Free Republic

It looks like one of the things that will be inflicted on New Yorkers as a result of the scandal at the Internal Revenue Service is a whole new round of tirades from the New York Times calling for state-funded electioneering.

Back in 2011 the Obama Administration asked contractors to release information on their political donations. Here’s the letter: Page 1

Since last weekend, Mr and Mrs Regular Citizen have been denied the access people used to be granted to tour the White House, purportedly because of the clampdown on federal spending since the "sequester" that imposed cuts across the board. And their cancellation is an austerity measure that saves a pittance, while more frivolous taxpayer funding for items like the White House dog walker continues. Meanwhile, noble Americans can buy time with the president for a suggested donation of $500,000 to his new campaign group, Organising for Action.

A Christian church and school in Florida are devastated after they said Wounded Warrior Project refused to accept their fund raising effort because it was “religious in nature.” “We were heartbroken,” said Wallace Cooley, pastor of Liberty Baptist Church and Academy in Fort Pierce, Fla. Cooley said they had already paid a $100 registration fee to raise money for the Wounded Warrior Project and were about to launch the campaign when they received an email from the organization. The church had planned on taking up a special offering on the last Sunday in February and students were collecting money from...

A Christian church and school in Florida are devastated after they said Wounded Warrior Project refused to accept their fund raising effort because it was “religious in nature.” “We were heartbroken,” said Wallace Cooley, pastor of Liberty Baptist Church and Academy in Fort Pierce, Fla. Cooley said they had already paid a $100 registration fee to raise money for the Wounded Warrior Project and were about to launch the campaign when they received an email from the organization. The church had planned on taking up a special offering on the last Sunday in February and students were collecting money from...

For many Americans, Fox News is their “alternative” choice for news. They’ve made it the No. 1 cable news network, largely because they believe its “fair and balanced” promotional slogan. Many even believe Fox leans to the right and provides news they can’t get anywhere else. But is Fox really different from the rest of the media? Or has it been successful merely at positioning itself as different? Would it surprise you to know that individuals at News Corp., the parent company of Fox News, gave nearly six times as much money to Barack Obama than Mitt Romney in the...

The vast majority of faculty and staff members from the nation’s top Catholic universities donated to President Barack Obama’s campaign over Republican nominee Mitt Romney’s this cycle, according to a new report. Ninety-one percent of the employees at 23 different Catholic schools gave to Obama, according to Federal Elections Commission data available on OpenSecrets.org and analysed by the conservative college site Campus Reform. Much has been made of Obama’s Affordable Care Act mandate requiring employers to provide contraception coverage, a requirement that church officials say conflicts with Catholic religious doctrine,

96% of the faculty and staff at Ivy League colleges that contributed to the 2012 presidential race donated to President Obama's campaign, reveals a Campus Reform investigation compiled using numbers released by the Federal Election Commission (FEC). From the eight elite schools, $1,211,267 was contributed to the Obama campaign, compared to the $114,166 given to Romney. The highest percentage of Obama donors came from Brown University and Princeton, with 99 percent of donations from faculty and staff going towards his campaign. Dartmouth College and the University of Pennsylvania’s faculty contributed to the President’s campaign in the lowest numbers, with only...

Four of the top ten organizations whose staff donated to President Obama’s reelection campaign were universities, data released by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) reveals. The University of California (UC) represented the single largest employee group to donate to President Obama’s campaign in 2012, funneling $1,092,906 to assist the President in his bid to gain reelection. That number includes the university’s PACs, individual members or employees, and employee’s immediate families.

However, this time it's getting interesting. John E. has this about the weak security that Obama uses to match donor information from redirects which are mostly foreign, and Doug Ross now sees evidence in the websites html that Obama's people are intentionally allowing proxy IP's to be used by their donors. That last bit? That's more than a little fishy.

OFA isn’t run by amateurs and has a highly sophisticated online presence. OFA is known as the “gold standard” in online technology with a Facebook co-founder, veteran YouTube videographer and an award-winning CNN producer keeping everything running smoothly. Not to mention, the campaign obviously sees the benefits in using a CVV code to prevent fraud. After all, OFA uses a CVV security code for merchandise purchases. To purchase a sweatshirt or other item in the OFA store, a CVV code must be entered at check out, but the donation page does not require a credit card security code to be...

Mitt Romney's strong debate performance Wednesday night has generated $12 million in online contributions, his campaign said, as well as a surge in volunteers and bigger crowds at his events. The $12 million the campaign reports raising in less than 48 hours after the debate tops the amount Mr. Romney raised in the days after announcing Rep. Paul Ryan, R.-Wis., as his running mate and the Supreme Court's decision to uphold a major plank of the president's health-care law. Sixty percent of the money came from first-time donors, the campaign said, according to The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Romney's debate...

Democrats Offer Lunch With Gore and Pelosi As Prize for DonationsBy Noel Sheppard | September 22, 2012 | 18:09 Al Gore was nowhere to be seen at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte earlier this month, but an email message sent out Saturday indicates he's stepping into the fray. **SNIP** "Vice President Al Gore is joining me for lunch in New York ... Will you join us?" Pelosi wrote in the DCCC email obtained by the Post. "We’ll cover hotel and travel for you and a friend. You just have to figure out who you will bring!"

I honestly don't know if this really means anything or not. But the state by state totals have the republicans raising more money per state. The Democrats only raised more money than Republicans in 15 states. California District of Columbia New York Illinois Massachusetts Maryland New Jersey Washington Oregon New Mexico Hawaii Maine Rhode Island Delaware Vermont in 2008 it was a different picture. Democrats Raised more money than Republicans in 25 states. http://www.opensecrets.org/bigpicture/statetotals.php?cycle=2008 Based on data released by the FEC on Sep 3 2012 12:00AM. Totals include PAC and individual contributions to federal candidates and parties. Data via "the...

President Barack Obama is outpacing Mitt Romney in donations from lawyers by more than a two-to-one margin. So far, lawyers and law firms have donated a combined $24.3 million to all of the presidential candidates during the 2011-2012 election cycle, the second most of any job sector.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misstated how CAPE PAC sites are identified. Candidate sites are labeled as CAPE PAC sites in fine print at the top and bottom of each site. Noam Neusner, a former White House speechwriter for President George W. Bush, thought he had given $250 to GOP Senate candidate Josh Mandel. He hadn’t. Instead, Neusner was one of nearly 3,000 donors who stumbled onto a network of look-alike campaign websites that have netted more than $570,000 this year in what some are calling a sophisticated political phishing scheme. (UPDATE: Mystery PAC Look-Alike Websites Dissappear!) The...

The DNC is in panic mode. They’re on both knees begging supporters for donations following Mitt Romney’s running mate announcement.

Since funding a lavish half-million-dollar party to celebrate the election of Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III about 18 months ago, officials at the Bowie-based Path to Greatness have continued to raise thousands of dollars from donors while counting Mr. Baker’s wife as a trustee, an arrangement that critics say opens up another avenue for special interests to curry favor with his administration. Under Internal Revenue Service rules, such nonprofit organizations are not required to make public the names of donors, though officials did so in response to a request by The Washington Times. The list reveals dozens...

The New York Times has a front-page story today on a political giver named James Robert Williams, who has no visible means of support, but is very generous to both parties and to politicians of different stripes. From the article: ...one government watchdog group called the pattern of donations extremely troubling. Ken Boehm, chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center, said, "In more than 15 years of investigating political corruption, I've never seen a more suspicious set of facts." According to the story by reporters Raymond Hernandez, Alison Leigh Cowan and Jo Craven McGinty, Williams lives in a...

