The Clintons and Their Friends

clintonwright2.jpg

Bill Clinton and Rev. Jeremiah Wright at a White House gathering for religious leaders. Hillary Clinton also attended the meeting.

Hillary and Bill Clinton with Tony Rezko

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnMZRvzcQww]

Hillary Clinton and her friends at Wal-Mart. The first two items are amusing but don’t really mean much. This one does.

8 Comments

  1. 1
    John R says:

    Actually, I’m pretty pissed at the Obama camp for releasing the Bill Clinton-Wright photo. It’s a nothing photo, and its release was akin to the D-Punjab stunt from early last year. It demeans Obama’s high-minded rhetoric and is one of the few things about Obama’s campaign that I really have objected to.

    I stood up for him over Wright. I stood up for him over the Goolsbee NAFTA comments. But this is very depressing. Someone in the O-camp needs to get his or her ass taught a good lesson.

    On the other hand, I’m at least objective enough to realize this photo doesn’t begin to come close to the crap that the Clinton campaign has been pulling, of which the NAFTA lies need to be getting a lot more exposure than they are.

    Ugh. Can’t this primary be over already?

  2. 2
    Ron Chusid says:

    John,

    I don’t blame the Obama camp for releasing the picture considering how the Clinton camp is trying to make the argument that the association with Wright makes Obama unfit to be president. It provides an example that until recently Wright wasn’t universally considered to be radioactive, but actually was seen as the type of religious leader who would be invited to the White House.

  3. 3
    Wayne says:

    Regarding the WalMart video, if John McCain had been even nominated for the board of WalMart the unions and the Democrats would be raking him over the coals. However, Hillary does it, and not only is there silence, the unions still race to endorse her.

  4. 4
    Ron Chusid says:

    Wayne,

    If we were having this discussion before we saw the results, I would have predicted that there would have been more noise over Clinton than McCain having involvement with Wal-Mart. I would have guessed that people would see a Republican being involved as nothing surprising and it might blow over quickly as most McCain voters wouldn’t be bothered. In contrast I would have expected far more to have been said about Clinton’s involvement than has been said so far.

  5. 5
    Wayne says:

    That is what suprises (and frightens) me. Clinton was on the board of, and defended, the unions main enemy, yet now that she has “seen the error of her ways” she is given a free pass?

  6. 6
    Peter says:

    INTERESTING FRIENDS OF HILLARY CLINTON

    http://prorev.com/hillaryfriends.htm

    CLINTON FRIEND NR. 1—-SANDY BERGER — Her present Chief Advisor
    In April 2005, Berger plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of unauthorized removal and retention of classified material from the National Archives in Washington

    CLINTON FRIEND NR. 2 —-JOSE CABRERA
    Jose Cabrera, a drug smuggler, one of the most notorious supporters of President Clinton’s re-election campaign Mrs. Clinton posed for photographs with Cabrera, ( in White House) who has two felony convictions dating from the 1980s and is now in a prison here on a drug-smuggling conviction. . . He is serving a 19-year federal prison sentence in Florida . .

    CLINTON FRIEND NR. 3 —JOHNNY CHUNG http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/03/05/chung.pleads/
    Chung gave first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton’s then-chief of staff, Maggie Williams, a $50,000 check for the Democratic National Committee. Chung was eventually convicted of bank fraud, tax evasion, and two misdemeanor counts of conspiring to violate election law.

    CLINTON FRIEND NR. 4 —FRANK GIUSTRA
    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/31/us/politics/31donor.html?hp
    Mr. Clinton’s charitable foundation received its own windfall: a $31.3 million donation from Mr. Giustra that had remained a secret until he acknowledged it last month. The gift, combined with Mr. Giustra’s more recent and public pledge to give the William J. Clinton Foundation an additional $100 million, secured Mr. Giustra a place in Mr. Clinton’s inner circle, an exclusive club of wealthy entrepreneurs in which friendship with the former president has its privileges.
    http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2008/01/7047_really_bad_news.html

    CLINTON FRIEND NR. 4 —-VINA GUPTA
    http://www.blogsofwar.com/2007/05/27/guptagate-bill-and-hillary-clintons-ties-with-vinod-gupta-raise-suspicion/
    SARAH BAXTER, TIMES, UK, 2007 – For years the Clintons flew on Vinod Gupta’s corporate plane, introduced him to world leaders – including Tony Blair – and received donations for their political campaigns and charitable foundations. They relaxed at his holiday home in Hawaii – next door to Pierce Brosnan, the former James Bond star – and jetted to Acapulco, the Mexican resort, while Gupta once spent the night as a favored guest in the Lincoln bedroom at the White House. . .
    The lawsuit, by company shareholders, accuses Gupta of squandering millions of dollars on his high-profile friends, including $900,000 worth of travel on the Clintons.

    CLINTON FRIEND NR. 5 —JOHN HUANG
    PROGRESSIVE REVIEW – In 1994 John Huang quits the Lippo Group — with a golden parachute of around $800,000 — and goes to work for the Commerce Department. Some believe the move is instigated by his friend, Hillary Clinton. The Indonesia-based Lippo Group was headed by Mochtar Riady, a central character in the Clinton scandals.
    Commerce Secretary Ron Brown ordered a top secret clearance for Huang. While at Commerce, Huang visits the White House about 70 times, is briefed 37 times by the CIA, views about 500 intelligence reports, and makes 281 calls to Lippo banks. In 1999 Huang was sentenced for campaign finance violations.

    CLINTON FRIEND NR. 6 —NORMAN HSU
    WIKIPEDIA – Norman Yung Yuen Hsu[1] (pronounced “shoo”) is an American businessman in the apparel industry and a major donor to the Democratic Party and Democratic causes. Hsu came to prominence after suspicious patterns of bundled contributions were reported in 2007. . .
    Starting in 1989, Hsu raised $1 million from investors to launch a latex glove business. Some of these partners invested their life savings or mortgaged their homes, and some sued Hsu when it appeared their money was lost. In 1990, Hsu, then living in Foster City, California, declared a bankruptcy, stating that he was practically destitute, with no job, no income, and few possessions other than an SUV and a ring. That same year, he was also divorced[2] as well as allegedly kidnapped by San Francisco Triad society gang leader Raymond Chow.
    In 1991, California authorities brought fraud charges against him, describing his operation as a Ponzi scheme. Specifically, authorities claimed Hsu had not engaged in any legitimate business activity, but instead was using funds from later investors to pay returns to earlier ones. In February 1992 Hsu plead no contest to one count of grand theft and agreed to serve up to three years in prison and pay a $10,000 fine. Hsu subsequently failed to appear at the sentencing hearing and a warrant was issued for his arrest.
    Starting in 2003, Hsu began contributing to, and collecting contributions for, the Democratic Party, although he did not join the party and was not registered to vote.[ He also donated to causes such as the Innocence Project and Clinton Global Initiative. . . By 2007, Hsu’s status within Hillary Rodham Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign had risen to the level where he was a “HillRaiser,” someone who had “bundled” more than $100,000 for her campaign, and to where he co-hosted a $1 million fundraiser at wealthy Democratic Party supporter Ron Burkle’s Beverly Hills estate, and in September, he was scheduled to co-host a major gala fundraising event featuring music legend Quincy Jones.[15]
    LA TIMES, 2007 – Confronted with the possibility that disgraced fundraiser Norman Hsu might be running an illicit investment scheme, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign announced late Monday that it was returning $850,000 from 260 donors associated with Hsu. The amount is one of the largest ever returned by a single candidate, and the action marked a sharp turn for the Clinton campaign.

