BREAKING FROM NBC: White House official calls gays part of “Internet left fringe”  —  UPDATE FROM PAM: … And let me just add that if we're all insignificant children who don't understand politics, and who the White House doesn't worry about, then why did a White House official feel the need …

Insurance Group Says Health Bill Will Mean Higher Premiums  —  Report Issued Before Key Committee Vote  —  After months of collaboration on President Obama's attempt to overhaul the nation's health-care system, the insurance industry plans to strike out against the effort on Monday …

Heckuva Job, Barack  —  This was Barack Obama's chance.  —  Here was an opportunity to cut himself free, in a stroke, from the baggage that's weighed his presidency down — the implausible expectations, the utopian dreams, the messianic hoo-ha.  —  Here was a place to draw …

Pelosi Key to GOP 2010 Playbook  —  Republicans Hope Linking House Speaker to Democrats Can Turn Centrist Districts  —  WASHINGTON — Republicans are stepping up attacks on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, deciding that a major part of their 2010 electoral strategy will be linking Democratic candidates to her.

Cable News Irony Alert: CNN, Fox and The Disappearing General Audience  —  White House Communications Director Anita Dunn appeared Sunday morning on Howard Kurtz's CNN show Reliable Sources to discuss her comments in my TIME magazine story this week.  She continued her criticism of Fox News:

Civilian Goals Largely Unmet in Afghanistan  —  WASHINGTON — Even as President Obama leads an intense debate over whether to send more troops to Afghanistan, administration officials say the United States is falling far short of his goals to fight the country's endemic corruption …

Tea partiers turn on GOP leadership  —  While the energy of the anti-tax and anti-Big Government tea party movement may yet haunt Democrats in 2010, the first order of business appears to be remaking the Republican Party.  —  Whether it's the loose confederation of Washington-oriented groups …

Foreclosures Grow in Housing Market's Top Tiers  —  New data suggest that foreclosures are rising in more expensive housing markets.  —  About 30% of foreclosures in June involved homes in the top third of local housing values, up from 16% when the foreclosure crisis began three years ago …

Why Email No Longer Rules...  And what that means for the way we communicate  —  Services like Twitter, Facebook and Google Wave create a constant stream of interaction among users—for better or worse.  —  Email has had a good run as king of communications.  But its reign is over.

The Real Afghan Lessons From Vietnam  —  The ‘clear and hold’ strategy of Gen. Creighton Abrams was working in South Vietnam.  Then Congress pulled the plug on funding.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  More than 30 years have passed since North Vietnam, in gross violation of the 1973 Paris Peace Accords, conquered South Vietnam.

An Inconvenient Journalist  —  Al Gore notoriously refuses to debate the scientific merits of his book and movie about global warming, both titled An Inconvenient Truth.  At a conference of environmental journalists, however, he briefly deigned to answer questions.

Transcript: Feinstein, Chambliss, McGovern, Keane  —  “This Week” Transcript with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Sen. Saxby Chambliss, Rep. Jim McGovern, Gen. Jack Keane  —  ABC NEWS, THIS WEEK WITH GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS INTERVIEW WITH SENATOR DIANNE FEINSTEIN, SENATOR SAXBY CHAMBLISS …