If you believe the Democratic Party, Bain Capital is nothing but a bunch of vampire capitalists. They outsource jobs to other countries, close steel mills and take lollypops from little babies. According to Open Secrets, during the present election cycle these Democratic Party candidates took a total of $340,750 from Bain, its lobbyists and employees. Even the Obama re-election campaign took money from Bain Capital. So if the Democrats believe Bain is so evil, why are these candidates taking their money? Note: The Barack Obama contributions are not from open secrets but directly from the FEC here and here. Candidate...

My parents are donating daily to these people. My father has Parkinson's & is SO worried about 0bama ruining the country that he donates to nearly everything he gets. Fortunately, my Mom gives the mail to me and I select (with her approval) which ones are forwarded, saving them a pile of money & more mail that is caused by each donation. Today I have FOURTEEN of them!

When people say Thursday's Supreme Court ruling was a big win for President Obama, the Romney Campaign must shake their heads just a little bit. Since the ruling, Team Romney has raked in $5.5 million. That money isn't coming from big time donors at fundraisers, but is made up of 55,000 separate donations, with 65 percent of those people donating for the first time. These numbers come after Romney outraised President Obama in May, spent less and Obama seems to be draining his war chest quickly. Just one month after the start of the general election campaign, Mr. Obama has...

Mitt Romney's presidential campaign has raised $4.6 million since the Supreme Court ruled that President Obama's healthcare law is constitutional. Romney started raising funds immediately after the decision, and in a message to supporters Friday morning his campaign spokeswoman said he had raised $4.6 million from 47,000 donations. This morning, the Romney campaign had raised $4.3 million less than 24 hours since the court's ruling. "As of this morning, we have raised $4.3 million with 43,000 donations online," spokeswoman Andrea Saul said early Friday. "The Supreme Court may have found ObamaCare constitutional, but it remains just as disastrous for job...

I hope this is not an improper request. But since the Silver Star Families of America was practically born on FR I wanted to make a request for donations. We have had so many requests for our food coupon books to give to homeless vets that go to V.A. Medical Centers that we have run out of funds. Also our Chaplain run Prayer Blankets for our Hospice vets program is in the red. The mission of the Silver Star Families of America is to remember, honor and assist the wounded, ill, injured and dying of our Armed Forces from all...

Via the Washington Free Beacon, Jimmy Kimmel mocks the Obama wedding registry fundraising idea with a spoof ad. “On the campaign website, it says, “a campaign donation goes a lot farther than a gravy bowel (sic),” Kimmel said. “Not if you love gravy it doesn’t. Without a gravy bowl where else am I going to keep my gravy?”

Looks like all those Obama fanatics that gave and gave and gave some more in 2008 aren't feeling it this time around: In 2008, more than 550,000 gave more than $200 to Barack Obama, entering their names in the longest list of individual donors ever seen in American politics. That list was a snapshot of the hope Obama inspired in a cross sections of liberals, young professionals, African-Americans, and Democrats who saw in him a generational and historic moment. But now, as Obama struggles to keep pace with his 2008 fundraising clip, that list offers a cross-section of Democratic...

In 2008, more than 550,000 gave more than $200 to Barack Obama, entering their names in the longest list of individual donors ever seen in American politics. That list was a snapshot of the hope Obama inspired in a cross sections of liberals, young professionals, African-Americans, and Democrats who saw in him a generational and historic moment. But now, as Obama struggles to keep pace with his 2008 fundraising clip, that list offers a cross-section of Democratic disappointment and alienation. According to a BuzzFeed analysis of campaign finance data, 88% of the people who gave $200 or more in 2008...

European nations are not doing enough to fight corruption and bribery, according to an annual report released on Wednesday (9 May) by the Council of Europe (CoE). In the EU alone, corruption costs an estimated €120 billion annually. The CoE's group of states against corruption (GRECO), which acts as a peer review system producing reports and recommendations on different aspects of each member's efforts to fight corruption, says members need to increase transparency of political funding. In April, GRECO requested Italy to clean up its act, citing a gross lack of transparency throughout its party funding structure. "The control performed...

Fraud found in Obama’s online donationsBy Neil Munro - The Daily Caller – 5 hrs ago President Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign has hundreds of thousands of eager, low-dollar donors — and a tiny trickle of unwilling, defrauded donors. The latest example comes from David Newman, who found a $15 charge, dated May 6, from the “Obama For America” campaign on one of his debit cards. Newman had supported Obama in 2008, but “I didn’t sign up to say ‘Do this every three months or every three years when you need money,’” he told The Daily Caller. “This is completely 100...

We're just a few days away from the 2nd Quarter 2012 FReepathon! I may be a bit different because I don't hate 'em. Although it's disheartening that not everyone contributes in a timely, generous manner to keep the 404 away from America's exclusive website for Conservative Activism, FReepathons are a time for FRiends from all over the world to unite in a common cause for good. There's a lot of camaraderie, good clean humor and some fun graphics in the FReepathon threads. It's a chance for many of us to get to know our fellow FReepers better. Plus, it's always...

HOCKESSIN, Delaware - In a sign that his campaign is in need of fresh funds, Newt Gingrich on Monday began charging $50 to have a photograph taken with him following a campaign speech to Republican County groups here in the northernmost part of the state. It was the first time the former House speaker has charged those attending one of his public speaking events to pose for a photograph with him. Lately, a member of his campaign staff has been snapping photographs of any interested attendee and later posting them online at the campaign's website, newt.org. On Monday night, those...

So much for serving the homeless. The Bloomberg administration is now taking the term “food police� to new depths, blocking food donations to all government-run facilities that serve the city’s homeless.In conjunction with a mayoral task force and the Health Department, the Department of Homeless Services recently started enforcing new nutritional rules for food served at city shelters. Since DHS can’t assess the nutritional content of donated food, shelters have to turn away good Samaritans. For over a decade, Glenn Richter and his wife, Lenore, have led a team of food-delivery volunteers from Ohab Zedek, the Upper West Side Orthodox...

I received this in my email just now. I've never donated to Mitt Romney so I don't know how he reached me. Republican voter rolls? Below is unredacted except for the name. "Yaelle," I wanted to take a moment to let you know about a chance to meet up for lunch. This won’t be just any lunch, though. I’ll be bringing the winner out to California to grab a bite with me at one of my favorite burger places. Donate $5 to be automatically entered for the chance to join me for lunch in California. I know there are a...

The Associated Press and other mainstream media are so biased in favor of President Barack Obama that they should register with the Federal Election Commission as Obama super PACs, Rush Limbaugh says.

During her comments, she said “by the way we’re asking people to contribute to us if they want to elect more reformers to Congress so we can do away with super PACs – we can do away with secret contributions.”

“Wayne LaPierre Falsely Claims ‘All’ The NRA's Money Comes From Small Donors,” Chris Brown of Media Matters sneers in triumph. He’s focusing on an interview with Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre by Glenn Beck, where the association head was asked about how NRA could hope to match union political contributions. LaPierre’s response: We raise it all through 5, 10, 15, 20 dollar contributions that Americans are willing to preserve freedom. And they're willing to support it. But, you know, that's what NRA is about. I mean, I always say we're about our membership and we're about giving voice to our...

EXCLUSIVE: Internet sites on their SOPAStrike may be conducting a blackout but Hollywood studios are conducting a boycott. I’ve learned that Hollywood studio chiefs individually and as a group are drawing a line in the sand on the piracy issue with the Obama re-election campaign and refusing to give any more donations. The blowup came after President Obama on Saturday dashed moguls’ hopes that he would remain on the sidelines in the dispute over the U.S. House Of Representatives’ Stop Online Piracy Act and the U.S. Senate’s Protect IP Act.

Drudge Report this morning Jan. 18: From information in some tax reports released, showing Romney gave $4 million + to LDS church during past 5 years, plus shares and stakes in Bain holding companies including Burger King, Domino's, etc.

