Cheney's Still Not Arrested-- Liu Tienan Just Got A Life Sentence

As close to prison as Cheney will ever get

Despite our best hopes, of course there is no chance Cheney or any of his criminally-minded torturers will be held accountable form anything in the Torture Report. And there's no chance the Wall Street banksters will be held accountable for pillaging the economy. And, worst of all, there's no chance any Members of Congress will be held accountable for writing the laws that create and sustain such a system. Could this really be anything like what Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, Thomas Paine, Samuel Adams, John Jay, Patrick Henry, George Washington and John Adams had in mind when they sacrificed so much to start a new nation conceived in Enlightenment principles and values?

Sunday we looked at how much more seriously China takes political corruption against society. Even though-- it is often a battle between pythons and crocodiles. Before I get into the latest good news from China, let me clarify Sunday's story with an update from a close from in Beijing. Zhou and Xi are both powerful men. And in China nothing gets done unless you grease the person who could help you get something done. Everyone does it; it's simply the way things go. Both guys are corrupt and probably have roughly the same amount of extorted moola. My guess is that Xi has more.

Xi is a 2nd generation guy, from Money, who made his way up the ladder by help from his relatives. For now, we can call him George Dubya. Zhou was a poor kid who worked his way up the ladder and who is relatively well respected by the people. He got into an argument where he refused to kiss Xi's ass at a meeting of big shots. A heated exchange occurred. People were starting to take sides...

Upon leaving the meeting Zhou's driver zoomed out and almost hit Xi, forcing him to dodge the car and he fell on his back. Remember a while back that Xi was missing and recouping from a "bad back" (couldn't meet with Hillary)-- well, now you now it wasn't from golf. It gave Xi impetus and time to concoct a plan, flimsy at best but a plan.

When people like a political opponent of Xi's, something always happens to them. Bo Xilai, a trumped up case of he and his wife poisoning their English partner. And now, a similar treatment is being extended to the peoples favorite and respected Zhou Yongkang. So... things aren't what they seem, huh?

Yesterday, Bloomberg reported that Liu Tienan, the former head of China’s energy agency was sentenced to life imprisonment for taking 36 million yuan ($5.8 million) in bribes to approve projects.

Liu and his son Liu Decheng took the money from 2002 to 2012, receiving it in stocks, cars, cash, and a phantom job for his son drew a salary, it said. The court ordered the confiscation of all Liu’s personal assets.

“Liu believes the punishment is harsh,” Li Fabao, Liu’s lawyer, said by phone immediately after the sentence was announced. “He did everything because of his son. He’s spoiled his son, and he now regrets that.”

The case of Liu Decheng, who gave testimony at his father’s trial, will be handled separately, according to the postings.

Liu is the latest “tiger” to be punished in President Xi Jinping’s two-year anti-corruption campaign to bolster his power base and curb the graft that he’s warned could erode the party’s legitimacy. More than 80,000 officials have been punished for breaking party rules, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said last week.

Liu was also former deputy head of the National Development and reform Commission, China’s top planning body, until he was stripped of his position in May 2013. The agency approves infrastructure projects and controls energy prices.

Zhuang Deshui, professor of public administration with Peking University, said the punishment meted out to Liu is intended as a strong deterrent for other officials.

“Liu’s case is high profile and will have a big impact,” Zhang said. “So the sentence could be made not only from a judicial perspective based on the criminal acts, but also after taking into consideration its influence.”

At today’s hearing, Liu stressed he had voluntarily provided information about his case and hadn’t put up a legal defense.

“I don’t have anything to say for myself because I caused huge loss for the country and the party,” according to the court’s records on the Weibo social media service. He also “broke down in tears for his fall from grace,” it said.

The court’s postings also showed several testimonies from the son against him. One case involved the son receiving a Nissan Teana as a gift after his father approved a heavy-polluting chemical plant in the eastern Chinese city of Ningbo.

So what's the real story behind this one? I'm sure it's not as filthy and devastating as Cheney walking around free.

Just kidding