POLITICAL CORRUPTION - PART 2 30,084

POLITICAL

CORRUPTION

PART  2

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*  Special thanks to "Google Images", "wikipedia.com", "The Los Angeles Times"
"NBC News" and "The New York Times"

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by Felicity Blaze Noodleman

Los Angeles, CA

4.18.14

If you were here with us last week you may have noticed our article ended rather abruptly . . . and not in our usual closing. In fact we were not finished with our subject on corruption and we are picking up where we ended last week.  The subject of corruption is so big and lives in such dark places that it has almost no boundaries and is almost every where. Sometimes corruption lives in broad daylight and operates in a very normal fashion!  

Sentencing continues is the City of Bell corruption scandal which out six city officials on trial for bilking the city of millions of dollars!  We should feel glad to the system is working and catching criminal like this; or maybe we begin to wonder just how many other scams are happening across the nation which haven't been detected as of yet.  It is no surprise people are feeling over taxed!

Rizzo Gets 12 Years In Prison, Marking End To Scandal That Rocked Bell

After countless court appearances, Robert Rizzo finally learned his fate: the former Bell city manager was sentenced to 12 years in state prison and ordered to pay $8.8 million in restitution. Patrick Healy reports from Bell for the NBC4 News at 6 on Wednesday, April 16, 2014.  (Patrick Healy/Scott Meadows/Tom Bravo)

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Bell-City-Administrator-Robert-Rizzo-Corruption-Scandal-255498601.html

By Corina Knoll and Jeff Gottlieb

"The Los Angeles Times"

April 16, 2014, 10:36 a.m.

Robert Rizzo, the city administrator who oversaw an era of corruption and graft in one of Los Angeles County’s poorest cities, was sentenced Wednesday to 12 years in state prison.

Rizzo stared straight ahead, his palms pressed against the defense table as the sentence was read.

“Mr. Rizzo, you did some very, very bad things for a very long time,” Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy told the former Bell city administrator.

The judge said Rizzo transformed himself into a “godfather of sorts” in Bell, an all-powerful ruler who plundered the city’s treasury to pay lavish salaries and dole out loans to fellow employees.

Kennedy also ordered Rizzo to pay $8.8 million in restitution to Bell, but agreed to credit him for money he and the city’s former police chief have already returned to the city.

For the first time since the salary scandal erupted in 2010, Rizzo spoke publicly about his role in the wrongdoing.

In a soft voice, and again staring straight ahead, Rizzo said he was “very, very sorry.”

“If I could go back and make changes. I would,” Rizzo said. “I've done it a million times in my mind."

But a series of speakers, including another Bell elected official, pushed back on the notion that Rizzo was genuine in his apology or had any empathy for the citizens of the city.

“The damage has been done and the money is gone,” said City Councilwoman Violetta Alvarez, who was elected as a reformer after authorities arrested Rizzo and seven other Bell city leaders.

"This is not about him anymore,” added a Maywood resident who said his town also suffered at Rizzo’s hands. “This is about the people getting justice."

Rizzo was already sentenced to 33 months in federal prison Monday for a tax fraud scheme in which he claimed hundreds of thousands of dollars in phony losses, mostly tied to his sprawling horse ranch outside Seattle.

He will be allowed to serve his sentences concurrently.

Once the highest paid municipal administrator in California, and possibly the nation, Rizzo became the face of the widespread corruption in Bell. When he was forced to resign in 2010, Rizzo had a total compensation package of roughly $1.5 million a year and was on track to become the highest paid public pensioner in California when he retired.

When Rizzo and the others were arrested in the summer on 2010, then-L.A. County Dist. Atty. Steven Cooley called the case “corruption on steroids.” Since then, five city council member have been convicted of misappropriating city funds and the town’s second-in-command, Spaccia, last week was sentenced to 11 years and eight months in prison for her role in the wrongdoing.

One council member, a preacher in the working-class town, was acquitted.

Kennedy order Rizzo to surrender to authorities to begin serving his sentence on May 30.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-rizzo-set-to-be-sentenced--20140415,0,3785008.story#ixzz2zA1aGvqe

"The Los Angeles Times"


To begin uncovering this kind of political corruption we must really begin thinking "out side the box".  This it what happened to me as I began researching this subject two weeks ago.  I began to realize that all kinds of corruptions runs ramshackle throughout the Government and is never detected by law enforcement.  

