Is Obama Punking Us?  —  “AUGUST is a challenging time to be president,” said Andrew Card, the former Bush White House chief of staff, as he offered unsolicited advice to his successors in a television interview last week.  “I think you have to expect the unexpected.”  —  He should know.

Criminal investigation into CIA treatment of detainees expected  —  Insiders say Atty. Gen. Eric Holder is close to naming a prosecutor to look into reports of excessive waterboarding and other unauthorized methods.  Convictions could be hard to get.  —  Reporting from Washington …

Is There a Deal to be Made on Health Care?  An Interview WIth Sen. Lindsey Graham.  —  Earlier this week, Sen. Lindsey Graham was the sole Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee to vote in favor of Sonia Sotomayor.  A few days later, he co-signed an op-ed in The Washington Post …

OzyBama Will Meet The Same Fate  —  Democrats are complaining loudly that the American people are stupid and should shut up about President Obama's health care program, cap-and-tax program, spend us into deeper deficits program, tax away our incentives program, apologize to our enemies program …

Drug Industry to Run Ads Favoring White House Plan  —  WASHINGTON — The drug industry has authorized its lobbyists to spend as much as $150 million on television commercials supporting President Obama's health care overhaul, beginning over the August Congressional recess, people briefed on the plans said Saturday.

Paulson's Calls to Goldman Tested Ethics  —  Before he became President George W. Bush's Treasury secretary in 2006, Henry M. Paulson Jr. agreed to hold himself to a higher ethical standard than his predecessors.  He not only sold all his holdings in Goldman Sachs, the investment bank he had run …

Fatah: We'll sacrifice victims until Jerusalem is ours  —  The status of Jerusalem as the future capital of a Palestinian state is a red line that no Palestinian leader is permitted to cross, President Mahmoud Abbas' ruling Fatah faction declared in the West Bank on Saturday.

Tax and Spend, or Face The Consequences  —  At some point, the Great Recession will end.  Newsweek even says it's already over.  Whenever it happens, we will see that the downturn was but a minor blip in the long story of the economy.  —  In the next chapter, abundance beckons — for some.

Gingrich defends Palin's ‘death panels’  —  Newt Gingrich and Howard Dean went at it on health care this morning on This Week.  Especially over Sarah Palin's claim that Obama's health care plan will create “death panels” that would encourage euthanasia.  —  “Communal standards historically …

Reid plans town hall meeting over telephone  —  WASHINGTON — A day after holding up a square of Astroturf to denounce the orchestrated attacks on Democratic town hall meetings on health care, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's office said he would be talking with his Nevada constituents this month over the phone lines.

Pay Czar Quietly Meets With Rescued Companies  —  President Obama's compensation czar has been meeting for weeks with executives at some of the country's largest and most troubled companies as they face a Thursday deadline to propose how much they will pay their top employees.

Obama's Embrace of a Bush Tactic Riles Congress  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama has issued signing statements claiming the authority to bypass dozens of provisions of bills enacted into law since he took office, provoking mounting criticism by lawmakers from both parties.