Free Republic

I’m not writing her off. No matter how many gaffes she makes, no matter what she writes on her palm, she is not going away. In fact, she may very well be the Republican nominee in 2012, and if the economy hasn’t recovered by then, there’s an outside chance she could win the White House. She is already the favorite among Republicans. A Newsmax-Zogby poll of January 28 had her garnering 22.2 percent of Republican voters, compared to Romney’s 19.4 percent, Gingrich’s 12 percent, Huckabee’s 11 percent, and David Petraeus’s 5.4 percent. She was greeted as royalty at the Tea...

Almost daily, we learn about new problems with the formerly respected UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC):  In their 2001 report, they claimed that the 20th century was "unusual" and blamed it on human-released greenhouse gases.  Their infamous temperature graph shown there, shaped like a hockey stick, did away with the well-established Medieval Warm Period (around 1000AD, when Vikings were able to settle in Southern Greenland and grow crops there) and the following Little Ice Age (around 1400 to 1800AD).  Two Canadians exposed the bad data used by the IPCC and the statistical errors in their analysis. The most...

How should we characterize the economic period we have now entered? After nearly two brutal years, the Great Recession appears to be over, at least technically. Yet a return to normalcy seems far off. By some measures, each recession since the 1980s has retreated more slowly than the one before it. In one sense, we never fully recovered from the last one, in 2001: the share of the civilian population with a job never returned to its previous peak before this downturn began, and incomes were stagnant throughout the decade. Still, the weakness that lingered through much of the 2000s...

Two St. Lucie County sheriff's deputies received counseling after searching a man's home last year without his permission while looking for a man with a felony warrant, according to recently released records. Deputies Clay Mangrum and Matthew Morris in August went to a residence on Bermuda Avenue shortly after midnight while looking for a man with a felony warrant. Morris had gotten a message from a detective indicating the suspect might be there, and Morris asked that Mangrum go look with him. The home's resident, Daniel Tufts, said the suspect was a friend but hadn't lived there for years. Tufts...

An index that measures the health of the US economy by analysing real-time diesel consumption of trucks has cast doubt on the strength of the economic recovery after recording a sharp decline in January. The Pulse of Commerce Index was created by Ceridian, which processes electronic card transactions, and the UCLA Anderson School of Management. It receives data every time a commercial driver fills up a truck with diesel, generating a picture of manufacturing and retail traffic. The index, which launches on Wednesday, has data going back to 1999. Its performance closely tracked rises and falls of gross domestic product....

Field training for the annual Hankuang war games this year will be brought forward to late April to allow the troops to be deployed to help combat possible flooding in the coming typhoon season later in the year, a spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense (MND) announced Tuesday at a news conference. Lee Yue-chang, assistant deputy chief of the General Staff for Operations and Planning under the MND, said the field training will be held in late April instead of in the traditional July-October period so that the troops can be better trained in May and June in preparation...

Smug sages of mainstream politics shouldn't underestimate her ### "No new ideas." That was the most prominent of the criticisms of Sarah Palin's speech at MSNBC's too-cool-for-school "Morning Joe" on Monday. The more general critique of former Gov. Palin's future was that while she certainly had star power, she could never speak to more than a fraction of even Republicans. The proof of the latter point was made with the evidence that many important Washington Republicans could never support her for more than cheerleader to her marginal people. They also pointed out that she had kept out of races in...

It's the Seven Nation Army against the U.S. Air Force Reserve: the White Stripes have taken "strong insult and objection" to a recruitment ad that aired during the Super Bowl. Jack and Meg White's issue with the TV spot? They claim the music used in the commercial is a rip-off of their 2002 breakout single, "Fell in Love with a Girl." "We believe our song was re-recorded and used without permission of the White Stripes, our publishers, label or management," the band wrote in a statement posted on their official website. "We have not licensed this song to the Air...

More than 800 U.S., Thai and South Korean marines stormed a beach Thursday with Seoul joining the annual war games for the first time. The three-week Cobra Gold exercise sends a message that the United States will have a continued presence in the Asia-Pacific region, and the military is one aspect of that presence, said Lt. Gen. Benjamin Nixon, Commander of the U.S. Army, Pacific. The core exercise, being held for the 29th time, will focus on peacekeeping operations and humanitarian and disaster responses. Nixon said South Korea's participation was exciting. "South Korea is a leader in the Asia-Pacific region,...

Warnings about potential hepatotoxicity risks associated with use of diclofenac have been added to the labels of all products containing the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, the Food and Drug Administration said. A notice posted on the FDA's MedWatch site said that the manufacturers—Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Novartis Consumer Health Inc.—had revised the “hepatic effects” section of the diclofenac topical gel label to include new warnings and precautions about the potential for elevated liver function tests (LFTs) during treatment with diclofenac products, including the topical gel formulation marketed as Voltaren Gel 1%. There have been postmarketing reports of severe hepatic reactions, including...

A MAN has been airlifted to hospital with 60 per cent burns to his body following a gas explosion at an Islamic school in Sydney's southwest. The explosion occurred shortly before 9am (AEDT) in a room next to the canteen of Unity Grammar College, Austral, a police spokesman said. A man in his 50s was injured. He was conscious and breathing, and has been airlifted to Royal North Shore Hospital with third degree burns to 60 per cent of his body. An ambulance spokesman said the burns were on the man's face, back and neck. Police are not yet sure...

WASHINGTON — First John McCain lost to Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential race, humbling enough for a politician who had spent a decade pursuing his White House ambitions. Now the Arizona senator is in jeopardy of losing his U.S. Senate seat amid a challenge from within his own party ahead of this fall's midterm elections. McCain, a self-styled maverick who has never been a darling of the American right, is preparing for an unexpected primary election battle against a former GOP congressman who has the backing of members of the anti-establishment Tea Party movement. J.D. Hayworth, who served from...

In an effort to take a bit of a project budget deficit next year of over half a billion dollars, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is considering mass layoffs of city employees. However, most of those laid off would be rehired. But they would have new contracts that call for two and a half fewer hours a week, or 37.5 hours. The plan sounds similar to one instituted in France for all businesses in an effort to reduce unemployment and improve the high quality of French life. That policy has proven controversial, and clearly, so will this one. Not on...

Miki Booth shows her husbands and sons BC'c questions Obama.

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- One in five housing markets entered a second leg of home price declines in late 2009, after showing price increases for nearly half of last year, according to a report released Wednesday by Zillow.com, a real-estate Web site. In 29 of the 143 markets tracked by the site -- including Boston, Atlanta and San Diego -- prices flattened or began to decrease again in the second part of last year, after five or more months of consecutive monthly increases, according to the site's fourth quarter real-estate market report. Home prices in another 29 markets, including Los Angeles...

American Manufacturing Making A Mockery Out of Skeptics Vincent Fernando Feb. 10, 2010, 12:04 AM Amongst all the European gloom, and continuing high U.S. unemployment, U.S. manufacturing is making one of the most robust come backs in the world right now. Noah Weisberg @ Goldman: And within that global cyclical recovery, it may come as a surprise to many that the US is not obviously lagging – what Exhibit 3 shows is that the US manufacturing ISM index level is now among the highest across the world, higher than Europe, but also higher than BRICs. In other words, at least...

Audi car commercial "hits home" for Gavin Newsom and other city dwellersAudi's "Green Police" Super Bowl ad was clearly out to mock environmentalist fervor -- and it hit close to home in greener-than-thou San Francisco. Perhaps that's because it was the brainchild of Audi's advertising agency, San Francisco independent Venables Bell & Partners. Sitting squarely in the "I am white, middle-class man, hear me roar" school of ads, the Cheap Trick-scored commercial suggested a world in which the type of individual decisions that seem meaningless but in the aggregate make a difference are enforced by enthusiastic law enforcement professionals in...

An Oakland man suspected of stealing meals at restaurants throughout the Bay Area might have run out of luck after a $60 gourmet feeding in Tiburon, authorities said. Dwayne Kerry Morgan, 43, was arraigned Friday on charges of burglary, giving false identification and petty theft with prior convictions, said Deputy District Attorney Linda Witong. The incident occurred Thursday night at Servino Ristorante, an upscale Italian restaurant on the Tiburon waterfront, where a man ordered a robust meal of Monterey calamari with marinara ($13.95); the Grigliata Mista plate of grilled ahi, king salmon, calamari steak, prawns and mixed vegetables ($24.95); a...

Al Gore has a new argument for why carbon dioxide is the global warming boogeyman -- and it’s simply out of this world. Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday with yet another one of his infamous slide shows, Gore observed that the carbon dioxide (CO2) in Venus’ atmosphere supercharges the second-planet-from-the-sun’s greenhouse effect, resulting in surface temperatures of about 870 degrees Fahrenheit. Gore added that it’s not Venus’ proximity to the Sun that makes the planet much warmer than the Earth, because Mercury, which is even closer to the Sun, is cooler than Venus. Based on this...

