Free Republic

WASHINGTON — Retiring Massachusetts congressman Barney Frank, a gay pioneer in Congress, plans to marry his longtime partner Jim Ready of Maine. A spokesman for Frank confirmed Thursday that the congressman's wedding will be in Massachusetts, but said no date had been set. The Democrat announced last fall that he was retiring at the end of his 16th term.

Middlesex prosecutor Joseph P. Kennedy III — widely seen as the best hope to carry the torch of the legendary family dynasty to a new generation — told the Herald last night he is leaving the door open to a run for Congress. “I just haven’t had the time to give it any thought, the type of careful consideration that it requires,” Kennedy said outside Cambridge District Court. “I’ve always thought politics is an honorable profession. It demands that you give it careful thought before you jump into it. When I get the time to do that, I’ll think about...

Barney Frank, former chairman of the Financial Services Committee, was very cozy with the financial sector for a very long time. This should serve as indictment of legislative record. For the New York Times' leading Frank sanitizer, David Firestone, however, the Frank-Bank friendship is a sign of Frank's "moderation." Firestone blogs at the NYT, "economically, Mr. Frank is essentially a centrist." Firestone's evidence, point by point:  Frank "talks often of the need for a 'grand bargain' between business and liberals." This has a name. It's called corporatism. Call it corporate socialism, or corporate welfare. It's also not a crazy idea, when you...

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said the congressional supercommittee's failure Monday to come to an agreement on spending reforms was “good news” because it will help to end the Bush-era tax cuts and give Democrats more bargaining power in budget negotiations. Groups on the edges of both the liberal and conservative spectrums have cheered the death of the supercommittee. Liberal groups like the Progressive Change Campaign Committee were happy that programs such as Social Security and Medicare were spared, while Tea Party conservative groups applauded the breakdown in talks because no tax increases emerged from the deficit-reduction panel. The supercommittee’s failure...

Closer to the actual event Bill Clinton blames the Democrats for blocking Republican efforts in reigning in Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae problems. Recently Barney Frank tries to blame Republicans wholly for the mess. h/t to 116falconer: http://youtu.be/ti-1XaapR0s

A local congressman is joining three other openly gay colleagues in a new video message to help teens cope with bullying over their sexual orientation. U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, who represents Foxboro,

The Obama administration’s efforts to fix the housing crisis may have fallen well short of helping millions of distressed mortgage holders, but they have led to seven-figure paydays for some top executives at troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The Federal Housing Finance Agency, the government regulator for Fannie and Freddie, approved $12.79 million in bonus pay after 10 executives from the two government-sponsored corporations last year met modest performance targets tied to modifying mortgages in jeopardy of foreclosure. The executives got the bonuses about two years after the federally backed mortgage giants received nearly $170 billion in...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Government-controlled mortgage giant Freddie Mac has requested $6 billion in additional aid after posting a wider loss in the third quarter. Freddie Mac said Thursday that it lost $6 billion, or $1.86 per share, in the July-September quarter. That compares with a loss of $4.1 billion, or $1.25 a share, in the same quarter of 2010. This quarter's $6 billion request from taxpayers is the largest since April 2010. Freddie's losses are increasing mainly for two reasons: Many homeowners are paying less interest because they are able to refinance at lower mortgage rates. And failing and bankrupt...

Some would suggest it’s the wisest remark they’ve ever heard a politician make. I always found his speeches strangely carminative. Some would argue that this sort of thing has been going on for a long time. It’s certainly happened at least since the days of satirist Jonathan Swift. He wrote a famous riddle about the posterior, that included the choice lines, “My words are few, but spoke with sense; And yet my speaking gives offence: Or, if to whisper I presume, The company will fly the room.”

In what could be a repeat of the easy-lending cycle that led to the housing crisis, the Justice Department has asked several banks to relax their mortgage underwriting standards and approve loans for minorities with poor credit as part of a new crackdown on alleged discrimination, according to court documents reviewed by IBD. [snip] Another Reno protege, Perez has compared bankers to Klansmen. Only difference is, he said, bankers discriminate "with a smile" and "fine print." He said this kind of racism, though more subtle, is "every bit as destructive as the cross burned in a neighborhood." Perez has put...

Democrats, watch out. The Republican Party and especially its Tea Party wing have just acquired a new weapon of mass destruction — and it has nothing to do with any of Congressman Wiener’s rogue body parts. If they deploy this weapon effectively in the next election cycle — a big if — then they have the biggest opportunity to move the country rightward since Ronald Reagan took the oath of office back in 1981. The Tea Party WMD stockpile is currently stored in book form: Reckless Endangerment: How Outsized Ambition, Greed, and Corruption Led to Economic Armageddon. By Gretchen Morgenson,...

