Free Republic

NEW YORK (TheStreet ) -- If Ron Paul were to win the GOP presidential nomination, there's a chance he wouldn't have to worry about geographical balance on his ticket. Paul, a Texas congressman and critic of the Federal Reserve, mentioned a former New Jersey judge and current Fox News talk show host -- Andrew Napolitano -- as a potential running mate, in an interview with TheStreet's Alix Steel in Washington this week. Paul, though, did say he hadn't "thought it through." Andrew Napolitano Judge Napolitano is not only the author of books titled Constitutional Chaos: What Happens When The Government...

US officials are publicly taking a wait-and-see approach to the formation of a new Israeli government, but privately many have expressed concern that Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu might preside over a right-wing coalition. Arabs see little hope for peace from whatever government emerges "There would be great unease" at the prospect of such a government, said one Capitol Hill source. He predicted that a governing coalition of parties from the Right could embolden the left flank of the Democratic party and turn up pressure, particularly in the US Congress, to pass measures that made clear demands on Israel. He distinguished,...

WASHINGTON, May 21, 2007 – Economic expansion through the revitalization of domestic industrial capacity is a major factor for stability in Iraq, a senior defense official said May 18 during a call with “bloggers” and online journalists. Iraq’s state-run factories once served as the lynchpins of diversified regional economies, said Paul Brinkley, deputy undersecretary of defense for business transformation. Turning those factories back on not only would provide employment and wages for hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, he said, but also would set off a ripple effect of smaller business generation throughout the areas in which factories are located....

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Tampa Bay prospect Delmon Young, who plays for the Triple-A Durham Bulls, was suspended for 50 games without pay by the International League on Tuesday for throwing a bat that hit a replacement umpire in the chest. IL president Randy Mobley said he believed the suspension was the longest in the league's 123-year history. Young was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2003 draft and was chosen the 2005 minor league player of the year by Baseball America. His brother is Detroit Tigers star Dmitri Young. "The Tampa Bay Devil Rays fully support the decision,"...

Japan Survey Shows a Drop in Optimism By TODD ZAUN TOKYO, April 1 - Japanese corporate leaders are much less optimistic about business prospects than they were three months ago as they worry about fading export growth, a widely followed Bank of Japan survey showed Friday. The surprisingly sharp deterioration in the central bank's quarterly Tankan report of business sentiment suggests that it is taking longer than expected for Japan, the world's second-largest economy, to emerge from a slowdown that began last year. The survey found that while a majority of executives were still optimistic about Japan's economy, the number...

The Liberal Agenda by The Readers of The American Prospect We’re taking suggestions: What does liberalism stand for? Anybody who's ever had to raise money knows the meaning of the phrase "elevator pitch": You're in an elevator with a potential moneybags, and you have, say, seven floors to tell him why he should write you a check. Well, we all know the basic outline of conservatism's elevator pitch: "We believe in freedom and liberty, and we're for low taxes, less government, traditional values, and a strong national defense." But what is liberalism's? We at the Prospect have, among us, attended...

Assemblyman Keith Richman studied public employee pensions for a year so that he could propose changes to a system he believed was broken. In the end, he decided against writing legislation. Lawmakers and local government officials simply have no appetite for facing a looming crisis, the Northridge Republican concluded. With the state searching for a way out of its chronic fiscal malaise, government pensions have begun to attract some attention. It's clear, however, that changes in the state's massive pension system won't come easily. Last week, an Assembly committee killed a bill that would have stopped about 3,000 state workers...

The Rove Machine Rolls On. Robert B. ReichIt's no accident that Karl Rove was one of Richard Nixon's moles. Using techniques developed by his first mentor, dirty-tricks strategist Donald Segretti, Rove infiltrated Democratic organizations on behalf of Nixon's infamous 1972 campaign. Rove's formidable talents came to the attention of George Bush Senior, then incoming Republican National Committee chairman, and the rest is history. Seven presidential campaigns later, Rove masterminded a deluge of disinformation against John McCain, whose upset victory in New Hampshire had given him a shot at the Republican nomination. Word was spread among South Carolina voters that McCain...