“Bitter-gate”: Where Do We Go Now?  —  Critical mass has been reached.  “Bitter” and “cling” will forever be tied to Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) in the same way that “Tuzla” and “the laugh” will always evoke Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) when a political junkie thinks of the 2008 Democratic race.

Italy: It's a landslide  —  Huge, perhaps historic, victory for Berlusconi's “Popolo della liberta' ” (which translates a bit awkwardly as “the people of liberty;” maybe it's better to call it “the freedom folks").  It's considerably worse than AP lets on.  Berlusconi defeated Walter Veltroni's …

Not much the matter with Kansas or Pennsylvania  —  At the WaPo, E.J. Dionne unloads the usual liberal conventional wisdom regarding Barack Obama's condescending view that small town residents are bitter and cling to guns, religion and prejudice due to the last 25 years of US economic policy:

Obama would ask his AG to “immediately review” potential of crimes in Bush White House  —  Tonight I had an opportunity to ask Barack Obama a question that is on the minds of many Americans, yet rarely rises to the surface in the great ruckus of the 2008 presidential race …

McCain “Family Recipes” Lifted from the Food Network  —  What will they call it?  Farfallegate?  Rosemary Chicken Dome Scandal?  Perhaps something with the ubiquitous Rachael Ray in it.  —  It seems that Cindy McCain, John McCain's perfect, blonde beer-baroness wife is about to find herself painted …

Lieberman: It's ‘a good question’ to ask if Obama is ‘a Marxist.’  —  In his New York Times column today, Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol claimed that Sen. Barack Obama's (D-IL) now-infamous “bitter” remarks sound like Karl Marx's “famous statement about religion.”

America's turn: How bitter are you?  Vote now  —  For days now we've all been reading about how bitter or not bitter small-town Pennsylvanians are.  —  All three major remaining presidential candidates — Sens. John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, who started this whole thing …

Lawmakers Want FBI Access to Data Curbed  —  Bipartisan groups in Congress are pressing to place new controls on the FBI's ability to demand troves of sensitive personal information from telephone providers and credit card companies, over the opposition of agency officials who say they deserve more time to clean up past abuses.

Was the CBC afraid to show the Danish cartoons?  “Well, yeah”  —  Two weeks ago, CBC Sunday did an extended segment about how Canada's human rights commissions have been turned into political censors.  Here's my extended review of that documentary.  In short, I thought it was well done …

McCain's Economy: Major Tax Reform, No Austerity  —  The message from Sen. John McCain's economic speech today seems to be that the economic policies of both parties are dogmatic and ill-equipped to harness the energy and contain the excesses of the modern economy.

Retailing Chains Caught in a Wave of Bankruptcies  —  The consumer spending slump and tightening credit markets are unleashing a widening wave of bankruptcies in American retailing, prompting thousands of store closings that are expected to remake suburban malls and downtown shopping districts across the country.

Enter CAIR  —  In “Zaman vs. Kersten” I quoted Stephen Schwartz's descripton of the Islamist playbook: … CAIR is the Islamist group that wrote the book on the scenario Schwartz describes.  It holds itself out as a civil rights organization representing Muslims in the United States …

U.S. Military Will Finally Release AP Photog in Iraq  —  BAGHDAD The U.S. military says it will release Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein after more than two years in custody.  —  The statement said Hussein will be freed Wednesday now that Iraqi judicial committees have granted him amnesty for all allegations.