I’VE BEEN OFF THE INTERNET — and enjoying it considerably — since yesterday. I’ll be back later. In the meantime, read this Mark Steyn column about the collapse of the “Bush LIED!” argument:

Last summer, the comparatively minor matter of uranium from Niger was all over the front pages and the news shows. Do you think Butler’s report will be? Do you think Terry McAuliffe and John Kerry and Howard Dean will be eating humble yellowcake? . . .

Bush didn’t LIE!!!! He was right, and the CIA were wrong. That doesn’t mean they LIED!!!! either. Intelligence is never 100 percent. You make a judgment, and in this instance the judgments of the British and Europeans were right, and the judgment of the principal intelligence agency of the world’s hyperpower was wrong. That should be a cause of great concern — for all Americans. . . .

And in the most exquisite reductio of this now universal rule, if it’s a choice between Bush and the CIA, the left sides with the CIA. . . .

This isn’t an anti-war movement. This is a movement in denial.

Read the whole thing. Andrew Sullivan has more:

On the face of it, Wilson is a complete, partisan fraud.

Meanwhile, longtime Wilson skeptic Tom Maguire is dancing a link-rich victory jig over Wilson’s demise. (“This is a dark, unflattering side of me, but I am loving this. . . . Let me quote Atrios here – ‘A source lies to you, and you find it out, you burn him. Period.'”) As best I can tell with a quick check, Pejman Yousefzadeh has the best roundup on the utter collapse of Joe Wilson’s credibility. I’ll be back later — but just in case it’s a while, note that Cass Sunstein, law professor at the University of Chicago and author of Republic.com, will be guest-posting for me over at GlennReynolds.com.

In the meantime, if you can’t get enough of the Joe Wilson implosion, check out Greg Djerejian’s lengthy response to Josh Marshall’s efforts to defend Wilson. And Roger Simon says that the Wilson story has been a “symphony of mendacity.” Now growing ever more frantic and discordant. . . .

THE HARDY / CLARKE BOOK ON MICHAEL MOORE is at number nine on the NYT bestseller list.

INSTAPUNDIT’S AFGHANISTAN PHOTO-CORRESPONDENT, Major John Tammes, sends this:

Some of our CERP funds were used to dig a deep irrigation well at the village of Qara Bagh. I was invited to the dedication and opening of the well. All the area leaders and the elders of the community were present. After a prayer of dedication, they fired up the pump and when the water started, they all cheered and clapped and started thanking us in English and Dari. One of the older gentlemen, a teacher, came up to me and said “Thank you. Last year, no water, now…(he glanced over at the gushing water)…thank you, thank you.” This country has a way of really giving you a serious perspective check . . .

Indeed.

AFTER READING ARNOLD KLING’S ARTICLE that mentioned it, I ordered Robert Fogel’s new book, The Escape from Hunger and Premature Death, about changes in the human condition since 1700. I finished it last night — it is, as Arnold says, short but information-packed — and found it very interesting. It fits nicely into a project I’m working on, and supports the thesis in this piece that we’ve already had a chance to see how extending lives dramatically would effect society. Fogel even notes that many chronic illnesses associated with aging (such as arthritis) now strike much later than they used to, meaning that, in a way, we can be said to have slowed the aging process already via better nutrition and living conditions.

JOE WILSON LIED, REPUTATIONS DIED:

WASHINGTON – A Senate report criticizing false CIA claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction at the same time provides support for an assertion the White House repudiated: that Iraq sought to buy uranium in Africa.

A Friday report from the Senate Intelligence Committee offers new details supporting the claim.

French and British intelligence separately told the United States about possible Iraqi attempts to buy uranium in the African nation of Niger, the report said. The report from France is significant not only because Paris opposed the Iraq war but also because Niger is a former French colony and French companies control uranium production there.

Joseph Wilson, a retired U.S. diplomat the CIA sent to investigate the Niger story, also found evidence of Iraqi contacts with Nigerien officials, the report said.

Hmm. That’s not what his Times oped said, is it? But wait, there’s more:

Former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, dispatched by the CIA in February 2002 to investigate reports that Iraq sought to reconstitute its nuclear weapons program with uranium from Africa, was specifically recommended for the mission by his wife, a CIA employee, contrary to what he has said publicly.

