What's Next, Mr. President — Cardigans?  —  Barely six months into his presidency, Barack Obama seems to be driving south into that political speed trap known as Carter Country: a sad-sack landscape in which every major initiative meets not just with failure but with scorn from political allies and foes alike.

A page out of the Chavez (leftist, in other words) Playbook  —  A [Spanish] Catalan newspaper is reporting that Honduran authorities have seized computers found in the Presidential Palace belonging to deposed president Mel Zelaya.  Taking a page right out of the leftist dictator's handbook …

A Challenge to Climate Change Skeptics  —  John Hinderaker at the popular conservative blog PowerLine reports that it's been cold, cold, cold in his home town of Minneapolis, Minnesota, going to far as to compare it with “The Year Without a Summer”, 1816, when global temperatures were abnormally low …

North Korean Test Missile Strikes Wisconsin Home  —  A North Korean missile struck a home near Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, this afternoon, but failed to totally detonate its warhead.  The prototype ‘Oscar Mayer Jong Il’ intercontinental ballistic missile spewed ketchup all over the place …

Alliances Splinter in Debate Over Health-Care Reform  —  Once-Friendly Groups Split as Details Emerge  —  Months of relative cooperation among disparate interest groups in the heath-care reform debate appear to be coming to an end, as the major political parties and their surrogates unleash …

Ex-Lehman traders get huge bonuses  —  Barclays will pay millions to staff at its new US arm  —  Barclays is to pay tens of millions of pounds to its investment bankers, who have made huge profits from trading in government debt, derivatives and foreign exchange.

Obama not stressing Aug. deadline  —  In his most recent remarks, President Obama has stopped mentioning what had been his mantra — that the House and Senate finish their health-care bills by the August recess — and switched to a less specific call to fast action.

Congressman: Centrist Dems talking healthcare coalition with GOP  —  Some centrist House Democrats have reached out to Republicans to explore breaking with their party leadership on healthcare and crafting a reform bill with the rival GOP, one congressman claimed Saturday.

Windfalls for Bankers, Resentments for the Rest  —  There was a time in this country when a company reporting a few billion in earnings could count its money while basking in polite, reverent applause.  —  That time ended Tuesday.  —  It was the morning that Goldman Sachs reported net income …

Captive G.I. on Video by Taliban  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — The American soldier who disappeared June 30 in eastern Afghanistan, and was later confirmed to have been captured, appears on a video posted Saturday to a Web site by the Taliban, two United States defense officials said.

‘Integrity’?  Like Paul F***ing Anka, Baby  —  Ace of Spades mentions “integrity” in discussing his services last year “as an apologist for the horrible candidate John McCain.”  I traveled a good distance down that particular road myself — I'd link some of it, if only it weren't so …

Women on the Verge of the Law: From Anita Hill to Sonia Sotomayor  —  A lone woman sits at the witness table, hoping her Yale law degree will help her survive a charged Supreme Court confirmation hearing.  She faces a battery of powerful white senators on the Judiciary Committee …

China admits shooting dead 12 rioters  —  Armed mob was fired on as it attacked civilians and ransacked shops, say officials  —  The Chinese authorities today acknowledged shooting dead 12 Uighur rioters in Xinjiang this month, in a rare acknowledgement of deaths at the hands of security forces.