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I've spoken with several dealers concerning the cash for clunkers program and this video sums up the current problem in great detail by shedding light on why the cash for clunkers program was suspended. Watch Video: http://excarsalesman.typepad.com/cars/2009/07/the-real-reason-for-cash-for-clunkers-suspension-cash-flow.htmlIt is true the program is successful and will use allotted funds. But the situation is more sophisticated that that. First, because of the popularity, there is a huge backlog of paperwork. The 20-page application requires data from various sources and in many cases takes days to complete. Dealers continue to sell cars while they wait for all the information required (e.g. insurance companies)....

WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. general in charge of turning around the war in Afghanistan is likely to recommend significant changes to U.S. and NATO operations, military officials and others familiar with his forthcoming report said. Those changes could include additional U.S. troops despite political headwind against further expansion of the war. As Gen. Stanley McChrystal readies his assessment of the war, due next month, numerous U.S. officials and outsiders apprised of his thinking suggest McChrystal will request more American troops, probably including Marines, to be added next year. Officials and advisers spoke on condition of anonymity because the report...

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. economy slumped in the spring but its decline was mild and much smaller than the contraction over the previous nine months, according to data that gave a powerful signal the recession has eased. Gross domestic product fell at a seasonally adjusted 1.0% annual rate April through June, the Commerce Department said Friday in the first estimate of second-quarter GDP. GDP acts as a scoreboard for the economy by measuring all goods and services produced. It fell 6.4% in the first quarter and 5.4% in the fourth quarter, at the pit of the recession.

You know it is time to take a closer look at a deal when the smarmy pitchman warns you to act now before it is too late. Unless a safe is falling on your head, it is usually a good idea to step back, take a deep breath or two, and review what is on the table. We frequently use fear as a motivator, sometimes with good intentions. The fear of blindness temporarily stayed many a boy from personal exploration. On the other hand, some people play into deep-seated fears of social exclusion, racism, or terrorism to gain some level...

Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather called on President Barack Obama to form a White House commission to help save the press Tuesday night in an impassioned speech at the Aspen Institute. “I personally encourage the president to establish a White House commission on public media,” the legendary newsman said. Such a commission on media reform, Rather said, ought to make recommendations on saving journalism jobs and creating new business models to keep news organizations alive. At stake, he argued, is the very survival of American democracy. “A truly free and independent press is the red beating heart of democracy...

The White House announced today the names of 16 people chosen by the Administration of Hope-n-Change to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor. "...These outstanding men and women represent an incredible diversity of backgrounds," Obama said in a statement. "Their tremendous accomplishments span fields from science to sports, from fine arts to foreign affairs," he said. "Yet they share one overarching trait: Each has been an agent of change. Each saw an imperfect world and set about improving it, often overcoming great obstacles along the way." U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, praised Obama for selecting...

Here is a video report about an Arizona Department of Public Safety Officer who found nearly 100 Illegal Immigrants packed in a Refrigerated Truck during a routine traffic stop. The illegals were headed back to Mexico and Guatemala, using a human smuggling network that apparently moves illegals back and forth across the border all the time. The driver was to have been paid $300 per illegal transported. The truck was refrigerated at 34 degrees, but the illegals had not been in the truck for long. No one was seriously injured. . . . . . (Watch Video)

Variety's story is more concerned that the screenplay is being written by Jon Spaihts, but the headline and the one-line explanation are enough to make us run around the room with glee: Ridley Scott is now attached to Alien 5 as director. Commercials director Carl Erik Rinsch was originally reported to be the Scott Brothers' choice to helm, with their Scott Free Productions, well, producing. But there's no mention of Rinsch this morning. Were Fox unconvinced? Or did Ridley start getting more interested the more involved he became?

I asked Judie Brown, president of American Life League, to comment on the latest media release from the Obama-loving, vomit-inducing Catholics United calling on the Family Research Council and the Stop the Abortion Mandate campaign to "suspend these efforts immediately," with CU's executive director Chris Korzen asserting that said efforts "pose perhaps the single greatest threat to the passage of health care reform." Judie Brown's response: 'Catholics United has verbally excoriated the Family Research Council's factual campaign to expose the sordid pro-death underbelly of the Obama health care plan. By doing this Catholics United has united itself to those who...

