On this day in History - Jerry Parks Murdered

Jerry Parks, the Clinton security aide in Arkansas, known to have been keeping a dossier on Clinton, is gunned down two months after Foster’s death in his car outside of Little Rock. Parks is shot through the rear window of his car and shot three more times, thru the side window, with a 9mm pistol.

Chapter from The Secret Life of Bill Clinton: The Unreported Stories

I’M A DEAD MAN," whispered Jerry Parks, pale with shock, as he looked up at the television screen. It was a news bulletin on the local station in Little Rock. Vincent Foster, a childhood friend of the President, had been found dead in a park outside Washington. Apparent suicide.

He never explained to his son Gary what he meant by that remark, but for the next two months the beefy 6′ 3" security executive was in a state of permanent fear. He would pack a pistol to fetch the mail. On the way to his offices at American Contract Services in Little Rock he would double back or take strange routes to "dry-clean" the cars that he thought were following him. At night he kept tearing anxiously at his eyebrows, and raiding the valium pills of his wife, Jane, who was battling multiple sclerosis. Once he muttered darkly that Bill Clinton’s people were "cleaning house," and he was "next on the list."

Two months later, in September 1993, Jerry and Jane went on a Caribbean cruise. He seemed calmer. At one of the islands he went to take care of some business at a bank. She believed it was Grand Cayman. They returned to their home in the rural suburbs of Little Rock on September 25. The next day Jane was in one of her "down" periods, so Jerry went off on his own for the regular Sunday afternoon supper at El Chico Mexican Restaurant.

On the way back, at about 6:30 PM, a white Chevrolet Caprice pulled up beside him on the Chenal Parkway. Before Parks had time to reach for his .38 caliber "detective special" that he kept tucked between the seats, an assassin let off a volley of semi-automatic fire into his hulking 320 pound frame.

Parks skidded to a halt in the intersection of Highway 10. The stocky middle-aged killer jumped out and finished him off with a 9 mm handgun–two more shots into the chest at point blank range. Several witnesses watched with astonishment as the nonchalant gunman joined his accomplice in the waiting car and sped away.

Read the rest of this entry »

Clinton’s Fugitive Fundraiser Conspiracy

Hillary Is Right. Republicans Will Win The White House.

In the cesspool that Washington has become, truth and clarity still manage to bubble to the surface on occasion.

As Senator Hillary Clinton intensifies and refines her spin, deception, and self-aggrandizement, she inadvertently slipped up in a big way and revealed a truth that will doom her campaign and her party’s chances to reclaim the White House in 2008.

Last week, while campaigning in New Hampshire, Senator Clinton said, “It’s a horrible prospect to ask yourself, ‘What if? What if?’ But if certain things happen between now and the election, particularly with respect to terrorism, that will automatically give the Republicans an advantage again…”

Said comment was immediately attacked by some of her Democratic rivals for the White House. Why? Because they don’t want the voters of America to be reminded that when it comes to terrorism, the Republican candidates are much more willing to do whatever it takes to protect the homeland.

About the same time that Senator Clinton was offering a truth she is now desperate to take back, Vice Admiral (Ret) John Scott Redd, the Head of the National Counterterrorism Center, was granting an interview to Newsweek magazine in which he categorically stated that “We have very strong indicators that Al Qaeda is planning to attack the West.” When pressed on where, he continued, “Well, they would like to come West, and they would like to come as far West as they can.” Obviously, “as far West as they can,” would be the United States.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hillary Clinton’s Latest Fundraising Scandal

Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign was hit by scandal for the first time yesterday when it emerged that one of her leading fundraisers was a convicted fraudster who had been on the run for 15 years.

Mrs Clinton, who until now has run a relentlessly disciplined campaign, was forced on to the defensive after it emerged that Norman Hsu, who has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for her, was wanted in California after failing to appear for sentencing on a grand theft conviction in 1991.

The Clinton campaign, which defended Mr Hsu earlier this week when questions first emerged about his integrity, said it would donate to charity the $23,000 (£11,000) he had given to the New York senator and former First Lady.

He has also raised nearly $1 million for Democratic candidates generally since 2003, including John Kerry, the 2004 White House candidate. Many were rushing last night to divest themselves of his contributions.

But concerns were emerging last night about the methods Mr Hsu, a Hong Kong businessman based in New York, had used in his role as one of Mrs Clinton’s big fundraisers.

Mr Hsu was a leading “bundler” for Mrs Clinton – a key fundraiser who finds donors and then packages their cheques together. He is a member of her “HillRaiser” team, individuals who have pledged to raise more than $100,000. Next week he was due to co-host a Californian fundraising gala featuring the musician Quincy Jones.

An unusual pattern of donations he and other acquaintances have made to Mrs Clinton has raised questions about whether he was reimbursing the others for their donations – a breach of campaign finance laws. A lawyer for Mr Hsu denied any wrongdoing.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hillary Clinton and Democrats Race To Ditch Dirty Cash

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and other prominent Democrats scrambled to unload thousands of dollars of contributions from one of the party’s leading fund-raisers, amid questions about his fund-raising techniques and news that a warrant for his arrest has been languishing in California since the early 1990s.

The swift political rise — and fall — of Norman Hsu, an obscure New York businessman who never donated to a presidential candidate before 2004, underscores the tremendous pressure candidates are facing this election cycle to raise unprecedented sums of money, and in the process turning to financiers the campaigns may know little about.

Questions surrounding Mr. Hsu’s marshalling of funds on behalf of Mrs. Clinton and other candidates were first highlighted by The Wall Street Journal earlier this week. The Journal noted unusual patterns between Mr. Hsu’s political donations and those of people he knew, in particular the residents of a tiny house in Daly City, Calif., who often gave large contributions on the exact same day and for the exact same amount Mr. Hsu did.

Election-law experts said the pattern raises red flags that justify a probe into whether the wealthy Mr. Hsu was improperly reimbursing the others for their donations. Mr. Hsu denied any reimbursement or any wrongdoing.

Beyond his $23,000 in personal contributions to Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Hsu had raised well over $1 million for the New York senator’s presidential campaign, making him one of her top 20 "bundlers." His reach extended well beyond the presidential race, as he has also raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for House and Senate Democrats and governors across the country.

Earlier this week, Clinton campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson responded to questions about Mr. Hsu by saying "there has been no question about his integrity or his commitment to playing by the rules, and we have absolutely no reason to call his contributions into question."

But yesterday, the Los Angeles Times reported that Mr. Hsu had legal troubles in his past, and that he faces arrest in California after failing to appear for sentencing more than a decade ago on charges stemming from a business deal. Later in the day, the Clinton campaign said it would donate to charity the $23,000 Mr. Hsu had given over the past two-and-a-half years to her Senate and presidential campaigns, as well to a political action committee.

"We regularly review contributions as we receive them," Mr. Wolfson said yesterday. "We will continue our practice of scrutinizing contributions and, should we have a basis to return a contribution, we will do so."

No evidence has emerged that the Clinton campaign knew anything about the controversies surrounding Mr. Hsu until the press reports surfaced this week.

But his saga does show that leading Democrats were willing to embrace him — and his sudden, tremendous success in gathering funds — apparently without asking a lot of questions. Until yesterday, Mr. Hsu had a California fund-raiser scheduled for the Clinton campaign late next month.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hillary’s Problem of Outsourcing Campaign Fundraising

In amassing $52 million in campaign contributions in the first half of this year, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton relied on a platinum pyramid of 233 “Hillraisers,” including the movie director Steven Spielberg, the party powerbroker Vernon E. Jordan Jr., and the real estate mogul William C. Rudin.

Another, less famous name on the list, however, has proven a liability to Mrs. Clinton: Norman Hsu, a business executive who turned out to be wanted in connection with a fraud case in California.

Mr. Hsu came into the picture with the advent of bundlers, wealthy and well-connected surrogates who can collect stacks of campaign checks from friends, family members and associates.

The system is a byproduct of the $2,300 cap on individual contributions, which has led campaigns to ask their biggest supporters to go beyond simply making donations and to pass the hat. Pioneered in an organized way by George W. Bush in 2000, it has become increasingly important because of the 2002 campaign finance laws that closed the spigot of unrestricted “soft money” from corporations and other big donors through the political party campaign committees.

The six leading primary campaigns have listed a total of nearly 2,000 bundlers.

The reliance on bundlers has exploded this year because, for the first time in three decades, the major candidates are planning to turn down public financing in favor of raising and spending money without being subject to any limit.

But the proliferation of bundlers, and the ambitious fund-raising goals set out for them by cash-hungry campaigns, has opened the door to a host of embarrassing entanglements, including Mrs. Clinton’s ties to Mr. Hsu and President Bush’s connections to the jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Read the rest of this entry »

It Seems Like Only Yesterday - Clinton Campaign Financing Scandals Take Front And Center Stage

A little more than 10 years ago, Mrs. Clinton’s husband - William Jefferson Clinton - and the man who created the Internet and discovered Global Warming - Albert Gore Jr. - were embroiled in the largest series of campaign finance scandals ever to rock Washington, DC., a city where garden variety political graft and campaign finance shenanigans go unnoticed simply because they are omnipresent.

 In 1996 crooked Asian businessmen, acting as agents for the ChiComs funneled huge amounts of cash into the campaign, intent upon gaining access to military secrets, including plans to build MIRV type nuclear warheads.

Even though Clinton’s lap-dog attorney general Janet Reno stonewalled any real investigation, refusing to appoint a special prosecutor in the matter, over 20 people were convicted for campain finance abuse. To avoid prosecution, dozens fled the United States for safer climes.

So who is the new Clinton mystery funder?

Why its fugitive Norman Hsu, on the lam from California law enforcement authorities for 15 years and scheduled to host a September 30 fundraiser for the "smartest woman in America," Hillary Clinton.

Why is it that scandal is always associated with Bill, Hillary and their friends?

Is it that perhaps they are corrupt?

Just for the record, to place the current scandal, which the main stream will ignore in short order, in context, below is a list of people closely associated with the Clintons, top level functionaries, including Mrs. Clinton herself who seem to have had short term memory loss when testifying before Congress or in courts of law. The number next to the name indicates the number of times they pleaded the 5th, or just couldn’t remember, or recollect.

Hillary Clinton 250
Jeff Eller, Director of Media Affairs - 697
Patsy Thomasson, Director of White House Administration - 420
Dwight Holton, Special Assistant to the Deputy Chief of Staff - 348
Jennifer O’Connor, Special Assistant to the President - 343
John Podesta, Clinton’s Chief of Staff - 264
Neil Eggleston, Chief of White House Security - 250
Mack McLarty, Chief of Staff - 233
Mark Gearan, ran Albert Gore’s 1992 VP campaign, Assistant to the President and Director of Communications, as well as Deputy Chief of Staff - 221
Bill Kennedy, Associate White House Counsel - 116
Harold Ickes, Deputy White House Chief of Staff for Political Affairs and Policy, special friend to Hillary - 148
Ricki Seidman, headed Clinton’s War Room in 1992, heading off Bill Clinton’s "Bimbo Eruptions" - 160
Bruce Lindsey, White House Senior Counselor - 161
Bill Burton, Deputy White House Assistant - 191

Source:  Pipeline News

Hellary Rotten Clinton, what have you done?

Hillary just announced that her campaign will "increase our vigilance" when it comes to accepting money from well-heeled donors, also known as "bundlers." Strangely enough, this comes after the discovery that a major Clinton fundraiser is on the lam from California authorities. Not that she demonstrates it often, but here’s a clear indication that Hillary’s sense of humor is alive and well.

And speaking of indicators, anyone who thinks that Hillary actually cares about where her campaign donations come from really should have their head examined. As I demonstrate numerous times in "I’ve Always Been a Yankees Fan: Hillary Clinton In Her Own Words", Hillary has a long, colorful and thoroughly documented history of doing pretty much anything – and putting up with just about anyone – for money.

Who can forget her classic (not to mention classy) plea during a phone call to Jim McDougal, the morning after Bill Clinton’s defeat in the 1980 gubernatorial election, "You need to send us money. We need it now, and we need all you can send!" Or her "advice" to Bill Clinton, then president of the United States, during the 1996 campaign when he complained he was tired of fundraising, "You’re getting you’re a– out there, and you’re doing what has to be done"?

Then, of course, there’s the thousands of dollars Hillary and Bill accepted from Denise Rich, ex-wife of millionaire and renowned tax cheat Marc Rich, who at the time was also a fugitive from justice. (No doubt it’s purely coincidental that Clinton pardoned Marc Rich on his last day in office.)

Hillary was also happy to take money from Johnny Chung, who once compared the Clinton White House to a subway: "You have to put in money to open the gates." Of course, it costs somewhat more to get on board the Clinton Express than it does the local metro – Chung once gave Hillary’s top aide a bag filled with $50,000 in cash. No need for vetting on this one!

Is it really any wonder that movie mogul David Geffen recently said of Hill and Bill, "Everyone in politics lies, but the Clintons do it with such ease, it’s troubling"? Sounds like David Geffen has his own copy of "Yankees Fan!"

