Free Republic

A measure that would decriminalize minor marijuana-possession cases is on the ballot in Massachusetts largely because of one man: billionaire financier and liberal activist George Soros.Of the $429,000 collected last year by the group advancing the measure, $400,000 came from Soros, who has championed similar efforts in several states and spent $24 million to fight President Bush's 2004 re-election bid. The Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy needed about $315,000 of that just to collect the more than 100,000 signatures that secured a spot on the ballot, according to campaign finance reports reviewed by The Associated Press. "All of us owe...

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,...

A measure that would decriminalize minor marijuana-possession cases is on the ballot in Massachusetts largely because of one man: billionaire financier and liberal activist George Soros.

Soros behind Mass. effort to decriminalize pot By STEVE LeBLANC – 1 hour ago BOSTON (AP) — A measure that would decriminalize minor marijuana-possession cases is on the ballot in Massachusetts largely because of one man: billionaire financier and liberal activist George Soros. Of the $429,000 collected last year by the group advancing the measure, $400,000 came from Soros, who has championed similar efforts in several states and spent $24 million to fight President Bush's 2004 re-election bid. The Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy needed about $315,000 of that just to collect the more than 100,000 signatures that secured a...

At a press conference yesterday on the Capitol steps in Sacramento, Planned Parenthood was among a group of about two dozen organizations pleading with the legislature not to make additional cuts to state health spending in order to balance the budget. For more than a year, Planned Parenthood has been pleading poverty – but the abortion provider doesn’t seem short on cash when it comes to waging a political campaign against Proposition 4. As of July 31, the various Planned Parenthood affiliates in California had contributed nearly $2 million to a war chest aimed at defeating Sarah’s Law, a family...

Denver, Aug 25, 2008 / 11:51 pm (CNA).- Tim Gill, a billionaire from Colorado who has funded homosexual activism throughout the United States, spoke at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered (LGBT) Delegates Caucus at the Democratic National Convention on Monday, outlining how he has worked to advance homosexual causes in U.S. politics. Gill endorsed undermining rising politicians critical of homosexual advocacy by targeting donations to benefit their opponents on the state level. Gill, who was introduced at the caucus as one of the nation’s largest funders of LGBT “civil rights initiatives,” reportedly has spent $150 million on LGBT issues....

Gill: “The only way bigots are going to learn is if we take their power away from them" Tim Gill Denver, Aug 25, 2008 / 11:51 pm (CNA).- Tim Gill, a billionaire from Colorado who has funded homosexual activism throughout the United States, spoke at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered (LGBT) Delegates Caucus at the Democratic National Convention on Monday, outlining how he has worked to advance homosexual causes in U.S. politics. Gill endorsed undermining rising politicians critical of homosexual advocacy by targeting donations to benefit their opponents on the state level.Gill, who was introduced at the caucus...

The Democratic Party platform is like a bag of pork rinds. You never know what high-fat liberal government morsel you're gonna get. Buried in the 94-page document is a noble-sounding proposal to create a "Social Investment Fund Network." The program would provide federal money to "social entrepreneurs and leading nonprofit organizations (that) are assisting schools, lifting families out of poverty, filling health care gaps and inspiring others to lead change in their own communities." The Democratic Party promises to "support these results-oriented innovators" by creating an office to "coordinate government and nonprofit efforts" and then showering "a series of grants"...

My syndicated column today delves into the Democrat Party platform and exposes how untold amounts of taxpayer funding would be steered to militant, George Soros-backed left-wing groups. Welcome to Barack Obama’s “Social Investment Fund Network.” Follow the money. That goes for both presidential candidates who carry the Soros taint. Ugh. --snip-- The Democrat Party platform is like a bag of pork rinds. You never know what high-fat liberal government morsel you’re gonna get. Buried in the 94-page document is a noble-sounding proposal to create a “Social Investment Fund Network.” The program would provide federal money to “social entrepreneurs and leading...

The Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR), a prominent U.S.-based public interest group litigating and lobbying for pro-abortion policies world-wide, has released its annual report for 2007. The reported CRR budget confirms that large US foundations continue their heavy financial support for radical social policies not only in the US, but all over the world. The report shows that close to fifty percent of CRR’s $14 million budget is financed by more than forty American foundations. The Hewlett and Packard foundations lead the way. Other prominent donors include Ford and MacArthur foundations as well as George Soros’ Open Society Institute. CRR...

