KEVIN MCCULLOUGH HAS RETRACTED his Ed Asner interview report. Scroll to the bottom to see the new report of what Asner said, which is rather different from McCullough’s original report — no longer does the question ask Asner about portraying someone he’d respects, and Asner’s answer shows his awareness of Stalin’s murders. It’s hard for me to understand how McCullough could have made this mistake, but I’m glad he’s corrected it.

I’ve posted a correction over at GlennReynolds.com, too, since I also wrote about the Asner issue there.

UPDATE: Here’s McCullough’s blog retraction, too. McCullough has taken his medicine admirably.

THEY DON’T CALL IT THE BAATHIST BROADCASTING CORPORATION FOR NOTHING: Coming soon, how hard the second half of 1945 was on Eva Braun’s niece.

AL GIORDANO says that I’m wrong about Bolivia, and likens what’s going on there to the California recall. He’s got a long and link-filled post offering a rather different view than you’ve seen here. (This is the earlier post of mine.)

I hope that he’s right that “authentic democracy” is coming to Bolivia, but I remain skeptical. All my life I’ve heard that revolutions in Latin America were about authentic democracy, but on closer inspection they’ve turned out to be fomented by the usual sorts of Maoists and Stalinists, acting as pawns for outside interests. I’d love for things to be different this time.

UPDATE: Here’s a roundup of stories about Bolivia from a blogger in Ecuador, with firsthand reports from his brother who’s in Bolivia. And here’s more blogging from Bolivia, with photos.

GERMANS SAY THEY’RE VICTIMS, and Stephen Green is unimpressed.

To paraphrase Joseph Story, if the Germans have been victims in the past century, it’s because they’ve been “victims of their own imbecility.”

UPDATE: German blogger Cum Grano Salis has more on this.

INTERESTING BIT OF NEWS FROM IRAQ:

Nethercutt and Senor highlighted the return of electricity to Iraq, which now has a higher megawatt output than it did before the war. Reconstruction has targeted schools and hospitals, and the Americans are spending 3,500 percent more on health care than Saddam Hussein did, Senor said.

(Emphasis added.) Hmm. Does that mean that all those people who defend Castro’s dictatorship based on the “excellent health care system” will now start defending the war in Iraq?

And if not, why not?

THE POSTWAR DEBATE about the pre-war rhetoric: Daniel Drezner is refereeing.

RICH BLOGGY GOODNESS: This week’s Carnival of the Vanities is up, with an assortment of posts from bloggers you may not have read before. Check it out — you may find some you’ll want to add to your daily blog-reading rounds.

Yeah, I say this every week. But there’s more to the blogosphere than InstaPundit, you know.

TIM BLAIR is offering title help to Ted Rall, and rewrite services to the risible Rowan Williams.

That’s our Tim — he just gives, and gives.

NEXT WE CAN DO THE SAME FOR THE PLAME AFFAIR:

WASHINGTON — A federal judge has ordered five journalists, including a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, to identify government sources for their articles about former nuclear weapons scientist Wen Ho Lee.

Lee is suing the government, alleging that officials illegally divulged private information about him in the course of investigating his role in suspected espionage at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico four years ago.

Make Novak testify. Since the “six reporters” to whom the story was allegedly “shopped” appear not to exist, that may be the end of it, but who knows? As even the biggest Plame-conspiracists are now admitting, things are, um, complicated. So let’s cut the Gordian knot!

MEGAN MCARDLE:

In other words, with or without the trust fund, when the expenses of Social Security and Medicare exceed the value of our contributions, our budget is suddenly going to have more holes than a warehouse full of Jarlsberg. And when does this happen? According to the Social Security trustees, Medicare’s expenses start to exceed benefits in 2013, less than ten years from now. Social Security follows suit in 2017. 2040 isn’t the date when we need to start worrying; it’s the date when we finally give up pretending that Social Security is anything other than a gigantic Ponzi scheme, and the suckers revolt. . . .

And what are our elected officials doing about this looming crisis? Why, with the able assistance of groups like the AARP, they’re actively looking for ways to make it worse.

I ain’t gonna eat no government cheese.

For one thing, there won’t be any left by the time I’m of age. . . .

UPDATE: Here’s a related post by Steve Verdon.

JAMES KIRCHICK WRITES that Yale Law School is crushing students’ free speech rights.

Here’s a link to the essay in question, and here’s another piece somewhat along those lines.

ATRIOS’S FANS have bought him a laptop, and Tony Pierce wants Cubs tickets.

I don’t need either, but you might want to help out Chief Wiggles’ Iraqi toy drive.

JEFF JARVIS has news from Iran.

I POST PHOTOS FROM TIME TO TIME, but the ones over at Smoky Mountain Journal, a Smoky Mountain photoblog by Jim Fletcher, are better.

CHINA’S FIRST MANNED SPACE MISSION has launched.

Good for them. I hope the entire mission is successful.

James Oberg, meanwhile, suspects that China’s plans are ambitious.

MERYL YOURISH is unhappy that Gregg Easterbrook is lecturing Jewish movie executives about greed.

UPDATE: Roger Simon calls Easterbrook’s post “astonishing and hugely depressing.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Jessica Harbour writes that Easterbrook isn’t anti-semitic — he just doesn’t have the hang of this blogging thing yet: “So far the only good thing that’s come out of Easterbrook’s blog is that TMQ is now more focused on football.”

Ouch.

PLEASE SEND your thoughts and prayers to Jeff Cooper, who’s got his priorities right.

BOLIVIA’S ELECTED GOVERNMENT is threatened by a mob, as protests turn violent, though they don’t appear to have achieved critical mass. But here’s something interesting about the main opposition leader:

Morales, who just returned from Libya, on Monday called the United States a ”terrorist nation” for the Iraq war.

When you add this to Hugo Chavez’s terrorist connections in Venezuela, it looks as if someone might be trying to open a southern front against the United States. I hope that the right people are looking into this.

UPDATE: Here’s more on the Chavez/Terrorist connection.