Did Anybody See Ken Lay On 60 Minutes Tonight?

[Dinger]

It was an obvious attempt to soften his image before his LONG AWAITED trial in January NEXT YEAR. There was not one question about his links to the * family, not one. He was shown a clip of one of his many victims, and asked to comment, and he said he was sorry, t5hat's it, he was sorry??? He said if he could have done anything he would have, blah, blah, blah. There seemed to be a pretty heavy emphasis on his impending ruin. Isn't that too goddamn bad! I'm not sure who was the interviewer, his name escaped me, but he's on CBS all the time. He did tell Kenny Boy that people think of him as a crook, and "How do you feel about that?" There was seconds of time for the lawyer prosecuting Kenny Boy, maybe he'll get the same kid glove treatment next week? Yeah, right.

[7th_Sephiroth]

1. i had a 9mm and was face to face with that asshole

he was drunk and blabbing all about how he was gonna get * selected and get a fucked up form of energy deregulation passed

[Dinger]

3. What???

[7th_Sephiroth]

4. i was at an energy trade show in Texas

as my fathers bodyguard in 1998, kenny boy was there

[Dinger]

5. Wow!

Why aren't you being interviewed, or something, anything?? Have you contacted anyone? Will you be a witness??

[7th_Sephiroth]

6. i have no doubt that was the subject

of cheney's secret energy talks

[AntiCoup2K4]

24. I'd ask the obvious question, but

I'm not sure if Agent Mike still hangs around here or not.

[bahrbearian]

38. Ya I'm here

I'm just taking names right now, carry on with your dicussion.
Agent Mike.

[BeatleBoot]

2. Ken Lay: Bush's First Pardon

:hurts:

[tinanator]

42. only if Bush "lost"

unfortunately he "won" again

[zulchzulu]

7. I thought that maybe Rather had something to do with it...

It was good to see a story on Kenny Boy on the air...I also think that Kenny Boy was playing right into the reporter's hands...

If anything, this was a reminder that the Enron story is far from over. I'm glad it made it on the air.

Now...let's see some Halliburton, PNAC and Gannon stories...please....pretty please.

[Warpy]

9. I'm glad they also interviewed the lawyers.

Lay was obviously trying to come across as a kindly but bumbling reg'lar Joe who was in over his head (and being paid 6 million bucks a year for it). The lawyers sort of set the whole thing back on track, pointing out what the responsibility of a CEO was and that he wasn't operating in a vacuum.

Enron was a classic Ponzi scheme, dollars flowing in at the bottom and siphoned off at the top, while massive losses were hidden in dummy subsidiaries of dummy subsidiaries.

And yes, Bush will undoubtedly pardon the scum.

[Dinger]

10. He Blamed Fastow; I Forgot That

He said he took "some" of the responsibility, and whined some more about Fastow.

[Name removed]

16. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[zulchzulu]

11. If Rather and 60 Minutes do it right, they can be a real Bush pain in the

..ass.

Since Dan is still going to be on 60 Minutes, perhaps that will be the possible channel to keep bringing out all the Bush scandals...just in time for 2006.

[EVDebs]

13. Sumner Redstone's comment on Republicans necessary in office

would be evidence of more puppydog media, not less. Operation Mockingbird style payola.

[suziedemocrat]

26. I hope Rather gets REVENGE by uncovering all kinds of * dirt!

He'll have more time now that he is no longer the anchor - and he needs to get his reputation back. He (almost) has nothing to lose and everything to gain by really going after this admin. And he has the skill and contacts to get the job done?????? Of course the *'s can just "Hire" their own reporters with their own truth and muddy the waters enough to keep most Americans dumb, fat, and happy.

I'm beginning to think most republicans just want huge cars, cable television, the certainty that none of their tax dollars are going to help people who probably don't deserve it, and the knowledge that we are going to kill as much of the world as we possibly can.

[fooj]

32. I don't believe for one moment that Rather is through with those bastards

He'll be vindicated...probably sooner than later.


Peace.

[Dinger]

46. Ne Meither (Hee Hee)

I hope so, and if anybody can, I really believe Dan's the man!

[fooj]

48. Nail those bastards to the wall, Dan!

Peace!

[EVDebs]

14. Yeah, back in the day, the CIA skimmed along with Mafia in Vegas

...then came Howard Hughes and they skimmed from HIM. Then they found they could skim within legit businesses abusing Bureau of Indian Affairs (a la the whole Cabazon thing, which originated 'Indian gaming' on-shore).