Union bosses are well aware that their days were numbered until Obama came along. And they are sparing no expense in getting him elected. The AFL-CIO and its affiliates have raised an unprecedented $250 million to put 200,000 union workers on the street campaigning for Obama in the crucial final weeks. The National Education Association has budgeted up to $50 million. The Service Employees International Union has added $100 million to pay 2,000 union members to leave their jobs and go work on Democratic campaigns. All totaled, unions are expected to spend more than $1 billion of their members’ money...

In an effort to cast himself as independent of the influence of money on politics, Senator Barack Obama often highlights the campaign contributions of $200 or less that have amounted to fully half of the $340 million he has collected so far. But records show that a third of his record-breaking haul has come from donations of $1,000 or more - a total of $112 million, more than the total of contributions in that category taken in by either Senator John McCain, his Republican rival, or Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, his opponent in the Democratic primaries. Behind those large donations...

"The fact that this site even exists is only half as offensive as the fact that 99% of all parents in America don't know that this is being done to target their children," said the Lovely Bride to me on Wednesday of this last week. She is right. Because of our collective willingness as a society to do anything and everything we can - accept those things that we really have responsibility to do, we have created a world that has given birth to the website "www.TakeCareDownThere.org". Worse yet YOU have funded this mess, and seemed unresolved to do anything...

The answer is ... children. Well, maybe a few of them qualify as young adults. But the young 20-somethings of America are becoming extremely politically active and they have chosen their cause: the environment. P Here's an example of what I am talking about. Greenpeace has a summer campaign called "Change It", which teaches 140 young people how to move lawmakers with grassroots campaigns. For 140 slots, Greenpeace received over 1,000 applications. The Greenpeace student coordinator Amanda Starbuck says, "To me, this is the strongest student movement since the 1960s ... The current generation is very environmental-minded and [has] a...

A Minnesota conservative is calling for an end to the tax-exempt status and public financing of the country’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood. According to Planned Parenthood's latest annual report, the organization received more than $1 billion from revenues -- nearly one-third of that figure came from "government grants and contracts." In light of that report, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-Minnesota) became outraged when she learned of Planned Parenthood's new branding effort in her Minnesota district. She says the new strategy is a move away from helping poor women with family planning, and instead involves targeting latte-drinking, affluent women across America....

Unlike Kerry, Obama Covets Soros' SupportRobert B. Bluey, CNSNews.comWednesday, July 28, 2004BOSTON – Without a formidable Republican opponent in his U.S. Senate race, Barack Obama has little reason not to take money from billionaire liberal financier George Soros, a man other Democrats keep at a distance. When Obama took the stage Tuesday night for a prime-time address at the Democratic National Convention, the candidate for Senate in Illinois was introduced to a wider audience ... [snip!] Democrats expect him to pass any test he faces. They view Obama as a rising star within their party, touting his good looks and...

Obama's Liberal Shock Troops By JOHN FUND July 12, 2008 While he is a skilled candidate, Barack Obama's ability to surprise, stun and sweep over the vaunted Clinton Machine to capture the Democratic nomination was rooted in his background as a community organizer. He's now turning those skills to the general election. But liberals aren't just on the march on the presidential level. This year, liberal activists are spending parts of the fortunes of their wealthy donors to transform politics at the state and local level. In 2005, billionaire investor George Soros convened a group of 70 super-rich liberal donors...

On Wednesday night, several members of Congress lined up on the floor of the House of Representatives and issued a call for de-funding Planned Parenthood. They said taxpayers shouldn't be forced to fund the abortion business -- even if the money doesn't directly go towards abortions. Reps. Michelle Bachmann of Minnesota and Chris Smith of New Jersey, both Republicans, organized the special order speeches. In her testimony on the House floor, Bachmann referenced recent reports highlighting Planned Parenthood’s targeting more affluent young women in her congressional district. A Wall Street Journal article also cited opening of “express centers in wealthy...

On the heels of announcing steep layoffs at the Los Angeles Times, Tribune Co. said Thursday it had arranged a $300 million bank loan with Barclays Bank, most of which would be used to pay off part of an existing loan. The Barclays transaction was described as an “asset-backed commercial paper facility,” meaning it’s backed by accounts receivable money that Tribune is owed. The arrangement with Barclays allows Tribune to get a cash infusion pronto without having to wait for those bills to come due. Still, it’s a sign of the cash crunch at the debt-laden Chicago-based newspaper and TV...

Barack Obama served on the board of directors of Woods Fund of Chicago from 1993 to 2001. During that time, the tax exempt foundation made some interesting grants, including one to Obama's church, Trinity United Church of Christ, headed by Rev. Jeremiah Wright at the time. Grants were also made to ACORN, a left wing voter registration group and to a partnership for constructing low income housing. The fund also used Northern Trust for financial services, which is the same company that provided Obama his 2005 mortgage. In 2001 the board of directors included Obama, William Ayers, the former Weather...

