Free Republic

CAMBRIDGE, MA — President Biden announced plans today to forgive $10,000 in student loan debt for anyone making less than $125k per year. In completely unrelated news, the nation's colleges and universities announced plans to immediately raise tuition by $10,000. "Look, Jack! Here's the deal! No malarkey at all! Not a joke!" said Biden before an aide had to step in and explain he was signing an order to forgive student loan debt. Dr. Charles Moneybags, director of the National Association for the Advancement Of College Professors (NAACP), said he applauds the president's decision to cancel student debt for so...

U.S. Rep. William Delahunt blew nearly $560,000 in campaign cash last year - much of it on lavish meals and a family-friendly payroll that includes his ex-wife, son-in-law and daughter - stoking speculation the Quincy Democrat is emptying his war chest and won’t seek re-election. -snip- Delahunt told the Herald last week that he was still weighing whether to seek re-election, but Democratic Party sources have privately indicated his departure is anticipated - and expected to draw a host of candidates-in-waiting out of the woodwork.

“Most people knew this was a grift,” one campaign official noted, according to Klippenstein’s report. “At our first office meeting, my [director] said, ‘We don’t need to canvass. We can just make calls, right guys?’ And everyone was like, ‘Yeah, that’s sensible.’” . . . The person added: “It was easy enough to fudge the data to make it look like real people put in real volunteer work, when in reality Mike was getting nothing out of it.”

After border patrol agents in Puerto Rico chased after a boat on Sunday, they found five duffel bags stuffed with $3.7 million in cash. US Customs and Border Protection agents, along with the DEA, made the seizure after tracking the vessel that was traveling without lights from Puerto Rico to the US Virgin Islands. As authorities followed the boat, it made an abrupt turn back toward Fajardo, on the east coast of Puerto Rico, and landed near the Rio Fajardo. Occupants in the vessel could be seen unloading bags, according to the press release. As agents closed in, they fled...

The tax on luxury will become reality for all Russians without exception next year. President Vladimir Putin reminded everyone of that in his annual Address to the Federal Assembly. According to experts, the new tax may send a definite message to wealthy citizens to redistribute their revenues. The head of state said in his speech that the decision on the so-called luxury tax should be made in the first half of 2013. According to the official website of the President of the Russian Federation, one should not give up on the "flat" income tax scale, since the progressive taxation of...

A LIFETIME of hard work should bring economic security -- income sufficient to raise a family, and resources to enjoy a retirement earned over many working years. It is troubling that as far off as this goal seems to millions of American men, it is even further off for America's working women, especially in the area of retirement security. Even as families become more dependent than ever on second incomes, and the number of women as sole providers grows, women still earn less money than men; women are less likely to have a pension than men; and women are less...

Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry may want to consider running for president again in 2008. But his wife, local ketchup heiress Teresa Heinz Kerry of Fox Chapel, has made it clear she won't sit still for another campaign. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime thing," an unidentified Heinz Kerry friend told the Boston Herald. "Teresa will never do it again." Not necessarily, said Jeff Lewis, a Heinz Kerry spokesman. "Teresa Heinz is too smart to say that," he said. "She campaigned her heart out, as did her husband ... it was hard work and a great experience and we'll just go from there." According...

Translating Warner's speech By Ed Lynch ROANOKE.COM COLUMNIST Last week, Gov. Mark Warner delivered his State of the Commonwealth speech, in which, not surprisingly, he took credit for what he called Virginia’s “restored fiscal integrity,” while assuming no responsibility at all for the additional tax burden he imposed on every Virginia family, burden that was based on fraudulent budget numbers. In fact, the speech contained so many half-truths, distortions and clever cover-ups that, in addition to having someone render the speech into sign language for the deaf, he should also have had someone translating the spin phrases into real English....

Jesus Bermudez, called “Fat (Gordo) Bermudez”, former Vice-Minister of Finance with Tobias Nóbrega, has been detained in Miami and is going to be subject to a trial for a number of violations of the law, among them, attempting to introduce as contraband forty thousand dollars in cash into the US. But things are not as simple as Jose Vicente (the VP) attempted to make it look, when he denied that the plane in which the “Gordo” traveled belonged to CVG. Let’s see. In order to be free on bail, one hundred thousand dollars were paid in a flash. Who paid?...

Here is the video. 300k. Cut, paste and view in your web browser. About a minute in length. Aired today in Japan. (In the URL, exchange "300" with "56" if you want to view at a slower speed):http://www.bcast.co.jp/cgi-bin/yahoo/news.asx?cid=20040527-00000020-ann-soci-movie-001&media=wm300kAn al-Qaeda terrorist cell in Japan has been under surveillance. It is now being finally broken up as we speak. Japanese national police have been raiding offices and homes of various Arabs and Africans in Japan, coming up with suspect A-Q members or facilitators. These cicadae are everywhere!One such terrorist financier suspect is a Bangladeshi, Mr. Islam Mohammad Him. Photo of scumbag:Here, in...