Our World: Israel's rude awakening  —  It is painful to watch Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Amir Peretz and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni try to contend with the terrible outcome of the Palestinian terror strike against the IDF on Sunday morning.  —  They use so many fancy and angry words.

Tony Snow Tells E&P: 'NYT' Deserves Special Criticism  —  NEW YORK White House Press Secretary Tony Snow told E&P today that The New York Times deserves the brunt of criticism for disclosure of a secret bank records monitoring program, even though two other newspapers - The Wall Street Journal …

In the Senate, Covering Themselves in Old Glory  —  The Citizens Flag Alliance, a group pushing for the Senate this week to pass a flag-burning amendment to the Constitution, just reported an alarming, 33 percent increase in the number of flag-desecration incidents this year.

Limbaugh Detained for Unathorized Viagra Possession (VIDEO)  —  Rush Limbaugh is once again in trouble for prescription drug irregularities: This time, he was carrying Viagra without his name on the bottle. … One could understand the fuss if Limbaugh were carrying Viagra in case quantities …

MORE ON CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS' VIEWS IN THE CAMPAIGN FINANCE DECISION: WHAT HAPPENED AFTER ORAL ARGUMENT?  —  This post follows up on my earlier initial thoughts on the Vermont campaign finance case.  —  At oral argument in the Vermont contribution limits case, Chief Justice Roberts was quite skeptical of the state's arguments.

The Bush lynch mob against the nation's free press  —  (updated below)  —  Any doubts about whether the Bush administration intends to imprison unfriendly journalists (defined as "journalists who fail to obey the Bush administration's orders about what to publish") were completely dispelled this weekend.

Womb environment 'makes men gay'  —  A man's sexual orientation may be determined by conditions in the womb, according to a study.  —  Previous research had revealed the more older brothers a boy has, the more likely he is to be gay, but the reason for this phenomenon was unknown.

Making love in the White House is even better  —  Because he was the first Democrat to step up and say publicly last year that he's exploring running for president, we can assume that Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) is plenty interested in the office.  —  But like most other men, apparently there are things that interest him more.

Harry Potter may perish in last book, author hints  —  Harry Potter may perish in the final installment of the boy wizard series in which two main characters die, author J.K. Rowling hinted in a television interview.  —  Speaking on Monday evening, Joanne Kathleen Rowling, 40 …

The roots of Islamism  —  In the second extract from his book Celsius 7/7, Michael Gove claims Islamism is not a campaign to restore piety but a revolutionary attempt to re-make society  —  The First World War began with the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, the Second with the invasion …

'Breathtaking' Waste and Fraud in Hurricane Aid  —  FEMA spends $250,000 a month to store about 10,000 empty mobile homes at an airfield in Hope, Ark.  —  WASHINGTON, June 26 — Among the many superlatives associated with Hurricane Katrina can now be added this one: it produced …

Revenge of the Wal-Mart Voters  —  Live by Wal-Mart.  Die by Wal-Mart.  That could be the fate of the Republican Party this November if millions of government-loving voters suddenly abandon the GOP and return to their natural home in the Democratic Party.  —  The worst-case scenario …

Taking Ramadi a Neighborhood at a Time  —  RAMADI, Iraq, June 26 — The 120-millimeter mortar shell landed with a crash in the middle of the new American-Iraqi outpost on Monday, hurling foot-long shards of metal and puncturing the chest of a young American soldier.  —  "What's the condition of the casualty?"

A Well-Known Political Blogger Is Hired by the Clinton Campaign  —  WASHINGTON, June 26 — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign has hired Peter Daou, one of the most prominent political bloggers in the nation, to help disseminate her message in a forum that has not always been that hospitable to her.

When the Anchor Drops  —  Goodbye to Dan Rather.  He was a good man and served CBS for 44 years with distinction.  —  Television is a tough business.  When it's time to go, you go .  And if you don't go the way they want you to, they get very upset.  They tell the world …

Why we ran the bank story  —  The Times editor on the paper's decision to expose U.S. money monitoring.  —  MANY READERS have been sharply critical of our decision to publish an article Friday on the U.S. Treasury Department's program to secretly monitor worldwide money transfers in an effort to track terrorist financing.

Analysis finds e-voting machines vulnerable  —  WASHINGTON — Most of the electronic voting machines widely adopted since the disputed 2000 presidential election "pose a real danger to the integrity of national, state and local elections," a report out Tuesday concludes.

Some Insurgents Are Asking Iraq for Negotiations  —  BAGHDAD, Iraq, June 26 — Several Sunni-led insurgent groups have approached the Iraqi government to try to start negotiations after the Iraqi prime minister's presentation on Sunday of a limited plan for reconciliation, a senior legislator from the prime minister's party said Monday.

Bush ignores laws he inks, vexing Congress  —  WASHINGTON - A bill becomes the rule of the land when Congress passes it and the president signs it into law, right?  —  Not necessarily, according to the White House.  A law is not binding when a president issues a separate statement saying …

Kerry Calls for 'Energy Independence'  —  Decrying political timidity in Washington and denouncing the Bush administration as anti-science and pro-Big Oil, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) yesterday outlined a program to combat climate change and move the United States toward energy independence …

THE CULT OF "INTERNATIONAL LAW": I've noticed in a variety of contexts that there are some rather well-educated, articulate individuals out there who have what seems to me to be a fanatical, quasi-religious belief in "international law", and the idea that it should trump any other conflicting consideration.