Free Republic

Fellow citizens of Illinois, Gov. Pat Quinn, legislators: Welcome to yet another public pension fiasco. Yet another festival of denial. Because in one obscure and maddening moment last week, every one of us slipped closer to burying our children and grandchildren -- unless they flee the state -- in still more debt by the billions. The accompanying graphic shows how deep a hole Springfield is excavating for that burial of future generations. At the end of the current fiscal year, by this calculation, the state's unfunded pension liability plus its other pension debt will total some $95 billion. That's north...

Arabic classes coming to three more Chicago schools Mayor Daley announces grant, says he doesn't see Fort Hood shooting stoking anti-Muslim sentiment November 9, 2009 By FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter The Chicago public schools will expand its Arabic-language program to three more high schools, thanks to a three-year, $888,000 federal grant announced this morning. Mayor Daley accepted the grant at Durkin Park Elementary School, 8445 S. Kolin, as he rejected suggestions that the Fort Hood, Texas, massacre could lead to an outbreak of anti-Muslim sentiment. “I don’t think so,” Daley said. “Every day, in society, someone’s being killed ....

(CNSNews.com) – In Ansonia, Conn., $2.3 million in federal stimulus funds is being used for insect research, specifically the “rearing [of] large numbers of anthropoids” which includes the “Asian long-horned beetle, the nun moth and the wooly adelgid,” the New Haven Advocate reported. Duluth, Minn., rarely known for its high temperatures, received $6 million in economic stimulus funds for a snowmaking facility, even though it is the 15th snowiest city in America, according to City-Data.com.

I recently attended the Evergreen Leadership Conference in very liberal (at least the "Left" part of the State) Washington State. One of the speakers succinctly and accurately summarized the real war happening on America's political landscape. It struck me that those of us on the Right have not clearly understood, or been able to articulate the real conflict between the Right and the Left. However, the Left, clearly understands the war and their mission that they're fighting, which is: TAXPAYERS VS. TAXTAKERS!

Like many Americans, I have been encouraged by the average citizens who have taken private time and resources to take a stand for the good ole United States of America, the US Constitution and the founding principles and values of freedom and liberty at Tea Parties and Town Hall meetings. But like many who have attended these events, disgusted by the overt intentional destruction of our magnificent country by DC elitists, I am deeply troubled by that fact that NOBODY in Washington is listening or reacting to the growing voice of peaceful dissent. When folks refuse to listen, sooner or...

Not content with his humiliation at Copenhagen, Denmark this past September, President Obama will be traveling there again in December to attend the UN COP15 Climate Change Conference. This agreement would commit the United States to punitive and expensive greenhouse gas regulations dictated by the United Nations without recourse. COP stands for "Conference of the Parties" and the December Copenhagen conference will be the 15th under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), hence COP15. According to their website, it will be one of the largest conferences ever held outside the New York or Geneva headquarters, with an...

As government at all levels struggles with declining tax revenue and increasing operating costs, the elephant in the room largely ignored is the monumental expense of public employee retirements. A recent study by a taxpayer organization points out the behemoth of a problem by noting the obvious: When government agencies increase employee pension costs, they tend to increase taxes to cover the added expense. A study of municipal retirement systems shows that pricey pensions not only drive up costs, but ultimately also drive up taxes. This link between pensions and tax increases became apparent in a study of 17 cities...

WASHINGTON -- With his visit to Denmark to pitch Chicago as the site for the 2016 summer Olympics, President Barack Obama has now visited more countries in his first year in office than any other president did. His one-day trek last week to Denmark - which failed to persuade the International Olympic Committee to award the games to his hometown - made it the 16th country Obama has visited since taking office on Jan. 20. That pushed him into the top spot as the country's top globetrotting leader in his freshman year, passing the previous record holders: George H.W. Bush,...

Any successful efforts by Congress to cut off federal funding to scandal-plagued ACORN would have little effect on the community organizing group’s overall operations, its chief executive officer said on Tuesday. “We didn’t have government funding for years,” said ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis. “We may not have government funding in the future.”

House Minority Leader John Boehner torched President Barack Obama Wednesday for his European trip to pitch the Chicago Olympics bid, criticizing the president for "going to go off to Copenhagen when we've got serious issues here at home that need to be debated."

