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This paper estimates the evolution of equilibrium real home prices in the United States and finds that despite recent declines, single-family homes remained 8 to 20 percent overvalued as of the first quarter of 2008. In the short run, the gap between actual and equilibrium prices does not exert powerful influence over price dynamics. Instead, that dynamics is driven by the inventory-to-sales ratio and by foreclosure starts in a highly inertial relationship. Taken together, this implies that price declines are likely to continue, including past the point where overvaluation is eliminated. The paper also finds that from the early 1990s...

As Planet Gore readers likely know, Congress currently prohibits the federal government to sell leases for energy production along the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). As the Congressional Research Service Office has put it, “OCS moratoria, which prohibit leasing on most federal offshore lands, have been an important issue in the debate over energy security and the potential availability of additional domestic oil and gas resources. Congress has enacted the moratoria for each of fiscal years 1982-2006 [NB: now 2008] in the annual Interior Appropriations bill.” This prohibition expires at the end of this (and every other) fiscal year. It...

A U.S. military official tells NBC News they were making preparations for Sen. Barack Obama to visit wounded troops at the Landstuhl Medical Center at Ramstein, Germany on Friday, but "for some reason the visit was called off." One military official who was working on the Obama visit said because political candidates are prohibited from using military installations as campaign backdrops, Obama's representatives were told, "he could only bring two or three of his Senate staff member, no campaign officials or workers." In addition, "Obama could not bring any media. Only military photographers would be permitted to record Obama's visit."...

Savannah area Starbucks employees and customers have donated over a ton of coffee to the troops over the past two years, and the troops really appreciate it.

PAGE ONE Voter Unease With Obama Lingers Despite His Lead Poll Finds Background, Experience Are Advantages for McCain WASHINGTON -- Midway through the election year, the presidential campaign looks less like a race between two candidates than a referendum on one of them -- Sen. Barack Obama.With the nominations of both parties effectively settled for more than a month, the key question in the contest isn't over any single issue being debated between the Democrats' Sen. Obama or the Republicans' Sen. John McCain. The focus has turned to the Democratic candidate himself: Can Americans get comfortable with the background...

WHO'S ZOOMIN' WHO?: The House has passed a housing bill that is designed to encourage delinquent mortgage borrowers to refinance into FHA-insured mortgages and to stimulate sales of empty houses, among other things. The Senate is expected to pass the bill, called the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (H.R. 3221), and the president is expected to sign it. As a taxpayer, there's some stuff you won't like, and some stuff that you'll appreciate. (That's a pun, one that I'll explain shortly.) I also recommend that you read Kay Bell's tax blog today, too. She addresses some of these...

Today's Savage thread.

Once, albinos used to seek shelter from the sun. Now they have gone into hiding simply to survive, after a series of killings linked to witchcraft. In Tanzania, 25 albinos have been killed in the past year. The latest victim was a seven-month-old baby. He was mutilated on the orders of a witchdoctor peddling the belief that potions made from an albino's legs, hair, hands, and blood can make a person rich. Sorcery and the occult maintain a strong foothold in this part of the world, especially in the remote rural areas around the fishing and mining regions of Mwanza,...

On a gray, rainy morning last month, Jon and Barbara Scoll calmly sipped coffee on their private dock while 100 feet away a SWAT team broke down the front door to their Edina home and swarmed across the threshold, guns held high. The team's breach man had to pound the door five times with his steel battering ram before it finally gave way. "He should have gotten in with two hits," said St. Louis Park police officer Mike Merwin to the Scolls. "You had a good door." "Who knew?" said Barbara Scoll. Most people, of course, are anything but nonchalant...

Debra Bartoshevich, a delegate to the Denver Democratic National Convention, did not help her case by repeatedly referring to the "Democrat Party" during Friday's conference call. That angered commitee members, who view that as a slur used by Republicans. One chastised her for using "Rush Limbaugh's talking points." Bartoshevich said she didn't understand and kept using the offending term......... Wisconsin Democrats on Friday ousted a delegate to their national convention for saying she would vote for Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain in November. Embarrassed by a defection in their ranks, the Wisconsin Democratic Party's administrative committee voted 23-0 to...

DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) - Four peace activists were arrested on Friday as they attempted to make a "citizens arrest" of Karl Rove, who was one of President George W. Bush's top aides before leaving the administration last year. "It should be Karl Rove in that van. War Criminal!"

