Free Republic

Journalists are trained to “follow the money” – to uncover who donates how much to what campaign, especially in the midst of a presidential election. When Lehman Brothers CEO Richard Fuld testified before the House Oversight Committee Oct. 6, the media criticized his wealth and spending amidst financial turmoil in his company and on Wall Street. But conspicuously missing was the story of Fuld’s political contributions. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Fuld has donated to Democratic candidates over Republican candidates by a margin of almost 5-to-1 in the last 15 years. He has given $106,400 to Democratic candidates...

FULD, RICHARD NEW YORK,NY 10285 LEHMAN BROTHERS/MANAGING DIRECTOR 4/9/07 $10,000 Democratic Senatorial Campaign Cmte (D) FULD, RICHARD NEW YORK,NY 10019 LEHMAN BROTHERS/CHAIRMAN AND CEO 1/28/08 $2,000 Reed, Jack (D) FULD, RICHARD S GREENWICH,CT 06831 LEHMAN BROTHERS/CHAIRMAN AND CEO 5/29/07 $2,300 Clinton, Hillary (D) FULD, RICHARD S JR GREENWICH,CT 06831 LEHMAN BROTHERS/CHAIRMAN AND CEO 10/19/07 $2,300 Clinton, Hillary (D) FULD, RICHARD S JR GREENWICH,CT 06831 LEHMAN BROTHERS/FIANCE 5/30/07 $2,300 Obama, Barack (D) FULD, RICHARD S JR GREENWICH,CT 06831 8/28/08 $-2,300 Clinton, Hillary (D) FULD, RICHARD S MR JR GREENWICH,CT 06831 10/22/07 $10,000 National Republican Senatorial Cmte (R) FULD, RICHARD S MR...

Maybe I'm feeling masochistic today because I tuned into CSPAN, watching the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee grill Richard Fuld from Lehman Brothers. It seems obnoxious to listen the Democrats grill Fuld about compensation he received or paid to his employees over the years and the repeated leading questions asking for Fuld to blame things on a lack of regulation. The only guy on the committee who doesn't come across as an idiot is John Mica (R-Fla). Anyway, it crossed my mind that Fuld might be a Democrat. It seems most of the finance bigwigs and uber wealthy who...

The Republican National Committee wants the Federal Election Commission to investigate the source of thousands of small contributions to the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama, a committee lawyer said yesterday. The RNC's chief counsel, Sean Cairncross, said that there is mounting evidence that the Obama campaign was so hungry for donations it "looked the other way" as contributions piled up from suspicious donors, and possibly even from overseas, which would be illegal. "We believe that the American people should know first and foremost if foreign money is pouring into a presidential election," Cairncross said. He pointed to a report...

The Republican national committee (RNC) said Mr Obama had accepted contributions from foreigners and taken more than the $2,300 maximum from donors who give in small amounts. RNC officials want the Federal Election Commission to examine Mr Obama's records in detail to determine the extent of the problem. An Obama campaign spokesman denied the charges. Bill Burton said: "Our campaign has shattered fund-raising records with donations from more than 2.5 million Americans. We have gone above and beyond the transparency requirement." Democrats are viewing the Republican claim as the latest example of a smear campaign against Mr Obama. On Saturday,...

JERUSALEM – Palestinian brothers inside the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip are listed in government election filings as having donated $29,521.54 to Sen. Barack Obama's campaign. Donations of this nature would violate election laws, including prohibitions on receiving contributions from foreigners and guidelines against accepting more than $2,300 from one individual during a single election, Bob Biersack, a spokesman for the Federal Election Commission, told WND in response to a query. The contributions also raise numerous questions about the Obama campaign's lax online donation form, which apparently allows for the possibility of foreign contributions. Last week, the Atlas Shrugs blog outlined a...