Source:  Worldnet Daily

Wealth, mystery surround Hillary Clinton donor Hsu

Money has brought both trappings and trouble for Norman Hsu. Major contributions to the campaigns of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and other candidates have made the apparel executive an insider in elite political circles. He shows up in cozy pictures with politicians, at lavish fundraising events, and on the boards of prestigious organizations.

But Hsu’s history includes more unsavory episodes and associations.

In 1990, he allegedly was kidnapped by Chinese gang members in San Francisco as part of an apparent effort to collect a debt. A year and a half later, he pleaded no contest to a charge of fleecing investors in what authorities called a Ponzi scheme of fraud. Along the way, he left a bankruptcy filing and bitter investors who accused him of making off with their savings.

Hsu is now at the center of a political scandal, with Sen. Clinton (D-N.Y.) and others rushing to return his contributions and sever embarrassing ties to a man still wanted on an outstanding warrant for the fraud case in California. Hsu could turn himself in as early as today in San Mateo County, where a hearing on the matter has been scheduled.

"The 15-year-old legal matter that Norman Hsu has is moving toward resolution," said San Francisco attorney James J. Brosnahan in a statement to The Times. Hsu hired Brosnahan to represent him in California.

Court documents and interviews with close associates of Hsu have shed considerable light on his unlikely emergence as a major Democratic fundraiser. But much of Hsu’s story remains a mystery — including how to account for significant gaps on his resume and record, and where he got all the money that he has showered on Democratic candidates and causes.

Clinton and other candidates have scrambled to distance themselves from Hsu’s money. At a New York event Thursday, Clinton said: "I wish Mr. Hsu well in dealing with the problems he’s confronting."

But he has powerful defenders. Former Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.) said in an interview that Hsu was being pilloried unfairly.

"This isn’t Osama bin Laden or some drug kingpin," Kerrey said. "What he’s done is he’s volunteered to help people raise money for their campaigns. That doesn’t make him either unique or bad."

Kerrey said he recruited Hsu to serve on a board of directors at New York City’s New School university, of which Kerrey is president. Kerrey said Hsu had called him earlier this week to warn him about coming media coverage. Kerrey added that Hsu had been "a terrific member" of the New School board and had not been asked to step down.

Former Hsu associates who lack the stature of the onetime Democratic senator offer a different account.

Read the rest of this entry »

Clinton says she’ll be more vigilant about donors

Let’s see… Hillary Clinton, she was fooled by:

George Bush on the War in Iraq, she was fooled by her husband countless times with his affairs, she was fooled by her brothers when they were working with Bill on Cash for Pardons, I’m sure I can think of more times she has played the victim when she claims she was fooled… NOW she finds herself "fooled" by these two doners that both are wanted by the law.

From Boston.com

You can’t tell me that the secret service does not vet everyone whom wants to get close to Hillary Clinton! To say that they didn’t do a complete background check on these donors is a joke! I’m sure Hillary was notified that these two were trouble - but Hillary wants the cash that they can provide her. What a scam!

Hillary Clinton said today that her presidential campaign will be more careful about vetting donors after discovering that a major fund-raiser is wanted by California authorities in connection with a fraud case.

In some of her first public comments about the controversy swirling around fund-raiser Norman Hsu, Clinton also said the campaign would return any of the contributions that Hsu raised from other donors if they turned out to be tainted.

"We have a vetting process," Clinton said in a telephone interview with the Globe. "It didn’t work on this one instance apparently for any of us. There were many, many people receiving his contributions, but nobody knew there was an issue."

"Obviously, we will increase our vigilance," she added.

Clinton’s campaign said Wednesday that it would give to charity $23,000 it received from Hsu and look at other money he donated. The $23,000 included contributions to Clinton’s presidential campaign, her US Senate re-election, and her political action committee, the campaign said. He had been scheduled to host a major fund-raiser next month.

Clinton acted after the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday that Hsu faced an arrest warrant in connection with a 1991 fraud case, and after the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday reported that a San Francisco family’s contribution patterns closely tracked Hsu’s, suggesting that he directed their donations.
Other Democrats, including US Senators Edward M. Kennedy and John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, are also donating to charity money from Hsu or returning the donations. Federal Election Commission records show that Hsu has donated $260,000 to Democratic Party groups and federal candidates since 2004.

Hsu said Wednesday that he was unaware of the arrest warrant, but said he would stop raising money for candidates until his legal case is resolved.

Read the rest of this entry »