THIS MIGHT BECOME A CAMPAIGN ISSUE: “Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) has requested nearly $2.3 billion in federal earmarks for 2009, almost three times the largest amount received by a single senator this year. The Democratic presidential candidate’s staggering request comes at a time when Congress remains engaged in a heated debate over spending federal dollars on parochial projects.”

AMERICA’S MOST OVERRATED PRODUCT: The Bachelor’s Degree?

As long as they’re not saying “law degrees.” I sell those.

MARY KATHARINE HAM: How Obama and McCain Keep Sister Souljah-ing the Wrong People.

ARMED CITIZEN SHOOTS ROBBER:

NASHVILLE, Tenn.- There was a deadly gunfight at a liquor store in Inglewood Saturday night. An armed robbery suspect was gunned down, after trying to rob the place. But it wasn’t a police officer who took action.

None of the clerks in Sinkers Wine and Spirits had a gun to protect themselves, but they said they’re thankful one of their customers did. . . . Baxter believes the customer and the suspects exchanged about ten gunshots. The would-be robbers tried to flee, but one of the men collapsed at the scene and died shortly after. Police said the citizen had a valid carry permit, and a right to protect himself.

“A citizen just like a police officer has the right to defend themselves or others, if they’re in fear of death or serious bodily injury and that right extends to using deadly force,” said Capt. David Imhof with Metro Police.

Indeed. Plus this lesson learned: “As for the workers at Sinkers who were unarmed at the time, they said they have plans to protect themselves in the future.” (Via Truman Bean).

NOW YOU’RE TALKING: A MacBook Air with internal EVDO.

JONATHAN KAY: The Canadian Islamic Congress tries for a ceasefire — but they’ve already lost the war. “Come to think of it, it’s fair to say that the Maclean’s imbroglio has been one of the biggest shots in the arm to Canadian conservatives in general.” You don’t tug on Superman’s cape.

IS BREATH-HOLDING HAZARDOUS TO YOUR BRAIN? Personally, I think that before deciding to descend to depths of more than 500 feet on a single breath, people must already have something wrong with their brains . . . .

FOLLOWING UP ON THIS WEEKEND’S GRILLBLOGGING, here are some grill recommendations and grilling tips from the folks at Popular Mechanics.

A DNC AD that shows U.S. soldiers being blown up. Remember when they were complaining about politicizing the war? What’s more, the clip comes from Fahrenheit 9/11.

UPDATE: Questions about the networks’ willingness to run this ad: “Are these the same television networks that put heavy restrictions on showing imagery from the attacks of 9/11 because they might be disturbing and (unstated) send the wrong message (e.g. retribution) to the American public?”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Happily (see the update to the post at top) they weren’t actually blown up. It just looks that way.

MORE: “Inappropriate and unacceptable.”

IN THE MAIL: Arianna Huffington’s new book, with a lovely picture of Arianna on the cover. She seems to look better with every book, but my favorite is likely to remain Pigs at the Trough. She was ahead of the curve on that one.

FABIUS MAXIMUS looks at worldwide food prices and has some useful observations, including these: “Panic by government and large corporations can easily exacerbate the hysteria. . . . Governments react to inflation not by tackling the monetary causes – which is painful – but by attempting to mute the price signal (price controls, export bans). This is self-defeating, as such measures have many bad effects.”

A.C. KLEINHEIDER: Superdelegate Bredesen leaning toward Clinton?

UPDATE: Michael Silence observes: “Bredesen is a pragmatist. He’ll go with Clinton.”

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: Friends of the earmark make themselves heard:

The hottest document on Capitol Hill is an anonymous six-page white paper that defends, of all things, earmarks — those much-maligned home-state projects that lawmakers shoehorn into spending bills.

Doesn’t it say a lot that they’re afraid to make themselves heard, except . . . anyonymously?

A growing number of politicians have decided to just say no to earmarks. Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has vowed to veto any legislation that contains “pork-barrel spending.” And several Democrats, including Rep. Henry Waxman (Calif.), have promised not to request earmarks anymore.

