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.

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.

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 …

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 …

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 …

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.

In a Staff Shuffle, Signs of Obama's Direction on Mideast  —  WASHINGTON — So now Dennis B. Ross, the Obama administration's senior Iran policy maker, less than three months into his State Department job, is moving to the White House, administration officials say.

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.

PETA Says No More Fly-Killing, Sends Obama a Humane Fly Catcher  —  ABC News' Sunlen Miller reports:  —  PETA has a few words for President Obama: Brush, don't kill.  —  After the President very publically swatted and then killed a fly during an interview with CNBC yesterday …

Iran protests: live  —  Another huge demonstration is expected today in defiance of the regime after, opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi called for a day of silent protest to mourn the victims of the unrest.  Follow live updates on the aftermath of Iran's disputed elections  —  8.00pm:

Court rejects DNA access claim  —  Splitting 5-4, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday that an individual whose criminal conviction has become final does not have a constitutional right to gain access to evidence so that it can be subjected to DNA testing to try to prove innocence.

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 …

Pentagon Exam Calls Protests ‘Low-Level Terrorism,’ Angering Activists  —  A written exam administered by the Pentagon labels “protests” as a form of “low-level terrorism” — enraging civil liberties advocates and activist groups who say it shows blatant disregard of the First Amendment.

The Most Important Number in Politics Today  —  Seventy-two percent.  —  That's the number of people in the new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll who say that President Obama inherited the “current economic conditions” gripping the country as compared to just 14 percent who said the situation was the result mostly of his policies.

U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Demands Answers on Voter Intimidation Case Dismissal  —  As was commented upon here at CONTENTIONS, and widely reported and remarked upon elsewhere, the Obama Justice Department took the unusual action last month of dismissing a default judgment …

Bailout Costs vs Big Historical Events  —  It is exceedingly difficult to convey exactly how much we are spending on all these bailouts.  Whenever I start talking trillions (versus mere billions), I get puzzled looks from people.  Humans have a hard time conceptualizing any number that large.

my open heart surgery, and michelle obama, and osama bin laden  —  this day, a subject near and dear to my heart.  my heart.  —  june 1, 2009 i underwent a coronary artery bypass and graft operation, known to the medical types as a “cabbage,” and to the rest of us as open heart surgery.