CONGRESS: Meet the New Trough, Same as the Old Trough. And they promised us change!

LOTS OF UPDATES ON THE SITUATION IN LEBANON, at Michael Totten’s blog.

IN TENNESSEE 300 National Guard soldiers from Campbell County just got back from Iraq, after a year in which they suffered no casualties. Congratulations, and welcome back.

UPDATE: Related thoughts from The Mudville Gazette.

MCCAIN CAMPAIGN: “We have all become familiar with Senator Obama’s new brand of politics. First, you demand civility from your opponent, then you attack him, distort his record and send out surrogates to question his integrity. It is called hypocrisy, and it is the oldest kind of politics there is. . . . We understand why Senator Obama doesn’t want to engage in a debate over leadership and judgment with John McCain, but the American people demand that debate take place.”

Background here. Obama wants to run a training-wheels campaign while demanding that his opponents walk a tightrope. Well, hell, who wouldn’t want that?

UPDATE: In the comments, some good advice for Obama from Michael Totten:

Obama could easily make this go away: “Hamas will be VERY sorry if I am America’s president. They need to be careful what they wish for.” He doesn’t have to say anything else, but I doubt it occurs to anyone on his staff to go after Hamas instead of McCain. To me, that’s the obvious fix. What could McCain possibly say after that?

Alas, however, Obama’s instinct was to strike out at McCain instead.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Scott Slater emails:

Dear Glenn,

Got the 2008 Democratic Presidential Survey in the mail today.

Question #7 – ” Do you believe that John McCain’s pledge to keep troops in Iraq for another 100 years will be a liability in the General Election?”

I answered “No. He didn’t say that. You are smearing him.”

Question #11 asks “How likely do you think it is that John McCain and his Republican allies will launch a “Swift Boat” style smear campaign against our presidential nominee?”

I checked “Not Likely, but I noticed you have (see question 7).”

It’s the new politics of change and hope! And by “checked,” I presume he means “wrote in,” as I doubt that was one of the original options . . . .

OMAR FADHIL: Iranian-Made Rocket Discovered Near Basra Alarms Iraqis.

ABU AYYUB AL-MASRI, HEAD OF AL QAEDA IN IRAQ, has been captured. Some thoughts on what it means at The Belmont Club.

RACHEL LUCAS ON FIREFLY: “Forget C.S. Lewis – I’m pretty sure the cancellation of this show after only one season is proof there is no God. Seven years of American Idol on the same network that gave us only one year of Firefly. Do the quantum math on that one.” The good news is, it’s coming out on Blu-Ray soon. But that’s scant consolation. How about another season?

HUMAN RIGHTS PROGRESS: “A Malaysian Islamic court allowed a Muslim convert Thursday to return to her original faith of Buddhism, setting a precedent that could ease religious minorities’ worries about their legal rights. Lawyers said the Shariah High Court’s verdict in the northern state of Penang was the first time in recent memory that a convert has been permitted to legally renounce Islam in this Muslim-majority nation.”

RICHARD KAHLENBERG: Still Forgotten: Low Income Students At Selective Colleges.

TEN HEALTH-TECHNOLOGY BREAKTHROUGHS. And here’s one that’s not even newsworthy: My mother-in-law had cataract surgery, and now has implanted toric lenses. She says she sees better than she did when she was 12.

THE FIVE GREATEST MOVIE TEACHERS: Plus one honorable mention.

TENNESSEE POLITICS: A Ford family fracture. More background here.

CRAVING AMERICAN DEFEAT in Iraq. It’s not an isolated phenomenon, unfortunately.

RETHINKING THE IRAQ CRITICS: Michael Barone has a column on Doug Feith’s new book, War and Decision. “There’s still much to be learned about our decisions, good and bad, in Iraq. But Feith’s book is a step forward, as were those of Sherwood and Churchill 60 years ago.” I’m surprised it’s not getting more attention. Maybe if it weren’t an election year. . . .

GALLUP: Obama’s Support Similar to Kerry’s in 2004. Now there’s a headline to start champagne corks popping at DNC headquarters . . . .

HEATH SHULER endorses Hillary Clinton.

LABOUR SLUMPING IN BRITAIN. “LABOUR has slumped to its lowest point since records began in the 1930s, a devastating Sun poll reveals tonight. And the Tories are enjoying their second biggest poll lead in history.”

ARE “HYPERMILERS” A MENACE ON THE ROAD? “There are hypermilers who claim to get over 100mpg from their Priuses and Insights. The problem is that techniques like pulse and glide involve significant fluctuations in speed.” Don’t do this where there’s traffic. Interesting discussion in the comments. Plus, this: 104 eco-driving tips. And should we be rating cars based on gallonage rather than mileage?

THE PARTY OF SAM’S CLUB: “The GOP is now a working-class party (with class defined by education and culture more than income, just to be clear; there are plenty of skilled craftsmen who make more money than teachers and journalists and academics), and that it needs to start acting like one if it’s going to rebuild its shattered majority.”

I GET AN EMAIL NEWSLETTER from an oil trader and today it includes this tidbit: “In an interesting twist of OPEC news – in the folder titled ‘Adequate Supply’ – Iran has chartered an armada of supertankers to act as floating storage for as many as 28 million barrels of crude oil that is backing up on them. Analysts are blaming worldwide refineries yet to recover from maintenance programs. It’s not the first time that Iran has had trouble finding buyers; they temporarily floated 20 million barrels in 2006. No, I can’t explain this in light of record oil prices and continual cries for more release of OPEC crude oil. ”

U.S. crude stocks are up, too. This is unlikely to be the case, but here’s a thought: If I were, say, the United States government, and I anticipated military action in the mideast that might interrupt oil supplies, I wouldn’t want to stockpile directly because that would be a tipoff. But if I manipulated markets into running up stocks, I wouldn’t have to. . . . Nah. They’re not that smart.

UPDATE: Hmm.

VIDEO: Still sexy at sixty.

IS HAPPINESS IMPORTANT TO DEMOCRACY? If so, does that mean that politicians who are always trying to make people un happy are bad for democracy?

“UNWANTED SEXUAL CONTACT” AT COLLEGE: “It’s part of the normal scene.” And men report it at a frequency not much less than women: “About 7 percent of women and 4 percent of men report unwanted intercourse.”

TARGETING TUMORS with nanoworms.

JOHN MCWHORTER on Hillary Clinton and the puzzling persistence of hope-based campaign tactics.