Suitably Flip

Final Bow

First Sopranos, now this?

Bummer.

Update:  Michelle eulogizes the series fittingly.

The brilliant Cox & Forkum will be missed. Missed terribly. They are responsible for our Hot Air mascot and countless spot-on editorial cartoons, especially about the war, jihad, and the White Flag Democrats.

In a sane world, they’d be in every major newspaper in the country and Ted Rall would be their gopher.

On second thought, Rall wouldn’t be fit to take out their trash.

Where's Winkle?

While we no longer need to worry about the whereabouts of the habitually slippery Norman Hsu, there's another central figure in this Democratic fundraising/investment fraud scandal that may have slithered away amid the sensational hubbub.

Winkle Paw, Hsu's most delightfully named associate, seems to have turned up missing.

According to campaign finance disclosures, Paw has served as everything from project analyst to CEO at a handful of Hsu's companies, including Components, Ltd., Next Components, Next Electronics, and CoolPowers (though that last one could've been a poor transcription of the word "Components" by a Tom Harkin campaign staffer).  Paw was actually CEO of Next Components (one of those companies I couldn't seem to locate in my tour of Hsu's facilities) nearly two years before becoming a business analyst at the firm this summer, according to the filings, which is an interesting career trajectory.

Up through 2005, Paw also listed the (legitimate) investment management firm Franklin Templeton as his employer on more than two dozen filings, where he was also variably a "project analyst" or a "business analyst" (never making it to CEO though).  A visitor from the firm's San Mateo office visited this site yesterday, linking in from a search on "Winkle Paw", possibly a concerned cube-mate wondering if she can stop watering his plants.

In all, Winkle made more than $150,000 in political contributions to at least 40 Hsu-favored candidates and committees since 2004.  6 other members of the Paw family (all holed up in that cozy green house in Daly City) gave another $143,000.  Khin Mon, who may or may not be related to the Paws (but who, as reported here first, also resides in the Paw house), gave another $12,000 over the same period.

In addition to Winkle Paw's association with Hsu-owned businesses, I'm told that Hsu reportedly indicated to Martin Waters (the manager of the Orange County investment fund that Hsu is now accused of defrauding out of $23 million) that he had designated Paw an authorized signatory on his bank account, such that their business dealings could continue should anything happen to Hsu.  According to an individual with knowledge of the situation, the day before the San Mateo court appearance that Hsu would fail to make, Waters (still presuming Hsu's business dealings to be legitimate) offered to step into Hsu's... well, shoes during any period of incarceration that might follow.  When Hsu balked, the fund manager reportedly told him he preferred to pull out of the pending deal under the circumstances, leading Hsu to threaten to lock him out of future deals in retribution.

Around that same time, Hsu was apparently Fed Exing off a bunch of copies of what appeared to recipients to be a suicide note. By the next morning, he had vanished, his lawyers left feckless in a San Mateo courthouse.  While Hsu would be nabbed the following day, half naked and "freaking out" aboard a Denver-bound train, Paw may have slipped away cleanly.

As far as I'm aware, no state or federal charges have been filed against Paw.  But plenty have been filed against Hsu, relating both to alleged illegal contribution reimbursements and to the alleged ponzi schemes in New York and California.  And if Paw is Hsu's #2, as is suggested by the financial disclosures and the prospect of Paw having signing authority on Hsu's accounts, then it seems plausible that serious charges could be in Paw's future.

We also don't know for sure that Winkle has deliberately vanished.  It could simply be that the authorities aren't looking for him (he's not listed as wanted in California).  But if they're not hunting for him, maybe they ought to be.  The Orange County investors haven't been able to reach him since the morning Hsu lit out for Denver.  That was three weeks ago.  If - let's say - Paw was on that train too, keeping his cool a bit better than his pill-popping partner, and if he had access to even a small fraction of the millions in liquid assets at Hsu's disposal, Winkle just may have winked out of this story for good.

And if Paw was a trained and semi-legitimate professional investment manager who had signing authority on Hsu's accounts, he likely has more than a passing familiarity with the inner-workings of his shadowy dealings.  If the 100 or more investors in the funds that Hsu is alleged to have defrauded are to have a shot at recovering some of their lost investments (which may exceed $60 million), determining Winkle's whereabouts would seem to be a crucial next step.

---

I'd post a picture if I had one handy, but I don't know that I've ever come across a picture of Winkle.  A Google Image search for "winkle paw" not surprisingly fetches mainly precious kittens and teddy bears.  If anyone's got a link to a reliable picture of Mr. Paw, let me know and I'll point it out.

And if you are Mr. Paw, or his cube-mate or whathaveyou, and want to solve the "Where's Winkle" puzzle for us, I think there are a lot of ticked off investors that would appreciate it.

[Hsu archives after the jump.]

---

Previously:

• Hsadows Of Hillary Throughout Hsu's Benefaction
• Correction re: Lillian Vernon, Fred Hochberg, Norman Hsu
• Hsocking Hsu Secrets Revealed!
• Runaround Hsu: The Music Video
• Hillary, Truth Not At Peace Over $850,000 Said Refunded [Update: Feds File Charges]
• Another Clinton Bundler Accused of Reimbursing Donors
• Hsu, Recobbled
• Some Oddities About Hsu's Ostensibly Unwitting Woodstock Backer
• Mesa County DA: $4 Million Bond Not Enough To Cage Hsu [Update: $5 Million Is?]
• Dems Lowballing Hsu Fundraising Totals [Update: Hsu Offsets?]
• Hsu Sent Suicide Note [Update: Blaming Obama]
• Federal Agencies Unofficially Probing Hsu Scandal Number [At Least] 4
• Hsu's Financing Source Revealed
• Hillary's Massive Hsu War Chest: Abramoff Parity Nears
• Photoblog: Touring Norman Hsu's New York
• Hsu Captured! (Drugged?)
• Hsu Still A HillRaiser In Good Standing?
• Knock, Knock, Knockin' On Norman's Door.
• Hsu Reclaims Fugitive Status, Forfeiting $2 Million Bail
• Hsu vs. Abramoff
• New Hsu Review: Following [the Rest Of] the Money
• A Really Big Hsu...
• Hillary Vows To Give [At Least Some Of] Hsu Contributions To Charity
• From Now On, When the Phone Rings You Say, "Vandelay Industries."
• Hillary's Magwitch?

Kid Nation: Soldiering On Without Jimmy

Cue the splendor: Week 2.

I still harbor hopes that the golden boy will make some kind of triumphant (ideally villainous) return.  But even if not, the show still has a shot at full redemption if one or more of the hapless town councilmembers are usurped by the end of the hour.

And if Greg takes another punishing rebuke from someone half his size, all the better.

Previously:
Kid Nation: Begin the Splendor
Lord Of the Flies: The Reality Show!

---

Update:  Ah, yes.  Kids handling live chickens.  With hands that are likely only seconds away from the inside of mouths and noses.  What could go wrong?

Update:  *Groan*  Greg is a professed expert butcher.  Now I'm torn, because a handful of the kids are welling up at the terrible prospect of slaying one of God's creatures for food.  And not in an "Eww, gross!" way, but in a "Meat is murder!" way (e.g. Emilie, age 9: "I'm going home if we kill a chicken.")  I might be willing to set aside my disdain for Greg if he's able to horrify the wee vegans by indulging the bloodthirstier townfolk.

Update:  Now this is compelling television.  Greg just lopped the noble hen's head off (or possibly just smashed its skull - hard to tell, as the camera pulled away at the last second).  Emilie was last seen running toward the horizon, screaming.  The chicken with its head cut off was last seen flailing about like a... well, you know.

Update:  This week's Budding Politician Award goes to councilwoman (and leader of the losing team in this week's physical challenge) Laurel, age 12, who, when asked by Uncle Ted why she still had a smile on her face, quipped, "I can't help but smile when I'm around these people."  Darling.

Update:  The forced caste system is starting to boil over.  "Merchant" (and animal lover) Emilie has locked herself in the chicken coop, the rightful province of "Upper Class" and "Cooks".  (The social order is tied to one's team's standing in the most recent challenge.)  There was a brief stand-off, which I was really hoping would end in Emilie channeling Elliot from E.T. and shooing all the chickens to freedom.  Instead, the negotiators managed to belittle her into slinking out of the coop and wandering away.  I can't help but suspect this isn't the last bit of civil disobedience we'll see from Bonanza's li'lest PETA member.

Update:  Weekly town meeting.  Council's approval numbers have soared since last week, with all but two townspeople indicating "strongly approve" or "somewhat approve".

Uncle Ted: "Does anybody want to go home?"  Cut to Emilie... no.  She's going to tough it out.  Atta girl.

Gold Star goes to: Michael.  With Gregory being the tacit runner-up.  Fine choice.  This one's got all kinds of leadership potential.  The council expressly recognized Michael as a de facto member of their ranks.

And Greg is displeased.  He squanders the series' G rating in one fell swoop by telling the camera mid storm-off that he did a "hell of a lot more work than Michael" and that he's "going to do something about it."

At least a 50-50 shot that all the town's chickens are slaughtered tonight.

David Shuster: He May Be Morbidly Brazen, But At Least He's Inaccurate

Gah.

A couple days ago, describing here the way MSNBC's David Shuster used a fallen soldier to play a tasteless "gotcha" game with Rep. Marsha Blackburn, (R-Tenn.), I surmised that things couldn't "get much lower."

I was wrong.  They just did.
...
Blackburn had been invited onto "Tucker" ostensibly to discuss MoveOn.org's "General Betray Us" ad. But Shuster, serving as substitute host for Carlson, suddenly sandbagged Blackburn with this "gotcha" question.

SHUSTER: Let's talk about the public trust. You represent of course a district in western Tennessee. What was the name of the last soldier from your district who was killed in Iraq?

MARSHA BLACKBURN: The name of the last soldier killed in Iraq from my district? I do not know.

SHUSTER: OK, his name was Jeremy Bohannon. He was killed August the ninth, 2007. How come you didn't know the name? ... I still think it's a little bit surprising that you didn't know the name of this last soldier killed in Iraq who's only 18 years old yet you do know so much about the MoveOn.org ad and the tactics you didn't like.

It now turns out that Army Private Jeremy Bohannon had not, contrary to Shuster's claim, lived in Rep. Blackburn's congressional district.

Facts - they're the only things standing between media hacks and the righteousness in which they mean to bathe.

Update: Shuster apologizes.

On Monday evening while guest-hosting the 6 p.m. evening hour, I conducted an interview with Tennessee Republican Marsha Blackburn. The congresswoman spoke at length about a newspaper ad that criticized General Petraeus. In what I believed was an effort to examine Representative Blackburn's priorities, I then asked her to name the last soldier from her congressional district killed in Iraq.

She responded "the name of the last soldier killed in Iraq from my district, I do not know." After that response, I identified who I believed to be that fallen soldier, a Tennessean killed in Iraq last month. But according to Pentagon documents, that young man came from a town inside a neighboring congressional district, not from Representative Blackburn's, and for that, I apologize for that mistake.

Hsadows Of Hillary Throughout Hsu's Benefaction

Hillary Clinton certainly made off the best from Norman Hsu's political bounty, reeling in roughly one third of his $2.5 million in sketchy fundraising thus far uncovered.  But a piece in today's Boston Globe ponders whether even Hsu's non-Hillary-bound cash had covertly Hillary-friendly aims.

Disgraced fund-raiser Norman Hsu did a lot more than just pump $850,000 into Hillary Clinton's campaign bank account: He also raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for local, state, and federal candidates who have endorsed Clinton or whose support she courted.
...
In at least some cases, Clinton or her aides directly channeled contributions from Hsu and his network to other politicians supportive of her presidential campaign, according to interviews and campaign finance records.
...
[I]n February, when former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack ended his own White House bid, he was about $450,000 in the red. A month after dropping out, Vilsack endorsed Clinton, and Clinton agreed to help him retire his debts. (Both insisted there was no quid pro quo.)

Over the next few months, some of Clinton's biggest fund-raisers gave Vilsack checks, including Hsu, who kicked in the maximum allowable contribution, $2,300, on May 3 after attending an event organized by Clinton's campaign, Newsweek reported this month. An associate of Hsu's, Paul Su, chipped in $1,000 on the same day.

And the next day, Susan Chilman chipped in $500.  Yes, Chilman (aka TV actress Susan Pari) is on only my suspicious donor list and not yet widely accepted as a Hsu associate by the dead tree crowd, but for posterity, I'm pegging Vilsack's total known take at $3,800, not $3,300.

In other cases, Clinton helped direct Hsu's money to influential politicians who have yet to endorse her but hail from key presidential primary states. Clinton raised at least $6,000 from Hsu and his network last year for Governor John Lynch of New Hampshire, according to Lynch aides. Lynch has no plans to endorse anyone before the state's crucial January primary, aides said.

Interesting.  I've only got $2,000 going to Lynch - all of it from our buddy Winkle Paw.  Part of the difficulty here is the fact that New Hampshire's campaign finance disclosure is, well, lacking.  Governor Lynch has an opportunity to do the public a great service by disclosing who contributed the other $4,000, so they can be added to the roster of Hsu bundlees.  This is my e-mail address.

And at least some of the $17,000 that Governor Jennifer Granholm of Michigan collected from Hsu and his associates in 2005 and 2006 stems from a Nov. 29, 2005, fund-raising reception for her hosted by Steven Rattner, a New York investment firm executive and major Clinton donor seen as a candidate for US Treasury secretary if Clinton wins.  Granholm's office said she has not made an endorsement decision.

In this case, "at least some" equals $11,700, all pitched in on November 30, 2005, by Hsu, Danny Lee, Susan Chilman (the TV actress), Suzanne Raffaelli (a Broadway actress), and Youn Kim (a former Broadway actress).  In total, Granholm tips the scales at better than $42,000 if I don't have any false positives on my roster.

Campaign finance records show numerous contributions from Hsu and his associates to Clinton supporters.

In New Hampshire, Senate President Sylvia Larsen's Democratic Caucus committee received $5,000 from Hsu in September 2006; Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan collected more than $20,000 from Hsu and his associates;Senator Mark Pryor of Arkansas took in about $11,000; and Senator Dianne Feinstein of California received at least $17,000.

Hsu and his network also gave nearly $50,000 to Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa. Harkin has not endorsed anyone, but his wife, Ruth, is a major Clinton backer.

(Stabenow: $34,000; Pryor: $12,000; Feinstein: $22,000; Harkin: $60,000.)

In addition, Hsu and his associates have contributed tens of thousands of dollars to state and local Democratic Party organizations and candidates around the country, including more than $100,000 to Governor Eliot Spitzer of New York and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo of New York, both of whom have endorsed Clinton. On Feb. 21, Hsu dipped into Chicago city politics, giving $3,500 to Alderman Danny Solis, the brother of Patti Solis Doyle, Clinton's campaign manager.

Blogging this elsewhere: Jammie Wearing Fool, Hot Air, American Pundit

Warren Jeffs Guilty

Also, water wet.  String cheese stringy.

The leader of a polygamous Mormon splinter group was convicted Tuesday of being an accomplice to rape for performing a wedding between a 19-year-old man and a 14-year-old girl.

Warren Jeffs, 51, could get life in prison after a trial that threw a spotlight on a renegade community along the Arizona-Utah line where as many as 10,000 of Jeffs' followers practice plural marriage and revere him as a mighty prophet with dominion over their salvation.
...
At the trial, widely different versions of the relationship and Jeffs' influence were presented by the woman, now 21, and her former husband, Allen Steed, 26.

At their wedding in 2001 at a Nevada motel, the woman said, she cried in despair when pressed by Jeffs to say "I do" and had to be coaxed to kiss her new husband. The woman testified that FLDS girls receive no information about their bodies or reproduction. She said she didn't even know sex was the means by which women had babies.
...
Under Utah law, a 14-year-old can consent to sex in some circumstances. But sex is not considered consensual if a person under 18 is enticed by someone at least three years older.

For reasons prosecutors have never explained, Steed has not been charged with a crime.
...
Jeffs is also charged in Arizona with being an accomplice to both incest and sexual misconduct with a minor for arranging marriages between two underage girls and relatives of theirs. In addition, Jeffs is under federal indictment in Utah on charges of fleeing to avoid prosecution.

The charismatic Jeffs was captured in a traffic stop last year just outside Las Vegas after about 18 months on the run. At the time, he was on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list, alongside such figures as Osama bin Laden.

Sling Execs Totally Psyched

Today, EchoStar Communications announced it would acquire Sling Media (maker of the Slingbox, a TV-via-internet device) for approximately $380 million in cash and stock options.  This suited the Sling suits just fine.

“We are psyched to make this announcement. We have worked closely with EchoStar for more than two years, and have come to realize that both companies have similar entrepreneurial cultures and mutual dedication and passion for creating empowering experiences that benefit the consumer and the media industry,” said Blake Krikorian, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Sling Media. “By combining strategies, resources and technologies with EchoStar, Sling Media will be able to rapidly expand our open multi-platform product offerings, not only for DISH Network subscribers, but for digital media enthusiasts around the globe.”

The word choice was enough to turn WSJ's Deal Journal's head.

Formal use of “psyched” by an executive strikes Deal Journal as a landmark event. The ’80s generation has finally arrived as a powerful force in grown-up society. (According to Factiva, there have been 201 examples of the word’s use in news releases since 1988 — although many of them are sports related, as in “psyched up.”)

Of course you can’t blame Krikorian, who’s about 40, for being so, well, psyched. He just signed a deal that values his three-year-old company, which makes devices that let consumers watch TV over the Internet, for a cool $380 million.

Bodacious.

You And Me And the Funyuns Make Three Tonight

I must say, this does sound like fun.

from: Bill Clinton <info@hillaryclinton.com>
to: flippidot@gmail.com
date: Sep 25, 2007 11:37 AM
subject: You, me, a TV, and a bowl of chips

Dear Flip,

There are two things in this world that I love more than anything else -- my family and politics. So you can imagine just how fired up I get when Hillary is on the stage debating the issues that matter to our country.

So here's an idea: why don't you and I share that excitement together during an upcoming debate.  Hillary's campaign will pick three people -- each invited with a guest to watch one of the upcoming presidential debates with me. We'll sit down in front of a big TV with a big bowl of chips, watch the debate, and talk about the race.

And don't forget to leave a little something, you know, for the effort.

The end-of-quarter deadline will be here in just a few days. After Sunday, September 30, Hillary's fundraising numbers will be compared to those of her opponents, and every dollar you contribute between now and Sunday will make a huge difference.
...
Sincerely,
Bill Clinton

P.S. Don't forget -- that deadline is just a few days away, so please contribute today!

Dig deep, America.  Those $850,000 in Hsu-connected refunds aren't going pay for themselves (assuming the donors ever receive them).  Unless of course the campaign makes good on its threat to "take back the money if it clearly came from the donor’s bank account."  Then they will pay for themselves...

But snack chips don't grow on trees.

Correction re: Lillian Vernon, Fred Hochberg, Norman Hsu

In this post on September 21st, I inaccurately referred to Fred Hochberg (Dean of Milano at the New School, HillRaiser, financier of many of Norman Hsu's favored Democratic candidates and committees, and member of Bill Clinton's cabinet), as the current CEO of Lillian Vernon and his brother David Hochberg as an executive at the company.

Fred Hochberg is not (nor was he ever) CEO of Lillian Vernon, but rather is the company's former president and COO, while David Hochberg is the former VP of public affairs.

Fred and David are both sons of the company founder, chairman emeritus, and former CEO Lillian Hochberg (later renamed Lillian Vernon), but neither son currently serves any role in the organization, nor does either maintain any ownership in the company.

Fred departed the company in the early 1990s, not long after Hsu first became a fugitive from justice and several years before the apparent onset of his current political imbroglio.  David left the company more than two years ago, according to Lillian Vernon's public relations specialist, who e-mailed to alert me of the error.

In the context of the previous post, I called attention to Fred Hochberg's identity as a Lillian Vernon executive (former executive) and offpsring of the founder, given the odd fact that the company is listed as the official intermediary of one of Norman Hsu's own direct political contributions (a singular distinction, so far as I've seen).  Hochberg's multiple linkages to Hsu (Hillary's A-list, the New School, their political contribution patterns) seemed to render Lillian Vernon's identity as the intermediary of that Hsu contribution all the more relevant.

The fact that neither son is currently involved in (nor owns any of the equity in) the company seems to refute any resulting suggestion of a relationship between Hsu and the company (though certainly not between Hsu and Hochberg).

The resulting question mark, as concerns Lillian Vernon, is then: Why is the company listed as intermediary of one of Hsu's contributions as recently as June 2007 (to NY City Council Speaker Christine Quinn), given that Fred (the one whose linkages to Hsu are well-documented) departed 14 years prior?

Occam might suggest mega-bundler Fred Hochberg is simply still using the Lillian Vernon name when filling out his bundling forms (of which he's filled out quite a few, based on the records from the NYC Campaign Finance Board, one of the few bodies that reports intermediaries).  Oddly though, Fred hasn't listed himself as an intermediary on any filing with the NYC CFB since 2003.

"Lillian Vernon", on the other hand, is the intermediary of record not only for Hsu's June 5, 2007 contribution to Quinn, but on precisely one other contribution - also to Christine Quinn, also on June 5th, 2007, made by Cathy Lasry.

Cathy's husband Marc is a member of a list that you're likely becoming increasingly familiar with.

So while this correction (as egregious and regrettable as the underlying error was) tends to sever the indirect connection between Hsu and Lillian Vernon, by way of Hsu's apparent association with Fred Hochberg, it renders all the more puzzling the fact that the company is listed as the bundler of these two very recent contributions, made by Hsu and a fellow HillRaiser's spouse - on the same day to the same candidate.

I've asked the public relations specialist who wrote in about this and will update this post with any insights he's able to offer.

