WATCH OUT WHERE THE HUSKIES GO: “Dirty snow may warm Arctic as much as greenhouse gases.”

IT’S STILL ALL IMMIGRATION, ALL THE TIME at Kausfiles. Rapid fire! Multiple updates! He’s blogging like he’s afraid Slate will hire a recently amnestied immigrant to replace him!

UPDATE: More here.

PATRICK FITZGERALD, call your office.

DOES THE GOP ESTABLISHMENT REALLY “hate and fear Fred Thompson?” I haven’t gotten that impression, but maybe I’ve missed something.

Of course, given the popularity of the GOP establishment, maybe it’s the Thompson camp that’s floating this idea . . . .

GIVEN THAT THE ORIGINAL TRIAL SEEMED LIKE A GROTESQUE MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE, this is good news:

Julie Amero, the substitute teacher who could have received 40 years in jail after porn appeared on classroom PCs, was spared that fate—for now. Instead, Amero will get a new trial after revelations that the original computer analysis was flawed.

Since it was almost certainly malware that caused this, a new trial seems like the least that can be expected here. This case shouldn’t have been prosecuted.

Much more from Mark Frauenfelder.

JAMES LILEKS IS NOW POSTING AT BUZZ.MN, too.

MICHAEL YON EMAILS:

Many readers are asking about the situation in Hit, Iraq after LTC Doug Crissman arrested General Hamid. http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/the-final-option.htm

In response to overwhelming reader inquiries, I asked LTC Crissman if he would address the public at home and give folks an idea of the outcome. LTC Crissman just responded via email. This posting is with his permission. The outcome is as fascinating as the arrest:

Mike,

The Hit City Council now unanimously stands behind the nomination for Gen Hamid’s replacement. Though I haven’t spoken to him myself, the Provincial Chief of Police reportedly also concurs and has forwarded our nomination to the Anbar Provincial Council for their final review/approval. We’re still working hard to reschedule the visit by the Governor, Provincial Council Chairman and Provincial Chief of Police which was cancelled due to weather last Saturday. Through Coalition channels, we continue to encourage a sense of urgency for the Anbar Provincial Government so we can get a new guy into the seat ASAP. In the meantime, I’ve met with the incumbent several times already and truly believe he’ll be the professional we need to get this Police Force on the right track. A career officer from the Iraqi Army, he thinks, looks, and acts like a soldier…which is exactly what we need here in Hit. Yesterday, he recommended 3 other retired/former members of the Iraqi Army to be hired as members of the Hit District Staff — all of whom have impressive credentials and skill sets we’ve been trying to build ourselves.

After about 72 hours of increased Coalition Force presence and a stricter curfew in Hit, we’ve now returned to business as usual. There are still those who feel Hamid should have merely been fired rather than detained, but the overwhelming majority agrees what we did needed to be done…and I continue to remind them that they asked us to do it…repeatedly.

Doug

Sounds good.

RONALD REGAN, GEORGE FORMAN, AND RUDOLF GIULIANI? Well, it’s not Speller of the Year. Those tend to be homeschooled.

UPDATE: Yes, having three misspellings in one PR email — and misspellings of famous names at that — does tend to suggest that the not-ready-for-primetime character of the Edwards campaign hasn’t been fixed.

BARACK OBAMA MET WITH PHIL BREDESEN YESTERDAY: “Obama didn’t elaborate on what was discussed, but he said Tennessee has smart Democrats who are able to fashion the kind of agenda that attracts support of independents and Republicans.”

Gee, where have I heard that before? Hmm. . . Obama/Bredesen?

UPDATE: More on Obama/Bredesen — including video — here.

LOTS OF SPACEBLOGGING at the Carnival of Space.

