EUGENE VOLOKH notes some factual errors in the New York Times’ coverage of today’s Second Amendment decision from the D.C. Circuit.
UPDATE: Plus some interesting stuff from Blackstone on what that talk about “a free state” in the Second Amendment means. Or just go here to see a whole bunch of interesting posts on this case, all on one page.
POLITICAL WINDS shifting on Iraq? Obey’s amusing.
UPDATE: More on Obey here. I liked this bit:
When The Hill contacted him Friday about the videotaped encounter, Obey immediately apologized for getting angry with the woman, saying that his immense frustration about “this stupid war†boiled over.
It reminded me of this:
The most memorable part of “Forrest Gump” is a scene set in or around 1968, in which Forrest, who by the way served in Vietnam, has encountered his love interest, Jenny, at an antiwar rally in Washington. Jenny gets into an argument with her hippie boyfriend, who slaps her in the face. Forrest decks the hippie, who later tries to smooth things over with Jenny: “Things got a little out of hand,” he tells her. “It’s just this war and that lying son of a bitch, Johnson! I would never hurt you. You know that.”
Life imitates art imitating life. Or something.
JEFF GOLDSTEIN NOTES THAT the phony Plame narrative continues in spite of repeated debunkings. More here.
THIS SEEMS LIKE PRETTY GOOD NEWS:
The shadowy leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, an al-Qaida-inspired group that challenged the authority of Iraq’s government, was captured Friday in a raid on the western outskirts of Baghdad, an Iraqi military spokesman said.
Abu Omar al-Baghdadi was arrested along with several other insurgents in a raid in the town of
Abu Ghraib, said Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, spokesman for the Baghdad security operation. U.S. officials had no confirmation of the capture and said they were looking into the report.Al-Moussawi said al-Baghdadi admitted his identity, as did another “of the terrorists” who confirmed “that the one in our hands is al-Baghdadi.”
The arrest of al-Baghdadi would be a major victory for U.S. and Iraqi forces in their fight against Sunni insurgents, especially the hardcore religious extremists who have shown no interest in negotiating an end to their struggle.
It also suggests that we’re getting good intelligence, which is very important. Gateway Pundit has more.
MY EARLY WARNINGS about the Patriot Act seem to have borne at least some fruit, though I’ll confess that things don’t seem to have been as bad as I feared. Still, this is troubling:
The FBI improperly and, in some cases, illegally used the USA Patriot Act to secretly obtain personal information about people in the United States, a Justice Department audit concluded Friday.
And for three years the FBI has underreported to Congress how often it forced businesses to turn over the customer data, the audit found.
FBI agents sometimes demanded the data without proper authorization, according to the 126-page audit by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine. At other times, the audit found, the FBI improperly obtained telephone records in non-emergency circumstances.
The audit blames agent error and shoddy record-keeping for the bulk of the problems and did not find any indication of criminal misconduct.
Still, “we believe the improper or illegal uses we found involve serious misuses of national security letter authorities,” the audit concludes.
Read the whole thing.
UPDATE: At the Counterterrorism Blog, this is called “troubling and inexcusable,” but there’s also this:
The problems identified by the IG are problems of process in terms of recordkeeping and reporting, which are administrative. The process in terms of operation and use of the information has not been problematic. The IG found no deliberate or intentional misuse of authority, meaning there were no infringements on privacy rights or civil liberties. Even though recordkeeping and reporting was inadequate, actual use of information was appropriate.
That’s an important point.
18 DOUGHTY STREET looks at anti-Americanism at the BBC.
FURTHER THOUGHTS on the D.C. Second Amendment decision mentioned below.
MORE NEWS ON A FRED THOMPSON CANDIDACY as Howard Baker confirms rumors that he’s pushing Thompson to run. Plus, a roundup here.
LUCAS SAYRE blogged Justice Ginsburg’s talk at Indiana University. “Justice Ginsburg seemed to be moving pretty slowly. I realize she is advanced in years, but this echoes an article I read just last week that said she was moving more slowly than usual. That said, she was eloquent and quite engaging.”
IN THE MAIL: Checkmate,
A HISTORY LESSON ON IRAQ, for those who need a reminder of what Democrats were saying a few years ago.
