Free Republic

President Obama's motorcade passed back through Beverly Hills at 8:05pm on Monday night as he returned from a fund raising function in Hancock Park, which caused traffic chaos across the Westside. All lanes of Olympic Blvd had been closed between Century City and Hancock Park - between Century Park East and Western Ave from about 5pm. Motorists were trapped on all roads leading to Olympic Blvd and had to wait it out until it was reopened shortly after the President had made his way back to the Beverly Hilton, where he was staying. "I feel horrible because I have somebody...

Individual Lutherans may be informally "voting" against their current denomination with their checkbooks. Last November, the national Evangelical Lutheran Church in America church council, or board of directors, had to cut spending by nearly $7.7 million and eliminate the equivalent of 40 full-time jobs. That was just three months after the controversial vote to allow homosexuals in committed relationships in the pulpit. The organization reported a decrease in income of $2.9 million, or 15.6 percent, in the three-month period ending in April, compared to the same period in 2009. "The ELCA will endure but with smaller numbers and less money,"...

The carmaker gave $41,000 to groups associated with lawmakers, the vast majority of it - $36,000 - to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.

Devon knows her father is a thin man with hazel eyes and wavy brown hair -- but she may never know his name. A 20-year-old New York University student, Devon was conceived with sperm from the Milton S. Hershey Clinic at Penn State University through artificial insemination. After graduating from high school, she found a piece of paper in her parents' room with general information on her donor but nothing she could use to identify him. Devon, who asked that her last name not be used, said she isn't searching for her father with any urgency, but in her late...

A Houston husband-and-wife lawyer team is planning to donate more than $3 million this year toward knocking Republican Gov. Rick Perry out of office and helping Democrats win control of the Texas House. Attorney Steve Mostyn said Tuesday he and his wife, Amber Anderson, are committed to putting a "substantial" amount of money that likely will exceed $3 million into ending hard-right Republican politics in Texas government. The pair already has put $1.3 million into committees that can help Democrat and former Houston Mayor Bill White win the governor's office, making them far and away his biggest benefactors in this...

It is no secret that the Obamas are advocates for free handouts, but even in her personal life Michelle Obama does not appear to have shied away from accepting free goodies. Numerous news outlets have reported on the first lady’s proclivity for high fashion. And Mrs. Obama’s pricey tastes have not precluded her ability to wear the outfits over which many women drool. Rumors abound as to exactly how the first family obtains all the pomp and frills associated with Mrs. Obama’s wardrobe. Do the Obamas pay for it all themselves or are the first lady’s outfits given to her...

Harry M. Reid needed money, and lots of it. Last spring, the Senate majority leader was looking ahead to a tough reelection fight. Polls showed that the voters back home in Nevada who sent him to Washington four times had tired of him. Republican Party fundraisers had all but declared him their No. 1 target for defeat. Taking them on would be expensive, and he wasn't drawing nearly enough cash from contributors inside Nevada. So Reid did what politicians in his position do: He picked up the phone. The senator began dialing old and new friends across the country, asking...

Even if Congress does move decisively to cut off funding from the self-described network of community organizers who previously called themselves ACORN, the renamed entities are likely to remain potent and well-funded into the foreseeable future, former insiders say. In fact, donors may find it easier to channel funds in the direction of liberal activists who describe themselves as community organizers now that the sullied name has been dropped, they suggest. Shortly after ACORN’s leadership announced that it was dissolving on April 1, national and state affiliates repackaged themselves under generic sounding descriptions.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California's Democratic Party on Friday will hold one of its most lucrative fundraisers at a prestigious golf resort as the governor releases what is expected to be a grim state budget that will include eliminating health and social programs for the poor. The two-day "Speaker's Cup" starts Friday at Pebble Beach, headlined by Assembly Speaker John Perez, D-Los Angeles. Meanwhile Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will release his revised budget plan to address a deficit forecast at more than $20 billion. ... Lobbyists and business executives have paid between $10,000 and $45,000 in the past for a weekend with...

If senior journalist David Goldman is right, the correct word for describing the way a growing number of US Jews feel about President Barack Obama is not 'anger' but 'rage' – white-hot rage, at that, and a conviction that they have been swindled. Goldman, Senior Editor of First Things magazine and 'Spengler' columnist for Asia Times Online, spoke last week at a convention on intellectuals and terror at Ariel University in Samaria. In his lecture, he quoted a top Jewish campaign donor who used the word 'sociopath' to describe Obama. In an interview with Israel National News, he predicted a...

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar appointed 12 new members to the National Park System Advisory Board, describing them as “highly accomplished men and women whose creativity and wisdom will help us prepare for the challenges of the National Parks Service’s second hundred years.” Apparently, Salazar’s definition of “highly accomplished” includes “major Democratic donor.”

