Free Republic

Ridiculously false choices and rhetoric ruled the evening when the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers hosted a closed-media conference call with Vice President Joe Biden to inform their members about the latest government school and teachers’ union bailout. In a recording obtained exclusively by PublicSchoolSpending.com, Biden explained the administration is seeking to spend $30 billion to create a “Teacher Layoff Prevention Fund.”  He also said that many schools today are “deciding whether or not to heat the school or keep a teacher.” Like school stimuli-past, Biden said schools would not be able to bank the money,...

The White House just put out the list for President Obama's jobs-focused address this evening. Those who will be in the gallery with first lady Michelle Obama include: — Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of General Electric. He's chairman of the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. So look for Obama to again stress the importance of technology, research and development. — Steve Case, who co-founded America Online and is, the White House says, "one of America's most accomplished entrepreneurs and philanthropists." He fills the "American can-do/entrepreneurial spirit" slot. — Darline Miller, CEO of Permac Industries, a Minnesota company that makes "precision...

The White House invited several guests to attend President Barack Obama's speech to the nation on jobs: JEFFREY IMMELT -- Chairman and CEO of GE; chairman of President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. STEVE CASE -- Chairman and CEO of Revolution LLC and co-founder of America Online; KENNETH CHENAULT -- Chairman and CEO of American Express;. RICHARD TRUMKA -- President of AFL-CIO; member of President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. GOV. MARTIN O'MALLEY -- Maryland governor. MAYOR MARK MALLORY -- Two-term mayor of Cincinnati. MAYOR ANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA -- Two-term mayor of Los Angeles. GRACEY IBARRA ---- Certified nursing assistant and...

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...

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_18851389

This morning’s predictably dejecting jobs report provided the GOP presidential candidates with an apt opportunity to cast the president in an unflattering light — and to contrast his approach with what their own would be. Memorably, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney framed his statement in a way that leaves voters displeased with the economy little choice but to vote Obama out of office. “When you see what this president has done to the economy in just three years, you know why America doesn’t want to find out what he can do in eight,” former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said. Importantly,...

For those who may have written off Big Labor’s agenda after they failed to push the Employee ‘Forced’ Choice Act (EFCA) through Congress last year, they may want to take a careful look at the actions being undertaken by President Obama’s Administration and they’ll quickly find that the job-killing movement is alive and well. In fact, EFCA has been resurrected in three specific changes being advanced by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and Department of Labor (DoL). And this should not be a surprise to anyone, as union bosses have been very clear that they expect Obama to pay...

President Obama’s campaign committee is moving a fund-raiser featuring Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel from the Pfizer world headquarters to another location in New York City after The Boston Globe inquired about the propriety of a major pharmaceutical company hosting an event that could benefit the administration regulating it. “This is a general fund-raising event for the campaign that has nothing to do with a specific company and the attendees will not be from any one company or sector,” Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt said this afternoon in a statement. A Pfizer spokesman did not address the change in locale but defended...

An NALP study finds Law School Class of 2010 Starting Pay Fell 20% as Jobs ErodedStarting salaries for last year’s U.S. law school graduates plummeted 20 percent as private practice jobs eroded, according to a report by the National Association for Law Placement. The national median starting salary at law firms dropped to $104,000 from $130,000 in 2009, reflecting a shift in the distribution of jobs and salary adjustments at some firms, the NALP said today. The report cited information submitted by 192 laws schools and covering 93 percent of 2010 graduates. Aggregate starting salaries fell because graduates found fewer jobs...

Facebook’s managers are deploying a new software upgrade that will dismantle myriad groups of like-minded political activists unless they get a special software-key from the company. But Facebook manager are providing very limited information about which groups are being favored with the new key, prompting some activists to complain about possible political favoritism among Facebook managers, and many other activists to experiment with techniques and tricks to get the needed upgrade-key. “Who is being given the upgrade?” asked Pamela Geller, the New York organizer of a 15,000-member group opposed to Islamist political groups. Without the special key, groups lose access...

General Electric Co. reported a 77% increase in first-quarter earnings, lifted by marked improvement at its GE Capital financing arm and gains at most of its industrial units. The company also boosted its quarterly dividend by a penny to 15 cents. The move marks GE's third dividend increase in the past year, although the payout remains well short of GE's 31-cent dividend before the financial crisis and economic downturn. Many companies have been boosting dividends, looking to give cash back to shareholders as the need to hoard it wanes amid an improved economy.

Federal authorities, capping a three-year investigation, are preparing insider-trading charges that could ensnare consultants, investment bankers, hedge-fund and mutual-fund traders and analysts across the nation, according to people familiar with the matter. The criminal and civil probes, which authorities say could eclipse the impact on the financial industry of any previous such investigation, are examining whether multiple insider-trading rings reaped illegal profits totaling tens of millions of dollars, the people say. Some charges could be brought before year-end, they say.

Mox News video Anderson Cooper on Chertoffs/others in government with ties to the Scanner Company being sold to the TSA. It may be AC but it is an interesting video detailing how scummy all these ties are.

Under a little-noticed provision of the recently passed financial-reform legislation, the Securities and Exchange Commission no longer has to comply with virtually all requests for information releases from the public, including those filed under the Freedom of Information Act. The law, signed last week by President Obama, exempts the SEC from disclosing records or information derived from "surveillance, risk assessments, or other regulatory and oversight activities." Given that the SEC is a regulatory body, the provision covers almost every action by the agency, lawyers say. Congress and federal agencies can request information, but the public cannot. That argument comes despite...