Earlier this year, the government passed a new law that totally kneecapped the ability of marketing wizards to educate the public on how awesome cigarettes are, in Flavor Country (America). Luckily, the media's favorite lawyer is on the case!

Courtney Love turns 45 today. Tom Hanks is turning 53. Jack White is 34. Jimmy Smits is 54. Floyd Abrams, the famed First Amendment attorney (and father of Dan), turns 73. Author/neurologist Oliver Sacks is turning 76. Former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld is 77. ACLU honcho Anthony Romero is 44. AIDS activist Mathilde Krim is turning 83. Architect Michael Graves turns75. Actor Chris Cooper is 58. Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen turns 38. Author Dean Koontz is 64. Fred Savage of Wonder Years fame turns 33. Actress Kelly McGillis is 52. And OJ Simpson is celebrating his 62nd birthday behind bars today.

Floyd Abrams is a lion and the First Amendment is his precious cub. If you come near it, he will maul you. Which is usually a good thing, but now he's shilling for the great unsung villains of the economic collapse: credit rating agencies. He thinks they have rights!

The man who'd very much like to be the next mayor, grocery store magnate John Catsimatidis, turns 60 today. Also celebrating: Tom Hanks is 52, Courtney Love is 44, and Jack White is 33. Theater producer Ted Chapin is 58. Architect Michael Graves is turning 75. ACLU director Anthony Romero is 44. And Floyd Abrams, the legendary First Amendment lawyer and father of Dan Abrams, will be 72 today.

The most famous First Amendment attorney in the country, Abrams is the lawyer who many prominent New Yorkers call when they get in trouble for something they've said or written. He's the father of MSNBC's Dan Abrams.