WHERE DIPLOMACY IS NOT SO SUCCESSFUL: Reader Jake Kreutzer sends this link to a story suggesting that the North Koreans are even stupider, and more suicidal, than I thought.

JOE KATZMAN looks at the diplomatic defeats that France has suffered and doesn’t credit the United States. He says that they have Tony Blair’s fingerprints all over them.

There’s something to this — but it’s not the whole story nor, as I will note in a later post, would the Administration fail to deserve substantial credit even if Katzman’s perspective were one hundred percent correct.

READ THIS POST by Dave Kopel over at The Corner on the latest Rave Act developments. And read the post below it, too.

JEEZ, a new traffic record. Over 112, 000 pageviews today already. Go figure.

IRAQI SPIES IN THE U.S.? That’s hardly surprising, given that we’re basically at war. But this Daily News report offers some surprises, though of course I can’t confirm its accuracy.

BROBECK, PHLEGER IS NO MORE. This won’t excite the non-lawyers, but it’s big news.

UNILATERALISM, MY ASS! (CONT’D): All I can say is, Advantage: Rumsfeld!

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP)–The “new Europe” raised its voice Thursday, as eight of its leaders praised U.S. resolve in disarming Iraq and indirectly chided the traditional powers, France and Germany, for opposing U.S. plans for military action against Saddam Hussein.

But that’s old news. Now, though, the “gang of eight” is a “gang of ten:”

Some of Europe’s newest democracies have expressed the strongest support because of past U.S. economic and political support of their struggle to escape communism.

Albanian Prime Minister Fatos Nano, in a letter to Bush made public Thursday, pledged “total and unconditional” support in the showdown against Iraq. Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda of Slovakia called the declaration “the clear, right word at the right time,” and said he agreed with it.

The article goes on to minimize (if that’s possible) the military importance of Albania and Slovakia. But that’s not the point. The point is that — despite (or because of) their diplomatic anschluss — France and Germany are now isolated within the E.U. Indeed, there is now talk that the E.U. may splinter as a result of their anti-American efforts.

That probably won’t happen, but it’s a far cry from the “United Europe” stance that Chirac and Schroeder had in mind. Why, it’s almost as if they were lured into this position.

PARIS CORRESPONDENT NELSON ASCHER EMAILS:

Hello.

This is very important:

Though a minimum of 157 signatures was needed, by now more than 160 Euro Parliament representatives have signed the request demanding an investigation into how the Palestinians have been using the money given them by the European Union. Great for the very day the “gang of 8” published its pro-US letter. Maybe things are begining to change this side of the ocean — and, by the way, this is also, and quite officially, the “hole in the head” Chris Patten was in need of.

Another diplomatic success. Heh.

READER ALAN CAMERON POINTS OUT that AOL’s $99 billion loss was close to double Iraq’s total GDP. Heh.

In the words of Jack Palance, “I crap bigger’n you.”

Almost twice as big, though admittedly, that was an unusually large crap. . . .

HMM. SCHWARZKOPF WAS SKEPTICAL, BUT NOW HE’S CALLING BUSH’S SPEECH “COMPELLING.” You don’t think the whole thing was scripted, do you? Surely not.

NO ANTI-SEMITISM HERE. Publish that cartoon with an obviously Arab figure and you’d be charged with “hate speech.” Heck, they might even advertise to find people who were offended.

UPDATE: No hate crime here, either!

I WAS JUST BEING HONEST: My comments on Gary Locke’s performance responding to the State of the Union got quoted in the Seattle Times.

Oh, well, I was nicer than Oliver Willis, who called Locke’s presentation “long and limp.”

DONALD SENSING identifies Bush’s most important sentence.

HERE’S A FIRSTHAND BLOG REPORT of Iraqi chemical weapons.

READER GABRIEL MENDEL POINTS OUT that even though the New York Times is basically ignoring the European leaders’ letter, the robots at Google News — handily outperforming the humans at the Times — have put the story up top.

UPDATE: Better late than never! The Times has it now.

PROFESSOR DAVID MOSER OF BELMONT UNIVERSITY has posted a defense of the Eldred decision on the new Belmont University faculty blog. (A great idea, by the way).

Meanwhile, Yale Law Professor Jack Balkin suggests that under Eldred, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is unconstitutional.

FRANCE’S BAD WEEK: I reflect on the failures of Franco-diplomacy over at GlennReynolds.com, where I also suggest that the Bush Administration is playing a diplomatic game that goes well beyond Iraq.

