Free Republic

What are the tax implications of the zombie apocalypse? The only certainties in life are death and taxes, but how do you handle the taxes when death doesn't go quite as planned? Law professor Adam Chodorow takes a stab at estate planning for the undead in perhaps the only legal paper to cite both the Internal Revenue Code and Weekend at Bernie's II. Chodorow, a professor at Arizona State University's Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, authored the paper "Death and Taxes...and Zombies," which will appear in a forthcoming issue of the Iowa Law Review. Chodorow notes that, while the...

 Our Debt to the Catholic Churchby Sebastian R. Fama Attacks on the Catholic Church have never been in short supply. The Church’s critics have been maligning her and predicting her demise for centuries. While those same critics fade off into history one by one, the Church continues on in her mission, sometimes shaken but never defeated. Whenever scandals arise in the Church gleeful detractors try to portray the aberration as the norm. Starting with Judas, the Church has always had within its walls those who would betray Christ. However, to focus on such individuals while ignoring those who take their...

Today the Journal Sentinel is launching an interactive page that will allow you to explore contributions to candidates and political action committees in the gubernatorial recall election on June 5. With it, you can compare campaign contributions to any of the candidates or PACs that have raised money in the recall election through January, which was the last filing deadline. We will update the data as committees submit additional filings. After you choose two committees you would like to compare, interactive maps will show how much money each candidate received from each state. For instance, if you choose the political...

Sometimes, good intentions bring bad results. Such is the case with the so-called Stop Special Interest Money Now initiative – a promise to fix what ails California politics by unconstitutionally muzzling someone else's freedom of speech. What could go wrong? . . . The Stop Special Interest Money Now initiative is another well-intentioned infringement of Americans' basic rights. There is a reason freedom of speech was part of the first amendment to the Constitution. The freedom to speak on political matters, especially when offensive to those in power, was one of the basic rights American revolutionaries fought and died for....

Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson contributed another $5.5 million to Winning Our Future, the super-PAC supporting Newt Gingrich, according to Federal Election Commission documents filed Tuesday. The former House Speaker has vowed to stay in the race until the Tampa, Fla., convention in August, and denies that he’s only being kept afloat by the large donations from Adelson. “I have 176,000 supporters at newt.org — they want me to stay in the race. I really represent their interests as individuals," he told CBS last week, claiming that "95 percent have given less than $250" — meaning they haven't hit their legal...

"Obama for America can accept contributions from an individual of up to $2,500 per federal election (the primary and general are separate elections). " How is it, then, that Vince Carter can host 40 people at his home for a $30k per plate dinner to ' support the Barack Obama Victory Fund"? That's $1.2 mil. What allows him to donate one sum and I am legally bound in the limits of what I can give? Is this 'bundling' and, if not, what is it and what's the difference, please?

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Supreme Court rejected on Monday a free-speech challenge to the longtime ban on campaign contributions by foreign citizens who temporarily live and work in the United States. The justices affirmed a ruling by a three-judge federal panel that upheld the ban adopted by Congress to keep foreigners from financially influencing U.S. elections. The court's last federal campaign finance law ruling was in January 2010, when it gave corporations the free-speech right to spend freely to support or oppose candidates. PresidentBarack Obama and fellow Democrats in Congress criticized that ruling while Republicans praised it. The new challenge...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama's re-election campaign and the Democratic National Committee have returned more than $70,000 in contributions from former New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine following the collapse of MF Global, Corzine's financial firm, officials said Friday. Obama's campaign and the DNC returned contributions of $35,800 from Corzine and his wife, Sharon Elghanayan, said Democratic officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. They were not authorized to speak publicly. Corzine was among Obama's top fundraisers, raising at least $500,000 for Obama's re-election campaign since April, according to records released by the campaign. The former Goldman Sachs chief held...

Mr. Cain raised more than $5 million through September. Information on the financial activity since that time won’t be disclosed until January, but the campaign said it raised $9 million over a few weeks alone. The funds allowed Mr. Cain and associates to dine and travel in style, using $350,000 on private chartered air in a few weeks, spending thousands at hotels such as the Ritz-Carlton and the Four Seasons, and eating largely steak dinners, records show. One of the campaign’s top recipients was T.H.E New Voice, a company set up to sell Mr. Cain’s books and motivational talks, which...

