MICKEY KAUS points to a potential screwup in the planned trial of Saddam. Can this be right?

Kaus: “Did ‘Brandini’ know about this? Does he approve?”

WOW: My brother just updated his band’s homepage and it’s pretty slick.

LT SMASH is offering premiums to people who donate to Spirit of America. And these guys are giving away free blogs! With hosting!

UPDATE: Then there’s this!

INSTAPUNDIT’S AFGHANISTAN PHOTO-CORRESPONDENT, Major John Tammes of the U.S. Army Ordnance Corps, sends this from Bagram, Afghanistan. It seems that the Ordnance Corps has taken a back-to-the-future approach to transport. . . .

My secretary once rode a camel across much of Mali, and has retained a deep hatred for camels ever since. As has just about everyone I know who has ever had much to do with camels.

UPDATE: On a less cheerful note, Major Tammes sends this followup:

I suppose the story has reached you by now about Pat Tillman being KIA. I guess when I said it was still dangerous here – I didn’t hope to be proved correct so soon in such a sad and public way.

I admired him for what he did. He was a rare person to cast aside fame and fortune to go defend the society that would have been happy to continue to glamorize him as an NFL player. He was a man dedicated to duty, honor, country in every respect.

Indeed. Story here.

UPDATE: More thoughts here.

YESTERDAY, I MENTIONED THAT RANDALL BECK, editor of the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, had a hissy fit concerning blogs. Here’s an analysis of what this reveals about the South Dakota political scene.

IRAQ AND SOUTH AFRICA: Interesting observation from one of Andrew Sullivan’s readers.

UNSCAM: IS EVERYONE ON THE TAKE?

A former French ambassador to the United Nations, Jean-Bernard Merimee, is listed as receiving vouchers totaling 11 million barrels. Also on the list is a vocal friend of Iraq, Gilles Munier of the Franco-Iraqi Friendship Association.

At the Vatican, the Rev. Jean Marie Benjamin — a French priest who is reported to have arranged a meeting between the pope and Tariq Aziz, the former deputy prime minister of Iraq — is listed as receiving the rights to sell 4.5 million barrels.

The list is dominated by Russian citizens and organizations. In addition to Mr. Zhirinovsky, the list names the former Soviet Prime Minister Nikolai Ryzhkov, the Russian Orthodox Church, the “office of the Russian president,” President Vladimir Putin’s Peace and Unity Party, and companies linked to the Communist Party.

In Indonesia, the list is headed by Mrs. Megawati, whose spokesman has said she is “aware of the allegations.”

The files purportedly show vouchers being handed to socialist, communist and nationalist political parties in Ukraine, Belarus, the former Yugoslavia, Romania, and Slovakia.

There are also vouchers for the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

A prominent British member of Parliament is listed, along with his Jordanian business partner.

Obviously, United States foreign policy needs to place a heavier emphasis on covert bribery of foreign officials. It seems to work!

UPDATE: More here from the BBC. And here’s a roundup of today’s British coverage. One headline says it best: “Sick children sacrificed for profit and propaganda.”

JAMES LILEKS is suffering from blog burnout, and needs a vacation. It happens to the best from time to time.

RYAN BOOTS has posted his Iraqi blogger roundup for this week. Don’t miss it.

ERIC DREXLER has set up a new website full of technical information on nanotechnology.

WEISBERGISM OF THE DAY: Eugene Volokh wields a very sharp knife.

A FAVORABLE REVIEW for Randy Barnett’s book, Restoring the Lost Constitution: The Presumption of Liberty.

INDCJOURNAL POSTS AN AMUSING PHOTO-REPORT from yesterday’s protests in front of the Supreme Court. If you watched the TV coverage, you’ll find this behind-the-scenes look amusing. If you provided the TV coverage, you’d better hope your friends don’t see this post. . . .

Fans of the ’80s metal band “Krokus,” on the other hand, will be scratching their heads.

KERRY’S MILITARY RECORDS ARE (PARTIALLY) OUT, and Tom Maguire is looking at them, which is more than some people opining on them have done, apparently. Here’s the Boston Globe story.

PATRICK MOORE AND NICK SCHULZ have thoughts on where the environmental movement is heading.

SALON HAS AN EXTENSIVE INTERVIEW WITH NEAL STEPHENSON up — you’ll have to sit through an ad first, but I think it’s worth it.

You can read this Stephenson interview, by me, without the ad. But it’s not nearly as extensive.

ANOTHER JOURNALIST WHO CAN’T TAKE CRITICISM is lashing out at the blogosphere.

When I see some editor lose it this way, it doesn’t fill me with confidence in traditional media.

More here.

UPDATE: And here.

THE “UNSCAM” OIL-FOR-FOOD SCANDAL hit the British media in today with a splash. Here’s a roundup of the coverage there. (Via the “Friends of Saddam” UNScam blog — which has lots more on this scandal.)

UPDATE: More here.