This came in the email after Dear Leader's town hall event on Obamacare in Bristol, Virginia: Hey Gateway Pundit. I attended the town hall event in Bristol,VA today. Though very few were allowed inside, there was an amazing turnout outside of people protest healthcare reform, among other things. I hope to send you pictures soon of some great signs I saw. It was expected that those in opposition to the bill would outnumber those in favor by 10-1, but I feel it was much, much more. I do have a question I was hoping you could answer. During the motorcade...

There's some fear out there that one of the big "shoes to drop" could be dropping -- namely our massive debt and the potential unwillingness of our trading partners to keep financing it. This week saw a series of monster bond sales--so many, in fact that buyers may be getting a stomachache.

In order that we might all raise the level of discourse and expand our language abilities, here is the daily post of “Word for the Day”. MonitionNoun 1. A warning or an intimation of something imminent, especially of impending danger. 2. Cautionary advice or counsel; an admonition. 3. A formal order from a bishop or an ecclesiastical court to refrain from a specified offense. 4. A summons or citation in civil or admiralty law. Rules: Everyone must leave a post using the Word for the Day in a sentence. The sentence must, in some way, relate to the news...

Olympia Snowe, it seems safe to assume, is following the health care debate a bit more closely than the average American. So it is saying something that the Maine senator — a key figure in health care negotiations — admits she is stumped by the task of crafting a simple explanation for legislation of mind-numbing complexity. “If anybody can give me an easy, 30-second solution to this multitrillion-dollar problem, be my guest,” said Snowe, a moderate Republican.

o the chagrin of abortion activists, Senator Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) introduced an amendment to President Obama's healthcare bill last month that would create an Office of Unborn Children's Health. Abortion proponents reacted as expected to Coburn's amendment, one blogger accusing him of using healthcare legislation as "a means to continue his ideological attacks." Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards even described it as an "office favorite" in the competition for the worst among dozens of amendments filed in the week after the healthcare reform legislation was introduced, and as evidence of "the perennial assault on women's healthcare...." But Susan Muskett of...

In a past national election, a uniformed hate group stood outside a polling place with a two-foot-long police nightstick in hand, screaming racial epithets and threats in a successful effort to prevent citizens from voting and poll watchers from doing their jobs. The Department of Justice investigated, the career counsel approved the institution of a civil complaint, and one was brought.

American Life League says two prominent Catholic charities have "divorced themselves" from church teaching in supporting the Obama administration's healthcare proposal. The two charities -- the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and the Catholic Health Association -- recently released a notice to their members encouraging them to support healthcare reform. "We must maintain momentum for health care reform efforts with calls and emails [to members of Congress] supporting health care reform immediately," the notice read. In addition, the Catholic Health Association developed a video for YouTube that shows people displaying messages in support of healthcare reform. But American Life...

An exhaustive and deep chronicle of much we know---and many contradictions and confusions about things we do not know. Please read, very worthwhile!

The United Nations said Friday the number of civilians killed in conflict in Afghanistan has jumped 24 percent so far this year, with bombings by insurgent and airstrikes by international forces the biggest single killers. In a grim assessment of the first half of 2009, the U.N. assistance mission in Afghanistan said the Taliban and other anti-government militants have become more deadly by shifting from ambush attacks to suicide bombings, roadside explosives and targeted assassinations. It warned that more civilians would likely be killed as insurgents try to battle a troop increase by the administration of President Barack Obama, and...

India plans to build 100 warships By James Lamont in New Delhi and Varun Sood in Mumbai Published: July 31 2009 03:00 India has plans to add almost 100 warships to its navy over the next decade as it seeks to modernise its armed forces, and develop its low-cost shipbuilding capabilities. Captain Alok Bhatnagar, director of naval plans at India's ministry of defence, said yesterday that 32 warships and submarines were under construction in the country's shipyards. Work on 75 more ships, including aircraft carriers, destroyers, frigates and amphibious vessels, would begin over 10 years. New Delhi is sensitive to...

The state of Hawaii has made a series of procedural changes that would allow officials to destroy President Obama's original long-form birth certificate, concealing its contents forever. The warning comes in a report by an investigator commissioned by a retired CIA officer. The report was posted online by the Western Center for Journalism, which withheld the name of the officer. "We know from a document posted on June 10, 2009, on the Department of Hawaiian Homelands website that, up until very recently, either the original paper Certificates of Live Birth and/or scanned images of those paper certificates were maintained by...