Officers in Independence, a Kansas City suburb, responded to a call on a Saturday evening about a large alligator lurking on the embankment of a pond, police spokesman Tom Gentry said Thursday. An officer called a state conservation agent, who advised him to shoot the alligator because there was little that conservation officials could do at that time, Gentry said.

Robbers Attacked As Crowd Defends WomanOne Man Remains In Critical Condition POSTED: 10:15 am EDT May 24, 2011 FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. -- Fayetteville police say the tables quickly turned on two would-be purse-snatchers when more than a dozen of the victim's family and friends attacked the suspects. The Fayetteville Observer reports that two men flashed a handgun and tried to rob Maria Guevara of her purse outside an apartment complex shortly after midnight Monday. That's when 10 to 15 family members and friends rushed to her aid. Police say one the alleged robbers fired into the crowd, prompting a chase that...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Mortgage buyer Fannie Mae has posted a loss of $2.1 billion for the October-December quarter of last year, and is asking for an additional $2.6 billion in federal aid. The new request is slightly more than the $2.5 billion it sought in the July-September quarter. The government-controlled mortgage buyer also reported a $21.7 billion loss for all of 2010. AND YOU CAN'T MISS THIS TOO Freddie Mac posts $1.7B loss for Q4asks for additional $500 million in aid

Barney Frank tells young TV interviewers job exhausts himBy Donna Goodison Friday, January 7, 2011 - Updated 4 minutes ago He’s old, he’s tired and thinks it would be nice to have some free time and not have to read a lot of very boring and very complicated stuff that he doesn’t care about. That’s what U.S. Rep. Barney Frank told three college-age “Roadtrip Nation” interviewers during a July 2009 sit-down in his Washington, D.C., office for the public television program that aired Wednesday on ’GBH Kids. “I’m tired, and I think . . . it’d be nice to have...

In 1991, Barney Frank received an official reprimand for reflecting "discredit upon the House." The reprimand came as a result of his relationship with a man named Steve Gobi, a male prostitute whom Frank initially paid $80 for sex. Frank later took Gobi to live with him in his home, making him a personal aide. He paid him $20,000 in compensation (unreported to the IRS) and let him use his car. Subsequent investigation revealed that in the course of their relationship, Frank used his congressional office and stationary to fix Gobi's 33 parking fines. Frank also used his congressional letterhead...

Barney Frank: Straight and Gay Soldiers Must Shower Together, But Not Men and Women Tuesday, December 21, 2010 By Nicholas Ballasy (CNSNews.com) - Rep. Barney Frank (D.-Mass.) says he agrees with the recommendation of a Department of Defense (DOD) working group that straight and gay military personnel of the same gender should be required to shower together when the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law goes into effect. Frank, however, said Armed Forces personnel of opposite sexes should not shower together. “What do you think happens in gyms all over America? What do you think happens in the...

Mr. Frank's attitude seems to be that Americans need to justify why they should keep the money they inherit instead of the government needing to justify why they should be allowed to confiscate it. Video at link.

<p>In a crowded gym during practice in front of parents and coaches, the Buchanan High School wrestler tackled a teammate and executed a move his coaches taught him.</p> <p>He inserted his fingers between the boy's buttocks.</p> <p>It's called the "butt drag," in which a wrestler grabs a rival's butt cheek and puts fingers in the anus to get leverage. The move is widely used at matches around the country and has been around for decades.</p>

Barney Frank: Homeowners Shouldn’t Have ‘False Hopes’November 18, 2010, 12:00 PM ET By Alan Zibel Associated Press Rep. Barney Frank U.S. homeowners who have missed mortgage payments shouldn’t have “false hopes” that they can challenge foreclosures due to paperwork flaws, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said Thursday. Frank, the outgoing chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said at a subcommittee hearing that banks should be doing “everything possible to straighten out that paperwork problem.” But, he added that, consumers should not “get false hopes that this is going to lead to a substantial number of foreclosures being permanently forgotten.” Several...

'Inside Job" bills itself as "the first film to expose the shocking truth behind the economic crisis." It exposes whoremongering Wall Street traders, economic consultants who lie on their resumes and Hank Paulson's conflicts. But it doesn't answer what caused the crisis. Of course, it thinks it does. "This is how it happened," the film confidently tells viewers before taking them, oddly enough, all the way back to the 1980s. Why then? Because the Reagan administration — "supported by economists and financial lobbyists" — started a 30-year regulatory vacation that fomented unparalleled "greed and immorality" on Wall Street. "Progressive deregulation...