---

Update:  The PR rep indicates that the bundler in question here is "Lillian Vernon the person [not] Lillian Vernon the company."  In the 1990s, Lillian Hochberg did formally rename herself after the company that she'd partially named after herself, so were she to set to bundling, I suppose that's how her name would appear.

Aquavelvajad In the Big Apple

Michelle Malkin is rounding up coverage and tracking all the latest goings on with Mahmoud's petulant little field trip, including Power Line's apt acknowledgment of the rare Columbian voice of reason that is Glenn Hubbard.

The University's decision to invite Mr. Ahmadinejad to speak on campus and to engage in a dialogue with our students and faculty has polarized our community. Some would argue that a University should be a place of intellectual freedom and open debate, but others ­ including me ­ argue that Mr. Ahmadinejad, who is responsible for the death of American soldiers, denies the Holocaust, and calls for the destruction of Israel, has proven himself incapable of engaging in a true and honest academic discussion.

Long-time readers know that we do love us some Hubbard (this Hubbard, not that Hubbard).

Jewish Kos Diarist Has "Crush" On Ahmadinejad

And you thought Daily Kos was a hate site...

Why I Have A Little Crush on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

I know I’m a Jewish lesbian and he’d probably have me killed. But still, the guy speaks some blunt truths about the Bush Administration that make me swoon...

Okay, I admit it. Part of it is that he just looks cuddly. Possibly cuddly enough to turn me straight. I think he kind of looks like Kermit the Frog. Sort of. With smaller eyes. But that’s not all...

I want to be very clear. There are certainly many things about Ahmadinejad that I abhor — locking up dissidents, executing of gay folks, denying the fact of the Holocaust, potentially adding another dangerous nuclear power to the world and, in general, stifling democracy. Even still, I can’t help but be turned on by his frank rhetoric calling out the horrors of the Bush Administration and, for that matter, generations of US foreign policy preceding.
...
Monday, when Ahmadinejad speaks at Columbia University in New York, I’ll be listening.  Maybe with a bottle of wine and some soft music playing in the background.  If I can get past the fact that, as a Jewish lesbian, he’d probably have me killed, I’ll try to listen for some truth.

Proof that loves knows no religion or sexual orientation when it comes to Bush Derangement.

(HT: LGF, which has a screen cap, on the off chance this diary up and vanishes.)

"Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!" "Jan, Jan, Jan!"

Weirdest behind-the-scenes intra-Bunch tryst yet?  Or lamely sensational premise to wring a bit more cash from a 4-decade-old bit of fading pop culture?

"Brady Bunch" star Maureen McCormick - who played the TV family's oldest girl Marcia Brady - will reveal in a new tell-all book how she had a steamy on-set sexual relationship with the co-star who played her younger sister Jan.

The book, titled "Here's the Story," will detail how a small crush blossomed into a romantic and physically intimate relationship between McCormick and Eve Plumb, according to published reports.

Dying Castro Can't Bear To Miss a Moment of Bush Presidency

Aw, that's kind of sweet.

The highly anticipated book on Fidel Castro from one of the preeminent authorities on Cuban and Miami politics and CBS' correspondent on Castro, Ann Louise Bardach, WITHOUT FIDEL: The Death of Castro and Other Tales (Scribner) confirms for first time that the Cuban leader is terminally ill and dying -- yet determined to outlive the Bush presidency.

Hsocking Hsu Secrets Revealed!

[An important correction to certain details in this post is available here.]

If there's one thing that can be said about Clinton financial scandals, it's that they tend to be complex.  And thus far, the Norman Hsu debacle is living up to the archetype.

This rabbit hole is proving to be a fair bit deeper than anyone might've guessed and we're about to plumb its depths.  If you're reading this, it means you're taking the red pill.

Two of the biggest open questions were always 1) where is Hsu - a convicted con man and fugitive with no documented ability to turn a legitimate buck - getting these gobs of money, and 2) why is he squandering it on all these Democrats?

These specific Democrats.

We seem to have gotten at least part of the answer to the first question, as Hsu has recently been accused of swindling investors out of as much as $70 million in a variety of Ponzi schemes and other bogus investments.  The second question though, has been naggingly impenetrable.  After all, if Hsu was simply buying his way into the inner circles of various celebrity politicians, whether for his own ego or to project more credibility and gravitas to his marks (or both), why would his fundraising have been so unwaveringly partisan - targeting only members of the minority party and only very specific members of that party.  Hsu's network finance the campaigns of more than 80 Democrats - from Presidential candidates to state legislators and town supervisors.  From the newest newbies (including a majority of the first-time candidates who became Senate freshmen this year) to some of the body's dustiest relics (Kennedy, Biden, et al).

Yet Chuck Schumer, for example, Hillary's senior counterpart in New York, never saw a dime.  Fellow New York politicians Eliot Spitzer, Andrew Cuomo, Anthony Weiner, Kristen Gillibrand, and others received hundreds of separate contributions, totalling many hundreds of thousands of dollars.  Schumer: bubkes.

Debbie Stabenow (D-MI): $29,613...  Carl Levin (D-MI): squat.  Jay Rockefeller (D-WV): $23,000...  Robert Byrd (D-WV): zilch.

You get the idea.  The points is that Hsu's specific slate of favored candidates (itemized here) seemed to be deliberate and predetermined and was not satisfyingly explained away by any of his speculated motivations.  This has actually been helpful in ferreting out Hsu's donor network though - when you happen on an individual with a huge string of contributions not only to Clinton and Obama, but to several specific Democratic committees and to specific Democrats like Tom Harkin, Patrick Kennedy, Kristen Gillibrand, Dianne Feinstein, and Hsu's other favorites, you've found someone worth looking into.

The mystery of Hsu's candidate slate is a vexing one.  Enlightenment, however, appears to be tucked away in a single transaction listed in a  NYC Campaign Finance Board disclosure.

Contributor: Norman Hsu
Employer: Next Components
Candidate: Christine Quinn
Amount: $4,950
Date: 6/5/07
Intermediary: Lillian Vernon

This is peculiar.  As an A-list Democratic fundraiser, Hsu is typically the bundler in these transactions, not the bundlee.  So what gives?

Lillian Vernon is a trinket catalog company, perhaps best known for its constant lampooning on Mad TV.  It was founded by Lillian Hochberg in Mount Vernon, NY (clever, eh?) in 1951.  Lillian's son Fred is the current CEO and his brother David is an executive at the company.

If you run a search for Fred Hochberg's own federal political contributions, the telltale Hsu pattern once again emerges.  The same goes for Lillian Vernon's corporate contributions.  From all the federal and state records, as well as the municipal filings in New York, L.A., and San Francisco, I've compiled a full accounting of the donations made by both the company itself and Fred and David Hochberg and updated the Google spreadsheet with a separate Hochberg tab.

Two points are crucial here.

1)  Ever since Hsu became a major fundraiser, there have been notable similarities between his and Hochberg/Lillian Vernon's contributions that strain the limits of coincidence.  Not only is there significant overlap among several far-flung candidates who wouldn't typically be of much interest to New York businessmen, but the size and timing of many of the transactions further suggest the efforts are coordinated.

10/24/05: Fred Hochberg contributes $2,000 to Ted Kennedy.
10/24/05: A Hsu donor in California contributes $2,100 to Ted Kennedy.

6/6/06: Lillian Vernon contributes $25,000 to Eliot Spitzer.
6/7/06: Norman Hsu contributes $25,000 to Eliot Spitzer.

1/26/07: Fred Hochberg contributes $2,300 to Hillary Clinton.
1/26/07: Hsu and various Hsu donors across the country make a total of 8 contributions to Hillary Clinton ranging from $1,900-2,100 each.

3/28/07: Hsu and various Hsu donors make a total of 11 contributions to Clinton, totaling $23,400 (most at the $2,300 maximum).
3/31/07: Lillian Vernon makes 2 contributions to Clinton, totalling $4,600.

5/3/07: Norman Hsu makes 2 contributions to Mark Pryor, totalling $2,500.
5/3/07: Fred Hochberg contributes $2,300 to Mark Pryor.

6/5/07: Norman Hsu contributes $4,950 to Christine Quinn, his first and only direct contribution to Quinn.
6/5/07: Lillian Vernon contributes $110 to Chrinstine Quinn, for the first time in 4 years.

Here, the Hsu-slighted senior Senator from New York pitches in by serving as the exception that proves the rule.  Schumer actually used to enjoy regular financial support from Hochberg.  He and his company made several sizable contributions to Schumer's campaigns between 1997 and 2003... then the gravy train came screeching to a halt.  Not a single contribution after March 2003.  It's anyone's guess why, but if Chuck did something to sour Hochberg, it would explain his conspicuous absence among both Hochberg's and Hsu's bountiful largesse heaped on just about every other notable Democrat in New York State over the following 4 years.

These are all anecdotal observations of course, but I've made the whole data set of Hsu-related transactions available, so you can go exploring for additional interestingly timed contributions.

2)  Hochberg's political benefaction predates Hsu's by several years.  While Hsu didn't get his start until 2003 and didn't really hit his stride until late 2004, Lillian Vernon and the Hochbergs contributed more than a half million dollars to Democrats in the decade prior to Hsu's political foray (and more than a quarter million more since).  This suggests the slate of candidates whose palms Hsu has chosen to cross with silver these last few years was not the product of either Hsu's own ideology or any specific partisan motivation.  It seems more likely that the pols Hsu began to grease were simply co-opted from Hochberg's list of favored candidates.

The fact that the Hsu pattern predates Hsu's career as a Democratic booster means the original architect of the candidate slate is likely near the nexus of Hsu's political awakening, which makes that architect pivotal to the Hsu story.  To be clear, this doesn't necessarily imply that Hochberg's contributions (or the many individuals that he bundles) are tainted the way contributions from Hsu's donor network are.  Hochberg may well have gone on making these same contributions had Hsu never entered the picture.  The significance of the Hsu pattern actually being a borrowed Hochberg pattern is that it strongly implies a close and ongoing association between Hsu and Hochberg.

The contribution patterns alone are sufficient to draw that inference, but as you might guess, we're not done descending the rabbit hole.

But wait... there's more.  Some cursory digging on Fred Hochberg reveals something interesting.  He's a fellow HillRaiser.  Thanks to a bit of alphabetical kismet, you can see his name directly above Hsu's on Hillary's official HillRaiser roster. [Update: Hillary finally removed Hsu from her list, but there's the screenshot.]

But wait... there's still more.  Hochberg is also a dean at the New School, where Hsu was a trustee until this scandal broke last month and the school hurriedly removed his name from their website.  Also on the New School board is Bernard Schwartz, one of Bill Clinton's biggest financial backers and the central figure in Clinton's scandal involving the sale of missile technology to China.

And the lily gilder:  Fred Hochberg was a member of President Clinton's Cabinet.

Yes, Fred Hochberg, a dean at the school where Hsu served as a trustee, one of Hsu's fellow HillRaisers, CEO of the company that officially bundled at least one of Hsu's direct contributions as recently as this summer, and the apparent architect of Hsu's favored candidate slate, was installed as one of the country's senior-most federal policymakers by Bill Clinton.

Hochberg was tapped to become the SBA's deputy adminstrator in 1998 and some time thereafter became the acting administrator.  The SBA administrator is not a current Cabinet-level position.  Clinton elevated the position to Cabinet rank, a move Bush has undone.  Not long before his executive appointment, Hochberg had enjoyed another kind of Presidential access, as a member of Clinton's bescandaled "White House Coffee" guest list.

So.

Where does all this leave us?  There are still a lot of details yet to emerge that will undoubtedly shed additional light on these linakges, but it seems quite clear that Norman Hsu and Fred Hochberg are and have for some time been closely associated.  It's abundantly clear that the Clintons and Hochberg are quite intimately associated.  This seems to draw Hsu and Clinton uncomfortably close to one another.

And while the complexity and duplicity that saturates this whole affair may offer Hillary a bit of confusion cover that she can use to equivocate when pressed, it's now becoming increasingly far-fetched that Hillary took Norman Hsu for no more than a kindly, deep-pocketed fan.

Let's just say it requires a willing suspension of disbelief.

---

For those of you waiting for the newest data update, it's all polished up and uploaded to the Google doc.  A couple notes about this iteration:

• The grand total is now $2.56 million (within 1% of the Abramoff threshold)
• 3 new contributors have been added since the last update
  • Khin Mon
    Homemaker, Daly City, CA
    Total contributions: $12,100 from 2005-2006
    Contributed to Hillary: $4,200
  • Solange Sandy
    Actress, New York, NY
    Total contributions: $35,450 from 2005-2007
    Contributed to Hillary: $4,200
  • Suzanne Raffaelli
    Model, New York, NY
    Total contributions: $86,250 from 2004-2007
    Contributed to Hillary: $7,800
• Exciting note about Khin Mon - according to the campaign finance disclosures, she lives with the many Paws who occupy that cozy green house on Shelbourne Avenue in Daly City, CA.
• Recipients of Hsu-connected funds: 85 Democratic candidates and candidate PACs, 22 Democratic committees and state parties, 1 Republican candidate
• Cooling their heels on the periphery, awaiting further review of their contribution patterns and relationship to Hsu and his business interests are 3 possible Hsu family members (not including his ex-wife), accounting for more than $200,000 in contributions; a group of law firm employees, accounting for more than $100,000 in contributions; two individuals, accounting for a combined $60,000 in contributions; and the New York family referenced in the last update, accounting for up to $700,000 in contributions.

Also blogging this today:

Ace of Spades (who hauled out the flaming skull for the occasion), Instapundit, Allah (praise him), LGF, Power Line, Captain Ed, Flopping Aces, Blue Crab Boulevard, JammieWearingFool, Right Voices.  Together, they're bathing this site in a terribly agreeable traffic flood.

Previously:
Runaround Hsu: The Music Video
Hillary, Truth Not At Peace Over $850,000 Said Refunded [Update: Feds File Charges]
Another Clinton Bundler Accused of Reimbursing Donors
Hsu, Recobbled
Some Oddities About Hsu's Ostensibly Unwitting Woodstock Backer
Mesa County DA: $4 Million Bond Not Enough To Cage Hsu [Update: $5 Million Is?]
Dems Lowballing Hsu Fundraising Totals [Update: Hsu Offsets?]
Hsu Sent Suicide Note [Update: Blaming Obama]
Federal Agencies Unofficially Probing Hsu Scandal Number [At Least] 4
Hsu's Financing Source Revealed
Hillary's Massive Hsu War Chest: Abramoff Parity Nears
Photoblog: Touring Norman Hsu's New York
Hsu Captured! (Drugged?)
Hsu Still A HillRaiser In Good Standing?
Knock, Knock, Knockin' On Norman's Door.
Hsu Reclaims Fugitive Status, Forfeiting $2 Million Bail
Hsu vs. Abramoff
New Hsu Review: Following [the Rest Of] the Money
A Really Big Hsu...
Hillary Vows To Give [At Least Some Of] Hsu Contributions To Charity
From Now On, When the Phone Rings You Say, "Vandelay Industries."
Hillary's Magwitch?

Who's betraying whom?

Today, the Senate held a largely symbolic vote that should serve as a warning to all voters.  This Congressional action was in response to the cheap and cowardly attack ad sponsored by moveon.org.  The amendment simply sought:

To express the sense of the Senate that General David H. Petraeus, Commanding General, Multi-National Force-Iraq, deserves the full support of the Senate and strongly condemn personal attacks on the honor and integrity of General Petraeus and all members of the United States Armed Forces.

Democrats often say they support the troops just not the war.  Yet here are many high-profile Dems, including Hillary and Harry Reid, refusing to denounce the attacks on the top soldier in Iraq.  Arguably worse was Barack Obama, who didn't have the courage to show up for the vote.  These are the same Democrats who unanimously supported Gen. Petraeus just eight months ago.

Are these desirable qualities of the next Commander-in-Chief?

Previously: When claims don't ad up

Runaround Hsu: The Music Video

The Ventilators' new single drops today.

A Black Day For the Greenback

A double dose of bad news today for all you fans of U.S. currency.

WSJ's Washington Wire reports on the "digital unveiling" of the new $5 bill, a hideous thing that will go into circulation in early 2008.  Okay, maybe not *hideous*, but that big purple 5 is just monstrous.  Someone must've been fired over that one.  Still, the Treasury Department insists it's a feature.

The large, easy-to-read number “5” in the lower right corner on the back of the bill, which helps those with visual impairments distinguish the denomination, is now enlarged in the new $5 bill design and printed in high-contrast purple ink.

Meanwhile, The Globe and Mail of Toronto reports that for a brief time this morning, the Canadian dollar was more valuable than a real dollar.  So start hoarding those Canadian quarters you've been angrily throwing into drawers and trying to scam vending machines with your whole life.  They're less worthless than they used to be.

Hillary, Truth Not At Peace Over $850,000 Said Refunded [Update: Feds File Charges]

I've been musing over whether the $850,000 in Norman Hsu-bundled contributions Hillary Clinton pledged to return to donors 10 days ago would wind up being too high or too low.  On the one hand, she might be overshooting in order to sweep up every red cent that might possibly have been intermediated by Hsu, leading to an overestimate.  On the other hand, she might be undershooting simply to limit the financial and PR fallout (despite it being wholly out of character for the normally forthright and transparent Clintons to try to pull a fast one on us - at least once published reports render that impossible).  Some of her colleagues seem to be lowballing their Hsu estimates, so why not Hillary?

Of course the actual amount Hillary refunded is little more than an academic exercise, since the campaign announced (to wide stupefaction) that it would ask the Hsu-connected "donors" to return their refunds to Senator Clinton immediately.

But now it seems Clinton may never have intended to refund all of its Hsu-connected money in the first place, judging by an e-mail sent in by a reader just this morning.

I thought you might be interested in learning that contrary to a statement by Howard Wolfson on September 10th 2007 “an estimated 260 donors this week will receive refunds totaling approximately $850,000 from the campaign” this money still has not been returned – at least not to me.  I know this because I was a donor who had my arm twisted to make a contribution to Hillary Clinton’s campaign on behalf of Norman Hsu and I haven’t seen a dime returned.  It’s very easy to see my contribution as I completed a form which had “Hillary for President” at the top and “Contact/Code, if any: Norman Hsu” at the bottom.  I made the donation through American Express making it easy to trace and easy to return.

After three calls to the Hillary Campaign (703 469 2008) no one knew who was responsible for returning these donations. Now that seems strange as the press appear to believe Howard Wolfson is a senior representative of the Clinton campaign as they quote him frequently.  It seems to me that if Hillary Clinton cannot deliver on the small things how can we believe she will deliver if she becomes President?

Just a thought but is it worth investigating whether any of the $850,000 has been returned, and to which charity did Hillary Clinton donate the $23,000 she received from Norman Hsu?

Yes it is.

The disclosure filings confirm that the reader in question did contribute $2,300 to Clinton during the current cycle.

So how about it, Senator - it's been 10 days since Wolfson said the refunds would be received "this week".  Are the checks in the mail?

Asked about his connection to Hsu, the reader explained he was among the investors in Joel Rosenman's Source Financing Investors, the vehicle that invested $40 million with Hsu in a series of presumably bogus deals.  And it sounds like he's not alone among his co-investors in wondering if that refund check is ever going to arrive.

Out of all of us who invested in SFI and were "asked" to contribute to Hillary Clinton's election campaign I have only heard one person say he was told "the check was in the mail" when he called the Hillary Campaign offices to complain.  As far as I know he has not received it yet.

I wonder if they'll ever see that money again (their SFI investments or their contributions).  Maybe Hillary's having trouble letting go of so much delicious, filthy lucre.  Kind of like the trouble she's having trouble letting Hsu go from her official list of HillRaisers.

Update:  The reader has e-mailed again to report that Jessica McBroom at the Clinton campaign called this afternoon and told him "the check is in the mail."  That's good to hear, though I have to wonder if the less squeaky wheels among those 260 contributors will get their checks as promptly.  If the campaign is able to stall for another 10 days, those refund transactions won't be detailed in the October 15th filings and the world will have to wait another three months before getting a look at the list (at which point one might expect the heat on this story to have died down). 

---

Update:  Looks like Hsu will be criminally charged with fleecing SFI (perhaps among others) later today.  And not just out of $40 million.  Press conference at 1 pm.

Criminal charges will be filed in Lower Manhattan Thursday against disgraced Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu as part of a $60 million "Ponzi Scheme" that is strikingly similar to another one he allegedly perpetrated in California.

Authorities say the charges against the 56-year-old Hsu stem from money he took from a New York investment group in nonexistent business deals with the likes of Nordstrom, L.L. Bean and Abercrombie & Fitch.

U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia and FBI officials are expected to further discuss the charges at a 1 p.m. news conference.

(HT: The Freepers)

---

Update:  The press conference is underway.  Sounds like the federales have Hsu dead to rights.  Some highlights:

• Hsu is charged with perpetrating a "massive investment fraud" upon victims nationwide, in a classic Ponzi scheme (i.e. a pyramid scheme in which the assets involved are cash, as distinct from stocks, real estate, or other holdings).
• He is also charged with using individuals (including some of his alleged investment fraud victims) as "straw donors", instructing them to make political contributions to specific candidates, then reimbursing them in order to circumvent campaign finance laws.
• The charges were unsealed earlier today, clearing the way for federal investigators to seize 4 bank accounts used by Hsu in these activities.
• The early investors in Hsu's pyramid received their principal investment back plus their "guaranteed returns", encouraging them to recruit friends and associates to invest with Hsu.  A number of seed investors even formed whole new funds (this may be explain the recent creation of Rosenman's Source Financing Investors) strictly to invest with Hsu's companies - Components, Ltd. and Next Components, Ltd., neither of which appear to have conducted any legitimate business activity.
• The charges allege Hsu pressured his investment fraud victims into making contributions to political candidates, in some cases with their own funds and in others cases on behalf of Hsu, who would later reimburse the donors.
• This past Monday, a search of the items recovered during Hsu's arrest in Grand Junction revealed a laptop, a Blackberry, thousands of dollars in cash, hundreds of thousands of dollars in checks from alleged victims, bank receipts showing millions of dollars in Hsu's accounts, and hand-written ledgers detailing the many illegal contributions that authorities say Hsu instructed his straw donors to make.

