Pat Dollard | Young Americans

WASHINGTON (AP) - The most common deals under the government’s $3 billion Cash for Clunkers program, aimed at putting more fuel-efficient cars on the road, replaced old Ford or Chevrolet pickups with new ones that got only marginally better gas mileage, according to an analysis of new federal data by The Associated Press.
The single most [...]

Politico
Most House Democrats tried to put a good face on Tuesday’s election results, saying they picked up two more votes for a sweeping health care bill that could be on the floor as early as Friday.
But it can’t make it any easier for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as she works to corral the last holdouts [...]

Investors Business Daily
Leadership: What are we to make of a White House visitors list that includes 22 swiftly scheduled appointments with a union boss at a time when Gen. Stanley McChrystal can’t get face time with the commander in chief?
Late Friday during the idle hours of the news cycle, the administration released the names of [...]

WASHINGTON (AP) - The government’s latest count of stimulus jobs significantly overstates the effects of the $787 billion program under a popular federal preschool program, raising fresh questions about the process the Obama administration is using to tout the success of its economic recovery plan.
An Associated Press review of the latest stimulus reports—which the White [...]

Times Online:
Five British soldiers have been shot dead after a rogue Afghan policeman turned his weapon against a British training team inside a checkpoint in Helmand Province.
The soldiers, three from the Grenadier Guards and two from the Royal Military Police, died in the village of Shin Kalay in Nad-e’Ali district of Helmand Province yesterday afternoon. [...]

Times Online:
Hamid Karzai vowed to crack down on corruption and reach out to his political rivals, a day after he was declared the winner of Afghanistan’s fraud-ridden presidential elections.
Flanked by his two vice-presidents, Mr Karzai made a subdued acceptance speech this morning in which he attempted to reassure the international community that he would be [...]

Fox News:
President Obama has run out of “excuses” for delaying a decision on whether to send more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, House Minority Leader John Boehner said Monday after Afghan President Hamid Karzai was declared the winner of his nation’s presidential election by default.
Obama administration officials had suggested that a decision on American troop [...]

Politico
The House ethics committee has voted to begin full-scale investigations into ethics allegations against Democratic Reps. Maxine Waters (Calif.) and Laura Richardson (Calif.), but decided against investigating Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.).
After Thursday’s votes, Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and Jo Bonner (R-Ala.), chairwoman and ranking member of the committee, went to the House floor to assure [...]

By: Michael Barone
Washington Examiner
Where have all those Obamenthusiasts who were so visible in 2008 been hiding this year? In this New Republic article Lydia DePillis seems to think that the problem is that Organizing For America has been run as a top-down organization, rather than as a bottom-up movement, giving the folks out there no [...]

Heritage Foundation
This Friday, the tax payer funded Congressional Management Foundation (CMF) is hosting a briefing for Members of Congress and their staff on their new study: Online Town Hall Meetings: Exploring Democracy in the 21st Century. The CMF study consisted of 21 townhall meetings where Members of Congress and CMF provided a moderator: “spoke via [...]

Nope, I am not bullshitting you. This is the story, the whole story, and everything included from the story. Let’s see if his plans to make the call are carried out like his plans to make a decision on sending more troops to A-stan. “Ya know? I meant to, but I got really busy…”
Busy [...]

KABUL (AP) - Afghanistan’s election commission proclaimed President Hamid Karzai the victor of the country’s tumultuous ballot Monday, canceling a planned runoff and ending a political crisis two and a half months after a fraud-marred first round.
The Obama administration—which has been waiting for a government deemed legitimate to emerge in Kabul before announcing whether to [...]

Keith Moon and Abdullah Abdullah
Excerpted from The Guardian:
The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, today pledged to stand by the next Afghan government as Afghanistan’s western backers pushed for a swift coronation of Hamid Karzai as president following the decision by his closest challenger to withdraw from the runoff vote.
After meeting Karzai and his main rival [...]

ISLAMABAD (AP) - Citing security concerns, the U.N. suspended long-term development work in two key areas along Pakistan’s volatile border with Afghanistan on Monday, a blow to international efforts to counter the country’s rising militancy.
Underscoring the militant threat, an explosion near a bank killed four people and wounded more than a dozen in the capital’s [...]

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (AP) - An explosion outside a bank near Pakistan’s capital killed at least 34 people Monday, the latest in a wave of attacks by militants since the army launched a new offensive against them last month.
The growing violence in the country prompted the U.N. on Monday to suspend long-term development in Pakistan’s volatile [...]

KABUL (AP) — Afghan presidential challenger Abdullah Abdullah announced Sunday he would not participate in next weekend’s runoff election but stopped short of calling on his supporters to boycott the balloting.
Abdullah also said the Afghan people should not accept results of an election from the current election commission and told supporters President Hamid Karzai’s [...]

WAPO: “President seeks options for sending fewer to war”
Fox News:
President Barack Obama grappled Friday with the costs and consequences of a long-term commitment to Afghanistan, but reached no decisions about troop levels, a top aide said, as military advisers briefed the president on an armed services already taxed by challenges around the globe.
The president reviewed [...]