Free Republic

Americans' broad views about corporate spending in elections generally accord with the Supreme Court's decision Thursday that abolished some decades-old restrictions on corporate political activity. Fifty-seven percent of Americans consider campaign donations to be a protected form of free speech, and 55% say corporate and union donations should be treated the same way under the law as donations from individuals are. At the same time, the majority think it is more important to limit campaign donations than to protect this free-speech right. The free-speech question elicits uncommon agreement across party lines. More than 6 in 10 Republicans and Democrats believe...

Just when we thought it was all over, the ACORN Pimp/Hooker Scandal rises again. Our heroes, Hannah Giles and James O' Keefe the fake pimp and hooker were in Philadelphia meeting with the folks at ACORN. Next Stop, Sunny Los Angeles. The first tape released from the ACORN of sunny LA was of Felix Harris Mr. Harris didn’t care about that the two were involved with prostitution in regards to a housing loan, but when the O'Keefe/Giles team started talking about underage girls, he said that ACORN did not get involved with things like that. Felix was the only person...

Abstract: The runoff for a U.S. Senate seat in Georgia is providing a stark example of how candidates in the 2008 election have been able to skirt campaign-finance limits -- without actually breaking the law. Federal campaign-finance law limits individuals to donating $2,300 to a candidate per election. Yet Republicans and Democrats are soliciting donations more than 10 times that amount for the Dec. 2 runoff in Georgia. GOP fund-raisers are asking people to give as much as $65,500 toward incumbent Sen. Saxby Chambliss's campaign, while Democrats are seeking donations up to $30,800 for challenger Jim Martin. So how are...

It's clear that this crappy bill helped us lose this election. Its time to start funding some Republican lawyers to help fund a test-case to overturn this turd of a law and even the playing field against these foreign-financed liberals. Sorry Mac, but you already lost us an election. You're not going to make us lose any more.

Sen. Barack Obama, whose campaign has sharply criticized the role of outside political groups in the presidential race, has benefited more than any other candidate from millions of dollars in independent political expenditures, records show. The increasing support for Mr. Obama has given him a boost from the same sort of political activity his campaign has railed against, especially when millions of dollars in union and other special-interest money backed his opponents. The political arm of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and other independent groups have spent more than $7.1 million directly supporting the Illinois Democrat's bid for the...

As GOP attacks mount on the issue of Senator Obama’s ties to Political Action Committees and Lobbyists, Obama’s campaign has undergone little scrutiny on his long-standing ties to the financial and banking community. In Obama’s speeches across the country he has repeatedly criticized the Bush administration for allowing “evil” subprime mortgage lenders and investment banks to lead this county into our current mortgage meltdown. Obama’s rhetoric on the mortgage crisis has been pointed and blunt, as stated on his own campaign website, “Obama will crack down on fraudulent brokers and lenders…Obama has been closely monitoring the subprime mortgage situation for...

WASHINGTON — Running out of high-dollar donors, Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign is stepping up its Internet appeals in hopes of attracting enough contributions to keep afloat financially in the last stretch of Democratic primaries, aides say. As the marathon money chase has strained the limits of traditional campaign fundraising, Clinton aides have sought increasingly to shadow rival Barack Obama's Internet juggernaut that has raised more than $112 million via the Web, Through March 31, Clinton had corralled 70 percent of her $148 million in individual primary donations in amounts over $200, including $82 million from those giving between $1,000 and...

Despite his previous pledge to enter into the public financing system should he be the Democratic presidential nominee, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., has recently been reluctant to re-commit to entering the system. This reluctance has coincided with his primary, caucus, and fundraising successes. For that reluctance, Obama has been hammered as hypocritical by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., not to mention impartial observers. Tonight at a fundraiser in Washington, D.C., at the National Museum of Women in the Arts -- at a $2,300-per-person event for 200 people held before a $1,000-per-person reception for 350 people -- Obama previewed his argument to...

A year after its founding, Democratic Alliance has become a major power in the liberal movement, directing more than $50 million to liberal think tanks and advocacy groups in a campaign to better compete against conservatives. The Alliance was formed last year with major support from billionaire George Soros and software mogul Tim Gill. The identities of its members are closely guarded, but the group now includes nearly 100 of the nation’s wealthiest political contributors, the Washington Post reports. The group was organized, according to its founders, in the belief "that Democrats became the minority party in part because liberals...

