A LOOK AT IRAN’S ROLE IN SUPPORTING THE INSURGENCY, from Richard Miniter: “The Islamic Republic tries to hide its involvement with ‘layers and layers of intermediaries,’ the head of a special Kurdish counter-terrorism service told PJM’s Richard Miniter. While this might fool the CIA, the Kurds are not misled.”

OF GULFSTREAMS AND GREENHOUSES: More global-warming hypocrisy.

Plus the Prius as energy-hog beard:

The problem for most people who buy a Prius is that they have to drive it, putt-putt-putting around the city. What makes Prius so popular with the Beautiful People is that it’s just a statement. They talk Prius, and they drive Lexus.

Think about it. How many times have you ever seen a Beautiful Person on TV or in the gossip columns getting out of a Prius, as opposed to how many times you’ve read about these phonies bragging that they own one? . . .

What a Beautiful Person really needs when he buys a Prius is a second parking space at the office. Leave the Prius in the most prominent slot, and then, around the corner, park the SUV you – or your driver – really uses. . . . Another option: Solar panels on the vacation home. But the downside is that once you cop to owning a second place, the hoi polloi start asking, just how many square feet in this place?

Of course, the Lexus could be a hybrid . . . .

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: “Democrats are taking ownership of a defeat in Iraq.”

REDSTATE’S JEFF EMANUEL is now reporting from Iraq.

MAKE THE DEBATE VIDEO PUBLIC: Larry Lessig has sent a letter to the RNC and DNC, which I signed on to, asking them to make the 2008 Presidential debate video available to everyone via the web.

MORE ON BEES — though “unnatural pollination” sounds like something that James Dobson should be unhappy about . . . .

NOW THEY’RE BLOGGING AT the Library of Congress.

LET THEM EAT NOTHING: Claudia Rosett on the muted response to the North Korean famine.

DOW 13,000: Good news, I guess.

STEVEN LANDSBURG on disaster relief: “Poor people, more than most, value cheap housing. A policy of disaster relief makes cheap housing hard to find. Therefore a policy of disaster relief is likely to impose a particular burden on the poor. If you want to help poor people, eliminating federal disaster relief is a good place to start.”

You’ll be shocked to hear that he has more thoughts on this provocative subject in his new book.

SEND MOYERS, GUNS AND MONEY. Mortman has the best titles. . . .

UPDATE: And don’t miss the comments.

A PROFILE OF PORKBUSTERS HERO TOM COBURN:

Coburn continues to make headway, if not achieve outright victories. While his campaign against the Bridge To Nowhere lost by over 60 votes, his effort to eliminate the “Railroad to Nowhere” lost by only a handful of votes, and the same with his recent effort to remove approximately $100 million in federal support for the parties’ political conventions. It is no longer possible to view his efforts as fruitless or quixotic. His strategy has been to offer amendment after amendment seeking to highlight and then remove these spending abuses, and it has brought about consequences. As Fraser describes it, “He is trying to force them on each and every vote to have an honest debate.” In many instances Coburn’s efforts are designed simply to force the Senate to follow its own rules and provide adequate time for consideration of these spending bills. According “NZ Bear,” blogger and co-founder of the Internet watchdog alliance Porkbusters, “He is the one who has been willing to stand up and just keep reminding the Congress of their responsibility to behave like adults, over and over again.”

More important, perhaps, than the daily fight over earmarks was his championing of S. 2590, the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act. Co-sponsored by Barak Obama, S. 2590 passed in September 2006 and established an online, public search-engine and database to track federal grants, contracts, earmarks, and loans. Coburn says that greater transparency will bring “more accountability” and that media, watchdog groups, and political challengers will have the “tool” they never had to demonstrate the profligacy of government. As Schatz describes it, “The way to change the whole process is to change how taxpayers view it.” By exposing the details of government spending and grants, Coburn and his supporters hope to provide the public and political challengers with political ammunition to finally return rationality to the budgeting process.

Let’s hope.

MICHAEL TOTTEN IS WITH THE IRAQI POLICE IN KIRKUK: He’s got video, too. Excerpt:

“If America pulls out of Iraq, they will fail in Afghanistan,” Mam Rostam said.

Hardly anyone in Congress seems to consider that the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan might become much more severe if similar tactics are proven effective in Iraq.

