THE L.A. TIMES and Holocaust denial.

BAD IDEA: Stealing a picture from Michael Yon.

Especially when you’re a deep pocket. . . .

MORE REVISIONIST HISTORY? At least this time it’s not about the war. . . .

INSANITY BREAKS OUT SPREADS: “Bush orders FBI-Congress documents sealed.”

President Bush stepped into the Justice Department’s constitutional confrontation with Congress on Thursday and ordered that documents seized in an FBI raid on a congressman’s office be sealed for 45 days.

Could Al Qaeda have slipped mind-altering drugs into the DC water supply? What’s gotten into these people? Or has some sort of deal been cut? Whatever it is, I don’t think I like it.

UPDATE: A reader emails:

The article quotes Bush as saying:

“‘This period will provide both parties more time to resolve the issues in a way that ensures that materials relevant to the ongoing criminal investigation are made available to prosecutors in a manner
that respects the interests of a coequal branch of government,’ Bush said.”

Why does this sound so much like “This period will provide both parties more time to cover their asses?”

I’ve been struggling the past year to support the president and have faith in congress; it’s been difficult and I’ve taken a lot of flak for it among my academic colleagues. The behavior of our “leaders” in congress, and now Bush, has finally sealed the deal. Next election, all my votes are going to non-incumbents; regardless of party affiliation. The past few days have made it abundantly clear that they’ve forgotten (1) why they were elected and (2) what the limitations of their power (and trust) are.

I keep wondering what I’m missing here. It’s too late for a big third-party push in ’06, I think, but I’m pretty sure we’ll see one in ’08. At this rate, it may be the only party left . . . .

UPDATE: Ed Morrissey thinks that this is just a case of Bush allowing for a face-saving climbdown on Hastert’s part. Hastert may climb down, but I think it’s too late for him to save face.

And there’s this observation: “Instapundit wonders, ‘Could Al Qaeda have slipped mind-altering drugs into the DC water supply? What’s gotten into these people? Or has some sort of deal been cut?’ Since I haven’t seen any UFOs split the sky like a sheet today I would have to go with his latter hunch.” Yeah, though to be honest I think I’d feel better if it were the drugs.

DENNIS HASTERT: Unfit for Command?

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: Mark Tapscott says that Senate Appropriators went hog-wild on earmarks:

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-PA, is the most frequent requester of earmarks on the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, with 77 requests for such special interest spending measures between 2001 and 2006.

Specter lead the earmark fest that saw GOP members of the panel request an average of 27 earmarks during the five years. By contrast, the dozen Democrat members of the committee requested an average of 17 earmarks.

Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-CA, was the leading earmark requester among Democrat members of the appropriations committee, with 75. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV, was shown with only one earmark request.

The data for this analysis was compiled for a report by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, chaired by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-OK. The report was based on information provided by the Congressional Research Service.

Trailing Specter – who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee – among the top five GOP requesters was Sen. Mike DeWine, R-OH, with 53, Sen. Ted Stevens, R-AK, with 33, Sen. Richard Shelby, R-AL, with 21, and Sen. Thad Cochran, R-MS, with 19. Cochran is chairman of the committee.

Read the whole thing. And weep. Especially if you’re a Republican.

UPDATE: Follow the link for Mark Tapscott’s correction.

LAY AND SKILLING CONVICTED: Professor Bainbridge is blogging it.

I’ll just note that I think Paul Krugman’s claim that Enron would be bigger than 9/11 seems not to have come true.

HEH:

The Treasury Department announced this morning that after losing in five circuit courts of appeals, the Government is throwing in the towel and will no longer seek to enforce the 3% excise tax on long-distance telephone calls enacted during the Spanish-American War of 1898 as a “luxury” tax on wealthy Americans who owned telephones. The IRS will will issue $15 billion in refunds to consumers for long-distance telephone service taxes paid over the past three years.

It’s a nice reminder of how long “temporary” taxes can last, and of how taxes targeted at “the rich” often turn out to reach others.

THEY’RE IDIOTS IN CONGRESS, but the economy continues to boom.

TAKING A CLUEBAT TO CONGRESS over at Hot Air.

NATIONAL REVIEW: “By nothing more than dumb luck, the Republican-controlled Congress—lambasted for the junkets, earmarks, and ‘culture of corruption’ that have aligned to produce the lowest approval ratings in memory—was handed a shot at some desperately needed redemption. All its leaders had to do was make the right choice between condemning the rankest corruption and displaying an outsized arrogance. Guess which one they chose?”

The Washington Post offers a scolding, too.

VIOLENT PROTESTS IN IRAN: Gateway Pundit has a roundup.

CONGRESS’S NEW SLOGAN:

WARRANTS: Not good enough for us, too good for you.

I’d say “heh,” but it’s too accurate to be really funny.

IN THE MAIL: Steven Lubet’s Lawyers’ Poker : 52 Lessons that Lawyers Can Learn from Card Players. They sent me a cool deck of cards, too, but I don’t think it actually comes with the book.

MORE CRUSHING OF DISSENT: You hear stories like this (well, sort of like this) pretty often. Really, ISPs need to show a bit of backbone here. (Via Frank Wilson).

ANDREW MCCARTHY: “You may have thought the Republican congressional leadership had run out of feet to shoot themselves in in their mind-boggling quest to place themselves, in the public mind, squarely on the side of coddling corruption rather than ridding themselves of a disgraced member. Nope. . . . Short of allowing congress to be in charge of investigations of congressmen, it’s hard to see how the Justice Department could have been more solicitous of the privileges and immunities of the legislature. It is just stunning that the Speaker is taking this tack, in favor of a guy on videotape taking a $100K, most of which he stashed in his freezer.”

QUESTIONS FOR ABC on the Hastert story.

NIGERIA UPDATE:

The army and navy forces in the Delta Region are facing better armed and equipped local gangs, and are not able to shut the gangs down. Tapping into oil pipelines and stealing oil continues, and this provides the gangs with a steady cash flow. The better armed gangs are branching out into more ambitious attacks on oil company operations in the Delta. Payrolls are a favorite target. The region is becoming more dangerous, and unruly.

Keep an eye on this.

IT’S A CLINTON-FEST AT KAUSFILES: Bill rages, Hillary scolds, and Kaus has a terrific time.

DAN RIEHL: “I submit that, not only does Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank unfairly play the race card against Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions; in his myopic view, he totally fails to see where and how it actually should be played on the issue of illegal immigration.”

UPDATE: He’s got more on ABC’s Hastert “scoop,” too.

BYRON YORK: “If House Speaker Dennis Hastert has his way, why should any member of Congress ever comply with a subpoena? And are the members who have complied with subpoenas in the past kicking themselves for being such saps?”

ORIN KERR IS TAKING SUGGESTIONS FOR CONGRESSIONAL HEARING TOPICS: He’s got some pretty funny ones to start with.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL reprinted my column on societal pressures against parenting. Ann Althouse linked it, which produced a bunch of interesting comments.

You should also read this piece by Robert Samuelson, who takes a somewhat different slant on the issue. And note this post on the media by Mark Daniels.

AUCTIONING A GOP SPINE INSERTION AT eBAY. (Via RedState).

MORE ON BOGUS ANTIWAR VETERAN JESSE MACBETH over at Hot Air.

Meanwhile, Jesse MacBeth presents his side of the story at IowaHawk.