Levi Johnston Apologizes to Palin Family for ‘Youthful Indiscretion’  —  Levi Johnston isn't just getting past his differences with Bristol Palin - he's also hoping to make amends with her famous mom.  —  “Last year, after Bristol and I broke up, I was unhappy and a little angry.

Obama Job Approval Rating Down to 38% Among Independents  —  Overall job ratings for the president continue to be below majority level  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Thirty-eight percent of independents approve of the job Barack Obama is doing as president, the first time independent approval of Obama …

Obama Bypassing Congress to Appoint Chief of Medicare and Medicaid  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama will bypass Congress and appoint Dr. Donald M. Berwick, a health policy expert, to run Medicare and Medicaid, the White House said Tuesday.  —  Dan Pfeiffer, the White House communications director …

Darrell Issa Emerges as Obama's Annoyer-in-Chief  —  WASHINGTON — As a sign of the pride Representative Darrell Issa takes in annoying the Obama administration, consider his account of a recent exchange with Rahm Emanuel, a former congressman and now the White House chief of staff.

America's most unlikely politician  —  Last month, an unknown, unemployed former soldier astonished America by becoming the Democratic nominee for South Carolina's upcoming senate election.  How on earth did he do it?  —  The journey to the home of one of the most enigmatic figures to emerge …

Mayberry Machiavellis: Obama Political Team Handcuffing Recovery  —  WHAT'S YOUR REACTION?  —  Under the leadership of President George W. Bush, science, empirical evidence and expert advice struggled to be heard above the din of politics.  It's one thing to prioritize politics over good policy …

UAE ambassador to US: ‘Bomb Iran’  —  Yousef al-Otaiba reportedly says “we cannot live with a nuclear Iran.”  —  Talkbacks (7)  —  Make JPOST.COM your Home Page  —  Iranian Threat  —  Jewish World  —  Local Israel  —  Arts & Culture  —  Français  —  Classifieds  —  Israel

Perfect — Eric Holder's DOJ crony leading SB1070 challenge is member of the “Gitmo 9”, who represented terrorists in court  —  The White House is so laser-focused on the environmental tragedy in the Gulf* that the Obama Justice Department today filed suit against Arizona.

Democrats digging harder than ever for dirt on Republicans  —  The Democratic Party is moving faster and more aggressively than in previous election years to dig up unflattering details about Republican challengers.  In House races from New Jersey to Ohio to California …

San Francisco starts soda ban as soda tax still pending in Michigan Legislature  —  The practical effects are being felt today from a ban on sugary drinks in San Francisco even as libertarian groups continue to cast doubt on the thesis.  —  The San Francisco policy, the result of an executive order …

How New-START will improve our nation's security  —  Even in these polarized times, anyone seeking the presidency should know that the security of the United States is too important to be treated as fodder for political posturing.  Sadly, former governor Mitt Romney failed that test in arguing …

Republican budget hawks boost Obama's new deficit commission  —  A White House commission tasked with winding down trillion-dollar deficits has won a boost from Congress's leading GOP budget hawks, who say it is off to a strong start.  —  Rep. Paul Ryan (Wis.) and Sen. Judd Gregg (N.H.) …

On the Left, A False Choice Fuels The Growing Civil War Over Obama  —  There is a civil war on the left over Barack Obama.  The fault lines are jagged, and depending on the issue, porous, but broadly, the split is along two fronts:  — Those who believe that critiquing - and occasionally opposing …

The Massachusetts Health-Care ‘Train Wreck’  —  The future of ObamaCare is unfolding here: runaway spending, price controls, even limits on care and medical licensing.  —  President Obama said earlier this year that the health-care bill that Congress passed three months ago is …

BREAKING: Former DOJ Officials Stepping Forward to Support J. Christian Adams (Updated)  —  Former DOJ employees want to go on record praising Adams' outstanding work record, and — pay attention, DOJ press liaisons — maybe corroborate Adams' charges about DOJ hostility to race-neutral law enforcement.

Federal Government Helped Pay Home Air-Conditioning Bills for Federal Employees, Prisoners and More Than 11,000 Dead People  —  (CNSNews.com) - According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the federal government helped pay the home air conditioning bills for more than 11,000 dead people …

Healthcare: Democrats up ante  —  Speaker Nancy Pelosi is doubling down on healthcare reform, betting that it will do Democrats more good than harm in November's elections.  —  She and her leadership team have seized on new polls that suggest healthcare overhaul's popularity is rising …

Arizona suit imperils Western Dems  —  The Obama administration's lawsuit over the stringent Arizona border law might have just made the incline a little steeper for many Western Democrats, providing instant fodder to Republicans who are already optimistic about regaining ground lost over the last two election cycles.

Justice Thomas's wife takes on Obama  —  When Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas's wife announced in 2008 that she was going to help run Washington operations for a Michigan college once described as “a citadel of American conservatism,” she said the move was her “way of pulling away from politics” …

Gulf Oil Spill: Scientists Beg For A Chance To Take Basic Measurements  —  WHAT'S YOUR REACTION?  —  A group of independent scientists, frustrated and dumbfounded by the continued lack of the most basic data about the 77-day-old BP oil disaster, has put together a crash project intended …

AP IMPACT: Gulf awash in 27,000 abandoned wells  —  More than 27,000 abandoned oil and gas wells lurk in the hard rock beneath the Gulf of Mexico, an environmental minefield that has been ignored for decades.  No one — not industry, not government — is checking to see if they are leaking, an Associated Press investigation shows.

Expect lots of government layoffs at state, local level  —  Here's another headwind for a sputtering job market: State and local governments plan many more layoffs to close wide budget gaps.  —  Up to 400,000 workers could lose jobs in the next year as states, counties and cities grapple …

Over 25% of flowers face extinction  —  Scientists say human activity could spell end for a quarter of all flowering plants, with huge impact on food chain  —  More than one-in-four of all flowering plants are under threat of extinction according to the latest report to confirm …

Nasr explains controversial tweet on Lebanese cleric  —  Fadlallah died Sunday in a hospital in Beirut, Lebanon.  —  My tweet was short: “Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah.. One of Hezbollah's giants I respect a lot.  #Lebanon”

The Problem of Credible Commitment  —  As I noted last week, one problem hampering the design of effective discretionary stimulus is fear of the political impact of discoveries of waste, which leads to excessively slow-moving disbursement of funds.  Another problem is in some ways the reverse …

Civilian Casualties Create New Enemies, Study Confirms  —  Yes, we needed economists to tell us this.  A new working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research finds “strong evidence for a revenge effect” when examining the relationship between civilian casualties caused …

Iran Unveils Approved Hairstyles  —  Iran has unveiled haircuts that according to officials are in line with Iranian and Islamic principles.  —  The new haircut models approved by Iran's Culture Ministry are aimed at preventing haircuts deemed “Western” among Iranian youth.

Keynes & Co. have lost the stimulus argument  —  With the nation mired in unemployment, liberal economists have been pulling the fire alarm with increasing urgency.  But the fire department isn't coming.  —  My friends Kevin O'Rourke and Barry Eichengreen in the office next door were chief among …

Illegal Immigration Costs U.S. $113 Billion a Year, Study Finds  —  The cost of harboring illegal immigrants in the United States is a staggering $113 billion a year — an average of $1,117 for every “native-headed” household in America — according to a study conducted by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).