Hot Air will likely have the video eventually.

Another Clinton Bundler Accused of Reimbursing Donors

Brody Mullins, the Wall Street Journal reporter who first broke the Norman Hsu story, turns over another rock in the consecreated HillRaiser garden (where Hsu's name remains, by the way).

When Hillary Rodham Clinton held an intimate fund-raising event at her Washington home in late March, Pamela Layton donated $4,600, the maximum allowed by law, to Mrs. Clinton's presidential campaign.

But the 37-year-old Ms. Layton says she and her husband were reimbursed by her husband's boss for the donations. "It wasn't personal money. It was all corporate money," Mrs. Layton said outside her home here. "I don't even like Hillary. I'm a Republican."

The boss is William Danielczyk, founder of a Washington-area private-equity firm and a major fund-raising "bundler" for Mrs. Clinton. Mrs. Layton's gift was one of more than a dozen donations that night from people with Republican ties or no history of political giving. Mr. Danielczyk and his family, employees and friends donated a total of $120,000 to Mrs. Clinton in the days around the fund-raiser.

Read it all.  The rabbit hole runneth deep.

The Journal reported yesterday that the SEC has launched an investigation into the Hsu scandal, in response to the discovery of the involvement of a New York investment firm.

You, as an alert Suitably Flip reader, knew this a week ago.

Left Wing Candor

It's not often you see it in such full blossom, but there it is.

Daily Kos
I Don't Support the Troops..oops, there, I said it
by lurxst
Wed Sep 19, 2007 at 04:27:34 PM PDT

This has been digging at me for, oh, about 4 years now. I have been hesitant to express this thought, in comments sections and in discussion with other people about the Iraq quagmire for fear of, I don't know, being called mean. Or, un-American. Or something.

Supporting the troops essentially means supporting the illegal war. It seems that us anti-war types have been doing all sorts of mental and philisophical gymnastics to try and work around this. What has emerged is a sort of low impact, mealy-mouthed common wisdom that is palatable to everyone but is ultimately going to allow us to stay in Iraq for years to come.

(HT: Little Green Footballs, which pulled a screencap in case this diary succumbs to that common Kosian scourge of Candor Evaporation Syndrome.)

Kid Nation: Begin the Splendor

As a rule, I really don't have much use for the reality show genre, with the exceptions of "On the Lot" of the audition round of "American Idol".  But tonight's debut of "Kid Nation" can only be descibed as the most anticipated television event since last Thursday.

First impressions, 10 minutes in:

• I really dislike that they've pre-ordained an incumbent "town council" of learned kids (especially given that one of them thinks the Mahatma was one of only three adults in history to do "a good job").  I'd've rather seen them just let the chips fall where they may, in true Lord of the Flies fashion - inviting the power vacuum to fill itself.  That being said, they did hint at the possibility of overthrow, so that's something to look forward to.
• My early favorite is the town youngster Jimmy, age 8.  Notwisthstanding his prediction that "I think I'm gonna die out here" on the bus en route to the drop-off point, I sense greatness in this one.

Previously:  Lord Of the Flies: The Reality Show!

---

Update:  Councilwoman Taylor, age 10, is already threatening to quit, on account of homesickness.  If Jimmy doesn't overthrow her by episode 3, I'll be disappointed.

Councilman, Mike, age 11, appears to have a bit more of an instinctive leadership drive, but his tearful breakdown seems to have squandered his opportunity to take hold of the day-2 pancacke shortage crisis.  (Jimmy has also declared his disdain for Mike, which all but writes him off in my book.)  Councilman and Ghandi fan Anjay, age 12, has quickly cemented his identity as the guy who yells and is soundly ignored.

Out of nowhere, town elder Michael, age 14, won himself a mess hall ovation and a vital vote of collective confidence after taking control of the pancake crisis.

Aw, Jimmy.  We've just witnessed the golden boy suffering a tearful breakdown.  Well, he is 8, after all.  At least he had the good sense to sequester himself to a secluded area before letting go.  Councilwoman Laurel, age 12, was the only one to see Jimmy in his moment of weakness.  She's offered to take him under her wing, which is sweet (and perhaps indicative of a strong eye for talent), but if I were Jimmy, I'd hold off on hitching my wagon to that star.  She seems genuine enough in her overture though.

---

Redemption:  During the first pow-wow with the producers, the only-mildly-creepy chaperone asked Jimmy how he was getting on.  Town elder Greg, age 15, then publicly asked Jimmy how he'd "like to be [his] new wingman."  Standing toward the front of the crowd, Jimmy turned and asked, "Who is it?"  Greg: "Gregory."  Jimmy:  "No."  Crowd: [raucous laughter].

Jimmy's judgment is spot on.  Get a load of Greg in his indoor winter hat and his ratty hairdo and his awkward-years faux-confident smirk.  Would you be this kid's "wingman"?

Neither would Jimmy.

Hey, Greg, Jimbo Jones called.  He wants the whole package back.

---

The Gold Star:  The weekly prize (worth $20,000 in Bonanza fun bucks) is a gold star, to be bestowed at the discretion of the fledgling puppet regime that is the town council.  Heading into the last commercial break, they appear to be deliberating between Sophia, age 14, for her culinary exploits, and Michael, for his early displays of leadership in the face of culinary catastrophe.

Who will it be?

---

Here we go - the weekly town meeting.  The parliamentary procedures by which the inevitable council overthrow will ensue are thus laid out:  the townsfolk get to raise hands and objections in response to the failings of their unelected leaders.

Michael had another strong showing with a speech that wasn't entirely cogent, but for a 14-year-old was nonetheless poignant and won him another ovation.

And the chaperone (hereafter Uncle Ted) asks who might like to go home.  Ah, Jimmy, no.  The Chosen One's hand shot up before Uncle Ted's question was even out of his mouth.  The townspeople protest, noting correctly that Jimmy's maturity exceeds that of most of his elders.  To no avail.  Jimmy is out.

The council now briefly convenes... Laurel steps forward to bestow the Gold Star unto... Sophia!

And now the twist.  The $20,000 aren't fun bucks.  They're for-real bucks.  Sophia just won her parents 20 large.  Wowsers.  The town flapjack jock is now the highest paid resident of Bonanza City.

I'm a little ambivalent about the prize.  Yes, $20,000 in legal tender is better than Bonanza scrip, but there ought to be some kind of material game-space reward for winning the periodic prize, beyond whatever cachet the winner might glean for helping to pay the bills back home.  I'm not sure that's enough of a feedback mechanism to influence gameplay toward winning the weekly prize over various game-space goals, like a cot further away from the outhouses, a cushier job, an upper hand in looming power struggles, or the "protection" peddled by Greg's eventual petty crime syndicate.

A fungible game currency could grease any of those wheels.  And watching the gears of capitalism grind to life among minimally supervised minors would be about as compelling as TV gets.

---

All in all, a pretty satisfying premiere.  I'm inconsolable about Jimmy's departure, though.  Maybe they'll find a loophole to bring him back - perhaps as an outlaw who rides into town to rustle up the cattle and hold up the root beer saloon.

Meanwhile, the preview for next week indicates Sophia is waging a "campaign against the town council."

I can't wait.

Can someone remind me which level of the inferno is reserved for those who spend an hour each week critiquing frightened children?

No Points For 41st Place

...which is where I'll go ahead and assume I tacitly placed in this survey.  Somewhere between 41st and 11 millionth or so, anyway (depending on the state's current population distribution).

Yes, friends, despite the love letter they penned me last year (inasmuch as it was an article about a Republican in a New York City paper and it alleged neither earth-raping nor baby-eating), City Hall News didn't find a spot for me in their Rising Stars: 40 Under 40 feature.

Alas.

The exciting news it that friends of mine occupy fully 7.5% of the list.  Congratulations to NYC blogger and political consultant Karol Sheinin, former NYS Young Republicans State Chairman Jason Weingartner, and Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno's local public affair director Lisa Black!

I can't say each of the other 37 choices is as well-chosen (and a few names pop to mind as more genuinely slighted by omission than I), but these 3 certainly would have appeared on my top-40 list, so all things considered, nice work, City Hall.

Yogi, Boo Boo To Get Totally Tased, Bro!

The preening moonbat has already been silenced on college campuses, thanks to the fascist neocon war machine.  And soon, the gentle creatures will find no safe quarter even among their beloved trees.

It seemed like a stunning purchase for the U.S. Forest Service: Taser International Inc. announced the service bought 700 Taser guns.

John C. Twiss, director of the service’s law-enforcement branch, said that after years of studying the devices, which deliver a jolt of electricity, the service decided the guns would give its 700 officers, who police 153 national forests, “an option other than deadly force in certain law-enforcement situations.”

Both the Forest Service and the U.S. Park Service, where law-enforcement rangers started getting Tasers last year, are trying to stem a surge in crime on public land, including assaults on officers and drug smuggling.
...
Taser says the use of the stun guns saves lives, as police officers have been able to use them instead of handguns that fire bullets. But groups including Amnesty International have called for a moratorium on their use, citing safety concerns. And, of course, Taser was back in the spotlight this week when a student was tased by University of Florida police at a John Kerry appearance.

"What did I do?  Owww!  Owww!  I was just trying to peek inside your pic-a-nic basket!  Owww!"

If You Like Pina Coladas... Then F*@& Off.

Oof.  This had the potential to be such a sweet, sappy story.  But, well, isn't.

A married couple who didn't realise they were chatting each other up on the internet are divorcing.

Sana Klaric and husband Adnan, who used the names "Sweetie" and "Prince of Joy" in an online chatroom, spent hours telling each other about their marriage troubles, Metro.co.uk reported.

The truth emerged when the two turned up for a date. Now the pair, from Zenica in central Bosnia, are divorcing after accusing each other of being unfaithful.

"I was suddenly in love. It was amazing. We seemed to be stuck in the same kind of miserable marriage. How right that turned out to be," Sana, 27, said.

Adnan, 32, said: "I still find it hard to believe that Sweetie, who wrote such wonderful things, is actually the same woman I married and who has not said a nice word to me for years".

Somewhere, Rupert Holmes is weeping.

(HT: Marc Andreessen)

Fed Policy Pick'em [Update: 50 bps All Around]

Interest rate futures suggest Wall Street sees a 50% chance of a quarter-point cut (and a 50% chance of a half-point cut) to the Fed Funds Rate when the FOMC releases their policy statement shortly after 2:00 pm today.  Of course since at least a few must be expecting no move, that would actually suggest the market sees a slightly greater than 50% chance of the half-point cut, slightly less than a 50% chance of a quarter-point cut, and the remainder% chance of no move.

The Fed Funds Rate currently sits at 5.25%, right where's it been for nearly 15 months.  The Discount Rate (which had set to perfect lock-step with the Fed Funds for more than six years) was lowered a half-point (from 6.25% to 5.75%) in August in response to heightened credit crunch concerns.

One of the last relevant bits of data the committee will see before inking today's policy decision is this morning's wholesale inflation report, which showed prices in August plunging by 1.4% (compared to an expected decline of 0.3%).  That'll tend to give incremental cover to the Fed if they're aiming to cut rates, as Bernanke has continued to take a hawkish eye to an already relatively docile inflationary environment.

What's your prediction?  One reader will be randomly selected from the correct guesses submitted by 2 pm and will receive $150 in Suitably Flip PhunBucks.

I'll update with the Fed Language Watch once the statement is released.

---

Update:  The poll is now closed.  If you said the Fed would cut both rates by a half-point (like 25% of poll respondents did), congratulations.

Not surprisingly, this first reduction in four years to the Fed Funds Rate is accompanied by far more drastic policy statement modifications that we usually see.

Press Release

Release Date: August 7,September 18, 2007
For immediate release

The Federal Open Market Committee decided today to keeplower its target for the federal funds rate at 5-1/450 basis points to 4-3/4 percent.

Economic growth was moderate during the first half of the year. Financial markets have been volatile in recent weeks,year, but the tightening of credit conditions have become tighter for some households and businesses, andhas the potential to intensify the housing correction is ongoing. Nevertheless, the economy seems likely to continue to expand at a moderate pace over comingand to restrain economic growth more generally. Today’s action is intended to help forestall some of the adverse effects on the broader economy that might otherwise arise quarters, supported by solid growth in employment and incomes and a robust global economy.from the disruptions in financial markets and to promote moderate growth over time. 

Readings on core inflation have improved modestly in recent months. However, a sustained moderation in inflation pressures has yet to be convincingly demonstrated. Moreover, the high level of resource utilization has the potential to sustain those pressures.this year. However, the Committee judges that some inflation risks remain, and it will continue to monitor inflation developments carefully. 

Although the downside risks to growth have increased somewhat, the Committee's predominant policy concern remains the risk that inflation will fail to moderate as expected. Future policy adjustments will depend on the outlook for both inflation and economic growth, as implied by incoming information.Developments in financial markets since the Committee’s last regular meeting have increased the uncertainty surrounding the economic outlook. The Committee will continue to assess the effects of these and other developments on economic prospects and will act as needed to foster price stability and sustainable economic growth.

Voting for the FOMC monetary policy action were: Ben S. Bernanke, Chairman; Timothy F. Geithner, Vice Chairman; Charles L. Evans; Thomas M. Hoenig; Donald L. Kohn; Randall S. Kroszner; Frederic S. Mishkin;Michael H. Moskow; William Poole; Eric Rosengren; and Kevin M. Warsh. 

In a related action, the Board of Governors unanimously approved a 50-basis-point decrease in the discount rate to 5-1/4 percent. In taking this action, the Board approved the requests submitted by the Boards of Directors of the Federal Reserve Banks of Boston, New York, Cleveland, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Kansas City, and San Francisco.

Wall Street is, in a word, psyched.
(Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq)

Hsu, Recobbled

I've just uploaded an updated master data set of the contributions made and raised by Norman Hsu from 2003-2007.  I've replaced the Google spreadsheet in the same spot, so the old links should take you to the new data.  As before, the contributions are organized by recipient, by contributor, and by individual transaction.

This data isn't necessarily infallible, as it's culled from a variety of sources and undergoes a series of iterations, compilations, and aggregations on its way from the source documents to this uploaded format.  If you're looking to confirm a specific transaction, try the Center for Responsive Politics for federal, the National Institute on Money in State Politics for state, and the NYC Campaign Finance Board, the LA City Ethics Board, and the San Francisco Ethics Commission for local.  The NYS Board of Elections and the California Secretary of State records fill in some of the state-level gaps left by NIMSP.

Some notes about this update and what's changed since the last master data set upload:

• New total:  $2,438,510 (previously: $1,594,622)
• Recipients of Hsu-connected funds: 84 Democratic candidates and candidate PACs, 22 Democratic committees and state parties, 1 Republican candidate
• Average contributions per day (weekdays June '04 - July '07): 1.02
• New contributors:
  • Raymond Chan
  • Aurelia Chang
  • Hsin-Ping Chang
  • Yau Cheng
  • Joshua Hadar
  • Youn (Kim) Hadar
  • Joel Rosenman
  • Molly Rosenman
  • Ned Rosenman
• Existing contributors:
  • Susan Chilman
  • Norman Hsu
  • Oliver Hsu
  • Wilfred Hsu
  • Yu Fen Huang
  • Danny Lee
  • Soe Lee
  • Stanley Lim
  • Alice Paw
  • Dimiple Paw
  • Marina Paw
  • Nelson Paw
  • Vivian Paw
  • William Paw
  • Winkle Paw
  • Lelawattie Su
  • Paul Su
  • Peter Tan
• Names requiring further review (not included in data):
  • Corey Chen
  • Daniel Frisch
  • The Hadar family (Allison, Anna, Eric, Gualum, Lisa, Margery, Mica, Olga, and Richard)
  • Ex-wife Patricia Hsu
  • The San Francisco Hsus (Mark, Joyce, and Ta-Lin)
  • Nay Oo
  • Henry Rosenberg
  • Karen Tan
  • Noah Yago
  • The Zabels (Deborah (nee Miller) and William)
• Additional candidate PACs have been combined with their respective candidates (Hope Fund: Barack Obama; Unite Our States: Joe Biden; PAC For a Change: Barbara Boxer)
• The data include $613,000 in unknown Hsu-related contributions to Hillary Clinton (equaling $850,000 disclosed by the campaign minus $237,000 uncovered to date).

The Leaderboard:

A couple of changes to the leaderboard are worth noting.  Most notably of course, Hillary expanded her lead over Eliot Spitzer from $100,000 to nearly $800,000.  Also trending higher is Barack Obama, who jumped from 8th place to 4th, in light of the new contribution data and crediting contributions to Obama's Hope Fund.  And joining the top-10 for the first time is Joe Biden, whose total more than doubled upon incorporating the new data and crediting contributions to Biden's Unite Our States.

Bear in mind that these totals may have a lot of room left to swing - up, down, or both - in coming weeks.  If and when Hillary discloses her list of 260 Hsu-connected contributors who accounted for the $850,000 she's returning (shortly before she asks for many of those contributions back), we may find either that many of these donors also gave significantly to Hsu's other favored candidates (pushing the totals far higher) or that Hillary has grossly over-(temporarily)-refunded to contributors who were not in fact Hsu-connected (pushing her own total far lower).  If the Clinton campaign elects not to disclose this list, we'll just have to wait until the third quarter filings (due 10/15) are made public, to piece it together ourselves.

There's also always the possibility that one or more of the individuals currently counted in the Hsu fundraising totals could be removed if new information argues compellingly against their inclusion.

Battle for Ultimate Scandal Supremacy update:

As a result of the fairly conservative inclusion criteria I'm using to sort out the above-listed names, Hsu is still lagging Mr. Abramoff's total by about 5%.  Still, wouldn't count old Norman out just yet - the excluded names undergoing further review account for roughly $700,000 in uncounted contributions, a fraction of which would put Norman on top.  More significantly, if the iceberg/tip ratio suggested by the gap between Hillary's $850,000 disclosure and what we've uncovered independently ($237,000) holds for the rest of Hsu's beneficiaries, there could be another $4 million or more still out there.

Open Issue Bleg:

If you look through the transaction-level tab of the spreadsheet, you may notice a peculiar transaction on October 8, 2004, when Hsu himself contributed $26,600 to the California Democratic Party - the second largest contribution made by anyone during the whole sordid affair.  What makes this one odd is the fact that the party later returned the entire sum (the refund was dated "Unknown" on the campaign finance disclosure).  Alert Hsu-trackers will remember that the California Democratic Party was tipped off this past June about Hsu's shady dealings and that the party went on to forward that tip to the Clinton campaign (though Hillary wouldn't make a peep or pledge any refunds until after the glaring improprieties became front page news two months later).

The timing of Hsu's $26,600 contribution to the California Democratic Party and their subsequent, leanly detailed refund of that donation during the 2004 cycle suggest that the state party may have had good reason to disassociate with Hsu more than 2.5 years earlier.  There is, of course, any number of reasons a contribution might be refunded, but unfortunately, my attempts to clarify when and why this huge donation was returned have thus far been fruitless.

I've emailed Chairman Art Torres and the general info e-mail address, and by CC the California Secretary of State's Elections Division, thus far to no avail.  As this may turn out to be the first instance of documented recognition of Hsu-related campaign finance irregularities, you may be starting to feel a creeping urge to e-mail Chairman Torres and the general info e-mail address, and by CC the California Secretary of State's Elections Division too.  If so, you'll want to call their attention to this transaction, dated 10/8/04 - a $26,600 contribution made by Norman Hsu and returned in full on an unknown date for an unknown reason.

Summary tables for the updated data set are available after the jump.  The data files themselves are available here.

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Update:  O.J. confirms: Hillary has the serial criminal vote locked up!

Previously:
Some Oddities About Hsu's Ostensibly Unwitting Woodstock Backer
Mesa County DA: $4 Million Bond Not Enough To Cage Hsu [Update: $5 Million Is?]
Dems Lowballing Hsu Fundraising Totals [Update: Hsu Offsets?]
Hsu Sent Suicide Note [Update: Blaming Obama]
Federal Agencies Unofficially Probing Hsu Scandal Number [At Least] 4
Hsu's Financing Source Revealed
Hillary's Massive Hsu War Chest: Abramoff Parity Nears
Photoblog: Touring Norman Hsu's New York
Hsu Captured! (Drugged?)
Hsu Still A HillRaiser In Good Standing?
Knock, Knock, Knockin' On Norman's Door.
Hsu Reclaims Fugitive Status, Forfeiting $2 Million Bail
Hsu vs. Abramoff
New Hsu Review: Following [the Rest Of] the Money
A Really Big Hsu...
Hillary Vows To Give [At Least Some Of] Hsu Contributions To Charity
From Now On, When the Phone Rings You Say, "Vandelay Industries."
Hillary's Magwitch?

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Some Oddities About Hsu's Ostensibly Unwitting Woodstock Backer

On Wednesday, we learned that a major backer of Norman Hsu's shadowy Democratic fundraising spree appeared to be Joel Rosenman, co-creator of Woodstock and currently head of a New York investment firm called Source Financing Investors.

Rosenman wrote to his investors on Monday to alert them that the $40 million the firm had invested with Mr. Hsu might not be recovered, what with Hsu's legal troubles and the fact that the checks he was sending Rosenman had started to bounce.  According to The Wall Street Journal, Rosenman stated in the investor letter that he first became suspicious of Hsu over the three prior weeks, as the details of his suspicious political activity and fugitive status came to light.

I'm not going to say it's impossible that Rosenman and the other principals at Source Financing had no prior suspicions of Hsu, but it seems somewhat improbable that any but the least diligent investment manager could carry on a 5-year professional relationship with the man and execute dozens of deals for at least tens of millions of dollars (at least some of which belonged to Source's outside investors), all the while doing such scant due diligence and asking so few questions as to fail to realize that Hsu's business interests were little more than shell companies.  I can attest from recent experience that this isn't difficult to figure out.

