I’M SHOCKED, SHOCKED at the idea that there might be price-fixing in the music business:
The U.S. Department of Justice has opened an investigation into online music pricing at the world’s major music labels, sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
Let the subpoenas fly.
IN THE MAIL: The new book by Jerome Armstrong and Kos, Crashing the Gate: Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People-Powered Politics.
Republicans should be worried that the GOP, now that it’s in power, seems to be displaying some of the same problems.
UPDATE: Reader Raymond Sauer emails: “Seems?”
GOOD NEWS ON OIL:
Chevron Corp. is doubling down its bet on Alberta’s oil sands, saying it aims to spend billions over the next decade to launch a second project.
The company said Thursday it has acquired rights to 73,000 hectares northwest of Fort McMurray — land that Chevron believes holds 7.5 billion barrels of oil.
(Via Newsbeat1). Bring on the Colorado oil shale stuff, too.
ROGER SIMON notices an odd omission.
DAVID BERNSTEIN: “Should being an active member of a racist, anti-gay, anti-semitic organization disqualify someone from serving on a state hate crimes commission? You would think so, but, at least in Illinois, you’d be wrong.”
IF YOU HAVEN’T BEEN TO TOM MAGUIRE’S BLOG lately, well, you should drop by. Lots of interesting new stuff, including this on Murray Waas’s latest “scoop:”
It is reassuring that President Bush got the same news the rest of us did.
Read the whole thing.
I HAVEN’T PAID ENOUGH ATTENTION TO “ABLE DANGER,” but now there’s an Able Danger blog.
IF YOU’RE IN NEW YORK CITY, don’t forget today’s rally at the Danish Consulate.
NORM GERAS looks at U.N. efforts to reform the Human Rights Commission. Well, they’re not exactly “U.N. efforts.”
UPDATE: More on that here.
HITCHENS ON HEWITT, talking about North Korea, Francis Fukuyama, and other insoluble problems. Transcript and audio here.
DANIEL DREZNER IS PLEASED with the India nuclear deal. I think that a nuclear India is unlikely to be a threat, and that we’re better off with a strong (and even nuclear) democracy in the region.
I WAS ON HUGH HEWITT LAST NIGHT, talking about — what else? — An Army of Davids. There’s a transcript and audio here if you’re interested.
HARRY BROWNE has died.
“A CLASH BETWEEN CIVILIZATION AND BACKWARDNESS:” Wafa Sultan on Al Jazeera.
(Via Daily Scorecard).
A PRO-DENMARK RALLY IN NEW YORK, tomorrow at the Danish consulate. Details here. If you go, send me pics.
UPDATE: Link was broken. Fixed now.
NO DOUBT THE MEDIA WILL BE ALL OVER THIS STORY TOMORROW:
In the hectic, confused hours after Hurricane Katrina lashed the Gulf Coast, Louisiana’s governor hesitantly but mistakenly assured the Bush administration that New Orleans’ protective levees were intact, according to new video obtained by The Associated Press showing briefings that day with federal officials.
Think it’ll get as much play as today’s story?
UPDATE: Ed Morrissey was already on this.
MICHAEL BARONE: “Here’s a fascinating issue, and one of great importance for the news business: whether the government should prosecute newspapers for printing classified information and government employees for divulging it. Specifically, should the New York Times be prosecuted for its Dec. 16, 2005, story on the NSA surveillance of communications between suspected al Qaeda operatives abroad and people in the United States?”
Read the whole thing.
Is the despised, self-parodying MSM intentionally glossing over this important difference in order to exaggerate the anti-Bush shock value of the video? I don’t know–but I do know that the actual “topped” quote was hard to find in print, lending some of the stories an eerie, undocumented quality. Do reporters not print the quote because then they couldn’t justify the charge that Bush lied about the “breach”? You make the call. I’m too paranoid at this point. … P.P.S.: Shouldn’t Bush’s press operation, rather than Patterico, be pointing all this out?
Bush’s operation has relied rather heavily on the Army. Too heavily, I’d say.
JIM BENNETT: “Bush’s trip to India, and the deal made there today, may end up being the single most consequential act of the Bush presidency.”
JIM GERAGHTY thinks that post-tipping-point politics are going to be ugly, and agrees with me that the Bush Administration’s limp response to the Cartoon Wars is part of the reason:
In the USA Today poll, when asked, “Which comes closer to your view about Arab and Muslim countries that are allies of the United States?” 45 percent of respondents said, “trust the same as any other ally”; 51 percent said they trust these countries “less than other allies.”
That’s a remarkably honest poll result. Let’s face it, Americans have been told since kindergarten not to judge ethnic and religious groups differently from one another; now slightly more than half are willing to come out and say, “you know, I just don’t trust those guys as much as I trust others.”
Welcome to Post-Tipping Point politics. There is no upside to doing the right thing – which is to emphasize, as one blogger put it, that there is a difference between Dubai and Damascus. There is tremendous political upside to doing the wrong thing, boldly declaring, “I don’t care what the Muslim world thinks, I’m not allowing any Arab country running ports here in America! I don’t care how much President Bush claims these guys are our allies, I don’t trust them, and I’m not going to hand them the keys to the vital entries to our country!”
And more and more, I think Glenn Reynolds had it right; the entire Tipping Point phenomenon can be summed up as action and reaction. The Bush Administration’s reaction to the cartoon riots was comparably milquetoast. The violence and threats committed over the cartoons shocked, frightened and really, really angered Americans. They want somebody to smack the Muslim world back onto its heels and set them straight: “It doesn’t matter how offensive a cartoon is, you’re not allowed to riot, burn down embassies and kill people over it.”
They’re ashamed that Denmark is leading the fight over this.
When the Bush administration’s reaction was mostly equivocating statements and a failure to confront the Muslim world over its insistence of the worldwide applicability of its blasphemy laws, I suspect a lot of folks whose top issue is the war on terror concluded that Bush was going wobbly. . . . The interesting thing is the post-Tipping Point view on the Muslim world is alien to Bush; I suspect he would find it abhorrent. Unfortunately, that puts him out of step with a large chunk of the public — a vocal, angry chunk that is likely to have plenty of politicians courting it.
Read the whole thing.
TOM ELIA: “Is we educating our children good?”
“IS ISLAM COMPATIBLE WITH DEMOCRACY?” A program at the University of Wisconsin that sounds very interesting.
I’LL BE ON HUGH HEWITT’S SHOW in just a minute. You can listen live here, though I probably won’t hang up on Hugh the way John Zogby just did.
IT’S NOT JUST BILL CLINTON: Reader Daniel Holmes sends this story, which I had missed:
The lobbying of former Senate majority leader Robert J. Dole on behalf of the Dubai-owned company set to take over management of terminals at six major U.S. seaports is creating a political problem for his wife, Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.).
The chairman of the North Carolina Democratic Party, Jerry Meek, yesterday called on Sen. Dole to remove herself from “any congressional oversight” of the Dubai port deal. “The fact that Dubai is paying her husband to help pass the deal presents both a financial and ethical conflict of interest for Senator Dole,” Meek said.
It always seems a bit shady to me when former elected officials are paid to represent foreign interests. We’re not talking Gerhard Schroeder territory here for either Clinton or Dole, but it’s still a bit iffy.
A WHILE BACK, I suggested that lawyers might be overpaid, which led to a stirring dissent from attorney Ronald Coleman. (“It’s the free market, Instapundit.”) He makes some good points, though take it from a member of the cartel: the market’s not that free . . .
Meanwhile, in a sort-of-related item, Arnold Kling looks for ways to “reward engineers and marketers, rather than patent attorneys.”
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