Froomkin out at Washington Post (UPDATED)  —  In a move sure to ignite the left-wing blogosphere, washingtonpost.com columnist Dan Froomkin (author of the “White House Watch” blog) has been let go by the news organization, POLITICO hears.  In so many words, Froomkin was told that his blog had essentially run its course.

ALL-TIME LOWS.... I've seen a few Republican blogs today crowing about the latest national polls, which show some lukewarm support for some of White House's policy priorities.  There are a couple of numbers, though, that should give them pause.  —  For one thing, President Obama's approval ratings still look quite strong.

Health Care Reform in Danger  —  Health reform is, I think it fair to say, in danger right now.  The news out of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee was bad.  The Congressional Budget Office had scored a partial bill and the result was a total fiasco.

U.S. Struggling for Right Response to Iran  —  Obama Seeks Way to Acknowledge Protesters Without Alienating Ayatollah  —  The political unrest in Iran presents the Obama administration with a dilemma: keep quiet to pursue a nuclear deal with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country's supreme leader …

Bush takes swipes at Obama policies  —  Defends interrogations  —  Former President George W. Bush fired a salvo at President Obama on Wednesday, asserting his administration's interrogation policies were within the law, declaring the private sector not government will fix the economy and rejecting the nationalization of health care.

Daschle Urges Obama To Drop Federal Public Health Care Plan  —  The man once slated to head Barack Obama's health care system overhaul is now coming out against one of the chief components of that effort.  —  Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said on Wednesday that the Obama White House …

Senator questions firing of 3 inspectors general  —  Removal of 2 inspectors general prompts questions  —  WASHINGTON - — He was appointed with fanfare as the public watchdog over the government's multi-billion dollar bailout of the nation's financial system.

Two sources: Supreme Court ruling on U.S. Senate race to arrive tomorrow!  —  PIM has now heard from two sources on different sides of the Minnesota U.S. Senate race recount scene that the final Minnesota Supreme Court ruling is expected to arrive tomorrow, Thursday, June 18th.

Olive Garden pulls Letterman ads  —  Following a week of back and forth between CBS late night comic David Letterman and Sarah Palin over a crude joke he told about the Alaska Republican governor's daughter, the Olive Garden restaurant says it is cancelling all of its scheduled ads on Letterman's “Late Show” for the rest of the year.

Robert Fisk: Secret letter ‘proves Mousavi won poll’  —  They were handing out the photocopies by the thousand under the plane trees in the centre of the boulevard, single sheets of paper grabbed by the opposition supporters who are now wearing black for the 15 Iranians who have been killed in Tehran …

PETA wishes Obama hadn't swatted that fly  —  Rights group seeks compassion for curious and ‘least sympathetic animals’  —  WASHINGTON - The group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants the flyswatter in chief to try taking a more humane attitude the next time he's bedeviled by a fly in the White House.

Gay Dems complain DNC cut off funding, drop support for Biden event  —  Theboard of directors of the National Stonewall Democrats are dropping their support for a June 25 DNC fundraiser with Vice President Joe Biden over, they wrote in an email obtained by POLITICO, a combination of policy slights …

Bill Posey, Congressional Birther, Finds Some Friends and Bashes ‘Angry Woman’ Rachel Maddow  —  Rep. Bill Posey (R-Fla.), who has introduced a bill that would require future presidential candidates to provide proof of U.S. citizenship, has collected four more co-sponsors — Reps. John R. Carter …

South African rape survey shock  —  One in four South African men questioned in a survey said they had raped someone and nearly half admitted having attacked more than one victim.  —  The study, by the country's Medical Research Council, also found three out of four who admitted rape attacked for the first time while in their teens.

Global Insurance Fraud By North Korea Outlined  —  Government Has Collected Millions Of Dollars on Large, Suspicious Claims  —  For Kim Jong Il's birthday, North Korean insurance managers prepared a special gift.  —  In Singapore, they stuffed $20 million in cash into two heavy-duty bags and sent them …

CREW POSTS DETAILS AND COPIES OF THE MISSING WHITE HOUSE EMAILS RELEASED BY ADMINISTRATION  —  17 Jun 2009 // Washington, D.C. - Nearly two years after Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) sued the Bush White House for both its refusal to restore the millions …

Mebane: “Moderately Strong Support” for Iran Fraud  —  Walter Mebane, the University of Michigan political science and statistics professor who specializes in statistical tools “for detecting anomalies and diagnosing fraud in election results,” has updated his assessment of the official vote return statistics for the Iran elections.