Tag Archives: Bill Clinton

Get Ready For The All-Hail-Hillary Movies

By Breaking News

Hillary Clinton speech 9 SC Get Ready for the All Hail Hillary Movies

I wasn’t surprised to learn that sometime before the 2016 election, NBC will be releasing a four-hour miniseries about Hillary Clinton starring Academy Award nominee Diane Lane. What did surprise me was that the series will cover none of her life before the Monica Lewinsky scandal, which took place five years into her husband’s second term as president and when Hillary was already 51 years old. It’s as if her first half-century will be airbrushed away, along with the many scandals that dogged her in those decades.

While the series will still have a lot of ground to cover — impeachment and the “vast right-wing conspiracy” she suspected, her successful 2000 Senate race, her loss to Barack Obama in the 2008 primaries, her time as secretary of state and her role in the Benghazi debacle — it’s striking that so much rich material will be excluded even before footage is discarded on the cutting-room floor.

Just consider what we’ll be missing.

Health-Care Gate: In 1997, federal judge Royce Lamberth levied $286,000 in sanctions against Bill Clinton’s administration for “running amok” in a “cover-up” of Hillary Clinton’s health-care task force. The scandal began when deputy White House counsel Vincent Foster made contradictory assertions about the first lady’s job status, in an attempt to keep the work of the task force secret. Foster later committed suicide, and a Secret Service agent saw Hillary Clinton’s chief of staff, Margaret Williams, carry boxes of papers out of Foster’s office before investigators showed up to seal it.

Read More at National Review . By John Fund.

Photo Credit: marcn Creative Commons

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Western Journalism

‘Wolverine’ Review: Hugh Jackman In A Tub, And A Little More

By The Huffington Post News Editors

— Don’t get us wrong. We don’t mean to take anything away from the more substantial qualities of “The Wolverine,” a fairly satisfying if not stellar installment in the saga of the famous mutant that Hugh Jackman’s been playing since, wow, 2000. (For a little perspective, Bill Clinton was still president.)

But let’s just point out that Jackman bares it all in a brief but memorable scene in a bathtub, and the studio would be wise to advertise this scene as much as possible. Because Wolverine is all about Jackman, and not only is the actor in amazing shape, but he’s funny in the scene, too. So why not flaunt it?

Read More…

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Huffington Post

Why Do Famous People Get Paid So Much?

By Kevin Spak

Harry Truman once said he could “never lend myself to any transaction, however respectable, that would commercialize on the prestige and dignity of the office.” But boy has that sentiment ever gone out of style. Bill Clinton made $17 million in speaking fees last year, and Hillary makes $200,000… …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home

Obama Slipping But Still Has Juice

By John Zogby, Contributor Democratic Presidents and Presidential contenders have a long history of bad summers. Jimmy Carter’s only term in office was pretty much undone by his famous “malaise speech” of 1979. Who can forget Michael Dukakis riding in the tank in 1988? Bill Clinton used a sworn deposition before a Special Prosecutor to school Americans on “what the definition of is is”. John Kerry went wind surfing, a sport enjoyed by tens of millions of Americans, while his exemplary military service was picked apart by his opposition and Barack Obama just hasn’t had a good summer yet. …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

Who is Ed Mezvinsky? He’s Chelsea Clinton’s father-in law.

Ed Mezvinsky

Who is Ed Mezvinsky?…

Edward “Ed” Mezvinsky born January 17, 1937, is a former Democrat congressman.

 

As a Democrat, he represented Iowa ‘s 1st congressional district in the United States House of Representatives for two terms,

from 1973 to 1977.

 

He sat on the House Judiciary Committee that decided the fate of Richard Nixon.

 

He and the Clinton’s were very politically intertwined for years.

 

In March 2001, Mezvinsky was indicted and later pleaded guilty to 31 of 69 charges of bank fraud, mail fraud, and wire fraud.

 

He was sentenced to 80 months in (Federal) prison.

