VIA THE KITCHEN CABINET, I’ve discovered the delightfully nonconforming Yale Diva.

BEYOND PARODY: Life imitates Scrappleface. Heh.

WAR OF CIVILIZATIONS: I agree with Armed Liberal on this:

I don’t think we are in a war of civilizations…yet. I don’t doubt that the other side thinks and hopes that we are, and that our response to them, over the last few decades, has been mistaken on a number of fronts.

A real war of civilizations, as I have pointed out over and over again, only has one result. We’ll be here, they won’t.

I believe there is still time to avert that war, through a balance of force, diplomacy, self-sacrifice in a number of arenas, and careful consideration of our relationships with the Islamic and Arab world.

Read his whole post.

CENTER FOR PUBLIC LACK-OF-INTEGRITY? Lynxx Pherrett says the CPI study is dealing from a stacked deck. For shame. (He’s pretty hard on USA Today’s James Cox, too.)

UPDATE: And it’s doing real harm, as this email from reader Gene Rooney demonstrates:

So, I am in Kazakhstan, forced to watch BBC World as because aside from the Cartoon Network it is the only channel in English. And as I am reading Instapundit’s blurb on THE CENTER FOR PUBLIC INTEGRITY, who should appear on TV for an interview but a representative from THE CENTER FOR PUBLIC INTEGRITY. First hardball question from BBC World Anchor : “So this report is
pretty devastating for the US administration, isn’t it ?” More similiarly probing questions follow, all answers sound like ‘blah blah blah Halliburton blah blah blah halliburton’

Having been forced to watch BBC World for two weeks has been a depressing, enligtening experience. I have lived in Europe and was always fortunate enough to be able to switch to something else and not have to watch BBC. Anti-Americanism is all pervasive on this horror of a channel, the only english language news many people get in many parts of the world. I can’t watch it for more than a half hour without some wild anti-american slur, distortion or lie wanting me to throw something at the TV.

Charles Lewis should be ashamed to be throwing fuel on that fire. And the BBC should be ashamed, too, but that’s hardly news by this point.

REP. CAROLYN MCCARTHY (D-NY):

So the improvement’s there, but as Jennifer Dunn said, the patience. You know, we, as Americans, want things done yesterday. And that’s great, and that’s how we work. But the other thing is, it’s going to take time.

And as far as the terrorist attacks seem to be increasing, the generals were prepared for that. No one talks about basically the 100,000 criminals that were put out on the street right before the war started, or the two of the fractions (sic) that are coming in there that don’t want to see this plan succeed.

But the bottom line is, no matter where anybody was at the beginning on the Iraqi vote or whatever, that’s there, that’s in the past; now we have to make sure that we do a really good job in Iraq so that we will also make sure that it’s free there. And in my opinion, that will spread to other countries. That’s what we should be focusing on now. Hopefully, sometime today we will pass that money to have the flexibility in it, to get out there so we can get the job done. The sooner we do it and build up the armies, the police forces, the sooner all our young men and women can come home. And that’s our paramount goal.

As Dale Amon comments:

It seems quite telling how nearly every US politician, Republican or Democrat, find the ‘ground truth’ different from what they are hearing day after day from the Palestine Hotel bar.

If even a politician can see what is going on, what does this say about the intelligence of journalists?

It says that some journalists could learn a thing or two from meatcutters.

KATIE COURIC: A bad date.

A PACK, NOT A HERD:

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (Reuters) — A man described by authorities as a known sexual predator was chased through the streets of South Philadelphia by an angry crowd of Catholic high school girls, who kicked and punched him after he was tackled by neighbors, police said Friday.

Ouch.

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER:

Our enemies in Iraq have learned these lessons well. The car bomb of Oct. 12 was aimed at the Baghdad Hotel, housing not just large numbers of Americans but much of the provisional Iraqi government. It would have been the equivalent of the two Beirut bombings in one: a psychologically crushing massacre of Americans — which would have sparked immediate debate at home about withdrawal — and the instantaneous destruction of much of the pro-American government, a political decapitation that would have left very few Iraqis courageous enough to fill the vacuum.

The bomber failed. Most significantly, it was Iraqi police who assisted in shooting up the car at a relatively safe distance and thus preventing a catastrophe. The car bomb campaign has, however, continued with singular ferocity since. The war in Iraq now consists of a race: The United States is racing to build up Iraqi police and armed forces capable of taking over the country’s security — before the Saddam loyalists and their jihadist allies can produce that single, Beirut-like car bomb that so discourages Americans (and Iraqis) that we withdraw in disarray.

Who wins the race? If this president remains in power, the likelihood is that we do.

Good analysis. And nothing would help the war effort more than for the leading Democrats to make strong and repeated statements about not abandoning Iraq. That would remove a major source of hope for the terrorists.

It probably won’t happen, though.

BUT THE EDITORS OF THE TIMES ARE HOPING FOR MORE HOOVERVILLES: The current headline on an economic story by Floyd Norris on the New York Times webpage:

Are Happy Days Back for the Economy? Bush Hopes So

Actually, I suspect a few unemployed workers hope so, too.

THE CENTER FOR PUBLIC INTEGRITY is suffering some major credibility blows, as Daniel Drezner and Steven Antler point out that it’s hyping a report on Iraq reconstruction contracts that doesn’t really say anything. Drezner: “The Center for Public Integrity wants to claim that there’s a fire here. Looking over their numbers, I’m not even convinced there’s any smoke.”

Read this, too:

I would say this isn’t worth anyone’s time, except it appears to document many contracts awarded to smaller, politically inactive, non-well-connected companies. It presents — unintentionally, one might guess — considerable evidence contradicting its central contention.

To coin a phrase, it shouldn’t take a blogger to point stuff like this out.

But it does. Shouldn’t the press be embarrassed to have missed this? And shouldn’t the Center for Public Integrity be a bit embarrassed to be advancing such a weak claim amid such hype?

UPDATE: Stuart Buck has further criticism. To be fair to the CPI, though, conflating individual donations with donations from their employers is common, and not necessarily unjustified, as it’s often expected that people will make these donations as part of their jobs. That doesn’t excuse the CPI for claiming a lot more than it proved, or the allegedly-skeptical media for not looking into it.

“PHONEUPSMANSHIP?”

BUSH IS GETTING A LOT OF LIBERAL ENDORSEMENTS, reports the Hawken Blog.

CLINTON-GORE ECONOMIC BOOM CONTINUES: And it’s not even from a Paul Krugman column!

IT’S A BLOGCRITICS HALLOWEEN FRIGHTFEST — and it was organized by Susanna Cornett, so you know it’s scary. . . .

NOTE TO GERMANS: The more you try the moral-equivalence game, the worse you look.

ARNOLD KLING looks at management issues in the terror war.

NEW VOLOKH CONSPIRATOR CORI DAUBER is fact-checking war reporting at the New York Times, the Washington Post, and MSNBC over at The Volokh Conspiracy. Just keep scrolling.

As Dauber notes, “it shouldn’t take a blogger.” But, sadly, it does.

DOUBLE STANDARDS: Roger Simon comments on North Korea.

MICKEY KAUS points out still more anti-war revisionism — er, but about the invasion of Grenada? Those folks at the L.A. Times just never give up. . . .

A BLOGGER GOES TO WAR (well, post-war, anyway): Rich Galen is going to Iraq.

Maybe he can fill us in on the CERP story.

IDIOCY IN IRAQ? I linked earlier to a Washington Post story on the CERP program in Iraq. The military reader who sent the link said it was one of the most successful things we’re doing there. Now another military reader emails from Baghdad:

News on the WP story about CERP.

Yes, it was the most powerful tool commanders have had. But as of now, it has been cut off. LTG Sanchez has informed all the resource managers this past week that the funding is done and there will be no more. All of our humanitarian projects we had going are now stopped and some projects (including those in the troubled Sadr City) are put on hold.

Given the utter disorganization of CPA, the battalion commanders here were making a significant impact. We fixed schools, sewage, markets, and got trash picked up. We put thousands of people to work. Now it’s over, at one of the most critical times in this fight. Everyone on the line is dumbfounded over this decision.

I”m dumbfounded, too. This is a real story, not “police-blotter” reporting. Perhaps some of the journalists over there can manage to look into things.

And perhaps some members of Congress here can do the same?

UPDATE: Porphyrogenitus emails: “If [true], that’s the worst news I’ve heard from Iraq all year.”

ANDREW SULLIVAN IS MORE MANLY THAN ME, but Virginia Postrel observes: ” it’s not hard to write more manly prose than InstaPundit.”

Yeah, and I cook, too!

UPDATE: Fritz Schranck emails to ask if I do laundry. Yes, and I even separate colors! But, actually, the InstaWife usually does the laundry, just as I usually do the cooking.

SORRY FOR THE LIMITED BLOGGING: I got my stomach scoped this morning. Everything’s fine, but still a bit groggy from the drugs. Back later. Meanwhile, there’s a new post up over at GlennReynolds.com.

CHRIS MUIR’S DAY BY DAY is starting to get the attention it deserves.

TEHRAN now has a blog cafe.