March 15, 2008

JEROME ARMSTRONG NOTES good polls for McCain: "On the heels of a Rasmussen poll showing McCain leading Obama or Clinton by a 46-40 margin in Iowa, Zogby includes Nader in a national poll. Now, Zogby loves to make news, so I wouldn't put it past him to have polled for a sample showing Nader doing well, and he did, showing McCain, Clinton, Nader at 45, 39, 6 and McCain, Obama, Nader at 44, 39, 6."

More an indicator of the Democrats' troubles at the moment than a predictor of what will happen in the fall. Still, better news for McCain than anyone would have expected a few months ago. Of course, things could reverse again in the next few months.

A ROUNDUP OF interesting new videogames.

SEX EARLIER IN LIFE REDUCES DELINQUENCY? Makes sense to me. Most of that juvenile-delinquent behavior is just an effort to get laid anyway, so . . . .

"ALMOST BELIEVABLE." John Kass writes: "Barack Obama looked me straight in the eye. I heard him speak. Yet unlike some other pundits, I felt no thrill going up my leg. . . . I wanted to believe Obama, and almost did." (Via TalkLeft).

UPDATE: Gerald Posner at the Huffington Post: "I'm still in the Barack camp. But, as a vocal supporter, I'd like just a couple of answers about the flap over Reverend Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr, the former pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ, the Chicago megachurch where the Obamas have been members for 20 years. . . . Barack is not responsible for Wright's views. However, how he responds to those views - and whether he is being straight with us, the voters - is critical as to whether he should lead our country."

ANOTHER UPDATE: Oprah Winfrey goes to Wright's church, too? "Wright, 65, is a straight-talking pragmatist who arrived in Chicago as an outsider and became an institution. He has built a congregation of 8,500, including the likes of Oprah Winfrey and hip-hop artist Common, by offering an alternative to socially conservative black churches that are, Wright believes, too closely tied to Chicago's political dynasties." That's from a 2007 Chicago Tribune piece via Hot Air. This kind of makes me see Oprah a bit differently, too. "Not many people would associate Oprah’s easygoing nature and warm, welcoming appeal with the kind of oratory provided by Wright." As with Mitt Romney on guns, I'm starting to think that they haven't been entirely straight with us.

MORE: More Obama/Wright scrutiny from Jake Tapper of ABC News. Plus, further digging from Tom Maguire.

INSTAPUNK has added a not-really-necessary apology to this post. He got kind of cranky because I didn't link it last night. But, see, blogging -- my kind, anyway, not essay-blogging like his -- is sort of like DJ'ing. It's not just what songs you play, but in what order. Sometimes a song's good, but it just doesn't fit into the mix.

UPDATE: More on the blogging/DJ comparision.

JERRY POURNELLE continues to blog his radiation treatments, along with much else. If you're a fan and would like to help him out, hit the PayPal subscription button. I did. (Bumped).

THE FORCES OF DIVISION are raising their ugly heads again.

WHY AREN'T THE VIETNAMESE more grateful to Tom Hayden?

MEGAN MCARDLE IS overcome by lust.

AN ARMY OF SPITZERS?

A LOSS TO POLITICAL COVERAGE, in Tennessee and elsewhere. A.C. Kleinheider is let go from WKRN. Here's a roundup of reactions from Katie Granju. I think it sucks.

JUDGMENT: Obama: I Trusted Rezko.

SAMIZDATA: How would free individuals handle climate change?

A WRITERS' STRIKE AT DAILYKOS: No, they're not demanding money. Just respect for Hillary supporters from the Obama crowd. "Would Obama encourage that sort of anger, bullying, intimidation and hate from his followers toward another Democrat and her supporters? Do those followers of his help his cause at the end of the day?" (Via Joe Gandelman, who observes: "This might seem to be a provincial conflict, but it is highly significant. In political terms, it underscores the raw, angry and bitter rivalry between supporters of Obama and Clinton.")

HILLARY LEADS ST. PATRICK'S PARADE in Pittsburgh, with a big crowd. You'd think they'd be supporting O'bama!

ROGER SIMON: With Obama Wounded and Hillary Unappealing, Will Gore Finally Surface?

ED MORRISSEY: "The reaction of Obama supporters to Jeremiah Wright has certainly been instructive, especially those who had plenty to say about Mitt Romney and Mormonism last year."

UPDATE: I don't recall Mitt Romney nodding in agreement with racist or anti-American statements.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Contrast.

MORE: An Obama defense from Cass Sunstein. "This is the Barack Obama I have known for nearly 15 years -- a careful and evenhanded analyst of law and policy, unusually attentive to multiple points of view. . . . Obama has a genuinely independent mind, he's a terrific listener and he goes wherever reason takes him. . . . In recent weeks, his speaking talents, and the cultlike atmosphere that occasionally surrounds him, have led people to wonder whether there is substance behind the plea for 'change' -- whether the soaring phrases might disguise emptiness and vagueness. But nothing could be further from the truth. He is most comfortable in the domain of policy and detail."