CHUCK HAGEL GETS A CHALLENGER:

The attorney general of Nebraska, Jon Bruning, stopped by our office yesterday to let us know that tomorrow he will announce he will challenge Senator Hagel in the Republican primary, which is in May of 2008. A poll conducted for Mr. Bruning shows him leading Mr. Hagel among likely Republican primary voters by 9 percentage points. Mr. Bruning assails Mr, Hagel for being, “The Republican that talks like a Democrat,” pointing to Mr. Hagel’s support for a timeline for withdrawal from Iraq, as well as his discussion of impeaching President Bush. “He’s become arrogant and out of touch,” Mr. Bruning said. “His constituent services are very poor.”

That’s bad poll news for an incumbent. (Via Bill Quick, who thinks the GOP establishment will try to sink Bruning. They’d be crazy to — which, I suppose, doesn’t rule it out.)

UPDATE: Via Bill Quick’s comments, here’s Bruning’s website.

GRAPHING THE SURGE.

IT’S NOT JUST CAPE WIND, but a far more general problem:

Al Gore has been hectoring Americans to pare back their lifestyles to fight global warming. But if Mr. Gore wants us to rethink our priorities in the face of this mother of all environmental threats, surely he has convinced his fellow greens to rethink theirs, right?

Wrong. If their opposition to the Klamath hydroelectric dams in the Pacific Northwest is any indication, the greens, it appears, are just as unwilling to sacrifice their pet causes as a Texas rancher is to sacrifice his pickup truck. If anything, the radicalization of the environmental movement is the bigger obstacle to addressing global warming than the allegedly gluttonous American way of life. . . .

These dams provide cheap, renewable energy to 70,000 homes in Oregon and California. Replacing this energy with natural gas — the cleanest fossil-fuel source — would still pump 473,000 tons of additional carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year. This is roughly equal to the annual emissions of 102,000 cars.

Given this alternative, one would think that environmentalists would form a human shield around the dams to protect them. Instead, they have been fighting tooth-and-nail to tear them down because the dams stand in the way of migrating salmon. Environmentalists don’t even let many states, including California, count hydro as renewable. . . .

Their opposition to nuclear energy is well known. Wind power? Two years ago the Center for Biological Diversity sued California’s Altamont Pass Wind Farm for obstructing and shredding migrating birds. (“Cuisinarts of the sky” is what many greens call wind farms.) Solar? Worldwatch Institute’s Christopher Flavin has been decidedly lukewarm about solar farms because they involve placing acres of mirrors in pristine desert habitat. The Sierra Club and Wilderness Society once testified before Congress to keep California’s Mojave Desert — one of the prime solar sites in the country — off limits to all development. Geothermal energy? They are unlikely to get enviro blessings, because some of the best sites are located on protected federal lands.

Kind of makes you doubt their sincerity. If global warming is the crisis they say, then all the other stuff is secondary. If all the other stuff isn’t secondary, then do they really believe it’s the crisis they say? It’s just a Laurie David of a different color.

NEWS: “Iran caught red-handed shipping arms to Taliban.” By NATO officials, which will make it a bit harder for the Euros to ignore.

WHY NOT HAVE THE DEMOCRATIC AND REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES debate each other now? “Whoever wins is EVENTUALLY going to be pitted against someone from the opposite party…. shouldn’t we want to see what they seem like in contrast with their eventual opponent?”

UPDATE: I like the Family Feud suggestion in the comments!

MORE ON L’AFFAIRE BRITTNEY, here, and here. Also here, and a poll, here.

UPDATE: Beware the bloggers’ bile! “The smart stuff is being drowned out by a fierce, bullying, often witless tone of intolerance that has overtaken the left-wing sector of the blogosphere. Anyone who doesn’t move in lockstep with the most extreme voices is savaged and ridiculed.” Even when, as in Brittney’s case, the ridiculers are confused.

ANOTHER UPDATE: More here. And here.

STRATEGYPAGE ON IRAQ: “Militarily, U.S. troops are unstoppable. But American military success is not what will bring victory in Iraq, it’s the willingness of Iraqis to stop killing each other. Ultimate success is a quiet Iraq and American troops going home. But the Sunni Arabs have had a real hard time living with the idea that they are no longer in power. However, four years of getting hammered by U.S. and, increasingly, Iraqi, troops, has caused a very visible shift in attitudes.” The question is whether things will change fast enough, in enough places, to prevent disaster, especially disaster for the Sunnis.

