BOB OWENS notes that a comment by Kos at the WaPo doesn’t sound genuine. I emailed Markos and he responds: “Yeah, it’s bogus. I alerted the WaPo about it but my email seems to have been ignored. There’s been a rash of that lately — people impersonating me. I suppose it’s an occupational hazard.”

It’s the Internet. Beware.

UPDATE: Like I said, beware. An occupational hazard, indeed.

MICHAEL YON POSTS A NEW DISPATCH FROM IRAQ:

In the retelling of terrorist attacks in Iraq, key details are often left out while others insinuate themselves into places they don’t belong. So it was for the thwarted bomb attack in this village, which quickly found its way into media reports, described as yet another incident of sectarian violence, which on some level it was.

But not as reported. Read the whole thing.

KIMBERLY STRASSEL: “The Senate is teeming with courageous souls these days, most of them Republicans who have taken that brave step of following the opinion polls and abandoning their president in a time of war. Meanwhile, one of the few senators showing some backbone in the Iraq debate is being shunned as the skunk at the war critics’ party.” She’s referring to Russ Feingold.

HANKY PANKY at the Iraq Study Group?

DICK MORRIS: “Obama is like a stem cell. He can become any part of the body he wants to be!”

IN THE MAIL: My law school classmate Daniel Esty’s book, Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage. All this global warming stuff should produce lots of lucrative consulting opportunities. Good for him!

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: “We have made a lot of mistakes in Iraq. But when Arabs kill Arabs and Shiites kill Shiites and Sunnis kill all in a spasm of violence that is blind and furious and has roots in hatreds born long before America was even a republic, to place the blame on the one player, the one country, the one military that has done more than any other to try to separate the combatants and bring conciliation is simply perverse. It infantilizes Arabs. It demonizes Americans. It willfully overlooks the plainest of facts: Iraq is their country. We midwifed their freedom. They chose civil war.”

UPDATE: Tom Holsinger emails: “Krauthammer is blaming the victim. Many if not most of Iraq’s Sunni Arabs insist on slaughtering Shiite civiilians to regain power for the Sunnis. The only way the Shiites can stop this is to ethnically cleanse Iraq of Sunni Arabs. Krauthammer thinks that, if the Shiites don’t fight back, the Sunnis won’t kill them. This is blaming the victim.”

I think that overstates things, as the Shiites are doing a lot more than defending themselves, as the business about ethnic cleansing demonstrates. I agree that the Sunnis were idiots to start a civil war in which they were so completely outnumbered, but there’s more going on here than simple self-defense.

MIKE BLOOMBERG BLOWS IT? “Bloomberg’s actions have put active law enforcement investigations at risk, and his city’s attorneys have given Officer Enchautegui’s family the cold shoulder as they search for answers in his death.”

GETTING IT WRONG, in a story on avian flu from the NYT. “The comment is a push comment– a mini-editorial in the NY Times. In fact, his comment is either a bit misleading or gives an incomplete picture of the national response.”

DANNY GLOVER LOOKS AT anti-blog hysteria in the state capitals.

THE SAVINGS RATE: Much better than reported.

IT WAS COLD AND SNOWY HERE YESTERDAY, so I made the lamb and guinness stew. It was delicious, and we took some over to my mother-in-law, who was quite appreciative.

BORIS JOHNSON: ” I’ll tell you why women are running out of men to marry.”

THE BIG GLOBAL WARMING PUSH IS UNDERWAY: I won’t take it seriously until they ban private jets and stretch limos.

No, seriously. A Gulfstream III releases 10,000 pounds of carbon dioxide an hour. How can we demand “sacrifice” from ordinary Americans when our leaders — including those who call for the sacrifice — are flying in jets like this? If commercial first-class isn’t good enough, they should stay home.

UPDATE: Don Surber:

I saw Barbara Boxer on the “Larry King Show.” She said the debate is over. That statement of finality is more harmful than all the emissions from all the SUVs ever built. The politicians are using this to expand their power. This is the Patriot Act on steroids.

Like I said, I’ll believe it when they give up private jets and stretch limos.

MORE: People wonder how a jet can emit more carbon dioxide by weight than it consumes in fuel. It’s not hard, when you remember that the oxygen (making up more than 2/3 of the mass of C02) comes from the air, with the fuel supplying the carbon. The numbers I link above come from the anti-greenhouse Terrapass folks; I haven’t independently checked them, but they seem reasonable to me.

SOME SUGGESTIONS on how to fill the time while you’re waiting for the new Harry Potter book.

I’VE BEEN WRITING ABOUT THIS for a long, long, long time, and now something seems to be finally happening:

Gov. Charlie Crist announced plans on Thursday to abandon the touch-screen voting machines that many of Florida’s counties installed after the disputed 2000 presidential election. The state will instead adopt a system of casting paper ballots counted by scanning machines in time for the 2008 presidential election. Voting experts said Florida’s move, coupled with new federal voting legislation expected to pass this year, could be the death knell for the paperless electronic touch-screen machines. If as expected the Florida Legislature approves the $32.5 million cost of the change, it would be the nation’s biggest repudiation yet of touch-screen voting, which was widely embraced after the 2000 recount as a state-of-the-art means of restoring confidence that every vote would count.

Much of the unhappiness with electronic voting was mere conspiracy-theory sour grapes, as demonstrated by the fact that we suddenly didn’t hear much complaining once the Democrats won an election. But the underlying point that I’ve been hammering for years, that elections must not only be trustworthy, but must be obviously trustworthy, is a good one. Electronic machines are a black box, and harder to trust. Easier to trust systems are inherently good.

I MEANT TO LINK THIS LAST NIGHT, but couldn’t: Arnold Kling’s call to libertarian conservatives. Don’t miss it.

HAGELIAN COURAGE: Mickey Kaus notes that Senators are leaving themselves wiggle room in case the surge works. As I’ve noted, they’re trying to have it both ways, but I don’t think they’ll fool anyone. More likely outcome is that Hagel, Warner, et al., will look bad no matter what. Plus, Kaus looks at Hillary, Eisenhower, and Korea!

John McCain, meanwhile, is taking a different approach.

UPDATE: More on hedging here, from Victor Davis Hanson.

ANOTHER UPDATE: “Goodbye, GOP. It’s been, you know, nice.”

Meanwhile, Hugh Hewitt likes the McCain resolution.

YES, INSTAPUNDIT WAS DOWN LAST NIGHT: Or, more accurately, unreachable because of a combination of router problems and a cut cable. I posted a note at the backup site but just took it as a sign to stay away from the computer for an evening. It was nice . . . .

I’LL BE ON CAM EDWARDS’ RADIO SHOW in a few minutes (listen live at the link) talking about guns and gun control. If you’re coming here from the show, the New York Times oped on mandatory gun ownership laws is here, and I’ve got much, much more on the subject in It Takes a Militia: A Communitarian Case for Compulsory Arms-Bearing, which is available for free download at the link.

REMEMBERING THE COLUMBIA DISASTER, four years later. Hard to believe it’s been four years.

A MICROSOFT ZUNE PHONE is supposedly coming, and actually sounds like it might be decent. I’d like something that connects to wi-fi, EVDO, or cellular based on what’s available, and always gives me the fastest connection it can get.

HOWARD DEAN declares victory, thanks Republican Senators.

Plus, Dems ahead of Republicans in opposition research.

SENATORS WEIGH IN on the infamous Arkin blog post. And so does Professor Bainbridge, who is quoting Lord Salisbury.

UPDATE: Now you see it, now you don’t?

LOTS MORE DUKE NEWS, from K.C. Johnson.