The Obama campaign has shattered all fund-raising records, raking in $458 million so far, with about half the bounty coming from donors who contribute $200 or less. Aides say that's an illustration of a truly democratic campaign. To critics, though, it can be an invitation for fraud and illegal foreign cash because donors giving individual sums of $200 or less don't have to be publicly reported. Consider the cases of Obama donors "Doodad Pro" of Nunda, N.Y., who gave $17,130, and "Good Will" of Austin, Texas, who gave more than $11,000—both in excess of the $2,300-per-person federal limit.

I have been monitoring the donation data at the FEC website that the Obama for America campaign has submitted. Contrary to what the Obama campaign claims, they did NOT "rout out" or "refund" donations they received from the Edwan brothers (Hosam, Monir and Osama) of the Rafah Refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. OBAMA LIED: "Palestinian" Campaign Contributions NEVER RETURNED OR REFUNDED In the latest filing (9/20 for the month of August, 2008), it is apparent that the campaign has PURGED the database of most of the donations from the Edwan brothers. Edwan Brothers Transaction Analysis at Google Docs Another...

Obama doesn't weed out illegal cash, GOP says Sun Oct 5, 2008 5:15pm EDT By Andy Sullivan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican Party on Sunday said Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama had not done enough to screen out illegal campaign contributions and asked U.S. election officials to look into the matter. Citing news reports, the Republican National Committee said Obama had accepted contributions from foreigners and taken more than the $2,300 maximum from donors who give in small increments. The Obama campaign denied the charges. The RNC said it will ask the Federal Election Commission to examine Obama records in...

A lawyer for the Republican National Committee today said the party will ask the Federal Election Commission to look into the source of thousands of small-dollar contributions to the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama. The RNC is alleging that the Obama campaign was so hungry for donations it "looked the other way" as contributions piled up from suspicious, and possibly even illegal foreign donors. "We believe that the American people should know first and foremost if foreign money is pouring into a presidential election," said RNC Chief Counsel Sean Cairncross. Cairncross alleged there was mounting evidence of this, and...

http://www.newsmeat.com/ceo_political_donations/Henry_Paulson.php Think they all voted for the bill? I was just doing some research on Mr. Paulson. From Wikipedia - He has intimate relations with China elite and has visited over 70 times. He is co-chair of The Nature Conservancy's Asia Pacific Council and founding chair of the School of Economics and Management at the University of Tsinghua. He loves snakes. He is quoted as saying he "likes to hold them and look at them". His wife is quoted as saying "He had that snake look in his eyes". He is a Christian Scientist. (I don't know much about this,...

WHO is "Will, Good"? Mr. Good Will - who lists his employer as "Loving" and his profession as "You" - has contributed 1,000 times to the Barack Obama campaign. All the contributions have been in amounts of $25 or less. But they add up to $17,375 - far more than the legal limit of $4,600. That's $2,300 each for the primary and general election campaigns. Kenneth Timmerman, a reporter for NewsMax, a conservative Web site, discovered Mr. Good Will when he reviewed 1.4 million individual contributions in the latest Federal Elections Commission master file for the Obama campaign. Mr. Good...

Just how much in donations from foreign countries is pouring into the Obama campaign coffers is a question one FEC auditor would like to have answered. The problem is that evidently, his bosses at the FEC are refusing to move on the charges which would almost certainly require them to ask the Justice Department and the FBI to look into the matter. This would, their reasoning goes, take on the appearance of a "criminal investigation" and would impact the coming election. The anonymous investigator (who won't reveal his name for fear of retribution) says that "I can't get anyone to...

Just wondering if anyone else smells a link b/w Goldman Sachs and the many people pushing this $700 billion dollar TAXPAYER bailout. Buffett offers his dire warnings re:the market and this bailout... but he just invested $5 billion into Goldman Sachs. It just seems EXTREMELY interesting to me that Paulson was the former CEO over at Goldman, the memo forwarded to Obama's team, regarding the House's Republican plan, before the meeting at the WH on Thursday afternoon came from a "reliable" sourse over at Goldman, Jim Johnson is on the board over at Goldman, Buffett is an advisor to the...

