Free Republic

The school teachers lounge is a respite from more than just bratty kids. It’s a safe zone from the long arm of Michelle Obama’s food police. Students are already revolting against the newly-implemented school snack regulations that affect what is sold in vending machines. They will probably be equally upset to learn the vending machine just across the hall – in the teachers lounge – is exempt from the regulations.

(CNN) – Hoping to help close the gap between workers' skills and the needs of businesses, President Barack Obama on Wednesday will announce he's putting hundreds of millions toward job training programs that produce highly skilled workers. Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will head to a community college in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania to make the announcement. The funding will come in two parts: $500 million toward a new job training competition that pairs community colleges with businesses, and $100 million for new apprenticeship programs to train workers. The White House says the new initiatives are meant to combat a...

When CVS Caremark Corp. Chief Executive and President Larry Merlo announced that his drugstore chain would stop selling tobacco products , one of the first to respond was the president of the United States. The speed of the president’s statement indicates that CVS’s decision was likely coordinated with the White House. Every day, countless business decisions are made without any comment from the White House. Something unusual was going on. This is troubling. It gives the appearance of preference for those who curry favor with the powerful, and it squeezes out smaller entrants who can supply innovative products and services...

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon (D) vetoed a personal income tax cut that would have returned $700 million to small taxpayers over a 10 year period. Subsequently, he engineered a special legislative session that enacted $1.7 billion in tax breaks over a 23 year period for the Boeing Corporation. Nixon defended the seemingly contradictory moves by maintaining that “not all tax breaks are created equal. The income tax cut that I vetoed would've dispersed small amounts to millions of taxpayers. There was every probability that these taxpayers would've frivolously spent the few dollars they got back. There would've been no measurable...

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo rejected allegations that his support for legislation granting tax breaks to a firm that made substantial donations to his political campaign is corrupt. “The fact that the Extell Development Company donated to my campaign is, by itself, evidence of their support of good government,” Cuomo insisted. “Don't we want supporters of good government to prosper? Shouldn't good corporate citizens reap the rewards of their civic virtue?” Ironically, the potentially illegal link between the campaign donation and the tax break came to light after the Governor established a commission to look into legislative corruption. “It appears...

Outside of the unions, there was perhaps no group more ardent in its support of Obamacare than the AARP. The advocacy group spent $121 million on advertising in favor of Obamacare, and millions more lobbying for it on Washington DC. But now AARP’s insurance business, Medigap which competes with Medicare Advantage (a program AARP lobbied to have hamstrung by OBamacare), just got a waiver from complying with the law. ... Keep in mind, again, that AARP is set to rake in billions in profits now that Obamacare has effective knocked Medicare Advantage out of the market.

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The executive branch isn’t the only arena in which the Obama affirmative action crusade will be felt over the next four years. The legislative branch, too, offers manifold opportunities for mischief. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-148), or “Obamacare,” for example, offers a generous supply of tripwire. Section 5301, which defines criteria for federal aid to medical schools, contains a subsection, “Priorities in Making Awards.” It states: “The Secretary [of Health and Human Services] shall give priority to qualified applicants that…have a record of training individuals who are from underrepresented minority groups.” Section 5303,...

Full title: Judicial Watch Obtains ‘4 to 5 inch Stack’ of ‘Overlooked’ CIA Records Detailing Meetings with bin Laden Filmmakers Obama Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications: Obama White House ‘trying to have visibility into the UBL (Usama bin Laden) projects.’ (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it has obtained records from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Department of Defense (DOD) regarding meetings and communications between government agencies and Kathryn Bigelow, the Academy Award-winning director of The Hurt Locker, and screenwriter Mark Boal in preparation for their film Zero Dark Thirty, which details the capture...

An anti-Islam blog that failed to remove inflammatory comments from a few of its readers will be permanently taken down by its hosting company, WordPress, on January 6 as the result of a number of complaints filed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). The site, “Bare Naked Islam: It isn’t Islamophobia when they really ARE trying to kill you” (www.barenakedislam.com) will be taken down in two weeks by WordPress according to the website’s owner, Bonnie (*last name withheld). Bonnie, in an exclusive interview, told Big Government that WordPress suddenly blocked her site “around Thanksgiving” and sent her a message...

Presidential Press Secretary Jay Carney assured a puzzled media that General Electric’s “zero tax liability is a legitimate demonstration of the positive reinforcement President Obama intends to use to inspire businesses to cooperate in the implementation of his agenda for change.” “It would be counterproductive for the Administration to be indifferent to the diverse attitudes of the major players in our economy,” Carney continued. “There have to be incentives to distinguish between our friends and enemies when it comes to policy. Presidents going back to FDR have used the IRS and its authority over taxes to help provide the type...

