Clyburn says S.C. Dem Senate candidate a ‘plant’; calls for probe  —  The man nominated as Democrats' candidate for Senate in South Carolina might have been a “plant,” a high-ranking Democrat suggested Thursday.  —  House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) called for in South Carolina …

Boehner: Government—i.e. Taxpayers—Should Help Pay For Oil Spill  —  Congressional Democrats and the White House are toying with different ways to force BP to cover the costs of damages from the Gulf oil spill.  But they face stiff opposition from industry...and it seems leading Republicans.

Scott Tops Mccollum In Florida GOP Gov Race, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Dem Senate Primary Race Too Close To Call  —  Political neophyte Rick Scott has surged to a 44 - 31 percent lead over Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum in the race for the Republican nomination for governor …

Boris Johnson tells Barack Obama: Stop bashing Britain  —  Senior Tories today warned Barack Obama to back off as billions of pounds were wiped off BP shares in the row over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.  —  Mayor Boris Johnson demanded an end to “anti-British rhetoric, buck-passing and name-calling” …

ACORN employees tell FBI of deliberate election fraud, according to new documents  —  The radical activist group ACORN “works” for the Democratic Party and deliberately promotes election fraud, ACORN employees told FBI investigators, according to an FBI document dump Wednesday.

Publishing Company Under Fire for Putting Warning Label on Constitution  —  Warning that appears on Wilder Publications' reprints of the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and other historical texts.  —  A small publishing company is under fire after putting warning labels on copies …

Op-Ed Contributor: Talking About Israel, Without the Clichés  —  THE Israeli raid on the Free Gaza flotilla has generated an outpouring of clichés from the usual suspects.  It is almost impossible to discuss the Middle East without resorting to tired accusations and ritual defenses …

I've Got 99 Weeks of Unemployment, And Also a Lot of Problems  —  With long-term unemployment surging to unprecedented highs, Annie Lowrey takes a look at the plight of those facing expiration of Unemployment Insurance as they head up against the 99 week mark:

BP and Officials Block Some Coverage of Gulf Oil Spill  —  When the operators of Southern Seaplane in Belle Chasse, La., called the local Coast Guard-Federal Aviation Administration command center for permission to fly over restricted airspace in Gulf of Mexico, they made what they thought was a simple and routine request.

Breaking: Radical Union Organizer-Black Liberation Activist Slugs Tea Party Protester in Face (Video)  —  More Hope and Change-  —  Barack Obama gave his marching orders: … Now it's playing out on the streets.  —  On Tuesday June 8, the North Carolina Tea Party Patriots held a protest …

Abbas meets the Jews  —  American Jewish leaders received broad reassurances from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas but sparred with him on details at an unusual meeting Wednesday night in Washington.  —  Abbas dined Wednesday with about 30 national Jewish leaders at an event hosted …

My mic was on?  Senate hopeful Fiorina mocks Barbara Boxer's hair, moans about Fox's Sean Hannity  —  Carly Fiorina spent her first day as California's Republican U.S. Senate candidate with one of her custom shoes planted firmly in her mouth.  —  Unaware of an open mic before a television interview …

Jobs report a nightmare for Obama progressivism  —  Concerning the job numbers from May, one can almost echo Henry James's exclamation after examining letters pertaining to Lord Byron's incest: “Nauseating perhaps, but how quite inexpressibly significant.”  Except that the May numbers' significance …

Kagan has many achievements, but her world has been relatively narrow  —  One night, at an intimate dinner, Elena Kagan lavished such praise on Justice Antonin Scalia that he almost teared up.  The next afternoon, in front of a crowd of 500, she lauded him some more, nearly choking up herself.

White House officials make nice with labor  —  In a private meeting currently under way with labor leaders, top White House officials are working hard to smooth over tensions in the wake of an anonymous administration official's claim that unions had flushed $10 million down the toilet in Arkansas …

The Trailer For Glenn Beck's New Book Is Just As Nuts As You'd Expect (VIDEO)  —  WHAT'S YOUR REACTION?  —  For some reason, Glenn Beck has written a thriller, ‘The Overton Window.’ And for some weirder reason, it has a trailer (though to be fair, this is more like a teaser).

The Mechanics of the Financial Reform Conference.  —  The conference committee that will craft a consensus financial regulation bill from different versions passed by the two chambers of Congress begins at 2:15 today, live on C-SPAN.  There won't be any actual conferencing, however …

U.S. and BP slow to accept Dutch expertise  —  Three days after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico, the Dutch government offered to help.  —  It was willing to provide ships outfitted with oil-skimming booms, and it proposed a plan for building sand barriers to protect sensitive marshlands.

A Modest Proposal: A King and Queen for America  —  The national campaign to get President Obama to emote, throw crockery at oil executives and jump up and down in fury has failed.  But here's a long-term solution: Let's anoint a king and queen.  —  If we can just get over George III …

I Have Seen the Future and It Doesn't Work — By: Mark Krikorian  —  A couple of my colleagues have released a brief look at some of immigration's effects on California.  The most striking finding was that California has the least-educated work force in the nation:

How Blanche Lincoln Is Not Like Norma Rae  —  The commentary regarding the Lincoln/Halter race continues, ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous.  —  Glenn Greenwald: … Just for kicks someone should put together a post with links to quotes from everyone who not only swallowed the …

Protect jobs and the environment  —  I understand the real concerns that we share as a nation when it comes to protecting our environment, but we should do it in a way that does not hurt our chances to improve the economy and put people back to work.  —  While many of my colleagues have argued …

The art of a homepage  —  Last week, we announced a new feature that lets you add a favorite photo or image to the background of your Google.com homepage.  —  To provide you with an extra bit of inspiration, we've collaborated with several well-known artists, sculptors and photographers …