BREAKING NEWS — Divided three-judge D.C. Circuit panel holds that the District of Columbia's gun control laws violate individuals' Second Amendment rights: You can access today's lengthy D.C. Circuit ruling at this link.  —  According to the majority opinion, "[T]he phrase 'the right of the people …

The FBI's lawbreaking is tied directly to President Bush  —  Multiple media outlets are focusing on the unsurprising story that the FBI seems to have been abusing its powers under the Patriot Act to issue so-called "national security letters" (NSLs), whereby the FBI is empowered to obtain …

RTNDF 1st Amendment Awards: Transcript Of Roger Ailes' Acceptance Speech  —  Fox News Channel chairman Roger Ailes accepted the RTNDF's 2007 First Amendment Leadership Award tonight.  In a wide-ranging speech, he thanked reporters like Steve Centanni who "faced death for a single reason — they're journalists."

Obey berates woman over war funding, later apologizes  —  House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) berated a woman who approached him in a Congressional corridor, claiming that "idiot liberals" don't understand the war supplemental spending bill process.

Rolling Back Pentagon Spies  —  Defense Secretary Robert Gates is considering a plan to curtail the Pentagon's clandestine spying activities, which were expanded by his predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld, after the 9/11 attacks.  The undercover work allowed military personnel to collect intelligence …

Another Hollywood star steps forward for GOP  —  Former Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker (R-Tenn.) is contacting powerbrokers in the Republican Party to build support for a 2008 presidential campaign by his one-time protégé, former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.).

Fitzgerald's Folly  —  There are lies and there are memory lapses.  Bill Clinton denied under oath having sex with Monica Lewinsky.  Unless you're Wilt Chamberlain, sex is not the kind of thing you forget easily.  Sandy Berger denied stuffing classified documents in his pants …

Polar bears 'thriving as the Arctic warms up'  —  Pictures of a polar bear floating precariously on a tiny iceberg have become the defining image of global warming but may be misleading, according to a new study.  —  A survey of the animals' numbers in Canada's eastern Arctic has revealed …

THE BATTLE EPIC 300.  —  If 300, the new battle epic based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley, had been made in Germany in the mid-1930s, it would be studied today alongside The Eternal Jew as a textbook example of how race-baiting fantasy and nationalist myth can serve as an incitement to total war.

Candidate Clinton, Embracing the Trite and the True  —  Are you in it to win?  Would you regard civil rights as the gift that keeps on giving?  Do you believe in the American Dream, stupid?  —  If you answered yes to any of the above, you might consider supporting Hillary Clinton …

'That's Not Nice'  —  Our political discourse needs less censorship and more self-discipline.  —  Here is what has been said the past week or so that sparked argument: Bill Maher, on HBO, said a lot of lives would be saved if Vice President Cheney had died, and Ann Coulter …

I.R.S. Letting Tax Lawyers Write Rules  —  The Internal Revenue Service is asking tax lawyers and accountants who create tax shelters and exploit loopholes to take the lead in writing some of its new tax rules.  —  The pilot project represents a further expansion of the increasingly common …