“Hariri: Lebanon stands with Hizbullah in any war with Israel” By JPOST.COM STAFF 10/02/2010 05:41 SNIPPET: “The Lebanese government will stand with Hizbullah in the event of a war with Israel, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri said overnight Tuesday in an interview with the BBC.”

For all of the wonderful things life in the Internet age provides us, there are some notable drawbacks. One of them is that email and popular social media tools like Twitter and Facebook provide powerful launching pads for unchecked rumors and popular myths. Often these rumors and myths are proven false by websites like Snopes.com and FactCheck.org, but not this time. The Internet has been abuzz with rumors that if you drive down Interstate 35 near the town of Wyoming, Minnesota, you'll see a billboard bearing the image of a smiling George W. Bush accompanied by the question "Miss me...

White-owned companies in Zimbabwe are to be forced to hand majority control to black businessmen in a move that could lead to chaos rivalling the seizure of the country's commercial farms. The new regulations demand that all foreign and locally owned companies hand over at least 51 per cent ownership to black Zimbabweans. Thousands of firms, including the Zimbabwean operations of giants such as Barclays Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and the mining company Rio Tinto, will be affected, and they must submit their plans to comply by March 1. Owners who fail to comply could be jailed. The new law...

Despite all the talk of green jobs, the overwhelming majority of stimulus money spent on wind power has gone to foreign companies, according to a new report by the Investigative Reporting Workshop at the American University's School of Communication in Washington, D.C. Nearly $2 billion in money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has been spent on wind power, funding the creation of enough new wind farms to power 2.4 million homes over the past year. But the study found that nearly 80 percent of that money has gone to foreign manufacturers of wind turbines. So Where Are the...

In a flight test reminiscent of the early days of the historic X-15 program 50 years earlier, the X-51A Waverider was carried aloft for the first time over Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., Wednesday, Dec. 9 by an Air Force Flight Test Center B-52H Stratofortress. The "captive carry" test was a key milestone in preparation for the X-51 to light its supersonic combustion ramjet engine and propel the WaverRider at hypersonic speed for about 5 minutes, before plunging into the Pacific Ocean. That flight test is currently planned in about two months, said Charlie Brink, X-51A program manager with the...

In Poll, Republicans Gaining Political Ground On Obama Dan Balz and Jon Cohen February 10, 2010 Republicans have significantly narrowed the gap with Democrats on who is trusted to deal with the country's problems and have sharply reduced several of President Obama's main political advantages, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. The survey paints a portrait of a restless and dissatisfied electorate at the beginning of a critical election year. More than seven in 10 Americans disapprove of the job Congress is doing, and as many say they're inclined to look for new congressional representation as said so...

Palin Delivers Sparkle, Warmth Tony BlankleyWednesday, February 10, 2010"No new ideas." That was the most prominent of the criticisms of Sarah Palin's speech at MSNBC's too-cool-for-school "Morning Joe" on Monday. The more general critique of former Gov. Palin's future was that while she certainly had star power, she could never speak to more than a fraction of even Republicans. The proof of the latter point was made with the evidence that many important Washington Republicans could never support her for more than cheerleader to her marginal people. They also pointed out that she had kept out of races in Massachusetts...

The Rothschild banking dynasty is to appoint a non-family member as chief executive for the first time in its 212-year history, as the group seeks to adapt its management structure to the post-crisis climate. Nigel Higgins, a 27-year veteran of the company who has co-headed the investment banking business for the past decade, will become chief executive of the family holding company in March, taking over from David de Rothschild. Mr Rothschild – he and his son are the only two Rothschild family members involved in the business – will remain as executive chairman. “We all know that organisations that...

Funded in part by Air Force Research Laboratory Manufacturing Technology Small Business Innovation Research contracts, FOPAT Production is producing breakthrough foam patterns for casting foundries and other manufacturers of aerospace components. The advanced patterns will improve casting processes by replacing wax, a known problematic material, with foam. Estimates indicate the development will generate $5 million in yearly energy savings, as well as $140 million in productivity, material savings, and scrap reduction. The work also supports goals of ManTech's Advanced Manufacturing Propulsion Initiative, which seeks to transform the Air Force propulsion supplier base in order both to assure industrial capability and...

"The Eastern Sports & Outdoor Show is a sportsman's paradise, but one where trouble is brewing. There were lots of kids here with their families, walking the nearly 300,000 square feet of the State Farm Show Complex. They were checking out the newest fishing lures, gun blinds and camouflage clothing. But many of the outfitters who set up booths at the show and sell mountain-lion stalks in New Mexico, bear hunts in Maine and African safaris are worried that they're in a dying business. Eastern Sports & Outdoor Show State Farm Show Complex Through Feb. 14 "Most kids wouldn't know...

