JAMES POULOS TAKES A SKEPTICAL LOOK at proposals for constitutional “reform.”

BARACK OBAMA on The Pivot: “Sen. Barack Obama today chided his Democratic presidential rivals for vehemently opposing the Iraq war after initially voting to authorize it, contending real leaders don’t get any ‘do-overs’ on an issue as monumental as war.”

He’s right.

THE HILL: “A bipartisan proposal to implement the Iraq Study Group’s recommendations is gaining momentum among Senate Republicans, but is putting Democrats in a tough position with an anti-war base that wants the chamber to take a much harder line during this month’s Iraq war debate.”

MICKEY KAUS connects the dots.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: Lawmakers try to save their earmarks:

After Democrats won control of Congress, they moved to fulfill their pledge to crack down on the controversial practice of lawmakers slipping projects in spending bills without public scrutiny.

In February, they scrapped Republican-drafted bills loaded with earmarks and passed a bill that they boasted had none.

Among those celebrating the achievement was Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who said that piecing together the $463.5-billion spending bill was difficult, “but we got it done without a single earmark.”

But the day after President Bush signed it, Reid wrote federal agencies to “strongly support the priorities” in the discarded GOP bills. “I believe they are essential to the nation and to my home state of Nevada.”

Reid was not alone in seeking to save his earmarks.

Lawmakers from both parties — including Democrats ranging from the most senior, such as Sen. Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, to one of the most junior, such as Sen. Jon Tester of Montana — pressed agencies to grant their spending requests, according to correspondence obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the Center for Investigative Reporting.

The behind-the-scenes lobbying for projects stripped from this once “earmark-free” bill underscores how difficult it will be for lawmakers to curtail a practice that has expanded despite criticism that it is out of control. Already, lawmakers are seeking to replace lost earmarks in next year’s appropriations bills, although they have promised to be more open about it.

“What is ironic is that at the same time lawmakers were crowing about no earmarks this year, they were surreptitiously drowning agency heads in funding requests,” said Steve Ellis of Taxpayers for Common Sense.

Ironic, yet wholly predictable.

BRINK LINDSEY on the libertarian center.

THIS IS KIND OF COOL:

Last weekend, Kent Couch settled down in his lawn chair with some snacks — and a parachute. Attached to his lawn chair were 105 large helium balloons.

Destination: Idaho.

With instruments to measure his altitude and speed, a global positioning system device in his pocket, and about four plastic bags holding five gallons of water each to act as ballast — he could turn a spigot, release water and rise — Couch headed into the Oregon sky.

Nearly nine hours later, the 47-year-old gas station owner came back to earth in a farmer’s field near Union, short of Idaho but about 193 miles from home.

“When you’re a little kid and you’re holding a helium balloon, it has to cross your mind,” Couch told the Bend Bulletin.

Many times. (Via Buzz.mn).

HOWARD KURTZ: “Ever notice that reporters are the first to say no comment when they get into trouble, even though they know better than anyone how that will be interpreted?”

I HAVEN’T PAID MUCH ATTENTION to the D.C. Madam story, but I agree with this:

I hate seeing people publicly humiliated for the sexual things they do in private. But the government is criminally prosecuting a woman, Deborah Jeane Palfrey, for what it says was a prostitution ring. These are federal charges, and the senator, David Vitter, has some responsibility for the laws that make this prosecution possible.

I would legalize prostitution if it were up to me. To some degree, it is up to Vitter, since Congress has authority over the District of Columbia. But it’s a crime, and he’s looking to get out with an apology. How about moving to make prostitution legal in the District instead? It would be an appropriate penance, and D.C. would be a . . . fitting . . . place to start.

WHY RON PAUL ISN’T LIBERTARIAN ENOUGH. It’s a shameless ploy for traffic, but it will probably work.

PAGING CLARENCE PAGE.

IT’S LIKE SHE’S SOME KIND OF WEIRDO OR SOMETHING:

Madonna surprised organizers of the Live Earth concert in Wembley Stadium by demanding that anyone who interviewed her backstage had to make eye contact and could not look away.

  “Eye contact must be maintained at all times,” interviewers were told, according to the London Mirror. “Never look down to check notes — all questions must be memorized or the interview will be terminated.”

“We thought her people were just joking,” a source told the paper. “But it soon became apparent that they were deadly serious.”

Serious in a weird kind of way.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: Ted Stevens is back in the news:

In 2004, two business partners of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) sold an empty lot in Anchorage to the National Archives and Records Administration for just over $3.5 million, more than doubling their year-old investment in the property.

Stevens earmarked the appropriation for NARA to purchase a site, although there is no indication he received any direct benefit from the deal and his spokesman said the Senator had nothing to do with the selection of the specific property.

But the project is one of several valuable contracts that the developers, Leonard Hyde and Jonathan Rubini, entered into with federal agencies while Stevens was either the ranking member or chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee — and had significant investments in several Rubini/Hyde companies.

Stevens’ investments with the two real estate magnates over a seven-year period turned him from one of the Senate’s least wealthy Members into a millionaire, according to his financial records and statements by Stevens over the years.

That relationship has prompted questions from watchdogs who say, at the least, it raises the potential for an appearance of a conflict of interest.

