Free Republic

North Korean ruler Kim Jong-Il's youngest son and heir apparent, Kim Jong-Un, has been raising his own slush fund to buy luxury items and provide material goods to the ruling elite. The impoverished nation has set up a company devoted to earning foreign currency for Jong-Un, according to the Chosun Ilbo, citing a source "familiar" with North Korean affairs. "Under the direct control of Kim Jong-Un, the company is secretly amassing a slush fund," it said. The report also said the Organization-Guidance Department and the Propaganda-Agitation Department, both parts of the ruling Workers' Party, have ordered party members to contribute...

As we ponder how to fight global warming (ho ho ho), become less dependent on foreign oil and get our economy back in gear consider that highway congestion costs us about $76 billion annually in wasted time and fuel, and the remember that our interstates are a bit behind in maintenance, according to Robert W. Poole, Jr., an M.I.T-trained engineer who directs transportation studies at Reason Foundation. Washington taxes us 18.3 cents per gallon and there are those who would lead you to conclude that that is not enough since the maintenance shortfall is between $60 and $90 billion per...

FRESNO, Calif. — Officials in the heart of recession-battered central California misspent about $1 million in federal stimulus funds that were supposed to help adults and teenagers find jobs, state auditors said Tuesday. California's Inspector General Laura Chick said the Tulare County Workforce Investment Board used nearly $1 million in Recovery Act funds to pay for their own rent and utility bills, when the bulk of the money should have gone to finding youth summer jobs.

GREENSBORO — Gene Brown extended a job offer on Thursday to someone he hopes will be a member of Housing Greensboro’s tiny full-time staff. This person would oversee the nonprofit’s newest program — making minor repairs to the homes of the elderly or infirm. It was a job Brown might not have been able to create if not for federal stimulus funding and other donations. It’s a small — but concrete — example of a new job created with the help of the $700 billion-plus federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, signed by President Barack Obama a year ago last...

After suffering major electoral and legislative defeats last month, President Barack Obama took to the campaign trail in Nashua, New Hampshire, pitching his administration’s latest new plan to lower our nation’s double digit unemployment rate. This time, the President hopes to do for small businesses what Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac did for home mortgages. Specifically, he wants to create a new $30 billion “Small Business Lending Fund” which will loan money to banks with assets under $10 billion at favorable new rates, as long as they comply with a slew of new regulations designed to incentivize them to loan...

A new Web site targeting the tea parties is a part of a complex network of money flowing from the mountainous coffers of the country's biggest labor unions and trickling slowly into political slush funds for Democratic activists.

A new Web site targeting the tea parties is a part of a complex network of money flowing from the mountainous coffers of the country's biggest labor unions and trickling slowly into political slush funds for Democratic activists.....

TARP: The OMB director is grilled over the misuse of bank bailout funds for purposes other than intended by Congress. This taxpayer money wasn't intended to be the administration's perpetual slush fund. When the specifically targeted and named Troubled Asset Relief Program was enacted, we were told it was a necessary and wise investment. It would stabilize the financial system and keep credit and money moving. We would even get our money back and then some. Many banks didn't want the money or need it. Some were told to take it or they'd be audited. So they took it. The...

Yesterday, in Nashua, New Hampshire, Obama said he hopes to take money repaid by Wall Street banks as part of the TARP $700 billion bank bailout to create the Small Business Lending Fund, which would provide capitol to community banks to spur economic growth on Main Street. "These are the small, local banks that work most closely with our small businesses – that provide them their first loan, and watch them grow through good times and bad. There is only one major thing wrong with that proposal, it is unconstitutional. The congress has directed that money to be used for...

The big news in last year’s budget release was the revelation that the Obama administration planned to use cap-and-trade to raise $646 billion dollars over ten years to finance its big spending programs. At the time I wrote here in the Fox Forum that estimate was a lowball of what actually constituted the biggest tax increase in U.S. history, something White House economist Jason Furman later admitted when he revealed the real revenue would likely be triple the official estimate. So the first thing I checked in this year’s budget was how much revenue was expected from the cap-and-trade energy...

