Free Republic

Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, allegedly emerged from his basement bunker to celebrate Memorial Day with his doctor wife, Jill Biden.A man purporting to be Biden was photographed wearing a black mask in New Castle, Delaware, provoking questions about the former vice president's capacity to serve as commander in chief. Some questioned whether the so-called "proof of life" outing was actually a proof of lie outing. "It is very good dem strategy to have Joe Biden in a mask at all times because it muffles what he is saying and it's easier to swap in the body...

Our ambassador to Libya was killed in our own consulate in Benghazi on the night of September 11. For the next six weeks, President Obama repeated the same talking point: The morning after the attack, he ordered increased security in our embassies in the region. Suddenly, on the campaign trail in Denver on October 26, he changed his story. “The minute I found out what was happening . . . I gave the directive,” he said, “to make sure we are securing our personnel and doing whatever we need to do. I guarantee you everybody in the CIA and military...

Washington (AP) - His name appears on radical Internet postings. A fellow officer says he fought his deployment to Iraq and argued with soldiers who supported U.S. wars. He required counseling as a medical student because of problems with patients. There are many unknowns about Nidal Malik Hasan, the man authorities say is responsible for the worst mass killing on a U.S. military base. Most of all, his motive. But details of his life and mindset, emerging from official sources and personal acquaintances, are troubling

BERLIN (Reuters) - A drunken man who fell under a train after being jolted out of a nap at a railway station emerged unscathed from beneath the locomotive. The 19-year-old had fallen asleep on the station platform in Cologne but was startled by the incoming train. Losing his balance, he fell in front of the locomotive, police said. "According to the man he fell exactly between the two tracks and just felt a light knock on the head," Cologne police said in a statement. The shocked train driver pulled the emergency brakes only to see the man emerge unaided from...

SACRAMENTO If California becomes the first state to cap greenhouse gas emissions from industry, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to ensure that the government can delay the regulations if an emergency arises. The so-called "safety valve" sought by the administration has emerged as one of the key obstacles in negotiations over the landmark bill. Democratic lawmakers who are pushing the bill say they fear such a clause would provide more of an escape hatch than a safety valve, providing a loophole for industries that don't want to meet the emission limits. "We want to make sure we have a bill that's...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders struggled Tuesday to agree on a record-setting public works bond package that could reach the June ballot, with what one lawmaker called "the diabolical politics of water" standing in the way. But negotiators were working on borrowed time. Last Friday was the secretary of state's official deadline for the Legislature to add proposals to the June 6 ballot, but lawmakers and administration officials said they could still make the ballot if they acted by Tuesday. Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, sent a letter Tuesday to Secretary of State Bruce McPherson asking him to...

Ivory emperor emerges from Forum 'Unique' find probably Marcus Aurelius or Septimius Severus (ANSA) - Rome, November 16 - Italian archaeologists have unveiled the latest major find to emerge from the Roman forum - an ivory statue of an emperor, probably Marcus Aurelius or Septimius Severus . The bust is unique - there are no other examples of statues like this made in ivory . Very few ancient Roman ivory objects have survived to the present day because ivory is a biodegradable material . Those that have not withered away over the last 2,000 years are mostly tomb decorations and...

JERUSALEM (AP) - Hamas' secretive military wing emerged from hiding Saturday, naming commanders and detailing how they attacked Israelis as part of a competition with the Palestinian Authority over who will get credit for Israel's pullout from Gaza. The battle over public opinion could determine who rules Gaza after the last Israeli soldiers leave on Sept. 15. Hamas says it drove Israel out with attacks, while Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas credits his nonviolent approach. On Saturday, a defiant Hamas delivered a new challenge to Abbas, who has come under increasing international pressure to disarm the group after the Israeli pullout,...

BRIDGETON, Mo. - The Montana emerges like a giant skeleton near the banks of the Missouri River here, a relic from the pre-railroad era when steamboats were a vital mode of transportation. The muddy bottoms of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers are watery graveyards to hundreds of sunken steamboats including the Montana, which sank more than 120 years ago. The Montana is embedded in mud and normally concealed by the river's waters. But rain has been rare in the area this summer and the water level has dipped low enough to reveal the ship's remains. "I was impressed with how...

Europe's Mars Express spacecraft has taken its most detailed image yet of the Red Planet's largest moon, Phobos. The photo was taken from a distance of about 200km (124 miles) from the irregular-shaped satellite and shows the side of the object that faces Mars. Scientists hope to explain the origin of a network of grooves that extend from the equator to the north pole. Phobos is slowly falling down to Mars and is expected to crash into the planet in the next few million years.

Graf Spee emerges from its River Plate grave By Seamus Mirodan in Buenos Aires (Filed: 27/02/2004) More than 64 years after the Graf Spee's captain scuttled his pocket battleship off Uruguay to stop it falling into British hands, divers have raised part of the vessel. A part of the Graf Spee is raised After weeks of failed attempts a 27-ton section of the command tower, including the first embryonic radar antenna installed on a warship, was brought to the surface of the River Plate estuary using a floating crane. Germany's Graf Spee, equipped with 11-inch guns and a prototype diesel...

SACRAMENTO – Gov. Gray Davis will be the first statewide elected official in California history to face a recall election. Last night, Secretary of State Kevin Shelley certified the recall, which could come as early as Sept. 23. That would give potential candidates until Saturday to make up their minds. Clouding the process is a dispute that erupted yesterday among lawyers and elected officials over a long-held presumption that the recall election would include a vote for a replacement if Davis were unseated. The once lightly regarded Republican-led Davis recall petition drive turned into a tidal wave that generated nearly...

Bali: The grim toll emerges By Kim Sengupta 15 October 2002 The death toll of British victims of the Bali bombing rose to 33 last night with growing evidence that al-Qa'ida and its allies have carried out their most devastating attack since 11 September last year. The scale of British casualties, out of a total of more than 200, is one of the highest suffered by the UK in a single terrorist attack, and there are fears that numbers may rise due to the severity of the injuries suffered by some of the survivors. Tony Blair, who will make a...

Radio emerges from the electronic soup 19:00 28 August 02 Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition A self-organising electronic circuit has stunned engineers by turning itself into a radio receiver. What should have been an oscillator became a radio This accidental reinvention of the radio followed an experiment to see if an automated design process, that uses an evolutionary computer program, could be used to "breed" an electronic circuit called an oscillator. An oscillator produces a repetitive electronic signal, usually in the form of a sine wave. Paul Layzell and Jon Bird at the University of Sussex in Brighton applied...