Judge strikes down Prop. 8, allows gay marriage in California [Updated]  —  A federal judge in San Francisco decided today that gays and lesbians have a constitutional right to marry, striking down Proposition 8, the voter approved ballot measure that banned same-sex unions.

Prop C passes overwhelmingly  —  ST. LOUIS  • Missouri voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected a federal mandate to purchase health insurance, rebuking President Barack Obama's administration and giving Republicans their first political victory in a national campaign to overturn …

Democrats' craven silence on Ground Zero mosque continues  —  Steve Benen, Matthew Yglesias, and Kevin Drum all have posts up blasting Republicans for their unwillingness to step forward and condemn bigoted criticism of plans to build an Islamic center near Ground Zero.

Bike agenda spins cities toward U.N. control, Maes warns  —  Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes is warning voters that Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper's policies, particularly his efforts to boost bike riding, are “converting Denver into a United Nations community.”

TRENDING: CNN Poll: Quarter doubt Obama was born in U.S.  —  President Obama's birth certificate (left) has been certified authentic by the Republican governor of Hawaii.  His birth announcement (right) appeared in print in 1961.  (PHOTO CREDIT: State of Hawaii)

EXPLOSIVE: New Video of Couric Mocking Palin on the Day She was Named as McCain's Running Mate!  ; UPDATED  —  The following video was sent to C4P's tips account.  —  As you can see, the video shows Katie Couric preparing to go on the air on the day John McCain announced Governor Palin as his running mate.

Angle: “What's happening (in America)..is a violation of the 1st Commandment,” entitlements “make government our God.”  —  That's what Sharron Angle, the GOP nominee for the U.S. Senate, said in an April 21 interview with TruNews Christian Radio's Rick Wiles.

JOINING THE RESISTANCE?  —  I have more than once in my time woken up feeling like death.  But nothing prepared me for the early morning last June when I came to consciousness feeling as if I were actually shackled to my own corpse.  The whole cave of my chest and thorax seemed to have been hollowed …

Not at Ground Zero  —  The story of the proposed mosque at the site of the World Trade Center has been thoroughly misrepresented, as have the parties behind the project.  They present themselves as ambassadors of moderate Islam.  Daisy Khan, executive director of the American Society for Muslim Advancement …

Anti-US ‘tirade’ upsets Obama man  —  Mohammed Wajihuddin, TNN, Aug 4, 2010, 04.17am IST  —  MUMBAI: Rashad Hussain, the Barack Obama administration's Muslim face, was in for a shock on Tuesday when the head of a city-based Muslim institution slammed the US' policies, not just in the Middle East, but towards Muslims everywhere.

What Reagan Didn't Do  —  Via Ezra Klein, I see that the latest thing on the right is to compare the economic recovery from the 1981-2 recession with our current state and claim that it proves the superiority of conservative economic policies.  —  This shows why I can't maintain the pretense …

U.S. To Train 3,000 Offshore IT Workers  —  $22 million, federally-backed program aims to help outsourcers in South Asia become more fluent in areas like Java programming—and the English language.  —  Despite President Obama's pledge to retain more hi-tech jobs in the U.S. …

Feds admit storing checkpoint body scan images  —  For the last few years, federal agencies have defended body scanning by insisting that all images will be discarded as soon as they're viewed.  The Transportation Security Administration claimed last summer, for instance, that “scanned images cannot be stored or recorded.”

IDF: Journalists were tipped off  —  Presence of cameramen, journalists at site of deadly clash proves it was planned ambush, IDF says  —  Journalists and photographers were briefed in advance of the intention to ambush IDF troops and were therefore present at the site of Tuesday's deadly …

Opinion: Don't Sue Us, Help Us ‘Plug the Hole’ in the Border  —  It was with harsh words that the Obama administration condemned BP for its responsibility in the gulf oil spill, which thankfully has been stemmed for now.  The president's subsequent demand for a moratorium on offshore oil drilling showed …

Updated.  Must Watch: The Broken Window Fallacy  —  This brilliant video is a simple illustration on the fallacy of claiming that calamities stir economic growth.  Paul Krugman, a Nobel Prize - winning economist, says the attacks of 9/11 and World War II brought great economic benefits to the nation.

Dodd Presses Senate Freshmen To Back Off Effort To End Filibuster  —  WHAT'S YOUR REACTION?  —  Chris Dodd gathered with the Democratic Senate freshman class on Tuesday night at a dinner organized by Mark Warner to persuade them to back off their push to change Senate rules when the chamber returns …

Keyes Hits Graham For Politicizing The 14th Amendment: This ‘Is Not Something That One Should Play With Lightly’  —  In recent days, several leading Republicans have launched a movement to review or revoke parts of the 14th amendment, which guarantees birthright citizenship.

How bad does it have to be?  —  H. Sterling Bennett's column Wednesday ("More Hype than Harm") claims the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico isn't that bad.  He says the environmental movement “is in absence of good evidence” when we call this BP oil disaster a massive catastrophe and horrible tragedy.