President Obama Was Right  —  Americans don't have a common ancestry.  Therefore, we have to work hard to build national solidarity.  We go in for more overt displays of patriotism than in most other countries: politicians wearing flag lapel pins, everybody singing the national anthem before games …

Obama And Putin Have Totally Awkward D-Day Encounter  —  Things got awkward when President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin found themselves in close quarters Friday.  —  The leaders were attending a luncheon hosted by French President Francois Hollande after the morning's D-Day ceremonies.

Memories From Normandy  —  Beginning on June 6, 1944, more than 150,000 Allied troops landed on a broad stretch of beaches on the coast of Normandy, in German-held France.  Entrenched behind concrete walls and bunkers were more than 50,000 German soldiers.  Seventy years later …

Seattle Pacific University shooting: Multiple victims, 2 shooters  —  Quick Facts:  — At least six people shot at Seattle Pacific University.  — At least one suspect in custody.  Police initially said two.  — School is about 10 min. from downtown Seattle with about 4,000 students.

43 beats 44, 48% to 42%.  —  This has to hurt: A plurality of respondents in a new Fox News poll “believe the administration of former President George W. Bush was more competent [than] the Obama administration,” the Hill reports.  “Forty-eight percent say the Obama administration is less competent …

EXCLUSIVE: Bergdahl declared jihad in 2010, secret documents show  —  U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl at one point during his captivity converted to Islam, fraternized openly with his captors and declared himself a “mujahid,” or warrior for Islam, according to secret documents prepared on the basis …

Schumer Drops by Graduations to Tell Same ‘Loser’ Story  —  New York Senator Often Arrives Unadvertised but Colleges Aren't Complaining; 'It's a Tradition'  —  New York Sen. Chuck Schumer likes to show up unannounced at college commencements in the state, and he often tells this story about the summer after he graduated from Harvard.

70 years later, D-Day vet Jim ‘Pee Wee’ Martin jumps again  —  Normandy, France (CNN) — Jim “Pee Wee” Martin acted like he'd been here before, like jumping from a plane is as easy as falling off a log.  —  Maybe that's because he had — 70 years ago.  —  “I'm feeling fine,” …

Dialing It In  —  One evening in March, during a visit to Italy, President Obama asked the U.S. ambassador to round up a bunch of—and I quote—"interesting Italians" for a dinner at the ambassadorial residence.  The history of the property, the Villa Taverna, goes as far back as the tenth century.

SPECIAL COUNSEL INVESTIGATING 37 CASES OF VA RETALIATION AGAINST WHISTLEBLOWERS  —  The U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) announced on Thursday that it is presently investigating allegations from 37 Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) employee whistleblowers at VA facilities in 19 states …

May Employment Report: 217,000 Jobs, 6.3% Unemployment Rate  —  From the BLS: … Click on graph for larger image.  —  The headline number was at expectations of 213,000 payroll jobs added.  —  The first graph shows the job losses from the start of the employment recession …

The Climate Domino  —  Maybe it's me, but the predictable right-wing cries of outrage over the Environmental Protection Agency's proposed rules on carbon seem oddly muted and unfocused.  I mean, these are the people who managed to create national outrage over nonexistent death panels.

Republican senators push Obama to repeal EPA proposal  —  Forty-one Republican senators sent a letter to President Obama Wednesday urging him to withdraw the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) proposed regulations to limit carbon emissions from power plants.

Midterm Calculus: It's Not Too Soon to Pay Attention to Senate Polling  —  An analysis of Senate contests since 1992 suggests, surprising as it may seem, that polls are at least as accurate as the fundamentals at this point in the cycle.  That's because the fundamentals influencing Senate elections are already shaping public opinion.

Primary Winner: Poll Averages Prove More Accurate  —  For all the focus on Republican infighting this primary season, one quiet winner has emerged from these intraparty contests: public-opinion polls.  —  Individual survey results have been all over the map in primary after primary …