 

Ed Mezvinsky embezzled more than $10 million dollars from people via both a Ponzi scheme and the notorious Nigerian e-mail scams.

 

After serving five years in federal prison, he was released in April 2008.  He remained on federal probation through 2011,

and still owes $9.4 million in restitution to his victims.

 

So who is he?

Marc and Chelsea Mezvinsky

He’s Chelsea Clinton’s father-in law.

 

Has anyone heard mention of this in any of the media?

 

If this guy was Jenna or Barbara Bush’s, or better yet, Sarah Palin’s daughter’s, father-in- law, the news would be an everyday headline.

 

Some say there are no double standards in politics .  .  .  Yeah Right…

Barack Obama: George W. Bush Fan Or Foe?

By Peter Brown

Prior to being elected President, Barack Obama came across as a real outsider hoping to bring change to a failing system personified in one man: then-President of the United States George W. Bush. Indeed, much of the criticism leveled against Bush was valid. He and the Congress had started long and costly wars in Afghanistan and Iraq at a time when America could ill afford to be spending such amounts, given the precarious state of its public finances. Bush had made compromises with treasured civil liberties by passing the invasive Patriot Act and indefinitely detaining suspects at Guantanamo Bay. Some of these suspects at Guantanamo Bay had been tortured by the American authorities. George W. Bush had been a combination of the worst traits of Republicans and Democrats; he had combined the aggressive militarism and nationalism of Republicans, hated by many people worldwide, with the free spending ways of the liberal Democrats, leading to the worst public finances this nation had ever seen (that is, before Barack Obama’s presidency). He gave Obama a mess that unfortunately has been further complicated by Obama instead of cleaned up. Indeed, while many admired George W. Bush’s personal decency, as far as policy was concerned, many began to see Bush’s policies for what they were: disasters.

Many of these things should be no mystery to anyone after Obama rightfully criticized Bush over and over again in the 2008 campaign. It has been noted by some writers that Obama’s policies have been very oddly a continuation of much of what Bush’s policies were while he was in office. Of course, there have been differences as one would hope to see between a “conservative” Republican and a far-left Democrat, but the similarities have been uncanny. Obama has continued Bush’s interventionist ways and has compiled a record of spending that matches his largess.

That is why it was no surprise to see Barack Obama get up and roundly praise the man whom he had routinely condemned to get elected. To see him chum around with the former Presidents both left and right showed what a sham his criticisms of Bush had been. Bush was transformed from the almost devilish figure he had been to Obama in his early days to a man of “compassion and generosity,” a real example (in Obama’s eyes) of what a leader should be. It is clear that Barack Obama has joined the “world’s most exclusive club” and has forgotten the very reasons why he wanted to be elected in the first place. It was also no surprise to see George W. Bush praised by Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton in addition to Obama. Maybe this “conservative” President, this “Reaganite,” is a little more to the left than we had assumed. Maybe our current President is a little more of an insider and a statist than he appeared to be in order to get elected to the world’s most powerful office. Food for thought, at least.

F. Peter Brown is an Associate Editor

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Western Journalism

GLAAD Media Awards 2013: Bill Clinton, ‘New Normal’ Honored In Los Angeles

By The Huffington Post News Editors

LOS ANGELES — NBC‘s sitcom “The New Normal,” FX‘s thriller “American Horror Story: Asylum” and NBC‘s daytime drama “Days of Our Lives” took home top TV honors at the 24th annual GLAAD Media Awards held Saturday night in Los Angeles.

The GLAAD awards pay tribute to “inclusive representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and the issues that affect their lives.”

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More on LGBT

From: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/21/glaad-awards-bill-clinton-_n_3126579.html

Video: Obama’s Watergate

By Kris Zane

The story of what happened in Benghazi on September 11, 2012 has been narrated by a schizophrenic.

Or so it seems.

On September 11, 2012, four Americans were murdered in Benghazi: Ambassador Chris Stevens, Communications Specialist Sean Smith, and former SEALS Ty Woods and Glen Doherty.

