POWERING DOWN IN NEW YORK:

Does state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo want to send New York into a literal dark age?

The AG, among others, was up in arms last week over a report commissioned by Entergy Nuclear – the owner of the Indian Point nuclear power plant in Westchester – that concluded that the greenhouse-gas-free source of New York’s juice was, indeed, safe.

“It’s no surprise that Entergy’s panel of paid consultants has turned a blind eye to the unacceptable risks posed by Indian Point,” Cuomo huffed.

Cuomo, of course, has been trying to get the plant closed for more than a year now – playing upon apocalyptic fears of environmental destruction or terrorist attack.

But as far as “unacceptable risks” go, how about this one: What happens to New York if there isn’t enough juice to meet demand?

Move your business to Tennessee!

HMM: “Mohammed Suleiman, a top military aide to Syrian President Bashar Assad whom Israel believes was in charge of arms transfers from Syria to Hezbollah, was killed by sniper fire last Friday, according to reports that appeared yesterday in the Arab press and on web sites affiliated with the Syrian opposition.”

JACK GOLDSMITH reviews Eric Lichtblau’s Bush’s Law: The Remaking of American Justice. “Throughout his book, Lichtblau displays a surprisingly thin-skinned and even self-pitying attitude toward criticism of his work.” Our podcast interview with Goldsmith is here.

HOUSE REPUBLICANS continue to protest on drilling: “Scores of Republican House members will return to the Hill today, despite Congress being on recess, to engage in legislative guerrilla tactics meant to turn the screws on Speaker Nancy Pelosi who has so far refused to allow a vote on domestic oil drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf and the Arctic Natural Wildlife Refuge.”

ANTISCIENCE TERRORISM IN CALIFORNIA: “The police and federal authorities are investigating firebombings at the homes of two researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The attacks, which the university described as ‘antiscience violence,’ occurred nearly simultaneously before dawn on Saturday, just days after the police in Santa Cruz discovered pamphlets in a coffee shop warning of attacks against ‘animal abusers everywhere.'”

NON-FOOD ETHANOL: “In the largest field trial of its kind in the United States, researchers have determined that the giant perennial grass Miscanthus x giganteus outperforms current biofuels sources – by a lot. Using Miscanthus as a feedstock for ethanol production in the U.S. could significantly reduce the acreage dedicated to biofuels while meeting government biofuels production goals, the researchers report.”

Randall Parker, however, thinks this is bad news.

IPHONE PHOTOBLOGGING, from Melissa Schwartz.

SHARON COBB ON BOYCOTTING OLYMPIC ADVERTISERS over China’s role in the Darfur genocide. It’s become a difficult subject for her since Obama made a big Olympic ad buy. “Senator Obama,you have an impeccable record on Darfur. Please don’t let this gaffe by your campaign stop you from doing the right thing.” (Via Michael Silence).

I’m planning to ignore the Olympics. It’s just another corrupt international bureaucracy, and the programming is boring anyway.

IT WAS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME: The Doug Weinstein Phenomenon. (Via Who else?).

UPDATE: Reader Rick Lang emails: “Maybe I’m wrong, but don’t the Democrats already had one of those ‘nobody has ever heard of him before’ type candidates in this election?” Obama’s no Doug Weinstein.

RAND SIMBERG: “When I had the privilege of paying American an extra fifteen bucks to check my bag today, I had no idea how much extra service they’d be rendering. Apparently, with this new program, they’ve come up with an innovative new luggage-handling process that enables them to expeditiously lose your suitcase on a non-stop.”

I hope the competition prospers.

IN THE MAIL: Jerry Pournelle’s Exile-and Glory, with pulp-sendup cover art.

MORE ON BEIJING’S SNOOPS: For Olympic Travelers, Concerns Over Gadget Surveillance in China.

HILLARY SUPPORTERS are still mad. “There are stories kicking around that the reason (or one of them) that the highly effective Hillraisers are not raising the kind of money for Obama that they raised for Clinton is because they have been told that no matter what they do, they will never be the ‘equal’ of the Obama fundraisers.”

I FIGURE PEOPLE ALREADY HAVE IT, but reader Louis Abbott writes: “I thought you might want to pass along that Amazon is offering the entire Firefly series for $17.99 today.”

UPDATE: I guess I was wrong. Reader Erich emails: “Just wanted to pass along thanks for advising your readers about the Amazon deal for the Firefly series. That’s a great price and I’d never have known about the offer without your post. I don’t see much TV so I never saw the original show. The movie convinced me to check it out. I’ve caught one or two episodes and enjoyed them. Now I can legitimately tell my wife I have something to do which will keep me out of trouble when she’s out of town in a couple weeks time.” Yep.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Steven Heim emails: “The Firefly series also is available for free viewing on Hulu.com.”

REPORTER vs. blogger.

Editor vs. blogger.

MOTHER JONES: Civil Rights Groups Defending Predatory Lenders: Priceless. There is, of course, a plausible argument that payday lenders aren’t predators, but merely free-market actors filling a consumer need that’s otherwise unmet.

GOOD: Olympic Committee Grilled on Net Censorship.

MCCAIN NOW LEADS OBAMA:

This is the first time McCain has enjoyed even a statistically insignificant advantage of any sort since Obama clinched the Democratic nomination on June 3 (see recent daily results). . . . A week ago today, Obama had a three-percentage point lead and the candidates were even among unaffiliated voters. Today, McCain leads 52% to 37% among unaffiliateds.

McCain is currently viewed favorably by 55% of the nation’s voters, Obama by 51%. That is the lowest rating for Obama since he wrapped up the nomination.

You can headline it “No Mo for B.O.” if you want to be cute. Given the adulatory media coverage to date, this suggests significant weakness on Obama’s part. (Via JWF).

LOOKING AT THE neural basis of high intelligence.

A MENTAL RECESSION: “Currently, 77% of Americans hold negative views about the economy, while 14% hold mixed views, and only 7% hold positive views.”

PELOSI WILL NOT ALLOW A VOTE ON OFFSHORE DRILLING. Because she knows she’d lose. “A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken July 25-27 found that Americans by numbers approaching 2-1 would be more likely to support a candidate who backs expanded offshore drilling.”

MORE ON CANADA’S “HUMAN RIGHTS” KANGAROO COURTS: Freedom of speech exists, sort of. . .

BYPASSING THE GATEKEEPERS in Congress:

When Congress adjourns, so do C-Span’s live broadcasts because the sole cameras that record the sessions of the Senate and the House of Representatives are controlled by the members of Congress. On Friday, when several dozen Republicans decided to stay on the House floor and discuss energy legislation after the House adjourned for a five-week summer recess, the cameras and microphones were turned off. So the first source of video was a congressman who streamed live pictures to the Internet using his cellphone camera.

Representative John Culberson, a Texas Republican and an avid user of the messaging site Twitter, acted as a citizen journalist covering the proceedings, albeit one with clear partisan intentions.

“Pelosi just turned out the lights,” Mr. Culberson wrote on Twitter, referring to the decision by the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, to adjourn the House. As Republican members came to the floor to make speeches, Mr. Culberson, who called the event a “pep rally,” and Peter Hoekstra, Republican of Michigan, posted frequent updates on Twitter.

Mr. Culberson took it a step further, using his Nokia 95 cellphone to film fellow members speaking about the event.

Can’t stop the signal.

ROBERT BRYCE: “Until the U.S. opens its offshore waters to oil drilling, it will be seen as the world’s worst energy hypocrite.”

IT SEEMS LIKE IT’S DESIGNED TO PROMOTE MORE “LAWFARE” ON THE PART OF MUSLIM NATIONS AND TERRORISTS: The campaign to create an international law norm banning “defamation of religion.”

After you behead the first thousand mullahs who’ve condemned Judaism and Christianity, we’ll talk.