Approval Ratings Drop for Obama on Health Care, Other Issues  —  Approval Rating on Health Care Falls Below 50 Percent  —  Obama's approval ratings on other front-burner issues, such as the economy and the federal budget deficit, have also slipped over the summer, as rising concern …

White House putting off release of budget update  —  WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House is being forced to acknowledge the wide gap between its once-upbeat predictions about the economy and today's bleak landscape.  —  The administration's annual midsummer budget update is sure to show higher deficits …

Frank McCourt, Whose Irish Childhood Illuminated His Prose, Is Dead at 78  —  Frank McCourt, a former New York City schoolteacher who turned his miserable childhood in Limerick, Ireland, into a phenomenally popular, Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir, “Angela's Ashes,” died in Manhattan on Sunday.

Video: Pvt. Bowe Bergdahl Full Hostage Video  —  Here is the entire video showing Private Bowe Berdahl in Taliban captivity.  The Taliban have threatened to murder him if the U.S. does not leave Afghanistan.  —  Until Bowe Bergdahl's captors are dead I will not rest.

Palin Hairdresser: NYT Was Lying About “Hair Thinning” Claim  —  Chalk this up as Stupid Palin Meme of the Week:  —  In a July 12th hit piece published on the front page of the New York Times, reporters Jim Rutenberg and Serge Kovaleski (assisted by Kim Severson and William Yardley in Alaska) made the following claim:

Subprime Brokers Resurface as Dubious Loan Fixers  —  LOS ANGELES — From the ninth floor of a downtown office building on Wilshire Boulevard, Jack Soussana delivered staggering numbers of mortgages to homeowners during the real estate boom, amassing a fortune.  —  By Mr. Soussana's own account, his customers fared less happily.

After bashing K Street, Dodd mingles with lobbyists  —  After distancing himself from lobbyists in campaign ads, Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) was on Martha's Vineyard this weekend meeting with some of the most well known names on K Street.  —  The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee …

God, Guns, Guts, and CNN's Idiot Reporters  —  Greetings, Instapundit readers!  —  “You don't have a problem with God, do ya?”  —  This is a question posed to CNN reporter Carol Costello during a recent interview with Mark Muller, a Missouri car dealer whose company is offering an unusual incentive …

Let's Reach for The Stars Again  —  What is most striking about this 40th anniversary of the first human landing on the moon is that we can no longer do what we're celebrating.  Not “do not choose to,” but “can't.”  —  By the 40th anniversary of the Lewis and Clark expedition, the Oregon Trail was carrying settlers to the West.

Race in 2028  —  During last week's Supreme Court confirmation hearings, Republican senators kept bringing the conversation back to 2001 — the year when Sonia Sotomayor delivered the most famous version of her line about how a “wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences” might outshine a white male judge.

Hooker who worked for Kristin Davis says Eliot Spitzer wasn't her only governor  —  Another gubernatorial sex scandal may be looming.  Even as South Carolina's Mark Sanford waits to see whether his wife, Jenny, forgives his romp in the pampas, a New York call girl could plunge one of America's …

TWO MILLION VISITORS!  —  About 3 p.m. today, The Other McCain recorded its 2 millionth visitor.  It took slightly more than 11 months to hit the 1-million mark on Feb. 13, and barely five months to knock down the next million.  —  We must therefore begin by thanking Carrie Prejean nude.

‘A trillion here, a trillion there’  —  Things in Louisiana are looking up.  We are announcing major economic development wins and private capital investment and reducing government spending in order to live within our means.  We just completed a grueling legislative session …

Pentagon Seeks Prison Overhaul in Afghanistan  —  BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan — A sweeping United States military review calls for overhauling the troubled American-run prison here as well as the entire Afghan jail and judicial systems, a reaction to worries that abuses and militant recruiting within …

The Shuffle President  —  Like romantic comedies and superhero blockbusters, the modern presidency has evolved into a reliable form of dramatic narrative.  A candidate comes into office brandishing a broad theme — a vow to clean up government, perhaps, or to fearlessly prune it back …