Progressive Messaging Wins: Tester, Angelides, Winograd, and Bilbray?  —  Brian Bilbray ran to the left of Francine Busby.  I know it sounds weird, but he did.  That he won on a progressive platform is biggest story of the night.  Busby's loss was a loss no matter how it's spun …

Supporters lose in gay marriage ban vote  —  WASHINGTON - The Senate on Wednesday rejected a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, dealing a defeat to President Bush and Republicans who hoped to use the measure to energize conservative voters on Election Day.

Retirement Account of DeLay's Wife Traced  —  With Disclosure, Family's Known Benefits From Ties With Lobbyist Exceed $490,000  —  A registered lobbyist opened a retirement account in the late 1990s for the wife of then-House Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) and contributed thousands of dollars …

A SMEAR YOU CAN'T TAKE BACK  —  The London Times is getting praise for issuing an apology over falsely captioning an April 2005 picture of fishermen executed at a Haditha, Iraq stadium by insurgents as depicting victims of Marines in the Nov. 19 incident still under investigation—which I reported over the weekend.

Ann Coulter, Meet Ted Rall  —  One of the topics that flew under my radar yesterday came from an interview Ann Coulter did with Matt Lauer on the Today show, promoting her new book, Godless.  Other bloggers have picked up this story before I did, where I saw it at Rick Moran's Right Wing Nuthouse.

Proposal Would Let Iran Enrich Uranium  —  TEHRAN, June 6 — The confidential diplomatic package backed by Washington and formally presented to Iran on Tuesday leaves open the possibility that Tehran will be able to enrich uranium on its own soil, U.S. and European officials said.

Official of U.N. Says Americans Undermine It With Criticism  —  UNITED NATIONS, June 6 — Secretary General Kofi Annan's deputy assailed the United States on Tuesday for withholding support from the United Nations, encouraging its harshest detractors and undermining an institution that he said Washington needed more than it would admit.

Salvaging Iraq  —  The images from Iraq are of hell on earth: On Sunday 12 Iraqi students traveling to Baqubah to take their final exams were dragged from a bus and killed because they practiced the wrong religion.  The next day gunmen dressed in police uniforms kidnapped 56 people near …

McKinney deal may be in works  —  Lawyer rejects talk of any negotiations  —  WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors investigating the confrontation between Rep. Cynthia McKinney of Georgia and a Capitol police officer have been talking privately with McKinney's office in hopes of resolving …

Louisiana Governor Plans to Sign Anti-Abortion Law  —  BATON ROUGE, La., June 6 — Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco's office said Tuesday that she would shortly sign into law a strict ban on abortion that would permit abortion only in the case where a woman's life was threatened by pregnancy.

President Bush's victories receiving little attention  —  SAN FRANCISCO - When President Bush nominated Gen. Michael Hayden to run the CIA, the press focused on disapproving Democrats and even some Republicans who were dubious about confirmation.  —  A month later, when the Senate confirmed Hayden …