Free Republic

The Political Gap That Divides Generations Susan Fikse, Issue Number 24, July 2009 Kim is a 25-year-old Christian, a nurse who graduated from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich. She voted for President Bush in 2004 and characterizes herself as pro-life. With just that information, it would be easy to categorize Kim as a conservative Republican. But in November, she cast her vote for Barack Obama. She was not alone.Survey data shows that while fewer than a quarter of white evangelicals between 30 and 64 supported Obama, that number increased to a third for white evangelicals under 30. Kim’s reasons for...

This week, with his pronouncement that “credit is the lifeblood of a healthy economy,” President Obama reiterated what has been one of his most common themes in diagnosing our economic problem. The president has relied on this bedrock belief to propose policies that place the restoration of credit as the highest priority. However, despite his seemingly earnest intentions, the president and his economic advisors have misdiagnosed the ailment. Savings, not credit, is the lifeblood of a healthy economy. When not used properly credit can be like a cancer that sickens an otherwise healthy economy. What everyone seems to have forgotten...

BY MARK MAREMONT In the latest effort to prop up a sector of the finance industry, federal regulators on Wednesday guaranteed $80 billion in uninsured deposits at the powerful institutions that service the nation's credit unions -- a maneuver that shows how the economic crisis continues to ripple across the U.S. Regulators also injected $1 billion of new capital into the largest of these wholesale credit unions, U.S. Central Federal Credit Union of Lenexa, Kan., after the firm on Wednesday posted an unexpected $1.1 billion loss for 2008. U.S. Central serves essentially as a main clearinghouse for the others in...

http://gethuman.com/ gethuman database See also get2human.com from Walt Tetschner. (info) credit finance government hardware insurance internet mobile pharmacy products shipping software stores telco travel tv/satellite us automotive back to top contact get human customer service AAA 800‑222‑4357 Press 0 at each prompt, ignoring messages. Alamo 800‑462‑5266 Direct to human. Allstate Motor Club $ 800‑869‑7997 Direct to human. Auto Zone $ 800‑288‑6966 Press 1; at prompt press 2; at prompt press 0. Avis $ 800‑230‑4898 Press 2. BMW 800‑831‑1117 Say "customer relations" and then press 1 for "vehicle" or 2 for "motorcycle." Budget Rent a Car $ 800‑527‑0700 Press 0. Buick $  @...

[C]onsumer credit became so pervasive that paying cash became passé. Want a new $32,530 Dodge Ram Crew pickup? Take a lease. Sick of your old house? Get a 100 percent mortgage and trade up. Face lift? Round-the-world cruise? New PC? Three-hundred dollar sushi dinner at Nobu? Whip out that plastic. It was this behavior—the endless willingness of lenders to lend and borrowers to borrow—that kept the consumer economy humming uninterrupted from the early 1990s, straight through the brief recession of 2001, until the credit meltdown of 2007. But many of the lenders who extended credit recklessly are now acting like...

SAN DIEGO— From the dusty Mexican border to the redwoods of the north, from broiling eastern deserts to the cool Pacific coast, on June 25, the prayers of more than a thousand pastors covered California like a quilt. The locus: Skyline Wesleyan Church in San Diego County. There, nearly 300 people, most of them pastors, gathered to pray, repent, and strategize for November, when Californians will vote on a constitutional amendment affirming the historical definition of marriage. While Skyline organized the event, satellite technology provided live video feeds to 1,300 more people—again, mostly pastors—gathered at 101 other churches up and...

There is definitely a shift from cash to credit cards worldwide, just as there was a shift from renting to home ownership based on the wide availability of mortgages, but is only a matter of time before this comes to a screeching halt. Visa (V) and MasterCard (MA) get paid a fee which is equal to a percentage of each transaction, and have no credit risk. Mortgage brokers have no direct credit risk either and they get an upfront fee when the transaction closes. If a borrower defaults, mortgage brokers do not lose a penny. The losers are those who...

The Republican nominating contest for President of the United States is all but sewn up -- Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee are footnotes and with 256 GOP delegates at stake today, John McCain may have enough pledged delegates to officially be his party's nominee by morning. The Democratic contest, however, is still close and all-important primaries today in Texas and Ohio (and important-but-less-so elections in Vermont and my own home state of Rhode Island) could decide the fate of that party's nominee. Yesterday I had a chance to talk with Isaac Garcia, CEO of Central Desktop, whose software is being...

Pop quiz: What exactly is the problem with credit cards? 1. The aggressive, misleading marketing: "You are pre-approved" letters for your dog. 2. The fine print: Fees, penalties, and high interest rates. 3. It's the debt, stupid!: Credit cards let you buy stuff you can't afford with money you don't have. They make you poorer in the long run, plain and simple. Personally, I choose 4. All of the above. Debt, Good and (Mostly) Bad I have a massive distrust of my credit cards. One I barely touch and keep only for emergencies, and the other I pay off every...

In my column last week, I argued for electoral pragmatism by my fellow conservatives e.g., better a Giuliani Republican than Hillary. About two-thirds of my self-identified conservative Christian e-mail respondents strongly disagreed. That response reminded me of a very shrewd observation made several years ago by Robert William Fogel: "Coalitions spawned by religious movements are more ideological than partisan." ... Elections are very specific and limited choices between different outcomes. The decision not to vote or vote for a third-party candidate with no hope of winning is itself a moral choice for the outcome such a vote will effectuate. People...