Gee, do you think. It also creates the appearance — really more like the certainty — that the Senate rules aren’t doing the job:

“It absolutely raises flags when you have a Member having a business relationship with someone who may benefit from the Member’s official actions,” even in an indirect way, said Bill Allison, a senior fellow at the Sunlight Foundation, a watchdog group that pushes for greater disclosure by lawmakers. “The way [disclosure is] being handled now is just completely inadequate,” Allison added.

Allison and other watchdogs argue the lack of adequate disclosure rules in the Senate makes it extremely difficult for the public to make an informed judgment on whether Stevens, for example, is acting appropriately, and they have called for more stringent rules.

Nothing should get in any bill without it being clear who put it in and why. How hard is that?

MINIATURE ROBOTS play nanosoccer.

YOUTUBE CAMCORDERS: Popular Mechanics reviews two inexpensive video recorders aimed at the Web: theh Flip Video camcorder and the DXG 506V. They’re not overwhelmed with either.

I think you’re better off with a digital still camera that shoots video: It’s only a bit more expensive, and the quality is better.

OVER AT PORKBUSTERS, a scorecard on pork, ranking members of Congress. It’s a web-friendly version of The Examiner’s spreadsheet.

The Index brings together in one place all the data about how everybody who served in the Senate in 2005-2007 voted on 12 key opportunities to say “yes” or “no” to genuine earmark reforms when the Senate clerk called their names. The Examiner and Porkbusters consulted knowledgeable Senate insiders to insure that each of these votes represented a real chance to make a difference for taxpayers.

Here’s the Examiner editorial on the subject. Excerpt:

Congress appears headed to approve a record number of earmarks in 2007, despite the fact that last November angry voters registered their disgust with the practice by electing Democrats who pledged a new era of transparency in government spending.

A quick glance at The Examiner Newspapers/Porkbusters.org Earmark Reform Index for the U.S. Senate helps explain why. Two-thirds of the senators are adamantly opposed to reforming their appropriations perks, no matter what the public says.

Read the whole thing. Then you might want to call your Senators and Representatives and tell them what you think about their performance.

NRO TO REPUBLICANS: Get a grip on Iraq!

When even the BBC is saying that Washington looks to be wimping out just as the surge may be working, it’s not a good time to panic.

JULES CRITTENDEN OFFERS advice to the New York Times.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: Continuing the battle:

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) resumed his efforts to implement a series of new ethics and earmark reform rules Monday afternoon and warned his colleagues that he may force the chamber to remain in session through the August recess if Democratic leaders do not drop their objections to his demands.

DeMint proposed Monday to adopt the new Senate earmark rules – which, among other things, would require the Appropriations Committee to disclose all earmarks requested by individual lawmakers that have been included in spending bills – and then begin the long-stalled conference on a lobbying and ethics bill.

Pointing to a recent Congressional Research Service report stating Appropriations subcommittees have had varying degrees of success with implementing the new rules voluntarily, DeMint argued that “it’s clear we need a formal rule in place that applies to all committees” and warned that he could object to the start of the August recess if the rules are not adopted. “Maybe that would be a good thing,” he argued.

DeMint’s gambit – which Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) was forced to object to – follows a similar showdown on the Senate floor just prior to the July Fourth recess.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) were seconds away from agreeing to begin the ethics conference in late June when DeMint called the Republican cloakroom to remind McConnell of his long-standing hold on the bill. As a result, the agreement to name conferees collapsed and Democrats used the GOP mix-up as a chance to hammer Republicans on ethics.

DeMint has blocked the naming of conferees on the lobbying and ethics bill because Democrats included in the measure a set of Senate earmark reforms, despite the fact they apply to that chamber and do not need House approval to be put in place.

DeMint and a core group of GOP conservatives are expected to continue their tactical fight with Senate leaders as the chamber takes up appropriations bills later this year, many of which are packed with earmarks.

Bring it on.

WELL, THIS SUCKS: “I just had a rather disturbing email from a company advertising a new service called Buy Blog Comments (no follow tags used) promoting a new service offering to leave comment spam on blogs for those wanting to increase their SEO ranking. The service offers to leave spam comments at a rate of 100 comments for $19.99, 500 comments for $99.99 and 1000 comments for $199.99.”

Can’t we just, I dunno, stake them out on an anthill or something instead?

I’LL BET HE’D VOTE DIFFERENTLY NEXT TIME:

HOUSTON – A state lawmaker shot a man he says was trying to steal copper wiring from the house he is building, police said Monday. Rep. Borris Miles, D-Houston, told police he was working on the second floor Sunday night when he heard a noise on the lower floor and saw two men trying to steal the wiring. One of the men threw a pocketknife at Mr. Miles when confronted, a Houston police spokesman said. Mr. Miles, a former law enforcement officer who is licensed to carry a concealed weapon, shot the man in the left leg, police said. The wounded suspect was being treated at a Houston hospital. Mr. Miles voted against the “castle doctrine” that gives residents stronger rights to defend their property. The law goes into effect Sept. 1.

Just a guess.

INVASION OF THE CONCRETE PENISES. And that’s only the beginning, though Xeni Jardin seems curiously unalarmed.

USING BOGUS CHILD PORN ACCUSATIONS to kill file-sharing sites?

DEPLOYING A NETWORK OF SURVEILLANCE CAMERAS IN NEW YORK: As usual, I think it’s a waste of time and money in terms of security, and a potential threat to privacy as well.

A TRIP BACK IN TIME AND SPACE, at the Harvard Observatory.