Free Republic

Here in Oklahoma, the news that Senator Tom Coburn will be retiring early from his second term has still not entirely settled in with most folks. For ten years we awoke each day knowing that our state’s voice in Washington would be one of principled reason and absolute integrity. It’s not that our other senator, Jim Inhofe, or our House members, like Tom Cole and Frank Lucas, are lacking. They are all solid conservatives, as is former congressman James Lankford, whom we elected in November to replace Coburn in the Senate. But as conservatives across the nation have recognized for...

hould anyone have been surprised that Michele Bachmann would go out with a bang, a big bang? On Tuesday, in what the retiring congresswoman from Minnesota figured would be her last White House holiday party, Bachmann used the grip-and-grin moment when she got her picture taken with President Obama to raise a reliably grin-killing topic. “The U.S. needs to take out Iran’s nuclear facilities today,” she informed him. His response? “A condescending smile and laugh,” she tells Politico, making a little pat-on-the-head gesture. “‘Michele, it isn’t that easy, but that’s OK,’” she remembers him telling her. To which the gentlelady...

A parade of ambitious California public figures, who’ve spent years itching for a shot at the state’s top political offices, are anticipating a shake-up of the state’s political hierarchy that could begin in a matter of weeks with the possible retirement of Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer. And some big names — including the mayor of Los Angeles — are already sizing up possible bids to succeed her. Sources close to Boxer, 74, say the outspoken liberal senator will decide over the holidays whether to seek reelection in 2016 and will announce her plans shortly after the new year. Few of...

More than 10 years ago, Barbara Zierten and her husband retired to a small town in California's scenic "gold country," in the Sierra Nevada foothills. "It's beautiful here," said Zierten, 73, explaining the attraction of the area east of San Francisco. They also were on a tight budget and reasoned that a small town would be cheaper. But as time has passed, they have decided the area isn't an ideal fit. For one thing, the library is open only part time. "I'm a reader," she said. "So it's frustrating." And a bad experience with a hospital has led her to...

Every day, 170 Minnesotans turn 65. It's supposed to be the beginning of retirement. But for many, 65 is just another birthday. Although they're old enough to retire, they can't afford to. So every year in the fall, thousands come to work in Minnesota. For them, the sugar beet harvest is a lifesaver. Although it's seasonal and short-term work, it's a paycheck. The sugar beet harvest starts at the end of September and runs for a few weeks. The work involves a lot of heavy lifting and the pay is pretty good. The starting wage is $12 an hour. The...

The NYPD’s highest-ranking black official abruptly quit Friday instead of taking a new post, a surprising move that caught city officials off guard at a time when the department is trying to mend relationships with minority communities.Chief Philip Banks III was to have been named first deputy commissioner, second in command at the nation’s largest police force. Commissioner William Bratton already had announced the change and Banks was to have been promoted Monday. Instead, he will retire. It wasn’t clear why Banks changed his mind, and Bratton cited only “personal and professional factors.” …

I don't nomally take email forwards and post them, but this one made me chuckle and is kind of fun... I actually got a couple of them right.----------This test is to ascertain your mental state now. If you get one right you are doing ok, if you get none right you better go for counseling. There are 4 test questions.  Don't miss one. Giraffe Test 1...    How do you put a giraffe into a refrigerator? Stop and think about it and decide on your answer before you scroll down.          The correct answer: Open the refrigerator, put in the giraffe, and close the door.This question tests whether you...

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) released his annual Wastebook this past week. It contains a laundry list of doozies. The U.S. government’s gold-plating operations included $190,000 to study compost digested by worms, $297 million for the purchase of an unused mega blimp, and $1 million on a Virginia bus stop where only 15 people can huddle under a half-baked roof. These questionable (read: absurd) expenditures only represent the tip of the iceberg. Just consider the following: the Speaker of the House currently receives an annual salary of $223,500, and will receive a payment of roughly that amount, depending on the years...

To oversee this process, Dodd-Frank created the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC), made up of the heads of the financial services regulatory agencies. The council claims very broad power to designate certain activities (like asset management) or companies and products (including mutual funds) as systemically important and subject them to Federal Reserve bank-style regulation, including leverage and capital requirements. And the council is doing just that – first with banks, then insurance companies and now, potentially, mutual funds. President Obama’s “independent” insurance expert on the council issued a blistering dissent when it designated Prudential – the nation’s second-largest life insurer...

Larry Ellison, a college dropout who built Oracle Corp. ORCL +1.00% into one of America's largest companies, is stepping down as chief executive, in one of the momentous corporate handovers in the history of Silicon Valley. Mr. Ellison, aged 70, has been the only CEO in the history of Oracle, which he founded in 1977 and turned into a dominant seller of database software with a market value of $182 billion. Oracle shares fell 2% in after-hours trading following the CEO news and the company's disappointing quarterly results. Mark Hurd, 57, and Safra Catz, 52, two of Mr. Ellison's deputies,...