True, I happen to live just 0.9 miles from Hsu's cluster of apparently bogus business addresses, so it was easy for me to stroll glibly across town and hunt for Hsu's offices myself.  The trip from Source Financing Investors' office, on the other hand, would have been a solid mile.

If this style of laid back investing appeals to you, you may be wondering how you too can invest some cash with Source Financing.  Unfortunately for you, it doesn't seem so easy.  While the web domain sourcefinancing.com is registered to Joel Rosenman (and earlier investment vehicle JR Capital, which he co-founded in 1967 with Woodstock co-creator John Roberts), all you'll find there is one of those web hosting placeholder pages.  While the State Department does acknowledge existence of Source Financing Investors, there doesn't seem to be much to it, other than its Madison Avenue address.

All this is in stark contrast to the long-established JR Capital, which not only boasts an internet domain, but a working website.  By "working website" I of course mean "a splash page with 5 missing image files and a password prompt."  In fairness, there is an e-mail address, so if you're interested, you might want to drop them a line.  I don't know if anyone's receiving them, but a test message sent to the address didn't bounce.

Because of the password protection, there's not much else to glean from the JR Capital website.  Happily, courtesy of the Wayback Machine, we can be whisk ourselves back to a simpler time.  A time before the site's content was password protected (HT: LibertyPost).  The most recent unprotected site update was archived on - coincindentally and of no particular relevance to the matter at hand - my 29th birthday.  So let's fire up the Wayback Machine for 1/25/05.

Some of the image links are still broken, but from the ones that are in tact, it's clear we're not missing much.  There are only a few pages on the site and only one with any real content, which is the About Us page.  Here, we learn a handful of interesting things.

1. The firm's relationship with Norman Hsu's bogus clothing company Components, Ltd. began in 2002 (hence the 5-year professional relationship noted above).
2. The firm appears to have closed no real transactions with any legitimate counterparty (excluding consulting) in the last 7.
3. The most recent deal, executed in 2000 was a $12 million private placement with Idealab.  They were presumably part of the incubator's pre-IPO investor syndicate, most of whom lost their shirts when the IPO was scrapped later that year, leading to protracted investor lawsuits.
   More on this later.
4. The transaction preceding Idealab involved the "Sale of Carlton Stuart Corp. [sic] to United Technologies" in 1998.
5. It cost $3 million to produce Woodstock (that's just interesting trivia).
6. The firm has 5 principals: Josh Rosenman, Yau Cheng, Deborah Miller, George Saunders, and Daniel Frisch (as of the latest available page update on 6/12/04).

Finally armed with a bit of information, we're able to start jamming a few jaggy pieces together.

• The George Saunders they're referring to is presumably the same one who founded Carleton Stuart, since the firm's managerial CV boasts not only the "sale of Carlton Stuart [sic]" but "CEO of Carleton Stuart".  Two things are odd about this: 1) the typo and 2) the fact that Saunders died in 2001, but they were still listing him as one of the 5 principals nearly 3 years later.
• According to the Journal article, Hsu was introduced to Rosenman by Yau Cheng in 2000, Cheng having met Hsu "while working for an Internet company in 2000."  My guess is that internet company was Idealab, the one that cheesed off so many investors that year when their IPO became one of the first much-hyped internet bubble casualties, and apparently the closest Source Financing has come to making a sound investment in a decade.
• There seems to be very little information about Daniel Frisch, other than the fact that he and Rosenman play squash together (apparently quite well).
• Deborah Miller may be the same Deborah Miller who also goes by Deborah Miller-Zabel and is married to William Zabel.  We've got a few steps to take here, so stick with me.  New York-based Deborah Miller went to Wharton Business School and owns a business named Dewinden.  Deborah Miller and Dewinden have only ever been seen together one other time and it's been in the company of Mr. Zabel.  This is a tenuous linkage, but I suspect it's probably accurate.  If it is, then Deborah Miller-Zabel being a principal at Source Financing is interesting because William Zabel is a trustee at the New School University, a list that included Norman Hsu until he was hurriedly removed a couple weeks ago (here's the cached version showing Hsu and Zabel co-listed).

As for Mr. Rosenman himself, there are a few more dots that probably warrant tentative connecting at this point.  I suspect this is more likely than not coincidental, but Rosenman's identity as a co-creator of Woodstock is perhaps slightly more noteworthy, against the backdrop of the Norman Hsu scandal that funneled such bountiful riches into the pockets of so many dozens of Democratic (and one Republican) polticians.  A reader recently pointed me to the transcript of a recent Rush Limbaugh show that referenced a Des Moines Register article on the topic of a quizzical bit of legislative pork:

"A tax-cut group Tuesday took aim at a bill sponsored by Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, questioning use of federal money for a Woodstock music festival museum, an online herbarium in New York, and a canoe-making program in Hawaii.  Those projects are among more than 1,000 so-called 'earmarks' in a spending bill overseen by [Harkin] chairman of an appropriations subcommittee.
...
Another earmark highlighted by Americans for Prosperity was $1 million for the Museum at Bethel Woods in New York, which according to its Web site seeks in 2008 to interpret the 1969 Woodstock Music and Arts Fair. The money was requested by two New York senators, Democrats Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer." Then the Jawa Report on July 17th of this year: "Hillary/Schumer want $1 Million For Hippie Museum -- How many Troops will have to go without supplies, armor or food because Hillary and Schumer want to fund a church to hippies?"

Hillary's a Senator from the state where Woodstock was held and Harkin is the chairman of the relevant subcommittee, so it stands to reason that - were one to see spending $1 million in federal tax dollars on a hippie museum as a good idea - those two would likely be the ones to make it happen.  But it's worth pointing out that Clinton and Harkin ranked #1 and #4 (out of 83), respectively, among Norman Hsu's most lavishly endowed politicians.  Among all federal legislators, they were #1 and #2, taking in nearly a million dollars between them.

As for Rosenman's claim in his *oops* letter to Source Financing's investors that he only became suspicious of Hsu when he hit the national stage in recent weeks, that may prove to be the case.  But not only does that lack of earlier suspicion require 5 years' worth of stunning incuriosty about the shadowy custodian of tens of millions of Rosenman's investors' dollars, but it also requires not batting an eye at Hsu's sudden and superlative political fundraising activity beginning in late 2003.  Source Financing went into business with Hsu at least a year before he'd made a single political donation.  One would be forgiven for expecting Hsu's meteoric rise to celebrated heavyweight Democratic booster to give pause to those people who were throwing piles of money at a man they couldn't have known very well.

And we do know with relative certainty that Ronsenman was indeed aware of Hsu's political largesse.  According to a Daily News source, Hsu pressured Rosenman to join him in heaving cash at Senator Clinton, telling him "he'd consider it a 'great favor' if Rosenman filled Clinton's coffers."  The paper notes that "Federal records show Rosenman wrote six checks to Clinton campaigns worth $8,500 in total."

That's true.  But in keeping with the pattern by now familiar to anyone following this story, that sum was just the tip of the iceberg.  I reviewed those records too and found that not only did Rosenman shell out $8,500 to Hillary, but he (or Hsu) seems to have convinced Rosenman's partner Yau Cheng and his son and daughter to follow suit.  Between the four of them, they parted with more than $28,000 in less than 11 months in contributions made directly to Clinton.  What's more, some of these contributions fell in close proximity to some other instances of Hillary-bound generosity from Hsu associates, as previously documented.

Rosenman started off small, but after about a year, had adopted that signature Hsu benefaction whereby he and multiple family members were maxing out their donations to Clinton.  Also in keeping with the familial patterns we've seen before, Ned and Molly Rosenman list Source Financing Investors as their employer in the campaign finance disclosure documents.

Again, I think I'd take an even money bet that Rosenman and Source Financing Investors are victims in this scam (albeit, largely owing to an apparent refusal to do even a mote of due diligence legwork on their mysterious business partner), rather than co-conspirators in or even agenda-driven puppetmasters behind Hsu's political dealings.  But this scandal has a away of making a fool of anyone who expects it to be done getting weirder, so we may as well keep cranking away.

There's a bit more contribution data on the way, which I ought to have checked, formatted, and uploaded by the end of the weekend.  Pending verification, the newly found donations looks to boost the aggregate Hsu-connected total by roughly $150,000 (which would nudge him just past Abramoff).  For the time being, I'm not including the Rosenman or Cheng contributions in that total, despite those transactions being explicitly "Hsu-connected".  Unless and until we learn otherwise, this seems to be one of those rare occasions on which Hsu actually convinced someone to fork over their own money to Hillary.

If you stumble on any records, connections, news stories, or blog posts you think might help shed light on any aspect this fantastically convulated affair, drop me a line.  In the mean time, I'll leave you with this final miscellaneous oddity concerning Josh Rosenman and Source Financing Investors.  It's a message posted on a public mailing list archive, apparently by someone (or some bit of malware) named Gregorio, who (or which) has access to an e-mail account at JR Capital.  It's just text, but if you're not a fan of x-rated spam, it's probably not for you.

The oddity (beyond the subject matter of the post) stems from the fact that lewd spam accounts for fully 25% of the search results for the web domain of a successful investment firm that's been in business for 40 years.

Mesa County DA: $4 Million Bond Not Enough To Cage Hsu [Update: $5 Million Is?]

Yesterday, the Grand Junction Sentinel reported that Mesa County (Colorado) District Attorney Pete Hautzinger, the attorney handling Norman Hsu's court hearing today, planned to ask the judge for at least a $4 million bond.  That's decent walking around money, but given that Hsu apparently didn't think twice about skipping out on a $2 million bond last week, one had to wonder whether even this was a price the serial fugitive would be willing to pay (perhaps with other people's money) for another chance to ride the freedom train.

In response, an alert Suitably Flip reader (who asked that his name not be published) e-mailed the DA, to ask whether he was in fact "nuts" and whether he really wanted "'Hautzinger' to become an Internet adjective."

This was the response he received from DA Hautzinger a little over an hour ago (assuming the time stamp is set to Mountain Time).

From: Pete Hautzinger <Pete.Hautzinger@mesacounty.us>
Date: Sep 13, 2007 1:53 PM
Subject: Re: Bond for Hsu, are you nuts?
To: [Alert Suitably Flip Reader]

Colorado law requires that bond be set in all cases but capital murder, and even then only when proof is evident and the presumptions great.  I am sworn to enforce the law of Colorado.  A $4,000,000 would quadruple the highest bond ever set in this jurisdiction.

That having been said, I am now in possession of a lot more information about Mr. Hsu and his history.  I would very much like to ask for no bond, but such in illegal under the law of my state.  Rest assured, however, that I now will be asking the judge to set it a goo[d] deal higher than the $4,000,000 I had earlier contemplated.

Thanks for your interest,

Pete Hautzinger
District Attorney
21st Judicial District
Mesa County Justice Center

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Update:   Looks like Hautzinger kept his word.

District Attorney Pete Hautzinger asked for a whopping $50 million bond. Hautzinger cited new allegations from California and New York — where the DA said authorities have indicated their intent prosecute Hsu on new fraud charges — in requesting the high bond.

Hsu's checkbook showed he had access to $6 million when he was taken off a train in Grand Junction last week, he said.

"It's almost like monopoly money at this point," Hautzinger said.

Unfortunately, the judge was more of a trusting sort.

County Court Judge Bruce Raaum on Thursday ordered fugitive political donor Norman Hsu held on $5 million bond — believed to be largest bond ever set in a Mesa County criminal hearing.

"Two million wasn't enough ... we'll see if $5 million is," Raaum said.

Em... 15 years on the lam.  Then arrested, freed on $2 million bond, and he FLEES AGAIN.  Even after forfeiting that $2 million, we know he has access to at least another $6 million.

Even in the Mountain Time Zone, I'm virtually certain $6 million > $5 million.

There seem to be only three ways for this to play out once Hsu posts this bond (assuming Source Financial Investors isn't able to get his assets frozen in time):  1) he flees again, 2) he attempts suicide again, 3) in a repeat of last week's drama, he bafflingly does both.

Then again, other reports out this afternoon have Hsu waiving extradition and patiently awaiting transit back to California, so who knows.

The TV Event Of the Season

I've been looking forward to this day ever since the season two finale.

Consider this an open thread for any Sunny in Philly fans having as much difficulty containing their excitement about tonight's back-to-back premiere episodes as I am.

They appear to be throwing us some McPoyle Brothers right off the bat, so they're really not wasting any time getting into it.  In keeping with the show's trademark tact and decency, the lead-off episode is titled "The Gang finds a Dumpster Baby".

Should be a fun night.

Dems Lowballing Hsu Fundraising Totals [Update: Hsu Offsets?]

Hillary's announcement that she would return $850,000 in campaign contributions that may be connected to Norman Hsu shocked me, given that the sum total of my Hsu hunting efforts to date have uncovered barely more than 1/4 that amount.  And while her Hsu windfall easily outpaced her dozens of Democratic colleagues who also took money from the con man's fundraising network, I had to wonder whether they too would ultimately reveal cash hoards that similarly dwarfed their respective known Hsu-connected funds.

In the wake of Hillary's disclosure, some of Hsu's other beneficiaries have already followed suit, pledging to return not just Hsu's direct contributions, but those ostensibly made by members of Hsu's shady fundraising network.

There's only one problem.  So far, these follow-on pledges haven't been exceeding the known totals - on the contrary, they've come in a little light.

Today's L.A. Times reports that Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY) have pledged to return $34,900 and $20,000, respectively.  It's not entirely clear to me from the phrasing whether those amounts are supposed to correlate to the amounts received just from Hsu's bundlees or from Hsu and his bundlees combined.  In Gillibrand's case, if she's pegging just the non-Hsu money at $20,000, she appears to be right on the money.  If she's including Norman's own donations, she's lowballing by at least 15%.

In Teddy's case, no matter which way you slice it, he's being modest.  Kennedy's acknowledgment is at least 23% shy (and perhaps much more, if - as in Hillary's case - we're only looking at a small fraction of the actual tainted receipts), assuming he's claiming the $34,900 includes Hsu's own direct contributions.

Also noted in the Times piece, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has acknowledged $43,700 in contributions directly from Hsu (which is exactly what I came up with - gold star, DSCC!) and is apparently in the process of "looking into other donations to be sure they were made legally."  Allow me to give them a head start.  They're looking at at least triple that amount when they lump Hsu's associates into the mix.

[Note: the data above reflect ongoing campaign finance disclosure searches, pattern analysis, and other research of public documents and constitute a best-effort attempt to determine those individuals whose contributions appear questionable and likely linked to Norman Hsu's fundraising efforts current under federal investigation.]

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Update: From the comments, Larry notes quite correctly that Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) has just pledged to return $57,100 in Hsu-connected contributions, in addition to the $4,600 of Hsu-direct funds he said he already returned, for a grand total of $61,700.  My most recent data for Harkin (which include $9,200 from two contributors I hadn't yet found as of last week's soup-to-nuts data upload) pegs his grand total at $59,800.  That was enough to earn him the #4 spot in the Hsu rankings, behind Hillary, NY Governor Eliot Spitzer and NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, but it appears I missed $1,900 somewhere.

Either Harkin has got at least one additional Hsu-connected contributor I'm not aware of (very possible, considering Hillary's apparently got over 200 that no one's yet aware of) or he's over-degifting.  The obvious question here is whether Harkin might be willing to sell these extraneous refunds to, say, Ted Kennedy, enabling him to offset a portion of his own refund shortfall.

If so, we may be witnessing the birth of a marketplace that enables even the slipperiest, most shadily financed politicians to live truly "corruption-neutral" lifestyles.

Harkin spokesman Matt Paul indicated the Senator received contributions from 13 Hsu associates, which would tend to support the missing contributor theory.  If that's the case, I'd hope that Senator Harkin will shortly release that name, so we can help his dozens of Democratic colleagues more accurately tabulate their own refund shortfalls and surpluses.

On the other hand, Paul referred to the Hsu-connected donors' contributions coming in "during an event that Hsu was involved in arranging for Harkin's re-election campaign."  If the $57,100 coming from the 13 Hsu associates did all come in during a single event (presumably on March 12th of this year), then Harkin's office may be forgetting to count those last 10 transactions, in which case the Senator would have as many as 6 mystery donors and up to a $23,000 shortfall in pledged refunds.

Sen. Harkin, Mr. Paul, if you're reading, please let us know which is the case so we can give you proper credit.

Previously:
Hsu Sent Suicide Note [Update: Blaming Obama]
Federal Agencies Unofficially Probing Hsu Scandal Number [At Least] 4
Hsu's Financing Source Revealed
Hillary's Massive Hsu War Chest: Abramoff Parity Nears
Photoblog: Touring Norman Hsu's New York
Hsu Captured! (Drugged?)
Hsu Still A HillRaiser In Good Standing?
Knock, Knock, Knockin' On Norman's Door.
Hsu Reclaims Fugitive Status, Forfeiting $2 Million Bail
Hsu vs. Abramoff
New Hsu Review: Following [the Rest Of] the Money
A Really Big Hsu...
Hillary Vows To Give [At Least Some Of] Hsu Contributions To Charity
From Now On, When the Phone Rings You Say, "Vandelay Industries."
Hillary's Magwitch?

Hsu Sent Suicide Note [Update: Blaming Obama]

From WSJ's Washington Wire:

Before Democratic fund-raiser Norman Hsu skipped a court hearing and temporarily vanished last week, he typed out a suicide note and sent copies to several acquaintances and charitable organizations, according to people who received it.

The one-page note, signed by Hsu, “very explicitly said he intended to commit suicide,” said one of the recipients in an account corroborated by others, including law-enforcement officials. Hsu also apologized for putting anybody “through inconvenience or trouble,” the recipient said.

The letter, which began, “To whom it may concern,” arrived by FedEx at the addresses of several recipients last Thursday, the day after Hsu disappeared.

As the letters arrived, Hsu was on a Chicago-bound train from California. He fell ill and was taken to St. Mary’s Hospital in Grand Junction, Colo., where he was arrested.

After spending nearly a week in the hospital following the apparent suicide attempt, Hsu has been released and booked into the local jail.

Yesterday afternoon, his doctors released him without making a statement on his case, citing privacy laws. About 6:30 p.m. local time he was booked at the Mesa County Jail, the sheriff's office said. He will go before a Mesa County judge this afternoon to hear the charges against him. A separate extradition hearing will follow.

Here's what I don't get - if Hsu was indeed suicidal over the "wave of press in recent weeks that raised questions about his political fund-raising and business activities," and he FedExed the suicide note before getting on the train with a fistful of pills, why the coordinated attempts at suicide and unlawful flight?  Was one backup, in case the other didn't work?

Happily, neither did.  Ironically, each seems to have thwarted the other.  Were he in a hotel room or otherwise secluded, he might not have received medical attention and could well have died.  And were he not hopped up pills, he likely wouldn't have stripped half naked and "freaked out" on the train, calling attention to himself and bringing about his arrest.

And maybe it's foolish to assume he was thinking rationally at the time, but I just don't understand the simultaneous fleeing and attempting suicide, especially given that the letters sent prior to his departure suggest it wasn't a spontaneous on-the-lam desperate act, but something he had planned before he lit out.

I'll go ahead and make the lay-up of a prediction that we haven't heard the full story yet.

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Update:  Sounds like one of the recipients on Hsu's suicide distribution list went Googling while the fugitive's whereabouts were still unknown.

Update:  According to one of the recipients, Hsu lamented the fact that his recent troubles began when articles (presumably meaning the original Wall Street Journal article that first broke the story two weeks ago) were planted "by a politician who pledged 'hope and change'."  Acknowledging the tacit identification, but denying involvement, an Obama spokesman called Hsu's charge "a sad and baseless allegation."

Federal Agencies Unofficially Probing Hsu Scandal Number [At Least] 4

The Wall Street Journal reported nearly two weeks ago that the Department of Justice was investigating Norman Hsu's three-year fundraising bonanza for Hillary Clinton and dozens of other Democrats for possible campaign finance violations.

If it wasn't already, the FBI got involved when Hsu skipped bail last week, thus reclaiming his fugitive status, and is now investigating Hsu's most recent investment schemes, which are beginning to smell remarkably similar to the swindling that earned him his felony conviction back in the early 90s.

When Hsu was discovered "freaking out" on an Amtrak train in Grand Junction, Colorado the day after he disappeared, a Federal Election Commission official wouldn't confirm that the FEC was investigating the Hsu scandal, "as federal law requires any enforcement measures be kept confidential until they are concluded."  But for our unofficial score-keeping purposes, let's go ahead and assume they've taken an interest.

And if my SiteMeter logs are any indication, the SEC was in the mix by this afternoon, looking closely at Next Components, one of Hsu's apparently bogus business entities (and one apparently at the center of the possible massive investment fraud sketched out just this morning).

There's no other earthly reason to squander an hour on this site.

Fishwrap At Its Finest

There's a high-quality piece in today's Washington Times.

Hsu's Financing Source Revealed

One of them, anyway.

Today's Wall Street Journal gives us the first answers to the big question that's been burning since the Norman Hsu Democratic fundraising scandal began to crack open two weeks ago: where did Hsu's money come from?

Most dogged by the scandal among Hsu's many dozens of political beneficiaries has been Hillary Clinton, not only because she received a significantly larger sum from Hsu and his shady fundraising network, but because the words "Clinton", "fundraising", "scandal", and "Chinese" tend to be combustible when mixed.  The good news for Hillary is that it appears the upstream source of Hsu's mysterious millions may not be a shadowy arm of the People's Republic of China.  The bad news is that the likely source tends to remind one of that other disagreeable attribute of the Clintonian backstory: that she's a hippie.

