Free Republic

Congress is demanding drones in the air over the United States - without considering the civil liberties issues. Within the span of three days last week, the House and then the Senate passed a law - H.R. 658 - requiring the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to speed up, within 90 days, its current licensing process for government use of drones domestically and to open the national airspace to drone aircraft for commercial and private use by October 2015. While the law requires the FAA to develop guidance on drone safety, the law says absolutely nothing about the privacy or transparency...

Remember 2007? Glory days, right? Everything was booming, and nothing was booming quite as much as real estate — especially commercial real estate. Malls, hotels, warehouses, industrial parks: Everything was being built, and everything was being financed on ridiculously generous terms. Remember interest-only loans? Good times. But commercial real estate is different from residential in one important way: Your standard residential mortgage goes 20 to 30 years. Your standard commercial loan goes for five years, at the end of which you either make a big balloon payment (what it is that balloons remind me of?) or you refinance, the idea...

Sunday’s Super Bowl halftime ad break is still almost a week away, but you can get a sneak peek at Honda’s new Ferris Bueller-inspired spot by clicking below. In fact, you’ll get a whole lot more than a peek: This is the full two-and-a-half minute version of Matthew Broderick reprising his role in an homage to the iconic 1986 John Hughes comedy. The clip that will be broadcast during halftime — where ad time costs $3.5 million for 30 seconds — will be only one minute long.

New Ad by Gingrich Super-Pac

This is great, if you haven't seen it... A few years back a television commercial was produced by Honda's UK ad agency, working in concert with company engineers who painstakingly took apart two special hand-assembled Accords to create this incredible Rube Goldberg-style contraption... This (real/no effects) two-minute spot actually required 606 takes- the first few hundred didn't go all to plan. They therefore had to re-install the set-up repeatedly over several weeks, working shifts day-and-night to achieve this effect. In the end,  it took three full months and $6M to capture a perfect run. All you see in the sequence...

Just before a video on "New Mars Rover Powered By Plutonium" there was a 30 second commercial for AOL. and while watching it I thought, "Gadzooks, every liberal celebrity and their dog is in this spot..." when low and behold, there was Obama, President of the United States, Command-in-Chief, self-proclaimed killer of Osama and Gaddafi, Champion of the Working Man himself shilling for AOL!

f you already think your pet is a fussy eater, be prepared for an even pickier pooch as pet food makers have launched a TV ad only dogs can hear. Nestle has made an advert using a high-pitched sound, like a dog whistle, which is beyond human hearing range. ...

Jonah Goldberg praises Ron Paul’s stance on health care, and takes to task the status-quo bias of even many Republicans, recalling the thought experiment by Murray Rothbard: “So identified has the State become in the public mind with the provision of these services,” Rothbard laments, “that an attack on State financing appears to many people as an attack on the service itself.” The libertarian who wants to get the government out of a certain business is “treated in the same way as he would be if the government had, for various reasons, been supplying shoes as a tax-financed monopoly from...

Commercial fishermen will no longer have their regulatory cases heard by Coast Guard Administrative Law Judges. Instead, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that as of Thursday, Environmental Protection Agency ALJ’s will preside over all new fishing law enforcement cases. This measure is being taken in response to an inquiry made by the Inspector General into complaints by commercial fishermen that NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service’s regulatory system was being excessive with its penalties and actions. Jerry Slaff, NOAA public affairs officer, said the EPA will provide judges for regulatory cases for the next two years. He said NOAA...

One of the great controversies of the new space policy announced last year was the intent of NASA to turn over the transportation of cargo and crew to orbit to commercial industry. The first part of that effort, the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) contract is expected to bear fruit soon, though problems with the Russians and ISS may delay things a bit for the first test flight by SpaceX, which may slip from late November into early next year. This program is for cargo only, and to date, it has been funded not through the traditional Federal Acquisition Regulations...

A promotion for the White House's latest genius campaign idea, AttackWatch.com.

Best campaign ad I've seen in a while... utterly hilarious: [YouTube] Roger Williams for Congress (TX): "Roger Williams isn't just running for Congress; he's running to stop the Obama Economy. As a small business owner, Roger understands that the Obama administration has a deliberate plan to transform our nation from one of makers to one of takers. In his small business, Roger has had to deal with impact of Obama's plan to make businesses more dependent on the government, including high taxes, rising energy prices and soaring health care costs. Roger is running for the Congress not to be something,...