Friday, March 25, 2005 10:57 p.m. EST Greer Got Donation From Mike Schiavo's Lawyer Reclaiming America, an organization backed by Rev. D. James Kennedy, reported that a serious conflict of interest may exist for the Fla. State Judge who is ruling on the Terri Schiavo case. The report from Reclaiming America follows: As if the circumstances surrounding Terri Schiavo could not get any more suspicious, the Center for Reclaiming America has uncovered evidence that Pinellas-Pasco County Circuit Judge George W. Greer accepted a campaign contribution from the law firm of Michael Schiavo’s attorney only one day after "Terri’s Law” was...

Minnesota campaign finance authorities imposed a record fine Tuesday on a political "527" group that spent money in Minnesota on behalf of DFL House candidates and young-voter turnout. Citing a failure by the 21st Century Democrats to adhere to disclosure laws, the Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board imposed fines of $292,500 on a 21st Century Minnesota committee and $25,000 on its parent national committee. 21st Century Democrats has been in the spotlight lately because it raised $300,000 from Matt Entenza, Minnesota House DFL minority leader. The board's statement does not name Entenza, nor does he appear to have any...

For book lovers out there who are still stubbornly insisting that the rise of Christian fundamentalism homophobic right wing government is not necessarily a good thing, I bring glad tidings: You can do something about it and simultaneously take care of all your holiday book shopping needs, thanks to a new website that reveals the political donations of major retailers. For example, wondering whether to buy books online at Amazon.com or at BarnesandNoble.com? Does it make the decision easier for you to know that 98% of B&N's corporate political donations went to the Democrats, while 61% of Amazon's went to...

WASHINGTON (AP)--A South Korean man who met with John Kerry's fund-raisers to discuss creating a new political group for Korean-Americans was an intelligence agent for his country, raising concerns among some U.S. officials that either he or his government may have tried to influence this fall's election. South Korean officials and U.S. officials told The Associated Press that Chung Byung-Man, a consular officer in Los Angeles, actually worked for South Korea's National Intelligence Service. A spokesman for the South Korean consulate office said Chung was sent home in May amid "speculation" he became involved with the Kerry campaign and...

By Danna HarmanThe Christian Science Monitor One of the first jobs he found when he arrived in London from Budapest in 1947, practically penniless and speaking little English, was as a traveling salesman. The young George Soros would try to sell knickknacks to tobacconists — unsuccessfully, as he recalls. His girlfriend left him because he seemed to have no future. He missed his parents. It rained incessantly. Then America beckoned. It was a kind of place, he thought, where he might feel at home. Basically, he says, with characteristic bluntness, "I came to make money." And make money he did....

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - California's lieutenant governor paid a record $263,000 fine for violating campaign donation limits in his run against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the state's political watchdog agency said Tuesday. California's Fair Political Practices Commission charged in a civil lawsuit filed in January that Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante and his supporters improperly moved $3.8 million between campaign committees during the recall election in an effort to skirt contribution limits. Although agency officials have said Bustamante faced fines of as much as $9 million, the $263,000 settlement is still the largest ever paid in California by a candidate. The agreement...

<p>WASHINGTON — Howard Dean (search) is crying foul over John Kerry's (search) acceptance of donations from former New Jersey Sen. Robert Torricelli (search), who was investigated by the Justice Department for giving huge gifts to a former donor who pleaded guilty to fund-raising abuses.</p>

<p>WASHINGTON — Once written off as a Democratic presidential contender, John Kerry survived to become the front-runner thanks to a $6.4 million Christmas Eve loan he made to his campaign.</p> <p>"There are a limited number of ways he can pay off that loan, and it's a fair question to ask what he intends to do," says Larry Noble, director of the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, which studies money in politics.</p>

Democrats are counting on Sen. John Kerry's military credentials to convince voters that he can be trusted with America's national security. But documents that surfaced over the weekend raise serious questions about whether Kerry was duped in the 1990s into helping the Chinese military perfect its ability to strike the U.S. with nuclear weapons. In 1996 Kerry met with Liu Chaoying, the daughter of a powerful Chinese military official who also doubled as vice president of a subsidiary of the state-owned China Aerospace Corp. Before the meeting, held in Kerry's Senate office, Liu's sponsor, Johnny Chung, made clear she was...

Buying access © 2000 WorldNetDaily.com With the release of a two-year-old confidential report to Attorney General Janet Reno exposing the agency's protective cover of President and Mrs. Clinton in the 1996 campaign finance scandal, I believe it is high time the report's author, Chuck LaBella, be given public praise. You see, I met with LaBella during my involvement in the scandal and gave him information critical to his report. On March 9, 1998, I pled guilty to violations of campaign finance laws before Federal Judge Manuel Real. A few days after the proceeding, I was approached at a private club in downtown...

