GOOD NEWS: “The number of Americans who died of cancer has dropped for a second straight year, marking a milestone in the war on the disease, officials said yesterday.” But don’t get cocky.

And don’t give in to the cut-and-run crowd:

President Bush lauded the news during a visit to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda. “This drop was the steepest ever recorded,” he said. “Progress is being made.” . . .

Several advocates and cancer experts said, however, that the good news is tempered by cuts by the White House and Congress in funding for health research that has helped fight cancer.

“The government’s investment in the war on cancer has fueled the progress we’ve made against this disease,” said Daniel E. Smith, president of the cancer society’s Cancer Action Network. “We risk jeopardizing those gains if we retreat from the fight.”

Beating cancer is a process, not an event. No, really.

UPDATE: Reader Bill Brogdon emails:

Reading the item today about the drop in cancer deaths, I was struck by the comment “cuts by the White House and Congress in funding for health research…”

Checking the NIH funding reveals steady $ growth in every category after 1995, in which funding was reduced.

http://www.nih.gov/about/almanac/appropriations/index.htm

What cuts? Or is that just a mantra?

Sometimes “cuts” is used as a synonym for “reductions in the rate of growth.” Or perhaps there were cuts in some subcategories despite overall budget growth.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: From the Wall Street Journal, a report on an earmark victory:

If Republicans are wondering how best to shorten their time in the minority, they could do worse than to build on this week’s Senate earmark victory. That reform success proves how good policy translates into good politics.

The Senate on Tuesday passed significant earmark reform, 98-0. But that unanimous tally masks the bitter battle that preceded the vote. When Republican freshmen Tom Coburn and Jim DeMint first launched an effort last summer to make earmarks more transparent, they struggled. Republicans had to be dragged into even minimal reform, and among their first acts after losing the election was to attempt to slip thousands more earmarks into their lame-duck spending bills.

Still, minority status has a way of focusing the mind, and combined with continued DeMint-Coburn shaming, Senate Republicans appear to have re-embraced some principles. When Majority Leader Harry Reid last week attempted to water down House Democrats’ earmark reform, Messrs. Coburn and DeMint rallied enough fellow Republicans (and a few Democrats) to outmaneuver the spenders. Red-faced at getting caught trying to submarine their own party’s plan for reform, Senate Democrats did an about-face and jumped on the earmark-reform bandwagon.

The result was a mini-competition as to which side of the aisle was tougher on earmarks, and a final bill that goes beyond even the House reform. Senator DeMint passed (98-0) an amendment that broadens the definition of an earmark; even those slipped into last-minute conference reports will have to be disclosed. Under the original Senate legislation, 95% of earmarks would have escaped scrutiny.

More amazing was Democrats’ new enthusiasm for oversight. Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin — who started off trying to tank Mr. DeMint’s reform — finished by passing an amendment (also 98-0) that requires lawmakers to post their earmark requests on the Internet 48 hours before a vote. (The House version of the bill simply requires a public disclosure form.) California Democrat Dianne Feinstein also joined in, passing by voice vote a provision that would bar lawmakers from including earmarks in the classified parts of a bill or a conference report unless they also included language in unclassified terms describing the project, funding levels and sponsor. Classified reports were among the ways that former Rep. Duke Cunningham — now in federal prison — hid his earmark payoffs.

Read the whole thing (it’s subscription-only, but the link should work for a few days). It’s progress, but there’s lots more to be done. Last year, pork and earmarks polled higher than Iraq as voter priorities for Congress. Maybe Congress is noticing?

UPDATE: Robert Bluey writes that it was the bloggers:

In ways both big and small, bloggers are changing how business is done on Capitol Hill.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., learned firsthand last week the effect bloggers can have on public policy when he was handed the first defeat of his short tenure as majority leader.