Cain campaign spokesman JD Gordon said Friday the campaign was projecting close to $5 million in contributions for the month of October alone. That compares to $2.8 million in three months ending in September, the last quarterly period that Cain's campaign filed fundraising reports with the Federal Election Commission

I met Utah’s Governor Jon Huntsman and his wife Mary Kaye at an event in Las Vegas. My wife Sandie Tillotson had arranged for us to sit in the VIP section with them. Huntsman was a good friend of NuSkin, and helped open the lucrative Chinese market when he was a Trade Representative ... for the Bush Administration. MLM companies had tried to get into China for years, but NuSkin was the first, and Sandie said it was because of Hunstman. Of course it went both ways, and NuSkin was a good friend to Hunstman, and Sandie said she sent...

Over the past couple of months I’ve exchanged e-mails with a gentleman (let’s call him John) who was a bundler in 2008 for Barack Obama. He’s begged off this time around and is searching for a presidential candidate. He’s Jewish and says that over the years he has shifted back and forth between support for Republican and Democratic candidates. No longer. Now, it’s not Israel that pushed him over the edge. He told me, “Although I felt Obama has grossly mishandled Israel (perhaps more in form than actual substance), I cannot honestly say that this was a major factor.”

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz on today's Neil Cavuto show states he is unsatisfied with politicians ability to run the country and wants all corporations to withhold campaign contributions to both parties. Already many companies have decided to withhold their contributions.

Top 10 Industry Contributors to Super Committee Members Industry Totals Lawyers/Law Firms $31,529,149 Securities & Investment         $11,221,416 Democratic/Liberal $9,647,264 Health Professionals $9,321,588 Real Estate $8,793,350 Education $8,568,460 Misc. Business $7,902,021 Business Services $6,563,524 Women's Issues $6,396,728 Insurance $5,693,595

<p>John Edwards' 2008 presidential campaign must repay $2.3 million in federal campaign funds, the Federal Election Commission ruled Thursday.</p> <p>The funds had been paid to Edwards' campaign committee by the Presidential Election Campaign Fund, which matches funds privately raised by a campaign. An FEC audit found that the Edwards campaign received more than it should have because of accounting errors.</p>

Gov. Rick Perry spoke Sunday at a summit hosted by the billionaire Koch brothers near Vail, Colorado. Perry spokesman....described the Colorado summit as a “private gathering of business leaders” and said it was not related to a possible presidential campaign. “This was an opportunity to talk about the economic success in Texas,” Miner said, adding that it was no different than other speeches Perry gives touting the Texas job record. Charles and David Koch of Koch Industries, an energy conglomerate based in Kansas, are among the country’s leading financial backers of conservative candidates and causes. The Denver Post has more...

Government: Under the guise of rooting out Chicago-style political corruption from government contracting, President Obama seems intent on signing an executive order that would enshrine it. Last month, the White House drafted an order that would require any company bidding on a federal contract to disclose not only its company donations to federal candidates going back two years, but those of its directors and officers as well. It would also force these firms to disclose contributions to independent groups that might spend some of the money on campaign ads. And it would warehouse all this data in a searchable government...

Obama and his democrat thugs are making every effort to hamstring Republican fund raising efforts. The tools they are using for this purpose only add gasoline to the brightly burning fire of democrat hypocrisy. Obama has signaled that he once again will try to bypass Congress and out of thin air fabricate self-serving government rules to limit Republican fund raising. The Obama administration is considering a number of measures to compel disclosure of the kind of anonymous campaign contributions that helped finance millions of dollars of attack ads against Democrats during the 2010 elections. The White House last week...

Many of America’s most powerful companies do not report how much they spend to influence elections and legislation. These companies contribute millions of dollars to powerful trade associations and to other politically active groups that are not required to report the sources of their funding. Those groups, in turn, spend the money on lobbying and other political activity. The Los Angeles Times reviewed how the 75 largest publicly traded companies in the energy, healthcare and financial services sectors disclose their political giving on their corporate websites.

Reporting from Washington— Despite mounting calls for greater transparency, only a few of the country's 75 leading energy, healthcare and financial services corporations fully disclose political spending, according to a review of company records and state and federal campaign finance reports. While complying with legal requirements to report direct donations to candidates, the vast majority of these companies — many of which are seeking legislative favors from the new Congress — do not reveal information even to their shareholders about support for politically active trade associations like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Groups such as the chamber, some of which...

Donald Trump may be talking a game the Tea Party activists embarce, such as consistently questioning President Obama’s American birth of late, but an analysis of his political donations since 1989 show a distinct support of the Deomcratic Party that may not go over well should Trump be serious about running for the Republican Party nomination for President. <--snip--> Before 2010, when we could infer he was less serious about running for the Republican nomination, 59% of his political donations were to Democrats.

Trump's campaign contribution record---no surprises here.

Friday evening, Grijalva, who won re-election, released this statement about Olbermann's situation: "I am personally distressed and saddened by the news of Mr. Olbermann's suspension. If there were any way to undo what has been done, I would do it in a heartbeat. "Mr. Olbermann is a respected media voice who has done good work at MSNBC for seven years, and I feel the network has overreacted with such a severe penalty. I welcome and appreciate his support, and the fact that his contributions were made as a private citizen - not as the host of Countdown - should be...

MSNBC host Keith Olbermann may have violated NBC's ethics policy by making three campaign contributions to Democratic candidates without his employer's permission. I don't know what's more shocking, that NBC News actually has an ethics policy or that the man who attacked News Corp's recent donation to the Republican Governors Association is such a blatant hypocrite.

By BRETT ZONGKER, Associated Press Writer Brett Zongker, Associated Press Writer – Sun Oct 17, 12:26 pm ET WASHINGTON – A new ranking of the nation's 400 biggest charities shows donations dropped by 11 percent overall last year as the Great Recession ended — the worst decline in 20 years since the Chronicle of Philanthropy began keeping a tally. The Philanthropy 400 report to be released Monday shows such familiar names as the United Way and the Salvation Army, both based near Washington, continue to dominate the ranking, despite the 2009 declines. The survey accounts for $68.6 billion in charitable...

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said, “This brings to light the importance of disclosure. The only reason someone like Geller was able to find this out was because of the FEC’s disclosure of donations, something the Chamber of Commerce refuses to do.” Hey Josh, the Chamber is private; the FEC is government. Go see my follow-up piece featured at Big Government on the White House response to Obama's foreign campaign contributions. Huge thanks to the indispensible help of Atlas readers Laura and Cathy, great Americans. Obama’s Campaign Contribution Records Scrubbed Clean by Pamela Geller I appeared on David Asman’s show...

So much for GM’s self-imposed ban on political contributions. According to The Washington Post: "General Motors reported making $47,000 in contributions to lawmakers and congressional candidates in July, the first it has made since November 2008. The company stopped giving through its political action committee just as it began to seek government assistance to stay in business. "The U.S. government provided support but also steered the company through bankruptcy. Today, the Treasury owns a 60 percent stake in the company, which recently announced plans to go public with a stock sale. "GM earlier gave $41,000 to groups and causes associated...

General Motors Co. has resumed contributing to political campaigns, lifting a self-imposed ban on political spending adopted during the auto maker’s bankruptcy restructuring last year. GM gave $90,500 to candidates running in the November elections, Federal Election Commission records show. The beneficiaries include midwestern lawmakers, mostly Democrats, who have traditionally supported the industry’s legislative agenda on Capitol Hill, including Sen. Debbie Stabenow and Rep. John Dingell of Michigan and Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio. The list also includes House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R., Va.), who would likely assume a top leadership post if Republicans win control of the House...

I am closely monitoring thirty five House races and want to send you updates every week or so on the ones that most need your help. The most recent list is enclosed below. ....Please help them out. All of them if possible. Our last mailer made a big difference, and many of went on the air for the first time with their ads! From there, the ads produce good polling numbers that attract national donors. But we need to catalyze the process.

WJLA-TV has fired veteran anchorman Doug McKelway for a verbal confrontation this summer with the station's news director that came after McKelway broadcast a sharply worded live report about congressional Democrats and President Obama. McKelway was placed on indefinite suspension in late July after his run-in with ABC7's news director and general manager, Bill Lord. In a letter to McKelway this week, the station said it was terminating his contract immediately, citing insubordination and misconduct. Amid the ongoing BP oil spill in July, McKelway covered a Capitol Hill demonstration by environmental groups protesting the influence of oil-industry contributions to members...

Senior executives, on-air personalities, producers, reporters, editors, writers and other self-identifying employees of ABC, CBS and NBC contributed more than $1 million to Democratic candidates and campaign committees in 2008, according to an analysis by The Examiner of data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. The Democratic total of $1,020,816 was given by 1,160 employees of the three major broadcast television networks, with an average contribution of $880. By contrast, only 193 of the employees contributed to Republican candidates and campaign committees, for a total of $142,863. The average Republican contribution was $744. Disclosure of the heavily Democratic contributions...

Comedian Jon Stewart on Wednesday bashed Fox News for parent company News Corporation's $1 million donation to the Republican Governors Association. Unfortunately, Stewart failed to inform his viewers that Viacom, the parent company of Comedy Central, has so far given disproportionately to Democrats this year. Also missing in the "Daily Show" host's attack of FNC and Glenn Beck was that News Corp. prior to this contribution had historically given more to Democrats than Republicans. Such facts were unimportant Wednesday evening, for Stewart was on another in a long line of Fox News is the devil incarnate rants (video follows with...

Concerned Women for America condemns, the passage of the DISCLOSE Act in the House of Representatives today. Penny Nance, CEO of Concerned Women for America, stated: "The DISCLOSE Act is designed to stifle Americans' legitimate right to political speech and carves out exceptions for powerful special interest groups and unions. It places onerous regulations on small business owners and grassroots groups if they attempt to educate the public on candidates and issues....

In a new ad, Obama says, "I don’t take money from oil companies." We find the statement misleading: •Obama has accepted more than $213,000 from individuals who work for companies in the oil and gas industry and their spouses. •Two of Obama's bundlers are top executives at oil companies and are listed on his Web site as raising between $50,000 and $100,000 for the presidential hopeful. See this from factchec.org dated March 31, 2008.

Joe Biden isn’t only a buffoon he’s a typically cheap liberal who is there for a photo op with our wounded warriors, but doesn’t see the need to contribute to a worthy cause like the Fisher House. On Monday, November 23 Vice President Joe Biden and his wife hosted a well photographed early Thanksgiving Day dinner for two ambulatory wounded war fighters and their families. The Marine and Army Sergeant were recuperating at Walter Reed Hospital and their families were staying at the Fisher House guest facility on the grounds of the hospital. Fisher Houses are private hotel rooms offered...

Washington -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi laid down the law this year: To prevent the appearance of Congress doing unethical favors for big campaign contributors, she told Democrats they could no longer steer federal money directly to corporations. The only "earmarks" members could seek in spending bills would be for nonprofits... But not everyone is obeying Pelosi’s tough talk... U.S. Reps. Dan Maffei and Michael Arcuri have found a way to work around the new orders: Simply pass the federal money to not-for-profit organizations and let them forward it to corporations.... Maffei and Arcuri accepted campaign contributions from the same...

In a move that's not likely to improve the angry relations between Gov. Charlie Crist and the Republican Party, Crist's U.S. Senate campaign announced it won't refund contributions given to the campaign before he became a no-party candidate. "People donated to a good cause, and we intend to spend their money on it," campaign spokeswoman Michelle Todd said.

While the BP oil geyser pumps millions of gallons of petroleum into the Gulf of Mexico, President Barack Obama and members of Congress may have to answer for the millions in campaign contributions they’ve taken from the oil and gas giant over the years.

The Associated Press lead the charge against George W. Bush's $152,000.00 campaign contributions from Enron on an almost daily rant about the immoral and possibly illegal nature of receipt of those monies. Well, "Bush's Enron Problem" as the acolytes in the main stream press named their series of stories can't hold a candle to "Obama and H. Clinton's Goldman Problems". Obama has received(at least)$1,007,000.00 from Goldman, Sachs and Clinton, $415,600.00, way more than Bush ever received. So, where is the Headline: "OBAMA'S GOLDMAN PROBLEM". The era of Journalistic Malpractice has been and is still here. Although there are no Constitutional...