<p>Dec. 10 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush, who has raised three times as much money as the Democrats' Howard Dean for the 2004 election, can probably increase his fund-raising lead thanks to a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.</p>

Last modified December 9, 2003 - 12:00 am New campaign financing law benefits wealthy individuals Associated Press WASHINGTON - Though companies and unions are now banned from financing last-minute election ads, wealthy individuals already are writing big checks that will give them a voice on the airwaves in the final days before voters pick candidates. An exemption in the nation's campaign finance law allows well-heeled people to give unlimited amounts to certain tax-exempt, unincorporated groups to pay for TV and radio ads targeting candidates just before elections. The option is so attractive that some traditional political groups, such as the...

My daughter has a question as she prepares for her finals tomorrow in her First Amendment class. It is relating to campaign finance law and government restrictions on expendutures and contributions in the 1976 case of Buckley vs. Valeo. She doesn't understand the difference between individual contributions to candidates and independant individual expenditures relative to a clearly identified candidate. It seems that the court allows a limit on contributions but doesn't allow a limit on expenditures. She doesn't know how to tell the difference between individual contributions and individual expenditures. Also, she is confused about the difference between soft and...

and a number of other wealthy Americans are contributing millions of dollars to grass-roots organizations engaged in the 2004 presidential election. We are deeply concerned with the direction in which the Bush administration is taking the United States and the world. If Americans reject the president's policies at the polls, we can write off the Bush Doctrine as a temporary aberration and resume our rightful place in the world. If we endorse those policies, we shall have to live with the hostility of the world and endure a vicious cycle of escalating violence. In this effort, I have committed $10...

Mon September 29, 2003 10:02 AM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A man affiliated with at least two American Muslim groups has been arrested on criminal charges, federal law enforcement officials said on Monday. They confirmed a report by Al Jazeera, the Arabic satellite channel, that Abdul Rahman al-Amoudi has been arrested. They declined to give details of the charges against him. Muslim activists described him as one of the founders of a group called the American Muslim Armed Forces and Veteran Affairs Council and a board member of another Washington, D.C.-based group called the American Muslim Council. The officials said...

REPEAL THE 17TH AMENDMENT ByJohn MacMullinAfter the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the federal government announced that it would preempt all state jurisdiction over airport security.  The federal government preempted state powers without regard to balancing federal and state responsibilities so that these responsibilities, and related costs, could be distributed across federal, state, and local governments.  To carry out this preemption, the federal government recently reported that it will employ more than 47,000 federal recruits in the fight against terrorism as newly trained security screeners.  They are to begin working at 424 airports nationwide. These developments, and numerous others in the...

House arrest for lawmaker extradited to US MIAMI: A Philippine lawmaker accused of tax evasion and making illegal campaign contributions to US politicians can post bail but will be under 24-hour house arrest in Florida until trial, a US judge ruled on Tuesday. Despite arguments from US prosecutors that Mark Jimenez should be kept in jail because he might flee and “cannot be trusted,” US Magistrate Ted Bandstra set a series of conditions meant to allow the congressman to be freed but keep him on a tight leash. Jimenez, who turned 56 on Tuesday, arrived in Miami on Sunday to...

Filed at 5:50 p.m. ET WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democrats who cast what some considered a politically risky vote -- opposing the resolution authorizing use of force against Iraq -- are getting a financial reward for their troubles. MoveOnPAC.org, an Internet site, raised more than $1 million this week for four members of Congress that the group calls ``heroes.'' The biggest recipient is Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., who hauled in nearly $600,000 after the MoveOn Web site started soliciting donations on Monday, said Wes Boyd, who co-founded the San Francisco-based site and serves as treasurer of its political action committee. Democratic...

HERALD-LEADER FRANKFORT BUREAU FRANKFORT - Gov. Paul Patton told Senate President David Williams yesterday that he sees no reason to spend more time and money on a special legislative session to break the budget impasse unless Republicans change their position on public financing for campaigns for governor. But Patton also told Wil-liams that the Senate leader's comments on a radio show yesterday and in a letter last week indicated that such an agreement "does not appear likely." The Democratic governor, in a letter to Williams, a Republican, said he is willing to meet with legislative leaders to discuss the budget,...

<p>U.S. Sen. Tim Johnson on Saturday called for Congress to act this week in passing campaign finance legislation, charging that the amount of money in the U.S. political system creates a corrupting influence.</p> <p>Johnson, D-S.D., delivered the Democrat Party response to President Bush's regular weekly radio address. The president focused on U.S. educational aid for Afghanistan. Johnson took aim at the system he says can provide influence on legislation or draw "special treatment from the White House."</p>