For weeks, the Obama administration blamed a “protest turned violent” over an amateurish anti-Muslim YouTube video.

Susan Rice hit the Sunday news show circuit with this story—five news shows in one day!

Hillary Clinton crooned for the State Department hit parade, even co-starring with Barry Obama in a $70,000 commercial apologizing to “our Muslim friends in Pakistan” who were rioting and tearing apart their countries because they hated America so much.

And our own rock star President took his “protest turned violent” road show to the United Nations, delivering a long-winded speech about how evil it was for an American citizen to exercise his right to free speech by making the “anti-Muslim” YouTube video.

And as a cherry on top, they imprisoned the producer of the video for so-called “probation violations.” Where the producer of the videoNakoula Basseley Nakoula—now is, God only knows. Obama probably whisked him off to some rendition camp in Karachi.

Well, it turned out that it was a terrorist attack, except no one seemed to know who told Susan Rice, Hillary Clinton, and the President of the United States that it was caused by a YouTube video.

It turned out that Obama was informed that the al-Qaeda-linked group Ansar al-Sharia had claimed responsibility for the attack within two hours.

It turned out from a series of hacked emails from Bill Clinton crony Sidney Blumenthal to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that Ansar al-Sharia attacked the consulate and CIA annex in retaliation for the CIA’s involvement in the Libyan civil war—on Muammar Gaddafi’s side. We also know from a Blumenthal February 16, 2013 email that the attack on the consulate was funded by our so-called allies, the Saudis.

And it turned out that Benghazi was a hub for funneling weapons and cash to the al-Qaeda-linked Syrian rebels.

But this only scratched the surface. There was something much more nefarious going on in Benghazi—if that’s possible—and the Obama administration wanted to keep a tight lid on it.

What was the Obama administration doing in Benghazi that was so top secret, in which the thirty odd survivors have been kept under lock and key, prohibited from speaking to Congress or anyone else for that matter?

We know from the recently published book, Benghazi: The Definitive Report, that Obama’s chief counter terrorism officer at the time, John Brennan—now CIA chief—had been secretly involved in the Libyan civil war. Through a secret black ops unit—operating not only outside the purview of Congress, but outside the purview of the Pentagon and the CIA—John Brennan, like an errant knight over his own fiefdom, conducted his secret war in Libya. And that was just one of the secret wars he was involved in. This while he was a lowly chief counter terrorism

From: http://www.westernjournalism.com/obamas-watergate/

Video: White House Civil War

By Kris Zane

What if the FBI was working against the President of United States?

What if it was the FBI, not a single agent as reported, but an agency-wide operation that was behind leaking information to the GOP establishment about David Petraeus’ affair with Paula Broadwell? What if it was part of an “October Surprise” to pile on top of the September 11 Benghazi consulate attack debacle in order to derail Obama’s chances of winning the 2012 election?

If a hacked email sent from Bill Clinton advisor Sidney Blumenthal to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on November 12, 2012 is to be believed, that is exactly what happened. In an email released on April 5th entitled “Petraeus/October Surprise,” Blumenthal lays out the FBI plan and how Obama, the new “Teflon President,” came out of the debacle unscathed, while the GOP establishment crashed and burned. The FBI, hiding in the shadows, then successfully portrayed the operation as a single FBI “whistleblower,” instead of FBI head Robert Mueller spearheading the operation.

If true, America, there is a civil war going on within our own government.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

From: http://www.westernjournalism.com/white-house-civil-war/

Bank of America Is Sorry It Broke Your Heart

By David Hanson, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

“Life’s better when we’re connected.”

That’s Bank of America‘s fresh slogan and new strategy. After CEO Brian Moynihan talked up Chief Marketing Officer Anne Finucane‘s rebranding efforts for over a year, the bank has begun to try and give its customers more of a warm-and-fuzzy feeling. Perhaps nothing highlights this shift more than the company replacing its former commercial voice-over narrator and intense 24 star Kiefer Sutherland with the lovable comedian Will Arnett in its new TV campaign.

