Free Republic

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid helped steer billions of federal tax dollars to companies supporting a green energy group run by two of his former staff members and a current campaign operative.The Nevada Democrat pushed for millions of dollars in grants and billions more in federal loan guarantees for corporations that donated to the Clean Energy Project, a nonprofit founded by a pair of former staffers with close ties to both Reid and to a major Democratic PAC associated with the senator, Lachlan Markay of the Washington Free Beacon reported.One such company, California-based Fulcrum Bioenergy, received a hefty federal grant...

I have just recently become an active poster (responder), and have seen the term "Crony Capitalism" used without explanation. Recently I saw the term associated with Communism, which confused me further. A "google" does little to clear things up, particularly in regards to how it might be interchangeable with communism. Can anyone help clear things up?

When Bain Capital sought to raise money in 1989 for a fast-growing office-supply company named Staples, Mitt Romney, Bain’s founder, called upon a trusted business partner: Goldman Sachs, whose bankers led the company’s initial public offering. When Mr. Romney became governor of Massachusetts, his blind trust gave Goldman much of his wealth to manage, a fortune now estimated to be as much as $250 million. And as Mr. Romney mounts his second bid for the presidency, Goldman is coming through again: Its employees have contributed at least $367,000 to his campaign, making the firm Mr. Romney’s largest single source of...

Becoming the most hypocritical politician in America is not an easy goal to achieve, but New York’s Rep. Anthony Weiner, a Democrat, is up to the task. Earlier this year, the Obama administration began rewarding its union friends and others with an escape from the clutches of Obamacare. Now one of the most outspoken Obamacare supporters - the man who actually said, “I wrote the bill … the bill and I are one” wants his own “get out of jail free” card from this abominable law. Moments of unmistakable clarity may not always find their way to the president’s teleprompter,...

Two powerful Senate Democrats said Tuesday that they knew they got low mortgage-rate deals in a lender's VIP program but thought the special treatment was a "courtesy" or the same as "frequent flier" discounts. Both vehemently denied any wrongdoing or ethical lapse in the mortgage deals, which came to light a year ago and triggered investigations by the Senate Select Committee on Ethics and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. "I thought this was like a frequent-flier program," Sen. Kent Conrad, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said of the special benefits. "I thought nothing of it." Sen. Christopher...

If you think moderate Democrats are afraid of voting for ObamaCare, you should see how they react to a potential vote on the Countrywide Financial loan scandal. The House oversight committee was scheduled to meet on Thursday afternoon to mark up several minor pieces of legislation. Days before the meeting, California Republican Darrell Issa notified committee Chairman Edolphus Towns that Mr. Issa would call for a vote to subpoena Countrywide documents from Bank of America, which bought the failed subprime lender last year. Recall that, under the "Friends of Angelo" program, named for former Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo, Democratic Senators...

Like millions of Americans, Delaware Republican Senate nominee Christine O'Donnell has had trouble covering her mortgage and other bills over the years. Her opponents consider this a scandal of disqualifying proportions. But there's a bigger disgrace: It's all the sanctimonious Democrats who have exploited their entrenched political incumbency to pay for multiple manses and vacation homes -- while posing as vox populi. Former senior senator from Delaware and current Vice President Joe Biden has a custom-built house in Delaware's ritziest Chateau Country neighborhood. It is now worth at least $2.5 million and is the Bidens' most valuable asset. Biden tapped...

Though federal regulations require offshore drilling locations to be inspected by the Department of the Interior's Minerals Mining Service every 30 days, those inspections have repeatedly not happened since the Deepwater Horizon site was permitted by MMS in 2001 – including one out of every four months since President Obama's inauguration. ABC News has learned that in the 16 months from January 2009 through April 2010 MMS failed to inspect Deepwater Horizon four times – in May 2009, August 2009, December 2009, and January 2010. The reasons for the lack of inspections, sources said, were logistic.

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has responded critically to a video that berates the sale of IndyMac Bank’s failed remains as a sweetheart deal. In the video “The Indymac Slap in our Face,” the website Thinkbigworksmall explains how the FDIC deal gave IndyMac’s buyers strong profit incentives to force foreclosures and short sales rather than to modify troubled mortgages. It’s a convincing tale and easy to follow.

With much-publicized ties between President Barack Obama, the SEIU labor union and the ACORN volunteer organization, it would be a safe assumption that someone with a business relationship with not just one, but both of those groups would have an inside track on doing business with an Obama associate. But in the world of big money Democratic Chicago politics, there is a difference between white-collar clout and blue-collar clout. Chicago real estate developer Thomas Bennett thought he had a deal in hand to purchase the old Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) building at 626 West Jackson, just blocks from Union Station....

It is still far from clear what the White House’s new strategy to pass health care reform will be in the face of Scott Brown’s election to the Senate. But according to Federal News Radio negotiations between the House and Senate are still ongoing, including this victory for House Democrats: Federal employees covered under some of the more expensive plans in the Federal Employees Heath

By James Rosen - FOXNews.com The Obama administration this month awarded a $25 million federal contract for work in Afghanistan to a company owned by a prominent Democratic campaign contributor without entertaining competitive bids, Fox News has learned. Despite President Obama’s long history of criticizing the Bush administration for “sweetheart deals” with favored contractors, the Obama administration this month awarded a $25 million federal contract for work in Afghanistan to a company owned by a Democratic campaign contributor without entertaining competitive bids, Fox News has learned.

Non Union workers will be forced to pay the difference!Two neighbors do the same kind of work. One is a member of a union and the other is not. Both work in fields which require a substantial health insurance plan. So why is it that the neighbor in the non-union job will now pay a 40% tax on a premium health insurance plan and the union neighbor will get a waiver on that tax until 2018? It's another smack in the face to fairness that has been all too common in the Democrat conduct of health care "reform." First there...

For organized labor, if there's anything better than a federal takeover of health insurance, it's a federal takeover of health care with a major tax break for union members. Union leaders, led by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka (see photo), this week gave the country a first-hand lesson on how to play behind-the-scenes political hardball. Yesterday, following a three-day marathon negotiating session, the nation's top labor officials announced they had reached an agreement to delay introduction of a federal excise tax on high-cost health insurance plans on their rank and file. While a number of Republicans are calling the deal a...

Republicans and Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee agreed Friday night on language for a wide-reaching subpoena of Countrywide Financial’s VIP lending program as part of an investigation into allegations of influence peddling by the company at all levels of government, committee aides said. The subpoena, which was sent out Friday night, will ask the lender to fork over documents relating to its “Friends of Angelo” program – named for CEO Angelo Mozilo, who allegedly offered favorable mortgage rates to persons of influence.

Sen. Christopher Dodd, a top figure in Democrats' response to the housing crisis, defended through a spokesman two mortgages he reportedly received under a special Countrywide Financial Corp. program that awarded preferential interest rates to people referred to as "friends" of the company's chairman and chief executive, Angelo Mozilo. "The Dodds received a competitive rate on their loans," said Bryan DeAngelis, Sen. Dodd's press secretary. "They did not seek or anticipate any special treatment, and they were not aware of any." He declined further comment. The news could cause headaches for the Connecticut senator, who is trying to negotiate housing...

I have really learned to like Ben Bernanke. He’s the man. And his interest-rate cuts are vastly more effective than the so-called economic-stimulus rebate plan coming out of Congress and the White House. Why do I say this? Simple. I just got my latest adjustable-rate mortgage statement from the bank. When I originally refinanced this loan, it was 5.75 percent. And last summer my ARM soared to 8.25 percent. But guess what? Through February it has round-tripped all the way back to 6 percent