Free Republic

LIBERTY COUNTY, TX (KTRK) -- When military men and women leave home to serve the country, they expect to return to their homes once their tour of duty is over. But a military couple in the Liberty County town of Splendora almost lost their home to squatters who've been arrested for more than just taking over the couple's house. It was an unusual call for the Liberty County Sheriff's Office, but even more disturbing for homeowner Hollie Burbank. "It makes me sick," Burbank said. The home that's been in Burbank's family for three generations had some uninvited guests all while...

SNIP Mitt Romney was NOT primarily a venture capitalist. A venture capitalist invests in early-stage businesses with the hope that they grow and prosper. These early-stage businesses are often risky investments. Though most ultimately fail, some succeed spectacularly making the risks worthwhile. Apple Computer and Google are two such examples. This is what Mitt Romney means when he says some investments succeed and some fail. By contrast, Mitt Romney was primarily what is affectionately known as a vulture investor. Bain Capital invested in failing companies with the intention of either restructuring their business or stripping the business and selling its...

RUSH: Folks, I realize this is serious out there, and at some point I may have to issue a fatwa to stop this. If I sense it's really getting out of hand, of course I'll take action. I'll stand up and I'll just tell everybody here involved, "Cut this out and get serious." I don't want to bleed on any of you. It's unbecoming (sigh), but you don't know what being surrounded by negativism is. I am surrounded by it. It takes a concerted effort on my part every day to avoid it, to not be affected by it. I...

 If truly dispicable acts are now the norm for PayPal (EBAY), Scott Thompson should kick off his new Yahoo (YHOO) gig with a dog fight. Sharing a heartbreaking account of a buy gone horribly wrong, Helen Killer of the hilarious Etsy send-up Regretsy posted an email from a reader who saw a treasured item destroyed at the behest of PayPal. Reader Erica writes in describing a recent sale she made to a buyer in Canada. The item in question was a pre-WWII French violin worth $2,500. The buyer, however, disputed the label -- which isn't uncommon, Erica claims, but shouldn't...

Kevin Hayes feels like the luckiest man alive. Three years ago, the 43-year-old Melbourne man was in Canberra and lost the $5000 Canon EOS 5D Mark II DSLR camera his wife bought him for his birthday, and he had all but given up hope of getting it back when he found out about the website stolencamerafinder.com M The site helped him track the lost or stolen camera to a man who works at a Sydney tattoo parlour a few weeks ago and NSW Police have since collected it. Hayes expects to have his camera back any day now, and NSW...

At my business there is a large utility panel(telephone service I think) on the ground in the yard by the curb. All around it are 3 foot poles sticking up from the ground to protect it from cars that might bump into it. last week there was a work crew in the street and they bumped into the poles with a back hoe and knocked a bunch of them crooked. Some were barely still in the ground. I just saw some yahoo in a beat up car pull up to the curb and STEAL THE DAMN POLES! CONCRETE AND ALL!...

BUENOS AIRES–Argentina's senate passed a controversial bill Thursday that gives the government control over newsprint, boosting the power of President Cristina Kirchner's administration in its battle against the opposition media. The legislation gives the state control over Papel Prensa SA, the country's leading producer of paper used to produce newspapers.

Investor George Soros's family fund bought about $2 billion of European bonds formerly owned by MF Global Holdings Ltd., the debt that helped force the securities firm to file for bankruptcy protection Oct. 31, according to people close to the matter. Under the direction of MF Global's former chief executive, Jon S. Corzine, the firm accumulated $6.3 billion of short-term debt issued by various European nations, mostly from Italy, in a bid to boost trading profits. Over the summer, this debt led to nervousness by investors, regulators and ratings companies, resulting in the firm's collapse just over a month ago.

Job-killing bank regulations threaten to wipe out all the gains in private-sector employment since the recovery began, the industry warns. Washington, however, is hiring thousands more bureaucrats to enforce the rules. Signed into law last year, the Dodd-Frank Act is the biggest rewrite of financial regulations since the New Deal. It was intended to rein in Wall Street "excesses." But the banking industry says burdensome red tape is hurting economic growth and jobs in a still-sluggish labor market. "The level of real GDP could be 2.7% less by the year 2015 than would otherwise be the case for the United...

