BE BREITBART: So I read this letter from a reader at the Breitbart memorial tonight — partly for the closing, but also because it belies the media idea that there’s no enthusiasm among Republicans these days.

I attended my first caucus today.

It was a great experience. We filled a middle school cafeteria to the brim, there must have been almost a thousand people in attendence (just a wild guess). The caucus was well organized but unprepared for such a large turnout, they rolled with it and did a great job pulling it off.

Of the seven people from my precinct, only one had attended a caucus before. We are all involved now chiefly because of the man in the white house and our belief that he has the wrong policies for the problems facing the nation.

Being a caucus, the actual candidate will be elected at the state convention but our mini-straw poll for my precinct read 5 votes for Romney, 1 vote for Ron Paul and 1 vote for undecided.

Just thought you would like to know what’s going on up here in the Evergreen state.

Be Brietbart,
Greg in Seattle

They want you to be depressed and dispirited, but don’t be. Be Breitbart, who was never either of those.

UPDATE: Another reader writes:

I was just about to e-mail you about the Washington caucuses. This was the case in my area too. I live in a suburb of Seattle, an area that has had sent a republican to congress for a long time but has voted for democrat in presidential elections since Clinton’s second term. This seem consistent with the recent piece by Michael Barone regarding the Detroit suburbs. I think there are a lot more people that are aware that Obama is destroying any chance the Nation has of re-establishing prosperity than the MSM would like to admit.

Dave in Bellevue

Remember — they’re spreading Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt because they need to. Don’t be fooled.

ANOTHER UPDATE: More email:

Just saw the post about the Washington caucus first-timer and how he was inspired by Breitbart. I had a strange feeling reading it, almost an out of body experience, as I could have written the same email, only thing that was different in my experience was the location – hotel conference room vs school. I was a first timer too, inspired by the need to replace the current administration and the impact that Mr. Breitbart has had on me. Our caucus had to delay the start by an hour due to overwhelming crowds, it was just amazing. Next I will attend the county caucus in April, a smile on my face and a Happy Warrior in my thoughts.

Good.

MORE: Reader L. Johnson writes:

I’m from the southern part of Washington State in Clark County. We caucused in a Middle School. When I caucused in 2010 (when the Tea Party was burning bright) only 3 or 4 people showed from my precinct. This year there were fifteen. We had representatives of each of the four candidates (mine was Newt), but I left with the impression that we will all support our eventual nominee in November. Actually, I think that a lot of us would crawl over broken glass to vote against President Obama in November. Some other precincts were so full that the people could not even get to their table and participated from two tables away. The material ran out before half the people received copies. Something is happening here in Washington State this year. I haven’t seen this level of intensity since 1994- and this seems much stronger.

Well, stay tuned. It’ll be stronger if people make it stronger.

Plus, a “Be Breitbart” icon.

GIRLS AND GUNS: It’s A Social Thing.

FASTER, PLEASE: New vaccine is effective against all major strains of hepatitis C.

SCIENCE: People Aren’t Smart Enough for Democracy to Flourish, Scientists Say. Of course, as Thomas Jefferson noted, if people aren’t smart enough to rule themselves, then who is smart enough to be a ruler?

But here’s the key bit:

Nagel concluded that democracies rarely or never elect the best leaders. Their advantage over dictatorships or other forms of government is merely that they “effectively prevent lower-than-average candidates from becoming leaders.”

That’s no small thing.

UPDATE: Reader Barbara Skolaut writes:

Your posting quoted the Nagel guy’s view about democracies: “they ‘effectively prevent lower-than-average candidates from becoming leaders.’”

Didn’t work in our last election, did it?

Be Breitbart.

No system is perfect. And that closing seems to be catching on.

AFTERBURNER: Bill Whittle remembers Andrew Breitbart. Helen and I will be at the memorial for him tonight in DC.

THE LITTLE WHITE BOX that can hack your network. “Built by a startup company called Pwnie Express, the PwnPlug is pretty much the last thing you ever want to find on your network — unless you’ve hired somebody to put it there. It’s a tiny computer that comes preloaded with an arsenal of hacking tools. It can be quickly plugged into any computer network and then used to access it remotely from afar. And it comes with ‘stealthy decal stickers’ — including a little green flowerbud with the word ‘fresh’ underneath it, that makes the device look like an air freshener — so that people won’t get suspicious.”

SURPRISE: “Anonymous” members tricked into giving up bank details.

Anonymous uses tools such as the Low Orbit Ion Cannon or Slowloris to perform distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against its targets, with sympathetic Anons downloading the software to become part of a voluntary botnet.

In January the group decided to hit the websites of the US Department of Justice and various media companies in response to the takedown of file storage site Megaupload, providing a guide on Pastebin for those who wished to take part in the attacks. Symantec says that an attacker appears to have copied that guide and inserted their own version of the Slowloris software containing a secret Trojan that downloaded a copy of Zeus, a piece of malware often used to take control of an infected computer.

Computers infected with the malware still took part in the Anonymous DDoS attacks, but were also secretly sending online bank account and webmail logins back to the attacker. Anonymous members have tweeted links to to this fake guide nearly 500 times, referring to it as “Tools of the DDos trade” and “Idiot’s Guide to Be Anonymous.”

What kind of idiot downloads software from hackers to the same computer that he/she uses for online banking? First rate.

HEH: Hackers Elect Futurama’s Bender to the Washington DC School Board.

Hey, I’ve been pushing paper ballots since 2002 for a reason. . .

SCIENCE: Researchers develop ‘SpeechJammer’ gun that can quash human utterances.

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USING 3D PRINTING to build human tissue. “Unlike some experimental approaches that have used ink-jet printers to deposit cells, Organovo’s technology enables cells to interact with each other much the way they do in the body. They are packed tightly together and incubated, prompting them to adhere to each other and trade chemical signals. When they’re printed, the cells are kept bunched together in a paste that helps them grow, migrate, and align themselves properly. ­Muscle cells, for example, orient themselves in the same direction to create tissue that can contract.”

A NO-PULSE ARTIFICIAL HEART.

Building a heart that mimics nature’s lub-dub may be as comically shortsighted as Leonardo da Vinci designing a flying machine with flapping wings. Nature is not always the best designer, at least when it comes to things that humans must build and maintain. So the newest artificial heart doesn’t imitate the cardiac muscle at all. Instead, it whirs like a little propeller, pushing blood through the body at a steady rate. After 500 million years of evolution accustoming the human body to blood moving through us in spurts, a pulse may not be necessary. That, in any case, is the point of view of the 50-odd calves, and no fewer than three human beings, who have gotten along just fine with their blood coursing through them as evenly as Freon through an air conditioner.

Faster, please.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE PARACHUTE.

CHICAGO: Judge Rules Eavesdropping Law Unconstitutional.

A Cook County judge today ruled the state’s controversial eavesdropping law unconstitutional.

The law makes it a felony offense to make audio recordings of police officers without their consent even when they’re performing their public duties.

Judge Stanley Sacks, who is assigned to the Criminal Courts Building, found the eavesdropping law unconstitutional because it potentially criminalizes “wholly innocent conduct.”

Well, that’s certainly true.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Candidate Putin on the State of the World. “Victory in this week’s Presidential election is almost certain, but the Prime Minister is no longer the absolute master of Russian politics. Not only does he face a protest movement that includes some of the most thoughtful and creative people in his country; the old techniques don’t seem to be working anymore. As a recent German documentary shows, Putin’s old routine of judo, swimming, and hunting polar bears ‘no longer comes across as virile but, rather, as exhausting and joyless.’”

J. CHRISTIAN ADAMS: Eric Holder Wants Race Preferences and Benefits . . . Forever. Of course he does.

Some are surprised by Holder’s brazenness. I am not. As I like to say, I wrote a bestseller about Holder’s racialist DOJ. Nothing surprises me anymore. The only surprise is the dumbfounded, stuck, GOP response — which would be none.

If the GOP nominee does not make this a Presidential campaign issue because they are afraid to talk about such unpleasantries, then shame on them. In tough economic times, the last thing middle America wants to hear is the Attorney General grousing about people of color getting benefits because of their color.

One way that the Dems silence the GOP is by spreading the idea that it’s somehow bad manners to criticize them on their chosen issues. Part of Andrew Breitbart’s secret to success was that he didn’t care about that. For the non-Frumish GOP, there’s a lesson there.

COLONOSCOPY UPDATE: A reader emails:

I hope I am writing to the right address. I read Instapundit and wanted to thank you for posting about your colonoscopy yesterday (coincidentally, I had a scope too).

I am 32 years old and currently in remission for stage 3c rectal cancer. A few years ago, a colonoscopy saved my life. I was having stomach issues and was initially told it was stress related. A colonoscopy was performed just to be safe and it revealed a very large tumor. After a year of chemo, radiation, and two major surgeries, I am now in complete remission. If it wasn’t for the colonoscopy, I probably would not be here.

