A LOOK AT CALIFORNIA: “California is a trendsetter state. Much like the weather, every Californian fad eventually makes its way over the Sierras and diffuses into the intermountain West. That’s wonderful, and it’s frightening, because there are some pretty disturbing things going on in the Golden State right now.”

It seems like there’s a lot of competition to emulate Singapore. (Via Perry de Havilland).

SOME IMPORTANT THOUGHTS ON PIZZA:

You can get by with ordinary cheese; you can give people that pillow-soft puffed-up crust some adore. But without good sauce in sufficient quantities, it’s not pizza. Just so we’re clear.

I agree. Good crust is important, and so is cheese, but the sauce is the thing. And I particularly dislike the trend, in some quarters, of largely omitting the sauce in favor of a quarter-pound of cheese per slice. If I wanted cheese toast, I’d order cheese toast.

UPDATE: Deep fried pizza?

PALESTINIANS FLEE TO ISRAEL: Because, you know, it’s civilization.

SO AT LEAST THERE’S BEEN ONE CONVICTION IN THIS AFFAIR: Nifong found guilty.

BACK WHEN WE INTERVIEWED RNC CHAIR KEN MEHLMAN LAST YEAR, Helen’s first question to Mehlman was something along the lines of Why is President Bush acting like a Democrat?

The GOP lost, Mehlman has moved on, but the Bush Administration is still acting like Democrats — even to the point of complaining about the “Right-Wing Blathersphere.”

Do they want whining from Michael Chertoff and Trent Lott to form the public image of the Bush Administration and the Republican Party?

Apparently they do. Good luck with that, guys. The political press can run with stories about bloggers being in full revolt over immigration, but it’s not really a case of bloggers vs. the Administration. Rather, it’s a case — like Harriet Miers, Dubai Ports, PorkBusters, etc. — of the Bush Administration ignoring the clear warnings available in the blogosphere. And once again, it’s not just bloggers who think the Administration is crazy. So far, every time they’ve done that they’ve had their head handed to them. That’ll happen this time, too, and if they should happen to “win” and pass their bill, the consequences for the GOP will be even worse. “Bizarre Republican Death Wish?” Indeed.

Frankly, that’s okay with me. I’ve long been unhappy with both Democrats and Republicans. The GOP has been better on national security, though that advantage is fading with time, but overall both parties have been lame and more likely to unite in opposition to citizens’ rights and liberties than to compete in protecting them. I’ve often at least sort-of hoped for a third party that would combine the GOP economic-libertarian strands with the Dems’ social-libertarian strands. I don’t know if the GOP’s self-destruction makes that more likely, but it seems like it might. At any rate, if people really want to commit suicide it’s hard to stop them, and that seems to be the GOP’s main goal at the moment.

Meanwhile, some further thoughts on what blogs are good for.

UPDATE: Bill Quick: “Why, you’d think our would-be rulers live in a bubble or something. Still, I don’t think they really misjudge outside-the-Beltway sentiment. They just ignore it – or try to.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: A view from the cartoonosphere:

THE UNITED STATES: LAGGING IN PHYSICS. What’s worse, this isn’t just about falling behind in the race for the biggest, baddest accelerators, a race that I’m not convinced is as important as portrayed. This is about far more serious systemic problems. Excerpt:

The net result is that the academic community is now devoting far more of its time to writing grants, a shift that has come at the expense of directing and publishing research. In the past, academics have had an escape route from the pressures to retain funding: the “blue sky” research labs run by major companies, such as AT&T’s Bell Labs. But the report refers to these institutions as “once great,” since recent years have seen them closed, sold off piecemeal, or refocused on product development.

Combined, these changes have caused US research output to shrink in comparison to the rest of the world. Based on publications in Physical Reviews B and E, the US contribution to papers has remained flat over the last decade, while papers originating from other countries have nearly doubled. The report predicts that this reduced output will ultimately exact a price on the American economy.

It’s not all bad, of course, that other countries are producing more. But this is a real problem, not merely a demand for more cash.

A BLOG ON HIGH POWER ROCKETRY, with lots of interesting videos.

GAIA 1, PEARL JAM ZERO.

SO IF YOU BASH ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER’S ADVICE ON LEARNING ENGLISH, aren’t you engaging in immigrant-bashing yourself?

Most amusing line:

A Hispanic advocacy group said Schwarzenegger’s comments show his “ignorance on immigration issues.”

Because what would Arnold know about people who come from a different land, raised in another language, who want to make a life for themselves in America?

ABUSIVE LAB TEST: A high-speed blender triathlon, with three blenders being tested as they blend a variety of items.

They didn’t, however, test my personal favorite, which I find is capable of producing delicious smoothies from all sorts of ingredients.

SUCCESSFULLY TESTING a Mach 10 Scramjet: This is huge if it turns out as advertised, because it gives you rocket-like launch performance, but without having to carry along oxidizer like rockets do, since you can get it from the air.

UPDATE: Rand Simberg thinks I’m making too much of this story.

BRIAN LAMB responds to the critics.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: More developments:

Toward 2 a.m., Chairman Obey challenged Mr. Flake: “The gentleman has offered a lot of motions in the past two years to strike earmarks. Could I ask him how many of them have been successful?”

“Not one,” Flake responded. “I came to the floor 39 times and was beaten like a rented mule every time.”

But the level of public interest and scrutiny over earmarks has increased since those votes, he said, in an interview. Obey “misjudged the way this is viewed outside the Beltway.” . . .

On Monday, Obey announced a revision of committee policy on earmarks: Instead of including member projects, identified by name in spending bills, earmarks would be fully disclosed before the August recess – after all House votes on spending bills, but before the final appropriations are worked out in a conference with the Senate. Lawmakers objecting to any earmark could send a letter to the committee challenging the project.

The move set off protests from editorial boards to accountability websites in the blogosphere. Within hours of the Obey announcement, more than 770 people volunteered to help Congress vet earmarks this cycle on the porkbusters.org website.

“The question is whether Congress is going to live up to the reforms they promised or create conditions which we know corrupt things: earmarks decided behind closed doors and an opaque process,” says Bill Allison, of the Sunlight Foundation. “There’s no reason not to make the requests public now.”

By the terms of the new deal announced Thursday morning, earmark disclosure rules will not apply to the two spending bills currently on the House floor, Homeland Security and Military Quality of Life. But all 10 remaining FY 2008 spending bills will be subject to the new rule.

Republicans say that they will continue to challenge spending levels in pending appropriations bills – and sustain any presidential veto of spending bills that exceed budget limits – but will call off obstructionist tactics over earmarks. In addition, House Republican leader John Boehner says he will try to force a House vote on a reform that allows members to challenge earmarks in authorizing and tax bills, as well as spending bills.

“Democratic leaders finally surrendered to our demands, because supporting secret earmarks in appropriations bills is indefensible and the American people won’t stand for it,” said Mr. Boehner, in a statement.

Yeah, I’ve said it before, but if the Republicans had been willing to take this kind of stand against pork last year, instead of listening to Trent Lott, they might still be in the majority.

OH. THAT’S what he meant? Huh.

UPDATE: Well, he wants to be noticed.

Meanwhile, Ace responds to feigned outrage from the Left, which I guess wants a monopoly on anti-gay slurs or something. “It doesn’t particuarly bother me, but I do seem to notice that, when lefties decide to insult a political opponent, the ‘fag’ slur is always on the list of go-to put-downs. . . . Deal with it, get hip to the idea that there’s one rule for all, not one rule for you and another for everyone else, and finally, please, do try to make some progress towards getting the fuck over yourselves.”

It is kind of funny. First Greenwald calling me gay, now Firedoglake calling Lindsey Graham gay. Meanwhile, constant claims that the rightosphere is “homophobic.” Hypocrisy, thy name is netroots.

THE TRENT LOTT / MOVEON CONNECTION: It all makes sense, now. . . .

RENAME EARMARKS WITH SOMETHING MORE, UM, EUPHONIOUS: Ed Morrissey is running a poll on different choices.

NIFONG RESIGNS:

Durham County district attorney Michael B. Nifong said today he plans to resign his job, after admitting that he had “crossed the line” of ethical standards in some of the public statements he made about the Duke University lacrosse players he charged with rape.

Better late than never.

UPDATE: Brendan Loy asks, What about the “Group of 88” Duke faculty who criticized the (innocent) lacrosse players?

CAN RORY STEWART fix Afghanistan?

SPITZER’S GIVEAWAY.

ADJUSTING TO CLIMATE CHANGE: “Many Arctic plant species have readily adjusted to big climate changes, repeatedly recolonizing the rugged islands of the remote Svalbard archipelago off Norway’s coast through 20,000 years of warm and cool spells since the frigid peak of the last ice age, researchers report in today’s issue of the journal Science. Their finding implies that, in the Arctic at least, plants may be able to shift long distances to follow the climate conditions for which they are best adapted as those conditions move under the influence of human-caused global warming, the researchers and some independent experts said.”

Human-caused global warming goes back 20,000 years? Who knew?

BETTER THAN HARDBALL AND SCARBOROUGH COUNTRY PUT TOGETHER! The latest Corn & Miniter Show is up!

JOE LIEBERMAN REPORTS from a trip to Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East. Unlike Harry Reid, Lieberman seems to think pretty highly of General Petraeus.

A ROUNDUP OF THE WORST JOBS IN SCIENCE: Starting with “whale feces researcher” and going downhill from there.

MARK STEYN ON TRENT LOTT: “I have no serious expectations of Senators these days, but I would like them at the very least to try and sound a little less like the plump complacent emirs of the one-party-state of Incumbistan. Trent Lott fails even that test.” Indeed.

MORE ON HARRY REID, THE POLITICO, AND THE NETROOTS:

Another interesting undercurrent to this is the contempt of the left-wing bloggers for the Politico, and the Drudge Report, which often links to the site. The story was “based on unsubstantiated, third-party recollection,” says Geiger, under the headline “The Politico Fails Journalism 101.” “Politico, the online soul-mate to the Drudge Report, has gotten into the habit of creating news stories through innuendo, omission, outright error, and now today, out of thin air,” was the line from Kos blogger BarbinMD (is that a professional opinion, doctor?). And the grand wizard of Politico haters once complained that Drudge and the Politico are “poisonously joined at the hip.”

Well, for all that griping, it seems the Politico nailed this story, and Drudge just did what he always does–amplify it. Dr. Barbin still contends this is a non-story–though, apparently factually accurate despite protestations to the contrary–because it was just “a throw away line…that Harry Reid said to the unable-to-be-reconfirmed Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s face.” And Geiger puts off the outrageous statement Reid claims to have made to the senator’s “tendency to speak like the straight-talking, former boxer that he is.” If it’s all true, then Reid’s a brave man, but a jerk nonetheless. The other possibility, of course, is that he’s full of it and never said any such thing to Pace–in which case, he’s still a jerk, but not so stupid as to question the integrity of this nation’s highest ranking officer to his face.

The lefty bloggers, for their part, have shown themselves to be totally inept. They failed to report the comments, then they denied Reid ever made them while making their own unsubstantiated allegations, and now they defend the comments as irrelevant–and without even the slightest doubt as to their validity. Which is worse?

Does it matter? And heck, the White House press corps wasn’t much better.

Anyway, some people are savoring the madness. And Bill Ardolino has more on the merits of Reid’s statements — or rather, the lack thereof. Dave Price, too.