TOM MAGUIRE on Washington: “Why do the rest of us fear aging when clearly memory improves with time?”

GALLUP’S FRANK NEWPORT REPORTS that Fred Thompson is becoming a factor in the GOP race. Most of his support appears to be coming at Giuliani’s expense.

REPORTEDLY, TENNESSEE GOV. PHIL BREDESEN wants to be able to confiscate guns in emergencies. This seems like a dreadful idea on practical grounds, and would also violate federal law.

UPDATE: Yes, it would probably violate the Tennessee Constitution, too. And I don’t see where the Governor would possess such power in an emergency anyway, in the absence of specific legislative authorization that, as far as I know, he doesn’t have. Article I sec. 25 of the Tennessee Constitution provides: “That martial law, in the sense of the unrestricted power of military officers, or others, to dispose of the persons, liberties or property of the citizen, is inconsistent with the principles of free government, and is not confided to any department of the government of this state.” Between that, and the rather strong Tennessee right to arms, it’s hard to see how there could be any argument on behalf of an inherent power here. That said, a state anti-confiscation law is probably still a good idea, as plain statutory language tends to get more attention than constitutional argumentation in times of emergency.

UPDATE: Bob Krumm reports that Bredesen has reversed his position. And apparently there was such statutory authorization, sort of, though not for much longer if this anti-confiscation bill passes as expected.

BALANCING ENVIRONMENT AND PROFIT, in the Cayman Islands. Some thoughts at Popular Mechanics.

LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE, in New Orleans:

Sixty-four-year-old Vivian Westerman rode out Hurricane Katrina in her 19th-century house. So terrible was the experience that she wanted two things before the 2006 season arrived: a backup power source and a gun. “I got a 6,000-watt generator and the cutest little Smith & Wesson, snub-nose .38 you ever saw,” she boasted. “I’ve never been more confident.” People across New Orleans are arming themselves – not only against the possibility of another storm bringing anarchy, but against the violence that has engulfed the metropolitan area in the 19 months since Katrina, making New Orleans the nation’s murder capital.

The number of permits issued to carry concealed weapons is running twice as high as it was before Katrina – this, in a city with only about half its pre-storm population of around 450,000. Attendance at firearms classes and hours logged at shooting ranges also are up, according to the gun industry. . . . In New Orleans, police have accused the district attorney of failing to prosecute many suspects. Prosecutors have accused the police of not bringing them solid cases.

Some people are losing faith in the system to protect them.

I think some people in other locations learned from New Orleans’ experience, too. But so far, this bill hasn’t moved. (Via Dave Hardy).

PELOSI, REID AND MURTHA’S plan for victory in Iraq.

Victory for whom, is the question . . . .

JIM WEBB HAS ALWAYS BEEN GOOD ON GUNS, and maybe the incident that Drudge is currently reporting will encourage him to get behind the D.C. gun ban repeal:

SENATE STAFFER BUSTED FOR CARRYING WEBB’S LOADED GUN: Phillip Thompson, executive assistant to Senator James Webb (D-VA ), has been arrested by Capitol Hill Police on Monday for ‘inadvertently’ holding the senator’s loaded gun, according to a person close to the investigation. A Senate staffer reports that Thompson was arrested for carrying the gun in a bag through security at the Russell Senate Office building while the Senator was parking his car. Thompson was booked for carrying a pistol without a license (CPWL) and for possessing unregistered ammunition. According to congressional rules, congressmen and senators, not staff, are allowed to have a gun on federal property.

Sounds like a minor incident, but it underscores the silliness of D.C. laws. “Unregistered ammunition?”

UPDATE: More here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: News story here.

DMCA AUTHOR says it was a failure.

NEWSPAPER AD REVENUE CONTINUES TO PLUMMET:

Revenue from advertising was in striking decline last month, compared with February a year ago, and were generally weaker than analysts had expected.

And while there was one piece of good news for the industry — ad spending on newspaper Web sites rose — many industry watchers were wondering whether the February declines were part of a short-term slump or whether they signal a deepening systemic problem.

Revealingly, lots of readers have emailed this story to me with various gleeful comments. I don’t share their glee. I want newspapers to get better, not go broke. However, it says something bad about the politicization of news reporting that so many potential readers are canceling subscriptions and even taking glee in bad financial news for newspapers.

FROM HAVANA with hypocrisy.

