May 05, 2007

SOME PRETTY AMAZING TORNADO VIDEO:

LOTS OF REPORTING FROM THE MILBLOGS CONFERENCE at Gateway Pundit.

President Bush made an appearance, too. Perhaps this will cool the military's enthusiasm for shutting down milblogs. Perhaps not. (Via Jules Crittenden).

MORE ON EGYPT'S BLOG CRACKDOWN: "Initial ambivalence on the part of government security agents changed in November, said Mr Zarwan, when a cellular phone video appeared on dozens of Egyptian blogs showing two police officers apparently sodomising a detainee with a rod. A public outcry ensued and the officers are being tried for torture. Hossam Hamalawy, who writes a Cairo-based blog called 3Arabawy, said that, despite the crackdown, the bloggers are growing bolder."

ZAWAHIRI: One percent of the way to his goal. Looking at Zawahiri's quota for American casualties in Iraq, Don Surber is not impressed: "At this rate, al-Qaeda will meet its goal . . . in about 2353. I’ll be 400 years old then."

MORE ON Islamists in the Balkans. "The ominous presence of Wahhabi missionaries, financiers, terror recruiters, and other mischief-makers bespeaks a fresh offensive in that tormented land."

Our "friends" the Saudis. This needs to stop, or be stopped.

THE WASHINGTON POST SAYS DEMOCRATS' MOMENTUM IS STALLING: "Not a single priority on the Democrats' agenda has been enacted, and some in the party are growing nervous that the 'do nothing' tag they slapped on Republicans last year could come back to haunt them."

MORE CLAIMS THAT GEORGE TENET isn't telling the truth.

Well, CIA directors are supposed to be good at lying. But then, they're supposed to be good at keeping secrets, too.

INTERNET STEALTH CANDIDACY, CONT'D: Mickey Kaus: "Thompson could have given a post-debate interview to any news organization in the country. He picked Breitbart.com."

IF YOU HAVEN'T DONE IT ALREADY, please take my reader survey. There are a lot of questions, but you can skip any you find too intrusive, and quit whenever you get bored. Though I admit that I'm curious to know the average number of tattoos and piercings among InstaPundit readers.

MARK STEYN: "If George Bush put a microchip in your garbage under the Patriot Act, there'd be mass demonstrations across the land. But do it in the guise of saving the planet and everyone's fine with it."

WAS THE L.A. COURT too hard on Paris Hilton?

CHINESE EXPORTS ABOUT TO PLUMMET? Reader Tom Holsinger thinks that's quite possible in light of stories like this one: From China to Panama, a Trail of Poisoned Medicine. With this and the melamine scandal, there are certainly going to be reasons to avoid foods and pharmaceuticals from China.

ADDICTED TO SUSHI: It certainly looks like a delicious spread.

And since they've got sushi video, here's some from my own local place. Is the sushi at the other place better -- or is it just the adjectives in the report?

IT SEEMS LIKE OUR EFFORT TO FREE THE DEBATES VIDEO has succeeded.

LOU DOBBS SAYS THE U.S. COULD DEPORT ALL ILLEGAL ALIENS if it really wanted to. He'll say more about that on 60 Minutes tomorrow night.

Will he run for President? He's sounding like it, and as Mickey Kaus has noted, there's an immigration gap on the Democratic side that leaves room for a candidate like Dobbs.

GARDEN & GUN MAGAZINE: The Insta-Wife likes the idea. but as she notes, some people don't.

NEWSTRUST is an experiment in rating and ranking journalism that goes way beyond sites like Digg or Slashdot. The folks running it are afraid their readership is leaning left, and hope that having InstaPundit readers join up will even things out.

There's a special signup page for InstaPundit readers, so if this appeals to you give it a try.

A LOOK AT Al Qaeda in Bosnia.

DOUG FEITH reviews George Tenet's book for the Wall Street Journal. But this is a link to the free version on Feith's website. The concluding paragraph is quite amusing.

It seems clear that the CIA wasn't fully trusted, and even clearer that it shouldn't have been. I don't think that Tenet's book will do much to improve matters.

RANDY NEAL: "Everything you wanted to know about Compact Fluorescent Bulbs, including the mercury problem."

INSTAPUNDIT'S ISTANBUL CORRESPONDENT CLAIRE BERLINSKI WRITES ON TURKEY AND ISLAM in the Washington Post:

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who founded the Turkish Republic in 1923, imposed a particularly strict secularism on Turkish society, banning religion from the public sphere. In recent weeks, demonstrators have taken to the streets in massive numbers in support of Kemalist secularism. Westerners watching the footage may be tempted to sigh with approval, imagining this as an outpouring of sympathy with liberal Enlightenment values.

They would be mistaken.

Read the whole thing, which offers a lot of useful insights not found much elsewhere.

FIGHT THE PATRIARCHY: "Saudi Women, Oppressed by Husbands, Turn to Stripping in Internet Chat Rooms in Search of 'Admiration.'"

OVER AT POPULAR MECHANICS, they're doing abusive lab testing of lawn mowers. In this case, though, I think it's the operator who was being abused some of the time.

Still, the unpowered reel mower that they test -- it's very similar to the one that I own -- gets high marks:

This archaic, human-powered technology still has its strengths. At a run, it was faster than the walk-behind mower. It was the most maneuverable and lightest machine, and the easiest to store in a crowded garage. The sweat level was high, but it scored well on moral superiority: No emissions, little noise, and the only fuel to buy was Gatorade. Big complaint: It rolls over weeds without cutting them — a real drawback at my place.

That is the main drawback, one that I deal with by using one of these. Another advantage of the unpowered mower is that you can start your kids mowing with them earlier -- my daughter mowed her first lawn at the age of 9. And the PopMech advice to wear earplugs when using any kind of power mower is good advice -- I've done that since I was a teenager (also for live music and shooting), and my hearing remains surprisingly good.

And they're right that this is good up to about .7 acres. More than that and I'd want something I could ride.

UPDATE: While we're on the subject, here's a list of must-have gardening tools -- though I wouldn't agree with all the choices, it's got some interesting stuff. And -- timely enough -- a list of items aimed at gardening moms.

