MARK TAPSCOTT:

It’s been an historic week in the U.S. Senate as Sen. Tom Coburn, R-OK, used an obscure parliamentary move dubbed the “clay pigeon” amendment to force votes on nearly two dozen earmarks slipped into the emergency appropriations bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Gulf Coast hurricane recovery.

There have been some victories and more defeats, but Coburn has succeeded in putting before the American people as no politician has before him in the modern era the magnitude and fundamental dishonesty inherent in so much of federal spending.

By standing up by himself in the beginning and then persevering through the insults, counter-attacks and tirades of the old bulls of the Senate, Coburn has given the country a vivid demonstration of genuine political courage. One result has been that many more Members of the Senate have begun to vote with him instead of against him.

But there is another aspect of Coburn’s demonstration that bears comment and that is how he has also provided a demonstration of the tremendously salutary effects of term limits.

I think we should term-limit some folks this November, but he’s right. The argument against going ahead on term limits was that electing Republicans would fix things. It didn’t.

IN THE MAIL: Seth Roberts’ The Shangri-La Diet. It’s billed as the “The No Hunger Eat Anything Weight-loss Plan.” And I thought that required tapeworms!

Interesting Freakonomics endorsement.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: Over at the Porkbusters site, there’s a report card of how Senators are voting:

Listed below are Senators, grouped by how many times they voted to support one the three Coburn anti-pork amendments that have come to a vote: the CSX Railroad relocation in Mississippi (Coburn lost 47-50); the “seafood promotion strategies package” (Coburn won 51-44), and the Northrup Grumman bailout (Coburn lost 48-51).

More details to come as we continue to monitor the Senate’s progress…

You may want to let your Senators know how you feel about these and related votes.

MORE VIDEO FROM THE MAY DAY PROTESTS, by Andrew Marcus and Evan Coyne Maloney.

HOWARD KURTZ: “But seriously, folks, has Congress become something of a joke?”

TENNESSEE’S BUDGET SURPLUS is “surging.” The un-silenced Bill Hobbs has more on the ensuing scramble to spend more money. I think across-the-board salary increases for law professors at Tennessee law schools make sense! Big ones!

Will this bolster Phil Bredesen’s presidential prospects? Er, probably not, if he goes with the law-professor-salary thing.

ANOTHER BLOGGER UNDER FIRE: As I’ve noted before, attacking bloggers is generally a dumb move, PR-wise. “Martinsville, Virginia: Our sense of humor stops where your free speech begins!” seems like a bad slogan to me, but it also seems like what the town fathers are aiming for.

RAISE CAFE STANDARDS? A negative take at The Truth About Cars.

INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM at Iowahawk.

MARY KATHARINE HAM wrote the other day that Trent Lott hasn’t recognized yet that he has a problem. I’m not sure that kleptomania is quite the right word, though.

PEGGY NOONAN thinks that Moussaoui should have gotten death:

Excuse me, I’m sorry, and I beg your pardon, but the jury’s decision on Moussaoui gives me a very bad feeling. What we witnessed here was not the higher compassion but a dizzy failure of nerve.

From the moment the decision was announced yesterday, everyone, all the parties involved–the cable jockeys, the legal analysts, the politicians, the victim representatives–showed an elaborate and jarring politesse. “We thank the jury.” “I accept the verdict of course.” “We can’t question their hard work.” “I know they did their best.” “We thank the media for their hard work in covering this trial.” “I don’t want to second-guess the jury.”

How removed from our base passions we’ve become. Or hope to seem.

Read the whole thing. I confess that I’m more interested in seeing the deaths of people who are still in a position to harm us, but she nonethless makes a good point. Paul Mirengoff’s lawyerly take is here.

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS WAS ON HUGH HEWITT tonight, talking about his back-and-forth with Juan Cole. Transcript and audio are here.

AS I’VE NOTED BEFORE, though it’s more obvious among Republicans there are splits on immigration in both parties. Here’s a Democratic argument against illegal immigration.

AMBER TAYLOR: “It just seems odd to say that we can burn flags in public (something many people find so offensive that it provokes violence) but we can’t have sex in the bushes at the park because someone might get the vapors.”

Plus a followup, here.

WAGNER JAMES AU EMAILS on “the ever-declining returns on anti-Bush hysteria:”

2004: “Darn you mainstream media, you’re ignoring a US ambassador whose visit to Niger exposed Bush!”

2005: “Darn you mainstream media, you’re ignoring a UK official whose memo to 10 Downing exposed Bush!”

2006: “Darn you mainstream media, you’re ignoring a comedian whose performance at a press roast exposed Bush!”

Heh. I guess next year will be about muppets.

DEATH RAY!! AAAHHHH!!! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! Or not.

USING LAPTOPS TO STEAL CARS: “The expert gang suspected of stealing two of David Beckham’s BMW X5 SUVs in the last six months did so by using software programs on a laptop to wirelessly break into the car’s computer, open the doors, and start the engine.”

NO DEATH PENALTY for Moussaoui.

WELL, I DRIVE A HYBRID, but I don’t think I’m part of the group he’s talking about . . . . But I think their silence does them credit, really.

ED DRISCOLL INTERVIEWS ALVIN TOFFLER in this TCS Daily podcast.

THE BELMONT CLUB looks at Barry McCaffrey’s report on Iraq.

UPDATE: More on McCaffrey here.

FIGHTING KEYBOARDISTS get a CentCom endorsement. Heh.

Meanwhile, here’s a podcast interview with blogger Bill Roggio, who’s on his way to an embed in Afghanistan. Roggio is interviewed by Richard Fernandez of The Belmont Club.

UPDATE: Judging by this Michael Yon report from Afghanistan, Bill will have a lot to report on, much of it bad.

KC JOHNSON OFFERS ADVICE FOR THE DUKE FACULTY:

Indeed, far from needing a more “progressive” campus culture, the lacrosse scandal suggests that a considerable portion of the Duke faculty and student body need to reread the Constitution and consider the accused — regardless of their group identity — innocent until proven guilty. Moreover, if, as Duke officials have claimed, Brodhead seriously desires to use this event as a “learning opportunity,” he needs to explore why voices among the faculty urging local authorities to respect the due process rights of Duke’s students seemed so overpowered by professors exhibiting a rush to judgment.

Indeed.

DR. TONY REPORTS on a day without immigrants that wasn’t.

AN IMMIGRATION BACKLASH?