Free Republic

The purpose of Illinois campaign disclosures laws is to promote transparency and to permit voters to make informed decisions. While posing as a virtuous civic organization, the ‘Wilmette Friends’ are actively supporting candidates and opposing their challengers without disclosing their campaign contributors in violation of Illinois law. No one knows how to learn what expenditures have been made or where the funds were deposited. The League of Women of Voters, which has a lot in common with the Wilmette Friends (and the New Trier Caucus) is supposed to be nonpartisan, but in New Trier it would appear that the local...

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Take a drive on Florida's toll road. It's not how far you go that determines what you pay. We found it may be the car you drive. "I was mad going on vacation with my wife," explained Steve Pasek. For Pasek, the memories of his Florida vacation are as fresh as the snow back in Ohio. He declined the rental car company's toll service. With the rental car company's automated billing services, you are billed weeks after you return the car. A third party company is used to send you the bill. While Pasek declined...

Earlier this week, Special Operations OPSEC Education Fund Inc., a group of former U.S. intelligence and Special Forces personnel, launched a campaign criticizing President Barack Obama for unfairly taking credit for killing Osama bin Laden and leaking national security information for political gain. This is the second high-profile attack on the president from ex-elite military operatives. Last month, Ryan Zinke, a Montana State Senator and former commander of Navy SEAL Team Six, started a super PAC, Special Operations for America, which is dedicated to supporting Mitt Romney and hitting President Obama on leaks and on politicizing Bin Laden’s death. According...

Published on Aug 15, 2012 Movie Ad: Dishonorable Disclosures Intelligence and Special Operations forces are furious and frustrated at how President Obama and those in positions of authority have exploited their service for political advantage. Countless leaks, interviews and decisions by the Obama Administration and other government officials have undermined the success of our Intelligence and Special Operations forces and put future missions and personnel at risk. The unwarranted and dangerous public disclosure of Special Forces Operations is so serious -- that for the first time ever -- former operators have agreed to risk their reputations and go 'on the...

A senior House Democrat on Wednesday promised to introduce legislation requiring all presidential candidates to release a decade of their tax returns. The effort by Rep. Sandy Levin (Mich.), the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, is aimed at presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who has come under increasing pressure to release more of his returns. “The stunning lack of transparency from someone in pursuit of the highest office in the country highlights the need to change the law to require fuller disclosure,” Levin said in a statement.

In his first public comments since e-mails surfaced last week showing the New York Federal Reserve, when he was at the helm, advised AIG not to disclose payments it made to banks after receiving a taxpayer bailout, Geithner said the insurer was legally obligated to make the payments. "We had no effective legal means to step in and prevent default (of AIG) ... without helping this firm meet all its legal obligations," Geithner told CNBC television.

In today's exciting installment, the Kentucky Dept of State said it wasn't staffed to perform a major investigation; and referred the matter to the Kentucky Attorney General's Office !

by Mark Finkelstein July 1, 2006 At this point, how many people are interested in hearing more preachy justifications from newspaper editors about their decision to spill the beans on anti-terror programs? Yada yada yada, the sensitive balance between legitimate secrecy needs in time of war and the public's right to know. Yeah, we get it. But there were Dean Baquet and Bill Keller, editors of the LA and NY Times respectively, with an op-ed this morning humming the same tired 'on the one hand, but on the other' sing song .' Things reached their apotheosis of annoyingness [poetic license...

by Mark Finkelstein June 25, 2006 As Brit Hume put it, "Senator Specter, who gets worked up over anything, he doesn't seem bothered by the NY Times disclosure of [the anti-terror banking program]. He's going to 'look into it'." Indeed. Specter, who began his political career as a prosecutor, played defense lawyer for the Gray Lady. On this morning's Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace asked the senior senator from PA "do you think the Times was wrong to publish this story as well as the NSA warrantless wiretap story, and does it rise to the level that they should...

Summaries of the 2005 financial disclosure statements for selected members of Congress from California: --- Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. Earned income: $162,100. Honoraria, all donated to charity: None. Major assets: Blind trust, $1 million to $5 million; Bertram Feinstein trust, of which she's the primary beneficiaty, $1 million to $5 million; Marital trusts of which she's the beneficiary, established by her husband, Richard Blum, chairman of a merchant banking firm, no single value given; Interest with her husband in Carlton Hotel Properties, $5 million to $25 million; Deposit account at Bank of America, $50,001-$100,000; Condominium owned with her husband in...

