Free Republic

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: The Facebook IPO. Ho-ho-ho-ho! Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho! Somebody's gonna have to pay for this. These are Obama's buddies at Facebook. (interruption) Well, because the bottom's falling out. They can't maintain the initial price, the 38 bucks. (interruption) Right. Well, okay. So somebody's gonna have to pay the price for this. Somebody's gonna get the blame for this. You can't have these people losing Obama money like this. That can't happen. You can't blame Goldman Sachs. They're underwriters. They were in for $500 million at the outset, before the IPO. You can't blame Goldman Sachs because they're Obama buddies. And...

'It is the tragic story that everybody knows the end to - the doomed Titanic sinks. Its final hours have become the stuff of myth - but how much have the various film versions of the story helped to create and reinforce these legends?'

Two months after successfully marshaling public support to extend a payroll tax cut for all Americans, President Obama today is attempting to do it again. At the White House this morning, Obama will showcase supporters who were among the thousands that spoke out online and over social media in December to pressure Congress to compromise. But the deal was only temporary. Taxes will rise on 160 million Americans at the end of the month unless lawmakers act again, and congressional negotiators remain at impasse. “Your voices changed the debate and reminded Washington what was at stake,” Obama says in a...

The theme President Obama gave to his State of the Union address was “An America Built to Last.” But his vision would be better described as an “An America Built to Be Last.” As the president asked us to be patient and keep drinking the same kool-aid he’s been serving up for three years, the New York Times reported that the Federal Reserve’s latest assessment of our economy is that “…a full recovery is years away.” Even his most loyal constituency, black Americans, is losing patience. In Gallup’s latest tracking poll, black approval rate for Obama was 79 percent. This...

EDITORIAL What They Don’t Want to Talk About January 14, 2012 Ever since Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry started criticizing Mitt Romney’s actions at Bain Capital — and talking about the thousands of people laid off as a result of Bain’s investments — party leaders have essentially told them to shut up. That response is a pretty good indication of how deeply party elders fear the issue of economic inequality in the campaign to come. “What the hell are you doing, Newt?” Rudolph Giuliani asked Thursday on Fox News. “This is what Saul Alinsky taught Barack Obama, and what you’re...

SPARTANBURG, S.C. — Newt Gingrich signaled Wednesday that he believes his criticism of Mitt Romney’s record at Bain Capital is a mistake — and that he’s created an impression that he was echoing Democratic rhetoric. Gingrich conceded the problem when pressed by a Rick Santorum supporter at a book-signing here Wednesday. “I’m here to implore one thing of you. I think you’ve missed the target on the way you’re addressing Romney’s weaknesses. I want to beg you to redirect and go after his obvious disingenuous about his conservatism and lay off the corporatist versus the free market. I think it’s...

Barack Obama channeled Teddy Roosevelt this week in a speech in Osawatomie, Kan. Supporters are calling it the most significant economic speech of his administration. But critics rightly point out that the Teddy Roosevelt whom Obama invoked was not the beloved 26th president and standard-bearer of the GOP. Instead, it was the radicalized third-party candidate seeking a third term and the man whose progressivism was a precursor to the rise of big government in the later 20th century. What's more, President Obama's speech was so full of reckless accusations and misinformation that The Washington Post's Fact Checker blog gave it...

President Obama has decided that he is more likely to win if the election is about big things rather than small ones. He hopes to turn the 2012 campaign from a plebiscite about the current state of the economy into a referendum about the broader progressive tradition that made us a middle-class nation. For the second time, he intends to stake his fate on a battle for the future. This choice has obvious political benefits to an incumbent presiding over a still-ailing economy, and it confirms Obama's shift from a defensive approach earlier this year to an aggressive philosophical attack...

From “An Open Letter to the People of California”: I am filing today an initiative with the Attorney General’s office that would generate nearly $7 billion in dedicated funding to protect education and public safety. I am going directly to the voters because I don’t want to get bogged down in partisan gridlock as happened this year. The stakes are too high.

RYAN: Then he spent months going around the country impugning people's motives, setting up strawman arguments, basically saying Republicans are for dirty air and dirty water and against people with health insurance, basically, picking a partisan conflict versus going for compromise. But more to the point, Greta, I think it's the rhetoric of class division that is especially destabilizing. This is not the American idea. We believe in a system of upward mobility. We believe in a system to get the hurdles out of people's way so they can rise in society. We don't believe in talking to people like...