WASHINGTON — The State Department is urging Americans in Syria to leave the besieged country immediately while commercial transportation is still available. The Syrian government is clamping down on a rebellion in the city of Hama, the center of anti-government activity. Thousands of protesters across the country are marching, demanding solidarity with the people of Hama and demanding the ouster of President Bashar Assad. On Friday, the State Department urged U.S. citizens who must remain in Syria to limit travel and warned U.S. citizens not in the country to avoid traveling there for now.

I saw a clever political commercial/ad played like a drug commercial. Where a mother is talking about a new 'drug' out of Washington called 'Speditall'. But I can't find a link. Anyone know where it can be found?

Sarah Palin is back in the news! She has announced an east-coast bus tour, has reportedly purchased a new $1.7M crib in Scottsdale, AZ., and her $1M self-authorized and approved documentary titled The Undefeated is set to hit Iowa next month followed by New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada before being released to the rest of the nation. Palin has mastered the media and shows great signs of using it to her advantage. She has not been blessed by the Republican establishment and sits behind Mitt Romney by only two points of the strongest potential contenders for the Republican nomination...

The U.S. House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics held a hearing today entitled “NASA’s Commercial Cargo Providers: Are They Ready to Supply the Space Station in the Post-Shuttle Era?” Here is a link to the charter that was prepared for the committee by Ken Monroe. Mr. Monroe is one of the main staffers who serves the Space and Aeronautics subcommittee in the house. This is the same Ken Monroe who said NASA was run by a bunch of idiots. We all have opinions about NASA, congress, the president, and our bosses; however, how many would actually tweet something like that?...

Same campy, grating schtick for less money, apparently gee I wonder who he voted for Never could stand the irksome little furball, but he's got a self-deprecating sense of humor... no hangups about dignity or anything like that with this character, lol. And still got that flame cranked-up as far as the knob will turn... Air New Zealand in-flight safety video -here- Video/more at Reaganite Republican

Approximately one in eight Republicans currently think making Donald Trump the party's nominee is a good idea.  I'm not going to venture an opinion on whether he'd make a good president (though he'd certainly be a great improvement over the incumbent). Or even whether Mr. Trump would make a good campaigner (although he'd certainly be an improvement over the last nominee). What Donald Trump would be is an absolutely catastrophic nominee and a guarantee of four more years of Obama as president. Obama Commercial One: Show video of slot machine wheels spinning as announcer says: "Donald Trump made a fortune...

China’s vehicle manufacturer Foton is setting up an assembly plant in Kenya in what is set to heighten the battle between China and Western nations for business in Kenya. The Sh1.2 billion assembly plant is expected to churn out 10,000 units of prime movers, tippers, buses, pick-ups, and light commercial trucks per year, making it one of the biggest foreign direct investments by a Chinese company. Foton said it is setting up the plant to avoid paying a 25 per cent import duty on cars to allow in its low cost products putting it in a head-to-head battle with Japanese...

Now this is funny... if you haven't seen it:__________________________________________"Celebrate an end to our dependence  on American energy-" -----[VIDEO HERE]-----______________________________________________________More at Reaganite Republican

The rest of the story - 10 years later. Leno- The Rest of the Commercial

I can't post the article due to copyright complaints from Florida today, but follow this link for a link to the editorial about NASA and the Russians..

What's better than morning coffee...? Try an adrenaline rush... now available online lol- Here's a cool Shell commercial produced for the European market: ostensibly the Ferrari F1 racing team sponsor is selling gasoline here, but the historic Ferrari racing cars steal the show... Scuderia Ferrari actually pulled several near-priceless Formula One veterans out of storage and flew them around the world to film them running hard through the streets of Rome , Rio , New York , Hong Kong and Monaco.  And there are no special effects or dubbed sound here, just original 14,000+rpm cars tearing up the streets... as the genuine...

The latest from Bill Whittle, on the new space program. Tell the Congress to end the nonsensical rocket to nowhere.

You may have noticed that Chrysler released the longest ad in Super Bowl history on Sunday night, featuring the new Chrysler 200 driven by Detroit native rap star Eminem, an ad that CEO Sergio Marchionne says cost less than $9 million. But given that the company's CEO also announced this past week that is seeking a "better deal" on government loans, it is likely that this ad had more to do with getting political support than selling cars. Besides, is spending millions on a Super Bowl ad appropriate for a company that received a taxpayer bailout to recover from a...

s FOX Network puts the finishing touches on its advertisement lineup for the February 6th Super Bowl — arguably as popular a part of the evening as the game itself — one thing is certain: just about any thing will be permissible in the way of sex, sleaze, and crude humor. Apparently, however, one type of ad will not be permitted: those promoting positive values and faith in God. Following last year’s media furor over a Focus on the Family-sponsored pro-life spot during the Super Bowl featuring Christian football phenomenon Tim Tebow (left) and his mother, FOX has put the...

