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.

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 …

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.

Under U.S. Pressure, Mexico President Seeks Review of Drug Law  —  MEXICO CITY, May 3 — After intense pressure from the United States, President Vicente Fox has asked Congress to reconsider a law it passed last week that would decriminalize the possession of small amounts of drugs as part …

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 …

Crunchy Culture  —  Author Rod Dreher Has Defined A Political Hybrid: The All-Natural, Whole-Grain Conservative  —  Two succulent, naturally raised chickens with good farm references are in the oven, snuggled up in a roasting pan like doomed lovers.  Fat, perfect carrots are peeled, chopped, seasoned and ready to simmer.

Study Finds Medicare Operators Often Give Bad Information  —  With less than two weeks remaining for seniors to sign up for the new Medicare prescription drug benefit, an independent review has found that Medicare's telephone operators frequently give callers false or incomplete information …

Women's Lib  —  Saddam wasn't a feminist.  —  Some radical feminists and anti-war liberals have very short memories.  It's just three years after Saddam Hussein's ouster and some would have us believe the tyrant was in fact a protector of women's rights in Iraq.

Newark Candidate Runs Against His Own Fame  —  When Richard Whitten, a former Newark postal worker, met Cory Booker at a charity event downtown in 1996, his first impression was that Mr. Booker seemed too polished to be sincere.  —  With degrees from Stanford, Oxford and Yale Law School …

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 …

Businessman Pleads Guilty To Bribing Rep. Jefferson  —  A Louisville man pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court to bribing Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.) with more than $400,000 in payments, company stock and a share of the profits to promote the Kentucky firm's high-tech business ventures in Africa.