On Nov. 29, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, D-Calif., will face a House ethics trial for the role she allegedly played in helping a minority-owned bank called OneUnited—a bank in which her husband owned a sizable stake and on whose board he'd once sat—get $12 million in the 2008 bank bailout. Had OneUnited failed, the ethics committee that brought the charges alleges, Waters' husband's "financial interest in OneUnited would have been worthless." The ethics committee alleges that Waters' chief of staff and grandson, Mikael Moore, was "actively involved" in helping OneUnited and that Waters' "failure to instruct [him] to refrain from assisting"...

Wall Street Reform Architect Frank Fights for SurvivalBy Reuters November 01, 2010 BOSTON - Representative Barney Frank, the outspoken, witty Democrat closely tied to the 2008 U.S. bank bailout, faces a tough re-election battle after 15 terms in office at a time when incumbency itself is a liability. Challenging the Massachusetts liberal is Republican Sean Bielat, a former U.S. marine, and opinion polls suggest Frank has an uncomfortably narrow lead over a political unknown. In the run-up to Tuesday's congressional elections, Frank has faced a torrent of negative ads and mailings, much of it from groups outside the state who...

Back in September 2008, Brit Hume provided this timeline about FannieMae, FreddyMac, and the great economic collapse. Who was warning about the financial soundness of those institutions? Who reassured us — as late as the summer of 2008 — that they were “fundamentally sound”? This is a video that Sean Bielat, who is running against Barney Frank in Massachusetts (donate here), should air repeatedly until November 2.

U.S. Rep. Barney Frank said yesterday he’s not concerned that the mammoth financial regulation and consumer protection bill he co-sponsored will drive banks and businesses offshore, vowing that any country promising to be a haven for bad-news banks will incur the wrath of U.S. leaders. “If any small country decides to hold itself out as a haven, we mandated that countries be denied access to the Federal Reserve and other institutions, Frank said at a Boston College forum. “We have a capacity to do that.”

About time someone made an ad like this. (posted on TheBlaze.com). No hype, not even a voiceover. Just the facts, which are absolutely damning. I would suggest the makers of the ad adapt it to go NATIONAL. Could do a lot of damage to Dems. For now, to help run it to defeat Barney Frank, use donation link below:"BETRAYED OUR TRUST"

Excellent Bielat ad!

This ad ran on CBS affiliate late last night in Boston. Powerful stuff. I like it a lot more than the humorous ads Beilat had been running before. What that assclown Frank did to this nation is no laughing matter. YouTube link: Betrayed Our Trust (Barney Frank and the Subprime Disaster) Donation link to run ad: DONATE

Will Tea Party Sink Barney Frank's Reelection Bid?By Erik Hayden | October 22, 2010 11:53am **SNIP** Voters Are Starting to Turn Against Frank's 'Consistently Obnoxious Behavior' concludes Boston Globe columnist Brian McGrory, who explains that voters used to give Frank a pass because "he unapologetically and effectively carried the flag for the most liberal of causes." That time may be ending, Bielat has already made Frank look "foolish" and may do so on election day. "Now voters are looking to D.C. and wondering what has gone wrong in a city and a system that is having such a hard time...

U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, in an intensifying clash with GOP upstart Sean Bielat, has pledged not to take campaign cash from lenders that got federal bailouts — yet has raked in more than $40,000 from bank execs and special interests connected to the staggering government loans, a Herald review found. Frank vowed in February 2009 that he wouldn’t accept campaign donations from banks that received money under the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) or political action committees tied to such institutions. But Frank has hauled in thousands from top execs at Bank of America, Citizens Bank, Wainwright Bank,...

Barney Frank has given his re-election campaign $200,000 as he faces his toughest race in years. A campaign finance report filed Tuesday showed that Frank, the chairman of the powerful House Financial Services committee, lent himself the money Tuesday. The chairman is facing one of his toughest fights in recent memory against Republican Sean Bielat, a 35-year-old Marine veteran with degrees from Georgetown, Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania. Republican Sen. Scott Brown won Frank’s congressional district, which President Barack Obama carried in 2008. Bielat has zeroed in on Frank’s service atop the financial services committee, indicating that the Democrat...

