IT’S PLEDGE WEEK at DailyPundit.

TIM BLAIR: Green role model.

MICKEY KAUS and his evil ways. He’s subtle, our Mickey.

GARRETT EPPS, at the Washington Post’s “PostGlobal” blog:

The Chinese government, which already severely curtails free expression, is about to pass a law forbidding media in China from reporting “sudden events” such as industrial accidents, natural disasters or public health emergencies in any way that displeases local or national authorities. Americans may be tempted to dismiss the issue as simply a minor tweaking of a foreign authoritarian system, but this would be a grave mistake. All of us — investors, workers and consumers — have a stake in the Chinese media’s fight for independence.

I agree. Read the whole thing.

A MANUFACTURED OPPOSITION PARTY IN RUSSIA? Designed, apparently, to give the appearance of vigorous opposition while remaining generally ineffectual and self-defeating. If this happened here, could we tell the difference?

THE SUGGESTION, which doesn’t seem to be tongue-in-cheek though it’s not clearly serious either, that Cheney and Rumsfeld are sabotaging democracy in Iraq so that they’ll have a free hand to level Iran with no pesky nation-building, seems pretty out-there to me. Bush’s critics are one of his greatest assets, as C.J. Burch said a while back. After I referred to that the other day, Burch emailed: “If the left doesn’t shut up the Republicans will be able to continue acting like this and still get themselves elected…God help us all.” And that goes for Bush’s over-the-top critics on the non-left, too.

I know that conspiracy theory is all the rage now, but I don’t see how this leads to a healthy politics.

UPDATE: Check out this poll!

ANOTHER UPDATE: Where does the Neueschwabenland Campaign fit in? I’m guessing that Cheney had a finger in this pie.

AUSTIN BAY TURNS LITERARY CRITIC, and looks at fellow novelist Gunter Grass: “Grass has imposed a guilt-trip on the rest of us to mask his own guilty past.”

“MORAL VICTORY” IN SIGHT? “U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a three-term Democrat now running as an independent candidate, leads the man who beat him in last week’s primary vote by 12 points in a three-way race, a poll released on Thursday shows.”

RUDY GIULIANI IN SOUTH CAROLINA: Ryan Sager reports:

Addressing roughly 75 supporters of Republican congressional candidate Ralph Norman — a business-oriented, conservative state representative running to unseat a Democratic incumbent — Mr. Giuliani gave an instructive preview of how he might try to sell himself to skeptical Southern primary voters.

The 2000 election, Mr. Giuliani said, had taught him just how important politics really is. While the election had seemed a relatively frivolous one at the time, suddenly — on September 11, 2001 — it mattered a great deal who was in the White House. “Sometimes, elections are more important than we realize when we’re in them,” he said.

While he tied that argument to the 2006 midterm elections, the real message was clear: The coming presidential election isn’t about the Confederate flag, it’s not about Roe v. Wade, it’s not about whether New York’s former mayor has had some marital troubles — it’s about who will lead America in the War on Terror. Some conservatives might not see eye-to-eye with this Blue-stater on social issues, but this is a new world we live in.

Read the whole thing. (Link was wrong at first; fixed now. Sorry!)

UPDATE: Kaus has more thoughts.

MORE CRUSHING OF DISSENT IN BRITAIN: If you treat modest joking as racism, you’ll wind up with a nasty backlash. Though this seems to prove the point of the joke, doesn’t it?

UPDATE: Perry de Havilland is very unhappy.

A MAJOR DEFEAT FOR THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION in the NSA communications intercept case, as District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor finds the program unconstitutional. No doubt it will be appealed, but the Bush Administration, in its usual summer slump, doesn’t need any more bad news right now.

UPDATE: Eugene Volokh offers a somewhat skeptical take on the opinion. And several readers think that the timing is actually good for the Bush Administration, as it brings this issue front-and-center during the runup to the elections.

OBJECTIVE REPORTING: Another Reuters scandal, in Cuba? Compare with these journalists in Cuba.

UPDATE: More on Reuters reporter Marc Frank, here.

