APPARENTLY, we’ve now entered the age of virtuous lobbyists! I tip my hat to the new revolution.

TOM BEVAN interviews Mitt Romney.

MUQTADA AL-SADR doesn’t like the surge.

That he’s saying so from a secret location may explain why. . . .

MORE BAD NEWS for New York Times shareholders.

THROUGH THE MAGIC OF AMAZON RECOMMENDATIONS, I found Stephen Flynn’s new book, The Edge of Disaster: Rebuilding a Resilient Nation. Judging from the blurbs it looks very interesting, and it’s certainly a topic that I’ve blogged about a lot. I’ve ordered a copy, so maybe I’ll have more to say on this later.

UPDATE: A reader notes that NPR interviewed Flynn last week. You can listen here.

TRADING GAS TAXES FOR INCOME TAXES? I’d make that trade.

RE-REPEATING HISTORY: Greg Stein looks at disaster preparedness, disaster responses, and changes in building codes, and observes a cycle of response and relaxation that seems to fit a lot of human affairs. He notes a connection between the Triangle Shirtwaist fire and the World Trade Center collapse, and also has some thoughts on what to do about this phenomenon. Plus, the quick-thinking lifesaving heroics of a law professor and his students. No, really.

MICKEY KAUS: “Has the Clinton campaign ever heard of the Internet?”

OPENCONGRESS.ORG is a new site that lets you research all things legislative.

Here, for example, is the page on H.R. 861, a bill allowing for nationwide firearms carry, and here is the page for H.R. 73, the “Citizens’ Self-Defense Act.”

BLOGGERS OUTDRAW SPORTS COVERAGE at the Knoxville News-Sentinel. This is a big deal.

MORE KIDNEY-BLOGGING, from Virginia Postrel.

HERE’S A REVIEW of the movie version of Bridge to Terabithia.

LT SMASH returns to Walter Reed, and reports.

A VERY CONVENIENT Oscar ceremony.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: And we have a winner!

Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today announced the final results of its online poll for the 2006 Porker of the Year. Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.) received 48 percent of the vote, with co-nominees Sens. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) and Trent Lott (R-Miss.) receiving 25.5 percent, and Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) receiving 22.9. The finalists were chosen by CAGW staff from among the 12 Porker of the Month winners for 2006.

Rep. Mollohan was named Porker of the Month in April 2006 for abusing his position on the House Appropriations Committee by securing millions of dollars in earmarks that may have benefited him personally. The New York Times (4/08/06) detailed how Rep. Mollohan directed $250 million to five nonprofit organizations that he set up. Rep. Mollohan surrendered his seat as ranking Democrat on the House Ethics Committee in April.

The competition is stiff.

HEH: “When Tim starts appearing with children and puppies, we’ll know he has run out of hostages.”

I HAVEN’T WRITTEN MUCH ABOUT THE ZUMBO AFFAIR, and honestly I think the response was a bit of overkill. But here’s a good observation:

The POLITICAL message here is the tremendous passion & solidarity of gun enthusiasts. (Plus, of course, as the above writer stresses, the power of the Internet.) We’ve all been ruminating on the need for Rudy Giuliani to do some hard thinking & plain talking about those social issues on which he is too liberal for a lot of Republicans: abortion, homosexual unions, gun rights. It may be that the greatest of these is gun rights. We folk at NRO being mainly a bunch of flabby Metrocons, perhaps we tend to underestimate this issue. Let’s hope Rudy doesn’t.

So far, I think that he does.

ADVICE FOR YOUNG SCHOLARS, from Greg Mankiw. It’s good advice, especially this bit:

For women and minorities: Be especially wary of invitations to sit on university committees. I have noticed that deans and other university administrators like to promote diversity on their committees. They never seem to figure out that, as a result of this “tax” on women and minorities, we white males are left alone with more time to pursue our research.

It’s not just committee work that’s a burden, either. I served as BLSA advisor for a while to spare our junior black faculty that burden at a crucial time; I enjoyed it, and I think it helped, but that kind of thing probably wouldn’t work everywhere.

On the other hand, this bit of advice from Mankiw may be controversial: “Whatever you do, do not start a blog.” Then again, he also warns: “Be wary of advice from old fogies like me.”

ON JOHN MURTHA and the limits of biography: Another veteran who hasn’t worked out as Democrats hoped.

I HAVEN’T WATCHED ANY OF THE OSCARS, but Libertas has been liveblogging them. That’s cruel and unusual punishment, since you have to not only watch, but actually pay attention.

ASTROTURF at Sixty Minutes?

HEH: “Fisk’s next column: ‘While you’re away fighting the Taliban, your wives back home are sleeping with Americans!‘”

UNFAIR TO TRENT LOTT? I linked a column from the Wall Street Journal yesterday, but here’s a Lott defense from the SeaWitch blog.

THE WORST JOB IN AMERICA: “The pay is low and the death rate is much higher than the death rate in Iraq.”

But you’ve got the prestige going for you . . . .

A PHOTO FROM THE FRONT: Ouch.