BELDAR: “George Soros’ head would instantly explode if Obama picked Jim Webb as his Veep nominee.”

A LOOK AT the future of fusion: “The long-term future of energy may well lie in clean, plentiful fusion power – but will the reactors that produce that power carry a ‘Made in the USA’ label?” There’s a brief mention of the Bussard fusion project, which would make that more likely.

ZIMBABWE GETS MORE ATTENTION BECAUSE IT’S A HELLHOLE of dictatorial corruption. But the BBC at least notes Botswana’s success.

According to corruption watchdog Transparency International,Botswana is the least corrupt country in Africa, while the World Bank ranks it among the world’s most politically stable nations.

Analysts credit the country’s success to sound economic policies, and good management of its mineral wealth.

Of course, some people just can’t be happy.

MORE ON OBAMA’S ANTI-GUN POSITION, this time relating to his stance against concealed-carry permits.

REMEMBERING THE ORIGINAL VOLKSWAGEN SCIROCCO: Those were great cars. My friend Doug Weinstein had one in college, after retiring the Grand Prix he bought from Ernie Grunfeld, and he was remarking the other day that he still misses it.

OKAY, THIS IS KIND OF COOL. I emailed the Exposure Manager folks with a question, and got this response:

I saw your D300 mention as I was driving home from the airport and figured I would drop you a note anyway, as it was your D70 review that launched our company 4 years ago. Since then it is has been quite a ride. We currently have over 3,000 photographers that sell through our system, including The Miss USA/Universe organization and the Academy awards. Your initial post definitely set the ball in motion! Thank you again!

I had no idea I had that impact. I should’ve asked for equity . . . .

UPDATE: Reader Robert Rafton emails:

It’s not just exposure manager…I was interested in photography as a kid but started up again solely because you bought a D70. I got one too, and now (a few thousand dollars later and fourteen or fifteen cameras later) I’m into the photography big time. You can see some of my work here and at pbase if you like. I don’t know if it’s your type of thing though.

And yeah, I just bought a d300 and it rocks. Considerably better auto-focus than the D200.

I’m glad you’re not into square-dancing……..

So am I! I particularly like this shot.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Okay, here’s one of mine.

THOUGHTS ON wealth and poverty.

OBAMA’S STRIKE-FORCE PROBLEM: “If his policies on the war will not be all that different from McCain’s, he should stop ridiculing McCain for saying openly what his own people are saying behind closed doors. To some extent this is the result of a drawn out primary. Once the general election begins, the press will no longer give Obama a free pass on his vague statements about Iraq (the free ride may already be over). Perhaps Obama will take the opportunity to make his long-awaited pivot to the center–but that will strip the Democrats of their favored line of attack against McCain: that he would continue the war indefinitely while they would end it. Not so, apparently.”

UPDATE: Related item here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Is calling McCain a warmonger the way to spread hope and unity? Note the contrast with how McCain reacted when his introducer savaged Obama a few weeks ago. Obama, however, doesn’t seem able to stand up to the haters on his own team. More at Hot Air, including an explicit comparison between McCain’s behavior and Obama’s. It seems especially unfair — as well as unhinged — to be calling McCain a warmonger when Obama’s people are, sotto voce pushing similar plans for a long-term presence.

MORE: Okay, I linked this Ed Morrissey post on the Obama/McCain “warmonger” issue above, but this bit is worth quoting separately:

Contrast this with John McCain’s reaction to the introduction given him by Bill Cunningham in Ohio. When McCain found out that Cunningham repeatedly used Obama’s middle name in the preceding speech, he didn’t wait for the media to ask about it. He apologized, repudiated the comments, and promised to conduct a high-road campaign. And that was just for using Obama’s actual middle name.

Does Obama believe in reciprocity? Apparently not. Obama lets his surrogates do the namecalling at his events, and then comes on stage himself to blather about setting a new tone in politics and uplifting the level of discourse in DC. He has a fabulous start on it thus far, having his campaign events serve as a springboard for slurs against McCain — a man with one son already in this conflict and another about to begin a tour shortly.

Obama heralds himself as the candidate of change. So far, we’re just seeing the same tired, hysterical anti-war rhetoric coming from his events, delivered by a classless Air America host. If Obama wants to embrace that, then voters will understand which candidate talks about changing the level of discourse, and which candidate actually works to change it. Just as with most of Obama’s policies, it’s all talk and no action.

Really, he’s not even close to living up to the rhetoric.