Frito-Lay won't pull controversial Christian parody Doritos commercial By: 01/03/11 4:31 PM In what may be another ad campaign gone awry, Doritos is featuring a new Super Bowl advertisement in which a priest, searching for ways to return to the church, has a supposedly brilliant idea: Replacing the host wafer with a Dorito. While the denomination of the church is unclear, what is clear is that most Christian denominations consider the host to be a big portion of communion and might find the commercial, titled "Feed your flock!", insensitive.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will be on a trade-focused charm offensive when he touches down in New Delhi Wednesday for a two-day visit. The past year has seen a worsening in relations, with clashes over shared Himalayan borders and China’s close relationship with Pakistan. Defense ties were suspended this summer after China refused a visa to a top Indian general. Beijing is seeking instead to turn the spotlight during Mr. Wen’s trip, his first here in five years, on the burgeoning trade relationship between India and China. Some 400 business leaders will accompany the premier, twice the initial expected number,...

The private space industry has long been viewed as fledgling. But this once-pejorative term has taken on new meaning this year, as a roster of successes and fast-paced growth throughout 2010 suggests private spaceflight is ready to take off in 2011. This year saw the very first launch of commercial space company SpaceX's Falcon 9 booster, and later the first liftoff of the firm's Dragon spacecraft, which launched atop a Falcon 9 to Earth orbit and then was recovered from the Pacific Ocean. Another company, Virgin Galactic, achieved some major milestones, including the first glide test of its suborbital spaceliner,...

he world's first commercially developed space capsule was successfully launched into orbit and then recovered at sea Wednesday, signaling a historic move toward an era of privately operated rockets and spacecraft. Barely eight years after Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk opened makeshift offices in suburban Los Angeles, his company accomplished something that none of the world's aerospace giants—and so far only five national space progams—have been able to achieve. Closely held Space Exploration Technologies Corp. recovered its unmanned Dragon capsule after more than three hours of a seemingly problem-free demonstration flight, despite immense technical hurdles that many space experts and established...

Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) successfully delivered the first commercial pressurized capsule to orbit and returned it safely to earth today. It was a milestone that should finally put to rest doubts in Congress about President Barack Obama's plan to rely on private spaceflight to service the International Space Station, but based on history, it probably won't.

Not too many "experts" are going to be willing to go as far as I with that title but they will come around in a few years. The rogue islamic nations of the world have a friend in China (and Russia) but that's another column. First they have some triumphs they must achieve in the financial world and they are well on course to that end. A commercial was featured today on Special Report with Brett Baier that was amazingly similar in substance to the opening of a column I wrote in February of 2010. The commercial was well produced...

To cleanse the palate, not one, not two, but three tasty campaign ads via Jim Geraghty, the Family Research Council, and Ben Smith, respectively. If you read this post a few days ago, you already know the full background on the Blumenthal spot; the only thing I’d change here is maybe tacking this immortal clip from one of my all-time favorite movies onto the end. As for the second ad, there’s not much to say except that it’s exactly, but exactly, the sort of thing I had in mind the other day when I said that O’Donnell should try humor...

After watching the US Senate keep its priorities in line by passing a law requiring television stations and cable companies to keep volume levels for commercials the same as regular programming, Nigel Tufnel, the lead guitarist for the band Spinal Tap, has requested a Congressional hearing of his own. "I just want to be sure that the volumes of my amplifiers are not their next target," Tufnel said after pointing out to everybody in the room that his volume knobs all go up to eleven. And Tufnel has even rallied band mates David St Hubbins and Derek Smalls to his...

Brilliant commercials for Panda cheese. Covertly a metaphor for China?

Piston engine goes boing, boing, boing, boing. Mazda engine goes Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

American Airlines ad from the 1970s

From the days of Saturday morning assault weapon propaganda corrupting the youth.

Here's Why Commercial Real Estate Hasn't (Yet) Been A Disaster -- But Probably Will Be Henry Blodget Jul. 8, 2010, 7:44 AM Most experts agree that one reason Japan's economy has taken so long to recover from its bubble crash is that Japan's banks spent the first decade in denial. Specifically, when loans went bad, the banks didn't write the loans off--they lent the bankrupt borrowers more money so the borrowers could keep paying interest on the original loan. Thus, the bank and the borrower could pretend that everything was hunky dory. Except it wasn't. Because the borrowers were bankrupt....