Not all their money has gone for mansions and Ferraris. The embattled Goldman Sachs investment banking firm and its employees have spent more than $43 million dollars on lobbying and campaign contributions to cultivate friends and buy influence in Washington, D.C. since 1989, according to an ABC News analysis of campaign finance records compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. As a group, Goldman Sachs bankers have been the country's top political campaign contributors this year and have given $29.5 million in contributions since 1989, according to the Center. "They are almost in a class by themselves," said Sheila Krumholz,...

Toxic subprime mortgages and sickly derivatives are one thing, but even amid the write-downs and bailouts, Wall Streeters have to be wondering if they are getting a pretty bad return on another investment–the money they contributed to the Presidential candidates. Financiers have donated millions of dollars for Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, let alone the funds given to various House and Senate candidates. And sophisticated Wall Streeters surely know that when they make campaign contributions, they aren’t paying for specific policies as much as access. What Wall Street didn’t want was to be the campaign season’s favorite political...

Click on the box titled "New-2008 Presidential Donor A-List Chart"

1. $120,349. Other People's Money. Senator Obama received more political contribution money from now-collapsed mortgage banks Fannie Mae [Federal National Mortgage Association] and Freddie Mac [Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp] than all but one of the 353 other senators and congressmen who received political contributions from these two entities which were recently taken over by the federal government. Even more dramatic is the fact that 19 years (from 1989 - 2008) of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac political contribution statistics show Senator Obama received his $120,349 despite having been in the U.S. Senate for just three years. Only Senator Chris...

2008 Race: Virginia Senate Top Industries Mark Warner (D) Industry Total Lawyers/Law Firms $911,755 Democratic/Liberal $733,980 Securities & Investment $607,550 Retired $438,468 Real Estate $382,418 Misc Finance $246,500 Business Services $224,075 Computers/Internet $163,950 Leadership PACs $159,100 Lobbyists $147,732 Health Professionals $124,950 Insurance $106,750 TV/Movies/Music $99,200 Pro-Israel $83,901 Printing & Publishing $79,050 Education $74,101 Commercial Banks $69,950 Non-Profit Institutions $67,750 Tobacco $67,700 Misc Defense $61,950

The McCain campaign is clearly exaggerating wildly in attempting to depict Raines as a close adviser to Obama on "housing and mortgage policy." If we are to believe Raines, he did have a couple of telephone conversations with someone in the Obama campaign. But that hardly makes him an adviser to the candidate himself -- and certainly not in the way depicted in the McCain video release.

For the Pritzker family of Chicago, the 2001 collapse of subprime-mortgage lender Superior Bank was an embarrassing failure in a corner of their giant business empire. Billionaire Penny Pritzker helped run Hinsdale, Ill.-based Superior, overseeing her family's 50% ownership stake. She now serves as Barack Obama's national campaign-finance chairwoman, which means her banking past could prove to be an embarrassment to her -- and perhaps to the campaign. Superior was seized in 2001 and later closed by federal regulators. Government investigators and consumer advocates have contended that Superior engaged in unsound financial activities and predatory lending practices. Ms. Pritzker, a...

...Penny Pritzker, Obama's national finance chair was, with her family, the half owner of Superior Bank, which was shut down in 2001 by the FDIC after it had lost nearly all of its more than $2 billion of assets on bad loans to high-risk borrowers, federal regulators said. Pritzker has avoided media attention over the past week as reporters covering the Obama campaign sought comment on the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac debacle. Pritzker also served as finance chair for Obama's Senate run, and supported him during his time in the Illinois state legislature. One reason Pritzker may have been...

John McCain is on spot on with demands for an investigation of the failed financial institutions that were driven by the failure of Freddy Mac and Fannie Mae. The Democrats are busy trying to blame the crisis on the Republicans, while they were the key recipients of huge campaign contributions from these failed institutions, including Freddy Mac and Fannie Mae, as well as Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and others. How much empathy does the predominantly Democrat recipients have for the shareholders of these failed insttutions? As one who received little or nothing from these institutions, McCain has the political leverage...

