McChrystal: More Forces or ‘Mission Failure’  —  Top U.S. Commander For Afghan War Calls Next 12 Months Decisive  —  The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan warns in an urgent, confidential assessment of the war that he needs more forces within the next year and bluntly states that without them …

Obama open to newspaper bailout bill  —  The president said he is “happy to look at” bills before Congress that would give struggling news organizations tax breaks if they were to restructure as nonprofit businesses.  —  “I haven't seen detailed proposals yet, but I'll be happy to look at them …

Obama's Nontax Tax  —  On a Sunday show, the President offers a revealing definition.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  President Obama didn't make much news on his round of five Sunday talk shows yesterday, with one notable exception.  The President revealed a great deal about his philosophy …

Obama's TV Blitz: On The Air, but Off His Game?  —  The White House doesn't buy the notion that President Obama, who appeared on five talk shows Sunday and is heading next for David Letterman's couch, could be wearing out his welcome on the tube.  —  Sure, this is a president …

Planting the Seeds: The Politicized Art Behind the ACORN Plan  —  Everything you needed to know about the unorthodox roll out of the now-notorious ACORN sting videos was hidden in plain sight in my Sept. 7 column, “Katie Couric, Look in the Mirror.”  ACORN was not the only target of those videos …

Pregame Report: The NEA Conference Call  —  On August 25th 2009, Big Hollywood's Patrick Courrielche broke the story of a conference call he attended with other “rising artist and art community luminaries”: … The email invite came directly from Yosi Sergant, then-Director of Communications …

Reform or Bust  —  In the grim period that followed Lehman's failure, it seemed inconceivable that bankers would, just a few months later, be going right back to the practices that brought the world's financial system to the edge of collapse.  At the very least, one might have thought …

Sand artist Kseniya Simonova winner of Ukraine's Got Talent becomes internet hit  —  Sand artist, Kseniya Simonova, who moved audiences to tears as she won Ukraine's Got Talent, has become an online sensation with more than two million hits.  —  Miss Simonova, 24, drew a series of pictures …

9/21: Bloomberg Leads Thompson 50% to 39%  —  The candidates are now in place for November's race for mayor in New York City, and early numbers show the incumbent, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, with 50% of registered voters compared with 39% for his Democratic challenger, New York City Comptroller Bill Thompson.

New poll: Majority believe government is doing too much  —  A new Gallup poll shows that the number of people who believe government has its hand in too many areas of American life has reached its highest point in more than a decade.  —  The question asked by Gallup was …

Obama set to slash nuclear arsenal  —  Pentagon told to map out radical cuts as president prepares to chair UN talks  —  Barack Obama has demanded the Pentagon conduct a radical review of US nuclear weapons doctrine to prepare the way for deep cuts in the country's arsenal, the Guardian can reveal.

Doubts Fade and Couric Is Energized  —  For much of 2008, the TV cognoscenti assumed that Katie Couric would be anywhere but in the “CBS Evening News” anchor chair by now.  —  But despite some of the lowest ratings in the newscast's history, she says she will remain there until her contract expires in 2011.

Obama plays dumb on ACORN  —  Channeling clueless Charlie Gibson and Nancy Pelosi, President Obama is playing dumb about ACORN.  Here's what he said on ABC's This Week this morning: … It strains credulity — no, it snaps credulity in half — to believe Obama “didn't even know” that ACORN was …