EARMARKS AS USUAL: "For Congressional Appropriators, Thursday night's vote cashiering the earmark moratorium was an embarrassment of riches, with some 71 Senators endorsing Capitol Hill's spending culture. For everyone else, it was merely embarrassing."

THE SHADOW OF SPITZERISM: Prosecutorial misconduct in the Enron case? "'The brief reveals suppression of exculpatory evidence by the Enron Task Force of a massive scale. The entire brief is devastating to the Task Force's prosecution of Skilling and the late Enron chairman, Ken Lay.' . . . I'm still waiting for this to capture the attention of the press, which had been so rivited on Fastow's testimony at the trial."

HOW TO BUY A PERSONAL WATERCRAFT -- plus video of sawing one in half.

A LOOK AT VOLVO'S PLUG-IN HYBRID.

ICEBERGS in Lake Michigan?

AN OPEN LETTER to white people.

STORMS IN ATLANTA: Reader Curt Matern emails: "I live about ten blocks away from the Georgia Dome. I've got to tell you, that was one scary damned storm. My car was really whacked by concrete, which is fixable. However, I thought the building would come down around me. I have lived in Atlanta since '73. Un-freaking-believable! And here comes another one." Hunker down.

THRILLING MEMORIES OF the Subaru XT.

YOUR MONEY BACK, if not satisfied.

A LEPRECHAUN in the White House?

WHEN A MEDIA ORGANIZATION DOES IT TO AN INDIVIDUAL, IT'S NOT COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT: At least, that seems to be the Associated Press's position.

Jules Crittenden comments:

Of course the key words re the AP are not “news value” or “public needed to see,” but “legal department.” When you’re a multi-million-$$$ corporation and you have one of those, then you get to decide what the public needs to see and where they get to see it.

That may turn out not to be the case . . . .

And some worm-turns thoughts over at the AP-silenced Snapped Shots, which has a much better claim of "fair use" than the AP did.

ANOTHER UPDATE: HEH:

In disputes of this kind, one would normally bet on the multinational megacorp with the big legal department. But it's pretty clear from her general philosophy that "Kristen" doesn't give away much for free, and certainly not "exotic photographs". And, given what one of my readers calls her "fully-funded mandate" from the Governor of New York, she presumably has the pockets to take AP to court. You go, girl! It's not often you get a case where there's someone in the room with a higher hourly rate than the lawyers.

She may find lawyers willing to represent her on quite favorable terms.

MICKEY KAUS ON OBAMA: "If it offends you, I condemn it!"

UPDATE: Related thoughts here.

GEE, D'YA THINK? Maybe China shouldn't be hosting the Olympics.

INSTAPUNK ON OBAMA: Including that often-sound phrase, "Glenn Reynolds is wrong."

MEDIA BATTLESPACE PREPARATION in advance of Petraeus's testimony. "I think it will take a willing suspension of disbelief to trust much of what you read about it in the MSM."

MOANING IN AMERICA: Shockingly, no Eliot Spitzer jokes are involved.

Plus this: "What would Barack Obama look like if he were a woman? Would he look like Susan Estrich, Geraldine Ferraro, or Oprah Winfrey? When Oprah endorsed him, 'race rushed in.'"

YEP: "What does this all have to do with my blog...nothing really, except that there's a lot going on in these clubs, and that a bubbly little girl with an innocent smile running around the club might blow down the walls of Jericho someday."

March 14, 2008

IT'S National Potato Chip Day.

And it's another -- perhaps not safe for work -- culinary holiday, too. Celebrate one or the other. Or Pi day. Or all three!

UPDATE: Plus, something to look forward to in April. (Possibly NSFW).

LAUGH AWAY, but I actually think it looks kind of cool.

UPDATE: Not quite what it appears. Thanks to multiple readers for the link. Still looks cool, though.

JEREMIAH WRIGHT leaves Obama campaign.

UPDATE: A Goolsbee echo?

THE UNIVERSAL SPITZER: "We ought to think of all politicians as Spitzers. No, they don't all have lurid involvements with prostitutes. But they all have an inflated view of their superiority over the rest of us. . . . What about the rest of us? To the extent that we root for strong politicians, join political cults, invest our hopes and desires in charismatic leaders, all of us are Spitzer wives."

LARRY VAN GUILDER is having some tough times with his wife's severe rheumatoid arthritis. If you've got any words of help or encouragement, drop by his blog and leave 'em. (Via Katie Granju).

OBAMA RESPONDS ON THE JEREMIAH WRIGHT SCANDAL, and Tom Maguire has it unpacked. "Whoa. It is hardly as if this is the church Obama's parents selected and he inherited. He sought out Wright, was moved by Wright, and is now pretending he had no idea Wright said these things."

UPDATE: It's coming fast-and-furious: Obama Says Rezko Played a Bigger Fundraising Role Than Previously Known.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Ed Morrissey emails: "I sat in his church, but I didn't inhale."

MORE: Airbrushing the "radical roots" at Rolling Stone?

STILL MORE: "A very temporizing sort of visionary."

MORE STILL: Richard Miniter writes In Defense of Obama's Pastor: "It is a lack of understanding of the black church that contributes to the blogosphere’s and MSM’s mistaking Rev. Wright for a hate-monger. The time has come for some balance."

But John Hinderaker has questions about AIDS.

HARRY REID'S Fireside Chat.

AN OBAMA SUPPORTER describes Hillary as "Eliot Spitzer in pants." Double-ouch.

MORE ON THE JEREMIAH WRIGHT SCANDAL, from Juliette Ochieng.

THIS SHOULD BE INTERESTING: Larry Kudlow interviews Bush on the economy on his show tonight. CNBC at 7 pm Eastern.

WHY HILLARY IS STAYING IN THE RACE: "She’s staying in the race to see what happens — to lengthen it so that there is a chance Obama will implode for some reason or combination of reasons, leaving her to pick up the pieces."

UPDATE: Teaching the horse to sing.

SPRING BREAK: Not really living up to the hype:

Out of the over 11 million full-time college students in America, only tens of thousands make it to the kinds of places documented in the Girls Gone Wild series. According to a survey conducted this year by the National Association of College Stores, 37 percent of students who responded said they were going home for the break and 28 percent said they would work, while 5 percent were going on volunteer trips and 6 percent simply said they would “do nothing.” Just under a quarter said they were “taking a special trip.”

Rough estimates provided by Jeff Jacobsen, president of the college tour operator Student Travel Services, suggest that 85,000 to 95,000 students visit Cancún, Acapulco, Jamaica and the Bahamas combined each year.

So if you're a student and feeling left out, you're not as left out as you think.

HOUSE PASSES FISA BILL without telecom immunity. I love this passage from the story:

Congress then defiantly left Washington for a two-week spring break.

My spring break's only one week. Maybe if I were more defiant . . . .

GOOD POINT: "Furthermore, the cherry-picking defense, even when plausible, has never been accepted when it comes to racism. Don Imus, for example, has received widespread condemnation for very occasional statements that showed racial insensitivity. Trent Lott was condemned for one statement praising Strom Thurmond's 1948 presidential campaign."

UPDATE: Having it both ways. The Internet makes it harder to tell different audiences different things.

PREDICTING THE FUTURE, with the help of asparagus.

NORMAN HSU IS BACK IN COURT: "As the trial of embattled Illinois political insider Tony Rezko creates headaches for Sen. Barack Obama, the legal fate of Sen. Hillary Clinton's famously disgraced campaign financier is playing out as well. Norman Hsu, who on Feb. 28 pleaded not guilty to federal charges that he cheated investors out of $20 million, appeared in the Southern District of New York on Friday. There was no trial. Rather, the former Clinton backer and his lawyers were there to structure the process for upcoming legal proceedings." Hillary will love those.

MY UNDERWATER TEST OF THE SPARE AIR DEVICE -- a report, with video, at Popular Mechanics.

OH, JOY: Uncle Sam Nears a Massive Banking, Housing Bailout.

UPDATE: From the comments: "As usual, there are no penalties for foolishness. The people like me who made rational housing/mortgage decisions and make their payments on time get to bail out the fools."

IS "FANNIE MAE" TOAST? Plus, "lush executive compensation." Which is only bad in the non-government-related corporate world . . . .

WHY GREEN CARS NEED to be sexy. Indeed.

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER on today's identity politics. (Via Vodkapundit).

A SURPRISE GUILTY PLEA from famed trial lawyer Dickie Scruggs.

OBAMA LISTS HIS EARMARKS, challenges Hillary to release hers.

UPDATE: Related items here and here.

WHEN GOOD NEWS ON IRAQ isn't news. Which is pretty much all the time.

THOUGHTS ON Jews, Blacks, and political power.

IN THE MAIL: Space Vulture, which Gene Wolfe calls "a real slam-bang heroic space opera written by men who haven’t forgotten a beloved book they shared as boys. Read it, and have a thrilling adventure that would have been serialized in Planet Stories.” Stan Lee blurbs it too. I think it's a takeoff on the old Space Eagle series, which I vaguely remember.

Plus, a rather unconventional coauthor!

MORE ON McCain's vaccine blunder. "Politicians such as McCain are very efficient at giving voters what they want. If he wants to be a responsible leader, he should not buy into such flagrant untruths. Unfortunately, as long as there are voters who need to believe those untruths, other politicians will follow suit."

MICKEY KAUS on Obama and affirmative action.

UPDATE: Related stuff here.

DAN RIEHL: Obama Responds Weakly As Wright Problem Worsens. Yeah,this is a place where he could learn from the Clintons.

UPDATE: Much more here. America created the AIDS virus? Is there any loony anti-US theory this guy doesn't subscribe to?

JESSE VENTURA '08? I may be wrong, but it seems to me that his moment has passed.

A UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA STUDY says that red-light cameras lead to more crashes.

I can't say I'm surprised.

GOOD INFLATION NEWS: "U.S. consumer prices were unexpectedly flat last month, a government report showed." Let's hope it stays that way.

PINK PISTOLS: Can guns protect gays?