I confess, however, that I continue to be unhealthily fascinated with the robot lawn mower. But then, who wouldn't be?

THE MILBLOGS CONFERENCE IS UNDERWAY -- there's a live stream of the proceedings here.

"I'VE NEVER CASUALLY RUN FOR ANYTHING:" An extended video interview with Fred Thompson on Breitbart TV.

MORE UGLY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE KATHRYN JOHNSTON SHOOTING: This wasn't the first incident, and the response of local officials is unimpressive:

You'd think that everyone in the chain of command in Atlanta would be looking for ways to prevent more botched raids and more unnecessary violence. Nope. It's all ass-covering and buck-passing. . . . No question these cops were particularly dirty. But this is a systemic problem driven by bad policy. And if you don't fix it, Mr. Fowler, you're going to have more dead innocents, more dead nonviolent offenders, and more dead cops.

Meanwhile--and I really can't believe this--the officers who killed Kathryn Johnston are worried about their pensions.

They ought to be worried about a lot more than that.

BLOG CAMPAIGN POWER: A myth?

IT'S NO SECRET THAT YOUTUBE IS OFTEN TOO QUICK to take down videos in response to complaints:

Want a video removed from YouTube? Send along a fake takedown notice pretending to be from the copyright holder. At least, it’s a prank that worked for a 15 year old from Perth, Australia, who sent a signed form to YouTube pretending to be from the Australian Broadcasting Company. The form requested the takedown of hundreds of clips from “The Chaser’s War on Everything”.

YouTube not only reacted, but sent warnings to all the uploaders saying their accounts would be deleted if they persisted. As it turns out, the ABC actually encourages the spread of Chasers clips, since they consider the comedy series to be a good promotion for the channel’s content.

YouTube's fear of controversy has been exploited by others, and many folks on the right think that it's especially quick to take down videos charged with being politically incorrect. The response is Qube TV.

This seems very constructive to me. YouTube was in first, but there are lots of competitors (I use MotionBox because it has better video quality). Instead of complaining and demanding regulation, just go into competition. The barriers to entry aren't that high, and that's how markets are supposed to work.

UPDATE: Reader Jim Ashmore writes:

What I find interesting is the contrasting response to effective information outlets. Those on the right bristled at liberal media domination. What did they do? They went out and built competing outlets such as talk radio and Fox News. And what was the reaction by the left to the dominant effectiveness of conservative talk radio? The attempts to force equal time via the a revived Fairness Doctrine. They have been thus-far ineffective, but watch for its revival under a Democrat administration. Liberals also want to shut down Fox so they can re-dominate television news. I find it interesting that 7 of the 8 major news outlets are slanted to the left and yet, liberals want it 7 of 7 (or more likely 1 of 1).

That is why I find it gratifying to see that conservatives countered YouTube's bias by creating their own internet video network instead of whining like little cry babies. Bravo to them.

Indeed. Though to be fair, it's not so much that YouTube is biased, as that it's limp in the face of pressure from whatever quarter, and the lefty (and Islamist) crowds have organized to take advantage of that.

UPDATE: Bob Krumm, however, is underwhelmed.

May 04, 2007

DEBUNKING SOME GUN-CONTROL STATISTICS, at BoingBoing.

PARANOIA STRIKES DEEP.

FRED THOMPSON'S SPEECH: The prepared text.

"LAMBERTED:" John Berlau responds to criticism.

J.D. JOHANNES BLOGS FROM IRAQ:

Ah yes, just 7 months ago Al Anbar was "lost."

Amidst my travels to neighborhood watch centers and police stations where local Sunni Muslims who have porn on their cell phones are playing hard ball against AQIZ types who would ban porn on cell phones I forgot all about this article in the WaPo last September.

Anbar is so "lost" now politically that there is a waiting list for anbaris to join the IA and IP.

It is so lost, that in the AO I hope to visit next the local Sheiks have declared war on AQIZ and the neighboring tribe supporting AQIZ.

It is so lost, the local neighborhood watch centers deliver captured IEDs to Marine Combat Outposts.

It is so wildly stinking lost that...wait, it is not lost.

In fact, the situation has flipped so much in 7 months that the heavy lifting in Al Anbar may be coming to a close--the heavy lifting being the political work of flipping the tribes to support the coalition and take charge of their own security.

He'll be talking about this on Hannity & Colmes tonight, in just a few minutes.

UPDATE: Oops -- I misread the email. The post is J.D.'s, but it's David Chavarria, the executive producer of Outside the Wire, their documentary.

And wow, Alan Colmes is acting really defensive, while Chavarria is really calm and informational. Chavarria explained what the troops think, as shown in the documentary, Colmes started arguing with him, and Chavarria just calmly explained that he wasn't arguing politics, he was reporting what the troops said.

PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE ON LOUSY PACKAGING:

I've been opening a bunch of new electonic gizmos today, all of which came in those damnable plastic clamshells. Naturally, my hands are now covered with small cuts. I got off lucky, however, compared to some victims of the packaging industry. Did you know that "injuries from plastic packaging resulted in 6,400 visits to emergency rooms in 2004"?!

I'm not usually a big fan of Trial Lawyers Inc., but if somebody were to bring a class action against the manufacturers of plastic clamshells on behalf of all of us who have been wounded by them over the years, I'd sign up in a minute.

I hate those things, which are a subspecies of packaging demonstrating that the manufacturers don't really care about their customers. See also CD and DVD packaging . . . .

A LOOK AT NANOTECHNOLOGY IN RUSSIA:

Of the many questions that must be answered about molecular manufacturing, one of the most important is: Who will attain the technology first?

It matters a great deal if this powerful and potentially disruptive new manufacturing technique is developed and controlled by aggressive military interests, commercial entities, Open Source advocates, liberal democracies, or some combination thereof. How each of those disparate groups, with different priorities and motivations, plan to use and (maybe) share the technology is an issue that bears serious investigation. That's a major purpose behind CRN's project to create a series of scenarios depicting various futures in which molecular manufacturing could be developed.

One likely player in this high-stakes, high-tech drama is Russia. . . .

