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 …

Kentucky Rep. 'That boy's finger does not need to be on the button'  —  Um: … An aide to Davis, Jeremy Hughes, declined to comment on the remark, and didn't dispute the accuracy of the quote.

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 …

Is Clinton's Pennsylvania Lead Really 20 Points?  —  A new survey showing Sen. Hillary Clinton leading Sen. Barack Obama by 20 percentage points in Pennsylvania comes from a polling firm with a shaky track record this election season.  —  The poll, which topped the Drudge Report on Monday afternoon …

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.

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.

Riots, instability spread as food prices skyrocket  —  (CNN) — Riots from Haiti to Bangladesh to Egypt over the soaring costs of basic foods have brought the issue to a boiling point and catapulted it to the forefront of the world's attention, the head of an agency focused on global development said Monday.

HOW THE ASIANS BECAME WHITE: I've discussed this phenomenon — of Asians not only being classified together with whites for various race preference programs (and calls for such programs), but of actually being called white — in the past.  Razib Khan at Gene Expression points …

McCain reveals confusion over Petraeus role  —  Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain of Arizona may not have been paying the closest of attention last week during hearings on the Bush administration's Iraq policy.  —  Speaking Monday at the annual meeting of the Associated Press …

Long-lost article by Obama's dad surfaces  —  Barack Obama's dad was such an important but absent figure in his life that he devoted his first book, Dreams From My Father, to the search for details about his father's life and how the quest helped forge a son's identity.