JAKARTA, Indonesia – A statue of Barack Obama as a boy was placed late Sunday night at the Jakarta elementary school the U.S. president once attended, after its display in a public park prompted backlash in the Indonesia capital. The re-placement of the bronze statue a week after it disappeared from public view was a low-key event officiated by the school’s principal and three local education officials. Scores of proud students had been among the crowd of 500 watching when Jakarta’s mayor unveiled the statue in the nearby park in December.

WASHINGTON (AP) – The White House readied its last-ditch effort to salvage health care legislation Sunday while the Senate’s Republican leader warned Democrats against the go-it-alone approach. The White House was expected to post a version of President Barack Obama’s plan for overhauling health care on its Web site on Monday, ahead of his critical and daring summit at Blair House on Thursday. The plan, which was likely to be opposed by the GOP, was expected to require most Americans to carry health insurance coverage, with federal subsidies to help many afford the premiums.

Internal Toyota documents derided the Obama administration and Democratic Congress as “activist” and “not industry friendly,” a revelation that comes days before the giant automaker’s top executives testify on Capitol Hill amid a giant recall. According to a presentation obtained under subpoena by the House Oversight and Government Relations committee, Toyota referred to the “changing political environment” as one of its main challenges and anticipated a “more challenging regulatory” environment under the Obama administration’s purview.

Gen. David H. Petraeus, the head of the United States Central Command, said Sunday that the battle being fought in the Taliban stronghold of Marja was the “initial salvo” in a military campaign that could last 12 to 18 months. In an interview on NBC’s news program “Meet the Press,” the general, who oversees the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, sought to put the Marja battle “into context” by explaining its part in the overall effort by American, Afghan and other forces to defeat the Taliban. He said that international forces had spent recent months mapping strategy, gathering resources and preparing the leadership of a “comprehensive civil-military campaign.”

Gov. Ed Rendell said on Sunday that the Obama administration had botched the messaging wars when it came to selling its economic agenda and that it would be hard for the White House to regain the upper hand. Appearing on ABC’s This Week, the Pennsylvania Democrat said it was ironic that “the best communicator in the history of political campaigning turned out in his first year in office to not communicate very well.” He was referring, specifically, to what went wrong when it came to selling the president’s stimulus package.

Republican California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger came out swinging Sunday morning on the stimulus bill — but against members of his own party. Speaking to host Terry Moran on ABCs “This Week” program, Schwarzenegger accused Republicans of being hypocrites for bad-mouthing the Recovery Act championed by President Obama while also eagerly accepting stimulus money for projects in their states.

If you believe that Israel is going to stand idly by and allow a hostile nation, now a nuclear power, to threaten it without preparing for war, you are sadly mistaken. Now would be the perfect time for the United States to stand shoulder to shoulder with Israel, publicly and shame, to stare down China and Russia until they handle Iran.

Mulvi Kabir, the former Taliban governor in Afghanistan’s Nangahar Province, and a key figure in the Taliban regime was recently captured in Pakistan, two senior US officials tell Fox News. Kabir, considered to be among the top ten most wanted Taliban leaders, was apprehended in the Naw Shera district of Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province by Pakistani police forces. [...] The intelligence that led to Kabir’s capture was gathered from Mullah Baradar, the Taliban’s second in command, who was picked up roughly two weeks ago in Karachi, Pakistan by a joint CIA and Pakistani intelligence operation.

MOSCOW, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio man says he bulldozed his home after a bank began foreclosure proceedings and says he won’t let the bank take his carpet business either. Terry Hoskins of Moscow in southwest Ohio says he has struggled with the RiverHills Bank over his Clermont County home for years and had problems with the Internal Revenue Service. He says the IRS placed liens on his store and commercial property and the bank claimed his house as collateral.

Transparent lies emanate from nearly every sentence on the NATO website. To whit: “Afghans lead civil assistance in Helmand Province.” The Afghans led nothing. The propaganda worsens: “The Afghan Government intends to regain control of the region and establish civil authority and government support, beginning with a …joint military operation led by the Afghan National Security Forces, partnered with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).” ISAF? The only partners worth mentioning in that operation were British and American. NATO is something we stepped into, and now we should wipe it off our boots. It’s smelling up the place.

“Hello CSPAN and all my friends in the mainstream media. Love ya!”

The US killed a key al Qaeda military leader based in Pakistan’s Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan during an airstrike on Feb. 17. Sheikh Mansoor was killed in a Predator attack that targeted a Taliban compound in the village of Tapi near Miramshah, the main town in North Waziristan. Two other “militants” were initially reported killed in the airstrike; it is not currently known if there were any other senior al Qaeda or Taliban operatives killed. Dawn News reported that the airstrike “left number of other important militants killed.”

Just when it looks like this country can’t get any more divided, there comes a tiny glimmer of hope. Just minutes ago here at CPAC, California Young Americans for Freedom’s Ryan Sorba launched into a denunciation of the conference for inviting GOProud, and as he railed against gays, he was roundly booed off the stage.

Appearing on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” MacFarlane was discussing the controversy surrounding last Sunday’s “Family Guy” when a Down Syndrome joke was made at Sarah Palin’s expense. Maher pointed out that this wasn’t inspired by White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel’s “f-ing retarded” comment: “[Y]ou’ve been making fun of the retarded for years.” MacFarlane replied, “[Y]eah, we’ve had our fair share of Bush jokes.” Moments later Maher said, “[I]ronically because of people like Sarah Palin, the country has done, become so stupid, we need the word retarded to constantly describe what is going on in America”

Dubai death may have the support of many actors. Did the Saudis have a hand? Did British intelligence? Few weeping over death of Hamas master terrorist. There’s much we don’t know about Mabhouh’s death, so it’s unwise to jump to conclusions.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — A Hamas leader assassinated during a visit to Dubai last month exposed himself to attack when he breached security protocol by talking about his trip over the phone and making hotel reservations on the Internet, the militant Islamic group said Saturday.

Which of the following issues is most, and second most important to you personally? Doing away with abortion: 6% most important, 4% second. Stopping gay marriage: 1% most important, 0% second.

. . . Briefly, lefty smear merchant Max Blumenthal dropped a hit piece on O’Keefe at Salon a few weeks ago alleging that he had helped plan some sort of white-supremacist conference in 2006, and even manned a table there at which racist literature was being sold. Minor problem one: It wasn’t a white-supremacist conference. It was a debate on “Race and Conservatism” featuring a panel discussion between mainstream conservatives and racist radicals.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado — A Colorado family and an Arizona nonprofit are fighting in court over who gets the head of a woman who died this month, along with a $50,000 annuity she left behind. At issue is whether 71-year-old Mary Robbins’ head and brain will be preserved by cryonics — extremely cold temperatures — in the expectation that future technology may be able to bring her back to life and restore her health.

. . .Plenty of hard alcohol carries a high-proof kick, of course. Moonshine has an added mystique that can bewitch its fans—and stir a writer like “Chasing the White Dog” author Max Watman to set out in search of modern backwoods distillers. Moonshine has long been treasured in the South, even in the driest Bible Belt counties, as a remedy for life’s miseries. It is regarded not only as an intoxicant but also as a medicinal, with a place of honor in kitchen cupboards for every ailment, from rheumatism on down. But the bulk of moonshine’s appeal, even to folks far from the Blue Ridge Mountains, derives from two bedrock American traditions: love of whiskey and hatred of taxes.