Spate of Good News Gives White House a Chance to Regroup  —  In a White House that had virtually forgotten what good news looks like, the past few weeks have been refreshing.  A Republican won a much-watched special congressional election.  President Bush recruited a Wall Street heavy hitter as Treasury secretary.

EXCLUSIVE: Pentagon Orders U.S. Reporters to Exit Guantanamo  —  NEW YORK In the aftermath of the three suicides at the notorious Guantanamo prison facility in Cuba last Saturday, reporters with the Los Angeles Times and the Miami Herald were ordered by the office of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to leave the island today.

Liberal Activists Boo Clinton  —  Rejection of Iraq Timetable Gets Cool Reception at Conference  —  Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) drew boos and hisses from an audience of liberal activists yesterday as she defended her opposition to a timetable for withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq …

Robert Luskin Sends Bush's Brain Message on Plane: 'Case Over'; Attacks Blogosphere  —  The message reached Karl Rove on his BlackBerry: "FITZGERALD CALLED.  CASE OVER."  —  Strapped into his seat, his cell phone darkened in preparation for takeoff on a flight to New Hampshire …

Humor attempt falls flat  —  Cpl. Joshua Belile thought up the words to "Hadji Girl" in September while drinking coffee with buddies in Iraq.  —  It was just a joke, Belile says, a play on lines from a movie.  His fellow Marines seemed to enjoy the song, so they got Belile up on a stage with his guitar.

'New Direction' is new theme for Democratic plan  —  WASHINGTON — Democratic House and Senate leaders are planning to reduce the cost of student loans and prescription drugs, raise the minimum wage and launch an effort to develop alternative fuels if they win back control of Congress.

Bombing kills 4 amid Baghdad crackdown  —  BAGHDAD, Iraq - A car bomb killed four people and clashes broke out in two Sunni Arab strongholds Wednesday after tens of thousands of Iraqi troops fanned out across Baghdad in a major security crackdown aimed at ending the violence that has devastated the capital.

Virginia Tees up a Senate Race  —  Virginia's voters — about 1.5 percent of them, anyway — have given James Webb a narrow victory in the Democratic Senate primary, setting up a race with incumbent George Allen that promises to be among the most interesting in the country.

Press Conference of the President  —  THE PRESIDENT: Good morning.  Thank you.  I've just returned from Baghdad, and I was inspired to be able to visit the capital of a free and democratic Iraq.  —  It was a pleasure to meet face-to-face with the Prime Minister.

It's official, Lieberman WILL not support the winner of the primary (if he loses)  —  Time to whip out the Drudge siren!  (Hats off to Neal for catching this clip today.  Please recommend his post over at Daily Kos).  —  In what can only be called an act of utter stupidity …

FEMA Funds Spent on Divorce, Sex Change  —  WASHINGTON (AP) - Houston divorce lawyer Mark Lipkin says he can't recall anyone paying for his services with a FEMA debit card, but congressional investigators say one of his clients did just that.  —  The $1,000 payment was just one example cited …

RWN's Ann Coulter Interview #3  —  John Hawkins: Do you think teachers are underpaid?  —  Ann Coulter: The good ones are, that's why they deserve merit pay.  The bad ones are  —  overpaid.  Too bad their unions don't let us distinguish between the two.  —  John Hawkins: Is global warming occurring and caused by mankind?

Detainees in Despair  —  I WAS released from the United States military's prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, in July 2004.  As I was about to board a plane that would take me home to France, the last detainee I saw was a young Yemeni.  He was overwhelmed by emotion.

RUDY GOES NUCLEAR  —  FORMULA FOR '08 SUCCESS  —  June 14, 2006 — A small gathering in Mid town yesterday got a sneak peek at Rudy Giuliani's formula as he gears up for a likely 2008 presidential run.  That formula: one-third leadership, one-third technocratic centrist and one-third radical conservative reformer.

Scientists respond to Gore's warnings of climate catastrophe  —  "The Inconvenient Truth" is indeed inconvenient to alarmists  —  "Scientists have an independent obligation to respect and present the truth as they see it," Al Gore sensibly asserts in his film "An Inconvenient Truth" …

The Price of Day Care Can Be High  —  THERE is one place in North America where parents of young children don't have to worry about child care.  In Quebec, full-time day care costs just $7 a day — Canadian dollars, at that — thanks to a government program aimed at one of the thorniest problems …