Recap: The Most Ridiculous Leftist Defenses of Anthony Weiner  —  UPDATE: Check out reaction from some of the chief Weiner-defenders below the break.  —  The so-called Weinergate scandal provided a true spectacle of media bias and conspiracy theorizing.  While there was certainly plenty …

Margaret Thatcher to Sarah Palin: don't bother dropping by  —  Allies of former prime minister regard darling of Tea Party movement as a frivolous figure unworthy of an audience  —  Sarah Palin wants to show to the Republican right that she is the true keeper of the Ronald Reagan flame …

Flim-Flammed  —  I've been getting requests that I respond to my colleague David Brooks's column today.  Actually, I'll just outsource it.  Read Ezra Klein, Jonathan Chait, and Jonathan Cohn.  The bottom line is, sorry, the evidence is indeed dispositive: decentralized, “consumer-based” …

Therapy to change ‘feminine’ boy created a troubled man, family says  —  Editor's note: Tonight at 10 ET on CNN TV, “AC360º” examines a shocking “experimental therapy” designed to make feminine boys more masculine.  See what one family says was the devastating result in a special report, “The Sissy Boy Experiment.”

Rep. Weiner's Cyber Sex Chat With Las Vegas Mistress — Word For Word  —  It's the full monty.  —  RadarOnline.com is publishing for the first time the entire transcript of disgraced Rep. Anthony Weiner's nine-month cyber sex relationship with a 40-year-old Las Vegas blackjack dealer.  —  Word for word.

Pawlenty Proposes ‘Better Deal’ — And ‘Google Test’ To Eliminate Programs (Updated)  —  Tim Pawlenty delivered a speech Tuesday morning at the University of Chicago, laying out an economic platform that he is dubbing a “Better Deal” — in a clear word-play on such past progressive economic policies …

Revisiting Unemployment Predictions  —  Back in January 2009, Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein produced a report estimating future unemployment rates with and without a stimulus plan.  Their estimates, which were widely circulated, projected that unemployment would approach 9% without a stimulus …

President Obama's phony accounting on the auto industry bailout  —  “Chrysler has repaid every dime and more of what it owes American taxpayers for their support during my presidency.”  —  With some of the economic indicators looking a bit dicey, President Obama traveled to Ohio last week …

ANALYSIS: Pawlenty's Tax Plan Would Cost $7.8 Trillion Over Ten Years, Triple The Size Of Bush Tax Cuts  —  Our guest blogger is Michael Linden, Director of Tax and Budget Policy at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.  —  Earlier today, presidential candidate and former governor Tim Pawlenty …

EXCLUSIVE: Herman Cain Pledges Not To Sign Any Bill Longer Than Three Pages  —  ThinkProgress filed this report from the Family Leader Presidential Lecture Series in Pella, Iowa.  —  GOP presidential contender and former pizza executive Herman Cain roused conservative audience members yesterday at his appearance in Pella, Iowa.

Conservative group: Fake eviction notices were ‘meant to startle people’  —  / MIKE BROOKBANK / Detroit Free Press 6/7/2011  —  The state director of the conservative group Americans for Prosperity offered no apologies today for papering homes in Detroit's Delray district Monday with fake eviction notices.

Settlers of Catan: How a German Board Game Went Mainstream  —  Two decades after it was invented, this game is about to become a household name.  How did it happen?  —  gadl/flickr  —  Last Christmas, I tore the wrapping paper off a rectangular box, expecting at best I'd see an iPad, at worst a Kindle.

GOP attacks Dems from the left, accuses them of shredding ‘social safety net’  —  So it's come to this: Now Republicans are accusing Democrats of wanting to “shred the social safety net.”  —  As I've noted here before, Republicans have again taken to attacking Dems from the left on Medicare …

U.S. funding for future promises lags by trillions  —  The federal government's financial condition deteriorated rapidly last year, far beyond the $1.5 trillion in new debt taken on to finance the budget deficit, a USA TODAY analysis shows.  —  The government added $5.3 trillion …

The U.S. Economic Outlook  —  I would like to thank the organizers for inviting me to participate once again in the International Monetary Conference.  I will begin with a brief update on the outlook for the U.S. economy, then discuss recent developments in global commodity markets …

On College Campuses, Obama's Not Cool Anymore  —  President Obama poll numbers are nearing the levels he enjoyed in 2008, with one glaring exception: young people.  Especially young white people.  His approval rating is at 56 percent approval rating among people ages 18 to 29.

RedState sells ‘endorsement’ [UPDATED]  —  The endorsement of Erick Erickson, the founder of the conservative blog RedState and a CNN contributor is for sale as part of an advertising package, according to an email circulated by an account executive for The Human Events Group -Eagle Publishing, which recently purchased the site.

Psychic's mass grave tip proves false  —  Authorities converged on a residential property near the Liberty County town of Hardin on Tuesday night after the sheriff's office received a phone tip from a self-professed psychic that 25 to 30 dismembered bodies were buried there.

Evan “Revolving Door” Bayh Signs On With US Chamber  —  Not long after announcing his plans to retire in 2010, then-Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) offered this bit of commentary on why he'd opted to leave Congress after two terms in office: “I want to be engaged in an honorable line of work.”