Issa demands details on Countrywide's VIP loan programBy Peter Schroeder - 02/16/11 06:31 PM ET Bank of America will have to turn over all documents and records tied to Countrywide Financial's VIP lending program after House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) issued a subpoena for them Wednesday. Issa announced the far-reaching subpoena, his first as chairman of the panel, and made clear that he wanted to know specifically what public employees or elected officials may have benefited from the program. Issa is looking for all documents about the program, and is particularly interested in what "covered borrowers" were involved...

The contention that President Obama’s health care law would provide a comprehensive solution to the nation’s health care needs is being contradicted on pretty much a daily basis by his Department of Health and Human Services where Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has already issued 733 exemptions. “We have the authority to waive compliance in cases where we deem it best,” Sebelius explained. “Parties that can make a proper case will get a fair hearing.” Thus far, “exemptees” include the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the states of Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio and Tennessee, major corporations McDonald’s and Jack in the Box...

Today’s the day that the House of Representatives votes (or doesn’t vote) on ObamaCare — a radical scheme that incorporates the most drastic changes in US health-care delivery in more than four decades. And it may well, in the long run, saddle the American economy with so much debt that it will make today’s troubled times look like the days of wine and roses. Next up: sharply higher taxes, soaring health-insurance costs and a reduction in spending on Medicare for the elderly. President Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have been trying to win over stillreluctant Democrats by waving around...

Perhaps Conservatives and Republicans should start jamming the C-Span Democrat phone lines just like the Democrats do. This morning was a prime example when the discussion was regarding Obama's appearance before the Republicans yesterday. The C-Span host let obvious Democrats ramble on about the greatness of Obama when he had already announced they called in on the Republican line. They let one Republican through - the very last caller. They definitely got an email from me. They need a new call screener, and they definitely need hosts that will not allow speakers to continue talking when they are obviously calling...

"There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America," declared Barack Obama at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. "There's the United States of America.'' One year has passed since Barack Obama and a Democratic Congress were swept into power. We felt our racial sins had been washed away as millions of whites pulled the lever for Barack Obama. He promised us unity and clearly implied that he would govern in a color-blind way. This promise, like so many others, has been broken. The administration and Congress have passed policies clearly based on favoritism....

With less than half the doses estimated to be needed likely to actually be available, the government has set rules aimed at directing short supplies to those deemed most vulnerable. As expected, children and pregnant women top the publicized priority list. Unexpectedly, though, it has been disclosed that Wall Street bankers and brokers have also been allocated a share of the scarce supply. U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner explained that “ordinary people can’t be expected to understand the strategic need for us to keep Wall Street up and running. Missing a single day’s trading because of the flu could cost...

Lawmakers Chide Automakers Over Dealership Cuts GM Issues State-by-State Closings List By Dan Eggen and Kendra Marr Washington Post Staff Writers Saturday, June 13, 2009 Out of the 1,323 General Motors dealers targeted for elimination, the most will come from Pennsylvania. Ninety dealerships will be forced to wind down in the state. Pennsylvania is followed by Ohio with 79, Illinois with 66, California with 65 and New York with 60. GM, which has declined to name individual dealers, released the state-by-state list for the first time yesterday to a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee. And lawmakers vented their frustration, demanding...

Earlier today at my blog, I noted in a post updating the sad situations at bankrupt Chrysler and headling-for-bankruptcy General Motors, that GM is, according to a Wednesday Reuters report, offering secured bondholders a much better deal than the 29 cents on the dollar Chrysler's secured creditors have been offered. Chrysler's "non-TARP secured lenders," after what they allege with much evidential support was a campaign of threats and intimidation by President Obama and the White House, abandoned their efforts to have their first-lien rights recognized in bankruptcy court. But Indiana pension funds holding some of that secured debt representing teachers,...

Stunning Blunder Just Another Strand In Web Of Explanations. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd went one contrivance too far last week at his carefully choreographed press event to explain his mortgage deals with Countrywide Financial. Dodd has engaged in so many contradictions in trying to manage the gathering storm that he probably did not recognize his stunning blunder. At his Monday event, Dodd wouldn't let reporters have copies of the selected documents he let them glimpse. Instead, Dodd released a report from a Chicago firm hired with campaign funds to review his mortgage transactions. The report is carefully constructed to vindicate...