Barack Obama gave five interviews last Sunday, and only one interviewer bothered to ask him about the ACORN scandal. ACORN is the leftist activist organization that lost its federal funds last week in a Congressional vote that was not even close. Obama's answer to his lone ACORN question was amazing. He brazened it out: "Frankly," said the President, "it's not something I've followed closely. This is not the biggest issue facing the country. It's not something I'm paying a lot of attention to." Not something he's paying a lot of attention to. This is the same Barack Obama who said,...

over the last six years, Buffalo taxpayers have paid millions of dollars to teachers not to teach. Twelve different teachers have collected $2.25 million in salary while under suspension and waiting for disciplinary hearings during that time. And that amount doesn't include the costs for substitutes and the hearings themselves. The average wait for those hearings: three years. The school district doesn't release the names of the teachers, or what they've been charged with, but we've learned that right now there's a Physical Education teacher awaiting a hearing who was suspended four years ago this month and has been paid...

The number of homeless families living in motels funded by the state now tops more than 1,000, a dramatic 37 percent increase since June 1, ... at a monthly cost of about $2.8 million for taxpayers. The recession, high unemployment, and continuing foreclosure crisis are forcing more families to seek help. The state has been placing families in motels since 2007, when the 2,000 rooms in the homeless shelter system reached capacity.

The prospect of recovering the government's assistance to GM and Chrysler is heavily dependent on shares of the two companies rising to unprecedented levels, the report said. The government owns 10 percent of Chrysler and 61 percent of GM. The shares "will have to appreciate sharply" for taxpayers to get their money back, the report said. Treasury Department officials have acknowledged that most of the $23 billion provided by the Bush administration is likely to be lost. But Meg Reilly, a department spokeswoman, said there is a "reasonably high probability of the return of most or all of the government...

Deal has U.S. taxpayers subsidizing British distillery on St. Croixby Tom Hamburger and Peter Wallsten/Los Angeles Times Tuesday September 08, 2009, 6:00 AM With little fanfare, a deal is moving forward to direct billions in U.S. tax dollars to an unlikely beneficiary -- the giant British liquor producer that makes Captain Morgan rum. Under the agreement, Diageo of London will receive tax credits and other benefits worth $2.7 billion over 30 years, including the entire $165 million cost of building a state-of-the-art distillery on the island of St. Croix in the Virgin Islands, a U.S. territory. Virgin Islands officials say...

Brill is clearly shocked and appalled at what he sees in the Rubber Rooms in New York. His accounts of the maladjusted and utterly incompetent teachers he finds there are vivid and terrific reporting; his accounts of the rationalization of teacher union officials for this appalling system make clear, despite his clear and graceful prose, that he is enraged by what this system costs taxpayers and, even more, by what it denies children who are most in need of help

JOINT BASE BALAD — As U.S. forces here prepare for the largest strategic reposturing of forces in 40 years, some Airmen have already started the process. The Airmen of TF 586, 732nd Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron, 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary), have been traveling throughout the Iraqi theater of operations, identifying, collecting and redistributing excess supply items since 2006. "Our main task is to retrieve excess equipment from Army and Marine locations in Iraq," said Capt. Rachel Ramos, officer in charge, Mobile Redistribution Team (MRT) 4, TF 586. Once excess is identified, the teams determine whether or not the material is...

congressional leaders from carbon-intensive states such as Wyoming remain adamantly opposed to the Waxman-Markey bill, insisting the real costs of curbing greenhouse gas emissions would further bankrupt the nation. “There’s nothing good about it,” said U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo. “I’m going to do everything to make sure it doesn’t pass.” U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., said the bill is “the biggest hidden tax in America.” “It’s a Ponzi scheme because we’re just going to print certificates for CO2 and not take care of any CO2,” Enzi said. “It’s just another way to make money.” The U.S. House in June...

With improvements in the economy and only a fraction of the stimulus money having been spent so far, most Americans -- 72 percent -- say returning the unused portion of the $787 billion dollar stimulus to taxpayers would do more to boost the economy than having the government spend it. Majorities of Democrats (59 percent), Republicans (87 percent) and independents (70 percent) think the money should be returned to taxpayers. Opinion Dynamics Corp. conducted the national telephone poll of 900 registered voters for FOX News from August 11 to August 12. The poll has a 3-point error margin. Rating the...

BREAKING...Just Announced on Greta's Show on FOX. The word has been received by FOX from the Wall Street Journal that Congress has scrapped the plans to purchase the eight new jets. You can see the earlier article in the WSJ regarding the dissention in Congress over this planned spending here: Opposition Emerging to House's Jet Spree The news broke about 15 min. ago, and details are not posted on FOX's website as yet. However, Greta congratulated the American Public and the politicians who opposed this spending. The original request was "...for $220 million to buy four passenger jets, including two...

(H/T: Instapundit) I am honestly surprised to find that there are people surprised by this. Among those clamoring for attention and payouts from Motors Liquidation Co., the company that assumed General Motors’ unwanted assets after its Chapter 11 filing, are the environmental and economic redevelopment departments of state governments. According to reports, when GM exited bankruptcy, its polluted factory and land sites were consumed by the Motor Liquidation, allowing the automaker to avoid the responsibility of cleaning up its mess, and state leaders fear there won’t be any money to clean the locations. After all, this was the original point...

In a pilot program, the charitable arm of Citigroup is giving the National Council of La Raza money to help buy foreclosed homes in Phoenix for rehabilitation and ultimate purchase by low-and moderate-income Latino families. In all, New York-based Citi Foundation is providing $1.75 million to the NCLR, of which $235,000 will go to its Raza Development Fund. That'll allow the fund to acquire, maintain and rehab properties to sell or lease. Raza Development Fund chief Tom Espinoza says the fund will add about $4 million and federal stimulus program money will boost the total to about $12 million to...

Heading into a critical period in the debate over health-care reform, public approval of President Obama's stewardship on the issue has dropped below the 50 percent threshold for the first time, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Barely more than half approve of the way he is handling unemployment, which now tops 10 percent in 15 states and the District. The president's overall approval rating remains higher than his marks on particular domestic issues, with 59 percent giving him positive reviews and 37 percent disapproving. But this is the first time in his presidency that Obama has fallen...

If passed, two healthcare reform bills could mean more abortions at taxpayers' expense. The two primary measures -- the Kennedy bill and the House Democratic leadership bill -- contain provisions that would represent the greatest expansion of abortion since the Supreme Court legalized it in 1973, according to Douglas Johnson of the National Right to Life Committee. "These two bills contain multiple provisions that would result in federally mandated insurance coverage of abortion on demand, result in massive federal subsidies for abortion, result even in mandated creation of many new abortion clinics across the country," he explains.

Posted: Thursday, July 9, 2009 California Republican Party Joins Working Californians And Taxpayer Advocates To Demand Action From Democrat Leaders On The State Budget SACRAMENTO - Citing the continued inaction by Democrat legislative leaders in adopting budget solutions without more taxes - punctuated this week by Assembly Speaker Karen Bass' "boycott" of budget negotiations - the California Republican Party announced it will join with working Californians and taxpayer advocates, including Lew Uhler of the National Tax Limitation Committee and radio personality Mark Williams, at the capitol today to demand action from Speaker Bass and Senate Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg. Taxpayers will gather...

FBI agents have been in New Orleans City Hall since Friday collecting data from computer-network servers and backup tapes, according to a city official familiar with the investigation. Five federal agents have tied up the work of management information systems employees as they comb through the data stored on the servers. The agents are expected to be in City Hall all week, said the source, who wished to remain anonymous because the investigation has not been made public. The agents came bearing federal subpoenas seeking information and met with Chief Administrative Officer Brenda Hatfield, the source said. City spokeswoman Ceeon...

Legislators' cars cost taxpayers $3.2 million in three years The cost includes gasoline and insurance coverage. Spouses and offspring are covered too. The benefits, rare outside California, may be curtailed. By Patrick McGreevy June 15, 2009 Reporting from Sacramento -- When not in a capital gripped by budget crises, state Sen. Ron Calderon can be found touring his San Gabriel Valley district in a Cadillac STS V8 Luxury Sports Sedan that the state bought for $54,830. The Democrat from Montebello spent an average $83 per week on gasoline last year, charged to California taxpayers on a state-issued card. When legislators'...