After slowly resolving lawsuit after lawsuit, Moynihan can now shift more of his attention toward putting his money where his mouth has been since he grabbed the top spot at B of A. Moynihan has continuously promoted the bank’s ability to serve any and all of its customers’ and clients’ financial needs.

While the strategy seems obvious, most banks, especially Bank of America, have struggled to shed the image of greedy, self-absorbed entities, an image that became so prevalent after the financial crisis. B of A’s new strategy suggests it realizes that it has been a sub-par partner with so many of its clients, but that it just wants to start fresh and help customers achieve their goal.

Why investors should care
So what does some sappy marketing campaign need mean for investors? It may actually mean more than you think.

The banking sector, particularly Bank of America, is still seen as a rotten egg to many investors. This disgust has led to many investors dumping shares to avoid the stigma of being a shareholder. However, the disgust and avoidance has arguably led the banking sector to become one of the most undervalued sectors in the market.

If Bank of America can slowly build and regain goodwill with its customers and avoid any major strategic blunders, the hate may begin to wane. If the United States is known for anything, it’s the willingness to give second chances (see Bill Clinton and Tiger Woods). As customers and investors both begin to open their hearts and investment portfolios to the once-troubled bank, shares could continue to move higher.

Will it work?
The bank’s ability to execute this strategy in a way that leads to an increase in topline revenue remains in doubt. But for a bank that is trading at a 40% discount to its book value, pressure to rapidly grow revenue may still be years away.

A company’s marketing department is often viewed as the most dispensable asset during tough times and is often scoffed during an investment decision. However, in the current low-interest rate, tepid loan demand, and highly regulated environment for banks, a warm-and-fuzzy ad campaign may be exactly what these vilified banks need.

Despite its stigma, Bank of America’s stock doubled in 2012. Is there more yet to come? With significant challenges still ahead, it’s critical to have a solid understanding of this megabank before adding it to your portfolio. In The Motley Fool’s …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Hillary Clinton To Give First Paid Speech In April: Report

By The Huffington Post News Editors

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will give her first paid speech next month, CNN reported Sunday.

According to the CNN report, Clinton will address the National Multi Housing Council in Dallas, Texas on April 24. While Clinton’s fee for the speech was not disclosed, early reports indicated that the former secretary of state will earn upwards of six figures per speaking engagement. According to Politico, she intends to give some of her earnings to charitable causes.

Clinton joined the Harry Walker Agency last month, adding her name to a roster of high-profile political figures including Al Gore, Dick Cheney, Howard Dean and Karl Rove. Her husband, former president Bill Clinton, is also represented by the agency. In 2011, he earned $13.4 million from speaking engagements.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Huffington Post

Video: Were Saudis Behind Benghazi Attack?

By Kris Zane

The hacker known as Guccifer first came to prominence in February after breaching the AOL email account of Dorothy Bush Koch, the sister of George W. Bush. Guccifer released photos of Bush’s amateurish oil paintings and details regarding the ailing elder Bush. The mainstream media idiotically focused on Bush’s prowess as an artist rather than the fact that the public was being offered a glimpse into the secret world of the elite that pull the levers in American society and the world.

Guccifer’s real treasure, however, came in the form of a series of emails hacked from the AOL account of former Bill Clinton aide Sidney Blumenthal to then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The emails are significant because there is one dated September 12, 2012, which of course was the day after the attack on the Benghazi consulate. Blumenthal cites a number of what can only be called spies throughout the world in order to supply Clinton with a clear picture of current events.

Some jaw-dropping revelations are revealed in the September 12 email, involving the Muslim Brotherhood and the CIA.

First, on the day of the attack on the Benghazi consulate, Libyan President  Mohammed Yussef el Magariaf summoned his advisors to discuss the attack, among them members of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Per the email:

During the afternoon of September 11, 2012 new interim President of Libya Mohammed Yussef el Magariaf spoke in private with senior advisors, including the members of the Libyan Muslim Brotherhood, to discuss the attacks by demonstrators on U.S. missions in Tripoli and Benghazi.

