Sounds a bit off to me, but in any case...there is NO excuse for seeing ads in this day and age. Firefox has a good popup blocker, and you can block ads, Flash, and Javascript very easily, which prevents this sort of thing.
This is not a normal pop-up that a pop-up blocker will block. This is an actual program that is installed on your computer by stealth action, just logging on to facebook or opening a torrent can install it. Since it works this way it could even be installed to your computer if someone was to infect the free republic website.
Although new, the pay per install method of getting garbage on peoples computers is a growing industry. So watch out and do not get comfortable.
I have never had a virus or adware on my computer in the last 13 years, but I got this one from Facebookand I am just telling you what I found out and how to get it off your computer.