Rep. Gary Meeks (D-NY), already under scrutiny for his relationship with Ponzi billionaire Allen Stanford, is deeply involved with a nonprofit group in Queens, New York called New Direction Local Development Corporation. Our review of IRS tax returns, New York state budget records, and other documents suggests that New Directions does little development. Instead, it appears to operate to the benefit of Meeks and a state Senator named Malcolm Smith, and much of the money it has raised is simply unaccounted for. New Direction has received at least $56,500 in New York state taxpayer funds since 2001, at the direction...

Politicians are well-known for wasting our money so they can live very comfortably. While many of us are outraged over such lavish waste, libs tend to forgive the behavior (unless a Republican does it). However, using the taxpayer’s dime to reap such rewards is one thing … taking money from our troops so you can pound shots with your buddies is another thing altogether.

As much as $9.5 million in federal stimulus dollars went to 14 zip codes in Virginia that don’t exist or are in other states, Old Dominion Watchdog (http://virginia.watchdog.org) reports. The fake zip codes were listed on Recovery.gov, the federal Web site that is supposed to track how the stimulus money is being used.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- U.S. House Democrats, without a single Republican vote, passed a $447 billion appropriations bill Thursday to fund several government agencies next fiscal year. The House approved the conference committee report on a 221-202 vote, over GOP concerns about spending increases. Senate Democrats and Republicans were at odds over when to vote on the conference report that combines six of the seven remaining 2010 appropriations bills.

The projected long-term cost of the government's bailout of the nation's big banks is going to be at least $200 billion less than previously thought, a United States Treasury Department official said Sunday. The Obama administration had estimated the cost to taxpayers of the $700-billion Troubled Asset relief Program, or TARP, would be $341 billion but now says it can cut that by $200 billion. "That improvement is driven by the fact that Treasury's investments to stabilize the system are delivering higher returns than anticipated and that Treasury does not anticipate having to draw upon the full $700 billion in...

The Edwards Drama Awaits a Denouement By NEIL A. LEWIS CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — The story of the spectacular rise and fall of John Edwards, with its sordid can’t-look-away dimensions, is moving slowly but deliberately to its conclusion here in North Carolina. Mr. Edwards, the one-term senator who came close to being elected vice president in 2004 and ran a credible campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008, remains largely secluded at his 100-acre estate here. But a federal grand jury in nearby Raleigh is investigating whether any crimes were committed in connection with campaign laws in an effort...

On June 9 President Obama called a press conference where he announced, "Several financial institutions are set to pay back $68 billion to taxpayers." He said, "It's worth noting that in the first round of repayments from these companies the government has actually turned a profit." The moment was hailed as a policy triumph for the Obama administration, and a sure sign the economy was on the road to recovery. While Mr. Obama's announcement came as welcomed news, few questioned what would become of the returning funds, as it was rightly assumed that any money or profit would be returned...

Talking Shop With a ‘Vulture’ Investor 2/27/09 at 3:20 PM In the financial industry, there used to be a niche specialty called "distressed investing." Some called these folks vultures, because in the aftermath of a collapse, they would go swooping in to buy up the wreckage on the cheap. That's not much of a specialty anymore — the state of the market means we're pretty much all vultures now. But we thought we could get some perspective by getting in touch with an old friend who is on the front lines — he trades at one of the most established...

A listing of numerous tea party videos uploaded to youtube.

Mike Huckabee's most vigorous and able nemesis in Arkansas is the unabashedly liberal and uncommonly activist editor of the weekly free tabloid in Little Rock. I've been knowing and admiring Max Brantley of the Arkansas Times for 30 years, since we were lads breaking in at the late, lamented Arkansas Gazette. He went to bat with higher-ups to make me a columnist. Then, when I up and quit one day, they made him the columnist. There wasn't any drop-off that I could tell, and I'm being kind to myself. He's one of the smartest people I know. He's one of...