Plus, cold-calling Iraqi communists! “Instead of talking to people who were unprepared to speak to American journalists due to a communications failure, we had accidentally cold called a group of revolutionary communist Kurds who had then treated us as honored guests and freely shared their best. In the place in all of Suliamaniya governate where we could expect the worst treatment, their hospitality was more gracious than we could expect among friends in America. Here endeth the Comedy of Manners.”

DUKE WINS the game that wasn’t played.

JOHN MCCAIN ON the Iraq vote and Congressional pork. He calls the vote a “new recipe for defeat.” Video at the link.

WILL WEB VIDEO KILL AUDIO PODCASTS? No, says Mark Glaser, and I think he’s right. They’re different formats, with different applications. I like doing both, but I don’t see one as a substitute for the other — just as I don’t see either as a replacement for “traditional” text blogging.

NEAL BOORTZ: Why people think conservatives are idiots.

JONATHAN ADLER HAS FURTHER THOUGHTS on the politicization of the Congressional Research Service.

INFORMATION WAR: “Islamic terrorists are encouraging their supporters, who can write in English, to get on American web sites and pretend to be friends or family members of American soldiers or marines. The ‘media jehadis’ are instructed to tell stories in line with the anti-war tone of American and European media. Things like soldiers committing suicide because they were forced to take part in atrocities in Iraq. Or wounded soldiers suffering, or killing themselves, because of the poor care and abuse they have received from the army. The media jihadis are told to make it sound like they are simply passing on what a soldier said, not to pretend to be a soldier or marine.”

Read the whole thing. Though, heck, if they play their cards right they can probably get interviewed by The New York Times.

“RUMMYGATE” at the Los Angeles Times? Instead of going from tragedy to farce, this scandal has been farce all along . . . .

BILL ROGGIO TALKS ABOUT IRAQ at this week’s blog week in review.

SET YOUR CLOCKS: It’s Israeli Double Standard Time.

FROM BUSH AS HITLER TO BUSH AS DRACULA? The President’s Vampire: Strange-but-True Tales of the United States of America.

Okay, that’s not really what it’s about.

THE CAYMAN DIVE VIDEO has been viewed over 350,000 times, and the Saturn Aura video has already been viewed over 100,000 times. So that poses a question:

BEST THOMPSON TITLE YET: “Fred Thompson and the Hunt for a Red November.”

WHAT YOU YOU CAN’T SAY.

KATIE COURIC’S CONCEPTUAL ART: At Kausfiles.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: John Fund reports on politicizing the Congressional Research Service to cover up earmarks:

Nothing highlighted Congress’s spending problem in last year’s election more than earmarks, the special projects like Alaska’s “Bridge to Nowhere” that members drop into last-minute conference reports leaving no opportunity to debate or amend them. Voters opted for change in Congress, but on earmarks it looks as if they’ll only be getting more smoke and mirrors.

Democrats promised reform and instituted “a moratorium” on all earmarks until the system was cleaned up. Now the appropriations committees are privately accepting pork-barrel requests again. But curiously, the scorekeeper on earmarks, the Library of Congress’s Congressional Research Service (CRS)–a publicly funded, nonpartisan federal agency–has suddenly announced it will no longer respond to requests from members of Congress on the size, number or background of earmarks. “They claim it’ll be transparent, but they’re taking away the very data that lets us know what’s really happening,” says Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn. “I’m convinced the appropriations committees are flexing their muscles with CRS.”

Indeed, the shift in CRS policy represents a dramatic break with its 12-year practice of supplying members with earmark data. “CRS will no longer identify earmarks for individual programs, activities, entities, or individuals,” stated a private Feb. 22 directive from CRS Director Daniel Mulhollan. . . .

Despite claims they would bring reform, Congress’s new bosses are acting like the old bosses. Last Friday, Arizona Rep. Jeff Flake sought clarification from House Appropriations Chairman David Obey about an incorrect listing of a NASA earmark in the Iraq supplemental bill. Rep. Obey responded: “The fact is, that an earmark is something that is requested by an individual member. This item was not requested by any individual member. It was put in the bill by me!” In other words, Mr. Obey believes his own earmarks are nothing of the kind.

Sen. Coburn plans to fight back. He says he will attach an amendment to every appropriations bill demanding CRS prepare a full report on the earmarks in it. “Let senators vote for secrecy and prove they don’t want a transparent process or let them deliver what they promised,” he says. “The choice will be theirs and the American people will be watching.”

We need to keep their feet to the fire, and force them to live up to their pre-election promises about earmarks.

UPDATE: House porkers on video.