Free Republic

NEW CANAAN, Conn. – Daisy Franklin of Norwalk was among the nearly 100 protestors who came to the New Canaan home of General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt Saturday to take part in the first known Occupy Wall Street rally in Fairfield County. "I worked in a small Norwalk manufacturing company for 15 years until it was forced to shut down a year ago," Franklin, 55, told the crowd, using a bullhorn. "Now, I get by on less than $200 a week of unemployment for me and my daughter. When you run out of money, you run out of options. So,...

The largest and most powerful financial institutions in the world all borrowed billions of dollars in emergency loans from the United States Federal Reserve during the financial crisis, totaling up to $1.2 trillion, a number that has remained secret until now. The $160 billion public bailout was "dwarfed," Bloomberg reports, by the Fed's covert lending, which included $107.3 billion to Morgan Stanley, $99.5 billion to Citigroup, and $91.4 billion to Bank of America. As one expert put it, "You’re talking about the aristocracy of American finance going down the tubes without the federal money."

First lady Michelle Obama today spoke in very frank and personal terms to a Massachusetts audience as she described her conversion to a political wife, as well as the toll President Obama’s job takes on him each day. “I see the worry creasing his face. I hear the passion and determination in his voice. ‘You won’t believe what these folks are going through;’ he told me that last night. ‘Michelle, it is not right. We’ve got to fix this. We have to do more,’” she said during a visit to Boston for a fund-raiser on behalf of the Democratic National...

The chief executives at the big Wall Street banks likely will be noticeably absent from next week's $38,500-a-head dinner/fundraiser for President Obama in New York City, an indication that the heads of the big firms are still hedging their bets before throwing their support to either Republicans or Democrats as the 2012 presidential election approaches, FOX Business has learned. The fundraiser, to be held at Daniel, a swanky upper-East Side eatery that caters mainly to well-to-do New Yorkers, is being hosted mainly by a coterie of private equity and hedge fund executives, many of them long-time Obama supporters. But absent...

The world's banks face a $3.6 trillion "wall of maturing debt" in the next two years and must compete with debt-laden governments to secure financing, the IMF warned on Wednesday. Many European banks need bigger capital cushions to restore market confidence and assure they can borrow, and some weak players will need to be closed, the International Monetary Fund said in its Global Financial Stability Report.

VIDEO:Pelosi: GOP Budget Will Deprive Seniors Of Meals

. . . . .NOTE:  This post will be constantly updated with more details throughout the Glenn Beck radio program.  Glenn has announced that copies of this have been delivered to JP Morgan Chase, the FBI, and the Justice Department.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvlvejSxBVQ&feature=player_embedded] "Steven Lerner, reported to have visited the White House on at least four separate occasions, formerly of SEIU and the architect of the SEIU's groundbreaking Justice for Janitors campaign.  He led the union's banking and finance campaign and has partnered with unions and groups in Europe, South American and elsewhere in campaigns to hold financial institutions accountable. As director of...

FULL Title - Former SEIU Official Reveals Secret Plan To Destroy JP Morgan, Crash The Stock Market, And Redistribute Wealth In America A former official of one of the country's most-powerful unions, SEIU, is detailing a secret plan to "destabilize" the country. Specifically, the plan seeks to destroy JP Morgan, nuke the stock market, and weaken Wall Street's grip on power, thus creating the conditions necessary for a redistribution of wealth and a change in government. The former SEIU official, Stephen Lerner, spoke in a closed session at a Pace University forum last weekend.

Since the anti-obesity campaign is allegedly motivated by scientific findings, it would seem reasonable and prudent to make doubly sure that those claims are factual and trustworthy. Yet, we continue to find that the case against obesity is significantly flawed. Not only are the claims of an obesity epidemic often wildly exaggerated, but the science linking weight to unfavourable mortality outcomes is also frequently nonexistent or distorted.

Can we stop acting as if people who work for the government are the heroes of working people? Fine, we understand that Wisconsin public sector employees like the system that pays them an average of $76,500 per year, with splendiferous benefits, and are fighting like wildcats against any proposed reforms to that system. But it's madness to keep treating people who are promoting their own self-interest as if they are James Meredith walking into the University of Mississippi. This isn't how we usually view people fighting for their own economic interests. When Wall Street opposes financial reforms or a tobacco...

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke said Thursday that a controversial $600 billion bond buying plan has contributed to a stronger stock market. "Our policies have contributed to a stronger stock market just as they did in March 2009 when we did the first iteration of this program," Bernanke said at a Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. forum on small businesses. "A stronger economy helps small businesses more than larger businesses. Interest rates are higher but that's mostly because the news is better. It has responded to a stronger economy and better expectations." The $600 billion bond buying plan follows a...

