Vt. legalizes gay marriage with veto override  —  FREE PRESS STAFF REPORT  —  VIDEO: House vote passes gay mariage bill .  —  MONTPELIER — Vermont has become the fourth state to legalize gay marriage — and the first to do so with a legislature's vote.  —  The Legislature voted Tuesday …

Washington Post reporters call out George Will for lying in Washington Post 2  — TWITTER - NEWSVINE - GOOGLE BOOKMARKS - STUMBLEUPON  —  [SEE UPDATE BELOW]  —  Today, Washington Post reporters Juliet Eilperin and Mary Beth Sheridan have a piece on the alarming decline of Arctic sea ice.

‘House’ exclusive: The shocking story behind last night's big death  —  DEFCON 1 spoiler alert!  If you haven't seen last night's House, stop reading now.  Everyone else, onward and downward!  —  Here are the six things you need to know up-front about last night's House:

Caller criticizes Limbaugh, Hannity, etal, on torture: “It's like you're all brainwashed”  —  LIMBAUGH: We're going to go to Chicago.  This is Charles.  Charles, thank you for waiting and for calling.  Great to have you here.  Hello.  —  CALLER: Thanks, Rush.

Franken extends lead over Coleman  —  The Democrat made a net gain today in a count of formerly rejected absentee ballots that pushed his advantage to more than 300 votes in the U.S. Senate race.  —  Democrat Al Franken today extended his lead over Republican Norm Coleman in the U.S. Senate election …

Judge Orders Investigation of Stevens Prosecutors  —  WASHINGTON — A furious federal judge on Tuesday took the extraordinary step of ordering that the prosecutors who bungled the case of former Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska be investigated for possible criminal wrongdoing.

Bennet talks with skeptical Democrats in Fort Collins  —  Sen. Michael Bennet met with about 100 Larimer County Democrats on Monday night at New Belgium Brewing and frequently wound up giving them answers they didn't come to hear.  —  Facing a respectful but clearly skeptical audience of party activists …

Right Wing Hysterical Over Obama's ‘Not At War With Islam’ Remarks: ‘We Have Nothing To Apologize For’  —  President Obama's outreach to the Muslim world has been a welcome development after eight years of President Bush's “us vs. them” approach.  “Let me say this as clearly as I can,” he told the Turkish parliament yesterday.

Gates on the Defense Budget  —  I've just gotten off a conference call with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in which he talked about the budget.  —  Probably the most notable thing he said was the stern words he offered for members of the military who may not be happy with some of the decisions he's made.

Obama's word play  —  The administration has created a lexicon that masks reality through the gauzy world of euphemism.  To the world, it's just words.  —  President Obama had a grand time in Europe.  He wowed the press, met the queen, gave some wonderful news conferences and got virtually none …

Extremist rhetoric won't rebuild GOP  —  Watching Fox News' new sensation Glenn Beck is not for the faint of heart.  It is a disquieting entree into the feverish mind of a conspiracy theorist who believes, among other things, that the government wants to remotely control our thermostats …

Harvard Student Takes On Barney Frank Over Economy  —  WFXT-TV: It all started with a question: “How much responsibility, if any, do you have for the financial crisis?”  Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) and a conservative Harvard law student debated over how Frank should have handled his role …

They're All Arlen Specter Now  —  A propos of my earlier post on the Times poll and the deep unpopularity of the Republican party, I was trying to think of a framework that captured the no-enemies-on-the-right dynamic that seems to be pushing the GOP further and further into the political wilderness.

In Baghdad, Obama Presses Iraqi Leader to Unite Factions  —  BAGHDAD — President Obama made an unannounced trip Tuesday to Baghdad, punctuating his week-long overseas trip with a stop to talk to American troops and Iraqi leaders.  —  Addressing hundreds of troops gathered at a military base here …

The End of Philosophy  —  Socrates talked.  The assumption behind his approach to philosophy, and the approaches of millions of people since, is that moral thinking is mostly a matter of reason and deliberation: Think through moral problems.  Find a just principle.  Apply it.

Video reveals G20 police assault on man who died  —  Exclusive footage obtained by the Guardian shows Ian Tomlinson, who died during G20 protests in London, was attacked from behind by baton-wielding police officer  —  Dramatic footage obtained by the Guardian shows that the man who died …

Savage complains that “the hemorrhoid with eyes,” presumably Beck, rips off his show, but nonetheless questions Beck's sanity  —  I love how all these cons pretend they hate eachother , maybe they do .  But all of them are the same.  Preaching hate toward our country and President.

At What Point Did Republicans Become the Party of Bed-Wetting Hysterics?  —  Looking around the wingnutosphere today, I can't help but notice that it's SUCH A SCARY TERRIFYING WORLD.  —  Obama's taking our guns away! … Obama's disarming America! … Obama's a Stalinist!

Times Editor: Lack Of Disclosure On Merkin Op-Ed Is No Big Deal  —  Here's another one to add to the growing list of “newspapers acting badly”...  Late last month, the New York Times published an op-ed by Daphne Merkin, a contributing writer to the Times Magazine, on the Bernie Madoff mess.

And Back Again: After a Misreport, More Votes for Tedisco  —  ALBANY—In the race to replace Kirsten Gillibrand, Assemblyman Jim Tedisco has ended the day with a 17-vote lead over Democrat Scott Murphy, state and county elections officials said.  —  The overall tally is now Tedisco 77,035; Murphy 77,018.