If you don’t know what ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) is all about, you better bone up. This left-wing group takes in 40 percent of its revenues from American taxpayers — you and me — and has leveraged nearly four decades of government subsidies to fund affiliates that promote the welfare state and undermine capitalism and self-reliance, some of which have been implicated in perpetuating illegal immigration and encouraging voter fraud. A new whistleblower report from the Consumer Rights League documents how Chicago-based ACORN has commingled public tax dollars with political projects...

Quoted material is verbatim from the E-mail to which Barack Obama signed his name. Since we announced our decision not to accept taxpayer funds for the general election, tens of thousands of people like you have come forward to declare their independence from a broken system. The decision not to accept taxpayer funds frees Obama from Federal spending limits. This decision frees us to build a movement of millions of people giving whatever they can afford to a campaign that is truly reforming the way our political process works. It also frees us to take our campaign for change to...

BARACK OBAMA isn't abandoning his pledge to take public financing for the general election campaign because it's in his political interest. Certainly not. He isn't about to become the first candidate since Watergate to run an election fueled entirely with private money because he will be able to raise far more that way than the mere $85 million he'd get if he stuck to his promise -- and with which his Republican opponent, John McCain, will have to make do. No, Mr. Obama, or so he would have you believe, is forgoing the money because he is so committed to...

Exclusive: MoveOn To Close Its 527 In Response To Obama's CandidacyBy Greg Sargent - June 20, 2008, 12:05PM MoveOn, the advocacy group supporting Barack Obama, has decided to permanently shutter its 527 operation, partly in response to the Illinois Senator's insistence that such groups should not spend on his behalf during the general election, I've learned from the group's spokesperson. MoveOn's decision, which will dramatically impact the way it raises money on Obama's behalf, is yet another sign of how rapidly Obama is taking control of the apparatus that's gearing up on his behalf. By shuttering its 527, MoveOn is...

So much moral good was expected from "campaign-finance reform" that Barack Obama's announcement yesterday that he will opt out of public financing for his Presidential run is an historic moment. Senator Obama is the first candidate since the law was passed in the 1970s not to take matching funds for the general election. Even candidate George W. Bush, flush with cash in 2000 and 2004, didn't do that. The campaign-finance law may have been on life support, but being the one who finally pulled the plug seems to have put the Illinois freshman in a churlish mood. "John McCain's campaign...

The Illinois Senator makes the announcement Thursday morning in a video sent out to his supporters.

Almost 50 companies - including PepsiCo, General Motors, Wal-Mart, FedEx, Continental Airlines, Johnson & Johnson and Chase - and some labor unions sponsored Sharpton's National Action Network annual conference in April. Terrified of negative publicity, fearful of a consumer boycott or eager to make nice with the civil-rights activist, CEOs write checks, critics say, to NAN and Sharpton - who brandishes the buying power of African-American consumers. In some cases, they hire him as a consultant. The cash flows even as the US Attorney's Office in Brooklyn has been conducting a grand-jury investigation of NAN's finances. http://www.nypost.com/seven/06152008/news/regionalnews/rev__al_soaks_up_boycott_bucks_115554.htm

Much more information over here --->>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/23/AR2006052301751.html 

GOP presidential candidate John McCain sounded more like a Democratic presidential candidate (a recurring trend) when he joined the Left’s oil industry bashers a few weeks ago. Asked by a North Carolina voter whether he supported a Jimmy Carter-era windfall profits tax, McCain responded: “Um, I don’t like obscene profits being made anywhere — and I’d be glad to look not just at the windfall profits tax — that’s not what bothers me — but we should look at any incentives that we are giving to people or industries or corporations that are distorting the market.” Here’s an idea for...

Obama’s Ex-Church Has Won $15M in Federal Grant Money by FOXNews.com Monday, June 2, 2008 By Jeff Goldblatt Across America seven days a week, parents drop their kids at day care centers, which are supported by funding from the federal government. But what makes one facility noteworthy in inner city Chicago is that it’s run by Trinity United Church of Christ. It’s the same church whose former head pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, drew widespread scrutiny after he cursed the U.S. government for its treatment of African-Americans. FOX News has learned that over the last 15 years, Trinity has received at...

An attorney and top foreign policy adviser to Sen. Barack Obama is coming under fire for representing controversial figures, including an accused human rights abuser, an alleged murderer of a U.S. soldier and even the would-be assassin of President Ronald Reagan. Greg Craig, who has been termed the "lawyer of the left," represented John Hinckley Jr., who attempted to assassinate Reagan in 1981 by firing six bullets at the president as he left a hotel. Craig was reportedly the architect of Hinckley's successful defense in which he was found not guilty by reason of insanity, even though reports by the...

