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Gov't can't function like 'venture capital company'

OneNewsNow

An advocate for free enterprise says the Department of Energy's loan to an electric car company amounts to more crony capitalism.

The $529-million loan to Fisker Automotive was announced in 2009. According to Tom Borelli of The National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR), Fisker Automotive has ties to the Obama administration, just like solar-panel maker Solyndra.

"With Fisker, what we have is the Department of Energy loan that was given -- while Obama was president -- to Fisker Automotive. And some of the backers of Fisker Automotive are none other than Al Gore, former vice president and climate scare-monger, and John Doerr, who's on President Obama's economic advisory panel," Borelli reports.

Tea Party to Mayor: Make ‘Occupy Richmond’ Pay Up

CBS Washington

The Richmond Tea Party is accusing Mayor Dwight Jones of taking a soft stance against the “Occupy Richmond” protesters and is demanding that the group pay up.

After nearly three weeks of protests and overnight stays in Kanawha Plaza, the Richmond Tea Party is about to send Jones a bill for about $8,000 on the basis that “Occupy Richmond” has been using the area illegally and for free.

Richmond Tea Party spokeswoman Colleen Owens told CBS Washington that the protesters have been given special treatment and free reign of the park and have not had to comply with the strict liability and security provisions that the city required of a Tea Party Tax Day in 2009.

Girl Scouts Allow 7-Year-Old Boy to Join Because He is ‘Living Life as a Girl’

CNS News

The Girl Scouts of Colorado are allowing a 7-year-old boy to join a local troop because he is “living life as a girl.”

“We make the distinction that if a child is living life as a girl and the family brings the child to us and says my daughter wants to be a Girl Scout, we welcome her,” Rachelle Trujillo, vice president of communications with Girl Scouts of Colorado told CNSNews.com.

Iran Hails Tunisian Election Result, Predicts Islamist Victories in Egypt, Libya

CNS News

Welcoming the apparent victory of an Islamist party in Tunisia, Iran’s leadership is predicting similar results when Egyptians and Libyans get to vote in their first elections after overthrowing dictators in what Tehran has branded the 2011 “Islamic awakening.”

As of Wednesday evening, the “moderate Islamist” Ennahda party had won 65 of the 159 seats announced in the 217-seat constituent assembly, which will be tasked with drafting a new constitution for Tunisia

House Republicans Seeking Waiver of Environmental Laws That Hamper Border Patrol

Associated Press

Federal agents trying to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border say they're hampered by laws that keep them from driving vehicles on huge swaths of land because it falls under U.S. environmental protection, leaving it to wildlife — and illegal immigrants and smugglers who can walk through the territory undisturbed.

A growing number of lawmakers are saying such restrictions have turned wilderness areas into highways for criminals. In recent weeks, three congressional panels, including two in the GOP-controlled House and one in the Democratic-controlled Senate, have moved to give the Border Patrol unfettered access to all federally managed lands within 100 miles of the border with Mexico.

U.S. Funding on the Line As UNESCO Mulls Membership for ‘Palestine’

CNS News

The United Nations’ cultural agency has begun a high-level conference that will decide on an application for membership for “Palestine” – a move that could lead to a legally-mandated severing of U.S. funding.

Unless intensive lobbying results in the Palestinian Authority (P.A.) withdrawing its request, the application is expected to achieve the required two-thirds majority in a vote by the General Conference of the Paris-based U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

U.S. Gov't Financial Regulators Earn Tax-Funded Salaries of $225,000-Plus

CNS News

Federal employees at several financial regulatory agencies – including the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) – are earning six-figure salaries and taking home bonuses up to $5,000, according to federal records obtained by Judicial Watch. At least 228 such regulators make $225,000 a year.

In comparison, members of Congress make $174,000 a year; the Speaker of the House makes $223,500; and the majority and minority leaders pull in $193,400 a year.

Vatican calls for global authority on economy, raps “idolatry of the market”

Reuters

The Vatican called on Monday for the establishment of a “global public authority” and a “central world bank” to rule over financial institutions that have become outdated and often ineffective in dealing fairly with crises. The document from the Vatican’s Justice and Peace department should please the “Occupy Wall Street” demonstrators and similar movements around the world who have protested against the economic downturn.

Car Company Gets U.S. Loan, Builds Cars In Finland

ABC News

With the approval of the Obama administration, an electric car company that received a $529 million federal government loan guarantee is assembling its first line of cars in Finland, saying it could not find a facility in the United States capable of doing the work.

Vice President Joseph Biden heralded the Energy Department's $529 million loan to the start-up electric car company called Fisker as a bright new path to thousands of American manufacturing jobs. But two years after the loan was announced, the job of assembling the flashy electric Fisker Karma sports car has been outsourced to Finland.

