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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!
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, Michelle Malkin, Riehl World View, The Market Ticker, The Other McCain, Politics and Critical Thinking, Hot Air, Blue Crab Boulevard, Right Wing Nut House, Babalú Blog, Flopping Aces, Macsmind, The Live Feed, The Sundries Shack, Right Wing News, This ain't Hell …, Pundit & Pundette, Classical Values, QandO, The Jawa Report, Patterico's Pontifications and lgf 2.0
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Obama blocks access to White House visitor list — Taking Bush's position, administration denies msnbc.com request for logs — The Obama White House has denied requests by msnbc.com and a nonpartisan watchdog group for the names of White House visitors. The watchdog group …

ABC News Responds to RNC Letter — Dear Mr. McKay: — I am in receipt of your letter of June 15, 2009 and wanted to respond to a number of false premises you raise regarding our ongoing and upcoming coverage of health care. — I hope we can all agree that a robust debate of health care issues and potential policies is in order.

A ‘PRESCRIPTION’ FOR A MANUFACTURED CONTROVERSY.... A week from tomorrow, President Obama will sit down with ABC News' Charles Gibson and Diane Sawyer for a prime-time discussion on health care policy. It's scheduled to be called “Questions for the President: Prescription for America.”


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.
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Latest Updates on Iran's Disputed Election — To supplement reporting from New York Times correspondents inside Iran, The Lede will continue to track the aftermath of Iran's disputed presidential election online, as we have for the last several days. Please refresh this page throughout …
Discussion:
Associated Press, New York Times, News: News blog, Guardian, Washington Monthly and The New Republic

So How's it Going in Iran?
Discussion:
BBC, Washington Post, New York Times, Weekly Standard, Commentary, Spectator, Wolf Howling, Wall Street Journal, neo-neocon, Townhall.com and Ben Smith's Blog

Khamenei on the Ropes? — Robert Baer served in the CIA …
Discussion:
The Daily Dish

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.
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Ensign to admit affair; sources say blackmail involved — Nevada Republican Sen. John Ensign has told colleagues that he plans to admit an extramarital affair, a senior Republican official tells POLITICO. — Political insiders in the Senate and in Nevada told POLITICO that Ensign began …

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 …
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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 …
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Sen. Baucus's Healthcare Proposal: ‘Less Than a Trillion Dollars and Paid For’

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:
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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.
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, Mere Rhetoric, The Jawa Report, Boing Boing, Latest Open Salon Blog and AMERICAblog News
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Web Attacks Expand in Iran's Cyber Battle (Updated Again)
Discussion:
New York Times, Personal Democracy Forum blogs, Austin Heap, Newshoggers.com, Obsidian Wings and Moe Lane


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.

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 …


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 …


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 …
Discussion:
The New Republic, Political Punch, Washington Times, Democratic Strategist, Eschaton, Telegraph and Washington Monthly

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 …
Discussion:
Matthew Yglesias

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 …

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 …
Discussion:
The Opinionator, The Daily Dish, Washington Monthly, Think Progress, FP Passport, The Atlanticist and ATTACKERMAN