RUSS FEINGOLD makes things hot for his fellow Democrats:

Democratic senators, filing in for their weekly caucus lunch yesterday, looked as if they’d seen a ghost.

“I haven’t read it,” demurred Barack Obama (Ill.

“I just don’t have enough information,” protested Ben Nelson (Neb.). “I really can’t right now,” John Kerry (Mass.) said as he hurried past a knot of reporters — an excuse that fell apart when Kerry was forced into an awkward wait as Capitol Police stopped an aide at the magnetometer.

Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) brushed past the press pack, shaking her head and waving her hand over her shoulder. When an errant food cart blocked her entrance to the meeting room, she tried to hide from reporters behind the 4-foot-11 Barbara Mikulski (Md.).

“Ask her after lunch,” offered Clinton’s spokesman, Philippe Reines. But Clinton, with most of her colleagues, fled the lunch out a back door as if escaping a fire.

And in a shocking development, Chuck Schumer actually had no comment.

THE TANGLED BANK science blog carnival is up.

HEH. Indeed.

RED LIGHT CAMERA UPDATE:

A Hennepin County judge ruled today that Minneapolis’ program that uses cameras to capture drivers running red lights is unconstitutional.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota filed a motion in December, saying the city’s “stop on red” ordinance presumes that the registered owner of the vehicle is guilty, not innocent. They also said the ordinance conflicts with state law because it shifts liability for traffic light violations from the driver to the owner of the vehicle.

There’s more here.

My suggestion: Require that revenues from these cameras go into the state general fund, instead of city coffers. Then see how many cities adopt them as a pure safety measure, with no revenue angle.

A LOOK AT THE MILOSEVIC DIVIDE, via Austin Bay.

NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE:

Nanotechnology has restored the sight of blind rodents, a new study shows.

Scientists mimicked the effect of a traumatic brain injury by severing the optical nerve tract in hamsters, causing the animals to lose vision.

After injecting the hamsters with a solution containing nanoparticles, the nerves re-grew and sight returned.

The researchers injected the blind hamsters at the site of their injury with a solution containing synthetically made peptides – miniscule molecules measuring just five nanometres long.

Once inside the hamster’s brain, the peptides spontaneously arranged into a scaffold-like criss-cross of nanofibres, which bridged the gap between the severed nerves.

The scientists discovered that brain tissue in the hamsters knitted together across the molecular scaffold, while also preventing scar tissue from forming.

Importantly, the newly formed brain tissue enabled the brain nerves to re-grow, restoring vision in the injured hamsters.

(Via Slashdot). This is still pretty primitive nanotechnology, of course. But in a way, that’s what makes this story really cool.

A PACK NOT A HERD:

Women involved in prostitution in Daytona Beach, Fla., have reportedly armed themselves and are searching for a serial killer behind the slayings of three residents, according to a Local 6 News report.

“Rather than run from the man police labeled a serial killer, streetwalkers here in Daytona Beach along Ridgewood Avenue say they are seeking the serial killer out,” Local 6 reported Tarik Minor said. “They believe the man responsible for murdering three women here is someone they have come in contact with.”

“We will get him first,” streetwalker Tonya Richardson said. “Yeah, we are going to get him first. When we find him, he is going to be sorry. It is as simple as that.”

This, however, is carrying the concept farther than I recommend.

I DON’T USUALLY THINK OF BILL FRIST AS AN ATTACK DOG, but I just got an email from his office with a link to this post on Feingold’s censure attempt that’s pretty tough, at least for the usually mild-mannered Frist:

Yesterday Democrat Senator Russ Feingold called for a censure of President Bush. The censure reads:

“The United States Senate does hereby censure George W. Bush, President of the United States, and does condemn his unlawful authorization of wiretaps of Americans.”

Senator Feingold is flat wrong and irresponsible.

In fact, when I attempted today to bring this censure resolution to the Senate floor for a vote, the Democrats objected. Proving it is just a shameful political stunt.

I said the other day that Bush’s best hope was for the Democrats to do something dumb.

IVAN OSORIO: “Is there a point at which societal change moves so fast that some people not only do not see it, but emphatically deny that it’s happening?”

A FISH, A BARREL, A SMOKING GUN. Heh.

MORE PITCHFORKS.

DEFENSETECH has more on the bioterror threat.

FROM THE I AM NOT A PUBLIC UTILITY DEPARTMENT: Reader Mark White emails:

You announced some Denmark rallies before and after they took place, and linked to others only afterwards. Please announce the Chicago rally before it takes place at noon today. If not, please don’t bother to link to coverage afterward.

I don’t know if this counts, since there aren’t any details, since Mark didn’t provide any in his rather pissy email. But if you want to dictate the terms of Insta-Coverage, then at least provide the relevant information. Or, better still, think twice before sending that pissy email.

And if you want complete control of when and how your message gets out, you could always buy an ad. Right?

JOHN LEO looks at a movie that foreshadowed the cartoon crisis.

A PALACE REVOLUTION AT THE GUARDIAN?

I don’t know about those rumors, but some peasants with pitchforks have been seen roaming the hallways.

RALPH PETERS: “During a recent visit to Baghdad, I saw an enormous failure. On the part of our media. The reality in the streets, day after day, bore little resemblance to the sensational claims of civil war and disaster in the headlines.”

Or from Gary Hart.

UPDATE: Reader Ellis Disch emails:

Prior to the invasion of Iraq, Gary Hart came to Boston College to promote his new book and talk about the impending war. He told the group that the initial invasion of Baghdad would lead to 50,000 American casualties. I asked him if he chose that number because it lined up quite nicely with the number of American losses in Vietnam and so it fit in to the storyline: “Iraq is another Vietnam.” I didn’t really expect and answer and got none.

Three years later he retains his touch for making wild predictions of impending doom. Thank god he has zero chance of ever being president.

And to think I once supported him. And Al Gore. Luckily, my support made no difference!

JIM GERAGHTY HAS MORE THOUGHTS on tipping point politics and Islam:

I think I’m still optimistic and hopeful; as I wrote, “Thankfully, many would say that bin Laden never spoke for them, and they’re ready and eager to do whatever it takes to eradicate Islamist terror cells,” and “that some Muslims, after years of seeing a faltering, doubtful, self-hating and equivocal West taking on the relentless faith of Islamist fanatics, would come off the fence.”

But here’s a point that I should have added: Right now, if you’re a Muslim, and you denounce Islamism, there is a severe price to be paid – Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Irshad Manji, etc. Often you have to live in hiding and dodge death threats.

If you embrace and/or endorse Islamism, there is little price to be paid. The West won’t attack you for what you say. You don’t have to worry about some crazy Westerner suddenly pulling a Pym Fortyn or a Van Gogh on you. Heck, in London, you can preach jihad for years before the authorities even think about deporting you.

Thus, our message gets stifled; their message gets amplified.

But what if we changed that equation? What if the bad guys had to live in fear? What if they had to be careful about who they told, who was in the crowd they addressed, who was listening? I bet it would go a long way to slow down their efforts.

Read the whole thing.

MORE LAW STUDENTS are flunking the bar exam.

JAMES MILLER:

For the 2006 midterm elections, Republicans should propose an idea so big that it stretches to the stars. Republicans should commit the government to building a space elevator by 2020.

I like space elevators, but I kind of doubt this is an election-winner.

A PERSONAL SUPERCOMPUTER? Why not?

TECHNOLOGY REVIEW has announced a panel of judges to judge challenges to Aubrey de Grey’s “Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence.”

Yeah, TR is on a roll today.

LOCAL BLOGGER WITH CAMERA scoops local media.

RESPONDING TO THE TECHNOLOGY REVIEW ARTICLE on biological warfare that I linked earlier, Mike Treder has thoughts about dangerous knowledge.

IRAQPUNDIT: “Whenever I read newspapers, I ask myself, who are these people?”

FROM “CRUNCHY CONS” to Phi Beta Cons.