Free Republic

While officially nonpartisan, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) occasionally lends its credibility to the most fashionable theories emanating from the left. The agency’s green eyeshades issued a report Wednesday that perpetuates one of Washington’s biggest lies: that drivers don’t pay enough in taxes. Bureaucrats and rent-seeking corporate allies have teamed up to advocate a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. They want continuous tracking of everyone’s driving so that every mile can be taxed. The claim is that driver’s aren’t paying their fair share because the $35 billion collected in federal gasoline taxes doesn’t cover highway spending. Never mind...

Excerpt only website: The government is taking over three Tylenol plants following a blizzard of drug recalls and a Food and Drug Administration criminal investigation into safety issues at the factories. The FDA and the Justice Department on Thursday took action against McNeil PPC and two of its executives -- its vice president of quality and its vice president of operations for over-the-counter products -- for failing to comply with federally-mandated manufacturing practice. McNeil, a division of Johnson & Johnson (JNJ, Fortune 500), said it had agreed to put its plants -- one in Las Piedras, Puerto Rico, one in...

The share of Americans planning to buy an auto in the next six months rose to 13.2% this month, easily the highest reading since the Conference Board began tracking this measure in 1978. Auto sales for GM(GM), Ford (F) and others have been hot in recent months. Auto loan credit approvals for first-time buyers have risen for the first time since the start of the recession, climbing 4.5% since October, LeaseTrader.com said.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Few people in this city 800 miles south of Detroit cared much about the auto industry until Hyundai announced it would build cars here nine years ago. These days, Montgomery cannot stop talking about it. Hyundai and its sister company, Kia, which opened a plant last year just across the Georgia state line, have brought thousands of well-paying jobs to the region and even helped nurture a little Korean culture in Montgomery, the first capital of the old Confederacy. Hyundai is running its Montgomery plant almost nonstop. Rarely do more than a few weeks pass without word...

What's better than morning coffee...? Try an adrenaline rush... now available online lol- Here's a cool Shell commercial produced for the European market: ostensibly the Ferrari F1 racing team sponsor is selling gasoline here, but the historic Ferrari racing cars steal the show... Scuderia Ferrari actually pulled several near-priceless Formula One veterans out of storage and flew them around the world to film them running hard through the streets of Rome , Rio , New York , Hong Kong and Monaco.  And there are no special effects or dubbed sound here, just original 14,000+rpm cars tearing up the streets... as the genuine...

The new Mini Cooper Countryman can get 63 MPGs on the highway – just not on our highways. Like so many other high-mileage, diesel-powered vehicles, it’s not available in the United States. Instead we get gas-electric turkeys like the Toyota Prius hybrid – which maxes out at 48 MPGs on the highway. If you drive it at around 47 MPH in the left lane with your turn signal blinking… .

  The New York Times reports that the auto industry "overhaul" (AKA General Motors' bankruptcy) is about to "pay off handsomely" for UAW workers at GM. GM, along with Ford, is expected to announce profit-sharing checks for hourly workers this month. UAW president, Bob King, states that workers expect to get a piece of GM's profits. There was a time when publicly traded companies were expected to deliver profits to shareholders in the form of dividends or increased share price. This model seems to have been subordinated at General Motors where the desires of politically favored union members seem...

MOSCOW (AFP) – The Russian government on Tuesday approved a plan to build a highway through a forest outside Moscow, in defiance of protests that had become a rare rallying cause for the opposition. Demonstrations against the building of the new highway between Moscow and Saint Petersburg through Khimki forest had prompted President Dmitry Medvedev to postpone the project, in a rare nod by the state to popular pressure. But Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said the government commission tasked with investigating the project had after all given its green light to the plan. The commission approved the building of...

On our brand new 2011 Jetta, we just discovered a flaw,imo, no parking lights, only day-time FRONT lights (no lights rear of car). I was thinking that could be dangerous, because many people count on parking lights in the early dusk, and might think the day-time lights also have lights in the rear. Some people also count on parking lights (with rear lighting) if they pull over to the side of the road, say with car trouble, and choose parking lights, rather than the hazard lights. We thoroughly read the part on lights, so it won't be a problem for...

Just two years after a taxpayer bailout salvaged General Motors, some of the nation's largest retail brokerage firms are apparently being shut out of what is poised to be a lucrative investment opportunity as the auto company goes public. Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW - News), TD Ameritrade, and E*Trade are not accepting client orders for GM shares at the moment because they do not expect to receive stock allocations when the company goes public next week, according to investors and brokerage-firm employees. Other big retail brokerages, such as Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS - News), are expected to get shares, however, as are...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- General Motors is recalling nearly 14,000 sedans to address potential problems with power steering. And Chrysler is recalling about 16,000 Jeep Liberty SUVs to fix faulty windshield wiper systems. [Snip] GM's recall involves certain 2010 and 2011 model year Cadillac DTS and Buick Lucerne sedans with V8 engines. An alternator cable could wear through a power steering line, leading to a fluid leak that could cause a loss of power steering and lead to a crash.