As a legit business, gaming Enron, who gamed CA taxpayers (Har Har !) is something the 'company' would have no problem doing.

BTW, how they do it all the while supposedly having to answer to Congress and the constitution...that's going to be a tough one to answer. Probably in a closed door 'in camera' hearing in the Capital men's room with a Gannon/Guckert covering the story !

[Just Me]

8. I am so GLAD I didn't,...I woulda' prolly shed tread on my britches!

These people have no conscience whatsoever to actually OWN responsibility for their actions,...they are too freakin busy serving themselves!!!

Assholes!!!

They should all "serve time" living in the struggle they have imposed upon all those they advantaged themselves,....every day of their lives.

:grr:

Make them PAY,...like the elderly and struggling common American they screwed.

:grr:

[raccoon]

44. You know that's right

Kenny boy sat there and denied he knew anything weird was going on.
What in Hades was he getting paid millions for, to sit there on his thumb? Must be nice to have a job like that.

I wish he and others like him would be condemned to spend the rest of their lives in the trashiest trailer park you can imagine, working at a McJob, and having a take public transportation.

And none of the creeps are sorry for what they've done, just sorry they got caught.

[EVDebs]

12. My theory is Enron = CIA proprietary. With 2 doz. CIA employees

on the payroll and Cheney's infamous covert Energy Plan, you have to ask yourself why Martha Stewart is no tried, convicted and outta the slammer while the 'discovery' phase of KennyBoy's escapades isn't even over with...until Bush is safely into a 2nd term and the coverup can proceed accordingly.

[peekaloo]

15. Scott Pelley (sp) was the interviewer.

He seemed to be looking through the bastard (Lay) at times.

The ol' Sgt. Schultz defense: I knew NOTHING!

[justgamma]

18. I thought that was the Bush defense. n/t

[HysteryDiagnosis]

22. These tapes didn't help the image of the "I didn't know anything" types...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/enron/story/0,11337,862090,00.html
Video reminds Bush family of embarrassing Enron links

David Teather in New York
Wednesday December 18, 2002
The Guardian

The White House last night suffered an embarrassing reminder of the Bush family's close relationship with the disgraced energy firm Enron.

A video recorded for the leaving party of a former employee shows senior executives joking about how they could manipulate the accounts to make "a kazillion dollars". It also features the current and former President Bushes paying warm tributes to the departing executive.

George Bush senior tells Enron's then president Rich Kinder: "You have been fantastic to the Bush family. I don't think anybody did more than you did to support George."


http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/06/01/eveningnews/main620626.shtml

(CBS) When a forest fire shut down a major transmission line into California, cutting power supplies and raising prices, Enron energy traders celebrated, CBS News Correspondent Vince Gonzales reports.

"Burn, baby, burn. That's a beautiful thing," a trader sang about the massive fire.

Four years after California's disastrous experiment with energy deregulation, Enron energy traders can be heard – on audiotapes obtained by CBS News – gloating and praising each other as they helped bring on, and cash-in on, the Western power crisis.

[peekaloo]

23. and Lay's laughable contention that the company could have been

saved if he'd known and had more time to act.

[Dinger]

50. Hey, maybe This Will Be Lay's "Michael Jackson" Tape? (nt)

[spooky3]

17. They showed several pics of Lay with the Bushes, Sr. & Jr.

[Dinger]

28. Pics, But NO Questions

[stevedeshazer]

31. The VERY FIRST SENTENCE of the piece...

...mentioned that Kenny Boy played golf with Clinton. Right out of the box. I can't find a transcript yet, but that really hit me.

[springhill]

34. It did me too.........

It was an all too familiar tactic. Try to make it look like Clinton is part of the problem also. That would be the only reason to start it off the way they did.

[Charon]

43. Very First Sentence

Why should that suprise you. Enron experience explosive growth during the 90s. The DU would like to believe that it all happened since 2000. Enron got big because they were quite willing to play politics with anyone (Repub or Democrat)that looked like it would help their cause. While a higher % of their contributions went to the Repubs, some Democratics also benefited from Enron polictical contributions. Just my theory, but notice there was no great Hue and Cry from Congress after the Enron empire colapsed?
A lot of folks on both sides of the aisle did not want their acceptance of Enron contributions make to public. Again just by thoughts.

