AN IMPORTANT VICTORY FOR CIVIL RIGHTS in Illinois.

ADOPT-A-SNIPER: Now there’s a charity. . . .

RACIST CARTOONS ABOUT CONDI RICE: Various offenders are identified over at The Democracy Project.

But of course, these cartoons can’t be racist, because they’re about a Republican.

UPDATE: Bob Beckel goes berserk in a discussion of these cartoons.

ANOTHER UPDATE: OVERT RICISM: Michael Demmons wonders how gay Republican appointees will be treated by cartoonists.

I’VE FINALLY FIGURED OUT what Frank J. is up to.

OUCH.

PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE: Don’t change the rules for Tom Delay.

Amy Ridenour, however, dissents.

MORE WIRELESS INTERNET: I’m lunchblogging at the Kingston Alley Ale House, another of the many fine Knoxville establishments offering free wireless Internet. It’s a good place, but it’ll be getting a lot more of my business — and quite a few others’ I expect — in the future because of the wi-fi.

I love this stuff.

A GLOBAL CLONING BAN: Just another bad idea from the U.N. — so why is the Bush Administration going along?

UNSCAM UPDATE: Claudia Rosett writes:

With estimates soaring of graft and fraud under the United Nations Oil for Food program in Iraq, we are hearing a lot about the need to “get to the bottom” of this scandal, the biggest ever to hit the U.N. To get to that bottom will need a much harder look at the top–where Secretary-General Kofi Annan himself resides.

That violates all sorts of taboos. But so, one might suppose, does a United Nations that allowed Saddam Hussein to embezzle at least $21.3 billion in oil money during 12 years, with the great bulk of that sum–a staggering $17.3 billion–pilfered between 1997-2003, on Mr. Annan’s watch.

Indeed.

RICH, BLOGGY GOODNESS: This week’s Carnival of the Vanities is up.

A DEMONSTRATION FOR WOMEN’S RIGHTS in front of the Saudi Embassy: “It’s a start.” I agree.

UPDATE: Here’s another small positive development.

MORE INTERESTING ELECTORAL MAPS: Is population-density the best predictor of voting?

WEB VIDEO: I’ve been talking a lot about the growing importance of web video. It looks like The Wall Street Journal thinks it’s important, too, as they’ve set up a new video page. It’s free. The WSJ seems to be doing a lot of cool new stuff with their site lately.

UPDATE: Speaking of Web video, Amazon has another short movie up on its website. It’s called “Agent Orange,” and it’s directed by Tony Scott. And they’re soliciting filmmakers for future projects, which makes me think it’s more than just a marketing stunt.

What did I think? It’s not a bad short, though the dialogue was a bit, er, cartoonish. . . (Here’s the permalink in case you’re reading this later in the archives). And I think that Bruce Sterling’s new lamp should have made an appearance! But I’m more interested in this venture as a harbinger than anything else. I think it’s significant that both Amazon and the WSJ are making a big run with this stuff. And I think that smaller operators can get involved, too.

KITTY KELLEY IS BEING CHARGED WITH PLAGIARIZING A BLOG:

Seven paragraphs of material in the book, totaling about 400 words, repeat verbatim or closely track sections of Mr. Wilson’s article, titled “George W. Bush’s Lost Year in 1972 Alabama.” The article, which can be found at www.southerner.net/blog/awolbush, was published on Feb. 2 on Mr. Wilson’s Web site, Southerner Daily News. Ms. Kelley’s book was released on Sept. 14. . . .

Ms. Kelley could not be reached for comment. Through her literary agent, Wayne S. Kabak, she referred questions to lawyers for her publisher. In its legal answer to the lawsuit filed in the court in Alabama, Random House Inc. denied Mr. Wilson’s claims and said that if any material was copied or wrongfully appropriated, it was not protected by copyright, was of minimal scope, did not damage Mr. Wilson and was covered under the legal doctrine of “fair use.”

