Free Republic

The image of the United States in the minds of Mexican citizens has skyrocketed in the past year — rebounding to positive levels not seen since the American invasion of Iraq, according to the Pew Global Attitudes Project survey on international attitudes. The favorable image of the United States has soared in Mexico from 47 percent to 69 percent since Barack Obama replaced George W. Bush as president. A year ago, just 16 percent of Mexicans said they trusted the United States to do what’s right in international affairs. This year, 55 percent of Mexicans had faith in American foreign...

ALBANY - It appears the traditional political symbols of the elephant and donkey will be joined by a broom-pusher, at least in Albany. From 9 a.m. until noon Saturday at Westover Crossing, members of the Dougherty County Taxpayers Association will be handing out free brooms, the symbol the organization has chosen for its Sweep Albany Clean campaign that is aimed at electing three Albany city commissioners this fall.

What do murder, pedophilia, suicide and a baby tiger have in common? They have all been used to sell stuff in these amazingly disturbing vintage ads! These are real, untouched advertisements from the good old days. It doesn't matter if it's lovely ladies or adorable clowns, somehow these old-time ad wizards found ways to traumatize us while pedaling everyday products. Enjoy them now, call your therapist later! 15. White Bread Demon"Bread is swell, but what I'm really excited about is eating jelly made from the blood of the innocent!" 14. French Suicide SausageIt's enough to make you want to eat Kosher...

Barack Obama was a rock star on the campaign trail and his aura went undimmed in his first few months of office. But then he began taking too many curtain calls. The applause subsided, but he kept coming back to center stage to try harder to wow us. He forgot what every star must learn, that you've got to know when to get off that center stage. If you don't have anything new to say, shut up. This applies even to presidents.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows that 28% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-nine percent (39%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -11 (see trends). Yesterday, the President hosted Cambridge police Sgt. James Crowley and Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., for a beer on the White House lawn. Thirty percent (30%) of voters nationwide give the President good or excellent marks for his handling of the situation. A Rasmussen video report notes that 62% of Americans believe race...

This raw surveillance video shows the depths of addiction. It shows a Sherman, Texas man who sees methamphetamine spilled on a jail house floor. With an officer standing right with him, he gets down on the floor and tries to literally lick the meth off the floor. The video was used by prosecutors to obtain a guilty plea from the man. Question: Why was meth on the jailhouse floor? Maybe it spilled out of his pockets as he stood there. . . . . (Watch Video)

The US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Mr Richard Holbrooke, says that Taliban militants are receiving more funding from their sympathisers abroad than from Afghanistan’s illegal drug trade. Mr Holbrooke says: “More money is coming from the Gulf than is coming from the drug trade to the Taliban.”

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows that 28% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-nine percent (39%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -11 (see trends).

Shocker poll from Kos/Research2000 today. A whopping 58 percent of Republicans either think Barack Obama wasn't born in the US (28 percent) or aren't sure (30 percent). A mere 42 percent think he was. That means a majority of Republicans polled either don't know about -- or don't believe the seemingly incontrovertible evidence Obama's camp has presented over and over and over that he was born in Hawaii in '61. It also explains why Republicans, including Roy Blunt, are playing footsie with the Birther fringe. Surprise, surprise: Birther sentiment was strongest in the South and among the 60-plus crowd -...

There's breaking news. The Gross Domestic Product number came out and the economy contracted by one percent over the second quarter. (April through June) The consensus number was that the economy would contract by 1.5%. This is the most promising economic news in months. This is the fourth straight quarter of contraction which used to be a technical definition of a depression. (though most people don't consider that the definition anymore)

Recent trends in leveraged ETFs read a lot like the time-line for the swine flu. For years the public has heard warnings from people who many dismissed as crackpots that it was only a matter of time before a strain of the flu morphed into a highly contagious virus causing a pandemic. Then the swine flu strain emerged this spring, and municipalities across the country and the world finally took the threat seriously. Once one municipality put certain guidelines into effect, others were quick to follow. There has been a similar evolution in the world of leveraged ETFs. Since the...

