Free Republic

Many Democrats in the Assembly have not publicly reported the expenditure of thousands of dollars in campaign funds, including money for rent and living expenses during legislative sessions, the Sun has learned. According to multiple lawmakers familiar with internal caucus discussions, the lawyer for Assembly Democrats instructed them that they do not have to report spending on expenses related to their public office — for example, rent in Carson City during the legislative session or travel to professional conferences.

Seeking to overturn a DOJ judgment that its voter photo identification law, passed in May 2011, violates the National Voting Rights Act (NVRA), the state of South Carolina recently announced that it is suing the Justice Department and Attorney General Eric Holder in federal court. The decision by South Carolina comes as the DOJ is vigorously working to stop the spread of states enacting or implementing voter photo ID laws, prompting fears that the Obama administration is undermining the integrity of the upcoming 2012 elections. In December 2011, the DOJ blocked South Carolina’s new voter ID law from taking effect...

Plunging deeper into the farce-hole, the FT reports tonight that Obama's foreclosure settlement with the banks over their improper seizure of tax-paying US citizens' homes will in fact be subsidized by those very same US taxpayers. It is a hidden clause (that has not been made public yet) that allows the banks to count future loan modifications under the $30bn (taxpayer funded) HAMP initiative towards their $35bn agreement to restructure obligations under the new settlement. As the FT goes on to note, BofA will be able to use future mods made under HAMP towards the $7.6bn in borrower assistance it...

Sixteen months ago, GE announced it would place "the largest order in history" for electric cars...A person inside GE recently forwarded a memo...from the fleet operations manager for GE Healthcare....

Congressional negotiators put their final signatures late Wednesday on an economic plan worth more than $150 billion that would extend a payroll tax holiday and unemployment benefits. A key roadblock was overcome when the lawmakers agreed to require new federal workers to contribute more to their pension plans, clearing the way for a majority of the House-Senate conference committee to approve the deal just past 11 p.m., aides in both parties said. A vote could come as early as Friday, the last act in a five-month battle over President Obama's proposed jobs plan.

Congressional negotiators put their final signatures late Wednesday on an economic plan worth more than $150 billion that would extend a payroll tax holiday and unemployment benefits. A key roadblock was overcome when the lawmakers agreed to require new federal workers to contribute more to their pension plans, clearing the way for a majority of the House-Senate conference committee to approve the deal just past 11 p.m., aides in both parties said. A vote could come as early as Friday, the last act in a five-month battle over President Obama's proposed jobs plan.

The Obama administration has released an economic report that claims everything is coming up roses, and it is making the rounds of the MSM's news outlets. Truth is, when you look into the numbers, it's rather easy to come to the conclusion that the economic reports are as screwy as the administration's employment numbers. In order to convince Americans that his economic measures are working, Obama is claiming there has been an increase in retail sales from December to January by a seasonally adjusted .4%. The administration goes on to explain that while the economy is moving in a positive...

The recent revelation that the head of Media Matters walked the streets of Washington with a Glock-toting bodyguard may make it a little awkward for the group the next time it seeks a donation from a gun control advocacy group. Media Matters reportedly took more than $400,000 from the Joyce Foundation specifically earmarked to promote a $600,000 initiative on "gun and public safety issues." At the same time, Media Matters' gun-guarded boss David Brock reportedly obsessed over his own security. ....Brock reportedly told confidantes that he feared for his safety and needed hired guns to keep him safe.

Obama Poised To Win 2012 Election With 303 Electoral Votes: The Signal Forecast By David Rothschild & Chris Wilson The SignalFeburary 16, 2012 With fewer than nine months to go before Election Day, The Signal predicts that Barack Obama will win the presidential contest with 303 electoral votes to the Republican nominee's 235. How do we know? We don't, of course. Campaigns and candidates evolve, and elections are dynamic events with more variables than can reasonably be distilled in an equation. But the data--based on a prediction engine created by Yahoo! scientists--suggest a second term is likely for the current...

LUFKIN, TEXAS, February 15, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Congressional investigation into Planned Parenthood that touched off the controversy over Susan G. Komen’s funding of the abortion giant may soon expand into a series of national hearings in the nation’s capital and court cases around the country that could expose hundreds of millions of dollars of financial impropriety, critics say. Karen Reynolds, a decade-long employee of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast (PPGC) in Texas, has filed a lawsuit claiming 12 Planned Parenthood mills in Texas and Louisiana bilked the government by billing medical agencies for services that were unnecessary or that were...

When Romney's neo-con supporters make Romney win through voting fraud his neo-con supporters poison the well and make everyone lose.  The only way I can seen to wash the taint of criminal ambition out of the Republican Party in time to save the 2012 election is for a truly open transparent convention beginning with a proper invocation, followed by the the US Pledge of Allegiance, the Republican Creed and an every member oath/affirmation of there duty as it currently obligated by law.  The National Republican Party must formally man-up to their duty or lose. Many Republicans now look for a hero/ine to arise from the convention...

The economy will expand if you believe it is expanding, because you'll be "animal spirited" into buying a lot of stuff on credit that you can't afford. It all boils down to perception. That's the insight at the heart of the Grand Game of Perception Management. Economists speak of "animal spirits" that fuel expansion, but this is simply a term for perception management: When people perceive others reaping outsized gains in profits from taking risky bets and freely spending borrowed money, then they will feel an overpowering urge to follow the herd and leverage their capital (if any) and disposable...

President Obama's pick for ATF director, anti-gun Andrew Traver, has been transferred from his position as special agent in charge of the ATF Chicago Field Division, to head up the Denver division. According to sources, the move came after Traver felt frustrated his confirmation for ATF director had been stalled in the Senate for nearly a year. The estimated cost to transfer Traver is nearly a million taxpayer dollars, all because his feelings are hurt. Traver chose to specifically to work in Chicago, (where his buddies Obama and Rahm hang out) and instead of forcing taxpayers to foot the bill...

BROOKFIELD — Thousands of illegal immigrants are living in southeast Wisconsin. Some of them are stealing other people’s identities to get jobs. A FOX6 investigation exposes a bustling black market for fake IDs that could put your family at risk. Imagine learning that your five-year-old has a full time job! That’s what a Milwaukee mom discovered when she applied for state benefits. The truth is, her little girl is a victim of identity theft. Rebecca Morales found out about her daughter’s phantom work history when she tried to apply for government benefits last year. A state worker told her that...

Kevin McGrath, who currently sits on the Troy City Council, testified yesterday at the upstate New York voter fraud trial, that he was concerned about running for public office because of his history of substance abuse, and 'the fact that he is a convicted felon'. These days it seems, McGrath is far less concerned about public perception, at one point cracking a joke about his lack of drug-peddling business savvy - a comment that forced him to apologize to the judge. During his testimony, McGrath stated that he was not convicted of distributing 220 lbs. of pot, but rather, he...

Kevin McGrath, who currently sits on the Troy City Council, testified yesterday at the upstate New York voter fraud trial, that he was concerned about running for public office because of his history of substance abuse, and 'the fact that he is a convicted felon'. These days it seems, McGrath is far less concerned about public perception, at one point cracking a joke about his lack of drug-peddling business savvy - a comment that forced him to apologize to the judge. During his testimony, McGrath stated that he was not convicted of distributing 220 lbs. of pot, but rather, he...

Testifying before Congress this morning, President Obama's acting budget director Jeffrey Zients directly undercut one of the administration's key legal defenses of its national health care law as it nears a hearing before the Supreme Court. In a hearing of the House Budget Committee Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J., pressed Zients on whether the penalty that the health care law imposes on individuals who do not purchase health insurance constitutes a tax. Eventually, Zients said it did not. Snip Now the administration is making both arguments simultaneously. Before Congress, Zients is arguing that it is not a tax. But before the...

by John HillStand With Arizona The inmates are running the asylum. This Administration has served notice on every illegal alien invader across America: do not be afraid - you are above the law.Eleven illegal aliens who claimed ICE agents "violated their rights" in 2007 raids on their New Haven neighborhood have won a $350,000 settlement from the U.S. government, which also agreed to halt deportation proceedings against the plaintiffs, their attorneys said Tuesday. New Haven is American's most notorious "sanctuary city"- the first in the nation to offer identification cards to illegal immigrants, and critics including the mayor have contended...

President Obama heads west today for a three-day, three-state swing aimed largely at filling the coffers of his re-election campaign and honing his message to supporters in key states. Obama will headline eight fundraisers across California and Washington through Friday night. The events are expected to net at least $8.6 million for the Obama Victory Fund. Much of Obama’s focus will be on mingling with some of his wealthiest – and most famous – supporters in Los Angeles and San Francisco, who will play a key role in underwriting his bid for a second term. Later he’ll dine with 80...

President Obama released his FY 2013 budget [Monday] morning. By his own numbers, his budget raises net taxes over the next decade by $1.56 trillion (Table S-9, page 225). As a percentage of the economy, tax revenues would rise all the way to 20.1% of GDP in 2022, far higher than the historical tax revenue average of 18.3% of GDP (Table S-1, page 205). Here are some of the tax lowlights: All 20 of the new or higher taxes in Obamacare are assumed to take place. That means that there will be a 3.8 percentage point surtax on investment income....

Lincoln County, West Virginia, is a poor place whose chief export is Chuck Yeager. What it lacks in money, Lincoln County adds in entertainment. Its elections are liar’s poker among the Democratic Party factions. There are too few Republicans to matter, and so it is the Democratic Party primaries where the cheating occurs. For 14 years, Democratic County Assessor Jerry Weaver and Democratic Circuit Clerk Greg Stowers fixed elections. The feds caught them. They went to prison. Jerry Weaver got out and decided to run for sheriff. He figured since the current sheriff Democrat Jerry Bowman and his buddy, Democratic...

Tuesday Must Read: Soros Gives $500,000 for Three-Strikes Reform; Brown Appointee Weakens Ethics Panel POLITICS / LAW ENFORCEMENT & CRIME / Stories you shouldn’t miss: 1. Billionaire progressive George Soros has donated $500,000 to a ballot measure proposal that would reform California’s draconian three-strikes law, the LA Times reports. The measure is proposed for November and it would require that a defendant’s so-called third strike be a violent felony. Current law allows defendants to be sentenced to life in prison even if their third strike is not violent, and the law has contributed to overcrowding in California prisons and the...

Desperate to win re-election, President Obama is taking inspiration from a tactic used by China’s Chairman Mao during so-called "Cultural Revolution."In order to spread his ideology, he creates his own army of brainwashed propagandists who are supposed to popularize talking points sent to them directly from the White House. Modern days hongweibings (Chinese for red guards) are called the Truth Team, and if everything goes as planned, the president will have an army of over two million Americans on his side.The Obama administration unveiled on Monday a campaign created to crush the GOP competition come November, a mission that...

RUSH: This is from Rayford, North Carolina. Carolina Journal. I'm gonna read it to you exactly as it printed out here: "A preschooler at West Hoke Elementary School ate three chicken nuggets for lunch Jan. 30 because a state employee told her the lunch her mother packed was not nutritious. The girl’s turkey and cheese sandwich, banana, potato chips and apple juice did not meet US Department of Agriculture guidelines, according to the interpretation of the agent who was inspecting all lunch boxes in her More at Four classroom that day." Again, let me read this to you again: "The...

“The gunwalking story has never been mentioned on either NBC Nightly News or the Today show,” Geoffrey Dickens reports in a Feb. 8 Media Research Center “Reality Check” piece. Perhaps that’s not quite fair. After all, MSNBC’s “Politics Nation” with Al Sharpton gave Rep. Elijah Cummings unchallenged time to make his case that the congressional Fast and Furious investigation is an “election-year witch hunt” against Eric Holder by Republicans, gunwalking was George Bush’s fault, and the real problem is we need more gun control. So leave it to “Today” to send “national investigative correspondent” Jeff Rossen to Phoenix of all...

Scandal: A drug enforcement agent says other agencies knew in 2009 about the Justice Department's gunrunning operation and even tried to interdict the weapons flow. And, yes, it was a gun-control plot. The notion that Fast and Furious was a localized operation run out of the Phoenix office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives of which few, particularly the arguably clueless Attorney General Eric Holder, were aware continues to be exposed as the lie it is. "In 2009, I became aware that ATF was walking guns," Tony Coulson, who was in charge of the Drug Enforcement Agency-Tucson...

A left-wing freebie newspaper in Toronto, called NOW magazine, has published a photoshopped picture of the conservative mayor, Rob Ford, pointing a gun to his head. This from a magazine that claims to be against guns and gun violence. NOW magazine is unimportant to most people, but there is an important point buried amidst its smut: Liberals don’t mind promiscuous suggestions of gun crime, if it’s someone they hate in the crosshairs. It’s like when the movie, Death of a President, came to the Toronto International Film Festival. It wasn’t about a historical assassination. It was a Hollywood liberal fantasy...

The trustee overseeing MF Global's liquidation has come out and confirmed that the amount of customers’ funds of the failed brokerage are now expected to be at least $1.6 billion. This gap has now risen from the previous estimate of $1.2 billion. This is the biggest financial crime perhaps in history far worse than Madoff. This is the outright theft of client funds that nobody is being called to account for no less the recipients of such funds being made to return them. The collapse of MF Global, which was headed by former Goldman Sachs CEO, Senator, and New Jersey...

