GAY-BASHING in Moscow.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: Shockingly, more earmark issues with Rep. John Murtha:

Democrats controlling the House of Representatives demonstrated this month the hollowness of their claim that they have ended the corruption of 12 Republican years. Rep. John Murtha quietly slipped into the Intelligence authorization bill two earmarks costing taxpayers $5.5 million. The beneficiary was a contractor headquartered in Murtha’s hometown of Johnstown, Pa., whose executives have been generous political contributors to the powerful 17-term congressman.

This scandalous conduct would be unknown except for reforms by the new Democratic majority. But the remodeled system is not sufficiently transparent to expose in a timely manner machinations of Murtha and fellow earmarkers to his colleagues, much less to the public. It took Republican Rep. Jeff Flake of Arizona, the leading House earmark-buster, to discover the truth.

Jack Murtha, the maestro of imposing personal preferences on the appropriations process, looks increasingly like an embarrassment to Congress and the Democratic Party. But there is no Democratic will to curb Murtha, one of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s closest associates. Nor are Republicans eager for a crackdown endangering their own earmarkers.

Meet the new boss, yada yada.

A FEW THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED, if you were off, you know, having a life or something this weekend.

My report on space capitalists, from the International Space Development Conference. Plus, attractive women.

This email from Michael Yon. And this one, too.

What I did on Memorial Day.

Me trash-talking the Kos Krowd.

Follow the links, or just scroll.

NOT THAT ODD, REALLY: “Why aren’t they angry about the people doing the killing? The odd thing about the conversation is I could tell it was the first time he’d heard this argument. ” But then, maybe he was talking to a BBC viewer.

THOUGHTS ON POLITICAL IGNORANCE and “libertarian paternalism.” The root justification for the latter is the notion that “experts” are better decisionmakers than ordinary people, something for which the evidence is . . . weak.

Related thoughts here: “I’m picking up a bit of the old: if only people thought clearly, they’d agree with me.”

And some thoughts on why voter irrationality isn’t all bad, here.

ANOTHER poll of Muslims.

THOUGHTS ON CARBON TAXES VS. CARBON CREDITS, from John Tierney.

MORE SPACE NEWS FROM THE ISDC, at Wired.

A MEMORIAL DAY EMAIL FROM MICHAEL YON, with photos:

Iraqi Policeman at a meeting today

Glenn,

Another day has passed without my having seen a shred of combat. The area around the city of Hit, in Anbar Province, has mostly fallen silent. A dust storm swept in late yesterday, and as normal, the enemy used the storm for cover to seed a few small IEDs on roads. The bombs were small and were discovered without incident.

I am becoming very interested by the city of Hit and surrounds; the fighting turned-off abruptly in February after Task Force 2-7 Infantry arrived. Why did the fighting end so suddenly?

The commander of Task Force 2-7 Infantry, LTC Doug Crissman, circulates the towns in his area each day. Today, we spent about twelve hours driving to or conducting various meetings. The most interesting meeting revolved around tribal politics.

Meeting today in Anbar Province with Police and sheiks

Three of the five sheiks present

During this meeting, three Iraqi Police lieutenant colonels, and five tribal sheiks, talked for perhaps two hours with LTC Crissman about the shape of the emerging Iraqi Police in this area. The Iraqi Ministry of Interior allocated 576 slots for new police in this area of operations. LTC Crissman is trying to distribute slots reasonably equally among the tribes and towns, while each tribe makes a grab for as many slots as possible.

Tribal intrigue and politics surface as a dominant factor in Anbar Province.

The sheiks want more police openings, and since many “police” have been working without pay for more than two months, one sheik proposed an idea to cut the already-meager pay in half, so that twice more police can be hired. A stream of such proposals come at LTC Crissman during every meeting, and each time I ask myself, “How will the commander field this one?”

Iraqi interpreter talking to the sheik.

I would like to write more candidly about what Crissman faces, but Internet is available in the towns here, and I wish to avoid unnecessarily affecting local politics during this sensitive time. I will say that over a period of more than two years, I’ve attended countless such meetings in Baghdad, Baqubah, Mosul and other Iraqi cities, but never have I seen an area where fighting ending so abruptly.