HERE’S A PICTURE OF BALD RIVER FALLS from my expedition yesterday. I plan to spend a lot more time in the Cherokee National Forest and areas around there. For whatever reason, I tend to go north rather than south on my photo expeditions, but that’s caused me to overlook all sorts of places that I should pay more attention to.

Because the big pictures seem to cause excessive page-load times for some of my foreign readers (who have not just dial-up, but 24K dialup) I’ve compressed this image rather savagely. I’ll have some higher quality stuff posted over at the Exposure Manager site later, but I haven’t had time to deal with that. I got my exams written early this year, which let me take yesterday off, but there’s still a lot of end-of-the-semester cleanup to be dealt with.

At any rate, my photography is a pale shadow of the stuff that Fletch does over at A Smoky Mountain Journal. But that’s the beauty of amateurism: I can do it anyway!

ANDREW SULLIVAN POSTS A LETTER FROM FALLUJAH that’s a must-read.

MERYL YOURISH has a concise but interesting blogosphere roundup.

THIS SOUNDS SUSPICIOUS AS WELL AS DREADFUL:

SEOUL (Reuters) – Up to 3,000 people have been killed or injured in a huge explosion after two goods trains collided in a North Korean station hours after leader Kim Jong-il had passed through, South Korea’s YTN television station says.

Hmm.

UPDATE: Here’s an interesting Korea-related story:

According to the Jo Gap-je, the chief editor of the Chosun Ilbo’s Monthly Chosun Magazine, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney apparently laid down the law to the Chinese during his visit to Beijing. More specifically, he is said to have told Chinese leaders, “If China cannot prevent North Korea from arming itself with nuclear weapons, the United States, too, cannot prevent Taiwan and Japan from arming themselves with nuclear weapons.”

Very interesting, if true.

CHECK OUT THE SPIRIT OF AMERICA BLOGGER CHALLENGE: It’s in a good cause.

MY LOCAL MALL HAS SEVEN — YES, SEVEN — JEWELRY STORES, and I’ve never been able to understand how they can all stay in business, though I assume that colossal markups have something to do with it. My guess is that it’ll be a lot harder for them now that Amazon is selling jewelry online at a discount. It’ll be interesting to see what comes of this.

UPDATE: Reader Steve Clayton emails:

Like a lot of purchases that are very “personal”, buying jewelry for most people is what I call a “squeeze the merchandise” business.

If you’re buying a standardized commodity — CD, DVD, book, etc. — e-tailing is a delivery channel, though many people still go to Borders or Barnes & Noble for the “experience”.

There are some things that we just have to “see it/touch it” before we buy it. Jewelry is one of them.

Only not everyone feels that way, as reader Jeff Miller emails:

If you think Amazon selling online jewelry is a big deal, check out Seattle-based Blue Nile, which sells diamonds and jewelry over the Net.

They’re set to go public and, according their S-1, last year they brought in $128.9 million in revenue and made a whopping $27 million in profits. That’s a nice little profit margin.

News to me, but apparently there’s a market. And, it turns out, one of the companies is headquartered in Knoxville, which was also news to me. Reader Andrew Coloctronis emails:

You may be interested to know that Knoxville is the home to a TV and Internet Jewelry sales company, Jewelry Television (formally ACN TV). With over 1,000 employees located at a facility on Kingston Pike, Jewelry Television conducts all its production, shipping, broadcasting and web hosting locally.

I knew we had several cable-sales channels here, but I didn’t know about this one. Apparently, plenty of people are willing to buy without touching.

THE “UNSCAM” OIL-FOR-FOOD SCANDAL is getting more attention:

It worked like this: Iraq would export under-priced oil, import over-priced goods, and cash in the difference through friendly middle-men. This occurred in plain daylight, right under the U.N.’s nose, with the complicity of hundreds of international companies, and possibly, the knowledge of many governments that had seats on the U.N. Security Council.

Beyond the kickbacks, Saddam was able to smuggle an estimated $5.7 billion worth of oil and fuel out of the country in total violation of the sanctions. Hundreds of trucks would enter Iraq from Turkey filled with goods bought under Oil-for-Food – then drive off again with fuel destined for sale on the black market. Other smuggling routes included a pipeline through Syria, and ships sailing Iranian territorial waters.

This sanctions-busting trade provided no benefit to Iraq’s civilian population. In fact, it created drastic fuel shortages inside Iraq. And again, it could not have occurred without the knowledge, and participation, of Iraq’s neighbors.

Kofi Annan made an excellent choice in appointing former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker to head the independent panel. But let there be no illusions. Despite yesterday’s Security Council vote in support of the Volcker probe, his inquiry will be as popular with the governments of Security Council members as Hercule Poirot’s investigation was on the Orient Express.

Read the whole thing. More background and links here.

UPDATE: Jan Haugland has comments on the Russians’ reluctance to be investigated.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Stefan Sharkansky traces Oil-for-Food money to some American political campaigns. Both Democrats and Republicans are involved.