any one know?

Read down the list, and most of the really big spenders have the word "Foundation" in their names. Foundation adter foundation after foundation, giving money to the, yes, William J. Clinton Foundation.

Usually when you think of a "foundation" giving money away, it's to actually, you know, do something. Grants for medical research, for feeding the hungry, for improving schools, that kind of thing. And a lot of people write checks to the Such-And-Such Foundation assuming that their money will be used for such good causes.

Are they all just shuffling money around? And how much of that money disappears in administrative costs, every time one foundation gives another foundation a big chunk of change? Perhaps I should found the Foundation Foundation. "Give us money to feed the poor, starving foundations of the world! Don't worry about the specifics; we'll take care of it. You can trust us -- we're a Foundation!"

That's what they're raising money for. The beasts!

http://www.clintonfoundation.org/index.htm?gclid=CM-UnqHlhY8CFSAZIwodcjFuwQ

Hunt around. You might want to give to some of the causes yourselves.

What the hell is wrong with you people? You have some perfectly good candidates. Write stuff about Obama or Edwards or Kucinich. Write stuff about how crazy the GOP candidates are, and hunt around for the scandals there, and there are lots of them. Write stuff about how Hillary is too centrist, or how this vote or that speech is the wrong approach. What the hell is the compulsion to start acting like the wingnuts of the '90s, unable to stop the Clintons so you hunt and peck for scandal after scandal? You're very sad people.

... I think you may have misinterpreted my letter. I wasn't saying nasty things specifically about the WJCF or the Clintons themselves. What I was going after was the odd spectacle of large, rich charitable foundations giving money to each other rather than the causes they were established to support. And it's fair to ask how much money gets absorbed by administrative costs in such transfers -- if there's one lesson to be learned from the modern economy, it's that any time there's an opportunity for a middleman to skim something off the top, someone will appear to fill that role.

You missed the big donor - the royal family of Saudi Arabia - who was also the big donor for George H.W. Bush's library at Texas A&M.

I misinterpreted your article as well. When you say the Clintons are hiding the source of their donors, it reads as if there is some nefarious cause supporting them.

And "questions of conflicts of interest"? Don't you think you're jumping the gun? Maybe if Hillary were elected and then appointed her largest donors to positions in charge of regulating their own industry, or included them in closed-door policy talks.

If you're going to raise questions about whether it's ethical and economical for foundations to do money transfers, please cite some data. I would assume that nominal overhead fees aside, it's vital for a foundation like Gates' to support political oriented foundations in order to meet it's objectives. How can you further the cause of alleviating overpopulation, assisting with family planning, and raising the health standards in the poorest nations if the only people elected to government will do everything in their power to stop you?

Jason

I can't figure.

My rural neighbors can't afford a frying skillet or pot to cook a worn down hen. Community members come to my small family farm to report the price of roadside tin cans is down from 70- cents to 60-cents. Then they ask me and my poor son what the price is of a bushel of plum-seconds- canning tomatoes?

O, just pick and take them rotten 'matters for free.

I'm not able to afford break-pad-shoes for a trip to the Hagerstown or Washington D.C. You gotta be kidding me? What is wrong with this dying world and economy? Well, Jefferson said when the countryside landscapes don't speckle with agrarian small family farms- Trouble.

It ain't these so-well to do that are the link that hold the world together, that's for sure. If I send or throw a bushel of plum 'matters, will it show up on the photo? Or, how about some winter keeper red beets? I'd love to be listed at the bottom of that list.

Blueberry Hill (organic) Vegetable Farm- 1 bushel of old fashioned unwashed Detroit beets. I'll toss in a quart of multi-colored Nasturtium Flowers for some good luck to those poor donors.

Poor William J. Clinton and his struggling Foundation. Good gad grief.

Plant clover.

Is Salon moving the goalposts on the Clintons, or just building new ones? Might it be "as the campaign heats up" (as Hillary pulls away, oblivious to offical media senerio) new "Clinton rules" must be created. One needs to ask, is the situaltion really new, or just Salon's strech to find "percived" conflicts of interest? The cartoon of bill with an apron stuffed with money really speaks to Salon's seriousness and objectivity.

When the Bill Gates foundation gets Billions in no bid contracts to set up private security firms and invade other countrys, give me a call.....

If Clinton can get more corporations and other foundations to give money to help the poor - more power to him. He is using his celebrity for good and more people should do likewise.

I'm not sure that I understand the point of this article. The Clinton Foundation has raised a lot of money? A lot of people will pay a lot of money to hear the former leader of the free world, who is by all accounts a charismatic and excellent public speaker, give a speech? His rate seems to be about $125k... is this higher than other people of his stature? I doubt it. When I was in college it cost more than this to book a top band on campus, and that was 10 years ago.

Is there supposed to be something nefarious here? I've worked with a nonprofit who worked closely with the Clinton Foundation and that money does a lot of good. Foundations often give money to other foundations, because specific foundations usually have very limited goals and abilities. And another foundation might be better situated to accomplish something. The Clinton and the Gates Foundations do a lot of similar stuff, but they each have their own infrastructure, talent, and contacts in the countries that they help. So it makes sense that they give eachother money, to ensure that the money is put to the best possible use. I believe that Warren Buffet's foundation also works closely with both the Gates and the Clinton Foundation.