After the meeting: Kabobs, baked chicken and vegetables.

Iraqis have told me many times that the larger part of this war is not about religion. Fanatical groups such as al Qaeda surely have wreaked havoc, but a huge part of the war is about business, influence and resources. The American Commanding General, David Petraeus, has said repeatedly that money is ammunition in this war. The meetings I attend with local leaders around Iraq are never about religion. Religion is seldom if ever brought up. The meetings are about security, electricity, jobs, water projects. The meetings often are about influence, and politics fit for a novel.

Everything I see at these meetings indicates that those Coalition officers who say that money is ammunition in this war, are right. Al Qaeda is proving itself to the Iraqis to be bankrupt morally, and financially. There is a chance to fill the vacuum.

A Memorial Day message.

MORE CLASHES IN VENEZUELA: Gateway Pundit has a roundup.

MICHAEL MOORE gets no love from Andrew Sullivan. Well, if you care about the quality of health care, you won’t be listening to Michael Moore.

TERRORISTIC THREATS from winemakers. And I was just planning on ending my boycott of French wines.

J.D. JOHANNES’ producer David Chavarria posts some Memorial Day thoughts.

CINDY SHEEHAN SAYS GOODBYE:

However, when I started to hold the Democratic Party to the same standards that I held the Republican Party, support for my cause started to erode and the “left” started labeling me with the same slurs that the right used. I guess no one paid attention to me when I said that the issue of peace and people dying for no reason is not a matter of “right or left”, but “right and wrong.”

Yes, when her utility as a Bush-bashing tool evaporated, the media weren’t interested. Not even most of the alt-media. More here.

And Don Surber is amused.

UPDATE: They’re trying to replace her, but Mickey Kaus observes: “I’m willing to believe U.S. soldiers in Iraq are disillusioned, but ‘more than a dozen’ does not seem like a large number.”

I don’t know why any troops would be disillusioned, when they’re getting so much support from American media and the Democrats in Congress.

ANOTHER UPDATE: More on Cindy Sheehan and the media here.

THE KOSSACKS HAVE GOT A LONG WAY TO GO if they’re going to beat InstaPundit readers in the One Billion Bulbs competition:

Their banner may be bigger but their score’s much, much smaller. What, does nobody read the DailyKos anymore? Or do Kos readers just care less about the environment than InstaPundit readers?

Yeah, Kos readers: This fluorescent-bulb trash-talk is aimed at you!

UPDATE: Several readers wonder if there’s anything geekier than enviro-trash-talk about compact fluorescent bulbs.

Well, not much, probably. But what’s your point?

ANOTHER UPDATE: Anything geekier? Lissa Kay emails: “Umm … how about going on a date and quoting Firefly and Serenity to each other? Heh … guess ya had to be there, but not really … um, nevermind.”

A MEMORIAL DAY POST from Major John Tammes.

UPDATE: A photo from Rick Lee.

ANOTHER UPDATE: A slideshow of photos from the National Memorial Day Parade in DC, from Robert Bluey.

SO MY MEMORIAL DAY ACTIVITY WAS GIVING BLOOD: I missed the blood drive at the law school this spring, and I try to give twice a year, given that under the new, stricter rules I’m one of the relatively few people who can give blood these days. They had the blood drive set up at the mall, so I donated while the Insta-Wife and Insta-Daughter shopped for swimsuits. (They scored big at Guess.) As I’ve noted before, the questionnaire gets longer and longer, but the Medic folks did a pretty good job of moving me through quickly. Unlike some of my experiences donating at the University, the crowd here was more than half male. Then again, the sex-ratio has evened out the last couple of times I’ve donated at school, too.

If you’re eligible, consider donating — I’m not really kidding about the shortage of donors these days.

UPDATE: Amusing caption: “Already I feel the power of the nanobots coursing through my veins! Soon I will be fit to sire a race of immortal robot lawyers.” But one that comes years after the fact. . . .

MUCH BETTER THAN MY EXPERIENCE WITH DELTA: I flew home yesterday, via American. Like Delta, they wound up with no airplane. Unlike Delta, instead of giving us a runaround, they sent the captain of the plane out to tell us what was going on, managed to find us another airplane, and got me to Knoxville only a little more than half an hour late. I don’t know if American is typically better, but in terms of making the effort, and showing sympathy and good cheer rather than sadistic glee, the American folks were way ahead.

MEMORIAL DAY THOUGHTS: “Personally, I owe my own life to the Army and the smell of coffee, but to be more like my mother, I shouldn’t tell it as a personal story: There was a war. People did what had to be done.”

And for further Memorial Day reading you could do a lot worse than this. Or this.

MORE ON SPACE TOURISM: Here’s an AP report from the ISDC:

Space tourism companies can survive the inevitable disaster if they warn passengers of the risks that a privately operated rocket ship could crash, an executive of one of the leading firms said Friday.

“God forbid it should happen on the first flight. Hopefully it’s many, many years out,” said Alex Tai, chief operating officer for British billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic space venture.

Tai said customers who are given an honest assessment of the risks won’t be able to successfully sue operators after a crash. And he said the public understands the danger of space travel after two disasters involving NASA-operated space shuttles.

Virgin Galactic plans to begin test flights next year and carry the first paying customers — $200,000 per seat — in late 2009 or early 2010.

That’s right. People engage in all sorts of risky “adventure tourism” — from scuba diving, to rock climbing, to whitewater kayaking, to mountain climbing to much riskier sports — and we accept accidents as part of the cost.

And here’s more reporting:

Virgin Galactic’s chief operating officer revealed Friday at the National Space Society’s 26th Annual International Space Development Conference that the suborbital spaceliner research and development company is in talks with space mogul Robert Bigelow to use his expanding modules to create Virgin Galactic orbiting hotels.

Alex Tai said his boss, Sir Richard Branson, and Bigelow have huddled recently to work out the details. Tai also said the suborbital spaceliner is coming together on various floors at Scaled Composites in Mojave, Calif.

Tai said test flights of SpaceShipTwo — the passenger carrying ship — will begin in 2008 and could last between 12 and 18 months.

They expect ticket prices to start out at $200K and drop to $100K or less over a few years.

Meanwhile, on a slightly different topic, NASA is looking favorably at using commercial space firms for mission support:

NASA is in the market for commercial relationships and private capital as it gears up for its next manned missions to the moon.

“That would make our life a lot easier,” said Neil Woodward, acting director of NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate. . . .

“If somebody says ‘I have this really great way to be able to extract water ice from lunar regolith (lunar rocks) that I’ve developed on my own dime’ we would be interested,” Woodward said.

“If we could be in a commercial relationship with somebody who has the capability that’s fine because in many cases they can do it for less money than we can,” he told Reuters on the sidelines of a space development conference in Dallas.

Venture capital in space exploration was a key theme at the conference.

Read the whole thing.

ACTUALLY, I HAD TO LOOK TWICE to realize that this was a photoshop.

SOME MEMORIAL DAY THOUGHTS, from Peter Collier. A must-read.

And here’s a Memorial Day roundup from Jules Crittenden.

UPDATE: Reader Gerald Dearing notes that, like last year, Google isn’t observing Memorial Day. But, also like last year, Ask.com is.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Heh.

A VENEZUELAN MEDIA CRACKDOWN: Xeni Jardin has video.

BIG MEDIA ARE CATCHING UP WITH THE BLOGOSPHERE on events in Anbar. Here’s a report from the Chicago Tribune:

By all accounts, the results in Anbar have been impressive: Where barely 200 police officers had served in Ramadi, the provincial capital, last summer, now there are more than 8,000. The number of attacks on U.S. forces dropped from 108 a week last year to seven during the first week of May.

“We started remembering what had happened [with Al Qaeda] and how things went, and we decided to fight,” said Tariq al-Duleimi, who heads security for Sattar Abu Risha, the young sheik who was the host of the meeting at his compound last October.

I wonder if, like Joe Klein, they’ll be savaged by lefty bloggers for daring to mention this.

COULD BRITISH MEDIA SWING THE U.S. ELECTIONS? They’d certainly like to.