Robert Byrd, Respected Voice of the Senate, Dies at 92  —  Robert C. Byrd, who used his record tenure as a United States senator to fight for the primacy of the legislative branch of government and to build a modern West Virginia with vast amounts of federal money, died early on Monday.  He was 92.

Gun rights extended by Supreme Court  —  WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court held Monday that the Constitution's Second Amendment restrains government's ability to significantly limit “the right to keep and bear arms,” advancing a recent trend by the John Roberts-led bench to embrace gun rights.

The Third Depression  —  Recessions are common; depressions are rare.  As far as I can tell, there were only two eras in economic history that were widely described as “depressions” at the time: the years of deflation and instability that followed the Panic of 1873 and the years of mass unemployment …

Hubris and Humility: David Weigel Comes Clean on Washington Post, the D.C. Bubble, & the ‘Journolist’  —  In the first (and still best) “Austin Powers” film, a United Nations representative makes a faux pas and calls the film's villain “Mr. Evil.”  —  “It's Dr. Evil,” he huffs.

Brown outpolls Kerry, Obama  —  US Senator Scott Brown, who only months ago was a little-known figure even within the tiny band of Republicans in the state Senate, not only catapulted to national stature with his upset US Senate victory, but is today the most popular officeholder in Massachusetts, according to a Boston Globe poll.

Do I Have Anything Interesting to Say?  —  Kartik Athreya, a self-described “rank-and-file PhD economist operating within a central banking system” who by his own admission has “contributed no earth-shaking ideas to Economics and work fundamentally as a worker bee chipping away with known tools …

Blagojevich Considered Oprah for Senator  —  As if she weren't powerful enough, Rod Blagojevich seriously considered asking Chicago heavyweight Oprah Winfrey to take over the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama.  —  “Nobody would assail this pick,” he says in tapes recorded on Nov. 21, 2008.

U.S. Sen. race: Greene's finances subject of SLED investigation  —  State agency wants to know how U.S. Senate candidate could afford filing fee  —  SLED and the 5th Circuit solicitor's office are investigating the finances of Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Alvin Greene to see whether …

Obama: If We Work Hard, Afghanistan Could Be a Success...Like Iraq!  —  It's worth reading President Obama's two answers on Afghanistan at the press conference yesterday at the conclusion of the G-20 summit in Toronto.  The second, reproduced below , is especially striking.

Most Approve of Obama Decision to Remove Gen. McChrystal  —  Those following story closely back Obama by roughly 2 to 1  —  PRINCETON, NJ — A new USA Today/Gallup poll finds a majority of Americans approving of President Obama's decision to remove Gen. Stanley McChrystal as commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

Why I Denied David Frum's Website A Spot In The Blogads Conservative Hive  —  It's no surprise that a guy like David Frum would be defending Dave Weigel, who resigned from the WAPO after his private comments mocking conservatives went public and proved exactly what conservatives have been saying all along …