Here’s a thrilling item from 2008 – somebody called Mario Correa pays a visit to Surry* Hill, the 18,000 square foot house of DC “Superlobbyists” Edwina and Ed Rogers. Inside the palatial residence with hot and cold running champagne, Edwina Rogers shows the host how she wraps speaker gifts for a conference she’s having: she wraps them in money. Isn’t that fun and exciting? Oh yes it’s very fun and exciting.
*No, I don’t know why they misspell Surrey.
Menyambal says
She could have wrapped the presents a little differently and not cut through the bills. And still made them look good, I mean. And she doesn’t seem to grasp that a half bill is useless.
Geeze, what a kick in the face to all the people who could use a dollar. Such contempt. And that is a lobbyist, a bribe giver to our elected officials. Such should not be in this country.
In the second one, I could see my old apartment building.
Claire Ramsey says
Sickening.
Menyambal says
Defacement of currency is a violation of Title 18, Section 333 of the United States Code. Under this provision, currency defacement is generally defined as follows: Whoever mutilates, cuts, disfigures, perforates, unites or cements together, or does any other thing to any bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence of debt issued by any national banking association, Federal Reserve Bank, or Federal Reserve System, with intent to render such item(s) unfit to be reissued, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.
Defacement of currency in such a way that it is made unfit for circulation comes under the jurisdiction of the United States Secret Service. The United States Secret Service web address is www.secretservice.gov.
John-Henry Beck says
Menyambal @ 1: Actually, I think she does grasp that the money is useless cut up. It’s just that she’s viewing it as already spent; she purchased wrapping paper and is using it as such and it’s just as much money spent as with any other fancy wrapping paper. Which does make sense, in my opinion; the problem is that it looks even more wasteful to those without much money.
Marcus Ranum says
18,000 square foot house?
Menyambal says
Yeah, you are right. I mis-stated something about her saying “seven and a half” as if the half bills were still useful. I dunno what I mean any more.
Each sheet of 32 bills cost her $61, down at the BEP. For what that’s worth.
Menyambal says
Well, that’s the cost at the BEP website store.
tigtog says
Digby at Hullabaloo wrote in 2006 about the Rogerses at Surry Hill and other members of the Republican elite who reside in McLean, VA (where property is more valuable than in Malibu), riffing off a long article from The New Republic by Michael Crowley dated September 11, 2006 (which I had to search for because TNR’s changed their indexing permalink configuration so that Digby’s original link no longer works) – GOPtopia.
I wish Digby had been right about this community of sanctimonious plundering phonies getting broken up due to outraged fallout from the GFC, but they still influence enough votes in Congress and Senate to keep on stacking the Supreme Court and other institutions, so they’re still there.
Ophelia Benson says
I’ve just this second started reading that, linked to it by a Facebook friend. It’s unbelievable.
tigtog says
The Republican ideological elite haven’t learnt anything about the foreseeable disasters that will come with more and more deregulation, either. From Digby today: Sick and tired of being tired – America’s culture of overwork and how it’s costing lives.
chigau (違う) says
This is disgusting.
She has never needed to use actual dollars to buy stuff like, say, food.
So, I guess it’s easy to view them as decorations.
lpetrich says
Seems rather sybaritic. As in Sybaris, a Greek colony in southern Italy from about 2700 – 2500 years ago that was known for its inhabitants’ extravagant luxury.