The trend worries many lobbyists (and some lawmakers), and they are beginning to fight back — in other words, to lobby. Although a publicist initially told the Washington Post otherwise, the Ferguson Group acknowledges that it helped persuade three mayors whose cities it represents to praise earmarks in a Post op-ed Saturday.

But the widely read white paper — “The Fairness of Congressional Earmarking in American Democracy” — is the biggest counterattack so far. The only question: Who wrote it?

My guess was that it was written by some lapper-at-the-public-trough, and sure enough, it turns out I’m right.

UPDATE: Reader John Schwab makes an excellent point:

I think you should be clearer in your response to that white paper. it’s a straw man – I don’t know of anyone who would say that earmarks can serve no purpose whatsoever. It’s out-of-control anonymous earmarks that must be eliminated, especially those that double back to benefit a congressman’s family. Indeed, if earmark abuse is not addressed Congress may lose the power to use earmarks that make sense.

Don’t let them re-frame the debate. If an earmark is such a good idea why won’t they take credit for authoring it?

Heck, they won’t even put their names on the memos defending them.

MEGAN MCARDLE ON PLAGIARISM:

Avoiding minor plagiarism is an occupational hazard of writing. There are only so many ways to say “Trichet told a press conference that monetary policy would continue to be tight for the rest of the year”; if you weren’t at the press conference, you’re going to end up using some close variant on a phrase that probably appeared in half the copy filed about it. To whom do you attribute it, if anyone?

This, however, is not minor, and also, not hard to avoid. I’ve very much enjoyed some of Joseph James Twitchell’s work, and now it’s clear why; he stole large chunks of it from some of my favorite writers, like Virginia Postrel and Grant McCracken.

Some lengthy thoughts of mine on plagiarism, from The Appearance of Impropriety, can be found here.

SO FIX ‘EM: Deplorable conditions at Fort Bragg.

ATHEISM AND SCIENCE: A debate between David Berlinski and John Derbyshire.

HERE COME THOSE SANTA ANA WINDS AGAIN: Worries about more fires in California.

DEGREE-OLA: “The provost of West Virginia University told deans Sunday that he would resign because of his role in the improper awarding of a master’s degree to the governor’s daughter.”

REVIEWING THE REVIEWERS: A roundup of book reviews from this weekend’s newspapers.

JENNIFER RUBIN: McCain’s soft offensive against Obama:

While Obama was fending off stories about his flag pin and his wife’s comment that she had never been proud of America, McCain was reveling in nostalgia over his family’s military service and the sacrifices he made in service of “a cause greater than [himself].”

While Obama deals with question after question about his spotlight-dwelling mentor Reverend Wright, McCain introduced us to his salt-of-the-earth English teacher who, McCain says, influenced his character and values. The implicit message is that the other guy has Wright’s invective and McCain has Mr. Ravenel’s honor code.

As Obama suffered defeat in Pennsylvania, losing many rural areas by thirty points, where was McCain? In Inez, Kentucky, extolling the virtues of coal miners, and discussing Obama’s “bitter” comments in front of a cheering crowd heavy with religious, gun owners.

The tours may be the best solution for the dilemma that plagues the McCain campaign: they desperately want to refight the culture wars but have a candidate who doesn’t want to get his hands dirty. The tours provide him with venue after venue to make the arguments about character and values which will form a key portion of his campaign message.

And while it gets McCain plenty of local TV in key areas, it keeps his national-media profile low so as not to distract from the Democrats’ self-inflicted wounds.

WHERE THE BOSTON GLOBE SEES Hillary Strangelove, I see someone who just might be the most uncompromising wartime President in U.S. history. And the L.A. Times wonders if the Globe really means it: “If Clinton ends up the Democratic nominee, will the leading journalistic voice in one of the nation’s most liberal states endorse Republican John McCain?” That’s looking more possible, so let’s keep an eye on this question. It’ll certainly be awkward for them . . . .

THOUGHTS ON THE FLAG PIN: “If John McCain wore a confederate flag lapel pin, very few of these people would be saying ‘it’s just a lapel pin.'”

GEE, I WONDER WHY? Obama dread turns to glee for the GOP.

I GUESS IT’S A GOOD THING IT WAS BLOWN UP, THEN: Syrian site could have produced fuel for 2 weapons.