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.

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 …

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 …

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.

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 …

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 …

Jet Lands at Newark With Dead Pilot  —  A Continental Airlines jetliner carrying 247 passengers landed in Newark shortly before noon on Thursday, after the flight's captain died midflight.  —  Two first officers took control of the plane, a Boeing 777, after the captain, who was 61 years old …

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.

Only a Hint of Roosevelt in Financial Overhaul  —  Three quarters of a century ago, President Franklin Roosevelt earned the undying enmity of Wall Street when he used his enormous popularity to push through a series of radical regulatory reforms that completely changed the norms of the financial industry.

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.

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 …

Hillary Clinton Fractures Her Elbow  —  The Secretary of State will undergo surgery to repair the damage next week  —  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton fell down on her way to the White House late Wednesday afternoon, fracturing her right elbow, her Counselor and Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills …