‘TOLD YA SO’  —  Sarah Palin hits FOXNEWS tonight for the big ‘Told Ya So’ interview, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.  —  As President Obama vows to spend the ‘stimulus’ faster, Governor Palin tells host Sean Hannity: ‘You gotta quit digging that hole!’  —  HANNITY: What do you make of - look at the state of the economy now...

GOP Leader Working Behind Scenes To Get Palin Reinvited To Big Fundraiser  —  In another sign of the sway that Sarah Palin and her supporters in Palin Nation hold over the GOP, NRCC chief Pete Sessions is working behind the scenes to get Palin reinvited to the big GOP fundraiser tonight, GOP sources say.

Sotomayor Breaks Her Ankle  —  The X-ray revealed a small fracture in her ankle.  She was released from the hospital after less than two hours and is now using crutches, said Ben LaBolt, an assistant press secretary at the White House.  —  “This morning, on the way to Washington, D.C., Judge Sotomayor tripped at LaGuardia Airport.

Understanding the Kennedy health care bill  —  Over the weekend a draft of Senator Kennedy's (D-MA) health care bill leaked.  After playing with Adobe Acrobat, here is the text of the draft Kennedy bill as a text file (173 K), and as a single Acrobat file (3.4 MB).  Update: I fixed the broken link to the PDF.

Supreme Court Turns Down 'Don't Ask' Challenge  —  The Supreme Court today declined to hear a constitutional challenge to the Pentagon's “don't ask, don't tell” policy banning openly gay people from serving in the U.S. military, a move that could effectively leave it to the Obama administration to resolve the long-controversial issue.

Obama's Economic Circle Keeps Tensions High  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama was getting his daily economic briefing one recent morning when a fly distracted him.  The president swatted and missed, just as the pest buzzed near the shoes of Lawrence H. Summers, the chief White House economic adviser.

N. Korea Convicts 2 U.S. Journalists  —  A North Korean court sentenced two U.S. journalists to 12 years in a labor camp Monday, as the government of Kim Jong Il continued to ratchet up tension with the United States and its neighbors.  —  Laura Ling and Euna Lee, television reporters detained …

Anonyblogging Cont'd  —  A (anonyblogging) reader writes, in part: Jonah- If it's cowardly to blog anonymously, were Madison, Hamilton, and Jay cowards for publishing the Federalist Papers under the pseudonym “Publius”?  Answer: No. Madison, Hamilton, and Jay weren't amateur pundits.

Obama Rated Highest as Person, Lowest on Deficit, Spending  —  Obama doing better than Bush and Clinton at similar points in their first year in office  —  PRINCETON, NJ — While 67% of Americans view President Barack Obama favorably, his overall job approval rating and his ratings on specific areas are less positive.

Scandal could derail Democratic dreams  —  The Republican Party's fall from dominance in 2002 to utter collapse in 2008 is mostly attributed to the GOP either being too conservative or not conservative enough.  —  But Republicans were mostly incoherent on domestic policy during their six-year ride to the bottom.

Obama's summer jobs plan: work for 600,000 people  —  In a meeting today with the Cabinet, the president will announce plans to tap into the $787-billion stimulus to create jobs, with 10 major projects to be implemented in the next three months.  —  By Mark Silva reporting from washington

Source: Booby-trapped horses used in failed terror attack  —  Article's topics: Gaza Strip, IDF, Palestinians  —  Under the cover of morning fog, a group of around 10 Palestinian gunmen armed with “huge amounts of explosives” launched a failed Gaza border assault at the Karni Crossing on Monday …

Your Ticking Time Bomb Scenario  —  So when do we get to start torturing this guy: … Since there is no doubt that we have a history of anti-abortion domestic terrorism, and since we know that evangelicals already support torture for everyone, when do we get to start waterboarding this guy?

Obama's Top Targeter Bullish on Montana and Worried About Gingrich; Predicts Deeds Win Tomorrow  —  Ken Strasma, recognizable to many 538 readers as Barack Obama's national targeting director in 2008, is the first participant in a new series of interviews we will be conducting with consultants …

EXCLUSIVE: Recently Released Gitmo Detainee Talks to ABC News  —  Held Seven Years, Former Aid Worker Tells ABC News He Was Tortured  —  For 7½ years, Lakhdar Boumediene was known simply by a number: “10005.”  —  These were the digits assigned to him when he arrived at the detention center …

The 15 Hottest Conservative Women In The New Media  —  After doing The 10 Hottest Liberal Women In Politics last week, I thought that in order to be fair, I should feature the women on the Right as well.  So, in the spirit of the Hill's 50 Most Beautiful lists, I present to you “The 15 Hottest Conservative Women In The New Media.”

Shuler: I'm not running for Senate  —  U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler shot down speculation today that he is still pondering a run for Senate.  —  “I am not running for Senate,” the second-term Democrat said after a ground-breaking ceremony for a new building at the Bent Creek Experimental Forest Station in Asheville.

In Iraq, Colbert Does His Shtick for the Troops  —  CAMP VICTORY, Iraq — It was Sunday night in Baghdad, and President Obama was ordering Gen. Ray Odierno, the commander of the American troops here, to shave Stephen Colbert's head.  (Not to give everything away, but the general is not as brutal …

Obama's Health Cost Illusion  —  The President's main case for reform is rooted in false claims and little evidence.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  The main White House argument for health-care reform goes something like this: If we spend now on a hugely expensive new insurance program …

Has The Obama Administration's Banking Plan Failed?  —  When Tim Geithner's Public-Private Investment Partnership (PPIP) plan was announced, it dominated commentary for a solid week.  It was big, complicated, controversial, and, it seemed, important.  It was the center of the administration's …

Something Is Not Quite Right Here . . .  Right-wing contrarians supposedly inflated Michelle Obama's once-in-a-lifetime slip, “For the first time in my adult life I am proud of my country,” until it turned out it was a sort of topos — cf. her second take: “For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country.”