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.

Mayors steamed by W.H. no-show  —  America's big-city mayors are steaming over what they view as “a very dangerous precedent” set by the Obama administration in its decision to shun the U.S. Conference of Mayors annual meeting in Providence, R.I., this week.

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Social Networks Spread Iranian 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 …

Analysis: Doctors' boos show Obama's tough road … WASHINGTON (AP) - Barack Obama isn't used to hearing boos.  —  For all the young president's popularity, the response he got Monday from doctors at an American Medical Association meeting was a sign his road is only going to get rockier …

The Ross effect  —  Administration officials confirmed last night the leak of Dennis Ross's move from State to the White House, but its implications remain a bit cloudy.  —  It's been suggested, variously, that this is a demotion for the hawkish Ross or a sign that (relative) …

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 …

Did Iraqi Democracy Influence Iran?  —  Is it possible that the Iraqi election experience had something to do with Iranian expectations of an election?  If critics of the war can for just a moment move beyond their own deeply held opinions about the invasion of Iraq — that this was a war …