HAPPY PI DAY! Finally, a reason to celebrate 3/14.

LAPTOP BANS spread from classrooms to business.

SPITZERPALOOZA! If you missed PJM Political on XM Satellite radio last night, you can hear it online for free right here.

HOW IT WORKS: The airborne laser cannon.

March 13, 2008

MEGAN MCARDLE EXPLAINS why she is not a prostitute.

OINK, OINK: Via email, I learn that the earmark moratorium failed in the Senate, 29-71.

MARK PENN: Obama "really can't win the general." Yes he can.

THE CHICAGO WAY: Obama earmark goes to hospital where his wife works, shortly after his wife gets a big raise. If he were a Republican, this would be a scandal.

UPDATE: But there was also an earmark for the "High Explosive Air Burst Technology Program."

SO ANN ALTHOUSE has been taking (and posting) lots of pictures with her new fisheye lens. I'm kind of jealous, because I don't have a fisheye lens. But I do have a 12-24mm zoom that's almost a fisheye. With today being the last day before spring break I was too busy to get out and take exciting pictures around town, but I did carry the camera to the Law School.

Here's a picture of the seldom-photographed Insta-Office at the Law School, somewhat neater than usual:

Here's a look down at the rotunda floor, which reminds me of the Star Trek episode set on Triskelion. I always want to bet twenty quatloos on the newcomer.

And here's a look up at the other rotunda, named after Howard Baker, Jr., a local boy who made good.

Some earlier lens-blogging here. Also here.

UPDATE: GayPatriotWest emails to ask where the books are - the bookshelves are to the left, outside the picture except for a bit of corner. Though I'm trying to keep only books I'm actually using in the office, to hold down the clutter. Which leads to his next comment: "It's funny how we imagine other bloggers -- and how wrong our images are. I had always imagined you in a very cluttered office, with piles of law journals on the desk and books on the floor."

That was my old office. I moved into this one over the Christmas break and haven't managed to crap it up yet. (With the retirement of so many of the folks we hired in the 1970s, I'm suddenly one of the senior faculty and thus qualify for one of the big offices, though I actually had a nicer office back when I practiced law). I'm vaguely hopeful that I'll do better these days, as when I threw away the astounding amount of paper that filled the old office, it seemed that most of it was old and that my mess-production rate had fallen.

And readers want to know what's on the banner over the desk. It says -- complete with the quotation marks for academically acceptable irony - "For God, For Country, and For Yale."

RECORD SNOW in Wisconsin: "This is the first time in Green Bay’s modern-day weather history that more than 80 inches of snow has been measured (117 years of snowfall data)." I wish we'd gotten, say, 8 inches of that. It hasn't done more than flurry here all year. Not that I want to re-enact the Blizzard of 1993.

U.N.C. MURDER SUSPECT ALSO suspected of a murder at Duke.

CHANGE AND OBEY.

OUCH: "Obama is being Jesse-ized by the day. The Clintons began the job, and Wright is finishing it."

Plus this: "We've previously heard an unorthodox assessment of the American character from Michelle Obama; that, we were told, was a poor word choice or that she couldn't have meant what she actually said. Well, now we're hearing about how rotten a place America is from Obama's pastor as well as from his wife. It's getting harder and harder to believe Barack Obama himself doesn't at least partially share their opinion." Especially in light of the flag-pin and pledge-of-allegiance kerfuffles. Obama may have been admirably courageous in refusing to engage in public displays of patriotism he regarded as pointless, but he will likely learn why other politicians go out of their way to do so.

Also, "The Audacity of Hate." And Tom Maguire asks:

What are the odds that, of all the ministers on Obama's "African American Religious Leadership Committee", only Wright is this far out in left field? What are the odds that the MSM will push down that road? My answers - slim and none.

That depends on how hard the Clinton folks push behind the scenes, doesn't it?

UPDATE: The Anchoress says it's not a case of the race card being played: "It’s a victim card. This is about the Primacy of Victimhood over all else. And frankly, I think if white America falls for this and starts freaking out over Wright’s “racism” then they will be submitting to a HUGE and insidious manipulation by the Clinton team."

MEGAN MCARDLE: "I'm not distressed to hear that the Feds were spying on Eliot Spitzer. No, not because I don't like the man, but because I think maybe we should spy on our politicians, all the time. No probable cause, you say? I fling back at you Mark Twain's observation that America only has one distinct criminal class: Congress. . . . I think it's entirely appropriate that the anti-corruption police watch politicians like hawks. They've chosen public office; that conveys a lot of responsibility to the public, including assuring them that your votes aren't being bought outright. I also think that politicians, when caught in a crime, should automatically get the maximum penalty; if they think the law is such a good idea, they ought to suffer heartily when they disregard it."

UPDATE: Reader Dan Duffy emails: "Megan McArdle's idea of constantly investigating and heavy sentencing requirements would no doubt be rejected by politicians as intrusive and unfair as no other Americans are treated this way. Really? I was a designated nuclear attack pilot during my Navy days and also held a top secret clearance. We were under constant observation on every part of our lives. Financial, medical, domestic life, drug use, prescriptions, I mean everything. In the Navy, a junior enlisted man with marijuana in his system would get fined a few hundred bucks and lose a stripe. A designated nuclear attack pilot would get ten years in Leavenworth."