Just like clockwork, the Obama administration never misses an opportunity to unload thousands of records it hopes no one will ever bother sifting through during the holidays. On Black Friday, the White House released more visitor log info — trumpeting disclosures it has fought tooth and nail. I’ve started looking through the data. And you can, too, right here:

Benetton returns to its controversial marketing roots with a new campaign that features President Obama and other world leaders engaging in a kiss. In two separate ads, Obama is seen kissing Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, and Chinese President Hu Jintao. The Unhate Foundation, founded by the Italian clothing company, is an advocacy group for tolerance. The controversial ad campaign is an attempt for Benetton to regain its status from the “United Colors” ads that regularly shocked viewers with subjects that had nothing to do with clothing: A priest kissing a nun, a man dying of AIDS, a just-born baby with...

PORTLAND, Ore. -- A woman in Portland said her local grocery store refused to allow her to pay for her shopping cart items with $32 in loose change. The shopper, who was too embarrassed to use her name, said the clerk at the Save-a-Lot store would only accept $5 of the change, claiming it was store policy, KATU reported. The woman told KATU that she tried to use her loose change at another area grocery to buy her family food -- a Fred Meyer store -- but the manager there directed her to a coin exchange machine instead, where the...

This afternoon, the U.S. Senate will be voting on an amendment to H.R. 2112, the Agriculture-Commerce-etc. appropriations bill for FY 2012. The amendment (#769) is being offered by Senator David Vitter (R-La.) The amendment in question would allow Americans to purchase prescription medicines from Canada. On its face, this is a pro-free market amendment. Why should the government prevent people from buying goods or services from anywhere they want to, especially a developed nation like Canada? The free market answer is that consumers would often not be importing just the medicine, but also the price control. In most countries, the...

Occupy Wall Street protesters said yesterday that packs of brazen crooks within their ranks have been robbing their fellow demonstrators blind, making off with pricey cameras, phones and laptops -- and even a hefty bundle of donated cash and food. “Stealing is our biggest problem at the moment,” said Nan Terrie, 18, a kitchen and legal-team volunteer from Fort Lauderdale. “I had my Mac stolen -- that was like $5,500. Every night, something else is gone. Last night, our entire [kitchen] budget for the day was stolen, so the first thing I had to do was . . . get...

Occupy Wall Street protesters said yesterday that packs of brazen crooks within their ranks have been robbing their fellow demonstrators blind, making off with pricey cameras, phones and laptops -- and even a hefty bundle of donated cash and food. “Stealing is our biggest problem at the moment,” said Nan Terrie, 18, a kitchen and legal-team volunteer from Fort Lauderdale. “I had my Mac stolen -- that was like $5,500. Every night, something else is gone. Last night, our entire [kitchen] budget for the day was stolen, so the first thing I had to do was . . . get...

Former Gov. Joe Kernan says a signature on a petition to place Barack Obama's name on Indiana's 2008 primary ballot isn't his, putting him among dozens of dubious signatures found in a newspaper's investigation. Kernan, a Democrat who campaigned for Hillary Clinton during the 2008 primary, told the South Bend Tribune that he didn't sign the Obama document. "No, not at all," the former South Bend mayor said when asked whether the signature next to his name on the Obama petition looked like his own. "Nor does the printing look like mine." The Tribune reported Wednesday that it has talked...

For your viewing pleasure, here is a group of rowdy teenagers resisting arrest in the 2/3 subway station at 125th Street. According to the witness who posted the video on YouTube, Frank Harts, the "girls jumps NYC Subway gate to avoid fare. When cops try to arrest them.... this is what happens." What "happens" is utter pandemonium, as Animal New York aptly describes it. Simply put, these young ladies are NOT HAVING IT. Don't miss the 1:40 mark, where one teenager swings her bag and smacks a cop right in the face. We contacted the MTA and the NYPD to...

To avoid further clogging the already sluggish home foreclosure pipeline, some lenders have been offering cash incentives to strapped homeowners at risk of foreclosure to complete short sales and move out of their homes. Chase, for instance, has been quietly offering as much as $35,000 to homeowners who are “upside down” on their loans — meaning, they owe more than the home is currently worth. In a short sale, the lender allows the sale of the home for less than the loan amount and often relieves the borrower of any further obligation. The incentives began late last year and are...

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- A Lexington church is running out of cheeks to turn as copper thieves hit it for a third time. Pastor Derek Coleman of Gardenside Baptist Church said it’s hurtful that people steal from a church that’s willing to give to them, according to WKYT-TV. This time, thieves stripped copper piping from a building the congregation uses for missionary work and allows other churches to use in time of need. Damage done by the thieves makes the building impossible to use until it is repaired. The church is looking at new security measures after three copper thefts.

