PELOSI’S APPROVAL RATING: lower than Bush’s? You wouldn’t know that from the press coverage.

UPDATE: Eugene Volokh notes that things aren’t quite as close as they appear. He’s right to note that, and I should have followed the links myself. I’m guessing, though, that these numbers would be getting a lot more press attention anyway if the party affiliations were reversed.

DUKE (NON) RAPE UPDATE: Lots of new developments at K.C. Johnson’s blog.

TERRY MCAULIFFE charges John Kerry with “political malpractice.” Seems about right to me.

PHOTO- AND VIDEO-BLOGGING Schwarzenegger’s inauguration.

“APPLEGATE?”

MORE IRAQ REPORTING from Bill Ardolino.

THE PLASTIC TURKEY THAT wouldn’t die.

PODCAST QUESTIONS UPDATE: Various questions are answered! First, have I considered doing a podcast using Apple’s GarageBand software, now that I have a Macbook Pro? Yes. Haven’t done it yet, but I’ve fooled around with the software a bit, and it’s enough like Acid that it’s easy to figure out.

What kind of microphones do I recommend? Good question. If money’s no object, an ElectroVoice RE-20 is a good way to go. I don’t use those, because money is an object, and besides I already have some other mikes. I use an AKG C3000, and Helen uses a Marshall MXL microphone. For guests I’ve used an SM-57 because I have several of those utility mikes lying around, but I’ve just recently bought this Sennheiser on my brother’s recommendation. I love the SM-57 as an instrument mike but I’ve never been crazy about it as a vocal mike. For vocal podcasting, most any microphone is okay, but ideally it shouldn’t have too much of a proximity effect — in which low frequencies are boosted when you’re close to the mike — because people you’re interviewing tend to shift around. Whatever you get, use some kind of pop screen and you’ll improve your sound a lot, at low cost.

For sound treatment — the new podcast space is a bit echo-y — I had planned to stick up some Auralex foam, but an InstaPundit reader who’s at Ready Acoustics offered me a customized sound treatment if I’d do a review. I’ve gotten some of their bass traps and high frequency panels via FedEx now, but haven’t put them up. I’ll let you know how it turns out — they’re almost certainly overkill for the space, but it should be interesting. The 3D graphic of the room that they constructed after I sent them photos and measurements was kind of cool, too.

If you’re starting from scratch, you might want to consider a podcasting kit like this one. I haven’t used it, but it’s probably quite good, and quite reasonably priced. It says something about the popularity of podcasting that many music dealers and manufacturers are offering products aimed specifically at that market. An earlier post on this topic can be found here.

UPDATE: Tom Spaulding — who as John Fogerty’s guitar tech has lots more audio cred than I do — writes: “I love the M-Audio gear I own. Check this out: M-Audio Podcast Factory.” Looks like a good, cheap solution. I actually use the Mobile-Pre USB audio interface myself. It’s a bit noisy for music applications, but fine for voice.

MEDICAL TOURISM is accelerating. “So we should all be very pleased to see Asian biotech and medical entrepreneurs eating the very lunch out from underneath late-stage researchers and new businesses in the US and Europe. It’s the only way that those insulated folk inside the regulatory fence are going to feel any meaningful pressure to help tear it down – and thus better serve us over the long term.”

JOHN HINDERAKER ON SURGE TALK: “I don’t particularly object to sending more troops to Iraq, but to what end? As long as we implicitly accept the proposition that violence in Baghdad means our effort is a failure, we put our fate in the hands of the extremists on both sides. If some Sunnis and Shiites are determined to kill one another, I doubt that 9,000 more troops, or even a much larger number, will stop them.”

He also observes: “If the principal tangible difference between the President’s position and the Democrats’ is the addition of 9,000 troops on top of the 140,000 already in Iraq, then the differences are even narrower than I thought.” Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: Bill Quick thinks the Democrats are being played. But he’s just as uncertain as me about why Bush has given Syria and Iran a pass.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Ivo Daalder wants failure in Iraq before 2008. Or something like that.

MORE: Okay, looking at this the next morning my characterization of Daalder is a bit unfair. He already thinks it’s a failure — even though he supported the invasion of Iraq — he just wants to be sure it’s seen as a failure before the election.

STILL MORE: Reader Rachel Walker emails: “Why are people (especially Democrats) declaring Iraq a failure and want Americans to leave? Don’t they realize that A) we will have a real genocidal issue over there and B) the Dems will have to deal with it sooner or later? Thank you very much.”

I think that too many people in both parties are more worried about the 2008 elections than about the actual war. This is a very bad thing.

PAJAMAS VIDEO: Richard Miniter interviews Flemming Rose, “the man principally responsible for the publication of the notorious Mohammed cartoons in that paper last year.”

JOURNALISM VS. JAWBONING.

FRANCE AND GENOCIDE in Rwanda.

WE’RE LOOKING FOR A VISITING PROFESSOR IN BUSINESS LAW at the UT Law College.

PELOSI ON MOLLOHAN: What’s a little federal investigation?

BUT IT’S NOT A PALESTINIAN CIVIL WAR: “Assailants gunned down a Muslim preacher known for his anti-Hamas views on Friday, witnesses said, moments after he exited a mosque where he delivered a sermon criticizing the Islamic group’s role in a wave of Palestinian violence. The slaying came as thousands of mourners marched through Gaza City carrying the bodies of seven Fatah men killed in a standoff with Hamas. Thursday’s gunfight was the bloodiest single battle in weeks of factional fighting, and Fatah said it was suspending talks with Hamas until the assailants are brought to justice.”

WHY ARE AMERICANS SIMULTANEOUSLY OPTIMISTIC AND PESSIMISTIC: “A new AP-AOL News Poll finds that while most Americans said 2006 was a bad year for the country, three-fourths thought it had been a good one for them and their families.”

I think the first commenter has the answer.

BARNEY FRANK ACCUSES BUSH OF ETHNIC CLEANSING in Louisiana. I guess by letting Ray Nagin get reelected, thus ensuring that the place would remain a disaster . . . .

OH NOOOOOO: “Big Oil profits in danger as price of crude slides.”

A LOOK AT THE MIDDLE EAST, HOMOSEXUALITY, and “Occidentalism.”

I SCORED A “21” ON THAT TEST TOO, though I have to say it was a pretty dumb test. But does this make me “objectively moderate?” I prefer to think of myself as extremist, but in an eclectic fashion.

UPDATE: Eugene Volokh comments.

DON SURBER: “Forget that investigation of Mollohan. He now chairs the subcommittee that oversees the FBI budget. Some swamps are drained, others are protected wetlands.”

IRAN IS DENYING reports that Khamenei is dead.

A LOOK AT North Korea’s biochemical threat.

MICHAEL TOTTEN REPORTS FROM BEIRUT: “It’s like a Phish concert for terrorists.”