Norman Hsu jumped bail in 1992 and was on the lam for fifteen years. He jumped bail again just last week. I'm amazed that the D.A. didn't ask that he be denied bail and held on remand. That seems like a no-brainer to me. Instead, the D.A. asked for $50 million and got $5 million:

GRAND JUNCTION – Fugitive investor and Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu, whose flight from a 1992 grand theft conviction and subsequent campaign donations roiled the presidential race, was ordered held on a record $5 million cash-only bail by a Mesa County judge at a hearing Thursday.

Not only is Hsu an obvious flight risk — plenty of reason to deny bail — but he's purported to be a danger to himself as well:

Mesa County District Attorney Pete Hautzinger disclosed in court that Hsu had mailed a letter to a New York legal organization, the Innocence Project, indicating "he was thinking of harming himself."

A person who saw the letter told The Associated Press on Thursday that the note explicitly stated that Hsu "intended to commit suicide." …

In arguing for higher bail, Hautzinger mentioned the letter Hsu sent to the Innocence Project and others, saying it showed Hsu was "despondent and may hurt himself."

I say "purported" because — given that this case involves the Clintons and allegations of wrongdoing, and that Hsu became mysteriously ill on the train — I can't help but wonder who wrote this alleged suicide note.

The Hsu story got even more interesting the other day when it turned out that one of Hsu's bogus companies recently got $40 million from Source Financing, an investment firm run by Woodstock producer Joel Rosenman, and that Rosenman, members of his family, and others at Source Financing had also recently made significant contributions to the Clinton campaign.

A commenter, Michael, at Inoperable Terran listed some "strange facts" related to the case:

I don't have time to check all of those, but Sen. Clinton apparently did include an earmark for a Woodstock museum in the 2008 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations bill (emphasis from Flopping Aces):

$1 million for the Museum at Bethel Woods, which is dedicated to recreating the 1969 Woodstock Music Festival experience and will feature “An interpretation of the 1969 Woodstock Music & Arts Fair” exhibit in 2008, according to the museum’s website. The earmark is at the request of New York Senators Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer.

Limbaugh discussed this yesterday (link will probably stop working in a few days), and repeated something he's said many times: "Nothing that happens with the Clintons is a coincidence."

From the Rocky Mountain News:

Norman Hsu, the fugitive Democratic fundraiser who jumped a $2 million bail and skipped a California hearing on a felony theft conviction, is under armed guard at a Grand Junction hospital today.

Depending on his health, Hsu, 56, was to appear before a federal magistrate in Grand Junction this afternoon on unlawful flight charges.

Then he would face extradition to California where state authorities say Hsu is facing a three-year prison term under a 1992 plea agreement.

From Grand Junction's KJCT8 News: 

A 911 call went over the scanner around 11 am MST Thursday, reporting a man who could not feel his legs, and the need for extraction from the train.

When our reporter arrived on scene the conductor said that it appeared to simply be an elderly man with dementia. That man turned out to be Hsu, who did walk off the train under his own power.

In case you missed it, Hsu (pronounced "shoe") is one of the top Democratic fundraisers (albeit a very low-profile one until now), contributing millions to the coffers of candidates and committees across the country. He's raised more than a million dollars for Hillary Clinton alone. Hsu is a "bundler," combining the checks from many individuals into a "bundled" contribution to a campaign. Bundling is legal, as long as the money is actually coming from the many individuals, and they're not just being used as "straw men" to evade contribution limits or hide illegal sources.

The Wall Street Journal and others have found evidence of coordinated contributions from people associated with Hsu who seem unlikely donors. For instance, the Paw family of San Francisco, living in a modest bungalow near the airport, contributed $200,000 since 2004 to Democrats all over the country ($45,000 to Hillary) — more per year than Mr. Paw's $49,000 mail carrier salary. A New York woman who lists her profession as "self-employed actress" gave $40,000.

Since Hsu's status as a felon and fugitive became known, recipients have been trying to distance themselves without giving up too much of the money. For instance, Clinton is donating Hsu's $22,000 to charity, but she's keeping the $150,000 that came from the Paws and other suspicious associates of Hsu.

Given the Clinton history regarding Chinese-American fundraisers, one can't help but wonder if Hsu is using these unlikely donors to launder money from persons of a foreign persuasion. Don't forget Hillary's other fugitive fundraiser, Abdul Jinnah. And then there was the Peter Paul affair. Now, she seems to have hooked up with yet another fundraiser with a shady past, involving racketeering, extortion, and vote fraud.

The persistent stories about how the Clintons have operated going back to the Arkansas days leave one wondering, too, about Hsu's sudden and curious health problem. He couldn't feel his legs and appeared demented? Hmm… Be careful what you eat or drink, Norm.

UPDATE: Gateway Pundit has a good summary, some original reporting, and a link to an interesting AmSpecBlog post. News stories have described Hsu as a successful businessman in the apparel trade, but Philip Klein was unable to locate any trace of the four Hsu companies listed in campaign finance reports. At least one has a non-existent address. Hsu himself has used at least one suspicious address in filings — he made donations from the Fifth Avenue apartment both before and after it changed hands in 2005.