In summary, it looks like: A) Russia will spend huge amounts of money over the next several years in an effort to become a world player in nanotech development; B) at least in the early stages, that spending will focus mostly on early-generation nanoscale technologies, and not on molecular manufacturing; and C) this announcement, and the language used in making it, would suggest that an arms race built around nano-enabled weapons is more likely now than it was before.

Just one more item to brighten your weekend.

UPDATE: An upbeat take from Dave Schuler.

MICHAEL YON ON THE SURGE, interviewed from Iraq on this week's Blog Week in Review. Plus, his thoughts on the Army's iffy relationship with milbloggers.

THE FOLKS AT BLOGADS are doing their annual reader survey -- I still participate even though I don't use blogads any more, because it produces lots of useful information. So please do me a favor and take a few minutes to fill out their online form. The survey's a bit long, but you can quit anytime you get bored -- it's just the first few pages that are really important. The stuff about your favorite booze, etc., is less so.

Please take my blog reader survey!

HOW'S THE ARMY DOING? A summary of the Austin Bay / Phil Carter debate.

I'll just add that notwithstanding the reassurances we got from (then) Army Secretary Francis Harvey, I remain concerned that we're not investing enough in recruiting, maintenance, etc. for the long term, despite a long term conflict.

UPDATE: Meanwhile, on a sort-of-related topic, here's the latest on the Army / Milblogs issue.

RUNNING A STEALTH CAMPAIGN via the blogosphere.

A LOOK AT MERCURY AND COMPACT FLUORESCENT BULBS, from Snopes.

BLOG COMMENT OF THE DAY: "As Time’s 2006 Person of the Year, I have to say I’m deeply disappointed that Time has sunk to such sensational and politicized levels. Would someone please tell me who I should contact at Time to give back my award?"

Heh.

SCANDAL IN CANADA? "Bev Oda, the Canadian minister in charge of copyright, has been caught taking funds from the entertainment companies she is supposed to regulate."

IT'S ANOTHER EPISODE OF THE CORN & MINITER SHOW, with Richard Miniter back from Iraq reporting on the Iraqi military, and complaining about "the sheer amount of inertia and bureaucratic red tape inside the Green Zone," and a special surprise guest.

ANOTHER SMALL BUT SIGNIFICANT STEP FORWARD FOR CIVIL RIGHTS:

Law-abiding citizens will be able to use deadly force in self-defense in more places under legislation that unanimously passed the state Senate Thursday and is on its way to becoming law.

Currently, Tennesseans can use deadly force when faced with a threat of death or serious injury in their own homes. The bill approved by the Senate Thursday and by the House last week extends those areas to include all homes and vehicles, regardless of who owns them.

Another bill involving the use of weapons also got the nod this week. That bill would prevent the governor or any local official from confiscating weapons or restricting their sale or transportation during a state of emergency or disaster.

Police confiscated guns in New Orleans during the violent aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, sparking concern among gun-rights advocates who said it left citizens helpless against marauding thugs.

This seems to be a trend across quite a few states. That's good. And if I'm not mistaken, what's being expanded isn't the right to self-defense, but the "no retreat" rule. I believe that this establishes a presumption that people have a reasonable belief that they're threatened whenever an intruder is present in their home or vehicle. I haven't seen the actual bill, though.

UPDATE: Here's a summary of the legislation. (Via A.C. Kleinheider).

BILL ROGGIO NOTES more positive developments in Anbar. May the good news continue.

SUING A STATE FOR "NEGLIGENT FAILURE TO LEGISLATE?" I've got a few suits I could file under this theory . . . .

IN THE MAIL: The latest installment of the Eric Flint alt-history series that began with 1632. Flint, interestingly, is a Trotskyite former labor organizer (or maybe he's a former Trotskyite labor organizer, I'm not sure) but his writing is more authentically pro-American than most of what you'll find.

UPDATE: A reminder that 1632, and its sequel, 1633, are available -- along with numerous other books from Eric Flint's backlist -- in the Baen Free Library. More on that, and how giving books away on the Web has made money for Baen Books, here.

A THREAT TO TENURE AT LAW SCHOOLS? "The American Bar Association — at the urging of some law deans and to the dismay of many law professors — is considering an end to having tenure systems be one requirement for law school accreditation."

Conservatives may be tempted to applaud this, but given the ideological complexion of the academy an end to tenure would harm non-lefty professors disproportionately.

TIME.COM WON'T LIKE DON SURBER'S TAKE: "The 1,363rd most visited Web site in the world tried to diss the president of the United States as not being among the world’s 100 most influential people."

Ouch.

JOEY PIGZA, ADHD poster child.

HE'S A HERETIC! BURN HIM! Oh, wait, that would result in excess greenhouse emissions. Never mind!

UPDATE: More charges of heresy, here! Rooting this stuff out is a full time job. Luckily, surprise is our chief weapon. Well, amongst our weaponry are such diverse elements as: fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency, and . . . . oh, well, you know the rest.

ANN ALTHOUSE ON POST-DEBATE SPIN: "What's really going on here? Looks like people really want to destroy Giuliani."

A lot of social-cons are piling on Rudy, seeing this as a chance to take him out. That seems unwise for the GOP generally, given that in the latest Quinnipiac poll Giuliani beats Clinton and Obama handily. In fact, he does much better than Fred Thompson or John McCain. And winning elections does matter, as Republicans should realize by this point.

DEMOCRATIC NEOCONS? Some praise for Barack Obama:

Obama's Monday night foreign policy speech is more than just clever language. He displays a commitment to moral principles and a serious foreign policy usually found in the halls of the American Enterprise Institute, or the pages of the Weekly Standard: promoting the American interest through a strong offensive military that, in conjunction with diplomatic, political and economic means, is used to remake foreign nations in a liberal democratic image.

Read the whole thing.

A POST-DEBATE POLL:

Did last night's debate change your assessment of the Republicans' chances in 2008?
	I think they're better than I had thought before.
	I think they're worse than I had thought before.
	No change in my opinion.
pollcode.com free polls

HOWARD KURTZ ON THE DEBATES: "The front-runners all started strong. Then they got to abortion."

INSPIRED BY BRINK LINDSEY'S NEW BOOK, Virginia Postrel has thoughts on abundance and what it means.