Top Contributors to Barack Obama (D) Goldman Sachs $994,795

Financially, how do you get money to TEA Party organizations? I get tons of emails soliciting donations and want to give money (ok, after tax season I want to give money, right now I just want to weep), but I have no way of knowing if they are legitimate. Does anyone have a list of responsible local, regional, national TEA organizations?

Perdue owes public some explanationsWas no one paying attention when the checks were flowing? Posted: Thursday, Mar. 25, 2010 State Republican Party Chairman Tom Fetzer is right about this much: Gov. Bev Perdue and her political campaigns have some explaining to do about questionable campaign contributions. Among the questions that need to be answered is why no one noticed when the campaigns failed to report, until recently, a number of donated airplane flights - and why no one wondered whether there was anything wrong with sizable contributions from nine people associated with Wilmington businessman Rusty Carter. It's not enough to...

...The part of this tawdry story that has not gotten enough attention involves still another woman named Bunny. I don’t think that John Edwards slept with her, but considering how much money she gave him(directly and indirectly) he probably would have. This Bunny is 99 year old Rachel Lowe Lambert Lloyd Mellon, the widow of Paul Mellon...

Is Meg Whitman too green for the conservative core of the Republican Party? Wednesday the San Jose Mercury News released the news that eMeg has offered $200,000 to the Environmental Defense Fund from her charitable foundation, $100,000 more than what was first thought. Then there is Steve Poizner’s Charitable Foundation accounting numbers. While all of the attention is on Meg’s gifts to environmental causes, nobody has asked the obvious question: “Why does Steve Poizner’s charitable foundation only have $7,000 as its balance?” How can a millionaire have such a small amount of cash in his (and his wife’s) charitable foundation?...

WASHINGTON – The embattled community activist group ACORN appears to be collecting charitable contributions through affiliate organizations that it then uses for impermissible lobbying and political activity, says the Republican staff of the Senate Finance Committee. The assessment, in a memo to Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, further fuels the controversy surrounding ACORN, formally known as the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. The GOP staff memo says ACORN-affiliated charities are being used to raise money which is then funneled to other charities or other organizations for purposes other than what a donor may have intended. In response, ACORN chief...

www.JoeWilsonForCongress.com

The American public will have to decided for themselves who is telling the truth---President Obama or the spokesman for the AARP.

Boxer raised nearly one-and-a-half million dollars during the second quarter. In a press release, she called the support “gratifying.” The Democratic senator is seeking a fourth six-year term. A spokeswoman says Boxer’s conducted prodigious and early fundraising in preparation for a possible challenge from former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina. The 54-year-old Republican says she’s “seriously considering” entering the race. She has little political experience beyond her work as an economic advisor to Senator John McCain during last year’s presidential campaign. But Fiorina has extraordinary wealth that could make her a strong candidate. A recent Field Poll predicted that Boxer...

Dear Friends, I am starting up a Political Action Committee for the 2010 Congressional Elections (though I also may support/oppose state and local candidates as well)! I have Contacted the FEC (as well as..) the IRS. I have a big packet of information from the FEC in which I am currently reading (and though it is interesting-to me..)..(ok so I am a 'nerd'..a political 'junkie' to be specific..). I am humbly asking for your advice if anyone has ever attempted this and is connected to this webite or just a general fellow citizen)? What were some 'pitfalls', 'successes', 'tips', etc.....

In his speech to the Muslim world in Cairo, President Barack Obama claimed: “As a student of history, I also know civilization’s debt to Islam. It was Islam — at places like Al-Azhar University — that carried the light of learning through so many centuries, paving the way for Europe’s Renaissance and Enlightenment. It was innovation in Muslim communities that developed the order of algebra; our magnetic compass and tools of navigation; our mastery of pens and printing.” Obama is not much of a “student of history” if he believes this. Almost every advance he attributes to the Muslims was...