Little Blue Pills Among the Ways CIA Wins Friends in Afghanistan  —  The Afghan chieftain looked older than his 60-odd years, and his bearded face bore the creases of a man burdened with duties as tribal patriarch and husband to four younger women.  His visitor, a CIA officer, saw an opportunity …

Poll: Obama is man Americans admire most  —  WASHINGTON — A month before his inauguration, Americans choose Barack Obama as the man they admire most in the world, according to a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll.  It's the first time a president-elect has topped the annual survey in more than a half-century.

RNC candidate distributes controversial Obama song  —  RNC candidate Chip Saltsman's Christmas greeting to committee members includes a music CD with lyrics from a song called “Barack the Magic Negro,” first played on Rush Limbaugh's popular radio show.  —  Saltsman, a personal friend …

Retail Sales Plummet  —  Price-slashing failed to rescue a bleak holiday season for beleaguered retailers, as sales plunged across most categories on shrinking consumer spending, according to new data released Thursday.  —  Despite a flurry of last-minute shoppers lured by the deep discounts …

Trooper Says Election Delayed Alaska Drug Case  —  WASILLA, Alaska — The mother of Bristol Palin's boyfriend sent text messages discussing drug transactions less than a month after the young woman's mother, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, was nominated as the Republican vice presidential candidate …

The Pakistan Shift  —  Rising tensions with India are prompting Pakistan to shift forces away from fighting the Taliban near the Afghan border and toward preparations for a subcontinental standoff.  And of course they are — Pakistan has no choice but to make its situation vis-a-vis India its primary security concern.

Republicans are blinded by love  —  Lefties just don't have the same feeling about America as the hard right does.  —  Idon't love America.  That's what conservatives are always telling liberals like me.  Their love, they insist, is truer, deeper and more complete.

Send Caroline Kennedy to Court of St. James  —  (UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown receiving bust of John F. Kennedy from Caroline Kennedy)  —  Caroline Kennedy is having a rough time convincing fellow New York-based Dems that she's good for them.  If she really, really wants to be in the rough …

Bush Is a Book Lover  —  A glimpse of what the president has been reading.  —  With only five days left, my lead is insurmountable.  The competition can't catch up.  And for the third year in a row, I'll triumph.  In second place will be the president of the United States.

Palestinian rocket kills 2 Gaza girls  —  Palestinians misfire rocket, two Gaza girls killed after Qassam hits home in northern Strip; earlier Friday, Palestinian man wounded by misfired rocket taken for treatment in Israeli hospital  —  A rocket apparently fired by Palestinians on Friday struck …

Barack Be Good  —  Times have changed.  In 1996, President Bill Clinton, under siege from the right, declared that “the era of big government is over.”  But President-elect Barack Obama, riding a wave of revulsion over what conservatism has wrought, has said that he wants to “make government cool again.”

Now, feds probe Gov. Richardson of Obama Cabinet for ‘pay-to-play’  —  It seems that Illinois' legally challenged Gov. Rod Blagojevich is not the only close Barack Obama associate and Democratic governor being investigated by the feds for possibly selling government business in return for campaign contributions.

Jeb Bush poised for Florida Senate run  —  As Caroline Kennedy pursues her bright-lights, big-city bid for the U.S. Senate, another child of dynasty is quietly testing the waters for his own Senate run.  —  Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush - the son of one president and the brother of another …

Agencies' report warns of faster climate change  —  Reporting from Washington — The United States faces the possibility of much more rapid climate change by the end of the century than previous studies have suggested, according to a report led by the U.S. Geological Survey.

California Crisis May Crunch $3.8 Billion of Jobs in Slowdown  —  A A A  —  Dec. 24 (Bloomberg) — Just $5 million of work is needed to complete a new California Court of Appeals building in Santa Ana.  The state may not have the money, and come July judges may be writing opinions in their living rooms.