Hmm. As I’ve written before, you have to know a lot about context to tell whether something is really plagiarism or not, but this isn’t the most unqualified defense I’ve ever heard. It’s hard to believe that anyone could be dumb enough to plagiarize a blog — but it’s happened before.

I’VE MENTIONED HERE BEFORE that I’m a big fan of Gilligan’s Island. Now reader (and fellow Gilligan fan) Karl Rotstan emails:

I thought I’d let you know that TBS is now running ads for their new reality show, The Real Gilligan’s Island. They’ve gone out and found a real Skipper, First Mate, Millionaire (and his wife), a Movie Star, a Professor and a Mary Ann and will dump them on a desert isle, although it’s not clear if they will arrive after a 3-hour tour. Anyway, details can be found here.

I can’t believe that they were casting a Professor and nobody even thought of me. . . .

YESTERDAY, I mentioned that GarageBand.com was resurrecting lost MP3.com sites. I managed to get the Mobius Dick site up and running, though it still needs some tweaking. If you’re a former MP3.com artist you may want to take advantage of this while you still can, as I gather they won’t be offering this service forever.

SPACE WARFARE: My TechCentralStation column is up.

DAVE SHEARON PHOTOBLOGS MT. LECONTE in the Great Smoky Mountains.

PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE looks at Big Media folks who do, and don’t, get it. Meanwhile, James Lileks observes:

The Administration is clearing the decks for the second term. Out with the old & tired,, in with new ideas, etc. How’s about the mainstream media does the same? Burn up half the deadwood, ease the ossified elements off the stage, bring in new writers and editors and announcers and producers. If they can do it at State, they could do it at CBS.

Yes, yes, I know. The State Department is just that. But CBS is the news.

Indeed. And here are some more thoughts on the Administration shuffle from Greg Djerejian. And read this on goings-on at the CIA.

SORRY FOR THE LIMITED BLOGGING: The InstaWife has been feeling a bit under the weather, so I mostly hung out with her today. She’s now cheering herself with a copy of James Lileks’ new book, which showed up from Amazon this afternoon.

RUDE AND CRUDE at The University of Chicago. And this time it’s not Garrison Keillor.

THE BELMONT CLUB offers thoughts on the shakeup at the CIA.

PEOPLE KEEP ASKING ME ABOUT RATHERGATE: I should note that RatherGate.com is still going strong. Just keep scrolling.

RYAN SAGER notes a surprising resurgence of interest in federalism:

Republicans have sometimes been the party of federalism, railing in the 1990s about “unfunded mandates” from the federal government making it impossible for states to run their own affairs and complaining that federal involvement in education was ruining local schools.

Unfortunately, the party has been willing to abandon this principle whenever it’s convenient — with President Bush’s No Child Left Behind law recently, and for years over the issue of states wanting to legalize medical marijuana.

But now a large number of disenfranchised Democrats seem willing to form a leave-me-alone coalition. They don’t want Bush and his theologians deciding whether or not to fund stem-cell research, they want California to step in if the federal government won’t. They don’t want a federal constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, they want their individual states to decide.

Meanwhile, I suspect that at least some Republicans will find their interest in federalism flagging further as their majority position looks more secure.

UPDATE: Julian Sanchez has more on the new new federalism on the left.

FALLUJAH MARINE IN TROUBLE FOR “PULLING A KERRY:”

Patrolling the Bay Hap River, Kerry and his crew discovered they were about to be ambushed by a Vietcong soldier who had just popped up at the shoreline with a loaded rocket launcher in his hands. With the VC about to fire, Kerry crewmate Thomas Bellodeau shot and wounded the attacker, saving the entire boat.

Only then did Kerry leap to the shore to chase the wounded enemy down – finishing him off behind a hootch.

When critics suggested that Kerry’s actions that day were something less than heroic, they were hooted down by the press.

Certainly the as yet unnamed Marine in Fallujah deserves, if not the Silver Star, the same slack the press cut Kerry.

This is a twist.

UPDATE: Bigwig says it was a fully justified Kerry.