“WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU CROSS JIM BUNNING AND A GIANT SQUID?” Another reason to be glad that Jeff Goldstein is blogging again!

THE DASCHLE V. THUNE BLOG is doing firsthand reporting, with photos, from Daschle’s latest campaign swing. I’m not sure Daschle’s campaign is in as bad a shape as they suggest and as some others have maintained (see this Volokh poll-debunking), but then I’m not there, and they are.

I SUPPOSE IT COULDN’T HAPPEN IN AN ELECTION YEAR, but a reader suggests Bill Clinton as a roving anti-terror ambassador to Europe, etc.

This idea actually isn’t so dumb. As I noted a while back, Clinton was very good at Davos on this stuff, and he’s been good on the WMD issue, too.

I’M SETTING UP A PHOTOBLOG over at the Exposure Manager site — it’s here. They’re still in beta but it looks pretty good. For blogosphere insiders, it’s an IverDean operation, meaning that Armed Liberal is somehow involved.

I’LL BE ON THE CBC’S Cross-Country Checkup in a few minutes, talking about the Canadian file-sharing decision. Click on “listen live” to, er, listen live.

UPDATE: Canadian blogger Kate McMillan listened and noticed something interesting.

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK (FOR THEMSELVES):

The law requires everyone to follow the speed limit and other traffic regulations, but in Suffolk County, exceptions should be made for cops and their families, police union officials say.

Police Benevolent Association president Jeff Frayler said Thursday it has been union policy to discourage Suffolk police officers from issuing tickets to fellow officers, regardless of where they work.

“Police officers have discretion whenever they stop anyone, but they should particularly extend that courtesy in the case of other police officers and their families,” Frayler said in a brief telephone interview Thursday. “It is a professional courtesy.”

Frayler’s comments echo views expressed in the spring union newsletter, in which treasurer Bill Mauck exhorts “you don’t summons another cop” and says that when officers decline to cite each other, “the emotion you feel should be that of joy.”

Maurice Mitchell, a project coordinator with the Long Island Progressive Coalition, a nonprofit advocacy group, said the PBA’s position undermines taxpayer confidence in law enforcement.

It’s bad enough that they do this, but it’s even worse that they brag about it. But wait, it gets worse:

Angie Carpenter, a Republican lawmaker from West Islip and chairwoman of the legislature’s public safety committee, said she didn’t have a problem with the PBA’s policy because she believes it will be applied judiciously.

“It’s the same way they would offer a professional courtesy to a doctor pulled over on the way to the hospital to deliver a baby,” she said. “Besides, I can’t imagine that if some police officer was to commit an egregious offense that they wouldn’t be cited, regardless of who they are.”

So much for political oversight. So a doctor en route to an emergency is the same as a cop who’s just driving too fast? Sheesh. Are these people for real?

UPDATE: Rand Simberg observes:

While this is outrageous in itself, it would seemingly put the lie to the notion that the purpose of such laws in for public safety, since it’s no “safer” for a police officer’s wife to speed than it is for anyone else. It’s a tacit admission that it’s all about revenue generation. . . . Remember this the next time you hear a lecture from a cop about how dangerous it is to exceed the speed limit.

Indeed.

ANOTHER UPDATE: More here, including this bit:

Police departments often commend officers who have a knack for seizing drugs and arresting drunken drivers.

But in Bel-Ridge, such officers risk a stern warning.

Supervisors have warned some of them that busting bad guys or making time-consuming arrests distracts them from their true mission – generating money for the village.

Sheesh.

WELL, THIS LOOKS TO BE A SUCCESS for diplomacy in the Middle East:

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) – The son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi said Wednesday Arab countries should support President Bush’s campaign to promote democracy in the Middle East.

Numerous Arab governments have rejected Bush’s democracy initiative, notably Egypt’s and Saudi Arabia’s, as an imposition unsuited to Arab culture and traditions.

“Instead of shouting and criticizing the American initiative, you have to bring democracy to your countries, and then there will be no need to fear America or your people,” said Seif al-Islam Gadhafi. “The Arabs should either change or change will be imposed on them from outside.”

Is he sincere? Who knows? But as Eugene Volokh notes, the really interesting thing is that he’s saying this, whether he means it or not.

TOUGH TIMES FOR THE ANTI-GLOBALIZATION CROWD, according to this piece from The Economist. Excerpt:

Iraq means there are bigger issues on people’s minds than the evils of Starbucks. In which case, why not meld anti-capitalist with anti-war protests, as happened last year? Because, fourth, apathy has spread among the ranks. Discussion papers include sad references to “disappointing and poorly-attended meetings” and “sheer lack of turnout”.

Then there are those damn bloggers.

ED CONE has some advice for John Kerry:

John Kerry needs to lay out a serious plan for exiting Iraq and fighting terror before he gets much further into campaigning for president. If he doesn’t get it right, he doesn’t deserve the job. . . .

A simply-stated, direct, and credible policy on Iraq and the war on terror would establish Kerry as a viable alternative to Bush. Without one, the race might as well be over already.

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: Mark Kleiman has a Kerry speech he’d like to see. I’d like to see it, too.

MORE EVIDENCE THAT Bernard Goldberg was right, in the form of an article from the Associated Press with the scary headline “Bush Loyalists Pack Iraq Press Office.”

Er, except that “pack” turns out to mean that 33% of those there have some sort of (undefined) GOP tie. But as reader Patrick Sennett notes, to a press used to newsrooms that are upwards of 95% Democratic, I suppose an operation that’s one-third Republican must seem inconceivably rightward-tilting!

UPDATE: On the other hand, a reader who for obvious reasons would rather remain nameless, has this rather negative report. He’s a guy I’ve corresponded with more than once, and he looked into taking a job with the CPA. This is what he heard from people he considers knowledgeable, who are not journalists:

They all came back to me with the same story. Go if you want, but know what you are getting into. And what you are getting into is a completely incompetent organization. They had a high opinion of Bremer, but other than that, nothing. In particular they highlighted the presence of political appointees – sons of prominent Bush contributors, quite often – who had absolutely no qualifications whatsoever for their jobs and were doing disastrously poor work there.

They also commented on a really pathological culture where anyone, anyone at all, who in any way dissented from the party line on any issue was harshly suppressed, with their careers ended on more than one occasion. So if a third of the people in the press office are connected to the Administration, then the AP has (in my opinion) started to nose around the edges of a real story.

If that’s the real story, then that’s what we should be hearing about — though you’d have to go beyond the press room, I suppose, to get the story. Unfortunately, the “bunker mentality” often emerges in response to slanted reporting, which is one of the reasons that slanted reporting on topics of such importance is a bad thing. I’d like to see some trustworthy journalists reporting on this subject. It’s too important to get wrong.

ANOTHER UPDATE: On the other hand, reader Mark Patton weighs in with this observation:

Your correspondent may be right that there could be the beginnings of a real story in excessive Administration loyalty being pushed by Bush loyalists, but two quick thoughts come to mind:

1. The AP story doesn’t assert that any stories being “pushed” are false. If they’re merely counterbalancing CNN, Reuters, and the AP that’s probably only fair. There’s surely a difference between bucking the dominant press culture and living in panglossian la-la-land, and there’s nothing in the AP story to indicate these guys have crossed the line.

2. The AP writer’s commentary source is some guy at the Center for American Progress, which he credulously (or mendaciously) describes as “non-partisan.” Oooh-kaaay. By that standard, the Heritage Foundation is non-partisan, too.

Another reader suggests that this is a pre-emptive strike by Democrats to try to undercut the impact of good news from Iraq between now and the election. (Or maybe a preemptive strike by journalists who’ve missed the story and are looking for excuses?) Maybe so. At any rate, I tend to trust my correspondent’s email more than the AP account. And it’s on a more important topic than who the PR flacks are. But I’d really like to see a story by somebody credible — maybe John F. Burns? — on the general remarks about the CPA. In the meantime, here’s a fairly critical take on the CPA, from Michael Rubin of AEI.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Rich Galen emails the following:

All which follows is on the record:

AP reporter Jim Krane is doing a similar piece – largely aimed, I suspect, at me. There are a couple of points:

1. Political loyalties are, to me, like sexual preference, is none of my business. Don’t ask, don’t tell. I only know when someone is a Republican when they say they know my son who is the REAL political animal in the family.

2. As I said to Krane: If I wanted to work for the Bush campaign, my ass would be parked in an office on Wilson Blvd in Arlington; not dodging mortars, rpg’s, rockets, and AK-47 fire in Iraq.

3. It is only the most cynical view of the world – as opposed to a skeptical view – which would lead you to believe that volunteering to work in a war zone is somehow a cheap and dirty undertaking.

4. I challenge you to find a State Department career person who is a Bush Republican.

I’m in Amman, as I type this. Enroute to Riyadh. I’m looking for talent
for a “Riyadh – Girls Gone Wild” video.

When that comes out, we’ll know the war is over. I’d still like to see more stories on this stuff, though.

VOTING OUT AZNAR’S PARTY has not solved Spain’s problems with terrorism. (Had it as just “Aznar” before — my mistake.)

MICKEY KAUS: “Internet Explorer, as James Baker might say, is neither Democratic nor Republican.”

QUESTION TIME: The Belgravia Dispatch has Twenty Questions for Richard Clarke.

Tim Blair, meanwhile, notes Seven Questions for War Opponents.

UPDATE: Now it’s Rand Simberg, with questions for George Soros:

How many children were dying from starvation and disease in Iraq under a corrupt UN sanctions regime which padded the bank accounts of bureaucrats so that Saddam could build palaces? How many were being starved and tortured under the tyranny of the Taliban?

How many new mass graves do you expect to appear in an Iraq under US occupation?

Read the whole thing.

HOWARD LOVY:

The “toxic buckyball” fish story has enraged the science, business and political nanotech community, since it creates further misconceptions about the nature of scientific inquiry in general and nanotech in particular.

Physicists and computer engineers feel like the neglected stepchild of the material scientists and chemists who control the purse strings at the NNI. This is a generalization that doesn’t necessarily stand up to scrutiny, but it is nevertheless the perception that many physicists have regarding the priorities of the NNI. To me, it goes the the roots of the Drexler/Smalley disagreements. Chemists and physicists do not always speak the same language.

Indeed.

THIS STORY won’t surprise many people in the blogosphere:

A federal investigation into the bank accounts of the Saudi Embassy in Washington has identified more than $27 million in “suspicious” transactions—including hundreds of thousands of dollars paid to Muslim charities, and to clerics and Saudi students who are being scrutinized for possible links to terrorist activity, according to government documents obtained by NEWSWEEK. The probe also has uncovered large wire transfers overseas by the Saudi ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan. The transactions recently prompted the Saudi Embassy’s longtime bank, the Riggs Bank of Washington, D.C., to drop the Saudis as a client after embassy officials were “unable to provide an explanation that was satisfying,” says a source familiar with the discussions.

Keep tightening the screws.

UPDATE: Reader John Kelly emails: “The timing of the Saudi’s OPEC initiative to raise oil prices now looks suspiciously like payback for the investigation, no?”

I think they’re worried about a lot more than just that.

SOMEBODY ELSE who hasn’t learned the Trent Lott lesson, and apparently doesn’t realize that anyone else did, either.

UPDATE: More, including who really deserves the credit for noticing this story, here. Meanwhile Justin Katz takes me to task. It’s not really a Trent Lott moment — Bunning made a thoughtless comment, not a wish for continued segregation — but it’s bad enough.

MATTHEW HOY REPORTS on an antiwar protest and counterprotest, in San Diego: “First, the assorted leftist A.N.S.W.E.R. groups managed to turn out less than 50 people — and three dogs. The dogs were nice.”

He’ll have photos later. [He has them now. And LT Smash has photos now, too, and reports “I was interviewed on camera by FOX 6, KUSI 9, and KFMB 8 (CBS); a reporter from the Union-Tribune also interviewed me. The press didn’t spend much time with the A.N.S.W.E.R. folks — I guess they’d heard all of their talking points before.”]

UPDATE: Reader Matt Laflin emails:

I was at the rally in San Diego today.

Group organized by Smash: each person had an American flag.

Group organized by A.N.S.W.E.R: several Palestinian flags, a handful of Iraqi flags (including the version with Saddam’s handwriting), a Cuban flag, and one American flag.with a peace sign in place of the stars.

That just about says it all for me.

Incidentally, one of the A.N.S.W.E.R. people ended a series of invectives aimed at us with: “You guys just go home to your blogs!”

Heh. It’s getting to them, I guess.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Click “More” to read it.

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