Second, the attack on the Benghazi consulate was in part due to revenge for the CIA supporting the Qaddafi regime.

Third, when Qaddafi was overthrown, the rebels found a treasure trove of documents linking the CIA to the Qaddafi regime.

Again, continuing with the September 12, 2012 email:

At the same time, this individual noted that several of el Magariaf’s advisors share his concerns in this matter, pointing out that the return of Qaddafi’s intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senoussi for trial in Libya has heightened public interest in the liaison relationships conducted by the CIA and British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) with Qaddafi’s intelligence and security services. These same individuals note that they believe Islamist militia forces under the command of General Abdelhakim Belhaj captured files and documents describing this relationship from Qaddafi’s offices in Tripoli.

By February 13, 2013, Blumenthal had discounted the ludicrous “protest turned violent” story regarding the attack on the Benghazi consulate. It was clear according to his sources that it was a terrorist attack by the group Ansar al-Sharia, of which Hillary Clinton early on publicly stated was untrue, despite the al-Qaeda-linked group taking credit for the attack, and despite the fact that this information was sent to the White House Situation Room hours after the attack on the consulate.

According to Blumenthal’s February 16, 2013 email to Clinton, the Benghazi attack was well-planned and well-funded by Saudi billionaires:

The attack…originated with wealthy Sunni Islamists in Saudi Arabia. During July and …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Western Journalism

Clinton’s Take On Gay Marriage Today

By The Huffington Post News Editors

I wrote in No Excuses: Concessions of a Serial Campaigner about Bill Clinton’s 2004 advice to John Kerry that he should consider supporting a ban on same sex marriage. I’m obviously not the only source: Newsweek independently reported the story eight years ago. My book came out six years ago and no one denied the accounts then or since then—until now. A Clinton spokesman told The New York Times that the anecdote was completely false. But the story is true and I stand by it. The long silence speaks more powerfully than a pro forma, convenient denial at this late date.

Read More…
More on Gay Marriage

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Huffington Post

Pfizer Rises to the Occasion and Changes Big Pharma Forever

By Alex Planes, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

On this day in economic and financial history…

Pfizer‘s Viagra (sildenafil citrate), the little blue pill with the big marketing campaign, was first cleared for sale by the FDA on March 27, 1998, becoming the first drug cleared to treat erectile dysfunction in the United States. Originally developed in 1989 at a Pfizer research facility in historic Sandwich, England to treat hypertension and angina pectoris, the drug soon became man’s second-favorite invention to come out of the town of Sandwich when early clinical trials found that it was a lot better at creating erections than curing angina.

Pfizer took the opportunity to penetrate a virtually untapped market. Sildenafil gained a patent in 1996 as it moved through the latter stages of its erectile-dysfunction clinical trials. The drug became a raging success right out of the gate, thrust into the spotlight by one of the first major publicity campaigns ever mounted for a prescription drug. With public figures such as Bob Dole (fresh off his failed 1996 presidential candidacy — you know that if Bill Clinton had lost, he would have been the political pitchman instead) and sports stars like Pele and Rafael Palmeiro promoting it, Viagra became one of Pfizer’s biggest and most durable successes.

In its first year alone, Viagra brought Pfizer a billion dollars in sales. The drug’s smashing success caused several well-endowed competitors to spring up, including Bayer and GlaxoSmithKline‘s Levitra and Eli Lilly’s Cialis. A decade after its introduction, Viagra was producing monster results for Pfizer, accounting for $1.9 billion in annual sales in 2009. Shortly afterward, the global market for erectile dysfunction surpassed $5 billion in cumulative revenue. It was six years after Viagra’s FDA approval that the Dow Jones Industrial Average added Pfizer to its ranks, an acknowledgment of the drugmaker’s impressive quadrupling of revenue over that short time frame.