    CLINTON FRIEND NR. 7 —WEBSTER HUBBELL
    SUSAN SCHMIDT, WASH POST, 1998 http://archives.cnn.com/2001/ALLPOLITICS/stories/01/20/clinton.pardon.02/index.html
    Independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr yesterday secured a new federal indictment of Webster L. Hubbell, alleging that the former top Justice Department official lied to Congress and federal banking regulators to conceal work that he, Hillary Rodham Clinton and their law firm did in the mid-1980s for a rogue savings and loan.
    The 15-count indictment alleges that Hubbell covered up the Rose Law Firm’s involvement in a phony multimillion-dollar land deal that caused losses big enough to bankrupt Madison Guaranty S&L, the thrift owned by the late James B. McDougal, the Clintons’ Whitewater business partner. Hillary Clinton’s legal work for Madison in the mid-1980s is referred to throughout the indictment but she is accused of no wrongdoing. . . Hubbell pleaded guilty in 1994 to charges lodged by the independent counsel that he bilked Rose Law Firm clients and partners. . .
    While Hillary Clinton’s name is not mentioned in the indictment, her actions are described, albeit obliquely. She is mentioned some 35 times throughout the indictment, but only as Rose’s “1985-86 billing partner” for the Madison account. The document describes some of her work on Madison’s ill-fated Castle Grande project, an 1,100-acre industrial and trailer park development south of Little Rock.
    PROGRESSIVE REVIEW – Also in 1994, Webster Hubbell is convicted of tax evasion and mail fraud involving the theft of nearly a half million dollars from his partners at the Rose firm and failing to pay nearly $150,000 in taxes. After quitting the Justice Department and before going to jail, Hubbell is a busy man. He meets with Hillary Clinton, and follows up by getting together with major scandal figures John Huang, James Riady, and Ng Lapseng. Riady and Huang go to the White House every day from June 21 to June 25, 1994 according to White House records. Hubbell had breakfast and lunch with Riady on June 23. Four days later — and one week after Hubbell’s meeting with Hillary — the Hong Kong Chinese Bank, jointly owed by Lippo and the Chinese intelligence services, sends $100,000 to Hubbell.

    CLINTON FRIEND NR. 8 —ABDUL REHMAN JINNAH
    NY POST, MARCH 2007 – http://www.nypost.com/seven/03042007/news/nationalnews/pro_clinton_dirty_cash_man_flees_nationalnews_christine_field.htm
    http://thecitizensjournalblog.blogspot.com/2007/03/clinton-donor-on-fbis-ten-most-wanted.html
    A Pakistani immigrant is wanted by federal authorities on charges he channeled $30,000 in illegal contributions to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential war chest. The FBI is hunting Los Angeles businessman Abdul Rehman Jinnah, who vanished soon after his grand-jury indictment for violating federal election laws last May. Clinton’s camp has denied any knowledge of Jinnah’s scheme, which is also alleged to have funneled more than $50,000 in illegal donations to the political action committees of Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), the Los Angeles Times reported yesterday.
    Jinnah, 56, a cellphone and frozen-yogurt businessman, allegedly collected campaign donations from family members, friends and employees at fake fund-raising events – then reimbursed them. The scam allowed him to evade the $2,000 limit on individual contributions to candidates, the feds say.
    FBI, 2007 – Abdul Rehman Jinnah is wanted for the alleged violation of United States federal election laws. Between June 2004 and February 2005, Jinnah allegedly solicited employees, family members, and business contacts to provide campaign contributions to several United States federal and state politicians. Jinnah then allegedly reimbursed the contributors with corporate monies from his own business. On May 18, 2006, a federal arrest warrant was issued by the United States District Court, Central District of California, after Jinnah was charged with illegal campaign contributions and conspiracy.