Growing up as a teenager in the 1950s, I could not wait to get my license to drive and I liked the sporty look of the British MG. These days I drive a Volkswagen. In that short tale can be found the seeds of the end of the American auto industry. Here’s some history. In 1952, the merger of several British auto companies resulted in the British Motor Corporation. It was the largest of its day with 39% of British output. Despite established dealerships for the various models, a series of poor management decisions resulted in the loss of market...

It was a campaign pledge that Barack Obama didn't dare break - a promise to take his wife out for dinner and a show once the election was over. So on the weekend he booked a babysitter, asked Michelle to put on a little black dress and swept her off for a date. The President picked up the tab for a meal at a low-key restaurant, Blue Hill, that specialises in locally grown dishes. He had also paid £60 apiece for two tickets to Joe Turner's Come And Gone, a play about a man coming to terms with the history...

WASHINGTON -- Florida Rep. Alcee Hastings spent $24,730 in taxpayer money last year to lease a 2008 luxury Lexus hybrid sedan. Ohio Rep. Michael Turner expensed a $1,435 digital camera. Eni Faleomavaega, the House delegate from American Samoa, bought two 46-inch Sony TVs.

Desmond Hatchett's children have 11 different mums and their ages range from a newborn to 11-years-old. The prolific father even boasted of fathering four tots by different women in the same year His giant brood came to light after authorities in Tennessee took Hatchett to court for non payment of child support. [snip] Hatchett, who earns minimum wage, told reporters he knows the names and ages of all his children. [snip] Hatchett's lawyer Keith Pope said: "The children can't all be supported by Desmond, so the state of Tennessee has had to step in."

Chinese hookers have a drinking problem. Obama has the answer: U.S. Tax money. So it appears that the President of “change” seems to be The One that drunken Chinese prostitutes “have been waiting for.” Our informative friends at CNSNews.com discovered that the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse (NIAA) has been awarded $2.6 million U.S. tax dollars to help train Chinese prostitutes to “drink responsibly on the job.” Yes, I said Chinese prostitutes… in China. One wonders if the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse missed the salient fact that they have the word National in their moniker? Or perhaps the NIAA...

So just who's tracking that $787 billion in taxpayer money that President Obama and the Democrat-led Congress are doling out? You are. Or you're supposed to be, anyway. "We are, in essence, deputizing the entire American citizenry to help with the oversight of this program," said Rep. Brad Miller, chairman of the House Committee on Science and Technology's subcommittee on investigations and oversight. So, too, said Earl Devaney, the ex-cop who's now chairman of the Recovery Act Accountability and Transparency Board, charged with tracking the torrent of cash now pouring out of federal coffers. "I'm going to have millions of...

Robin Hood Obama pulled a fast one just the other day. The Chrysler 'surgical' bankruptcy seems to be highway robbery foisted on its secured creditors and the American taxpayers.

The nation's largest banks have made quite a comeback. Having nearly brought the market to its knees a few months ago, the financial sector has surprised experts with impressive profits. Citigroup -- widely considered to be the country's weakest big bank -- reported this morning net first-quarter income of $1.6 billion, beating analyst expectations and making it the bank's best quarter since 2007, Citi CEO Vikram Pandit said. Citi's news comes on the heels of reports showing better-than-expected, first-quarter profits by three other major banks: $2.1 billion for JPMorgan Chase, $1.7 billion for Goldman Sachs and $3 billion for Wells...

Today, the voice of Americans was heard. The Tea Party U.S.A. is not a one day national event -- it's the continuation of a chain of events and activism that will strengthen our country. We are doing this primarily without main-stream media coverage. That's o.k. Your voice is being heard without the main-stream media. Keep it up my fellow, patriotic Americans.

In a March 11, 2009 essay this column predicted the calamity the Internal Revenue Service is reporting today. Calling the coming meltdown a “Quiet Taxpayer revolt” it described new categories of taxpayers who would not/could not “pay up” because of the recession Barack Obama and the Democrats have inflicted on us. Some patriotic Americans, it said, will brave consequences and not pay because of Obama’s tax cheating Democrats. A second new category of taxpayer will be just “tax filers” unable to pay because their money is gone. It predicted: “These childlike liberal upper middle class voters will join them, not...