Many Americans were startled to learn that the Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, whose campaign is built on an uplifting message of national unity and racial reconciliation, belongs to a church in Chicago where a very different view of America is preached by its longtime pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Mr. Wright, who just retired after decades in the pulpit, has argued that the "United States of White America" is still sharply divided between an oppressive white power structure and oppressed African-Americans, that God should "damn America for treating our citizens as less than human," and that the 2001 terrorist...

WASHINGTON — Texas university professors overwhelmingly favor Democratic candidates in their campaign contributions, a Houston Chronicle study of Federal Election Commission records has found. Faculty members have contributed $406,384 to Democratic candidates or committees in the 2008 campaign season — 71 percent of their political donations. Republicans have received $135,216, or 24 percent, of donations through the end of March. University personnel gave $27,915 to nonpartisan political action committees or third party candidates. The professors' top pick was Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton. She received $129,721 in contributions, ahead of fellow Democrat Barack Obama with $104,911. Republican nominee-presumptive John...

Excerpt - The Democratic National Committee raised only $4.7 million in April and ended last month with a perilously low $3.7 million in the bank, a Democratic insider tells Washington Wire. Four years ago during the last presidential election cycle, the story was much different. The DNC raised $19 million in April 2004 and ended that month with $42 million cash on hand, Federal Election Commission reports show. ~ snip ~ What explains the cash crunch at the DNC? Some critics say it’s proof that Chairman Howard Dean just hasn’t been very effective at cultivating donors or managing resources. Dean’s...

According to the latest Federal Election Commission reports filed through the end of March, the RNC had $31 million in cash on hand while the DNC had only $5.3 million. The RNC has raised $36.5 million this year while the DNC has raised $17.7 million.

WASHINGTON - Barack Obama's presidential campaign wants federal regulators to investigate fellow Democrats who are backing Hillary Rodham Clinton's candidacy, taking intraparty discord to a new level of confrontation. Obama's campaign lawyer, Robert Bauer, filed a complaint Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission, accusing the pro-Clinton American Leadership Project of violating campaign finance laws by running ads against Obama. The group is largely financed by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and is run by Democratic operatives, many of them based in California and who have past connections to Clinton or her husband. Its organizers say they...

BOSTON (Reuters) - Philanthropist David Rockefeller donated a record $100 million to Harvard University's undergraduate program, the largest gift by a Harvard alumnus in the history of the oldest and richest U.S. college. About $70 million will be used to expand Harvard's student travel and study abroad programs and $30 million will go to arts education, the Cambridge, Massachusetts, school said in a statement on Friday. Rockefeller, 92, the last surviving grandchild of billionaire oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller, is listed by Forbes magazine as one of the 150 wealthiest Americans, with an estimated fortune of $2.7 billion. He graduated...

The co-founder of the radical anti-war group Code Pink has “bundled” more than $50,000 for Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, and pro-troops groups are demanding that he return the money. Jodie Evans, a Code Pink leader, gathered at least $50,000 from friends and associates and donated it to Obama’s presidential campaign, according to information compiled by the nonpartisan watchdog group, Public Citizen. Evans and her son, a student who lives at her Southern California address, each also gave the maximum individual allowable donation of $2,300 to Obama’s campaign. The donations have raised questions about Obama’s association with the more radical...

Politics: As election season kicks into high gear, who should jump in front of the cameras but George Soros. A string of worshipful media stories suggest he's just talking financial shop. We think it's campaign politics.After several months of seeming hibernation, the leftist billionaire speculator, who calls himself the "stateless statesman," has somehow gotten himself a lot of sudden press coverage. Starting most prominently with CNBC's Maria Bartiromo, Soros has been telling interviewers that this is "the worst market crisis in 60 years" and "the end of an era." Ahem. What the media blitz really coincides with is the heating...

Obama credits his presidential campaign with creating a "parallel public financing system" built on a wave of modest donations from homemakers and high school teachers. Small givers, he said at a fundraiser this week But those with wealth and power also have played a critical role in creating Obama's record-breaking fundraising machine, and their generosity has earned them a prominent voice in shaping his campaign. Seventynine "bundlers," five of them billionaires, have tapped their personal networks to raise at least $200,000 each. They have helped the campaign recruit more than 27,000 donors to write checks for $2,300, the maximum allowed....

by Steven Ertelt LifeNews.com Editor April 9, 2008 Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A new report from a Planned Parenthood watchdog finds chapters of the Komen Race for the Cure breast cancer group gave affiliates of the national abortion business over $700,000 last fiscal year. The enormous amount should be a red flag to pro-life advocates, one leading activist says. Figures from STOPP International show Komen chapters giving $711,485 from April 1, 2005 to March 31, 2006 to Planned Parenthood affiliates.