A company controlled by Mr. Hsu recently received $40 million from a Madison Avenue investment fund run by Joel Rosenman, who was one of the creators of the Woodstock rock festival in 1969. That money, Mr. Rosenman told investors this week, is missing.

Mr. Hsu told Mr. Rosenman the money would be used to manufacture apparel in China for Gucci, Prada and other private labels, yielding a 40% profit on each deal, according to a business plan obtained by the Journal. Now the investment fund, Source Financing Investors, says Mr. Hsu's company owes it the $40 million, which represents 37 separate deals with Mr. Hsu's company. When Source Financing recently attempted to cash checks from the company, Components Ltd., the investors say they were told the account held insufficient funds.

Readers will recall that last week's field trip strongly suggested Components, Ltd. does not "exist", in the strictest sense.

The limited (if convoluted) details available about the transactions between Rosenman's Source Financing Investors (how appropriate) and Components, Ltd. suggest Rosenman and his investors were victims of a Ponzi scheme similar to those Hsu is said to have orchestrated in the past.  Great profits up front, but hold the bag for too long, and you get wiped out.

Mr. Rosenman's partner, Ms. Cheng, met Mr. Hsu while working for an Internet company in 2000. She began investing in one of his businesses and made a profit, according to someone familiar with the matter. In 2002, she joined JR Capital and introduced Mr. Rosenman to Mr. Hsu. That year, Mr. Rosenman invested and also made a profit. He began telling friends and relatives about the investment opportunity.

Mr. Rosenman described the deal in a pitch letter he provided to prospective investors for Source Financing Investors, which he launched in 2005. The investment pool would "lend to U.S. private label designers that needed interim financing to fill orders for a select group of well-known, high-end U.S. apparel retailers." Since 2001, he writes, "the return of these short-term (typically 4½ months) loans has been no less than 40%."

In a "step-by-step" outline of a typical transaction prepared for investors, Source Financing describes the way a deal worked with Mr. Hsu. Source Financing would agree to provide bridge loans for seasonal high-ticket, high-quality retail goods made in China for exclusive brand names, according to investors. Mr. Hsu told the company that he would obtain from Chinese manufacturers a price quote for apparel production. He would then add a mark-up and give the quote to a high-end buyer in the U.S.

If the U.S. buyer accepted, according to the outline, Source Financing would transfer by wire what Mr. Hsu said was 80% of the necessary loan, with Mr. Hsu saying he would provide the other 20% himself. Mr. Hsu told the investors he would then receive a letter of credit from a Chinese bank and that the manufacturer would ship the apparel to the U.S., where Mr. Hsu would deliver it to the merchant.

Mr. Hsu would give the investment firm a check, post-dated for 135 days beyond the wire transfer, for the amount of the loan plus profit. When the check matured, Source Financing would deposit it and allocate the money to investors. The company that would carry out these transactions, Mr. Hsu told investors, was Components Ltd., set up in 1997.

Last Sunday's New York Times revealed that during a one-month period, Components, Ltd. was a conduit for more than half a million dollars in checks and wire transfers, much of the outbound cash going to members of Hsu's fundraising network.

Hillary has recently pledged to return as much as $850,000 her campaign has received from Hsu's fundraising network.  In addition to Hsu's prior conviction for, unlawful flight from, and new suspicions of investor swindling, he is also under investigation for violations of federal election laws.  Suspicions arose after contribution patterns were observed among several of Hsu's bundlees, who often seemed to be making contributions to Hsu's favored candidates at a pace well beyond their apparent financial means.

Efforts to fully quantify the extent of this possibly criminally fraudulent political support are ongoing, but Hillary's latest disclosure suggests the total will certainly exceed $2 million and could reach millions higher, pegging it at or beyond the scope of the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandals.

In addition to the $850,000 taken in by the Clinton campaign, Hsu's suspicious contributions made their way into the coffers of another 80+ Democratic candidates (and one Republican), as well as dozens of Democratic committees, state parties, and advocacy groups.  Among the best-gilded were New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, and Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy.  While most recipients have pledged to return (or donate to charity) at least Hsu's direct support, none of these highest-paid Democrats, to my knowledge, has yet pledged to give up all Hsu-connected funds, with the exception of the Clinton campaign, which has not surprisingly been most severely embattled by the unfolding scandal.

But even as Hillary prepares to haul out her checkbook and re-enact one of the greatest scenes from The Jerk, we're left to scratch our heads as to why Norman Hsu is still celebrated on her campaign site as a HillRaiser...

While Hillary's announcement that she would turn over such a huge sum of money was surprisingly forthright [Too-forthright-to-be-true update below], it may be a while before we know the identity of the 260 contributors associated with those contributions.  If the campaign is protective of those identities (as they may well legitimately be, given that the campaign may cast a wide net among their supporters, in an attempt to err on the side of "over-refunding", knowing they'll inadvertently sweep up some unrelated parties), and chooses not to reveal them, we ought to at latest be able to piece the list together upon the next FEC campaign finance disclosure deadline, as each refund will (or should, anyway) be recorded as a separate transaction.

Meanwhile, Michelle Malkin wonders how Clinton can claim plausible deniability about Hsu's colorful legal history, when her Secret Service protection was presumably aware that the convicted felon and wanted fugitive (who was, after all, operating under his real name) was continually gaining very close physical access to the former First Lady.

Previously:
Hillary's Massive Hsu War Chest: Abramoff Parity Nears
Photoblog: Touring Norman Hsu's New York
Hsu Captured! (Drugged?)
Hsu Still A HillRaiser In Good Standing?
Knock, Knock, Knockin' On Norman's Door.
Hsu Reclaims Fugitive Status, Forfeiting $2 Million Bail
Hsu vs. Abramoff
New Hsu Review: Following [the Rest Of] the Money
A Really Big Hsu...
Hillary Vows To Give [At Least Some Of] Hsu Contributions To Charity
From Now On, When the Phone Rings You Say, "Vandelay Industries."
Hillary's Magwitch?

---

Update: Yeah, that sounds more like it.  (HT: See-Dubya)

The [Clinton] campaign is refunding $850,000 to [Hsu’s bundled] donors, viewing the money as tainted. Yet the campaign is also risking another public relations mess by saying that it would take back the money if it clearly came from the donor’s bank account, not from Mr. Hsu or another source. The risk is that Mrs. Clinton will appear to want more cash no matter whether it was once colored by a disgraced donor.

The campaign will try to get most of the donors to give the money back right after the refunds, said a senior Democratic strategist who advises Mrs. Clinton’s campaign. “That’s the plan,” the strategist said.

Right - did they miss the crux of this fundraising scandal?  The suspicion is not that Hsu wrote $850,000 in contribution checks to the campaign, but that he used various friends and associates as straw donors, to be reimbursed by Hsu for "their" contributions, thus skirting the campaign finance laws.  I can save Hillary a lot of time right now and let her know that this money did come from each stated donor's bank account.  But that doesn't pretty up these contributions in the slightest.  That's precisely what's alleged to be happening.

It's difficult to pinpoint the purpose of refunding, then immediately grubbing back all that dirty money - is it A) a hollow attempt to appear candid and decent, without the bother of being candid and decent, or B) an effort to inflate her "gross receipts" stats in her ongoing fundraising battle with Obama by double-counting as many contributions as possible?

Rosie O'Donnell's Stirring [And Fleeting] 9/11 Tribute

WTF?

Update: Looks like she's yanked it.  Must've gotten some flak, even from her Truther-laden audience.  If you didn't get to see it, it was just a video montage of uncomfortably close close-ups of Rosie's sneering face.

(HT: HA Headlines)

When claims don't "ad" up

Moveon.org ran a full page ad in the New York Times that, amongst many other claims, asserts that General David Petraeus is a traitor.

Today, before Congress and before the American people, General Petraeus is likely to become General Betray Us.

Comparing General Petraeus and moveon.org is just silly.  Although it is worth noting that General Petraeus has served his country for the past 33 years and is the US military's foremost authority on counterinsurgency operations.  I challenge moveon.org to prove that their entire staff has more combined military service or counterinsurgency expertise than General Petraeus has.

Moveon.org first implies that he has been a bad guy for a while.

General Petraeus is a military man constantly at war with the facts. In 2004, just before the election, he said there was “tangible progress” in Iraq and that “Iraqi leaders are stepping forward.”

Yes, General Petraeus is so clearly out of touch that the Senate confirmed him in January 2007 by a vote of, wait for it, 81-0.  Not one dissenting vote.  Not only did moveon.org favorites Barack and Hillary not vote against General Petraeus, they actually voted for him.  (BTW, Senators Chuck Schumer, Dick Durbin, Diane Feinstein, Ted Kennedy, Harry Reid, and Carl Levin also voted for the good General.)  Perhaps "constantly at war with the facts" were not the right words.

Surely, moveon.org made some accurate assertions in their hack job, right?

Every independent report on the ground situation in Iraq shows that the surge strategy has failed.

Now that's just disingenuous. The same report that Moveon.org cites as a source of this conclusion states, regarding the effectiveness of the surge

There are signs of encouraging tactical successes in the Baghdad capital region, which remains the epicenter of enemy focus and of their competing strategy (pg 126-7)

So in just two short months since it has been in place, the surge is succeeding in the heart of the insurgency.  This is very different from the conclusion that moveon.org reaches from the same section. 

So if this ad isn't fact based, what is behind moveon.org's attack ad?  It's either poor information or pure politics.  It would be ironic if the cause was poor information since the Jones Report, which moveon.org cites, explicitly explains the polarizing assessments of progress.

As the international media is mostly Baghdad-based, successful attacks receive disproportionate coverage relative to some very real progress achieved in other areas of the country, such as Anbar province. The result, unfortunately, is enemy momentum in the battle of strategic messaging despite the growing popular rejection of terrorist ideology in that region. The people’s outrage at al Qaeda’s savagery and their realization that it is a movement not of liberation but of occupation, has helped transform this province from being the most violent to being one of the least violent in Iraq.

Of course, politics is more likely to blame.  Regardless of their motivation, moveon.org's smear campaign is irresponsible and slanderous.  Unfortunately, moveon.org's liberal bias leaves them incapable of honoring the patriotism of General Petraeus and accepting the progress of the surge.

Update [Flip]:  Today, notwithstanding widespread rebuke of their shameless ad, MoveOn.org ups the ante, circulating this e-mail suggesting Petreaus has been lying to Congress and reminding you it's your duty in a post-9/11 world to oppose the Bush war machine.

In Memoriam

Keith Olbermann likes to close his Countdown broadcast on MSNBC with the snarky platitude "[X days since] mission accomplished in Iraq," (currently 1,594), referring to the President's speech from the USS Abraham Lincoln announcing the end of major combat operations in that country.

With the dawn of the 6th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, here's another statistic: 6,516,034 days stolen from that day's victims' lives.  Not to mention the hundreds of millions of days of grief visited on the loved ones of the nearly 3,000 victims of the day's attacks.

Those many thousands of victims aren't the only reason we persist in the struggle against Islamo-facism and other terrorist ideologies, but today they serve as a palpable reminder of what's at stake in that struggle.

Never forget.

---

The list is after the jump.

