NOW WE’VE GOT BLOGGING WITNESSES. Why not?

WHILE MICKEY KAUS CONTINUES TO MAINTAIN STUBBORN SILENCE on the vital RX-8 question, I have been tirelessly looking into the matter.

I was passing by the Knoxville Mazda dealership today and stopped in to drive one. The first thing I noticed was the low-pressure salesmanship. In sharp contrast to my unfortunate experience with the Nissan 350Z a while back, they were happy to let me drive a car, and exerted no pressure to buy one on the spot, as so many dealers do.

I liked the car very much. The styling is somewhat Batmobile-like, but that’s a good thing, I think. The interior is surprisingly roomy — I even fit in the coupe’s backseat, which is accessed via “suicide” reverse-opening half doors that make getting in and out easy. I wouldn’t want to sit there for a long trip, but you could easily put two full-sized adults in there when going out for lunch, and there’s plenty of room for one or two kids. The stereo was excellent — the only car stereo I’ve heard at any price that matches the quality of the one in my Passat wagon, which for some reason is exceptionally good.

The model that I drove was the top-of-the-line “Grand Touring” model with 18-inch wheels, DVD navigation, etc. Adjusting the seat position, etc., was easy and intuitive (then again, I’ve owned two Mazdas in the past, a 1980 RX-7 and a 1993 MX-6). I didn’t use the DVD navigation system (I don’t think I’d ever buy one of those, anyway) but the climate and radio controls were easy and featured big, tactile knobs. The seats, in Mazda tradition, were very comfortable.

Shifting was delightful — short throws, very precise, very positive. The engine was powerful, though not as powerful as, say, the Infiniti G35 coupe. But the Mazda felt better. Steering was extremely taut and responsive, and the weight distribution is just about perfectly 50-50. It shows in the handling. The rotary engine had a very pleasant sound, though it lacked the mild almost-backfiring on deceleration that earlier rotaries had. Overall, the feel was quite similar to my 1980 RX-7 at some subliminal level, even though the new version is much more refined and powerful. I liked it a lot.

Weirdly, a spare tire is optional — the car doesn’t come with one, just with a repair kit. In a way this makes sense. I haven’t had to change a tire in well over a decade, even though I’ve had major nail punctures. Today’s tires seal that sort of thing pretty well. But still. . . .

I was pretty impressed. So is reader John Brothers who emails:

I have had the good luck and foresight to own one of the very first RX-8s in Atlanta. It is an incredibly fun car – although the manual is somewhat cramped for people over 5’10 – Luckily I have an automatic (I’m 6’1). It is nimble and sleek, gets lots of double takes and is hands down the best car I’ve ever driven.

Plus, it looks like a 944, which was my dream car when I was a kid.

I didn’t find the interior cramped (I drove a manual), and I’m six-three. But what does Mickey think?

UPDATE: Reader Jon Foster emails these thoughts on successful car-sales techniques:

When we went to look at the Protege 5 for the wife, we were driving around in it before the salesman actually asked us for our names. Several months later when we wanted to buy, he got the sale. I am looking at a Mazda 6 for myself, and believe me, he will get the sale again.

Wish all dealerships had such nice salesmen!

Yeah.

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK:

A federal air marshal was fired and faces a felony assault charge after a June 8 incident in which police say he pulled his service weapon on two civilians during a parking space dispute at JFK International Airport in New York. The incident comes amid reports that more than 100 marshals have either left their jobs or been pulled from flight status and placed on paid administrative leave due to problems with the background investigations needed for their top secret security clearances.

But meanwhile the Homeland Security folks are dragging their feet on arming pilots. . . .

COLBY COSH is hard on sentimentalists. As usual!

Make the case, if you can, that human beings are not entitled to greater moral consideration than dolphins solely by virtue of being more intelligent (on average). But why, then, crusade for dolphins while neglecting the moray eel, the grouper and the sponge? Because dolphins are more like — us? It seems there is a Great Chain of Being after all.

Especially where fundraising is concerned.

A RECENT BRADY CAMPAIGN STUDY on illegal guns sales that used ATF figures is “misleading” — according to the ATF.

This isn’t acknowledged on the Brady Campaign’s site.

BRING IT ON: This is a parody, but I’ll bet it wouldn’t be hard to find people saying this for real.

GENERAL TSO IS CHARGED WITH CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY: Will the ICC take the case?

ERIC MULLER describes a faculty-advising dilemma.

