BELIEVE IN EVOLUTION? Hell, I’ve seen it done! “In that time, the bacteria have changed significantly. For one thing, they are bigger — twice as big on average as their common ancestor. They are also far better at reproducing in these flasks, dividing 70 percent faster than their ancestor. These changes have emerged through spontaneous mutations and natural selection, and Dr. Lenski and his colleagues have been able to watch them unfold. When Dr. Lenski began his experiment 18 years ago, only a few scientists believed they could observe evolution so closely. Today evolutionary experiments on microbes are under way in many laboratories.”

LOOK WHO doesn’t like blogs.

BOMB THREAT AVERTED: “British police said they discovered an explosive device in a car abandoned outside a nightclub in the West End theater and entertainment district of central London early today and began a terrorism investigation.”

UPDATE: Here’s a big roundup on the attack.

BUSH ON IMMIGRATION: A UNITER, NOT A DIVIDER: “Bipartisanship! Indeed, the coalition opposing the bill was slightly more bipartisan than the coalition favoring the bill. In the crucial cloture vote, only 26% of the 46 Senators in the minority voting for the bill were Republicans, while fully 30% of the Senators in the majority voting against the bill were Democrats (or Vermont Socialists).”

UPDATE: Rich Lowry says the bill’s defeat was a victory for the techno-populists:

Once, the Senate leadership would have been able to lean on members opposed to the bill to do a dishonest two-step to pass it. First, vote for cloture to end debate over the bill, which requires 60 votes and was the toughest hurdle. Then, vote against it on final passage, which takes only 50 votes — so there would be more wiggle room for “no” votes. This way, the Senate leadership would have gotten its bill, and senators opposed to it could tell constituents back home that they had voted against it. But bloggers and talk-radio hosts blocked that dodge by sending up a cry, “A vote for cloture is a vote for amnesty.”

In the end, support for the bill literally collapsed. Even the imperious Voinovich voted against cloture. Now, there is really no such thing as an “inside game” anymore, since bloggers make sure it gets “outside.” Both the right and the left will take advantage of this, for good and ill policy ends. But it’s clearly an enhancement of democracy. Senators should get used to it, and buy more phone lines.

Read the whole thing.

PARIS HILTON VS. THE IPHONE: A PR smackdown.

PORK HYPOCRISY IN THE WHITE HOUSE? “Democratic and Republican appropriators are accusing President Bush of urging Congress to pack spending bills with pet projects despite his high-profile crackdown on earmarks this year. A House Appropriations Committee report accompanying legislation funding the Department of the Interior shows that Bush requested 93 of the 321 earmarks in the bill.” But read the whole thing, as the White House claims that the process is different.

UPDATE: Yeah: “Now, it may be that some of these projects are perfectly worthwhile, but, once again the president’s tin ear becomes all too visible. If the GOP is to make a serious effort to avoid disaster in 08, it will have to involve distancing itself from the “Washingtoness” epitomized by the earmarking process (it’s not so much the spending, as the way that that spending is decided) or, for that matter, procedural trickery such as the clay pigeon.
So long as it is the party of Lott or, for that matter, the party of Bush, the chances of that happening are, shall we say, remote.”

NATIONAL ID MAY HAVE helped kill the immigration bill.

I had a column on why National ID was a bad idea over at FoxNews.com over five years ago — I can’t find it now, but I still think it’s a bad idea.

UPDATE: Heck, it was nearly six years ago — thanks to Don Surber for finding the archived version.

LIBERTY VS. EQUALITY at Vassar College. “In the fifties, the liberties of many universities were suspended under pressure of McCarthyism. Today, they are under siege from their own faculties, administrations, and student bodies.”

FRED THOMPSON ON THE IMMIGRATION BILL: “This has been a good day for America.”

My advice for next time:

(1) Make the process open, transparent, and timely, with hearings, drafts on the Internet, and no last-minute bills that no one has read;

(2) Earn people’s trust, don’t demand it, and treat enforcement like it matters;

(3) Respect people who follow the law, and make legal immigration easier, cheaper, and simpler, rather than the Kafkaesque nightmare it is now;

(4) Don’t feel you have to be “comprehensive” — address the problems you can deal with first. The trust needed to deal with other problems will come later, after you’ve shown some success and some good faith.

THIS IS COOL:

You don’t have to pack your bags quite yet, but passenger travel to the Moon is on the flight manifest of a space tourist company.

The price per seat will slap your wallet or purse for a swift $100 million – but you’ll have to get in line as the first voyage is already booked.

Space Adventures, headquartered in Vienna, Virginia, is in negotiations with the customers who will fly the first private expedition to circumnavigate the Moon.

“I hope to have those contracts signed by the end of the year,” said Eric Anderson, Space Adventures’ president and CEO.

I’d go, but I’m a few bucks shy of the ticket price. Maybe if I put up a special PayPal button . . . .