When the federal government announced two months ago that it would prop up mortgage buyers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, CRP looked at how much money members of Congress had collected since 1989 from the companies. On Sunday the government completely took over the two government-sponsored enterprises, and we've returned to our data to bring you the updates, this time providing a list of all 354 lawmakers who have gotten money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (in July we posted the top 25). These totals are based on data released electronically from the FEC on Sept. 2 and include...

-- Ayelet Waldman e-mailed a few writer friends asking them to donate signed books she could auction as an "instant library" at a Barack Obama fundraiser hosted by Alice Waters in Berkeley on Sept. 26. She's received hundreds, from the likes of Stephen King, Ann Packer, Khaled Husseini, Jodi Picoult, Jonathan Lethem, Anne Tyler, Steve Martin, Jamie Lee Curtis and others.

Please note: links do NOT work. Goldman Sachs $691,930 University of California $611,207 Citigroup Inc $448,599 JPMorgan Chase & Co $442,919 Harvard University $435,769 Google Inc $420,174 UBS AG $404,750 National Amusements Inc $389,140 Microsoft Corp $377,235 Lehman Brothers $370,524 Sidley Austin LLP $350,302 Moveon.org $347,463 Skadden, Arps et al $340,264 Time Warner $338,527 Wilmerhale Llp $335,398 Morgan Stanley $318,070 Latham & Watkins $297,400 Jones Day $289,476 University of Chicago $278,885 Stanford University $276,038

When the federal government announced two months ago that it would prop up mortgage buyers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, CRP looked at how much money members of Congress had collected since 1989 from the companies.

Wall Street's grim news has plenty of people worried about their pocketbooks. Lawmakers are among them, not only concerned with how to boost the economy but with their own personal finances tied to companies that are struggling. The richest members of Congress seem to be the most invested in the companies at the center of the Wall Street shake-up. According to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, nine lawmakers have between $785,900 and $1.8 million of their own money invested in Merrill Lynch, the brokerage firm that agreed over the weekend to sell itself to Bank of America for $50...

Name Office Total Contributions Dodd, Christopher J (D-CT) Senate $104,300 Obama, Barack (D-IL) Senate $45,111 McCain, John (R-AZ) Senate $41,200 Clinton, Hillary (D-NY) Senate $36,831 Baucus, Max (D-MT) Senate $24,750 Biden, Joseph R Jr (D-DE) Senate $19,975 Romney, Mitt (R) Pres $19,950 Sununu, John E (R-NH) Senate $15,950

Billionaire George Soros's hedge fund may have lost at least $120 million on its stake in Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., mostly acquired in the second quarter, as the investment bank suffered its worst financial result. Maybe he wants his money back from Obama, maybe thats why Bambi needs donation. Couldnt happen to a nicer guy......

Jodie Evans and Barack ObamaNewly released Federal Election Commission documents reveal that Democratic party presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois accepted a hefty $7250 contribution this summer from terrorist supporter Jodie Evans, a co-founder of the anti-American group Code Pink.The contribution was made through a hybrid fundraising vehicle, the Obama Victory Fund, that splits contributions between Obama's presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee. The records were filed on July 30 and July 31 of this year. Evans designated $2300 of the $7250 for Obama's general election campaign, the maximum allowed by law.The contribution was apparently given by Evans...