I’ve been advisor to all sorts of groups, from BLSA and HLSA to the Campus Libertarians to the Sports and Entertainment Law Society. People do make assumptions from this — a friend at the White House during the Clinton Administration told me that my name came up in relation to an appointment because someone saw the BLSA advisor and Frederick Douglass Moot Court Team coach items on my resume and assumed I was black. When he informed them that I wasn’t, interest cooled. Presumably, some people might assume that I’m interested in sports, too, or that I’m hispanic.

I generally steer groups that I don’t like or agree with to faculty members who are more sympathetic, but I would advise any group that I didn’t find absolutely repugnant — and I might do even that, if the alternative was having them shut out completely. (I think the university requires that all student groups have a faculty advisor.) But there are costs to that, as most people won’t look beyond the superficial connection.

REPUBLICANS ARE AT RISK FROM HUBRIS, according to Timshel.

As I’ve written before, Bush is quite vulnerable if the Democrats pick the right issues. So far, though, they’ve shown their usual tendency to go for the capillary.

HERE’S MORE ON BIAS AT THE BBC:

As the first round of explosions rocked Baghdad, for example, the World Service’s on-air “Middle East analyst” was a chap from the Arab-funded, pro-Palestinian agitprop group called The Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding (CAABU) — an affiliation never disclosed to listeners. A rough equivalent: CNN hiring an “analyst” to comment on an invasion of Israel without disclosing the fact that he’s from the Jewish Defense League. So when the World Service anchor asked him for his analysis, the man promptly pronounced the bombardment “an example of pure American imperialism.” Nobody challenged this assertion, was he challenged on any of his volatile comments during what became fairly regular World Service appearances. In fact, during it war coverage, the views of guests like the man from CAABU were very rarely balanced with opposing viewpoints, and World Service anchors almost never offered a differing opinion. Instead, the convention is to ask patently biased “analysts” to simply restate their propaganda in more detail: “So, Mr. Hussein, you think this is an illegitimate war, then?” He did, he does and he will tomorrow, too.

This insistent bias isn’t limited to the World Service’s English-language broadcasts, unfortunately. The all-news Arabic service is perhaps worse-and with consequences far more potentially harmful.

It’s too bad that the BBC confuses “adhering to the nation’s enemies” with “independence.”

DIVERSITY IS ALIVE AND WELL on campuses around the nation.

This kind of diversity, we’ve always had.

MAUREEN DOWD IS TAKING HEAT from a newspaper that used to run her column but has stopped because of falsified quotes. There’s an interesting exchange of emails between the editor and the NYT’s Gail Collins. Excerpt:

But make no mistake: I am not among the right-wingers hoping to see Maureen eat a little crow. (Though they’re having a field day with this issue as long as she and the Times allow it to moulder.)

I am a NY Times Wire Service subscriber concerned with the credibility of your venerable organization. And mine.

Read the whole thing.

SONIA ARRISON HAS THE LATEST on music downloading. Key bit:

While it’s true there are finally a few music-industry endorsed services where users can legally buy online music (like Apple’s iTunes, Listen.com’s Rhapsody, and newly-launched Buy.com’s buymusic), the models are clunky and still need to be tweaked. That it took so long to get them reveals how unresponsive the industry is to the changing marketplace and consumer demand.

Yep. If they had bought Napster when they had the chance, they’d be much better off today.

HERE’S A REPORT THAT IRAQIS ARE RUSHING TO LEARN ENGLISH:

Few soldiers have a command of Arabic and misunderstandings have been blamed for more than one fatal checkpoint shooting.

But Sajida has other aims in learning a language she feels will open up a world previously closed to her by Saddam.

”If I have any information about Fedayeen or Saddam’s followers, I must tell them. We must make friends with the Americans. I see them as angels. I call them God’s army,” said Sajida, a Shi’ite Muslim who says her two brothers were killed by Saddam. . . .

Iraqi English teacher Dhia’ Saadallah prefers a British accent, but says that’s not the popular choice. ”I teach them American English. What can I do? They want it,” he said.

The story’s not all good news, but this suggests that Iraqis expect us to stay, which means that the effort by Ba’athist remnants and their Wahhabi sympathizers to chase Americans out isn’t likely to succeed.

MISSING LINKS: More Saudi 9/11 connections that aren’t getting enough attention:

In an understated manner, the report discloses even more fascinating information: While in San Diego, the pair had extensive contacts with an unidentified FBI informant and were befriended by Omar al-Bayoumi–a Saudi subject who has returned to, and remains in, the kingdom. Al-Bayoumi has terrorist connections, and has been associated with a bin Laden follower named Omar Bassnan.

The report overlooks one important fact about al-Bayoumi: Last year, he and Bassnan were named in the U.S. media as the conduits for “charitable donations” to al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi from Princess Haifa, wife of the Saudi ambassador to America, Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz.

Why no mention whatever of Princess Haifa in the report’s narrative on al-Bayoumi, Bassnan, al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi? The same claim of “national security” that justified blacking out the Saudi chapter?

The report simply fails to follow up on another shocking disclosure: Al-Bayoumi was an employee of the Saudi Civil Aviation Authority, and his immediate superior in that body had a bin Laden connection.

The Saudi Civil Aviation Authority would be the ideal center for a hijacking conspiracy: Its employees would know everything, from Saudi attendance at specific U.S. flight schools, to the regulations for carrying sharp objects aboard airliners, to the fuel capacities of long-range flights.

So why hasn’t our government focused a bright light on this agency? Is it not possible that the agency was tasked with the 9/11 atrocity from higher up in the Saudi regime?

Why isn’t this getting more attention? I saw Wyche Fowler loyally flacking for the Saudi regime on CNN this morning. He was remarkably unpersuasive. Whatever they’re paying him, it’s too much.

The Saudis, meanwhile, are reportedly “furious” over what information has already come out. They shouldn’t be furious. They should be nervous — particularly in light of reports that Hamas gets 70% of its funding from Saudi Arabia.

THE PENTAGON WANTS TO USE A FUTURES MARKET to predict terror attacks. Although this is getting a lot of criticism (mostly from members of Congress who, I suspect, couldn’t accurately describe the operation of existing futures markets) I think it’s an excellent example of creative thinking, and the Pentagon deserves to be congratulated for it. As I’ve suggested before (here, here, and especially here) the diffuse, fast-moving threat of terrorism requires a diffuse, fast-moving response. And this sounds like a very plausible way of recruiting a lot of minds in the service of anti-terrorism.

Josh Chafetz agrees:

A futures market in terrorist attacks, while it sounds grisly, may help us to aggregate diffuse knowledge in a way that will prove superior to expert knowledge. It also may not, but it seems to me that it’s worth a try. At the very least, if we’re going to demand that the government get creative in fighting terror, we shouldn’t be so quick to criticize when it does just that.

Yep.

UPDATE: Reader Fred Butzen emails:

The story about the Pentgon’s “terrorism market” clearly is an extension of Iowa Electronic Markets, which has been run for years by the University of Iowa’s Tippett School of Business. Here’s a link to the Iowa Information Market’s web site:

Link

In brief, the IEM lets persons place bets on the likelihood of given events’ happening; for example, people could bet on the likelihood that Saddam Hussein will survive this year, or who will win the next presidential election. The collective expertise of the participants has proven to be extremely useful in predicting events.

The notion that the dim-bulbs in Congress and the media should attack such a useful and proven idea as the Pentagon’s is utterly absurd.

This is absolutely right. Whether or not the Pentagon’s idea is a good one depends on details I don’t know about. But the lame criticism makes clear that the critics are — as usual — clueless on the subject.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Mitch Berg points out that this approach has worked in the past.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Defense Tech has more on this. So does ChicagoBoyz, which also points to this Martin Devon post. Martin is particularly hard on our elected representatives:

I was pleasantly surprised to see a bit of “out of the box” thinking on the government’s part about how to evaluate the likelyhood of terror threats. Doesn’t it just figure that a couple of maroons from the senate would complain so that they can be seen “taking the high ground?” I’d pay them the compliment of believing that they wrote the complaint for cynical reasons, but just watching them on TV is enough to lead one to conclude that they really are stupid enough to be making an issue of this on principle.

An InstaPundit reader who is too smart to be in Congress emails with a more meaningful criticism: the futures market won’t identify “unknown unknowns,” since the betting — as with ordinary futures markets — must take place within the context of standard “products.”

This is true as far as it goes, but (1) You could provide incentives to come up with new forecasts; and (2) This is only one part, obviously, of a more general approach to thinking about and predicting terror, not the whole thing. The biggest weakness to my mind is that i fthe results are public, terrorists might deliberately choose strategies that are deemed unlikely by the “market.” But, of course, the market could also be configured as a trap, so that could work both ways.

SOME INTERESTING NEWS FROM TIKRIT:

TIKRIT, Iraq (AP) — American soldiers overpowered and arrested a bodyguard who rarely left Saddam Hussein’s side Tuesday and said they obtained documents and information that could help them close in on the former dictator.

From the next quote, I get the idea that the troops are starting to tire of lame press questions:

The stocky bodyguard struggled to break free as soldiers arrested him, and they had to wrestle him to the ground and drag him down the stairs, Russell said.

“Were we surprised? He’s a bodyguard. That’s why we went in with our steely knives and oily guns,” Russell said.

And their razor-sharp wits, though those seem to be deployed less against the Iraqis than against people who ask dumb questions. I think Rumsfeld started this, and it’s filtered down to the troops.

JAMES LILEKS WRITES ON THE SUBURBS: “dull, artless expanse of repression and conformity.”

But his Target has short lines and plenty of cashiers.

VIRGINIA POSTREL IS MAKING FUN OF NPR’S SPELLING — but that’s unfair. You don’t need to be a good speller to do radio.

I do kind of like the “Mikey Kaus” bit, though. Maybe then he’d hate everything! Instead of just everything by Chris Bangle. . . .

SPINSANITY has a roundup on truth and lies over Niger. Meanwhile The Daily Howler says that the press changed Congo to Niger in order to fit its desired story line. Say it ain’t so!

Did British intelligence have real evidence that Iraq “had been scouring countries across Africa for uranium,” as the Times said it had learned? Was it true, as the Times reported, that “the Iraqis were known to have targeted the war-ravaged Democratic Republic of Congo?” Here at THE HOWLER, we simply don’t know. But our press corps has persistently suggested that the Brit intel was all about Niger, and lived or died by those crudely forged documents. These contemporary reports from the British press suggest that this wasn’t the case.

Africa is, in fact, a continent that is home to several different countries besides Niger. Many members of the press seem unaware of this.

And scroll down in the Howler post for the connection between David Remnick, MI6, and Blink 182. . . .

SNOPES HAS DONE SOME DIGGING, and reports that an email from an engineer in Iraq that was linked here and reprinted on several blogs is genuine. Here’s an excerpt, to jog your memory:

It has been a while since I have written to my friends at First Lutheran Church about what’s really going on here in Iraq. The news you watch on TV is exaggerated, sensationalized and selective. Good news doesn’t sell.

The stuff you don’t hear about on CNN?

Let’s start with electrical power production in Iraq. The day after the war was declared over, there was nearly 0 power being generated in Iraq. Just 45 days later, in a partnership between the Army, the Iraqi people and some private companies, there are now 3200 megawatts (Mw) of power being produced daily, 1/3 of the total national potential of 8000 Mw. Downed power lines (big stuff, 400 Kilovolt (Kv) and 132 Kv) are being repaired and are about 70 percent complete.

Then there is water purification. In central Iraq between Baghdad and Mosul, home of the 4th Infantry Division, water treatment was spotty at best. The facilities existed, but the controls were never implemented. Simple chemicals like Chlorine for purification and Alum (Aluminum Sulfate) for sediment settling (the Tigris River is about as clear as the Mississippi River) were in very short supply or not used at all. When chlorine was used, it was metered by the scientific method of guessing.

So some people got pool water to drink and some people got water with lots of little things floating around in it. We are slowly but surely solving that. Contracts for repairs to facilities that are only 50 percent or less operational are being let, chemicals are being delivered, although we don’t have the metering problem solved yet ( … but again, it’s only been 45 days).

Nice to know it was for real.

THE PLAME/WILSON AFFAIR: I pretty much missed this while on vacation — I saw some mentions on blogs but didn’t follow the links and, honestly, still don’t feel I have a handle on the story. But Tom Maguire has a timeline with links, and seems to be following it closely.

My sense on this story, and the underlying matter, is that there’s a lot more going on than meets the eye. Usually I have some idea what that might be, but this time I don’t.

PAUL KRUGMAN ENDORSES TAX CUTS!

It’s a Bill Hobbs scoop.

LIBERTARIANISM AND THE KORAN: I wish these guys luck. It’s certainly true that the totalitarian/statist style of Islamism is really the result of imported European ideas.

MICKEY KAUS CONTINUES TO MAINTAIN HIS SILENCE in the face of troubling and still-unanswered questions about the RX-8.