Barney Frank: Protection bureau won’t run amokBy Thomas Grillo Friday, October 15, 2010 - Updated 2 days ago U.S. Rep. Barney Frank rejected suggestions that the director of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will have unchecked powers. “I can’t see many examples of there being an excess of consumer protection,” the Newton Democrat said yesterday following a speech to kick off Suffolk University’s Moakley Breakfast Series at the federal courthouse. “There are very strict rules about what she can and can’t do,” he said, “but the notion that we will overprotect consumers is a strange one.” Last month, President...

Frank haunted by 2003 remarks on lendersPublished: Oct. 14, 2010 at 9:39 PM BROOKLINE, Mass., Oct. 14 (UPI) - Remarks about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., during a 2003 committee hearing have become a campaign issue in 2010. Frank said then that the two government enterprises were strong enough to withstand any threats -- and that if they did get into trouble they would not get a government bailout. Sean Bielat, the Republican seeking Frank's seat, has a clip from 2003 on his campaign Web site, "Retire Barney," and Frank has been struggling to...

GOP foe raps Rep. Frank's Virgin Islands jet tripBy Andrew Miga Associated Press Writer / October 13, 2010 WASHINGTON - Rep. Barney Frank's Republican opponent says the Massachusetts congressman's private jet ride to the U.S. Virgin Islands, courtesy of a hedge fund manager, shows Frank is too cozy with the financial interests he oversees. **SNIP** Bielat, a Marine Corps reservist making his first run for office, said that while the trip may have been legal, it was wrong. "Frank has pushed bailouts for his corporate friends and operates on a different set of rules from the rest of us," Bielat...

Barney Frank, immersed in one of the toughest political fights of his career, took a free private jet to the Virgin Islands courtesy of a Maine congresswoman’s billionaire ...whose company received a $200 million federal bailout, the Herald has learned. Frank, who’s facing feisty Republican challenger Sean Bielat, flew to the tropical paradise for a vacation in 2009 on a $25 million jet owned by Paloma Partners honcho S. Donald Sussman, the fianc...of U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine). Paloma Securities — a subsidiary of Sussman’s Greenwich, Conn.-based hedge fund — received $200 million in 2009 as part of the $180...

Challenger Bielat Holds His Own Against U.S. Rep. FrankBy Fred Thys Oct 12, 2010, 6:55 AM UPDATED 9:23 AM NEWTON, Mass. — Rep. Barney Frank faced his Republican challenger Monday night in their only televised debate. It was the first chance for the challenger, Marine reservist Sean Bielat, to show he could survive going on television against the congressman famous for his way with words. Democrat Frank came armed with his usual wit. For instance, he dismissed New York Republican candidate for governor Carl Paladino as a horse’s behind for saying that “children are being brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality...

Barney Frank defends caustic town hall, calls other Dems ’submissive’Jonathan Strong - The Daily Caller Thu Oct 7, 2:05 pm ET Facing a legitimate challenger for the first time in ages, Rep. Barney Frank today defended his actions at a town hall in August 2009 in which he blasted his own constituents for interrupting him, saying unlike his fellow “submissive” Democrats Frank “spoke back.” “Unlike some of my colleagues, who I think were kind of taken aback by that and were almost submissive … I answered civil questions civilly, but I spoke back,” Frank said on Fox News Thursday. Frank’s...

Should Barney Frank Be Worried? Time for ‘Different Leadership,’ Says ChallengerOctober 05, 2010 4:39 PM ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., is facing his most serious reelection challenge in recent memory with the emergence of Sean Bielat, a 35-year-old former active-duty Marine who is hoping to follow in Sen. Scott Brown’s footsteps in turning a reliably blue seat red. Bielat joined us today on ABC’s “Top Line” to outline his candidacy, which has gotten a burst of attention after former President Bill Clinton came to Frank’s district to campaign for the powerful chairman of the House Financial...

The Biggest Shock Of The Election: Barney Frank Could LoseJoe Weisenthal Oct. 1, 2010, 5:43 AM If this occurred it would be the biggest shock of the midterm elections. Republicans are starting to get a little hopeful that they can knock off longtime Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank. Byron York at the Examiner spotlights his 4th District competitor Sean Bielat, who a new poll has within 10 points, a shockingly narrow number for a no-name against this Congressional stalwart. Adding to the sense that Frank is in trouble, Bill Clinton actually came and campaigned with Barney this past week, something he...

