COVERING THE REALLY IMPORTANT STORIES: John Hawkins: The 20 Hottest Conservative Women In The New Media.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: “My Husband Has Been Pursuing Ads on Craigslist Casual Encounters.”

ED KRAYEWSKI: 4 Positions Obama Supporters Attribute to the President That He Doesn’t Actually Hold.

WE CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH: Pols set to block teacher ratings’ release. “The public be damned! The state Legislature is likely to pass a last ditch bill that would prevent the release of teacher evaluations, while letting parents see the ratings only of their kids’ instructors. The measure, introduced by Gov. Cuomo just before midnight Monday, could pass before lawmakers head home for the year tomorrow, sources said yesterday. The Democratic-controlled Assembly says it will pass it tomorrow.”

JOHN HINDERAKER: Obama’s Claim of Executive Privilege: It’s Frivolous.

THIS IS PRETTY COOL: So at the Insta-Daughter’s suggestion, I bought a Mophie Juicepack Air case for my iPhone. It’s pretty cool — the battery life is excellent, and I actually like the way it feels in my hand better than the iPhone alone. (You might feel different if you have small hands). Nice gadget.

UPDATE: A reader notes that some comments at the Amazon link say that they got counterfeits. Jeez.

PROF. BAINBRIDGE: Ex Parte Communications And SEC Rulemaking. “Like Keith Bishop, I find these secret communications between proponents of shareholder activism and the SEC’s top brass very worrisome. And, of course, private ex parte communications in this context are more than a bit hypocritical, since the activists claim they’re trying to promote transparency.”

LEGAL EDUCATION UPDATE: What Happens When Computers Replace Attorneys. It’s already happening, as lower-end practitioners who a decade or two ago would have been doing wills and partnership agreements and basic incorporations are now being replaced by LegalZoom and the like. Key bit: “In the end, after you’ve stripped away their six-figure degrees, their state bar memberships, and their proclivity for capitalizing Odd Words, lawyers are just another breed of knowledge worker.”

THE THING ABOUT STACY MCCAIN IS, he’s relentless.

AND SHE’S TWEETING ABOUT IT TONIGHT: CBS’ Sharyl Attkisson Exposed Holder’s Lying To Congress In Oct. 2011.

WHO PAYS THESE HECKLERS? “But what horrified me as I looked into this is that it turns out that the protesters are being paid with my tax dollars.”

KEITH HENNESSEY: It’s not just the economy, stupid!

FAST AND FURIOUS UPDATE: Another retraction: Holder withdraws claim that Bush’s attorney general knew about gunwalking.

SCIENCE: Belief in hell, according to international data, is associated with reduced crime.

PAUL MIRENGOFF: Those Fast and Furious documents must be dynamite. “Some have speculated that Obama’s intervention means that the president himself has something to hide.”

UPDATE: More: “Let me begin by saying that if a Republican president had bypassed Congress to redraft a statute (on immigration in this administration) and cooked up fake privileges repeatedly — the Obama team did this in the Black Panther investigation and even to halt its former social secretary from testifying — there would be howls from the media and talk of impeachment. . . . Principled Democrats who may soon face a Romney administration had better pipe up. Otherwise the precedent will be there for vast expansion of executive power and squashing of Congress’s proper role in our system of government.”

PRIVACY: Advocates say a built-in “Do Not Track” setting could mean more privacy for Web surfers. Opponents say it would be a disaster for online revenues. Which should you believe?

DAVE KOPEL: Is President Obama’s assertion of executive privilege valid?

AT AMAZON, deals in Camera, Photo & Video.

CHANGE: House Committee Approves Sweeping, Warrantless Electronic Spy Powers.

A House committee on Tuesday reauthorized broad electronic eavesdropping powers that largely legalized the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program.

The House Judiciary Committee, following the Senate Intelligence Committee’s lead last month, (.pdf) voted 23-11 to reauthorize the FISA Amendments Act. The legislation, expiring at year’s end, authorizes the government to electronically eavesdrop on Americans’ phone calls and emails without a probable-cause warrant so long as one of the parties to the communication is outside the United States. The communications may be intercepted “to acquire foreign intelligence information.”

They told me if I voted for John McCain, we’d . . . oh, hell, you know the rest.

OUCH: Top 9 Most Embarrassing Things My Kid Has Said About a Stranger Who’s Standing About Four Inches Away From Us.

SCIENCE: How We Started Using Guinea Pigs As Guinea Pigs.

MARK LEVIN: Executive Privilege and how the House should move forward legally.

AT TWITCHY: Contempt: Committee votes 23-17, finds Attorney General Holder in contempt; Update: Holder responds, will media?

UPDATE: Reader Geoffrey Robinson says the media did the President no favors with its non-coverage of Fast & Furious: “I think the main lesson is that the media, by not reporting on Fast & Furious earlier, allowed this to blow up in the summer right before an election. If they actually did their job, and this was a big deal a year ago instead of today, that would have been better for Obama. But their suppression of the story, either due to conscious or unconscious bias, has done Obama great harm.” Yep.

IMAGERY: This Is What Your Brain Looks Like When You Lose Self-Control.

HOUSE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE FINDS HOLDER IN CONTEMPT OF CONGRESS. “House GOP Leaders says they’ll hold contempt citation vote on Atty Gen Holder next week unless he supplies documents at issue,” Mark Knoller of CBS adds on Twitter.

More here, and from Allahpundit of Hot Air, who writes, “Next stop: The House floor for a vote by the full chamber. The Hill seems unsure about how many GOP votes it’ll get, but c’mon. Even recalcitrant Republicans who think a court battle with The One is a needless distraction have no choice but to go to the mat for Issa now that O’s pulled his power play with executive privilege.”