General Motors Co. said it is recalling 303,100 Chevrolet Impalas because the vehicles' front seat belts may not properly protect passengers. The automaker said that in in 2009 and 2010 Impalas, the front safety belt straps may not be not secured to the lap belt anchor pretensioner that is mounted on the side of the doors. The straps can separate from the anchor in a crash, no longer restraining the passenger. No injuries or deaths have been reported, GM said.

Hybrid cars and those fuelled by natural gas produce significantly less carbon dioxide (CO2) than equivalent vehicles running on gasoline. In the course of a study undertaken on behalf of the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), the results of which were recently published, Empa has investigated the CO2 emission behavior of current hybrid cars. A comparison with gasoline and natural gas fuelled vehicles concludes that hybrid vehicles are the cleanest during inner-city driving whilst natural gas fuelled cars do best on the motorway. When driven in rural areas, both types do equally well. Under mixed conditions (that is...

The fire at a Mariner Energy Inc. oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico has spurred calls for even stricter controls over who might be allowed to drill where for oil. This particular well is too shallow to have been covered by President Obama’s moratorium on deep water drilling. Both the fire and the fact that the well fell outside the President’s ban was a matter of “grave concern” to Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ).”If nothing else, this disaster is further proof that oil drilling is an inherently dangerous practice one that we must stop,” Lautenberg said. “Most people don’t realize...

EXCLUSIVE Stig was SAS Hero  RACING driver Ben Collins, unmasked yesterday as Top Gear mystery man The Stig, is a former member of the SAS. Ben trained SAS heroes in daring "escape and evade" driving skills while serving with the regiment, The Sun can reveal.     No more mystery nice guy ... Ben Collins aka The Stig   Millions of viewers have seen the race ace coaching celebrities on how to achieve the fastest time around a TV circuit in Top Gear's reasonably-priced car. But sources close to the special forces unit - motto Who Dares Wins - last night...

There are 8 million stories in the naked city and over 8000 publicly traded stocks to choose from, so don't waste your time on GM's IPO. That, in a nutshell, is James Altucher's view of the most widely anticipated IPO in recent memory. "Absolutely I would not go anywhere near the IPO, says Altucher, managing director at Formula Capital. "GM is one huge question mark." Altucher notes GM has only had two quarters of profitability prior to its filing, which is mainly a "political event," he says. "It's a great PR event right before the November elections [but] I would...

Investment advisers say the highly-anticipated General Motors Co. IPO may not have investors breaking down the doors. Tom Mangan, senior vice president and portfolio manager with Beavercreek-based James Investment Research Inc., said GM’s initial public offering will be a hard sell, with many institutional investors wary of a company that is run by the government. “Former shareholders and bondholders will most likely be reluctant to jump back into the stock, especially given the disingenuous commercial by CEO (Ed) Whiteacre where he said GM paid back its government loan in full,” Mangan said. In addition, Mangan said brokers will not be...

General Motors’ much anticipated initial public offering filing finally landed on Wednesday. But investors shouldn’t get too caught up in the hype. Sure, the automaker looks in pretty decent shape thanks to last year’s bankruptcy clean-up, and car sales are motoring away from last year’s lows. But to repay U.S. taxpayers in full, GM needs to at least double its earnings. That’s assuming the carmaker is valued at the same earnings multiple as Ford Motor. Granted, GM and its bankers could argue that it has advantages over its cross-town rival that may warrant a higher valuation. It has far less...

General Motors Co. detailed its second consecutive quarter of profitability after exiting bankruptcy last July. That is a good thing for GM and everything and everybody connected. But with the economy plodding and U.S. auto sales in lockstep, GM's best days - at least for this year - may already be behind it. In a conference call with reporters and analysts Thursday, CFO Chris Liddell acknowledged it. "The second half (of this year) will be lower than the first half. You'll see some moderation," in GM's performance, Liddell said. So while GM generally basked in upbeat media exposure of its...

Chrysler's Ram truck division is taking direct aim at hunters with a unique feature on its new line of Outdoorsman pickup trucks - a gun closet. Called the The Mopar RamBox Holster, its a rack that can hold two rifles or shotguns inside one of the lockable, watertight compartments located on either side of the pickup bed. A $205 option - on top of the $1895 price of the RamBox feature itself - the rack can be rotated to hold six fishing poles for those who prefer quieter trips into the great outdoors. The Outdoorsman starts at $28,350 and includes...