October 20, 2007

WWL TV projects a Bobby Jindal win in the Louisiana governor's race.

RIOTS IN AMSTERDAM.

LEFTY PROTESTERS IN GEORGETOWN STICK IT TO THE MAN by hitting a woman with a brick. (Via Dan Collins).

I THINK THE WORD YOU'RE LOOKING FOR IS . . . well, never mind: "And yet maybe Krugman is not really an economist."

THE NEW YORK TIMES: "Every now and then, we are tempted to double-check that the Democrats actually won control of Congress last year. It was particularly hard to tell this week."

It'll be even harder to tell who's in charge if Hillary's elected! Like President Cheney, only with hair . . . .

WITH HOWARD KURTZ'S HELP, a look at skewed reporting priorities in Big Media.

NEAL GABLER acts classy.

A BIG STRAW-POLL WIN FOR MIKE HUCKABEE. But reportedly, Rudy was well-received too. More on Rudy here.

Our podcast interview with Huckabee can be found here. I found him quite straightforward and likable, notwithstanding our disagreements on social issues. We haven't interviewed Rudy yet, but we'd like to.

UPDATE: Rob Port says that conservatives shouldn't back Huckabee because he's a nanny-stater. Yep. That's why libertarians don't, too.

More nanny-state related criticism of Huckabee can be found here: "There’s little doubt that Huckabee is a 'big government' guy when it comes to taxes."

ANOTHER UPDATE: More on Rudy from Jennifer Rubin.

MORE: Heh.

GEE, DO YOU THINK? "Maybe we're winning in Iraq."

But we're not done yet. Michael Yon emails:

Am in Baghdad and there is still fighting where I am. Heard two separate IEDs go off against American vehicles this afternoon. Both were just down the road. Minor injuries except for a soldier who lost a foot, but the vehicles were badly damaged. (Both strikes were by EFP.)

Iraq is improving but there are still some very bad spots.

Absolutely. Still, it's hardly the siege of Khe Sanh. And check out this Baghdad photo essay from Greyhawk.

EARLIER THIS WEEK, BUSH SAID HE WAS STILL RELEVANT.

But searching him on Google News just now, I'm not so sure:

UPDATE: No, this isn't a photoshop. Google News was briefly returning this result for everything I searched, so I saved a screenshot.

Here's another:

DALLAS MORNING NEWS: " Anyone who doubts journalists' decency and good sense need only to have seen Fox 4's Rebecca Aguilar in action this week to have their worst impressions confirmed. . . . Although Channel 4 pulled the video from its Web site, you still may find a copy floating around the Internet. Search for 'reporter ambushes senior citizen.'"

UPDATE: Of course, this isn't very impressive either.

INSTAPUNDIT'S ISTANBUL CORRESPONDENT, CLAIRE BERLINSKI, EMAILS: "For what it's worth, there have been jet fighters flying over the Bosphorus all night, rattling the windows and alarming my cats. Someone really wants to impress upon the citizens of Istanbul that they have a lot of loud, scary planes. I dare say it's not the Israelis dumping the odd fuel tank, either."

UPDATE: Protesting Turkish incursion talk in Kurdistan.

MICHAEL YON: Positive on Iraq, but worried about Afghanistan.

"ADVANCED CROTCH-SNIFFING:" One of the many topics addressed in The Dangerous Book for Dogs, which receives a generally favorable review from the Insta-Wife.

MORE PROBLEMS WITH THE CLINTON CAMPAIGN'S FUNDRAISING, along with this complaint:

The saddest thing about all this is that no one has a very strong incentive to do the legwork on researching it. The campaigns don’t want to know if their donors are shady, as we saw in the willful blindness towards Norman Hsu. Hillary’s rivals have an incentive, of course, but there must be fundraising skeletons in Obama’s and Edwards’s closets too, just as there must be plenty on the GOP side. That makes it a game of mutually assured destruction among the oppo research teams and no one wants to play that game. The media doesn’t have a grand incentive either, the LA Times’s laudable example notwithstanding, because investigations like these are resource-intensive while basically amounting to fishing expeditions, with little guarantee of finding any wrongdoing. Plus, once you investigate one campaign, you open yourself up to charges of bias by not investigating them all. The best hope is the FEC, but does the FEC have the time and personnel — and political will, given the inevitable feeble claims of anti-Asian racism that are bubbling up here — to do spot checks like this? I’m asking honestly; I don’t know the answer. And if the answer is yes, why aren’t they doing it?

Because all this stuff is just a game to fool the rubes?

CAR-FLAGRATION: "I wanted to give a brief nod to the New Jersey-area squirrel that destroyed a 2006 Toyota Camry."

UPDATE: More flaming-squirrel destruction, from Patterico. Does Ann Althouse know about this?

NANCY PELOSI REBUKES PETE STARK: WHY? "When you’re down to your last 11%, you stop digging."

Stark's remarks were bad enough that even the lefty blogosphere had to clean things up.

UPDATE: A comparison.

MARK STEYN: "Societies in the early stages of decline can be very agreeable - and often more agreeable than societies trying to cope with prosperity and rapid growth. . . . Civilized decline can be so charming you don't notice it's about to accelerate into uncivilized decline."

I remember Poul Anderson making the same point in one of his Dominic Flandry stories.

ENABLING global money transfers via cellphone.

STEPHEN FLYNN LOOKS AT five disasters that are coming soon if we don't address crumbling infrastructure. Problem is, the political rewards for fixing old stuff are far inferior to the political rewards for building new stuff -- even if the old stuff is stuff we need, and the new stuff is showy pork.

IN NASHVILLE, bloggers and Scenesters save the Spelling Bee.

IN THE MAIL: Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark's Deception: Pakistan, the United States, and the Secret Trade in Nuclear Weapons.

BENAZIR BHUTTO speaks.

PROBABLY NOT: "Is there anything more macabre, stupid and campy in the modern political confusion than a nationalist Serbian Nazi?"

A LOOK AT "GUN FREE" school zones.

MOVEON: "But really, what's wrong with using rumors and imaginary facts to serve the noble purpose of ending this terrible war?"

Meanwhile, an NPR report on Saddam and Al Qaeda.

A "HAVE YOU NO DECENCY?" MOMENT for Duncan Black. I hope he's properly ashamed.

On the other hand, is it indecent if it's true?

INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY: A Black-Box Candidacy.

And The Nation is also asking questions about where Hillary's money is coming from, and not much liking the answers it gets: "Her campaign dismissed Hsu as someone who'd slipped through the cracks of an otherwise unimpeachable system for vetting donors, and perhaps he was. The same cannot be said for the notorious financier Alan Quasha, whose involvement with Clinton is at least as substantial--and still under wraps."

UPDATE: "Won't you take me to Chinatown?"

It's interesting the way concerns about Hillary's fundraising seem to cross all partisan and ideological lines.

A DIVERSITY PROBLEM at the University of Iowa.

ASIA TIMES: Pakistan plans all-out war on militants.

Commentary: "I really do not see how this can be anything but good news." Well, it's a pleasant change, if true.

SHORTER BRIAN LEITER: And it's still kind of long.

DAINTY UNDERTHINGS vs. the Junta.

October 19, 2007

MITT ROMNEY: "By the way – a few of you may have heard that I'm a Mormon. I understand that some people think they couldn't support someone of my faith. That may be because they've listened to Harry Reid."

MY EARLIER POST ON ATRIOS AND EX POST FACTO LAWS got me thinking -- some of the backlash against things that the Bush Administration has been doing probably stems from a lack of understanding of just how bad the law has always been in many areas, leading to a false impression that things represent shocking new departures from the Constitution when they really represent . . . er, . . well-settled departures from the Constitution. Search, seizure, and privacy law, of course, was already seriously damaged by the Drug War long before Bush ever took office, something that tends to be forgotten in discussions of FISA or the Patriot Act. But it goes beyond that sort of thing. Sweeping Executive authority, for example, is nothing new.

One of my favorite examples of this is a case I used to teach back when I taught International Business Transactions, a Ninth Circuit case called U.S. v. Spawr Optical Research, 685 F.2d 1076 (9th Cir. 1982). As far as I can tell, it's not online for free anywhere. But here's the gist: Spawr was charged with selling laser mirrors to the Soviet Union in violation of U.S. export law. It seemed as if Spawr had a pretty strong defense, in that the governing statute, the Export Administration Act, had expired at the time the sale took place.

But President Ford had issued an Executive Order extending the statute despite its expiration -- yes, you read that right -- and the Ninth Circuit held that this act by the President was within his legal powers under another statute, the Trading With the Enemy Act. Here's an excerpt, with footnotes omitted:

In light of the pending expiration of the Export Administration Act of 1969 (EAA),[FN3] President Gerald Ford issued Executive Order No. 11940[FN4] on September 30, 1976 to maintain the EAA regulations forbidding the shipment of specified strategic items to certain foreign countries. He acted pursuant to s 5(b) of the Trading with the Enemy Act (TWEA), 50 U.S.C. app. ss 1-44. When the Order was issued and while it remained in effect, the TWEA empowered the President, during a presidentially-declared national emergency, to "regulate, .. prevent or prohibit ... any exportation of ... or transactions involving any property in which a foreign country ... has any interest."Id. at s 5(b) (1)(B).[FN5] Rather than declare a new national emergency to support the Executive Order, President Ford relied on the continued existence of national emergencies declared in 1950 by President Truman relating to the Korean War and in 1971 by President Nixon concerning*1080 an international monetary crisis.

The Spawrs exported laser mirrors for the second Soviet Order, however, after the EAA had expired and before it was reenacted on June 22, 1977,[FN6] when the sole basis for the regulations was the Executive Order. The Spawrs assert that the Order did not preserve the export regulations and, therefore, the Government lacked authority to prosecute them for their exporting mirrors for the second Soviet orders because: (1) there was no genuine national emergency, (2) the regulations were not rationally related to any emergency then in existence, and (3) the lapse of the EAA shows that Congress intended to terminate the regulations.

Former section 5(b) of the TWEA delegated to the President broad and extensive powers; “it could not have been otherwise if the President were to have, within constitutional boundaries, the flexibility required to meet problems surrounding a national emergency with the success desired by Congress.” United States v. Yoshida International, Inc., 526 F.2d 560, 573 (Cust. & Pat.App.1975) (footnote omitted). Wary of impairing the flexibility necessary to such a broad delegation, courts have not normally reviewed “the essentially political questions surrounding the declaration or continuance of a national emergency” under former s 5(b). Id. at 579.[FN8] The statute contained no standards by which to determine whether a national emergency existed or continued; in fact, Congress had delegated to the President the authority to define all of the terms in that subsection of the TWEA including “national emergency,” as long as the definitions were consistent with the purposes of the TWEA. 50 U.S.C. app. s 5(b)(3). In the absence of a compelling reason to address the difficult questions concerning the declaration and duration of a national emergency under former s 5(b), we decline to do so.

Moreover, the EAA apparently was allowed to lapse only because Congress could not resolve questions relating to the antiboycott provisions. See Arab Boycott Hearings on S. 69 and S. 92, Before the Subcommittee on International Finance of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, 95th Congress, 1st Sess. 1 (Senator Stevenson) (1977). The Spawrs have offered no evidence that Congress intended to dismantle the export controls.

In conclusion, even under the demanding scrutiny the Spawrs argue is appropriate because of the criminal nature of this case, *1082 it is unmistakable that Congress intended to permit the President to use the TWEA to employ the same regulatory tools during a national emergency as it had employed under the EAA. We, therefore, conclude that the President had the authority during the nine-month lapse in the EAA to maintain the export regulations.

So Congress had basically delegated all the authority within the Export Administration Act to the President anyway, allowing him to, in effect, enact a statute by issuing an Executive Order. And it doesn't matter that Congress let the Export Administration Act expire, because the court "knew" that the expiration was for other reasons. And anyway, Congress had already given the President power to make whatever export laws he wanted to make via executive order regardless.

Worth noting, just in case you thought that sweeping Executive power in these areas was something new.

UPDATE: Reader Dan MacLaughlin emails:

"President Gerald Ford issued Executive Order No. 11940 on September 30, 1976."

Was this, perhaps, on the recommendation of his then-Chief of Staff, Dick Cheney?

Not that I disagree with your larger point - lurid examples from the New Deal era are easy enough to come up with. But Cheney, at least, has been a consistent advocate of broad executive powers for many years, whether he was in the Executive Branch, Congress or private life.

Heh. I have no idea whether Cheney had anything to do with this decision or not. The answer is probably not, as it probably came from the Department of Commerce, Bureau of Export Administration (now the Bureau of Industry and Security). But I don't really know.

I DON'T THINK THE ACTIVE VOICE IS APPROPRIATE HERE: "No matter what, Democrats are going to make a ton of money for a charity off their political vitriol."

UPDATE: Related thoughts here.

TOM SMITH: "If I were behind the veil of ignorance and could choose hunter in a rich environment like the Amazon, or associate at a big law firm, I would go with the hunter gig."

SEEMS FITTING, somehow: "A glass monument to revolutionary icon Ernesto 'Che' Guevara was shot up and destroyed less than two weeks after it was unveiled by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's government."

UPDATE: "I wish I'd done it."

RADLEY BALKO: "For seven years, the left has been up in arms about President Bush's aggressive foreign policy, his secrecy, his partisanship, and his expansive claims on executive power. It's odd, then, that they're prepared to nominate Hillary Clinton to carry the party into the 2008 elections."

Like President Cheney, only with hair!

I'VE WRITTEN ABOUT THE DANGEROUS BOOK FOR BOYS and The Daring Book for Girls.

Now reader Kevin Manley emails with news of The Dangerous Book for Dogs. By "Rex" and "Sparky:"

The Dangerous Book For Dogs provides insight on everything from the tastiest styles of shoes to chew to the proper method for terrorizing squirrels. It also contains portraits of noble dogs throughout history, the mysteries of cats and humans, and everything else your dog ever wanted to know but was afraid to ask–like how to make toys out of human's household items, or how to escape from a humiliating reindeer costume. . . . tips on crotch sniffing (under the heading "How to Make Your Owner Look Like an Idiot") and a critical guide to frequently ingested items (vomit and poop receive top marks; rocks and keys rank considerably lower).

Manley wants to know if we'll do a podcast. Er, possibly.

HILLARY, EARMARKS, THE NEW SCHOOL, AND NORMAN HSU. No wonder Bob Kerrey liked him.

THOUGHTS ON VICTORY: At The Mudville Gazette, Greyhawk posts a broad-ranging photo essay from Baghdad, along with thoughts on the situation.

THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF HISPANIC JOURNALISTS is defending Rebecca Aguilar: "What she did was obtain an exclusive interview for your station in a professional manner. This is far from the 'ambush' that has been portrayed in the blogosphere."

Hmm. That's not how it looked to me. But at least we've established the ground rules. When bloggers with video cameras start cornering TV reporters in their driveways and parking lots, we'll have to remind people that they're just "obtaining an exclusive interview in a professional manner." Given the professional standards of the local-TV field, that may even be true . . . .

AT ACE'S PLACE, a Rebecca Aguilar-inspired poll.

THE UNITED STATES: A great place to be anti-American!

MARK STEYN: "Harry Reid's Rush-and-I-don't-agree-on-much-but letter makes a small man look even more shriveled. . . . yes, I know, Senator Reid is the guy who tips his doorman at the Ritz-Carlton with campaign contributions."

Plus, Harry Reid and the Letter of Doom.

IT'S A HARD LIFE, WHEREVER YOU GO: "Ellen DeGeneres' talk show was put on hold for a day because of her emotionally wrenching dog-adoption drama."

HEH.

A NOVEL APPROACH: Issues Over Politics. It's so crazy it just might work!

A LIST OF THE 100 ESSENTIAL DVDs that everyone should own. I'm not sure I even own 100 DVDs in total. Oh, who am I kidding -- of course I do. Plus, seven different editions of Blade Runner?

MARY KATHARINE HAM finds the cure for election depression, in the latest Ham Nation.

ED DRISCOLL: "I haven't seen a hate-filled man praised in such fulsome language since...well, since last month."

RON ROSENBAUM looks at paranoia, planning, and NSPD-51. He's right to downplay the paranoia, but I suspect he's also right to observe that "If you ask me, setting aside any paranoid fantasies, it is clear on the most basic level—read it yourself—that NSPD-51 is the creation of irresponsible incompetents, bulls in the china shop of our constitutional framework. It is a recipe for disaster."

We've had a series of continuity-of-government plans, more or less like this one, over the past 50 years or so. They've pretty much all been lousy. Congress doesn't seem to want to get too involved in this process, and I don't think it attracts the best minds in the Executive Branch either.

THE PRICE OF PORK is moving higher.

A RADICAL PROPOSAL FOR GOOGLE: "Offer a dividend to stockholders."

POLICE AS HOME INVADERS: "The family of that girl who shot at a SWAT officer during a pre-dawn raid on her home is saying she thought it was a burglar and not police. Hard not to give that claim some credence. When police start using the same tactics as violent home invaders, how do you tell the difference?"

ENVIRONMENTAL HYPOCRISY UPDATE: Ted Kennedy, et al. have managed to block the Cape Wind project. I'm taking this to mean that there's no actual greenhouse crisis, but someone should ask Al Gore what he thinks.

I guess these TV ads weren't enough.

NOBEL PEACE PRIZE COMMITTEE disbands.

SOME KAUS-STYLE ANECDOTAGE ON IMMIGRATION: You don't seem to see as many Mexicans around Knoxville as a few months ago, and I noticed that the landscaping outfit that does the common areas in my neighborhood -- whose workers were all Mexican as recently as this summer -- became kind of scarce for a few weeks and is now back with workers who are all quite obviously non-Mexican. Could this be related to the jailing of a local businessman for immigration violations? Probably. It suggests that even modest enforcement efforts might have a real impact. [One observation? Is that enough to mean anything? -- ed. It's Kaus's First Law of Punditry -- "Always generalize from personal experience." Okay, so long as it's Kaus-approved. --ed.]

A VICTORY ON PORK: Well, we deserve a few.

ANOTHER HSU DROPS:

All three locations, along with scores of others scattered throughout some of the poorest Chinese neighborhoods in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx, have been swept by an extraordinary impulse to shower money on one particular presidential candidate -- Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Dishwashers, waiters and others whose jobs and dilapidated home addresses seem to make them unpromising targets for political fundraisers are pouring $1,000 and $2,000 contributions into Clinton's campaign treasury. In April, a single fundraiser in an area long known for its gritty urban poverty yielded a whopping $380,000. When Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) ran for president in 2004, he received $24,000 from Chinatown. . . .

The Times examined the cases of more than 150 donors who provided checks to Clinton after fundraising events geared to the Chinese community. One-third of those donors could not be found using property, telephone or business records. Most have not registered to vote, according to public records.

And several dozen were described in financial reports as holding jobs -- including dishwasher, server or chef -- that would normally make it difficult to donate amounts ranging from $500 to the legal maximum of $2,300 per election. . . . Like many who traveled this path, most of the Chinese reported as contributing to Clinton's campaign have never voted. Many speak little or no English. Some seem to lead such ephemeral lives that neighbors say they've never heard of them.

I guess it's just a testament to how strong their faith in Hillary is.

ATRIOS WRITES: "Unlike Ann Coulter, I'm no constitutional scholar, but I have been a wee bit puzzled why the prohibition on ex post facto laws would't prevent this telecom immunity bullshit."

The answer is that only criminal, not civil, action is prohibited under the ex post facto prohibition. (Don't feel bad, Atrios -- James Madison himself was confused on this at one point and was corrected, if I recall correctly, by James Iredell at the constitutional convention). In addition, ex post facto is about penalties, not amnesties. Congress is not prohibited from blocking civil actions by statute, particularly where there's a national security angle. This goes back at least to Dames & Moore v. Regan, which involved the Iranian hostage settlement, and really dates back to cases in the 1930s dealing with claims against the Bolshevik government in Russia on behalf of Tsarist-era creditors, etc. One might regard this as giving the President too much power over domestic legal actions as part of "foreign affairs" activity -- I regard it that way, actually* -- but it doesn't represent any sort of new departure.

* To my mind, a statute barring a previously valid legal claim that has actually been filed comes close to a taking, as well, but that goes beyond the scope of this post.

UPDATE: A related item. I wouldn't call $25,000 "newly flush with cash" -- especially for a Rockefeller -- but the graphic is suggestive.

DON'T BUY GAS FROM THIS ASS: An anti-Hugo Chavez billboard in Florida Alabama. My mistake, and I should've known better -- I used to vacation at Fort Morgan, which isn't far from Bay Minette.

BILL GATES, ON MALARIA, WRITES:

An Audacious Goal

This week in Seattle, an extraordinary group of people – scientists, policymakers, and advocates – came together for three days to discuss what can be done to stop malaria. Melinda and I issued a challenge to those attending the meeting. We asked them to begin charting a course to eradicate malaria – not just to control or reduce it, but to work toward a time when no one on earth is infected with malaria, and no mosquitoes carry the disease.

Today, malaria kills more than one million people every year, most of them children in Africa. That’s the equivalent of losing every student in the New York City public school system in one year.

We know that eradicating malaria is an audacious goal. But advances in science and medicine, new political commitments, and the dedication of people like you have given the world an historic opportunity to conquer malaria. It won't be easy and it won't happen quickly, but I'm optimistic that we can make this disease history.

At the forum in Seattle, Melinda and I called on the U.S. presidential candidates to commit to expand the President's Malaria Initiative, a great program started by President Bush. I hope you will join us in asking all of the candidates to make this pledge and keep the fight against malaria on the national agenda.

I am confident that together, we can produce the energy, compassion, and commitment needed to win the fight against malaria.

-Bill Gates

Also posted here. They asked me to crosspost because malaria has been a longstanding InstaPundit issue.

"STRONG PROOF" of water on Mars.

IN THE MAIL: Heather MacDonald, Victor Davis Hanson, and Steven Malanga's The Immigration Solution: A Better Plan Than Today's. Merely going for "a better plan than today's" is setting the bar pretty low, of course . . . .

DANNY GLOVER on winning bloggers and influencing the people.

JURY REACHES VERDICT IN HOLY LAND FOUNDATION TERROR TRIAL:

After 19 days of deliberations, the jury in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing trial returned a verdict Thursday afternoon. But it will be Monday before the defendants find out their fate.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Stickney said during a hastily called hearing Thursday that the jury's decisions on the complex case will remain sealed until Monday morning, when the case's presiding judge, U.S. District Judge A. Joe Fish, returns to town. . . .

The five Holy Land defendants, all but one a U.S. citizen, were accused of raising more than $12 million and wiring it to Palestinian charity committees, who prosecutors say were controlled by a illegal terrorist group, Hamas.

Read the whole thing.

SOME INTERESTING poll results from Afghanistan: "In a poll of Afghans conducted by Environics Research on behalf of The Globe and Mail, the CBC and La Presse, respondents expressed optimism about the future, strong support for the government of President Hamid Karzai and appreciation for the work being done by NATO countries in improving security."

I'm surprised this hasn't gotten more attention.

UPDATE: Montreal reader Greg Gransden emails: "What's ironic about these numbers is that they essentially contradict virtually all of the CBC's own reporting over the past few years, which has been relentlessly downbeat and negative. We keep hearing that Afghans are disappointed and frustrated with the Canadian air effort, that they perceive Canadian soldiers as occupiers and that they're disillusioned with the Karzai government. Now the CBC's own opinion poll shows this meme to be completely false. And the CBC's not the only MSM outlet that's been pushing this narrative... I suspect that's why we're not hearing more about it."

DANIEL SOLOVE'S NEW BOOK, The Future of Reputation, is now out, and he's put the first chapter online for free.

MICKEY KAUS: "Why did a Republican almost win a special Congressional election in a strongly Democratic Massachusetts district? Kos and Josh Marshall seem baffled." But Mickey thinks he's found the explanation.

KRAUTHAMMER'S RAZOR: "I doubt that stupidity is a sufficient explanation in this case."

A DISCUSSION OF REBECCA AGUILAR AND JOURNALISTIC ETHICS at Breitbart TV. They've also got some of the footage that KDFW has managed to get pulled from YouTube.

UPDATE: Aguilar responds: "I'm sorry you took my story the wrong way."

GREAT MOMENTS IN airport security.

THOUGHTS ON THE "FAIRNESS DOCTRINE," at Investor's Business Daily.

IF YOU MISSED IT ON XM SATELLITE RADIO LAST NIGHT, you can now hear the latest Pajamas Media radio show online.

ROB NEPPELL -- the blogger formerly known as N.Z. Bear -- on Fox Business News talking about companies, the blogosphere, and corporate reputations. KDFW should have hired him. They could have used his advice. . . .

OVER TWO MILLION DOLLARS. Wow. That's more than I'd pay.

"AMBUSH JOURNALISM:" KDFW's efforts to scrub the web of the Rebecca Aguilar video don't seem to be working.

UPDATE: The video is also still available here. If you wish to form your own opinion of Aguilar's behavior from the complete unedited video, you might want to watch soon, in case this one is taken down too.

October 18, 2007

DON SURBER LOOKS AT THE NEW YORK TIMES' COVERAGE of its own financial troubles. Best part:

“The New York Times Company, through a spokeswoman, also declined to comment.”

I wonder if the Times will publish an editorial blasting such stonewalling.

Don't bet on it. . . .

MORE LITIGATION AND RECRIMINATION AT DUKE: K.C. Johnson continues to track events.

THE REBECCA AGUILAR VIDEO has been taken down. I assume that KDFW sent its lawyers out, on the -- entirely correct -- theory that it was making the station look absolutely terrible.

But this is pretty much an admission, isn't it?

And Frontburner has a question.

Plus, this explanation: "Rebecca Aguilar has been suspended since this first aired, but how in the world did she watch this tape in the first place and not realize how horrible a person she appears to be? SarahK's theory is her producer hates her and made her run the segment to try and get her suspended."

And this: "Aguilar and the entire editorial staff at KDFW should be forced to take a two-day self-defense course at a local gun range. Hell, take a Concealed Handgun License (CHL) course and learn what responsible gunowners are really like. Of course they have to pass the criminal background check."

MORE: Dan Riehl received KDFW's rather thuggish takedown email.

If you'd like to share your views of KDFW's conduct with station management, their contact information is here. Please be polite.

I think that their behavior is very unwise, and is more likely to inflame the situation than to spare them further embarrassment. A public apology and a promise to do better in the future would make much more sense.

DATING ADVICE FROM ACE: "I've tried living as a hunter-gatherer and trust me, chicks aren't that into it."

BOMB ATTACKS ON BHUTTO: Have you noticed that the radical Islamists have basically one response to everything? I don't think it's going to win over many Pakistanis.

UPDATE: Big Bhutto roundup here.

NOTE WHERE THE STORY'S DATELINED: "BERKELEY -- Flag-waving demonstrators far outnumbered a group of peace advocates who were protesting a U.S. Marine Corps recruiting center in downtown on Wednesday. . . . 'This is 2007, and we support our troops. We are not going to let CodePINK disgrace our military heroes,' yelled Deborah Johns, a Granite Bay woman whose 23-year-old son is preparing to head to Iraq for his fourth tour of duty. 'My son is a hero, and so are all the others who served this country.'"

Outnumbered in Berkeley. Heh.

ANYONE WHO THINKS THAT THIS VIDEO is going to hurt Israel's image is, well, crazy.

A NORTHWEST BAGHDAD AWAKENING: "There has been an 85 percent reduction in violence since May."

ASK THE CANDIDATES ABOUT THEIR ZOMBIE POLICY. It's become a hot election issue downunder, thanks to John Birmingham.

VAMPIRES, WEREWOLVES, and true love.

THE PAJAMAS MEDIA RADIO SHOW is on XM Channel 130 right now -- I'm listening to Ed Morrissey. Interestingly, John McCain, whom Morrissey is interviewing, admits that his slump in the polls resulted from his immigration stance.

DOWNPLAYING CORRUPTION at the World Bank.

HOW HAVE WE LIVED WITHOUT THIS? "The EatMeCrunchy cereal bowl uses a milk reservoir system to expose only a small part of the cereal to milk at any one time, which means that most of the cereal stays high, dry, and crunchy throughout the meal."

Plus, from the comments, "it seems like it'd be more effective to design a spoon that could inject a tiny bit of milk into each bite." This reminds me of the Captain-Crunch-eating scene from Cryptonomicon.

MATT WELCH'S NEW BOOK, McCain: The Myth of a Maverick, is now shipping.

WHO SHALL RID ME OF THESE TURBULENT MULLAHS? California! "California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill on Sunday, as he previously said he would, to bar the two biggest U.S. public pension funds from investing in companies doing business in Iran."

AN ANTI-TAX EVENT IN WISCONSIN? Yes. Boots and Sabers reports. And here's more, including a report of "boorish behavior" by public employees.

WSJ: Donor Bundling Emerges as Major Ill in '08 Race:

The strange case of Norman Hsu, the textile-importer-turned-fugitive who cobbled together $800,000 in contributions for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign, is the tip of the iceberg. Candidates for offices from county commissioner to U.S. president are increasingly turning to bundlers -- individuals who ask friends, family and business associates for contributions to their candidate of choice -- to help bring in the tremendous amounts of cash now needed to wage political campaigns.

Read the whole thing -- it's a free link.

ROBOT CANNON KILLS NINE, WOUNDS FOURTEEN: In South Africa.

VIDEO BARTENDING: How to make a Sleepy Hollow, "a drink that's perfect for October because it has a serous splash of gin in it."

This has always been my key source, but the video's kind of cool.

WHITE HOUSE WINS on spying, telecom immunity. Seems like the White House is winning a lot of legislative battles lately. More thoughts here.

UPDATE: House fails to override child health bill veto.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Chris Dodd puts a hold on the telecom bill.

YOUR HOMELAND SECURITY DOLLARS AT WORK: Most fake bombs missed by screeners. Tweezers and 4 oz. bottles of shampoo, however, are ruthlessly exposed and eliminated . . . .

VIDEO: Michael Moynihan interviews Flemming Rose.

ON THE REBECCA AGUILAR STORY LINKED BELOW, Capt. Ed asks an important question: "Why wasn't management suspended? . . . . Someone approved this for broadcast, and in so doing endorsed Aguilar's methods and report. How, then, can management turn around and suspend only Aguilar? . . . If Aguilar has some unpaid leave coming as a result of this incident, at least one other person should be joining her."

MICHAEL S. MALONE: How the New York Times Fell Apart. "Like most newspapers, the Times decided to become more timely, more hip, and more judgmental than the electronic media -- when it should have become better reported, more objective, and better written; professionalism being the one arena where the new competitors would have a hard time competing. What made the Times' decision not to pursue this strategy particularly stupid was that it was, after all, 'America's newspaper of record', a role in which it justly reveled. But you can't hold that title while pandering to the political and cultural views of readers on the Upper West Side."

I MENTIONED DAN SOLOVE'S NEW BOOK, The Future of Reputation, the other day. Here's a review.

TURNING POLITICAL LEMONS into lemonade.

SHIELDING THE LEAKAGE OF CLASSIFIED INFORMATION. Seems like a bad idea to me.

CHILDREN BEFORE PORK: I got an email from Tom Coburn's office about his proposed Amendment 3358, which prioritizes health care for children over pork:

This amendment, “The Children's Health Care First Act,” simply states that none of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be used for any congressionally directed spending item, or earmark, until the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services certifies that all children under the age of 18 years of age in the United States are insured by a private or public health care insurance plan.

Heh.

UPDATE: The full item is now online.

BLOGOMETER: "With all due respect to Beltway Blogroll, and DailyKos' founder Markos Moulitsas, we just don't agree with Blogroll that, 'A presidential endorsement from Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of Daily Kos could change the dynamics of the Democratic race.'"

RON CASS: "Picking Sandy Berger tells us something important about Hillary's character. We should listen now - while it can do some good." Maybe she just owed him a favor.

IN THE MAIL: Newt Gingrich et al., A Contract with the Earth. It's about "entrepreneurial environmentalism."

DANIEL HENNINGER ON THE POLITICS OF IRAQ: "Arguably it is the proper role of politics to intervene, to question. But during Vietnam and again now, we haven't been able to avoid simultaneously putting troops on the battlefield while fighting bitterly amongst ourselves at home for the length of the war. The U.S. officer corps is aware of this. While no one is talking about a stab in the back, they may conclude that the home front and its institutions are unable to, or will not, protect their back."

The problem is that our political and journalistic classes lack sufficient patriotism to promote self-discipline, or perhaps sufficient self-discipline to allow them to act patriotically.

On the other hand, here's some important post-Vietnam progress, demonstrating that the troops have managed to improve even as the political class has deteriorated. Though there are troubling aspects to that differential.

UPDATE: Henninger's column inspired some lengthy thoughts from reader Scott Wallace, which to some degree parallel my own worries. Click "read more" to read them.

Read More ?

I HAVEN'T BEEN FOLLOWING THE PETER PAUL / BILL CLINTON CASE at all, but Gateway Pundit has a roundup.

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK:

Several hundred pages of “sensitive” government documents were strewn about outside the Rayburn House Office Building on Independence Avenue Monday evening, slipping under taxis and fluttering in the exhaust of commuter buses.

The papers appeared to be part of a report detailing the government’s response to a “dirty bomb” attack. Each page was labeled at the top and bottom: “For official use only. This is sensitive government information and distribution is restricted.”

Well, that's encouraging.

DROPPING THE HAMMER ON COMCAST: Er, literally.

CHARLES RANGEL IS PLANNING A MASSIVE TAX OVERHAUL: It's not like we don't need a massive overhaul, and Rangel has sounded pretty sensible when I've heard him talk about his plans on Kudlow. But I don't have much confidence in this Congress getting anything right, especially anything offering massive prospects for graft and payola.

FLOWER-POWER PORK. "Even by congressional standards of shamelessness, the Bethel earmark is extraordinary."

HARVEY BIRDMAN, ATTORNEY AT LAW: A videogame about a lawyer who's also a "third-rate superhero" -- or maybe it's the other way around -- gets a good review: "Like Space Ghost Coast to Coast, a lot of the plaintiffs/defendants/other lawyers/judges turn out to be Hanna Barbera villains or heroes. The two shows have a similar sense of humor, which is to say, hilariously badly awfully greatly funny and non sequitur. . . . As Harvey Birdman, you're required to gather evidence, interview witnesses, assemble your case, and finally go to trial in an effort to prove your goofball clients innocent. And of course, it's all total insanity, so you have to play by totally insane rules." So it's realistic, I guess . . . . Video preview at the link.

JOE GANDELMAN THINKS THINGS ARE looking good for Mukasey. John Bresnahan calls the confirmation hearings "anticlimactic at best."

THIS IS COOL: "University of Manchester researchers have transformed fat tissue stem cells into nerve cells — and now plan to develop an artificial nerve that will bring damaged limbs and organs back to life."

More like this, please.

UPDATE: Physics Geek says I told you so.

MEIR JAVEDANFAR thinks Putin's visit to Iran was mostly about PR: "Ahmadinejad might have gotten good publicity out of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit - but not much else."

A LOOK AT THE SOURCE OF antisemitism in the modern Middle East.

WHAT TO DO WITH loose change.

LIKE PRESIDENT CHENEY, ONLY WITH HAIR (CONT'D): More Hillary news -- first Yes, blood for oil! "Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton advocated talks to settle differences with Iran but said Saturday that Tehran would invite U.S. action if it were to disrupt oil supplies. . . . If the U.S. took military action as a result, she said, 'I would hope that the world would see that was an action of last resort, not first resort. Because we need the world to agree with us about the threat that Iran poses to everyone.'"

Plus, Hillary's the new favorite of defense contractors.

ROBERT COX: How Google should change its ad-censoring policy.

PELOSI QUIETLY WORKING ON A Bush impeachment? I'm skeptical that this is really happening, though I can see why some Democrats would want to keep the increasingly dissatisfied netroots crowd in a state of anticipation, at least until after the primary season starts.

October 17, 2007

YOUR FIRST AMENDMENT AT WORK: "So much for bloggers stalking people in the news. Leave it to a real journalist to go over the top." But when they do it, it's a sign of professionalism.

KDFW has gotten the video -- previously embedded here -- pulled from YouTube, which suggests that they feel they have something to hide. But you can see the relevant segments as part of this commentary on Aguilar's journalistic ethics, at Breitbart.tv.

I was struck by reporter Rebecca Aguilar's body-language, literally standing over him in judgment with tailored suit and umbrella. The way she looked down, literally and figuratively, on an old man who had defended his life, entirely legally, and reduced him to tears seems to me to be representative of the worst stereotypes of Old Media. Then, when she belatedly realizes that she's coming across like a bully -- because, you know, she is -- she retreats into faux-sympathy and the laughable claim that she's just helping him get his side of the story out. It's like something out of a local-tv parody on The Simpsons. Yet her webpage suggests that she's on the side of the "little guy."

UPDATE: Reader C.J. Burch emails: "Maybe the media is just trying to make normal people understand how the Haditha Marines feel?"

ANOTHER UPDATE: Aguilar has been suspended. Here's the post from the D Magazine Frontburner blog that seems to have set off the storm.

FRED THOMPSON ANSWERS A QUESTION from InstaPundit reader Joel Anderson.

MORE BLOG SHENANIGANS at the Los Angeles Times.

DOUBTS ABOUT GEORGE CLOONEY'S DRAWING POWER.

MAN SHOOTS, KILLS INTRUDER AFTER parrot's alert.

SAY WHAT YOU WILL, but in at least one respect the Bush years have been a libertarian dream: "Bush's job approval rating fell to 24 percent from last month's record low for a Zogby poll of 29 percent. A paltry 11 percent gave Congress a positive grade, tying last month's record low."

Related thoughts here.

PUNDITS' SPIRITS LIFT: Will '08 Actually Be Competitive?

UPDATE: Related thoughts here.

FISA BILL PULLED: "The House's Democratic leaders pulled the bill after discovering that Republicans planned to offer a motion that politically vulnerable Democrats would have a hard time voting against." The netroots are likely to be unhappy.

EVAN COYNE MALONEY and Stanley Fish. "There are other points made by Professor Fish that I could quibble with, but I don’t want to spend too much time arguing with someone who says I have 'lean boyish looks that could earn [me] a role in Oceans 14 alongside Brad Pitt and Matt Damon.'"

Plus, Soviet-style psychology at Hamline University.

MORE ON MILBERG, WEISS, in The New York Times. "Last year, the firm was indicted on federal charges of fraud and bribery. But the political partnership has not been entirely severed. Since the indictment, 26 Democrats around the country, including four presidential candidates, have accepted $150,000 in campaign contributions from people connected to Milberg Weiss, according to state and federal campaign finance records. And some Democrats have taken public actions that potentially helped the firm or its former partners. . . . Beyond campaign contributions, Milberg Weiss became deeply ingrained in the financial firmament of the Democratic Party in other ways. Members of the firm gave $500,000 toward construction of a new Democratic National Committee headquarters, and some of them became partners in a private investment venture with several prominent Democrats. They included former Senator Robert G. Torricelli of New Jersey, who is a fund-raiser for Mrs. Clinton, and Leonard Barrack, a Philadelphia trial lawyer who was once the national fund-raising chairman for the Democratic Party. . . . The firm found a friend in President Bill Clinton, who, a few days after being seen chatting and shaking hands with Mr. Lerach at a White House dinner in 1995, vetoed legislation to make it more difficult to sue for damages in injury cases. Congress overrode the veto, but the image remained of a close relationship between the president and Mr. Lerach, a Lincoln Bedroom guest during the Clinton presidency who donated more than $100,000 to Mr. Clinton’s presidential library."

BLACKWATER MEETS THE leftist-Islamist convergence? "I'm not passing judgment on the merits of the Blackwater case, yet it's worth noting just who is going after them."

HARRY POTTER AND THE REORDER OF THE ARTISTS: A comparison of "moral rights" and the RIAA and MPAA to J.K. Rowling's goblins.

Personally, I think that's unfair to the goblins.

UPDATE: I posted this, and then SSRN went down for most of the afternoon, so I'm bumping it back up to the top.

"MAN HACKS 911 SYSTEM, sends SWAT on bogus raid."

HOMELAND SECURITY, STILL A JOKE: "A Mexican national infected with a highly contagious form of tuberculosis crossed the U.S. border 76 times and took multiple domestic flights in the last year, according to Customs and Border Protection interviews and documents obtained by The Washington Times. The Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency was warned by health officials on April 16 that the frequent traveler was infected, but it took the Homeland Security officials more than six weeks to issue a May 31 alert to warn its own border inspectors, according to Homeland Security sources who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. Homeland Security took one more week to tell its own Transportation Security Agency."

I remain surprised that the Democrats haven't made more of an issue out of Homeland Security incompetence.

A LOOK AT anticompetitive practices in the real estate industry. It's a field that's overdue for a reshuffling.

GOOGLE / MOVEON FALLOUT? Reader Bill Smith emails:

After reading your post from yesterday where a reader described yanking 50% of their advertising, I decided to yank 100% my company’s advertising from Google. This has been bothering me for years. I wrote an email to Google telling them essentially that a company of their size should show some maturity and leave the sophomoric behavior to the political operatives. If enough CEOs, Presidents and senior executives do the same, Google will take notice and decide to limit the partisan politics to personal contributions.

With Google's dominant market position, a perception of partisanship could be quite dangerous. It could certainly cost ad money, and also accelerate tendencies toward antitrust regulation.

UPDATE: Some related thoughts from Ron Coleman.

WOMAN CHARGED FOR YELLING AT OVERFLOWING TOILET -- in her own home. "I think it's pretty clear that Herb isn't guilty of disorderly conduct. Herb and her daughter were at home, and it sounds like the neighbor was the only one else around. Annoying your neighbor by being really noisy may be inconsiderate. But it's not the crime of disorderly conduct, even if your annoyed neighbor happens to be a police officer."

The proper response is a lawsuit, and every other form of legal torment than can be visited upon the neighbor. At least, that's what I'd do in that situation.

UPDATE: Reader David Gulliver is confused, and it's my fault:

No, the proper response is offering to help your next door neighbor instead of complaining about it. If the cop had offered to bring over a mop and help, the problem would never have existed.

This is why I hate lawyers.

The "neighbor" I was talking about suing was the cop. Set the law on me, and I'll return the favor. Likewise if you show up with a mop.

MICHAEL BARONE: Is the tax issue coming back?

I'd like to see tax day changed from April 15th to the first Tuesday in November. . . .

EVAN COYNE MALONEY'S FILM, INDOCTRINATE U., is touring America now -- and in a way that may be revolutionary: "Something very interesting is happening here. The producers of Indoctrinate U are promising to arrange local screenings in areas where enough people express interest at their website. And now they’re holding a local screening. The idea of a local screening tour for politically incorrect films could become the cinematic equivalent of the internet–a way around the mainstream Hollywood blockade. And with luck, strong local interest might even break the Hollywood blockade and prompt a distributor to actually offer Indoctrinate U in commercial theaters."

Go here to watch a trailer and to sign up for a screening in your area.

AT HARDEE'S, a 920-calorie breakfast burrito. Yum.

THE MICROSOFTING of Google.

CAMERAS, CROOKS, AND DETERRENCE: "Constant surveillance seems to have had little effect on Britain’s sky-high crime."

HEH: "Thanks to George Bush's amazing deficit reduction plan, the budget deficit is now only 1.2% of GDP. If this trend continues, by the time George Bush leaves office, the budget will be within a hair's breath of being balanced. I can only hope that Democrats don't squander this precious legacy of fiscal responsibility."

MORE HSUNANIGANS: "Virtually none of Hsu’s bundlees re-donate to Hillary."

I think the whole thing was a hsam all along.

NBC'S GLOBAL WARMING BLITZ: It'll seem kind of ironic if the sun goes out . . . .

TYLER COWEN: How to debate health care spending.

ANOTHER GRIM MILESTONE: Morgan Stanley Sells Entire New York Times Stake.

UPDATE: Check out this chart.

VIDEO: Bush warns of World War III.

A LOOK AT China's emission standards.

IN THE MAIL: Howard Kurtz's new book, Reality Show.

Plus, Jason Zweig's Your Money and Your Brain: How the New Science of Neuroeconomics Can Help Make You Rich.

The Glenn and Helen Show: Amory Lovins et al., on Science, Engineering, and Society

We traveled to the Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Conference in New York, and talked to energy efficiency guru Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute, MacArthur Genius Award winner and science educator Shawn Carlson, and appropriate-technology entrepreneur Shawn Frayne. It's a fascinating discussion of everything from how America can save energy and protect the environment without sacrificing our lifestyle, to ways of helping the third world, to techniques for energizing American students' interest in science and technology.

Amory Lovins' website: Winning the Oil Endgame. Shawn Frayne's website: Humdinger Wind Energy, LLC. Shawn Carlson's website: Labrats.org. And there's much more background on all of them at the Popular Mechanics Breakthrough page.

You can listen directly -- no downloading needed -- by going here and clicking on the gray Flash player. You can download the entire file and listen at your leisure by clicking right here, and you can get a lo-fi version suitable for dialup by going here and selecting lo-fi. Plus, you can always get a free subscription via iTunes -- and why wouldn't you, really?

Visit our show archives for past episodes and updates at GlennandHelenShow.com. Music is by Mobius Dick.

This podcast is brought to you by Volvo Automobiles. Buy a Volvo today and tell them it's all because of the Glenn and Helen Show!

ASK THE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES QUESTIONS at the 10 Questions Video Forum.

Background here. It looks pretty cool -- but then, InstaPundit is a cosponsor.

MORE POLICE VIDEO THUGGISHNESS: "Frank Waterhouse of Oregon is suing Portland police after he was tasered and shot with a beanbag gun. His offense? Videotaping a warrantless police search on a friend's property. The police report helpfully explains that the force used on Waterhouse (who was standing far off on the edge of the property) was necessary because, 'He had refused to drop the camera which could be used as a weapon.'"

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES. This would make a good TV ad.

JULES CRITTENDEN ON the Democrats' surprisingly narrow win in bluest Massachusetts. "Name-branded Tsongas trotted out Clintons and other lefty starpower, got heavy out-of-state financing, and only managed 51 percent. GOP take note." Dems, too. Public disgust with the GOP Congress isn't translating into enthusiasm for the Democratic Congress, not least because the Pelosi/Reid regime seems to have managed to slip below even the low standards established by their Republican predecessors.

GREG MANKIW ON BLOG COMMENTS: "I just don't have the time to police comments and enforce good behavior, especially since some posts were generating more than 100 comments. And I don't want to host a party in which a small vitriolic minority consistently tries to ruin the event for everyone else."

Let 'em get their own blogs.

UPDATE: I had a column on this topic a while back.

OUCH: "The Laffer Curve and the supply siders pushing it seem to be the teacher's unions of the right."

HILLARY MILHOUS CLINTON: I see the analogy, but I still think she'd be more like President Cheney, only with hair.

Plus, a truly disturbing photoshop.

MORE CHINA TROUBLE FOR YAHOO! "Charging that a top Yahoo! Inc. official provided incorrect information regarding a Chinese human rights case to Congress, the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday called on the company’s leadership to appear before the panel."

THE DANGER OF GRASSROOTS CAMPAIGNS: The Weeds.

RADAR: JOHN EDWARDS' SECRET AFFAIR with the MSM.

"I WAS ACCUSED OF MUGGING RANDI RHODES, and all I got was this lousy brownshirt."

A FIENDISHLY INGENIOUS confidence scheme. Plus, a soft investment alert.

October 16, 2007

OKAY, NOW THIS IS REALLY STRETCHING FOR THE NEGATIVE SPIN: "As violence falls in Iraq, cemetery workers feel the pinch."

Boo frickin' hoo. (Bumped).

INTERIORS: Bill Quick has a new blog.

NPR: Ignore the noose.

HSEDUCTION AND TIMING: "Not wanting to step on her women's message of progress with a contradictory message reminiscent of past fundraising scandals, the Clinton campaign waited as late as possible today to release her finance report detailing the donors and amounts rounded up by accused swindler Norman Hsu."

AMERICA'S SLIDE INTO CHRISTIANIST THEOCRACY CONTINUES: "The invitation appeared one Sunday in Joanna Chase's church bulletin: Come to a 'faith forum' and join a conversation about the intersection of religion and politics. Living in New Hampshire, Chase is accustomed to pitches from presidential hopefuls, especially those focusing on values-voting Republicans. But this one came from the team of a Democrat, Sen. Barack Obama."

UPDATE: Obama's Christianist tendencies are less surprising when you realize that he's Dick Cheney's cousin!

Hey, and Hillary is Dick Cheney with hair . . . it's an Army of Cheneys!

JOHN PODHORETZ will become editor of Commentary.

READER PAUL STINCHFIELD WRITES that he's unhappy PC Magazine's list of their 100 favorite blogs includes only political blogs that lean left. Well, he's right unless you count Drudge as a blog (Drudge doesn't) but the PC Mag folks say the list is subjective, and a list of favorites can't be wrong, so long as those blogs really are their favorites. I guess it just tells us where they stand politically.

But hey, it's "PC" Magazine, right?

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE JEWS: The American ones.

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS ON DORIS LESSING'S NOBEL: He's pleased.

THIS IS KIND OF COOL: Shipping container architecture.

RETURN TO HSENDER, ADDRESS UNKNOWN: Hillary's Norman Hsu refunds go astray.

LYNNE STEWART AT HOFSTRA: John Steele will be liveblogging.

DOUBLE STANDARDS ON DISSENT at George Washington University: "The President of The George Washington University, Steven Knapp , came out swinging when he thought that conservative students had hung pernicious, anti-Muslim fliers around campus. . . . So far, President Knapp has been less than enthusiastic about taking any type of disciplinary action now that liberals have been revealed to be the culprits."

CAR LUST: Remembering the 1982 Firebird Trans-Am.

THREE WEEKS, THREE COUNTRIES, THREE PROTESTS AGAINST the U.S. Congress. New motto: "We're not just unpopular here at home!"

DAVID CASSIDY CONFRONTS HIS PAST: A member of the InstaPundit ex-girlfriend correspondent network writes: "This is one of the funniest photos I've ever taken. David Cassidy was singing at the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival tonight, and a lady in the front row handed him a Tiger Beat magazine from the early 1970's. He's a geezer, but still adorable - there were lots of screaming women there. My husband has a conference here, and I tagged along. Chile has some really nice wines - who knew? Maybe Helen remembers David Cassidy. Heh heh."

Helen has The Partridge Family's Greatest Hits on CD. And I'm a big fan of Chilean wines -- cheap and good.

SO THIS MEANS, LOGICALLY, THAT THOSE WHO SUPPORT THE WAR ARE MORE PATRIOTIC, RIGHT?

The Left is fond of saying that the majority of Americans don’t support the war. I guess then that as a supporter of the war that makes me a dissenter. And remember - dissent is the highest form of patriotism.

Heh.

AN UNWELCOME SURPRISE: Andrew Bolt notes another dropped ball by the media.

CAPTAIN AMERICA packs heat.

GUN-PACKING GRANNY SHOOTS HEFTY HOME INVADER clad only in his underwear.

How she got in his underwear, I'll never know.

TOO SHY ON WI-FI? Steven Erickson emails: "Several months ago you mentioned on your website that Panera bread was offering free wi-fi. Indeed, they are and that is the sole reasons I now go there instead of Starbucks. But, Panera won't let users run VPN, which is a pain for me given that Yale requires VPN to access library stuff. Plus, with all of the security holes in open wi-fi networks, VPN adds a greatly needed layer of security. Given how much your blog is read, perhaps a post might spur some interest in changing this policy?"

I doubt it, but good point.

UPDATE: Various readers email that they've used VPN successfully at Panera, and reader Bill Sommerfeld emails: "Part of the problem here is that there are a bunch of different technologies all called VPN which look kinda similar to the user but do very different things on the network. It is unfortunately not difficult for a network operator to inadvertently block one or more of these. It's nearly impossible for a network operator to block all of them."

SO I INSTALLED iWORK08 on my Macbook Pro, and I've been playing around with Pages. It's still not my beloved WordPerfect, but I like it better than Microsoft Word. And it opens Word documents just fine -- I got back the edited version of my Dick Cheney piece from the editors at the Northwestern University Law Review in Word and it opened up perfectly in Pages, with all the change-tracking and everything. (And boy are those Northwestern folks fast -- they just accepted the piece a couple of weeks ago.) I'm not sure that Pages gives me quite the warm glow that Sarah Pullman experiences, but I like it!

IN THE MAIL: Daniel Solove's The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet.

Plus, former blogger Telford Work's new book, Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Living Through the Lord's Prayer.

MOVEON BACKS DOWN: "The left-leaning political advocacy group, MoveOn.org, is backing down in a flap over the use of its name in online advertisements, permitting an influential Republican senator to criticize the organization in a reelection ad on Google's search engine. . . . Both MoveOn.org and Google late last week faced a barrage of criticism after an internet strategist for Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine complained that Google had blocked several re-election ads from the search engine's advertising network because the ads contained the trademarked term 'MoveOn.org' in the text."

This doesn't get Google off the hook, though.

UPDATE: A reader emails:

I just notified Google that I am cutting my company's Google advertising budget in half. The rest is in jeapordy as well because of their blatantly partisan behavior and their complicity with censorship overseas. We may not be General Motors, but if enough people say enough it will have an impact. Google is a money machine. Like all machines the greatest threat to its smooth operation is human stupidity.

I wonder if they'll face more of this as they're increasingly perceived as partisan.

TOM SMITH REPORTS on happenings in Lebanon.

MORE QUESTIONING THE TIMING on the Armenian genocide resolution.

HEH: Armed and dangerous grannies in Iraq.

UNLOCKING THE BENEFITS OF GARLIC: Anti-cancer, anti-heart-attack -- and it's yummy, too. No research yet on its purported anti-vampire benefits, though. But advice for cooks: "Many home chefs mistakenly cook garlic immediately after crushing or chopping it, added Dr. Kraus. To maximize the health benefits, you should crush the garlic at room temperature and allow it to sit for about 15 minutes. That triggers an enzyme reaction that boosts the healthy compounds in garlic."

Should mean more sales for Garlic lovers' cookbooks!

TNR UPDATE: It's The Coverup That Kills You, Part 2.

GUESS WHO said it?

JOHN TIERNEY ON the evolution of gossip. I'm inclined to like any theory featuring the "Chico Marx Paradox."

TIM WU IS WRITING ALL WEEK IN SLATE on prosecutorial discretion, tolerated lawbreaking, and related topics.

STOPPING CRIME THE OLD FASHIONED WAY: Man Kills Second Burglar at His Business in Less Than a Month.

TIM BLAIR: "It’s called dissent, pal, and for your information it happens to be the greatest form of patriotism."

HAS SUBPRIME LENDER AMERIQUEST'S ROLE IN MASSACHUSETTS POLITICS suddenly become unmentionable?

MICKEY KAUS on "Blue Murder."

PAUL MARKS: "Someone please explain the election in Australia to me."

BOB OWENS: "I value the writers' service and their opinions as soldiers who have served in Iraq, but wouldn't this editorial have meant more if the Washington Post had managed to find soldiers to write it who had actually been in in Iraq in the last year?" Yeah, things change fast. In 2006, Anbar was written off.

Just remember, Michael Yon is in Iraq right now. Why doesn't the Post ask him for an oped? Drop me a line, Post editors, if you're having trouble reaching him. I'll give you his satellite phone number.

UPDATE: Related thoughts here, including this: "Petraeus’ erstwhile counter-insurgency advisor, Australian LTC David Kilcullen, said an interesting thing recently. When you served in Iraq tends to color how you view Iraq."

ANOTHER UPDATE: Murdoc is suspicious.

MORE: From Iraq, Greyhawk writes: "We've won the war."

Well, that's a relief, though some will find it disturbing.

STILL MORE: Michael Yon emails:

It's amazing that a dozen ex-captains who apparently served in Iraq -- only one of them recently -- are so out of touch with the situation.

They've shamefully added their names to what amounts to a petition published in the Washington Post. Big questions: Who actually authored this Op-ed? How did these dozen captains get their names tied to it?

If people like Bob Owens and the "Army of Davids" get interested in this, we'll likely get some answers.

Would be very interesting to know what specifically each of these captains did in Iraq, how they were viewed by their peers, and what they are doing today. Did they come up with the idea for this article themselves, or did someone write it, perhaps, then round up a posse of disgruntled ex-officers who would put their name to it?

It would be interesting to know the backstory.

THOUGHTS ON POT PIE RECALLS: "I love the way these recalls strip the mask off the store-branded fiction. It turns out one or two companies make everything."

MICHAEL YON ON CNN. Give 'em some credit for having him.

IT'S NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, at JibJab. And you can join the zombie hordes!

October 15, 2007

A LOOK AT the next Nobel Peace Prize.

I DON'T LIKE TRAFFIC CAMERAS, but here's an approach to slowing down speeders that I could get behind. (Link is worksafe, but the video there not so much.)

UPDATE: A different approach in Australia.

"WHERE DO THEY GET THESE PEOPLE?"

I'm guessing, at The Olive Garden.

AT OP-FOR, a report from Afghanistan.

NO MORE "HOPE I DIE BEFORE I GET OLD:" First Baby Boomer Files for Social Security Benefits.

BROKEN TRUST: Problems for Microsoft with its Windows Update debacle.

HILLARY CLINTON: Tapping phones and planning violence against Iran?

It'll be like President Cheney, only with hair!

THIS SOUNDS LIKE GOOD NEWS: "Iraqi Police thwart al Qaeda suicide car bomb attack in Samarra."

THOUGHTS ON PRUDERY, GRACE, FREE LOVE, AND THE COMMODIFICATION OF SEX:

Among the anti arguments, this is surely one of the most pernicious: the idea that sex is not a pure gift (“free”), but a commodity—something with a price. But what I find more troubling—especially when one considers that the quote comes from a Lutheran minister—is the theological implication. The definition of grace includes the concept of “free,” because grace cannot be bought. Theologically, therefore, the notion that something that is free must be valueless is dead wrong; and I would add that, in my view, the notion is equally wrong when it is transferred to the sphere of sexuality, because that is an intimate sphere where human beings are closest to God.

Sexuality that is not free is traditionally known as prostitution. It's odd that some of those who purport to value love and marriage the most see things in these terms.

DEFINING NON-VIOLENT.

LCD MONITORS SO DURABLE that you can cut sushi on them.

Well, that's a new test.

TROUBLE AMONGST the anti-imperialists.

THREE AMERICANS WIN NOBEL PRIZE IN ECONOMICS: "Americans Leonid Hurwicz, Eric S. Maskin and Roger B. Myerson won the Nobel prize in economics on Monday for developing a theory that helps explain situations in which markets work and others in which they don't."

A LOOK AT post-Harry Potter fantasy.

ROTC AT HARVARD: "Drew Faust's inauguration as Harvard President last Friday featured a surprising presence: the Harvard ROTC. The ROTC, which has been banned from the Harvard campus since 1969, formed a closing color guard composed of Army, Navy, Marine, and Air Force students. Most wouldn't have expected Faust to invite the ROTC - and they'd be right - she didn't invite them. Their appearance was arranged through a request from the cadets themselves. And they were far from sure of the response." This may be a positive sign, though.

"SHE LOOKS SO CUTE IN HER HEADSCARF AND ANKLE-LENGTH DRESS:" Muslim Barbie.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: $4.5 million for a boat nobody wanted -- but the real scandal isn't the spending, but how it got there:

Tucked away on Seattle's Portage Bay, a sleek, 85-foot speedboat sat idle for years — save for an annual jaunt to maintain its engine.

The Navy paid $4.5 million to build the boat. But months before the hull ever touched water, the Navy gave the boat to the University of Washington. The school never found a use for it, either.

Why would the Navy waste taxpayer dollars on a boat that nobody wanted?

Blame it on Sen. Patty Murray and Congressmen Norm Dicks and Brian Baird. All three exercised their political muscle to slip language into a 2002 spending bill to force the Navy to buy the boat from Edmonds shipbuilder Guardian Marine International.

Year after year, the Washington lawmakers did favors for the tiny company, inserting four "earmarks" into different bills to force the Navy and Coast Guard to buy boats they didn't ask for — $17.65 million in all. None of the boats was used as Congress intended.

The congressional trio say they were helping Guardian Marine because it had a great product. But each has also received generous campaign donations from the company's three executives, its sole employees: $14,277 to Baird, $15,000 to Murray, and $16,750 to Dicks.

It's not really about the pork. It's about the corruption that the pork represents.

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS: "'How does killing them lessen their numbers?' You must have meant something more intelligent." Actually, I doubt that.

WHAT IRAN'S DEMOCRACY ACTIVISTS WANT.

HARRY REID'S HOME-STATE APPROVAL RATINGS have plunged. Another Daschle in the making?

MICHAEL YON POSTS another dispatch from Iraq.

THE EXAMINER: Why the silence on Google's censorship?

Nothing is so fundamental in a republican democracy as freedom of speech and thought, yet the reaction among folks who normally go ballistic over the slightest restraint on political speech is strangely mute. . . . Google claims its policy is to stay out of trademark disputes by removing any ad that is judged by the trademark holder to be a violation. Aside from questions about ideological bias or inconsistency in how Google enforces its policy, a more fundamental issue is at stake here — enabling abuse of a commercial trademark as a means of squelching dissident political speech. . . . If Google maintains this policy, it will be handing a powerful tool for crushing dissent not only to political groups like MoveOn.org but to every corporation with a trademarked name.

Indeed.

WINNING ARGUMENTS, the Frank Rich way!

FROM MAURICE STUCKE, some thoughts on antitrust law in the 21st century.

NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: Howard Lovy on the untold story of dendrimers.

IN THE MAIL: Bill Katovsky's The World According to Gore: The Incredible Vision of the Man Who Should be President. You'll never guess who blurbed it!

Plus, Paul Slansky's Idiots, Hypocrites, Demagogues, and More Idiots: Not-So-Great Moments in Modern American Politics.

A NANOTECHNOLOGY OPPORTUNITY -- AND MORE: I used to be on the Board of the Foresight Nanotech Institute, and still write about nanotechnology quite a bit. This has paid off in that InstaPundit readers are now invited to attend the Foresight Vision Weekend, a high-level gathering normally only open to Senior Associates. More on that get-together here. I highly recommend it if you're interested in the subject, or in rubbing shoulders with a lot of very high-level tech-types you'd find it hard to meet in one place otherwise. I've been many times (I may attend this one, though it involves air travel, which I'm a bit sour on at the moment . . . ) and it's always been a terrific experience.

AGREEING WITH AHMADINEJAD: The Columbia professor who also thinks there are no gays in the Middle East.

MICHAEL YON EMAILS:

All the talk back in America of partitioning Iraq is a mistake. There is some desire by the Kurds, but overall Iraqis seem very much against the idea of partition.

On another note, during a CNN interview this weekend, I reiterated what I have been saying for some time:

"I've seen a very serious change in the seas. I'm not predicting this but I would not be at all surprised to see a precipitous drop in violence in Iraq in general over the next six months or so. I just would not be surprised based on the things that I'm seeing in Nineveh province, out in Anbar, up in Baghdad and out in Diyala and out here. Will it last, nobody knows, but it's certainly, the indicators are starting to look better and better."

Let's hope that continues. This seems like good news, too.

UPDATE: In a followup email, Michael writes:

Al Qaeda is in trouble in Iraq. The civil war that was growing in 2005, and then began erupting in 2006, is now on the decline. I was extremely worried during 2006 that al Qaeda would succeed by engulfing Iraq in civil war, but the Iraqis I speak with in various provinces are now smart about what AQI was up to. AQI tactics are backfiring -- hugely backfiring. Strangely, al Qaeda, who nearly caused a complete meltdown, is becoming helpful in uniting Iraq. Strange world, Glenn!

AQI is still dangerous, but they are losing ground month by month. This is a good article.

And here's much more on that subject, rounded up by Fausta Wertz. (Bumped).

"WIRE LAW" FAILED LOST G.I.: "U.S. intelligence officials got mired for nearly 10 hours seeking approval to use wiretaps against al Qaeda terrorists suspected of kidnapping Queens soldier Alex Jimenez in Iraq earlier this year, The Post has learned."

RAISING MONEY AT the Lifeboat Foundation. David Brin gave!

A CHART THAT DESERVES MORE ATTENTION: Average income tax rates by income group. Over time. Note that taxes on the bottom 75% have dropped significantly, while taxes on the top 1% are the same as 1990.

ERIC SCHEIE VENTURES INTO KREMLINOLOGY, and also manages to find a Che t-shirt that looks like it could create all sorts of amusing commotion.

CANCER DEATH RATES ARE dropping faster than ever. Well, good.

UPDATE: More here, and without the offensive reader comments. Meanwhile Art Fougner, MD emails: "It's Bush's fault!"

A BRAIN DRAIN at the legacy media.

GEORGE WILL:

In 1943, the Supreme Court, affirming the right of Jehovah's Witnesses children to refuse to pledge allegiance to the U.S. flag in schools, declared: "No official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion or other matters of opinion, or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein." Today that principle is routinely traduced, coast to coast, by officials who are petty in several senses.

Indeed.

October 14, 2007

FAKE, but accurate. Er, except for the "accurate" part . . . .

VIDEO: Rudy on taxes.

UPDATE: An unlikely supply-sider.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Giuliani reaction here.

IF THE DEFICIT FALLS AND NO ONE REPORTS IT, does it make a sound?

Not much of one, except in the blogosphere. "The U.S. budget deficit fell to the lowest level in five years last week, but three of America’s leading newspapers — the New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times — couldn’t find the space to mention the dramatic drop. . . . Does anyone seriously believe that the news would have been almost completely ignored if the deficit had instead gone up?"

Follow the link for more.

PEOPLE HAVE BEEN ASKING for more campus photos, but I've basically been too busy. But today when I went into the office, as I often do on Sundays, it was such beautiful weather that I had to take time to stroll around campus, and I did manage to take a few pictures.

There was no problem finding a parking space in the faculty garage.

It was a fine day for shade-tree motorcycle maintenance.

Reports that researchers in Oak Ridge have created fluorescent Black Bear/Honeybee hybrids are, alas, true.

And at the University of Tennessee, we care about student success. We have a center to prove it!

UPDATE: Turns out I've done the faculty-garage photo before. I had completely forgotten. But the Internet remembers all!

HOWARD KURTZ INTERVIEWED HOWARD KURTZ on Howard Kurtz's Reliable Sources today. The subject? Howard Kurtz's new book! Click "read more" for the transcript. This seems to reflect a profound moment in modern journalism, somehow.

UPDATE: Ian Schwartz has the video.

Read More ?

FADING MEMORY.

ALL THOSE EDITORS AND FACT-CHECKERS AT WORK: "There are six pictures in all on the page and five of the six captions are wrong; only that of Robert Kasten is correct. Aggregating so many errors at once takes real talent."

MORE ON the Knights Templar and other monastic military orders, from Dave Kopel.

HAIR APPARENT: An exercise in journalistic groupthink.

WASHINGTON POST: The evidence of a drop in violence in Iraq is becoming hard to dispute.

UPDATE: Gateway Pundit rounds up more Iraq news, with many charts. And here are further thoughts from John Wixted.

MORE: "Ignore this post!"

THE NEW YORK TIMES is now reporting that Israel's strike in Syria hit a nuclear facility. Old news in the blogosphere, but now it's in the Paper of Record.

YET ANOTHER REASON FOR DRINKING:

A recent report (seen on Science Daily--yes, we’re interested in science as well as food) from researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia points to a discovery made that shows that red wine, beyond the numerous current known health benefits, probably can work to protect humans from a number of common food-borne diseases. The researchers have found that, “red wines--Cabernet, Zinfandel and Merlot in particular--have anti-microbial properties that defend against food-borne pathogens and don’t harm naturally useful bacteria like probiotic bacteria.”

You can't be too careful.

SPACE SOLAR POWER UPDATE: A very positive report on space-based solar power from the National Security Space Office. Much more on the subject here, from the National Space Society.

And here's an NPR story on the subject, from All Things Considered. This represents quite a boost for space solar power, which I think is definitely worth further investigation.

SEEMS LIKE THIS SLOGAN SHOULD GET SOME VOTES: "If you like oral sex, vote Caragol for council."

FORGET IT, JAKE, it's Atlantic City.

MICKEY KAUS: "Why it will be hard to blog for the L.A. Times: You post something juicy on Thursday and then a middle-management twit will come in and censor it on Friday. ... Remember, at the L.A.T. it's all about not telling you what they think you shouldn't want to know about." This seems like an unsustainable strategy to me. Alas, however, it's not just at the L.A. Times.

IN THE NEW YORK TIMES, a look at the politics of the Nobel Peace Prize: “Awarding a peace prize is, to put it bluntly, a political act.”

Meanwhile, some nominees for next year.

IN THE MAIL: Dinesh D'Souza's What's So Great About Christianity. With a positive blurb by Stanley Fish! No, really.

Plus, The Politically Incorrect Guide to The Bible. No Stanley Fish blurb here.

DOG BITES MAN In Iraq.

POLITICS 24/7: No one can hear you scream!

UPDATE: Okay, readers think I was way too easy on this piece. All right. Key points: (1) Old media dissing New Media. Yawn. (2) Listening to the XM POTUS Channel for 24 hours is no doubt boring, but it can't be any more excruciating than 24 hours of CNN -- as always when I'm trapped in airports and subjected to hours of the ubiquitous CNN there, I wonder how anyone can stand it; (3) While the XM POTUS Channel may not have any reporters on its payroll, it has lots of original reporting -- on the Pajamas Media show, for example, the Insta-Wife and I have contributed original interviews with candidates and newsmakers each week, and there's lots more of that kind of thing on that show and others. Compared with listening to the radio and writing an article about it, I'd say that counts as reporting.

Happy now? Really, at this point I figure readers can do this for themselves . . . .

ANOTHER UPDATE: So, driving into the office this afternoon I turned on XM POTUS and heard a complete, unexpurgated Barack Obama speech. Technically, I guess that doesn't count as "reporting" -- real reporting is where you take the full speech and then report only the parts that reflect well on your predetermined storyline -- but it seems useful nonetheless.

MORE: Reader reaction seems kind of negative so far.

STILL MORE: On CNN and airports, reader Dart Montgomery emails: "Do you know why it's always CNN? I don't and have often wondered about that. Perhaps if you ask, one of your other readers might know? I think it would be interesting to find out."

I assume they just got in early and locked things in before Fox, et al., were on the scene. But maybe I'm wrong.

THE ANBAR FORMULA spreads to the Shiites.

FORBES CALLS JOURNALISTS an endangered species. It doesn't have to be that way, though journalists seem to be doing their best to undermine their own profession.

I MENTIONED THE DARING BOOK FOR GIRLS the other day, and then a copy showed up in the mail. The Insta-Wife has read it, and posted a review. She liked it.

IS SLEEPING ON A MATTRESS ON THE FLOOR cruel and unusual punishment?

SOME FREQUENT FLYERS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS:

Last week, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and Republican leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) found bipartisan agreement on maintaining one special privilege. Together they put language into a defense appropriations bill that would keep legal the practice of some senators of booking several flights on days they return home, keeping the most convenient reservation and dumping the rest without paying cancellation fees -- a practice some airlines say could violate the new law.

Senators also have granted themselves a grace period on requirements that they pay pricey charter rates for private jet travel. . . . The Senate ethics committee decided not to enforce that rule for at least 60 days after it took effect Sept. 14, citing "the lack of experience in many offices in determining 'charter rates.' "

The decision surprised some Senate staffers, Mitchell said, one of whom e-mailed her to say, "Welcome to the world of skirting around the rules we pass."

Bah. For the rest of us, life isn't so sweet: "Gotbaum wasn't late for boarding. She didn't forfeit her place by ignoring the airline's procedures. Her only mistake was showing up at the US Airways gate and believing that her paid-in-full, reserved-seat airline ticket meant that she would actually have a seat on the plane." If she'd been a member of Congress, it would have!

A GROWING NUMBER OF anti-Islam protests in Europe.

NASA: Giant Waves Over Iowa.