Confidence in Obama reaches new low, Washington Post-ABC News poll finds  —  Public confidence in President Obama has hit a new low, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll.  Four months before midterm elections that will define the second half of his term …

Obama strategy against Palin, or other GOP foes?  Run against Bush  —  White House spokesman Robert Gibbs didn't talk about Sarah Palin specifically yesterday, but he did address any Republican who is thinking about challenging President Obama in 2012.  —  The bottom line …

JON KYL DOUBLES DOWN.... Over the weekend, Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) was asked on Fox News how he'd pay for extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, at a cost of $678 billion.  After initially dodging the question, Kyl said what he really believed: “You do need to offset …

Tea party groups choose to stand mute on same-sex marriage ruling  —  While many conservative organizations immediately decried a federal judge's decision last week to invalidate the federal ban on recognizing gay marriages, tea party groups have been conspicuously silent on the issue.

4 missionaries charged in Dearborn festival proselytizing  —  Dearborn — Four Christian missionaries were arraigned today on misdemeanor charges of disturbing the peace following their June 18 arrest at the Arab International Festival.  —  Negeen Mayel, 18, of California; Nabeel Qureshi …

Andrew Napolitano: Bush and Cheney Should Have Been Indicted for Torturing, for Spying and Arresting Without Warrants  —  Well, this is something you don't see every day.  Ralph Nader hosted this interview segment with Fox News' Judge Andrew Napolitano and discussed his book, Lies the Government Told You.

Beyond Guns: N.R.A. Expands Agenda  —  WASHINGTON — Fresh off a string of victories in the courts and Congress, the National Rifle Association is flexing political muscle outside its normal domain, with both Democrats and Republicans courting its favor and avoiding its wrath on issues that sometimes seem to have little to do with guns.

Automated Debt-Collection Lawsuits Engulf Courts  —  As millions of Americans have fallen behind on paying their bills, debt collection law firms have been clogging courtrooms with lawsuits seeking repayment.  —  Few have been as prolific as Cohen & Slamowitz, a Woodbury, N.Y. …

A Congressman, Held Accountable  —  If you don't think voters are up in arms about the discriminatory policies of Barack Obama's Department of Justice, check out this video of a town hall meeting held by Democratic Congressman Brad Sherman, CA-27.  A constituent asks him about DOJ's dismissal …

Is Google Making Us Stupid?  —  What the Internet is doing to our brains  —  “Dave, stop.  Stop, will you?  Stop, Dave.  Will you stop, Dave?”  So the supercomputer HAL pleads with the implacable astronaut Dave Bowman in a famous and weirdly poignant scene toward the end of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.

George Steinbrenner, owner of New York Yankees, has died in Tampa at age of 80  —  George Steinbrenner, a towering and intimidating figure who dominated the New York sports scene for 35 years, winning 11 American League pennants and seven world championships as owner of the Yankees …

Mocking war hero Nick Popaditch: A teachable moment  —  On Sunday night, several readers e-mailed to let me know about a cartoon in the Imperial Valley (CA) Press that upset them immensely.  —  Reader Marty sent the jpeg.  It shows two young skateboarder punks looking up at a campaign poster.

Did BP play role in bomber's release?  —  (CNN) — A group of U.S. lawmakers have called for an investigation into whether BP may have played a role in lobbying for the release of Abdelbaset al Megrahi to secure an oil contract with the Libyan government.  —  Megrahi, now 58 …

Lieberman, Kerry make last-ditch appeal on scaled-back climate bill  —  The Senate sponsors of a sweeping climate change bill are drafting a scaled-back version focused on electric power plants in a bid to salvage a role for greenhouse gas curbs in the Senate energy debate.

Taranis: The £143million unmanned stealth jet that will hit targets in another continent  —  Looming ominously like a space ship from Star Wars, this is the future of unmanned flight.  —  Defence firm BAE Systems today officially unveiled its first ever high-tech unmanned stealth jet.

Small Businesses Get More Pessimistic  —  Small businesses continue to feel highly pessimistic about the U.S. economic outlook, according to a report Tuesday that showed a monthly indicator of their sentiment turning weaker in June.  —  The National Federation of Independent Businesses …

Democrat Congressman ‘Unaware’ of the New Black Panther Voter Intimidation Case … This website uses IntenseDebate comments, but they are not currently loaded because either your browser doesn't support JavaScript, or they didn't load fast enough.

Mort Zuckerman Admits He Helped Write One Of Obama's Speeches  —  Media mogul Mort Zuckerman tells FOX News he helped write one of Obama's speeches.

U.S. Detains 12th Person in Russian Spy Probe  —  WASHINGTON—Authorities are detaining a 12th, previously undisclosed person implicated in the federal probe that busted a Cold War-style Russian spy ring, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter.

Dems kick off $50 million election year spending spree  —  The Democratic National Committee (DNC) kicked off its $50 million spending spree to drive voters to the polls for Democrats this fall.  —  The DNC has transferred $2 million to the party's House and Senate campaign committees …

Neil Reynolds  —  Democracies produced Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, fulfilling the expectation of Socrates and Machiavelli that democracies end in tyranny.  Now democracies are fulfilling the complementary expectation of Nobel laureate economist Milton Friedman that democracies end in bankruptcy.

GOP pushes Byrne in Alabama runoff  —  Top Alabama Republicans are scrambling to rally around gubernatorial candidate Bradley Byrne, concluding that remaining on the sidelines in Tuesday's primary runoff would aid and abet Democratic prospects in the fall — and potentially beyond.

Strapped Florida Banks Ask for Help  —  Hobbled by Real-Estate Bust and Oil Spill's Fallout, Lenders Seek Reprieve From Capital Raising  —  Florida banks—already weakened by the real-estate bust and hit again by customers suffering from the BP PLC oil spill—are asking federal regulators …