MICHIEL VISSER REPORTS ON RADICAL ISLAMISTS’ PLANS FOR EUROPE: Basically, it’s a war of conquest from within. Then there’s this lovely quote:

In a recent interview on Dutch TV, Abu Jahjah said: “It would be fantastic if empty planes would be flown into the White House.”

It would be great if Dutch authorities would crack down on Abu Jahjah.

ALPHECCA examines the Canadian gun-registry debacle, where cost overruns are in the billion-dollar range and results are sketchy. Margaret Wente writes in The Globe and Mail:

I asked Philip Stenning, a leading expert on firearms policy, how we got into this billion-dollar mess. “Ideology and incompetence,” he answered. “They were on a moral crusade.”

Prof. Stenning, who’s with the University of Toronto’s Centre of Criminology, has advised governments on gun policy since the 1970s. He also advised Sheila Fraser’s audit team. “They just couldn’t believe their eyes. They’ve seen lots of terrible things. But they’ve never seen anything like this.” . . .

“Anybody who voiced any kind of opposition to this package was branded as a gun nut and an enemy of peace and security,” says Prof. Stenning.

The gun registry was supposed to catch the small minority of irresponsible and potentially dangerous gun owners. But its underlying ideology was that all gun owners were potential criminals. The Justice Department itself admitted as much. In her damning report, the Auditor-General says: “The department said the excessive regulation had occurred because some of its program partners believed that the use of firearms is in itself a ‘questionable activity’ that required strong controls.”

Of course, if Canada’s effort is a disaster of the first order — and it is — it pales beside what that sort of effort would become in the United States, where it would be faced with massive civil disobedience at the very least.

LIBERATION REPORTS (Google translation — about as good as mine — here) that the Mayor of Evry, France is upset because a Franprix grocery store (a pretty big chain, I believe) has removed wine and pork so as not to offend local Muslims.

HERE’S AN interesting, and also link-rich, discussion of the water-on-Mars issue.

DAVE KOPEL has a long, link-rich piece on how the U.N.’s disarmament program has facilitated genocide in Uganda, as it did in the former Yugoslavia.

DAVID CARR AT SAMIZDATA suggests that the United States counter European anti-Americanism by opening up to immigration from Europe. I think he’s got a great argument.

Meanwhile, a few posts upscreen (Samizdata is nothing if not diverse), Brian Micklethwait offers career advice for Molly Ringwald.

TODAY’S DAN GILLMOR COLUMN about video-equipped cellphones can be profitably read alongside my TechCentralStation column from today. Excerpt:

I can safely predict one area that will soon feel the impact of all this. It’s the field I know best, journalism.

Consider the more than 10 million camera-equipped mobile phones in Japan. Some of their owners take snapshots and post them to Web pages.

Watch the next time a major news event, such as a bad earthquake, takes place there. Before the big Japanese media organizations even have time to scramble their photographers to the scene, the world will be able to view the aftermath of the quake — and, no doubt, videos of the quake as it happened — on a variety of Web sites.

Blogger already supports post-by-email. (It kinda works). MT doesn’t, but no doubt will soon. Wouldn’t it be cool if you could email text (for a blog post) and an attached photo to your site from a cellphone? That really would be a revolutionary development, and it would make blog-journalism competitive with blog-punditry.

UPDATE: I notice that Jeff Jarvis has a thoughtful reply to my column up, though I didn’t actually call Big Media “dinosaurs.” And Jeff is neither purple nor rotund. And his beard is prematurely white. Don’t forget that part!

I’VE GROWN WEARY OF FACT-CHECKING MICHAEL MOORE. It’s a full-time job. But now there’s a full-time Moore-checking website to take up much of the load.

THE “STRAW THAT BROKE THE ELEPHANT’S BACK:” Ralph Luker writes that Lott has to go in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Meanwhile, Josh Chafetz has suggestions on what you can do about it.

UPDATE: Mickey Kaus, on the other hand, notes that we’ve come a long way since Jim Crow.

KEN ADELMAN WRITES that the Saudis aren’t our friends, and Bush needs to recognize it:

For Saudi Arabia is no “great friend” to our values. Saudi Arabia ranks rock bottom on granting civil or political freedom. Along with the “axis of evil” states, it stands among the most repressive regimes on earth. And without doubt is one of the most corrupt regimes in the world – probably even worse than the three “axis of evil” states. . . .

Saudi Arabia is no “great friend” to the real war on terrorism. Recently Price Bandar’s wife was in hot water over allegations that she indirectly gave money to the 9/11 terrorists is hotly debated. Saudi spin doctors claim she’d never try to help terrorists, since her own father was murdered by Islamic extremists in the 1970s. Further investigation shows that her father, the King, was indeed murdered in the 1970s – not by an Islamic fanatic, but by his nephew, a drug addict long tripping on LSD.

Regardless, it’s certain that Saudi royal family members have been paying protection money to Saudi-led terrorists for a long time now. Court documents filed last Fall claim that Saudi royal family members met with Osama bin Laden and gave over $300 million to al Qaeda terrorists for a pledge of no terrorism in Saudi Arabia itself.

He’s right. They’re not our friends.

THE NEW REPUBLIC UNCOVERS a suggestion from Democrat Bennie Thompson that Lott buy his way out of disgrace by supporting Democratic programs.

Most Republicans, I imagine, will see that as further reason for Lott to step down. And TNR is right to say: “Thompson should demand that Lott resign and leave two-bit shakedown tactics to Jesse Jackson. ”

LOTT IS DAMAGED GOODS. Everybody knows it, except maybe him. If he serves as Majority Leader, the GOP will have to deal with TV commercials like this. Many otherwise-likely Republican voters will stay home, or vote Libertarian, something that is already hurting the GOP.

And Lott’s been a lousy Majority Leader anyway. Somebody needs to suck it up and have The Conversation with him. Not serving as the Majority Leader is hardly a fate worse than death.

UPDATE: The American Prowler says Lott’s people know it, even if Lott doesn’t:

According to a knowledgeable Republican source, GOP members of both houses are extremely concerned that Lott’s comments have so derailed the momentum gained from the 2002 elections that it would be impossible to come in in January, make numerous political confirmations for the executive branch, and begin planning a legislative agenda that would include accelerating the Bush tax cuts and pushing through a prescription drug plan for seniors. . . .

“Even Lott’s people understand how serious this has become,” says the Republican source, who added that while there is no discussion in Lott’s office of his stepping aside, Lott’s people are steeling themselves for a growing drumbeat from their side of the aisle for Lott to give way to a noncontroversial leader who can get the Republican agenda back on track.

Rip the band-aid off fast.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Arthur Silber agrees that Lott should go, but says Democrats shouldn’t get a pass on their racists, either:

But everyone, including many Democrats, is now all too eager to conclude that Lott must have intended only a racist meaning by those comments: that what Lott truly and sincerely wants is a return to a segregationist era. Lott’s remarks are obviously subject to that interpretation (which may even be the most likely one, particularly in light of his stunningly inept “apology”), which is part of what renders them so irredeemably stupid. But if one wants to cast them as unquestionably racist, then what is one to do with Donna Brazile’s comment during the 2000 campaign, that she was determined not to “let the white boys win”? Or then California State Senator Diane Watson’s comment in 1995 about Ward Connerly’s interracial marriage?

“He’s married to a white woman,” Watson said. “He wants to be white. He wants a colorless society. He has no ethnic pride. He doesn’t want to be black.”

Aren’t those statements just as racist as Lott’s? I submit that they are. But the Democrats will never admit that, and the largely Democratic-leaning mainstream press has given these remarks, and many other similar ones, a completely free pass — when, that is, they are uttered by Democrats. . . .

So the Republicans had better make absolutely clear that they are letting Lott go for all the other reasons that apply, and that have applied for much too long a time: he is not a genuine friend of limited government (witness the pork he is proud to carry to his home state in many, many bills passed under his watch); it is impossible to determine exactly what his basic political principles are (do you know what they are?) — and as best I can determine, he is only for the status quo, which means a vastly overintrusive federal government in every conceivable area; whenever he has had the opportunity to lead, he has done so in a stunningly lackluster and uninspiring manner; and he has also repeatedly demonstrated the same tin ear and vacuous mind that led to this latest debacle.

Let him go for those reasons — and not because he is a “racist.” As I said, if the Republicans do let him go for that reason, or if it even appears that that is the reason, it will only be like throwing red meat to rabid dogs, the dogs being the Democrats and their friends in the mainstream press.

Charles Murtaugh also points this out:

I think the most egregious example of campaign race-baiting in recent memory was the NAACP’s James Byrd ad of 2000, which tried valiantly to link George W. Bush to Byrd’s racist dragging murder. And today, Al Sharpton remains a viable political figure. None of this is to make any excuse for Trent Lott, who ought to be dusting off a comfy seat on the back bench ASAP. I’m just pointing out that there are still more fingers yet to be pointed.

Indeed there are.

I BLOGGED ABOUT THE INTENSITY OF KNOXVILLE’S SMALLPOX PREPARATIONS a while back. Here’s more on that:

My wife works as a psychological examiner at [local name deleted] testing and counseling stroke victims and orthopedic patients. Yesterday someone went around handing out sign-up sheets and information about the smallpox vaccine and asking for volunteers for the “smallpox reaction team” or something like that. According to my wife, the same person was going around this morning to collect the signed forms saying that they had to be turned in today! My wife said she sensed some real urgency in the woman’s tone. Perhaps the woman was just under pressure from the administrators who have to place an order for the vaccine or something, but my wife said that the buzz is that they will be getting the shots very soon and training the people who get them to also give them. Sounds to me to be more than your ordinary preparedness plan. My guess is someone knows a lot more than we do about the smallpox threat.

That’s my sense, too. Perhaps Knox County is just better-organized about this, but usually when you see this degree of activity among lower-level functionaries, it’s because the pressure is coming from on high.

UPDATE: It’s the same thing in Oklahoma, and, I suspect, all over.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Here are some thoughts from N.Z. Bear. I actually believe, though, that many of the assumptions in the Dark Winter exercise were overly pessimistic.

LAST WEEK I LINKED TO A STORY IN 2600 regarding a claim by a Denver man, Mike Maginnis, that he had been harassed and taken into custody for photographing Dick Cheney’s hotel. The Rocky Mountain News is now reporting that the Secret Service and the Denver Police deny that it ever happened.

As my original post indicated, the story seemed a bit fishy. But — as the post also indicated — previous incidents gave it a degree of credibility.

THE NEW YORK TIMES is making the Australia-Zimbabwe connection:

The Australian court’s reasoning in this case is analogous to that employed by Zimbabwe’s regime in seeking to punish a writer for an article the country’s police downloaded from a London newspaper’s Web site. To subject distant providers of online content to sanctions in countries intent on curbing free speech — or even to 190 different libel laws — is to undermine the Internet’s viability.

Australia is not Zimbabwe, of course. But the Australian court’s ruling will give political and legal cover to unsavory regimes who simply want to insulate themselves from criticism.

JUST SUCKED A COUPLE OF THOUSAND MESSAGES off my server and into an email program. In theory, I could still read and reply to the unread ones. In practice, if you’ve emailed me and you haven’t heard back, well, it’s buried. Sorry, but I have to do this every week or so, and there’s just so much email that stuff falls through the cracks, though I try to read everything.

IT’S A BIG DAY FOR NAILING POMPOUS HYPOCRITES, as Howie Carr demonstrates:

When it comes to doing the right thing by the poor and the downtrodden, Bernard Cardinal Law has a message for all us taxpayers.

Give, give, give ’til it hurts. Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and then some.

Yet when Law himself is asked to meet his obligations to those raped and violated by his priests, His Eminence has a very different response, which is:

I’ll see you in bankruptcy court.

What a surprise, eh? In yet another realm, the fraud’s message is, do as I say, not as I do.

Responsibility, apparently, is for the flock. When it comes to the higher-ups, they talk the talk, but they wouldn’t think of walking the walk. That’s for the dopes who still think the second collection is on the level.

Until the recent unraveling of his corrupt empire, the sanctimonious prince of the church annually went to Beacon Hill to bang his tin cup on the State House steps, demanding ever more generous handouts for the shiftless, the indigent and the promiscuous. But now that it’s finally Law’s turn to buy a round, he’s tipping over tables in his unseemly rush to get out of the room. Money for sodomized altar boys? Don’t push me, pal. Ever hear of Chapter 11?

I’ve noticed that there are a lot of people who are generous with my money, and all for personal responsibility as applied to, well, people like me but who take a rather different attitude when the tables are turned.

(Via Amy Welborn).

NEAL BOORTZ says Trent Lott must step down as Majority Leader:

Lott’s apology was so weak. Both of them were weak. Somehow he just couldn’t bring himself to say that the platform of the Dixiecrat Party in 1948 was anti-American and an abomination to our Constitution. He just couldn’t bring himself to say that each and every citizen in our country is entitled to equal protection under our laws, and that the legacy of segregation is a point of shame, not a point of celebration.

There are many fine Republicans in the U.S. Senate who could serve as the Senate Majority Leader without the racial baggage. The bulk of the Republican agenda carries favorable implications for black Americans .. but how in the hell does the party expect to attract black members and voters with Trent Lott drawling on and on about what a good president Strom Thurmond would have made?

And scroll down for some more good advice for Republicans regarding women.

MUST-SEE TV: Oliver Willis offers a taste of what the GOP can expect if Lott remains Majority Leader.

UPDATE: Read the comments below the ad, which is masterful.

As one reader notes: “And the worst thing about the ad is that it isn’t even slightly unfair.”

I don’t think Lott has a future as Majority Leader, but I think there’s a future for Oliver in the “political communications” business.

THE END OF MEDIA FEUDALISM: My TechCentralStation column is up.

CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY’S HILLEL will be suing Concordia University’s Student Union, according to Sari Stein:

Hillel sent a lawyer’s letter by bailiff to the CSU last week, informing them that legal action would be taken if the resolution to freeze Hillel’s funding and suspend its privileges was not rescinded by Monday (yesterday) at 5pm. By that deadline yesterday, the CSU had failed to respond.

In a JTA article, the CSU was said to have “conditionally reinstated Hillel’s privileges”. In fact, there’s been quite a bit of wheeling and dealing going on in the CSU. But the CSU didn’t actually restore Hillel’s funding and privileges. Instead, first in a proposed deal by CSU president Sabine Freisinger, and now in proposed resolutions by council, they’re aiming to reinstate Hillel under certain “conditions” – namely, that Hillel sign a certain agreemement.

The “conditional” reinstatement of Hillel is unacceptable. The CSU screwed up, and now they want to impose conditions to try and make Hillel pay even though it did nothing wrong. That’s like stealing a car from a guy, and then demanding $1000 to return it.

Hillel deserves nothing less than a full apology and a reinstatement of all its privileges – unconditionally. Anything less is not only an insult, but a travesty of justice.

I agree.

UPDATE: Letter from Gotham suggests that we rename it “Discordia University.”

SO SOMEBODY EMAILS ME to say that I’m quoted on the Wall Street Journal editorial page regarding the Australian Internet decision. Naturally, I figured it was a quote from my oped on the subject in The Australian. Er, not quite.

AL ROKER’S BRUSH WITH FAME: He actually got to do a show with James Lileks! And visit Lileks at his house, famed Jasperwood. Roker is one lucky guy.

WHY AM I NOT SURPRISED TO READ THIS?

Many of the Iraqi scientists U.N. arms inspectors want to interview have been spirited abroad or switched to innocuous posts and their places taken by unknown technicians, according to Iraqi exiles and Western officials. . . .

Some key workers have been sent abroad to sympathetic countries, including Libya, Sudan and Syria, and told to remain there while inspections continue. Their families are being kept in Iraq to ensure that they do not defect.

“These are the people with the know-how, so the best way to hide the know-how is to hide the people,” one Western official said.

The whole thing is a charade, and everyone knows it. Soon, even Hans Blix will figure it out.

DANIEL DREZNER watched Nightline and penned a memo to Karl Rove that Karl Rove should actually read. Excerpt:

Did you see the Nightline episode on l’affaire Lott? I was impressed by all of the participants, and grateful that Julian Bond went out of his way to acknowledge that younger conservatives were particularly appalled by Lott’s comment. Still, I kept thinking, “where are the f@&%ing senators?!!” Duck and cover is not a successful long-term strategy, and this problem is not going away. The bigger this issue gets, the more people are going to ask what the President thinks about it. Karl, it’s time for some pre-emptive action on the home front — give Trent the boot.

Senate Republicans are missing a golden opportunity here. If they act quickly and forthrightly to remove Lott from a leadership position, they not only eliminate this as a future campaign issue, but they actually look better than the Democrats. Removing Lott after Daschle tried to sanitize the situation sends a clear signal about which party has principles. The other option is to try to ride out the current hullabaloo, but that won’t work. Newt Gingrich was a polarizing figure, but imagine what Trent Lott will look like after his quote is spliced into every campaign commercial and flyer in 2004. You really want this dogging the President on the campaign trail?

Good advice. I think a lot of the problem is that too many people in Washington are neutralized by the fact that they know Lott socially or professionally. Meanwhile the Midwest Conservative Journal says Lott’s toast: “Trent Lott is in deep trouble. Even the Family Research Council has bailed out.”

Duck-and-cover might work if all the people calling for his ouster were on the Left. But most of them are on the Right.