The United States tax code is so backward that billionaire investor Warren Buffett pays only 17 percent in income taxes, a rate even lower than that of his secretary. Or so he claims. While I have great respect for Mr. Buffett, and while I agree that our tax code could benefit from major adjustments, Mr. Buffett's statement is misleading. And he knows it. Even worse, when Mr. Buffett implies that wealthier Americans are under-taxed, it gives public officials cover to pursue disastrous policies such as Maryland's failed millionaire's tax, and the pending sales tax on interstate Internet purchases known as...

On all the cables whenever His Majesty deigns to bless us with his presence.The topic is his latest plan to bash Republicans over the economy while actually doing nothing to help the economy.

Ultra-rich people come in a variety of shapes, sizes and ages. But they can generally be divided into two distinct groups when it comes to what they do with their money - there are those who made it and those who inherited it. " Inheritors are far less hungry than the ones who worked for it - Raymond Goss Raymond Goss, investment specialist at Investec, says the first generation with serious money is usually inherently entrepreneurial and entirely focused on wealth creation - they are always on the alert for a great deal and are shrewd and incisive about the...

ST. CLOUD, Fla. — Most Utahns are unaware that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints owns one of the biggest ranches in the country — and it's nowhere near the Beehive State. Because of its prominent location, millions have seen the ranch without realizing what it was. But managers are opening the curtain; they have a message they want the public to hear. ______________________________ Deseret Ranch From St. Cloud to: Orlando Airport: 10 miles Kennedy Space Center: 15 miles Magic Kingdom: 22 miles ______________________________ The cowboys are up before dawn, but this is not the Old West. They...

Adele has sparked an online backlash over her recent comments surrounding the amount of tax she has to pay. In a recent interview with Q, the 23-year-old ranted about having to hand over 50 percent of her earnings to the tax man. She said (via Metro), "I'm mortified to have to pay 50 percent! [While] I use the NHS, I can't use public transport any more. Trains are always late, most state schools are s**t and I've gotta give you, like, four million quid -- are you having a laugh?"She added, 'When I got my tax bill in from '19'...

A new Gallup poll reveals that voters who identify as more conservative, do not have college degrees and who make less than $24,000 annually are more likely to support former Alaska governor Sarah Palin over Mitt Romney for president in 2012. Romney, on the other hand, has evidently fared better with voters who describe themselves as “liberals to moderate”, have received degrees of higher learning and who make at least $90,000 a year. The split drives home the challenges facing any would-be GOP candidate: Catering to the party’s base without completely alienating those on the fence, and appealing to voters...

Dan Mitchell of CATO clearly demonstrates why "soaking the rich" doesn't bring in more revenue and doesn't help the poor...

As Democrats scramble to find a new budget course after talks collapsed this week, the California Federation of Teachers is calling for a 1 percent tax hike on the top 1 percent of earners as part of a state budget solution. The union estimates the tax hike would raise an estimated $2.5 billion as the state faces a remaining $15.4 billion deficit, said spokesman Steve Hopcraft. The proposal would hike taxes by 1 percent on personal income above $500,000. CFT represents 120,000 teachers and school employees at all levels, including the University of California. To back its efforts, CFT commissioned...

This past Saturday in Baton Rouge, La. a MoveOn union rally was thrown together to protest Gov. Scott Walkers union legislation in Wisconsin. After the rally was held, a MoveOn coordinator was caught on tape saying the Tea Party is fueled by “class envy” and “racism.” The following is a partial transcript. We’ll call the person who wished to remain anonymous ‘Condor‘ for transcript reasons: MoveOn: My opinion is that, first of all, Tea Partiers tend to be in a wealthier category so even if you don’t currently benefit from it, people don’t want to tax millionaires because everyone believes,...

Critical Thinking Without Knowledge Maureen Tabor, June 25, 2010 I had a student last year who wrote me his life story. When he was a little boy, he knew he could do anything. His parents loved him, he loved life, and when he grew up he knew he wanted to “be a CEO.” Then he got to the University. There he learned that he could not be a CEO because he was “a minority.” He learned that the whole world would be against him, that he was a victim, and that he had to devote his life to “helping others.”...

The gorgeous and lovley Ivanka Trump is interviewed on Fox News: She's asked: How do think this President is doing? "I'm fearful for my grandchildren.....America wants to hear about jobs, not anti-business rhetoric"

Bush did everything bad for America but one thing he did good, never betrayed his neo con extremists who got him the Whitehouse by hook or crook. Republicans are rejoicing and Democrats reeling in the wake of Scott Brown's stunning triumph in a special Massachusetts Senate election, a devastating Democratic defeat that triggered soul-searching within President Barack Obama's party. You do not have to find the reasons. It is obvious even to a tenth grader. Those who voted for the Democrats and President Obama have understood that after all said and done, neo cons control America through their financial powers...

It's unprecedented for the nation to be outraged about corporate pay, right? Not exactly: In the 1930s, as the Depression gripped the nation, furor about compensation rose to fever pitch, and Washington applied shears to salaries. In an article soon to be published in the University of Richmond Law Review, Harwell Wells, an assistant professor of law at Temple University, says the decade exposed "deep tensions" about the issue. A big difference between then and now is that the 1930s fury was directed not at financial institutions but rather at "excessive" payers among industrial and consumer companies -- like Bethlehem...

I’ve been playing “Bailout Wars,” a new iPhone game from French publisher Gameloft that is themed around the Troubled Asset Relief Program. The game features cash-hungry bankers attempting to raid the White House for bailout cash and it’s up to the player to stop them. That involves tapping the bankers, allowing you to fling them around, hold them and shake them, and even double tapping to blow them up. Given the pace of the onslaught, however, that is not enough. Players earn gold for each banker they successfully kill, which eventually can be used to purchase and upgrade a sniper,...

for example, from his rant against big bottled water: "... the huge soda companies decided to sell you bottled water which is from the same source as tap water, but guess what? when you sell it as natural and in a bottle, it's unregulated. at least tap water is regulated." this from a guy who is currently fined up to his eye balls as a result of pimping unregulated natural supplements for every disease imagineable, while blasting regulated big pharma. shameless.

Not since the 1930's and FDR have the politics of class envy, class warfare, resentment, and covetousness been used with such effectiveness than during the current health care debate. Barack Obama, the czar of many czars, is the self-appointed Class Envy Czar. It's the same Democrat party which preaches that, "you can't legislate morality," that is now describing passing health care reform as even being a "moral obligation." The same party that sermonizes the principle of "separation of church and state," now desperately invokes the Bible to try to hustle their socialized medicine message.

Wow. Morgan Stanley revealed today that it had set aside 72 percent of its second-quarter revenue for compensation and benefits. This might just be a new record. The average compensation for Wall Street firms hovered around 48 percent his decade, according to Bloomberg. Many thought that compensation on Wall Street might actually diminish thanks to government bailouts. But instead firms have been increasing the share of revenues that they pay themselves. So what's behind it. Bloomberg quotes Morgan Stanley's chief financial officer pointing to "the war for talent." The only problem is that the casualties in this war seem to...

GOP Briefing Room Exclusive Content Why the Rich Will Get Richer Under Obama By Victor J. Massad Victor J, Massad, Ph.D. is a semi-retired professor of marketing & business at a Pennsylvania college. The Google search “spread the wealth around” yields 221 thousand results, nearly all of which discuss then-candidate Barack Obama’s most candid moment in the 2009 presidential election campaign. What Obama said was this: "It's not that I want to punish your success. I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you, that they've got a chance for success, too. When you spread the wealth...

Radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh signed an eight-year, $400 million contract in 2008 with Clear Channel Communications! In terms even I can understand, that's $50 million a year -- not to mention tens of millions more in endless endorsements. I've just got to ask: Why on God's green Earth does he make so much money? Yes, I realize Limbaugh is the de facto Führer of the Republican Party. Yet, as far as I can tell, he's making well over half-a-billion dollars the next eight years for doing nothing more than always being wrong. Didn't Limbaugh predict the invasion of Iraq...

BARACK Obama wrote a book about hope and be came president promising it. So why's he doing everything in his power to snuff it out? Think about it: In Obama World, what are we supposed to "hope" for? Certainly not vast riches. What would be the point? His budget swipes massive amounts of wealth from top earners. Consider, too, his resentful rhetoric toward them. Recall his despicable failure to block the House from moving to rip up private contracts and confiscate past earnings via a 90 percent, retroactive tax. Really, in this climate, who can muster enthusiasm for personal fortune-building?...

Kabuki Kongress Problem: Destruction of the Financial System due to the Lehman bankruptcy, due to Bear Raids on Banks Solution---Kabuki Kongress---Attack AIG employees ("beat the messenger", "class envy"). Tax $165 million in bonuses (awarded in 2007) at [70% senate, 100% House] (benefit to taxpayers = .7*165 = $115,000,000. Recruit compliant media and liberal whiners everywhere (Putin's useful fools) (Note our Kabuki Kongress set the size and date of penalties, for that we can be thankful) Solution---Rational Congress---Help AIG identify and provide a list of all the credit default swaps (CDS) counterparties (ie, DB, SocGen, GS, etc and their client investors),...

...Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bought as much of this 'enhanced' paper as they could. The yields were great and how could they lose if the likes of AIG were going to guarantee the first loss? In 2006, FNM/FRE were trying to build market share in high risk mortgages. They kept the party going....

The poor you will always have, the good book says, but as for the rich man, he will wither away like a delicate flower in the midday sun. The first prediction has certainly been borne out, but the second part (James 1:11) had not yet come to pass by the Panic of 1907, when Theodore Roosevelt warned of a coming reckoning against the "malefactors of great wealth." Nor by 1990, when former Nixon aide Kevin Phillips predicted that Americans would rise to extract revenge on "the rich who got the benefits of the go-go years" of the 1980s. As late...

Biden lashes out at corporate greed at Colo. stopCOLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden said Wednesday it's unfair that executives of failed corporations are paid millions of dollars while their employees lose their pensions. Biden vowed that he and Barack Obama would attack corporate greed if they're elected. Biden took direct aim at executives who draw big salaries while leading failed companies. "Their pensions go first," he told a roaring crowd.

Children learn many useful things from television shows and cartoon characters. They learn letters and numbers from the characters on Sesame Street; Dora the Explorer helps them hone their reasoning and problem-solving skills. Now, a cartoon character is telling them when they should die. He’s a dog in a lab coat named “Professor Schpinkee.” He is a creation of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Planet Slayer website. Kids who visit the website are invited to pay a “game” called “Professor Schpinkee’s Greenhouse Calculator.” But instead of learning letters or numbers—or even how to take a bite out of crime—they learn “how...

It’s less than a week into the general election campaign, but already Michelle Obama is a Republican target. Former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger leveled the first blow, introducing Republican John McCain’s wife at a fundraiser this week as someone who is “proud of her country, not just once but always.” Obama wasn’t mentioned by name, but the audience got it. The dig signaled the start of what Democrats expect will be a concerted effort to cast Michelle Obama — and, by extension, Barack Obama — as an unpatriotic radical. It also pointed out the urgency to define Michelle Obama...

ROME - Better insulation at home, less use of the car and even giving up an electric toothbrush can help people in rich nations halve emissions of greenhouse gases, a UN report said on Thursday. "Adopting a climate-friendly lifestyle needn't require drastic changes or major sacrifices," according to the 202-page UN Environment Programme (UNEP) book entitled "Kick the CO2 Habit: the UN Guide to Climate Neutrality". Issued to mark the UN's annual World Environment Day on June 5, it outlines ways for people to combat global warming with measures such as packing lighter suitcases when flying or going jogging in...

You think a $100K salary is a lot? $500K? Please. The truly wealthy scoff at your paltry breadcrumbs. Then it came to pass that I stumbled across this story from Forbes magazine, which is officially called "Forbes" but is actually called "Forbes oh my God we worship ruthless CEOs like shiny meth in the summertime," and among the glittering ads for luxury intergalactic travel and sleek private jets and $50K Rolexes and big phallic yachts and surreal 20-page ad inserts for Abu Dhabi megadevelopments, there was an article about the new home being built in Mumbai right now for Mukesh...

INDIANAPOLIS (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama will push on Friday for passage of a bill to put the huge pay packages of some U.S. corporate executives under greater scrutiny. The Illinois senator has introduced "say-on-pay" legislation that would give investors more of a voice in setting executive compensation packages. "We've seen what happens when CEOs are paid for doing a job no matter how bad a job they're doing. We can't afford to postpone reform any longer," Obama said in prepared remarks for delivery later on Friday. "That's why Washington needs to act immediately to pass this legislation."...

Study: Middle-Class Americans Increasingly Downbeat About Their Short-Term Economic Progress WASHINGTON (AP) -- More and more middle-class Americans say they aren't better off than they were five years ago, reflecting economic pressures amid growing personal debt, a study released Wednesday found. Their short-term assessment of personal progress, according to the study, is the worst it's been in nearly half a century.The survey by the Pew Research Center, a Washington-based organization, paints a mixed picture for the 53 percent of adults in the country who define themselves as "middle class," with household incomes ranging from below $40,000 to more than...