The dozens of insurance companies that make up the American International Group show signs of considerable weakness even after their corporate parent got the biggest bailout in history, a review of state regulatory filings shows. Over time, the weaknesses could mean trouble for AIG’s [AIG 13.13 --- UNCH (0) ] policyholders, and they raise difficult questions for regulators, who normally step in when an insurer gets into trouble. State commissioners are supposed to keep insurers from writing new policies if there is any doubt that they can cover their claims. But in AIG’s case, regulators are eager for the insurers...

This post is about the controversy over Obama's nationality. I like to watch the O’Reilly Factor even though I often disagree with Bill. Lately, though, I am annoyed by the extent to which he has tried to ridicule the people who are troubled by Obama’s continuing withholding of all kinds of records that are routinely released by this nations’ presidents. Left-wing groups and media are also trying to tar anyone who raises questions, calling them “birthers” and trying to place them in the same category as the ludicrous people who question the fact of 9/11. The questions about Obama’s history...

After many a disappointment with someone, and especially after a disaster, we may be able to look back at numerous clues that should have warned us that the person we trusted did not deserve our trust. When that person is the President of the United States, the potential for disaster is virtually unlimited. Many people are rightly worried about what this administration's reckless spending will do to the economy in our time and to our children and grandchildren, to whom a staggering national debt will be passed on. But if the worst that Barack Obama does is ruin the economy,...

Hubble View: Jupiter Impact Credit: NASA, ESA, H. Hammel (Space Science Institute, Boulder, Co.), and the Jupiter Impact Team Explanation: This sprawling dark marking is Jupiter's latest impact scar, a debris plume created as a small asteroid or comet disintegrated after plunging into the gas giant's atmosphere. Located in Jupiter's south polar region, the new feature was discovered by Australian amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley on July 19. On July 23rd Wesley's discovery was followed up by the Hubble Space Telescope with its newly installed Wide Field Camera 3, creating this sharpest view of the evolving debris plume. Estimates indicate...

An Internet controversy that raged during the presidential campaign has resurfaced in recent weeks, posing more of a threat to Republicans than the intended target, President Barack Obama. The "birther" movement, as it's called, claims that Obama was not born in Hawaii, but Kenya or Indonesia and therefore is not eligible to be president. The birth certificate that has been released and authenticated by numerous Hawaii state officials is a fraud, they say, and isn't the original anyway. But after months in relative obscurity, the birthers have muscled their way onto the national stage: • 11 Republican legislators have endorsed...

Never underestimate the ability of a tiny fringe group of losers to ruin everything. For the last couple of weeks, we've all been laughing heartily at the wacky antics of the "birthers" -- the far-right goofballs who claim Barack Obama wasn't really born in Hawaii and therefore the job of president goes to the runner-up, former Miss California Carrie Prejean. Also, when Obama was sworn in as president, he forgot to give his answer in the form of a question. And yet, every week, the chorus of conservatives demanding to see his birth certificate grows. It's like they're the Cambridge...

Listening to some of the liberal mainstream media commentators about the arrest of Professor Henry Louis Gates one would think that it was the natural order of things that the police officer, Cambridge MA, PD Sgt Crowley was a racist. This is their worldview. Yet, race is not a factor in the attitude of cops toward suspects according to a 2003 study. In fact, in at least one city, the cops show more regard for blacks than they do for whites. The research was conducted by three criminologists, and published in the August 2002 edition of Criminology, the Journal of...

Yesterday, Sgt Crowley met with President Obama, Prof Henry Gates and VP Biden. After tossing down a few frosty cold mugs of beer, Gates stood on a foot stool to look Sgt. Crowley smack dab in his eyes. Sgt. Crowley, keeping his cool, took additional insults about his mama, the suit he was wearing and the way he wore his hair. Sgt. Crowley sipped on his suds as he absorbed the personal shots. This annoyed Gates so much that he took a swing at Crowley with his cane. Crowley ducked not spilling a drop of his beer. Obama suggested that...