ON THE REBECCA AGUILAR STORY LINKED BELOW, Capt. Ed asks an important question: “Why wasn’t management suspended? . . . . Someone approved this for broadcast, and in so doing endorsed Aguilar’s methods and report. How, then, can management turn around and suspend only Aguilar? . . . If Aguilar has some unpaid leave coming as a result of this incident, at least one other person should be joining her.”

MICHAEL S. MALONE: How the New York Times Fell Apart. “Like most newspapers, the Times decided to become more timely, more hip, and more judgmental than the electronic media — when it should have become better reported, more objective, and better written; professionalism being the one arena where the new competitors would have a hard time competing. What made the Times’ decision not to pursue this strategy particularly stupid was that it was, after all, ‘America’s newspaper of record’, a role in which it justly reveled. But you can’t hold that title while pandering to the political and cultural views of readers on the Upper West Side.”

I MENTIONED DAN SOLOVE’S NEW BOOK, The Future of Reputation, the other day. Here’s a review.

TURNING POLITICAL LEMONS into lemonade.

SHIELDING THE LEAKAGE OF CLASSIFIED INFORMATION. Seems like a bad idea to me.

CHILDREN BEFORE PORK: I got an email from Tom Coburn’s office about his proposed Amendment 3358, which prioritizes health care for children over pork:

This amendment, “The Children’s Health Care First Act,” simply states that none of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be used for any congressionally directed spending item, or earmark, until the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services certifies that all children under the age of 18 years of age in the United States are insured by a private or public health care insurance plan.

Heh.

UPDATE: The full item is now online.

BLOGOMETER: “With all due respect to Beltway Blogroll, and DailyKos’ founder Markos Moulitsas, we just don’t agree with Blogroll that, ‘A presidential endorsement from Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of Daily Kos could change the dynamics of the Democratic race.'”

RON CASS: “Picking Sandy Berger tells us something important about Hillary’s character. We should listen now – while it can do some good.” Maybe she just owed him a favor.

IN THE MAIL: Newt Gingrich et al., A Contract with the Earth. It’s about “entrepreneurial environmentalism.”

DANIEL HENNINGER ON THE POLITICS OF IRAQ: “Arguably it is the proper role of politics to intervene, to question. But during Vietnam and again now, we haven’t been able to avoid simultaneously putting troops on the battlefield while fighting bitterly amongst ourselves at home for the length of the war. The U.S. officer corps is aware of this. While no one is talking about a stab in the back, they may conclude that the home front and its institutions are unable to, or will not, protect their back.”

The problem is that our political and journalistic classes lack sufficient patriotism to promote self-discipline, or perhaps sufficient self-discipline to allow them to act patriotically.

On the other hand, here’s some important post-Vietnam progress, demonstrating that the troops have managed to improve even as the political class has deteriorated. Though there are troubling aspects to that differential.

UPDATE: Henninger’s column inspired some lengthy thoughts from reader Scott Wallace, which to some degree parallel my own worries. Click “read more” to read them.

I HAVEN’T BEEN FOLLOWING THE PETER PAUL / BILL CLINTON CASE at all, but Gateway Pundit has a roundup.

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK:

Several hundred pages of “sensitive” government documents were strewn about outside the Rayburn House Office Building on Independence Avenue Monday evening, slipping under taxis and fluttering in the exhaust of commuter buses.

The papers appeared to be part of a report detailing the government’s response to a “dirty bomb” attack. Each page was labeled at the top and bottom: “For official use only. This is sensitive government information and distribution is restricted.”

Well, that’s encouraging.

DROPPING THE HAMMER ON COMCAST: Er, literally.

CHARLES RANGEL IS PLANNING A MASSIVE TAX OVERHAUL: It’s not like we don’t need a massive overhaul, and Rangel has sounded pretty sensible when I’ve heard him talk about his plans on Kudlow. But I don’t have much confidence in this Congress getting anything right, especially anything offering massive prospects for graft and payola.

FLOWER-POWER PORK. “Even by congressional standards of shamelessness, the Bethel earmark is extraordinary.”

HARVEY BIRDMAN, ATTORNEY AT LAW: A videogame about a lawyer who’s also a “third-rate superhero” — or maybe it’s the other way around — gets a good review: “Like Space Ghost Coast to Coast, a lot of the plaintiffs/defendants/other lawyers/judges turn out to be Hanna Barbera villains or heroes. The two shows have a similar sense of humor, which is to say, hilariously badly awfully greatly funny and non sequitur. . . . As Harvey Birdman, you’re required to gather evidence, interview witnesses, assemble your case, and finally go to trial in an effort to prove your goofball clients innocent. And of course, it’s all total insanity, so you have to play by totally insane rules.” So it’s realistic, I guess . . . . Video preview at the link.

JOE GANDELMAN THINKS THINGS ARE looking good for Mukasey. John Bresnahan calls the confirmation hearings “anticlimactic at best.”

THIS IS COOL: “University of Manchester researchers have transformed fat tissue stem cells into nerve cells — and now plan to develop an artificial nerve that will bring damaged limbs and organs back to life.”

More like this, please.

UPDATE: Physics Geek says I told you so.

MEIR JAVEDANFAR thinks Putin’s visit to Iran was mostly about PR: “Ahmadinejad might have gotten good publicity out of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit – but not much else.”

A LOOK AT THE SOURCE OF antisemitism in the modern Middle East.

WHAT TO DO WITH loose change.

LIKE PRESIDENT CHENEY, ONLY WITH HAIR (CONT’D): More Hillary news — first Yes, blood for oil! “Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton advocated talks to settle differences with Iran but said Saturday that Tehran would invite U.S. action if it were to disrupt oil supplies. . . . If the U.S. took military action as a result, she said, ‘I would hope that the world would see that was an action of last resort, not first resort. Because we need the world to agree with us about the threat that Iran poses to everyone.'”

Plus, Hillary’s the new favorite of defense contractors.

ROBERT COX: How Google should change its ad-censoring policy.

PELOSI QUIETLY WORKING ON A Bush impeachment? I’m skeptical that this is really happening, though I can see why some Democrats would want to keep the increasingly dissatisfied netroots crowd in a state of anticipation, at least until after the primary season starts.

YOUR FIRST AMENDMENT AT WORK: “So much for bloggers stalking people in the news. Leave it to a real journalist to go over the top.” But when they do it, it’s a sign of professionalism.

KDFW has gotten the video — previously embedded here — pulled from YouTube, which suggests that they feel they have something to hide. But you can see the relevant segments as part of this commentary on Aguilar’s journalistic ethics, at Breitbart.tv.

I was struck by reporter Rebecca Aguilar’s body-language, literally standing over him in judgment with tailored suit and umbrella. The way she looked down, literally and figuratively, on an old man who had defended his life, entirely legally, and reduced him to tears seems to me to be representative of the worst stereotypes of Old Media. Then, when she belatedly realizes that she’s coming across like a bully — because, you know, she is — she retreats into faux-sympathy and the laughable claim that she’s just helping him get his side of the story out. It’s like something out of a local-tv parody on The Simpsons. Yet her webpage suggests that she’s on the side of the “little guy.”

UPDATE: Reader C.J. Burch emails: “Maybe the media is just trying to make normal people understand how the Haditha Marines feel?”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Aguilar has been suspended. Here’s the post from the D Magazine Frontburner blog that seems to have set off the storm.