Free Republic

My wife has a crazy sister in Minnesota. Her sister calls her from time to time and goes off on pro Obama rants. The sister is about a step from insane, but it upsets my wife. My wife knows Obama is a muslim, socialist loser, but can't recall specifics. I'd like a page or two of verifible facts about Obama that my wife can refer to, next time crazy sister calls. I figure someone here already has such a thing. Thanks.

How much attention do you pay to the state of the U.S. economy? It has a direct effect on my business. I believe you lead from the top down, and if I ran my business like the guy in the White House runs his business now, whether it's your debt-to-GDP, or your inflows to your outflows, basically — I'd be bankrupt. If I didn't show the confidence to my staff from 2007 to where we are today, making a change to the business model, making adjustments within human resources, moving people out, which you don't like to do, to consolidate...

I don't have a lot, but I have some money I want to try to grow, $1000 to be specific. The market isn't doing well, but I think there are bargins, at least I hope there are. What I want to do is open a Scott trade account, and buy $1000 of 1 or 2 companies that are bargins. This is not my only research, and my plan is to buy and hold more than just try to make a quick buck. I'm figuring 2-3 year horizon on moving or profit taking. So far, I see Ford and Cisco as...

The spending bill has passed. I believe what I read about inflation, and increased unemployment as a result of this mess. I've also read about likely further collapse of the market. Here's my question: I owe $90k on a house that's worth about $190k. Should I raid my 401k? My employer allows withdrawls for a primary residence. My current mortgage is 5.75%. I'd pay myself 5.25% for the loan. - I'd be paying myself making 5.25% on my money versus losing money as it is right now. - If the market crashes further, as I believe it will, I won't...

I have a home with a 30 year loan, I owe about 93k on it. At the current rate I'm paying it, I'll have it paid off in slightly over 12 years. My current rate is 5.75. I called about a refinance. 4.875 with $2300 in closing costs. This would drop my payment about $150/month. So, if I kept paying at the same payment I pay now, I'd pay the new loan off in slightly less than 12 years and save about $8k in interest payments over the life of the loan. I don't plan on moving. I'm 51. I...

One of the biggest factors in high oil prices, according to many experts, is that investors, such as hedge funds and investment bankers, can use loopholes in commodities law to manipulate the market and drive crude oil, heating oil, gasoline and diesel fuel prices to new heights. Congress is aware of the problem and lawmakers recently passed legislation to address the “Enron Loophole,” one of the major loopholes that opens the door to abusive trading practices, but the law didn’t go far enough.

My daughter, who is 22 now, was in an auto accident last year. She flipped and totalled her car, and damaged her knee. All is ok, thank God. She is on my auto insurance policy. She had health care through her employer. I let her handle all the contacts and coordinate her benefits. Here is the situation. Auto insurance had $10k medical payments. They paid their obligation. Her healthcare insurance has a $2k deductible. The healthcare insurance tells her the auto insurance payments have no effect on the deductible, even though that $10k reduced what the healthcare insurance paid by...

Ok, total vanity here. I don't do this often, but Chat should be the place for this? I read about the tirade Dana Jacobson of ESPN's First Take had at the Mike & Mike roast. She was trying to be clever, while loaded up with Vodka and came up with, something on the order of: f* Notre Dame, f* touchdown Jesus, and f* Jesus. I emailed ESPN expressed my disgust and my belief that Ms. Jacobson should be removed from on air, not just suspended for a week. ESPN replied with drivel about "context". I told them I will never...

While brands certainly don't want people using their products, logos and other related imagery to create products of their, own, the hammer that Ford legal dropped on the Black Mustang Club seems a bit heavy handed. Recently the club created a calendar which contained images of club member's cars photographed by the member's themselves. Ford didn't take kindly to this and asked CafePress, the service the group had chosen to print the calendars, to kill the project claiming all the images in the calendar are the property of Ford...including the Black Mustang Club logo. It's understandable that a brand would...

I just did my taxes, ouch. I don't know who got the tax cut, but it wasn't me! A lot of things came together to put a hurt on me. #1 - My wife went to work full time. #2 - I can only claim one of my 3 kids living with me as a deduction. My 19 year old daughter hadn't started school yet, and made $4,100 last year. Apparently $4,100 makes you self sufficient in the eyes of the IRS, (but not to my wallet). #3 - I cashed in a small 403b to help with the purchase...

Federal prosecutors called Thursday's conviction of a Cleveland-area Muslim cleric accused of lying to obtain his American citizenship a ``victory in the war on terror.'' Outside the federal courthouse in Akron, Assistant U.S. Attorney Cherie Krigsman said the conviction means the government successfully established that Imam Fawaz Damra had ``solid, long-standing ties to international terrorist organizations.... This sends the message that you can't be a member of an international terrorist organization and become a U.S. citizen.'' She stopped short of calling Damra a terrorist. Jurors trained their attention on the judge as the verdict was read, while Damra, 41, remained...

I've posted here before on a similar topic. This one is purely for my son. He's 21, and has 4k he wants to invest now. He plans on buying a house in 3 years. I was leaning towards having him put 2k in an index mutual fund, and 2k in bonds. A friend of my son told him to get a 2k CD, and take out a loan against the CD. The theory is that paying back a loan will improve his credit, and offset the loss of interest income. Putting the other 2k in the index fund. Option C...

I have a few bucks I want to invest. I have a 401k and I have bought the Janus fund in the past. I'm not happy with Janus, not only for the manipulation, but lousy performance in the last year or so. I've read that index funds are the way to go. I've also read that inidividual stocks are the way to go. Everyone has their own take. I figure I can't get too much information, so I thought I'd see what the freepers have to say. I'm looking to invest $3k to $5k. An additional question: My son is...

I quit! Overworked employees are fed up: a survey finds 8 out of 10 Americans want a new job. November 12, 2003: 9:42 AM EST By Leslie Haggin Geary, CNN/Money Staff Writer New York (CNN/Money) - Ready to quit? You have plenty of company. Many employees are overworked, stressed out, fed up -- and eager to quit their jobs once the economy picks up. In fact, worker angst is so pronounced that it has surprised even the most tuned-in human resource professionals. Consider, for example, that more than eight in 10 workers plan to look for a new job when...