WTF: Clinton Foundation took $10,000 from Blackwater??

[ddeclue]

This was on CNN earlier...

:hide:

[BeatleBoot]

1. Was that before or after...

Obama accepted money from Auchi and Rezko?


Just trying to keep the timeline straight here.

[ddeclue]

2. Didn't get that part, just caught the end of it.

Did anyone get the rest of the details????

:shrug:

[Jackeens]

3. You equate Auchi and Rezko with Blackwater??

[BeatleBoot]

4. Well, Blackwater isn't sitting in prison

Like Auchi has in the past, but I hope they become bunkies.

Real soon.

[Joe the Revelator]

6. Seems you might be more comfortable at Free Republic

[Sebastian Doyle]

15. Or at least CrappyTroll Hill.

I'm sure he's familiar with that one.

[creeksneakers2]

5. I'd take money from Blackwater too

As long as the money is for a good cause, and nothing is expected in return, why not take the money?

[ddeclue]

7. People usually expect SOMETHING for their money...

even if it is something as simple as credibility or respectability.

I think what Blackwater got for their money was an air of respectability at the very least.

Should President Clinton grant these people respectability to these people by accepting their money?

They're mercenaries...

Doug D.

[jberryhill]

8. "They're mercenaries..."

The Clintons or Blackwater?

[ddeclue]

9. Yikes! That wasn't clear? BLACKWATER of course...

Blackwater is the mercenaries...by that I mean ACTUAL mercenaries...

Doug D.

[jberryhill]

10. Oh, okay

There were two ways to take that.

Mercenaries will take money from anyone.

I sincerely doubt that anyone named Clinton personally "approved" every donor. I've never donated to anything or anyone that cared much more beyond whether my check cleared.

[ddeclue]

11. Well it wasn't a $25.00 check from an employee of BW

it was ten grand... that should have caught someone's eye...

I've been involved in plenty of political campaigns and you don't always take every dime that's thrown at you. Sometimes the money isn't worth the bad PR.

Doug D.

[jberryhill]

12. I know 10 grand might sound like a lot

At the level of the Clinton Foundation, it's like a quarter in the Salvation Army pot.

[ddeclue]

13. It exceeds the amount that a single individual could give in a Federal campaign

by a factor of 2 so I think it is a signficant enough amount for them to pay attention to. I realize that this is a different world with millions of dollars changing hands but I think it is something that people ought to know.

In fact if I were a major donor to something like this I would in fact expect to have my name put somewhere and get some kind of recognition for it, even if only on a webpage or something.

[jberryhill]

14. 'Snot a Federal Campaign

I've donated about half that to a non-profit Wiki with a lower budget. I'm guessing the Clinton Foundation gets a lot of 10K+ donations.

What does the rest of the list look like.

[ddeclue]

16. I didn't go through the list, just the story...

but there IS a link in the story to the list.

Somewhere in it will be a $25.00 donation from me...(just kidding I did donate but I doubt the list goes down that far into the noise...) and I expect to be made ambassador to Belgium.

:rofl:

[jberryhill]

17. Got that in non-sequential singles?

Ever thought about being senator for Illinois?

Meet me at the docks at midnight.

[ddeclue]

19. Reminds me of the scene in the first Lethal Weapon movie...

where Mel Gibson's character tries to buy the kilos of cocaine from the Christmas Tree/Drug Dealers for $100 and he's counting out the singles and tells them to be quiet because he's losing count.

:rofl:

[creeksneakers2]

18. I don't think they were looking for respectability

Because the donation was kept secret. It may have brought them some access but $10,000 to the Clintons doesn't buy very much access. Especially when its to a library they don't make a dime off.

[ddeclue]

20. That's a fair point... do we know the circumstances?

Perhaps BW thought they were going to get some good PR but then someone at CF realized that the money from BW was bad PR for CF so they kept the donation quiet and BW got screwed??

Perhaps it got them access or perhaps one or more of the BW execs just wanted a pic with WJC to hang on their office wall and 10 grand seemed a reasonable price for some office art...

Doug D.

[MagickMuffin]

21. I wonder if it was money from a DOD contract, if so.......

that means the taxpayers actually made the donation

[ddeclue]

22. I'm no lawyer but I don't think that's really true...

They received the money from the government as their consideration for services performed under contract to the gov't. As long as the services were delivered as promised then the money is Blackwaters to spend is it not?

The Clinton Foundation is NOT a gov't organization and I know of no legal limitations on how they can accept money from anyone.

I'm sure we have lawyers here at DU who could chime in and set you and me straight on this...

Doug D.

[MagickMuffin]

23. Well we are talking about BlackWater, and they have been found to be Corrupt.

They were awarded Billions of US taxpayers $$$$.

But I'm no lawyer either but who knows how these companies do business. I do know for a fact that Randy Duke-Stir Cunningham took in kickbacks from DOD contracts that were awarded to his friends and received millions of $$$$ worth of valuable assets. A yacht, a Rolls Royce, antique furniture, etc etc. He's sitting in jail right now for his little scam.

Scam artists seem to "know" how to get away with these sort of crimes.