Read the whole thing, which also notes that Wilson’s public statements about what he found don’t match the record. Josh Marshall, you got some ‘splainin’ to do. At the very least, I think it’s time to answer Greg Djerejian’s challenge. Isn’t it?

I’LL BE ON TRAVEL for the next few days. Blogging is likely to be lighter than usual. Email response is likely to be worse than usual.

THE WESTERN ROOTS OF ISLAMISM: Which may also explain why it has so surprisingly many Western supporters.

DENNIS MILLER is apparently angling for a slot as California Attorney General.

That’s not a compliment.

PAUL KRUGMAN gets spanked by Simone Ledeen.

PEJMAN YOUSEFZADEH has a post on the Presidential candidates and Iran.

AS WITH SO MANY GOVERNMENT ACTIONS, this one was all about the pork barrel.

WINDS OF CHANGE has an interesting item on military and intelligence transformations. It’s time.

HERE’S THIS WEEK’S FRIDAY-NIGHT CATBLOG, in homage to the no-longer-catblogging Kevin Drum.

This is Nicholas, on the guest bed. A damn fine cat.

BARRY BONDS VS. BARRY MANILOW: An interesting piece on divisions among baby boomers. It rings true to me. I marched in civil rights protests — but I was 4. (Via Virginia Postrel).

THE LEFTY MELTDOWN CONTINUES, with this Death4Bush site. (Via LT Smash).

UPDATE: The surprising Michael Moore / Doug Feith alignment. Maybe Moore really is a Karl Rove mole, preparing America for the next war while pretending to criticize the last!

INDEED: “Well, so far the score is unhappy children from gay marriages: 1, unhappy children from traditional marriages 8 billion.” I also admire the use of the term “pertrousorating,” which is employed far less often than circumstances justify.

LOTS MORE NEWS on the Darfur genocide at Passion of the Present. It looks as if French support is encouraging the Khartoum government to resist efforts to stop the killing.

IF YOU’RE AN EDITOR, you should hire Howard Lovy. He’s an excellent, honest, and careful reporter and writer. It’s not like there’s a surplus of those!

MY EARLIER POST on sending digital cameras to Iraq impressed some people with just how cheap this camera has gotten, at under $100. Yep. And I’ve got one — it’s taken most of the pictures you see here, more than the Toshiba and the Nikon combined, because it fits in my pocket — and I paid something like $249 for it about 18 months ago.

As somebody wrote a while back, the real news in digital cameras isn’t what you can get at the top end — it’s how much you can get at the bottom end.

DITKAMANIA!

WE’VE BEEN FIGHTING THIS SO-CALLED “WAR ON TERROR” for years, and yet Frank J. is mocking us by celebrating his second blogiversary. Bush has obviously dropped the ball. I’m voting for Kerry!

THE OPTIMISM MEME: Dave Shearon comments.

TERRY TEACHOUT — investigated by the FBI!

FIRST KIRK AND SPOCK, NOW THIS: Not one, but two “slash” videos involving Kerry and Edwards.

I say it’s part of the “flowering of modern folk culture.” Not that there’s anything wrong with that!

UPDATE: Here’s another. And, even more bizarrely, there’s a Kerry/Edwards slash fantasy community on LiveJournal, by people who appear to be sincerely crushing on the presidential pair. This is surely a campaign first. Let a hundred flowers of folk culture bloom!

CAN YOU BE AGAINST THE WAR, BUT STILL SUPPORT THE TROOPS? Yeah, but these people sure aren’t:

Jason Gilson, a 23-year-old military veteran who served in Iraq, marched in the local event. He wore his medals with pride and carried a sign that said “Veterans for Bush.”

Walking the parade route with his mom, younger siblings and politically conservative friends, Jason heard words from the crowd that felt like a thousand daggers to the heart.

“Baby killer!”

“Murderer!”

“Boooo!”

To understand why the reaction of strangers hurt so much, you must read what the young man had written in a letter from Iraq before he was disabled in an ambush.

Sigh. Maybe it really is 1968 all over again.

UPDATE: More thoughts from Scott Koenig.