Free Republic

This could well be the most outrageous insult yet to the free market economy: In what may be the strongest signal yet of the new pro-labor orientation of the National Labor Relations Board under President Obama, the agency filed a complaint Wednesday seeking to force Boeing to bring an airplane production line back to its unionized facilities in Washington State instead of moving the work to a nonunion plant in South Carolina. Do I need to explain how many kinds of wrong this is? Not only is the federal government saying to Boeing that it gets to decide where it...

AUSTIN, Texas -- Molly Ivins once described the Texas Legislature as the best form of free entertainment in a city that bills itself as the live music capital of the world. From quips about shrinking government to the point where you can fit it in a uterus, to an amendment to a budget bill that would have require 10 percent courses offered by universities to focus on Western Civilization, the Texas Legislature has managed to live up to that billing once again this session. Adding to the theater over the past couple of days: A visit from a delegation of...

President Barack Obama held a town hall meeting Wednesday at a wind turbine manufacturing plant in Fairless Hills, Penn., to promote his energy agenda. Not everyone in the audience was receptive to his message. When one man failed to clap as Obama talked about government forcing higher fuel efficiency standards (which, contrary to the president, did not reduce U.S. oil imports a single drop), Obama teased him: "If you’re complaining about the price of gas and you’re only getting eight miles a gallon — [laughter] — you may have a big family. ... How many you have? Ten kids, you...

I’ve started more than a dozen small businesses. I’ve paid payrolls, health insurance, payroll taxes, workers comp, and unemployment insurance for hundreds of employees. Because of that, my employees were able to pay their mortgages, buy groceries, send their kids to college, and provide for their families. For one small business, I spent about $50 million on things like advertising, marketing, promotion, lawyers and accountants. That money enriched and employed thousands of others. And that’s just one small business. Think of the impact that thirty million small business owners have on the U.S. economy. No wonder we create 70% or...

. . . . .NOTE:  This post will be constantly updated with more details throughout the Glenn Beck radio program.  Glenn has announced that copies of this have been delivered to JP Morgan Chase, the FBI, and the Justice Department.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvlvejSxBVQ&feature=player_embedded] "Steven Lerner, reported to have visited the White House on at least four separate occasions, formerly of SEIU and the architect of the SEIU's groundbreaking Justice for Janitors campaign.  He led the union's banking and finance campaign and has partnered with unions and groups in Europe, South American and elsewhere in campaigns to hold financial institutions accountable. As director of...

FULL Title - Former SEIU Official Reveals Secret Plan To Destroy JP Morgan, Crash The Stock Market, And Redistribute Wealth In America A former official of one of the country's most-powerful unions, SEIU, is detailing a secret plan to "destabilize" the country. Specifically, the plan seeks to destroy JP Morgan, nuke the stock market, and weaken Wall Street's grip on power, thus creating the conditions necessary for a redistribution of wealth and a change in government. The former SEIU official, Stephen Lerner, spoke in a closed session at a Pace University forum last weekend.

The Doofus Defense is under attack. As longtime readers know, I coined that term leading up to the trial of Enron executives Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling, who, facing criminal charges, suddenly claimed to be woefully ignorant of their company's actions. In the recent financial crisis, bank executives were among the biggest doofuses (doofi?). Most insisted they couldn't have seen the crisis coming. No one could. It was — cue the Wall Street cliché machine - "the perfect storm." Consider, for example, Lehman Brothers, whose bankruptcy precipitated the Great Recession in September 2008. Lehman's CEO, Dick Fuld, had one reported...

Hacker group Anonymous (aka OperationLeaks on Twitter) just released what they say is a trove of damning documents on Bank of America.You can find them here: bankofamericasuck.comRemember, at this point, we can't verify whether they are legitimate or not, but Gawker's Adrien Chen, who has sources within Anonymous, suggest there's something real to the leaks.Anonymous says the emails deal with BofA's mortgage practices, but the source is not an employee of Bank of America proper -- the source is a former employee from Balboa Insurance, a firm which used to be owned by BofA. Click here to see what Bank...

Hacker group Anonymous (aka OperationLeaks on Twitter) just released what they say is a trove of damning documents on Bank of America. You can find them here: bankofamericasuck.com

Is Amazon.com getting nervous? How else to explain its intemperate letter threatening to put more than 10,000 Californians out of work should the state even think about enforcing the collection of unpaid sales taxes on Amazon and other Internet retailers? "I'm not surprised by what Amazon's done," said Board of Equalization Chairwoman Betty Yee. "I think it's their way of getting California to back off." Support has been growing for legislation, backed by Yee, that would clear the way to collect an estimated $1.145 billion in unpaid taxes that out-of-state online merchants such as Amazon, and catalog houses such L.L....

What could compel a trio of Senate Democrats as well as environmental and business leaders to come together and start combing through 28,000 pages of state regulations? "We want to talk about Section one-oh-one-oh-hundred-point-one here today," Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said as he scanned one of dozens of binders stacked next to a podium at a morning press conference. Really? "No, not really," he said, laughing. The actual occasion? Legislation the sponsors say will create a better business environment by shedding unnecessary regulations from the books. Senate Bill 366, co-authored by Democratic Sens. Ron Calderon and Fran Pavley...

On May 5, 2010, Robin Dalrymple walked excitedly into Berkeley’s Planning Department to apply for a use permit. She wanted to convert the vacant Ritz Camera store on Solano Avenue into an ice cream parlor. Eight months later, her store is still not open. Veronica Bradley signed a lease in April 2010 to transform what had been Left Coast Cyclery on Domingo Avenue into a store selling olive oil from around the world. After working with five city departments — building and safety, health, zoning, public works and engineering, and fire prevention –she finally got a permit in November. The...

Notwithstanding Obama’s lack of constitutional eligibility for the office he occupies as a direct result of his father’s citizenship, Obama can’t even prove he is an American. In fact the only thing we can confirm about Obama is that he is a foreigner–foreign to America, foreign to the english language, and ignorant of our history. At this late date, after millions of dollars spent, people mysteriously dying, and the jailing of a decorated Army officer–all of whom questioned Obama’s legality–any so called ‘birth certificate’ produced now is nothing more than suspect, and it is more than likely another faked document…a...

On the third Wednesday of every month, the nine members of an elite Wall Street society gather in Midtown Manhattan. The men share a common goal: to protect the interests of big banks in the vast market for derivatives, one of the most profitable — and controversial — fields in finance. They also share a common secret: The details of their meetings, even their identities, have been strictly confidential. Drawn from giants like JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the bankers form a powerful committee that helps oversee trading in derivatives, instruments which, like insurance, are used to hedge...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's veto stamp killed the bill twice in the last two years, and the business community cheered. But last Monday it returned – a measure that would keep employers from looking into consumer credit reports as part of their hiring process. This time, much to the consternation of business leaders, Assembly Bill 22 might become law. "The general tenor of this office is that this bill has a better shot with Jerry Brown," said Haley Myers, legislative aide to the bill's author, Assemblyman Tony Mendoza, D-Artesia. Her assessment distills a worst-case scenario for California business interests that could...

No sooner did Attorney General-elect Kamala Harris declare victory than the stargazers of the political universe begin speculating where she will end up in California's Democratic constellation. Right in the center, was the short answer."She is going to have an incredibly long reach," said former state party Chairman Art Torres. "Her office will be in the forefront of everything from civil rights to the environment to consumer issues."She will certainly have no problem making national impact," Torres said.Judging by her victory speech Tuesday, Harris is already thinking big.Her bipartisan transition team features no fewer than two former U.S. secretaries of...

San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris claimed victory in the hard fought race for state attorney general today, the deadline for counties to finish counting votes. "We did it," said the Democrat, who will be the state's first female, first African-American and first Indian-American attorney general when she is sworn in next month. Speaking in front of a room full of supporters in Los Angeles, Harris listed tackling mortgage fraud, the state's 70 percent recidivism rate, environmental issues and civil rights as some of her priorities.

Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin filed for bankruptcy shortly before she was elected to the City Council and sought to avoid paying $119,000 in credit card bills and student loans, arguing in court documents that she suffered serious psychiatric disabilities and could not hold a full-time job. The Richmond police and firefighters' unions, who oppose the 58-year-old mayor's re-election bid, unveiled a mailer, 30-second television ad and website Tuesday that contained these potentially damaging personal details. The unions, among other labor groups, have vowed to oust the one-term mayor, largely due to her opposition to the proposed Indian casino at Point...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency comes as close to George Orwell’s version of Big Brother as any element of the federal government. It operates on a totally irrational basis, ignoring anything that even passes for real science. Through its regulatory power imposes insane mandates that drive up the cost of everything and is trying to drive major elements of energy provision out of business. What, for example, is the EPA doing offering “tips to protect eyes, skin from the Sun’s harmful rays”? Does the EPA sell sunscreen products? ...Charged with keeping the U.S. waters clean, why has the EPA launched...

The latest poll by Democracy Corps, the firm of James Carville and Stan Greenberg, has Republicans leading on the generic ballot among likely voters, 48 percent to 42 percent. Deep in the poll, they ask, “Now, I am going to read you a list of words and phrases which people use to describe political figures. For each word or phrase, please tell me whether it describes Barack Obama very well, well, not too well, or not well at all.” On “too liberal,” 35 percent of likely voters say it describes Obama “very well,” 21 percent say “well,” 21 percent say...