So - our son, his wife, and their one-year old are in the Princeton, NJ area. We are in Los Angeles. Those of you with grandchildren will know - this is TOO FAR! We are considering relocating, but not to NJ. Taxes, etc. :( Husband is hydrogeologist, so we think we'll be near consulting/ big city/ Philly perhaps. Does anyone know - Bucks County, Chester County (Montgomery County) ? Places to live that are not too far from work/ job centers? And still within Grandma Distance of Princeton?

More than a third of American adults have no retirement savings, including 14% of those 65 years of age or older, according to a new study released Monday. The low savings rate for people at or approaching retirement age is alarming, said Greg McBride, chief financial analyst for Bankrate.com, which conducted the survey. About a quarter -- 26% -- of those age 50 to 64 haven't started saving for retirement, the survey said; the figure was 33% of people who are 30- to 49-years-old. Overall, 36% of those 18 years or older have not started saving for retirement, according to...

Phantom wealth cannot possibly fund unprecedented retirement and healthcare promises. The narrative that Social Security, Medicare and pension funds invested in stocks and bonds can fund the retirement of 65 million people is a misleading fantasy. The sad reality is we can't fund the enormous expense of retirement/healthcare for 20% of the populace out of our national earned income, and the savings that have been set aside are either fictitious (the Social Security Trust Fund) or based on phantom wealth created by speculative asset bubbles in stocks, bonds and real estate. I explain the fraud of the Social Security Trust...

One in five people who are near retirement age have zero money saved. Yes, you read that correctly. The sobering statistic was one of many released by the Federal Reserve on Thursday as part of its report on the economic well-being of U.S. households, which surveyed more than 4,100 people online last year between mid-September and early October. The study offered a stark reminder that as more Americans are made responsible for their own retirement, most are not saving nearly enough. Overall, 31 percent of people said they have zero money saved for retirement and do not have a pension....

More than half a million retirees receive their Social Security benefits abroad, according to International Living , a monthly newsletter focusing on retiring overseas. The Social Security Administration currently sends 613,650 retirement-benefit payments outside the U.S., more than double the 242,128 benefit payments sent abroad in 2002. And even that data likely under-represents the actual number of Americans retired overseas, says Dan Prescher, 60, special projects editor of the newsletter. (International Living gets much of its financial support from advertisers who sell overseas real estate to retirees, and other services for those wishing to relocate.) “San Diego has some of...

America is supposed to be the land of the free and the home of the brave. But as we become bogged down in our many problems, I see, unfortunately, a mentality in which we are becoming increasingly a nation of the unfree – the victim – and the timid, in how we’re approaching these challenges. Ohio Republican Senator Rob Portman wrote a column this week drawing attention to the latest dire projections from the Congressional Budget Office. CBO projects the nation sinking deeper and deeper into an ocean of red ink. Under a business-as-usual scenario, the Senator notes, we’ll pile...

If the amount of press ink used to report a study is any indicator of its contribution to public understanding, the National Institute on Retirement Security's (NIRS) 2013 report, "The Retirement Savings Crisis: Is It Worse than We Think?" might be the gold standard on the subject of retirement security. The report concludes that 84% of Americans are falling short of reasonable retirement savings targets and, even when total net worth is considered, two-thirds are at risk of an inadequate retirement income. The total "retirement savings gap," NIRS claims, may reach $14 trillion. According to New York Times writer Nancy...

Retirement systems around the world are expected to face a significant burden in the next 50 years. The number of people over the age of 60 is expected to double from 841 million in 2013, to over 2 billion by 2050, according to the UN. What's more this has been accompanied by falling global birth rates. In fact, the global share of people over the age of 60 has gone from 9.2% in 1990, to 11.7% in 2013 and is expected to hit 21.1% in 2050, according to Bank of America's Sarbjit Nahal and Beijia Ma. The number of people...

Gender inequality doesn't end at the workplace. For many women, the gender gap haunts them well into their retirement years, when far more women find themselves living in poverty. In fact, women are almost twice as likely as men to live below the poverty line during retirement, with single and minority women struggling the most (see chart). On average, women 65 years and older rely on a median income of around $16,000 a year -- roughly $11,000 less than men of the same age, according to a Congressional analysis of Census data. And many elderly women rely exclusively on Social...

White House press secretary Jay Carney received a stiff rebuke at Monday’s press briefing after trying to spin the resignation of Dr. Robert Petzel, Veterans Affairs undersecretary for health, as proof of the administration’s accountability for the escalating scandal over veterans’ waiting lists. The spat began when ABC’s Jonathan Karl began questioning Carney about VA Secretary Eric Shinseki. “If this mess regarding wait times isn’t cleaned up soon, are General Shinseki’s days numbered as VA secretary?” Karl asked Carney. Carney pivoted to stress the president’s support for the VA before responding, “What the president wants is for the review and...