BUSH, HITLER, AND THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC. “Comparing Bush to Weimar would only be apt if you thought Bush was the weak and frail President Hindenburg, unable to take decisive action to keep his nation from sliding into chaos… “

LIBERTARIANS IN DEADLY SNEAKERS: “This is even worse than little old ladies in tennis shoes!” Well, the model I run in is called “The Beast.” And a 14EE is surely extra-deadly.

FAMILY VALUES: “The kind of family values that sustains a middle class – rather than an underclass – in a society like the United States aren’t necessarily the kind of family values that you find in socially-conservative societies at very different stages of socioeconomic development, and any transition from the latter to the former is likely to be bumpy.”

THEY CALL IT A M.U.L.E., but it sounds more like the grandpappy of one of Keith Laumer’s Bolos:

Lockheed Martin’s MULE (Multifunction Utility/Logistics and Equipment) has autonomously clambered over a 5-ft.-high obstacle. The Humvee-size vehicle uses six independently powered wheels and an articulated suspension to navigate rubble-strewn terrain or, as in a recent promo video (see below), to climb buglike over a car hood. Three types of MULEs are planned, all intended to dutifully follow dismounted infantry units. A heavily armed 2.5-ton version could be deployed by the Army by 2013.

Video at the link. I can’t help but feel, though, that we need a different Laumer character more than we need bolos at the moment . . . .

BARACK OBAMA GETS THE COVETED ENDORSEMENT OF Jimmy Carter’s foreign policy guru, Zbigniew Brzezinski. Take that, Hillary.

Plus, a line that Republicans will quote against her if she’s in the general election: “‘Being a former first lady doesn’t prepare you to be president,” Brzezinski said.”

JAMES WEBB ON WHAT HAPPENS when you pull out too soon.

UPDATE: James Webb’s website at JamesWebb.com has some quotes about Vietnam that may embarrass some people today:

“Vietnam should teach us an important lesson. Hanoi [is creating] a collectivist society . . . likely to produce greater welfare and security for its people than any local alternative ever offered, at a cost in freedom that affects a small elite.” — Stanley Hoffman
The New Republic
May 3, 1975

“The greatest gift our country can give the Cambodian people is not guns but peace. And the best way to accomplish that goal is by ending military aid now.” — Rep. Chris Dodd (D., Conn.)
Congressional Record
March 12, 1975

“It is ironic that we are here at a time just before Vietnam is about to be liberated.” — Producer Bert Schneider
Academy Awards
April 8, 1975

To some people, the good guys won in Vietnam. And what happened after, “didn’t happen.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: James who?

REPORTS THAT CASTRO IS DEAD: It will be nice if they’re true, but we’ll see. I’m not so sure.

UPDATE: “Hades can wait.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Dave Barry says that speculating on Castro’s death is “what we do for entertainment here in Miami.”

MORE: Fausta Wertz has been listening to Cuban radio.

A BUNCH OF HIGH-CHAIR RECOMMENDATIONS: We’re past that phase in my household, I think.

MORE THOUGHTS ON “Hyper-parenting.”

RETIREMENT ADVICE: “Save more. Work longer.”

NOW THEY KNOW HOW MANY HOLES IT TAKES TO FILL THE . . . oh, never mind:

The universe has a huge hole in it that dwarfs anything else of its kind. The discovery caught astronomers by surprise.

The hole is nearly a billion light-years across. It is not a black hole, which is a small sphere of densely packed matter. Rather, this one is mostly devoid of stars, gas and other normal matter, and it’s also strangely empty of the mysterious “dark matter” that permeates the cosmos. Other space voids have been found before, but nothing on this scale.

Astronomers don’t know why the hole is there.

Star-devouring space monsters.

THE CHICKEN AND THE EAGLE. Dueling economic stories.

MEETING THE CHALLENGE OF MAKING TIM RUSSERT LOOK LAME: The latest Corn & Miniter Show is up! Only without either Corn, or Miniter. Instead it’s Eli Lake and Michelle Cottle.

UPDATE: Video quit working. Got new embed code. This seems to work now. Sorry — don’t know what went wrong.

USING NANOTECHNOLOGY TO prevent pollution.

TURNING UP THE HEAT ON FRED THOMPSON: “If the sweltering 96 degree heat in Nashville at a fundraiser/reception this week for Fred Thompson is any indication of the political heat he’s taking from faithful supporters to get on with it and announce his candidacy for President, then it doesn’t seem like it can stay this hot much longer.” Only 96? It was 102 here yesterday. 96 is brisk.

THE BLOGOSPHERE HITS THE 100 million blog mark. Another “grim milestone?” Some will see it that way . . . .

LAW AND ORDER? “There are new allegations against embattled Miami Police Chief John Timoney by his own police officers’ union as we learn that the investigation is widening into his use of a free car.” Plus, this: “The President of the Miami FOP, Detective Armando Aguilar, said Timoney permitted crime statistics to be altered to reflect a lower crime rate.” At least the free car was a hybrid.

YAHOO, MSN, KOWTOW TO CHINESE BLOG CENSORSHIP.

DEMOCRATIC REP. BRIAN BAIRD has an oped on listening to the troops:

As a Democrat who voted against the war from the outset and who has been frankly critical of the administration and the post-invasion strategy, I am convinced by the evidence that the situation has at long last begun to change substantially for the better. I believe Iraq could have a positive future. Our diplomatic and military leaders in Iraq, their current strategy, and most importantly, our troops and the Iraqi people themselves, deserve our continued support and more time to succeed. . . .

As one soldier said to me, “We have lost so many good people and invested so much, It just doesn’t make sense to quit now when we’re finally making progress. I want to go home as much as anyone else, but I want this mission to succeed and I’m willing to do what it takes. I just want to know the people back home know we’re making progress and support us.”

Read the whole thing. It won’t get the kind of Big Media attention that John Warner’s comments will, because it doesn’t fit the preferred narrative. And some interesting observations about Baird’s background here.

RECREATING OUT-OF-BODY EXPERIENCES without drugs.

TV IS DEAD. Long live TV. “The unspoken subtext — Madison Avenue still hasn’t figured out the how to make buying new media as profitable as as buying traditional media, so they are going to continue to push traditional media on their clients, come hell or high water.”

J.D. JOHANNES, who’s recently back from Iraq, looks at the new National Intelligence Estimate and observes: “This NIE is catching up to conditions on the ground that were developing months ago.” The full document is here in PDF, but J.D. notes this paragraph from the conclusion that hasn’t gotten much media attention:

We assess that changing the mission of Coalition forces from a primarily counterinsurgency and stabilization role to a primary combat support role for Iraqi forces and counterterrorist operations to prevent AQI from establishing a safehaven would erode security gains achieved thus far. The impact of a change in mission on Iraq’s political and security environment and throughout the region probably would vary in intensity and suddenness of onset in relation to the rate and scale of a Coalition redeployment. Developments within the Iraqi communities themselves will be decisive in determining political and security trajectories.

Doesn’t sound like what John Warner is talking about.

NOTHING NEW ABOUT THIS: A homophobic anti-Giuliani ad produced by a gay Democrat. Because sometimes it’s necessary to save the homophobia in order to destroy it.

RESTRICTIONS ON WI-FI in Europe.

IN THE MAIL: Norman Podhoretz’s World War IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism.