Free Republic

The Obama re-election campaign has revealed the names who utilised their star power and/or financially endowed friends to shell out cash for his quest to stay in the White House. Included were 61 people who each raised at least half a million dollars. The donations are not based on individual donations, but how much friends of the Obama campaign was able to bring in based on the contributions of their pals and colleagues, a process known as 'bundling'.

In the Washington Times, Charles Hurt writes, “Both Mr. Kerry and Mr. Romney look like they should be cast as president in a made-for-TV movie. But in reality, both are hopelessly out of touch, calculating wax figurines. They both even speak French! In the end, Mitt Romney is John Kerry without the war medals.” Oh, come on, that’s not true. For starters, Kerry doesn’t have his war decorations anymore, since he threw them away. But I know John Kerry. John Kerry’s a blog target of mine. And Mitt Romney is no John Kerry. David Harmer is a California lawyer who...

Read more: http://www.gazette.com/articles/jackson-130783-police-officers.html#ixzz1hkULafXb

A Kings County sheriff's deputy is under arrest for embezzlement after fellow officers set up a sting and caught him stealing $500 from what appeared to be a stash of drug money. Patrol deputy Nick Simpson, 33, a five-year veteran of the department, was arrested Friday, one day after he had been dispatched to a bait car with a hidden video camera, Sheriff Dave Robinson said Monday. What Simpson didn't know was that the car in rural northwest Kings County had been planted with 1 ounce of methamphetamine and $1,760 in cash.

UPPER SAINT CLAIR, Pa. -- Money blew out of an armored vehicle transporting cash in Upper Saint Clair on Wednesday. Investigators said the money was being shipped to the West View Savings Bank when a door on the truck somehow opened. Drivers of a Fidelity Courier Services van said they were alerted by a passing motorist that bags of money were falling from the rear door of the vehicle as it travelled southbound on Route 19. Investigators said some of the cash was recovered by couriers who returned to the scene, but plastic bags containing "well into six figures" worth...

If raising cash is the first presidential primary, the latest round of campaign filings contains early warning signs for Barack Obama in key states that were crucial to his election in 2008. Though he’s raised almost three times as much as Mitt Romney—the former governor of Massachusetts has brought in $32 million—the president is trailing his GOP rival in a handful of battleground states. In both Florida and Nevada, Romney nearly doubled the president’s haul, despite a crowded field of Republican candidates who are also vacuuming up donations. And Romney, of course, doesn’t enjoy the power of incumbency.

The political geniuses in Louisiana have decided they hate poor people so much, they passed House Bill 195—near unanimously! (One nay in the senate.) It bans cash on all second-hand transactions. Now, when a good Louisianian holds a garage sale after a bout of spring cleaning, if they accept cash for their old vinyl collection, they’ve broken the law. Swap meets. Church bazaar sales. Antique stores. Buying used skis off Craigslist. You can’t use cash in the Pelican State. Their stated reasoning is to prevent the sale of stolen goods—their view is cash transactions make it easy for criminals to...

Cold hard cash. It's good everywhere you go, right? You can use it to pay for anything. But that's not the case here in Louisiana now. It's a law that was passed during this year's busy legislative session. House bill 195 basically says those who buy and sell second hand goods cannot use cash to make those transactions, and it flew so far under the radar most businesses don't even know about it. "We're gonna lose a lot of business," says Danny Guidry, who owns the Pioneer Trading Post in Lafayette. He deals in buying and selling unique second hand...

Cold hard cash. It's good everywhere you go, right? You can use it to pay for anything. But that's not the case here in Louisiana now. It's a law that was passed during this year's busy legislative session. House bill 195 basically says those who buy and sell second hand goods cannot use cash to make those transactions, and it flew so far under the radar most businesses don't even know about it. "We're gonna lose a lot of business," says Danny Guidry, who owns the Pioneer Trading Post in Lafayette. He deals in buying and selling unique second hand...

Five foreign men were arrested during a courthouse break-in early on Wednesday and police said they found photographs of public buildings, water systems and malls from various U.S. cities in their van. The men, at least three of whom were in their 20s, will be questioned by a joint terrorism task force including the FBI and immigration authorities, officials said. Bexar County spokeswoman Laura Jesse said three men were found inside the 120-year-old Bexar County Courthouse, a landmark in downtown San Antonio and two in a large recreational vehicle parked in front of the building. She said all five were...

Cold hard cash. It's good everywhere you go, right? You can use it to pay for anything. But that's not the case here in Louisiana now. It's a law that was passed during this year's busy legislative session. House bill 195 basically says those who buy and sell second hand goods cannot use cash to make those transactions, and it flew so far under the radar most businesses don't even know about it.

Anti-Wall Street protests are growing in number across the country and around the globe, but their political impact remains unclear and will likely depend upon their staying power. At a minimum, the protests have become a channel for public anger over rising economic inequality and Washington's ineffectiveness. "They are a pretty good thermometer for the level of discontent in the country," said John Green, director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron. "But the connection between Republicans and Wall Street and the banks will surely be an election issue next year." Romney used...

I thought this was pretty comical...

Reporting from Washington and Sacramento— A suspected embezzlement scheme that has ensnared hundreds of campaign accounts of Democrats has sent candidates scrambling for new cash as they prepare for an election season that could reshape California's political landscape. Just when they need to start hiring staff and commissioning polls, many candidates have no idea how much might have been taken from them or how much they have left, and they cannot find out: As many as 400 political accounts have been frozen by the banks holding the funds since the Sept. 2 arrest of treasurer Kinde Durkee. This January 2008...

Economy: Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is reaching back 50 years for a "trick" to get the economy moving, but it won't work. Our problem today isn't monetary policy. It's government meddling. The idea is simple: The Fed holds $1.7 trillion in Treasury debt. It wants to "rebalance" that by selling short-term debt and replacing it with long-term Treasuries. In theory, that would cut long-term interest rates, boosting investment in both housing and business. Sounds good, but we've tried it before, in 1961. The strategy — dubbed "Operation Twist" — was supposed to keep rates low and give the economy a...

The Left’s working motto consistently turns out to be “do as I say, not as I do.”  How else could they possibly make bold pronouncements to the media but live the exact opposite? The day before his declaration of war on the Tea Party movement, Teamsters President James Hoffa appeared on CNN and deemed American companies as “unpatriotic,” according to the Political Ticker. “I think the president should challenge the patriotism of these American corporations that are sitting on the sidelines,” Hoffa said. “The problem in America isn’t that we don’t have enough money. We’ve got more money than any...

No! Next question. But really, are we okay with this? An actual newspaper (the Austin Chronicle) is running this full-page ad next week? This seems like an awful lot of money to spend on an ad likely to result in a large number of people saying, “No!” emphatically and continuing with their days, but then again, perhaps this lack of acumen is why I am not the president of CASH. And I’m not sure why he chose the “Star Wars” font. Nothing says effective ad-making like “an ad (hominem) hoping to find someone who has had sex with Rick Perry,...

An Austin Ron Paul supporter has taken out a full-page ad in the local alt weekly newspaper seeking any "stripper ... escort ... or 'young hottie'" who has slept with Rick Perry, part of his single-minded jihad against the presidential candidate. Robert Morrow describes himself as a "self-employed investor and political activist" as well as a three-time delegate to the Texas state GOP convention. "Have you ever had sex with Rick Perry?" blares the ad, placed by Morrow in this week's Austin Chronicle. "Are you a stripper, an escort, or just a 'young hottie' impressed by an arrogant, entitled governor...

Ron Paul Supporter Takes Out Full-Page Ad In Texas Paper A full-page newspaper ad by a supporter of Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul is raising eyebrows, asking, "Have you ever had sex with Rick Perry?" Robert Morrow placed the ad in the Austin Chronicle alt-newsweekly less than one week after the Texas governor threw his hat in the ring for the presidency, Salon.com reported.

A Ron Paul supporter in Texas has taken out a full-page ad in a local alternative weekly newspaper seeking women who have slept with the presidential candidate. “Have you ever had sex with Rick Perry?” asks the ad, which runs in this week's Austin Chronicle. The ad was placed by Robert Morrow, who describes himself as a “self-employed investor and political activist” and a three-time delegate to the Texas state Republican convention.