Consumer advocate Nader starts presidential bid  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Consumer advocate Ralph Nader said on Sunday that he is launching another long shot independent campaign for president of the United States.  —  Nader, who will turn 74 this week, announced his presidential bid on NBC's …

Lapel Pin Patriotism, Round Two  —  I thought we had already dispatched this nonsense once, but it appears to have resurfaced with Nedra Pickler's insightful piece: … Doing due diligence to get the story right, Nedra goes to an expert for his opinion:

Obama Mailings ‘False’?  —  Clinton says Democrats should be “outraged.”  You be the judge.  —  Clinton said “every Democrat should be outraged” at two “false” mailers that Obama sent to voters in Ohio.  —  We find that a mailer criticizing her position on trade is indeed misleading.

EXPERIENCE....Riffing off Scott Lemieux, Matt Yglesias takes a pot shot at Hillary Clinton's claim to be the “experienced” candidate: … This obviously gets into the realm of pure spin since “experience” is such an amorphous quality, but I really think that Obama partisans are missing the point here.

REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMAN EMBRACES OBAMA HOAX EMAIL  —  Overtime, and pretty quickly now, it'll make sense to keep a list of stuff like this.  On Friday night's Bill Maher show, Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) claimed that Barack Obama refuses to say the pledge of allegiance to the American flag.

Kristol: ‘I Recommend The Politics Of Fear’  —  This morning on Fox News Sunday, New York Times columnist Bill Kristol recommended that Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) employ the “politics of fear” to attack Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL): … Kristol explained that his fear-mongering political strategy would focus on Iran.

DNC to File FEC Complaint Against McCain Campaign  —  John McCain's attempted politically motivated gaming of the public financing system is already drawing the attention of the Federal Elections Commisssion, with the chairman of the FEC firing off a letter to McCain's presidential campaign asking …

White House backtracks on claims of lost intelligence  —  Hours after chiding Congress for not finishing a wiretapping bill and leaving the nation ‘vulnerable to terrorist attack,’ officials acknowledge all requested information is being received.  —  WASHINGTON — A day after warning …

Saturday Night Live Pulls One Out for Hillary  —  (Updated to include video).  Comments now closed.)  —  Do not miss the You Tube of Tina Fey's commentary on Saturday Night Live last night when it comes out.  It was incredible.  My DD has a rough transcript of the last part. … More...

The McCain Flap  —  It was extremely pleasant not to have to respond in real time to the McCain story.  Reading the blogosphere as a simple observer, it was, however, a little depressing to see the knee jerk partisanship.  Several liberal bloggers exercised some skepticism toward the story …

Raul Castro Succeeds Fidel as President of Cuba  —  Fidel Castro's brother, Raúúl, was named president of Cuba on Sunday, preserving a nearly half-century socialist dynasty that brought free schools and health care to all Cubans as well as political repression.