I DRIVE A HYBRID: But according to this post at Democratic Underground I’m a major thorn in the side of the environmental movement. Who knew?

UPDATE: Reader Christopher Jones emails: “Clearly you need to abandon your hybrid vehicle and switch to travelling everywhere by private jet.”

That does seem to be de rigeur.

JOEMENTUM? “The first post-primary Nutmeg State Rasmussen poll shows Lieberman leading Lamont, 46-41.” I doubt a poll this far from the election means much, though.

UPDATE: Michael Silence thinks I’m wrong, and that it means a lot.

MICHAEL TOTTEN is podcasting from the Lebanese border.

A BLOGGER MOLE in Minnesota?

THE OTHER DAY I MENTIONED that George Bush isn’t pleasing the pro-war right. Bill Quick has a lengthy discussion of why that’s the case.

Read the whole thing, especially if you work in the White House.

A LOOK AT changing images of women.

DICK CHENEY AND JOHN ARAVOSIS: “Making the same mistake?”

IN THE MAIL: Amitai Etzioni’s Public Intellectuals: An Endangered Species? I’d say it’s a rapidly-expanding species, thanks to the growth of the blogosphere, but I don’t think Etzioni is much of a blogosphere fan.

OVER AT DAVID HARDY’S, a Fisking by Don Kates of a New York Times article on self-defense and retreat rules.

MORE SKY TERROR NEWS:

U.S. law enforcement sources tell ABC News the FBI is investigating new leads that involve a possible connection between people in the United States, in major east coast cities, and the London bomb plotters. . . .

With at least five, and maybe more, suspects still at large, it is the missing plotters who are the greatest security concern. Among those still at large are some of the suspected ringleaders of the London plot.

Congressman Peter King (R-NY), Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, told ABC News authorities are extremely concerned about the missing suspects. “They are on the loose,” said King. “These are desperate, vicious people, who have a good degree of sophistication. And they’re out there, if nothing else, they’re available for future operations. The more deadly threat is that there is a plan B that they would be able to implement.”

Intelligence officials tell ABC News the plot’s trail leads directly to al Qaeda and to the Pakistani city of Karachi, where money for the plot was wired to London.

Hard to know how much to make of this, but stay tuned.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL on the airliner plot:

Let’s emphasize that again: The plot was foiled because a large number of people were under surveillance concerning their spending, travel and communications. Which leads us to wonder if Scotland Yard would have succeeded if the ACLU or the New York Times had first learned the details of such surveillance programs. . . .

In short, Democrats who claim to want “focus” on the war on terror have wanted it fought without the intelligence, interrogation and detention tools necessary to win it. And if they cite “cooperation” with our allies as some kind of magical answer, they should be reminded that the British and other European legal systems generally permit far more intrusive surveillance and detention policies than the Bush Administration has ever contemplated.

It’s also worth noting, though, that a tip from a worried British Muslim played an important role, which is why measures that over-alienate Muslims and immigrants are likely a bad idea. Striking a balance is hard, especially with all the political posturing going on.

MICHAEL YON profiles Omar of Iraq the Model.

Plus, a disturbing commentary on the political situation inside Iraq. “It bears repeating, despite the incredible progress that has been made in Iraq; we are in great peril of losing the war entirely.” I hope that people in the Pentagon are reading this stuff.

UPDATE: Related thoughts here, plus some interesting thoughts in the comments.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Michael Yon emails: “Thank you for not shying away from the peril in Iraq and Afghanistan. Most people are trying to pretend it’s not happening.”

Well, the fact that Big Media can’t be trusted to report honestly on the war — and in large part, they can’t — doesn’t mean that it isn’t important to get bad news when there’s real bad news. As I’ve said before, my problem isn’t with the reporting of bad news, it’s with dishonest and slanted reporting. A press that we could trust would do tremendous service by accurately reporting problems, since those kinds of reports bypass the chain of command, where there’s always a tendency to make things look better as they move up. Unfortunately, we don’t have a press that we can trust. We have a press that runs fake photos, makes things up, and wants to hurt Bush more than to do its job. That’s not only unfair, but robs us of the very benefit a free press is supposed to provide.

Bad news from trustworthy people — like Michael Yon — is a different story.

MORE INFORMATION ON THE ARRESTED TERORRIST PLOTTERS:

British officials identified 19 of the suspects accused of plotting to blow up U.S.-bound aircraft, making public a list of names that fueled suspicions of a Pakistan connection. Travelers at Britain’s airports again struggled with increased security, and dozens more flights were canceled Friday.

Five Pakistanis have been arrested in Pakistan as suspected “facilitators” of the plot, a government official said, in addition to two Britons arrested there about a week ago.