The Obama Administration claims their new budget contains $2.50 of spending cuts for every $1 of tax increases. Their 2.5:1 ratio is bogus. The President’s team is (1) playing a timeframe game and (2) counting interest savings from tax increases as spending cuts. The President’s team is playing at least two games to generate their 2.5:1 ratio: They are cherry-picking their timeframe to make the ratio look at high as possible; and They are counting all interest savings as spending cuts. Why did they start measuring in January 2011? Because that was the start of the Republican Congress, because last...

If Italian inventor Andrea Rossi's cold fusion machine, called the E-Cat, really works, then the world's energy problems are all but solved. Rossi claims that a small amount of input energy drives a fusion reaction between hydrogen and nickel atoms inside his machine, producing an outpouring of surplus heat that can be used to generate electricity. And instead of the nasty radioactive byproducts given off by nuclear fission reactors — think Fukushima or Chernobyl — the E-Cat spits out just a teaspoon of copper.

And we're the ones, the old-fashioned conservatives, we want to deny people a good time, we want to deny people fun, we want to deny people all these things in life. So we have yet another example of life in America under the thumb of an ever-expanding state with central planning, otherwise known as "well-intentioned liberalism." From violating religious rights where there is no power permitted to do so, to mandating the purchase of products, to now mandating insurance companies sell certain products at a price that's also mandated, from czars, to denying the right to travel, it's all here....

For nearly a year now, House Oversight Committee Chair Darrell Issa (R=CA) and Attorney General Eric Holder have locked horns over Operation Fast and Furious. Throughout this time we have seen heated exchanges between the two during Congressional hearings, watched the DOJ’s narrative change more than once, and wondered why Holder has thus far been allowed to dictate the speed at which the committee can investigate him. As of late, when Holder dug in and simply refused to the turn over the documents the House Oversight Committee subpoenaed, the contest between he and Issa turned into nothing less than a...

Medical insurance premiums in the United States are on the rise, the chief architect of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul has told The Daily Caller.Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist Jonathan Gruber, who also devised former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s statewide health care reforms, is backtracking on an analysis he provided the White House in support of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, informing officials in three states that the price of insurance premiums will dramatically increase under the reforms. In an email to The Daily Caller, Gruber framed this new reality in terms of the same human self-interest that some...

Leadership: Two top Democrats in Congress say the legislature doesn't really need to pass a budget. Excuse us, but passing a budget isn't optional; it's required by law. Is this the future of rule under the Democrats? House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer is tired of passing budgets as the law demands. He thinks Congress can just keep spending money without any sort of budget. "The fact is, you don't need a budget," he said last Tuesday. "We can adopt appropriations bills. We can adopt authorization policies without a budget. We already have an agreed-upon cap on spending." Actually, "the fact...

...In the scenario addressed by the Obama administration’s cockamamie “compromise,” religious organization employer (call it “A”) wishes to purchase health insurance from B insurance company for C, its employees, but not cover birth-control services that violate A’s religious principles and that the First Amendment protects A from having to subsidize. Obama is telling A that it can pay B and that the payments will not cover birth control services for C; he is then telling B to cover the birth-control services for C — but only because A is making the payments. A is thus deceived by Obama’s representations into...

While criticism surrounding Operation Fast and Furious has so far focused on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, three other federal agencies knew about the operation and some of their agents tried to stop it, according to the former chief of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in Tucson. Tony Coulson, the DEA’s agent in charge of Southern Arizona during Fast and Furious, says many federal field agents knew the ATF was walking guns to Mexico, but supervisors told them to back off when they objected. “Clearly, we went too far,” Coulson said. “The question we had among rank and...

A federal grand jury is investigating whether city vendors gave former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin gratuities ranging from plane tickets to materials and equipment for his family's granite-countertop business and also helped the firm land an exclusive installation deal with a retailing giant while Nagin was in office, according to several sources close to the probe. The federal probe is zeroing in on Nagin along three parallel tracks: luxury travel and home maintenance provided by city technology vendors; a granite countertop installation contract that Nagin's family company got from The Home Depot; and the possibility that at least two...

Is Rahm Emanuel floating gun control ideas to Obama for use during his “second term?” Does former Presidential advisor and current Chicago machine politics confidante Rahm Emanuel, with his own personal team of bodyguards, really believe that requiring a $65.00 per handgun registration fee every five years for every handgun owned in Illinois will really have any impact on gun crime in Chicago or anywhere in Illinois? Grooming himself for a run at the Governor’s office, Emmanuel claims that such a gun registration scheme will make the streets safer. He even thinks that this registration will cut illegal gun sales....

