Ahmadinejad Is Declared Victor, but Rival Protests  —  TEHRAN —President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won Iran's presidential election in a landslide, officials of Iran's election commission said Saturday morning.  But his main rival, Mir Hussein Moussavi, had already announced defiantly just two hours …

A Nation Of Law  —  Lars Thorwald has a strong post on why Obama's DOJ brief in defense of DOMA is in fact a keeping of a promise: to restore the rule of law after eight years of abuse.  I take every point he makes.  Read the whole thing.  —  After this back-and-forth today …

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.

Obama plan to pay for health reform  —  President Barack Obama says he's now found savings that will pay almost all the costs of a massive overhaul of America's health care system.  —  Obama on Saturday is announcing an additional $313 billion in new proposed savings that he says would bring …

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 …

Blogger's baby was a hoax  —  Woman captivates thousands in anti-abortion movement with false story of difficult pregnancy  —  Beccah Beushausen photographed near her home, Wednesday, June 10, 2009.  (David Pierini / Chicago Tribune / June 10, 2009)  —  The unmarried mother's story …

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 …

Lender's Role for Fed Makes Some Uneasy  —  WASHINGTON — For most of its history, the Federal Reserve has been a high temple of monetary matters, guiding the economy by setting interest rates but remaining aloof from the messy details of day-to-day business.

Dodd's Irish Cottage: Was $190,000.  Now $658,000  —  Christopher Dodd house in Ireland (HANDOUT / March 6, 2009)  —  A new appraisal of the Irish cottage owned by Sen. Christopher Dodd concludes that it is worth about three times as much as Dodd has been reporting on his financial disclosure forms.

The Audacity of Bullying  —  Peter Beinart pens a column in which he, I think inadvertently, suggests just how ill-conceived Obama's overt hostility toward Israel is.  Beinart suggests the president is doing it to show he's a tough guy, and because he can get away with it.  He writes:

Bush Lawyer Ordered to Testify  —  A federal judge has ruled that John Yoo, a former Bush administration lawyer who wrote crucial memorandums justifying harsh interrogation techniques, will have to answer in court to accusations that his work led to a prisoner's being tortured and deprived of his constitutional rights.

A.P. in Deal to Deliver Nonprofits' Journalism  —  Four nonprofit groups devoted to investigative journalism will have their work distributed by The Associated Press, The A.P. will announce on Saturday, greatly expanding their potential audience and helping newspapers fill the gap left by their own shrinking resources.

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 …

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.

BLAMING THE MESSENGER.... Fox News' Shep Smith offered viewers some thoughts this week they probably weren't accustomed to hearing.  He noted on the air, for example, that the DHS report on violent radicals are was prescient, and he criticized enraged Fox news viewers who email the network with over-the-top vitriol.