Some topics on my FB we are talking about....

Just wanted to leave a few topics being discussed on FB for people to read as well as I wanted to keep some of this to post later for my scrapbook. Stay safe everyone and see you when we get back-♥Mem
Mem Mcd

The Immoral M inority: How does she do it? Sarah Palin has RNC sending money to her attorney for "le

Campaign donor's giving raises questions

Little known about man who has sent thousands to GOP

By Andrew Zajac, Ray Gibson and Bob Secter Tribune reporters

October 29, 2008-Chicago Tribune

Big campaign donors typically come with deep pockets and influence. But in Illinois this election cycle, no one not running for office himself has given more to the nation's federal campaigns than Shi Sheng Hao of Roselle, a virtual unknown in business and political circles.

Before September 2007, Hao's name had never appeared in the 15-year-old federal database of campaign contributors. Since then, however, his donations have topped $120,000 — including $70,100 on a single June day to Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

Over the same time frame, a network of Hao relatives has kicked in more. The take from this group over the last 13 months exceeds $269,000, a small amount to Democrats but most of it to McCain and the Republican National Committee, records show.

Hao didn't register to vote at the northwest suburban address attached to his donations until October 2007, a month after he wrote his first political check, $25,000 to the RNC.

The circumstances surrounding Hao's sudden and prolific political activism are curious and his whereabouts unclear. His name isn't listed on property records or the mailbox at the unassuming tract home listed on his donations. Hao lives "overseas," insisted a man who answered the door at the Roselle home recently. The man declined to identify himself.

The story of Hao—whose varied roster of business associates appears to include a Taiwanese government investment arm as well as the mastermind of a decade-old Democratic fundraising scandal — is an eyebrow-raiser in the current election climate.

Ethnic Chinese donors became an issue in the battle for the Democratic nomination last year because some didn't seem to live where they claimed on contribution records. Now, Republicans are raising questions about the authenticity of many small donations Democrat Barack Obama has received from abroad.

Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Washington-based Center for Responsive Politics, said the timing of the Hao-related contributions appeared troubling, though there could be a plausible explanation. "Large contributions from people who have never given previously do generally provoke questions about who they are and what they're up to, and most importantly, what they're looking for," said Krumholz, whose non-partisan group closely tracks political donations. "The public needs to be concerned because there are fraudulent donations, and persons use them to gain influence and access in Washington."

McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said Hao was not a "major donor" and "not a part of this campaign in terms of fundraising," but declined to discuss him further or address the campaign's procedures for vetting donors. RNC spokesman Danny Diaz said he would not respond to questions from the Tribune, contending that the newspaper was biased against McCain.

So who is Shi Sheng Hao, and what are his means and motives for becoming a mega-donor? No one answers a telephone listed in his name in the 630 area code, and there's no answering machine. Messages left for him by phone and e-mail with several relatives went unanswered.

But this much can be gleaned from public records:

Donation disclosures list his occupation as a businessman with entities identified only by slightly different acronyms: ADECC, AAEC, A.A.E.C.C. On some he is also listed as president of American Chinese Entertainment Ltd.

Hao and his wife, Hsin-Ning, declared bankruptcy in 1995, at the time using the Roselle home as an address and listing as a business a firm called Asian American Environmental Control.

Hao holds an Illinois driver's license that lists his address as the Roselle home, but property records show the four-bedroom house has been owned since 1992 by Robert and Jen Chi, and their last name is on the mailbox. Contacted at the Des Plaines marketing firm where she works, Jen Chi said she didn't want to discuss Hao, though she said she knew how to get in touch with him and would have him call the Tribune. He never did.

"I don't know anything about his business," said Chi, who herself gave $15,000 to the RNC the week after Hao's first donation. "I don't want to be stuck in the middle." Hao's wife, Hsin-Ning, also used the Roselle address when she made a $25,000 contribution to the RNC last year. In September, however, she listed a Taipei address on a $2,300 contribution to the campaign fund of former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

There is no record in business databases of American Chinese Entertainment Ltd., the firm listed in some Hao donation records. However, an Asian American Entertainment Corp. was incorporated early this year in California with a Shi Sheng Hao as president. Government records show that firm and at least two other Hao companies have connections to the family of Gene and Nora Lum, onetime prominent Democratic fundraisers in the Asian-American community who were convicted in 1997 of making political donations through illegal straw donors.

