MARTY LEDERMAN:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Virginia Senator Jim Webb think they have found a solution to the problem of unconstitutional recess appointments: every three or so business days during the Thanksgiving break, they will convene “pro forma” sessions of the Senate, lasting only a minute or two. (The schedule was announced by Senator Webb on Monday.) They think this will prevent the President from appointing officers during this intra-session adjournment.

I’m not sure why they’re so confident.

Read the whole thing.

YOU CAN SUBMIT QUESTIONS to the CNN YouTube Republican debate.

REMEMBERING THE Chevy Vega Cosworth: “Consider it the 1970s equivalent of dropping a Formula 1 V-8 into a Kia Rio.” But with some problems.

UPDATE: Cheaper than the Pontiac Banshee!

REPORTS ON Black Friday so far. The Insta-Wife and I ventured out to the bank and the post office today; we didn’t shop, but every retail parking-lot we passed was beyond full. Good retail season ahead? Looks that way from here. Me, I’m doing as much shopping online as possible — I don’t find the “bustling crowds” a holiday plus.

THE FUTURE BELONGS TO THOSE WHO SHOW UP — which, apparently, won’t include a lot of environmentalists.

Plus, “Mom and Dad, how could you have been so selfish?”

PRO-SPACE HILLARY? “The major presidential candidates pummel each other daily on issues ranging from the Iraq war to health care. But when it comes to President Bush’s ambitious initiative to send humans back to the moon and on to Mars, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) is all but alone in staking out a formal position — and it’s one that lends support to key aspects of the president’s effort. . . . While the current moon-Mars mission was proposed by Bush, manned space exploration had its first great presidential champion in John F. Kennedy, a Democrat. Bush’s plan for a new generation of spacecraft that can fly to the moon and perhaps to Mars got broad bipartisan support when it was approved by Congress in 2005.”

HEH: “I can picture the phone call from George Bush late on a Saturday night – ‘So, Perv, what are you wearing?'”

SEEING-EYE CONSTITUTIONAL SCHOLARS: A short-lived experiment.

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: On Iraq, a state of denial. Read the whole thing.

Plus, a look at the Iraq issue in 2008.

IT’S A BIG BLACK FRIDAY DVD SALE at Amazon. Plus, an HDTV knowledge center.

Last night the outlet stores at Pigeon Forge were opening at midnight, and the local news showed people camped out. A couple of places here in town were opening at 4 a.m. Me, I’d rather shop online.

“I’M FEELING LUCKY” — and losing $110 million a year in the process!

“IF WE CAN DO THIS, WE CAN DO ANYTHING:” Remembering the construction of the Empire State Building.

MICHIGAN’S ATTORNEY GENERAL MIKE COX encourages the Supreme Court to recognize an individual right under the Second Amendment. “Not only does history demonstrate that the Second Amendment is an individual right, but experience demonstrates that the broad ban on gun ownership in the District of Columbia has led to precisely the opposite effect from what was intended. For legal and historical reasons, and for the safety of the residents of our nation’s capital, the Supreme Court should affirm an individual right to keep and bear arms.”

FLYING GREEN with new technology Zeppelins.

WITH SOME PRODDING FROM EUGENE VOLOKH, the BBC has revised its bogus gun statistics.

VIDEO UPDATE: So yesterday I shot a good deal of video with the new HD camera, and then put it up on the big HDTV to see how it looked. It turned out very well. The video was good, and seemed to actually make people’s skintones look better — something not all HD cameras do, to put it mildly. It was much enhanced by this tiny and cheap video light (34 bucks is cheap, isn’t it?). It fits in the accessory shoe and adds a bit of fill light. I shot with and without it and it made a considerable difference. The 5.1 surround sound was good, though honestly I’d rather have a shotgun option since when you’re shooting video at a Thanksgiving get-together where everyone’s talking at once, surround-sound doesn’t really do much. Still, the performance was very good, the camera was easy to use — the Insta-wife took it and did some shooting with no more familiarization than me pointing out where the on-off and zoom buttons were — and the video was quite good.

I recommend — pretty much no matter what camera you have — that you get one of those little fill lights. We have one for the Canon, too, and it also makes a surprising difference in video quality, and in how people look.

SHIITES IN SOUTH IRAQ REBUKE TEHRAN: “More than 300,000 Shiite Muslims from southern Iraq have signed a petition condemning Iran for fomenting violence in Iraq, according to a group of sheiks leading the campaign.”

MURDER PLOT TARGET shoots to kill: “He looked at me. And I shot him before he could shoot me.”

FRANCE’S THATCHER, CONT’D: Collapse of Rail, Subway Strike Is a First Success for Sarkozy.

MULTIPLE BOMBINGS IN INDIA: Amit Varma reports.

INDEED: “Who is Chris Hedges? Not only was he a New York Times reporter for 15 years, he was its Middle East bureau chief in the 1990’s. Yikes.” Yeah, kind of makes you wonder what’s going on with their current reporting staff that we won’t find out for years.

THE IMPACT OF BRITAIN’S “DISKGATE:” “Suddenly, ID cards are looking truly scary, combining malevolence with incompetence – Soviet even – to Mr and Mrs Average.” We’ve seen similar ineptitude with confidential private data in America, too. Related thoughts here. “You cannot trust any agency with people’s personal data.”

EQUIPPING THE TROOPS: “When I enlisted in 1985, I was issued Viet Nam era leftovers (steel pot helmet, an AR-15/M-16 with a very low serial number – heh). The past two days, I have received things that would have seemingly come from a Robert Heinlein novel. The equipment and clothing is lighter, modular, and higher quality – the first aid kit was a revelation (we even got the new clotting agent bandages).”

ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL THANKSGIVING: Turned out that we didn’t have too much food — there was a little bit of leftover turkey, and an even littler bit of leftover lamb, but it was a crowd of good eaters and the leftovers were pretty minor.

Helen and I realized today that this is the 14th time we’ve done the Thanksgiving dinner for both our families. We started when we’d just moved in together, and we’ve continued every year since. The crowd gets bigger, but it’s a very nice thing to have. Hope your Thanksgiving was fun, too.

IT’S NICE TO SEE THAT TOY GUNS haven’t gone completely out of style. “There’s even a fold-down bi-pod to help you steady your aim for important shots.” Plus, modders explain how to get more range and power!