An editorial / By Dale McFeatters, Scripps Howard News Service

A priority task confronting President Obama when he returns from vacation is stabilizing the situation in Afghanistan, which Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has described as "serious and deteriorating."

The Obama administration took office, in the new president's words, determined to look forward, not backward, and as part of that philosophy it was agreed that it would be unfair to prosecute frontline CIA agents for harsh, even unduly harsh, interrogation techniques that they believed were authorized by the Justice department and encouraged by the White House.

President Obama's decision to reappoint Ben Bernanke as Federal Reserve chairman has been criticized as being the "safe choice." Some within Obama's party had hoped that he would pick a prominent Democratic economist for the post. Bernanke was first appointed to the post by President George W. Bush in 2006 after serving as a top economic adviser to Bush.

You would like to think that we learned some lessons from the exotic financial products that did so much to push us into recession.

But maybe not.

In a disturbing report, the Associated Press says that financial institutions have begun repackaging old mortgage securities -- some of them good, some of them not so good -- and selling them as top-rated bonds.

The British and Scottish governments seem stunned at the reaction, in the United Kingdom and the United States, to their decision to release convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds. Al-Megrahi has prostate cancer and reportedly does not have long to live.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki wants to be seen as a strong and decisive leader, one who brought stability to the country and pushed the Americans into departing.

Massachusetts should respectfully decline Sen. Ted Kennedy's request that the state allow for the appointment, if his seat becomes vacant, of an interim senator to fill out his term rather than hold a special election within five months of the vacancy.

The government's "Cash for Clunkers" program, often described as an experiment, proved one thing: The American people are no fools. Offer them free money -- $3,500 to $4,500 to go out and buy a car -- and they'll take it.

Not to wish ill of another human being, but it's hard not to hope Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill is right when he says Abdel Baset al-Megrahi has less than three months to live.

Baseball was first played in the Olympics in 1904 and was a regular event until 2005 when the International Olympic Committee decided to drop baseball and softball after the 2008 Beijing Games, making them the first sports to be dropped since polo in 1936.