Based on data released by the FEC on July 28, 2008. Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit the Center for Responsive Politics. For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact the Center Industries Lobbying Revolving Door PACs Heavy Hitters * Heavy Hitters List * Independent Expenditures * Search * Top Individual Contributors * Methodology 527s OpenSecrets.org Citizen Journalism Awards Watchdog what you want. MyOpenSecrets Tell us what you think about the new OpenSecrets.org

Less than 3.5% of all registered Democrats have donated to Obama and the majority have been MAJOR donors, not small ones as has been misstated repeatedly by the Obama campaign.  The latest lie came today with the announcements that $66 million were raised in August and that the greatest part is that the donations "come in the $10s and $25s from the average citizen", quoting Sen. Schumer on Sunday, 9/14/08 on Meet the Press. Even Tom Brokaw responded in doubt: "But a lot of them come from big friends of yours on Wall Street and New York, and people have...

Money Track at Political Base Data aggregated from the FEC. All records are based on $200+ contributions to campaigns except for the 2008 Presidential campaigns, which include sub-$200 transactions as well.

AMERICA'S MOST POPULAR CAMPAIGN DONOR SEARCH ENGINE NEWSMEAT HALL OF FAME (Political donations of the powerful, rich, and famous)

"Top Recipients of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Campaign Contributions, 1989-2008 Name Office Party/State Total 1. Dodd, Christopher J S D-CT $133,900 2. Kerry, John S D-MA $111,000 3. Obama, Barack S D-IL $105,849 4. Clinton, Hillary S D-NY $75,550 5. Kanjorski, Paul E H D-PA $65,500"

ActBlue $649,130 Altria Group $59,400 Verizon Communications $33,000 Northrop Grumman $32,800 HBK Capital Management $32,200 Covington & Burling $29,050 Columbia Capital $25,300 Hogan & Hartson $24,600 Norfolk Southern $24,200 Alion Science & Technology $22,900 Humana Inc $22,500 Patton Boggs LLP $21,300 Williams & Connolly $21,100 Time Warner $21,050 Dickstein, Shapiro & Morin $20,900 Dominion Resources $20,400 DLA Piper $19,850 SLM Corp $19,600 Friedman, Billings & Ramsey $19,400 McGuire, Woods et al $19,400

This cycle, with Democrats in control, they've reversed course, giving the party 56 percent of their total $1.1 million in contributions. Similarly, Freddie Mac has given 53 percent of its $555,700 in contributions to Democrats this cycle, compared to the 44 percent it gave during 2006. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have also strategically given more contributions to lawmakers currently sitting on committees that primarily regulate their industry. Fifteen of the 25 lawmakers who have received the most from the two companies combined since the 1990 election sit on either the House Financial Services Committee; the Senate Banking, Housing &...

Islamic leaders tied by federal investigators to the radical Muslim Brotherhood in America – including one under active investigation for alleged terror-financing – have recently donated to Sen. Barack Obama's campaign for president, according to Federal Election Commission records reviewed by WND. Jamal M. Barzinji earlier this year gave Obama $1,000, a gift that records show has not been returned. Other Democratic candidates, including Rep. Jim Moran, have refunded donations from Barzinji since federal agents raided his Virginia home and offices in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Obama's top Muslim adviser resigned earlier this month over controversy surrounding his...

Islamic leaders tied by federal investigators to the radical Muslim Brotherhood in America – including one under active investigation for alleged terror-financing – have recently donated to Sen. Barack Obama's campaign for president, according to Federal Election Commission records reviewed by WND. Jamal M. Barzinji earlier this year gave Obama $1,000, a gift that records show has not been returned. Other Democratic candidates, including Rep. Jim Moran, have refunded donations from Barzinji since federal agents raided his Virginia home and offices in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Obama's top Muslim adviser resigned earlier this month over controversy surrounding his...

Islamic leaders tied by federal investigators to the radical Muslim Brotherhood in America – including one under active investigation for alleged terror-financing – have recently donated to Sen. Barack Obama's campaign for president, according to Federal Election Commission records reviewed by WND. Jamal M. Barzinji earlier this year gave Obama $1,000, a gift that records show has not been returned. Other Democratic candidates, including Rep. Jim Moran, have refunded donations from Barzinji since federal agents raided his Virginia home and offices in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Obama's top Muslim adviser resigned earlier this month over controversy surrounding his...