It all started last Thursday when conservative Sen. Jim DeMint,

R-S.C., sought to strengthen the Senate’s ethics reform bill by amending it to include the same earmark reform language in the House-passed version. Reid’s deputy, Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., tried to kill the amendment, but nine Democrats broke ranks and backed DeMint. Instead of accepting defeat, Reid tried to twist arms and reverse the vote.

That’s when bloggers took notice. Rallying to DeMint’s defense, a coalition of bloggers, led by Andy Roth at the Club for Growth, documented Reid’s strong-arm tactics. The Examiner’s own Mark Tapscott and Ed Frank at Americans for Prosperity jumped on the story. I posted video on YouTube of Reid and DeMint’s clash on the Senate floor.

In the meantime, bloggers sent e-mails to Jon Henke, the newly hired new-media director for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. It’s Henke’s job to deal with bloggers, and if there was ever an occasion, this was it.

Read the whole thing.

ARNOLD KLING: “Education is an example of an issue where free-market proponents were betrayed by the Republicans during the Bush Administration. In fact, on the domestic issues that I consider important, my take on the Republican Party in the 2006 elections was, ‘With friends like you, who needs enemies?’ This essay lays out what I would like to see on the agenda, and how I will be keeping score.”

MICKEY KAUS charges Barbara Boxer with “Mommyism:”

The “it’s all about children” meme must focus-group really well, because Democrats keep trotting it out (most famously to justify welfare payments for “children,” even though it’s adults who get the checks). I don’t remember Mommyism winning any national elections, though–especially during a war.

Boxer also managed to leave the implication that if only her children were of the right age, they would of course be volunteering to serve their country in the military. I don’t know Boxer’s childen, but I’m skeptical.

Me too.

MORE THAN 14 MILLION ONLINE POLITICAL ACTIVISTS: Micah Sifry got a leaked copy of the Pew report and has some thoughts.

BILL ROGGIO is back in Iraq on another embed.

And Bill Ardolino is posting more stuff, too, including a response to Bryan Preston’s post yesterday.

You know, for all the talk about bloggers not doing original reporting, it seems to me that lately the blogosphere has had more people reporting from Iraq than all but a handful of MSM outlets.

AVOID ALL THINGS WHICH MIGHT CREATE APPEARANCES!

THANKS TO THE MAGIC OF AMAZON RECOMMENDATIONS, I was just informed of the Swiss Army Cybertool. It looks like it has most everything you’d need to work on computers.

I gave my brother one of these rather cool Swiss Army Keychain USB knives, with builtin memory. Even though he’s a dedicated Leatherman guy, he says he’s found it extremely useful.

UPDATE: Reader R. Kissel emails: “Re, your post on the Cybertool. I’ve had one for about 7 years now. Bought it in Europe. While it is very useful, for computer work I find only 2 tools are essential: A #2 Phillips and a 5mm nut driver with decent handles. The Torx and Allen bits in the Cybertool are just no longer needed except for laptop work, which is rather tricky anyway and requires experience. Also useful are a small flashlight and a magnifier. Both can fit in the side pockets of the leather pouch.
Thing to consider: I’ve lost one of the bits and can’t find a replacement.”

VIDEO: Jim DeMint talks about Earmark Reform.

UPDATE: Via email from DeMint’s office:

Senate Republicans this evening defeated a motion offered by Democrats to cut off debate on the lobby and ethics reform bill. The debate got hung up on an amendment offered by Senators Gregg and DeMint to give the President line item veto/rescission authority. Majority Leader Reid was reportedly working with Senator Gregg to achieve a compromise but West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd intervened making it clear to Reid that he would object to voting on the Gregg-DeMint amendment now or anytime in the future. As such, Reid acquiesced to Byrd’s demands and continued to disallow a vote on the measure.

Gregg’s LIV provision is nearly identical to a provision that Byrd hinself offered himself in 1995 under President Clinton.

Not very smart politics, it seems to me.

SOME FAIRNESS DOCTRINE QUESTIONS: “Would Marsh back a Hollywood Fairness Doctrine? A Conservative Academic Bill of Rights?”

