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 …

Fox News Guest Ralph Peters Suggests Taliban Should Kill U.S. Soldier If He Deserted  —  Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl, the U.S. soldier who has been captured by the Taliban and appears in a video released this weekend by his captors, “went missing from his base in eastern Afghanistan on June 30.”

Morning Fix: Jindal Rises Again  —  Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) will wade into the national debate over health care this week by penning op-eds in Politico and the Wall Street Journal and appearing on a series of cable chat shows today and tomorrow.  —  “Governor Jindal has seen enough …

Steele On Health Care: What's Individual Requirement?  —  Michael Steele, chairman of the RNC, doesn't seem to know the basic terminology of the health care debate.  —  In a Q&A at the National Press Club just now, Steele was asked if Republicans support an individual requirement to get health care …

2012 Match-ups: Obama, Romney Tied at 45%; Obama 48%, Palin 42%  —  If the 2012 presidential election were held today, President Obama and possible Republican nominee Mitt Romney would be all tied up at 45% each, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

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.

REJECTING THE IDEA OF AN OVERHAUL.... Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) of Kentucky was on “Meet the Press” yesterday, talking about his opposition to the health care reform proposal(s).  That's fine; he's the opposition leader.  Of course he's going to oppose the majority's agenda.

Financial Rescue I.G. Says Banks Funneled TARP Aid to Various Expenses  —  Many of the banks that got federal aid to support increased lending have instead used some of the money to make investments, repay debts or buy other banks, according to a new report from the special inspector general overseeing …

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.

One Small Step For Man . . .  If you're like me (and I know many of you are), you grew up reading the science fiction of the 1940's and 1950's, promising a quick and rapid expansion into the solar system, and not too long thereafter, the galaxy.  Your young mind tried, and failed …

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 …

New iPhone app helps you score pot  —  States that are low on funds are steadily inhaling the idea of taxing the sale of a substance that gets you high.  —  Meanwhile, as if anticipating an uptick in demand, the folks at Apple have approved a new iPhone and iPod Touch app that will allow …

The New Old ‘Card Check’  —  Labor's top priority isn't dead yet.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  Politicians don't typically broadcast their defeat, and when they do it pays to watch for the blindside hit.  That's surely the case with last week's reports that six liberal Senators …

Feingold Hits Obama's Intel Chief: You're Wrong, CIA Officials May Have Broken Law  —  I told you last week that it was a big deal when Obama's top intelligence guy defended that secret, controversial CIA program as legal, because it's bound to result in a standoff between Congressional Dems and the White House.

‘Joe the Plumber’ Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher pipes up for virtue at Greenville tea party rally near Appleton  —  Accountability, action key themes of speakers  —  GREENVILLE — As national everyman Joe the Plumber took the stage here Sunday against a backdrop of farms, a receptive crowd treated him like a rock star.

‘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 …

Drop in Violent Crime in D.C. Area and Some Other Major Cities Puzzles Experts  —  Violent crime has plummeted in the Washington area and in major cities across the country, a trend criminologists describe as baffling and unexpected.  —  The District, New York and Los Angeles are on track …

President Obama, Democratic Congress's Squandered Stimulus  —  It's not surprising that the much-ballyhooed “economic stimulus” hasn't done much stimulating.  President Obama and his aides argue that it's too early to expect startling results.  They have a point.  A $14 trillion economy won't revive in a nanosecond.