WHEN THE SENATE CONFIRMED GEN. PETRAEUS, there weren’t many complaints. In fact, nobody voted no. Now, apparently, he’s become a GOP stooge. Wanting to win, and saying so, is apparently unforgivable in some quarters these days.

SLASHDOT: Which Google should Congress believe?

SHOULD PRESIDENT CHENEY PARDON SCOOTER LIBBY? A poll.

RUDY GIULIANI GETS A Bo Derek endorsement.

TRASH OR TREASON? More on the Oak Ridge nuclear-theft story.

BOB KRUMM: “One difference I’ve noted between certain elements of America’s two political parties is that Republicans tend to criticize Democratic primary candidates as being ‘too liberal,’ while Democrats criticize the GOP’s potential offerings as not being conservative enough.”

IN EAST TENNESSEE: Two Blogfests and a Blogathon!

FOREIGN POLICY LISTS the world’s stupidest fatwas.

PEOPLE USED TO WAIT UNTIL THEY HAD ACCOMPLISHED THINGS before publishing their memoirs.

AND TO THINK PEOPLE ARE ALWAYS ACCUSING WAR SUPPORTERS of being indifferent to genocide:

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said Thursday the United States cannot use its military to solve humanitarian problems and that preventing a potential genocide in Iraq isn’t a good enough reason to keep U.S. forces there.

So much for the moral high ground.

UPDATE: From Ace: “He’s right.” Read the whole thing.

ANOTHER UPDATE: John F. Burns: “I think it`s a much larger truth that where American forces are present, they are inhibiting sectarian violence, and they are going after the people, particularly al-Qaeda and the Shiite death squads, who are provoking that violence. Remove them or at least remove them quickly, and it seems to me — controversial as this may seem to be saying in the present circumstances, while I know there`s this agonizing debate going on in the United States about this — that you have to weigh the price. And the price would very likely be very, very high levels of violence, at least in the short run and perhaps, perhaps – perhaps for quite a considerable period of time.”

MORE ON THE BOSTON GLOBE’S gun scandal. (Via Michael Silence, who has a comment on journalistic style at the Globe.)

MICHAEL YON EMAILS: “Wow. There was zero combat reported in Baqubah yesterday. Hard to believe. But I am right here, and that’s the way it was.”

He’s also got a new post: 7 Rules: 1 Oath.

As always, read the whole thing. And remember that — like Michael Totten, who’s also blogging from Iraq now — he’s funded by his readers. So if you like his reporting, hit the tipjar.

HAIR ADVICE for Fred Thompson.

ANN ALTHOUSE: “There’s some idea, apparently — here in the midwest? — that a naked male torso is supposed to be endured with sullen solemnity or something.”

RANDY BARNETT HAS FURTHER THOUGHTS on libertarians and war.

HOW TO be a better grillmaster.

A LOOK AT THE FUTURE OF electric cars.

IN THE MAIL: Bill Bass & Jon Jefferson’s Beyond the Body Farm: A Legendary Bone Detective Explores Murders, Mysteries, and the Revolution in Forensic Science.

Our podcast interview with Jefferson & Bass from last year can be found here.

MORE DEVELOPMENTS AT DARTMOUTH.

LESS THAN MEETS THE EYE: More on Al Gore and the endangered Chilean Sea Bass.

DAVID BERNSTEIN: “Opponents of the use of the Due Process Clause to protect substantive rights, notably Robert Bork (see, e.g., Coercing Virtue p. 55), trace the origins of ‘substantive due process’ to Scott v. Sandford. This is disingenuous (or perhaps ignorant) on two levels.”

My thoughts on Bork and substantive due process can be found here.

A LOOK AT the science of sticky.

MICHAEL TOTTEN, live from Baghdad.

A LOOK AT THE NEW PATENT REFORM LEGISLATION. I haven’t been following it closely enough to have an opinion, really. I note, though, that positions seem to break down by industry, with IT people generally not liking strong patents while pharma people do. That makes sense, given their different business models. I suppose that actually treating different kinds of patents differently is unworkable.

CHEAP, PAINTABLE SOLAR CELLS:

Researchers at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) have developed an inexpensive solar cell that can be painted or printed on flexible plastic sheets. “The process is simple,” said lead researcher and author Somenath Mitra, PhD, professor and acting chair of NJIT’s Department of Chemistry and Environmental Sciences. “Someday homeowners will even be able to print sheets of these solar cells with inexpensive home-based inkjet printers. Consumers can then slap the finished product on a wall, roof or billboard to create their own power stations.”

Bring it on. But “someday” isn’t soon enough.