Free Republic

Truck Line Could be Largest-Volume Use of Aluminum in Automotive History Already the truck volume leader with its F-Series line of trucks, Ford is not content resting on its laurels, which include the F-150 being named the 2012 Motor Trend Truck of the Year award and stronger-than-expected sales of models equipped with the EcoBoost V-6. With steeply-increasing fuel economy standards right around the corner, Ford is facing the prospect of having to cut several hundred pounds from the F-150's weight while assuring customers that there is no reduction in durability, payload, and towing capacities, all of which are critical attributes...

DEMOCRATS like to portray themselves as defenders of science, but their pursuit of a “green” environmental agenda often involves goals that defy the laws of physics. Take the fuel-economy standards the Obama administration pushed through in 2011. Those regulations require the U.S. vehicle fleet to average 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. Even with advances in engineering, that goal is daunting. The power required to move something as massive as an American vehicle (full-size trucks weigh between 7,500 and 12,000 pounds) at high speeds necessitates burning a little fuel. Consider this: Many 2012 model motorcycles don't get 54.5 miles per...

(Reuters) - Fears of transpacific nuclear fallout from Japan's reactor crisis have sent consumers scrambling for radiation antidotes across the ocean on the west coast of the United States and Canada. But health authorities said on Tuesday that fears are unwarranted and warned that people will expose themselves to other medical problems by needlessly taking potassium iodide that they hope will protect them from cancer.

Reading "Masters and Commanders," Andrew Roberts's magnificent account of British and American leaders in World War II, I was struck by how many of them, working prodigious hours and under great strain, were struck down by heart attacks while in their 60s. This doesn't happen anymore, I thought, with the blood pressure and cholesterol medicines many of us routinely take. But it does, as we were reminded by the sudden death at age 69 this week of Richard Holbrooke, who was working prodigiously as Barack Obama's special representative for AfPak, i.e., Afghanistan and Pakistan. Holbrooke was known in cynical Washington...

To the United States, Julian Assange may now be Public Enemy Number One. Some American politicians have even called for his execution. But less than a year ago, the founder of WikiLeaks was officially entertained at a US Embassy cocktail party by one of the very diplomats whose secrets he would soon spill to the world. Mr Assange's site had already published dozens of leaks embarrassing to the US, including secret Guantanamo Bay detainee handling manuals and the full emails of Sarah Palin, the 2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate. The US State Department condemned the manuals' publication as "a criminal act."

The video is not up yet, but I was sitting here just now watching Shephard Smith’s Studio B program. Judge Andrew Napolitano reported he had interviewed Mr. Assange from WikiLeaks. Napolitano asked Assange if he contacted the Obama Administration about the documents before releasing them. Assange said WikiLeaks did — so that the Obama Administration would have the opportunity to request redactions of any information that might be especially harmful (gee, like maybe the last names of the Afghan civilian informants?). The response from the Obama Administration? No response at all. Someone may have blood on his hands. I believe...

Financial Times Washington Bureau Chief Edward Luce has written a granularly informed insider account about those who hold the keys to the inner most sanctum of Obama Land -- Rahm Emanuel, Robert Gibbs, Valerie Jarrett and David Axelrod. It's a vital article -- a brave one -- that interviews "dozens of interviews with his closest allies and friends in Washington". Most are unnamed because the consequences of retribution from this powerful foursome can be severe in an access-dependent town. John Podesta, President of the powerful, adminstration-tilting Center for American Progress, had the temerity and self-confidence to put his thoughts publicly...

"There now are a whopping 900 items on our Official Obama Administration Scandals List! This is an amazing collection of the Obama administration's lies, broken promises, flip-flops and scandals. It's like the Conservative Tea Partier's Guide to the Obama Galaxy! The list features nearly 100 appointment scandals, more than 100 lies and scandals related to the ObamaCare Nightmare and so much more! More than 70 items related to the President's Super FreakObamics! ... PAGE EIGHTEEN #851-900 - - This page features the latest items!... PAGE ONE #1-50

There’s a reason Barack Obama squeezed a hastily-arranged "Jobs Summit" into a White House schedule dominated by national health care and Afghanistan. You can find it on every page of "The Economy and Politics of 2010," a new survey of voter attitudes circulating among Democrats that, despite its dry title, betrays a sense of dread and horror among party strategists hoping to avoid defeat in next year's mid-term elections. The report is the work of Democracy Corps, the influential polling organization run by Democraic strategists James Carville and Stanley Greenberg. The two men found voters are nearly beside themselves about...

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs set the rumor mills a-grinding with a statement earlier today that may be a preemptive strike against any surprise "uptick" in unemployment. WASHINGTON, Dec 3 (Reuters) - The White House has seen evidence that the U.S. November unemployment rate might creep upward from October's level of 10.2 percent, spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Thursday. Gibbs told reporters that he did not know what the November payrolls data, to be released on Friday, would show. But citing a recent data signal on payroll perfomance, he said that the White House would not be surprised if...