The Bank of England said it had frozen the accounts of 19 people arrested Thursday. The men, ranging in age from 17 to 35, had names of Muslim origin, many of which are common in Pakistan.

Some, however, weren’t Pakistanis:

Neighbors identified one of the suspects as Don Stewart-Whyte, 21, from High Wycombe, a convert who changed his name to Abdul Waheed.

“He converted to Islam about six months ago and grew a full beard,” said a neighbor, who refused to be identified. “He used to smoke weed and drink a lot but he is completely different now.”

Ibrahim Savant of Walthamstow, one of the names on the Bank of England list, was a convert formerly known as Oliver, neighbors said.

Should’ve stayed on the weed. Lots more on developments in this roundup, including stories on the role played by communications intercepts.

Meanwhile, James Joyner looks at the not-so-bright side:

The news that Scotland Yard managed to foil a terrorist attack that would have conceivably dwarfed the 9/11 attacks is not quite as good it might first appear. Certainly, the prevention of “mass murder on an unimaginable scale” is something for which we can be tremendously thankful. Still, our reaction to it has already furthered the terrorists’ aims.

We need to be going after the sponsors and encouragers of this sort of thing, not just the formerly weed-smoking dupes. In particular, that means the network of radical clerics sponsored by Saudi Arabia and Iran. And, once again, we see the benefit of communications intercepts in stopping terrorists.

UPDATE: Good news: A tip from a suspicious British Muslim played an important role, too.

THE GOVERNMENT MAY PROSECUTE RECIPIENTS OF LEAKED CLASSIFIED INFORMATION, not just the leakers. It’s only a District Court opinion, but it’s got to be causing heartburn at the New York Times and the Washington Post.

SIGNS OF THE APOCALYPSE: Tucker Carlson on “Dancing with the Stars?”

STRATEGYPAGE:

Ethiopia and Somalia are about to go to war again, because of a dispute over a lot of semi-arid and thinly populated land (the Ogaden), and generations of ethnic and religious hatreds. Ethiopia usually wins these wars, and there have been many of them in the past.

And, apparently, more to come.

SOME ADVICE for CAIR.

UPDATE: More here: “First, CAIR endlessly tells us that Muslims are peaceful and not terrorists. But then, in the next breath, it sticks up for the terrorists and objects to their being called fascists. Second, CAIR seems to object to any pejorative reference to Islamic terrorists. If we can’t call them fascists, or militant jihadists, or Islamic radicals, or totalitarians or imperialists, what on earth are we supposed to call them?”

Plus, Hezbollah supporters in Dearborn. If this keeps up, people will start questioning their patriotism.

UPDATE: More advice for CAIR: “I cannot help but think that if anyone is fueling anti-Muslim bigotry right about now, it is a group like CAIR who is doing it by raising the wrong fears and condemning the wrong people.”

BRENDAN LOY wonders if the foiled plot was scheduled for August 22.

A BAD REVIEW FOR BUSH ON LEBANON: “The administration now seems joined at the hip with the French when it comes to combatting Hezbollah. It’s almost as if Kerry, not Bush, won the 2004 election.”

Bush certainly seems to have hit the sweet spot — prosecuting the war vigorously enough to anger the antiwar left, but not vigorously enough to please the prowar right.

MICKEY KAUS: “So if Lieberman wins as an independent, and the Democrats pick up six seats in November, doesn’t that mean Lieberman gets to decide which party controls the Senate? And if so, do the Democrats really want to take Kos’ advice and piss him off?”

That’s been my question all along. I understand the notion of making sure that members of your party don’t stray too far from what it’s supposed to mean, but if your major goal is winning back control of Congress it doesn’t seem to me that targeting Lieberman makes sense. But I’m not a political strategist, so perhaps I’m missing something.

UPDATE: Joe Lieberman, then and now.

KEITH BURGESS-JACKSON thinks it’s inappropriate for President Bush to call Jihadists fascists.

UPDATE: Mortman has photos.

RUSS SMITH WRITES on Lemann’s last stand.

What’s funny is that the blogosphere is probably less of a threat to The New Yorker than to any other publication. With the exception of a few people like Michael Totten — whose stuff really belongs in the New Yorker — the blogosphere doesn’t generally do long, well-written feature journalism, which is what The New Yorker specializes in.

THE UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE FACULTY CLUB IMBROGLIO gets a story in Inside Higher Ed. I’m not sure it deserves that much attention.

ANN ALTHOUSE: “If the 9/11 conspiracy theory were true . . . why wouldn’t the government have found a way to silence the persons who began to uncover it?”

Her question is answered in the comments, of course.