THE NEW CARNIVAL OF CARS IS UP!

MICKEY KAUS, in the course of offering anecdotal evidence that high gas prices are changing behavior in L.A., channels Sen. Hayakawa: “But, speaking selfishly, if I had a choice of a) paying $4 a gallon and getting where I want to go in as little time as it took 20 years ago and b) paying $1.50 a gallon but spending twice as much time to get there, it would be a no-brainer. $4 is a bargain! Will a secret base of support for higher gas prices emerge in the suburban upper middle class of previously frustrated drivers?”

THERE’S A NEW BLOG WEEK IN REVIEW PODCAST up, featuring Austin Bay, Tammy Bruce, Michael Ledeen, and Eric Umansky. Don’t miss it!

THE INSTAWIFE POSTS AN INTERVIEW with Mike LaSalle, the editor of Men’s News Daily.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: More Mollohan developments:

The F.B.I. has notified three nonprofit organizations created by Representative Alan B. Mollohan and financed primarily through special federal appropriations he steered their way that they should expect subpoenas soon for financial and other records. . . .

The nonprofits at issue are the Vandalia Heritage Foundation, the Institute for Scientific Research and the Canaan Valley Institute. The F.B.I.’s notification to them has occurred over the last two days and signals that the bureau is looking deeper into the 500-page complaint, which among other things suggests ties between the special appropriations, or earmarks, and Mr. Mollohan’s personal real estate investments.

This sort of thing wouldn’t happen if appropriators like Mollohan didn’t enjoy so much untrammeled authority over government funds.

HOT AIR says that videoblogging is the future.

I still think there’s a future in plogging, though.

UH OH: “I have also contemplated the future of blogging and have concluded that single-author sites are the wave of the past.”

I’LL BE TALKING (BY VIDEO) at the Harvard Blog conference in a few minutes. My topic is libel and bloggers, and I just ran across this piece by Ed Cone entitled How Not to Fight a Web War that goes nicely with my theme. Excerpt:

A New York ad agency, Warren Kremer Paino Advertising, has filed a seven-figure lawsuit against a Maine blogger.

Here’s a version of events by the blogger, Lance Dutson of the Maine Web Report; here’s the lawsuit; here’s media-critic Jeff Jarvis’ take; and here’s how the Boston Globe reported it.

Even if the complaint has merit — and from my superficial understanding of the case, at least parts of it are questionable — is this a smart strategy for any company to take when confronted with a hostile blogger?

A relatively unknown gadfly was irritating the agency and its client, the Maine Office of Tourism. Now Dutson is a cause celebre in the blogosphere, and his allegations about the agency and the tourism department are headed for very wide distribution.

Already, the first Google page in a search for “Warren Kremer Paino Advertising ” shows entries from the Maine Web Report, but not the agency’s own homepage — and I’d guess that Google front page is going to get uglier for WKP in the weeks ahead.

The agency and its client look like bullies for trying to outspend and outlawyer an independent writer.

You’d think an advertising agency would be brighter than that. The Media Bloggers Association has much more on the subject. I suspect that a lot of bloggers will be looking closely at WKPA, and the Maine tourism office, in coming days and weeks, and perhaps we’ll learn a lot more about what’s going on.

UPDATE: Comments on my appearance as a Big Giant Head can be found here. They had me on a huge screen behind the panel, reminding me of the Big Giant Head character from Third Rock. Or, if you prefer, that 1984 Macintosh commercial.

RICHARD WRAY:

Yahoo appears to have kowtowed to the Chinese government yet again and passed details of a fourth dissident writer’s email account to the security forces, brightening the spotlight thrown on the dubious compromises that western businesses are making to operate within the world’s second largest internet market.

Doing business in China has always involved a heavy dose of realpolitik – a senior mobile phone industry executive, desperate to get into the world’s fastest growing mobile market, once described operating in China to me as akin to walking into a room and taking down his trousers. But what makes Yahoo’s flagrant co-operation and the recent self-censorship carried out by search engine rival Google so shocking to web users, is that the internet has been sold to the world as a tool for free speech not for maintaining or even strengthening the political status quo.

And it’s certainly caused me to think less of both organizations, and the people behind them.

YES, THERE’S A DOS ATTACK that’s screwing up a lot of HostingMatters blogs, including this one. At the moment I can post, and see the blog, but I’ve been posting at my backup site too. It’s been quite a while since this has happened, but you might want to bookmark that location. Yes, it’s linked above under “backup,” but that won’t help you if this site is down.

TOM MAGUIRE: “I’m not worried that reporters currently spend too much time with Google and Nexis.”

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ROUNDS UP critics’ views of United 93 (free link). Meanwhile, the audience reviews so far look pretty good.

JOHN SCALZI offers advice to teenaged writers.

“WELCOME TO THE INTERNET: First Class, or Coach?”

JOHN TAMMES ROUNDS UP more news from Afghanistan that you probably haven’t heard.

DANG. SOMEBODY’S ALREADY GOTTEN HOLD of our next podcast.

THIRD PARTY UPDATE: Mickey Kaus notes some interesting poll data from Rasmussen. “The border-centric third-party candidacy actually takes more votes from the Democratic side than the Republican side!. But it draws heavily from both parties, and as heavily from ‘moderates’ as from ‘conservatives.'”

UPDATE: More on the third-party prospect here.

I’VE ALWAYS BEEN A JAMES WEBB FAN, but this combat boots campaign gimmick seems reminiscent of “John Kerry, reporting for duty.” Yeah, you can get away with more in the way of gimmickry in a state race, but I expect that this one won’t last.

JAMES PINKERTON looks at United 93 and asks: “what’s the world going to be like when two things are ubiquitous: high technology and high-intensity religion?”

OKAY, WHEN I SAID that higher gas prices weren’t changing people’s driving habits, I may have spoken too soon. . . .

ALAS, FAMILY ISSUES kept me from joining other bloggers in dining at the Harvard Faculty Club and hanging out at the Zephyr Lounge. I’m delivering my paper tomorrow via video hookup, which will be different.

PODCASTING FROM DOLLYWOOD.

DAN RIEHL says that Dana Priest was channeling 2002 in 2005.

DRUDGE / KOS UPDATE: I was a bit skeptical about the Drudge numbers on Kos’s book, and it turns out I was right to be. A publishing insider sends me some info that makes Drudge look kind of bad. Click “read more” for it. The gist is that Kos isn’t doing all that badly — and that Drudge isn’t in any position to point fingers.

UPDATE: On the other hand, Radio Equalizer claims that Drudge understated Air America’s problems.

ANOTHER UPDATE: An apology to Kos (but not from Drudge).

(more…)

OBVIOUSLY A TOOL OF BIG OIL, and hence hostile to alternative energy:

As record oil prices turn attention to the need for renewable fuels, momentum is building in Congress to buck Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s bid to block the proposed Cape Cod wind energy project, potentially reviving efforts to construct the sprawling windmill farm in Nantucket Sound. . . .

”Are we going to be for developing alternative energy or not?” said Representative Charles Bass, a New Hampshire Republican who helped persuade House leaders to table the bill until at least mid-May. ”The longer you delay it, the longer there is for people to examine the issue, and to determine what’s going on here.”

The efforts to move the wind farm forward occur amid growing attention to Kennedy’s role in the secret, behind-the-scenes maneuvering to stop it. Republican Ted Stevens of Alaska, the senator who inserted the wind-farm provision into the Coast Guard bill, has acknowledged discussing the matter privately with the Massachusetts Democrat.

Environmental groups have launched an aggressive advertising and lobbying campaign to persuade Democrats to abandon Kennedy and back a promising source of renewable energy. If the wind farm becomes a reality, advocates say, it could provide three-fourths of the Cape and Islands’ energy needs and could set an example for the nation.

The maneuver to stop the wind farm ”is clearly a backroom deal, and they’re going to get called publicly on it,” said John Passacantando, executive director of Greenpeace USA. ”The Democrats are going to kill the first big offshore wind farm in the United States because of their relationship with Ted Kennedy.”

It won’t be the first to be killed because of a relationship with Ted Kennedy.

UPDATE: Matt Stoller emails that the folks at MyDD have been mad at Kennedy for a while: “Here’s a leading member of the party that claims to be pro-environment trying to shut down an environmentally responsible project because it would take away from his scenic views. It’s classic NIMBYism. John Stossel couldn’t make up a better narrative if he tried.” I think that’s right.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Aleta Jackson sends this email:

There are over 8,000 graceful, slender bright white windmills just west of my house, in the Tehachapi hills. They are quite nice to look at; some would even say lovely. They ATTRACT TOURISTS. People come from all over the world to take photos. They spend money at the hotels and restaurants, then leave. Foreign film makers come here to use the wind farms as backdrops for weird movies or music videos. They rent stuff, take photos, spend money at the hotels and restaurants, then leave.

The point is, wind farms are an attraction, and can be an attractive attraction. All it takes is the proper attitude.

She sends this photo, too, from her office window. Nice view!