INTERNET I; Designed to survive a nuclear war; survived 9/11, Katrina, numerous other diasasters.

Internet II: Taken out by a homeless man with a cigarette.

UPDATE: Here's a report that it wasn't as bad as the above report suggests.

BILL FRIST ENDORSES the we win, they lose approach to the war.

IF FELONS ARE ALLOWED TO VOTE, WHO WILL THEY VOTE FOR? The Wall Street Journal's Carl Bialik looks at the numbers. (Free link).

THOUGHTS ON FREEDOM AND OPPRESSION, from Fred Thompson.

MICKEY KAUS EXPLAINS LIFE to the younger folks.

MORE PROTESTS AGAINST THE MULLAHS in Iran.

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE -- How MI-5 got behind the curve in addressing Islamist terror.

May 03, 2007

HILLARY CLINTON AND ROBERT BYRD want Congress to revoke the Iraq war authorization. Hmm. I'm pretty sure this is veto-able, like any other legislation, meaning that it' s more about protecting her left flank from Obama than about actually doing anything.

On the other hand, if it succeeds it will certainly tie her and the Democratic Party to what comes next. Which is another reason I'm pretty sure it's a stunt. Her internal polls must show Obama surging.

EARLIER I LINKED a piece in The Hill charging Dianne Feinstein with conflicts of interest. This post by Bill Allison at the Sunlight Foundation blog says that at most the piece makes out an appearance of conflict, not an actual conflict.

UPDATE: Matthew Hoy responds: "I’m still troubled (to say the least) that no major newspaper has done any in-depth reporting on the issue. There is still, at the very least, an appearance of a conflict of interest in Feinstein’s actions. If the delay (if not outright disinterest in the story) that we are seeing from the mainstream media was because reporters were diligently checking all the facts, dotting their i’s and crossing their t’s, before getting something into print or on the air I would applaud. However, this is not how things usually work."

And John Torbett writes: "For fairness sake I think you should note that the Sunlight Foundation is
operated by people who are politically left of center." True enough, but I thought everyone knew that.

REPORTEDLY, BUSH WILL VETO THE EXPANDED HATE-CRIMES LAW: Dale Carpenter has a roundup and observes: "The administration's given reasons are that the law is unnecessary, an intrusion on federalism, and constitutionally questionable as an exercise of federal power. I expressed similar reservations in a post here about the bill two months ago. To its credit, the administration is avoiding the common and I think mistaken complaint that the bill would punish speech and thought. Anti-gay organizations, like Concerned Women for America, will certainly be happy about this. But their glee is insufficient reason to support the bill."

I'VE BEEN BUSY WITH FAMILY STUFF, but N.Z. Bear has been liveblogging the Republican candidates' debate.

So are Capt. Ed, and crew, at Heading Right. "Paul . . . Sounded good on isolationism. But he just looks like crud on TV."

And here's a live debate thread at the Power Line forum. Plus, Karol Sheinin at Alarming News. "I can't help but feel that people are going to be beyond sick of all these candidates by the time election-time actually comes around. I'm already sort of sick of them. " But she thinks one of them is really good-looking!

And from a somewhat different perspective, more liveblogging from Dave Weigel. "Huckabee says we are a great nation because 'We are a culture of life.' By that reasoning, if we got into a shooting war with the Vatican, would we lose?"

Plus, from her very own perspective, Ann Althouse. "Halfway into this, I'd say the person making the most headway is Romney."

Stephen Green, meanwhile, is engaging in that "drunkblogging" that he does so well: "Imagine you're watching Hardball, only Matthews has ten guests instead of one or two. That's what tonight's debate has already devolved into. Now imagine that instead of candidates, we had ten knife-wielding spider monkeys jacked up on Mini Thins. That's where I hope this thing is going."

More at The Corner. "If you're mad as hell and won't take it anymore, McCain is your guy tonight. . . . Thompson is winning—Fred Thompson."

UPDATE: More from Spacetropic: "None of these guys is drawing a contrast to the Democrats. This seems like a huge mistake. What they are saying about these issues would be so much more persuasive if they explained the Left's take on the same (for example security, religion, abortion)."

And GraniteGrok is on the case: "FAIRTAX mentioned!!!! I wish I knew who talked about it. Guess I'll find out from the Neal Boortz site in the morning."

Bob Owens offers his take in ten words.

Oh, and I should note that Stephen Green has an open comment thread.

Joshua Claybourn counts hands on who believes in evolution.

Jonah Goldberg: "I hope Democrats, feminists and others are taking note that Chris Matthews' question about whether it would be good if Bill Clinton was back in the White House basically makes Hillary — the wife and actual candidate — the bit player."

Here's a wrap-up from Jim Geraghty.

And reader C.J. Burch emails: "Couple more of these and FRED!!! wins the nomination without having to campaign. MSNBC did itself no favors either."

No love for Keith Olbermann.

John Hawkins was pleasantly surprised: "Overall, I thought it was much more substance filled and interesting debate than the one the Democrats had last week. Also, I have to give MSNBC credit -- they did a good job overall and if anything, they may have been too soft on the candidates."

Roger Simon: “The big winner of the first Republican presidential debate was the man who wasn’t there: Fred Thompson. Although I admire Giuliani and agree with him on most issues, the presidential look and feel of the absent Fred loomed over this boring event with only Ron Paul for comic relief.”

Eric Erickson: "John McCain won. Let's not dance around this."

Further thoughts here: "Of the three front runners, Romney was by far the best, as much as it pains me to say it. Rudy was bland. McCain looked old. Brownback and Tancredo both came across as very strong. . . . Ron Paul was really eccentric. As much as I admire the man’s many votes against bigger government, he came across as pretty nuts. Tommy Thompson was really dull. Jim Gilmore was ok, but nothing special. Duncan Hunter was well-spoken, but did little to distinguish himself. Mike Huckabee was ok, but like Hunter he seemed to blend into the crowd."

Andrew Sullivan wasn't very impressed with anybody.

Mark Coffey: "The winner, I guess, is McCain by default, but we’re going to have to do much, much better than this at articulating a vision that will get us elected in 2008. Dogmatic references to a pro-life culture and endless evocations of Ronald Reagan are not going to get the job done in the current climate."

Dean Barnett posts a wrapup.

Mark Daniels comments: "I was struck by virtually the entire field's willingness to disagree with some aspects of the current administration's policies. That no doubt has something to do with the President's current low-approval ratings. But I also think that these candidates were signaling their comfort with being their own persons."

STILL MORE: SurveyUSA has an Insta-Poll of California watchers out. "Who Won CA Republican Presidential Debate? Former NYC Mayor Rudolph Giuliani convincingly won tonight's California debate among Republican candidates for President of the United States, according to a SurveyUSA poll of 317 state of California debate watchers. Giuliani was picked as the winner by 30% of those in CA who watched. Former MA Governor Mitt Romney, who was picked as the winner by 12%, and AZ Senator John McCain, who was picked as the winner by 11%, tied for 2nd place, far back from Giuliani. All other candidates were in single digits. . . . 51% of debate viewers were white. 28% of debate viewers were Hispanic. 15% of debate viewers were Asian. 45% of debate viewers were Republican. 30% of debate viewers were Democrats. 22% of debate viewers were Independent. 43% of debate viewers were Pro-Life. 53% of debate viewers were Pro-Choice."

Bad marks for Jim Vandehei of The Politico for his "What Do You Dislike Most About America?" question.

And some post-debate analysis from Ryan Sager, who comments: "I hate these 10-candidate debates." Plus this:

The alternate "winner" of tonight's debate, of course, was Fred Thompson. By not showing up, he managed to stay out of the muck and to preserve his status as magical "savior" candidate for another night. I'm not sure that's good for the nomination process, but it's good for Mr. Thompson.

I think that's right. But I think that starting so soon isn't good for the nomination process, either.

FINALLY: Some reactions to the debate blogged by Bill Frist.

HOME OF THE WHOPPER.

HERE'S MORE on the Obama MySpace scandal. I still think it's small potatoes, but it was an unforced error.

HARRY REID TAKES A JAB AT JOHN EDWARDS. If fists start flying, though, I'm betting on Edwards.

WALLY SCHIRRA HAS DIED at the age of 84.

ED FELTEN: "When the great mathematician Leopold Kronecker wrote his famous dictum, 'God created the integers; all else is the work of man,' he meant that the basic structure of mathematics is part of the design of the universe. What God created, AACS LA now wants to take away."

IT'S DIVERSITY THURSDAY at Best of the Web.

BACK TO THE FUTURE: A look at the current direction in Latin American politics.

GATEWAY PUNDIT JIM HOFT is liveblogging "world press freedom day" at the U.N.

SO CRAZY IT JUST MIGHT WORK: InstaPunk unveils a new strategy in the war against Islamic terror.

FRED THOMPSON on Fidel.

JONAH GOLDBERG WENT TO OXFORD, where the communist chickened out rather than confront him. "They replaced the Communist with a Canadian which, even I had to concede, was a very poor substitute for a Communist." Well, yeah.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: My hopes that the Democrats would be better on pork seem doomed to less-than-complete fulfillment:

Finance Committee chief Max Baucus (D-Mont.) is unlikely to follow the example of three other chairmen who have imposed voluntary earmark-disclosure rules on their members’ requests.

According to a Baucus aide, Baucus does not anticipate sending an earmark letter because the Finance Committee’s informal rule against so-called “rifle-shot” tax benefits makes the panel a special case. . . .

And if last year’s lobbying measure — which never made it to conference — offers any preview of this year’s talks, official tax-earmark rules may be slow in coming. Ellis said the uncertain future of earmark transparency calls for not just a letter from Baucus, but support from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

“Should Baucus do it? Yes. Should Reid move forward with a Senate rules change? Yes,” Ellis said. “Should Speaker Pelosi and the House get off the dime and pass [a lobbying bill]? Priceless.”

Read the whole thing. It's not all bad, but it certainly gives the impression of hair-splitting and foot-dragging rather than enthusiasm for real reform. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised, though.

TRANS-FAT LAWSUIT DISMISSED:

A federal judge on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit brought by a doctor who accused KFC of not telling customers that it used trans fats to fry its chicken.

In an occasionally sarcastic opinion, U.S. District Judge James Robertson said Dr. Arthur Hoyte could not show that he was harmed by KFC's use of the artery-clogging fats.

That was enough to doom the lawsuit, but Robertson also noted other flaws in the case.

"While it might be appropriate for this court to find, as a matter of law, that the consumption of fat -- including trans fat -- is indeed within the reasonable expectations of the consumers of fried chicken and french fries prepared in fast food kitchens, it is not necessary for me to reach that question," Robertson wrote.

And in response to Hoyte's claim that customers have a growing understanding of the dangers of trans fats, Robertson wrote: "If consumers are increasingly aware of trans fat, where do they expect to find it if not in fast food restaurants?"

The sarcasm is merited. Costs and sanctions, would have been, too . . . .

IS THE WORLD BANK "NAKEDLY ANTI-GAY?" Prof. Kenneth Anderson looks at the latest twist.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! "Sen. Webb (D-VA) on the president's veto: 'We won this war four years ago. The question is when we end the occupation.'"

UPDATE: Say, maybe we have the outline of a deal here -- Bush agrees to withdraw troops, if Democrats agree to say loudly and publicly that we won the war.

Would Democrats go for that? I'm guessing not, as they've got too much invested in selling the war as a Bush defeat and I don't think they'd be willing to give that up just to bring the troops home. And I don't think Bush would go for it either, since I think he actually values what the troops are doing there now and doesn't think it's time to bring them home yet. But some people see this as an evolution in rhetoric.

A REVIEW OF Islam vs. Islamists: Voices from the Muslim Center.

DAVID ALL AND JEROME ARMSTRONG UNVEIL Dome Nation.

DEMOCRATS BACK DOWN on Iraq timetable.

UPDATE: Now that the Kabuki is over, Howard Kurtz notes, both sides have to decide what to do.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Now the Democrats are denying this report and vowing No Surrender! Er, to Bush. But now they've opened a second front against the Washington Post.

IN THE MAIL: A new edition of Barry Goldwater's The Conscience of a Conservative, with a new introduction by George Will and, somewhat weirdly, an afterword by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. In this moment of Republican doubt and disarray, I suspect it will find a lot of readers.

And, in what may be an interesting metaphor for Republicans, the book that Amazon recommends along with it is Defiant Gardens, which actually looks kind of cool.

HERE'S SOME POTENTIAL GOOD NEWS on the longevity front:

Studies have shown that severe calorie restriction markedly extends lifespan in mice and many other species - but the reasons for this remained elusive.

But now US research on nematode worms, published in Nature, has uncovered a gene linked to this unusual effect.

In the future, the find could lead to drugs that mimic the consequences of calorie restriction but negate the need for severe fasting regimes.

These metabolic treatments aren't the Holy Grail of life-extension research -- actually repairing or reversing the damage involved in aging is the real goal -- but they could be very useful, and may come first. Plus, any success will spur further research, and research money.

WHY ISLAMIC MILITANTS hate women.

NOT RUNNING LOOKS LIKE A GOOD STRATEGY, as Fred Thompson moves up in the polls. His support seems to be coming out of Rudy Giuliani's hide. Follow the link for more.

UPDATE: In case you missed my earlier link, check out this profile of Fred Thompson by Tennessee political expert Frank Cagle.

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST: The "al Qaeda leader killed" stories are a perennial, and not big news in themselves. That they seem to be happening more often, and often at the hands of Iraqis, is more newsworthy, I think.

UPDATE: Meanwhile, earlier reports on Al-Masri's death remain unconfirmed.

"I'M GOING TO DISNEYWORLD!"

THE APPLE OPTIONS SCANDAL seems to be continuing: "Apple Inc.'s board of directors, a star-studded group that features the likes of former Vice President Al Gore and Google CEO Eric Schmidt, is coming under fire for its handling of backdated stock options at the famed computer-maker, including those handed out to its chief executive, Steve Jobs. Apple's former Chief Financial Officer Fred Anderson caused an uproar last week when he released a statement saying he had cautioned Jobs in 2001 about the accounting implications related to a particular options grant. In the same breath, Anderson questioned the conduct of Apple's board of directors regarding options backdating."

AN EXTENDED LOOK AT WHY THE DIGITAL MILLENNIUM COPYRIGHT ACT SUCKS: It's certainly done more damage to free expression than the Patriot Act.

(Via BoingBoing, which has much more on this topic.)

RETRO-FUTURO: A look at cars of the future from the past.

RAY KURZWEIL, whose book, The Singularity is Near, I reviewed for the Wall Street Journal last year, is profiled in Fortune magazine. Lots of cool futurist stuff. (Via Nanodot).

Link above is to a rather large PDF version. Here's the web version of the story.

DAVID BOAZ WONDERS what happened to the anti-communist movies.

Well, there's always Total Eclipse:

Total Eclipse is rated PG-13 for violence, particularly graphic in some of the mass murder scenes, images of starving infants from Stalin's 1932 forced famine in the Ukraine, and the torture of dissidents. Director Steven Spielberg (Schindler's List) deftly cuts from the Moscow trials to the torture chambers of the Lubyanka. More controversial are the portrayals of American communists during the period of the Pact. They are shown here picketing the White House, calling President Roosevelt a warmonger, and demanding that America stay out of the "capitalist war" in Europe. Harvey Keitel turns in a powerful performance as American Communist boss Earl Browder, and Linda Hunt brings depth to Lillian Hellman, who, when Hitler attacks the USSR in September of 1939, actually did cry out, "The motherland has been invaded."

Painstakingly accurate and filled with historical surprises, this film is so refreshing, so remarkable, that even at 162 minutes it seems too short.

There's only one problem.

A NAME-RECOGNITION PROBLEM for the Republicans?

THE THREE LAWS OF LAWBOTICS: Asimov's original laws arguably made robots morally superior to humans. These rules for lawyers . . . not so much.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: With earmarks, sometimes the news is what you can't find out:

Earmarks like the infamous $223 million “Bridge to Nowhere” in Alaska are getting lots of public attention these days but The Examiner recently found that uncovering simple facts about them can be nearly impossible.

When we asked questions about three earmarks worth millions of dollars given to local recipients, nobody seemed to know how the earmarks started or which member of Congress was responsible for them.

One thing we did find out — members of Congress aren’t the only beneficiaries because federal agencies also get a cut — 10 percent of the total — on many earmarks. . . .

Drilling deep into the OMB database, The Examiner randomly selected three earmarks that went to local firms, and then attempted to establish their paternity. We might as well have asked Coke for its formula.

I think that every single thing in legislation -- not just spending -- should be traceable to a member. In an elective legislative body, "diffusion of responsibility" is not a feature.

Meanwhile, here's a roundup of information sources that the public can use to find out, well, whatever they'll let you find out.

JOHN FUND WRITES on the art of not running for President. At least, not yet.

MARK STEYN: "On any Sunday morning, there are more Anglicans in the pews in Nigeria than in the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada combined."

OOPS: "I blew up my 2008 F350 on biodiesel."

IMUS SUES CBS? And his contract seems to support it. This should be fun.

GLOBAL WARMING UPDATE:

Methane emissions from flooded rice paddies contribute to global warming just as coal-fired power plants, automobile exhausts and other sources do with the carbon dioxide they spew into the atmosphere.

In fact, the report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change meeting this week in Bangkok concludes that rice production was a main cause of rising methane emissions in the 20th century. It calls for better controls.

"There is no other crop that is emitting such a large amount of greenhouse gases," said Reiner Wassmann, a climate change specialist at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines.

This is depressingly free of anti-American potential, but I'm sure something can be done. (via Dadvocate).

UPDATE: You can always blame America first. Bill Hobbs shows how it's done!

May 02, 2007

A REPORT ON THE FRENCH PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES, from Nidra Poller.

A LOOK AT priorities in academic hiring.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: All eyes on Baghdad.

CHEAPER SOLAR PANELS with better quantum dots. Bring it on. Here's an earlier post on promises of revolutionary developments in solar, though the math seemed a bit iffy.

DANIEL DREZNER: What I learned at the 2007 Brussels Forum.

FRANK CAGLE: "Fred Thompson threw away the script when he ran for the Senate; he may do it again trying for the White House." Read the whole thing. Frank's a smart guy.

MORE BOGUS KYOTO HISTORY FROM REUTERS: "President George W. Bush pulled the United States out of Kyoto in 2001, arguing it would cost U.S. jobs and that it wrongly excluded 2012 goals for poorer nations such as China."

Er, no. The U.S. refused to ratify Kyoto under President Clinton. We've been over this before. It's all spelled out in Wikipedia, even. Really, if Reuters can't get simple things like this right, why should we trust them for actual news?

UPDATE: The Anchoress is unhappy, with Bush:

I’m starting to get really pissed off with the Bush Administration for their inability or disinterest in fighting their own battles. We should not have to be doing this over and over, setting the record straight again and again. The WH needed to get out in front of this stupid narrative right away, instead of letting it settle in like kudzu.

I've commented on the Bush Administration's curious passivity before.

ANOTHER UPDATE: On the other hand, here's an argument that, since Kyoto is rapidly losing its luster, Bush is being smart by letting Reuters give him credit for abandoning it, true or not. . . .

THE FCC HAS APPROVED THE FIRST WI-MAX LAPTOP CARD: I think this will be revolutionary, and sooner than you might think. I had a brief piece on this when I was at the Consumer Electronics Show, where the Intel guys told me that Wi-Max was going to be included in Centrino by next year -- read it here.

I WAS JUST ON HUGH HEWITT'S SHOW, talking about the dumb Army blogging regulation discussed below.

Bob Krumm observes: "I haven’t yet visited the 'Netroots' blogs, but I’m sure that this is being spun as: 'The Bush Administration is afraid of soldiers being able to report the "truth" about Iraq.' That angle on this bone-headed Army decision was entirely predictable, and again argues to the public relations obtuseness of the Army." A quick perusal of Technorati indicates that it's mostly rightish and military bloggers who are talking about this, but there's some evidence for Krumm's suggestion. Just a further reason to think this is indeed a boneheaded move.

On the upside, since this is just an Army regulation, members of other services remain free to blog. If the Marines wind up getting better press because of their milbloggers, perhaps interservice rivalry will do what good sense has not. It wouldn't be the first time . . . .

UPDATE: Hugh's suggestion: "Suspend the new policy asap and convene a panel of senior brass and civilians to focus on the blog issue but also on the information war more generally. This pratfall could become the occasion for the Pentagon to ask why we are getting rings run around us in the information war."

Sadly, one possible explanation is bureaucratic turf protection. Somebody asks "Why are the milblogs doing so much better than our 'official' PR efforts?" Response: Shut down the milblogs so nobody will make that comparison in the future!

But, in fact, we are performing very badly in the information war, and there's no excuse for that at all. As I said on Hugh's show, there's been some improvement recently, but it's been modest, and late to arrive. And this regulation does provide a good opportunity to look into that.

More thoughts here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Patterico thinks that concerns here are overblown, though I fear he's not paying enough attention to the CYA factor.

WHEN REAL LIFE IMITATES THE ONION: Newsweek interviews Wayne Lo, a Taiwanese immigrant who shot up his college in 1992. Check out the first question:

NEWSWEEK: What was your reaction when you heard about the Virginia Tech shooting?

Wayne Lo: When they said it was a perpetrator who was Asian, that really shocked me. The stereotype is that Asians don’t do these things. The Secret Service came and interviewed me for a report on school shooters that they put out in 2002, and even they said Asians don’t really do this.

Look in the mirror, dude, if they let you have one of those in the lockup. The next question: "Did you relate to Seung-Hui Cho because you’re both Asian?"

JONAH GOLDBERG DEFENDS ME against the serious charge of linking to things without commentary.

Yeah, the link itself is clearly an endorsement. Like my comment-free linkage to John Edwards' poverty plan. Or my bare link to Bill Richardson's plan for Iraq. Obviously, I support both, and just don't want the blame associated with admitting it! Which, I admit, might be substantial. . . . [What about your bare link to McCain's "League of Democracies" proposal? -- ed. I'm not sure what I think of that. Hence, a bare link. I could have said "I'm not sure what I think of this," I guess, but that would have wasted pixels and added to global warming.]

I link stuff because I think it's linkworthy, not necessarily because I agree with it. And, for that matter, plenty of people send me stuff that I agree with that I don't ever link, because it doesn't fit for whatever reason. It's like DJ-ing -- you put in what feels like it goes next in the mix.

Anyway, I understand that some people don't like that style of blogging. I encourage them to visit one of the 71 million other blogs out there, instead of InstaPundit. Or, if you insist on staying around, I'll quote the late Rob Smith: "If my blog does not meet your standards, then LOWER YOUR STANDARDS. Who the hell do you think you are, anyway?"

Nah, I can't be that curmudgeonly yet. How about this: If you're not happy, your subscription is absolutely free!

UPDATE: Reader John Davies writes: "I've been a reader for years and got it right away. An Instapundit
link means pay attention to this. I keep coming back because what you think is important is 90% what I think is important."

Those who find otherwise are encouraged to find a blog that suits them better.

THE STOCK MARKET just keeps doing better. "The Dow Jones industrial average hit another record high Wednesday, capping its longest winning stretch in almost 52 years as investors welcomed strong earnings, lower oil prices, media merger news and a strong reading on manufacturing." So things look great to the market; to me, they look okay, but not this great. Who's right? I guess we'll see.

TAKING DOWN THE WHOLE INTERNET? Joel Johnson looks at the risk.

LIVE BY THE USERS, DIE BY THE USERS: Trouble afoot in Digg nation.

THE OBAMA MYSPACE STORY seems to have legs. I'm not sure if Obama's campaign did anything wrong, but I think it would have been smarter to have made sure this guy walked away feeling good, instead of betrayed.

GREENHOUSE UPDATE:

Jet-setting Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton is a fussy frequent flier who used three different planes in a single day during a recent campaign swing through South Carolina.

The former first lady even grounded one aircraft - a chartered Gulfstream II - in Columbia, S.C., last Friday, demanding a swankier Gulfstream III replacement for a flight out west.

"She didn't like the configuration of the cabin," an aviation source familiar with Clinton's travel told The Post. . . .Clinton, who has warned against global warming from the stump and hyped the need for alternative energy such as ethanol, burned through thousands of gallons of jet fuel swooping along the campaign trail - and it's not clear why she sent an empty plane to wait for her in South Carolina then flew a different jet from Washington the next day.

How about flying commercial?

UPDATE: Found this story via the Hillary website: "She said she has introduced a bill that requires federal buildings to save energy and her campaign has even pledged to go carbon-neutral _ using energy efficient light bulbs and recycled paper in an effort to cut down on pollution. 'Please use this as a voting issue,'' she told the college students, who made up much of the crowd."

Er, be careful what you ask for. . . .

"WE WIN. THEY LOSE." A refreshing theory of the war on terror.

JULIAN SANCHEZ ON THE ANTI-VIDEOGAME BRIGADE:

It's been a good week for the digital descendants of Thomas Bowdler. As we all know, the best sweeping public policy is guided by our reactions to manifestly insane people who commit acts of violence as extreme in their rarity as their brutality. So as the bones of the Virginia Tech victims are picked thoroughly clean for political red meat, it's no surprise to find violent video games joining an ever-expanding list of whipping boys, from obvious candidates like deinstitutionalization and the gun culture to (yes, really) feminism and atheism. Killer Cho Seung-Hui may have played Counter-Strike in high school, you see.

I think porn and violent videogames are good for America's children. And unlike the critics, I've got empirical evidence!

PROXY WAR in the Middle East?

BULLET, MEET FOOT:

The U.S. Army has ordered soldiers to stop posting to blogs or sending personal e-mail messages, without first clearing the content with a superior officer, Wired News has learned. The directive, issued April 19, is the sharpest restriction on troops' online activities since the start of the Iraq war. And it could mean the end of military blogs, observers say.

Frankly, the "official" communications efforts on this war have been largely lame and ineffective, and most of the good stuff has come from milbloggers. I understand the importance of security, but this is going to do much more harm than good. Lots of stuff at the link above, and also read this post from Blackfive.

UPDATE: Still more here. Really, this is a bad idea.

DO HILLARY AND OBAMA LOVE GRAVEL AND KUCINICH?

By making Gravel and Kucinich the designated villains of the debate, Obama and Hillary never have to engage and disagree strongly with a more liberal candidate with an actual base of support - somebody like John Edwards. It's risk-free verbal sparring.

Trouble is, with Gravel achieving rock-star status among the netroots, this could backfire.

CONGRESSMAN JOHN CAMPBELL:

Over the weekend, a local building on Capitol Hill, known as "Eastern Market," burned down. The place is well known by locals in D.C. and is often frequented by members of Congress -- many of whom live nearby. On Monday, Del. Eleanor Holmes-Norton (D-D.C.), was quoted in several papers stating that she is going to try and get federal funding to help rebuild it. Her justification for this use of taxpayer dollars was the following: "It's a popular place for members to go."

I am completely puzzled. Why in the world should the American taxpayer be asked to help pay for the rebuilding of a local market that has no connection to the federal government, except that several members of Congress live nearby?

I would submit that if Del. Holmes-Norton and other members are so concerned about rebuilding Eastern Market than they should dip into their own pockets to help out -- not just unassumingly take from the taxpayers. It sure is a lot easier to spend money when it is not yours, than when it is.

Our whole government is built on that notion . . . .

GLEN WHITMAN looks at the economics of romance. Some will find this analysis troubling.

NICE WORDS FOR BILL RICHARDSON from a gun-toting woman.

OBAMA'S SELECTIVE MEMORY: At Mother Jones.

(Via Peter Suderman, who comments: "Obama seems to be hoping that people don't notice that he opposed the war in Iraq despite believing that Saddam Hussein had developed chemical and biological weapons.")

I think this is bigger than the MySpace scandal, but both are small potatoes.

UPDATE: Tom Maguire defends Obama against the wingnuts at Mother Jones. "I suppose one might argue that Obama should have skipped the ellipsis and faced the (very faint) music regarding his apparent acceptance of a WMD argument - in this day and age, did he really think folks would not track down a speech posted at his own site? But that said, there is no here here. Which puts me in Glenn's 'small potatoes' camp."

Meanwhile, the MySpace story is generating robust debate on Slashdot.

PRO-GUN GROUP wants Gonzales to resign.

"HOW BLOGS BLOW THINGS OUT OF PROPORTION:" You're kidding. This happens?

IN THE MAIL: The Girls Next Door - Season 2 on DVD. Suggested slogan: "The boobs are fake, but the entertainment is real!"

As my brother's girlfriend points out, it's almost certainly the most positive portrayal of a heterosexual relationship on TV today. Which surely says something significant . . . .

BERNARD HARCOURT has still more on institutionalization and imprisonment of the mentally ill, and what this means for crime rates. "I’m not only surprised by the results of the regression, I’m almost horrified also extremely concerned by the implications regarding the state of our current knowledge and existing research."

[Quote updated to reflect change in original. Thanks to Jacob Corre for the tip.]

DIRTY COAL, clean air?

There are at least a dozen proposals on Capitol Hill for sequestering all the carbon from coal burning, and the Senate Energy Committee began hearings last month on how to refocus research on the problem. It’s a challenge that has captured the attention of engineers across the country who hope to perfect a clean-coal technology that could provide climate-friendly energy for hundreds of years at modest cost.

“Coal has to be in our energy mix, because of its value for society and its importance to the country,” said Mark Gray, vice president for engineering services at American Electric Power, which recently announced three projects to capture carbon. “We have enough coal for anywhere from 200 to 450 years.”

We should also be working on producing liquid fuels from coal economically. Replacing oil with coal would be a good thing. It's certainly possible, but it's not easy.

UPDATE: Here's more on turning coal to gasoline. At current gas prices it's starting to look good.

AT POWER LINE, a new Presidential Candidates' forum. I think this could be big.

JOHN EDWARDS' PLAN for eliminating poverty. He's got a