Free Republic

Bob Lutz, the former Vice Chairman of General Motors, is the most famous also-ran in the auto business. In the course of his 47-year rampage through the industry, he's been within swiping range of the brass ring at Ford, BMW, Chrysler and, most recently, GM, but he's never landed the top gig. It's because he "made the cars too well," he says. It might also have something to do with the fact that Maximum Bob, who could double as a character on Mad Men, is less an éminence grise than a pithy self-promoter who has a tendency to go off...

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) held a briefing Friday and countered many of the claims made by House Republicans in another briefing held earlier in the day. “It’s been day 185 of the Republican majority in the Congress and we have still not seen one jobs bill come to the floor,” said Pelosi. “This is obviously reflected in jobs number this morning.” The Democrats, on the other hand, “have put probably twenty job initiatives on the floor and the Republicans have rejected every one of them,” declared Pelosi. The former Speaker of the House also pointed to the number of...

George Soros said he was staying out of the 2010 elections. It appears he wasn't exactly telling the truth. After helping Al Franken steal a U.S. Senate seat in 2008, Soros's ultra-wealthy buddies in the Democracy Alliance, a billionaires' club that funds left-wing political infrastructure, are spending money to level the playing field for vote fraudsters. (Soros is also funding an effort to take away democratic elections for state supreme courts, as John Gizzi notes in a new Capital Research Center paper.) Their money is flowing to secretary of state candidates directly and to

Military recruiters visited Tucson-area high schools more than 1,300 times in the 2004-05 school year, but, contrary to critics' charges, did not appear to target poor or minority students, according to an analysis by the Arizona Daily Star of recruiter activity at 21 schools. Community support for the military seemed a bigger driving factor in where recruiters go, with high schools in conservative suburbs such Oro Valley, Marana and Vail drawing more military visits than those in many other parts of the city. For example, Ironwood Ridge High School in Oro Valley, one of the most heavily Anglo and well-off...

HIT, Iraq (August 5, 2005) -- Marines with 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment have a new weapon in the war against terrorism and it is simple, effective and voluntary. The tip lines provided by Regimental Combat Team-2 allows citizens here and in surrounding communities to assist in the fight to make their city safe and secure while remaining anonymous and safe from reprisal from insurgents. Since March, a tip line was provided for the Hadithah area, which proved ineffective and unsecure. Two new lines were installed a few weeks ago and are ringing off the hook. “We have been advertising...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Sen. John Kerry's campaign released a video Saturday comparing the controversy over Kerry's Vietnam service to attacks on John McCain during the 2000 Republican primaries. The video, sent via e-mail to supporters, says, "George Bush is up to his old tricks" and shows then-Texas Gov. Bush and Arizona Sen. John McCain at a debate in February 2000. McCain, sitting next to Bush, says that when "fringe veterans groups" attacked him at a Bush campaign function, Bush stood by and didn't say a word. McCain says a group of senators wrote Bush a letter that said: "Apologize. You...

<p>The New Deal Carlos Serrao Blackjack is a simple game, but blackjack tables are fast becoming sophisticated hotbeds of surveillance technology. Casinos now monitor cards using invisible codes, track chips with radio-frequency tags, and scrutinize players through facial recognition software. The odds of winning are getting worse, too. Play at your own risk. 1. Spying on Players The second you walk into the joint, cameras record your mug and plug it into a facial recognition database. With thousands of electronic eyes scanning a casino floor, security can probably tell who needs to clip their nose hair. But they're looking for cheaters. When the database finds a match, a large fellow in a dark suit may boot the suspect. 2. Stacking the Deck A new technology from MindPlay reads invisible codes on cards as they're dealt from the shoe. The system knows, in real time, what players are holding and betting. Casinos can snare card counters by comparing their play with known counting strategies. MindPlay also helps dole out fairer comps because it tracks how much cash players drop. 3. Following the Money Conventional gaming chips are made entirely of plastic or clay. Newer chips in some European casinos conceal radio-frequency tags that make it easy to track inventory, betting patterns, and VIP status. A cashier can count 100 of the RF-tagged chips in seven seconds. So far, they're deployed solely in Europe, but US casinos will be on board this year. 4. Shaving the Odds A natural blackjack traditionally pays 1.5 to 1. But in recent years, casinos have discovered they can get away with lower payoffs - and players don't seem to mind. An ace plus that face card you just got may pay only 6 to 5: A $10 bet that once earned $15 yields only $12. Casino owners are laughing all the way to the bank.</p>