Last week the 2009-2010 Planned Parenthood annual report was released and it shows that the leading abortion group had suffered a significant decline in private contributions. In 2009 they reported 308 million in private donations from individuals, corporations, and foundations yet in 2010 they saw that number fall to 223.8 million. The chart below illustrates the drop-off:

Duluth made history last week when it became the first city in the state to pass a resolution in support of a constitutional amendment that would essentially overturn a U.S. Supreme Court decision, namely Citizens United vs. the Federal Election Commission. The court ruled in 2010 that corporations are entitled to the same constitutional rights as individual U.S. citizens. A majority of justices also concluded that political spending was a form of free speech and that corporations should be able to spend an unlimited sum of money to influence voters, without disclosing financial details of their activities. Although Duluth is...

Dear FReepers, Sun tsu cautioned smart leaders to 'keep your friends close, your enemies even closer' Besides, it's always fun to know what's happening inside your opponent's camp. For that reason, I volunteer time and contribute money to MoveOn, the community Presidential 'brownshirts' and true believers. So, after almost 500 daily emails from MoveOn, I was quite taken a back and concerned by their latest e-mail, parts of which I've posted below.

NEW YORK (AP) - The Occupy Wall Street movement, which has spent a month bashing banks and other corporations, has become a money manager itself. The movement has $435,000 - $85,000 of it donated in person at the Manhattan park that's become the epicenter of the global "anti-greed" protests and the remainder from online credit-card donations, said Darrell Prince, an activist using his business background to keep track of the daily donations. "It's way more support than we ever thought would come in," Prince said.

Anti-Wall Street protests are growing in number across the country and around the globe, but their political impact remains unclear and will likely depend upon their staying power. At a minimum, the protests have become a channel for public anger over rising economic inequality and Washington's ineffectiveness. "They are a pretty good thermometer for the level of discontent in the country," said John Green, director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron. "But the connection between Republicans and Wall Street and the banks will surely be an election issue next year." Romney used...

This holiday season is a time to examine who's been naughty and who's been nice, but I'm unhappy with my findings. The problem is this: We liberals are personally stingy. Liberals show tremendous compassion in pushing for generous government spending to help the neediest people at home and abroad. Yet, when it comes to individual contributions to charitable causes, liberals are cheapskates. Arthur Brooks, the author of a book on donors to charity, "Who Really Cares," cites data that households headed by conservatives give 30 percent more to charity than households headed by liberals. A study by Google found an...

U.S. wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya may weigh on the minds of voters next year, but during the early months of the 2012 election cycle, members of the U.S. Armed Forces who are active political donors are mainly rallying around two candidates, according to a new analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics. Those candidates are President Barack Obama and libertarian-leaning Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas). Overall, individuals who listed their occupation as one of the branches of the military or the U.S. Department of Defense have donated about $78,000 to presidential candidates, according to the Center's analysis of donors...

Madison - A quirk in state law will allow Gov. Scott Walker and state senators to fight looming recalls by raising unlimited campaign contributions of the kind never before seen in Wisconsin. That ability to collect donations many times larger than the regular limits could prove a significant advantage to the Republican governor and incumbent senators from either party if they face recalls. That also could push spending in the latest possible round of recalls even higher than the record $44 million in estimated spending in the round of Senate recall elections held this summer. In that previous round of recalls,...

Links to some of the stories I've read/browsed through (in no certain order)... Google Google Google Google For more, follow this search link on Google: Google

In a shameless attempt to guilt Texas resident’s into donating to President Obama’s campaign sent out the email below. Friend – Here’s something you don’t have in common with 45,829 other supporters of this movement who tell us they live in Texas. That many of your neighbors have decided to own a piece of this campaign by making a donation of whatever they could afford. For some, that meant just $5. For others, it meant $100 or more. But each had their own personal reason for giving. Our records show that you aren’t one of the 45,829 people in your...