Liberal pundits have awakened from the euphoria of nearly two years of successful Democratic initiatives, and they are fuming. Barack Obama decided to side with Republicans on the issue of extending Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans in exchange for the extension of unemployment benefits, in a deal consummated Thursday night. It can be expected that this wouldn't sit well with his base. Disproportionately taxing the wealthy is a critical plank in the ideology of the left, and the reason for that is simple. When liberals think of George Bush, they think of big business destroying society. When they...

"Boule de Suif" is a famous short story by French writer Guy de Maupassant about a group of passengers in a horse-drawn coach trapped behind Prussian lines during the Franco-Prussian War. The passengers include two nuns, an upper-class factory owner and his wife, a petty bourgeoisie couple who own a small shop, a politician, a wealthy aristocratic couple, and of course the prostitute named Elizabeth Rousset. The name "Boule de Suif" translates to "Bowl of fFat," a reference to the prostitute from a time when fat women were considered very attractive. Before their detention, the passengers enjoy each other's company,...

WASHINGTON -- After a year of being pilloried and persecuted in Congress, many of Wall Street's donors have ended their rocky, odd-couple relationship with the Democrats and closed their checkbooks. The news that a growing number of Wall Street fat cats are no longer giving money to the Democratic House and Senate campaign committees is the latest in a lengthening saga of bad news for the Democrats who face what could be catastrophic losses in the midterm elections. Since the 2008 election, Wall Street tycoons who helped elect Barack Obama and bankrolled the Democrats' gains in Congress have become the...

The pursuit of happiness and the acquisition of wealth and property are as integral to capitalism as the products advertised on television. But President Obama would have Americans believe that this activity is inherently evil and must be curbed. Obama has appointed a czar to oversee what he deems "excessive" pay. And according to President Obama, there is a point at which someone has "enough" money. Assuming Obama's premise is correct, who is he to make such a determination? Who is Congress? These men and women are public servants, not public masters, as noted by financial commentator Thomas Sowell. Moreover,...

Scandal: Sometimes banks are too small to fail, such as when they are in the president's hometown, deal with the president's friends and serve the president's agenda. Or should we perhaps say too connected to fail? ShoreBank's Web site boasts: "Van Jones saves at ShoreBank so his money fights for green jobs just like he does." It proudly notes, "According to former Vice President Al Gore, 'Van Jones demonstrates conclusively that the best solutions for the survivability of our planet are also the best solutions for everyday Americans.' " That may tell us all we need to know about ShoreBank...

U.S. Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid told Carson City Democrats on Saturday that he needed their help replacing Republicans in Washington, D.C. “The Republicans in the United States Senate do not represent mainstream Republicans in this country. They are so far to the right ... we need your help to elect Democrats,” Reid said. Reid also spoke about the determination that went into health care reform. “The most important thing we've done for the country and the world is health care,” he said. About 75 people attended the Saturday convention.

Politics: Another bank failure is nothing new these days — except if the bank is run by the family of a U.S. Senate candidate who profited handsomely and lent millions to a convicted felon. But then, that's the Chicago way. 'I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat-cat bankers on Wall Street," President Obama said in a recent interview with "60 Minutes." Speaking to those bankers, he said: "You guys are drawing down 10, 20 million dollar bonuses after America went through the worst economic year that it's gone through in — in decades,...

Job losses, home foreclosures and the worst economy in decades have forced many Americans to cut back or do without. But not members of Congress, who voted themselves a 5 percent increase in their own budgets for staff salaries, office expenses and perks last year. U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, a Miramar Democrat, paid two staffers about $160,000 apiece — and one of them was his longtime girlfriend. When Corrine Brown, a Democrat from North Florida, traveled on congressional business, she used a chauffeured Lincoln Town Car and an SUV at a cost of nearly $8,000. And Tom Rooney, a House...

A recurring theme of the Obama White House is "sacrifice." The president has repeatedly stressed the need for us to tighten our belts. He has informed us, "We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times ..." During the campaign, his wife told us that we have to compromise and sacrifice for one another in order to get things done. Shortly after the election, the president said that "[e]verybody's going to have to give. Everybody's going to have to have some skin in the game." This emphasis...

President Obama is the one who still doesn’t get it. In an administration fiendishly adroit at stagecraft, he chose an exclusive interview on “60 Minutes” last night to bash bankers with the “f” word — “fatcats,” he called them — just 16 hours before his scheduled sitdown with the chiefs of J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and other banking giants. What an icebreaker! That impolite precursor on “60 Minutes,” especially when it comes from a guy who most times is charming and almost too ingratiating, shows a President torn between pious populism and prosperous capitalism. Obama needs...

