THE GENERALS ARE NOT THRILLED with the idea of a “troop surge” in Iraq. I’m agnostic — my sense is that it would take a much bigger increment in troops to make a big difference, and that we’d be better off rethinking our strategy, tactics, and rules of engagement — the last of which is the source of many complaints from the troops. But I’m not a general.

I’m pretty sure, though, that we’d be better off addressing the problems that Bill Roggio reports, and that more troops won’t do much to accomplish that.

“SHARECROPPING THE LONG TAIL:” “What’s being concentrated, in other words, is not content but the economic value of content. MySpace, Facebook, and many other businesses have realized that they can give away the tools of production but maintain ownership over the resulting products. . . . To put it a different way, the sharecroppers operate happily in an attention economy while their overseers operate happily in a cash economy.” The key distinction vis a vis actual sharecropping is the world “happily.”

JONATHAN GEWIRTZ HAS HIS DOUBTS about the Bush “legacy” rumors:

I don’t get this. Bush has nothing to lose by obstructing the Democrats’ tax-raising agenda, just as he has nothing to lose by continuing to try to win the war against the Islamists. Who cares about his “legacy,” at least as that term is interpreted by shallow thinkers in the media. Surely history will not look kindly on any tax-raising deals he makes with Congress, or on half-measures taken in fighting a war. Weren’t these the main lessons of his father’s presidency?

It’s as if Bush believes himself obligated to obey the spirit of the recent elections, in which Democrats gained majorities in Congress. But he isn’t so obligated. We have temporally staggered elections, and presidents have longer terms than do House members, in part to insulate presidents from the shortest-term political considerations that would impede the pursuit of long-term agenda. Bush has lost significant power since the election, because he cannot run for the presidency again and the new Congress will block most of his plans. But he also has two more years in office, veto power and nothing to lose. I hope that he will show more conviction.

Read the whole thing.

DEAN BARNETT: “On the list of top-tier Democratic contenders, we could do worse than Hillary.”

A LOOK AT NANOTECHNOLOGY IN EDUCATION, in The Washington Post.

AN IMPORTANT CORRECTION: “Kiki Dee is not Australian; nor is she blonde.” Plus, more fun with “plastic” turkeys!

BLOGOMETER: “While the Blogometer has been taken to task before for suggesting that righty blogs are not as socially conservative as the larger GOP base, others have noticed similar patterns. Recent GOP WH ’08 blogging again suggests the pattern may be true.”

On the other hand, I caught a bit of Hannity’s show on XM today, and there seemed to be a lot of enthusiasm for Rudy Giuliani from conservative callers there. That’s happened before. Maybe the larger GOP base isn’t as socially conservative, at least in the context of the 2008 Presidential election, as people think.

DOING WONDERS FOR THE IMAGE OF MY PROFESSION: Law professors in languorous poses. Also here! But nobody tell Manolo about the shoes. . . .

SALLY SATEL:

“Why do I use drugs?” I am asked every few weeks by a patient in our methadone clinic.

I take the query as a good sign; curiosity about oneself is usually healthy. But the premise behind the question — that a person can reliably identify the psychic roots of an addiction, or any other act of self-sabotage — is highly overrated.

The over-examined life is not worth living.

DAVID ZUCKER on the Iraq Study Group.

WRITING IN THE L. A. TIMES, Dave Weigel is pretty hard on right wing dystopian fiction, particularly the latest from Robert Ferrigno and Orson Scott Card. (But thanks for plugging the Glenn and Helen Show interview with Card!)

But of course, the point of dystopian fiction isn’t that it paints a likely future. And implausibilities abound in the field, with varying degrees of criticism — Margaret Atwood’s misogynistic American theocracy certainly isn’t any more plausible than Card or Ferrigno’s scenarios (and in our podcast interview, Card admits that his story is implausible), but I remember plenty of people at my university (where I did a panel on it some years ago) seeing Atwood’s book as a realistic depiction of a possible future. Fundamentalist “Commanders” lording it over harems of women who are little more than walking, illiterate wombs? We’re practically there already — just look at Ed Meese and John Ashcroft! (Don’t believe me? Follow the link and check out the reader reviews!)

Dystopias — like utopias — are there to make a point, not a prediction. And sometimes the implausible becomes true: If someone had written a dystopian (utopian?) novel in 1950 about the fight for gay marriage in 2006, it would have seemed implausible indeed. But, of course, nobody did, as the utopian and dystopian novels of the day were concerned with the issues of 1950. That’s usually how these things work.

UPDATE: I should note that my personal favorite instance of right-wing dystopian fiction is the Niven, Pournelle, and Flynn novel Fallen Angels, in which — Al Gore take note! — anthropogenic global warming is real, and major, and ultimately neutralized by strict limits on carbon emissions. Unfortunately, it turns out that the Earth was due for an ice age, and only man-made global warming was holding it off . . . .

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Martin Shoemaker reminds me that Fallen Angels is available for free online in the Baen Free Library.

THE UNBEARABLE LAMENESS OF SAM BROWNBACK: I agree with Captain Ed:

A union ceremony breaks no laws and infringes on no one’s rights. It involves two people celebrating their relationship without demanding any recognition from the government or special rights as a result. The two women invited family and friends to attend, and Neff decided to support her friend and help her celebrate a ceremony that would have taken place regardless.

No one expects Brownback to attend such an event. However, whether he did or not would have no bearing on his fitness for office. Unfortunately, even while allowing the vote to proceed, Brownback still demonstrates that he doesn’t get it. He claims that Neff’s attendance at this event merits an investigation as he would “like to know more factually about what took place.” Since nothing illegal took place and Neff did not do anything in her capacity as a judge at the ceremony, it’s none of Brownback’s business what “took place” there.

I understand that recognition of marriages is a public policy and that the electorate should make that decision. However, that does not give the government any right to interfere or investigate relationships between consenting, non-related adults. The government does not belong in the bedroom, and the Senate has no business extracting pledges of recusals from judicial nominees for any reason. If Brownback doesn’t understand these two concepts, then he has no business anywhere near the White House.

As with George Allen, I’ve always had the sense that Brownback is a bit of a dim bulb, despite the enthusiasm for him in some circles. And, as George Allen did, Brownback seems anxious to prove me right.

READER GEORGE ADAMS WRITES: “So, what became of the laser printer bleg? Even if you can’t personally respond to everyone who e-mailed you, the the cardinal rule of blegging is that you must at least post a followup! ”

I never really came to a decision. A few people said the wireless HP laser I mentioned works fine. Some others said I should get a wireless printserver instead, and a few suggested more complex alternatives. I’ve been too busy with grading exams and various family issues to spend much more time on it; I think it’ll have to wait until after the holidays. Anyway, I’ve come up with the best excuse for temporizing yet — I’ll be visiting the Consumer Electronics Show next month and I’ll look around there to see what’s coming out.

BUSH’S IMPENDING LEGACY: Like father, like son?

UPDATE: Interesting discussion in the comments. And a response here.

ANOTHER CHEESY YET ICONIC ’60S TV SHOW is out on DVD — now it’s The Time Tunnel. Though they’ve brought it out in two parts.

Meanwhile, in video news of a very different kind, Milton Friedman’s series “Free to Choose” is available in free streaming form over the Internet.

EMBEDDED BLOGGER BILL ROGGIO posts more reporting from Fallujah. He reports on the Iraqi Army’s shortcomings and successes, and offers some suggestions for improvement. It’s a must-read.

He also emailed me: “One of the MTT Marines actually commented in my last post on patroling with the Iraqi Army. This is an advantage blogs have over the established media. I have had a great response from Marines in the theater on my reporting on the MTTs, PTTs and the Iraqi Army. On a flight the other night, a couple of Marine Majors actually knew who I was, sought me out, sat next to me and talked to me the entire trip on a noisy C-130 transport. Just amazing.”

I suspect that’s because they trust Bill, where they may not trust Big Media folks. Bill’s work is supported by donations from his readers, so if you like it, consider donating.