[Dinger]

45. Yes, I Saw That Too! (nt)

[knight_of_the_star]

19. Bastard should fry

He should have to pay back every fucking PENNY that he robbed from Californians and spend his term in San Quentin.

[SophieZ]

20. About Ken Lay....

Michael Kelly, in Z magazine online, wrote:
"Listen, people. Our titans of industry are the best darned titans of industry in the world, and they deserve anything they can get, with both hands. It is not their fault that they turned out to be the greediest bunch of no-talent morons the world has seen since the Harding administration. It could have happened to anyone. Let them have their money - oh, sorry, I meant our money."

"The remarkable thing here is the scale: It's not just one dog they were hiding; it's a whole kennel." Carole Broderick, a Philadelphia plaintiffs' lawyer, quoted wrote right after the bankruptcy, in BLOOMBERG NEWS

THE TIME ZONE DEFENSE
When a reporter asked how it was possible for the chief executive of
Enron to be so out of touch, Ken Lay's attorney Mike Ramsey said it was a matter of the company's size and structure. "I don't think you understand the way Enron is set up," Ramsey said. "I don't think you understand how many time zones it operates in, how many people there are and how criminals keep things secret from administration. If you come to understand that, I think you'll understand the whole situation we're in."
---"Lay knew nothing about Enron deals, lawyer says," Reuters, Wednesday August 21, 2002,
http://in.news.yahoo.com/020821/137/1u465.html

Two years later, almost to the day, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld would try the same defense. He claimed that there was no way that he and other top military officials could have known about the abuse and torture that took place at Abu Ghraib and other prisons. Rumsfeld said, "if you are in Washington, D.C., you can't know what's going on in the midnight shift in one of those many prisons around the world." -- "Rumsfeld: No plans to resign," Arizona Daily Star, 8/27/04, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1309142&l=52355. quoted by MoveOn Daily Misleader


On August 14, 2001 Skilling resigned as Enron CEO; Lay writes an email message to his employee/stockholders: "Our performance has never been stronger; our business model has never been more robust. ...We have the finest organization in American business today."


On Aug. 20, 2001 - Ken Lay, in an interview with Business Week, says, "There are absolutely no problems that had anything to do with Jeff's departure. There are no accounting issues, no trading issues, no reserve issues, no previously unknown problem issues. The company is probably in the strongest and best shape that it has ever been in. There are no surprises. . . . There is no other shoe to fall."

On August 21, Lay begins his second flurry of sales on Form 5, which will not be reported until the following February (well after bankruptcy is declared):

August 21 he sells 110,706 shares @ $36.25
August 23 108,254 @ $36.95
August 24 110,041 @$36.35
August 30 112,706 @$35.50
Sept. 4 114,346 @$35.00

Over fifteen days, he sells over half a million shares (556,053) raising $20 million.

October 23, 2001 Lay reassures investors and employees, just as he begins four days of selling stock for $6 million


The month following Enron's bankruptcy (in January 2002), Ken Lay sends his wife to appear on the Today show. It's also a few days after Cliff Baxter's death.

Ken Lay's wife says,
"Everything we own is for sale" in an effort to stave off personal bankruptcy. "By anyone's standards, it was a massive amount of money," Linda Lay said, "and it's gone. It's gone. There's nothing left. Everything we had mostly was in Enron stock." "We're fighting for liquidity," she said. "We, we don't want to go bankrupt."

Lay had taken out more than $300 million in Enron compensation and salary the past four years. One bonus alone was over $10 million. Included in that, he sold $175 million in Enron stock over the years 1999, 2000 and 2001.

How broke were they? I spent two weeks gathering information on their public holdings. Was it their $37 million of real estate holdings in Houston, Galveston and Aspen? Their nearly $11 million in stocks (minimum)? Had Ken Lay lost (somewhere, we know not where) the entire $175 million he got from stock sales? Had he lost the entire $300 million he got in stock and other compensation?

If you just look at his base pay at Enron, in one year, it was $1.3 million. The average American household earns $42,151 per year. That means the average household would take over 30 years to earn that much. WHO HAS THE LIQUIDITY CRISIS HERE?

