Barack Obama's credibility hits rock bottom after oil spill and Sestak scandal  —  The combination of Obama's passivity over the Gulf oil spill catastrophe and his cynical political manoeuvrings could spell disaster for him, argues Toby Harnden  —  The first thing Barack Obama probably …

Obama's Katrina?  Maybe Worse  —  FOR Barack Obama's knee-jerk foes, of course it was his Katrina.  But for the rest of us, there's the nagging fear that the largest oil spill in our history could yet prove worse if it drags on much longer.  It might not only wreck the ecology of a region …

Covering Obama, press encounters Nation of Islam  —  President Obama's home is in the same Chicago neighborhood as Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.  On Saturday night, the overlapping of Obama's and Farrakhan's worlds made for a strange, and sometimes testy, encounter between the Secret Service …

To join the Army's Old Guard, Iraq war veteran learns to sweat the small stuff  —  They are crazy about creases in the Old Guard, which is why it takes Army Sgt. Nicholas Pata more than an hour to press his uniform the night before inspection.  —  They are obsessive about loose threads …

Our Fix-It Faith and the Oil Spill  —  “IF we've learned anything so far about the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, it is that it contains surprises.  And that means an operator needs depth — depth in terms of resources and expertise — to create the capability to respond to the unexpected. ”

U.S. ‘on track’ to meet Iraq troop reduction deadline of Aug. 31  —  The U.S. military “is on track and will stay on track” to meet its Aug. 31 deadline to get down to 50,000 troops in Iraq, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen said on on CNN's “State of the Union” Sunday.

'Don't ask' deal spotlights Sarvis  —  Aubrey Sarvis was a drawling young enlisted man in 1964, back at Fort Lee, Va., from a tour in Korea, when he heard the buzz on the chow line about a “queer investigation” involving four soldiers who had attended “some kind of gay party” off base.

Illinois Senate candidate admits claim about military award was inaccurate  —  The Republican candidate for President Obama's old Senate seat has admitted to inaccurately claiming he received the U.S. Navy's Intelligence Officer of the Year award for his service during NATO's conflict with Serbia in the late 1990s.

Israel stations nuclear missile subs off Iran  —  Three German-built Israeli submarines equipped with nuclear cruise missiles are to be deployed in the Gulf near the Iranian coastline.  —  The first has been sent in response to Israeli fears that ballistic missiles developed by Iran …

As ‘top kill’ effort fails, BP must fall back on oil spill containment strategy  —  It is the well that will not die.  —  BP's three-day effort to throttle the leaking gulf oil well with multiple blasts of heavy mud has failed.  The attempted “top kill” of the well was abandoned late Saturday afternoon …

Destroyed by court order: The footage of a Landrieu staffer admitting the senator's office had no problem with their phones  —  I recently reported that the judge in James O'Keefe's criminal case ordered the destruction of the footage of James O'Keefe's entry into Senator Mary Landrieu's offices.