    CLINTON FRIEND NR. 9 —JIM & SUSAN MCDOUGAL
    PROGRESSIVE REVIEW
    http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE1D61039F934A25750C0A964958260
    Here’s what the New York Times reported on March 17, 1992: “Hillary Clinton said today that she did not earn ‘a penny’ from state business conducted by her Little Rock law firm and that she never intervened with state regulators on behalf of a failed Arkansas savings and loan association. . . ”
    Records would show that she did, in fact, represent Madison before the state securities department. After the revelation, she says, “For goodness sakes, you can’t be a lawyer if you don’t represent banks.” Susan McDougal recalled Ms. Clinton coming in and drumming up the business. Ms. McDougal told the Washington Post: “The problem was finances, her finances.” The Washington Times quoted an unnamed Clinton business associate who claimed the governor used to “jog over to McDougal’s office about once a month to pick up the [retainer] check for his wife.”
    Jim McDougal’s version of the story, according to the LA Times, was that Clinton asked him to throw some legal work his wife’s way to help the Clintons out of a financial crunch: “I hired Hillary because Bill came in whimpering that they needed help.”
    Hillary Clinton wrote Jim McDougal enclosing a power of attorney for him to sign “authorizing me to act on your behalf with respect to matters concerning Whitewater Development Corporation.” Another power of attorney was enclosed for Susan McDougal. The power of attorney included the right to endorse, sign and execute “checks, notes, deeds, agreements, certificates, receipts or any other instruments in writing of all matters related to Whitewater Development Corporation.”
    This letter, uncovered in 1993 by Jerry Seper of the Washington Times, directly contradicted the claim of the Clintons that they were “passive shareholders” in Whitewater.
    WIKIPEDIA – On April 14, 1997, McDougal was convicted of eighteen felony counts of fraud and conspiracy charges. The counts had to do with bad loans made by Madison in the late 1980s. As his savings and loan was federally-insured, the $68 million was paid by taxpayers.. .
    He joined with his wife, from whom he was later divorced, and the Clintons to borrow $203,000 to buy land in the Ozark Mountains for vacation homes. When the development failed, he attempted to cover the losses with S&L funds. McDougal was prosecuted for fraud in 1984 and hired the Mrs. Clinton’s Rose Law Firm to defend him. Questions remain in regard to Mrs. Clinton’s Rose Law Firm billing records on Madison Guaranty and how much work she actually did. McDougal also held a fundraiser that paid off Clinton’s then campaign debt of $50,000. Madison cashier’s checks accounted for $12,000 of the funds raised. McDougal died of a heart attack in federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas. The circumstances of his death remain questionable: he was apparently denied access to his heart medication, and he was placed in solitary confinement without the medication.
    WIKIPEDIA – [Susan McDougal] was convicted on May 28, 1996, and spent time in prison for four counts of fraud and conspiracy relating to the Whitewater scandal. She also spent 18 months in prison including 7 weeks in solitary confinement for civil contempt of court. U.S. District Court Judge Susan Webber Wright sentenced her after McDougal refused to answer three questions from Whitewater prosecutors before the grand jury empaneled by Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr to investigate the Whitewater deals. These questions included whether President Bill Clinton lied in his testimony during her Whitewater trial, particularly when he denied any knowledge of an illegal $300,000 loan. During that trial, the government’s star witness, Arkansas banker and former municipal judge David Hale, claimed that then-Governor Bill Clinton had discussed an illegal $300,000 loan with himself and McDougal. McDougal received a full Presidential pardon from outgoing President Bill Clinton in the final hours of his presidency in 2001.

