Free Republic

Another stimulus-backed green energy company has filed for bankruptcy, further fueling criticism of Energy Department programs that backed highly-risky investments on the taxpayer dime. Like Solyndra and a number of other green energy investments made under this administration, Abound Solar had a very poor credit rating, but enjoyed a wealth of political connections. ... Abound had to remove an entire rooftop of defective solar panels from the headquarters of one of its top investors, Bohemian Companies, a venture capital firm owned by Pat Stryker. Stryker is particularly noteworthy, given her extensive ties to Democratic causes and politicians, including President Obama....

This year on the Fourth of July, Americans will have a hard time celebrating their independence, as so much of the celebration is consumed by government. Between traveling over the extended weekend and stocking up on food and drinks for cookouts, Americans will spend a minimum of $2.6 billion. However, make sure there’s room for Uncle Sam on your picnic blanket: this year, 34.77 percent of the cost of celebrating the Fourth of July is made up of government taxes and fees. Fourth of July spending is subject to income taxes, payroll taxes, corporate income taxes and other taxes on...

'I deserved it' Shocking it is that millions of handout-junkies could be so shameless, even contemptuous while sponging off you their whole sad life... alas, it seems they learned it from their 'progressive' masters- such as with Michelle Obama and her permanent vacation... Both then go to great lengths to defend each other's privilege and benefits while vilifying those who are forced to underwrite it all, perfect example being the recent case of disgraced Washington DC City Councilman Harry Thomas Jr., forced to resign in January when faced with federal charges for theft and filing of false tax returns- the first such resignation in DC Council...

Ford and others, such as MSNBC news anchor Melissa Harris-Perry, say the media should not report news if it makes black people look bad. But most racial crimes and violence from black mobs in the New York area are usually not reported – not by the mainstream media anyway. Witnesses and others who know often find a way to drop a dime, or a video or Internet posting. Just a few days before the Heinberg beating, a group of students from a predominately black school in a predominantly black neighborhood in Brooklyn were “evicted” from the 9/11 Memorial site in...

(CNSNews.com) – Dennis K. Burke, who as a lawyer for the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee in the 1990s was a key player behind the enactment of the 1994 assault-weapons ban, and who then went on to become Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano’s chief of staff, and contributor to Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential primary campaign, and a member of Obama's transition team focusing on immigration issues, ended up in the Obama administration as the U.S. attorney in Arizona responsible for overseeing Operation Fast and Furious. When Obama nominated Burke to be U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona, Burke told...

...........One reason we have as much bad behavior as we do among pseudo-elites is the same reason why child misbehavior is now rampant....If powerful public officials knew they could be marched away in handcuffs to a fetid jail cell, perhaps they'd take their oaths of office more seriously. ....Do you want to see a day when the police stop you for imaginary infractions that can be "adjudicated" on the spot for some not-so-imaginary cash? Then keep tolerating corruption in high places. For not only does it reflect corruption in low ones-most notably, the hearts and minds of the voters --...

Anyone wanting to understand the beginnings of great economic collapse of 2008 should start with the book "Reckles$ Endangerment", by Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner. Mortgenson is finally interviewed by Brian Lamb on this week's C-Span Q&A, and gets to tell a bit of the story of how government mismanagement and outright corruption in the early 90's set the stage for the wrecked economy in the late 00's. Lamb, for some reason, tries his best to turn a lot of the blame to Republicans, and Morgenson does the obligatory "both sides of the aisle" routine, but the names you'll hear...

China blocks Xi Jinping web searches after report on family's wealth BEIJING: China blocked web searches today for the name of leader-in-waiting Xi Jinping, a day after cutting access to Bloomberg sites following the agency's publication of a report on his family's wealth. Financial newswire Bloomberg used publicly available records to compile a list of investments by Chinese Vice President Xi's extended family, which the agency said totalled USD 376 million. The report did not trace any assets to Xi, expected to become Chinese president in an upcoming leadership transition, his wife, or their daughter and said there was no...

PRESIDENT OBAMA has endured much criticism of his legislative skills from his fellow progressives. His conciliatory approach has been compared unfavorably with Franklin D. Roosevelt’s gleeful pugnacity and Lyndon B. Johnson’s relentless arm-twisting. His willingness to strike deals with corporations has been tagged “business as usual.” Many progressives, frustrated over the past three years, have concluded that the political system is fundamentally broken because corporate power has been allowed to suffocate popular liberal policies. But the Supreme Court’s upholding of Mr. Obama’s health care law reminds us that the president’s approach has achieved significant results. If his liberal critics paused...

On the same week that the U.S. House of Representatives found him in criminal contempt, the nation’s embattled Attorney General professed solidarity with a radical leftist Latino group, proudly celebrating its socialist mission of “uno para todos, todos para uno” (all for one and one for all). It wasn’t enough for Eric Holder to earn the accolade of being the nation’s first sitting Attorney General to be found in criminal contempt by Congress for stonewalling the investigation of a disastrous experiment conducted by his office. Known as Operation Fast and Furious, the project allowed Mexican drug traffickers to obtain U.S.-sold...

The biggest issue that many people had in the debate leading up to the passage of the Obamacare legislation was the fact that most Representatives and Senators who would be voting on the bill didn’t bother to read the legislation they would be voting on. Congressman John Conyer actually asked what good it would do to read the bill because the Congress still wouldn’t know what was in it unless they each hired two lawyers, and Nancy Pelosi famously quipped “we have to pass the bill to find out what’s in it.” But what went underreported in my opinion was...

President Obama is always harping about all Americans paying their fair share of taxes. While it may be legal to have back taxes, the Internal Revenue Service has found that more than 279,000 federal employees and retirees owed $3.4 billion, yes, billion, in back income taxes. Some members of Obama's executive staff of nearly 1,800 owed the government $833,970 in back taxes. My first question would be, why does it take 1,800 employees to staff the executive office? Most federal employees are paid much more with better benefits than those who have similar jobs in the private sector. Another question,...

The Justice Department has declared that Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to withhold information about a bungled gun-tracking operation from Congress does not constitute a crime and he won't be prosecuted for contempt of Congress.

EMILIANO ZAPATA, Mexico — Before the sun climbed above the hills around this central Mexican town, Saul Garcia and his family awoke to the sound of bullets piercing the front gate. A masked motorcyclist had opened fire on their brick home, leaving behind a poster signed by the La Familia drug cartel, warning the mayoral candidate to withdraw from the race or the gang would kill him, his wife and three children. Garcia, a candidate for the local Social Democratic Party, didn't pull out. A state police officer now follows Garcia 24 hours a day while he courts voters on...

The House of Representatives just voted to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in criminal contempt of Congress for stonewalling the House Oversight Committee's efforts to get to the bottom of what occurred in the horrifically planned and ultimately deadly "fast and furious" program. While the House Democratic leadership and their allies have attempted to paint this as nothing more then pure petty politics, the roll call from today's vote reveals something interesting... 17 Democrats voted to hold Holder in contempt - destroying the media's partisan narrative, and possibly giving more Democrats wiggle room to also oppose the embattled Attorney General....

In the 1760s, the rallying cry was "No Taxation without Representation." We need a new slogan to combat a government that is secretly taxing us and lying about it. We have to call Obamacare what it really is: The Obama Health Care Tax. This new taxation came from our "representation" in Congress, in cahoots with a tyrannical President. In 2010, we got rid of (a part of) that Congress, but their stealth taxes live on. We defeated (many of) the Dems who gave us Obamacare in 2010. We can and must defeat the rest of them in 2012. What will...

"There is something simmering deep inside the soul of all Americans. We want to know that our country belongs to the people; that the government acknowledges our individual rights; that fiscal responsibility is an absolute requirement. We want our presidents and politicians to mean what they say when they take the oath of office... 'to defend the Constitution of the United States!' "I hope everyone will see themselves as the Empowered Man. It makes no difference whether you are a man or woman, how old you are, or the color of your skin. When we decide to no longer be...

“Mr. Obama’s legitimacy is now in doubt,” Lord Christopher Monckton concludes in the report. Monckton bases his conclusions largely on the findings of Maricopa County, Ariz., Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s law enforcement investigation. Arpaio’s Cold Case Posse announced March 1 there is probable cause that Obama’s long-form birth certificate posted on the White House website April 27, 2011, and his Selective Service registration form are forgeries. “A dislocation more severe than the fall of Watergate may be anticipated, leaving the free world leaderless at a time of great financial uncertainty,” Monckton advises the British nobility. He put his fellow peers on...

MEXICO CITY — The Mexican government says it's disappointed that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld part of an Arizona law requiring police check the immigration status of anyone they stop. The Mexican government has openly opposed Arizona's immigration law since it was passed in 2010. The statement said enforcing parts of the law that were upheld by the Supreme Court would lead to violations of the civil rights of Mexicans living in or visiting Arizona. It says the law doesn't recognize the many contributions immigrants make to their communities. Mexico filed a "friend of the court" brief challenging the law...

The top Democrat in charge of getting other Democrats elected to the House is urging his party's candidates to steer clear of the national convention later this year. The piece of advice from Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, came during the Reuters Washington Summit Tuesday. "If they want to win an election, they need to be in their districts," Israel said of Democratic congressional candidates, according to Reuters. The comment follows decisions by several vulnerable Democrats to skip this year's national convention -- to be held in early September in Charlotte, N.C. "A trip...