Imagine you own a small business—let’s say a donut shop—and you have an employee who is late for work everyday and is rude to customers. When you fire him, he claims it is really because he is gay—and sues. Or imagine you run a daycare center in your church basement. One day a homosexual applies for a job. When you turn him down, he says you broke the law. Today, both of these stories are simply scenarios. But by the end of the week, they could be reality. Under intense goading from the gay-rights lobby, the House of Representatives is...

Andrew Rasiej and Micah Sifry of Personal Democracy Forum tell us (once again) that Democrats are superior to Republican online. (Oh, by the way, the sun rose in the east today.) Their piece appears in Politico and quotes extensively from a Patrick Ruffini blog post that I linked last week. Here’s an excerpt from Rasiej and Sifry’s op-ed: What all this means is it’s highly unlikely Republicans are going to turn the tide online – not until they wean themselves off their top-down habits and start using the Web more to foster community and collaboration. Right now, we don’t see...

Americans are in love with their credit cards. So you'd think they'd try to get to know them a little better. But many consumers are clueless about the most basic aspects of their plastic, according to a new survey by GfK Roper on behalf of CreditCards.com, an online credit card marketplace. Credit, Sex, and DenialFor example, nearly three-quarters of cardholders surveyed don't bother to read the terms and conditions of their cards. "People did seem to know the interest rate, but beyond that they just seemed ambivalent," says Jody Farmer, vice president of marketing for CreditCards.com. In addition, more than...

Wal-Mart failed to get approval for a bank. But the giant discount chain is effectively building one anyway. Wal-Mart said yesterday that it would rapidly expand the financial services offered in its vast network of stores, extending the reach of its retailing empire into its shoppers’ wallets and the traditional turf of the American banking industry. Over the next year, the company plans to introduce a prepaid debit card, intended for low-income consumers, and install money centers — which currently offer check cashing, bill paying and money order services — into at least 1,000 stores, up from 225 now.

We’ve still got a year and a half to go until the 2008 presidential election—and the mudslinging and dirty tricks have been going full blast for months: Publicity over John Edwards’ $400 haircuts. Gossip about Rudy Giuliani’s multiple marriages. Internet ads that make Hillary Clinton look demonic. As someone who was once known for political dirty tricks, I know, better than most, how ugly politics can get. Does this mean Christians ought to avoid the cutthroat business of politics? The answer: an emphatic “no”! First, as I write in my new book, God & Government, Christians have the same civic...

This is absolutely the best political action site I have ever seen—ever: http://www.numbersusa.com   First, they make it very simple to contact your representatives in government. Based on where you live, they give phone numbers, action items, what to say to your particular representatives. They have prepared faxes to send, that they will send for you for free. They make political action almost fun and make every other political action group seem annoying. Check it out: http://www.numbersusa.com/actionbuffet   Second, they have best collection of resources and arguments on the issue. Even online videos: http://www.numbersusa.com/about/tvandvideo.html I like this presentation especially:...

The list, which was published last week by Religion News Service (RNS), hopes to show the strong influence that religion has had on the “Grand Old Party” over the past years, and how these leaders’ voices may solidify a candidate’s run towards the presidency.“When Focus on the Family founder James Dobson can raise doubts by questioning whether Fred Thompson is a ‘Christian,’ or prays the nation doesn’t get ‘stuck’ with a President John McCain, that really reflects the power religious conservatives have to shape the GOP run for the White House,” said Kevin Eckstrom, editor of RNS, in a statement....

SECOND LIFE, Virtual World (AP) - To find volunteer Redaktisto Noble, you have to go to John Edwards presidential campaign headquarters. Not in Iowa or New Hampshire, but in cyberspace. There, Noble can lead visitors along a boardwalk lined with billboards describing campaign issues such as Iraq and health care. On the way out, visitors can pick up free "Edwards for President" T-shirts that their animated alter-egos can wear. It's old-fashioned campaign work in a new setting. Noble works at Edwards' virtual campaign headquarters in the animated online world called Second Life that counts more than 5 million members -...

Retailers, bankers and credit card companies will square off on Tennessee's Capitol Hill next week over interchange fees. Interchange fees are the charges merchants pay when customers use a credit or debit card. Retailers say the fees are rising and they want lawmakers to cap them. They requested the hearing that will be held Tuesday at 1:15 p.m. before the Senate Commerce Committee on the Legislative Plaza. Bankers say the fees are the cost of doing business and benefit retailers. "They are shifting the payment risk and collection cost to somebody else," said Tim Amos, senior vice president and general...

The Democrats’ smashing success in first-quarter fundraising doubtless dampened the morale of Republican political strategists hoping for a 2008 comeback. But the number that should cause the most alarm in GOP circles is the more than $15 million that Democrat candidates brought in via the Internet. Republicans weren’t even close to matching the Democrats’ online donations. Just how far off the pace are they? So far that the top three GOP presidential campaigns declined to release their online fundraising totals when I asked. This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, given the GOP’s pathetic attempt to raise money online...