    CLINTON FRIEND NR. 10 —-RUPERT MURDOCH
    http://forums.myspace.com/t/3672094.aspx?fuseaction=forums.viewthread
    BILL VAN AUKEN, WORLD SOCIALIST – CBS News reported on the upcoming fundraiser with the provocative headline “Rupert Murdoch Loves Hillary Clinton.” It stated, “The mating ritual of the unlikely allies has been under way for months.”
    When she first ran for Senate from New York, Murdoch’s New York Post sought to demonize her as an arch-liberal and was notorious for publishing the most unflattering photographs of the former First Lady. “To vote for Hillary Rodham Clinton is to affirm double-dealing and deception,” one Post editorial warned New Yorkers. A leading columnist referred to her as a “duplicitous sow.” How times have changed. . .
    Last month, it was reported that Mrs. Clinton was in attendance at the 10th anniversary party for Murdoch’s Fox News in Washington. As the Washington Post reported: “Clinton spent an hour at Cafe Milano schmoozing with News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch (very chummy since last year’s truce), Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes, and most of the Bush administration, including Karl Rove, Josh Bolten, Karen Hughes, Dan Bartlett and former Fox host Tony Snow, just hours after he was named the new Bush spokesman.”
    For the last five years, Murdoch’s Fox News has served as the closest thing to a state propaganda network that America has ever seen, unswervingly defending the Bush administration while vilifying its critics. Tony Snow’s transformation from a right-wing Fox talk show host into the head of the White House press office is only the most blatant expression of this politically incestuous relationship.
    http://civillibertarian.blogspot.com/2006/05/rupert-murdoch-backs-hillary-clinton.html

    CLINTON FRIEND NR. 11 —JOSEPH PELLICANO
    JOSEPH FARRAH, WORLDNET DAILY, JULY 2005 –
    http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=45227
    http://lukeford.net/profiles/profiles/anthony_pellicano.htm
    A significant portion of the [Clinton’s] Shadow Team’s operations were carried out by private investigators, among them: Terry Lenzner, founder and chairman of the powerful Washington, D.C., detective firm Investigative Group International; high-ticket San Francisco private eye Jack Palladino and his wife Sandra Sutherland; and Hollywood sleuth Anthony J. Pellicano. . .
    Hillary’s secret police tend to be a tight-lipped bunch, professionally skilled at keeping a low profile. However, we know more about Anthony “The Pelican” Pellicano than about most Hillary operatives, thanks to his boastfulness and taste for the limelight. Pellicano’s violent career as a private investigator reveals much about the sorts of qualifications Hillary sought in her Shadow Team.
    In the January 1992 issue of GQ magazine, Pellicano boasted of the dirty work he had performed for his clients, including blackmail and physical assault. He claimed to have beaten one of his client’s enemies with a baseball bat. “I’m an expert with a knife,” said Pellicano. “I can shred your face with a knife.”
    FBI agents raided Pellicano’s West Hollywood office on Nov. 22, 2002, and arrested him on federal weapons charges. In his office, they found gold, jewelry, and about $200,000 in cash – most of it bundled in $10,000 wrappers – thousands of pages of transcripts of illegal wiretaps; two handguns; and various explosive devices stored in safes, including two live hand grenades and a pile of C4 plastic explosive, complete with blasting cap and detonation cord.

    CLINTON FRIEND NR. 12 —PETER PAUL
    http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB118973400928827314-rv8T2EM0ONBOhA2IkZOvIVHM_Vc_20071013.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top
    WALL STREET JOURNAL, 2007 – As Sen. Hillary Clinton grapples with the burgeoning scandal surrounding disgraced fund-raiser Norman Hsu, she can’t quite shake a fund-raising controversy from her 2000 Senate campaign. Mrs. Clinton’s entanglement with a thrice-convicted felon named Peter Paul is proof of how long campaign-finance problems can haunt a public official. Mr. Paul became a problem for Mrs. Clinton when his criminal past became public shortly after he helped organize and finance a gala Hollywood fund-raiser for her in August 2000.
    Rather than drift away, Mr. Paul has been on the attack against Mrs. Clinton ever since. In a lawsuit in California state court that has been grinding along for years, Mr. Paul accuses Mrs. Clinton and former President Bill Clinton of deceiving him into spending well over $1 million on the fund-raiser for her Senate campaign. Mr. Paul contends the Clintons obtained the money by falsely promising that Mr. Clinton would become Mr. Paul’s business associate after leaving the White House in January 2001. Mr. Paul also maintains that Mrs. Clinton and her campaign violated federal election law in connection with the fund-raiser. The Clintons have denied any wrongdoing. Their attorney, David Kendall, says there was never any business arrangement discussed or contemplated between Mr. Paul and Mr. Clinton.

    CLINTON FRIEND NR. 13 —KEITH RANIERE
    NY POST – http://www.nypost.com/seven/10012007/news/nationalnews/hillarys_30_000_fans_are_her_c.htm
    A purported pyramid-scheme operator . . . has reinvented himself as the head of an upstate group accused of being a “cult” – and his devotees have pumped thousands into Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential run.
    In his previous incarnation, the Svengali-like Raniere ran a $30 million multilevel marketing business that imploded after federal agencies and regulators in 23 states alleged it was an illegal pyramid scheme.
    http://www.nypost.com/seven/10012007/news/nationalnews/nxivms_vexing_effect_on_believ.htm
    His followers bow in his presence and call him “Vanguard.” His detractors square off with him in court and call him a manipulative “brainwasher” who wrecks lives with his “extremely dangerous,” “cult-like” group. Keith Raniere, leader of an Albany-based organization called NXIVM (pronounced nex-e-um), has built a lucrative empire with his Executive Success Programs.
    Members, or “ESPians,” also bow to Salzman, called “Prefect,” and refer to nonbelievers to as “parasites” or “suppressives.”
    Some who have left have turned against NXIVM and divulged its “secret” policies – only to find themselves mired in years of litigation with Raniere and Salzman.
    http://www.rickross.com/reference/esp/esp31.html

    CLINTON FRIEND NR. 14 —SAMUEL RIVERA
    http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/09/06/clinton-supporter-arrested-in-nj-corruption-sting/
    Among the 11 public officials arrested in an F.B.I. corruption sting in New Jersey today was a leading Democratic supporter of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign in that state, Mayor Samuel Rivera of Passaic. . . Mayor Rivera allegedly promised to deliver a majority of votes on the Passaic City Council to steer city insurance brokerage business to a dummy company set up by the F.B.I.

    CLINTON FRIEND NR. 15 —GARY WINNICK
    http://www.happinessonline.org/InfectiousGreed/p18.htm
    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1709679/posts
    Founder and chair of later bankrupt Global Crossing helped Clinton campaign chair Terry McAuliffe make $18 million out of a $100,000 investment. Winnick also gave $1 million to the Clinton Library. The bankruptcy cost investors millions and costs thousands of employees their jobs. Two years before the crash, Winnick bought a $92 million house, by some estimates the most expensive in American history – including a payment of $66 million in cash.

  7. 7
    johnr says:

    Thanks for that take, Ron. I hadn’t looked at it that way. Guess I’ve been reading too many Clintonite blogs!

    It made me think, though, that Clinton’s high negatives actually may inoculate her against charges of lying. Her lie about being under “sniper fire” when landing in Bosnia, for example. If Obama had said something like that, I’m pretty he would be roasted over hot coals for forever and a day. But Clinton says it, and the media seems to yawn.

  8. 8
    Wayne says:

    Well, one reason why the Clinton-WalMart issue isn’t resonating is that Clinton is very popular amoung lower class and hispanic’s, the very people that not only are courted by the labor unions, but also the very people that flock to WalMart for the low priced goods. For example, Chicago is having a huge fight over allowing a 2nd WalMart store to open (getting the first one was an even bigger ordeal). The unions strongly oppose the plan, yet the working class residents of the area (many who are union members, I would wager) strongly support the store, with many of them looking forward to 1 – not having to travel as for to look for discounts (something that Chicago’s soon to be highest sales tax rate in the nation will make difficult), but 2 – hpoing for jobs in the neighborhood. Kind of makes you wonder, the unions are telling its members, including those that are out of work, to oppose an attempt to bring jobs into the area? Yes, they may be a lower rate than union scale, but (as I, a currently un-employed computer programmer will attest) a job at $9-$11/hour beats the pants off of no job at all.

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