Wealthy Democrats are preparing a four-month, $40 million media campaign centered on attacks on Senator John McCain. And it will be led by David Brock, the former investigative reporter who first gained fame in the 1990s as a right-wing, anti-Clinton journalist. The planned campaign is the product of a shakeup in the top ranks of the struggling independent Democratic groups. Brock, now best known as the ex-conservative founder of the liberal group Media Matters, last month quietly assumed the chairmanship of what's expected to be the main vehicle for independent Democratic attacks on McCain, now called Progressive Media USA. The...

A new report from a Planned Parenthood watchdog finds chapters of the Komen Race for the Cure breast cancer group gave affiliates of the national abortion business over $700,000 last fiscal year. The enormous amount should be a red flag to pro-life advocates, one leading activist says. Figures from STOPP International show Komen chapters giving $711,485 from April 1, 2005 to March 31, 2006 to Planned Parenthood affiliates. Jim Sedlak, a representative of the watchdog group says the numbers are concerning given than millions of pro-life Americans will participate in Komen events during the month. "More and more people are...

glaringly missing from the summary was mention of $15 million in fees paid by Burkle's Yucaipa Global Opportunities Fund since 2002

It's a bummer when an online slime machine is outed.Media Matters was an extremely effective leftwing propaganda outfit until it was found out that they were linked directly to Bill and Hillary Clinton, as well as billionaire leftist George Soros.Copious Dissent explains what happens to a liberal slime machine like Media Matters after being exposed. It looks like Think Progress may be following in their footsteps.  

italics/bold mine:Yesterday the news was full of accounts of the Clintons' 2000-2006 tax returns. At the top of the stories -- as in the "deep background" report by Andrea Mitchell and the NBC investigative unit -- reporting their total income of $108 million over the past eight years (including 2007) was their $10 million in contributions to charity. The stories appear to be based in large part on the summary provided by the Clinton campaign, rather than on the returns themselves. Here is the summary's description of the Clintons' charitable contributions: CHARITABLE CONTRIBUTIONS: $10,256,741 The Clintons donated $10,256,741 to charity...

Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign released their tax forms from 2000-2007 Thursday, which showed the Clintons earned more than $100 million in that time period and donated $10 million of that to their own charity. The Clinton campaign reports donating $10,256,741 to the CFF between 2000 and 2006. During that time, CFF dispersed $2,530,100 in money to other charities and causes. The names of other persons who donated to the CFF are not required to be disclosed. Over the years, the CFF gave $80,000 to the Clinton Birthplace Foundation Inc., $20,000 to the Shakespeare Theatre, $40,000 to the School of the...

NEW YORK, April 3, 2008 (c-fam.org)- A two-year old report has come to light that encourages foundations to fund religious organizations who agree to push the abortion agenda around the world. The report which was funded by the wealthy MacArthur and Ford Foundations, catalogues hundreds of religiously affiliated non-government organizations that are likely to include “sexual and reproductive health and rights” as part of their work. “Religion and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights: An Inventory of Organization, Scholars and Foundations,” issued by the Center for Health and Social Policy, argues that the world’s religions play an undeniable role in...

CNSNews.com) - A coalition of liberal organizations announced plans Tuesday to move "the most expensive mobilization in history this election season." MoveOn.org, Rock the Vote, Acorn, National Council of La Raza, Women's Voices Women Vote Action Fund, and the AFL-CIO announced plans for a $350 million initiative for the 2008 elections at the Take Back America conference in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the liberal Campaign for America's Future. Robert Borosage, co-director of the Campaign for America's Future, called it a "sea change election" on Tuesday, "one that we really haven't seen since 1980 when Reagan was elected and conservatives really...

WASHINGTON - A loose coalition of liberal and labor organizations expects to spend about $150 million this fall to push its causes and help Democrats win the White House and strengthen their grip on Congress. Participants include the two main labor coalitions — the AFL-CIO and Change to Win — as well as MoveOn.org and voter mobilization groups for minorities and young people. Organizers were announcing the effort Tuesday during conference sponsored by the liberal Campaign for America's Future. Liberal and labor strategists say an animated Democratic electorate and a dispirited Republican base have created a political environment tailor-made to...