President Discusses Marriage Protection Amendment  —  THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all.  Please be seated.  Good afternoon, and welcome to the White House.  It is a pleasure to be with so many fine community leaders, scholars, family organizations, religious leaders, Republicans, Democrats, independents.

Show Me the Bodies  —  FOR war photography, Vietnam remains the bloody yardstick.  During the Tet offensive, on Feb. 9, 1968, Time magazine ran a story that was accompanied by photos showing dozens of dead American soldiers stacked like cordwood.  The images remind that the dead are both the most patient and affecting of all subjects.

Supreme Court to hear schools race case  —  WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court agreed Monday to decide whether public schools can consider skin color in student assignments, reopening the contentious issue of affirmative action in a major case that will turn on the votes of President Bush's new justices.

Bush press secretary says gay marriage amendment civil rights measure; Stumbles when asked to define civil rights  —  At the White House press briefing today, Bush press secretary Tony Snow signaled that Bush considers an amendment barring same-sex marriage a "civil rights" matter …

Immigration shapes congressional races  —  The nasty fight on Capitol Hill over the Senate's immigration-reform plan is already shaping key races in this year's congressional elections.  —  From districts along the Mexican border to deeply landlocked districts, immigration has become …

Paper: Canadian police supplied explosives  —  MISSISSAUGA, Ontario - Several members of a suspected terrorist ring prayed daily at a storefront mosque in a middle-class city west of Toronto but never spoke of hurting others, one of their prayer leaders said.  —  "I will say that they were steadfast, religious people.

Conservative Stalwart Andrew Sullivan is MORE MORAL THAN THOU (UPDATED)  —  At the risk of prompting unstable people to issue anonymous threats against his beagle, I reprint this latest from The Daily Dish: … Sullivan pronounces on the debased status of a once great nation in response …

And Now For Some Good News  —  By now Americans know the litany: The nation is engaged in a difficult and costly war in Iraq; Iran is trying to build a nuclear weapon; gas prices are high; the costs of reconstructing the Gulf Coast region are huge; illegal immigration is a major problem — and more.

The Hell of War  —  Why Haditha isn't My Lai.  —  Unjust though the assumption may prove to be, let us imagine that the Marines of Kilo Company did indeed crack up and cut loose in Haditha that day.  Something like this has certainly been waiting to happen.

Apocalypse tomorrow?  666 arrives  —  Is tomorrow's date — 6-6-6 — merely a curious number, or could it mean our number is up?  —  There's a devilishly odd nexus of theology, mathematics and commercialism on the sixth day of the sixth month of the sixth year.

Cavuto: Media biased if they cover Iraqi insurgency, biased if they don't … On the June 1 edition of Fox News' Your World, host Neil Cavuto complained that "the media is all over" the alleged killings of Iraqi civilians by U.S. Marines in Haditha, Iraq, but that there has been …

All or Nothing  —  The quest for a moderate Islam may be futile.  —  Islamic Imperialism: A History, by Efraim Karsh (Yale University Press, 288 pp., $30)  —  The week following the Muslim protests in London against the Danish cartoons—with marchers carrying signs calling for the beheading of infidels …

PERU EXIT POLL: GARCIA WINS  —  Alan Garcia, probable winner, Peru presidency, and second-time lucky  —  ... and his far-left Hugo-Chavez-style opponent, Ollanta Humala is trailing by about five percentage points.  Assuming there are no surprises, this represents one of the greatest political comebacks …

Is RFK, Jr. Right About Exit Polls?  - Part I  —  Late last week, Rolling Stone published an article by Robert Kennedy, Jr. that asks provocatively, "Was the 2004 Election Stolen?"  While it covers many topics involving alleged suppression and fraud in Ohio, the article disappoints …

Iran's China Syndrome  —  In the middle of a tirade about the pointlessness of talking with the Bush administration, a senior Iranian official I met in Tehran last month abruptly paused and asked if he could speak off the record.  Then he said: "What we need is an American president …