NEW YORK (WPIX) - PIX News has learned that federal prosecutors are investigating Governor David Paterson's awarding of a lucrative contract to a politically connected group to run a gaming center at Aqueduct Raceway. The embattled Governor who appears to have dodged the bullet of rumors and innuendo that had been circulating over a purported "bombshell" story being prepared by the New York Times, is now part of a probe by the Eastern District U.S. Attorney's office in Brooklyn. Two reliable sources confirm the investigation is "very fresh," but could not say precisely what it is prosecutors are looking at...

Every time I try to give Michael Steele the bnefit of the doubt, he opens his mouth again. "“I don’t see stories about the internal operations of the DNC that I see about this operation,” Steele said. “Why? Is it because Michael Steele is the chairman, or is it because a black man is chairman?”" Talking to ABC News later in the day, the Chairman of the Republican National Committee “clarified” what he meant. "“It’s not because of my race, but race is more of a factor than it ordinarily would be — just as it is for Barack Obama,”...

Shi'ite rebels, despite agreeing to a ceasefire, resumed heavy fighting in northern Yemen. Yemeni sources reported attacks by the Iranian-backed Believing Youth in the northern province of Saada and near the border with Saudi Arabia. The sources said at least 23 Yemeni soldiers were killed in ambushes by Shi'ite rebels on Feb. 5.

A student described as Scotland’s first homegrown terrorist has walked out of court a free man after three senior judges overturned his most serious conviction. Mohammed Atif Siddique, 24, from Alva, Clackmannanshire, was released after prosecutors said during a hearing lasting just a few minutes that they did not intend to seek a retrial. Supporters clapped as Mr Siddique, who was in prison for almost four years, emerged from the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh flanked by his family and his lawyer, Aamer Anwar. In a statement read out by Mr Anwar, Mr Siddique suggested that he had been...

Dean Murray Republican Dean Murray holds a slim lead in the special election in Suffolk County’s 3rd Assembly District, where Democrat Patricia Eddington held office since 2001. Murray had a 186 vote lead and 51 percent with all the precincts reporting, leaving Democrat Lauren Thoden with 49 percent. But 931 absentee ballots were issued in the race, and results of those votes will not be known until the election is certified, which could take a week or more...

No matter what former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin does, she's not going to win any friends in the mainstream modern feminism activist movement in the United States. But that might not be a bad thing. On HLN's Feb. 8 "The Joy Behar Show," Eve Ensler, the writer of the infamous "The Vagina Monologues" appeared on the broadcast to promote her new book "I Am an Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls Around the World." During the interview, she was asked by the show's host Joy Behar what she thought about Sarah Palin, her political prospects and her belief system.

Terrified passengers were left stranded between floors in the world’s tallest building after a lift broke as they were descending in the Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai. Visitors queueing to descend from the observation deck on the 124th floor of the recently opened 828-metre (2,717ft) tower heard a crash and the sound of breaking glass from the lift shaft. Dust then billowed back into the room through the small gaps in the lift shaft doors. The 15 passengers inside the lift were left stranded for 45 minutes before they were rescued by staff who dropped a ladder into the shaft...

aptain Phil Harris -- star of Discovery Channel's "Deadliest Catch" -- died about an hour ago ... sources tell TMZ. Harris was hospitalized a few weeks ago after sufferring a stroke while unloading crabs. He had been doing better until the sudden turn. Captain Harris died in a hospital in Alaska. He was 53. Harris' kids, Jake and Josh, tell TMZ, "It is with great sadness that we say goodbye to our dad, Captain Phil Harris. Dad has always been a fighter and continued to be until the end. For us and the crew, he was someone who never backed...

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Parents of some of the children who 10 U.S. missionaries tried to take out of Haiti after its catastrophic earthquake told a judge Tuesday that they freely handed over their kids, the Americans' lawyer said. The parents' testimony means no law was broken and "we can't talk any more about trafficking of human beings," attorney Aviol Fleurant told reporters.

US Ambassador Asks Brazil to Look at F-18's Quality Before a Final Decision 2010 - February 2010 Written by Marcos Chagas Tuesday, 09 February 2010 06:04 Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva once again stated that a final decision on the purchase of 36 fighter jets for the Brazilian Air Force has still not been made. He went on to say that the proposals by the three finalists remain under examination by the Ministry of Defense. "One thing we insist on is a commitment to unrestricted transfer of all cutting edge technology," said the president in an interview. Lula...

HICKSVILLE, N.Y. (AP) - Republican Michael Montesano has won a special election for a vacant assembly seat on Long Island. Montesano led with 72 percent to 28 percent for Democrat Matthew T. Meng in nearly complete but unofficial results Tuesday night...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has launched his own radio show so he can broadcast direct to the nation. The Venezuelan president, famed for his love of high-profile media opportunities, said that the programme on state radio was a way of talking directly to the people. According to The Times, the first edition of Mr Chavez's show discussed Venezuelan-Argentinian relations, the World Boxing Championship, the 200th anniversary of Latin American independence, and the launch of a new supermarket chain. The state radio station, Radio Nacional de Venezuela, reported that the programme "De repente con Chávez" - Suddenly With Chavez" - was...

SACRAMENTO (CBS 5 / AP) ― The state controller's office on Tuesday found that California taxpayers are on the hook for more state government retiree health benefits than previously thought. Controller John Chiang's office issued a report showing the growing divide between what the state owes retirees for health and dental benefits and what it has saved so far. The gap has grown to nearly $52 billion, about $3.6 billion over last year's estimate. ... "Even as we try to claw our way out of the recession and provide needed cash to the state's coffers, we cannot ignore the promise...

Roske/APHiram Monserrate vows to fight his expulsion from the state Senate. ALBANY - The state Senate voted to boot embattled Sen. Hiram Monserrate on Tuesday night, citing the lawmaker's conviction in the assault on his girlfriend. The vote was 53 to 8 with one abstention. The dramatic vote came after hours of impassioned closed-door debate - the only question seemed to be just when Monserrate would be expelled. Senate Democratic leader John Sampson, wanted to make the ouster effective on June 30, giving Monserrate time to appeal his conviction of misdemeanor assault against his girlfriend. But with Republican support, there...

The Israel Defense Forces has sharply cut back its activity around the Karni border crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip, and defense officials told Haaretz that the crossing, which was closed after Hamas took over the Strip in June 2007, is not slated to reopen in the future. Due to the structure of the crossing, it is at high risk for terror attacks, said an official. This, combined with the inability to coordinate operations with Hamas, led to its abandonment. "The Karni crossing won't resume operating," said one. "At least not as long as Hamas controls the Strip." Advertisement...

Michael Steele anmd the GOP just Embarrased the hell out of themselves and the entire committee by holding an event (apparently packed with idiots) IN HAWAII!! John Stewart mocked the hell out of them

Former President George W. Bush is back, popping up on a Minnesota billboard funded by people who aren't happy with the way things are going in Washington. The billboard features a king-sized picture of the former president, with a tagline that reads "Miss me yet?" "It's really got people's attention. It's making them think," said Wyoming Mayor Sheldon Anderson. Anderson, a Republican, says he doesn't know who funded the billboard, but he agrees with it. "I think it's time government stayed out of the pockets of the people and is this billboard getting that message across? I don't know but...

The relationship between the US and the European Union is cooling. By declining to come to Spain for a trans-Atlantic summit, President Barack Obama made it clear that Brussels is far down on his priority list. The reasons for that can be found in Europe. The US president is traveling a lot these days -- and a clear pattern has emerged. The deeper into the United States it takes him, the better -- be it Nashua, New Hampshire or Tampa, Florida. The issue is always the same: How can Barack Obama create more jobs?

INTENT OF THE LAW What seems equally clear is that Warren and the town of King have misapplied the law; however, broad its language, Article 36A is entitled “Riots and Civil Disorders.” According to a local blogger who personally investigated the incident and described it at saradactyl.com, no such civil disorder existed. The Youtube video she produced on the incident is below.

Columbus has spent about $1.9 million to buy 150 homes with federal money designed to shore up city neighborhoods ravaged by foreclosures and vacant housing. The city bought the houses in Linden, Franklinton and the Hilltop and on the South Side. Purchase prices averaged about $12,666; officials say they expected to spend twice as much, another stark reminder of how bad things have become in some neighborhoods. "We've been shocked at the values," said Donna Hunter, administrator of Columbus' land-redevelopment office. The lenders that sold the foreclosed houses to the city "perceived the neighborhoods as so challenged they were willing...

ABUJA, Nigeria – Nigeria's parliament empowered Vice President Goodluck Jonathan to run Africa's most populous nation Tuesday in place of an ill and absent president, striving for a political end to a crisis that ground the government to a virtual halt and triggered the resumption of an insurgency in the vital oil sector. But the move is not contemplated in the constitution, legal experts say, and could cause more friction between the Christian south, which gains the presidency at least temporarily, and Muslim north, which finds itself out of the seat of power. Jonathan told the nation in a televised...