Free Republic

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Atlas is done with merely shrugging. Atlas is raging. The Ayn Rand novel, "Atlas Shrugged" is much in the news this week because of the absolutely fantastic rant on CNBC the other morning by on-air editor Rick Santelli. I happened to be watching CNBC when this all took place, although I suspect this may become one of those thinks like Woodstock which, over the years, seven million baby boomers have proclaimed they were in attendance. This was the morning after President Obama had announced his plan to save the housing industry by helping bail out people who weren't making their...

Looks like Rick Santelli got under Pres. Obama’s skin even more than we realized. More than a week after the CNBC correspondent criticized the mortgage bailout plan, there was the president’s press secretary today, still taking snide shots at him. Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs’ contemptuous comment came in response to a question from Chip Reid of CBS suggesting that the administration had retooled the plan in light of the “backlash that a lot of people had, not just on cable, but a lot of people had, fearing that people who behaved badly will be rewarded.” Before Reid could finish his...

Gibbs Takes Off Gloves to Challenge Reporters, Hosts Who Cross Obama White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs has singled out media personalities Jim Cramer, Rush Limbaugh and Rick Santelli in the course of less than two weeks. FOXNews.com Wednesday, March 04, 2009 Jim Cramer. Rush Limbaugh. Rick Santelli. What do they all have in common? Most likely, none of them is getting invited to the White House Christmas party. All three media personalities have been singled out by President Obama's press shop in the course of less than two weeks. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, in doing so, has...

First of all let me be clear that I have NO affiliation or association with any of the websites or related tea party movements that have popped up as a result of my comments on February 19th, or to the best of my knowledge any of the people who organized the websites or movements. By the way of background, I am not and never have been a stockbroker. Not that there is anything wrong with being a stockbroker. The home I have lived in for 20 years is a 2,500-square foot ranch. Not that there is anything wrong with owning...

The Guru, The Rush, The Sarahcuda and The TeamanTogether they are the Conservative Four... fighting against the evil Doctor Doombama.Mwraaah! I'll raise your taxes!

Here we go again - another Obama administration/media personality feud in the works. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs has no problem addressing media critics of President Barack Obama - even on an individual basis. Since Obama was sworn in as president, Gibbs has addressed criticism from conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, CNBC mercantile exchange floor reporter Rick Santelli and now CNBC "Mad Money" host Jim Cramer. During the March 3 White House press briefing, Tom Costello of NBC News asked Gibbs to respond to remarks from Cramer, who was described as "not a conservative," made on NBC's March 3...

Playboy Magazine got its undies in a bundle over the nation wide Tea Party protests held last Friday that were inspired by CNBC's Rick Santelli's free market rant of February 19. As Noel Sheppard noted on March 1, the skin mag published a piece claiming that Santelli was part of a vast right-wing conspiracy to protest Obama's socialist policies. It turns out, however, that the story has been proven false and in response Playboy has mysteriously removed the piece that first raised the question of the grand conspiracy. Happily, the facts have won over on Playboy forcing it to pull...

The anti-stimulus demonstrations that began about two weeks ago moved Friday to more than 35 cities, including Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. They have been dubbed the "Nationwide Tea Parties," after CNBC commentator Rick Santelli's suggestion in a recent spirited diatribe. They are enthusiastic affairs, but relatively modest so far. The largest one, in St. Louis, may have attracted 1,000 protesters. Most drew no more than 200 to 300. It remains to be seen if the movement will gather more steam.

In his inaugural address, President Obama heralded the arrival of a “new era of responsibility.” Apparently, this was a slip of the tongue, really meaning an “era of irresponsibility.” By his actions, Obama is pushing irresponsibility by picking winners and losers, punishing those who have worked hard and saved, while rewarding those who bought houses they could not afford and made bad business decisions. In other words, President Obama is an enabler.