GLOBAL WARMING IN ACTION:

Snow Falls In West LA, Malibu

CHP To Escort Motorists Through Icy Grapevine

The last snowfall recorded at Los Angeles International Airport was in January 1962, according to the National Weather Service.

Okay, actually just as (contrary to media treatments) a spell of hot weather doesn’t prove global warming, cold weather doesn’t disprove it. But I think that the real cause of this cold snap in the L.A./Hollywood area is that Al Gore has been shortlisted for an Oscar. Al just can’t catch a break.

I’m not the first to note this phenomenon.

UPDATE: Hey, it’s made the Urban Dictionary:

Gore Effect

The well documented phenomenon that leads to very low, unseasonal temperatures, driving rain, hail, snow or all of the above whenever Al Gore visits an area to discuss global “warming”. Hence the “Gore Effect.”

How does he do it?

GROWTH HORMONES don’t seem to help against aging. Millions of spammers aren’t convinced yet, though . . . .

More here.

DON SURBER: “Bob Byrd delivered a 2,079-word speech in defense of earmarks, just in time for the end of the earmarks era. . . . Just remember, Byrd delivered the last filibuster before the 1964 Civil Rights Act was passed. Mr. Timing.”

SHOULDN’T THAT BE “GYNISMO?” A look at mothering machismo.

UPDATE: It’s heating up in the comments!

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: There’s more excitement on the Senate floor. Andrew Roth reports:

The Democrats are refusing to allow a vote on an amendment offered by Senator Judd Gregg that would give the President rescission authority, which is similar to the line-item veto.

Reid has been preaching about ethics reform and his strong desire to reduce wasteful spending, but his talk is cheap. He blocked strong earmark reform last week until he was forced to retreat and now he’s blocking a vote on another important measure that would help break the big-spending habits of Congress.

He’s got a number of updates. And Mark Tapscott reports:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV, is speaking on the Senate floor as this is written in opposition to allowing the Senate to vote on an amendment by Sen. Judd Gregg, R-NH, to the Senate ethics reform bill.

Gregg’s amendment uses the president’s existing recission authority as a mild version of a line-item veto and is designed to give the President a tool for highlighting wasteful spending and forcing Congress to take a second look at such proposals. The proposal would clearly make it more difficult for Members of Congress to slip wasteful spending like earmarks into legislation.

According to Gregg, the amendment provides that the president can send up to 4 rescission packages per year. Congress would be required to fast track the President’s recommendation within 8 days.

Also, unlike a line-item veto proposal that was defeated in Congress in 1996, Gregg’s amendment today requires congressional affirmation of the President’s rescission package.

Savings from rescissions passed by Congress must be used for deficit reduction. The authority sunsets after 4 years – giving Congress the ability to evaluate merits of rescission authority after President Bush and his successor have had the opportunity to use.

Reid doesn’t want the Senate to vote on the Gregg amendment, which has 30 co-sponsors, including senators from both sides of the aisle.

Incredibly, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-IL, Reid’s majority whip, is claiming Gregg’s amendment is actually a parliamentary trick by the GOP to “bring this ethics bill down.”

Doubtful. More background here. And there’s more at Government Bytes.

I regard the line-item veto as a gimmick, and during the brief period when Clinton had one it didn’t accomplish much. I’m not sure if this is different, though the extent of the opposition from porkmeisters like Reid and Durbin suggests to me that it might be. How’s Trent Lott voting? . . . .

UPDATE: Best argument against the proposal that the Democrats won’t use: The federal deficit is disappearing anyway and will be gone within 18 months. Hmm. Anything big happening about then? . . .

THE ABA’S DIVERSITY STANDARDS FOR LAW SCHOOL ACCREDITATION: Gail Heriot takes a look here and here. She’s been doing some Freedom of Information Act work to see how the ABA actually behaves.

ERIC SCHEIE: “It appears that one of the great pioneers of socialized medicine, Fidel Castro, may soon die as a result of what appears to be bad health care.”