DETROIT, Michigan (AFP) - General Motors will begin building Saab vehicles in the United States rather than put its Swedish subsidiary up for sale, GM chairman and chief executive Rick Wagoner said Friday. < > "The issue at Saab is trying to sell too many Saabs in the US as the Swedish (kroner) has strengthened against the dollar. We can't push volume in the US. We have to let it settle out and reflect the currency. "But we've got a number of new (Saab) products coming up beginning in the third quarter next year and it will have a new...

Did you know that your safety and security depend on gay men and lesbians? An estimated 65,000 gay men and lesbians serve in the U.S. armed forces, though by law they cannot be open about their sexuality. As we fight two wars, our military is stretched thin. Those gay and lesbian soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and members of the Coast Guard are essential.

The David Horowitz Freedom Center, John Ziegler and Citizens United Productions present the World Premiere of the new documentary "Blocking the Path to 9/11" on August 15th at the Skirball Cultural Center. Former KFI radio talk show host John Ziegler has written, directed and produced a documentary for Citizens United telling, for the first time, the incredible untold story of the controversy surrounding the ABC docudrama "The Path to 9/11," which was edited by demand of Bill Clinton and has since been censored from ever airing again, or having the DVD released. Interviewed in the film is the writer of...

The McCain campaign released the following memo this morning: To: Interested Parties From: Randy Scheunemann, Senior Foreign Policy Adviser Date: July 25, 2008 Re: The Barack Obama Foreign Policy Myths In the past few days, Barack Obama has been trying to alter the reality of international developments to the benefit of his political campaign. Please find below the key Obama myths from this week. MYTH: Barack Obama Claims People Have Adopted His Unconditional Timetable For Withdrawal From Iraq FACT: John McCain, our military commanders and the Iraqi government agree that our troops should come home based upon conditions on the...

Pope Benedict told Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Friday that minority Christians in Iraq needed more protection but the Iraqi leader assured him that Christians were not being persecuted. Maliki, who met the pope for 20 minutes at the pontiff's summer residence south of Rome, invited the pontiff to visit Iraq, saying a trip there would help the process of peace and reconciliation. "We renewed our invitation for His Holiness to visit Iraq. He welcomed the invitation. And we hope that he will be making the visit as soon as he can," he told reporters in the palace after...

Rasmussen shows a tightening race in New Mexico: Obama 46 (-1 vs. 6/23 poll) McCain 41 (+2) With "leaners" (who don't initially express a preference for one of the major candidates) Obama's lead widens to 6 points: Obama 49 McCain 43

If you believe that girls fare significantly worse on math than boys in high-school tests, you would have been right — twenty years ago. Thanks to a concerted effort by parents and schools to get more girls in advanced math classes, the test-score disparity has completely disappeared, according to the National Science Foundation:

An American presidential candidate travels to the very center of Europe and draws a huge cheering crowd. George W. Bush obviously could never do that. Nor could John McCain. For the many Americans sick to death of eight years of confrontation and quarrelling with friends and allies, Barack Obama’s visit to Berlin presented an exciting and hopeful picture. This is how things should be! It was a great moment — so long as you viewed it with the sound off. But if you listened to the speech, you heard an ominous and disturbing statement, one that raises the same unsettling...

MADISON, WI -- Wisconsin Democrats on Friday ousted a delegate to their national convention for saying she would vote for Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain in November.Embarrassed by a defection in their ranks, the Wisconsin Democratic Party's administrative committee voted 23-0 to strip Debra Bartoshevich of her status as a delegate to the Denver convention next month. Bartoshevich was elected by party activists as a pledged delegate for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton from the 1st Congressional District in southeastern Wisconsin. But after Clinton dropped out of the race, Bartoshevich told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel she would support McCain over...

This week Barack Obama left a written prayer in the cracks of the Western Wall, one of Judiasm's holiest sites. The note was nabbed, and published in an Israeli newspaper on Friday.The Maariv daily paper published the note in its entirety, which read: "Lord - Protect my family and me," reads the note published in the Maariv daily. "Forgive me my sins, and help me guard against pride and despair. Give me the wisdom to do what is right and just. And make me an instrument of your will." The decision to publish the note has already drawn fire, and...

I hope this letter serves to help our voters cast their ballots in a responsible way on Election Day. I'm a veteran who served in Korea during the Vietnam war era. The American voters have another chance to "Get it right in 2008". John McCain is not the answer to America's needs. He is just more Bush. Recently, the VoteVets.org unearthed a video of John McCain in 2003. McCain in the video, says we can just "muddle through in Afghanistan." Really, Mr. McCain? We all know the lies propagated by the current administration. John McCain supported the wrongful invasion of...

DENVER, July 25 (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain slammed Democratic rival Barack Obama on Friday for poor judgment on the Iraq war, laying out in sharp terms his argument the Illinois senator should not be commander in chief. McCain, a Vietnam War veteran, said if Obama had succeeded in his effort to prevent last year's boost in U.S. troop levels in Iraq, American forces would have had to retreat under fire, the Iraqi army would have collapsed and al Qaeda would have found a safe haven. "Had his position been adopted, we would have lost both wars" in...

On Today’s Show... Show Highlight: "Obama talked about how when French President Sarkozy came to the United States, he was 'a rock star.' You want to know why Americans loved Nick Sarkozy? He praised this country in a way few American politicians will! Obama could learn from this. Liberals have so much guilt, if they say one thing good about us they feel like they have to say five things bad." (Rush 24/7 Members: Listen Here) » Gerard Baker in the UK Times: He Ventured Forth to Bring Light to the World Obama plagiarized the only halfway memorable line...

Barely a minute into his speech in Berlin, Barack Obama played the race card, carefully noting that he didn't look like previous speakers who had made wpeeches there. Obama went on to suggest that today, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, were many walls that still had to come down. The most important wall that Obama needs to tear down, though, is the wall of secrecy surrounding his personal life. Americans demand transparency, and this candidate has created a wall around his past that is fortified by claims of racism against anyone who dares to peak through it. Literally...

For months now, rival campaign officials—first for Democratic primary rival Hillary Clinton and now for McCain—have complained about the fawning tone and voluminous amount of Obama media coverage. So have many newspaper readers and television viewers. And you know what? They've got a point—but not because of this week's extensive Obama coverage. The obviously unbalanced amount of coverage doesn't mean that this newspaper or others chronicling Obama's trip are biased against McCain. It means that Obama's first trip to the Middle East and Europe is bigger news this week than what McCain's been doing.

Here is video of Sen. John McCain telling a group of Hispanic Veterans in Denver that, "Fortunately, Sen. Obama failed; not our military." McCain was speaking of Obama's attempts to block the Surge Strategy in Iraq, a failure in judgment McCain says he cannot conceive of in a Commander-in-Chief. . . . (see video)

It may sound like the escapist indulgence of a well-fed man fleeing the misery around him. But when Jawdat Khoudary opens the first ever museum of archaeology in Gaza this month, it will be an act of Palestinian patriotism, showing how this increasingly poor and isolated coastal strip ruled by the Islamists of Hamas was once a thriving multicultural crossroad. The exhibit is housed in a stunning hall made up partly of the saved stones of old houses, discarded wood ties of a former railroad and bronze lamps and marble columns uncovered by Gazan fishermen and construction workers. And while...

After days of all-but whining about the blanket media coverage Barack Obama is getting on his overseas tour, John McCain's campaign this afternoon argued that the press in key swing states is actually focusing on the message it wants to present voters.

Welcome to “The Levin Lounge”… Step in and have a virtual FRink.Will we hear… Taking the country by storm, one radio station at a time – and kicking the BUTTS of the competition! Welcome all, to the most FUN LIVE THREAD on FreeRepublic.com! You can call Mark’s show: 1-877-381-3811

WASHINGTON (July 25, 2008) — A new analysis by the Center for Immigration Studies of monthly data collected by the Census Bureau shows that the illegal-immigrant population has declined significantly between last summer and May of this year. The study is the first to find quantitative evidence that illegal-immigrants are leaving the country. It also examines the extent to which stepped-up enforcement and the downturn in the economy account for this trend..... The Center will formally release the report at a press conference on Wednesday, July 30th at 2:30 pm in room 1309 of the Longworth House Office Building. The...

NOTICE!!! BARACK "WHO'S SANE" OBAMA WILL NOT BE DONATING TO THE FREEPATHON Thank you, Lady Jag!