Forget the stock market. Sure, the Dow has made a stunning improvement since January 20. But that’s not the place to put your money. Unemployment is outpacing Wall Street just a bit. Joblessness went from 7.6 percent when Obama took office to 10.2 -- whopping a 34 percent increase. If you could invest in job loss, you’d be a big winner under the current president. Clearly the people without jobs might not appreciate that philosophy. Who could blame them? For all that the media maligned the Bush administration over the economy, unemployment was better the entire time we had George...

ST ANDREWS, Scotland (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said high unemployment rates show that economic recovery is still perilous and governments need to maintain stimulus as long as necessary to ensure sustained growth. "If we put the brakes on too quickly we will weaken the economy and the financial system, unemployment will rise, more businesses will fail, budget deficits will rise, and the ultimate cost of the crisis will be greater," Geithner said in a statement issued at the conclusion of a two-day Group of 20 meeting. He said that with some growth beginning to become apparent in...

The situation in housing is taking a turn for the surreal. As of tomorrow, bankrupt Fannie Mae will offer deadbeat housing speculators, aka homeowners who bought at the market peak and now can't pay their mortgage, the option to live in their foreclosed upon home while renting it out on a month-to-month basis from the government. As the WSJ reports, "borrowers-turned-tenants will be able to sign leases of up to 12 months and will pay market rents, which in most cases are lower than the cost of mortgage payments." The catch: Fannie will be able to hold the home as...

Here it comes, more artificial support for the housing market. You can't blame people for speculating on houses when they know the government will come in and try to save them. So here we are again, warping market expectations and sowing the seeds for the next housing bubble with an extension and expansion of the homebuyer tax credits. NYT: The Senate might pass its version as early as Wednesday, and aides to Congressional leaders say the House could accept it this week, sending the bill to President Obama to sign into law. After weeks of partisan delay in the Senate,...

The Treasury announced on Monday: •During the January - March quarter, Treasury expects to issue $478 billion in net marketable debt, assuming an end-of-March cash balance of $45 billion, which includes $15 billion for the Supplementary Financing Program (SFP). •These estimates do not include any incremental borrowing needs that would result from a potential increase in issuance under the SFP Got that? $478 billion! There is no sane reason to own Treasury paper, at some point this baby explodes.

In this video clip, commerce secretary Gary Locke says that "if there is to be another stimulus -- and that’s being hotly discussed and very seriously considered within the administration as well as members of Congress -- it needs to be very targeted, very specific and we need to be very mindful of the deficit as well.In other words, with unemployment not improving after the first $787 billion was spent, and since at this point nothing matters since America will never be able to realistically service its debt, with mid-term elections coming up, and Obama's rating plummeting even despite an...

A year ago it was revealed to the American people that our banking system is a legalized Ponzi scheme in which bank and insurance CEOs pay themselves billions of dollars in personal compensation to lend and insure assets with money they don't have to customers who can't pay back the loans. In those dark days between the fall of Lehman Brothers and before the presidential election, we were often carried through that time by the small glimmer of hope that at least we would soon have a new leader who would hopefully fix this mess and punish those responsible. Video...

By Jeff Harding The Daily Capitalist Check out this report on the Obama Administration's latest gift: free golf cart! This is from the Wall Street Journal. I really can't add much to this. We thought cash for clunkers was the ultimate waste of taxpayer money, but as usual we were too optimistic. Thanks to the federal tax credit to buy high-mileage cars that was part of President Obama's stimulus plan, Uncle Sam is now paying Americans to buy that great necessity of modern life, the golf cart. The federal credit provides from $4,200 to $5,500 for the purchase of an...

Serious plotting gets located this weekend in Armonk, NY where the Symposium on Building the Financial System of the 21st Century: An Agenda for Japan and the United (Pdf) takes place. The name of the symposium tells you enough about what is going on here. They really don't even try to hide anymore what they are up to. It is hosted by the Harvard Law School Program on International Financial Systems. On Saturday evening, Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin will speak. In addition to the Treasury, the Fed had a representative, as

"...Obama’s Director of Health & Abortion Services, Kathleen Sebelius, is bungling things already this flu season... ...flu vaccination clinics are being canceled...There’s no vaccine to give anyone!...And (the same is true with) H1N1... ..Senator Obama blasted the Bush administration when he felt they weren’t prepared to handle sudden and unexpected things like...Hurricane Katrina. Now,...his own administration is bungling something that is far from sudden and is expected...! Where is...Sebelius? Didn’t she know we’d need flu shots this year? Why the shortage? People also are dying from H1N1 Swine Flu and those vaccines are only trickling out so far in a...