J's Cafe Nette

Archive for September 9th, 2007

After a whirlwind run around the web this weekend, just thought I’d share a few sites I had visited which I thought worth sharing. Hope you enjoy.

A must read by Gabriel Schoenfeld on the referencing of Michael Scheuer. He polishes off this sterling atricle with this: “Osama bin Laden has a collection of excellent reasons, it would seem, for praising this American spy turned pundit.”

DJ Drummond provides his thoughts on the entrance of Fred Thompson into the presidential race. I must admit I had some of the same misgivings.

Omar at Iraq the Model offers a two part post dealing with the question being the answer to difficulties in Iraq and further. Part one at the link above with part two available here.

Beth offers her thoughts on remembering 9-11. I believe much of what she says we all can relate to. What a powerful final paragraph this is:

As the anniversary of that day approaches, I find my thoughts returning to that day and all our nation lost and is continuing to lose. I pray to God that we will somehow get back to our roots and find our honor and resolve again. It seems to have gotten lost somewhere under towering heaps of affluence.

If you have not yet signed the petition to support our troops offered at Winds of Change, please consider doing so.

MoveOn.org is up to its usual behavior. I wonder how many of their members if stopped on the street would even know who General Petraeus is. I sure found this tidbit interesting though.

MoveOn.org has been working closely with the Democratic congressional leadership –as an article in today’s Sunday New York Times Magazine makes clear. And consider this comment by a Democratic senator from Friday’s Politico: “‘No one wants to call [Petraeus] a liar on national TV,’ noted one Democratic senator, who spoke on the condition on anonymity. ‘The expectation is that the outside groups will do this for us.”

A tremendous overview of the race for Senate seats in 2008 is provided by Alexander K. McClure. His analysis is often spot on and I have come to highly respect not only his writing but his information.

This post at Say Anything touches on the subject of the Democrats debating in a forum which is translated to Spanish. I doubt many have even heard of this as it was not all that well publicized. Boy do I agree with this thought:

Remember that America became America not by being Mexico, Cuba, France or England. America became America by being…American. And when we accept new people into our country we should expect them to become American as well (while simultaneously preserving their heritage, obviously). But how do immigrants integrate with our society when they don’t, or won’t, speak the language all Americans speak?

Finally, a roundup of great puns at the expense of Norman Hsu’s name. Just plain fun.

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The NYT appears to have information about some of the bundled money donated to Democrats from Norman Hsu.

At the center of the ever-deepening mystery of Norman Hsu, the fugitive fund-raiser who was captured after a brief flight from the law last week, is the question of how he evolved from a bankrupt swindler in 1992 to a wealthy donor to many Democratic candidates, and a bundler of campaign contributions to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2007.

A review of financial records for one of Mr. Hsu’s companies begins to shed light on some of his recent activities, including his dealings with a circle of campaign contributors that has fallen under suspicion since news of Mr. Hsu’s criminal past, murky business interests and unexplained riches rocked the Democratic Party.

The records show that Components Ltd., a company controlled by Mr. Hsu that has no obvious business purpose and appears to exist only on paper, has paid a total of more than $100,000 to at least nine people who made campaign contributions to Mrs. Clinton and others through Mr. Hsu. The payments occurred in the spring of 2003, several months before Mr. Hsu emerged as a contributor to Democrats and more than a year before he started bundling checks from those same people for various campaigns. In all, he has raised more than $1 million for Democrats.

The article continues:

The financial records for Components Ltd. show that Mr. Su’s wife, Lelawattie Su, wired $100,000 to the company in May 2003, and that Mr. Hsu used that money to wire $109,500 the next day to a woman in California. On another occasion, Mr. Paw wired $20,000 to Components Ltd., and Mr. Hsu immediately wired $30,000 to another company whose location could not be determined.

In roughly that same period, Components Ltd. issued three checks to Mr. Paw totaling about $16,000, and checks and wire transfers totaling more than $100,000 to eight other people, including a worker at a rehabilitation center for the handicapped, a housewife, a nurse, a real estate developer, a plastics company executive and his wife, and a clothing shop manager.

Mr. Hsu later bundled campaign contributions from all of those people, including Mr. Paw and six members of his family, along with Mr. and Mrs. Su. The Paws and Sus together contributed more than $400,000 since 2004 to Democrats across the country, usually in tandem with Mr. Hsu.

This story continues to grow, and the information which continues to come to light only furthers the question of what exactly the individuals responsible for vetting donations to the democrats who received contributions were doing all this time. If this much information is available in such short order after the re-arrest of Hsu, it would seem only plausible at least portions of the same should have been available to them.

Much more in the article itself..well worth the read.

Update A must see. Flip at Suitably Flip has paid a visit not only to Mr. Hsu’s residence but has also personally checked out all his published business addresses. I’m shocked I tell you by what he discovered. (Complete with pictures)

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Sgt. Nichols at Jack Army has asked if anyone could help get the word out about the American Freedom Foundation Festival. Happy to oblige.

A friend of mine asked me to post about the American Freedom Foundation and all the good work they are doing. This friend volunteers for them and figured that JACK ARMY would be another good way to get the word out. Well, for about twelve dedicated readers and about seven drive-bys…

Anyway, from my friend’s email:

The American Freedom Foundation (www.americanfreedomfoundation.org) is a 501(c)3 public benefit corporation organized to honor veterans of America’s armed forces and raise money and awareness for various veterans’ organizations with special emphasis directed to welfare and educational issues facing those wounded in action, those disabled and families and children of veterans killed in action during Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The American Freedom Festival – held Veterans Day Weekend (November 10th, 2007) – is a concert event that features country music performers, actors, athletes, dignitaries and other supporters, joining together to help support and fulfill the mission of the American Freedom Foundation. This year, featured performers include Martina McBride & Darryl Worley. Tickets are going on sale on September 1st, and leading up to the event, I’ll have acess to talent and supporters that are interested in talking to sites about the Festival and the Foundation.

Please take a minute to check out the site and if you will be in or near D.C. on November 10th, maybe a concert?

Oh, should I ask my friend to ask the “talent” or supporters any questions?

What better way to spend a Veterans Day weekend if you can, than with many who have served or are currently serving in the US Armed Forces. Please visit the American Freedom Foundation website and even if you can’t attend the festival, perhaps you could drop a few pennies in their tipjar.

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Luciano Pavarotti received many standing ovations during his long, incredible career. His popularity spanned the globe as is well evidenced in this slide show which provides many tasteful pictures from his funeral.

It’s not the dignitaries which interested me but the throngs of ordinary people who came to pay their last repects to this icon of Opera.

Oh, to be so loved by so many.

HT: <):)Roger L. Simon

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For your Sunday listening and viewing pleasure. God Bless America as only Kate Smith could perform it.

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