Free Republic

With Germany raking in more taxes due to strong economic performance, the leader of its liberal party has suggested state officials are enriching themselves at the cost of the taxpayer. “The greed of the state has taken on kleptocratic characteristics,” Christian Lindner, head of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) told Handelsblatt on Wednesday. A kleptocracy is a form of government in which officials corruptly use public funds for personal gain. “The yearly tax intake of the state is set to be €100 billion higher in 2020 than this year, if we don’t act. For the FDP, it is clear that...

SACRAMENTO — When Californians vote Nov. 8 after what may turn out to be the costliest initiative battles in state history, they won't fully know who was behind the campaigns: Politicians and their backers are using holes in state law that help hide the source of donations. Despite restrictions implemented in California in recent years, political money is being raised and spent with scant public disclosure by the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars. --snip-- There won't be full accountings for some campaigns until January, long after the votes are counted. Contributors to others won't...

With U.S. prisons filling up with aliens, 10 million illegals here and counting, Californians fleeing east, savage Salvadorian gangs battling with machetes inside the Beltway, and Minutemen headed for the Arizona border, Rip Van Republican has awakened to the threat of open borders. Meanwhile, the White House dozes on. But just as the chickens are coming home to roost on the Bush failure to defend America’s frontier, so they will soon be coming home on Bush’s embrace of free-trade fanaticism. As I write, the Department of Commerce has just released the trade deficit numbers for February. Again, the monthly trade...

Posted on Fri, Mar. 04, 2005 Governor hits the money trailBy Kate FolmarTIMES SACRAMENTO BUREAU SACRAMENTO - Starting with a visit to his annual bodybuilding extravaganza this weekend, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will begin a presidential-style fund-raising sweep for his re-election committee, including swanky events in Cincinnati, New York and Washington, D.C.At the luncheons and dinners, representatives of banking, pharmaceutical and other business groups with a stake in California policy debates will pay thousands to dine next to, and have photos snapped with, the Republican governor. The tour comes as Schwarzenegger pushes a historic multimillion-dollar initiative campaign against what he...

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has planned a series of fundraisers from California to the East Coast next month, including a dinner with New York Gov. George Pataki, a business round table with Washington lobbyists, and a Los Angeles event where $89,200 will buy a "private briefing" for two with the governor. Schwarzenegger's fundraising blitz in Ohio, Manhattan, Washington, Los Angeles and Indian Wells, Calif., — at upscale hotels, restaurants and private homes — is intended to raise money for a possible reelection campaign and other Schwarzenegger endeavors. The Los Angeles invitation lists one of Schwarzenegger's state campaign chairmen as...

A DECISION by President George W Bush to decorate two German spies who fought against the Nazis has caused embarrassment in Washington after claims that they were really Russian double agents. The posthumous awards will be conferred on Anton Ruh and Paul Lindner, who were recruited by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), forerunner of the CIA, while living as refugees in wartime Britain. A campaign led by Hillary Clinton, the New York senator and former first lady, to honour the men succeeded last month when Bush gave his approval. Relatives of Ruh and Lindner are due to receive the...

Top three individual donors to independent 527 political groups from Ohio: Peter B. Lewis, Cleveland: $23.1 million to pro-Kerry groups. Carl Lindner, Cincinnati: $1.9 million to pro-Bush groups. Richard Rosenthal, Cincinnati: $1 million to pro-Kerry groups.

Chiquita paid rebel groups Company told feds of Colombia payoffs By Cliff Peale The Cincinnati Enquirer Chiquita Brands International Inc. said Monday the Justice Department is investigating payments the company made to Colombian terrorist groups in response to threats against its workers. Cincinnati-based Chiquita, the world's largest banana company, said it voluntarily informed the Justice Department in April 2003 that it made the payments over an undisclosed period of time. Chiquita said the Justice Department was contacted after the company discovered the groups were listed on the State Department's Foreign Terrorist Organizations list. The list names 37 organizations, including...