Obama refers to top executives at 'fat-cat bankers' on CBS program WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- President Barack Obama is sitting down Monday with the top executives of the nation's largest banks at the White House, with echoes of "fat cats" ringing in everyone's ears.On the eve of the meeting, Obama slammed bankers on network television, calling them "fat-cat bankers" on CBS's "60 Minutes" program. "I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat-cat bankers on Wall Street," Obama said in an interview on the television show. "They're still puzzled why it is that people are mad...

December 09, 2009, 0:00 a.m. The Real Fat-Cat PartyDemocrats run against big business when they are in fact in bed with the fat cats. By Jonah Goldberg One of the great frustrations of the libertarian-minded Right is how Republicans got stuck being “the party of big business.� The quotation marks around the term are at least somewhat necessary, because in many respects, it’s not true. The notion that big business is “right wing� has always been more sloppy agitprop than serious analysis. It’s true that historically, big business is against socialism and Communism — and understandably so. Socialism and...

Obama announced an executive order to limit the salary for CEO of bailout companies to $ 500,000 a year. Besides that this is the scary socialism on the march the question from business perspective is what type of CEO would a company get for $ 500,000 a year? The answer to that is very simple. They will get very incompetent CEO’s who are even much more worse than the current CEO’s who are running these bailout companies.

Obama speaking now. He is (executive order?) capping salaries at bailed-out companies that are now, basically, owned by the Government. Also eliminating stock options for executives, eliminating 'golden parachutes,' requiring companies to come to White House hat in hand to get permission to implement major changes in management and financial operations. No bennies any more (health club memberships, cars, executive retreats, etc.) Leaves podium as reporters dare to call-out questions. A government big enough to give you anything you want is also big enough to take everything you have." -- Thomas Jefferson

Wall Street firms slashed cash bonuses for New York City employees by 44 percent in 2008, as they reeled from record losses in the securities industry, New York State's comptroller said in a report issued on Wednesday. Bonuses fell to $18.4 billion from $32.9 billion in 2007, the largest decline ever and the biggest percentage drop in more than 30 years, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said. The size of the bonus pool is the sixth-largest on record, he said.

“And when a member of the MSM pleasantly surprises us, we’ll make a point of handing out the kudos.”– FinkelBlog launch announcement, 1-19-09 Sooner than we expected, we’re going to begin delivering on our promise to note those too-rare occasions when the MSM does some surprisingly solid reporting. On a day when most of the MSM is in paroxysms of sycophantic joy, ABC’s Ross was willing to play something of the skunk at the inaugural party. At the end of Good Morning America’s first half-hour, ABC’s chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross presented his report on the 216 high-rolling donors who...

From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones RICHMOND, Va. -- It seems that Joe the Plumber has earned a permanent spot in 2008 campaign lore. In the final weeks of the 2008 election both candidates are mentioning his name on the stump almost daily. Obama even invoked him during a press conference this morning and added a new quip to his speech at a rally here. “I had a nice conversation the other day with Joe the Plumber,” he told an audience of nearly 20,000 people. “Joe's cool, I got no problems with Joe, all I want to do is give Joe a...

I'm not putting a reference in becasue I want my freakin' title, I'm pissed. But search and you shall find ...

In the dark of night over the weekend when most people were snoozing, the Treasury dramatically expanded its bailout plan to include buying student loans, car loans, credit card debt and any other "troubled" assets held by banks. The changes, which were included in draft language that also opened the bailout program to foreign banks with extensive loan operations in the United States, potentially added tens of billions of dollars to the cost of the program. Although it was a major addition to what was already the nation's largest-ever bailout, it did not become part of the debate between Democrats...

I may surprise some people by saying what few presidential candidates would ever be willing to say out loud in farm country: I'd veto the farm bill—a bloated expansion in federal spending that will do more harm than good. When agricultural commodity prices and exports have reached record highs, we no longer need government-grown farms and mammoth government bureaucracies. As grocery bills soar, food banks go bare and food rationing occurs on a global scale, we must challenge the wisdom of this bill. We must question policies that divert more than 25 percent of corn out of the food supply...

To Fawn Lunde, Tobias is a dream come true, the dog she’s wanted since she fell in love at age 7 with Duke, the bloodhound on “The Beverly Hillbillies.” In March 2002, the La Crosse woman sold her pickup truck to buy the puppy from a Missouri breeder. “He’s my best friend,” said Lunde, 45. But to the animal control department of the Coulee Region Humane Society, 5-year-old Tobias is something else: morbidly obese. It led senior humane officer Amiie Gabrilska on Sept. 21, 2006, to order that Lunde have a diet analysis and weight loss plan done for the...

Half of dogs and cats in Britain are overweight, according to the RSPCA. Overweight pet dog: haf of dogs and cats in Britain are overweight Excess weight can affect a pet's quality of life and lead to a variety of ailments Joe Inglis, a television vet who joined the charity to launch the Pets Get Slim website and roadshow yesterday, said: "Action needs to be taken. "A weight problem can affect a pet's quality of life and lead to straining of the joints, as well as internal illnesses like diabetes, liver disease and heart disease." He said www.petsgetslim.co.uk would give...

