Ron Paul is nothing if not an conservative iconoclast. The Texas Republican House Representative, with deep libertarian roots is taking a counter-intuitive departure from the traditional and established GOP rhetoric on the issue of WikiLeaks. In an impassioned speech on the U.S. House floor, Paul likened the attack on Julian Assange to “killing the messenger for bringing bad news” before providing nine provocative questions for Americans to consider.

Congratulations are in order to First Amendment attorney and Mediaite contributor/dad Floyd Abrams, who made it onto Above the Law‘s list of Top Partners to Work for in New York! The list in no particular order commends New York’s law partners who are the most fulfilling to work with as associates, and is compiled based on surveys distributed throughout the state.

Frank Rich is frustrated. He is clearly annoyed that the Wikileaks release of almost 92,000 pages of documents related to the war in Afghanistan has not become more of a rallying cry to end that military effort. Or more specifically, he is seeking to reassure those hoping it will ultimately have that impact, to be patient.

The Pentagon Papers Of Our Time. This is the title being given to the new Wikileaks release of more than 90,000 military documents pertaining to the war in Afghanistan. It’s hardly surprising given the parallels often drawn between Afghanistan and Vietnam — but what are the real similarities and differences? James Fallows makes some comparisons in The Atlantic.

It appears that there is another news aggregator in the media business, but one of a very different stripe. The official newspaper of the Department of Defense Stars and Stripes reports that the Pentagon has been keeping track of reporters’ coverage of the US Military, grading them as “positive,” “neutral” or “negative.” This, despite strong denials from the Pentagon that no such “tracking” has been taking place.

It took what? A hundred years for papers to get their ethical issues worked out? Blogs will do it faster, but they’re nowhere near it yet. For now, we readers should stay wary, and blogs should be aware of the impact of their business model on their ethics. One TMZ scoop does not a revolution make. And in the meantime, forgive us for waiting for theLA Times to confirm your scoop.