They Should Have Killed Him  —  The death penalty has a meaning, and it isn't vengeance. … Excuse me, I'm sorry, and I beg your pardon, but the jury's decision on Moussaoui gives me a very bad feeling.  What we witnessed here was not the higher compassion but a dizzy failure of nerve.

So Not Funny  —  First, let me state my credentials: I am a funny guy.  This is well known in certain circles, which is why, even back in elementary school, I was sometimes asked by the teacher to "say something funny" — as if the deed could be done on demand.

House Lobbying Rules Call for More Disclosure  —  The House narrowly approved ethics legislation yesterday that would expand the amount of information that lobbyists must disclose about their interactions with lawmakers and would also rein in big-money political groups that spent heavily in the last presidential election.

Growing Unease for Some Blacks on Immigration  —  WASHINGTON, May 3 — In their demonstrations across the country, some Hispanic immigrants have compared the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s struggle to their own, singing "We Shall Overcome" and declaring a new civil rights movement …

Online Integrity, and Other Things I Will Not Be Signing  —  In 2006, I have no plans to steal candy from children, or to take money from the collection plate at church.  I do not plan to spit on people I pass on the sidewalk, nor do I plan to set fire to a school.

Contractor's deal was Harris priority, former staffers say  —  Former senior members of U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris' congressional staff say they initially rejected a defense contractor's $10 million appropriation request last year but reversed course after being instructed by Harris to approve it.

You Pay Your Money, You Take Your Chances  —  I finally decided to go in for TimesSelect.  I am greeted by Tom Friedman's column, "Let's (Third) Party," where I read this gem about gasoline prices: … That's a fascinating "truth."  Note that he is not writing here about the externalities associated …

Debunking One of the Worst Ideas in Economics  —  In this column, I'm focusing on bad economics.  In fact, I'm going to write about what I consider to be the two worst economic ideas — or at least ideas that pass as economics, though both have been thoroughly repudiated by nearly all credible thinkers.

The Fox News Effect  —  We report.  You decide.  Does President Bush owe his controversial win in 2000 to Fox cable television news?  —  Yes, suggest data collected by two economists who found that the growth of the Fox cable news network in the late 1990s may have significantly boosted …

Follow-up 2: Red Lights on Capitol Hill  —  More details on Shirlington Limousine  —  A few days ago I wondered aloud exactly how Shirlington Limousine of Arlington, Virginia, owned by Christopher Baker—a man with a lengthy history of illegal activity—got millions of dollars in federal contracts …

Juan Cole is 10th rate...he is the embodiment of the mediocre...his sentences are syntactical train wrecks...it's illiteracy, simply.  - Christopher Hitchens  —  HH: Christopher Hitchens, welcome back to the Hugh Hewitt Show.  —  CH: Nice to be back.  —  HH: Now I don't even know how to raise this …

Decoding the McCaffrey Memo  —  If this is the cost of victory in Iraq, is America willing to pay it?  —  Good news and bad news on the war in Iraq: The good news is that victory is possible, our troops are the best ever, the Iraqi army is getting bigger and better, and most Iraqi people want a pluralistic government.

Lapdogs  —  Cowardly and clueless, the U.S. media abandoned its post as Bush led the country into a disastrous war.  A look inside one of the great journalistic collapses of our time.  —  Print EmailFont: S / S+ / S++  —  President Bush with Tony Snow, left, and Scott McClellan, right …

Tax Deal Sets Day of Reckoning  —  Tough Choice on Deficit in Store for President, Congress in 2011  —  With this week's hard-fought agreement on a $70 billion tax-cut extension, President Bush and congressional Republicans have effectively set a date for a fiscal day of reckoning …

Prodigal State  —  Tort reform brings doctors back to Texas.  —  DALLAS—The Senate is once again taking up the issue of medical justice reform.  If senators want to expand access to health care by increasing the number of physicians and lowering costs, they need to look at Texas.