BACK TO BASICS: “Hey, Jobs! Forget the iPhone — fix my iPod!”

REID AND PELOSI, having suckered Bush into angering his coalition and weakening himself with the immigration bill, are trying again to force a withdrawal from Iraq.

I don’t think Omar will approve.

“FAIRNESS” DOCTRINE GOOD NEWS: “The House votes 309-115 for a Mike Pence amendment barring the FCC from imposing it.”

AL GORE’S $100 MILLION MAKEOVER.

BILL QUICK: The world turned upside down. This is the happiest I’ve seen him in months.

UPDATE: And one of his predictions is already coming true. Well, in a small way.

I AGREE:

The most fundamental duty of the federal courts is to overrule and remedy governmental violations of the Constitution. In some cases, an award of damages is the only adequate remedy available, or even the only possible remedy of any kind. Consider, for example, the case of an innocent man victimized by an unconstitutional search or seizure. The standard remedy of the exclusionary rule is useless to him – at least if he is going to be acquitted anyway. The only feasible way to compensate him for the violation of his rights is an award of damages.

In some cases, other remedies are available, but they are not sufficient to fully remedy the violation of the victim’s rights. The Wilkie majority opinion concedes (and Thomas and Scalia do not dispute) that this was true in Wilkie itself. In such situations, it is axiomatic that the courts have a duty to provide a remedy that fully compensates the victim for the violation of his constitutional rights. Any other approach is both unjust to the victim and provides poor incentives for the government by allowing it to avoid bearing the full cost of its actions.

Justices Thomas and Scalia seem to believe that judicial decisions ordering a damages remedy somehow constitute judicial policymaking in a way that decisions ordering other kinds of remedies do not. I agree that damage remedies are sometimes unwise and often inferior to other available remedies. However, I don’t see why a damage remedy is inherently more “activist” or more intrusive on the powers of the political branches than alternative remedies such as injunctive relief or facial invalidation of a statute – remedies that Thomas and Scalia consider to be perfectly legitimate. In many cases, an injunction or invalidation of a statute will actually constrain the political branches more than damage payments do.

By all appearances, we need more remedies for illegal conduct by officials. And if damages are inappropriate, Congress can always legislate an appropriate scheme.

A LOOK AT THE IMPACT of the Bear Sterns meltdown.

DICK CHENEY should hire Beldar to make his case.

EVAN COYNE MALONEY’S FRIEND STUART BROWNING is supposed to be on Fox in a minute, talking about his film on the Canadian healthcare system, and Michael Moore’s film on the American healthcare system.

I just caught Newt Gingrich while I was waiting — he was there to flog his new novel, but wound up talking mostly about the immigration bill defeat, which he said was a victory for every GOP candidate except John McCain. Er, and Sam Brownback, I guess, but Newt probably forgot him, as most people seem to have . . . .

UPDATE: Ian Schwartz has the video of Browning’s appearance. And here are some more short films on healthcare by Browning.

HIGH-SCHOOL ASTRONOMERS photograph space station from the ground. The quality is impressive.

ALLAH LOOKS AT THE IMMIGRATION VOTES IN ORDER and discovers a pattern. Plus, Sam Brownback voted for it before he voted against it: “Sam Brownback turned out to be the weaseliest ‘no’ vote of all. He voted yes right at the very beginning, during the alphabetical vote, probably thinking that cloture was going to pass. Then, when it died, he switched to a no. I almost wish he was pulling more than 1% in the presidential polls so we could hammer him into oblivion with that. As it is, I’ve captured his moment of shame for posterity on video.”

UPDATE: Link was bad before. Fixed now. Sorry!

ANOTHER UPDATE: Ed Morrissey has thoughts on what to do next.

HILLARY CLINTON’S NEW “PICK MY SONG” CONTEST.

I THINK THEY’RE SAVING THE PLANET by staying home. Bravo!

I think I’ll do the same.

YOU KNOW WHAT THEY SAY about making promises you can’t keep?

A government spokesman guaranteed the safety of Chinese exports on Thursday in a rare direct commentary on rising international fears over Chinese products. . . .

The statement was among Beijing’s most public assertions of the safety of its exports since they came under scrutiny earlier this year with the deaths of dog and cats in North America blamed on Chinese wheat gluten tainted with the chemical melamine.

Since then, U.S. authorities have turned away or recalled toxic fish, juice containing unsafe color additives and popular toy trains decorated with lead paint.

Still, it’s nice to see that they’re taking the problem seriously.

“HOUSE REPUBLICANS CHOOSE MONEY OVER MAJORITY:” Robert Bluey has an unflattering take on the Congressional pay raise.

UPDATE: On the other hand, you have to give them credit for standing up against a Fairness Doctrine renewal. Rep. Obey’s slamming of alt-media is pretty self-serving, given the pasting he’s taken over pork lately.