June 23, 2007

NOTHING WRONG WITH A LITTLE NEPOTISM, as long as you keep it in the family: "Ohio’s chief law enforcer was caught on tape cursing a reporter outside a fundraiser for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama because of an article about a woman Dann raised as his daughter landing a state job. Attorney General Marc Dann, a Youngstown Democrat, was headed into the fundraiser Wednesday when he spotted Warren Tribune Chronicle reporter Steve Oravecz and shouted, 'Hey Steve, write this down: Go (expletive) yourself'!”

But it produced a YouTube moment: "Television station WYTV caught the swearing on camera and posted it online." If you're going to practice old-style politics, you still need to be hip to the new-style media.

MICHAEL TOTTEN: "Arab governments are finally taking notice that the Islamist radicals they have been tolerating, appeasing – and sometimes even nurturing – are clear and present dangers to them. Their winking and subtle support for Israel during last summer’s war with Hezbollah may have been explainable by the Sunni-Shia conflict, but their sudden fear and loathing of Hamas, the Palestinian branch of the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood, cannot be."

THOUGHTS ON CUSTOMER SERVICE: Everyone with a business should read them.

By the way, the Insta-Wife managed to talk to someone at Comcast who had both a brain and the authority to fix things, and our problem was taken care of. But I agree, stuff like this shouldn't be hard.

HEH:

The founder of an antiviolence group called No Guns pleaded not guilty Thursday to federal weapons charges.

Hector "Big Weasel" Marroquin is accused of selling an assault rifle, a machine gun, two pistols and two silencers to undercover federal agents last fall. He could face up to 50 years in prison if convicted.

Marroquin, 51, of Downey, is a onetime member of the 18th Street gang who founded No Guns in 1996. No Guns received $1.5 million from the city as a subcontractor on anti-gang efforts, but its contract was canceled last year.

Marroquin is charged with three counts of manufacture, distribution and transport for sale of an unlawful assault weapon, along with one count each of machine gun conversion and possession of a silencer.

Via Mark Steyn, who comments: "I love America! Even the anti-gun groups are full of gun nuts packing totally awesome heat."

EVERY MAN A SHRUM: A YouTube campaign from Mickey Kaus.

TIM RUTTEN ON SILENCE IN THE FACE OF THREATS against Salman Rushdie:

If you're wondering why you haven't been able to follow all the columns and editorials in the American press denouncing all this homicidal nonsense, it's because there haven't been any. And, in that great silence, is a great scandal.

Is there something beyond the solidarity of the decent that ought to have impelled every commentator and editorial page in the U.S. to express unequivocal support for Sir Salman this week?

Yes. . . . Equally to the point, what is the societal cost of silence among those who have not simply the moral obligation but also the ability to speak — like American commentators and editorial writers?

What masquerades as tolerance and cultural sensitivity among many U.S. journalists is really a kind of soft bigotry, an unspoken assumption that Muslim societies will naturally repress great writers and murder honest journalists, and that to insist otherwise is somehow intolerant or insensitive.

Lost in the self-righteous haze that masks this expedient sentiment is a critical point once made by the late American philosopher Richard Rorty, who was fond of pointing out that "some ideas, like some people, are just no damn good" and that no amount of faux tolerance or misplaced fellow feeling excuses the rest of us from our obligation to oppose such ideas and such people.

If Western and, particularly American, commentators refuse to speak up when their obligations are so clear, the fanatics will win and the terrible silence they so fervently desire will descend over vast stretches of our world — a silence in which the only permissible sounds are the prayers of the killers and the cries of their victims.

Read the whole thing. Frankly, I think the best argument for electing a Democrat as President is that as long as a Republican is in office the media powers-that-be will refuse to condemn even the worst atrocities on the part of Islamists, for fear of helping the real enemy in the White House . . . . (Via Joe Schmo).

MORE ON WHY ETHANOL FUEL is probably a bad idea:

Congress evidently believes that American energy independence depends, in part, on turning massive quantities of food into fuel. The energy bill being debated in the Senate would mandate that 36 billion gallons of ethanol be produced for transport fuel by 2020. President Bush is more or less on board since he proposed a 35 billion gallon mandate in his last State of the Union speech. This is on top of the 2005 requirement that 7.5 billion gallons of ethanol be produced by 2012. Almost one-third of the U.S. corn crop will be used to produce ethanol in 2012.

Some energy hawks might argue that breaking our dependence on foreign oil is worth higher food prices. After all, on average Americans spend about 10 percent of their incomes on groceries. Doubling that would bring us back to the good old days of the 1950s when families spent about 20 percent of their incomes on food. Doubled food prices would not mean mass starvation for Americans. However, our biofuels frenzy will not only starve oil despots of cash, but it could end up literally starving millions in poor countries.

As far as I can tell, food-based ethanol is just liquid pork. Nonetheless, the idea will probably get traction, because: "the world's poor do not participate in Iowa's presidential caucuses."

DICK CHENEY AS A LEGISLATIVE OFFICIAL: Ed Morrissey is not impressed with this gem of a legal argument. He's right not to be, and he's right that this is a political and legal embarrassment for the Administration, but it's not because of the constitutional language he quotes.

The argument that the Vice President is a legislative official isn't inherently absurd. The Constitution gives the Vice President no executive powers: The VP's only duties are to preside over the Senate, and to become President if the serving President dies or leaves office. The Vice President really isn't an Executive official, and isn't part of the President's administration the way that other officials are -- for one thing, the VP can't be fired by the President: As an independently elected officeholder, he can be removed only by Congress, via impeachment. (In various separation of powers cases, the Supreme Court has placed a lot of weight on this who-can-fire-you test).

And traditionally VP's haven't done much. That changed when Jimmy Carter gave Fritz Mondale an unusual amount of responsibility by historical standards, and has continued with subsequent Administrations, particularly under Clinton/Gore and Bush/Cheney.

But here's the thing: Whatever executive power a VP exercises is exercised because it's delegated by the President, not because the VP has it already. So to the extent the President delegates actual power (as opposed to just taking recommendations for action) the VP is exercising executive authority delegated by the President, but unlike everyone else who does so he/she isn't subject to removal from office by the President (though the President could always withdraw the delegation, of course). However -- and here's where the claim that Cheney is really a legislative official creates problems for the White House -- it seems pretty clear that the President isn't allowed to delegate executive power to a legislative official, as that would be a separation of powers violation. So to the extent that this is what's going on, the "Cheney is a legislative official" argument is one that opens a big can of worms.

None of this is to say that the President can't, in his own capacity, decide to apply different rules to the VP (who, after all, is an elected official, unlike cabinet secretaries, NSC staffers, and the like) if he chooses. But that's a different issue entirely from the "legislative official" angle. Like a lot of the Bush Administration's arguments, this is one that would make an interesting law school paper topic, or law review article, but that is politically idiotic and legally self-defeating. It's reminiscent, as one of Capt. Ed's commenters notes, of the Clinton Administration's effort to stall Paula Jones' lawsuit by claiming that as Commander-in-Chief the President is a serving member of the military. Clever, in a way. But definitely not smart.

UPDATE: Mike Rapaport says that I'm wrong. Sort of. "Glenn's argument is more far reaching than one might at first think. If he is right, then Presidents cannot delegate power to VPs, but they appear to have done this regularly in the last generation. It would make this modern practice unconstitutional. Of course, this is not an argument against Glenn's reading -- lots of modern practices are unconstitutional. But it would be significant."

Meanwhile, some excellent snark from Orin Kerr: "Today's Washington Post kicks off a series on Senate President Dick Cheney, who apparently has also exercised some influence in recent years within the Executive Branch."

SOUTH AFRICA'S IMMIGRATION PROBLEM:

As Zimbabwe’s disintegration gathers potentially unstoppable momentum, a swelling tide of migrants is moving into neighboring South Africa, driven into exile by oppression, unemployment and inflation so relentless that many goods now double in price weekly.

South Africa is deporting an average of 3,900 illegal Zimbabwean migrants every week, the International Organization for Migration says. That is up more than 40 percent from the second half of 2006, and six times the number South African officials said they were expelling in late 2003.

And that reflects only those who are captured. Many more Zimbabweans slip into the country undetected, although estimates vary wildly. In a nation of 46 million, most experts say, undocumented Zimbabweans could number several hundred thousand to two million.

Social tensions are ratcheting up in both nations, as Zimbabwe’s adult population dwindles and South Africans, already burdened by high unemployment, face new competition for jobs and housing.

Anyone who opposes this immigration must be a racist. Why else would anyone object to immigrants?

More seriously, the Mbeki government deserves these problems for its shameful complicity in Mugabe's disastrous dictatorship. South Africa could have done good here, but chose a see-no-evil approach. Now the problems are crossing its border.

ALAN BOYLE:

It's not often that a scientific experiment gets written up as a front-page news story, as well as a science-fiction twist in a best-selling thriller and a can't-miss movie script - but that's what's been happening to CERN's Antiproton Decelerator facility, the only place in the world where whole atoms of antimatter are built.

This summer, physicists at the facility are engaged in their own real-life thriller: Two teams of researchers are racing each other to be the first to trap atoms of antihydrogen in a magnetic cage. The researchers who do it first will grab the headlines once again. And the other team? "Being second is last in this game," said Jeffrey Hangst, a physicist at the University of Aarhus who is the spokesman for the ALPHA antimatter collaboration.

I just hope someone pulls it off.

RANDY NEAL REVIEWS the Garmin Nuvi 650 GPS navigator. I've often thought of buying one of these things, but I'm afraid it would cause my direction-finding abilities to atrophy.

POLAND ASKS THE E.U. to make up for mass murder.

But they're talked out of it.

TODAY IS NATIONAL COLUMNISTS DAY, set up in memory of Ernie Pyle. Not many are living up to his legacy.

TEXTING AND CELLPHONES: The new smoking?

IN THE MAIL: Col. Buzz Patterson's War Crimes: The Left's Campaign to Destroy Our Military and Lose the War on Terror.

I don't think that the left wants to lose the war on terror, exactly -- they just want Bush to lose the war on terror. I suspect, however, that Patterson's theme is one that we'll hear more in the future, especially if things go badly in Iraq.

UPDATE: Rand Simberg emails: "How can they want to lose a war that they don't even believe
exists? The only war that they're aware of is the one against Bush." It does seem that way sometimes.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Yeah, they're worried about this, and hence ridiculously defensive, for good reason.

MICKEY KAUS: Did Dick Morris lead Trent Lott astray?

NORM GERAS: "Imagine no possessions. It hasn't quite come to that yet. But the regime of Robert Mugabe is a good way along the road to getting rid of money. Because of hyperinflation, it's not worth holding on to." No money? I don't know if John would approve, but I'm pretty sure that Yoko wouldn't.

BODY-SLAMMED FOR LEGALLY CARRYING A GUN: If this report is accurate, it suggests a serious training deficit with the Knoxville Police, as well as an attitude problem on the part of the officer in question. I hope that the folks responsible will look into it, and fix things if the report is correct. (Via Michael Silence).

AUSTIN BAY ON IRAN: "The real sanction the mullahs fear is a revolt by Iranians. Fostering that should be our sanctions policy."

COLBY COSH:

What fascinates me about the case of Kieran King, the Saskatchewan high school student who was threatened, punished and slandered by various officials over the past three weeks for talking with some pals about the health effects of marijuana, is that it explodes almost every single utopian cliche about public schools that has been ever propounded by their employees and admirers. It's almost glorious, in a way. Ever heard an educator say "We're not here to teach students what to think -- we're here to teach them how to think"? BLAMMO! "We encourage children to make learning a lifelong process." KAPOW! Poor Kieran didn't even make it to age 16 before someone called the cops.

"Diversity is one of our most cherished values." But express a factually true opinion that diverges from what you've been taught and -- WHOOMP! "Public schools aren't crude instruments of social control, they're places where we lay the foundation for an informed citizenry." BOOM!

I could go on, but I'm running out of sound effects and I really don't have time to fire up an old Batman episode on You-Tube to gather more.

Read the whole thing.

MAN OWNS PART OF GEORGIA HIGHWAY: After state bungles eminent domain. If it were me, I'd set up toll booths . . . .

GOING TO IRAQ: Here's a story on Milblogger Andrew Olmsted, from The Rocky Mountain News.

UPDATE: What's going on in Iraq, from Bill Roggio.

ANOTHER UPDATE: More thoughts here.

JOBS AMERICANS WON'T DO -- unless they're robots:

As if the debate over immigration and guest worker programs wasn't complicated enough, now a couple of robots are rolling into the middle of it.

Vision Robotics, a San Diego company, is working on a pair of robots that would trundle through orchards plucking oranges, apples or other fruit from the trees. In a few years, troops of these machines could perform the tedious and labor-intensive task of fruit picking that currently employs thousands of migrant workers each season.

The robotic work has been funded entirely by agricultural associations, and pushed forward by the uncertainty surrounding the migrant labor force. Farmers are "very, very nervous about the availability and cost of labor in the near future," says Vision Robotics CEO Derek Morikawa.

Eventually, of course, the robots will be made in China, and American-built robots will complain if they're imported illegally.

THOUGHTS ON VIDEO GAME ADDICTION: "If everyone who was addicted to games spent six hours in front of the TV every night, what would we call them? Right: normal."

A LOOK AT THE WEEK THAT WAS, from Don Surber. I like Thursday's entry best.

June 22, 2007

PENNSYLVANIA VIDEO ARREST UPDATE:

A case that attracted nationwide attention has ended with the dropping of a felony wiretapping charge against a Carlisle man who recorded a police officer during a traffic stop.

Cumberland County District Attorney David Freed said his decision will affect not only Brian Kelly, 18, but also will establish a policy for police departments countywide.

"When police are audio- and video-recording traffic stops with notice to the subjects, similar actions by citizens, even if done in secret, will not result in criminal charges," Freed said yesterday. "I intend to communicate this decision to all police agencies within the county so that officers on the street are better-prepared to handle a similar situation should it arise again."

Freed's decision came a week after a story in The Patriot-News caused a storm of criticism over Kelly's May 24 arrest by a Carlisle police officer on the wiretapping charge, which carries a penalty of up to seven years in prison upon conviction.

Kelly's father, Chris, called the withdrawal of the charge "fantastic." "That's what should have happened to begin with," he said.

Yes, it is. But I still think we need a federal civil rights statute protecting this kind of audio/video recording, backed up with damages, abrogation of sovereign immunity, and attorney fees.

A LOOK AT WHAT THEY'RE NOT COVERING while they talk about Paris Hilton, etc.: "You've no doubt heard of Paris Hilton, and of Rosie O'Donnell as well. We're pretty sure you know what Barry Bonds is up to. But have you ever heard of Arrowhead Ripper? The likely answer is no." Unless you read InstaPundit or some other blogs.

Plus, read this.

FRESH BACK FROM IRAQ, J.D. JOHANNES WRITES:

Baker-Hamilton is making an unfortunate comeback.

Unfortunate because while Sandra Day O'Conner is a distinguished jurist I am not sure of her qualifications to guide counter-insurgency tactics.

It is unfortunate that a group of old, er, elder states people will be granted expert status on a war they have barely witnessed in person and issue a several hundred page document.

But J.D. plans to help:

The Johannes report will take you down into Baghdad's mahalas and Anbar's villages in brilliant High Definition DVD where you will see and hear first hand accounts from tribesmen who are fighting Al Qaida, soldiers who are fighting Jaish al Mahdi, Generals, Lt. Colonels, Captains, Sergeants and enlisted men.

Phase one of the Johannes Report--which will surely have a fancier title involving concertina wire--will be out in August. If everything goes well.

Follow the link for more.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to American Digest.

A REVERSAL IN IRAQ:

SIX months ago, the U.S.- led Coalition force in Iraq appeared to be largely in self-defense mode, allowing terrorists and insurgents much latitude in parts of Baghdad and the troubled provinces of Anbar and Diyala. At the same time, the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki appeared to be engaged in a broad political offensive.

Today we have what looks like a reversal of the two situations - with dynamism in the military field but lethargy in the political. The Coalition has increased its effective force by almost 20,000 men and, under its new commander, Gen. David Petraeus, has moved into offensive gear.

Read the whole thing.

ATLAS IS SHRUGGING. "Perhaps men are merely acting rationally. They’ve assessed the risk of volunteering to work with children, and want no part of it."

GIVING UP ON UNITED AIRLINES.

ENGAGING WITH "MODERATE ISLAMISTS:" Melanie Phillips thinks the Bush Administration's strategy is a mistake.

SO IF YOU CRITICIZE NEWS REPORTING, you might as well be shooting reporters?

A LOOK AT WHAT'S HAPPENED TO BRITAIN UNDER BLAIR: I suspect America under a Hillary administration would fare similarly.

YES, THERE DOES SEEM TO BE A GROWING POLITICAL CONSENSUS in favor of shutting up the hoi polloi.

TROUBLE FOR LAMAR ALEXANDER? The possibility of real opposition looms.

THE UNITED NATIONS AND GLOBAL WARMING: Ed Driscoll notes an irony.

A HIGHLY EFFICIENT LIGHTBULB that lasts practically forever. (Via the Speculist).

INDEED: "While it isn't my job here to make a moral pronouncement, in my half a century on the planet I have detected a significant moral shift. I can remember when living off government money without working was considered less than morally optimal, and being on the government payroll carried with it no special moral authority. Nor should it. Yet I have seen a growing tendency in some circles to see tax eaters (of all varieties) as morally better than the people whose taxes pay them. This makes no sense."

JAIL TIME FOR NIFONG?

Beleaguered and disbarred former District Attorney Mike Nifong, who prosecuted the Duke University lacrosse rape case, could wind up in jail if a motion is granted asking that criminal charges be filed against him, FOX News has learned.

The three Duke lacrosse players falsely accused of rape by a stripper plan to file the motion Friday against the ex-Durham County district attorney who built the case against them.

If the motion asking for criminal sanctions against Nifong is granted, the prosecutor could land in prison.

The players, who have been exonerated, are also asking for financial reimbursement.

This has got to be bothersome to prosecutors everywhere. Of course, if they're innocent of Nifongesque conduct, they have nothing to fear. Right?

THIS MORNING I LINKED MICHAEL YON'S LATEST POST on the battle for Baqubah, but he just sent this followup email: "It's Friday evening 22 June. Operation Arrowhead Ripper continues to unfold. The operation is going very well. This looks like it will become a serious problem for al Qaeda." Let's hope.

RICK LEE PHOTOGRAPHS the world's greatest sidewalk artist.

MAKING ROCK INTO BIOFUEL: Tyghe Trimble looks at the state of clean coal technology.

Plus, Jay Leno gets wind power: Hope he doesn't live close to Ted Kennedy!

CARS OF THE UNITED NATIONS: "Not a Prius in sight."

HEY, I'VE GOT TRACTION: "Daylife, the much-hyped online news aggregation site which launched for public consumption in January but hasn’t gained much traction as of yet, has raised $8 million in second round of funding, according to SEC filings." And I aggregate news, too! Where's my $8 million?

JESSE WALKER has good news for low-power radio.

LARRY SUMMERS on China , taxes, and growth.

MORE ON BOYS, DANGER, AND FUN. Plus, a reader suggests Backyard Ballistics as another source of summer fun. On the other hand, many parents will shy away from Backyard Rocketry: Converting Model Rockets Into Explosive Missiles, which I haven't read, but which is certainly something we did when I was a kid. Judging by the reader reviews, though, there's reason to shy away.

A 72 DOLLAR PC. "With antiquated components flooding the surplus-parts market and free operating systems only a click away, building a fully functional computer has never been such a bargain." Well, the price is right!

MISERABLE FAILURE: A Chinese sedan gets a crash test.

TAX COURT HITS NURSE WITH ALTERNATIVE MINIMUM TAX, Rejects Argument that Congress Did Not Intend AMT to Apply to "Nonwealthy Working Class." I think the AMT creep could wind up being a big issue if it's not addressed soon.

EXTREME MORTMAN, unknown blogger.

JOHN TAMMES ROUNDS UP news from Afghanistan. Don't miss it.

HOWARD KURTZ: "Should Nader get in, it raises an interesting question for the press: Do you spend much time covering the guy--who can be very colorful in trashing his rivals--for the sheer entertainment of it?"

HELPING THE POOR BY HELPING YOURSELF: I'm clearly in the wrong business.

I think there are two Americas: Those who manage to enrich themselves by exploiting legal technicalities, and those who do not.

ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS COMES TO sex toys.

I'M AGAINST RAISING THE CAFE STANDARDS, but here's a roundup of ways automakers can meet them. Still here's the key bit: "There’s no question that Detroit can build cars and trucks that meet the new CAFÉ standard. And Congress is determined to make them do it. But has anybody calculated the costs? Raising fleet standards to these levels would add thousands of dollars to the cost of the average vehicle—carbon fiber and polycarbonate don’t come cheap, folks! . . . We suspect that consumers—and voters—may experience something like sticker shock when they realize they’re the ones paying the bill."

A gas tax would be more honest -- which is probably why Congress is considering raising CAFE standards instead. Roundup on the energy bill here. Happily it seems that subsidies for ethanol didn't do as well as expected. No word on what Ted Kennedy said about wind power, though there was a big debate over requiring utilities to generate more power from renewables; that failed too.

STRANGE SILENCE ON IRAN: "It's quite amazing how the desire NOT to know trumps intelligence every time. Can't let the facts get in the way of good policy, right? The desire NOT to know about Iran is not at all unique to this administration or to this secretary of state. Indeed, it is the basic theme of American policy ever since the 1979 Revolution that brought the Ayatollah Khomeini to power in Tehran."

CHICAGO TRIBUNE: "Democrats promised way more than they've delivered so far."

MICHAEL YON POSTS ANOTHER REPORT on the battle for Baqubah: "Our guys are winning. Al Qaeda is about to be strangled and pummeled to death in this town, but the local Iraqi leadership is severely wanting."

Read the whole thing.

WHEN THE IDENTITY THIEF IS AN IDIOT:

Crooks in an underground chat room for selling stolen credit card numbers and personal consumer information offered pilfered data purportedly about Herman Munster, the 1960s Frankenstein-like character from "The Munsters" TV sitcom.

The thieves apparently didn't realize Munster was a fictional TV character and dutifully offered to sell Munster's personal details -- accurately listing his home address from the television series as 1313 Mocking Bird Lane -- and what appeared to be his MasterCard number. Munster's birth date was listed as Aug. 15, 1964, suspiciously close to the TV series' original air date in September 1964.

CardCops Inc., the Malibu, Calif., Internet security company that quietly recorded details of the illicit but wayward transaction, surmised that a Munsters fan knowledgeable about the show deliberately provided the bogus data.

An army of Hermans.

AN EXAMPLE FOR BRITAIN, from the Australians.

June 21, 2007

MICKEY KAUS: "Hey, I gave Kerry $300! That's chopped liver? Why can't I be a scandal too? ...P.S.: Salon's on the list. I'm as biased as Salon!"

CHICAGO TRIBUNE: "Obama again blames staff for miscues."

HERE'S LOTS MORE ADVICE on keeping computers from ruining your back, from Dr. Melissa Clouthier.

HAMAS SHOWS OFF FATAH'S TORTURE CHAMBER: Fortunately, with Hamas in charge, there's no danger of anything like that happening now.

FRED THOMPSON on CAIR.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: The earmarks are starting to go online:

The House Appropriations Committee today took its first official steps to disclose pet projects in FY08 spending bills, revisiting the Interior-Environment and Financial Services measures to add the earmarks in advance of floor action next week. Now that Republicans got their wish, they are seeing the fruits of their efforts up close. Their own projects are being squeezed both by House Appropriations Chairman Obey's decree of a 50 percent total reduction in earmarked projects as well as being on the receiving end of a 60-40 split between the majority and minority they have not experienced in a dozen years.

"There's nothing magic about a 50 percent reduction," Obey said.

"We're simply trying to draw the line so that we have sufficient staff capacity to provide the review of these projects that is necessary to avoid embarrassment to the committee or the institution."

Much more information at the link. Plus, the Republican Study Committee is now posting earmarks information online, too.

Max Sawicky thinks that the PorkBusters campaign is doomed: "You might as well take a match to an iceberg. Pork is here to stay. Try it with some black bean sauce."

Well, it's uphill. But we've at least got them acting ashamed, and we're forcing some additional transparency into the system. it's a start, anyway. I also think that Max underestimates the role of pork in fostering both actual bribery, and also the somewhat more subtle corruption that leads members of Congress to see the public fisc as their own trough, something that leads to the sort of entitlement mentality and pocket-stuffing behavior that has Congress getting a 14% confidence rating from the public. There are lots of costs to that, and the worst ones aren't economic.

UPDATE: Related item here: "Third, and for me the biggest problem, is the corrupt atmosphere this breeds, and the utter domination of Congress it gives to the powerful members of the appropriations committees. Incumbent congressmen often win reelection based on "bringing home the bacon." To do that, they need to play nice to members of the appropriators. Thus, on any given issue, they are very likely to be highly attuned to the desires of the appropriators. Voters have pretty short memories. Politicians tend to have long ones. Between campaign contributions from "leadership PACs" and control over the earmarks appropriations process, the Congressional leadership can rather easily reward compliant congressmen and punish those who refuse to toe the party line. Transparency should only be the first step."

Indeed.

ATTACKING TALK RADIO via legislation? If you can't beat people, silence 'em! Trent Lott will probably sign on.

UPDATE: I see that Hillary and Boxer are denying the report, but I gather Inhofe is standing by it. Frankly, I think they're lying -- the Democrats, and many of the Republican inhabitants of Incumbistan, like Trent Lott, would be happy to shut up talk radio, and all the other alt-media, too. If they say otherwise, I don't believe them.

AN ELECTRIFIED GOAT FENCE for the border?

SEXUALLY ABUSING A CHILD to prosecute child abuse: "The girl almost certainly wasn't sexually abused by the defendant, but she was by the physician retained by the prosecutor."

SOME DISTURBING PHOTOS OF CARROTS.

None, however, is half so disturbing as this one.

POLITICAL BLOGGER SENT FOR COUNSELING as a way of keeping his job. Seems kinda Cultural-Revolutionish, doesn't it? "Off to the reeducation camp for you, blogger!" But it's actually worse: It means that he doesn't take responsibility for his words, and his boss doesn't either, since he doesn't have to either fire him or keep him on. How convenient.

DON'T TELL OBAMA YOU BLOG! (Via Blogometer).

A LOOK AT JOURNALISTIC POLITICAL DONATIONS: "MSNBC.com identified 144 journalists who made political contributions from 2004 through the start of the 2008 campaign, according to the public records of the Federal Election Commission. Most of the newsroom checkbooks leaned to the left: 125 journalists gave to Democrats and liberal causes. Only 17 gave to Republicans. Two gave to both parties."

Sounds like they've got a diversity problem.

ACRES OF BLINDING CHROME! "Got chrome everywhere I need it, rolled and pleated front to back."

MORE IRAQ REPORTING FROM MICHAEL YON: Read the whole thing, but here's an encouraging excerpt:

A positive indicator on the 19th and the 20th is that most local people apparently are happy that al Qaeda is being trapped and killed. Civilians are pointing out IEDs and enemy fighters, so that’s not working so well for al Qaeda. Clearly, I cannot do a census, but that says something about the locals.

Let's hope so.

A "MILLION LETTER' CAMPAIGN ON IMMIGRATION, without the million letters.

SOME TRANSPARENCY PROGRESS FROM BARACK OBAMA: "This is interesting: Barack Obama is vowing to detail all his earmark requests in the next two days and is challenging his Presidential rivals to do the same. Obama, who's tried to be out front on good government and ethics issues, is apparently the first Presidential hopeful to do this."

THE ORAL-B TRIUMPH gets a rave review from the PM folks: "this is the best, smartest toothbrush I've ever used." Do I want my toothbrush to be smart?

UPDATE: Oops. They look the same, but a reader says that the one I linked to doesn't have the bluetooth.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: The Appropriations Committees -- cesspits of corruption?

Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, the number-two Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, is under investigation by the Justice Department for his ties to an Alaska-based oil services company, according to media reports. And he's not alone: Three other congressional appropriators are facing federal investigations, too.

House Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) says another inquiry is complicating a favorite pastime for committee members: earmarking money for special projects that benefit constituents and, all too often, their donors. . . .

All of this has some on Capitol Hill asking if there is something endemic to the culture of the appropriations committees, in both the House and the Senate. Is the scent of money too tempting, too corrupting? Is appropriation's long history of backroom deal-making no longer acceptable in this more transparent era?

Appropriators don't think so, of course, and they say that they don't believe there are any "cultural" problems specific to the committees.

I beg to differ. There's obviously a culture of entitlement, and impunity there. It's apparent in many ways, not least the offense taken when people want information about what's going on. Though to be fair, the problem certainly isn't limited to the Appropriations Committees, as episodes like William Jefferson's illustrate.

IRSHAD MANJI: "Growing up in Vancouver, I attended an Islamic school every Saturday. There, I learned that Jews can't be trusted because they worship 'moolah, not Allah', meaning money, not God. According to my teacher, every last Jew is consumed with business."

AN IMMIGRATION SOLUTION THAT MIGHT FLY: Deport Congress!

IN LIGHT OF MY EARLIER POST ON VIDEOTAPING POLICE, it's worth once again recommending David Brin's excellent book on surveillance, etc., The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us to Choose Between Privacy and Freedom? It just keeps seeming more and more prophetic. And sensible.

AMERICA'S POLITICAL CLASS faces a crisis of confidence. Mark Tapscott comments on the latest plummeting polls:

Consider the latest Gallup Poll, which finds only 14 percent of the American people have "a great deal of" confidence in Congress or "quite a lot," compared to 19 percent a year ago. That is lowest confidence rating Gallup has ever recorded for Congress since the survey firm began measuring public confidence in major American institutions in 1973.

Congress is far from alone in suffering plummeting confidence ratings. The presidency dropped from 33 percent to 25 percent and the Supreme Court from 40 percent to 34 percent. The "fourth branch" of government, the mainstream media, also has declining public confidence ratings. Television news dropped from 31 percent to 23 percent, while newspapers were down to 22 percent, compared to 30 percent a year ago.

The highest confidence levels were for the military at 69 percent, small business at 59 percent, and the police at 54 percent. Organized labor remained among the lowest at 19 percent, along with HMOs at 15 percent and Big Business at 18 percent.

If we define America's political class as consisting of the three branches of the federal government, plus the mainstream news media, some tentative conclusions are suggested:

First, the dramatic reversal of partisan political power seen in the November 2006 election was either a fluke or an inevitably lost opportunity for the winning Democrats. Short of an historically unprecedented philosophical reversal of course by the majority, it is hard to see Congress regaining public respect any time soon.

Seen in this light, Rep. Rahm Emanuel's recent declaration that the American people "are very happy with the things we have done" seems especially out of touch.

In fact, having raised and then frustrated public hopes for a change in Washington, the Democrats lost opportunity could well end up accelerating the crisis of confidence seen as the previous GOP congressional majority frittered away the support that had kept it in power for a dozen years.

Second, Republicans should take no comfort in the Democrats' declining ratings.

I agree. There's much more and you should read it all. This is much more important than the political horse-race business. And I agree with this part, too: "The root problem is a bipartisan inability - or refusal - to adopt policies supported by clear majorities of the American people. Those policies for the most part involve a significantly lower level of government activism, whereas the political class for the most part seeks only a higher level."

UPDATE: More thoughts from Sean Hackbarth. And Tammy Bruce wants a constitutional amendment to fire Congress when its approval gets this low.

MORE: Thoughts on burning bridges.

STILL MORE: Apparently Congress doesn't think much of America, either. Well, that would explain a lot . . . .

HOWARD KURTZ NOTES that the Bloomberg-boomlet has its limits: "Funny--the networks don't seem to be running as many pictures of Bloomberg as they did with Paris."

SOME ADVICE on how to keep computers from damaging your spine. Yeah, I've mentioned this repeatedly, but really, pay attention: This stuff is no joke.

RYAN LIZZA CHARGES BILL RICHARDSON with flipflopping and airbrushing on the war. I like Richardson, except for his war positions, but this doesn't inspire confidence.

TYLER COWEN IS PROMOTING HIS NEW BOOK by using a secret blog. Clever.

RALPH NADER CALLS HILLARY A COWARD. Plus, exciting news for Democrats:

Ralph Nader says he is seriously considering running for president in 2008 because he foresees another Tweedledum-Tweedledee election that offers little real choice to voters.

Bloomberg/Nader 2008!

IF BOYS DO IT, IT'S SEXIST. If girls do it, it's liberating!

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: Hmm. This transcript from CNN suggests one reason why Congress's approval ratings are in freefall:

ANDERSON COOPER: Drew, it's just amazing that nothing has changed. What happened to all those promises about transparency, about having this whole process be open? I can't believe you had all those interns calling for days and some 330 lawmakers said they just wouldn't even give out the information.

GRIFFIN: Anderson it's mind-boggling. One congressional aide even sent us an e-mail saying, listen, my congressman is an advocate of the open process and at the same time said we're not going to release our earmark requests.

It's just been an eye-opening experience, but quite frankly the more we're doing this, the more we're keeping them honest and other groups are, the more open they are grudgingly becoming so tonight we have posted at cnn.com the results of our surveys. We're going to show you who did send us the earmarks and their earmark requests, who said no, who wouldn't respond and even, Anderson, who was rude to those poor little interns when they called asking what Congress wants to do with our money.

COOPER: The fact that people would be rude, that is really annoying, you know. This is -- this is, A, what journalists are supposed to be doing but it's also what citizens should be able to do, you know, to the people who represent them.

GRIFFIN: Clearly it's annoying to them. They don't like to be called on the carpet, especially, I mean, I hate to get political here, but have you to. The Democrats promised in December open, transparent process. Now they are being called to come up with that open, transparent process and it's been difficult because for so many years and decades, quite frankly, business as usual has been slipped in those earmark requests and we'll continue to pay for them.

Broken promises are worse than no promises at all.

I AGREE:

There's been a rash of arrests of late for videotaping police, and it's a disturbing development. . . . As noted, police are public servants, paid with taxpayer dollars. Not only that, but they're given extraordinary power and authority we don't give to other public servants: They're armed; they can make arrests; they're allowed to break the very laws they're paid to enforce; they can use lethal force for reasons other than self-defense; and, of course, the police are permitted to videotape us without our consent.

It's critical that we retain the right to record, videotape or photograph the police while they're on duty. Not only for symbolic reasons (when agents of the state can confiscate evidence of their own wrongdoing, you're treading on seriously perilous ground), but as an important check on police excesses. In the age of YouTube, video of police misconduct captured by private citizens can have an enormous impact.

That's why they're making (futile) efforts to shut it down. But suggesting that the police have a right to "privacy" while performing a public duty in public is ridiculous. In fact, it's worse than ridiculous -- it's an effort to place the police above the law that applies to the citizenry, their employers.

June 20, 2007

THE DRIP, DRIP, DRIP ON OBAMA: It's as if his real purpose were to get some people excited about a Democrat, then fade just in time for Hillary to win the nomination.

OH, GOOD, SOMETHING ELSE TO WORRY ABOUT:

Solar scientists predict that, by 2020, the sun will be starting into its weakest Schwabe solar cycle of the past two centuries, likely leading to unusually cool conditions on Earth. Beginning to plan for adaptation to such a cool period, one which may continue well beyond one 11-year cycle, as did the Little Ice Age, should be a priority for governments. It is global cooling, not warming, that is the major climate threat to the world.

So we'll either be roasting, or freezing. I guess either way, more insulation in my attic is a good idea.

HERE, IN CASE YOU WANT IT FOR ANYTHING, is a list of contact information for U.S. Senators.

HOW BAD IS THE IMMIGRATION BILL? This bad: "In fact, even a National Journal columnist with no apparent qualifications could write a better bill. . . . Suffice it to say that writing a perfect immigration bill is impossible, but writing a better one than the Senate's is a piece of cake."

THIS SEEMS LAME: No more food for returning troops at Bangor International Airport, unless they buy it from an airport vendor.

More here.

CONGRESS AT 14% APPROVAL:

This 14% Congressional confidence rating is the all-time low for this measure, which Gallup initiated in 1973. The previous low point for Congress was 18% at several points in the period of time 1991 to 1994.

Congress is now nestled at the bottom of the list of Gallup's annual Confidence in Institutions rankings, along with HMOs. Just 15% of Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in HMOs. (By way of contrast, 69% of Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the military, which tops the list. More on this at galluppoll.com on Thursday). . . .

Generally speaking, Americans have been skeptical about Congress for decades now. But the current 14% confidence rating for Congress is down from 19% last year and is the lowest in Gallup’s history, surpassing the 18% confidence in Congress measured in 1991, 1993 and 1994.

Ouch: Worse than HMOs. It's well-earned. Nonetheless, this is troubling, and not just for the Democrats, who are only doing somewhat worse than the GOP Congress did. How long can we have a free and successful nation with such an unpopular -- and deservedly so -- political class.

UPDATE: Reader Christopher Grayce emails:

C'mon, now, this is GOOD news. Surely Americans are better off learning to be more deeply and consistently skeptical about what government can actually accomplish. That way lies greater citizen self-reliance, and a decreased tendency to look to government to solve big complex problems like protecting us all from bad weather and bad luck.

Well, there's some of that. But the problem is, 14% is an awfully low number, and while we're in no danger of a military coup, the contrast with the military's much higher approval explains why this is iffy as a long-term proposition. (And lowering the military's numbers isn't a good response, either.)

You need a certain amount of confidence for a nation to operate as a nation. Worse yet, I think this low approval number is justified, which illustrates that we're being pretty badly governed. That's a problem, too.

ANOTHER UPDATE: This doesn't help much:

Americans give both President Bush and the Congress failing marks on their handling of immigration, according to a new UPI/Zogby poll on the topic.

The Zogby Interactive poll of 8,300 adults nationwide finds just 3% of Americans viewing Congress's handling of the immigration issue in favorable terms, while 9% say the same of the President-even as respondents in the survey rated it the second most important issue facing the country, after the war in Iraq.

Three percent? That doesn't quite put the possibility that no one approves within the margin of error, but . . . .

MORE: Reader Bruce Goldston emails:

I think there is a greater disconnect between the Political Class and the Public than ever before -- and, to quote a phrase -- deservedly so. The most liberal senator has more in common with the most conservative senator than either has in common with you or me, and we know it.

Indeed.

STILL MORE: Jim Norman of USA Today emails to note that this isn't an "approval" number, but a "confidence" number:

The 14% number for Congress is not really an approval rating. It's actually a measure of confidence in the institution of Congress. Of course the two (approval, confidence) aren't that much different, but Gallup does have a specific question to measure Congressional approval -- the very straightforward "Do you approve or disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job?"

That question was also asked in Gallup's poll this month, and the approval rating was 24%. That's not the lowest (18% in 1992), but it's among the 10 lowest measured in the 150+ times Gallup has asked the Congressional approval question, going back to 1980.

Worth keeping that in mind -- mixing the two up isn't apples and oranges, but it's at least winesaps vs. Granny Smiths. Er, or choose the apple-related metaphor of your choice.

ERIC SCHEIE: "I can always remind myself that if the 300 could hold at Thermopylae, then I ought to be able to hold for my customer service."

I'm pretty sure that the Spartans wouldn't have taken kindly to modern customer-relations techniques, though.

REPORTING TROOP MOVEMENTS at the BBC.

CHANNELING ROBERTO UNGER: "Answer me, God."

MICKEY KAUS on the Senate immigration vote: "60? Noam Askew and The Hill and AP have updates on the seemingly close immigration-bill cloture issue. Swing-state Dems Webb, Tester, and McCaskill may be crucial. All have amendments in the hopper that could give them cover to vote for cloture--or would give them cover, anyway, in a pre-Internet fool-the-voters age."

Plus, where are the "Lou Dobbs Democrats?"

THE RATINGS ALWAYS DROP TWICE: Inspector Dan Rather returns.

WENDY'S VS. MAYOR BLOOMBERG: Heh.

THAT DIDN'T TAKE LONG: China overtakes US as world's biggest CO2 emitter.

I credit One Billion Bulbs!

Speaking of which, the Kossacks are still lagging, though they're firmly in the Number Two slot now:

But then, so is the United States, as China pulls ahead!

MORE VETOES ON STUFF THAT MATTERS, PLEASE: Bush vetoes stem cell bill.

FLEMMING ROSE, of Muhammad cartoon fame, is now blogging for Pajamas Media.

IF ONION RINGS STAND IN FOR VAGINAS, then to what symbolic use can we put an Awesome Blossom?

IT ALL DEPENDS ON WHAT THE MEANING OF "EVENTUALLY" IS, I guess.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: Going on the offensive in the fight against earmarks:

Sensing a major shift in the political winds, Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) is zeroing in on groups that receive earmarks to help businesses win even more federal dollars.

And he’s not making any exceptions: Flake’s targets include a pet project of Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.).

Unlike some of his rank-and-file peers, Flake isn’t afraid to confront powerful appropriators who wield the ability to grant or withhold money from members’ districts. Flake doesn’t request earmarks for his district so he’s free to go on the attack.

Flake last year made waves by taking aim at an earmark of Rep. Jerry Lewis’s (R-Calif.), who headed the spending panel at the time. But that vote, as well as all of his efforts to kill earmarks, went down in flames.

All of sudden, however, Flake has plenty of friends joining his anti-pork crusade. Republican leaders last week challenged Obey for not wanting to disclose earmarks in spending bills until the final stage of the legislative process. Republicans declared victory when Obey reversed course, but Democrats claimed that GOP lawmakers were acting like reborn reformers because last year most failed to support Flake’s earmark challenges.

How Republicans respond to earmark challenges this year will test their commitment to transparency and reform. And Flake isn’t wasting any time. Last week, while Republicans were busy fighting Obey’s proposed earmark policy, Flake was taking issue with the chairman’s earmarks to a group known as the Wisconsin Procurement Institute (WPI), whose main purpose is trying to help the state’s businesses obtain more federal contracts and grants.

To Flake, the idea of providing federal money to subsidize the process of trying to obtain more federal money is absurd.

Absurd, yes. Surprising, no.

BILL ROGGIO HAS MORE ON what's happening in Iraq.

And Bob Owens notes some media recycling.

IN THE POST, an interview with Evan Coyne Maloney, about his documentary film Indoctrinate U., which universities don't seem to like much. Follow the link to the film site if you'd like to have a screening in your area. Maybe Evan should hold screenings for alumni groups and state legislatures. . . .

Here's our podcast interview with Evan and his partner Stewart Browning.

NAVY SEAL MARCUS LUTTRELL has a new book out, Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10. He talks about things here, on Breitbart TV.

CHEERING THE TERRORISTS ON: "As the fighting in Gaza reached its horrific fever pitch last week, it was hard to know which side to cheer for."

UPDATE: Or not.

BRENDAN LOY recounts more problems with Comcast. They seem kind of unpopular.

Honestly, my earlier experiences with them have been okay -- the service guys they've sent out over the years have been decent. But I'm pretty unhappy at the moment.

NORM GERAS LOOKS AT THE FEEBLE RESPONSE FROM THE LEFT to riots and threats over Salman Rushdie's knighthood: "Two days ago I argued that the left should cleave to the epithet 'liberal', on account of the importance of the values liberalism has stood for historically. I did not then enter the reservation that I will enter now: which is that if the word is sometimes held in low esteem, part of the reason for this is the kind of 'liberalism' that will lose sight of the need to defend some crucial liberal value in the light of obfuscating considerations. You may be opposed to the honours system, or you may think that Rushdie wasn't worth a knighthood for literary or personal reasons; but ambiguity about how much respect is owed to the outrage over the award there should not be. None is."

Meanwhile, lots of thoughts at Sepia Mutiny.

REMEMBERING THE FATHER OF THE IRANIAN REVOLUTION.

SO I LINKED TO THIS MARGARITA MAKER a couple of weeks ago, but I think the folks at BoingBoing have got me beat. In spades!

IT'S NATIONAL ICE CREAM SODA DAY, but I completely missed World Sauntering Day, which was yesterday. I think I managed to saunter a bit around Market Square, though it bordered dangerously on a mere stroll. If only I had known!

IS IT THE END OF TV as we know it? I feel fine. Er, except about my skyrocketing cable bill.

KERRY HOWLEY LOOKS AT Barack Obama and trade as treason.

AN INTERESTING PARALLEL:

Imagine this: In a Southern town, a woman accuses several men of rape. Despite the woman's limited credibility and ever-shifting story, the community and its legal establishment immediately decide the men are guilty. Their protestations of innocence are dismissed out of hand, exculpatory evidence is ignored.

The Duke rape case, right? No, the Scottsboro case that began in 1931, in the darkest days of the Jim Crow South.

The two cases offer a remarkable insight into how very, very far this country has come in race relations, and alas, in some ways how little. For race is central to why both cases became notorious. In Scottsboro, Ala., of course, the accusers were white and the accused was black. In Durham, N.C., it was the other way around.

Read the whole thing. One constant factor -- the news media's performance sucked both times.

NOW THAT CONGRESS HAS BEEN BOUGHT AND PAID FOR, let's start renting out the staff!

Uncle Chuck Wants You!

That's the message jumping out of the latest fundraising letter sent out from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, chaired by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.). [Click the image to the right to see the full text.]

This invite first appeared (in print only) in Jeffrey Birnbaum's K Street column in Tuesday's Washington Post, but Capitol Briefing can add a few notable details. Read the fine print and you'll see that senators aren't the draw at this event, slated for July 10 at the DSCC's Mott House across the street from the Capitol.

Officially, lobbyists are asked to give or raise $2,000 to be a "host" or $1,000 to be a "DSCC friend" in order to meet "individuals representing" Senate Democrats. That's code word for chiefs of staff and staff directors of committees, according to lobbyists who received the fundraising pitch. The image of the invite that was e-mailed to Capitol Briefing included the file name of "chiefs invitation".

It's part of what some lobbyists say is an emerging technique in fundraising by the campaign committees -- gathering a group of top advisers to lawmakers rather than the principals themselves. Lobbyists say they've heard that later this year House Democratic chiefs of staff will be the draw at a fundraiser for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

It's legal, but it's just more evidence that they're all for sale. Or rent. What's next? Congressional puts and calls?

I'm actually in favor of this. With members of Congress spending most of their time fundraising, most actual lawmaking work has devolved to the staff. So if we can get the staff busy fundraising, too, maybe we'll just see less legislating overall. Which, based on recent performance, would pretty much have to be an improvement.

THE HOLY GRAIL OF STEM-CELL SCIENCE?

Only a few days ago an article in the leading journal Nature brought amazing news. A Japanese team at Kyoto University has discovered how to reprogram skin cells so that they "dedifferentiate" into the equivalent of an embryonic stem cell. From this they can be morphed, theoretically, into any cell in the body, a property called pluripotency. It could be the Holy Grail of stem cell science: a technique that is both feasible and unambiguously ethical. . . .

This is mainstream research, not an eccentric theory from a Romanian naturopathy journal. Yamanaka's work has been confirmed by two other teams affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University and the University of California, Los Angeles -- both of them headed by ardent supporters of embryonic stem cell research.

They say that the reprogrammed cells meet all the tests of pluripotent cells -- they form colonies, propagate continuously and form cancerous growths called teratomas, as well as producing chimaeras. "Its unbelievable, just amazing," says Hans Schöler, a German stem cell expert. "For me, it's like Dolly. It's that type of an accomplishment."

I have no qualms about embryonic stem cell research, but this is obviously a big deal if it pans out.

June 19, 2007

BLOOMBERG'S BEEN ANGLING for a third-party run for at least a year, and now he's taking the next step.

I'd like to see a third-party candidate, but I'd like one who stands for more freedom, not less, and the nannyish Lee Kuan Yew-wannabe Bloomberg clearly doesn't fit that description.

IF YOU'RE NOT FOLLOWING THE DAWN PATROL over at The Mudville Gazette, you're missing a lot of military news.

RANDY BARNETT'S NOT JUST A ROCK STAR, he's now a movie star. I still think he belongs on the Supreme Court.

STILL MORE on the Duke rape hoax. And a reminder that not everyone got it wrong.

SO THIS MORNING I LINKED TO A PIECE ON ComCast fleecing its customers, and later the same day I got a cable bill that had, with no explanation at all, gone up by fifty bucks a month. We obviously need more competition in this field.

The Insta-Wife called them and they were rude and inept. Plus if we want to quit they say we'll have to drive all the way across town to return the boxes. Regardless of this rather lame barrier to quitting, I think we'll be switching to something else. Any recommendations?

UPDATE: A poll!

Which cable/satellite provider sucks the least? Comcast DirecTV Dish Network Knology Verizon FiOS

ANOTHER UPDATE: View results here.

THE INSTA-DAUGHTER had a medical appointment downtown, and so I took her and a visiting cousin to Market Square for lunch. Since Knoxville expats are always asking for pics, here's one of the Tomato Head above. And here's one of Market Square below.

The drought has its downsides, but the weather has been delightful so long as you're not my lawn -- not too hot, and with lower humidity than we usually get this time of year.

MORE ON KIDS, ROAMING, and parental (over?) protectiveness.

PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY CHARTS BY STATE, at Pollster.com.

AN ARMY OF MORONS: Save a life, lose your job.

PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE says that Sarbanes-Oxley is more costly than realized.

We had a podcast show on related topics a while back -- you can listen to it here.

A LOOK AT THE GRIM CONSEQUENCES of a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq.

SOUNDS LIKE CENSORSHIP TO ME:

The heads of the House committee and subcommittee overseeing communications issues, respectively, have asked the National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA) to study the use of "telecommunications to commit hate crimes."

While NTIA, which is the Bush administration's telecommunications policy advisory arm, already produced a study on the topic under the first president Bush back in 1992, Reps. John Dingell and Ed Markey urged it to update the study given the rise in the Internet since them. But, according to a release from the commitee issued Monday, they also said they are also "particularly" interested in studying "uses by broadcast facilites licensed on behalf of the public by the FCC, and whether such uses convey messages of bigotry or hatred, creating a climate of fear and inciting individuals to commit hate crimes."

Given the flexible definition of "hate crime," I think we can be sure that whatever comes of this will be a politicized effort to shut down debate. Of course, this will go away if the NTIA suggests that news reports that make terrorists look good count as incitement to hate crime. . . .

UPDATE: Should this count? I think it encourages hatred and violence. And the perpetrator has a record of this kind of thing.

FUEL ECONOMY: A skeptical look at boosting CAFE requirements. I think a gas tax would be preferable if you don't just want to leave fuel economy to the market (my preference), but "hidden" taxes like this one are Congress's specialty, since they get to take the credit and automakers will take the blame.

FRED THOMPSON IN LONDON: Video at Tim Montgomerie's Britain and America blog.

WORLD'S WORST CURRENCIES: Though a bill with a picture of Nikola Tesla would be cool. But there's this: "someone just told me that the exchange houses in London don't even have a 'buy rate' for Zimbabwean money, because the inflation is so rapid that they don't want any more of it." Sounds smart to me.

TEST DRIVING THE