Forget robbing the bank. These days, the big money is in beauty salons and their stash of human hair extensions. The most recent heist occurred Tuesday when thieves crashed a Jeep into Angie's Beauty Supplies in Atlanta. Video showed the culprits head straight for the shop’s most expensive fake tresses. “The suspects took an undetermined amount of hair extensions and other items prior to leaving the store,” said Atlanta Police Officer Kim Jones. The thieves left the Jeep in the store.

(CNN) -- This week in Germantown, Maryland, it took less than a minute for a flash mob of teenagers to descend on a 7-Eleven, ransack shelves and make off with hundreds of dollars worth of stuff. It's going to take much longer for police in Montgomery County to figure out how to prevent it from happening again.

The “green jobs� idea — that we could vitalize the economy by spending tons of money on promoting ‘green energy’ and other green ideas — is running into trouble. Prominent (and much subsidized) solar manufacturer Evergreen Solar is filing for bankruptcy, citing lower prices and increased competition from a familiar source: “When margins are getting squeezed, pennies count,� says Pavel Molchanov, a solar analyst with Raymond James Financial. “Quite frankly, as a solar manufacturer, it is a lot better to pay workers $1 an hour in China than workers $15 an hour in Massachusetts.� Those who tout green jobs as...

Henry Wallace’s Progressive Party of the 1940s was nothing but a tool the Communist Party USA – and by extension, the Soviet Union. Today’s Democratic Party is also heavily infiltrated by the now pro Chinese Communist Party USA and their almost as equally extreme comrades from Democratic Socialists of America. Here’s an interesting picture from the 1940s. Henry Wallace chatting with Chicago journalist and Progressive Party supporter Vernon Jarrett. It turns out that around this time Vernon Jarrett was a leader of the Chicago chapter of American Youth for Democracy – the youth wing of the Communist Party. Chicago communist...

Senate Democrats are charging taxpayers for a trip to Hawaii, The Daily Caller has learned. The entire press staff of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee is in Maui, even though a field hearing there won’t happen until next Wednesday. The committee’s oversight field hearing, scheduled for next Wednesday at 9 a.m. at the Maui Beach Hotel, will focus on “Strengthening Self-Sufficiency: Overcoming Barriers to Economic Development in Native Communities.” Rick Manning from Americans for Limited Government, which first discovered the hearing, told TheDC it’s unbelievable that Hill staffers talking about fiscal responsibility would waste money on a trip to Maui....

WASHINGTON, DC (July 14, 2011) – The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is investigating fraud and abuse in the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act (FECA) program. Specifically, GAO is looking for information on cases in which federal employees are currently abusing workers compensation benefits. For example, fraud schemes might include a beneficiary working a second job, overstating their workers’ compensation claim, or collecting benefits for a deceased individual. Anyone with information regarding fraud or abuse of the FECA program by federal employees is encouraged to contact us at workerscompfraud@gao.gov. All information about individuals who contact us will be kept confidential.

FYI: Copper thieves are known as "Copperheads", since they are lower than a snake's belly in a wheel rut!

A group of men in Brooklyn apparently decided the fastest way to steal a bike chained to a tree was to cut down the tree. A video on YouTube shows the men early yesterday morning looking at the bike before finally chopping down the tree. One then rides the bike a bit, only to leave it right where the group found it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PcV4LVhSRLg

The Internal Revenue Service said Wednesday that 275,000 organizations have lost their tax-exempt status because they failed to file required annual reports for three straight years. The tax agency said it believed that the vast majority of those groups are no longer in existence, but it said it was setting up procedures to help those companies that sought reinstatement. The IRS posted a list of the organizations on its website: http://www.irs.gov/charities/article/0,,id=240099,00.html

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — There is now a shocking new strategy to fight copper crime. Street lights are now staying on 24-hours a day in one Sacramento neighborhood and the city is banking on live wires to keep criminals away. The city now figures keeping them turned on will save money, by warding off copper thieves; keeping the lights on mean live wires, and the unlucky thief who doesn’t know better could be electrocuted. It’s quite a warning, from a city that’s been hit hard by the copper crime.

LAS VEGAS - Caught on camera, a mob of young people bombarded the City Stop convenience store on Sunset Road and Pecos Road and stole $600 in merchandise. "It became a feeding frenzy," said City Stop owner Jon Athey. "They were in the store for three minutes and 30 seconds… It's a pretty scary thing." Athey says the crowd darted in and snatched numerous items from the store. "Beer to jerky to candy bars to soda, whatever hit their fancy… potato chips," he said. Athey says this tactic is known as a "swarm". After 42 years in the convenience store...

A school safety agent who grabbed a gun from a wounded cop and fired at thieves in Brooklyn will not be charged, authorities said Monday. Eugene Pitts, 50, of Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, is not licensed to carry a gun and has been under law enforcement scrutiny for his role in the dramatic gun battle inside a Bedford-Stuyvesant auto shop on Saturday night. The Brooklyn district attorney's office said Monday that Pitts was in the clear. Some have hailed him as a hero. "I'm grateful for that," Pitts told the Daily News. Pitts was hanging out inside the shop with friends...

True story of a garage owner in the American southwest...Seeking a creative solution to burglars repeatedly breaking into his New Mexico workshop to steal tools and equipment, the frustrated entrepreneur came up with this idea: he put the word out in the 'hood that he had a new 'Mexican Lion' that would attack anyone that would attempt to break-in or hop his fence. Reportedly, would-be thieves saw the custom-clipped shop dog from a distance and fled the scene... Poor guy's probably still trying to figure-out why  his head's so hot and butt's so cold all of a sudden lol ________________________________________________________...

National City, Calif.—A San Diego-area boxing gym that serves at-risk kids is showing what it takes to fight for what is right and to win.  A trial is scheduled to begin on Monday, March 14, 2011, to decide whether National City, Calif., may declare nearly 700 properties—including the gym—“blighted,” thus freeing the city to bulldoze these properties and make way for luxury condos among other private developments.  The trial will be held before the Honorable Steven R. Denton, Superior Court of California, Hall of Justice, 330 W. Broadway in San Diego, Calif. The Community Youth Athletic Center (CYAC) has had...

testimony today including a statement from a former welfare worker who described “overwhelming” levels of fraud by illegal immigrants. Lana Reed, who worked as a bilingual specialist for the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services in Overland Park from 2008 to 2010, urged lawmakers to adopt the bill targeting illegal immigration. She described a system overrun by illegal immigrants who used false Social Security numbers and other fraudulent documents to game the system. “I witnessed overwhelming levels of fraud and corruption resulting in the waste of millions of taxpayer dollars,” Reed told the House Judiciary Committee. “Most of the fraud...

Thieves are bypassing the gas cap and are drilling into the gas tank of cars. (Source: Josh Tolbert) FORT MILL, SC (WBTV) - Police are looking for thieves who are stealing gasoline by drilling holes into gas tanks of parked vehicles. The York County Sheriff's Office says there have been five incidents reported in the Baxter Village and Bailiwyck areas of Fort Mill.

Feb 23 (Reuters) - A $61.5 billion spending-cut bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on Saturday would slow economic growth significantly this year, according to an analysis by the global investment firm Goldman Sachs (GS.N). "Under the House passed spending bill, the drag on GDP growth from federal fiscal policy would increase by 1.5pp (percentage points) to 2pp in Q2 and Q3 compared with current law," according to Alec Phillips, who signed the analysis that is dated Tuesday. Democrats, who want to maintain spending this year at around current levels, seized on the Goldman Sachs analysis. "This nonpartisan...

Arrest made in copper thefts from vacant houses for sale As many as two-dozen homes hit in or near Reynoldsburg Friday, February 11, 2011 09:40 PM By Jim Woods The Columbus Dispatch He would make his move during the early-morning hours, seeking empty houses with "For Sale" signs on the front lawn. After forcing his way inside, he'd head for the basement and tear out as much copper pipe as he could carry. Reynoldsburg police think that thief is Timothy R. Harrington, 30, of 7042 Retton Rd. in Reynoldsburg. They have charged him with one count of breaking and entering,...

The suspect, identified by police as 46-year-old Thomas Justice Freeman III, had been using bolt cutters in an attempt to snip though a live electrical wire in the 2500 block of Double Oaks Road, just off Statesville Avenue. Freeman was pronounced dead at Carolinas Medical Center, where he was taken by two other men also suspected of attempting to steal copper wiring. According to police, the three men met at Freeman’s home Wednesday evening and devised a plan to steal copper wire and split the proceeds after selling it. Freeman used his own 40-foot ladder and climbed about 30 feet...

Mr. Frank's attitude seems to be that Americans need to justify why they should keep the money they inherit instead of the government needing to justify why they should be allowed to confiscate it. Video at link.

DETROIT (WJBK) - The son of Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., says items were stolen out of the government vehicle he was driving last Wednesday in downtown Detroit, FOX 2's Simon Shaykhet reports. John Conyers III, 20, told police two Apple MacBooks, valued at $1,100 apiece, and more than $27,000 worth of concert tickets to the Fillmore were stolen out of a burgundy 2010 Cadillac Escalade registered to the 14th Congressional District.

With thanks to Gates of Vienna. Muslim students at private schools in England are being taught to cut off the hands and feet of thieves – from textbooks that come complete with diagrams of where to make the cuts (photo above). The story published in yesterday’s UK Telegraph reports that the BBC links the schools to the Saudi embassy. Predictably, the Saudis are officially denying any connection to the material. The educational enrichment provided to the kids includes assertions that Jews are planning to take over the world – and of course the regular, standard vanilla Muslim assertions connecting the...

The Democommies stole many of these elections - you can’t tell me Harry Reid won an honest election. Ditto California... Ditto the Northeast/Northwest. The Democommie vote stealing machine funded by George Soros went into high gear and stole at least a dozen elections. BTW, what happened in Alaska? It would appear the GOP ruling class was involved in that one.

Quick rant here, as I need to get home to catch the game.I listened to the entire Rush show today -- I don't do that very often -- and I was beside myself at a) how blatant the antics of the left are to outright steal the election -- it's as if there's not even an attempt to be smooth about it -- and b) how cool Rush was in reporting it. I'd have been ranting.Still, I don't think it's sunk in how dirty the left is. Imagine SEIU "maintaining" voting machines O.M.G.And Rush is brilliant as ever. Really, what...

Thieves have the guts to do the job themselves. Thieves don't masquerade as "liberals". Thieves don't threaten our liberties. Thieves don't comprise a unified mob of millions. Thieves don't have at their service an army of thugs to do their dirty work. Thieves don't undermine the Constitution. Thieves don't seek to control our behavior via "political correctness" and "hate" crimes. Thieves don't own/control the "establishment" media. Thieves don't indoctrinate our children to be unquestioning drones of the state. Thieves can be arrested.

Greater profitability realization through increases in Productivity ONLY has a net positive effect upon the Society if the profits realized through productivity gains are equally distributed to all Persons making those gains. In ALL cases otherwise the Productive are merely being robbed of their increased input and there is NO Societal value being transmitted for the increased productive efforts. Unless higher productivity is rewarded there are in fact Negative Societal consequences that will eventually become realized. When the productive Class concludes that there is NO amount of enhanced productivity that will result in a higher standard of living it will...

If this dopey quote had come out of Dubya’s mouth, tell me it wouldn’t already be a slogan emblazoned on a t-shirt at Zazzle underneath a Bush/chimp photo comparison: As the president walked around the restaurant, some cordoned-off reporters shouted out to him questions, including one about the war in Iraq. But the president was in no mood today to discuss the issue with reporters in that setting. He ignored questions for a bit, then turned to the reporters. “We’re buying shrimp, guys,” he said, smiling. “Come on.”

Per Foxnews, a local affiliate is reporting Rangel has struck a deal. FNC is working to confirm...

Bell CA: Three administrators whose huge salaries sparked outrage in this small blue-collar suburb of Los Angeles have agreed to resign, the City Council said Friday. Council members emerged from an hours-long closed session at midnight Friday and announced that they'd accepted the resignations of Chief Administrative Officer Robert Rizzo, Assistant City Manager Angela Spaccia and Police Chief Randy Adams. Rizzo was the highest paid at $787,637 a year -- nearly twice the pay of President Barack Obama -- for overseeing one of the poorest towns in Los Angeles County. Spaccia makes $376,288 a year and Adams earns $457,000, 50...

When her church's pantry received a donation of 16,000 pounds of food in May from a postal food drive, pastor Angela Hood saw it as a blessing. But when she checked the supply earlier this week, it was as if she had been cursed. "Almost all of our crates and our boxes were completely empty,'' said Hood, near tears. "I just kept thinking where is the food, what happened? I cried. I was so angry.'' Every Tuesday and Thursday, the volunteers at the pantry at New Life Worship Center Ministries handed out canned food, cereal and vegetables to as many...

WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. - Admitted thieves are going free, while an elderly Wheat Ridge man is facing the possibility of spending the rest of his life behind bars, all, he says, for trying to defend his property and his life. 82-year-old Robert Wallace said in February that he looked out his window and saw two men hooking his flatbed trailer up to their pickup. He yelled at them to stop, but they sped away, stealing his trailer. He told police he fired two shots at the pickup. Minutes later, police say 32-year-old Damacio Torres dropped 28-year-old Alvaro Cardona off at...