PAUL Colichman, the William Randolph Hearst of the gay media, is not supporting Barack Obama for president. But that doesn't mean he's backing John McCain. "I'm a die-hard Democrat," he tells Page Six. But Colichman was also a die-hard Hillary Clinton supporter. He and Harry Thomason produced a documentary, "The Hunting of the President: The 10-Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton." Colichman, 46, who owns The Advocate and Out magazines, GayWired.com, and Here, the premium cable network for gays, said he finally dealt with his disappointment over Clinton's defeat last week and came around to Obama. "I thought,...

By Michelle Malkin  •  August 26, 2008 04:41 PM I noted this morning that the Obama campaign’s Chicago-style thug effort to shut down the independent ad on Bill Ayers is part of the larger effort to intimidate conservative donors and curtail the free speech of The One’s critics.It’s getting uglier, people. Obama’s lawyer has sent a second letter to the Justice Department calling for the head of Dallas billionare Harold Simmons, who funded the Ayers ad that the Obama campaign doesn’t want the public to see.Feel the chill: Obama general counsel Bob Bauer today sent a second, sharper letter to the Justice...

On July 31, Atlas broke the explosive bombshell that Obama was receiving big foreign donations andin particular, from the Hamas controlled Rafah refugee camps in Gaza. Jihad money to the tune of 33,000. Despite big media's reluctance to publish anything negative about Obama no matter how important and damning, a couple of publications and talk radio hosts picked up on the story-- and Obama responded. Obama and co. claimed the money was returned. Chalk this up to another Obama lie - the money was never returned. Cathy has been combing through the latest filing and reviewing all past documents. Nothing....

The Democratic National Committee is returning a $100,000 donation from embattled Harlem Rep. Charles Rangel made at his birthday fundraiser, saying it goes against a Team Obama ban on PAC money... Rangel presented the donation to DNC chairman Howard Dean at the gala at Tavern on the Green a few weeks ago. "The DNC no longer accepts PAC money," Rangel...been battling a wave of negative press and GOP slams on his four rent-stabilized apartments.

Footnote to the Democratic primary: Among the worries of the party faithful about New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was the business baggage of Bill Clinton, including his lucrative relationship with Vinod Gupta, founder and CEO of the infoUSA database and marketing firm. Make that former CEO. Gupta was replaced as chief executive of the Omaha-based firm as part of a proposed settlement of a shareholder suit which accused him of misspending millions in company funds, part of that on the Clintons. Gupta, who still owns a hefty chunk of infoUSA shares, remains a board member, but turns over the...

Republicans may not be able to count on the military vote in 2008, according to a report issued by the Center for Responsive Politics, which shows that troops overseas have donated about six times as much to Sen. Barack Obama as to Sen. John McCain. Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has raised $60,642 to McCain's $10,665 among this group, said the nonpartisan center, which examined information required by the Federal Election Commission for contributions more than $200....

USA Today, link only http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-08-14-military-donations_N.htm

During World War II, soldiers crouching in foxholes penned letters assuring their sweethearts that they'd be home soon. Now, between firefights in the Iraqi desert, some infantrymen have been sending a different kind of mail stateside: two or three hundred dollars -- or whatever they can spare -- towards a presidential election that could very well determine just how soon they come home. According to an analysis of campaign contributions by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, Democrat Barack Obama has received nearly six times as much money from troops deployed overseas at the time of their contributions than has...

I have been researching, documenting and studying thousands upon thousands of Obama's campaign donations for the past month. Egregious abuse was immediately evident and I published the results of my ongoing investigation. Each subsequent post built a more damning case against Obama's illegal contribution activity. The media took little notice of what I was substantiating. I went so far as to upload the documents so that anyone could do their own research. I asked readers to download the documents and a number of folks pitched in. Despite dropping the groundbreaking bombshell story of "Palestinian" brothers from the Rafah refugee camp...