TOM MAGUIRE has a Plame update.

BACK BEFORE THE ELECTION, Tony Pierce was a bit, er, uncharitable where I was concerned. But that won’t stop me from mentioning his new book. I haven’t read it, but I liked the last one.

I got interviewed by a reporter who’s doing a story on blogs and the election, and who seemed anxious to gin up more conflict between me and Jeff Jarvis than I thought was really there. I do think that a few people got a bit excited for a while. But I see blogs as intensely personal. And just as you’d forgive a friend or relative a bit of overexcitability on a key subject or two, I think you should do the same with fellow-bloggers.

DANIEL DREZNER NOTES that immigration is driving up the demand for goat meat. Good, because goat is yummy, and good for you.

I remember one of my brother’s friends (who was Namibian, I believe) in Boston complaining that “you just can’t get a good goat’s head in this town.” Maybe that’ll change!

THIS SEEMS LIKE GOOD NEWS:

Strong consumer spending and business investment and a slightly lower than previously reported trade deficit meant the US economy grew at a 3.9 per cent rate in the third quarter, the Commerce Department said.

The upward revision from the 3.7 per cent advance estimate was above consensus expectations and represented a rebound from 3.3 per cent growth in the second quarter.

Core personal consumption expenditures inflation, excluding food and energy, the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation, was unchanged at a 0.7 per cent rate in the quarter – the lowest reading since the 1960s.

Interest rates are expected to rise, though.

ED CONE EVALUATES John Edwards’ ongoing campaign.

KOFI ANNAN MUST GO: That’s Sen. Norm Coleman in tomorrow’s WSJ. It’s a free link.

UPDATE: Interesting article from the Asia Times, too:

Secretary General Annan had a blessed first term, but a second term that is turning into a nightmare. The mismanagement of the return of the UN to Iraq, alleged corruption in the oil-for-food program, and reported sexual harassment within the UN have coalesced in an unprecedented degree of staff antagonism toward Annan. The crisis has been compounded by what some have interpreted as an attempt by Annan to woo the John Kerry team with the hope of obtaining a third term if the Democrats had won the November US presidential election. . . .

While Annan has unambiguously stated that he will finish his term, in the shadowy world of diplomatic doublespeak, the fact that the statement on Iraq was made at all raised eyebrows. Ultimately, all will depend on the Bush administration, on what the current investigation of the oil-for-food program will unearth and to what use the information will be put.

I think that the investigation will unearth some devastating stuff. As to what happens next, well, that depends on whether Kofi Annan’s personal interests, or the United Nations’ institutional interests, are foremost.

IRANIAN ASSAULT ON BLOGS CONTINUES:

Reporters Without Borders has strongly protested against the Iran’s relentless efforts to stifle free expression online after the arrest of five webloggers in less than two months, the latest on 28 November 2004.

“The government is now attacking blogs, the last bastion of freedom on a network that is experiencing ever tighter control,” said the worldwide press freedom organisation. “At the same time, an Iranian delegate is sitting on a UN-created working group on Internet governance. The international community should condemn this masquerade,” it added.

Yes, it should. Perhaps Kofi Annan will rebuke the Iranians for this.

“BLOG” IS THE NUMBER ONE WORD OF THE YEAR according to Merriam-Webster.

SO YOU CAN BUY a blowjob at Target now? And yesterday it was marijuana. Then there’s this, also, appropriately enough, in the “red hot shop.”

I guess that explains Wal-Mart’s slow sales. But I’m beginning to wonder if someone isn’t hacking their site. . . . (Via Sheepdog).

THE ANCHORESS has a prediction on Tom Ridge’s replacement.

BRIAN WILLIAMS IS DISSING BLOGGERS:

According to CBS Marketwatch, at a post-election wrap-up session, when a fellow panelist “mentioned that bloggers had had a big impact on the reporting on Election Day, Williams waved that point away by quipping that the self-styled journalists are ‘on an equal footing with someone in a bathroom with a modem.'”

And yet, they’re kicking your ass.

UPDATE: Terry Heaton: “It’s a scary time for people in television news, because the blue smoke and mirrors has been revealed for what it is.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Heh. And here’s another perspective:

Not a surprise, but always good to be reminded of the culture of arrogance in the Mainstream Media that underlies the lack of concern over facts, truth, and (occasionally) basic, rational self interest.

Meanwhile, at Power Line, a personal reminiscence involving Brian Williams.

MORE: This photo is pretty funny.

MORE ON EFFORTS TO REFORM THE U.N.: Half-measures, I think, but it’s a start.

STEVE GARDNER’S FIRING: Here’s a response from his former employer.

BUSH IN CANADA: Peaktalk has a link-filled post. Damian Penny reports on a protest that fizzled. Colby Cosh reports on a legitimate Canadian grievance. And a Canadian group is trying to bridge the gap.

But Jay Currie notes something missing in the Canadian blogosphere.

UPDATE: Photoblogged here.

MILITARY RECRUITERS AND YALE LAW SCHOOL: An insider’s report.

TOM RIDGE RESIGNS.

MADRID BOMBING UPDATE: A roundup on Aznar’s testimony here, from Franco Aleman, and also read this post from Iberian Notes:

Former Prime Minister José María Aznar spoke for eleven hours yesterday before the Parliamentary commission investigating the March 11 bombings in Madrid. It was all televised live on TV2; I watched some of it, especially the part where he chewed up the Esquerra Republicana guy and spit him out. Aznar was devastating.

Read ’em both.

STARTED READING JOHN SCALZI’S NEW BOOK today in the waiting room, where I had ample time to read. So far, I like it a lot; I’ll post a full review when I’m done.

IS THE U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL BROKEN? Ruth Wedgwood and Frederick Rawski have a blog-debate underway over at Legal Affairs.

Some might say that this story answers the question.

MORE ON THE TERM “LIKUDNIK” and anti-semitism.

OVER AT GLENNREYNOLDS.COM, I explain to Bill O’Reilly that the Internet is a no-weenie zone.

UPDATE: Joe Gandelman has more thoughts, and several readers emailed to wonder if O’Reilly’s defense of Rather isn’t really just a big-media suckup move, as he angles to replace Rather or Brokaw.

SORRY FOR THE LIMITED BLOGGING: Had to take the InstaWife to the doctor this morning, as she’s still feeling ill. She’s now, however, watching HGTV and learning how to “accessorize” a dining room.

IN THE PAST I’VE MENTIONED bizarre remixes of Lawrence Welk and Henry Mancini, (you can hear samples online by following the links) — but now John Scalzi is pointing the way to an entire, streamable online album of remixes of white-bread ’70s pop, with the remixes done by people like The Supreme Beings of Leisure. It’s cool, and it’s free. Which is even cooler.

HEALTHCARE BLOGGING: This week’s Grand Rounds is up, with entries from health-care professionals on all sorts of topics.

ADVICE TO OLD MEDIA:

Too many people in newspapers speak as if there is going to be a straight migration from newspaper to its websites, albeit with traumatic commercial consequences. Ideally, they think, we will all be sitting on trains with digital versions of newspapers broadcast wirelessly to digital paper (think Minority Report/ Harry Potter). They have built their websites – often as fortresses, cut off from the rest of the net – accordingly.

This, methinks, is optimistic – and that’s putting it politely.

Indeed.