MORE ON IRAN, at GlennReynolds.com.

THE JAMES FREY DEBACLE, explained.

LOADS OF INFORMATION on the GOP Majority Leader candidates, including audio and transcripts of the blogger conference calls, Hugh Hewitt interviews, etc., at N.Z. Bear’s roundup page.

MIGUEL OCTAVIO reports a big anti-Chavez march in Caracas. Photos here.

IRAQI INSURGENTS declare war on Al Qaeda. May both sides fight to the last man . . . .

STEPHEN BAINBRIDGE HAS MORE THOUGHTS on UCLA’s angry alumni and the question of academic diversity.

Read this, too.

GOOD NEWS THAT I HOPE IS TRUE: Roger Stern has an article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences arguing that oil is, in fact, plentiful, and that supply issues are politically driven. PDF version is available here.

Okay, it’s only sort of good news, as you’ll see if you read the whole thing.

UPDATE: Reader Daniel Reinhold sends this link to a paper on oil supplies.

ANOTHER UPDATE: More from Roger Simon.

IRAQ THE MODEL has more on political events in Iraq.

Austin Bay’s short take: “Al Qaeda definitely lost the election.”

ED MORRISSEY IS PODCASTING now, too. He’s got a lengthy interview with J.D. Hayworth up. Topics include immigration, lobbying reform, Abramoff, and more.

UPDATE: John Tabin and Dave Weigel are podcasting, too.

I’LL BE ON “RELIABLE SOURCES” ON CNN at about 10:30 (Eastern) today, talking about Abramoff, Murtha, etc.

UPDATE: Ian Schwartz has the video. Most striking to me is the bit at the end, where Jill Zuckman of the Chicago Tribune says that Murtha’s war record is a fair story, but one that should have been reported by a legitimate news organization, not Cybercast News Service, which she calls a “right wing part of the blogosphere.” I’m guessing if the Chicago Tribune had been on the story first, CNS would have foregone its own investigation . . . .

VIDEOGAMES: Defending the American way of life!

American troops appear to have a considerable advantage because most of them grew up playing video games and using PCs. More and more military equipment uses computers, or are basically electronic gadgets. American troops require a lot less time to learn how to use this stuff, and tend to be very good with it. This extends from fire control systems in armored vehicles, to new radios, electronic rifle sights and training systems (which are very similar to those video games.) Many other countries have to spend a lot more time training their troops to use this stuff, and the proficiency of the troops is never particularly good. This effect is often seen when this high tech American equipment is provided to foreign troops who didn’t have such an electronic childhood.

Another big American advantage here is that U.S. troops can quickly get into the computerized training systems and further enhance their combat skills. A major problem with computerized simulators and wargames is the time it takes to learn to use them. But most American troops see this stuff as just another computer game, and get right into it.

Heh. Indeed.

“A FEW STUKAS short of a squadron.” Once I read that, I was laughing too hard to focus on the article.

YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP: “Sen. Patty Murray said Friday that returning contributions from Indian tribes represented by Jack Abramoff would ‘taint’ the tribes.”

I am filled with admiration for her nobility in preserving their untainted status.

RANDY NEAL, the blogger formerly known as South Knox Bubba, is back with a new group blog called KnoxViews.

TEJU COLE is blogging from Lagos.

Meanwhile, here’s some unfortunate information from elsewhere in Nigeria:

More troops were sent to the Niger Delta, to aid in the search for the hostages taken from an oil platform. Secret negotiations were said to be underway with the kidnappers, but the government is also committed to crushing the gangs, which have prospered for years from stealing oil. The gangs have gotten political because the tribes in the Delta have gotten lots of pollution and no money from all the oil fields, and people are unhappy about this. The corruption that permeates the government, and much of Nigerian society, makes negotiation futile and armed violence more attractive.

Corruption and bad government — a recipe for disaster. And, God knows, Nigeria has both in copious quantities. On the other hand, if you put this together with trouble in Iran, and Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, it almost looks as if somebody is trying to put a lot of oil sources under pressure simultaneously.

UPDATE: A troubling email from James Egan:

Perhaps the hostage taking and the threats on oil production in Nigeria is motivated by pollution, corruption or poverty or… Maybe… it’s more complicated than that.

Nigeria has the largest Muslim population in Africa after Egypt — about 50% of the country. 12 states have already implemented shari’ah and there’s pressure on others to do the same. (Link)

While most of the Muslims live in the north, the dude leading up the insurrection in the delta region (where the oil is), from the Ijaw tribe, is a Muslim. In fact, he is a great admirer of bin Laden, so much so he’s named one of his kids Osma in the terrorist’s honor. Saying “…in admiration of the courage of Osama I named my child Osama. But that is my own personal belief. I admire Osama.” (Link)

Nice t-shirts too. (Link)

Reports claim that the American hostage is not doing well and the rebel group is threatening to kill all 4 hostages if he dies. (surprising that the main stream media isn’t reporting this story). Despite their leaders’ claim that they reject killing of innocents.
(Link)

This is an ever more important region and our military has it on radar but recent events there, along with the antics in Iran and the recent bin Laden tapes makes me wonder what’s grand scheme is under foot (Link).

It is said that the brilliance in Reagan’s B team was that it identified the Soviet economy as their weak spot thereby enabling us to defeat them without firing a shot. Perhaps the Islamists have been good students. Maybe they see a kink in our armor and are in the final days of preparing to pry it open.

If the Iranians can get the dollar to collapse by tying their oil sales to the Euro (Link) as is planned for March, if bin laden can successfully attack us at home again as he threatened, if oil climbs above $100 a barrel and if the Mid-East become a tinderbox, could we manage better than the Soviets did in the 80’s?

Certainly the Muslim world is aware of the opportunity.
(Link)

What did the recent bin Laden tape state, “diamonds cut diamonds”. Boy that has a strange and eerie ring to it.

Maybe we need take a wider view of recent events? I’m just saying, that’s all.

I doubt that such a plan would succeed, but that’s not the same as saying that there’s no such plan. I don’t know enough to say, but I hope that someone’s paying attention.

IN THE WORDS OF WILFORD BRIMLEY: “Wonderful thing, a subpoenee.”

AUSTIN BAY offers the good news and the bad news about the Iraqi elections.

NORAH VINCENT’S SELF MADE MAN gets a very positive review in The New York Times book review today. Excerpt:

That bowling league, for example. Norah-as-Ned commits to it for eight months, becoming the weak link on a four-man team of working-class white men. (Vincent has changed the names of the characters and obscured the locations to protect the identities of her subjects.) The resultant chapter is as tender and unpatronizing a portrait of America’s “white trash” underclass as I’ve ever read. “They took people at face value,” writes Vincent of Ned’s teammates, a plumber, an appliance repairman and a construction worker. “If you did your job or held up your end, and treated them with the passing respect they accorded you, you were all right.” Neither dumb lugs nor proletarian saints, Ned’s bowling buddies are wont to make homophobic cracks and pay an occasional visit to a strip club, but they surprise Vincent with their lack of rage and racism, their unflagging efforts to improve Ned’s atrocious bowling technique and “the absolute reverence with which they spoke about their wives,” one of whom is wasting away from cancer.

Read the whole thing. I told you it was going to be big!

UPDATE: In short order, numerous readers sent variations on this comment, from reader Byron Matthews:

“a plumber, an appliance repairman and a construction worker”

Since when do those occupations describe the “white-trash underclass”?

That could only get by a NYT editor, I’m afraid.

To be fair to the Times Book Review, it’s in quotes (indicating that it’s what the writer thinks others might think) — and the passage explodes a view that is, I suspect, overrepresented among NYT readers. That’s a good thing.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Here’s more on the term “white trash,” from Ed Driscoll.

MORE: Read this insightful observation from Shannon Love, too.

A PLEA-BARGAIN in the Milwaukee election tire-slashing case. Area blogger Sean Hackbarth has a roundup.

FIGHTING TERROR at the Jawa Report. Well, every little bit helps!

TOM MAGUIRE has licked his TypePad problems, and is on a roll. Just keep scrolling.

I’LL BE ON HUGH HEWITT’S SHOW in just a minute, talking about the Washington Post blog-comment controversy mentioned below. You can listen live online here.

UPDATE: My transcript isn’t up yet, but here’s the transcript of Jim Brady of the Post talking about the subject.

And I agree with this observation: “This is yet another argument for slashdot-style moderation. Why hasn’t it caught on elsewhere?” I read Slashdot at +3 most of the time, which filters out nearly all the trolls, and many of the idiots.

ANOTHER UPDATE: TigerHawk offers some thoughts from the perspective of a corporate general counsel: “Speaking as somebody who has been in charge of the law department at one public company or another for more than ten years, I don’t think that thin skin or ‘family values’ or any other lame-ass consideration drove the WaPo out of the comments game. Nope. I believe that the decision was probably driven by its law department out of fear that it had created a ‘hostile environment’ for its employees by permitting the unmediated publication of comments about them. Think about it — what other business does that? None.”

STAY TUNED FOR ANOTHER PODCAST, this one featuring Jim Dunnigan and Austin Bay talking about Iranian nukes. It’ll be up later tonight.

JARON LANIER has replied to comments by me, David Gelernter, Eric S. Raymond, and John Perry Barlow.