Free Republic

www.FinancialSurvivalNetwork.com presents We met up with Gary Johnson, former governor of New Mexico and present Libertarian candidate for President. Gary was a former governor of New Mexico. During his two terms in office, of an overwhelmingly Democrat state, he vetoed 750 bills and exercised thousands of line item vetos. He was so effective that his opposition referred to him as Governor Veto. He ran for the Republican nomination this year, but he was kept out of the early debates by CNN and CNBC rules, which were created to keep out minor candidates. As a result, he never attained the status...

I know many dislike Romney but...

Social Security was created in 1935 in order to provide a safety net to Americans without the ability to earn income. Over the past decades, the program has proliferated to the point of insolvency. In particular, Social Security’s Disability Insurance (DI) component has grown out of control and threatens the nation’s finances as well as the fundamental principle that citizens should not be reliant on government. Like many government programs, DI grew rapidly in the years preceding the Reagan presidency. While benefits were collected by less than 800,000 individuals in 1960, 5.22 million people participated in the program in the...

When a public school district ends the year in red ink, the Michigan Department of Education sends an 18-question form as part of the mandatory deficit-elimination plan the district has to complete. The first seven questions on the form all have to do with union contracts and the status of negotiations, and if there were any projected savings from negotiations. The eighth question? "What factors caused the school district's deficit?" Perhaps it's a subtle hint from the state to try and get the school districts to see what needs to be addressed. “It appears that the state is subtly recognizing...

A New York Times article has revealed that Administration-related “news” reported by the national press corps must first be approved for publication by Barack Hussein Obama. Times contributor Jeremy Peters has revealed that, in exchange for access to White House officials, reporters must promise the Administration full authority to exclude, redact or edit any and all statements made by those officials. This provides Obama with “veto power” over information printed by a purportedly free and vigilant, American media. (1) Certainly, Jeremy Peters must be congratulated for bringing this information to the American public. But the way in which he presents...

I have been interviewed by Howard Stern, and I thought that was pretty strange. This interview was even more bizarre. Mediaite has the entire 16 minute video available here. How does Mediaite describe the interview: Morgan kept grilling Lott over his premise that gun control will not help stem violence, and that having more guns out there will lead to less crime. Lott tried to rebut the points Dershowitz and Morgan were making, but Morgan repeatedly interrupted him to get Lott to answer his questions and telling Lott that he was spouting “nonsense.” Lott tried to explain the difference between...

I am pleased to announce the formation of Kucinich Action, a new organization dedicated to empowering individuals to engage with the political process. With this new organization, we endeavor to build a powerful grassroots movement to return the power to the people in our political system. Kucinich Action is a natural evolution of what our movement has been doing: standing up, speaking out, acting on our beliefs, and changing the outcome on behalf of the people. We will also empower individuals with the skills to participate and engage in the process of government decision making at all levels. With this...

How does that work? When I think of an epidemic being "fueled," I think of what is causing the epidemic. In the case of AIDS, it is not caused by "stigma," "violence" unless that violence involves something physical that would pass on the HIV virus, or "indifference" unless a person chooses to be indifferent to the danger of the disease.John was speaking at a conference.  Science and money would not be enough to beat the epidemic, he said: "We need love. If that word makes you a bit uneasy – if you associate it with Disney and schmaltz, let's call...

Inspired from a tweet from @GreeneBri. You can see the original tweet here.

Who is in charge of making certain veterans get the care they deserve and have been promised, other than the Veteran's Administration (VA)? Surely not Congress, because we know they aren't in charge of anything these days, but guess what? They are in charge, and they richly deserve the lack of confidence Americans have in them. The one single thing America should always carry through with is medical treatment for Military. Why? Because the single cause for government is to keep the country safe, and it's the Military that takes on that awesome responsibility. More than 30 cases have been...

