In Poll, Obama Is Seen as Ineffective on the Economy  —  A substantial majority of Americans say President Obama has not developed a strategy to deal with the budget deficit, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, which also found that support for his plans to overhaul health care …

ENSIGN, WHOA.... Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't much care what Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) does in his personal life.  What he does in his bedroom is his business.  —  But the larger context of this story matters a great deal.  Stupid personal mistakes are easily overlooked; breathtaking hypocrisy isn't.

Obama on Iran, McCain on His High Horse  —  Here's Obama's response to events in Iran.  As Spencer Ackerman notes, just about pitch-perfect:  —  Now look at what John McCain said in contrast: … Take a moment to think about how the current government in Iran is going to react to this …

Out of Washington, Edwards Finds Worries Remain  —  John Edwards says he has few illusions.  He knows the picture many Americans hold of him is not a pretty one.  He also knows that even before he was engulfed in tabloid scandal, his electoral appeal had limits.

Why are Iranian police markings written in English?  —  Post-election protests continued in Tehran for the fifth day on Wednesday.  In many photos, riot police wear uniforms with the English word police on them.  Ambulances, too, bear the word ambulance in English.

Bachmann Boasts About Breaking The Law: I'm Refusing To Fill Out The Census  —  Next year, the 2010 Census will be sent to every American household, as required by the U.S. Constitution.  The far right has issued dire warnings of the Census; on a May 29th episode of Bill Bennett's radio show …

Fired AmeriCorps IG responds: White House charges are false  —  Fired AmeriCorps inspector general Gerald Walpin strongly denies the White House's claim that he was “confused, disoriented [and] unable to answer questions” at a May 20, 2009 board meeting of the Corporation for National and Community Service …

Open Letter To Robert Kagan  —  First, let me just express sympathy for your situation.  These last years have been extraordinarily unkind to your grand theories about the transformative potential of American explosives.  President Bush's “global war on terror,” the invasion of Iraq …

Barney Frank throws us under the bus.  Lauds incest brief.  Says language was appropriate.  —  Well, it seems a trip to the Oval Office is all openly gay congressman Barney Frank needs to stab his community in the back.  After criticizing the DOJ's anti-gay DOMA brief this morning …

ABC REFUSES OPPOSITION ADS DURING WHITE HOUSE SPECIAL  —  ABC is refusing to air paid ads during its White House health care presentation, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned, including a paid-for alternative viewpoint!  —  The development comes a day after the network denied a request …

Paul Krugman's Prophetic Prescience  —  Wow.  Just . . . wow. … As Arnold Kling says, there's a paragraph I'm sure glad I didn't write.

Nathan Bedford Forrest Has Beautiful Eyes  —  Of the many reckonings that black people of honest political consciousness must endure, the appointment with black slavery is the most agonizing.  I don't mean the appointment with the notion of white people as the enslavers of our ancestors …

Healthcare CEOs Shoot Themselves in the Foot  —  Yesterday the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations decided to investigate the practice of recission.  This is when you pay your premiums for years to a healthcare insurer, then get sick, and then have your insurance cancelled.

Let's Call the Whole Thing Off  —  SADLY, AND TO my horror, I am divorcing.  This was a 20-year partnership.  My husband is a good man, though he did travel 20 weeks a year for work.  I am a 47-year-old woman whose commitment to monogamy, at the very end, came unglued.  This turn of events was a surprise.

Weekly Standard sold to Washington Examiner parent company  —  Clarity Media Group CEO Ryan McKibben announced today that the company had acquired The Weekly Standard magazine, which he characterized as “one of the most highly respected publications of public policy and political commentary in America.”

Crying To God For Freedom  —  They may not have any cell-phones; or news.  They may be being squeezed off the web.  But they have their voices.  Through the darkness of the night, in the face of great force, sustained by unimaginable courage: listen to the audacity of hope:  —  God bless them.

‘I CAN HAVE 2 VOTES’  —  ESPADA'S DEADLOCK ‘SOLUTION’: GIMME SENATE SUPERPOWERS  —  ALBANY — Renegade Democratic Sen. Pedro Espada claimed yesterday he and his Republican allies are forging an explosive new plan to give him an unprecedented two votes to break the newly emerged deadlock in the state Senate.

Outcry on Federal Same-Sex Benefits  —  WASHINGTON — The package of domestic partnership benefits that President Obama established for federal workers on Wednesday drew the loudest protests from some of those it was intended to help, gay men and lesbians who criticized the move as too timid.

Election 2010: Pennsylvania Democratic Senate Primary  —  Pennsylvania Senate Primary: Specter 51% Sestak 32%  —  Senator Arlen Specter leads Congressman Joe Sestak by 19 percentage points in an early look at the 2010 Democratic Senatorial Primary in Pennsylvania.

Report on Bush Interrogation Policy ‘Weeks’ From Release, Holder Says  —  Probe Is Focused On Interrogation Program's Approval  —  A Justice Department report focusing on possible ethics violations by Bush administration lawyers who approved waterboarding of terrorism suspects is still …

New honors for CNN's Crowley  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) - Tonight, a key member of the CNN political team will add an award to her already long list of honors.  —  Senior Political Correspondent Candy Crowley will be among the honorees at the Women's Media Center's first annual Media Awards at the Sackler Foundation in New York City.

The recession tracks the Great Depression  —  Green shoots are bursting out.  Or so we are told.  But before concluding that the recession will soon be over, we must ask what history tells us.  It is one of the guides we have to our present predicament.  Fortunately, we do have the data.

Write a letter to your Senators  —  Where do your Senators stand on a public healthcare option?  —  Do your Senators stand with us for a public healthcare option?  And what kind of public healthcare option do they support?  —  With your help, we can get answers to these questions, on the record so we can hold them accountable.

Strategic Nonviolence  —  Jon Chait observes that “For a revolution to succeed, it generally needs one of two things to happen: Either it needs its own weapons, or it needs mass defections by the state security forces.”  He also sees some evidence that some elements of the security forces may be contemplating defection.