Attacking a Jewish girl and the friends who came to her rescue has landed a Muslim man a one-year jail sentence. Mustafa Taj must also serve a year of probation following his release for what provincial court Judge Bill Cummings ruled was a racially motivated assault. "In this case, I'm satisfied that imprisonment is necessary," Cummings said in accepting the Crown's bid for a jail term. Prosecutors Ken McCaffrey and Inayat Jetha had sought a sentence of up to two years for the hate crime. Taj, 21, was convicted in May of attacking four teenagers the night of Nov. 3,...

Miriam Farhat, the Palestinian mother who became famous in 2002 when she appeared in a video encouraging her son to attack a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip, was reported Thursday to be in critical condition after suffering a massive heart attack. When I see all the Jews in Palestine killed, that will be enough for me," she said on camera. "I wish he will kill as many as he can, so they will be scared." Her son Muhammad, 19, killed five teenagers and wounded 23 people at Atzmona before he was shot dead in March of that year. Hamas...

(The Politico) On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid criticized the Washington press corps for failing to report what he believes is unprecedented Republican obstruction. So Friday afternoon, Reid reached out to the liberal blogosphere. "You need to keep doing the job you're doing, but you need to move on," Reid said in a Webcast hosted by a handful of progressive bloggers. "We need your help to push back against the Republican harangue ... that we're not allowing votes" on oil drilling amendments. The Webcast was hosted by meetthebloggers and included bloggers from HuffingtonPost, OpenLeft and thesmogblog.com. Reid seemed flustered...

A 12-year old schoolgirl was gang-raped by five gunmen in Sarpul province in Northern Afghanistan. The girl and her family asked Hamid Karzai to prosecute the rapists and take their case seriously. They threatened that if they are not provided justice, the whole family will commit mass suicide to get rid of such life. They say, the local authorities keep silence on such cases and did not act to arrest those responsible. While crying, the rape victim told journalists that she was raped in a village called Baghabi in Sarpul province. She says five gunmen poured into their house in...

Deep in the radioactive bowels of the smashed Chernobyl reactor, a strange new lifeform is blooming. TWENTY-TWO YEARS AGO, on 26 April 1986, reactor No 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, in Ukraine, blew apart, spewing radioactive dust and debris far and wide. Ever since, a 30 km 'exclusion zone' has existed around the contaminated site, accessible to those with special clearance only. It's quite easy, then, to conjure an apocalyptic vision of the area; to imagine an eerily deserted wasteland, utterly devoid of life. But the truth is quite the opposite. The exclusion zone is teeming with wildlife...

Obama’s behavior toward American troops in Germany was so egregious, even the New York Times this morning is picking up the story. The Times writes, “It wasn’t perfectly clear whether the Pentagon asked the Obama campaign to cancel the trip outright or the campaign decided on its own -- after quiet pressure from military officials -- that a political trip to the base was inappropriate.” “The trip” was a scheduled trip to visit American troops at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, one of the world’s largest military hospitals. Initially, Obama claimed it would be inappropriate because he was in...

Confessions of a Money Manager: Gold isn't a glittering investment Ray Unger — 7/25/2008 12:13 pm Have you heard those clever spiels on the radio coaxing us to buy gold in lieu of common stocks that can go to zero? Are they true? Yes, in a way. But sometimes the truth is mixed with a bit of chicanery. Those gold ads remind me of a funny golf story. Ben Hogan is about to play an approach shot to a green fronted by a yawning pond. He asks his caddy what club he should use. "I caddied for Sam Snead yesterday,...

Two months ago in the Oval Office, President George W. Bush, coming to the end of a two-term presidency and presumably as expert on Israeli-Palestinian policy as he is ever going to be, was accompanied by a team of no fewer than five advisers and spokespeople during a 40-minute interview with this writer and three other Israeli journalists. In March, on his whirlwind visit to Israel, Republican presidential nominee John McCain, one of whose primary strengths is said to be his intimate grasp of foreign affairs, chose to bring along Sen. Joe Lieberman to the interview our diplomatic correspondent Herb...

(Seventh in a series of ten. For other articles in this series, click on View all articles by John Armor--and "Blogs by this author.") There has been a radical shift in how justices conduct themselves on the Supreme Court, beginning in the 1930s. Not coincidentally, 1925 was the first year that anyone who was nominated for the Supreme Court appeared in person before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Not until 1955 did the committee hold public hearings on all nominees before making a recommendation to the whole Senate. Before those changes, nominees were considered based on their probity of character and...

White House hopeful Barack Obama has said Iran should not wait for the next US president to be elected before resolving its dispute with the West. He was speaking during a joint press conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris, on his world tour ahead of November's US elections. Mr Sarkozy said there was a "tremendous convergence" of views in their meeting. Afterwards Mr Obama flew to London where he is due to meet senior British politicians on Saturday. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, opposition Conservative leader David Cameron and the former Prime Minister, Tony Blair, are all due to...

Zip. Zilch. Nada. There's no real difference between the scores of U.S. boys and girls on common math tests, according to a massive new study. Educators hope the finding will finally dispel lingering perceptions that girls don't measure up to boys when it comes to crunching numbers. "This shows there's no issue of intellectual ability--and that's a message we still need to get out to some of our parents and teachers," says Henry "Hank" Kepner, president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics in Reston, Virginia. It won't be a new message. Nearly 20 years ago, a large-scale study...

According to reports, there may be a back door built into Skype, which allows connections to be bugged. The company has declined to expressly deny the allegations. At a meeting with representatives of ISPs and the Austrian regulator on lawful interception of IP based services held on 25th June, high-ranking officials at the Austrian interior ministry revealed that it is not a problem for them to listen in on Skype conversations. This has been confirmed to heise online by a number of the parties present at the meeting. Skype declined to give a detailed response to specific enquiries from heise...

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is offering Obama a warm welcome on the day of their meeting, in an interview with the conservative daily Le Figaro. "Obama? He's my pal," the president told Le Figaro. "Unlike my diplomatic advisers, I never believed in Hillary Clinton's chances. I always said that Obama would be nominated."Sarkozy added that an Obama victory "would validate" his strategy of reconcilation with the United States. His embrace of the United States has made him American conservatives' favorite Continental politician, but he doesn't seem to be reciprocating. Meanwhile, the French press appears to be welcoming Obama Friday with...

It's another reminder of how much McCain is glad to talk about national security and also to let Obama define the race. Said the GOP nominee to a military veteran gathering in Denver: "We rejected the audacity of hopelessness, and we were right," McCain said of the surge and Obama's long-standing support for withdrawing troops in Iraq, mocking his rival's signature phrase and the title of his most recent book.

HuffPo notes that Maverick tweaked this charge during his speech this morning to a group of veterans, stating that Obama would rather win in Afghanistan by losing in Iraq. Blitzer presses him here to see if the old formulation still applies. Answer: Yup, pretty clearly it does, although McCain is careful to emphasize that he’s not questioning Obama’s patriotism, just his judgment. Is it possible to accuse someone of subordinating the national interest to their own personal ambition without, in essence, questioning their patriotism? I don’t know. Is it possible to “support the troops” while believing they’re carrying out an...

There is reason for conservatives to be troubled about this bill and its likely passage, but not for the inevitable complaining that will follow when the President signs it into law - as he has said he would. And, certainly enough there is little or no justification for the - equally inevitable - charges of "capitulation" that will emanate from those quarters to accompany and trail along after the Presidents action in doing so. (note: the author will be available online to reply to comments after the Jewish Sabbath is over)

Thank you for that kind introduction and warm welcome. I want to begin by talking about an issue in this campaign that I know concerns you as it concerns all Americans: the war in Iraq. Thankfully, the news from Iraq today is much more encouraging than I could have reported to you last year. Eighteen months ago, America faced a crisis as profound as any in our history. Iraq was in flames, torn apart by violence that was escaping our control. Al Qaeda was succeeding in what Osama bin Laden called the central front in their war against us. The...

DENVER -- In the face of Barack Obama's overseas tour de force, rival presidential candidate John McCain struggled to be heard. Yet amid the awkward moments, he managed to campaign busily in key battleground states and to raise millions of dollars at fundraisers. Polls in many swing states are close, and some are tightening. The Arizona Republican sought to turn this to his advantage in what was clearly a difficult week to be a stay-at-home candidate. He repeatedly emphasized his long military and congressional background, scolded Obama from afar on foreign policy, and kept playfully fueling speculation that he was...