Rapper, actor and producer Snoop Dogg may be a convicted felon as well as a hip-hop impresario, but he is a well-connected one – boasting indirect ties to some of America’s most powerful bluebloods.

With all the hand-wringing about the domination of American politics by members of the Bush and Clinton dynasties, there has been scant attention paid to another lapsing political dynasty – that of the infamous Skull and Bones Society.
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When Scott McClellan was named George Bush’s White House press secretary in 2003, The New York Times referred to his “tell-all-dad,” Barr McClellan.

Edward W. Gillespie, counselor to President Bush, is no stranger to controversy.

One Muckety user found that George W. Bush can actually be connected to the hit teen TV drama Gossip Girl.

Casting has begun for Oliver Stone’s upcoming film W., which will tell the story of George W. Bush’s early years.

While he hasn’t been nominated for any Academy Awards, Josh Brolin may be the actor most connected to the current Oscar nominees.

Brolin obviously made good choices, taking roles in three films with Oscar nominations. He appeared in No Country for Old Men, which was one of the most nominated films of the year, taking eight Academy Awards noms, including best motion picture and best director.

Brolin had a role in In the Valley of Elah, in which Tommy Lee Jones is up for best actor. He also appears opposite Denzel Washington in American Gangster, which picked up two nominations. (Story continues below interactive map.)

It was a story of connections. But were they real?

“Hillary’s Mystery Money Men,” first appeared on the website the Real News Project on Oct. 18.

The story was then reprinted in the Nov. 5 issue of The Nation and it has circulated widely on the Internet.

It either opens a window on to a significant shift of a controversial Republican money man to the Democratic camp, or it overstates the actions of a hedge-fund savvy financier who may have been hedging his bets by contributing to several candidates.

The piece by Russ Baker and Adam Federman argues that “notorious financier Alan Quasha” was a secret force behind the presidential campaign of New York’s Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

In the early 1970s you couldn’t have a better opponent than Richard Nixon.

Indeed, when the embattled president’s
Enemies List became public, there was no complaining from those who made the cut.

Newsman Daniel Schorr and actor/activist Paul Newman treated their inclusion like a badge of honor. To have Nixon against you was to have the world for you.

These days, the best possible seal of disapproval might come from Christopher Hitchens, the erudite, outrageous, provocative, witty and indefatigable contrarian.

We’ve come to expect political dynasties. They’re a fact of life in the U.S., perhaps even more than royal succession is in the modern UK.