We've just made some very large claim about corruption - now to look at the details and at least start thinking differently about things we take for granted as being normal in Government and politics.  We could say this kind of political corruption is the new form of corruption of the future.  Lets begin our logical discussion on the subject with some guidance from "Wikipedia.com" 

Political corruption is the use of powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. An illegal act by an officeholder constitutes political corruption only if the act is directly related to their official duties, is done under color of law or involves trading in influence.

Forms of corruption vary, but include bribery, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, patronage,graft, and embezzlement. Corruption may facilitate criminal enterprise such as drug trafficking, money laundering, and human trafficking, though is not restricted to these activities. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by private persons or corporations not directly involved with the government.

The activities that constitute illegal corruption differ depending on the country or jurisdiction. For instance, some political funding practices that are legal in one place may be illegal in another. In some cases, government officials have broad or ill-defined powers, which make it difficult to distinguish between legal and illegal actions. Worldwide, bribery alone is estimated to involve over 1 trillion US dollars annually. A state of unrestrained political corruption is known as a kleptocracy, literally meaning "rule by thieves".

Some forms of corruption – now called “institutional corruption” – are distinguished from bribery and other kinds of obvious personal gain. Campaign contributions are the prime example. Even when they are legal, and do not constitute a quid pro quo, they have a tendency to bias the process in favor of special interests and undermine public confidence in the political institution. They corrupt the institution without individual members being corrupt themselves. A similar problem of corruption arises in any institution that depends on financial support from people who have interests that may conflict with the primary purpose of the institution.

"wikipedia.com"

As in war; politics and politicians along with their respective political party's enjoy the conformation of legitimacy; "To the victor go the spoils of war". This may be true to a certain point, but we have limitations in place to protect our democracy and insure freedom of choice and a strong free Government.  Have we made our case yet?

During WWII The Federal Government under the Democrats and President Franklin Roosevelt began a military spending and build up of US forces never seen before in this country.  The Democrats in Washington DC now had the power to reward their friends and punish their enemies as they issued Government Contracts to support the war effort.  

It is at this point that Noodleman must boldly stand up and charge that "back room deals" and "under the table" bribes and kick backs have been going on for a very long time now!  All which have benefited the DNC (Democratic National Committee) through an unparalleled and unprecedented string of wars.  First against Germany then Japan the US engaged in war after war under the Democrats in Washington DC.  Japan was followed by Korea and then by Vietnam.  The United States was at war continuously from 1939 until 1975.  The Vietnam war it self lasted from 1956 until 1975.

President
Dwight D. Eisenhower

During this time Democrats under the presidencies of Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy and Johnson learned the finer points of  benefits from war and the avenues to profiting from this win fall on a global scale.  Politics and war profiteering American style was now operating as never before.  This was indicated by President and X-Army 5 star General Dwight D. Eisenhower who had observed this phenomenon from a unique perspective.  Eisenhower felt strongly enough on the subject to warn America in 1961 to beware of the "Military Industrial Complex".  This speech is available on youtube.com. 

Three US Democratic Presidents who profited from and used the Korean and Vietnam wars to validate their administrations  Truman (left) Kennedy and Johnson (right) all used the 

"Military Industrial Complex" for political gain.  Johnson was by far the worst of the three as

he continued US involvement in Vietnam; as Americans became disenchanted with his 

campaign to fight Communism.  To this day, the Vietnam conflict which lasted form 1956 until 1975 is the biggest failure in US foreign policy and was finally concluded under the President Nixon's Administration.

Today it is not unusual for X-Presidents to write books, conduct speaking tours in American Universities and build their Presidential Library's.  This is all very normal.  With President Clinton however, something new is happening on a global scale and may be a remnant of what Democratic Presidents had learned while conducting War in the past!

The "Clinton Global Initiative" raises our curiosity because it is unclear as to what the "Global Initiative" is.  As we began to research Bill Clinton's new organization we learned that he, wife Hillary and daughter Chelsea seem to be involved a series of speaking symposiums concerning what may be considered as global problems and issues.  We are doubly concerned at this point because agendas like these are undertaken by the United Nations.  So many questions here!  Is Bill making a bid to run for the Secretary General position in the UN?

As a part of the Clinton Foundation, the mission of the Clinton's as reported by "wikipedia.com"

"The Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation (originally, the William J. Clinton Foundation) is a non-profit foundation established by former President of the United States Bill Clinton with the stated mission to "strengthen the capacity of people throughout the world to meet the challenges of global interdependence." The Foundation focuses on four critical areas: health security; economic empowerment; leadership development and citizen service; and racial, ethnic and religious reconciliation. The Foundation works principally through partnerships with like-minded individuals, organizations, corporations, and governments, often serving as an incubator for new policies and programs. They have offices located in New York City and Little Rock, Arkansas."