Whitman gave $8,000 to Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer's reelection effort in 2003, a total that includes a contribution to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Along with 16 other tech leaders, she signed a letter that said, "Barbara Boxer is a courageous leader and friend of California's technology industry." Poizner wrote checks for a total of at least $21,000 forAl Gore's campaign, Gore's recount expenses, and the Democratic National Committee in 2000. Here are the excuses each candidate offers for being generous with the wrong people, starting with Whitman – who was CEO of eBay when she made the donation. "Meg...

Obama to Keep Goldman Funds BRODY MULLINS AND JEAN SPENCER President Barack Obama won't return about $1 million that employees of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. donated to his 2008 presidential campaign, according to a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee. "We make these decisions on a case-by-case basis, and in this case we have not accepted contributions from specific individuals accused of wrongdoing, nor have we advocated for positions that big Wall Street banks generally favor," said DNC spokesman Hari Sevugan, speaking on behalf of Mr. Obama. The development comes as fallout over the Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit against...

The billionaire hedge fund manager at the center an alleged fraud hatched at Goldman Sachs, a leading investment bank, is a major donor to Senate Democrats. Campaign fundraising records show that John A. Paulson, founder and chairman of the hedge fund Paulson & Co., gave $30,400 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in June, qualifying him as a major Democratic donor. He also gave $2,300 to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) reelection campaign in February of last year and $4,800 to Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) last April, according to records filed at the Federal Election Commission.

HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Republican gubernatorial candidate Zach Wamp says he sees no problem keeping a $2,500 contribution from the political action committee of Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak, even though the two congressmen and former housemates ended up on opposite sides of the vote on the health care overhaul. Wamp, of Chattanooga, said after a recent campaign appearance in Hendersonville that the contribution was due to a "long-standing friendship" with the Michigan congressman who played a crucial role in securing House approval of the bill. Wamp said his friendship with Stupak "transcends politics." Stupak announced Thursday he won't seek re-election...

In another serious blow to the Republican National Committee, one of its top fundraisers — and its few remaining connections to the traditional GOP donor base — has resigned a senior, unpaid position. Former Ambassador Sam Fox, a top supporter of George W. Bush who was one of the co-chairmen of the Republican Regents — the RNC's top-level fundraising board — has left the post, two Republican sources said. Fox, a Missouri businessman who was Bush's ambassador to Belgium, was one of the RNC's few remaining connections to the deep-pocketed Republican establishment and was viewed as the heaviest hitter among...

Former VP Nominee and Fighting Face of Tea Party Movement Could Drain RNC of Vital Election Fundraising (CBS) Even as she campaigned for Republican John McCain last week, Sarah Palin kept trying to burnish her image as a new kind of conservative and a fighting face of the Tea Party movement, reports CBS News correspondent Jeff Glor. "We need these new Republicans. We need this new blood coming on into the system," Palin told a crowd at a rally for Sen. John McCain's re-election bid last week. "Sarah Palin has been trying to distance herself from the Republican brand," Ken...

'Bondage-gate' spurs donor drain for RNC Thu Apr 1, 9:51 pm ET It's not bad enough that, for some time forward, the words "Republican National Committee" will be the most frequent phrase surfacing in online search terms using the words "West Hollywood bondage club." Now leaders of the RNC have to contend with the defection of key constituencies from the committee's donor base. The RNC had hoped that the fallout from the scandal known as "bondage-gate" would blow over when it fired Allison Meyers, the staffer who put in for reimbursed expenses for a January outing at the Voyeur sex...

h/t Freeper mnehring Did Barack Obama inspire one of his donors to threaten a top GOP lawmaker? Norman Leboon, Sr, the man reported to have been arrested for making a death threat video against House Minority Whip Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) and Cantor's family is listed by the Federal Elections Commission as having made two donations to the presidential campaign of Barack Obama in 2008.According to the FEC, the donations were made on successive days in June 2008, on the 20th for $255 and on the 21st for $250. There are no other federal election campaign contributions listed for Leboon....

-excerpt- (Hassan) Nemazee, a New York businessman and one-time prominent Democratic fundraiser admitted Thursday that he bilked three banks out of $ 292 million in loans. He pleaded guilty to wire fraud and three counts of bank fraud at a hearing before U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein in Manhattan. Click here for Chad Bray’s story on Dow Jones Newswires; here for the NYT story; here, here and here for previous LB posts on Nemazee. Prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan had alleged that Nemazee obtained hundreds of millions of loans from Bank of America, Citigroup and HSBC Holdings...