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President Obama set out for a weeklong family vacation Sunday facing the first stiff headwind of his presidency, with public polls showing his popularity has dipped as he has attempted an overhaul of the nation's ailing health care system. A series of national surveys has confirmed what was becoming clear as large groups of protesters rallied outside the speeches and town-hall events the president hosted last week in Western states. The Rasmussen Reports daily tracking poll released Sunday showed that 41 percent of voters strongly disapprove of Mr. Obama's performance as president, compared with 27 percent who strongly approved. Rasmussen...

Too short to excerpt: NEW YORK (AP) - Crude oil on the futures market briefly sank below the $100-a-barrel Friday for the first time in five months-suggesting investors believe a worsening global economy will continue to drive down demand for some time in the United States and elsewhere. The last time crude traded below $100 a barrel was on April 2. Gasoline prices, however, jumped at the wholesale level as Hurricane Ike swept toward Houston, home to about one-fifth of U.S. refining capacity, and the site of a major fuel and grain distribution channel. Wholesale gasoline prices on the Gulf...

French army falling apart, documents show By Henry Samuel in Paris Last Updated: 10:50PM BST 06/06/2008 Most of France's tanks, helicopters and jet fighters are unusable and its defence apparatus is on the verge of "falling apart", it has emerged. France's military has been given a bleak prognosis According to confidential defence documents leaked to the French press, less than half of France's Leclerc tanks – 142 out of 346 – are operational and even these regularly break down. Less than half of its Puma helicopters, 37 per cent of its Lynx choppers and 33 per cent of its Super...

CARACAS, Venezuela — For the better part of a decade, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has spent billions of dollars of his country's oil revenue to challenge U.S. interests, build influence around the world and fund a self-styled socialist revolution at home. Yet as Chavez moves from one international crisis to another— most recently a near military confrontation with neighboring Colombia , an important U.S. ally— many wonder how long his oil-funded wild ride will last. Not long, analysts in Venezuela and abroad said, if production continues to decline at the country's state-run energy company, Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. , known...

Text of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's memo sent Wednesday to the nation's emergency first responders about a falling U.S. satellite, as provided by FEMA. ___ MEMORANDUM TO: America's First Responder Community FROM: FEMA Disaster Operations Directorate SUBJECT: Satellite Re-entry A U.S. satellite has malfunctioned and is expected to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere sometime between the last week of February and the first week of March. Right now it is in an uncontrolled descent and as a result, the exact date, time and place of impact cannot yet be determined. It is our plan to pass on more specific information...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton trails five top Republican presidential contenders in general election match-ups, a drop in support from this summer, according to a poll released on Monday. Clinton's top Democratic rivals, Barack Obama and John Edwards, still lead Republicans in hypothetical match-ups ahead of the November 4, 2008, presidential election, the survey by Zogby Interactive showed. Clinton, a New York senator who has been at the top of the Democratic pack in national polls in the 2008 race, trails Republican candidates Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson, John McCain and Mike Huckabee by three to five...

I was wanting to get everyone's opinion on: "What will happen to 401k accounts and the falling dollar?" Thanks

VIENNA, Austria - A man plummeted 130 feet from a helicopter Monday but escaped injury because deep snow cushioned his fall. The 42-year-old was suspended from the helicopter by a rope to make repairs when the knot came undone and he slipped free, police in the Upper Austria town of Hallstatt said in a statement. Although a fall from that height normally would result in death or serious injury, the deep snow drifts broke the man's fall, officials said. He was taken by rescue helicopter to a nearby hospital for a medical checkup as a precaution but appeared to have...

In the arena of political discourse, a “straw man” is often a weak or extreme argument one side in a debate falsely attributes to their opponents.  It’s an age-old tactic that presents a nice-sounding argument that is, in reality, easily refuted or “knocked down.” That is the tactic now being used to defend the court-ordered legalization of same-sex “marriage” in Massachusetts last year.

THREE YEARS AGO, IN the 2002 election cycle, the economy was sluggish, struggling to emerge from the recession and the dislocations of 9/11. According to most polls, President Bush received solid ratings on his handling of the economy. Today, GDP growth has firmed at 4 percent a year, and several million new jobs have been created since the economy bottomed in the first Bush term. The inflation rate remains low, as have long-term interest rates, including home mortgage rates. President Bush has unfavorable ratings on his handling of the economy, and the trend of recent polls has been down. Whatever...

TORONTO (Reuters) - The Canadian dollar rose against the U.S. currency on Friday, ending a run of six losing sessions as the greenback retreated on a weak U.S. consumer confidence report and the loonie got a boost from firmer Canadian wholesale trade data. Canadian bond prices were mixed, as short-term debt prices benefited from falling stock markets, while longer-term bonds lost ground. The Canadian currency finished at C$1.2212 to the U.S. dollar, or 81.89 U.S. cents, up from C$1.2331 to the U.S. dollar, or 81.10 U.S. cents, at Thursday's session close. "It's a broader reflection of the U.S. dollar," said...

