ED MORRISSEY debunks efforts to rehabilitate the Clinton Administration’s terror record.
Factual errors aside, I’ll just note a contradiction in simultaneously claiming that today’s surveillance programs are Big Brother incarnate, and claiming that the mean old Republicans blocked Clinton’s efforts to deploy such programs in the 1990s.
POTATO CANNONS, THE TESLA ROADSTER, RAND SIMBERG, AND MORE, in the latest Popular Mechanics podcast.
MATT OF BLACKFIVE has put together The Blog of War: Front-Line Dispatches from Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.
UPDATE: Some people find the ambivalence in the accompanying reviews amusing. Yeah.
THE IMMIGRATION ISSUE ISN’T DEAD, no matter how much the Republicans might wish it would die. This article from the Wall Street Journal (free link) looks at where things stand.
ANN ALTHOUSE: “Something about leaning on an ‘America a Nation of Sexual Perverts’ sign makes people want to cut a wide swath around you.”
I wonder if this was another Jeff Goldstein operation . . . .
A COMEBACK FOR INDIE MUSIC? My TCS Daily column is up.
FEMTROOPERS: Blasting through a glass ceiling!
I’m guessing that this will make the whole dressing-up-at-Star-Wars-conventions thing seem a lot cooler.
I’m not sure the bare midriff makes sense, but given that the stormtrooper armor doesn’t seem to do any actual good, I guess that’s okay. . . .
MARK TAPSCOTT thanks Josh Marshall.
DOES THE WIPO BROADCASTING TREATY CAUSE PROBLEMS FOR PODCASTERS? Discussion at Ars Technica and the WIPO Casting Treaty blog.
MITT ROMNEY denounces Khatami’s visit to Harvard. “Romney criticized Harvard for honoring Khatami by inviting him to speak, calling it ‘a disgrace to the memory of all Americans who have lost their lives at the hands of extremists, especially on the eve of the five-year anniversary of 9/11.'”
THE CARNIVAL OF THE RECIPES IS UP! So is the Carnival of Liberty, the Blawg Review, and the Carnival of Homeschooling.
Also the Carnival of the Capitalists, and the Carnival of Cars. And don’t miss the History Carnival, and the latest Carnival of the Vanities.
Lots more carnivals at BlogCarnival.com, which — because it’s automated — is more efficient than me.
UPDATE: And don’t forget Grand Rounds!
PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: It’s another secret Senate hold — these guys just won’t give up:
Another Democratic senator appears to have placed a “secret hold” on legislation that would pry open the murky world of federal contracting to public scrutiny.
That’s the word that Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn received Tuesday from the Republican cloakroom, the place that tracks who is blocking legislation using the parliamentary maneuver.
The news came soon after Coburn learned that Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, had finally lifted his hold on the measure that Coburn and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., introduced in April. The measure would create a searchable database of some $2.5 trillion in federal contracts, grants, loans, insurance and federal assistance each year.
Stevens and Sen. Robert Byrd, D-West. Va., both indisputable masters at bringing home the bacon, placed the holds during the August recess. Both lifted them after prominent bloggers began calling senate offices to “smoke out” the senator responsible for holding up the open government bill.
If a Democrat does have a hold then they may have misled the blogger community which ruled out every Democrat except for Byrd last week. Every Democrat is on the record publicly denying that they have a hold on S. 2590. http://porkbusters.org/secrethold.php
If it turns out that a new hold has been placed, that senator might be in hot water with his/her party. That’s because leaders from both parties are urging passage of the bill in a particularly tight election season.
Mark Tapscott thinks the porkers are trying to outlast us:
Looks to me like opponents of Coburn-Obama have decided to see how long the measure’s supporters in the Blogosphere can keep up the campaign of unmasking anonymous holders. There are more than 75 senators who are not co-sponsors of the bill.
If even a dozen or 15 of them agree to place successive anonymous holds after each new holder is unmasked – assuming they are – they could easily exhaust the legislative calendar and perhaps also the Blogosphere, thus effectively blocking consideration of the bill.
And don’t think there aren’t at least that many senators from both parties who would be more than happy to play a role in such a scenario.
Bill Frist has promised to move the bill in September. Will he let these kinds of shenanigans cause him to dishonor his promise?
UPDATE: Frist responds: “My Democrat colleagues have not yet cleared this legislation … but I’m confident that they will do so promptly or pay the consequences of continued obstruction. Now is the time to act on S. 2590. And we will act this September to pass this bill and bring the bright light of public scrutiny to the federal budget.”
And an email from his staff reads: “Senator Frist will not dishonor his promise.”
MORE: I’m told that Senator Stevens has re-activated his hold on the bill.
Apparently, we’re back to having two holds on the bill. [Bumped to top because it’s important.]
MORE STILL: I think we should start pressuring Congress to go forward with the bill and override any holds.
Meanwhile, G.M. Roper thinks Congress needs an overhaul. It’s hard to argue.
TOM W. BELL: “Forget it’s the U.S. Constitution we expound. Think of it, instead, as a contract.”
HEZBOLLAH IN VENEZUELA: At Hot Air.
ANN ALTHOUSE liveblogged Katie Couric’s debut.
UPDATE: Freeman Hunt, surprisingly, likes it.
IS ABC AIRBRUSHING ITS 9/11 MINISERIES? I hope not, and it isn’t clear, but I can’t say I view this as unthinkable.
THOUGHTS ON MARK STEYN AND FEARLESSNESS from Dean Barnett.
Calling a guy who has lunched solo in Ramadi since the invasion chicken seems a bit much to me, but hey, whatever. The antiwar left’s efforts to bolster its macho credentials are always amusingly inept, but they keep trying.
UPDATE: On the Ramadi thing, Barnett adds: “When Greenwald (or even one of his sock-puppets) does the same, then he’ll have more solid ground to stand on when questioning another’s manliness.”
I’m waiting for “Ellison in Mosul”!
But as I’ve noted before, there’s a difference between political and physical courage. But, really, the political coward’s way out for Steyn would be to renounce his pro-war stance, knowing that he’d suddenly be lionized by lefties as a “true conservative” and enjoy Strange New Respect for years. Look how well that sort of turnabout has worked for Kevin Phillips!
DANISH TERROR ARRESTS: Gateway Pundit has a roundup.
AUSTIN BAY COMMENTS on the White House’s new terror strategy.
BLOGGING IN DRAG: At least he’s got a sense of humor, which is more than some can say.
HERE’S MORE ON EVENTS AT DARTMOUTH, from Todd Zywicki.
GEARBOX IS BACK, now with Paul Boutin instead of Mickey Kaus.
CHESTER IS COVERING the Fifth Annual Defense Forum in Washington, D.C.
IN THE MAIL: John Maeda’s The Laws of Simplicity, a series of ruminations on good design in electronics and other products.
Some thoughts of mine on that subject can be found in this post, and also here and here.
As Maeda notes, Apple manages to sell products with fewer features for more money than its competitors, by investing in design that makes them easy to use and that gives them a feeling of quality. I wish more manufacturers would pick up on that.
JOSH MARSHALL’S FATHER HAS DIED, and he remembers him beautifully in this post. Please send him your condolences.
InstaPundit is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.