“And they will fail with Iran,” he continued. “They will fail everywhere with all Eastern countries. The war between America and the terrorists will move from Iraq and Afghanistan to America itself. Do you think America will do that? The terrorists gather their agents in Afghanistan and Iraq and fight the Americans here. If you pull back, the terrorists will follow you there. They will try, at least. Then Iran will be the power in the Middle East. Iran is the biggest supporter of terrorism. They support Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Ansar Al Islam. You know what Iran will do with those elements if America goes away.”

Read the whole thing.

STOPPING THE NEXT PANDEMIC BEFORE IT BEGINS: Well, that’s the time to stop it, of course. Cataloging viruses, as described in the linked article, is a good idea. So is the kind of open source disease surveillance described by Vernor Vinge.

FACT-CHECKING HARRY REID at Pollster.com.

UPDATE: And still more Reid fact-checking.

IN THE MAIL: Col. David Hunt’s new book, On the Hunt: How to Wake Up Washington and Win the War on Terror. According to the cover blurb he wants to abolish the Department of Homeland Security, a move that I certainly have a lot of sympathy for.

OUR LONG NATIONAL NIGHTMARE IS OVER: Rosie O’Donnell will leave The View.

HENRY MILLER ON BIOTECH REGULATION:

Many people who use the terms “biotechnology,” “genetic engineering,” and “genetically modified” don’t know what they’re talking about. Literally. Confusion about the terminology has led to the stigmatization of superior techniques by unscrupulous NGOs and some government officials, worthless conferences and reports, and poorly conceived experiments performed in the name of “biotechnology risk assessment.”

And this is costing lives. Read the whole thing.

IS THAT ALL? “Report: 80 percent of blogs contain offensive content.”

But seriously, this is lame:

But what’s really considered “offensive” content? A blog merely has to contain a single instance of profanity to be considered offensive, according to ScanSafe. “There were as many blogs with the ‘F-word’ as the word ‘China’,” Nadir told Techworld.

ScanSafe’s larger focus is not necessarily on single instances of offensive content, but overall security and liability for employees who might get caught with undesirable content on their computers while at work.

From what I can tell, the Taliban have fled Afghanistan and now run the Human Resources and IT departments at major American corporations.

SOMETHING NICE from Southwest Airlines. I wish they flew to my town.

(MOSTLY) GOOD NEWS FOR APPLE: “Federal securities regulators said yesterday that they would bring no civil charges against Apple over the backdating of executive stock options. But they stopped short of removing the cloud that for nearly a year has hung over the company’s chief executive, Steven P. Jobs.”

TM LUTAS MAKES A PREDICTION:

Out of the 18 Iraqi provinces, 3 kurdish ones have their greatest security threats being foreign incursion from Turkey and Iran. Terrorism is successfully kept out. 4 arab provinces are under local management and we rarely, if ever, do anything there. That’s 7 down, 11 to go with the rest of the provinces in various stages along the road towards handover. I fully expect that when the balance is 10:8 instead of 7:11 that we’re going to see a sea change in coverage because “a majority of Iraq is under local control and relatively quiet” and all the MSM is going to realize that if they don’t get on the right side of this quickly, the deluge of broken credibility will very likely worsen and shorten their personal careers significantly.

I expect at least 3 more provinces to get handed over between now and the height of campaign season 2008. I’d like to think that at least 6 more would make the transition by then (obviating the need to explain Kurdistan’s special situation in the stats). The defeatists have to change the natural progression of Iraqi government and security institution building and do it soon or they’re going to be in deep trouble in 2008.

I certainly hope he’s right.

UPDATE: Reader Kjell Hagen makes another prediction:

By summer 2008, things will be have improved considerably in Iraq, but it will not be reported. The MSM will focus on the presidential election, and whoever is in favor of the Iraq engagement will be slammed by the MSM.

By spring 2009, the MSM will report that, yes, now everything is much better in Iraq. Whoever is president, especially if he/she is a democrat, will get the credit. Bush will still be blamed.

Sounds plausible!

RICHARD MINITER REPORTS ON PAYING THE IRAQI POLICE.

SOME THOUGHTS ON TECHNOLOGY AND HOMELAND SECURITY, from Fred Thompson.

TONY BLANKLEY on hardened divisions within the western polities.