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Scott Blanksteen emails: "It's also the case that all IRS agents are audited *every* year. Same exact thinking..."

MAYBE WE NEED RED-LIGHT CAMERAS FOR THE RED LIGHTS. Heh.

AT EXTREME MORTMAN, the Eliot Spitzer quote of the day. Heh.

THE DAILY SHOW takes on Code Pink in Berkeley. On the other hand, Karl Rove's agents are still hard at work.

STILL MORE on-the-road barbecue-blogging.

I BLAME HILLARY: 13% of registered voters think Obama is a Muslim.

UPDATE: Reader Ernest Gudath: "Sounds right. That's about the same number who think Elvis is alive." It's probably fewer than believe that Bush planned 9/11. But the folks pushing the Obama-as-Muslim idea haven't had as much time to work.

MORE ON THE D.C. GUN-BAN CASE, FROM U.S. NEWS:

Dick Heller, a longtime resident of the District of Columbia, carries a handgun for his job as a private security guard. But at the end of his shift, he packs up the .38 revolver and stashes it in a vault. He would like to keep a gun for protection at his Capitol Hill home, where he has endured the sound of gunfire for years. But he can't, because D.C. law forbids it. "They give me a gun to protect them," he says of the government, "but I'm a second-class citizen when I finish work."

Actually, you were a second-class citizen in their eyes before. You were just allowed to have a gun to protect the first-class citizens.

WALL STREET JOURNAL: Poll Puts McCain Ahead of Clinton and Obama in Pennsylvania.

A FIRST LOOK AT RAYTHEON'S "KILLER BEE" Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. Cool pix.

WHY DON'T EUROPEANS Reproduce?

IT'S NOT MICHAEL JORDAN: "Who is the procurer of prostitutes from Chicago who is mentioned anonymously in an unsealed FBI affidavit filed by the feds detailing operations of the Emperors Club, a sex-for-hire shop that allegedly ensnared embattled New York. Gov. Eliot Spitzer?" Well, that's a relief.

THE INTERNET IS FOR PORN, not voting. Yeah, why sully it with politics?

FORGET THE RACE CARD: Is the Clinton campaign playing the "Dork Card"?

AT TAXPROF, comparing the Clinton and Obama tax plans: "Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both propose significant changes to the tax code that would add to its complexity. His plan emphasizes income inequality, while hers seeks to change Americans' behavior."

THE TSA RESPONDS on its MacBook Air cluelessness. Don't TSA guys have an obligation to be up to date on laptop technology -- at least to the degree of being aware of stuff that's hyped as much as the Macbook Air was?

DYNO-TESTING the new Nissan GT-R.

IN THE MAIL: Cash-Rich Retirement: Use the Investing Techniques of the Mega-Wealthy to Secure Your Retirement Future. Looks interesting. It's about the techniques of the mega-wealthy, which is a good thing. I'd like to be "Mega-Wealthy," but I don't think either the law professor gig or the blogging one is going to do the job . . .

ABC NEWS: Obama's Pastor: God Damn America, U.S. to Blame for 9/11. "Sen. Barack Obama's pastor says blacks should not sing 'God Bless America' but 'God damn America.'" Suddenly, this stuff -- which has been around the blogosphere for a while -- has big-media legs.

UPDATE: Via Katie Granju, a PDF scan of the National Enquirer article on Obama. As I mentioned before, there's nothing as explosive as the above in the Enquirer piece, but a lot of people will see the sensational cover. I suspect the hand of Clinton-pal Ron Burkle behind the Enquirer coverage, but that doesn't account for the ABC story.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Roger Simon thinks Barack has some explaining to do. "As we all know, we don't choose our family, but Obama chose this racist demagogue as his pastor for decades. It's not funny."

MORE: Still more here.

AND MORE: Another observation from a reader: "Obama's people are calling Ferraro racist, but he's listening to this stuff in church?"

FORMER CALL GIRL SCHEDULER: "I've seen my share of Spitzers."

INDIAN TRIBE fights unionization: 'The position of this tribe is that the National Labor Relations Act does not apply to Indian tribes and the National Labor Relations Board does not have jurisdiction, and, that being the case, we don't believe we have to adopt an ordinance that allows union organizing to occur. The ordinance the tribe adopted prohibits union organizing."

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN: Sen. John Kerry confronted about Winter Soldier II.

IS THIS SCREWY OR WHAT? Obama gets no net gain after Mississippi win. If I were John McCain, I'd be asking why the party that put together these primary rules thinks it can run a health-care plan. Or the country . . . .

NOW IT'S OBAMA'S TURN: SOME UGLY JEREMIAH WRIGHT VIDEO: "Sure does feel like we're plunging into the abyss tonight."

WALL STREET JOURNAL: Voters lean toward Democrats.

