suddenly he’s an international man of mystery. Worldwide Strategic Partners was formed in 2001. All that stuff he did for Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Azeribajian, Uzbekistan, Iraq, etc. he did while he was working for the Bush administration. They only thing this guy had to sell was his connection to Bush. Somebody (initials H. Waxman) needs to start asking some questions about Stephen P. Payne.

  22. randiego says:

    … Winters, a New York physician turned medical malpractice lawyer, was drawn into Texas politics through his friendship with his dentist, John Perel. Perel had become a supporter of Brown in part because for years he dated Marianne Payne, the ex-wife of Brown’s longtime friend and legal adviser, Jerry Payne. Jerry and Marianne Payne’s son, Steve Payne, managed Brown’s campaign for attorney general and persuaded both Perel and Winters to each loan the campaign $10,000. Brown and his son collected Winters’ check personally at Winters’ office in the Lyric Centre building on October 16, 1990. It was a matter of trust, Winters says. “I figured Marianne knew him, and her son was running the campaign ….”

    Nice find WO. Man, scratch the surface of the Bushies and you find slime. Dig a little deeper and all you find is more slime…

  23. dmac says:

    found some more interesting things about stephen payne—
    from info on his dhs advisory committee page–somehow they got a nasa patent for private use.
    -snip-
    He currently serves as President of Advanced Clean Air Technologies which holds an exclusive patent license from NASA for one-of-a-kind breakthrough technology that removes NO2, SO2, and Mercury from coal powerplants.
    -snip-

    http://advancedcleanairtechnol…..story.html
    almost same photo as the one on world wide strategies website–handshake…..
    -snip-
    Advanced Clean Air Technologies (ACAT) has the exclusive rights to market the Phoenix-NASA ”Mercury Emission Control System”, a multi-pollutant emission control technology.
    -snip-

    http://advancedcleanairtechnologies.net/home.html
    This low temperature oxidation process developed jointly by NASA at Kennedy Space Center and Phoenix Systems International, Inc. (PSII) meets and even surpasses regulations of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments.

    wonder who else’s payroll/board he’s on……..

  24. al75 says:

    As of 7/14, I can find no reference to “payne” or “stephen payne” on the WaPo, NYT, McClatchy, CNN, or MSNBC sites.

    Is this just dog-bites-man, or are they stuffing the story?

  25. dmac says:

    my 57-this is really looking fishy-can only find one thing on phoenix system technologies besides the patent announcement, odd..how can there be a company that co-developed with nasa and it’s nowhere to be found? and advanced clean air technologies has sole licensing….starting to wonder if it was a sole nasa project and acat got the patent? hmm.

    have looked all morning but can find only one-but can’t access it-says i need to update adobe, but just did yesterday, maybe it’s my old computer. dunno.

    http://www.scribd.com/doc/2857…..tional-Inc

  26. WilliamOckham says:

    One last Stephen Payne oddity. On many of his campaign donations, he listed Strategic Political Partners as his employer. That appears to be his lobby company (not one of the various venture capital or international business consultancies he’s affiliated with). Guess what? Last week there was a hearing in Judge Karen Brown’s U.S. bankruptcy court (for the Southern District of Texas) for Strategic Political Partners. The docket number is 07-36706-7.

    The hearing was scheduled for 2pm on 7/10/2008.

    I wonder what you could find out with a PACER account?

  27. dmac says:

    he is involved in a company, advanced clean air technologies llc, that has an exclusive marketing rights for a nasa developed coal emissions technology, says also was developed with phoenix systems international who has exclusive licensing agreement, but patent notice says nothing about it being co-developed, which would usually be on the patent document. can’t find a solitary thing on phoenix systems international except for patent licensing info, very odd. the one link i found, won’t let me in, says i need adobe update, but just updated yesterday.
    link at my 60

    it’s just a little fishy that a company would have a licensing patent from nasa, and there is no record of them anywhere.
    http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=16354

    and stephen payne is involved with the company that has exclusive marketing rights for that product…..it smells.

  28. dmac says:

    AND
    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/t…..322719.ece

    -snip-
    Unregistered work

    American law states that anyone representing a foreigner for political reasons must register as an agent. Failure to do so is punishable by a fine or jail.

    Payne and WSP do not appear to have registered much of their work for foreigners with the Department of Justice.

    Payne said WSP’s work for Azerbaijan was nonpolitical, but its brochure says that it “implemented an aggressive media campaign to discredit the Azeri opposition”.

    WSP did not register its work for an Uzbek politician as it was unpaid. The justice department says unpaid work must be registered.

    -snip-

    make sure to download the brochure from the beginning of the article, verrrrrry interesting.