World Trade Center Victims

Gordon M. Aamoth, Jr.
Edelmiro Abad
Maria Rose Abad
Andrew Anthony Abate
Vincent Abate
Laurence Christopher Abel
William F. Abrahamson
Richard Anthony Aceto
Jesus Acevedo Rescand
Heinrich Bernhard Ackermann
Paul Acquaviva
Donald LaRoy Adams
Patrick Adams
Shannon Lewis Adams
Stephen George Adams
Ignatius Udo Adanga
Christy A. Addamo
Terence E. Adderley, Jr.
Sophia Buruwad Addo
Lee Allan Adler
Daniel Thomas Afflitto
Emmanuel Akwasi Afuakwah
Alok Agarwal
Mukul Kumar Agarwala
Joseph Agnello
David Scott Agnes
Brian G. Ahearn
Jeremiah Joseph Ahern
Joanne Marie Ahladiotis
Shabbir Ahmed
Terrance Andre Aiken
Godwin Ajala
Gertrude M. Alagero
Andrew Alameno
Margaret Ann Alario
Gary M. Albero
Jon Leslie Albert
Peter Alderman
Jacquelyn Delaine Aldridge
David D. Alger
Sarah Ali-Escarcega
Ernest Alikakos
Edward L. Allegretto
Eric Allen
Joseph Ryan Allen
Richard Dennis Allen
Richard Lanard Allen
Christopher E. Allingham
Janet M. Alonso
Arturo Alva-Moreno
Anthony Alvarado
Antonio Javier Alvarez
Victoria Alvarez-Brito
Telmo E. Alvear
Cesar Amoranto Alviar
Tariq Amanullah
Angelo Amaranto
James M. Amato Joseph Amatuccio
Christopher Charles Amoroso
Kazuhiro Anai
Calixto Anaya, Jr.
Joseph Anchundia
Kermit Charles Anderson
Yvette Constance Anderson
John Andreacchio
Michael Rourke Andrews
Jean Ann Andrucki
Siew-Nya Ang
Joseph Angelini, Jr.
Joseph Angelini, Sr.
Laura Angilletta
Doreen J. Angrisani
Lorraine Antigua
Peter Paul Apollo
Faustino Apostol, Jr.
Frank Thomas Aquilino
Patrick Michael Aranyos
David Arce
Michael George Arczynski
Louis Arena
Adam P. Arias
Michael Armstrong
Jack Charles Aron
Joshua Aron
Richard Avery Aronow
Japhet Jesse Aryee
Patrick Asante
Carl Asaro
Michael Asciak
Michael Edward Asher
Janice Marie Ashley
Thomas J. Ashton
Manuel O. Asitimbay
Gregg Arthur Atlas
Gerald T. Atwood
James Audiffred
Louis Frank Aversano, Jr.
Ezra Aviles
Sandy Ayala
Arlene T. Babakitis
Eustace P. Bacchus
John J. Badagliacca
Jane Ellen Baeszler
Robert J. Baierwalter
Andrew J. Bailey
Brett T. Bailey
Tatyana Bakalinskaya
Michael S. Baksh
Sharon M. Balkcom
Michael Andrew Bane
Katherine Bantis
Gerard Baptiste
Walter Baran
Gerard A. Barbara
Paul Vincent Barbaro
James William Barbella
Ivan Kyrillos F. Barbosa
Victor Daniel Barbosa
Colleen Ann Barkow
David Michael Barkway
Matthew Barnes
Sheila Patricia Barnes
Evan J. Baron
Renee Barrett-Arjune
Nathaly Barrios La Cruz
Arthur Thaddeus Barry
Diane G. Barry
Maurice Vincent Barry
Scott D. Bart
Carlton W. Bartels
Guy Barzvi
Inna B. Basina
Alysia Basmajian
Kenneth William Basnicki
Steven Bates
Paul James Battaglia
Walter David Bauer, Jr.
Marlyn Capito Bautista
Jasper Baxter
Michele Beale
Paul Frederick Beatini
Jane S. Beatty
Lawrence Ira Beck
Manette Marie Beckles
Carl John Bedigian
Michael Earnest Beekman
Maria A. Behr
Yelena Belilovsky
Nina Patrice Bell
Debbie Bellows
Stephen Elliot Belson
Paul M. Benedetti
Denise Lenore Benedetto
Maria Bengochea
Bryan Craig Bennett
Eric L. Bennett
Oliver Duncan Bennett
Margaret L. Benson
Dominick J. Berardi
James Patrick Berger
Steven Howard Berger
John P. Bergin
Alvin Bergsohn
Daniel Bergstein
Michael J. Berkeley
Donna M. Bernaerts
David W. Bernard
William Bernstein
David M. Berray
David S. Berry
Joseph J. Berry
William Reed Bethke
Timothy Betterly
Edward Frank Beyea
Paul Beyer
Anil Tahilram Bharvaney
Bella J. Bhukhan
Shimmy D. Biegeleisen
Peter Alexander Bielfeld
William G. Biggart
Brian Bilcher
Carl Vincent Bini
Gary Eugene Bird
Joshua David Birnbaum
George John Bishop
Jeffrey Donald Bittner
Albert Balewa Blackman, Jr.
Christopher Joseph Blackwell
Susan Leigh Blair
Harry Blanding, Jr.
Janice Lee Blaney
Craig Michael Blass
Rita Blau
Richard Middleton Blood, Jr.
Michael Andrew Boccardi
John P. Bocchi
Michael Leopoldo Bocchino
Susan M. Bochino
Bruce D. Boehm
Mary Catherine Boffa
Nicholas Andrew Bogdan
Darren Christopher Bohan
Lawrence Francis Boisseau
Vincent M. Boland, Jr.
Alan Bondarenko
Andre Bonheur, Jr.
Colin Arthur Bonnett
Frank Bonomo
Yvonne Lucia Bonomo
Genieve Bonsignore, 3
Seaon Booker
Sherry Ann Bordeaux
Krystine Bordenabe
Martin Boryczewski
Richard Edward Bosco
John H. Boulton
Francisco Eligio Bourdier
Thomas Harold Bowden, Jr.
Kimberly S. Bowers
Veronique Nicole Bowers
Larry Bowman
Shawn Edward Bowman, Jr.
Kevin L. Bowser
Gary R. Box
Gennady Boyarsky
Pamela Boyce
Michael Boyle
Alfred Braca
Kevin Bracken
David Brian Brady
Alexander Braginsky
Nicholas W. Brandemarti
Michelle Renee Bratton
Patrice Braut
Lydia E. Bravo
Ronald Michael Breitweiser
Edward A. Brennan III
Francis Henry Brennan
Michael E. Brennan
Peter Brennan
Thomas M. Brennan
Daniel J. Brethel
Gary Lee Bright
Jonathan Briley
Mark A. Brisman
Paul Gary Bristow
Mark Francis Broderick
Herman Charles Broghammer
Keith A. Broomfield
Ethel Brown Janice
Juloise Brown
Lloyd Stanford Brown
Patrick J. Brown
Bettina Browne
Mark Bruce
Richard George Bruehert
Andrew Brunn
Vincent Brunton
Ronald Paul Bucca
Brandon J. Buchanan
Gregory Joseph Buck
Dennis Buckley
Nancy Clare Bueche
Patrick Joseph Buhse
John Edwards Bulaga, Jr.
Stephen Bunin
Matthew J. Burke
Thomas Daniel Burke
William Francis Burke, Jr.
Donald J. Burns
Kathleen Anne Burns
Keith James Burns
John Patrick Burnside
Irina Buslo
Milton G. Bustillo
Thomas M. Butler
Patrick Byrne
Timothy G. Byrne
Jesus Neptali Cabezas
Lillian Caceres
Brian Joseph Cachia
Steven Dennis Cafiero, Jr.
Richard M. Caggiano
Cecile Marella Caguicla
Michael John Cahill
Scott Walter Cahill
Thomas Joseph Cahill
George Cain
Salvatore B. Calabro
Joseph Calandrillo
Philip V. Calcagno
Edward Calderon
Kenneth Marcus Caldwell
Dominick Enrico Calia
Felix Calixte
Frank Callahan
Liam Callahan
Luigi Calvi
Roko Camaj
Michael F. Cammarata
David Otey Campbell
Geoffrey Thomas Campbell
Jill Marie Campbell
Robert Arthur Campbell
Sandra Patricia Campbell
Sean Thomas Canavan
John A. Candela
Vincent Cangelosi
Stephen J. Cangialosi
Lisa Bella Cannava
Brian Cannizzaro
Michael Canty
Louis Anthony Caporicci
Jonathan Neff Cappello
James Christopher Cappers
Richard Michael Caproni
Jose Manuel Cardona
Dennis M. Carey
Steve Carey
Edward Carlino
Michael Scott Carlo
David G. Carlone
Rosemarie C. Carlson
Mark Stephen Carney
Joyce Ann Carpeneto
Ivhan Luis Carpio Bautista
Jeremy M. Carrington
Michael Carroll
Peter Carroll
James Joseph Carson, Jr.
Marcia Cecil Carter
James Marcel Cartier
Vivian Casalduc
John Francis Casazza
Paul R. Cascio
Margarito Casillas
Thomas Anthony Casoria
William Otto Caspar
Alejandro Castano
Arcelia Castillo
Germaan Castillo Garcia
Leonard M. Castrianno
Jose Ramon Castro
Richard G. Catarelli
Christopher Sean Caton
Robert John Caufield
Mary Teresa Caulfield
Judson Cavalier
Michael Joseph Cawley
Jason David Cayne
Juan Armando Ceballos
Jason Michael Cefalu
Thomas Joseph Celic
Ana Mercedes Centeno
Joni Cesta
Jeffrey Marc Chairnoff
Swarna Chalasani
William Chalcoff
Eli Chalouh
Charles Lawrence Chan
Mandy Chang
Mark Lawrence Charette
Gregorio Manuel Chavez
Delrose E. Cheatham
Pedro Francisco Checo
Douglas MacMillan Cherry
Stephen Patrick Cherry
Vernon Paul Cherry
Nester Julio Chevalier
Swede Chevalier
Alexander H. Chiang
Dorothy J. Chiarchiaro
Luis Alfonso Chimbo
Robert Chin
Wing Wai Ching
Nicholas Paul Chiofalo
John Chipura
Peter A. Chirchirillo
Catherine Chirls
Kyung Hee Cho
Abul K. Chowdhury
Mohammad Salahuddin Chowdhury
Kirsten L. Christophe
Pamela Chu
Steven Chucknick
Wai Chung
Christopher Ciafardini
Alex F. Ciccone
Frances Ann Cilente
Elaine Cillo
Edna Cintron
Nestor Andre Cintron III
Robert Dominick Cirri
Juan Pablo Cisneros-Alvarez
Benjamin Keefe Clark
Eugene Clark
Gregory Alan Clark
Mannie Leroy Clark
Thomas R. Clark
Christopher Robert Clarke
Donna Marie Clarke
Michael J. Clarke
Suria Rachel Emma Clarke
Kevin Francis Cleary
James D. Cleere
Geoffrey W. Cloud
Susan Marie Clyne
Steven Coakley
Jeffrey Alan Coale
Patricia A. Cody
Daniel Michael Coffey
Jason M. Coffey
Florence G. Cohen
Kevin Sanford Cohen
Anthony Joseph Coladonato
Mark Joseph Colaio
Stephen Colaio
Christopher M. Colasanti
Kevin Nathaniel Colbert
Michel P. Colbert
Keith E. Coleman
Scott Thomas Coleman
Tarel Coleman
Liam Joseph Colhoun
Robert D. Colin
Robert J. Coll
Jean Collin
John Michael Collins
Michael L. Collins
Thomas J. Collins
Joseph Collison
Patricia Malia Colodner
Linda M. Colon
Sol E. Colon
Ronald Edward Comer
Sandra Jolane Conaty Brace
Jaime Concepcion
Albert Conde
Denease Conley
Susan P. Conlon
Margaret Mary Conner
Cynthia Marie Lise Connolly
John E. Connolly, Jr.
James Lee Connor
Jonathan M. Connors
Kevin Patrick Connors
Kevin F. Conroy
Jose Manuel Contreras-Fernandez
Brenda E. Conway
Dennis Michael Cook
Helen D. Cook
John A. Cooper
Joseph John Coppo, Jr.
Gerard J. Coppola
Joseph Albert Corbett
Alejandro Cordero
Robert Cordice
Ruben D. Correa
Danny A. Correa-Gutierrez
James J. Corrigan
Carlos Cortes
Kevin Cosgrove
Dolores Marie Costa
Digna Alexandra Costanza
Charles Gregory Costello, Jr.
Michael S. Costello
Conrod K. Cottoy
Martin John Coughlan
John Gerard Coughlin
Timothy J. Coughlin
James E. Cove
Andre Cox
Frederick John Cox
James Raymond Coyle
Michele Coyle-Eulau
Anne Marie Cramer
Christopher S. Cramer
Denise Elizabeth Crant
James Leslie Crawford, Jr.
Robert James Crawford
Joanne Mary Cregan
Lucy Crifasi
John A. Crisci
Daniel Hal Crisman
Dennis Cross
Kevin Raymond Crotty
Thomas G. Crotty
John Crowe
Welles Remy Crowther
Robert L. Cruikshank
John Robert Cruz
Grace Yu Cua
Kenneth John Cubas
Francisco Cruz Cubero
Richard J. Cudina
Neil James Cudmore
Thomas Patrick Cullen lll
Joyce Cummings
Brian Thomas Cummins
Michael Cunningham
Robert Curatolo
Laurence Damian Curia
Paul Dario Curioli
Beverly Curry
Michael S. Curtin
Gavin Cushny
John D'Allara
Vincent Gerard D'Amadeo
Jack D'Ambrosi
Mary D'Antonio
Edward A. D'Atri
Michael D. D'Auria
Michael Jude D'Esposito
Manuel John Da Mota
Caleb Arron Dack
Carlos S. DaCosta
Joao Alberto DaFonseca Aguiar, Jr.
Thomas A. Damaskinos
Jeannine Marie Damiani-Jones
Patrick W. Danahy
Nana Danso
Vincent Danz
Dwight Donald Darcy
Elizabeth Ann Darling
Annette Andrea Dataram
Lawrence Davidson
Michael Allen Davidson
Scott Matthew Davidson
Titus Davidson
Niurka Davila
Clinton Davis
Wayne Terrial Davis
Anthony Richard Dawson
Calvin Dawson
Edward James Day
Jayceryll de Chavez
Jennifer De Jesus
Monique E. De Jesus
Nereida De Jesus
Emerita De La Pena
Azucena Maria de la Torre
David Paul De Rubbio
Jemal Legesse De Santis
Christian Louis De Simone
Melanie Louise De Vere
William Thomas Dean
Robert J. DeAngelis, Jr.
Thomas Patrick DeAngelis
Tara E. Debek
Anna Marjia DeBin
James V. Deblase
Paul DeCola
Simon Marash Dedvukaj
Jason Defazio
David A. DeFeo
Manuel Del Valle, Jr.
Donald Arthur Delapenha
Vito Joseph DeLeo
Danielle Anne Delie
Joseph A. Della Pietra
Andrea DellaBella
Palmina DelliGatti
Colleen Ann Deloughery
Francis Albert DeMartini
Anthony Demas
Martin N. DeMeo
Francis Deming
Carol K. Demitz
Kevin Dennis
Thomas F. Dennis
Jean DePalma
Jose Depena
Robert John Deraney
Michael DeRienzo
Edward DeSimone III
Andrew Desperito
Cindy Ann Deuel
Jerry DeVito
Robert P. Devitt, Jr.
Dennis Lawrence Devlin
Gerard Dewan
Sulemanali Kassamali Dhanani
Patricia Florence Di Chiaro
Debra Ann Di Martino
Michael Louis Diagostino
Matthew Diaz
Nancy Diaz
Rafael Arturo Diaz
Michael A. Diaz-Piedra III
Judith Berquis Diaz-Sierra
Joseph Dermot Dickey, Jr.
Lawrence Patrick Dickinson
Michael D. Diehl
John Difato
Vincent Difazio
Carl Anthony DiFranco
Donald Difranco
Stephen Patrick Dimino
William John Dimmling
Marisa DiNardo Schorpp
Christopher M. Dincuff
Jeffrey Mark Dingle
Anthony Dionisio
George DiPasquale
Joseph Dipilato
Douglas Frank DiStefano
Ramzi A. Doany
John Joseph Doherty
Melissa C. Doi
Brendan Dolan
Neil Matthew Dollard
James Joseph Domanico
Benilda Pascua Domingo
Carlos Dominguez
Jerome Mark Patrick Dominguez
Kevin W. Donnelly
Jacqueline Donovan
Stephen Scott Dorf
Thomas Dowd
Kevin Dowdell
Mary Yolanda Dowling
Raymond Mathew Downey
Frank Joseph Doyle
Joseph Michael Doyle
Stephen Patrick Driscoll
Mirna A. Duarte
Michelle Beale Duberry
Luke A. Dudek
Christopher Michael Duffy
Gerard Duffy
Michael Joseph Duffy
Thomas W. Duffy
Antoinette Duger
Sareve Dukat
Christopher Joseph Dunne
Richard Anthony Dunstan
Patrick Thomas Dwyer
Joseph Anthony Eacobacci
John Bruce Eagleson
Robert Douglas Eaton
Dean Phillip Eberling
Margaret Ruth Echtermann
Paul Robert Eckna
Constantine Economos
Dennis Michael Edwards
Michael Hardy Edwards
Christine Egan
Lisa Egan
Martin J. Egan, Jr.
Michael Egan
Samantha Martin Egan
Carole Eggert
Lisa Caren Ehrlich
John Ernst Eichler
Eric Adam Eisenberg
Daphne Ferlinda Elder
Michael J. Elferis
Mark Joseph Ellis
Valerie Silver Ellis
Albert Alfy William Elmarry
Edgar Hendricks Emery, Jr.
Doris Suk-Yuen Eng
Christopher Epps
Ulf Ramm Ericson
Erwin L. Erker
William John Erwin
Jose Espinal
Fanny Espinoza
Bridget Ann Esposito
Francis Esposito
Michael Esposito
William Esposito
Ruben Esquilin, Jr.
Sadie Ette
Barbara G. Etzold
Eric Brian Evans
Robert Evans
Meredith Emily June Ewart
Catherine K. Fagan
Patricia Mary Fagan
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Rene Padilla-Chavarria
Deepa Pakkala
Jeffrey Matthew Palazzo
Thomas Palazzo
Richard Palazzolo
Orio J. Palmer
Frank Anthony Palombo
Alan N. Palumbo
Christopher Matthew Panatier
Dominique Lisa Pandolfo
Paul J. Pansini
John M. Paolillo
Edward Joseph Papa
Salvatore T. Papasso
James Nicholas Pappageorge
Vinod Kumar Parakat
Vijayashanker Paramsothy
Nitin Parandkar
Hardai Parbhu
James Wendell Parham
Debra Marie Paris
George Paris
Gye Hyong Park
Philip Lacey Parker
Michael Alaine Parkes
Robert E. Parks, Jr.
Hashmukhrai C. Parmar
Robert Parro
Diane Marie Parsons
Leobardo Lopez Pascual
Michael Pascuma
Jerrold Paskins
Horace Robert Passananti
Suzanne H. Passaro
Avnish Ramanbhai Patel
Dipti Patel
Manish Patel
Steven Bennett Paterson
James Matthew Patrick
Manuel D. Patrocino
Bernard E. Patterson
Cira Marie Patti
Robert E. Pattison
James Robert Paul
Patrice Paz
Victor Paz-Gutierrez
Stacey Lynn Peak
Richard Allen Pearlman
Durrell V. Pearsall
Thomas Pedicini
Todd Douglas Pelino
Michel Adrian Pelletier
Anthony G. Peluso
Angel Ramon Pena
Richard Al Penny
Salvatore F. Pepe
Carl Peralta
Robert David Peraza
Jon A. Perconti
Alejo Perez
Angel Perez, Jr.
Angela Susan Perez
Anthony Perez
Ivan Perez
Nancy E. Perez
Joseph John Perroncino
Edward J. Perrotta
Emelda H. Perry
Glenn C. Perry
John William Perry
Franklin Allan Pershep
Danny Pesce
Michael John Pescherine
Davin Peterson
William Russell Peterson
Mark Petrocelli
Philip Scott Petti
Glen Kerrin Pettit
Dominick Pezzulo
Kaleen Elizabeth Pezzuti
Kevin Pfeifer
Tu-Anh Pham
Kenneth Phelan
Sneha Ann Philips
Gerard Phillips
Suzette Eugenia Piantieri
Ludwig John Picarro
Matthew M. Picerno
Joseph Oswald Pick
Christopher Pickford
Dennis J. Pierce
Bernard Pietronico
Nicholas P. Pietrunti
Theodoros Pigis
Susan Elizabeth Pinto
Joseph Piskadlo
Christopher Todd Pitman
Joshua Piver
Joseph Plumitallo
John Pocher
William Howard Pohlmann
Laurence Polatsch
Thomas H. Polhemus
Steve Pollicino
Susan M. Pollio
Joshua Iousa Poptean
Giovanna Porras
Anthony Portillo
James Edward Potorti
Daphne Pouletsos
Richard N. Poulos
Stephen Emanual Poulos
Brandon Jerome Powell
Shawn Edward Powell
Antonio Pratt
Gregory M. Preziose
Wanda Ivelisse Prince
Vincent Princiotta
Kevin Prior
Everett Martin Proctor III
Carrie Beth Progen
Sarah Prothero-Redheffer
David Lee Pruim
Richard Prunty
John Foster Puckett
Robert David Pugliese
Edward F. Pullis
Patricia Ann Puma
Hemanth Kumar Puttur
Edward R. Pykon
Christopher Quackenbush
Lars Peter Qualben
Lincoln Quappe
Beth Ann Quigley
Michael Quilty
James Francis Quinn
Ricardo J. Quinn
Carlos Quishpe-Cuaman
Carol Millicent Rabalais
Christopher Peter A. Racaniello
Leonard J. Ragaglia
Eugene Raggio
Laura Marie Ragonese-Snik
Michael Ragusa
Peter Frank Raimondi
Harry A. Raines
Ehtesham Raja
Valsa Raju
Edward Rall
Lukas Rambousek
Maria Ramirez
Harry Ramos
Vishnoo Ramsaroop
Lorenzo E. Ramzey
Alfred Todd Rancke
Adam David Rand
Jonathan C. Randall
Srinivasa Shreyas Ranganath
Anne T. Ransom
Faina Aronovna Rapoport
Robert A. Rasmussen
Amenia Rasool
Roger Mark Rasweiler
David Alan Rathkey
William Ralph Raub
Gerard P. Rauzi
Alexey Razuvaev
Gregory Reda
Michele Reed
Judith Ann Reese
Donald J. Regan
Robert M. Regan
Thomas Michael Regan
Christian Michael Otto Regenhard
Howard Reich
Gregg Reidy
James Brian Reilly
Kevin O. Reilly
Timothy E. Reilly
Joseph Reina, Jr.
Thomas Barnes Reinig
Frank Bennett Reisman
Joshua Scott Reiss
Karen Renda
John Armand Reo
Richard Cyril Rescorla
John Thomas Resta
Luis Clodoaldo Revilla
Eduvigis Reyes, Jr.
Bruce Albert Reynolds
John Frederick Rhodes
Francis Saverio Riccardelli
Rudolph N. Riccio
Ann Marie Riccoboni
David H. Rice
Eileen Mary Rice
Kenneth Frederick Rice III
Vernon Allan Richard
Claude Daniel Richards
Gregory David Richards
Michael Richards
Venesha Orintia Richards
James C. Riches
Alan Jay Richman
John M. Rigo
Theresa Risco
Rose Mary Riso
Moises N. Rivas
Joseph Rivelli
Carmen Alicia Rivera
Isaias Rivera
Juan William Rivera
Linda Ivelisse Rivera
David E. Rivers
Joseph R. Riverso
Paul V. Rizza
John Frank Rizzo
Stephen Louis Roach
Joseph Roberto
Leo Arthur Roberts
Michael Roberts
Michael Edward Roberts
Donald Walter Robertson, Jr.
Catherina Robinson
Jeffery Robinson
Michell Lee Jean Robotham
Donald A. Robson
Antonio A. Rocha
Raymond James Rocha
Laura Rockefeller
John Rodak
Antonio J. Rodrigues
Anthony Rodriguez
Carmen Milagros Rodriguez
Gregory Ernesto Rodriguez
Marsha A. Rodriguez
Mayra Valdes Rodriguez
Richard Rodriguez
David Bartolo Rodriguez-Vargas
Matthew Rogan
Karlie Barbara Rogers
Scott Williams Rohner
Keith Roma
Joseph M. Romagnolo
Efrain Romero, Sr.
Elvin Romero
Juan Romero
Orozco James A. Romito
Sean Paul Rooney
Eric Thomas Ropiteau
Aida Rosario
Angela Rosario
Wendy Alice Rosario Wakeford
Mark Rosen
Brooke David Rosenbaum
Linda Rosenbaum
Sheryl Lynn Rosenbaum
Lloyd Daniel Rosenberg
Mark Louis Rosenberg
Andrew Ira Rosenblum
Joshua M. Rosenblum
Joshua Alan Rosenthal
Richard David Rosenthal
Daniel Rosetti
Norman S. Rossinow
Nicholas P. Rossomando
Michael Craig Rothberg
Donna Marie Rothenberg
Nicholas Rowe
Timothy Alan Roy, Sr.
Paul G. Ruback
Ronald J. Ruben
Joanne Rubino
David M. Ruddle
Bart Joseph Ruggiere
Susan A. Ruggiero
Adam Keith Ruhalter
Gilbert Ruiz
Obdulio Ruiz Diaz
Stephen P. Russell
Steven Harris Russin
Michael Thomas Russo, Sr.
Wayne Alan Russo
Edward Ryan
John Joseph Ryan, Jr.
Jonathan Stephan Ryan
Matthew Lancelot Ryan
Tatiana Ryjova
Christina Sunga Ryook
Thierry Saada
Jason Elazar Sabbag
Thomas E. Sabella
Scott Saber
Joseph Francis Sacerdote
Neeraha Sadaranghgani
Mohammad Ali Sadeque
Francis John Sadocha
Jude Safi
Brock Joel Safronoff
Edward Saiya
John Patrick Salamone
Hernando Salas
Juan G. Salas
Esmerlin Antonio Salcedo
John Salvatore Salerno, Jr.
Richard L. Salinardi, Jr.
Wayne John Saloman
Nolbert Salomon
Catherine Patricia Salter
Frank Salvaterra
Paul Richard Salvio
Samuel Robert Salvo, Jr.
Rena Sam-Dinnoo
Carlos Alberto Samaniego
James Kenneth Samuel, Jr.
Michael San Phillip
Sylvia San Pio
Hugo M. Sanay
Erick Sanchez
Jacquelyn Patrice Sanchez
Eric M. Sand
Stacey Leigh Sanders
Herman S. Sandler
James Sands, Jr.
Ayleen J. Santiago
Kirsten Santiago
Maria Theresa Santillan
Susan Gayle Santo
Christopher Santora
John A. Santore
Mario L. Santoro
Rafael Humberto Santos
Rufino Conrado Flores Santos Iii
Jorge Octavio Santos Anaya
Kalyan Sarkar
Chapelle R. Sarker
Paul F. Sarle
Deepika Kumar Sattaluri
Gregory Thomas Saucedo
Susan M. Sauer
Anthony Savas
Vladimir Savinkin
Jackie Sayegh
John Michael Sbarbaro
Robert L. Scandole, Jr.
Michelle Scarpitta
Dennis Scauso
John Albert Schardt
John G. Scharf
Frederick Claude Scheffold, Jr.
Angela Susan Scheinberg
Scott Mitchell Schertzer
Sean Schielke
Steven Francis Schlag
Jon Schlissel
Karen Helene Schmidt
Ian Schneider
Thomas G. Schoales
Frank G. Schott, Jr.
Gerard Patrick Schrang
Jeffrey H. Schreier
John T. Schroeder
Susan Lee Schuler
Edward William Schunk
Mark E. Schurmeier
Clarin Shellie Schwartz
John Burkhart Schwartz
Mark Schwartz
Adriane Victoria Scibetta
Raphael Scorca
Randolph Scott
Sheila Scott
Christopher Jay Scudder
Arthur Warren Scullin
Michael Herman Seaman
Margaret M. Seeliger
Anthony Segarra
Carlos Segarra
Jason Sekzer
Matthew Carmen Sellitto
Howard Selwyn
Larry John Senko
Arturo Angelo Sereno
Frankie Serrano
Alena Sesinova
Adele Christine Sessa
Sita Nermalla Sewnarine
Karen Lynn Seymour
Davis Sezna
Thomas Joseph Sgroi
Jayesh S. Shah
Khalid M. Shahid
Mohammed Shajahan
Gary Shamay
Earl Richard Shanahan
Neil Shastri
Kathryn Anne Shatzoff
Barbara A. Shaw
Jeffrey James Shaw
Robert John Shay, Jr.
Daniel James Shea
Joseph Patrick Shea
Linda Sheehan
Hagay Shefi
John Anthony Sherry
Atsushi Shiratori
Thomas Joseph Shubert
Mark Shulman
See Wong Shum
Allan Abraham Shwartzstein
Johanna Sigmund
Dianne T. Signer
Gregory Sikorsky
Stephen Gerard Siller
David Silver
Craig A. Silverstein
Nasima Hameed Simjee
Bruce Edward Simmons
Arthur Simon
Kenneth Alan Simon
Michael J. Simon
Paul Joseph Simon
Marianne Teresa Simone
Barry Simowitz
Jeff Lyal Simpson
Khamladai Singh
Kulwant Singh
Roshan Ramesh Singh
Thomas E. Sinton III
Peter A. Siracuse
Muriel Fay Siskopoulos
Joseph Michael Sisolak
John P. Skala
Francis Joseph Skidmore, Jr.
Toyena Skinner
Paul A. Skrzypek
Christopher Paul Slattery
Vincent Robert Slavin
Robert F. Sliwak
Paul K. Sloan
Stanley S. Smagala, Jr.
Wendy L. Small
Catherine Smith
Daniel Laurence Smith
George Eric Smith
James Gregory Smith
Jeffrey R. Smith
Joyce Patricia Smith
Karl T. Smith
Keisha Smith
Kevin Joseph Smith
Leon Smith, Jr.
Moira Ann Smith
Rosemary A. Smith
Bonnie Jeanne Smithwick
Rochelle Monique Snell
Leonard J. Snyder, Jr.
Astrid Elizabeth Sohan
Sushil S. Solanki
Ruben Solares
Naomi Leah Solomon
Daniel W. Song
Michael Charles Sorresse
Fabian Soto
Timothy Patrick Soulas
Gregory Spagnoletti
Donald F. Spampinato, Jr.
Thomas Sparacio
John Anthony Spataro
Robert W. Spear, Jr.
Maynard S. Spence, Jr.
George Edward Spencer III
Robert Andrew Spencer
Mary Rubina Sperando
Tina Spicer
Frank Spinelli
William E. Spitz
Joseph Spor, Jr.
Klaus Johannes Sprockamp
Saranya Srinuan
Fitzroy St. Rose
Michael F. Stabile
Lawrence T. Stack
Timothy M. Stackpole
Richard James Stadelberger
Eric Stahlman
Gregory Stajk
Alexandru Liviu Stan
Corina Stan
Mary Domenica Stanley
Anthony Starita
Jeffrey Stark
Derek James Statkevicus
Craig William Staub
William V. Steckman
Eric Thomas Steen
William R. Steiner
Alexander Steinman
Andrew Stergiopoulos
Andrew Stern
Martha Stevens
Michael James Stewart
Richard H. Stewart, Jr.
Sanford M. Stoller
Lonny Jay Stone
Jimmy Nevill Storey
Timothy Stout
Thomas Strada
James J. Straine, Jr.
Edward W. Straub
George J. Strauch, Jr.
Edward T. Strauss
Steven R. Strauss
Steven F. Strobert
Walwyn W. Stuart, Jr.
Benjamin Suarez
David Scott Suarez
Ramon Suarez
Yoichi Sugiyama
William Christopher Sugra
Daniel Suhr
David Marc Sullins
Christopher P. Sullivan
Patrick Sullivan
Thomas Sullivan
Hilario Soriano Sumaya, Jr.
James Joseph Suozzo
Colleen Supinski
Robert Sutcliffe
Seline Sutter
Claudia Suzette Sutton
John Francis Swaine
Kristine M. Swearson
Brian Edward Sweeney
Kenneth J. Swenson
Thomas Swift
Derek Ogilvie Sword
Kevin Thomas Szocik
Gina Sztejnberg
Norbert P. Szurkowski
Harry Taback
Joann Tabeek
Norma C. Taddei
Michael Taddonio
Keiichiro Takahashi
Keiji Takahashi
Phyllis Gail Talbot
Robert Talhami
Sean Patrick Tallon
Paul Talty
Maurita Tam
Rachel Tamares
Hector Tamayo
Michael Andrew Tamuccio
Kenichiro Tanaka
Rhondelle Cheri Tankard
Michael Anthony Tanner
Dennis Gerard Taormina, Jr.
Kenneth Joseph Tarantino
Allan Tarasiewicz
Ronald Tartaro
Darryl Anthony Taylor
Donnie Brooks Taylor
Lorisa Ceylon Taylor
Michael Morgan Taylor
Paul A. Tegtmeier
Yeshauant Tembe
Anthony Tempesta
Dorothy Pearl Temple
Stanley Temple
David Tengelin
Brian John Terrenzi
Lisa M. Terry
Shell Tester
Goumatie T. Thackurdeen
Sumati Thakur
Harshad Sham Thatte
Thomas F. Theurkauf, Jr.
Lesley Anne Thomas
Brian Thomas Thompson
Clive Thompson
Glenn Thompson
Nigel Bruce Thompson
Perry A. Thompson
Vanavah Alexei Thompson
William H. Thompson
Eric Raymond Thorpe
Nichola Angela Thorpe
Sal Edward Tieri, Jr.
John p Tierney
Mary Ellen Tiesi
William R. Tieste
Kenneth Francis Tietjen
Stephen Edward Tighe
Scott Charles Timmes
Michael E. Tinley
Jennifer M. Tino
Robert Frank Tipaldi
John James Tipping II
David Tirado
Hector Luis Tirado, Jr.
Michelle Lee Titolo
John J. Tobin
Richard Todisco
Vladimir Tomasevic
Stephen Kevin Tompsett
Thomas Tong
Doris Torres
Luis Eduardo Torres
Amy Elizabeth Toyen
Christopher Michael Traina
Daniel Patrick Trant
Abdoul Karim Traore
Glenn J. Travers
Walter Philip Travers
Felicia Y. Traylor-Bass
Lisa L. Trerotola
Karamo Trerra
Michael Angel Trinidad
Francis Joseph Trombino
Gregory James Trost
William P. Tselepis
Zhanetta Valentinovna Tsoy
Michael Tucker
Lance Richard Tumulty
Ching Ping Tung
Simon James Turner
Donald Joseph Tuzio
Robert T. Twomey
Jennifer Tzemis
John G. Ueltzhoeffer
Tyler V. Ugolyn
Michael A. Uliano
Jonathan J. Uman
Anil Shivhari Umarkar
Allen V. Upton
Diane Marie Urban
John Damien Vaccacio
Bradley Hodges Vadas
Renuta Vaidea
William Valcarcel
Felix Antonio Vale
Ivan Vale
Benito Valentin
Santos Valentin, Jr.
Carlton Francis Valvo II
Erica H. Van Acker
Kenneth W. Van Auken
Richard B. Van Hine
Daniel M. Van Laere
Edward Raymond Vanacore
Jon C. Vandevander
Barrett Vanvelzer, 4
Edward Vanvelzer
Paul Herman Vanvelzer
Frederick Thomas Varacchi
Gopalakrishnan Varadhan
David Vargas
Scott C. Vasel
Azael Ismael Vasquez
Arcangel Vazquez
Santos Vazquez
Peter Anthony Vega
Sankara S. Velamuri
Jorge Velazquez
Lawrence G. Veling
Anthony Mark Ventura
David Vera
Loretta Ann Vero
Christopher James Vialonga
Matthew Gilbert Vianna
Robert Anthony Vicario
Celeste Torres Victoria
Joanna Vidal
John T. Vigiano II
Joseph Vincent Vigiano
Frank J. Vignola, Jr.
Joseph Barry Vilardo
Sergio Villanueva
Chantal Vincelli
Melissa Vincent
Francine Ann Virgilio
Lawrence Virgilio
Joseph Gerard Visciano
Joshua S. Vitale
Maria Percoco Vola
Lynette D. Vosges
Garo H. Voskerijian
Alfred Vukosa
Gregory Kamal Bruno Wachtler
Gabriela Waisman
Courtney Wainsworth Walcott
Victor Wald
Benjamin James Walker
Glen Wall
Mitchel Scott Wallace
Peter Guyder Wallace
Robert Francis Wallace
Roy Michael Wallace
Jeanmarie Wallendorf
Matthew Blake Wallens
John Wallice, Jr.
Barbara P. Walsh
James Henry Walsh
Jeffrey P. Walz
Ching Wang
Weibin Wang
Michael Warchola
Stephen Gordon Ward
James Arthur Waring
Brian G. Warner
Derrick Washington
Charles Waters
James Thomas Waters, Jr.
Patrick J. Waters
Kenneth Thomas Watson
Michael Henry Waye
Todd Christopher Weaver
Walter Edward Weaver
Nathaniel Webb
Dinah Webster
Joanne Flora Weil
Michael T. Weinberg
Steven Weinberg
Scott Jeffrey Weingard
Steven George Weinstein
Simon Weiser
David M. Weiss
David Thomas Weiss
Vincent Michael Wells
Timothy Matthew Welty
Christian Hans Rudolf Wemmers
Ssu-Hui Wen
Oleh D. Wengerchuk
Peter M. West
Whitfield West, Jr.
Meredith Lynn Whalen
Eugene Whelan
Adam S. White
Edward James White III
James Patrick White
John Sylvester White
Kenneth Wilburn White, Jr.
Leonard Anthony White
Malissa Y. White
Wayne White
Leanne Marie Whiteside
Mark P. Whitford
Michael T. Wholey
Mary Catherine Wieman
Jeffrey David Wiener
Wilham J. Wik
Alison Marie Wildman
Glenn E. Wilkenson
John C. Willett
Brian Patrick Williams
Crossley Richard Williams, Jr.
David J. Williams
Deborah Lynn Williams
Kevin Michael Williams
Louie Anthony Williams
Louis Calvin Williams III
John P. Williamson
Donna Ann Wilson
William Wilson
David Harold Winton
Glenn J. Winuk
Thomas Francis Wise
Alan L. Wisniewski
Frank Thomas Wisniewski
David Wiswall
Sigrid Wiswe
Michael Wittenstein
Christopher W. Wodenshek
Martin P. Wohlforth
Katherine Susan Wolf
Jennifer Yen Wong
Siu Cheung Wong
Yin Ping Wong
Yuk Ping Wong
Brent James Woodall
James John Woods
Patrick J. Woods
Richard Herron Woodwell
David Terence Wooley
John Bentley Works
Martin Michael Wortley
Rodney James Wotton
William Wren
John Wayne Wright
Neil Robin Wright
Sandra Lee Wright
Jupiter Yambem
Suresh Yanamadala
Matthew David Yarnell
Myrna Yaskulka
Shakila Yasmin
Olabisi Shadie Layeni Yee
William Yemele
Edward P. York
Kevin Patrick York
Raymond R. York
Suzanne Youmans
Barrington Young
Jacqueline Young
Elkin Yuen
Joseph C. Zaccoli
Adel Agayby Zakhary
Arkady Zaltsman
Edwin J. Zambrana, Jr.
Robert Alan Zampieri
Mark Zangrilli
Ira Zaslow
Kenneth Albert Zelman
Abraham J. Zelmanowitz
Martin Morales Zempoaltecatl
Zhe Zeng
Marc Scott Zeplin
Jie Yao Justin Zhao
Ivelin Ziminski
Michael Joseph Zinzi
Charles A. Zion
Julie Lynne Zipper
Salvatore Zisa
Prokopios Paul Zois
Joseph J. Zuccala
Andrew S. Zucker
Igor Zukelman 

List of Victims on American Airlines Flight 11

Anna Allison
David Lawrence Angell
Lynn Edwards Angell
Seima Aoyama 
Barbara Jean Arestegui 
Myra Joy Aronson
Christine Barbuto
Carolyn Beug
Kelly Ann Booms
Carol Marie Bouchard
Robin Lynne Kaplan
Neilie Anne Heffernan Casey
Jeffrey Dwayne Collman 
Jeffrey W. Coombs
Tara Kathleen Creamer
Thelma Cuccinello
Patrick Currivan
Brian Paul Dale
David Dimeglio 
Donald Americo Ditullio
Alberto Dominguez
Paige Marie Farley-Hackel
Alexander Milan Filipov
Carol Ann Flyzik
Paul J. Friedman
Karleton D.B. Fyfe
Peter Alan Gay 
Linda M. George
Edmund Glazer 
Lisa Reinhart Gordenstein
Andrew Peter Charles Curry Green
Peter Paul Hashem
Robert Jay Hayes
Edward R. Hennessy, Jr.
John A. Hofer
Cora Hidalgo Holland
John Nicholas Humber, Jr.
Waleed Joseph Iskandar
John Charles Jenkins
Charles Edward Jones
Barbara A. Keating
David P. Kovalcin
Judith Camilla Larocque 
Natalie Janis Lasden
Daniel John Lee 
Daniel M. Lewin
Sara Elizabeth Low
Susan A. Mackay
Karen Ann Martin
Thomas F. McGuinness, Jr.
Christopher D. Mello
Jeffrey Peter Mladenik
Carlos Alberto Montoya
Antonio Jesus Montoya Valdes
Laura Lee Morabito
Mildred Naiman
Laurie Ann Neira
Renee Lucille Newell
Kathleen Ann Nicosia
Jacqueline June Norton
Robert Grant Norton
John Ogonowski 
Betty Ann Ong
Jane M. Orth
Thomas Nicholas Pecorelli
Berinthia B. Perkins
Sonia M. Puopolo
David E. Retik
Jean Destrehan Roger
Philip Martin Rosenzweig 
Richard Barry Ross
Jessica Leigh Sachs
Rahma Salie
Heather Lee Smith
Dianne Bullis Snyder
Douglas Joel Stone
Xavier Suarez
Madeline Amy Sweeney 
Michael Theodoridis
James Anthony Trentini
Mary Barbara Trentini
Pendyala Vamsikrishna
Mary Alice Wahlstrom
Kenneth Waldie
John Joseph Wenckus
Candace Lee Williams
Christopher Rudolph Zarba, Jr.

List of Victims on United Airlines Flight 175

Alona Abraham
Garnet Edward Bailey
Mark Lawrence Bavis
Graham Andrew Berkeley
Touri Bolourchi
Klaus Bothe
Daniel Raymond Brandhorst
David Reed Gamboa Brandhorst
John Brett Cahill 
Christoffer Mikael Carstanjen
John J. Corcoran III
Dorothy Alma de Araujo
Ana Gloria Pocasangre Debarrera
Robert John Fangman
Lisa Anne Frost
Ronald Gamboa 
Lynn Catherine Goodchild
Peter M. Goodrich
Douglas Alan Gowell
Francis Edward Grogan 
Carl Max Hammond, Jr.
Christine Lee Hanson
Peter Burton Hanson
Susan Kim Hanson
Gerald Francis Hardacre
Eric Hartono
James Edward Hayden
Herbert Wilson Homer
Michael Robert Horrocks
Robert Adrien Jalbert
Amy N. Jarret
Ralph Kershaw 
Heinrich Kimmig 
Amy R. King
Brian Kinney
Kathryn L. LaBorie
Robert G. Leblanc
Maclovio Lopez, Jr.
Marianne Macfarlane
Alfred Gilles Marchand
Louis Mariani
Juliana McCourt
Ruth Magdaline McCourt
Wolfgang Peter Menzel
Shawn M. Nassaney
Marie Pappalardo
Patrick J. Quigley IV
Frederick Charles Rimmele III
James Roux
Jesus Sanchez 
Victor J. Saracini
Mary Kathleen Shearer
Robert M. Shearer
Jane Louise Simpkin
Brian David Sweeney
Michael C. Tarrou
Alicia N. Titus
Timothy Ray Ward
William Michael Weems

List of Victims at the Pentagon (Not Including Flight 77)
Note: USA - United Stated Army; USN - United States Navy

SPC Craig S. Amundson, USA
YN3 Melissa Rose Barnes, USN
MSG Max J. Beilke, Retired
IT2 Kris Romeo Bishundat, USN
Carrie R. Blagburn
COL Canfield D. Boone, ARNG
Donna M. Bowen
Allen P. Boyle
ET3 Christopher L. Burford, USN
ET3 Daniel M. Caballero, USN
SFC Jose O. Calderon-Olmedo, USA
Angelene C. Carter
Sharon A. Carver
SFC John J. Chada, USA, Retired
Rosa Maria Chapa
Julian T. Cooper
LCDR Eric A. Cranford, USN
Ada M. Davis
CAPT Gerald F. DeConto, USN
LTC Jerry D. Dickerson, USA
IT1 Johnnie Doctor, Jr., USN
CAPT Robert E. Dolan, Jr., USN
CDR William H. Donovan, USN
CDR Patrick Dunn, USN
AG1 Edward T. Earhart, USN
LCDR Robert R. Elseth, USNR
SK3 Jamie L. Fallon, USN
Amelia V. Fields
Gerald P. Fisher
AG2 Matthew M. Flocco, USN
Sandra N. Foster
CAPT Lawrence D. Getzfred, USN
Cortez Ghee
Brenda C. Gibson
COL Ronald F. Golinski, USA, Retired
Diane Hale-McKinzy
Carolyn B. Halmon
Sheila M.S. Hein
ET1 Ronald J. Hemenway, USN
MAJ Wallace Cole Hogan, Jr., USA
SSG Jimmie I. Holley, USA, Retired
Angela M. Houtz
Brady Kay Howell
Peggie M. Hurt
LTC Stephen N. Hyland, Jr., USA
Lt Col Robert J. Hymel, USAF, Retired
SGM Lacey B. Ivory, USA
LTC Dennis M. Johnson, USA
Judith L. Jones
Brenda Kegler
LT Michael S. Lamana, USN
David W. Laychak
Samantha L. Lightbourn-Allen
MAJ Stephen V. Long, USA
James T. Lynch, Jr.
Terence M. Lynch
OS2 Nehamon Lyons IV, USN
Shelley A. Marshall
Teresa M. Martin
Ada L. Mason-Acker
LTC Dean E. Mattson, USA
LTG Timothy J. Maude, USA
Robert J. Maxwell
Molly L. McKenzie
Patricia E. Mickley
MAJ Ronald D. Milam, USA
Gerard P. Moran, Jr.
Odessa V. Morris
ET1 Brian A. Moss, USN
Teddington H. Moy
LCDR Patrick J. Murphy, USNR
Khang Ngoc Nguyen
DM2 Michael A. Noeth, USN
Ruben S. Ornedo
Diana B. Padro
LT Jonas M. Panik, USNR
MAJ Clifford L. Patterson, Jr., USA
LT Darin H. Pontell, USNR
Scott Powell
CAPT Jack D. Punches, USN, Retired
AW1 Joseph J. Pycior, Jr., USN
Deborah A. Ramsaur
Rhonda Sue Rasmussen
IT1 Marsha D. Ratchford, USN
Martha M. Reszke
Cecelia E. (Lawson) Richard
Edward V. Rowenhorst
Judy Rowlett
SGM Robert E. Russell, USA, Retired
CW4 William R. Ruth, ARNG
Charles E. Sabin, Sr.
Marjorie C. Salamone
COL David M. Scales, USA
CDR Robert A. Schlegel, USN
Janice M. Scott
LTC Michael L. Selves, USA, Retired
Marian H. Serva
CDR Dan F. Shanower, USN
Antionette M. Sherman
Diane M. Simmons
Cheryle D. Sincock
ITC Gregg H. Smallwood, USN
LTC Gary F. Smith, USA, Retired
Patricia J. Statz
Edna L. Stephens
SGM Larry L. Strickland, USA
LTC Kip P. Taylor, USA
Sandra C. Taylor
LTC Karl W. Teepe, USA, Retired
SGT Tamara C. Thurman, USA
LCDR Otis V. Tolbert, USN
SSG Willie Q. Troy, USA, Retired
LCDR Ronald J. Vauk, USNR
LTC Karen J. Wagner, USA
Meta L. (Fuller) Waller
SPC Chin Sun Pak Wells, USA
SSG Maudlyn A. White, USA
Sandra L. White
Ernest M. Willcher
LCDR David L. Williams, USN
MAJ Dwayne Williams, USA
RMC Marvin Roger Woods, USN, Retired
IT2 Kevin W. Yokum, USN
ITC Donald M. Young, USN
Edmond G. Young, Jr.
Lisa L. Young   

List of Victims on American Airlines Flight 77

Paul W. Ambrose
Yeneneh Betru
Mary Jane Booth
Bernard C. Brown, II
CAPT Charles F. Burlingame III, USNR, Retired
Suzanne M. Calley
William E. Caswell
David M. Charlebois
Sarah M. Clark
Asia S. Cottom
James D. Debeuneure
Rodney Dickens
Eddie A. Dillard
LCDR Charles A. Droz III, USN, Retired
Barbara G. Edwards
Charles S. Falkenberg
Dana Falkenberg
Zoe Falkenberg
J. Joseph Ferguson
Darlene E. Flagg
RADM Wilson F. Flagg, USNR, Retired
1stLt Richard P. Gabriel, USMC, Retired
Ian J. Gray
Stanley R. Hall
Michele M. Heidenberger
Bryan C. Jack
Steven D. Jacoby
Ann C. Judge
Chandler R. Keller
Yvonne E. Kennedy
Norma Cruz Khan
Karen Ann Kincaid
Dong Chul Lee
Jennifer Lewis
Kenneth E. Lewis
Renee A. May
Dora Marie Menchaca
Christopher C. Newton
Barbara K. Olson
Ruben S. Ornedo
Robert Penninger
Robert R. Ploger III
Zandra F. Ploger
Lisa J. Raines
Todd H. Reuben
John P. Sammartino
George W. Simmons
Donald D. Simmons
Mari-Rae Sopper
Robert Speisman
Norma Lang Steuerle
Hilda E. Taylor
Leonard E. Taylor
Sandra D. Teague
Leslie A. Whittington
CAPT John D. Yamnicky, Sr., USN, Retired
Vicki Yancey
Shuyin Yang
Yuguag Zheng

List of Victims on United Airlines Flight 93

Christian Adams
Lorraine G. Bay
Todd Beamer
Alan Beaven
Mark K. Bingham
Deora Frances Bodley
Sandra W. Bradshaw
Marion Britton
Thomas E. Burnett Jr.
William Cashman
Georgine Rose Corrigan
Patricia Cushing
Jason Dahl
Joseph Deluca
Patrick Driscoll
Edward Porter Felt
Jane C. Folger
Colleen Fraser
Andrew Garcia
Jeremy Glick
Lauren Grandcolas
Wanda A. Green
Donald F. Greene
Linda Gronlund
Richard Guadagno
Leroy Homer, Jr.
Toshiya Kuge
CeeCee Lyles
Hilda Marcin
Waleska Martinez
Nicole Miller
Louis J. Nacke, II
Donald Arthur Peterson
Jean Hoadley Peterson
Mark Rothenberg
Christine Snyder
John Talignani
Honor Elizabeth Wainio
Deborah Ann Jacobs Welsh
Kristin Gould White

Hillary's Massive Hsu War Chest: Abramoff Parity Nears

In a word: yowza.

Hillary Clinton announced today that instead of the $23,000 in direct Norman Hsu contributions she'd agreed to give up, she'll be refunding an astounding $850,000, representing not only Hsu's donations, but the "bundled" fundraising he ostensibly raised from a group of friends and associates, who have come under scrutiny as possible conduits through which Hsu may have funneled additional contributions in order to circumvent campaign finance laws.

In my most recently posted compilation, I'd found roughly $174,000 in Hsu-connected funds.  I've been continuing to trudge through the disclosures in the days since, but to date, I've only come up with a total of $217,200, meaning there's still more than $600,000 in the Clinton coffers yet to be independently connected to Hsu's network.

With nearly 75% of Hillary's total acknowledged haul from Hsu's network coming from sources not known to be Hsu associates (an estimated 260 donors in all), it seems incumbent on Clinton to reveal this list of tainted contributors such that we can more accurately determine the full extent of other candidates' Hsu-related contributions.

The new Hsu fundraising I've compiled over the last few days have lifted my grand total from $1.59 million (as most recently posted) to $1.85 million.  Including the hidden bonanza Hillary's just revealed (and excluding the maximum possible overlap), the total shoots up to $2.44 million.

$2.44 million therefore being the new low estimate, that's the figure I've used to update the Hsu-Abramoff horse race.  To give you an idea of how important it is that Hillary divulge her list of 260 tainted donors, however, if the rest of Hsu's beneficiaries have as much well-hidden Hsu money relative to what's already been found, the grand total would rise to $6.98 million, nearly doubling all of Abramoff's and his clients' problematic lobbying expenditures, to both Republicans and Democrats.

Kudos to Team Hillary for disavowing the entirety of the campaign's Hsu-connected funds.  The next best step toward cleaning up this mess would be for the campaign to release the list of all 260 Hsu-associated contributors so we can help Senator Clinton's less forthcoming colleagues tabulate their own refunds owed.

(Well, okay, maybe the next step would be to finally remove Norman Hsu's name from the official list of HillRaisers (still a vaunted member as of 10 pm Monday), but right after that... divulging the list of 260 contributors.)

Previously:
Photoblog: Touring Norman Hsu's New York
Hsu Captured! (Drugged?)
Hsu Still A HillRaiser In Good Standing?
Knock, Knock, Knockin' On Norman's Door.
Hsu Reclaims Fugitive Status, Forfeiting $2 Million Bail
Hsu vs. Abramoff
New Hsu Review: Following [the Rest Of] the Money
A Really Big Hsu...
Hillary Vows To Give [At Least Some Of] Hsu Contributions To Charity
From Now On, When the Phone Rings You Say, "Vandelay Industries."
Hillary's Magwitch?

