Free Republic

Job-killing bank regulations threaten to wipe out all the gains in private-sector employment since the recovery began, the industry warns. Washington, however, is hiring thousands more bureaucrats to enforce the rules. Signed into law last year, the Dodd-Frank Act is the biggest rewrite of financial regulations since the New Deal. It was intended to rein in Wall Street "excesses." But the banking industry says burdensome red tape is hurting economic growth and jobs in a still-sluggish labor market. "The level of real GDP could be 2.7% less by the year 2015 than would otherwise be the case for the United...

Just like clockwork, the Obama administration never misses an opportunity to unload thousands of records it hopes no one will ever bother sifting through during the holidays. On Black Friday, the White House released more visitor log info — trumpeting disclosures it has fought tooth and nail. I’ve started looking through the data. And you can, too, right here:

Benetton returns to its controversial marketing roots with a new campaign that features President Obama and other world leaders engaging in a kiss. In two separate ads, Obama is seen kissing Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, and Chinese President Hu Jintao. The Unhate Foundation, founded by the Italian clothing company, is an advocacy group for tolerance. The controversial ad campaign is an attempt for Benetton to regain its status from the “United Colors” ads that regularly shocked viewers with subjects that had nothing to do with clothing: A priest kissing a nun, a man dying of AIDS, a just-born baby with...

PORTLAND, Ore. -- A woman in Portland said her local grocery store refused to allow her to pay for her shopping cart items with $32 in loose change. The shopper, who was too embarrassed to use her name, said the clerk at the Save-a-Lot store would only accept $5 of the change, claiming it was store policy, KATU reported. The woman told KATU that she tried to use her loose change at another area grocery to buy her family food -- a Fred Meyer store -- but the manager there directed her to a coin exchange machine instead, where the...

This afternoon, the U.S. Senate will be voting on an amendment to H.R. 2112, the Agriculture-Commerce-etc. appropriations bill for FY 2012. The amendment (#769) is being offered by Senator David Vitter (R-La.) The amendment in question would allow Americans to purchase prescription medicines from Canada. On its face, this is a pro-free market amendment. Why should the government prevent people from buying goods or services from anywhere they want to, especially a developed nation like Canada? The free market answer is that consumers would often not be importing just the medicine, but also the price control. In most countries, the...

Occupy Wall Street protesters said yesterday that packs of brazen crooks within their ranks have been robbing their fellow demonstrators blind, making off with pricey cameras, phones and laptops -- and even a hefty bundle of donated cash and food. “Stealing is our biggest problem at the moment,” said Nan Terrie, 18, a kitchen and legal-team volunteer from Fort Lauderdale. “I had my Mac stolen -- that was like $5,500. Every night, something else is gone. Last night, our entire [kitchen] budget for the day was stolen, so the first thing I had to do was . . . get...

Occupy Wall Street protesters said yesterday that packs of brazen crooks within their ranks have been robbing their fellow demonstrators blind, making off with pricey cameras, phones and laptops -- and even a hefty bundle of donated cash and food. “Stealing is our biggest problem at the moment,” said Nan Terrie, 18, a kitchen and legal-team volunteer from Fort Lauderdale. “I had my Mac stolen -- that was like $5,500. Every night, something else is gone. Last night, our entire [kitchen] budget for the day was stolen, so the first thing I had to do was . . . get...

Former Gov. Joe Kernan says a signature on a petition to place Barack Obama's name on Indiana's 2008 primary ballot isn't his, putting him among dozens of dubious signatures found in a newspaper's investigation. Kernan, a Democrat who campaigned for Hillary Clinton during the 2008 primary, told the South Bend Tribune that he didn't sign the Obama document. "No, not at all," the former South Bend mayor said when asked whether the signature next to his name on the Obama petition looked like his own. "Nor does the printing look like mine." The Tribune reported Wednesday that it has talked...

For your viewing pleasure, here is a group of rowdy teenagers resisting arrest in the 2/3 subway station at 125th Street. According to the witness who posted the video on YouTube, Frank Harts, the "girls jumps NYC Subway gate to avoid fare. When cops try to arrest them.... this is what happens." What "happens" is utter pandemonium, as Animal New York aptly describes it. Simply put, these young ladies are NOT HAVING IT. Don't miss the 1:40 mark, where one teenager swings her bag and smacks a cop right in the face. We contacted the MTA and the NYPD to...

