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!

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.

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.

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 …

Stimulus serves up Obama pork  —  It became a sort of poster child for fiscal responsibility — a clean-coal power plant in Illinois that was one of then-Sen. Barack Obama's pet projects.  —  Democrats insisted they were so serious about keeping pork out of the stimulus bill …

The CBO's Assumptions  —  Yesterday, the Congressional Budget Office returned a fairly devastating estimate of Sens. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Chris Dodd's (D-Conn.) Affordable Health Choices Act.  According to the agency, the bill would cost a hefty trillion dollars over 10 years and extend insurance to a mere 16 million people.

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 …

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 …

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..

CIA Says It Misjudged Role of High-Value Detainee Abu Zubaida, Transcript Shows  —  An al-Qaeda associate captured by the CIA and subjected to harsh interrogation techniques said his jailers later told him they had mistakenly thought he was the No. 3 man in the organization's hierarchy …

The “Bomb Iran” contingent's newfound concern for The Iranian People  —  (updated below - Update II)  —  I'm going to leave the debate about whether Iran's election was “stolen” and the domestic implications within Iran to people who actually know what they're talking about …

Revolutionary Guards Arrested in Iran  —  According to the Cyrus News Agency, Tuesday morning 16 senior members of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps were arrested.  “These commanders have been in contact with members of the Iranian army to join the people's movement,” CNA reports.

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 …

Social Networks Spread Defiance Online  —  As the embattled government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appears to be trying to limit Internet access and communications in Iran, new kinds of social media are challenging those traditional levers of state media control and allowing Iranians to find novel ways around the restrictions.