Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?  —  Self-identified liberals and Democrats do badly on questions of basic economics.  —  Who is better informed about the policy choices facing the country—liberals, conservatives or libertarians?  According to a Zogby International survey that I write …

Voters' support for members of Congress is at an all-time low, poll finds  —  As voters head to the polls Tuesday for a crucial set of primary elections, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds antipathy toward their elected officials rising and anti-incumbent sentiment at an all-time high.

The sad farewell of Helen Thomas  —  Afew months ago, White House reporters settled on a system for preserving the sanctity of Helen Thomas's front-row-center seat in the briefing room.  On those frequent occasions when the 89-year-old legend didn't show up for a briefing …

Obama: I would've fired BP chief by now  —  Ex-EPA lawyer brands oil company as ‘recurring environmental criminal’  —  msnbc.com staff and news service reports  —  President Barack Obama would have fired BP's CEO Tony Hayward over controversial comments downplaying the Gulf oil spill — if the executive had been working for him.

The gathering storm, cont'd  —  William Shawcross is the son of Winston Churchill's lawyer, the prominent former Nuremberg prosecutor and Labor MP Sir Hartley Shawcross.  He thus provides something of a living link to Churchill whom we are especially proud to claim as a friend of our site.

Health law could ban low-cost plans  —  Part of the health care overhaul due to kick in this September could strip more than 1 million people of their insurance coverage, violating a key goal of President Barack Obama's reforms.  —  Under the provision, insurance companies will no longer …

Van der Sloot Confesses to Killing in Peru  —  June 5: Joran van der Sloot is escorted by Peruvian police as he arrives at their offices in Lima.  —  Dutchman Joran van der Sloot, long the prime suspect in U.S. teen Natalee Holloway's 2005 disappearance in Aruba, has confessed to killing …

Pelosi blames GOP for nation's ills  —  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, speaking to a friendly audience of progressive activists, was ready to cast blame for the country's troubles Tuesday morning.  —  She blamed the exploding national debt on the Bush administration and said Democrats' push …

Progressives seek to gain momentum for change at America's Future Now conference  —  Progressive movement activists gathered in Washington on Monday declared themselves dismayed, even angry, at President Obama and Democrats in Congress for being too timid and compromising in pursuing change …

WHITE HOUSE GONE WILD: Shirtless Favreau And Vietor's Sunday/Funday Beer Pong Match  —  Suns out, guns out... It's going to take more than a little oil and a brittle economy to keep these White House staffers down...or their shirts on.  Check out White House spokesman Tommy Vietor …

Tuesday targets: Nine races to watch  —  South Carolina's freak show politics, the progressive left's Arkansas muscle flexing, the astounding and obscene amount of statewide election spending in California — at least $120 million-plus and rising — all of it is part of Tuesday's dramatic primary election narrative.

White House is directing agencies to cut budgets  —  The White House is directing agencies to develop plans for trimming at least 5 percent from their budgets by identifying programs that do little to advance their missions or President Obama's agenda.  —  The request, made amid rising public anxiety …

Marriage equality for all couples  —  Nearly a century after the 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868, the Supreme Court unanimously affirmed that “marriage is one of the ‘basic civil rights of man.’ ” That 1967 case, Loving v. Virginia, ended bans on interracial marriage in the 16 states that still had such laws.

Student sitting behind Obama was asleep  —  Watch video for more  —  KALAMAZOO, Mich. (WOOD) - One of the Kalamazoo Central students — who was seated behind keynote speaker President Barack Obama during Monday night's commencement ceremony — fell asleep.

The ties that bind.  Remember Rahm Emanuel's rent-free D.C. apartment?  The owner: A BP adviser  —  In case you were tempted to buy the faux Washington outrage at BP and its gulf oil spill in recent days, here's a story that reveals a little-known corporate political connection and the quiet …

‘A Very Deep Hole’  —  I know the president has a lot on his mind, but the No. 1 problem facing the U.S. continues to fester, and that problem is unemployment.  —  The jobs report for May, released on Friday by the Labor Department, was grim.  President Obama tried to put the best face on it …