VIDEO KILLED THE POLITICAL STARS: Martin Devon has some TV commercials planned. And it turns out that David Bonior is getting his own prime-time special.

THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE FUNNY, but it’s just realistic.

WOW, just checked downloads for Jim Lindgren’s piece on errors and misrepresentations in Michael Bellesiles’ Arming America, and it’s up to 96, 823. I guess the additional downloads are the result of new developments in the Bellesiles matter. Given that the piece is also available elsewhere, it seems sure to have passed the 100,000 downloads mark overall. It’ll pass it on this site alone before everything’s done, I’d guess.

FOUR PROTESTERS ARRESTED IN WASHINGTON were carrying explosive devices. Draft these guys — they seem to like violence an awful lot for antiwar types.

DAVID GELERNTER WRITES THAT IN EUROPE IT’S 1928 ALL OVER AGAIN:

As the Second World War and its aftermath fade, they reveal a “new world order” that is strangely familiar–amazingly like the Western world of the 1920s, with its love of self-determination and loathing of imperialism and war, its liberal Germany, shrunken Russia, and map of Europe crammed with small states, with America’s indifference to Europe and Europe’s disdain for America, with Europe’s casual, endemic anti-Semitism, her politically, financially, and masochistically rewarding fascination with Muslim states who despise her, and her undertone of self-hatred and guilt.

The self-hatred part, at least, seems more understandable all the time.

HEY, I JUST NOTICED that Thomas Nephew is back. Another prodigal returns!

EUROPEAN ANTISEMITISM ALERT: What else explains “peace” protestors in Spain dressed in suicide-bomber bikinis? It’s not pacifism — it’s just siding with the enemy.

And they wonder why Bush “doesn’t give a shit” what they say?

I wish Iberian bloggers John and Antonio would offer some comments.

BILL HERBERT HAS SOME PHOTOS from various peace marches. My favorite one is of a sign that must have been smuggled in: “Save the Iraqi People: Kill Saddam.”

UPDATE: Here’s a contrast between now and then in DC:

My point? We will forever remember the 1963 March on Washington because in holding and maintaining the moral high ground, they won their argument. Of course, this implies having the moral high ground in the first place. A lesson seemingly lost on this current generation of spoiled brats who’s only legacy will be sophomoric boast of “dude, remember when we shut down D.C.?” … Big deal, so do ice storms and budget battles.

The Left has lived off the moral capital of the civil rights era for decades, but that’s pretty much over now, except in their own minds.

HMM. Either of these stories could just be an oddity, but happening closer together, I wonder. . . . Here’s a man with concealed knives and boxcutters in his luggage, and here are two guys who when caught said they were “just testing.”

PUNDITWATCH IS UP, and has this to say about Bonior and McDermott:

ABC’s This Week had the most controversial coverage. Host George Stephanopolous interviewed Congressmen Jim McDermott, D-Wash, and David Bonior, D-Mich, live from Baghdad. A seemingly incredulous Stephanopolous heard McDermott claim that the President was misleading the world and that he should take the Iraqis’ word at face value.

Bonior brushed aside questions about Saddam Hussein’s past behavior. “We could go back and play the blame game. I wish you would focus on what’s happened to the people of Iraq—the children.”

During This Week’s roundtable, George Will called the McDermott-Bonior comments, “The most disgraceful appearance in my lifetime.” ABC’s Michele Martin just shook her head, noting, “This is why the Democrats are having such a hard time.”

Not as hard as it’s about to be. What’s wrong with these guys?

I DIDN’T WATCH THIS WEEK TODAY (why bother when there’s PunditWatch to give me the scoop within an hour or two anyway?) but Michigander Joe User doesn’t think David Bonior acquitted himself very well. I’ll be interested in the PunditWatch take on the same appearance.

I did see Mark Shields describe the United States as a Christian nation on CNN’s Novak, Hunt & Shields (which I was watching from the treadmill at the gym). I don’t agree with Shields that the United States is a Christian nation, and I’ll thank him and Pat Robertson to keep those opinions to themselves. . . . .

UPDATE: A.C. Douglas is unhappy as hell with Bonior & McDermott too. Excerpt:

In what they had to say, they couldn’t have been more damaging to the United States, or acted more like Iraqi sycophants, had they been paid agents of Saddam Hussein himself. I mean, surely they can’t seriously believe all they said concerning taking Iraq at its word in its promise to give free access to weapons inspectors under old UN rules, and that the U.S. ought not to even consider going to war against Iraq until it’s proven Iraq’s not to be trusted, and in such a case then the United States should still not go to war against Iraq, but talk more about what should be done.

If these congressmen really do believe all they said, then they ought both to be tried on charges of manifest imbecility (if not outright treason), and relieved of their House seats posthaste.

A reader emails along the same lines:

Not sure if you saw This Week w/Stephanopoulos but if you didn’t you MUST get a transcript. Jim McDermott and David Bonior are in Baghdad and made the most outrageous and appalling comments about Bush I’ve ever heard any member of Congress make. As George Will commented, not since Jane Fonda has anyone done more to undermine this country or to challenge the veracity of a president.

In effect, McDermott and Bonior are more trusting of the honesty of Saddam than they are of Bush.

Astonishing performance that’s going to be the buzz of the country for the next week.

And scrolling down my email, here’s another reader:

I’m still recovering from the literal shock of seeing, on This Week, David Bonior and Jim McDermott get to the left of China with regard to Iraq and announce that Saddam Hussein is more trustworthy than George Bush. Glenn, this is jaw-dropping. Shameful. Despicable. Almost treasonous. I really have never in my life seen a display like the one that took place this morning on ABC. Get thee a tape if you haven’t seen this yet.

Just looked for a transcript, but there’s not one online for either show yet, but these accounts suggest that the Democrats’ hopes for the midterm elections just took a fatal blow — from Democrats.

URANIUM UPDATE: Looks like there’s less of it than originally reported. I suspected as much.

BLOGGING FROM MUNICH, Eamonn Fitzgerald reports that some Germans are catching on at last:

Finally, an editorial in the Süddeutsche Zeitung in which realism trumps idealism. Wolfgang Koydl’s “Ein Moralist im Weißen Haus” makes clear that Europeans who call President Bush a “cowboy”, a “Rambo” or plain “berserk” are missing the point of what’s happening in Washington today. Koydl says they should accept instead that Bush is a “revolutionary, a visionary and a moralist.” Naturally, many of the paper’s anti-American readers will have spilt their morning coffee in outrage upon reading this, but Koydl sets out convincing reasons for his interpretation of the situation. . . .

The Bush doctrine of preemption is a concept that’s going to make the world more dangerous before it is more secure, argues Koydl, but at least it is a concept and Europe will have to live with until it can provide an alternative.

Koydl concludes by saying that if Europe wishes to prevent another American Century it must do something other that whining about the “sheriff in the White House.”

Interesting.

EVE TUSHNET has an article on Islamic women bloggers in the Weekly Standard. She also has an interesting post on “rock and roll conservatism.”

“RELENTLESS PERSECUTION:” Eric Burns says the media feeding-frenzy over Madelyne Toogood has gone too far.

Yeah, you’d hardly know that her kid was unhurt from all the coverage and finger-pointing, would you? It’s all about a picture that looks bad. Meanwhile if you try — as I can attest — to get protective services to do something about a kid who’s actually suffering serious physical harm, but with no TV, it’s a whole different story.

MOSQUITOES INFECTED WITH MALARIA have been found in Virginia. And there have been two human cases nearby.

Bioterrorism? Doubtful, Pat Leahy’s comments on West Nile notwithstanding. Though my brother once mailed me a mosquito from Nigeria that survived the trip. He had smacked it hard enough (he thought) to kill it, but leave it intact, and dropped it in the envelope with his letter to illustrate just how big they were. When I opened the letter it came fluttering drunkenly out. I smacked it, and it left a smear of blood on my hand. Chance that it was carrying malaria, given its source: high. Interestingly, another guy he mailed one to the same day had the same experience.

BILL QUICK SAYS IT’S NOT THE ECONOMY, STUPID!

Anybody who thinks a 5.7 percent unemployment rate (a number considered very close to full employment not so many years ago) is more important than the fact that Saddam Hussein may either already have nuclear weapons, or be on the [verge] of obtaining them, is just plain nuts.

There’s more.

GERMAN EXPORTS TO THE UNITED STATES ARE SUFFERING as a spontaneous informal boycott seems to be underway.

JIM BENNETT wants to declare war.

ANOTHER FINE REYNOLDS PRODUCT: Well, in a way it’s sort of like what I do here.

JONJAYRAY has more thoughts on Sweden. Frankly, ever since I got the depressing news about Sweden’s sex shortage, I can’t seem to care. Give me Merry Old England any day.

COMPARE LAST WEEK’S FOXHUNT PROTEST with today’s antiwar protest and I think it’s easy to see who’s in a position to win over the public.

SOMEHOW I MISSED THIS: A devastating pictorial Fisking. Must be seen to be believed.

MORE BLOGGER JOURNALISM: Stefan Sharkansky interviewed Amiri Baraka, the New Jersey Poet Laureate who wrote a dumb and offensive poem about the World Trade Center attacks (and the mythical 4,000 jews who didn’t show up for work that day). The results are on his blog.

UPDATE: Josh Chafetz emails this link to a piece from last year’s New Republic on Baraka. Lesson for New Jersey: Appoint a guy like this to a public position, and you’re sure to be embarrassed. It should have been obvious from the beginning. What were they thinking?

ANOTHER UPDATE: Maybe they figured they could always count on Matthew Purdy to give Baraka a free pass on his racism in the New York Times.

ONE MORE: Geitner Simmons has some interesting observations.

TALKLEFT, fresh from pointing out the phony Ashcroft memo, now points out a phony antiwar quote from Julius Caesar.

This is a good service, though my first thought was “antiwar quote from Julius Caesar?” I mean, who would fall for that? Oh, right.