'A Different Understanding With the President' … Just past the Oval Office, in the private dining room overlooking the South Lawn, Vice President Cheney joined President Bush at a round parquet table they shared once a week.  Cheney brought a four-page text, written in strict secrecy by his lawyer.

Old girlfriends cast their vote for Thompson  —  IN the battle for the women's vote, Fred Thompson has a secret weapon against Hillary Clinton - the legions of former girlfriends who still adore him and who want him to be president.  —  The Hollywood actor and former Tennessee senator racked …

The Only Way  —  A little Instapundit post like this one can cause such a reaction from my little blog bitch Olliver Willis and Kevin Drum at Washington Monthly......is......there must be some truth to it.  Stuff just doesn't get that kind of reaction unless you feel guilty about err something …

Microsoft pays star writers to recite slogan  —  The stodgy old media industry has a rule that newspaper reporters, and TV news hosts, shouldn't trade on their public trust to endorse products.  It's become redundant: the reading public typically wants journalists to drop the pretense of objectivity …

Lawmaker urges condoms for border control  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A congressman is pushing a not-so-quick fix in the debate over illegal immigrants from Mexico: free contraceptives.  —  "A slower rate of growth of Mexico's population would improve the economy of Mexico.

The myth of "The Myth of the Paperless Office"  —  The "paperless office" is one of those catchphrases that gets bandied about for a while, only to disappoint and eventually be used in a purely derisive way.  As Wikipedia says, it has become 'a metaphor for the touting of new technology …

My Time as a Hostage, and I'm a Business Reporter  —  AS an American journalist based in China, I knew there was a good chance that at some point I'd be detained for pursuing a story.  I just never thought I'd be held hostage by a toy factory.  —  That's what happened last Monday …

How conservative is Fred Thompson?  —  After John East, a stalwart conservative from North Carolina, entered the U.S. Senate in 1981, wags began referring to Jesse Helms as "the liberal senator from the Tar Heel state."  We are reminded of this tale as Republican activists rush to encourage …

Matt Taibbi Answers Your Questions  —  We asked for emails, and you responded: Rolling Stone political writer Matt Taibbi responds to two dozen reader questions below.  Note: Questions have been edited for length and/or clarity. … As a child I wanted to be a zoologist.

Judge criticizes warrantless wiretaps  —  WASHINGTON - A federal judge who used to authorize wiretaps in terrorist and espionage cases criticized President Bush's decision to order warrantless surveillance after the Sept. 11 attacks.  —  Royce Lamberth, a district court judge in Washington …

Where is the West's outcry?  —  FOR a writer, Salman Rushdie has had a rather turbulent career.  —  Even by his standards, however, this has been quite a week for the Indian-born, British-educated Booker Prize-winning novelist, now a resident of New York:  —  Queen Elizabeth II knighted …

More on the Anti-Abortion Concern Troll  —  Yesterday's Wanker of the Day, Melinda Henneberger, has already been well and suitably chastised by other bloggers for being hopelessly wrong about Democrats and abortion.  I won't repeat what they said.  Instead, I'll focus on a passage that raised a red flag for me:

Iran Cracks Down on Dissent, Parading Examples in Streets  —  Iran is in the throes of one of its most ferocious crackdowns on dissent in years, with the government focusing on labor leaders, universities, the press, women's rights advocates, a former nuclear negotiator and Iranian-Americans …

No Guns founder pleads not guilty to gun charges  —  The founder of an antiviolence group called No Guns pleaded not guilty Thursday to federal weapons charges.  —  Hector "Big Weasel" Marroquin is accused of selling an assault rifle, a machine gun, two pistols and two silencers to undercover federal agents last fall.