"wikipedia.com"

Their Global Initive web site define themselves as:

"The mission of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) is to turn ideas into action.

Established in 2005 by President Bill Clinton, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), an initiative of the Clinton Foundation, convenes global leaders to create and implement innovative solutions to the world's most pressing challenges. CGI Annual Meetings have brought together 180 heads of state, 20 Nobel Prize laureates, and hundreds of leading CEOs, heads of foundations and NGOs, major philanthropists, and members of the media. To date, CGI members have made more than 2,500 commitments, which are already improving the lives of more than 430 million people in over 180 countries. When fully funded and implemented, these commitments will be valued at $88 billion.

The 2014 CGI Annual Meeting will be held from September 21-24 in New York City. CGI also convenes CGI America, a meeting devoted to economic recovery and job creation in the United States, and CGI University (CGI U), which hosts an annual meeting for undergraduate and graduate students who are developing commitments in their communities and around the world."

http://www.clintonglobalinitiative.org/aboutus/

Clinton Global Initiative

Political & Diplomatic Event

Coinciding with U.N. Week each fall, former President Clinton's marquee annual event has brought together 150 heads of state and garnered some $73 billion in pledges for global aid. Next: September 23-26, 2013Photo: Adam Schultz/Clinton Global Initiative.

http://www.bizbash.com/clinton-global-initiative-1-political-diplomatic-eventcoinciding-u-new/gallery/114130#.U1AZT1VdUyc

Upon further research we learned the Clinton's are referring to their annual speaking symposiums as "CGI U" (Clinton Global Initiative University) and are accomplishing some very big dollar fund raising which is again curious since the Clinton Foundation defines itself as a nonprofit.  This brings many questions to mind.  Are the Clinton's in the information and influence business in exchange for cash disguised as donations?  At any rate the Clinton Global initiative seems to be primarily about fund raising.  Oh; and by the way, if you think there is a University with a campus called the Clinton Global Initiative University, there is not.  So many issues to unravel about this organization.  The FBI and NSA really need to probe Clinton's foundation and it's activities.

For some further background on the Clinton's Foundation we are publishing this article from "The New York Times".

Unease at Clinton Foundation 

Over Finances and Ambitions

Jason Henry for The New York Times

Hillary Rodham Clinton speaking at an American Bar Association meeting in San Francisco on Monday.

By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE and AMY CHOZICK

Published: August 13, 2013 

Soon after the 10th anniversary of the foundation bearing his name, Bill Clinton met with a small group of aides and two lawyers from Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. Two weeks of interviews with Clinton Foundation executives and former employees had led the lawyers to some unsettling conclusions.

The review echoed criticism of Mr. Clinton’s early years in the White House: For all of its successes, the Clinton Foundation had become a sprawling concern, supervised by a rotating board of old Clinton hands, vulnerable to distraction and threatened by conflicts of interest. It ran multimillion-dollar deficits for several years, despite vast amounts of money flowing in.

And concern was rising inside and outside the organization about Douglas J. Band, a onetime personal assistant to Mr. Clinton who had started a lucrative corporate consulting firm — which Mr. Clinton joined as a paid adviser — while overseeing the Clinton Global Initiative, the foundation’s glitzy annual gathering of chief executives, heads of state, and celebrities.

The review set off more than a year of internal debate, and spurred an evolution in the organization that included Mr. Clinton’s daughter, Chelsea, taking on a dominant new role as the family grappled with the question of whether the foundation — and its globe-spanning efforts to combat AIDS, obesity and poverty — would survive its founder.

Now those efforts are taking on new urgency. In the coming weeks, the foundation, long Mr. Clinton’s domain since its formation in 2001, will become the nerve center of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s increasingly busy public life.

This fall, Mrs. Clinton and her staff will move into offices at the foundation’s new headquarters in Midtown Manhattan, occupying two floors of the Time-Life Building. Amid speculation about her 2016 plans, Mrs. Clinton is adding major new initiatives on women, children and jobs to what has been renamed the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation.