Twenty four centuries ago Socrates argued that the greatest of evils and the only evil worse than doing wrong was getting away with it. Since we experienced the economic near-collapse four years ago, we have also witnessed complete and utter failure in the administration of justice. Senior levels of the Department of Justice, of the banking industry, of the political system, are all “getting away with it.”Is there any chance that Covington and Burling, the firm which represents JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, B. Of A., Wells Fargo, etc., and spawned AG Eric Holder and AAG Lanny Breuer,...

Thank goodness we have something to talk about today besides this ad in the Washington Times: Don’t worry, it’s just another in an endless list of “Obama lies” so we can just ignore it too. Instead, let’s talk about something Big Guy is totally comfortable with: fundraising... Apparently Big Guy and Lady M find the Wee Wons so adorable in this “typical American family” portrait that they decided to exploit use the innocent little pawns in their latest begging fund raising campaign. That is adorable! As I reflect on it I’m thinking that the “adorable” pitch is actually a much...

Saw this ad as Craig's List today. This is NOT my ad. I guess it is some farmer trying to get rid of his manure spreader.

On Wednesday night, Eaton County repealed its prevailing wage law, opening up the local market to more competitive wages for construction jobs. The 12-3 vote by the Board of Commissioners was along party lines with Republicans voting to repeal the restrictive wage law; Democrats voted to keep it in place. Prevailing wage laws mandate that union-scale wages be paid on construction work funded by taxpayer dollars regardless of whether the company's workers belong to a union. Local governments can do nothing about federal and state prevailing wage laws, but they do have control over their own. Eaton County's action in...

Everywhere we look we see that Barack Obama has made things worse. For 34 straight months the percentage of Americans of working age who are actually working has been below 60%. That’s every single month Barack Obama has been in office. By comparison this percentage was never under under 61% under George Bush. Under Obama’s lack of leadership an additional 6 million people has fallen under the poverty level and another 14 million have been added to the Food Stamp rolls. We are not buying things. The retail sales index has fallen for the past three months. History tells us...

TRENTON — In the wake of the shooting massacre in Aurora, Colo., Gov. Chris Christie today said New Jersey's gun laws are sufficient, but took a veiled swipe at Democrats who called for stronger controls...

Keynesian (and some Monetarist) versus Austrian views on the business cycle revolve around two basic empirical issues: the nature of capital and production and the nature of the national budget constraint. Concerning capital: Ironically, Keynesians appear to assume a kind of “equilibrium always” story in which productive (human and physical) resources can, at low cost, be simply shifted to and plugged in to the production of whatever product or service happens to be the object of demand stimulus; and, further, that if enough of this is done, income, employment and tax-payments will rise precipitously. In this way economic-policy can produce...

Readings from the Book of Barack1 In the beginning Govt created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the economy was formless and void, darkness was over the surface of the ATMs, and the Spirit of Govt was hovering over the land. 3 And Govt said, “Let there be spending,” and there was spending. 4 Govt saw that the spending was good, and that it separated the light from the darkness. 5 Govt called the spending Investments, and this he did in the first day.6 Then Govt said, “Let there be roads and bridges across the waters, and let dams divide the waters from the waters.” 7 Thus Govt made the infrastructure and the patronage...

Between the lies of the Lame Stream Press and the lies of our glorious leader, there’s little to choose. The country is in horrific shape. The ‘recession’ looks far closer to a depression to me… and to a bunch of other people, too. Hold on to your hats and everything else because it’s nothing, absolutely nothing, to what’s coming if President Barack Hussein Obama manages to get re-elected. What he, Reid, Pelosi and others have planned for you will be just a shade less onerous than Soviet-era Romania, with jack-booted thugs running around our airports, train stations and bus terminals....

If you read the headlines, the biggest issue in Israel isn't Iran's nuclear program or Syria's chemical weapons falling into the hands of Hezbollah or the Muslim Brotherhood; it's how to draft Haredim, widely referred to as Ultra-Orthodox Jews, into the army. Until recently, the Israeli left was feverishly complaining about the surplus of Religious Nationalist Jews in the army and the threat of religious fanaticism. Now it's back to complaining that there aren't enough Ultra-Orthodox religious fanatics in the army, after spending last year complaining that the ones in the army were too fanatical and the ones on buses...