This is an excerpt... Will Romney buy the White House? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: February 4, 2008 1:00 a.m. Eastern Mitt Romney might go down in history as the presidential candidate who spent more of his personal income than any other in his pursuit to win the White House. It is estimated that he has already used $35 million of his roughly $250 million personal fortune. And if Mitt makes the cut for the Republican nomination, over the next 10 months he will surely surpass Ross Perot's $60 million infusion into his own 1992 candidacy. p>

Throughout my campaign, I have been listening to the voices of people across America. I met one man who told me, "I don't know what I did wrong. I got my education and I worked hard. I've been at the same company for 12 years now, but I've just been asked to train my successor because my job is moving to another country." Another woman said to me, "I just can't make ends meet. My health care premiums have doubled, college tuition is up. How am I supposed to make it as a single mom?"

By HILLARY CLINTON February 4, 2008; Page A15 Throughout my campaign, I have been listening to the voices of people across America. I met one man who told me, "I don't know what I did wrong. I got my education and I worked hard. I've been at the same company for 12 years now, but I've just been asked to train my successor because my job is moving to another country." Another woman said to me, "I just can't make ends meet. My health care premiums have doubled, college tuition is up. How am I supposed to make it as...

Royal Dutch Shell has been forced onto the defensive after its announcement of record profits sparked calls for a windfall tax and complaints from motorists about soaring pump prices. While investors fretted about whether the $27.6bn (£13.9bn) profits based on the current cost of supply masked deep problems facing the world's second largest non-government oil company, Shell received a barrage of complaints that its earnings were "obscene". Understatement: Shell's chief executive,Jeroen van der Veer, said the figures were "satisfactory The annual profits, which were up 9pc, are a record for a European listed company and were driven by last year's...

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee criticized rival Mitt Romney's past as a venture capitalist Thursday, saying some workers lost their jobs as a result. In 1983, Romney founded Bain Capital, a firm that developed a reputation for turning around ailing companies and earned him millions of dollars. Asked about Romney's experience, Huckabee said the former Massachusetts governor's success came at the expense of workers. "If that's the turnaround, a lot of Americans would not want to see their lives turned around like that," the former Arkansas governor told reporters before running with a group of supporters...

Only a couple of years ago, Firefox was the little browser that could — an open-source program created by thousands of contributors around the world without the benefit of a giant company like Microsoft to finance it. Since then, Firefox, which has prospered under the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation, has grown to be the largest rival to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, with 15 to 20 percent of the browser market worldwide and higher percentages in Europe and among technology devotees. It is the most popular alternative browser since Netscape, with about three times as many users as Apple’s Safari.

An Atlanta megachurch took in $69 million in 2006, according to a financial statement the church's minister released in response to a Senate investigation into him and five other well-known televangelists. The Rev. Creflo Dollar disclosed the World Changers Church International's financial information to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, but said the money he spends is his own. Dollar said his income comes from personal investments, including businesses and real estate ventures. But the church gave him a Rolls Royce, which he mainly uses for special occasions, he said. "Without a doubt, my life is not average," he said. "But I'd like...

WEST HARTFORD, Conn. - The enormity of the house Arnold Chase is building on Avon Mountain isn't fully apparent from the outside, where only 17,000 square feet of it lies in plain view. It's the two-level, 33,500-square-foot basement complex, complete with a 103-seat movie theater, ticket booth, concession stand, game room and music annex, that will make it New England's largest occupied single-family home. At nearly 50,900 square feet, the Chase home will be slightly larger than billionaire Bill Gates' home in Washington, about 4,000 square feet smaller than the White House and 20 times larger than the average-size home...

DELHI: Top private-equity and hedge fund managers made more in 10 minutes than average-paid US workers earned all of last year, according to a new study from two research groups. The 20 highest-paid fund managers made an average of $657.5 million, or 22,255 times the US average annual salary of $29,500, said the study, released on Wednesday by Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy. The study cited data from the US Labor Department and Forbes magazine. “The fact that these pay levels for fund managers are so out-of-sight is going to drive up pay at...

So we are agreed. We are living in the second great Gilded Age, a time of startling personal wealth. In the West, the mansion after mansion with broad and rolling grounds; in the East, the apartments with foyers in which bowling teams could play. Or, on another level, the week's vacation in Disneyland or Dublin with the entire family--this in a nation in which, well within human memory, people with a week off stayed home and fixed things in the garage, or drove to the beach for a day and sat on a blanket from one of the kid's beds...