“I’M REALLY MORE OF AN ART BLOGGER THAN A LAW BLOGGER:” But, we’re told, art and law are just two different ways of manipulating people.

REAL SCANDAL, fake blog.

This was foreseen.

THE 9/11 BLUE DRESS: Well, it does give the lie to the “blame Bush” theorists.

UPDATE: Check out the video here.

A MASSIVE PROTEST AGAINST ETA TERRORISTS IN SEVILLE: Gateway Pundit has a roundup.

IN BRAZIL, Lula da Silva has failed to win a majority.

UPDATE: Lots of coverage at Publius, of course.

MIKE RAPPAPORT: “I remember being in Germany in the 1980s, when Irish kids would go there to try to get jobs. Now the travel goes in the opposite direction. Every Democrat (and many Republicans including President Bush) should be asked about the Irish miracle and how their own policies compare with these.”

HERE’S VIDEO from the Artificial General Intelligence conference in Palo Alto.

TIM BLAIR notes a double standard regarding the Michelle Malkin photoshop on Wonkette.

But a commenter notes the problem that transcends the faux-tography issue: “What’s hypocritical about being photographed in swimwear? Is she an advocate for Sharia law?”

Plus, remedial education for urbanites. What, the answer isn’t “the store?”

UPDATE: More troubling Malkin photos. Plus, from a commenter, the most important observation of all: “At least she didn’t cat blog.”

KAUS ON FOLEY:

The only clearly guilty party, as far as I can see–aside from Foley–is the New York Times, which hyped the anti-Hastert angle by conflating the earlier, suggestive emails and the later damning ones.

I’m not sure I’m ready to cut Hastert that much slack, though the NYT certainly doesn’t get much either. And Ann Althouse thinks that blaming the closet is letting Foley off too easy: “But many heterosexuals also pursue young subordinates. They are fully open about their sexual orientation, but somehow they do bad things too.”

Meanwhile, Tom Maguire smells a rat — er, besides the obvious one, I mean: “Apparently the Mark Foley story first broke on this new blog, StopSexPredators.blogspot.com, which started in July and brought down the Congressional leadership with its sixth, seventh and eighth posts. Color me skeptical. . . . The story was evidently not quite good enough for the D Kos, but ABC found enough to run with it.”

UPDATE: Apparently, staffers were warning pages about Foley in 2001. And I should note that I’m no relation to Tom Reynolds, in case anyone wonders. Meanwhile, RedState is questioning the timing.

MORE: “If I were one of those sickos. . .”

MORE STILL: Bill Quick has read the IM traffic.

And Eric Scheie comments: “It’s inappropriate behavior by a high-ranking congressman, and no more. . . . So why is the left acting like it’s Watergate?”

EVEN MORE: Reader C.J. Burch offers a prediction:

Once the FBI starts investigating, and they will, all sorts of lurid things are going to come out about the use and abuse of pages on both sides of the aisle. And with Representative Jefferson getting indicted soon… great fun ahead for comedians. I’m beginning to suspect that the Republicans and the Democrats both secretly hate the two party system and are working hard to destroy it. The alternative explanation, that they are both this incompetent, corrupt and sleazy is just too depressing to contemplate.

As I noted below, the response to the Jefferson search makes me wonder what else they’re hiding.

WAITING IT OUT: Some hospi-blogging from neo-neocon.

SIMPLICITY CAN BE COMPLEX: I review John Maeda’s The Laws of Simplicity, in The New York Post.

TOO FAT FOR JIHAD? Perhaps it’s a cunning plan: “Only in America would you find authorities trying to cope with terrorist detainees by over-feeding them. . . . Guantanamo officers say that while most of the detainees upon arrival at Gitmo ranged from underweight to normal, today the 460 or so held on the base range from normal to overweight to mildly obese.” One inmate, reportedly, is up to 410 pounds.

PORK BECOMES A CAMPAIGN ISSUE, as Ned Lamont attacks earmarks:

Lamont also said Congress should end the practice of anonymously inserting appropriations known as “earmarks” into the budget, saying it invites mischief – such as favors for contributors.

He pledged he would use earmarks for legitimate projects in Connecticut until the rules are changed and the practice is banned.

Well, that second bit robs his promise of some of its punch. But still, I’m glad to see the issue raised in campaigns.

AN 18-SECOND GAP. Now where have I heard that before?

GOOD NEWS: Iraqis hate al Qaeda, too.

And Saudi comedians are mocking them during Ramadan.

GAS AT $1.99 a gallon.

IN THE MAIL: Nancy French’s A Red State of Mind: How a Catfish Queen Reject Became a Liberty Belle. It came Friday, but Helen immediately grabbed it. She says it’s good so far.

RICK LEE: Photoblogging from the operating room.

A SCHWARZENEGGER TSUNAMI in California.

MICKEY KAUS: “Obama would be less susceptible to the flip-flop charge if he stopped flip-flopping (for example, his vote against the border fence before he was for it).”

LONDON’S SUNDAY TIMES looks at Kofi Annan:

Srebrenica is rarely mentioned nowadays in Annan’s offices on the 38th floor of the UN secretariat building in New York. He steps down in December after a decade as secretary-general. His retirement will be marked by plaudits. But behind the honorifics and the accolades lies a darker story: of incompetence, mismanagement and worse. Annan was the head of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) between March 1993 and December 1996. The Srebrenica massacre of up to 8,000 men and boys and the slaughter of 800,000 people in Rwanda happened on his watch. In Bosnia and Rwanda, UN officials directed peacekeepers to stand back from the killing, their concern apparently to guard the UN’s status as a neutral observer. This was a shock to those who believed the UN was there to help them.

Annan’s term has also been marked by scandal: from the sexual abuse of women and children in the Congo by UN peacekeepers to the greatest financial scam in history, the UN-administered oil-for-food programme. Arguably, a trial of the UN would be more apt than a leaving party.

Read the whole thing.

“CUT OFF THE HEAD OF THE PIG who says our religion exalts violence and hate.”

RESPECTFUL photoshopping.

CAPTAIN ED: “I cannot tell CQ readers how disgusted I am with Speaker Hastert.” He’s referring to reports that Hastert knew of Rep. Foley’s behavior but did nothing.

I have been no fan of Hastert all along, of course. I wonder if this story ties in somehow with his over-the-top outrage regarding searches of Congressional offices in the William Jefferson case.

UPDATE: One of Capt. Ed’s commenters is citing TV reports that Hastert asked Foley to resign as soon as he saw the IMs. I haven’t seen those, but stay tuned. Lots of discussion, some of it informed, here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: John Hinderaker weighs in.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: TigerHawk is absolutely right, which means that — in a phenomenon as regular as the sunrise but more frequent — Glenn Greenwald is wrong again.