Free Republic

Andrew Sullivan this weekend seemed to shock Chris Matthews when he said that former Alaska governor Sarah Palin could actually beat President Obama in next year's elections running as the "principled candidate" representing "this grassroots movement of cutting government down to size."Maybe even more surprising, Time's Joe Klein seemed to agree telling the host of "The Chris Matthews Show," "You were around in ’79 and ’80 as I was. Did you see many people in the Carter administration think that Ronald Reagan could beat Jimmy Carter?" (video follows with transcript and commentary):CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: Does anybody here really,

We Won't Get A Recession Until 2013, Unless One Of These Shocks Happens Gregory White May 18, 2011, 7:45 AM The U.S. economy is set to continue growing through the end of 2013 unless a shock sends us into recession early, according to Societe Generale's Aneta Markowska. Markowska cites four factors for her long-term outlook on U.S. growth. The index is comprised of four leading indicators (nonfinancial profit margins, the ISM, equity returns and the yield curve) which are regressed on NBER cycle dates using a probit model. Combined, those indicators currently suggest near-zero odds that the US will experience...

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) – Palestinians were shocked on Thursday after Israeli TV aired a graphic video showing a senior official caught on a hidden camera soliciting sex from a job applicant. The video, parts of which aired on Israel's Channel 10 earlier this week, was shot by former Palestinian intelligence officer Fahmi Shabaneh, who has accused the Western-backed Palestinian Authority of widespread corruption. In the video, Rafiq al-Husseini, president Mahmud Abbas's chief of staff, is shown flirting with a woman Shabaneh said was seeking a job in the Authority before entering a bedroom, taking off his clothes and crawling...

To many Pakistanis the most shocking aspect of the latest Taliban bombing was not the death toll, or the injuries inflicted on survivors, but the question that it raised: what was a team of American soldiers doing in a tense corner of North West Frontier province? In a way, the attack tugged the veil from a multi-faceted military assistance programme that, while not secret, is rarely publicised – by either side. President Obama's public aid to ­Pakistan is transparent: $1.5bn a year for the next five years, mainly to boost the civilian government. But behind the scenes the US is...

The Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society (Svenska Freds) has classified as "shameful" the decision by the Nobel Committee in Oslo to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 to Barack Obama. "The choice of Barack Obama as the recipient of the world's foremost peace prize is shocking," said the group's chairwoman Anna Ek in a statement. Ek conceded that the US president had sent "positive signals" with regard to his future commitment to global peace. "But at the same time Obama is the president of the biggest military power in the world and is waging two wars in the world....

January 2, 2008 Recent developments in regeneration technology are almost ready for prime time. Both Hydraulic Hybrid Vehicles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_vehicle and Power Generating Shock Absorbers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shock_absorber are both being field tested and may be soon headed for mass production. Transport company UPS has committed to purchasing seven "series" hydraulic hybrid delivery vehicles while Electric Truck, LLC has exclusively optioned commercial rights to a technology from Tufts University that uses Regenerative Shock Absorbers to recharge the batteries of any hybrid electric and electric-powered vehicle while it is driven. Regenerative shock absorbers The regenerative electromagnetic shock absorber uses an electromagnetic linear generator to...

MEXICO CITY - A wave of organized crime violence terrorizing many parts of Mexico is driving fear into the heart of the entertainment business with the murders of several popular musicians, suggesting no one is immune to the rampant brutality. Most disquieting were the weekend slayings of two singers who had crooned only about love and loss, not drugs and guns like some "narcocorrido" celebrities killed in the past. The murders of Sergio Gomez, lead performer for the top-selling group K-Paz de la Sierra, and Zayda Pena of the group Zayda and the Guilty Ones has mainstream singers worrying they...

Minister's anti-human rights rant shocks Japan By Colin Joyce in Tokyo Last Updated: 1:52am GMT 27/02/2007 Japan's education minister has stunned the country with a gaffe-strewn speech in which he claimed that too much emphasis has been put on human rights. Bunmei Ibuki, 69, also said that Western-style individualism is damaging Japan, while he praised Japan's racial homogeneity and appeared to denigrate minorities. Japanese newspapers reported yesterday that Mr Ibuki, a veteran politician who worked at the Japanese embassy in London for four years in the 1960s, implied in his speech in Nagasaki that problems with Japan's education policy stemmed...

A record-setting thirst for power during the heat wave that has scorched the state this month caught Department of Water and Power officials by surprise, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday. Before this week, the utility's highest peak energy use was recorded at 5,661 megawatts. A stretch of 100-plus temperatures this week, however, created a demand that set a new all-time high of 6,165 megawatts - shocking DWP officials who predicted power usage wouldn't top 6,100 megawatts for four years. "They didn't even believe our customers could ever put such a load on our system - that we could even...

LIMA, Peru - When the body of Claudina Herrera was discovered nearly five months ago by the side of a highway, curled in the fetal position in a cardboard box, the cause of death was obvious: The pregnant 18-year-old's belly was sliced wide open, and her baby was gone. Within days, her premature girl was located in intensive care at a public hospital, and the woman who had shown up with the baby _ covered in blood and saying she had given birth in a taxi _ was arrested along with four others. She was later found to be infertile....

U.S. Shocks with Promise to Back Anti-Smoking Pact GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States said Sunday it would fully support a global anti-smoking treaty at this week's world health meeting, startling observers by dropping its objections to the pact. "I'm going to support it -- much to the surprise of many around the world," U.S. Health Secretary Tommy Thompson told journalists on the eve of the World Health Organization's (WHO) annual assembly. Despite having some of the world's toughest anti-smoking rules, the United States, along with Germany, had opposed a clause to ban advertising saying it went against constitutional guarantees...

Shock tactics for anti-social mobile use Musical mobile makes people look stupid in public Anti-social mobile phone users could be punished with an electric shock if prototypes from a design company go into production. The increasing irritation of inappropriate or noisy conversations in public places prompted design firm Ideo to come up with handsets that would encourage people to be more tactful in their phone use. The designs are not intended to make it on to the high street but rather to prompt debate about the social impact of mobile phones. Designs include a phone with two metal plates...

Sudden stroke cure shocks doctors October 25 2002 at 11:07AM When partly paralysed stroke patient Cecil September plugged in the electrical cable and held tight to the bare wires, he prayed as he waited to die. Instead, within hours, he had fully recovered. The astonishing phenomenon has baffled doctors who have treated the Lentegeur man. It sounds like a bizarre tale from a "believe it or not" television show - but September's firm handshake and the spring in his step are proof that cannot be ignored. September suffered two severe strokes, one in December 2000 and a second in March...

hese days at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, before visitors can see the Wright Brothers' 1903 Flier, Charles A. Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis, a touchable sample of lunar rock or any other souvenir of humanity's bounce toward the heavens, they first have to pass through a reminder of that morning the sky fell to earth. Advertisement The family-friendly museum now has visitors pass through a metal detector, open backpacks and diaper bags for inspection and, if need be, step aside for a brief pat down or a few waves of the beeping wand. The reaction of...