WASHINGTON, July 6, 2010 – The Transportation Security Administration is reminding military members that explosives are not allowed on commercial flights. TSA spokesman Lauren Gaches said agency workers occasionally encounter servicemembers who have packed inert grenades or other prohibited items in their luggage, often as a keepsake from the battlefield. “The problem is, when you’re looking at that through an X-ray machine, you can’t tell the difference” as to whether it could explode, she said. Servicemembers traveling with prohibited items is not a common problem, but it can be disruptive, Gaches said. “From time to time, we see folks traveling...

If There's A Bottom In Sight For Commercial Real Estate, We Can't See It Keith Jurow, Real Estate Channel Jun. 30, 2010, 8:54 AM In the last 18 months, the commercial real estate market has seriously deteriorated. Yet many analysts are hopeful that the worst is over and that pressure on property owners will begin to ease. Let's take an in-depth look at whether their optimism is justified. Early 2007: The Perfect Calm Charles Dickens began his classic, A Tale of Two Cities with the famous opening "It was the best of times ..." That was the tone of the...

Does a former Drill Sergeant make a terrible therapist? You be the judge.

The so-called “Great Debate” at the National Space Society’s (NSS) International Space and Development Conference (ISDC) in Chicago on Saturday afternoon featuring Mars Society founder Robert Zubrin and former Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweickart was something of a dud, in part because it wasn’t that much of a debate: after ten-minute opening statements by Zubrin (who opposes the agency’s proposed plans) and Schweickart (who supports them), the floor was turned over to the audience, some of whom asked questions of the two, and others who simply expressed their opinions. Conference organizers explained that the event wasn’t intended to be a debate...

Toyota's answer to the bad hype about their vehicles. Great commercial.

I am wondering if anyone has seen a Video Professor TV commercial in the last month. Please let me know if you have, and where you saw one (what city, state).I have not seen one (where I live, in Ohio) for abbout a month and I need to know if he is still running his TV ads elsewhere. Many thanks for your help.

Every spring, for over two decades, the Space Access Society has been sponsoring an annual conference in Phoenix, Ariz., providing a venue for those trying to reduce the cost of getting into space to meet, discuss, and plan prospects for achieving that to-date-unattainable goal. It's one of the most interesting space conferences of the year, and perhaps unique in its mix of mainstream industry professionals, representatives from the newer industry upstarts, amateur rocket builders, and interested lay people, in a casual atmosphere designed to promote interaction among all these communities. In the early years, it primarily featured view graphs of...

the number of Colorado financial institutions with high levels of delinquent loans has jumped from 13 three years ago to 70 today. About 36 percent of the 195 Colorado banks ...have high levels of bad loans... The U.S. rate is 29 percent... regulators have directed those banks ...with the highest levels of distressed loans to improve their credit practices, particularly in the handling of loans for commercial real estate. a third of the state’s banks lost money in 2009. Colorado has gone more than a year without a full-time banking commissioner to oversee regulation of banks. State officials say a...

On one hand you have Moody's REAL CPPI index telling you commercial real estate prices not only bottomed in December, but are now increasing at the fastest rate in years. On the other hand you have reality staring you in the face (that is if you are reading the February RealPoint CMBS report), in the form of $46 billion in CMBS delinquencies in January: this was a record 5.762% of total, and represents a 325% increase from the $10.8 billion inJanuary 2009 (and a 10% increase sequentially). Contrary to all propaganda punditry, the rate of deterioration in commercial real estate...

“Between 2010 and 2014, about $1.4 trillion in commercial real estate loans will reach the end of their terms. Nearly half are at present “underwater” – that is, the borrower owes more than the underlying property is currently worth. Commercial property values have fallen more than 40 percent since the beginning of 2007. Increased vacancy rates, which now range from eight percent for multifamily housing to 18 percent for office buildings, and falling rents, which have declined 40 percent for office space and 33 percent for retail space, have exerted a powerful downward pressure on the value of commercial properties....

Desolate Malls, Empty Offices May Come Soon Report: Defaults on commercial real estate loans a looming economic crisis Feb. 11, 2010 WASHINGTON - Over the next several years, failed commercial real estate loans could litter American cities with empty stores and office complexes, cause hundreds of bank failures and weaken the economy, a watchdog report says. Banks face up to $300 billion in losses on loans made for commercial property and development, according to a report released Thursday by the Congressional Oversight Panel. The panel monitors the government's efforts to stabilize the financial system. The report says the defaults could...