When it became clear Lay would be indicted, he began a PR offensive. One of his stable of lawyers, again, Mike Ramsey, wrote in the Houston Chronicle:

MIKE RAMSAY -- Nov. 26, 2004:
"Indeed, after Ken's return as CEO in August 2001 they held all their shares as the market plunged from near $40 per share to near $0.
The only shares that Ken and Linda ever sold during that tragic three and one-half months were sold to prevent margin calls from triggering a forced sale of all their shares. They never voluntarily sold a dime's worth after Ken's return. In fact, at bankruptcy they still held more than 1 million shares and more than 4 million vested stock options. As a result, the Lays lost 95 percent of their wealth, which had been accumulated over a 35-year business career."

Cry me a river. This is blatantly misleading.

[ComerPerro]

36. Oh, that poor couple

I feel so sorry for them.

<I don't think the word "sarcasm" does justice to the contempt I am feeling right now toward that scum>

[elehhhhna]

39. He & Linda have Annuities that pay them 900K per year for life &

are untouchable in Bankruptcy or damage awards. Then there are the personal offshore accounts...

[spooky3]

21. Maybe you didn't see this but he also interviewed an author of a book

on Enron and he was VERY blunt and negative about Lay.

Overall, I thought the segment was well-done.

[fortyfeetunder]

25. Why ask questions about the links to * family?

After all, they had pictures of Lay and the Bush family and they speak much louder than whatever Kenny Boy could say. It was not a casual acquaintance, as Kenny Boy and * would like us to believe.

[MADem]

37. They were SMART to AVOID that approach

If they went after Kenny boy in the CONTEXT of the chimp family, the rightwing would be all over the "lefty" media, and it would become a chimp vs. the leftwing media event, not a thief being dragged to justice for defrauding thousands and ripping off taxpayers. They can pull out the pictures and talk about the connection, and they should, AFTER he has his day in court.

And if Fastow doesn't flip, and sing like a canary, I'll be VERY surprised.

[SharonAnn]

27. Ken Lay and his wife bought annuities, that can't be touched by bankruptcy

that pay them something like $700,000 a year for the rest of their lives. And, I believe that's $700,00 each.

So, he said he's sorry about the 27 year worker who lost everything? Really? Really sorry? Oh please, don't lie to me.

[Name removed]

29. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[he lied us into war]

30. Trial in january 2006????

Didn't this story break in the spring of 2001? Are they waiting for witnesses to die? Next thing you know the statute of limitations will run out.

[Philosophy]

33. They're trying to drag it out so Lay can get a pardon

from * as he leaves office, before Lay has to do any time.

[Bridget Burke]

47. Lay was eager for a speedy trial BEFORE the 2004 election....

Since his pal got 4 more years, he's decided there's no big rush.

[dxstone]

35. yeah, but what's the rush? It's only money, right?

And remember, nobody died when Ken Lay lied.
A lot of 'em just WISHED they'd died, that's all.
It's so insane... and the enemies of humanity don't even seem to want to put up a good front anymore. They're creeping around in broad daylight, murdering the homeless and the working poor, draining every last drop of blood and cash from their victims right out in the open, and the media whores call it business as usual... but remember when they used to fear the sunlight?
We've got a whole new generation of super-vampires out there, and we pay them fantastically well... but all they do is murder us, one at a time.
Wow... that's a lotta reality... maybe a bit too much...



Screw this reality crap! Listen, anyone wanna get drunk with me for the next 3 1/2 years or so? C'mon over to
http://www.presidentevilonline.com
I've got some beer and crackers, a bit of the old "carnubial accoutrements and fineries" and a trained pig who can play the pennywhistle, name o' Skip... we could spend a fine and pleasant time together, and it's completely pants-optional!...so come one, come all!

Watch Dick Cheney's Head Exploding!
http://www.presidentevilonline.com/sn_explosion.html
See Michael Jackson Decaying Before Your Very Eyes!
http://www.presidentevilonline.com/sn_jacko.html
Let Donald Rumsfeld Pummel You Into Unconsciousness With His Bare Hands!
http://www.presidentevilonline.com/rummy.html
Hope to see ya all there!
D
"The power of government and big business to do great good OR great harm to the people, is immense; leadership is not fit work for morons and asshats." --James Madison

[tanyev]

40. Ken Lay has a sponsored google link.

I click on it about 20 times every day. He has to pay for every click, you know.

[underpants]

41. Black soul less eyes

Like the eyes of a doll.

[Griffy]

49. He chose to speak there cause he can lie totally legally..

to muddy the waters and attempt to legitimize his sad excuse that he didnt know!