To avoid further clogging the already sluggish home foreclosure pipeline, some lenders have been offering cash incentives to strapped homeowners at risk of foreclosure to complete short sales and move out of their homes. Chase, for instance, has been quietly offering as much as $35,000 to homeowners who are “upside down” on their loans — meaning, they owe more than the home is currently worth. In a short sale, the lender allows the sale of the home for less than the loan amount and often relieves the borrower of any further obligation. The incentives began late last year and are...

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- A Lexington church is running out of cheeks to turn as copper thieves hit it for a third time. Pastor Derek Coleman of Gardenside Baptist Church said it’s hurtful that people steal from a church that’s willing to give to them, according to WKYT-TV. This time, thieves stripped copper piping from a building the congregation uses for missionary work and allows other churches to use in time of need. Damage done by the thieves makes the building impossible to use until it is repaired. The church is looking at new security measures after three copper thefts.

Forget robbing the bank. These days, the big money is in beauty salons and their stash of human hair extensions. The most recent heist occurred Tuesday when thieves crashed a Jeep into Angie's Beauty Supplies in Atlanta. Video showed the culprits head straight for the shop’s most expensive fake tresses. “The suspects took an undetermined amount of hair extensions and other items prior to leaving the store,” said Atlanta Police Officer Kim Jones. The thieves left the Jeep in the store.

(CNN) -- This week in Germantown, Maryland, it took less than a minute for a flash mob of teenagers to descend on a 7-Eleven, ransack shelves and make off with hundreds of dollars worth of stuff. It's going to take much longer for police in Montgomery County to figure out how to prevent it from happening again.

The “green jobs” idea — that we could vitalize the economy by spending tons of money on promoting ‘green energy’ and other green ideas — is running into trouble. Prominent (and much subsidized) solar manufacturer Evergreen Solar is filing for bankruptcy, citing lower prices and increased competition from a familiar source: “When margins are getting squeezed, pennies count,” says Pavel Molchanov, a solar analyst with Raymond James Financial. “Quite frankly, as a solar manufacturer, it is a lot better to pay workers $1 an hour in China than workers $15 an hour in Massachusetts.” Those who tout green jobs as...

Henry Wallace’s Progressive Party of the 1940s was nothing but a tool the Communist Party USA – and by extension, the Soviet Union. Today’s Democratic Party is also heavily infiltrated by the now pro Chinese Communist Party USA and their almost as equally extreme comrades from Democratic Socialists of America. Here’s an interesting picture from the 1940s. Henry Wallace chatting with Chicago journalist and Progressive Party supporter Vernon Jarrett. It turns out that around this time Vernon Jarrett was a leader of the Chicago chapter of American Youth for Democracy – the youth wing of the Communist Party. Chicago communist...

Senate Democrats are charging taxpayers for a trip to Hawaii, The Daily Caller has learned. The entire press staff of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee is in Maui, even though a field hearing there won’t happen until next Wednesday. The committee’s oversight field hearing, scheduled for next Wednesday at 9 a.m. at the Maui Beach Hotel, will focus on “Strengthening Self-Sufficiency: Overcoming Barriers to Economic Development in Native Communities.” Rick Manning from Americans for Limited Government, which first discovered the hearing, told TheDC it’s unbelievable that Hill staffers talking about fiscal responsibility would waste money on a trip to Maui....

WASHINGTON, DC (July 14, 2011) – The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is investigating fraud and abuse in the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act (FECA) program. Specifically, GAO is looking for information on cases in which federal employees are currently abusing workers compensation benefits. For example, fraud schemes might include a beneficiary working a second job, overstating their workers’ compensation claim, or collecting benefits for a deceased individual. Anyone with information regarding fraud or abuse of the FECA program by federal employees is encouraged to contact us at workerscompfraud@gao.gov. All information about individuals who contact us will be kept confidential.

FYI: Copper thieves are known as "Copperheads", since they are lower than a snake's belly in a wheel rut!

A group of men in Brooklyn apparently decided the fastest way to steal a bike chained to a tree was to cut down the tree. A video on YouTube shows the men early yesterday morning looking at the bike before finally chopping down the tree. One then rides the bike a bit, only to leave it right where the group found it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PcV4LVhSRLg

The Internal Revenue Service said Wednesday that 275,000 organizations have lost their tax-exempt status because they failed to file required annual reports for three straight years. The tax agency said it believed that the vast majority of those groups are no longer in existence, but it said it was setting up procedures to help those companies that sought reinstatement. The IRS posted a list of the organizations on its website: http://www.irs.gov/charities/article/0,,id=240099,00.html