Summaries of the 2005 financial disclosure statements for selected members of the U.S. House (and Senate): House Disclosures List Senate Disclosures List

Libby Makes Outrageous Disclosure :Massive Protests Feared ! Lewis “Scooter” Libby made an outrageous disclosure in court papers filed yesterday: claiming – under penalty of perjury – that while President Bush and Vice President Cheney had authorized him to furnish details of the National Intelligence Estimate to New York Times reporter Judith Miller (thereby de-classifying the document) , neither the President or the Vice President authorized him to reveal the identity Of “Secret Agent X-9 ½ “ – otherwise known as Valerie Plame ! Reaction on the Left was swift…. and furious . “ This is a direct slap in...

BERLIN (Reuters) - Part of the ransom money alleged to have been paid by the German government to win the freedom of Iraq hostage Susanne Osthoff last month was found on Osthoff after her release, the German magazine Focus said on Saturday. Without citing its sources, Focus said officials at the German embassy in Baghdad had found several thousand U.S. dollars in the 43-year-old German archaeologist's clothes when she took a shower at the embassy shortly after being freed. The serial numbers on the bills matched those used by the government to pay off Osthoff's kidnappers, the magazine said.

AMONG THE MANY unresolved issues of the former Iraqi regime's support for terrorism, few are more potentially important than the activities throughout the mid to late 1990s of Iraqi military officials and chemical weapons specialists in Sudan. The Clinton Administration, along with a host of Sudanese opposition groups and nonproliferation experts, alleged that Iraqi chemical weapons experts were advising Sudanese military and intelligence officials on the development and production of chemical weapons. This is significant for two reasons, one obvious and one less obvious. First, any Iraqi activity on chemical weapons development inside or outside of Iraq would have constituted...

Out of the Shadows Why the Deep Throat disclosures are good for the media—and could help Hillary Clinton shape a bid for the White House WEB EXCLUSIVE By Eleanor Clift Newsweek Updated: 4:50 p.m. ET June 3, 2005 June 3 - At a Memorial Day picnic in Washington, the talk inevitably turned to Hillary Clinton and her likely run for president. “What motivates her?” one man wanted to know. He wouldn’t think of asking that question about any of the male contenders for president. Wanting to hold the highest elective office in the land is a given for them, but...

WASHINGTON — The Federal Election Commission is considering whether to require political bloggers to disclose whether they are receiving funds from a political campaign, the latest step in a larger debate over whether political activity on the Internet should be regulated by the government. Friday is the deadline set for the FEC to receive public comments on a number of proposed regulations dealing with Internet activities. The commission will hold hearings on June 28-29 in Washington, D.C., before deciding on final action. One of those new rules, the disclosure requirement, has many bloggers bristling, accusing the government of unfairly targeting...

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday stood behind her indicted former fund-raiser after prosecutors said Ted Kennedy's brother-in-law taped him making "incriminating" statements about her Senate campaign's Hollywood gala. "The Senate campaign committee fully cooperated with the investigation. [David] Rosen worked hard for the campaign and we trust that when all the facts are in, he will be cleared," Clinton lawyer David Kendall said in an e-mail to The Post. Rosen goes to trial May 3 on charges of falsely underreporting the costs of the August 2000 gala — thus inflating the amount of campaign cash ostensibly raised for Clinton at...

New York City is a hall of funny mirrors, which is why even its smartest politicians don't know what normal looks like. Thus, it is entirely possible that former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani didn't notice anything strange about Bernard Kerik, who once served as his police commissioner. But while a raffish touch can be charming, a walk on the wild side is quite something else. Bush had no choice but to take a pass on Bernie Kerik. None of this will change Giuliani's political future. Had Kerik been a model Scout, Giuliani would still be facing a most unpromising career on...

Welcome to The Kerry Files http://www.thekerryfiles.info/ While this site has been formed and designed to bring all of the evidence concerning unanswered questions regarding John F. Kerry together in one place, the site and this story is much bigger than the man himself... John F. Kerry spent most of his two year campaign for the highest office in the land, running from his past. He said he was running on his record, but any reference to his 20 year Senate career was referred to as an attack on his character. He called himself a "war hero", making his three month...

N Korea denies nuclear disclosures North Korea said it had shown its "nuclear deterrent" to a US team North Korea has denied an admission by Pakistan's top nuclear scientist that he sold nuclear weapons technology to the Communist state. A statement by a foreign ministry spokesman described the claim as "false propaganda" spread by the US, the state-run KCNA news agency said. The spokesman said the "US smear campaign" justified Pyongyang's moves to build a "nuclear deterrent force". It was North Korea's first official response to the Pakistani disclosures. The denial comes before new talks between US, China, Japan, Russia...