MY EARLIER WIND POWER POSTS produced this email from PR guy Marshall Manson:

I saw your post this morning about Wind Power, and I thought you might like to know that the American Wind Energy Association (our client) is currently putting on Windpower 2007, the industry’s huge convention and trade show. We had a number of bloggers attend and provide coverage, and thought you might be interested in a couple of good posts:

Link

Link

AWEA also did a Flickr feed for the event and a YouTube channel which has some great video of some of the expert discussions.

Link

Link

Very interesting.

PROBE: “A group of House Republicans are calling for an investigation into ‘the release of sensitive information’ in a recent ABC News report on CIA covert activities against Iran.”

UPDATE: Oh, well, the word’s out anyway!

YOU’D THINK THE WHOLE NIFONG THING WOULD BE OVER, but you’d be wrong. Just keep scrolling.

A PROBLEM WITH ASSIMILATION: “Moslem migrants get off the plane from the old country, and within a short time, they are looking at the same newscasts they consumed back home. When they attempt to discus world affairs with the locals, they quickly find a vast difference of opinions. Most Moslems recoil and retreat into an insular migrant mind set. This is why you have Moslems in places like Britain, or anywhere else in the West, clinging to old country myths, even with a lot of contradictory evidence confronting them daily.”

It’s unfortunate that as immigration gets easier, the forces of assimilation get weaker.

SOME RANDOM OBSERVATIONS FROM IRAQ, courtesy of J.D. Johannes. Lots of good stuff, but note this:

The bureacracy–even in combat–is staggering. To get some things done the request has to go through 15! steps of approval.

One Company Commander summed it up like this:

“They trust me with the lives of 100 men, humvees, weapons, ammo, civil affairs negotiations, classified intelligence, radios, everything. But I cannot be trusted with $20k worth of Dinar to hire a crew to build up an IP station?”

Which is interesting, because I keep hearing that the appeal of JAM and AQIZ is the money.

I saw one sheet listing the rewards for tips. But the rewards were lower than what JAM and AQIZ pay.

Is the coalition losing a bidding war?

Read the whole thing. Remember my earlier blogging about the CERP program and how the bureaucrats were blowing it?

THE TRUTH ABOUT SYRIA: Michael Totten interviews the author.

BRITTNEY GILBERT hangs up her keyboard in response to reader abuse. “I do not want to be seen as a victim here, I only want to honestly tell you why I will no longer be authoring NIT. Your host is simply not cut from strong enough cloth. This is the internet. People are vicious.”

It’s true, they are. But I suspect Brittney will be back, because the addictive nature of blogging is strong, too.

UPDATE: Oliver Willis emails:

You may want to (I know you probably won’t) note that a lot of the vitriol got directed at Gilbert, right or wrong, after she linked and excerpted a mean dig at the recently deceased Steve Gilliard.

But I know you’ve got an agenda and a cause to push and all.

Hmm. I thought this was about the Bob Krumm / Kleinheider dustup. But since Brittney is an antiwar blogger who doesn’t like me very much, I’m not sure what “agenda” and “cause” I’m pushing here. Better email Rove for instructions, I guess!

ANOTHER UPDATE: Oliver emails that it’s actually about this post.

MORE: Bruce Hill wonders if Oliver and I have had a falling out. Well, I had high hopes for Oliver once, but since he went to work for Media Matters I think he’s squandered his potential. Still, Oliver seems to care much more about my blogging than I do about his. But then, he’s paid to, I guess.

MORE STILL: Various readers note that Oliver is in no position to criticize anyone for speaking ill of the dead. Basically, though, he went off half-cocked and made a fool out of himself, along with a lot of other lefty bloggers here.

But yeah, he’s in no position to take a “have you no decency, sir” stance on, well, anything. People who work for David Brock seldom are.

JAMES PETHOKOUKIS ON Giuliani’s libertarian health reform plans.