Free Republic

To read all of our reports on crony capitalism in Texas, click here.Crony capitalism is very similar to the seven-headed Hydra of Greek mythology. Politicians, if and when they do decide to tackle the issue, may cut off one slush fund, but two (or more) slush funds end up replacing it. To destroy crony capitalism, it’s not enough to cut off the head; you have seal the body off from growing any more heads. The Texas Constitution was originally designed to be sealed off from such voracious heads springing up from the body of government. In the mid-19th century after...

Tony Blair is celebrating another multi-million pound contract after his charity secured a key deal with the US government. This time, the former prime minister’s Africa Governance Initiative (AGI) has won a £3.3 million contract to play a key role in Barack Obama’s flagship African aid programme.… It is thought to be the third grant obtained by Mr Blair’s charity from USAID. The body was, until last February, overseen by Hillary Clinton, who, along with her husband Bill, the former US president, is a close friend of Mr Blair and his wife, Cherie.

Warren Buffett epitomizes everything that is wrong with the global economy, and the U.S. economy specifically. He is the consummate crony capitalist, a brilliant yet conniving oligarch who intentionally plays on the gullibility of the masses to portray himself as one thing, when in reality he is something else entirely.He publicly talks about how rich people need to pay more in taxes, then turns around and pioneers new ways for his company Berkshire Hathaway to avoid hundreds of millions in taxes. He thinks that by going on television stuffing ice cream cones and hamburgers in his mouth and acting all grandfatherly...

Billionaire software mogul Bill Gates has joined the growing chorus of tech experts who predict that low-skill Americans will face greater unemployment because more jobs are being done by software and robots. The Microsoft founder, whose net worth is $76 billion, suggested the problem could be fixed by reducing taxes on employers and raising taxes on employees, via the reduction of payroll taxes and the addition of new federal consumption taxes.

A new report from Politico’s Ken Vogel details how ten major GOP consultant firms who made a combined $1 billion off Mitt Romney’s failed 2012 White House bid are still large and in charge of GOP politics, raking in millions more for the 2014 cycle. According to Vogel’s analysis, the firms and the consultants who work for them have already made—through January 2014, nearly a full year before the midterm elections—more than $19.6 million. “They’ve also cemented relationships with some of the GOP’s rising stars, setting up the firms for even bigger paydays headed into the fall, when costly advertising...

JetBlue and American Airlines are ending an agreement that allowed travelers to add connections to their itinerary on each other's aircraft, as well as a frequent flyer program agreement. JetBlue travelers can no longer earn miles on AA-operated flights.

NASA now acknowledges what NBC Bay Area's Investigative Team first uncovered last year--that the government agency has been effectively giving a price break on jet fuel to a private company.

(Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc forecast a lower full-year profit than analysts expect, as fewer food stamps, higher taxes and tighter credit erode its sales, news that sent its shares down 1 percent in premarket trading on Thursday. The world's largest retailer expects net sales growth this year to be at the lower end of its forecast range of 3 to 5 percent, Chief Financial Officer Charles Holley said on Thursday. Wal-Mart said comparable sales at stores open at least a year in the United States - its biggest unit - fell for a fourth straight quarter, by 0.4 percent....

Yesterday our old friend Craig Shirley, chronicler of Ronald Reagan’s five-decade war of ideas against liberalism and communism, defined the national Republican Party this way in an interview with Brietbart’s Michael Patrick Leahy: "The Washington Republican party is no longer a political party in the way we understand political parties. It more resembles a crime family than a movement of ideas." Shirley was commenting on the charge that the reason Congress has not gotten to the bottom of the IRS targeting of conservatives and Tea Party movement groups is because the establishment GOP wants the IRS to hobble these groups...

The Florida Panthers faced some high stakes Tuesday; not on the ice, but at Broward County Hall. With opposition building against the Florida Panthers' request for $86 million for free rent at the county-owned BB&T Center in Sunrise, a majority of county commissioners made it clear at a workshop meeting Tuesday that they’re in favor of a major public giveaway to the hockey team. New Florida Panthers hockey team owner Doug Cifu said he has no plans to move the team with or without the $86 million bailout he's asking from public, but that didn't stop Broward County Commissioner Marty...

President Obama was in Michigan last week to sign a 10-year, $1 trillion farm bill. While much of the debate has centered around the spending on food stamps, buried in the 1,000-page plan are many other provisions that are indefensibly bad policy. While some are praising, and others complaining, about slightly rolling back spending on food stamps and eliminating some of the direct payments to "farmers" (who did not actually farm), the bill goes far beyond that. This bill continues special subsidy deals to farmers in every area in the country — from corn and beans to rice and peanuts...

Colorado health-exchange director on paid leave DENVER — A director with Colorado's health-care exchange is on paid leave after it was discovered she has been accused of stealing from a nonprofit housing organization she oversaw in Montana. Christa McClure is the director of partner engagement for Connect for Health Colorado, the state program that implements the Affordable Care Act. According to the Denver Post, program spokesman Ben Davis says in her Colorado job, McClure does not have access to any of exchange's finances. The eight-count indictment against McClure was filed in U.S. District Court in Billings, Mont., in January.

The Bible says that “the wages of sin is death,” but the same can’t be said of Washington, DC. The bureaucrats, lobbyists, politicians, contractors, insiders, cronyists, and influence peddlers have rigged the system so that they get rich by diverting money from people in the productive sector of the economy. How bad is the disconnect between Washington and real America? Well, according to Gallup’s Economic Confidence Index, people in every state have a negative outlook. But there is one outpost of giddy prosperity, and that’s the District of Columbia, where residents have a 20-point gap compared to the most optimistic...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Republican lawmakers in Tennessee are threatening that the state could turn off the spigot of incentives for Volkswagen if workers at the German automaker's plant decide this week to approve union representation.

Have you thought about becoming an Ambassador, diplomat, or foreign dignitary? Well stop wasting your time trying to build a career… Just bundle a few million dollars in campaign money for your friendly Chicago-style politician, and help him become President. Once he’s in charge, you might even get a nomination to far-away-lands that you know nothing about! At least, that’s how it seems to work judging by the administration’s latest nominee. Noah Mamet, has been nominated as the ambassador to Argentina. Noah is well traveled, but has admitted that he has never even visited Argentina… (Become a political crony, and...

I don’t know exactly how to characterize this, but there is a new campaign to highlight crony capitalism (or the portmanteau that I like to use–crapitalism) . This campaign–The Kronies– uses youtube clips and specially designed 80s style action figures.

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, First Lady Michelle Obama joined the Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA) and SUBWAY® along with SUBWAY® Famous Fans Michael Phelps, Nastia Liukin, and Justin Tuck at a local Washington, DC, SUBWAY® Restaurant, to announce a three-year commitment by the chain in support of her Let’s Move! initiative to promote healthier choices to kids, including launching its largest targeted marketing effort to date. In addition to strengthening its already nutritious menu offerings to kids, SUBWAY® will launch a new series of campaigns for kids aimed at increasing fruit and vegetable consumption and will set new standards...

Some of Texas’ biggest business trade groups are moving to counter tea party and anti-government forces that have dominated recent Republican primaries. The movement mirrors the schism happening nationally between hard right and establishment Republicans. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce recently pledged $50 million to back pro-business Republicans in U.S. Senate primaries and fight tea party insurgents. Michael Quinn Sullivan, president of the fiscal-hawk group Empower Texans said the Texas Future Business Alliance is nothing but a group of big-money interests wanting taxpayer dollars to flow into their pockets. “This is what we’ve come to expect coming out of the...

[W]hile crony capitalism has certainly flourished under the Obama administration, the GOP hasn’t exactly gone out of its way to combat the trend. Many have argued that taking on crony capitalism, and perhaps adopting a more populist tone that emphasizes the needs of working-class Americans, should be an important aspect of the GOP’s rebranded agenda. By advancing a message and a policy agenda that combat the stereotype of Republicans as beholden to Big Business, the party could go a long way toward regaining some lost trust with the American people. But the party’s actions haven’t matched this desire to change...

No year-end film has stirred up as much talk as Paramount’s “The Wolf of Wall Street,” which looks at American greed and excesses. The three-hour film has earned $34 million since it opened Christmas Day, with supporters embracing its originality and daring, but some fretting that the film celebrates the self-obsessed lifestyle of convicted con man Jordan Belfort. In an interview with Variety, Leonardo DiCaprio, a producer and star of the pic, talked about the challenges and rewards of making a film that is “outside the box” in its subject matter and approach. Here are excerpts of the interview, with...