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Everybody's reporting that Obama's caving on this mandate that the Catholic services provide abortion and all. There's not a cave here! There may be an accommodation, but there's no big cave-in here. It's still the government mandating this stuff happen. They're just changing the provider. It's not done by the church. He says he gave them a way out of it by mandating the insurance companies do it, but that's not the point here. Great to have you. It's Friday. Let's go to! JOHNNY DONOVAN: Live from the Left Coast at our satellite studios in Los Angeles,...

The Obama administration will attempt to accommodate religious groups that are unhappy with a new mandate that forces them to offer health insurance that covers contraceptive methods. With the White House under fire for its new rule requiring employers including religious organizations to offer health insurance that fully covers birth control coverage, ABC News has learned that later today the White House — possibly President Obama himself — will likely announce an attempt to accommodate these religious groups. The move, based on state models, will almost certainly not satisfy bishops and other religious leaders since it will preserve the goal...

File under: “How to fake a walkback.” With its unconstitutional, coercive, discriminatory Obamacare abortion mandate under fire, the White House announced…nothing today. A supposed “accommodation” to the policy will result in no compromise in the impact of the HHS edict forcing religiously affiliated health care providers and employers to provide insurance coverage for contraceptives, abortifacients, and related services that violate the religious principles and freedom of the mandate’s targets. In fact, close observers say today’s announcement will make things worse.The deets: With the White House under fire for its new rule requiring employers including religious organizations to offer health insurance...

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is again cautioning consumers that chicken jerky products for dogs (also sold as chicken tenders, strips or treats) may be associated with illness in dogs. In the last 12 months, FDA has seen an increase in the number of complaints it received of dog illnesses associated with consumption of chicken jerky products imported from China. Now, four months later, pets are still dying from these treats. And, since the FDA testing has been inconclusive, the pet food companies that sell them aren’t recalling them. Again, that’s even though many pets are dying. Some of...

This health hazard and social menace is what the Left regards as America's next great political cause? As the tents were coming down at McPherson Square, the dead rats and mice being retrieved, the urine and feces and filthy bedding disposed of by District of Columbia employees dressed in hazardous-materials suits like their contemporaries at Fukushima, I thought of the left-wing press. You see, I read the left-wing press. Not the urban throwaway rags, but I read the Nation, the Progressive, the American Prospect, and more -- I read them all. They have been raving for months about the exciting...

Doctors who handed out sick notes to protesters while on the corner of Mifflin and Hamilton streets last year claim protestors received more thorough examinations on the street in public than they would have at an office visit. This revelation was discoverd in an examination of documents obtained by the MacIver News Service through an open records request. The Medical Examining Board issued reprimands to seven doctors in October, who had given hundreds of sick notes to protesters last February so they wouldn’t get in trouble for skipping work. The MacIver News Service was the first to report on the...

In the final days of Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s tenure, the state Department of Energy, Labor & Economic Growth trumpeted the success of green jobs created in the solar industry. “Total job creation projected of 21,592” the April 12, 2010, DELEG presentation claimed. Almost two years later, the large majority of those jobs never saw the light of day. Even if they had come to fruition, they would just be a small part of the entire Michigan economy, says James Hohman, assistant director of fiscal policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. For example, the state of Michigan created 218,137...

STOCKTON - The city has a tentative plan to combat climate change, more than three years after reaching a legal settlement with the Sierra Club and then-Attorney General Jerry Brown. It wouldn't be cheap. If adopted by the Stockton City Council later this year, the plan could cost the city $28.5 million and could cost the private sector $240 million, the document says. The plan itself acknowledges it would require "substantial effort on the part of the entire Stockton community" at a time when people are struggling to pay their bills and keep businesses open.

Last year, a federal program paid out $1.6 billion to cover free cell phones and the monthly bills of 12.5 million wireless accounts. The program, overseen by the FCC and intended to help low-income Americans, is popular for obvious reasons, with participation rising steeply since 2008, when the government paid $772 million for phones and monthly bills. But observers complain that the program suffers from poor oversight, in which phones go to people who don't qualify, and hundreds of thousands of those who do qualify have more than one phone.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants lawmakers to require that all handguns in Illinois be registered with the state, or gun owners could face felony charges. A statewide gun registry is key in helping solve Chicago crimes that involve handguns from outside the city, and would also help crack down on gun trafficking, Emanuel is expected to argue Thursday. Under Emanuel's proposal, handgun owners would have to pay $65 for a registration certificate from the state, which would function much like the title to a car. Illinois law currently requires that gun owners and shooters have a firearm owners identification card,...

They found the Ark of the Covenant where Moses placed the 10 Commandments, in a cave under Golgotha. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior. Who would have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. 1 Tim 2:3-6 Rom 3:28-30 Is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes of the...