Free Republic

Fox News Channel maintains a handsome lead in primetime and total day, while primetime runner-up CNN continues a healthy climb from the lows of 2012. Averaging 539,000 viewers in primetime and 175,000 viewers in the adults 25-54 demographic, MSNBC suffered double-digit drops from last May -- down a respective 20 and 19 percent.

“Downturns in the Dutch and French housing markets appear to be accelerating. We forecast nominal price declines of nearly 6pc and 5pc respectively this year as rising unemployment, decelerating wages, and the prospect of austerity measures frightens off buyers,” said Jean-Michel Six, the agency’s chief Europe economist. France’s house market has been a bastion of stability through most of the global crisis but prices began to slip last year as President François Hollande embarks on a draconian fiscal squeeze to meet EU deficit targets, mostly by raising taxes. Home sales collapsed by 24pc in September from a year ago, the...

Hillary sleeps during Obama’s speech; can you blame her?

Add tech executives to the list of the well-heeled who have fallen out of love with President Obama. Two-thirds of them think his re-election would not be the best thing for their industry, and would prefer to see Mitt Romney in his place. However, three-quarters of them don't think they'll get their wish, according to a survey by the tech-heavy law firm DLA Piper. How the tables have turned. In 2008, close to 60 percent of tech leaders in a similar DLA Piper survey said Obama "would have a more positive impact on technology development and investment" than his opponent,...

Niagara searchers look for woman, find manUpdated August 16, 2011 12:00:15 Searchers looking for the body of a woman, who overstepped a safety railing and fell into Niagara Falls, found an unidentified male body instead. The 19-year-old international student from Japan was presumed drowned after she plunged into the fast-flowing waters near the brink of Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side of the falls about 8:30pm on Sunday (local time), according to Canadian park police. She had climbed over a railing and straddled it while enjoying the view with a friend, police said. "The young woman stood up in what...

You really need to check out this video of an incredible feat by a guy who has no fear of what may happen to him. Absolutely amazing. Just watching it made my adrenaline flow.

For Democrats in the South, the most ominous part of a disastrous year may not be what happened on Election Day but what has happened in the weeks since. After suffering a historic rout — in which nearly every white Deep South Democrat in the U.S. House was defeated and Republicans took over or gained seats in legislatures across the region — the party’s ranks in Dixie have thinned even further. In Georgia, Louisiana and Alabama, Democratic state legislators have become Republicans, concluding that there is no future in the party that once dominated the so-called Solid South. That the...

LONDON (Reuters) – The U.S. dollar index hit the year's low on Thursday while the Australian dollar flirted with parity after Singapore widened its currency's trading band, piling more pressure on to the struggling greenback. The Australian dollar, which boasts the highest yield among major currencies, soared to a 28-year peak at $0.9994 as investors continued to dump the U.S. dollar on expectations the Federal Reserve will again start printing money next month. With interest rates at record lows in developed markets, yield-hungry investors are piling cash into emerging markets. The tide of money is rising ahead of an anticipated...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The presidential seal has fallen off President Barack Obama's podium and clattered to the stage as Obama delivered a speech to a women's conference. The president was joking with the audience and getting some laughs when he realized what happened. "All of you know who I am," he quipped. Obama told the audience that somebody in the back was really nervous, referring to the staffer who hung the seal on the front of the lectern so precariously.

NHS bosses have drawn up secret plans for sweeping cuts to services, with restrictions on the most basic treatments for the sick and injured. Some of the most common operations — including hip replacements and cataract surgery — will be rationed as part of attempts to save billions of pounds, despite government promises that front-line services would be protected. Patients’ groups have described the measures as “astonishingly brutal”. An investigation by The Sunday Telegraph has uncovered widespread cuts planned across the NHS, many of which have already been agreed by senior health service officials. They include: Š Restrictions on some of...

Smooth Camera Catches Obama Stumbling But Plays It Off Like Nothing Happened

The late inspiration for this was a book I saw in the bookstore, "Ansel Adams in Color", linked above. Very good photography (as you might expect), but not as iconic like his black-and-white images. So for fun I'm posting a picture of Vernal Falls from Adams in black-and-white and another one from nearly the same vantage in color. Which do you like better? That doesn't mean that color or B&W is really better, it's just an artistic perception. Also included are a couple of aerial shots. I didn't realize how close these falls are to Half Dome; that's because I...

OK, I'm just being lazy this week.

Democrats, who dominated the 2006 and 2008 elections, are losing their edge in Ohio, a new poll shows. President Barack Obama's approval rating in the Buckeye State - one of the key bellwethers for national politics - dropped to 49 percent, the lowest of any swing state, according to a poll released Tuesday by Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn. Obama, who lost Ohio's Democratic primary to Hillary Rodham Clinton but topped Republican John McCain in November's general election, earned a 62 percent approval rating in the university's May survey.

A heavily publicized U.S. Supreme Court reversal of an appeals court ruling by Judge Sonia Sotomayor has at least temporarily diminished public support for President Obama's first Supreme Court nominee.

Actor Jeff Goldblum died while filming a movie in New Zealand early this morning - June 25, 2009. Preliminary reports from New Zealand Police officials indicate that the actor fell more than 60 feet to his death on the Kauri Cliffs while on-set. Specific details are not yet available. The accident occured at aproximatly 4:30 a.m. (UTC/GMT +12). Additional details and information will be forthcoming.

Police in Massachusetts said a 31-year-old pregnant woman was miraculously unharmed after accidentally backing her car off the fourth story of a parking garage. Springfield Police Lt. Rupert Daniel said the woman, who was alone in her car at the time, accidentally put her Hyundai Sonata in reverse and drove off the fourth story of the downtown garage, plunging 40 feet to the sidewalk below, WWLP-TV, Springfield, reported Tuesday. The woman was treated for minor injuries at Baystate Medical Center and released.

Symbolic tea boxes dumped in Sioux Falls rally3 hours ago By WAYNE ORTMAN Associated Press Writer (AP:SIOUX FALLS, S.D.) Spurred on by a crowd chanting "Dump that tea," two men in colonist garb threw boxes carrying labels like Tarp, Stimulus and Bailout into Covell Lake as part of a national tax day protest Wednesday. Turnout for the noon-hour re-enactment and modernization of the Boston Tea Party in a city park was difficult to gauge. Police handling traffic in the area said it likely was lower than the 3,500-4,000 given by rally organizers. But people stood 10-15 deep in a broad...

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Target Corp. said Tuesday that its fourth-quarter profit fell 41 percent as consumer spending suffered amid high unemployment and other economic woes. The discount retailer earned $609 million, or 81 cents per share, in the quarter ended Jan. 31. That compares to $1.03 billion, or $1.23 per share, a year earlier. Revenue in the quarter fell 1.6 percent to $19.02 billion. Sales at stores open at least a year fell 5.9 percent, the company said. Sales at new stores partially offset that. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, who typically exclude one-time items, had expected Target to earn...

(AFP) – The price of Brent crude oil slumped to 39.77 dollars a barrel in trading here on Friday --