Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jlallen who wrote (756130)	12/14/2006 11:56:16 AM
From: Bald Eagle	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

I guess it will take some more attacks and lots of dead bodies before most people take their blinkers off.

To: jlallen who wrote (756130)	12/14/2006 11:58:41 AM
From: pompsander	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

Does anybody other than me think the grim reaper approach to Senator Johnson's stroke and illness is disgusting? To my knowledge there is no way short of death of force a Senator out of office..unless you want to impeach him for being ill? Am I wrong? Incompetence? Wow..old Strom Thurmond was not exactly all there in his last five years. Does anything think he fully understood and carried out his duties? Anyway, rather than pray for the Senator's recovery I see on Fox News today (and probably on other channels as well) this morbid fascination with a 50-50 senate.

To: jlallen who wrote (756130)	12/14/2006 1:54:26 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Swift Boat, Moveon, Conservation Group Fined $630,000 (Update1) By Jonathan D. Salant bloomberg.com Dec. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Three groups that played a prominent role in the 2004 presidential election agreed to pay almost $630,000 in fines for campaign finance violations, the Federal Election Commission announced today. Swift Boat Veterans for Truth will pay $299,500, the League of Conservation Voter Fund $180,000 and Moveon.org Voter Fund $150,000. They failed to register as political action committees as required for those campaigning for or against a particular candidate and thus should have been barred from accepting contributions greater than $5,000, the FEC said. The groups were heavily funded by individual donors who financed their advertising campaigns. Swift Boat Veterans, which led the attack on Democratic Senator John Kerry's war record, received $4.5 million from Houston builder Bob Perry. Moveon.org, which opposed President George W. Bush for re-election, received $2.5 million from investor George Soros. The League of Conservation Voters, which backed Kerry, got $950,000 from Louis Moore Bacon, chairman of Moore Capital Management. ``The bipartisan and unanimous nature of the commission's action today leaves little doubt that this agency is willing to regulate election activity more aggressively than it has in the past,'' FEC Vice Chairman Robert Lenhard said. The organizations are called 527 groups, taking their name from a section of the U.S. tax code. Unlike political action committees, they can take unlimited donations from unions, corporations and individuals. The growth of 527s was a response to a 2002 campaign finance law that stopped the political parties from accepting corporate, union and unlimited individual contributions. Out of Business Moveon.org co-founder Wes Boyd said the fund went out of business after the 2004 election and now relies on small contributions to its PAC. ``If this means that the FEC is really pushing big money out of elections, it's good for democracy,'' Boyd said. The crackdown ``would almost certainly put Swift Boat Veterans and similar groups out of business.'' Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters, said the group settled with the FEC so it could turn its attention to environmental issues. It has been ``a crapshoot when interpreting in good faith the existing incomplete guidance'' from the FEC, he said. The Swift Boat group also has closed its doors, according to retired Admiral Roy Hoffmann, who founded the organization. ``It is far better to end this legal confrontation now rather than continue a costly battle against government bureaucrats in an area where the law is unconscionably vague,'' he said. To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan D. Salant in Washington at jsalant@bloomberg.net . Last Updated: December 13, 2006 17:58 EST