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.

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 …

Isn't there some room for Helen Thomas?  —  Columnist Helen Thomas, a trailblazer for women journalists and one of the few in the White House press corps who courageously questioned President Bush and other officials in his administration on war, torture and U.S. policy toward Israel, announced her retirement Monday.

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.

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 …

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 …

An irrational, obscene hatred  —  Israel is a cartoon villain, beyond sympathy, beyond even redemption.  What is shocking - and frightening - is that the narrative the world accepts is always that of Israel as the evildoer.  —  Talkbacks (1)  —  Make JPOST.COM your Home Page  —  Iranian Threat

Obama looking for ‘whose ass to kick’  —  (CNN) — President Barack Obama bluntly defended his administration's response to the undersea gusher fouling the Gulf of Mexico on Monday, telling an interviewer he has met with experts to learn “whose ass to kick.”

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 …

Rate of Oil Leak, Still Not Clear, Puts Doubt on BP  —  Staring day after day at images of oil billowing from an undersea well in the Gulf of Mexico, many Americans are struggling to make sense of the numbers.  —  On Monday, BP said a cap was capturing 11,000 barrels of oil a day from the well.

‘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 …

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 …

Left to Obama: We're not happy  —  And like Obama's critics on the right, many progressives seized on the administration's response to the Gulf oil spill to vent their larger frustrations.  —  “We thought that an election was victory.  We forgot that candidates don't deliver change …

Reports at BP over years find history of problems  —  A series of internal investigations over the past decade warned senior BP managers that the oil company repeatedly disregarded safety and environmental rules and risked a serious accident if it did not change its ways.

Haley accuser's polygraph results inconclusive  —  COLUMBIA — Just one day before the polls open across the state, one of the men claiming he had an affair with GOP candidate Nikki Haley sat down Monday to back up his claim.  Lobbyist Larry Marchant took a polygraph test at his attorney's office in downtown Columbia.

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.

Pentagon opposes popular legislation to rename Department of the Navy  —  The Pentagon is opposing a popular provision that would change the name of the Department of the Navy to the Department of the Navy and the Marine Corps.  —  The provision, which Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) …

On this ground, zero tolerance  —  Some of the protesters, above, at Ground Zero on Sunday carried placards decrying plans for a mosque two blocks away.  At right, Richie Mitzner of Fort Lee boasted of being a ‘proud American infidel.’  —  He was not joking.

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.

Republicans put health reform on ballot in push to turn out conservatives  —  Republicans are banking that anti-health reform ballot initiatives will give them a significant edge in the November midterm elections.  —  The debate on the measures, which will be voted on in a half-dozen states …

Mysterious Billboard Puts Obama's Face on $100,000,000,000,000 Bill, Asks: ‘But Who Will Pay the Piper?’  —  (CNSNews.com) - Thanks to an advertiser who wishes to remain anonymous, cars and trucks on Arizona Highway 260 in East Central Arizona are driving by a billboard advertisement that recently went up …

Rangel on WH faith in BP: They don't have the slightest clue  —  The BP oil spill continues to deluge the gulf coast regions of the United States, and the Obama administration is feeling heat from those he could usually count on to stand by him.  Democratic strategist James Carville railed …