Clinton's Unwise Trip to North Korea  —  The Obama administration characterized Bill Clinton's unexpected visit to Pyongyang to secure the release of two American reporters, held unjustifiably by North Korea for nearly five months, as a private, humanitarian mission.

Russian Subs Patrolling Off East Coast of U.S.  —  WASHINGTON — A pair of nuclear-powered Russian attack submarines has been patrolling off the eastern seaboard of the United States in recent days, a rare mission that has raised concerns inside the Pentagon and intelligence agencies …

Young GOPers Gaga Over Gingrich  —  ABC News' Devin Dwyer reports:  —  Before an energetic and enthusiastic young Republican crowd, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich weighed in today on the upcoming Senate confirmation vote for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor and made predictions for health care reform legislation this fall.

Blackwater Founder Implicated in Murder  —  A former Blackwater employee and an ex-US Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company have made a series of explosive allegations in sworn statements filed on August 3 in federal court in Virginia.

Shocked.  SHOCKED.  Astoturfing Exists. ...  Now What?  —  In eight years of writing about politics, nothing gets people angrier than when I try to make the case that most activists and most journalists practice politics differently, have different worldviews, and are both forces for good in the democracy.

DNC goes nuclear: Mobs of right-wing extremists are attacking our health-care town halls!  Flashback: Obama tells cultists to “get in their faces”  —  Fortuitously timed, coming as it does just one day after we revisited some of the left's greatest hits in demonizing Bush, McCain, Palin, etc.

Hey, Mister Postman  —  Art Laffer (why is he, of all people, on my TV?) asks what it will be like when the government runs Medicare and Medicaid.  —  But I'd raise a further question: he warns that when the government takes over these, um, government programs, they'll be like the Post Office and the DMV.

Hezbollah stockpiles 40,000 rockets near Israel border  —  Richard Beeston on the Israel-Lebanese border and Nicholas Blanford in Beirut  —  Three years after Israel fought a bloody war in Lebanon against Hezbollah, there are fears that hostilities could erupt again — this time with the militant group better armed than ever.

Milbank And Cillizza Record Unfunny “Response Video” To Outrage Over Last Unfunny Video  —  Last Friday, WashingtonPost.com consumers were treated to another one of those “Mouthpiece Theatre” videos, in which reporters Dana Milbank and Chris Cillizza smarmily attempt humor and fail.

Making Home Affordable Program on Pace to Offer Help to Millions of Homeowners Public Release of Data Provides Transparency on Servicer Performance  —  WASHINGTON - Today, the Obama Administration released its first monthly Servicer Performance Report detailing the progress to date …

Obama's Birthday Cards From Birthers (PICS)  —  It's the president's birthday!  And what better way to celebrate than to give the birther movement even more media attention.  Of course, we don't really know that Obama was born on August 4th, because he refuses to show his birth certificate …

Preemptive dodging  —  Apparently Glenn Beck was either forced, or decided, to tell the maniacs that form a large portion of his audience NOT TO KILL OTHER PEOPLE.  So he's preemptively washed his hands.  —  But let's face the great lie of American history and the on-going threat to the nation's first black President.

Mass. bashers take note: Health reform is working  —  PUNDITS and politicians who oppose universal healthcare for the nation have a new straw man to kick around - the Massachusetts reform plan that covers more than 97 percent of the state's residents.  In the myth that these critics have manufactured …

Disgrace: Gibbs says Ahmadinejad is the elected leader of Iran  —  Via Breitbart.  He could have dodged this question a dozen ways.  He could have said the election's irrelevant from our standpoint since we have to play the cards we're dealt; he could have noted, as Obama's often done in the past …

AIPAC slams Obama for honoring ‘anti-Israel’ ex-Irish president  —  The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) on Tuesday slammed the Obama administration for its decision to give a former Irish president the presidential Medal of Freedom, saying they were “deeply disappointed” by the move.

For The Modern GOP, It's A Return To The “White Voter Strategy”  —  With Republican party leaders so constrained by ideological blinders that none of their positions is likely to produce gains among non-white minorities, especially Hispanics, the GOP is finding it has no real alternative but to revert to a “white voter” strategy.

More facts behind the GE/Fox deal and a new Olbermann statement  —  (updated below - Update II)  —  On Saturday, I wrote a post under the headline: “GE's silencing of Olbermann and MSNBC's sleazy use of Richard Wolffe.”  In it, I wrote: “now we have an example of GE's forcibly silencing …

Protestor In Connecticut: “Treat” Dodd With Handful Of Painkillers And Whiskey  —  Wow, check out these protestors outside a health care event by Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) in Hartford (via My Left Nutmeg).  What follows are some very direct jokes about Dodd's cancer — and the idea of some sort of euthanasia involving booze and pills: