I’M NOT THE ONLY ONE to note Nancy Pelosi’s media battlespace preparation efforts in advance of the Petraeus testimony. Of course, she may have, er, misspoken: “So, the senior Democrat in our national government acknowledges that Iran is waging a proxy war against the United States and the government of Iraq, and yet believes (i) it is in our national interest to cede Iraq to the Islamic Republic and (ii) the United States has no casus belli against Iran.”

BOINGBOINGTV: Tibetan monks forced to participate in staged Chinese videos.

UPDATE: From the comments: “Xeni — You look like a comm operator from Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow!” Heh. It’s true.

MICHAEL TOTTEN: Blasphemers unite!

CLINTON DONORS pile on Howard Dean about seating the Florida and Michigan delegations. “Some participants grew so angry that Gail Furman, a Democratic donor who is neutral in the race, bemoaned the divisions in the party. According to a source, Furman said that as a psychologist, she was saddened and upset that some of the party’s leaders were displaying such raw and rancorous emotions.”

BLUE-EYED JIHADIS:

The debate between left and right over whether “profiling” is an appropriate tool, is one of several aspects of the “War on Terror” where people talking about something that is essentially a non-issue. The debate is welcomed by al Qaeda and other Islamic terrorist groups, since it diverts attention from more serious discussion of tactics and strategy.

Information from various intelligence agencies suggests that even before September 11, 2001, al Qaeda began actively recruiting “Western” looking people, men and women, for the purpose of circumventing any resort to profiling. They have apparently been having some success.

I suppose these efforts raise their costs of operation somewhat, but probably not enough to make profiling especially helpful.

I GUESS THAT’S COOL: The iPhone of door locks.

THE WRIGHT SAUCE IS NOT for the Chomsky gander.

ELECTED VS. APPOINTED JUDGES: “Do we like the way it’s easier to believe that a governor (or President) has picked judges because of their neutral qualifications or is it better to have elections that make people see the ideology of judges? It’s hard to picture elections ever moving us closer to choosing judges because of their lofty credentials and adherence to neutral principles, but it’s not fair to blame the voters if they are savvy enough to see that candidates are ideological and to vote with their eyes open.”

I’d just add that the balance may be different at different levels. Appellate courts — especially courts of last resort — inevitably make more policy. It probably makes more sense to have their members elected than trial judges, who are supposed to simply follow law.

I MENTIONED WALTER JON WILLIAMS’ Implied Spaces the other day, and now here’s a blog-review from Toby Buckell. Meanwhile, Buckell also reports that giving away free e-books helped his sales about as much as being nominated for a Nebula Award.

MORE NEWS ON the Chevy Volt. I hope it turns out to be good — with all this buildup, it had better.

IN THE MAIL: Elizabeth Fox-Genovese’s Marriage: The Dream That Refuses to Die.

Plus, Tony Robles’ Joey Gonzalez, Great American. Here’s an excerpt from the latter:

“But I don’t feel different,” Joey protested.

“Oh, but you are,” said Mr.s Glass. “For one thing, it’s a little bit harder for minorities to learn, especially if they don’t have a father.”

“But I’m learning just fine,” said Joey. “I want to learn to be a great American.”

“Don’t worry, Joey,” said Mrs. Glass. “There’s a special way to help minorities get ahead. It’s affirmative action. Soon we’ll learn all about affirmative action right here in our classroom. That’s a very important thing we do here at school.”

It’s in both English and Spanish.

MORE ON Pizza Hut and guns.

THEY TOLD ME CLIMATE CHANGE WOULD LEAD TO VIOLENT CLASHES, and they were right!

VIDEO: Rep. Brad Sherman on global anti-semitism.

IT HASN’T JUST SEEMED COOLER THIS YEAR:

Global temperatures will drop slightly this year as a result of the cooling effect of the La Nina current in the Pacific, UN meteorologists have said.

The World Meteorological Organization’s secretary-general, Michel Jarraud, told the BBC it was likely that La Nina would continue into the summer.

This would mean global temperatures have not risen since 1998, prompting some to question climate change theory.

But experts say we are still clearly in a long-term warming trend – and they forecast a new record high temperature within five years.

I guess it’s not time to put up giant orbiting sunshades until the situation becomes a bit clearer.

“OPTIMAL SEX:” With helpful graphics.

UH OH: HarperCollins to Authors: Sorry, no money… but we will publish your book. As they say in radio, Wow! What a Deal! Actually, as a former HarperCollins author, I wouldn’t say that. The best thing about them was that the checks came on time.

FEET OF CLAY NICOTINE? “Heart-ache: ABC reporter fears Obama may have lied to him about smoking.”

I have to agree with this take: “What right does a presidential candidate have to lie to a nosy reporter about something that’s totally irrelevant to the election and therefore none of his business?” Say, every right in the world?

UPDATE: Or maybe not. As Tom Maguire cautions: “Well, if it were totally irrelevant to the campaign I probably couldn’t find ‘Quit Smoking With Obama’ at his campaign website.” I eagerly await the “Quit Drinking With Ted Kennedy” program.

NANCY PELOSI TRIES TO prepare the media battlespace in advance of Petraeus’s testimony.

But will Hillary apologize for her remarks last time? Will Petraeus remind her of them?

UPDATE: A problem for Pelosi? Report: Security in Iraq is improving.

VIDEO: An interview with McCain’s “message man.”

IN RESPONSE TO YESTERDAY’S POST on David Berlinski’s new book, Claire Berlinski emails: “Yep! That’s my Pop! Although calling him an ‘ID proponent’ would be inaccurate; see, for example, this.” Alas, the link is subscriber-only, but I’ll take Claire’s word on that — she should know. Of course, this means that Wikipedia was wrong, but I suppose that had to happen sooner or later.

THE “PATRIOTISM PROBLEM.”

Plus, Noah Pollak says there are two Americas.

THE BAD GUYS COME OUT TO DIE:

The enemy had earlier learned that, to move around, they had to do so without carrying weapons and in small groups. But this made carrying out attacks more time-consuming. When using those tactics, the AH-64s caught an armed group in the open about once every two weeks. But in the last two weeks of March, the gunships found more targets than they had over the past 13 weeks.

The Sunni Arab and al Qaeda terror networks in northern Iraq have been under a lot of pressure these the past few months. These new desperation tactics, apparently to try and increase the number of attacks dramatically, failed. And the main reason was that you can’t hustle around carrying guns, day or night, while the AH-64s are up there.

There seem to be efforts to try and create a “Terrorist Tet” to influence U.S. politics. So far, they haven’t worked tremendously well.

SEAN OXENDINE: No, really. Hillary has a decent shot.

DOG BITES MAN: “An unhinged tirade by Air America Radio host Randi Rhodes.” The only news is, this time she attacked Hillary and got herself suspended. “In addition, Rhodes referred to former Democrat vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro as ‘David Duke in drag’.”