It must be true -- even Bulldog Pundit is switching his registration: "I took the plunge, and have decided I will be voting for Hillary Clinton. Here’s why."

WHAT HILLARY HAS IN COMMON WITH RICK SANTORUM: "A large percentage of Pennsylvania voters dislike both of them."

RACE EMERGES AS ISSUE in Democratic campaign.

UPDATE: It's not just race, though: "The whole thing appears to be hitting a nerve for some women, who see it as a replay of the 'experienced, qualified woman passed over by slick male newcomer deemed "promising"' scenario."

JOHN MCCAIN: An instinctive regulator? Ugh.

WASHINGTON WIRE: Political Perceptions: Was Ferraro Right? It was certainly a clever way of baiting the Obama campaign into playing the race card -- and they took the bait.

Related thoughts from Mickey Kaus, who finds support from Andrew Sullivan. "If Obama were white, he wouldn't embody hopes of a post-racial future. Duh! That's part of his appeal. It seems obvious. Why does Obama dispute it?"

UPDATE: Interesting Obama defense from this commenter. The Obama campaign needs more of this stuff, and less of the calling people racist. Here's a bit: "One of my roomies -- total arch conservative -- was on law review with him, and said he was a totally great guy. I think one of the reasons is that he treats everyone with respect and consideration. he treats conservatives as friends he disagrees with, not as satanic enemies like Hillary and most of the left do. And that matters a lot." Again, the Obama campaign should remember this and not rise to Hilary's bait, which is predicated on making him come across like a traditional Angry Black Candidate.

GIVEN THE G.O.P.'S PROBLEMS, this is pretty surprising: John McCain is competitive against either Democratic candidate.

PULLING A KILL BILL -- and doubling profits? The final Harry Potter movie will be split into two parts.

QUICK, COMPLAIN TO THE W.T.O.: "German Law Bars American Ph.D.'s From Calling Themselves 'Doctor'."

PROTESTERS TRYING TO confine military recruiters to a "movable cage." Do Senators Clinton and Obama approve? Someone should ask them.

THE POLITICO: "American public support for the military effort in Iraq has reached a high point unseen since the summer of 2006, a development that promises to reshape the political landscape."

JAPAN TAKES THE LEAD in medical nanorobots.

COMPARING Eliot Spitzer, Mike Nifong, and Ronnie Earle. One thing they have in common: Media support for their misdeeds.

ROBERT NOVAK ON HOW the Bush White House is blowing it on gun rights.

MAX BOOT: Fallon didn't get it.

March 12, 2008

EAT YOUR green beans.

PAUL KRUGMAN: "I’m sorry to say that a large part of the progressive movement seems to have lost its sanity."

You know, he may have a point.

Plus, "Come on Democrats, Let's Stop the Cannibalism."

THIS LOOKS HANDY: How to Open Locks with Improvised Tools.

Of course the classic work in the field is the old MIT Guide to Lockpicking.

UPDATE: Reader Bill Twist emails:

I learned from this book, back when I was a teenager.

It's hard to argue against a book on picking locks written by a guy called "Eddie the Wire".

I got good enough that I could make a rake with a paper clip and a tension lever from the clip of a pen in only a minute or so, and open a reasonable lock in just about the same time with those same tools. Honestly, though, the best way to do it is to "borrow" the key and trace it. Then use a file on a key blank. I and my cronies had the run of the high school because of this (Janitors should lock up keys when going to lunch!). Ahhh, my mis-spent youth!

Ah, indeed. And "Billy the Twist" wouldn't be a bad pen-name either . . . .

IOWAHAWK: Amid Charges of Spitzer Tryst, Embattled Prostitute "Kristen" Expected to Resign.

ELIOT SPITZER WAS NOT CAUGHT BY THE PATRIOT ACT: "Currency transaction reporting requirements were enacted in the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970, and money laundering was made a crime in overhaul of the federal narcotics laws that took place in 1986. Believe it or not, Karl Rove did not diabolically dream these provisions up to trap unwary Democrats, nor are they part of George W. Bush's post-9/11 Politics of Fear."

And here's much more on the relevant law, and Spitzer's scrutiny, from Phil Carter. (Via Professor Bainbridge).

ALSO INTERESTING: Report: Obama Outspent Hillary 2:1 on Ohio Ads, Still Lost.

INTERESTING: "In a sign that the increasingly bitter Democratic primary campaign may provide some assistance to the Republican nominee, Rasmussen shows McCain ahead of both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in the normally blue state of Michigan. And in worse news, McCain has pulled even in Pennsylvania as well."

THE OBAMA-CLINTON-MCCAIN PARADOXES.

In short, the Clintons have been completely Clintonized, and when they turn to the media for their accustomed help, as in the past against the Right Wing Attack Machine — they learn it has become a Left-Wing Attack machine and directed at them!

McCain may become a proper antidote for all this. Unlike the verbose Michelle Obama, he really has suffered in his life; unlike Barack Obama he really has reached across the aisle and paid a price for it; and unlike Obama's promises of transparency, he really does talk in specifics and bluntly rather than in mellifluous platitudes. And as for an against-the-odds candicacy, in postmodern America a 71-year-old survivor of communist torture and malignant melonoma seems to match the narrative of a young Ivy-League graduate of mixed ancestry.

It's been fun to watch so far, anyway.

ARRESTED FOR D.U.I. with a 0.0 Breathalyzer. Nice move, guys.

FERRARO QUITS CLINTON CAMPAIGN, attacks Obama.

JACOB SULLUM ON D.C.'S DEFENSE OF ITS GUN BAN: "This sort of uncertainty would be considered intolerable in the exercise of any other fundamental right. Could a law requiring that books in the home be kept under lock and key be redeemed by arguing that courts probably would give it a 'narrowing construction'?"

ROBESPIERRE RISING. But, well, not anymore.

"ON THE BRIGHT SIDE, SEÑOR SPITZER, AT LEAST YOU HAVE A DRIVER'S LICENSE."

I'M VOTING FOR MR. CLOUDO, PRESIDENT OF HEAVEN. I also like "Not just the president of the ShinySuit 3000 Club For Men, but also a client."

But I don't think either is what the Rolling Stone folks had in mind.

UPDATE: Matthias Shapiro emails: "One might think the people who have spent the last eight years telling us that the US is exactly like pre-war Nazi Germany would be a little more wary of cult-of-personality hero worship. But one would be wrong."

MORE: Ace: "For how long will the racist media trade in age-old stereotypes about black physicality and bioluminescence?"

CLIENT #9: The market responds! Heh. If I worked on Wall Street I'd wear one of these tomorrow . . . .

INTERESTING: Chiquita Sued By U.S. Families for Support of the FARC:

The relatives of five American missionaries who were abducted and murdered by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) have filed suit against Chiquita Brands International Inc., accusing the banana company of secretly financing and arming the rebel (and terrorist) group.

Paying protection money may seem like the easy way out, but one way or another it often turns expensive. More on the case from the WSJ Law Blog.

ARE WOMEN always more empathetic?

FOOD FIGHT!

TURNING OVER THE RACE CARD: Sean Wilentz on Orlando Patterson's claims of racism in Hillary's 3:00 a.m. ad. (Posted on earlier here). Orlando Patterson responds. Plus, here's Bob Somerby on Patterson. "Perhaps the dumbest op-ed piece ever committed to paper. And perhaps, the most pre-rational. . . . It’s a prescription for the center failing to hold—for a return to pre-Enlightenment ways." Hey, the Enlightenment is a white-male construct.

FERRARO SPEAKS OUT AGAIN:

Today Ferraro told ABC she was "absolutely not" sorry for what she said.

On CBS, she called out Obama adviser David Axelrod, who Ferraro says has asked her in the past to support other minority candidates he's worked for, including New York City mayoral candidate Fernando Ferrer, and New York gubernatorial candidate Carl McCall.

"He did it with Bill Clinton, he was successful. He did it with Ed Rendell, he was less successful, and he's certainly not going to be successful with me," Ferraro said of Axelrod.

Video at the link.

UPDATE: Lots more from Tom Maguire, who is having altogether too much fun. "If Barack Obama were a smooth talking white guy with an uplifting personal biography and no discernible resume, he would be John Edwards. . . . Let's flash back to 2004, as a younger and more race-conscious Josh Marshall anticipated Barack's keynote address to the Dem convention." Of course, if Hillary were a smooth-talking white woman who hadn't been married to Bill she'd be . . . not even Geraldine Ferraro.

HMM: Harvard economists’ study: Media’s anti-war rhetoric emboldens Iraqi insurgents.

HEH. Barack Obama is black? Who knew?

MORE ON SPITZER'S FAILURES, from John Fund. "Companies almost always agreed to Mr. Spitzer's demands that they pay stiff fines and change the way they operated -- all without any trials or judicial determinations that they had done anything wrong. 'It became a kind of blackmail,"'Mr. Siegel says, 'in which he said to companies, if you don't put my friends in high positions in your company I'll drag you through the mud.'" Mr. Clean, eh?

THE BUREAUCRATIZATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION: "Every other year, data released by the Education Department’s National Center for Education Statistics provide a snapshot of the growth of part-time positions in the professoriate. This year — an off-year for that data — the federal statistics provide evidence for another shift, in which the majority of full-time professional employees in higher education are in administrative rather than [faculty] jobs. In the fall of 2004, 50.6 of professional full-time employees in higher education (excluding medical schools) were faculty members. In the fall of 2006, for which data were released Tuesday, 48.6 percent of professional, full-time jobs in higher education were held by faculty members."

HEH: "Saying that Hillary has Executive Branch experience is like saying Yoko Ono was a Beatle." From DailyKos.

MICHAEL YON evaluates American TV coverage of Iraq.

ABC NEWS THINKS THAT TIME IS on Hillary's side. Is it?

UPDATE: Reader James Killmond likes this quote from the piece: "But Clinton's campaign has proved more adept at seizing control of the race when no one is voting." Heh.

LAURA MCKENNA: Why women support Hillary.

IN THE MAIL: By Herbert London, America's Secular Challenge: The Rise of a New National Religion.

REUTERS MAKES A SHOCKING DISCOVERY: Gun Owners "Not Just Urban Criminals and Drug Dealers." Do tell.

SPITZER IS GONE, and John Podhoretz has thoughts. "Eliot Spitzer wanted what he wanted when he wanted it. That is the consistent pattern of his public life."

Rand Simberg, meanwhile, thinks Spitzer remains the future of the Democratic Party.

UPDATE: Flak failure: Damage mitigation efforts not doing so well.

"THE FURTHER BACKWARD YOU LOOK, the further forward you can see." At least until the Singularity, anyway.

ANDREW STUTTAFORD on legalizing prostitution. I agree. That doesn't get Spitzer off the hook, though, as one of the best ways to ensure that bad laws are changed is to enforce them vigorously against the powerful.

WONDERING what was really going on backstage.

AN ELECTION-SEASON ESSAY from David Mamet.

WELL, SHE'S HOTTER THAN HIM: Jonah Goldberg falls to #2 on the New York Times bestseller list, behind Valerie Bertinelli.

THE EXAMINER: Feds should probe Spitzer’s campaign funds as well.

NEWS FROM AFGHANISTAN: "A 19-year-old medic from Texas will become the first woman in Afghanistan and only the second female soldier since World War II to receive the Silver Star, the nation's third-highest medal for valor."

GREAT MOMENTS IN JOURNALISM: "Listen, we need to talk to every high-dollar hooker on the eastern seaboard, like yesterday. Get on it, people! Err, you know what I mean."

KIMBERLY STRASSEL: Spitzer's media enablers. "Journalism has many functions, but perhaps the most important is keeping tabs on public officials. . . . Yet from the start, the press corps acted as an adjunct of Spitzer power, rather than a skeptic of it."

GAY PATRIOT ON Larry Craig and Eliot Spitzer.

UPDATE: Comparing Eliot Spitzer and Bill Clinton. "I know there are distinctions, but what are the morally and legally relevant ones? Here is one: Many people believe that prostitution should be legal; no one believes that perjury should be legal. . . . But this much is certainly true. Spitzer is a hundred times more of a hypocrite than Clinton."

STRYKER CREWS IN IRAQ defend their rides.

PROMISING CIVIL RIGHTS LEGISLATION in Arizona.

March 11, 2008

VIOLATING HOUSE RULES to pass an ethics bill?

IT'S NOT JUST AS GOVERNOR: SPITZER HAS USED HOOKERS FOR 10 YEARS: SOURCES. If true, that means he was paying 'em while he was prosecuting 'em.

GEORGE W. BUSH, still President.

GEORGE BUSH MAKES big news on the Fairness Doctrine.

GERALDINE FERRARO, 1988: "If Jesse Jackson were not black, he wouldn't be in the race." No, really.

UPDATE: "Don't call me a racist, you racist!"

ANOTHER DISASTER-PREPAREDNESS LIST, with a secondary focus on . . . zombies? I don't think that 200-watt inverter will be powering a table saw, though.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: Cutting out the cardinals:

Senior Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee claim that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has left them out of discussions about a moratorium on earmarks, marking a departure from the inclusive leadership style she has employed for much of her reign.

As some appropriators grumbled, Democrats on Tuesday inched closer to an earmark moratorium, a move that would infuriate many appropriators.

“It’s going to happen,” said an irritated Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.), a senior member of the Appropriations Committee. Others were more circumspect.

I hope his irritation is justified.

UPDATE: Justin Higgins thinks I'm too pro-Democrat on this issue: "I can't help but feel that your coverage on earmarks is one-sided, and that you're actually under-representing some of the positive moves folks like John Boehner are making. He blogged about earmarks on my site and made the case clear that they welcome Pelosi and the Dems on an earmark moratorium, but they were pushing the issue first." Um, okay.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Gregory Hill emails: "The Dems are in charge right now, so they're the ones making policy. The Republicans had their chance; and blew it in a huge way. That's why they're not in charge anymore. If earmark reform was such a big deal to them, then why didn't they make a big deal of it when they had a chance to make a difference?" Yeah, I seem to remember asking them that a time or two.

FOX CALLS MISSISSIPPI FOR OBAMA. Oh, and for McCain.

UPDATE: A racial split:

The black turnout was not actually as large as some expected. It amounted to 48% of the electorate.

Obama won the black vote, 91% to 9%. Clinton won the white vote, 72% to 27%.

Obama still won.

UPDATE: Stephen Green: "But is all really said and done in the Democratic race? Is there no more fun to be had as Obama coasts his way to the nomination? Oh, hell no! The fun is just getting started. . . . It’s like 1968 all over again, but with cleaner clothes and better haircuts. Mostly, anyway." Uh oh. I didn't like 1968 very much the first time around. Except for Tonja Stromholm, who sat next to me in second grade.

OBAMA MEMO: "No Support For Claim That Clinton Has Passed `Commander-In-Chief Test.'"