GOP challenger to Barney Frank raises $400KUpdated: Friday, 01 Oct 2010, 8:38 PM EDT BOSTON (FOX 25 / MyFoxBoston.com) - Sean Bielat, the Republican challenger to Democratic Rep. Barney Frank, says he raised $400,000 last month to help him compete with the 15-term congressman. Bielat's campaign released his fundraising totals for the most recent reporting period Friday, but would not reveal how much of the money came from supporters outside of Massachusetts. The campaign also said it had $400,000 in cash on hand. A spokesman for Frank's campaign said they did not have the fundraising figures for the Newton Democrat...

Sean Bielat, the Republican candidate for Congress in Massachusetts' 4th District, has had just one conversation with his Democratic opponent, Rep. Barney Frank. It was in August, at a parade in New Bedford. "I went up to introduce myself and said, 'Nice to meet you,'" Bielat recalls. "He said, 'I wish I could say the same, but you've made this personal. You've been attacking me.' Then he turned and walked away." Bielat remembers thinking that was a little odd, since at that very moment Frank's Web site featured plenty of attacks on Bielat. But the brief encounter set the tone...

US Representative Barney Frank, facing his most serious opponent in more than two decades, wooed the people of Taunton and the Fourth Congressional District yesterday with a rally at Taunton High School that included promise of a better future — and a visit from Bill Clinton. After more than an hour’s wait, time that was filled with songs by the high school choir and jazz band, the estimated 2,500 in attendance welcomed the former president with a boisterous round of applause, as the sounds of Fleetwood Mac boomed in the background: “Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow.’’ “I’m glad to be...

Frank debates 'dining room table' Democratic primary challengerPosted by Stephanie Vallejo September 8, 2010 06:42 PM Last August, town hall protester Rachel Brown asked Representative Barney Frank why he supported President Obama’s “Nazi policy” of health care reform while holding a sign depicting the president with a Hitler-esque moustache. Frank minced no words in his retort: “Ma'am, trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with a dining room table. I have no interest in doing it.” But because Brown is now Frank’s Democratic challenger for Massachusetts’ 4th Congressional District, he found himself doing something...

2 Zombies to Tolerate for a WhileBy ANDREW ROSS SORKIN Published: August 16, 2010 Representative Barney Frank was furious. **SNIP** On the television program that had stirred Mr. Frank, “Morning Joe” on MSNBC, the prevailing view was that any effort toward a resolution of Fannie and Freddie — government-created mortgage companies that were taken over by the government as the financial crisis mounted — had been put on the back burner during the overhaul of financial regulation. The consensus was that neither Democrats nor Republicans wanted to touch an issue that would dredge up decisions made by both parties over...

It was "dumb" for President Obama and his aides to promise that unemployment would not surpass 8 percent if the stimulus act passed... Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, called into question the wisdom of projections issued by the Obama administration during the congressional fight over the stimulus bill that argued it would prevent higher levels of joblessness. Frank said Tuesday evening during an appearance on the Fox Business Network. "That was a dumb thing to do."

House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) has some advice for liberal activists upset at the votes of the party’s conservative members: defeat them in primaries — but only in safe Democratic districts. Frank told liberals at a Congressional Progressive Caucus Foundation event in Los Angeles in April that primaries are the place to push for more liberal Members. “I said don’t defeat conservative Democrats in November . . . the place to do that is in the primary,” Frank said Friday in an interview. But Frank added his caveat that such a primary challenge should only come in districts...

A panel commissioned by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is recommending nearly $1 trillion in cuts to the Pentagon’s budget over the next 10 years. The Sustainable Defense Task Force, a commission of scholars from a broad ideological spectrum appointed by Frank, the House Financial Services Committee chairman, laid out actions the government could take that could save as much as $960 billion between 2011 and 2020.

U.S. Rep. Barney Frank had harsh words yesterday for the Israeli Navy after a bloody raid on a pro-Palestinian flotilla outside of Gaza, describing nine activists killed in the conflict as “innocent” and calling for an independent inquiry into the showdown. Frank, in a wide-ranging interview with the Herald, went on to say that “as a Jew,” Israeli treatment of Arabs around some of the West Bank settlements “makes me ashamed that there would be Jews that would engage in that kind of victimization of a minority.”

In response to a flood of Facebook and YouTube videos that depict police abuse, a new trend in law enforcement is gaining popularity. In at least three states, it is now illegal to record any on-duty police officer. Even if the encounter involves you and may be necessary to your defense, and even if the recording is on a public street where no expectation of privacy exists. The legal justification for arresting the "shooter" rests on existing wiretapping or eavesdropping laws, with statutes against obstructing law enforcement sometimes cited. Illinois, Massachusetts, and Maryland are among the 12 states in which...