THE CAL POLY ADMINISTRATION-RACISM STORY has made The Atlantic Monthly with a piece by Stuart Taylor. Read the whole thing.

There’s contact information for the Cal Poly folks here, if anyone wants to, you know, send them a copy so that they can see the way they’re damaging their school’s reputation.

HUGH HEWITT WRITES on the genius of James Lileks, and why he should be in every newspaper in America. And he’s got proof:

You can test our assertion by a visit to technorati.com, which allows you to check the blogosphere’s connectivity ratings. Lileks is widely linked to and commented upon, and his fans stretch across the vast political spectrum of the Internet’s chattering class. This is a sure sign of broad appeal because the weak are never recognized by the blogosphere and the old and the lazy are mercilessly culled from the herd. Lileks is prospering on the web because Lileks is good. . . .

I write about his relative obscurity because it illustrates a point that needs to be made again and again: Newspapers and TV talking heads are falling behind their audiences because they refuse to read the map that is in front of their noses. They want to regain their monopoly on commentary, and seem to believe that by ignoring the repeated tidal waves that hit them, they can will themselves back to relevance.

Yep. Maybe they should add The Bleat to the New York Times website. Just a thought.

UPDATE: For those who haven’t mastered Technorati, here’s the link to the Technorati page that collects pages linking to Lileks.

OH, THAT LIBERAL MEDIA.

BILL KELLER, CALL YOUR OFFICE: Kevin Holtsberry points out more dishonest headline-writing at the New York Times. This story by James Dao (which is actually pretty fair) is headlined “In Ohio, Iraq Questions Shake Even Some of Bush’s Faithful.”

But, once again, the story doesn’t support the gloom of the headline. Here’s the key graf:

In conversations here with nearly three dozen voters, the vast majority said they generally like President Bush and believe he is doing a good job. Many people said they remained convinced that Iraq posed a threat, even though no chemical or biological weapons have been found. And there was a broad consensus that the result of the war — the ousting of a brutal dictator — was good for Iraq as well as the United States.

“Whether or not they find weapons of mass destruction is besides the point,” Joyce Allen, 71, a retired bank teller, said as she ate lunch with a friend at Cincinnati’s Museum Center. “The people there needed to be freed, and somebody had to do it.”

This is shaken faith? I wonder what you’d hear if you asked a few dozen Ohioans whether they trust The New York Times?

UPDATE: Mickey Kaus observes:

The whole story was seemingly assigned (and edited) in order to allow that hed to be written. … There’s some sort of editorial scandal-promoting machine operating here that survives (and predates) Howell Raines.

This sort of thing is shaking Americans’ in the Times! No, really, it is.

ANOTHER UPDATE: And here it is: “In Ohio, questions of accuracy and fairness shake even Times faithful.” My headline’s even accurate.

AMIR TAHERI WRITES FROM BAGHDAD:

This chorus wants us to believe that most Iraqis regret the ancien regime, and are ready to kill and die to expel their liberators.

Sorry, guys, this is not the case.

Neither the wishful thinking of part of the Arab media, long in the pay of Saddam, nor the visceral dislike of part of the Western media for George W. Bush and Tony Blair changes the facts on the ground in Iraq.

ONE fact is that a visitor to Iraq these days never finds anyone who wants Saddam back.

There are many complaints, mostly in Baghdad, about lack of security and power cuts. There is anxiety about the future at a time that middle-class unemployment is estimated at 40 percent. Iraqis also wonder why it is that the coalition does not communicate with them more effectively. That does not mean that there is popular support for violent action against the coalition.

Another fact is that the violence we have witnessed, especially against American troops, in the past six weeks is limited to less than 1 percent of the Iraqi territory, in the so-called “Sunni Triangle,” which includes parts of Baghdad.

Elsewhere, the coalition presence is either accepted as a fact of life or welcomed. On the 4th of July some shops and private homes in various parts of Iraq, including the Kurdish areas and cities in the Shiite heartland, put up the star-spangled flag as a show of gratitude to the United States. . . .

The portrayal of Baghdad as an oriental version of the Far West in Hollywood Westerns misses the point. It ignores the fact that life is creeping back to normal, that weddings, always popular in summer, are being celebrated again, often with traditional tribal ostentation. The first rock concert since the war, offered by a boys’ band, has already taken place, and Iraq’s National Football (soccer) Squad has resumed training under a German coach.

THERE are two Iraqs today: One as portrayed by those in America and Europe who wish to use it as a means of damaging Bush and Blair, and the other as it really exists, home to 24 million people with many hopes and aspirations and, naturally, some anxiety about the future.

“After we have aired our grievances we remember the essential point: Saddam is gone,” says Mohsen Saleh, a geologist in Baghdad. “A man who is cured of cancer does not complain about a common cold.”

Read the whole thing.

THE BATTLE OVER GUN-CONTROL HAS ENTERED THE ROLLBACK PHASE:

The D.C. Personal Protection Act, introduced Tuesday by Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), would repeal the District’s ban on handguns, end strict registration requirements for ammunition and other firearms, and lift prohibitions on the possession or carrying of weapons at homes and workplaces. . . .

“It is time to restore the rights of law-abiding citizens to protect themselves and to defend their families against murderous predators,” said Hatch, whose bill has 18 co-sponsors. “Try to imagine the horror that [a] victim felt when he faced a gun-toting criminal and could not legally reach for a firearm to protect himself.”

According to U.S. Justice Department statistics, the District’s per-capita murder rate hovered between third- and seventh-highest from 1994 to 2001 among cities with more than 100,000 residents. Calling the District the “murder capital of the United States,” Hatch said the gun prohibition is “as ineffective and deplorable as it is unconstitutional.”

The District of Columbia is a case-study in the ineffectiveness of gun-control. Heck, it’s a case study in the ineffectiveness of a lot of outdated government policies.

But here’s the most revealing quote:

Matt Nosanchuk, litigation director for the Violence Policy Center, a gun-control advocacy group, said there is no evidence that greater access to guns reduces crime.

Remember how anti-gun folks used to say that reducing gun controls would lead to “blood in the streets?” Now the best they can claim is that it probably won’t reduce crime.

Take ’em at their word. If liberalizing gun laws won’t make crime better, but won’t make it worse either, then what’s the justification for keeping the laws on the books? That some people find gun ownership offensive?

Some people find gay sex offensive, too. Big deal. You don’t outlaw things and deny people civil rights on the basis of offensiveness.

THE EU SCANDALS KEEP UNFOLDING:

A widespread inquiry into secret bank accounts and fictitious contracts across the European Commission was launched on Wednesday, amid growing anger at the scale of alleged fraud in the European Union’s executive.

The secret bank accounts at Eurostat were set up by Commission officials to hold money paid through inflated contracts to sub-contractors. Mr Kinnock told the parliament’s budgetary control committee: “If they are discovered [elsewhere], for whatever reason and to whatever degree we will take appropriate action.”

Mr Kinnock says he has no idea how much money has gone into them, or what happens to it.

Stay tuned.

HERE’S MORE ON THE RACISM AND CRUSHING OF DISSENT AT CAL POLY. It’s an ugly story, and it’s certainly not helping Cal Poly’s reputation.

RED TAPE AT THE FAA is holding back commercial space ventures, according to a coalition of rocket companies and space activists (read the press release here). I think they’re right that it was the intent of Congress in the 1984 Commercial Space Launch Act, and subsequent legislation, that there would be one-stop regulation of space launch activities via the Office of Commercial Space Transportation, which is now part of the FAA, and that the FAA’s aircraft-regulation shops wouldn’t be involved.

BAITING NERDS: Matthew Hoy has bagged his limit.

BUSH LIED(TM) FOR DUMMIES: It’s all here.

SCIENCE MARCHES ON: “Men have many ways of using their prostate.” Indeed. In the words of Jerry Seinfeld, “it’s part of our lifestyle.”

WEIRD RESULTS FROM GOOGLE. Go figure.

THE TRANSPORTATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATION is strangling the popular armed-pilots program with bureaucratic red tape.

Does the Bush Administration care more about public safety? Or bureaucrats’ comfort?

A pro-gun Democrat like, say, Howard Dean might want to ask that question. It might even hurt Bush in pro-gun (and anti-bureaucrat) states like Tennessee or Pennsylvania. This is just more trouble for Bush, courtesy of the lame bureaucrats in homeland security.

ANTISEMITIC VIOLENCE IN FRANCE — some pretty awful stories:

The violence in France parallels incidents throughout Europe, where attacks on Jewish institutions and other expressions of anti-Semitism have risen over the past few years, as has strong criticism of Israel. But in many ways, France — with 6 million Muslims and 600,000 Jews, the largest population of each group in Western Europe — is unique.

For Jews here, many of whom had thought of themselves as French first and foremost, the violence and the initial tepid response of government officials have led to a crisis of identity.

“At first, neither the politicians, nor the courts, nor the intellectuals, nor the media, nor public opinion, nor civil society — none of them said anything,” said Simon Kouhama, president of the Jewish Citizens Forum. . .

The alarm bells first started ringing for Zenouda in October 2000, as he watched television coverage of pro-Palestinian demonstrators in the Place de la Republique shouting “Death to the Jews” and other anti-Semitic and anti-Israel slogans. That month, five synagogues were firebombed and there were attempts against 19 other synagogues, homes and businesses.

The official response, he says, was “glacial silence,” followed by rationalizations. Many officials denied there was any pattern or meaning to the unrest. Others portrayed the violence as either the isolated acts of troubled Arab youths or street brawls in which both sides were equally to blame. And in his view, everyone appeared to hold Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s hard-line policies ultimately responsible. A controversial letter by Socialist Party adviser Pascal Boniface suggested that politicians concerned with reelection ought to pay more attention to Muslims, who outnumber the Jews by 10 to 1.

Charming.

THE LAWRENCE DECISION AND STATUTORY RAPE: Eugene Volokh has posts here and here.

GAY TV: Cathy Seipp offers a mixed review.

FOXNEWS HONG KONG UPDATE: Reader Paul Shelton emails:

Seems like someone got your memo about FoxNews not picking up the Hong Kong protestors. Tony Snow and the All-Star panel gave the story a thorough discussion.

Wow. What pull. Maybe as much as Moveon.org has with CNN.

Surely not that much.

UPDATE: Speaking of Hong Kong, the protests seem to be doing some good, as officials resign under pressure.

CHIRAC WAS HECKLED BY AIDS PROTESTERS:

PARIS (Reuters) – The European Union defended its record on funding a global scheme to fight AIDS as angry protesters heckled French President Jacques Chirac at an international conference on the disease Wednesday. . . .

But the real problem isn’t Chirac’s own efforts, but his inability to bring other European nations into a coalition:

Former South African President Nelson Mandela had called on Europe to match the commitment of President Bush, who in May signed into law a plan to triple AIDS funding over five years to $15 billion. . . .

Chirac and British Prime Minister Tony Blair had urged other leaders to promise up to $1 billion at the Paris talks. But diplomatic sources said Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands had blocked increased EU funding.

Chirac, whose speech to the closing session of he conference was interrupted for five minutes by protesters chanting “Shame!,” said he still hoped Europe would make this pledge.

Sounds like they should really be heckling Schroeder et al.

I BLAME THE FRENCH. A reader from Britain sends this from The Times:

An Italian newspaper has published obviously false documents implicating its secret services in the Niger-Iraq uranium affair, days before Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, visits Washington.

In an embarrassing move for the Italian Government, La Repubblica infers in its two-page report that Military Intelligence from Italy as well as Britain, the US was apparently duped by obviously questionable material used to bolster the case for going to war against Iraq.

She adds: “Let’s see. Italians fooled. Brits fooled. CIA left out of the loop until it was too late and the Govt presentation was compromised…Soooo…I guess that leaves France as the perp. Which is what everybody knows already, but pretends not to.” Sounds plausible. Is it true? I don’t know. But somebody does.

THE DAILY HOWLER IS DEFENDING BUSH AGAIN and its readers are unhappy:

What was wrong with the articles we criticized yesterday? Let’s make this as simple as possible. If you’re going to accuse public officials of conducting a “hoax” (Nicholas Kristof), you can’t refuse to publish their explanation (Kristof) and you can’t bury their explanation at the end of a long, front-page article (the Post). You can’t pretend you don’t know what they’ve said. And no, you can’t make the kind of factual presentation made on Monday night’s Hardball. . . .

Readers, those were simply horrible pieces which we critiqued in yesterday’s HOWLER. And there’s no excuse for that silly presentation on Hardball (Matthews made similar presentations last night). Meanwhile, the irony here must be apparent. While Matthews accuses Bush of not knowing his brief, it is Matthews who seems unaware of basic facts. Rice and Rumsfeld were everywhere last weekend, saying that the “16 words” were not about Niger. Maybe Matthews was at the beach. Like Ted Baxter, he seems deeply clueless.

Gee! We wonder if Matthews is simply reading what his handlers put up on his screen…

There’s a lot more, read it. (Via Erik).

UPDATE: Meanwhile Max Boot writes:

The decision to go to war was not based on 16 words in the State of the Union. In fact, that address was delivered more than three months after both houses of Congress had already authorized Bush to take military action against Iraq. Lest we forget, that resolution was endorsed by Democratic Sens. John Kerry, Joe Lieberman and John Edwards and Rep. Dick Gephardt, all of whom are now carping that they were deceived by the president. They must have been pretty clairvoyant to have been deceived by a claim that Bush had not yet made.

It seems to me that when you’re being called liars by both The Daily Howler and Max Boot, your political strategy is pretty lousy.

IRANIAN GOVERNMENT ADMITS TO KILLING JOURNALIST:

A top Iranian government official admitted that an Iranian-Canadian photo-journalist who died after her arrest here last month had suffered a “brain haemorrhage caused by a beating”.

Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a reformist, also made the dramatic claim that the death of 54-year-old Zahra Kazemi was linked to wave of arrests carried out by regime hardliners seeking to undermine the embattled pro-reform camp.

“She died of a brain haemorrhage caused by a beating,” Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi told reporters after Wednesday’s cabinet meeting, giving the preliminary result of a government probe.

“We have witnessed a kind of comprehensive attack,” added Abtahi, a close ally to embattled reformist President Mohammad Khatami, pointing to a wave of arrests of dissidents and journalists “and even the death of Zahra Kazemi”.

Kazemi was arrested on June 23 for taking photographs of protesters outside Evin prison in northern Tehran who were demanding the release of relatives locked up during last month’s wave of anti-regime protests.

The mullahs have the lid on for now. More pressure from human-rights groups would be nice.

IS THE KYOTO PROTOCOL DOOMED? Colby Cosh thinks the Russians have written it off. It’s a blog-post long and detailed enough that some magazine should have paid him to write it.

BEST OF THE WEB asks “Was Kristof merely duped, or is this part of a broader pattern of dishonesty and delusion at the New York Times?”

A lot of us have been wondering that. I hope that the new management will raise the standards across the board. If it doesn’t, the Times’ influence will only continue to diminish.

TIM GRAHAM IS HORRIFIED that I construed this post as defending Eric Alterman. Well, I was being a bit cute in my post on the subject, but seeing as it was The Corner I felt that criticism of a critic counted as a defense in this case.