NABBED: “A senior al Qaeda commander allegedly tied to the London airplane bomb plot has been arrested in Pakistan, Pakistani intelligence and law enforcement officials have told ABC News. Matiur Rehman, one of the most wanted men in Pakistan, is known to have met with the alleged plot ringleader Rashid Rauf, according to the officials.”

THE INSTA-DAUGHTER STARTED MIDDLE SCHOOL THIS WEEK, and her grandmother gave her a copy of A Smart Girl’s Guide to Starting Middle School: Everything You Need to Know About Juggling More Homework, More Teachers, and More Friends, which comes from the “American Girl” people. Unlike most of their products, it’s reasonably priced. . . .

I looked through it and it’s good. (Hey, my mom’s a children’s librarian, so it should be). I wish they’d had books like this for boys when I was that age.

PAUL MIRENGOFF: “The magnitude of Israel’s failure in Lebanon becomes clearer every day.”

UPDATE: Noah Pollak offers one cheer for the cease-fire.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Meanwhile, Tammy Bruce is down on Condi Rice.

FAKE NEWS:

The Federal Communications Commission has mailed letters to the owners of 77 television stations inquiring about their use of video news releases, a type of programming critics refer to as”fake news.”

Video news releases are packaged news stories that usually employ actors to portray reporters who are paid by commercial or government groups.

The letters were sparked by allegations that television stations have been airing the videos as part of their news programs without telling viewers who paid for them.

This phenomenon isn’t new — in fact, Peter Morgan and I covered it in our 1997 book, in a chapter that you can read for free online here — but it’s worth keeping this in mind whenever Big Media folks criticize blogs’ journalistic standards.

DEEP REBREATHING: I’ve got a piece on rebreathers — complete with above- and underwater video — over at the Popular Mechanics website. It was fun!

UPDATE: Yeah, I should have smiled more for the video. What can I say, I’ve got the look for . . . radio.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: The Washington Post reports:

A coalition of odd bedfellows is trying to bring more transparency to earmarking by encouraging citizens to get involved in tracking who is trying to get what money for which special interest. And all of this will be online and available to the public.

The coalition includes the Sunlight Foundation, Citizens Against Government Waste, Porkbusters.org, Human Events Online and the Washington Examiner newspaper. They created a single database of earmarks, but each organization is presenting the database on its own Web site and asking the public to participate in different ways. Generally, however, they are asking citizens to investigate the earmarks that grab their attention, then report back. They plan to share their information with each other.

Nice to see that people are noticing. There’s more information here. Dig in!

PorkBusters is also trying to find out who’s behind the “secret hold” on the Coburn/Obama earmark reform legislation. I’m guessing that it won’t stay secret.

UPDATE: Reader Thomas Enright emails:

I was “polled” last night via telephone regarding our local congressional race. Republican incumbent Joe Knollenberg is taking on Democrat Nancy Skinner. I was presented a series of issue and asked if the candidates” stand on that issue would make me less, more or leave unchanged the likelihood that I would vote for him or her. I was asked about abortion, tariffs, etc. but included in there was “Joe Knollenberg voted to fund the ‘bridge to nowhere.’ Would this make you less likely, more likely to vote for him? Or do you have no opinion”

Now, I know all about the bridge because I have the good sense to read instapundit, however, the average voter? If they go to the trouble to include such a question it must be assumed to have some impact.

Interesting. Anybody else getting questions like this?

ANOTHER UPDATE: Here’s more on “Earmark Forensics,” from Marketplace.

HURRAY FOR HOLLYWOOD:

NICOLE Kidman has made a public stand against terrorism.

The actress, joined by 84 other high-profile Hollywood stars, directors, studio bosses and media moguls, has taken out a powerfully-worded full page advertisement in today’s Los Angeles Times newspaper.

It specifically targets “terrorist organisations” such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine.

“We the undersigned are pained and devastated by the civilian casualties in Israel and Lebanon caused by terrorist actions initiated by terrorist organisations such as Hezbollah and Hamas,” the ad reads.

“If we do not succeed in stopping terrorism around the world, chaos will rule and innocent people will continue to die.

“We need to support democratic societies and stop terrorism at all costs.”

Indeed. (Thanks to Jules Crittenden for the link).