News Flash: The Constitution Means What It Says  —  Justice Antonin Scalia's majority opinion in yesterday's Supreme Court decision in District of Columbia v. Heller is historic in its implications and exemplary in its reasoning.  —  A federal ban on an entire class of guns in ordinary use …

Obama Lead Tight Over McCain  —  Illinois Senator Barack Obama enters the General Election with a tight lead, 43% to 38%, over Arizona Senator John McCain, according to a new TIME Magazine poll of registered voters.  The poll shows Obama gaining only a slight bounce from Hillary Clinton's departure from the campaign early this month.

After The Press Leaves, Some Edgy Questions  —  Barack Obama drew his biggest cheers of the night when he vowed to help Hillary Clinton pay off her campaign debt.  The pooler was ushered out of the meeting room where about 200 of Clinton's top donors — those who had raised a combined $230m …

When Anonymity Fails, Be Nasty, Brutish and Short  —  Throughout the Bush presidency, he toiled in secrecy deep within the White House, a mysterious and feared presence who never stepped into the sunlight of public disclosure.  —  Until yesterday.  —  There he sat, hunched and scowling …

The Sam's Club Agenda  —  Among the many dark tidings for American conservatism, there is one genuine bright spot.  Over the past five years, a group of young and unpredictable rightward-leaning writers has emerged on the scene.  —  These writers came of age as official conservatism slipped into decrepitude.

Tanden signs on  —  Hillary Clinton's former policy director, Neera Tanden, will start next week in Chicago as Barack Obama's Director of Domestic Policy, reporting to policy director Heather Higginbottom, a source familiar with the plans said.  —  Tanden is the most senior Clinton loyalist to join Obama …

Sadr's army dissolving?  —  According to the Middle East Times, Moqtada al-Sadr's militia has begun to disintegrate after a series of confrontations with the Iraqi Army throughout the south of Iraq.  The remnants of the Mahdi Army have gone underground, forming an armed network on a much smaller scale.

Cheer up.  We're winning this War on Terror  —  Al-Qaeda and the Taleban are in retreat, the surge has worked in Iraq and Islamism is discredited.  Not a bad haul  —  “My centre is giving way.  My right is in retreat.  Situation excellent.  I shall attack!”

JUSTICE BREYER AND THE CULTURE WARS: I think it's illuminating to compare Justice Breyer's dissent in DC v. Heller with his dissent in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, 536 U.S. 693 (2002), the Cleveland school voucher case from a few years ago.  Like Heller, Zelman is a “culture wars” case.

Keith Olbermann's reply and Obama's Secret Plan to Protect the Rule of Law  —  Keith Olbermann went to Daily Kos to respond to what I wrote yesterday regarding his and Jonathan Alter's statements on Obama's support for the FISA bill.  Despite his having packed his response with substance-free invective …

Fuels on the Hill  —  Congress has always had a soft spot for “experts” who tell members what they want to hear, whether it's supply-side economists declaring that tax cuts increase revenue or climate-change skeptics insisting that global warming is a myth.  —  Right now, the welcome mat …

North Korea Destroys Tower at Nuclear Site  —  SEOUL, South Korea — In a gesture demonstrating its commitment to halt its nuclear weapons program, North Korea blew up the most prominent symbol of its plutonium production Friday.  —  The 60-foot cooling tower at the North's main nuclear power plant collapsed …

New Ad Hits Obama on Abortion  —  The lobbying arm of the Family Research Council, the conservative Christian organization, is going on the air in several cities on Friday with a television ad featuring a personal note from the group's president, Tony Perkins, to Senator Barack Obama.