Pros, cons of Cain's 9-9-9 plan

OneNewsNow

A financial investments expert is sharing his thoughts on Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan.

Herman Cain (New Voice, Inc.)The GOP presidential candidate's economic proposal was a hot topic of discussion during Tuesday night's debate in Las Vegas -- and has been since the longshot moved in the "top tier" of presidential contenders. The plan calls for a nine-percent flat business tax, a nine-percent flat individual tax, and a nine-percent national sales tax.

Cain's website says it "taxes the broadest possible base at the lowest possible rates" and is "neutral with respect to savings and consumption, capital and labor, imports and exports, and whether companies pay dividends or retain earnings."

Dan Celia of Financial Issues Stewardship Ministries says he likes the idea of flat business and individual taxes but is not sold on the idea of the national sales tax.

Energy Dept Should Have Sought Legal Opinion on Solyndra Loan, Treasury Official Tells Congress

CNS News

Treasury Department officials said they could not recall another time the government put the interest of private investors in front of those of taxpayers before the loan restructuring for the bankrupt but politically connected solar panel firm Solyndra.

Further, one department official told a House panel that the restructuring of the $535 million loan should have been reviewed by the Justice Department.

Calif. Dems in Congress Want Obama to Refinance All Mortgages Held by Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac

CNS News

Saying they are unhappy with how President Obama has responded to the mortgage crisis, Democrats who represent California in Congress want the president to push the Federal Housing Finance Authority (FHFA) to refinance all mortgages currently owned by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to take advantage of historically low market rates.

Who's behind the Wall St. protests?

Reuters

Anti-Wall Street protesters say the rich are getting richer while average Americans suffer, but the group that started it all may have benefited indirectly from the largesse of one of the world's richest men.

There has been much speculation over who is financing the disparate protest, which has spread to cities across America and lasted nearly four weeks. One name that keeps coming up is investor George Soros, who in September debuted in the top 10 list of wealthiest Americans. Conservative critics contend the movement is a Trojan horse for a secret Soros agenda.

Soros and the protesters deny any connection. But Reuters did find indirect financial links between Soros and Adbusters, an anti-capitalist group in Canada which started the protests with an inventive marketing campaign aimed at sparking an Arab Spring type uprising against Wall Street. Moreover, Soros and the protesters share some ideological ground.

Many freed Palestinian prisoners may be deported

Associated Press

A Hamas official said Thursday that close to 200 of the 450 Palestinians to be freed in the first phase of a swap for a captured Israeli soldier will not be allowed to return to their homes in the West Bank, Gaza or east Jerusalem, suggesting a substantial number may face deportation.

The official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to release the figures, told reporters that 272 of the 450 prisoners to be released in the initial stage of the swap for Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit can go home. That means the remaining 178 are likely to be deported to third countries or — if they are from the West Bank or east Jerusalem — to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. The Hamas official did not name any countries that might be a destination for those expelled.

Gingrich: Plot to Kill Saudi Ambassador Shows Obama Is ‘Clueless’ About Iran

CNS News

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich says the Iranian plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. is a “very embarrassing and difficult moment” for the Obama administration, which has tried to engage with the Iranian regime.

Revelation of the plot “blows up their whole strategy,” Gingrich told Fox & Friends on Wednesday morning.

“When you have a country which has so much contempt for you that it’s actively seeking to kill ambassadors and blow up embassies on your territory – which would be an act of war normally – there’s something profoundly wrong with our approach to Iran, and they’re showing us, by their actions, how weak they think the Obama administration is.”

Cain: 'Why Don't You Move the Demonstrations to the White House?'

CNS News

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain called for the Occupy Wall Street protestors to relocate to the White House, in remarks he made Friday at the Family Research Council’s annual Values Voter Summit, in Washington, D.C.

“When a reporter asked me the other day: Well, what do you think about those demonstrations up on Wall Street? I said, first of all, Wall Street didn’t write these failed economic policies, the White House did,” said Cain.

He then added: “Why don’t you move the demonstrations to the White House?”

Senate Expected to Nix Obama's 'Jobs' Bill Tuesday; Even Some Dems Voting No

Associated Press

President Barack Obama's jobs bill, facing a critical test in the Senate, appears likely to fail because Republicans oppose its spending components and its tax surcharge on millionaires.

4 Obama has been waging a campaign-style effort to rally public support behind the $447 billion measure, which was expected to be the subject of a Senate vote Tuesday. The plan combines payroll tax cuts for workers and businesses with $175 billion in spending on roads, school repairs and other infrastructure, as well as unemployment assistance and help to local governments to avoid layoffs of teachers, firefighters and police officers.

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