Worried that the foundation’s operating revenues depend too heavily on Mr. Clinton’s nonstop fund-raising, the three Clintons are embarking on a drive to raise an endowment of as much as $250 million, with events already scheduled in the Hamptons and London. And after years of relying on Bruce R. Lindsey, the former White House counsel whose friendship with Mr. Clinton stretches back decades, to run the organization while living part-time in Arkansas, the family has hired a New York-based chief executive with a background in management consulting.

“We’re trying to institutionalize the foundation so that it will be here long after the lives of any of us,” Mr. Lindsey said. “That’s our challenge and that is what we are trying to address.”

But the changing of the guard has aggravated long-simmering tensions within the former first family’s inner circle as the foundation tries to juggle the political and philanthropic ambitions of a former president, a potential future president, and their increasingly visible daughter.

And efforts to insulate the foundation from potential conflicts have highlighted just how difficult it can be to disentangle the Clintons’ charity work from Mr. Clinton’s moneymaking ventures and Mrs. Clinton’s political future, according to interviews with more than two dozen former and current foundation employees, donors and advisers to the family. Nearly all of them declined to speak for attribution, citing their unwillingness to alienate the Clinton family.

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Last Thursday, Mr. Clinton arrived two hours late to an exuberant welcome at a health clinic about 60 miles north of Johannesburg. Children in zebra-striped loincloths sang as Mr. Clinton and Ms. Clinton made their entrance, and the former president enthusiastically explained how his foundation had helped the South African government negotiate large reductions in the price of drugs that halt the progress of HIV. Aaron Motsoaledi, South Africa’s minister of health, heaped praise on the effort. “Because of your help we are able to treat three and a half times more people than we used to,” he told the crowd.

The project is typical of the model pioneered by the Clinton Foundation, built around dozens of partnerships with private companies, governments, or other nonprofit groups. Instead of handing out grants, the foundation recruits donors and advises them on how best to deploy their money or resources, from helping Procter & Gamble donate advanced water-purification packets to developing countries to working with credit card companies to expand the volume of low-cost loans offered to poor inner city residents.

The foundation, which has 350 employees in 180 countries, remains largely powered by Mr. Clinton’s global celebrity and his ability to connect corporate executives, A-listers and government officials. On this month’s Africa trip, Mr. Clinton was accompanied by the actors Dakota Fanning and Jesse Eisenberg and the son of the New York City mayoral candidate John A. Catsimatidis, a longtime donor.

For most of the foundation’s existence, its leadership has been dominated by loyal veterans of the Clintons’ political lives. Ira C. Magaziner, who was a Rhodes scholar with Mr. Clinton and ran Mrs. Clinton’s failed attempt at a health care overhaul in the 1990s, is widely credited as the driving force behind the foundation’s largest project, the Clinton Health Access Initiative, which, among other efforts, negotiates bulk purchasing agreements and price discounts on lifesaving medicines.

Mr. Band, who arrived at the White House in 1995 and worked his way up to become Mr. Clinton’s closest personal aide, standing behind the president on golf courses and the global stage, helped build the foundation’s fund-raising structure. He conceived of and for many years helped run the Clinton Global Initiative, the annual conference that draws hundreds of business leaders and heads of state to New York City where attendees are pushed to make specific philanthropic commitments.

Today, big-name companies vie to buy sponsorships at prices of $250,000 and up, money that has helped subsidize the foundation’s annual operating costs. Last year, the foundation and two subsidiaries had revenues of more than $214 million.

Yet the foundation’s expansion has also been accompanied by financial problems. In 2007 and 2008, the foundation also found itself competing against Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign for donors amid a recession. Millions of dollars in contributions intended to seed an endowment were diverted to other programs, creating tension between Mr. Magaziner and Mr. Band. The foundation piled up a $40 million deficit during those two years, according to tax returns. Last year, it ran more than $8 million in the red.

Amid those shortfalls, the foundation has sometimes catered to donors and celebrities who gave money in ways that raised eyebrows in the low-key nonprofit world. In 2009, during a Clinton Global Initiative gathering at the University of Texas at Austin, the foundation purchased a first-class ticket for the actress Natalie Portman, a special guest, who brought her beloved Yorkie, according to two former foundation employees.

In interviews, foundation officials partly blamed the 2008 recession and difficulties in getting donors to provide operating support rather than restricted grants for specific programs for the deficits.

But others criticized Mr. Magaziner, who is widely seen within the foundation as impulsive and lacking organizational skills. On one occasion, Mr. Magaziner dispatched a team of employees to fly around the world for months gathering ideas for a climate change proposal that never got off the ground. Another time, he ignored a report — which was commissioned at significant expense from the consulting firm McKinsey & Company — on how the foundation could get involved in forestry initiatives.

Mr. Magaziner’s management style and difficulty keeping projects within budget were also raised in discussions that surrounded the 2011 Simpson Thacher review. (One person who attended a meeting with Mr. Magaziner recalled his lying on a conference room table in the middle of the meeting because of terrible back spasms, snapping at a staff member.)

Mr. Band repeatedly urged Mr. Clinton to fire Mr. Magaziner, according to people briefed on the matter. Mr. Clinton refused, confiding in aides that despite Mr. Magaziner’s managerial weaknesses, he was a visionary with good intentions. The former president, according to one person who knows them both, “thinks Ira is brilliant — and brilliant people get away with a lot in Clinton world.”

Indeed, by then, Mr. Magaziner had persuaded Mr. Clinton and the foundation to spin the health initiative off into a separate organization, with Mr. Magaziner as its chief executive and the Clinton Foundation appointing a majority of its board members. The financial problems continued. In 2010 and 2011, the first two years when the health initiative operated as a stand-alone organization, it ran annual shortfalls of more than $4 million. A new chief financial officer, hired in 2010, left eight months later.

A foundation official said the health initiative had only three chief financial officers in 10 years and that its financial problem was a common one in the nonprofit world: For all the grant money coming in — more than $160 million in 2011 — Mr. Magaziner had also had difficulty raising money for operating costs. But by the end of 2011, the health initiative had expanded its board, adding two seats. Chelsea Clinton took one.

Growing Ventures

As the foundation grew, so did the outside business ventures pursued by Mr. Clinton and several of his aides.

None have drawn more scrutiny in Clinton circles than Teneo, a firm co-founded in 2009 by Mr. Band, described by some as a kind of surrogate son to Mr. Clinton. Aspiring to merge corporate consulting, public relations and merchant banking in a single business, Mr. Band poached executives from Wall Street, recruited other Clinton aides to join as employees or advisers and set up shop in a Midtown office formerly belonging to one of the country’s top hedge funds.

By 2011, the firm had added a third partner, Declan Kelly, a former State Department envoy for Mrs. Clinton. And Mr. Clinton had signed up as a paid adviser to the firm.

Teneo worked on retainer, charging monthly fees as high as $250,000, according to current and former clients. The firm recruited clients who were also Clinton Foundation donors, while Mr. Band and Mr. Kelly encouraged others to become new foundation donors. Its marketing materials highlighted Mr. Band’s relationship with Mr. Clinton and the Clinton Global Initiative, where Mr. Band sat on the board of directors through 2011 and remains an adviser. Some Clinton aides and foundation employees began to wonder where the foundation ended and Teneo began.

Those worries intensified after the collapse of MF Global, the international brokerage firm led by Jon S. Corzine, a former governor of New Jersey, in the fall of 2011. The firm had been among Teneo’s earliest clients, and its collapse over bad European investments — while paying $125,000 a month for the firm’s public relations and financial advice — drew Teneo and the Clintons unwanted publicity.

Mr. Clinton ended his advisory role with Teneo in March 2012, after an article appeared in The New York Post suggesting that Mrs. Clinton was angry over the MF Global controversy. A spokesman for Mr. Clinton denied the report. But in a statement released afterward, Mr. Clinton announced that he would no longer be paid by Teneo.

He also praised Mr. Band effusively, crediting him with keeping the foundation afloat and expressing hopes that Mr. Band would continue to advise the Global Initiative.

“I couldn’t have accomplished half of what I have in my post-presidency without Doug Band,” Mr. Clinton said in the statement.

Even that news release was a source of controversy within the foundation, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions. Mr. Band helped edit the statement, which other people around the Clintons felt gave him too much credit for the foundation’s accomplishments. (The quotation now appears as part of Mr. Band’s biography on the Teneo Web site.)

Mr. Band left his paid position with the foundation in late 2010, but has remained involved with C.G.I., as have a number of Teneo clients, like Coca-Cola, Dow Chemical and UBS Americas. Standard Chartered, a British financial services company that paid a $340 million fine to New York regulators last year to settle charges that it had laundered money from Iran, is a Teneo client and a sponsor of the 2012 global initiative.