I was interviewed by several journalists last week about Rick Santelli’s Rant — my exact quote was it had a “Faux” feel to it. (I haven’t seen it in print yet) What was so odd about this was that Santelli is usually on the ball; we usually agree more often than we disagree. He’s been responsible for some of the best moments on Squawk Box. But his rant somehow felt wrong. After we’ve pissed through over $7 trillion dollars in Federal bailouts to banks, brokers, automakers, insurers, etc., this was a pittance, the least offensive of all the vast sums...

...What we discovered is that Santelli’s “rant” was not at all spontaneous as his alleged fans claim, but rather it was a carefully-planned trigger for the anti-Obama campaign. In PR terms, his February 19th call for a “Chicago Tea Party” was the launch event of a carefully organized and sophisticated PR campaign, one in which Santelli served as a frontman, using the CNBC airwaves for publicity, for the some of the craziest and sleaziest rightwing oligarch clans this country has ever produced. Namely, the Koch family, the multibilllionaire owners of the largest private corporation in America, and funders of scores...

President Obama on Saturday struck back aggressively at critics of his $3.6 trillion budget proposal, casting himself as a populist crusader whose "sweeping change" has angered Washington's entrenched special interests, and promised to fight them. "I realize that passing this budget won't be easy. Because it represents real and dramatic change, it also represents a threat to the status quo in Washington," Mr. Obama said in his weekly video and radio address. Mr. Obama's language was combative and confrontational, as he promised to fight for "American families." "I know these steps won't sit well with the special interests and lobbyists...

Who needs a trillion dollars? Line up and the government will give you what you need, unless of course you are poor or middle class, responsible, working and paying taxes. In that case, you would be out of luck. The government bailouts seem to be going primarily to banks, the auto industry and other big businesses that have fleeced Americans for years anyway. Now they are getting to fleece Americans through government sponsored taxes as well. Its a great day to be a greedy, self promoting manager of a mega million dollar business. Its a bad day to be a...

Friday February 27th - High Noon - 1pm Hartford State Capitol (meeting at the Supreme Court steps at 11:45am)

Springfield MO, 200+ people arrived in 35 degree weather to show their support to the nationwide "tea party" movement, and the disgust at the obscene expansion of wasteful government spending.

In a protest straight from American history, people at the Jacksonville Landing and in cities large and small across the nation are being asked to reenact the Boston tea party in protest to the latest stimulus package and the foreclosure assistance bill. The tax revolt, inspired by CNBC reporter Rick Santelli's rant earlier this week about President Barack Obama's housing rescue plan, resulted in a grassroots effort pushing "tea party" protests Friday in large cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta and Houston, and small towns like Tulsa, Iowa, and Calera, Ala. At noon at the Jacksonville Landing, Jim Fallon was...

CHICAGO – CNBC commentator Rick Santelli sounded off last week for the common man. He observed on Feb. 19, 2009: “The government is promoting bad behavior.” His statement resonates above the cacophony of voices that are both for and against the stimulus packages and their hopeful results. As I have said before, we are fading away from “political correctness” to “political accuracy” as the economy melts down and the thirst for clear explanations rises up. We need more of this political accuracy in our media. We don’t need the “sheeple” (sheep people) who proclaim to be journalists and commentators but...

President Barack Obama's first budget includes $15 billion a year for renewable energy programs and an ambitious plan to raise $646 billion from a carbon reduction proposal. "Because our future depends on our ability to break free from oil that's controlled by foreign dictators, we need to make clean, renewable energy the profitable kind of energy," Mr. Obama said Thursday morning. "That's why we'll be working with Congress on legislation that places a market-based cap on carbon pollution and drives the production of more renewable energy." The plan uses money from a cap-and-trade program — which would allow companies to...

  On Friday, February 27, 2009, thousands of outraged voters will rally in cities throughout America to protest Barack Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package. And BlogTalkRadio’s Grizzly Groundswell team will be there every step of the way as the historic events unfold. Dubbed the Chicago Nationwide Tea Party, this grassroots campaign was inspired by CNBC on-air editor Rick Santelli. While reporting live from the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade on February 19, Rick challenged the president to let the American people decide whether or not they want to fork over their hard-earned tax dollars. "Why don’t you put...