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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...

Today's Savage thread.

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...

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 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:

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...

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...

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)

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!

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...

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...

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...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Shares of Washington Mutual Inc. slipped again on Friday on concern unsecured creditors are losing confidence in the nation's largest thrift. Protection against a default by the company got more expensive. However, the company said on Friday that it has boosted liquidity to more than $50 billion this month. At the end of the second quarter, liquidity was more than $40 billion. Liquidity usually refers to access to cash and other assets that can be sold easily. WM lost more than 30% of its market value on Wednesday and Thursday. A report by Gimme Credit analyst...

Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Rev. Keith Roderick, a defender of religious prisoners of conscience since 1982 as the Director of the Society of St. Stephen and Co-Director of the International Taskforce on Soviet Jewery. After responding to the appeals of Coptic Christians in 1987, he began working for Christians and other minorities from predominantly Muslim countries. He organized the Coalition for the Defense of Human Rights in 1993, the largest umbrella organization representing these minorities. Fr. Roderick also serves as the Washington Representative of Christian Solidarity International and is the Canon for Persecuted Christians for the Diocese of Quincy,...

Following the obvious political posturing at the Federal Communications Commission, Howard Stern called the opposition to the merger "communism" and vowed to never vote Democrat again. "I've voted Republican and I've voted Democrat," said Stern on the air. "I have vowed I will never vote for a Democrat again. I don't give a %#@% - no matter who they are." Stern took it even further and called the Democrat commissioners "communists" and referred to their tactics as "gangsterism." "The fact that these Democrats on the FCC are communists," Stern added. "They're for communism. They don't want to see companies... this...

He told CNN's Wolf Blitzer, "We have various options. The Nuremberg Trials are certainly an example of the kind of tribunal that we could move forward with. I don't think we'd have any difficulty in devising an international -- internationally supported mechanism that would mete out justice. There's no problem there." McCain said it would be a "good thing to reveal to the world the enormity of this guy's crimes, and his intentions, which are still there."

Robert Gibbs, a senior communications adviser to the Obama campaign, briefed reporters on the planne today. I just received this transcript as I am in London, having leap-frogged ahead due to requirements for live shots here. This is the full transcript about the Obama camp’s perspective on the back-and-forth with the Pentagon about the canceled visit to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. {Read Transcript at the Link)

NEW YORK - Cows, pigs and chickens in the U.S. produce enough manure to supply 2.4 per cent of the nation's electricity if the waste were converted into burnable gas, an energy option overlooked by the government, researchers said. Igniting energy-rich biogas in turbines would cut U.S. global-warming emissions from power generation by 4 per cent, said Michael Webber, lead author of a study published today in the Institute of Physics' Environmental Research Letters. The paper is the first to assess the nation's ability to use livestock manure as a renewable fuel, said Webber, assistant professor at the University of...

For painter and decorator Gordon Williams, his van is simply a means of getting from A to B. But council officials chose to give the vehicle a more lofty status. When they spotted him behind the wheel with a cigarette, they handed him an on-the-spot fine of £30 - for smoking in his place of work.

Skiing, local real estate likely to suffer scientists say VAIL, Colorado — If greenhouse gas emissions aren’t curtailed, climate change will reduce Eagle County’s snowpack by 57 percent by 2085, according to a new report. “The state’s most popular tourist activity is at risk from climate change,” said the report, published Wednesday by the Center for Integrative Environmental Research at the University of Maryland. The report, “Economic Impacts of Climate Change on Colorado,” does not paint a pretty picture for skiing — and the attendant industry of real estate — over the next century. The “snow season” could become 30...

On Wednesday, New York Times Co. (NYT) reported disappointing second-quarter earnings, and on Thursday the stock continued in its steep descent. At the end of trading it stood at 12.48, or virtually half the price it commanded one year ago. This part of the story is unsurprising, given how the Street is slamming any newspaper stock. What's startling is something else: If you back out much of the rest of the company's portfolio, you arrive at a surprisingly teeny valuation for the vaunted New York Times itself, despite all the respect the brand commands. At its current $12.48 stock price—down...

Wayne County Judge Ronald Giles has revoked Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's previous bond and ordered random drug screening on Friday based on testimony from two detectives in the accusations that Kilpatrick assaulted Detective Brian White.

Barack Obama met in Paris Friday with the pro-US President Nicolas Sarkozy on a world tour aimed at burnishing the White House hopeful's foreign policy credentials ahead of November elections. His plane, bearing the slogan "Change we can believe in," landed at Le Bourget airport and the Democrat then headed into Paris to be greeted on the steps of the Elysee palace by a smiling Sarkozy. "Bonjour," said Obama, after he was urged by journalists to say something in French and to pose for more handshakes with the French rightwing leader. He was due to give a joint press conference...

One of U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler’s election opponents is seeking state and federal investigations into the growing controversy surrounding his residency in Florida. Former Broward Mayor Ben Graber will hold a press conference at noon at the Broward County Governmental Center. Graber, who is running against Wexler in November, wants investigations into whether Wexler violated Florida and Maryland tax and voter registration law as well as whether he has improperly used congressional housing benefits. Wexler is Florida's only member of Congress who does not own a home in his congressional district. The Democratic congressman has admitted the only house he...

It’s time for the Mexican government to take some responsibility for the immigration crisis. Now that more Mexicans are failing to make it across the northern border, or find themselves back in Mexico after being deported from the United States, it’s time for the Mexican government to demonstrate that it — and not the U.S. government — is primarily responsible for the welfare of its citizens. Raymundo Pacheco, 28, is a Mexican citizen deserving of government help. In June Pacheco, originally from Santa Cruz Nexila, a small indigenous village in central Oaxaca, was deported from California to Tijuana....he had no...

If you believe as I do that the tax hikes proposed by Barack Obama and Democrats are bad for the country, then we are in good company. No less an authority than Nobel Prize winner and Columbia University economist Robert Mundell, a principal contributor to the creation of the euro, says that ending the Bush tax cuts — as proposed by presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama — would cause "a big recession, a nosedive." In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Mundell said, "the most important thing that could be done with respect to tax rates is to...

There’s potentially good news for people suffering from stroke and such debilitating neurological disorders as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. A new study by UC Irvine biologists Peter Bryant and Darius Gleason says that it’s possible to “produce new brain cells to replace those lost to disease or injury” by giving the cells a bit of stimulation. Scientists made the advance by locating the exact location of adult neural stem cells, which were found to be in a different part of the brain than researchers previously thought. The discovery arose from research on rats, which serve as a model of human...

Captain Hayden Video at link

As the saying goes, be careful what you wish for — you just might get it. For all those who have been concerned that the AP has not been fulfilling its mission to provide “unbiased news,” be assured they have heard you. Now we may be getting something much worse. The AP has decided it will now practice something it calls “accountability journalism.” But it has nothing to do with being “accountable” to readers seeking unbiased news. Instead, it seems to be more about holding politicians accountable to the personal conclusions of reporters. If that seems like a stretch, here...

A hotel security guard told FOXNews.com he intervened this week between a man he identified as former Sen. John Edwards and tabloid reporters who chased down the former presidential hopeful after what they're calling a rendezvous with his mistress and love child. The Beverly Hilton Hotel guard said he encountered a shaken and ashen-faced Edwards — whom he did not immediately recognize — in a hotel men's room early Tuesday morning in a literal tug-of-war with reporters on the other side of the door. "What are they saying about me?" the guard said Edwards asked. "His face just went totally...

Denver, CO (AHN) - Republican nominee Bob Schaffer and Rep. Mark Udall (D-CO) are tied in the race for the seat of retiring Sen. Wayne Allard (R-CO), according to the latest Quinnipiac University poll. Schaffer and Udall are in a dead heat at 44 percent each. One percent of voters declared their support for other candidates and 11 percent were undecided. Schaffer has closed a 10-point deficit since last month, when he trailed 38 percent to 48 percent. Pundits are attributing his rise to increased support for offshore oil drilling, which the former Republican congressman supports. Fifty-nine percent of Colorado...

CIUDAD JUAREZ - A group of hitmen armed with automatic weapons ambushed the head of a giant prison in a northern Mexican city on Thursday soon after he received threats on his life from suspected drug gangs, said police. Salvador Barreno, 66, was leaving work at the largest jail in Ciudad Juarez when a group of men with assault rifles chased down his car, killing him and a bodyguard who was driving. The car was riddled with more than 80 bullet holes, according to local media. Barreno made it to a hospital but died in surgery. His bodyguard was killed...

While much attention has been focused on the photo-ops of Barack Obama's foreign trip orchestrated by a highly skilled political entourage, beyond the pictures numerous questions were raised about the Democratic presidential nominee's foreign policy positions and missteps....read the briefing here.