Obama defends DOMA in federal court.  Says banning gay marriage is good for the federal budget.  Invokes incest and marrying children.  —  UPDATE: Mormon Bush holdover helped write and file anti-gay DOMA brief.  —  UPDATE: Gay groups rip Obama.  —  UPDATE: Are gay politicians …

Right-Wing Neocons Rooting For Ahmadinejad Win  —  American neoconservatives have often used the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to bolster their case for aggressive action against Iran.  So the assumption might be that they would be rooting for Iranians to take care of the problem themselves …

New York Lawmaker Calls on CBS to Fire Letterman for Palin Comments  —  New York State Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb, a Republican, is calling on the CEO of CBS to fire David Letterman for crude comments he made about Sarah Palin and her daughter.  —  In the letter to CBS chief Les Moonves …

US Guantanamo deal ‘kept from UK’  —  The US made a secret deal with Bermuda - a British overseas territory - to accept the Uighur detainees  —  A senior US official has told the BBC Washington decided not to tell London ahead of time about a deal to resettle four Guantanamo detainees in Bermuda.

Angered By His Holocaust Museum Shooting Coverage, The Far Right Goes After Shepard Smith  —  On Wednesday, Fox News' Shepard Smith responded to the tragic shooting at the Holocaust Museum by a white supremacist by saying that it was time to re-think the Homeland Security report on right-wing extremism that conservatives disparaged.

Thoughts on Our Civil War  —  As regular readers well know, it's my personal belief that radical left-wing ideology is the greatest threat to the country today.  Leftist radicalism and demonology is manifested not just in the corrosive political discourse of the online fever swamps …

US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive  —  Dozens of US cities may have entire neighbourhoods bulldozed as part of drastic “shrink to survive” proposals being considered by the Obama administration to tackle economic decline.  —  The government looking at expanding …

Former President GHW Bush stands up for Sotomayor  —  (CNN)-Former President George H.W. Bush stood up for his former judicial nominee Sonia Sotomayor Friday, telling CNN Anchor Robin Meade that GOP critics who called President Obama's Supreme Court pick a racist were off-base, and unfair.

Insta-Hack Watch  —  He's up to his partisan shenanigans again.  He must know that the huge deficits projected in the future have virtually nothing to do with Obama's proposals on healthcare or energy.  They are a function of inherited entitlement spending, the legacy of two open-ended wars …

House Health-Care Bill to Include $600 Billion in Tax Increases  —  Health-care overhaul legislation being drafted by House Democrats will include $600 billion in tax increases and $400 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel said.

Remember Iraq?  You will soon enough  —  Iraq is receding from our national consciousness (Stephen Colbert's efforts to remind us about the war notwithstanding).  The combined effects of the success of the surge, President Bush signing a restrictive Status of Forces Agreement …

Underground Drama  —  For some reason, the mainstream media don't seem to realize this is even happening: … It goes on to discuss the recalcitrance among anti-war members in the House along with those Democrats who are properly skeptical of the IMF in general and who recognize that these bailouts have become politically toxic.

The Ice Age Cometh  —  Despairing Republican friends have been asking me what I think we should do to rebuild the GOP and begin our certain and inevitable comeback.  My answer disappoints them: “Build an ark.”  —  I say this because I've made a career out of counting votes …

We Need a New National Anthem  —  In the Age of Karaoke, more people (including me) like to join in the singing when they strike up the national anthem at public occasions.  No one can stop you, no matter how embarrassed she might be by your obvious lack of talent.

Enough with the Obamathon  —  The president is on TV more than the ShamWow guy, but I want to see a little more action.  —  President Obama should just join the cast of “I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!”  It's not that farfetched; he's been on everything else.

Privacy May Be a Victim in Cyberdefense Plan  —  WASHINGTON — A plan to create a new Pentagon cybercommand is raising significant privacy and diplomatic concerns, as the Obama administration moves ahead on efforts to protect the nation from cyberattack and to prepare for possible offensive operations …

White House Browbeats Dem Freshmen On War Money: “You'll Never Hear From Us Again”  —  The White House is playing hardball with Democrats who intend to vote against the supplemental war spending bill, threatening freshmen who oppose it that they won't get help with reelection and will be cut off …