Viagra couldn’t maintain its position as the market leader forever: Cialis passed the ED pioneer about 12 years after its FDA approval. However, its influence on the drug industry has been more important than its impact on Pfizer’s bottom line. Sales and marketing have become a much larger part of pharmaceutical companies’ strategies, and roughly 30% of the industry’s expenses are sales- and marketing-related. In some cases, drugmakers spend more on marketing than on research and development! Viagra isn’t set to lose its patent protection until 2019, but with 20 million American men already familiar with it, the drug is likely to remain a blockbuster for years to come.

Polyethylene Pam
Viagra wasn’t the only British chemical with a major March 27 milestone. Research chemists Reginald Gibson and Eric Fawcett, working at Imperial Chemical Industries, accidentally discovered the plastic polyethylene on March 27, 1933. Faulty equipment had introduced unwanted oxygen to a reaction of ethylene and benzaldehyde, creating a lump of plastic substance that held promising opportunities. Within three years, polyethylene …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Former Presidents Cost Taxpayers Big

Presidents Bush and Clinton

AFP / Getty Images

In addition to George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter are federally-subsidized — and the tally isn’t cheap. President who cost $1.3 million last year

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at AOL

The Men Who Run WPP

By Tony Reading, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

LONDON — Management can make all the difference to a company’s success and thus its share price.

The best companies are those run by talented and experienced leaders with strong vested interests in the success of the business, held in check by a board with sound financial and business acumen. Some of the worst investments to hold are those run by executives collecting fat rewards as the underlying business goes to pot.

In this series, I’m assessing the boardrooms of companies within the FTSE 100. I hope to separate the management teams that are worth following from those that are not. Today, I am looking at WPP  .

Here are the key directors:

Director

Position

Philip Lader

(non-exec) Chairman

Sir Martin Sorrell

Chief Executive

Paul Richardson

Finance Director

Mark Read

Strategy Director

Chairman since 2001, Philip Lader is the former U.S. Ambassador to the U.K., prior to which he served as Bill Clinton‘s deputy chief of staff. A lawyer, he once worked for Sir James Goldsmith and can probably open as many doors as any FTSE chairman.

Less is more
WPP‘s website contains brief biographies of each director — except it has just a two-line CV for the CEO, informing investors that Sir Martin Sorrell joined WPP as CEO in 1986 and is a non-exec of Formula One and Alcoa.

That clever bit of marketing underlines that Sir Martin Sorrell is one of Britain’s best-known businessmen. Last year, he was named Britain’s most admired leader by Management Today.

Of course Sir Martin didn’t just “join” WPP. After seven years as finance director of Saatchi and Saatchi, he bought into the corporate shell Wire and Plastics Products and turned it into a holding company for a collection of advertising and PR agencies, with audacious hostile takeovers of J Walter Thomson and Ogilvy and Mather.

More for less
While WPP has grown to be one of the three big global players in the advertising market, and Sir Martin is recognized as an eminence grise of the sector, shareholders have had a more variable experience over the course of his tenure. The group was nearly bankrupted by the Ogilvy and Mather acquisition.

Sir Martin‘s remuneration package, worth 13 million pounds last year, came under fire in the Shareholder Spring with 60% of shareholders voting against the remuneration report. He has built up 200 million pounds’ worth of shares.

Long serving
WPP‘s other executive directors are also long serving. Paul Richardson has been finance director since 1996, after three years as treasurer. A chartered accountant, he was deputy treasurer of Hanson and has described himself as “technically very strong” in tax and treasury, complimenting Sir Martin‘s M&A skills.

Mark Read has been with the company since 1989, apart from a seven-year stint as a Booz Allen consultant between 1995 and 2002. He’s been on the board since 2005.

WPP‘s non-execs are drawn from around the globe and have an impressive array of diverse backgrounds.

I analyze management teams from five different angles to work out a verdict. Here’s my assessment:

1. Reputation. Management CVs …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance