The administration is losing control of the Afghan agenda Oct 30, 2009 By THE WASHINGTON TIMES It’s been more than two weeks since President Obama announced that a decision on courses of action in Afghanistan would be made “in the coming weeks.” Yesterday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said a decision would wait until [...]

Items that should mean the death of Obamacare Oct 30, 2009 By THE WASHINGTON TIMES The public option isn’t the only thing that should worry the public about Obamacare. Granted, there are very good reasons for so much attention these days to be focused on whether or not Congress includes the awful idea of a [...]

Government spending spree isn’t bringing about recovery Oct 30, 2009 By THE WASHINGTON TIMES Christina Romer, chairman of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, told Congress on Oct. 22 that most of the economic growth from President Obama’s stimulus package has occurred already. This underwhelming revelation presents an opportune time to evaluate what – if [...]

Senate effort to start next week Oct 30, 2009 By Edward Felker Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer said late Thursday that she wants to hold drafting sessions as early as Tuesday on the climate change bill pending before her committee, but the meetings could be delayed by Republican stalling tactics. A [...]

UBS chief has Obama access Oct 30, 2009 By Matthew Mosk When UBS Americas CEO Robert Wolf stepped out on the golf links at Martha’s Vineyard this past summer as part of President Obama’s foursome, his firm had plenty to celebrate. A few days earlier, the Swiss parent of his company had resolved a long-running [...]

Democrats’ bill would cover 96% of citizens Oct 30, 2009 By Jennifer Haberkorn and Kara Rowland The House Democrats’ health care overhaul bill released Thursday creates a government-run insurance program, provides insurance coverage to 96 percent of all Americans and sets the stage for major battles over politically risky cuts to Medicare, new taxes, high [...]

Why Obama needs to send more troops to Afghanistan By David Ignatius Friday, October 30, 2009   KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN Here’s what you would see if you traveled this week to Kandahar and Helmand provinces, the two big battlegrounds of the Afghanistan war: a conflict that is balanced tenuously between success and failure. The United States [...]

  By Charles Krauthammer Friday, October 30, 2009   Old Soviet joke: Moscow, 1953. Stalin calls in Khrushchev. “Niki, I’m dying. Don’t have much to leave you. Just three envelopes. Open them, one at a time, when you get into big trouble.” A few years later, first crisis. Khrushchev opens envelope 1: “Blame everything on [...]

  By Michael Gerson Friday, October 30, 2009   R. Creigh Deeds, the Democratic candidate for Virginia governor, seems poised to lose the jewel in President Obama’s political crown. In November 2008, Obama was the first Democrat since Lyndon Johnson to win the electoral votes of the commonwealth. Obama’s victory was a case study in [...]

By ELISABETH MALKIN   Published: October 30, 2009 MEXICO CITY — A lingering political crisis in Honduras seemed to be nearing an end on Friday after the de facto government agreed to a deal that would allow Manuel Zelaya, the deposed president, to return to office. The government of Roberto Micheletti, which had refused to [...]