The Oregon Humane Society recovered a 20.2-pound stray cat that was found halfway stuck in a doggie door Wednesday in Gresham, Ore. The Humane Society said the cat was trying to steal food from a home that had put out food for its own cats. "I heard quite a ruckus when I went into my garage," said Jadwiga Drozdek, who cares for six cats at her Gresham home. "It was hilarious to see this big cat struggling to get in. I helped him out of the door and gave him a plate of food on the patio." The cat was...

Castro worth $900 million: Forbes By Michele Gershberg Cuban President Fidel Castro was furious when Forbes magazine estimated his fortune at $550 million last year. This year, the magazine upped its estimate of the communist leader's wealth to a cool $900 million. Castro, who says his net worth is nil, is likely the beneficiary of up to $900 million, based on his control of state-owned companies, the U.S. financial magazine said in its annual tally of "Kings, Queens & Dictators" fortunes on Thursday. Kings and sheikhs of the oil-rich Gulf Arab states still top the Forbes list, to be published...

See for example this thread first. Exxon Mobil's retirement plan for their ex-CEO and chairman: Nearly $400 mill ! Not much compared to Bill-- one year's interest, to the Microsoft man.

MOSCOW -- President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday dismissed calls for Russia's dismissal from the Group of Eight as a product of a Cold War mentality and said leaders of the G-8 countries support Russia's presidency. "I know the mood of the G-8 leaders. No one is against it; all of them support Russia's active role," Putin told a wide-ranging Kremlin news conference. "No one wants the G-8 to turn into an assembly of fat cats," Putin said. Putin said there was a growing "imbalance" in the world, with an increasing gap in countries' living standards.

September 9, 2005 -- IN her "Letter from New York," published in The Washington Post, Tina Brown yesterday determined there was a "scent of insurrection" in the air here in the Big Apple in the wake of Hurricane Katrina — a spirit of revolution she seems to have discerned primarily at a screening of a 9/11 documentary at the swanky Bryant Park Hotel. "The needless torment of New Orleans has reignited the dormant passions of the election," quoth our Tina, who has taken it upon herself to bring the Word from this city's elite to the political elite in Washington....

Drivers who gas up along the New Jersey Turnpike or Garden State Parkway could one day be asked, ``Cash or E-ZPass?'' A measure urging the Turnpike Authority to work with service area operators along the state's two main arteries advanced this week in the Legislature, inching drivers closer to being able to pay for gas using their E-ZPass accounts. The resolution will next be considered in the Senate and in the Assembly Transportation Committee. ``In the early days of E-ZPass, it was always intended that the tags would eventually have broader use than just a toll payment,'' said Sen. Nicholas...

ATLANTA -- A widely reported government study that said obesity is about to overtake smoking as the No. 1 cause of death in the United States contained statistical errors and may have overstated the problem, health officials acknowledged today. The government is working on a rare correction to the study. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in March in a study co-authored by its director, Dr. Julie Gerberding, that a poor diet and physical inactivity were responsible for 400,000 deaths in 2000, a 33 percent jump from 1990. However, the CDC admitted today that it made an error...

Targeted, Truthful Ads Gutting Kerry Campaign Written by Chris Long Monday, September 27, 2004 George W. Bush spent the first months of the political campaigning season like a boxer in a huddle, covering up and weathering a barrage of blows from the upstart. The Kerry/DNC ads were a scattershot affair, alleging anything and everything, flitting from accusation to spectacular accusation, not unlike the flip-flopping candidate. Indeed, the Bush campaign seemed to obeying the military axiom of ‘concentration of forces’: gather your troops for decisive blows in the face of a scattered, approaching enemy. The hundreds of millions of dollars expended...

The Four Seasons is shaping up as the ultimate power hotel at the July 26-29 Democratic convention in Boston, and word is that some of John Kerry's super-fat cats are furious when they hear there's no room at the inn. "There's always the hotel at a convention — the Ritz Carlton may be just as good a hotel, but it's not the hotel," says a veteran Democratic operative. "People are making frantic phone calls to everyone they know. It's mass psychology. It's a way of establishing the pecking order. One thing everyone knows is that if John Kerry calls and...

The city of Houston's main pension program has a billion-dollar funding shortfall because benefits have been boosted so high that many employees will earn more in retirement than they received while working, according to a report obtained by the Chronicle. A few will retire as millionaires. To properly reduce the shortfall, taxpayers would have to put nearly $100 million extra into the fund next year, according to an analysis prepared for the pension's board. Further, the city cannot reduce the benefits for any employee who already has worked five years, thanks to a Texas constitutional amendment passed by voters last...