A Taiwanese firm with a nearly identical name as Hao's new California company, Asian American Entertainment Ltd., is also headed by a Shi Sheng Hao. That firm has been embroiled in a lengthy legal battle in Las Vegas over a soured partnership in an application for a casino license in Macau, the former Portuguese colony now part of China.

A court filing in that case described Hao's firm as a business affiliate of the China Industrial Development Bank, a finance arm of the Taiwanese government. Hao is listed as a resident of Taiwan in corporate papers filed in the case.

It is not clear whether the Shi Sheng Hao in the lawsuit and the California ventures is the same Shi Sheng Hao using the Roselle address. But public records point to numerous coincidences, including corporations with similar names and an overlap of investors. Some political donations from the Roselle address also refer to Hao by a nickname, Marshall, the same nickname given for Hao in the Las Vegas court action.

Federal records indicate a pattern of large and coordinated donations from Hao, relatives and associates. Collectively, eight of them gave a total of $130,000 to the RNC in late September to early October of last year.

RNC appears to shell out $150K for Palin fashion

By Jeanne Cummings-Huff 10/21/08

The Republican National Committee appears to have spent more than $150,000 to clothe and accessorize vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her family since her surprise pick by John McCain in late August.

According to financial disclosure records, the accessorizing began in early September and included bills from Saks Fifth Avenue in St. Louis and New York for a combined $49,425.74.

The records also document a couple of big-time shopping trips to Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis, including one $75,062.63 spree in early September.

The RNC also spent $4,716.49 on hair and makeup through September after reporting no such costs in August.

Politico asked the McCain campaign for comment, explicitly noting the $150,000 in expenses for department store shopping and makeup consultation that were incurred immediately after Palin’s announcement. Pre-September reports do not include similar costs.

Spokeswoman Maria Comella declined to answer specific questions about the expenditures, including whether it was necessary to spend that much and whether it amounted to one early investment in Palin or if shopping for the vice presidential nominee was ongoing.

“The campaign does not comment on strategic decisions regarding how financial resources available to the campaign are spent," she said.

The business of primping and dressing on the campaign trail has become fraught with political risk in recent years as voters increasingly see an elite Washington out of touch with their values and lifestyles.

In 2000, Democrat Al Gore took heat for changing his clothing hues. And in 2006, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) was ribbed for two hair styling sessions that cost about $3,000.

Then, there was Democrat John Edwards’ $400 hair cuts in 2007 and Republican McCain’s $520 black leather Ferragamo shoes this year.

A review of similar records for the campaign of Democrat Barack Obama and the Democratic National Committee turned up no similar spending.

But all the spending by other candidates pales in comparison to the GOP outlay for the Alaska governor whose expensive, designer outfits have been the topic of fashion pages and magazines.

What hasn’t been apparent is where the clothes came from – her closet back in Wasilla or from the campaign coffers in Washington.

The answer can be found inside the RNC’s September monthly financial disclosure report under “itemized coordinated expenditures.”

It’s a report that typically records expenses for direct mail, telephone calls and advertising. Those expenses do show up, but the report also has a new category of spending: “campaign accessories.”

September payments were also made to Barney’s New York ($789.72) and Bloomingdale’s New York ($5,102.71).

Macy’s in Minneapolis, another store fortunate enough to be situated in the Twin Cities that hosted last summer’s Republican National Convention, received three separate payments totaling $9,447.71.

The entries also show a few purchases at Pacifier, a top notch baby store, and Steiniauf & Stroller Inc., suggesting $295 was spent to accommodate the littlest Palin to join the campaign trail.

An additional $4,902.45 was spent at Atelier, a high-class shopping destination for men.