---

Update: Allah marks the occasion with a fine addition to the Hsu lexicon: Hsuthanasia.

9/11 6th Anniversary Notes

• I'll be joining Karol Sheinin at Ground Zero on Tuesday evening to help spread the Real Truth about 9/11.  If you want to join the effort, just drop Karol a note.  5:00 pm at Liberty and Broadway.


• Scottish counterrorist hero and baggage handler John Smeaton is slated to attend the annual memorial ceremony.


• On the eve (of the eve) of the first 9/11 anniversary to fall on a Tuesday, Mark Steyn reflects on the state of the post-9/11 psyche.

Photoblog: Touring Norman Hsu's New York

I had such a nice time visiting Norman Hsu's SoHo apartment on Wednesday that I decided to take a stroll this evening and pop in on a few of Hsu's businesses.  My simple goal: to find any evidence of their existence.

Among the various companies associated with Hsu on campaign finance disclosures, there appeared to be three addresses in midtown worth visiting: 110 West 40th Street (James Stone, Ltd.), 1431 Broadway (Components, Ltd.), and 571 7th Avenue (also Components, Ltd.).

I consulted Google Maps before heading out and noticed all three addresses are clustered within a single block (on West 40th between 6th and 7th).  What's more, they're less than two blocks from another apartment building Hsu has occasionally listed as his home address on campaign finance disclosures.  That's a pretty agreeable commute for someone with so many diverse business interests.

Since Hsu's back off the lam, I didn't bother buzzing Hsu's unit at his midtown pad, but I did snap a picture, since it was on my way across town.  Nice looking place.  The view from the 30th floor must be lovely.

Next stop was 110 West 40th, where James Stone Limited Holding (ostensibly a clothing wholesaler) is supposed to occupy the ground floor.  The primary entrance to this building leads to a small vestibule with a desk and two elevators.  Adjacent the numbered door are a Colortek photo processing store and a deli named Hightone Cafe.  Together, these appear to take up the entire first floor of the building.

Across the street, the lobby of 1431 Broadway is where we're told we'll find Components, Ltd. (sometimes alternatively listed as Next Components in the disclosure documents), parent company of Because Men's Clothing.   And the lobby of 1431 Broadway is indeed home to a lot of businesses.  There's a pizzeria, a health food store, another photo processing store, and a WaMu.  But no Components, Ltd.

Undeterred, I took heart in the fact that there was a side entrance also numbered 1431 that led to another tiny vestibule.  I was looking forward to inquiring at the desk inside, but...

...it was unattended.  It stayed this way for several minutes, at which point I moved on.

The final address, 561 Seventh Avenue, is actually just one building over from 1431 Broadway.  This secondary location for Components, Ltd. immediately impresses the passerby with an entryway far more regal than the dingy gray awning next door.

The lavishings didn't end with the facade either, as the lobby of this building actually featured a live attendant.  He was on his cell phone when I entered, but he eventually looked up and asked how he could help me.

"I'm looking for a company called Components, Ltd.," I said.

"The what?"

"Components, Ltd.?  Is there a business by that name here?"

He shook his head.  "No, not here."

He was back to the phone call pretty swiftly, but his diverted attention did offer me the opportunity to snap a couple pictures before leaving the building.  It appears he was right about there being no such company on the premises.

No Components, Ltd. And no Next Components.

You might notice there's a "China Ting Fashion Group" at this location, which is perhaps notable, in that Hsu is not only Chinese, but a reputed apparel magnate.  But a web search suggests that China Ting, while legit, has nothing to do with Norman Hsu.

So having officially gone 0/3, this field trip - much like Wednesday's - yielded precisely diddly.  And of course, that wasn't terribly surprising.  It's not in doubt, after all, that Norman Hsu is a seasoned crook and a con man with extensive shady business dealings.

But the legitimacy of these companies - not just their existence, but their cash flow generation - is central to a crucial unresolved question.  Were the huge sums of money Hsu raised from the likes of the Paws in San Francisco, the Sus on Long Island, and the Lees in Queens and Mount Carmel (sums which wound up in the coffers of Hsu's favored Democratic candidates and committees) authentic contributions made by those individuals, some of whom - most notably Winkle Paw and Paul Su - list one of Hsu's companies as their employer?  Or has Hsu been using these associates to illegally funnel extra cash to these candidates and committees in order to sidestep contribution limits?

If Hsu's businesses are fictitious (or if they're no more than shell entities or mail drops), then it becomes even tougher to suspend disbelief over whether the lofty contributions made by employees or officers of these fictitious companies are on the level.  The extra layer of Hsu taint that then spreads to Hsu's fundraising associates makes it difficult to imagine how a candidate or committee could justify not returning the entirety of Hsu's circumspect bundling.

In Hillary Clinton's case, that's the difference between giving up $23,600 (which she's agreed to do) and $174,000.  (Actually, her grand total is now a ways north of $174k and still climbing, but I haven't had a chance to error-check, format, and post the newest data update yet.)  All told, Hsu's suspicious bundling more than doubles the aggregate sketchy funds, from $787 thousand to $1.6 million (and rising).

Thanks to the spectacular intrigue added by Hsu's felonious history and Runaway Bride-like behavior when it comes to court appearances, this story has gained enough public and media attention that it's not going away any time soon.  Eventually, it's going to force each of his beneficiaries to bite the bullet and either turn over all the dirty money or accept a heaping dose of well-earned public scorn.

---

The roster of Hsu's contributions and fundraising activity since 2004 is here (pending that update).  The details of my previous field trip to Hsu's swanky SoHo loft are here.

---

Update:  This morning, two of the papers digging ever deeper into the Hsu story have published some intriguing updates.  The Philadelphia Inquirer peels back another layer on Hsu's east coast fundraising, showing the "Mount Carmel three" are not so dissimilar from the Paw family out west.

Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal team that initially broke this story has managed to piece together the timeline of Hsu's shadowy past before he got into politics.

---

Big Update:  This Sunday's New York Times has a piece that appears to make some headway tracing payments from Hsu's companies to some of his go-to contributors.  If those transactions aren't related to legitimate business activities, they would help provide the missing link needed to demonstrate that Hsu's associates' political contributions were indeed reimbursed, in violation of election laws.

Based on a single month's bank statement for Components, Ltd. furnished to the paper by an unnamed associates of Hsu's,  the Times reports the company paid "more than $100,000 to at least nine people who made campaign contributions to Mrs. Clinton and others through Mr. Hsu."

The statement shows a total of roughly $600,000 cycling through Components, Ltd. that month, enough to suggest the company could have served as a significant money laundering conduit, if the funds were obtained or transferred illegally upstream.

Previously:
Hsu Captured! (Drugged?)
Hsu Still A HillRaiser In Good Standing?
Knock, Knock, Knockin' On Norman's Door.
Hsu Reclaims Fugitive Status, Forfeiting $2 Million Bail
Hsu vs. Abramoff
New Hsu Review: Following [the Rest Of] the Money
A Really Big Hsu...
Hillary Vows To Give [At Least Some Of] Hsu Contributions To Charity
From Now On, When the Phone Rings You Say, "Vandelay Industries."
Hillary's Magwitch?

D'oh! Economy Fumbles At the 1 Yard Line

Not that this heralds the kind of economic End of Days that the left will surely lament, but what a heart breaker.

Employers sliced payrolls by 4,000 in August, the first drop in four years, a stark sign that a painful credit crunch that has unnerved Wall Street is putting a strain on the national economy.

The latest snapshot of the employment climate, released by the Labor Department on Friday, also showed that the unemployment rate held steady at 4.6 percent, mainly because hundreds of thousands of people left the work force for any number of reasons.
...
The drop of 4,000 jobs in August was the first decline since August 2003.

Don't we know it.  I noted a month ago that the economy was just one month away from tying Reagan's record-setting 48 consecutive months of positive job growth.  (As Reagan's streak lasted well into Bush 41's administration, Bush 43 had already captured the single-administration record, his 47 months of unbroken job creation trouncing Clinton's longest streak of 33 months.)

Interestingly, each of these periods (the three longest job growth streaks in American history) followed a major tax cut.  Since Bush's 2003 investment income tax cuts were the boldest cut since Reagan's 1986 tax cuts, the boom to follow was destined to challenge Reagan's streak for the title.  And with economists forecasting the August number to come in above 100,000, I was readying the confetti.

Do bear in mind that the -4,000 reading is preliminary - the Labor Department will release a revised August reading next month and the revisions are usually sizable.  For now though, the market seems to be in a woeful mood, despite the fact that this makes the Fed's presumptive rate cut later this month a bit more assured.

Previously:
47th Consecutive Month of Job Growth, 1 Away From Record
46th Consecutive Month of Job Growth
45th Consecutive Month of Job Growth
43rd Consecutive Month of Job Growth

Hsu Captured! [Update: Shirtless and "Freaking Out" On Train]

Hat tip to Hot Air for this development:

Fugitive political fundraiser Norman Hsu, who skipped out on San Mateo County authorities this week rather than face sentencing in a fraud scheme, was apprehended tonight by federal and local lawmen in Grand Junction, Colo.

Authorities said Hsu was taken into custody at St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction at 7 p.m. local time. He had been on the lam for almost two days after failing to appear in a Redwood City courtroom Wednesday to surrender his passport.

Looks like I was wrong about us never hearing from Hsu again.  Instead, he'll be forced to return to California, face the judge, post bail, and light out again.

Allah's tracking updates, as is Michelle.

Two questions:

1) Why in the world is the FBI saying that the "federal charge of unlawful flight will be dropped after Hsu is handed over to California officials"?

2) Was Hsu injured before being apprehended (given that he was found in a hospital)?  If so, how and by whom?  The same Asian gang leaders who were arrested for kidnpping Hsu seventeen years ago?  Dog the Bounty Hunter?  Whoever may or may not have snuffed out Vince Foster?

(Okay, so that's six questions.)

---

Update:  I can empathize.  Amtrak is a miserable means of transit.
(Also via Hot Air)

Hsu was traveling on an Amtrak train when he became ill. Grand Junction paramedics were summoned to the Amtrak station near downtown about 11 a.m. Thursday to treat a patient, Battalion Chief Robert Ferguson said.

Update:  Hsu was "delirious" upon arrival at the hospital?  Was he drugged?  Who gets spontaneously sick enough to require removal from a train and hospitalization, right when staging an exciting getaway?  Maybe he was hopped on something he took himself.  Or maybe he just made the mistake of visiting the dining car.  Either way, I'd put money on a tox screen not coming back clean.

Update:  This kind of behavior is not in the fugitive best practices handbook.

Alberto Dee, 21, who boarded the train in Truckee, said Hsu "freaked out" when Amtrak personnel approached, and was roaming a train car "without shoes and no shirt. ... I thought he had a suitcase full of crack or meth."

Previously:

Hsu Still A HillRaiser In Good Standing?
Knock, Knock, Knockin' On Norman's Door.
Hsu Reclaims Fugitive Status, Forfeiting $2 Million Bail
Hsu vs. Abramoff
New Hsu Review: Following [the Rest Of] the Money
A Really Big Hsu...
Hillary Vows To Give [At Least Some Of] Hsu Contributions To Charity
From Now On, When the Phone Rings You Say, "Vandelay Industries."
Hillary's Magwitch?

Hsu Still A HillRaiser In Good Standing?

Amid the sensational scandal of fugitive-cum-fundraiser-cum-fugitive Norman Hsu, the New School (the Manhattan university where Hsu served as a trustee) was quick to remove any mention of Mr. Hsu from their website (though you can still see a cached version).

That was probably wise, as the whole affair must be more than a little distressing for New School president (and former Nebraska Senator and Hsu Pal) Bob Kerrey.  So kudos to the New School webmaster for acting fast to purge all association with the wanted Democratic financier extraordinaire.

While Kerrey's apparently close affiliation with Hsu is certainly unflattering, no politician is likely more Hsu-addled than Hillary Clinton, who took a whopping $174,000 from Hsu in direct contributions and shady fundraising.

While Clinton has pledged to turn over some of this money (only Hsu's direct contributions, representing roughly 13% of her total haul from Hsu's network) and has professed bewilderment at the man's colorful legal history and recent behavior, she hasn't yet taken the one very easy (and admittedly fairly meaningless, but nonetheless advisable) step of removing Hsu from her list of vaunted HillRaisers.

At least she hadn't as of 2:50 pm on September 6th.  What gives?  If Hsu turns himself in (again) and heads off to prison, is that sufficient contrition for Clinton to welcome him back into the fold?  Is this failure to fully sever Mr. Hsu from the campaign deliberate or just careless (and mildly comical)?

There's your screenshot for posterity.  Let's see how long it takes for Team Hillary to rectify.

---

Update:  8 pm Thursday:  Hsu still a HillRaiser.
Update:  9:30 am Friday:  Hsu still a HillRaiser (and once again in custody).
Update:  8 pm Friday:  Hsu still a HillRaiser.
Update:  2:30 pm Saturday:  Hsu still a HillRaiser.
Update:  3 pm Sunday:  Hsu still a HillRaiser.
Update:  9:30 am Monday:  Hsu still a HillRaiser.
Update:  10 pm Monday:  Hsu still a HillRaiser.
Update:  9 pm Tuesday:  Hsu still a HillRaiser.
Update:  12:30 pm Wednesday:  Hsu still a HillRaiser.
Update:  12 am Friday (9/14):  Hsu still a HillRaiser.
Update:  10 pm Monday (9/17):  Hsu still a HillRaiser.
Update:  5 pm Wednesday (9/19):  Hsu still a HillRaiser (and going back to Cali after waiving extradition from Colorado).
Update:  12 pm Friday (9/21):  Hsu no longer a HillRaiser!

Manhattan Pipe Bomb May Have Been Sopranos-Inspired

Madon.

Cops believe the amateur bomber who detonated a homemade explosive outside former "Sopranos" star Michael Imperioli's Chelsea theater in New York City was sending "a message" to the actor or his family, sources told the New York Post.
...
They were also culling records of actors or writers who may have recently been turned away by the theater company run by Imperioli, who played mob boss Tony Soprano's homicidal nephew, Christopher Moltisanti, on the hit HBO series.
...
"It sends a message," a law-enforcement source said. The NYPD believes the bomber has little knowledge of explosives and could have learned how to fashion the pipe bomb off the Internet.

Sources said the motive could have nothing to do with Studio Dante — and could stem from a personal slight that Imperioli is not even aware of — or be the work of a troubled "Sopranos" fan.

Previously: "Small Bomb" Explodes In Manhattan; "Likely Not" Terrorism

Take-out Chinese

Tomorrow, President Bush will meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao prior to this weekend's Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.  There are many items on President Bush's agenda, including the treatment of the Dalai Lama, but overt aggression does not appear to be one of them. 

Just this year, China has threatened to undermine the US economy, brazenly launched an anti-satellite weapon, and hacked into the Pentagon's email.  China is directly testing America's willingness to tolerate aggression and is showing no signs of stopping.  Whatever its purpose, China is becoming increasingly audacious in its foreign affairs. 

Furthermore, China is forging alliances with America's adversaries.  In recent years, China has signed dozens of agreements with Venezuela's reckless leader Hugo Chavez.  Additionally, China has been unreasonably hesitant to support strong sanctions against Iran.  Lastly, China continues to supply weapons to Sudan despite sanctions.

All of these detrimental actions are enabled by China's newfound wealth.  Just in June, China sported a $21 billion trade surplus with the US.  I have no doubt that President Bush will be stern in his meeting but he may not have the tools at his disposal to improve China's behavior. 

Therefore, I am starting my China Boycott 2007.  I'm not committing to never buying Chinese again but I am going to seek out alternatives to Chinese products before I buy.  US consumers have vaulted China to its current position and we can certainly reverse this.

Mitt Whispers Sweet, Sweet Fiscal Music

From tonight's GOP debate (perhaps slightly paraphrased):

"The new tax rate on dividends and capital gains will be absolutely zero."

For my money, this is the single best fiscal issue for any Republican to run on.  Alas, as I've noted before, Mitt seems to have wavered a smidge on this one.

I'd already been a Romney guy, but he absolutely won me over at CPAC on this issue when he first unfurled it, then broke my heart a month later at the first GOP debate when he seemed to partially back away from this marvelous fiscal position (suggesting it might only apply to low-income Americans).

Tonight, his crystal clarity has won me back.

Not that I ever wavered from my Mitt support, but his answer tonight has re-gained him probationary most-favored-policy status on this vital issue.

GOP Debate

Michelle Malkin's gracing us with a liveblog of tonight's Republican debate, which - with a third of the event already on the board - appears to be a one-note-samba on immigration.

Head on over and just keep hitting Refresh.

---

Update:   Hot Air's also got a spirited open thread going.

Knock, Knock, Knockin' On Norman's Door...

Well, buzz, buzz, buzzing Norman's buzzer, anyway.

With the well-heeled Democratic fundraiser (and once-and-again fugitive from justice) Norman Hsu skipping out on his court appointment in California this morning, forfeiting his $2 million bail in the process, the smart money seems to be on Hsu having already fled the country.

The Hong Kong native had not surrendered his passport to the court, not because he hadn't been asked to, but because he couldn't seem to find it.

On the off-chance that Hsu was still stuffing clothes in a duffle bag, I took a subway ride down to SoHo this evening and headed toward 160 Wooster Street, the address listed most frequently on the campaign disclosures documenting Hsu's bountiful political contributions over the last few years.

The blinds were closed behind all 10 sets of windows at Hsu's third floor loft (pictured) and the lights didn't seem to be on.  Still, having made the trek, I strolled up and hit the buzzer for Hsu's unit.  After a couple of fruitless buzzings, I went into the lobby and exchanged pleasantries with the doorman behind the desk.

"I'm trying to get in touch with Norman Hsu in 3C," I said.  "Do you know if he's available?"

Only mildly less pleasantly, he responded, "You're going to need to step outside now."

He was perfectly polite about it, but unmistakably resolute, and I couldn't help but wonder whether my doorman would have my back if ever had to lam it.  I'll bet Hsu is a better Christmas tipper than I...

Anyway, the darkened windows and mum doorman were no surprise, I suppose, but making the trip was an i worth dotting.  After all, Hsu had been hiding not just in plain sight, but in a brilliant spot light in recent years, despite being a fugitive on a felony conviction carrying a three-year sentence.  Given that California has been so lax (nay, absent) in their attempts to collect Hsu as he paraded and hobnobbed across the country these last few years, spilling hundreds of thousands of dollars into the pockets of Demcoratic officials along the way, and further, given that California once again managed to drop the ball by allowing this glaring flight risk to slip through their fingers, I figured I'd pitch in a tiny modicum of effort at locating him - namely by jumping on the subway and strolling up to Hsu's very public street address, knowable to anyone with access to a web browser.

That little trip, while cursory and unsuccessful tonight, is all authorities would have needed to do at any time to collar this convicted con man and bring him to justice.  At $4 round-trip, I'd've thought it a bargain.

I have to agree with the smart money that Hsu is likely long gone.  Asked today about whether Hsu may have fled the country, California assistant attorney general Ralph Sivilla commented, "I would imagine he has the capability."

I'll renew my prediction from earlier today: We'll never hear from Norman Hsu again.

Previously:
Hsu Reclaims Fugitive Status, Forfeiting $2 Million Bail
Hsu vs. Abramoff
New Hsu Review: Following [the Rest Of] the Money
A Really Big Hsu...
Hillary Vows To Give [At Least Some Of] Hsu Contributions To Charity
From Now On, When the Phone Rings You Say, "Vandelay Industries."
Hillary's Magwitch?

Hsu Reclaims Fugitive Status, Forfeiting $2 Million Bail

This is one slippery fundraiser!

Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu failed to appear Wednesday for a bail hearing and a judge issued a new warrant for his arrest.

Hsu forfeits the $2 million bail he posted last week.

Hsu's lawyer said he doesn't know where his client is.

Hsu had been a fugitive in California for 15 years during which time he became a top donor to Democratic candidates, including presidential contenders Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.

Hsu pleaded no contest in 1991 to a felony count of grand theft, admitting he'd defrauded investors of $1 million in a bogus investment scam. Prosecutors say he was facing up to three years in prison when he skipped town before being sentenced.

Federal Election Commission records show Hsu donated $260,000 to the Democratic Party and candidates since 2004.

Since the judge didn't make Hsu surrender his passport, and judging by the man's astoundingly deep pockets, the Hong Kong native might well be halfway around the world by now.  Or possible hiding in an attic in Chappaqua.

Hey Rendell, Kennedy, you want to reconsider keeping that money now?  And what about you, DSCC, DCCC, and the Democrat parties of 10 states, who took hundreds of thousands directly from Hsu and from his shady fundraising sources - are you ready to disgorge these funds yet?

Michelle Malkin's got more.  So does Allah, including this bit from The New York Times:

On Monday, Mr. Hsu was required to turn his passport over to the court, but he told court officials that he had not been able to find it then. Mr. Brosnahan said they were hoping Mr. Hsu would bring it to court with him today.

Prediction: we never hear from Norman Hsu again.

Previously:
Hsu vs. Abramoff
New Hsu Review: Following [the Rest Of] the Money
A Really Big Hsu...
Hillary Vows To Give [At Least Some Of] Hsu Contributions To Charity
From Now On, When the Phone Rings You Say, "Vandelay Industries."
Hillary's Magwitch?

Bond. Senator Bond

From the Huffington Post:

The recent resignation of Senator Daniel Craig brings up a lot of questions that are ancillary to his arrest and conviction in an undercover sex sting.

Come now.  Yes, the blond Bond has been angling to add a "gay scene" to the next 007 film, so speculate as to his sexual orientation all you like.  But there's no evidence Craig has ever held elected office and to asperse him as a member of the U.S. Senate is an ugly and irresponsible slight.

(HT: Fark)