Meanwhile, in response to the letter from 8 European leaders supporting the United States, reader Jim Campbell emails:

After reading the stunning op-ed letter in the WSJ this morning (to see the words “American bravery” in a letter signed by the heads of 8 European nations briefly stopped my heart), I thought of Bush and Chirac and Schroeder, and a movie scene immediately popped into mind – the scene at the end of Twelve Angry Men, where Henry Fonda looks at Lee J. Cobb and says, “You’re alone now.”

I like it.

UPDATE: Here’s an article that provides some insight into what’s going on:

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – A joint letter by eight European leaders backing the United States on the crisis with Iraq highlighted the European Union (news – web sites)’s divisions on Thursday, rubbing salt into the wounds of its stumbling foreign policy. . . .

The move appeared aimed at isolating France and Germany, which had publicly argued against a rush to war, and building a pro-American caucus within the 15-nation EU.

“This looks like Rumsfeld’s Europe,” one EU diplomat said, referring to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s dismissal of France and Germany last week as “old Europe.”

Buwahahahaha!

HERE’S A NICE PIECE ON NANOTECHNOLOGY and Bill Joy’s fears by Freeman Dyson, who invokes Milton’s Areopagitica.

UNILATERALISM, MY ASS! Jim Miller notes that the New York Times and other anti-war papers don’t seem to be giving the European leaders’ letter of support any play.

If the letter had been one of condemnation, want to bet it would have made the front page? I can’t even find it on the page that supposedly provides “complete coverage” of the war with Iraq.

Meanwhile, Juan Volokh is condemning French unilateralism.

THERE WILL BE AN ONLINE FORUM on affirmative action and diversity in higher education at the Chronicle of Higher Education’s website starting at 1 p.m. Eastern time. (The link is here.) I’ll be in class, but perhaps you’ll find it interesting.

TOM DASCHLE DOESN’T WANT YOU DANCING: Dave Kopel and I have a column criticizing the latest, sneaky, iteration of the RAVE Act, over at National Review Online.

UPDATE: TalkLeft has comments.

REGIS PHILBIN, ANTI-IDIOTARIAN? Reader Mark Garbowski emails:

This morning on the Regis and Kelly show, Regis made humorous reference to a news article on the offer of exile to Saddam. Kelly asked why we would pay for that and Regis replied that it’s cheaper than war. Then Kelly said yes, but why do we have to pay for it. We solve everyone’s problems and pay for everything and all the world does is hate us and burn the flag. In as close to verbatim as I can remember, Regis said:

“Yeah. Like South Korea. South Korea wants us out of their country. OK. But who’s gonna keep them safe from that crazy man up north? And the French! The only time the French want us to go to war is when the German army is sitting in Paris sipping coffee.”

Cheers from the studio audience. Go Regis.

First Oprah, now Regis. I told you there was a cultural sea-change underway. No wonder the traditional Vietnam-era left is so grumpy.

UPDATE: Dr. Manhattan emails:

I think the Oprah & Regis moments represent the obverse of the legendary LBJ story where he saw Walter Cronkite opine against Vietnam on his broadcast and asserted: “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost the country.”

Indeed.

IN LIGHT OF THE AFRICAN AIDS INITIATIVE, producers of NPR-type shows should be aware of this song about AIDS by the Ugandan band Afrigo.

Meanwhile, Susanna Cornett emails:

A caller on the Curtis & Kuby show (WABC 770, NYC) just called in and said he thought Bush was going to give AIDS $$ to Africa because he wants the oil there.

Apparently it’s a one-size-fits-all meme.

Jeez, that guy is so behind the times. Doesn’t he realize it’s all about antigravity?

LET THIS BE A WARNING TO STUDENTS WHO GAME DURING CLASS. . . .

A Norwegian MP has been caught playing games on his handheld computer during a debate in parliament.

Trond Helleland didn’t know television cameras had zoomed in on him during a debate about Norwegians fighting in Afghanistan.

The Conservative MP says he had been meaning to check his schedule on his personal digital assistant, but couldn’t resist a round of the war game Metalion.

Personally, I’m just glad to hear that there’s someone in the Norwegian parliament who doesn’t sniffily disapprove of war games.

UPDATE: Norwegian blogger Fredrik Norman has links to pictures, and notes: “Who said Norwegian politicians were all doves? In the virtual year of 2252, they’re laser-firing hawks!”

“IT AIN’T DEAD YET:” DefenseTech warns that the TIA program hasn’t been killed, despite the contrary impression held by many.

Get a bigger stick, and whack it again.