Last year, Coca-Cola’s chief executive, Muhtar Kent, won a coveted spot on the dais with Mr. Clinton, discussing the company’s partnership with another nonprofit to use its distributors to deliver medical goods to patients in Africa. (A Coca-Cola spokesman said that the company’s sponsorship of foundation initiatives long predated Teneo and that the firm plays no role in Coca-Cola’s foundation work.)

In March 2012, David Crane, the chief executive of NRG, an energy company, led a widely publicized trip with Mr. Clinton to Haiti, where they toured green energy and solar power projects that NRG finances through a $1 million commitment to the Clinton Global Initiative.

Officials said the foundation has established clear guidelines for the Clinton Global Initiative to help prevent any favoritism or special treatment of particular donors or sponsors.

Teneo was not the only worry: other events thrust the foundation into internal turmoil. In 2011, a wave of midlevel program staff members departed, reflecting the frustration of much of the foundation’s policy personnel with the old political hands running the organization. Around the time of the Simpson Thacher review, Mr. Lindsey suffered a stroke, underscoring concerns about the foundation’s line of succession. John D. Podesta, a chief of staff in Mr. Clinton’s White House, stepped in for several months as temporary chief executive.

While much attention has focused on Mrs. Clinton’s emerging role within the foundation, advisers to the family say her daughter’s growing involvement could prove more critical in the years ahead. After years of pursuing other career paths, including working at McKinsey & Company and a hedge fund, Ms. Clinton, 33, has begun to assert herself as a force within the foundation. Her perspective is shaped far more than her parents’ by her time in the world of business, and she is poised to play a significant role in shaping the foundation’s future, particularly if Mrs. Clinton chooses to run for president.

She formally joined the foundation’s board in 2011, marking her growing role there — and the start of intensifying tensions between her and Mr. Band. Several people close to the Clintons said that she became increasingly concerned with the negative impact Mr. Band’s outside business might have on her father’s work and that she cited concerns raised during the internal review about potential conflicts of interest involving Teneo.

It was Ms. Clinton who suggested that the newly installed chief executive, Eric Braverman, be considered for the job during a nearly two-year search. A friend and a former colleague from McKinsey, Mr. Braverman, 38, had helped the Clintons with philanthropic projects in Haiti after the earthquake there. And his hiring coincided with Ms. Clinton’s appointment as the vice chairwoman of the foundation board, where she will bear significant responsibility for steering her family’s philanthropy, both in the causes it tackles and in the potential political and financial conflicts it must avoid.

Ms. Clinton has also grown worried that the foundation she stood to inherit would collapse without her father, who turns 67 next week. Mr. Clinton, who had quadruple-bypass surgery in 2004 and no longer eats meat or dairy products, talks frequently about his own mortality.

Mr. Catsimatidis said Ms. Clinton “has to learn how to deal with the whole world because she wants to follow in the footsteps of her father and her mother.”

Shifting the Emphasis

Over the years, the foundation has dived into virtually any cause that sparked Mr. Clinton’s interest: childhood obesity in the United States, sustainable farming in South America, mentoring entrepreneurs, saving elephants from poaching, and more. That list will shift soon as Mrs. Clinton and Chelsea build their staffs to focus on issues including economically empowering women and combating infant mortality.

In the coming months, as Mrs. Clinton mulls a 2016 presidential bid, the foundation could also serve as a base for her to home in on issues and to build up a stable of trusted staff members who could form the core of a political campaign.

Mrs. Clinton’s staff at the foundation’s headquarters includes Maura Pally, a veteran aide who advised her 2008 presidential campaign and worked at the State Department, and Madhuri Kommareddi, a former policy aide to President Obama.

Dennis Cheng, Mrs. Clinton’s deputy chief of protocol at the State Department and a finance director of her presidential campaign, will oversee the endowment drive, which some of the Clintons’ donors already describe as a dry run for 2016.

And Mrs. Clinton’s personal staff of roughly seven people — including Huma Abedin, wife of the New York mayoral candidate Anthony D. Weiner — will soon relocate from a cramped Washington office to the foundation’s headquarters. They will work on organizing Mrs. Clinton’s packed schedule of paid speeches to trade groups and awards ceremonies and assist in the research and writing of Mrs. Clinton’s memoir about her time at the State Department, to be published by Simon & Schuster next summer.

"The New York Times"

So the trail of political corruption continues. In all it's forms both by individuals and institutions. Sometimes illegal and sometimes skirting the law.  One thing is for sure; the Democrats are taking their cut any way possible and doing their peculiar fund raising near and far.  This has been Felicity for the "Noodleman Group"!

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