MORE: Obama camp responds: “John McCain is not a warmonger and should not be described as such.”

TOM MAGUIRE: “Can we count on Keith Olbermann’s pinch-ranter, Rachel Maddow, to pick up on the now-updated/discarded ThinkProgress fantasy and describe McHenry’s ‘two-bit security guard’ as an American soldier? Yes we can! . . . There is a simple lesson here for journalists as well as Countdown performers – if you are getting your content from lefty blogs, mistrust but verify.”

I think it’s a Rovian disinformation operation, to undermine the lefty media before the general election. Or else they’re just dopes. Your call.

A “JUDICIAL REVOLUTION” IN WISCONSIN: The more I see of appointed judges’ work, the weaker my prejudice against elected judges becomes.

IT SEEMS LIKE IT’S DONE NOTHING BUT RAIN around here, but apparently we’re still behind from the drought.

IN THE MAIL: Noah Feldman’s The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State.

A WAVE OF TINY COOL GADGETS, using the new Intel Atom chip.

I JUST POPPED BY JIM FLETCHER’S BLOG after not visiting for quite a while, and he’s now selling some of his excellent Smoky Mountain photos. Worth a look.

ZIMBABWE UPDATE: “Zimbabwe’s opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said today he’s the clear winner over Robert Mugabe in the first round of a presidential election and there’s no need for a run-off.” Lawhawk comments on the desperation: “Mugabe has destroyed the country, and is still holding on to power for as long as he can. The runoff election is yet another way to try and game the results in his favor, despite losing the election. Meanwhile, opposition lawyers were being blocked from going to court to force the publication of the election results.” The chance of ending this nonviolently seems to be shrinking because of this behavior. If this ends up with Mugabe and his henchmen swinging from trees, it’ll serve him right.

MICHAEL HIRSH: The Basra Model.

Basra may well turn out to be Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s Kasserine Pass. That notorious battle, which took place in Tunisia in late February 1943, marked the first large-scale encounter between untested American troops and the battle-hardened Germans. The Americans, to put it mildly, did not do well. But they quickly fired incompetent commanders, adjusted in tactics, and never lost another major battle. In Basra the nascent Iraqi Army—also riddled with incompetence and self-doubt—actually came out looking better against Iraq’s well-established militias than the American Army had 65 years earlier against the entrenched Nazis, says retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey. “At Kasserine we got our asses kicked. These people didn’t,” McCaffrey says. Despite a spate of early grim assessments of Basra in the U.S. media, U.S. military observers on the ground in Iraq are more sanguine, says McCaffrey, who has long been a critic of the war.

Read the whole thing.

MORE ON THE ONGOING STATE DEPARTMENT PASSPORT SCANDAL:

In the latest blow against the agency, court documents show a State Department employee provided personal information from passport applications for use in a credit-card fraud scheme. . . .

Mr. Harris also said the fraud ring submitted credit-card applications using the names and “identifying information” of the persons listed on the passport applications, and that a postal service employee then would intercept the cards before they were delivered to the appropriate residences.

Passport application data includes details such as a person’s date and place of birth, e-mail address, mailing address, Social Security number, former names and travel plans.

But get this: “He was released on his own recognizance, under the condition that he not apply for or possess any passports.”

Glad to know they’re taking this stuff seriously. Just wait until they get all of your health records . . . .

REAL COOKING, with a microwave oven.

MICHAEL S. MALONE: Should Drudge and Huffington Get Pulitzers?

I’d say Totten and Yon should be ahead of both.

UPDATE: As usual, Dan Collins is funnier than me.

MICKEY KAUS: “Clintons’ Tax Returns: The press is focused on where all that money ($109 million) came from. Fair enough. But where did it all go? This seems like a genuine mystery. . . . If it’s all invested, what is it invested in? Green companies pursuing sustainable growth and living wages? Or hedge funds seeking the highest returns?” The latter posing as the former, or I miss my guess. . . .

TRANSATLANTIC POLITICS: A NATO Summit for Putin.

DRIVING WHILE POLYGAMOUS.

CLICK-LICENSE GOOD NEWS: Adobe Relinquishes Ownership of Photos Uploaded to Photoshop Express.

DUMBEST COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT CLAIM YET: Lawsuit Claim: Students’ Lecture Notes Infringe on Professor’s Copyright.

Okay, it’s not quite as dumb as the headline makes it sound, but . . . .

SOME CRITICISM of the New York Times’ Basra reporting.