CLOSE CALL: “Pieces of space junk from a Russian satellite coming out of orbit narrowly missed hitting a jetliner over the Pacific Ocean overnight.”

More on space debris here.

GIULIANI ON ECONOMICS: David Weigel and Stephen Moore are impressed. “So is Rudy carving out a niche as the fiscal conservative candidate who’ll govern like Reagan without the speeches to the March for Life?”

UPDATE: Steve Forbes to endorse Giuliani.

SCUM.

UPDATE: More scum.

IN THE MAIL: Brink Lindsey’s new book, The Age of Abundance: How Prosperity Transformed America’s Politics and Culture. Best quote from the blurbs: “Republicans want to go home to the United States of the 1950s while Democrats want to work there.”

Guess that’s why I’m not either. I’d rather live in the 21st Century. And the 22d!

A REPORT ON MCCAIN’S conference call with bloggers. One quote: ”I strongly recommend to the White House that the president read the list of pork to the American people when he vetoes this bill.”

THOUGHTS ON THE IMPACT OF T.V. VERSUS PRINT, from Ann Althouse: “Why does TV make me so much more hostile to her? Is the important message in the words or in the whole picture as experienced via television? Is this just about me and Hillary, or is this something more general about TV and print?”

“YOUTHS” RIOT in Paris.

BILL ROGGIO: “Al Qaeda in Iraq is conducting a full fledged chemical war in Anbar province.”

Al Qaeda used to posture as heroic resistance against the West. Now they’re gassing Muslims.

JIM WEBB’S AIDE, PROSECUTORIAL DISCRETION, AND GUN LAWS: Eugene Volokh has some thoughts.

NATIONAL REVIEW: Gonzales should go.

AS INSTAPUNDIT READERS KNOW, I’m a big fan of compact fluorescent light bulbs. But there’s a difference between thinking that something’s worth encouraging people to do, and thinking that people should be forced to do it. Or at least there should be. Katherine Mangu-Ward looks at Big Brother’s light bulb forays.

A BOB BARR FLIP-FLOP: “Bob Barr, who as a Georgia congressman authored a successful amendment that blocked D.C. from implementing a medical marijuana initiative, has switched sides and become a lobbyist for the Marijuana Policy Project.”

I’m glad to see the change, but I wish it had come while he was, you know, in a position to actually legislate on it.

LAW PROFESSORS ON American Idol? Well, they need something to spice the show up after Gwen Stefani’s lame performance.

SCOTT BURGESS interviews Michael Crichton.

YOUR CONGRESS AT WORK: “Spring Break may delay war funds.”

OUCH: “Despite years of attempts from every major phone-maker and service provider, music phones are still little more than spring-loaded bear traps for foolish early adopters.” That seems a bit harsh.

MICKEY KAUS: “Has National Review gone wobbly on immigration?”

THIS NOT-RUNNING SEEMS TO BE WORKING PRETTY WELL FOR FRED THOMPSON:

He’s not even a candidate yet, but Fred Thompson already has risen to third among possible Republican presidential candidates, according to a USA Today/Gallup poll released Tuesday.

He seems to be doing well with InstaPundit readers, though interestingly Rudy Giuliani is doing better against Thompson with InstaPundit readers than he is overall.

AT THE NEW EDITOR, A POLL: Who’s your favorite chickenhawk? I’m going with FDR.

AN INTERVIEW WITH AN IRANIAN OPPOSITION GROUP that the left can get behind, from Michael Totten. Excerpt:

“Do you see signs of a collapse similar to the Shah’s government happening now to the mullahs?” Patrick said.

“Yes, I think so,” Hassan said. “In Iran things are going in that direction.”

I hope he’s right.

A NEW METRIC: “We have wall-to-wall Anna Nicole Smith on the news. The war must be going well.”

Somebody tell the guys at Brookings!

NEW YORK TIMES: “Webb defends gun-toting posse.”

I expect these charges to be dropped, as it appears they probably should be. But Webb should really get behind the kind of sensible gun law reforms that will protect all Americans’ enjoyment of the Second Amendment freedoms he so values.

UPDATE: At RedState, a suggestion that Webb should be doing more defending.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Quite a few readers are unhappy with me for saying the charges should probably be droppped. Jeffrey Hexel is typical:

I’m curious as to the legal reasoning behind your opinion that the charges against Senator Webb’s assistant “probably should be” dropped. The facts seem pretty clear cut, and they seem to the point to the fact that he broke the law. Regardless of the gun’s registration in Virginia, he was still committing a crime by bringing it to DC and committing an additional crime by carrying it in a concealed manner.

I agree that the DC handgun ban is a bad law, and I’m hoping that when it reaches the Supreme Court it will be overturned, but unless I’m missing something this is an open and shut case. Jim Webb’s advocacy of 2nd Amendment rights does not change the fact that his aide committed a crime. Or at least it shouldn’t.

I agree that he seems to have broken the law. But it’s within a prosecutor’s discretion not to prosecute, and cases of inadvertence like this are often dropped — and should be. (It’s not clear that Thompson even knew the gun was in the bag.) Reader Larry Boykin thinks I’m an elitist (“So, it’s alright to have one set of laws for the common man and another set of laws for the ‘elite’? That’s what you are advocating if you believe that charges should be dropped. “) but I think that charges should be dropped for anyone in these circumstances. Would they be? Well, I don’t know. I know of some similar cases where ordinary people weren’t charged — but it’s true that they weren’t at the U.S. Capitol. If charges are dropped here under public scrutiny, of course, that’ll be an argument for treating ordinary people in similar circumstances similarly in the future.

“YOU’LL NEED A SHOVEL:” I’m not sure that’s such a good campaign slogan — but it’s one that’s sure to fit practically any candidate!

“I WAS WRONG:” Radley Balko renounces his support for torture. Glad to have him join me in the anti-torture camp, which needs some sensible and non-hysterical members.

UPDATE: Say, I guess this means that now I can link to Balko without Andrew Sullivan attacking me for “linking to pro-torture blogs!”

TIM BLAIR fact-checks a climate expert. He claims to have found some errors.