Free Republic

There's one born every minute.The latest delay to ObamaCare - is it the 29th? the 30th? I can't keep track anymore - should leave no doubt in anyone's mind that this ill-conceived law is a complete and utter disaster. I don't think there is anyone left outside the partisan Democrat world (and the mainstream media, which is just another way of saying the same thing) who fails to sense that at this point. But it's one thing to sense something. It's another to be able to quantify it. To demonstrate factually what a scam ObamaCare is, there are six specific...

ObamaCare has delivered another sucker punch to the middle class. This time it's sticker shock. Now that most people can get past the tech problems of HealthCare.gov and actually see the real cost of insurance plans available, they are finding that Affordable Care is a big hit to the family budget. And when the family budget gets hit in the solar plexus, guess what happens to consumer spending and the economy?

Bank of America has agreed to pay Freddie Mac $404 million in a mortgage settlement over 716,000 loans, many purchased from Countrywide. This is one of many lawsuits by the Federal government over Countrywide and related mortgages. One wonders when the litigation will end. Here is the thing. These suits are largely about representations and warranties between the loan seller and the loan purchaser concerning underwriting standards. The reps and warranties provide relief to the loan purchaser if the underwriting of the loans by the loan seller proves to be misleading or false. But there is another issue called causality....

Liz Trotta on the Obama Scandals -- 5-19-2013

If you want to see where a little bit of your $833 billion stimulus went, head south from St. Louis on Interstate 44 until you reach the Mark Twain National Forest. On March 13, 2009, less than a month after President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) into law, the federal government awarded $462,912.30 to a Spokane, Washington, construction firm called CXT Incorporated to build and install 22 “precast concrete toilets” in the park. These bunker-style commodes did not add to the number of bathrooms in the forest; they replaced existing toilets that didn’t meet Forest Service...

If it's really true that "children learn what they live," then the First Daughters are learning how to be highbrow aristocrats whose extravagances are enjoyed without embarrassment, in full view and at the expense of the suffering. That's right, "the suffering," because notwithstanding the onslaught of Obamaganda, most people in America today, thanks to Sasha and Malia's Dad, are suffering in one way or another. Meanwhile, when it comes to showering themselves with the perks of the good life, the Obamas exercise zero restraint. In fact, three months into the second term, they're actually outdoing themselves. Not only that, but...

A new and extensive analysis of 2.4 million loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration in recent years shows a pattern of risky lending that could generate $20 billion in losses and harm thousands of the nation’s most vulnerable borrowers. By ignoring risks in loans it insured in 2009 and 2010, the study concludes, the F.H.A. is imperiling both borrowers and taxpayers who stand behind the agency. The analysis emerged less than a month after the F.H.A.’s auditor submitted a troubling report on the financial soundness of its insurance fund. In mid-November, the auditor estimated that the fund, which backs...

President Barack Obama was a pioneering contributor to the national subprime real estate bubble, and roughly half of the 186 African-American clients in his landmark 1995 mortgage discrimination lawsuit against Citibank have since gone bankrupt or received foreclosure notices. As few as 19 of those 186 clients still own homes with clean credit ratings, following a decade in which Obama and other progressives pushed banks to provide mortgages to poor African Americans. The startling failure rate among Obama’s private sector clients was discovered during The Daily Caller’s review of previously unpublished court information from the lawsuit that a young Obama...

President Barack Obama was a pioneering contributor to the national subprime real estate bubble, and roughly half of the 186 African-American clients in his landmark 1995 mortgage discrimination lawsuit against Citibank have since gone bankrupt or received foreclosure notices. As few as 19 of those 186 clients still own homes with clean credit ratings, following a decade in which Obama and other progressives pushed banks to provide mortgages to poor African Americans. The startling failure rate among Obama’s private sector clients was discovered during The Daily Caller’s review of previously unpublished court information from the lawsuit that a young Obama...

Liz Cheney has been making the rounds at Wyoming political events this spring and her desire to move back to the state has Republicans from Cheyenne to Washington buzzing about a potential future campaign. With little fanfare, Cheney, a former State Department official and the eldest daughter of the former vice president, has spoken at six events in different corners of the sprawling state this year. She has been especially busy on the GOP dinner circuit. Cheney has already hit four county Lincoln Day Dinners and keynoted the dinner following the Wyoming GOP convention last month. She also accompanied and...

So much for hope and change. With the economy growing worse and worse, the grand promises of Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign have faded as the reality of malaise takes hold. Mr. Obama has vowed to spend $1 billion in advertising dollars to counteract the effect his policies have had on the nation. The GOP’s campaign chief met with The Washington Times on Friday to discuss why that’s not going to work. “I think this [election] is a referendum on Barack Obama,” said Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus. “The people in this country are going to ask themselves a...

“Reckless Endangerment” a scalding new book ....... is another cautionary tale about government’s terrifying self-confidence.........."a story of what happens when Washington decides, in its infinite wisdom, that every living, breathing citizen should own a home.” The 1977 Community Reinvestment Act pressured banks to relax lending standards......... In 1994, Bill Clinton proposed increasing homeownership through a “partnership” between government and the private sector, principally orchestrated by Fannie Mae. Fannie Mae’s political machine dispensed campaign contributions, gave jobs to friends and relatives of legislators, hired armies of lobbyists (even paying lobbyists not to lobby against it), paid academics who wrote papers validating...

Cheney, daughter of former vice president Dick Cheney, said the remark "suggests an alarming fatalism on the part of President Obama and his administration." Here's the full statement: "Americans expect our President to do everything possible to defend the nation from attack. We expect him to use every tool at his disposal to find, defeat, capture and kill terrorists. We expect him to deter attacks by making clear to our adversaries that an attack on the United States will carry devastating consequences. Instead, President Obama is reported to have said, 'We can absorb a terrorist attack.' This comment suggests an...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Liz Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, has opened a conference of Southern Republicans by calling President Obama's health care campaign an arrogant power play. The first speaker at the three-day Southern Republican Leadership Conference, Cheney accused Obama of peddling "phony numbers" to get his health care bill passed by Congress. She predicted Republicans will repeal the bill.

Rather than give the troops the reinforcements they need, Obama instead uses the dead for a photo op! What an ASS! Obama's one and only trip to the Dover Delaware Air Force Base which is the gateway for the bodies of all the nation's war dead was a photo op that almost didn't happen. 17 out of the 18 families refused their permission for the news media to cover this event. Instead of a row of coffins coming back from Afghanistan, Obama got to use only one as a prop. Readers may recall that President Bush met privately on numerous...

NASHVILLE — Liz Cheney looks nothing like her father, but it is clear who he is. She was introduced as “our favorite vice president’s daughter” at a recent gathering of conservative women here. She kept invoking him in her speech, conveying his best regards, and likes to share cute stories about Dad trying to master his new BlackBerry.

Among more than 100 local projects for which U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott recently sought funding earmarks in the coming federal budget are a new cancer-research program, municipal road projects and a law-enforcement initiative to combat gang violence. Also included on the Seattle Democrat's 2010 appropriations wish list is a relatively modest — but curious — appeal: A $250,000 request to fund a "window repair and limestone sill replacement" at The Rainier Club — one of Seattle's premier private clubs, whose members include some of the city's most well-heeled and politically connected residents. McDermott's request on behalf of The Rainier Club...

Two fine, fine liberal ladies show us their stuff to the innocent who mistakenly call them…LIZ or MA'AM. Nasty names them. In this THOUGHTS post we have the whole story of Elizabeth who shall destroy those who call her Liz and Barbara Boxer must NOT be called Ma'am. Plus a letter that sums up the tea parties and the feelings of us peons across the fruited plains. Good Guys of the Week, Bad Buys of the Week, Quips of the Week and it all Ends With a Smile.

The e-mail chain between Elizabeth (Don't call me Liz!) Becton, a staffer for Rep. Jim McDermott, (D-Wash.), and a Democratic lobbyist who is a friend of a friend of mine has been forwarded around Washington all week because it perfectly encapsulates the frustration of lobbyists in both parties in dealing with some of the more arrogant Democrats on Capitol Hill. The e-mail exchange started with a seemingly innocuous request by the lobbyist to set up a meeting with her client, JPMorgan Chase, and McDermott (I've taken out the identifying names and phone numbers only): Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2009 5:05...

Washington, D.C., political insiders were treated Wednesday morning to an unforgettable exchange of 19 e-mails. The players: an aide at McBee Strategic, a major lobbying firm, and one Elizabeth Becton, scheduling secretary to Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash. The aide's sin: He sent an e-mail addressed to Becton as "Liz." The episode is not without precedent. Ex-Sen. Elizabeth Dole is renowned for turning icy when anybody uses the nickname "Liddy." Elizabeth Taylor once erupted when fifth husband Sen. John Warner began an admonition with the words "Now Liz . . ." "Don't you Liz me," Taylor shot back, sticking a finger...