ABC TURNS PROGRAMMING OVER TO OBAMA; NEWS TO BE ANCHORED FROM INSIDE WHITE HOUSE  —  On the night of June 24, the media and government become one, when ABC turns its programming over to President Obama and White House officials to push government run health care — a move that has ignited an ethical firestorm!

In reversal, GOP balks at war funding  —  House Republicans are preparing to vote en bloc against the $106 billion war-spending bill, a position once unthinkable for the party that characterized the money as support for the troops.  —  For years, Republicans portrayed the bills funding …

U.S. State Department speaks to Twitter over Iran  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department contacted the social networking service Twitter over the weekend to urge it to delay a planned upgrade that could have cut daytime service to Iranians, a U.S. official said on Tuesday.

Ensign Acknowledges Extramarital Affair  —  UPDATE, 5:55 p.m.: Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) has acknowledged an extramarital affair with a campaign staffer in a statement released by his office.  “I deeply regret and am very sorry for my actions,” said Ensign.

So How's it Going in Iran?  —  To start with, the BBC, long considered a shill for the regime by most Iranian dissidents, estimates between one and two million Tehranis demonstrated against the regime on Monday.  That's a big number.  So we can say that, at least for the moment, there is a revolutionary mass in the streets of Tehran.

McCain: “Scrap” Health Care Bill And Start Over  —  ABC News' Z. Byron Wolf reports:  —  Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, called on President Obama and Democrats in Congress to “scrap the current [healthcare] bill and start over.”  —  McCain pointed to a nonpartisan cost estimate of $1 trillion …

Calif. Aid Request Spurned By U.S.  —  The Obama administration has turned back pleas for emergency aid from one of the biggest remaining threats to the economy — the state of California.  —  Top state officials have gone hat in hand to the administration, armed with dire warnings of a fast-approaching …

Grand Ayatollah Montazeri Takes A Stand  —  The reformist cleric in Qom, and once the designated successor to Khomeini, issues this statement.  It may buttress the resistance's claim that they represent the Islamic revoltuion and the regime represents a coup:

Exclusive: Sarah Palin Accepts David Letterman's Apology for ‘Coarse’ Jokes  —  Sarah Palin has accepted comedian David Letterman's apology made during Monday night's broadcast of “The Late Show” for crude jokes made about her and her teen daughters last week.

iranelection cyberwar guide for beginners  —  The purpose of this guide is to help you participate constructively in the Iranian election protests through twitter.  — Do NOT publicise proxy IP's over twitter, and especially not using the #iranelection hashtag.

Carter to Obama: Remove Hamas From Terror List  —  Former President Jimmy Carter says he will ask the Obama administration to remove the militant Palestinian group from the U.S.-designated terror list, just as Hamas says it foiled a bomb plot against Carter..

Andrew Sullivan, who probably has more readers than any other solo political blogger, wrote yesterday that he thought he might be the subject of a denial-of-service attack, as a pro-opposition Iranian site said it was.  —  In fact, his blog was just loading slowly because of the massive surge of traffic.

McCain Unhinged  —  For two years now, John McCain has been entirely consistent on Iran: every last statement he's made—at least, those that I've seen—has been (a) fabulously uninformed and (b) dangerously bellicose.  He's still at it, apparently.  There is no question that President Obama's …

Oops!  President Obama confuses right, left  —  (CNN) — President Obama is so busy these days dealing with pressing foreign policy issues like Iran and North Korea, that he can't seem to tell his right from his left.  —  After holding a bilateral meeting in the Oval office …

IRANIANS ARE PROTESTING AN ELECTION, NOT THE ISLAMIC STATE.  —  Among Mousavi supporters, a ritual is emerging: Each night, folks open their windows or step out on balconies at a coordinated time, shouting “Allah-o-akbar!”  The phrase means, “God is Great,” and as Ali Gharib writes at Mondoweiss …

Neocon Egomania on Iran  —  Thanks to John McCain's campaign finance reform legislation it was a bit difficult for me, legally speaking, to state this point clearly back during the campaign but now that we're not within the BCRA window of any election he's participating in we can say clearly …

Obama Says U.S. Jobless Rate to Reach 10% This Year  —  President Barack Obama said the U.S. unemployment rate will reach 10 percent this year, even as the economy begins to emerge from the recession.  —  “You're starting to see the engines of the economy turn,” Obama said today in an interview …

What We Can Do In Iran  —  Massive cheating or not?  —  RELATED CONTENT  —  Morse and Makovsky: “Why Congress's Sanctions Against Iran Won't Work” (5/29/09)  —  A new kind of coup d'etat or not?  —  How do we interpret this strange election whose results were announced by the press affiliated …

Bush's Man In Iran Lauds Obama's Handling Of Iran Crisis  —  John McCain and other Republicans and conservatives have been hammering away at Obama's handling of the Iran crisis, saying that it has been insufficiently aggressive.  This morning, McCain demanded that Obama “condemn the sham …

SEN. JIM DeMINT: The Conservative We're Looking For — Marco Rubio  —  U.S. Senator Representing South Carolina  —  Once there was a poor farmer who wanted to become fabulously rich in the diamond trade.  He deserted his farmland and traveled the world looking for diamonds until he was too old to look anymore.

A Bad Call on Gay Rights  —  The Obama administration, which came to office promising to protect gay rights but so far has not done much, actually struck a blow for the other side last week.  It submitted a disturbing brief in support of the Defense of Marriage Act, which is the law that protects …