WASHINGTON – Bailing out the financial sector will cost taxpayers $167 billion more than originally anticipated, .. The original figure in January was $189 billion, but it is now $356 billion — ... The CBO raised its projection because yields have increased on securities issued by the bailed-out financial institutions under the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. That means there will be an increase in the cost of the subsidy from the U.S. Treasury's purchase of preferred stock, asset guarantees and loans to automakers, ...

Welcome to the Hartford Tea Party Location: State Capitol - North Steps, Capitol Avenue, Hartford, Connecticut Date: April 15, 2009 Time: 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM Check back here for the latest updates, maps, directions, and other information. Questions, please email us at hartfordteaparty@gmail.com

The Constitution Party of Santa Clara County is hosting the San Jose (Bay Area) Tax Revolt Tea Party on tax day 2009! We initially limited the scope of the event to Santa Clara County, but upon further research learned there was only one other county wide tax day tea party (San Mateo ), so we decided to invite all patriots from within the nine bay Area counties to join with us, and speak in one voice of our bewilderment, shock, anger, betrayal, and legalized theft of our tax dollars in front of the FED's local collection agency, the San Jose...

"As ALG News mentioned last week, Rep. Virginia Foxx's (R-VA) amendment banning so-called “volunteer” organizations from using taxpayer funds to political purposes was stripped from its parent bill in the Senate, and replaced by an amendment allowing those organizations to skirt the law and continue lobbying. This week, the House will approve the Senate version, and President Obama will no doubt sign it shortly thereafter." "The battle to kill this bill in Congress is very likely over. Unless the Blue Dogs can muster enough support to halt Speaker Pelosi's march to madness, the American taxpayer will have to pony up...

Zero Hedge is rarely speechless, but after receiving this email from a correlation desk trader, we simply had to hold a moment of silence for the phenomenal scam that continues unabated in the financial markets, and now has the full oversight and blessing of the U.S. government, which in turn keeps on duping U.S. taxpayers into believing everything is good. I present the insider perspective of trader Lou (who wishes to remain anonymous) in its entirety: AIG-FP accumulated thousands of trades over the years, all essentially consisted of selling default protection. This was done via a number of structures with...

I am excited to see some Americans waking up and joining in what have become more than a thousand planned Tea Party demonstrations across the nation next month. It's a great first step in the right direction. But it is only a first step! Well-intentioned pro-Constitutional America blogs like Free Republic are dedicating resources in a "call to action" promoting a "politically correct" re-enactment (of sorts) of the Boston Tea Party. (Call to action: Tea Party USA!) - But there is a very significant difference between the Boston Tea Party of 1773 and today's politically correct version... The difference is,...

“But many people do not realize that the stimulus money runs out in 24 months -- at which point South Carolina will be forced to find a new source of funding to sustain the new level of spending” Mark Sanford's only downfall is he believes in term limits!

DO NOT MISS THIS ONE !!!For those who have NOT yet seen it.. this Says it LOUD and CLEAR.

...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....

California taxpayers have already been brutalized with big hikes in income, car and sales taxes in the budget deal approved last month. Now, even before these increases kick in on April 1, along comes word that the budget is still $8 billion in the red over the next 16 months – and a whole new round of economy-killing tax hikes is in the works. A San Francisco Chronicle report detailed pending bills to raise taxes yet again on income, cigarettes, alcohol, oil production and more. One bill would even allow cities and counties to assess their own income taxes and...

Undercover videos produced by Live Action Films were used to help strip Planned Parenthood of the $292,000 in taxpayer funds it received from Orange County, CA. The videos, part of the ongoing Mona Lisa Project, clearly show Planned Parenthood employees ignoring the sexual abuse of minors, which mandatory reporting laws require clinicians to report. Mark Bucher, a local resident and board member of the Family Action PAC, saw the videos and decided to find out if Orange County gave taxpayer dollars to Planned Parenthood. Bucher proceeded to uncover an intricate money trail unknown even to the Orange County Board of...

Where Did the AIG Bailout Funds Go? The Wall Street Journal published an article in its weekend edition (March 7-8) on the American International Group bailout that deserves wider attention than it has so far gotten. The U.S. government has thus far pumped $173 billion into AIG in a series of installments that began with an $85 billion bailout last September. Officials have had to allocate ever larger sums since then as they have gradually learned of the real depths of AIG's problems. Where have these funds gone? Thus far, the Treasury and the Federal Reserve, along with AIG, have...