STOP QUOTING KORAN, START READING IT SAYS SCHOLAR: A risky position to take. “Benzine admits his hermeneutic approach has few followers in the Muslim heartland of the Middle East. He has been invited to lecture in Morocco, Tunisia, Kuwait, Jordan and Syria — but only in private schools. . . . Interpreting the Koran critically can also be dangerous. In Egypt, Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd was declared an apostate in 1995 for unorthodox reading of the Koran. A court annulled his marriage as he was deemed not a Muslim and Islamists threatened to kill him. He and his wife fled to the Netherlands.”

OIL TRUST UPDATE: Somehow I missed this yesterday — well, I’ve had a lot going on — but Sens. Hillary Clinton and John Ensign had an oped in the Wall Street Journal endorsing the Oil Trust idea. (Subscription, but link should work for a few days).

I’ve been pushing that idea since 2003, of course, and it’s also been supported by the likes of Milton Friedman and Vernon Smith. I don’t understand why the Bush Administration hasn’t been more supportive.

A LOOK AT LAW PROFESSORS AND THE DUKE RAPE CASE: In other fallout, I was talking to a friend of mine who comes from a Duke alumni family. He said he’d never send his kids to Duke after seeing how the University acted in this case, hanging its own students out to dry despite obvious misbehavior by the prosecutor.

Plus, Susan Estrich says that “Justice demands Nifong’s removal.” She concludes: “It is an extreme measure for a court to replace a prosecutor on a case. But this appears, increasingly, to be an extreme case of lawlessness by the prosecutors if not the defendants.”

UPDATE: Hmm. Duke applications are down.

And here’s more on student and alumni reaction, from Joe Malchow. Malchow observes: “College administrators often speak of community. Isn’t it an essential part of community to defend one’s community against unfounded or overbroad attacks?”

I don’t think they’re big on that.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Obviously, the place to go is Brown University!

THE PALESTINIAN NON-CIVIL WAR CONTINUES: “Gunbattles raged between Hamas loyalists and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s forces in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, killing at least three people and wounding a dozen others, medical officials said. Internal Palestinian fighting — the worst in a decade — has escalated since Abbas called on Saturday for early elections in an attempt to break a political deadlock with the Hamas government. Hamas has accused Abbas of launching a ‘coup.’ . . . While neither the Hamas Islamists nor Fatah have declared the end of a ceasefire agreed on Sunday night, there has been a spate of gunfights and kidnappings of rival activists since then.”

Obviously the U.S. invasion of Palestine and the toppling of Arafat were mistakes, creating a quagmire of sectarian strife which despite official denials is now turning into open civil — oops, wrong story template. That should have been: “It’s all the Israelis’ fault!”

LOU DOBBS loses his cool. Hey Lou, don’t go all Joy Behar on us!

JOSH MANCHESTER looks at the future of stateless war-fighting.

SEND IN THE SPACE MARINES!

MARK TAPSCOTT:

Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has cooked up with Public Citizen’s Joan Claybrook a “lobbying reform” that actually protects rich special interests and activists millionaires while clamping new shackles on citizens’ First Amendment rights to petition Congress and speak their minds.

Pelosi tried earlier this year to move H.R. 4682, the “Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2006,” which is now cited by Public Citizen’s Web site as the vehicle it is helping the incoming speaker to craft for the new Congress. The proposal Claybrook is helping craft for introduction early in 2007 is expected to be essentially the same bill Pelosi put forth this year.

That is bad news for the First Amendment and for preserving the kind of healthy, open debate that is essential to holding politicians, bureaucrats and special interests to account for their conduct of the public business.

The key provision of the 2006 bill was its redefinition of grassroots lobbying to include small citizens groups whose messages about Congress and public policy issues are directed toward the general public, according to attorneys for the Free Speech Coalition.

All informational and educational materials produced by such groups would have to be registered and reported on a quarterly basis. Failure to report would result in severe civil penalties (likely followed soon by criminal penalties as well).

Sounds bad to me. Read the whole thing.

A LOOK AT KOFI ANNAN’S MYSTERY APARTMENT, from Claudia Rosett. Nice to see New York helping the less fortunate.