I’m not sure if you are aware, but March 2012 is colorectal awareness month. According to the WHO, colon cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer deaths, and more people die from colon cancer each year than breast cancer. However, colon cancer typically does not get the same attention as other types of cancer, particularly compared to breast cancer (have you ever watched an NFL game in October). While I’m thankful for media attention regarding any type of cancer, I can’t help but to feel a little jealous of the fact that I can’t turn around in October without seeing pink, and yet most people do not know that March is colorectal awareness month.

Due to the part of the anatomy involved, many who are diagnosed with this disease feel stigmatized. Let’s face it, it’s more fun to talk about breasts than colons, rectums, bowel movements, and ostomies. I feel fairly confident saying that, on behalf of all colorectal patients, I really appreciate your openness about getting proper screening. Publicity on a prominent blog is wonderful and I hope the trend continues.

The procedure is no big deal, and it can save your life. It’s one of the few diagnostic procedures that can also actually prevent the problem it’s looking for.

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NEW STUDY: Law School Deans Violate Law To Skew Rankings.

GLOBAL WARMING: Already Saving Lives!

GUNWALKER: Connecting The Dots On Fast And Furious.

Over the last thirty years, time and again, after a contempt citation was filed by either a House or Senate committee, compromise was reached before a full vote in the corresponding body.

During the Bush administration, Karl Rove and Harriet Miers were cited for contempt in the U.S. attorney firings, but a deal was worked out before a full House vote. In 1996, Clinton aide Jack Quinn (who would later conspire with Holder during the Marc Rich pardon) was cited for contempt in the Travel Office firings, but a compromise was reached before a vote in the full House.

In 1982, Reagan Interior Secretary James Watt was cited for contempt over documents related to Canadian energy policy, but a compromise was reached when members of the House were allowed to view them. But the exception to the rule of compromise or capitulation occurred later that same year, and would continue into 1983.

Ronald Reagan’s EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) administrator, Anne Gorsuch, was cited for contempt by the House Public Works Committee over documents related to lax enforcement of the cleanup of hazardous waste dumps. In December 1982, she was held in contempt by the House in a bipartisan vote, and was the first Cabinet-level official to suffer that fate. She resigned in March of 1983, and Reagan then gave Congress full access to the documents.

The previous month, Reagan fired one of Gorsuch’s top aides, Rita Lavelle, who was in charge of the clean-up fund. In April, Lavelle was cited for contempt by the House Energy and Commerce Committee and in May was found in contempt by the House in a unanimous vote. Lavelle was acquitted in federal court of contempt but later convicted of perjury for lying to Congress and served four months of a six-month sentence in prison. Twenty-two EPA officials, including Burford and Lavelle, lost their jobs over the scandal.

So now the current issue is whether Eric Holder should be held in contempt. The EPA scandal of the Reagan years, and other issues such as the Travel Office and U.S. attorney firings, pale in comparison to the deadly Fast and Furious scandal, along with its apparent cover-up.

Read the whole thing.

SHUT UP, PLEBES: FCC Inquires Into Its Own Authority To Regulate Communication Service Shutdowns. “The Federal Communications Commission is reviewing whether or when the police and other government officials can intentionally interrupt cellphone and Internet service to protect public safety. A scary proposition which will easily become a First Amendment issue. Does the FCC have the authority to [regulate local or state authorities’ decision to] take down cellular networks if they determine there is an imminent threat? The FCC is currently asking for public input (PDF) on this decision.”

A cellular or Internet shutdown should be interpreted as a serious warning sign of ongoing government misconduct.

Related: Courts, not FCC, Should Protect Free Speech against Mobile Service Shut-offs. Shutting off service should be a strict-liability tort, with no government immunity. Not that that’s likely. Responsibility is for the little people.

LIST: HOW TO BE PREPARED FOR A BIG STORM.

SPACE: Japan Eyes New Asteroid-Sample Mission:

Space engineers in Japan are scoping out an ambitious follow-up to the country’s Hayabusa mission, which snagged samples from the asteroid Itokawa and returned them to Earth in 2010.

The successor spacecraft, known as Hayabusa 2, would carry out an aggressive study of another asteroid. The probe would drop off two landers, blast the asteroid with an impactor and send more samples back to Earth for close-up inspection.

Scientifically interesting — and also very useful if you’re thinking about asteroid mining down the line.