NEW YORK - Doers and doings in business, entertainment and technology: Heed the Sage of Omaha. Warren Buffett, whose investment acumen seems unerring, had a caveat for America: Barring "a major change" in policies, the trade deficit will further undermine the U.S. dollar. The billionaire spoke in a Wednesday interview with CNBC, the cable TV news channel owned by General Electric (nyse: GE - news - people ). Without shifting current trade policy, "I don't see how the dollar avoids going down," he mused, warning of inflation risks posed by an anemic Yankee currency. The prairie-born genius also confessed he's...

As Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger begins to prepare his next budget, fiscal aides are acknowledging that hundreds of millions in revenues he promised as part of his current spending plan are unlikely to materialize. Five months into the fiscal year, the governor's finance office said it now expects the state will not receive any of the $450 million he sought from punitive damage awards. In addition, only a fraction of expected money from at least two other key pieces of his $105 billion 2004-05 budget has come in the door. California has collected smaller-than-expected amounts from gaming agreements with tribes and...

8 September 2004 BRUSSELS - By the year 3000, Brussels will be a coastal capital and Antwerp will have disappeared into the sea, warned a report out on Wednesday. The study into the effects Belgium could suffer from global warming was carried out by the Catholic University of Leuven (UCL) and was commissioned by the environmental group Greenpeace. A team of 20 experts, headed by climatology professor Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, warned Belgium would not escape the green house effect. The researchers predicted that the country will see milder winters in the years to come, but that summers would become more...

Kerry, Kerry, quite contrary, How do your coffers grow? With 527s and 501s, And ugly little Soros's dough. For the junior senator from Massachusetts, there's no escaping the fact that August was one long, hot month. (Hum. Maybe that's why he spent so much of it windsurfing.) And the rest of the season could shape up to be even more inclement for John F. Kerry. My clever jingle notwithstanding, the candidate has good reason to be contrary: No matter how rapidly his coffers have grown, his political fortunes are now shrinking at an alarming rate. If this downward trend continues,...

Man Falls To Death From Helicopter Over Grand Canyon POSTED: 9:43 am EDT June 11, 2004 PHOENIX -- A helicopter tour company said a man took off his seat belt, opened a door and intentionally fell to his death during a sightseeing flight over the Grand Canyon National Park Thursday. Authorities say the investigation of the man's death continues. They've offered few details on what led up to his exit from the helicopter about 90 miles northwest of Flagstaff, Ariz. The man fell about 4,000 feet. Officials don't know if the man had any connection to the others on board...

Eight American troops died in Baghdad, as fighting erupted between Coalition troops and followers of Muqtada al-Sadr. Hearing the news, Senator Edward Kennedy (D., Mass.) declared Iraq to be "George Bush's Vietnam." Evening-news anchors question whether this weekend's violence marked the start of a Shii revolt. Quite the contrary. Far from rebelling, the majority of Shia are breathing sighs of relief. Iraqis consider action to rein in Muqtada al-Sadr long overdue. An Iraqi judge issued a warrant for Muqtada's arrest last summer, charging him with instigating the April 10, 2003, murder of respected cleric Majid al-Khoie, hacked to death in...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Death rates continue to drop for the top three cancer killers in men -- lung, colon and prostate -- and for breast and colon cancer in women, according to the latest American Cancer Society statistics, published on Wednesday. But more U.S. women are dying from lung cancer, the annual report shows. And more people are dying of obesity-related cancers such as some types of liver and esophageal cancer. The report is posted on the Internet at http://www.cancer.org/statistics. It estimates that 1.368 million Americans will be diagnosed with cancer in 2004, and 563,700 will die of it. This...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Interest rates on U.S. 30-year fixed rate mortgages plunged in the latest week after key Federal Reserve officials said inflation would not be a major factor for the economy in the near term, Freddie Mac said on Thursday. Freddie Mac, the No. 2 U.S. home mortgage financier, said interest rates on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, the most popular U.S. home loan, dropped to an average of 5.83 percent in the week ending Nov. 21 from 6.03 percent the previous week. Fifteen-year mortgage rates also fell to an average of 5.17 percent from 5.39 percent last week, while...

Iraq 'has three weeks to avoid falling into chaos' By Patrick Cockburn 16 June 2003 Iraq needs a transitional administration within three weeks if it is to avoid a descent into chaos, the most prominent Iraqi leader acceptable to all sides told The Independent last night. Adnan Pachachi, a highly regarded former Iraqi foreign minister who is expected to play a big role in a transitional Iraqi administration, criticised the heavy-handed US sweeps that have cost more than 100 Iraqi lives, calling them "an overreaction''. He said the Americans felt "very vulnerable and afraid''. Mr Pachachi, 80, may be the...