So the Senate Banking Committee is trying to hash out legislation creating a new consumer protection agency that would have the power to write and enforce rules governing payday lenders, debt collectors and other financial companies that are not part of banks. Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) is pushing to exempt the payday loan industry from the enforcement part. The agency would be able to write all the rules they want; they just couldn’t do anything about it when a payday lender broke them. This follows serious lobbying by the Community Financial Services Association, (CFSA), a trade group of pay-day lenders created in 1999 by W. Allen Jones, founder of Check into Cash, and others in the industry.” Read more…»

I love hockey. I love hockey players. In no other professional sport do you see the majority of the players, including the superstars, playing for the love of the game. Thank God they’re not like professional basketball players. There’s no cashing in and then riding the gravy train. Hockey players bring their A-game every game they play, every minute they play.

Nowhere is this more apparent than when watching them represent their countries at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. These guys don’t have to play in the Olympics, risking injury. Just ask the NBA stars who demur when invited to represent the United States at the Olympic games. Read more…»

Affordable public transportation is great, but this isn’t about that.  This is about taxes (bad) and deficits (real bad) and banks (oh my  god, what is up with these guys?) and government entitlements (hey, I like my entitlements!)  This is about finding a way to lower taxes, fund entitlement programs, eliminate budget deficits and stop allowing ourselves to be strong-armed into bailing out Wall Street and the rest of Corporate America whenever their greed or incompetence takes them over the edge. Read more…»

When all was said and done, the much anticipated Tim Tebow Super Bowl ad was mild, unoffensive, actually kinda sweet. Focus on the Family played pro-choice groups for suckers. The ad wasn’t really an “anti-abortion” spot at all but a very clever media play to get attention for FOF. It was a brilliant marketing move, letting their oponents generate more media coverage than they could possibly purchase.

And it seems NOW is going to keep making FOF look good by releasing ridiculous complaints about the ad. Read more…»

Has anyone who’s screaming for the resignation Rahm Emanuel, White House Chief of Staff, actually read the Wall Street Journal item that first brought his usage of the dreaded “R” word to national attention? Read more…»