D.C. CIRCUIT STRIKES DOWN DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA GUN CONTROL LAW as a violation of the Second Amendment, adopts individual rights view. Howard Bashman has more, and the opinion is here. This is a very important development.
Some additional background on the Second Amendment can be found here, here and here.
UPDATE: Okay, I’ve given the majority opinion a very quick read. It’s very much in line with the so-called “Standard Model” of individual rights scholarship, and also makes much of the Tennessee cases that I discuss here and that the Supreme Court noted in Miller. Seems like a very strong opinion; the dissent, on the other hand, looks a bit odd. I’m going to have to think about it a bit more to decide if it’s really as flimsy as it seems.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Eugene Volokh notes the decision, and has some further thoughts about timing and the 2008 elections.
Perhaps the Democrats would be wise to take the issue off the table politically by passing some sort of federal legislation guaranteeing American citizens the right to own guns.
YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Tim Lynch at Cato weighs in.
MORE: Strangely, as of 6:45 pm there’s not a word on this at Hit & Run. What, the Reason folks don’t care about the Second Amendment anymore?
MORE INSURGENT ATTACKS, in Iran.
A.C. KLEINHEIDER calls the Fred Thompson run the campaign that will never happen. Er, unless . . . .
JAMES LILEKS ON CHRISTOPHER ROBIN’S REPLACEMENT:
Here’s the part that makes me truly sad:
The little girl wears a bike helmet.
Because you could fall down in the 100 Acre Woods and hurt yourself.
I swear, they’re going to put airbags on Barbie’s Pegasus next, and require thick corks on the point of all unicorn horns.
Anyway: I don’t mind that they’ve introduced a girl into the 100 Acre Woods, and as the father of a daughter I fully support the addition of female characters with whom my daughter could identify. But I know how I’d feel if I had a young boy. There are 100 acres. There’s not room enough for both?
Read the whole thing.
THOUGHTS ON INTELLECTUALS AND THE MILITARY, at The American Thinker.
HUNTING BIN LADEN in Waziristan. “It seems as if Dick Cheney’s visit to Pakistan meant something rather significant for Musharraf. With AQ more active than any time in the last five years, and with Musharraf sitting on his hands, Cheney’s visit was meant as an ultimatum for action. If Musharraf won’t fight terrorists, then we have less interest in preventing his destabilization. Musharraf responded by arresting two senior members of the Taliban outside of Waziristan, and his lack of response thus far to American operations in Waziristan seems to indicate acquiescence to the new American policy.”
JOHN TAMMES POSTS ANOTHER ROUNDUP OF NEWS FROM AFGHANISTAN that you might have missed. It’s his 50th roundup!
Anybody who has walked by the east side of the Capitol in the last few years knows that there’s a big construction project going on. It’s for an underground visitors center. Here’s the shocking news: It’s costing far more than originally planned and taking years longer than expected to complete . . . . If Congress cannot properly oversee a project that’s taking place in its own backyard—literally!—then how can it oversee anything?
Is this a trick question?
SO MUCH FOR THE “100 HOURS:” The Democratic takeover of Congress doesn’t seem to have done much for that body’s public esteem.
Michael Yon sends this photo from Baghdad, and emails: “Saddam said our soldiers couldn’t take the heat. He thought wrong.”
Visit his site, if you haven’t. And remember that he, like other independent blogger-journalists like Michael Totten, Bill Roggio, and Bill Ardolino — and independent documentarians like Pat Dollard or J.D. Johannes — is dependent on reader/viewer contributions for support. So if you like his work, consider donating. Meanwhile, I’ll note that Saddam also thought our politicians couldn’t take the heat, and it isn’t clear yet whether he was wrong about that, though he’s certainly in no position to find out.
MORE GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS, from Jules Crittenden.
VIDEO-PEDICURE BLOGGING. As far as I know, this hasn’t been done before . . . .
WHY IS THIS NEWSPAPER going after a blogger who reported (truthfully, it appears) on a local politician? Rogers Cadenhead wants to know: “I’ve been reading the Record for a decade. I can’t recall a single time where it conducted an effort to catch a rapist, robber or murderer anywhere near the scope of this manhunt for a blogger.”
RANDY BARNETT plugs the Institute for Humane Studies summer seminars.
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