THAT BUMBLING COUNTRY BUMPKIN: Mickey Kaus observes: “Fred Thompson’s campaign had such a terrible, fumbling, disappointing first week that he’s already tied with Giuliani in the ARG poll and ahead by eight points in the Rasmussen poll.”

CARTOONIST TO AL QAEDA: Bite me.

BUT AT LEAST HE DIDN’T END IT, LIKE HE DID WITH OTHERS: O.J. Changed My Life.

WHAT’S THE BEST WAY TO LEARN A LANGUAGE? Robert Mayer of PubliusPundit wants your advice on whether it’s Rosetta Stone or something else.

MAKING FREEDOM A DIRTY WORD: Well, they can try.

OBAMA rocks the house.

GM’S FLEXTREME CONCEPT CAR: Looks pretty cool: “Flextreme is essentially diesel-electric combo, using the plug-in technology we’ve seen on the Chevy Volt to power some 34 miles of emissions-free range on a three-hour charge. When it starts to run out of juice, the system automatically deploys a 1.3-liter diesel engine that drives a generator to charge the batteries and extend the Flextreme’s operating range on electricity. At no time does the diesel engine drive the car directly.”

GUBERNATORIAL SUCCESSION: Here’s the latest on my committee to revise the Tennessee Constitution, for anyone who’s interested.

HSU, RECOBBLED. I’m surprised to see this kind of data-crunching on a blog rather than a big-media outlet.

Okay, not that surprised.

UPDATE: More thoughts from Rick Hasen: “Obviously I have not verified any of these numbers. But to me this shows that disclosure really is valuable as a means for interested persons (and not just professional journalists) to follow the money.”

A LOOK AT HOW Iran’s war is going.

THE RETURN OF Judy Blume.

A LOOK AT the Japanese political scene.

THE NEW YORK TIMES is opening its entire website for free. This includes most of the archives. Good for them. Bye-bye Times Select! But can the damage be undone?

UPDATE: Some predictable gloating.

TRENT REZNOR: Steal my music!

NEW IMMIGRANT AMNESTY LEGISLATION ON THE TABLE? Mickey Kaus says yes.

GREENSPAN’S BOOK: The smoking gun that didn’t.

WHAT DO I THINK ABOUT MICHAEL MUKASEY as Attorney General? I don’t really know enough to have an opinion. Scott Horton likes him, though. And rumor has it that he’s well thought of by Ralph Winter, which is a good sign.

LET GOOGLE buy the BBC?

JOHN LEO: Things you might not know about the Duke rape case.

SO LOOKING AT THIS ROUNDUP OF PRIMETIME EMMY WINNERS, what strikes me is how few of these shows I’ve ever watched — and the even smaller number that I’ve actually liked.

COMPUTER RECYCLER threatened by bureaucratic nightmare.

MY LAW SCHOOL CLASSMATE PETER KEISLER has been named Acting Attorney General. As I’ve noted here before, he’s a nice guy, and he’s been head of the Civil Division for a while, so this should be a pretty seamless transition.

THE HOLY HAND GRENADE: Another Iraq dispatch from Michael Yon.

MICHAEL BARONE: The Overlawyered War.

THE BRITISH BANK RUN CONTINUES. I wondered why, and the answer seems to be that deposit insurance is much lower than FDIC insurance here in the United States.