THINGS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED from the weekend: A free trip to space via FreeSpaceShot.com, the new Books For Kids Blog, with lots of book recommendations for everything from young kids to teenagers, and another U.N. scandal.

STOP THE PRESSES: Hillary says she’ll win.

A DRAFT FRED THOMPSON SITE.

THE NIKON 18-200 VR LENS: Ken Rockwell loves his. I’d be interested, but they’re pretty hard to get.

UPDATE: Rick Lee has one, loves it, and posts some photos and a review. He emails: “It’s like a miracle. Mind you, this is the first VR lens I’ve owned so it’s all new to me, even though this isn’t really new technology. That VR (vibration reduction) stuff works. Plain and simple, you can shoot at much lower shutter speeds than usual and the pictures look like you used a tripod. I’m glad to have a lens that’s this good with such a wide focal length range. Before, I was constantly switching between my 12-24mm and my 24-85mm and my 70-300mm. 12mm is really wide and you don’t need that all the time. 18mm is pretty wide so most jobs I can do with this one lens. ”

He says that it’s easier to get them through actual camera stores than through big retailers like Amazon or BH. Maybe I’ll check the one near me.

SNOWFLAKES: Maybe not as unique as previously thought.

IRAN: Tomatoes up, oil down. Ahmadinejad unhappy. “The price of tomatoes has tripled in the past month in the Iranian capital. Meanwhile, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday proposed cutting the oil price on which the next budget is based to protect Iran from ‘enemies’ trying to hurt the economy by lowering international crude prices.”

ALWAYS OUTNUMBERED, NEVER OUTGUNNED: Today’s New York Times has five letters responding to my column from earlier this week. Not surprisingly, most disagree, and Robert Spitzer accuses me of fomenting “vigilantism.” I guess he means something like this from Schenectady:

Ralph Schulenburg Sr. feared if he didn’t take action, the two armed intruders would kill everyone inside his Division Street home.

The pair, he said, made no attempt to hide their faces, and one of them even boldly gave his name as “Charlie” when one of Schulenburg’s sons asked.

“I wasn’t about to just sit there,” Schulenburg, 50, said Saturday as he recounted the events that played out inside 421 Division St. on Friday afternoon.

But he said it was his son, Ralph Schulenburg Jr., 23, who grabbed an old Mauser rifle and shot the intruders during a fierce gunbattle.

Aaron Peavy, 21, of Albany, was shot in the heart and killed. His alleged accomplice, Charles E. Little III, 20, of Troy, was shot in the left hand and lost at least one finger. It was the fourth time since early December that alleged intruders have been shot inside homes they targeted in Schenectady.

I can live with this kind of vigilantism. Home invaders, not so much. As for the Harvard research, well, I’m always skeptical of “public health” research on guns, for good reason, and I’ve noted the funding source here. It’s not necessarily unethical, but I can only imagine the outcry if the NRA were sponsoring research of this sort. (Thanks to reader Chris O’Brien for the Schenectady story).

MORE CRITICISM FOR BUSH, from disappointed hawks who think he should be doing more.

UPDATE: If the Republicans lose Hugh Hewitt, who’s left?

ANOTHER UPDATE: At Captain’s Journal, more criticism of the Rules of Engagement.

CHINA MILITARIZES SPACE: StrategyPage looks at the space debris problem:

While China has now demonstrated its ability to destroy satellites (at the cost of a launcher and a maneuverable KillSat), it has also caused a major stink among the dozens of nations that own, or use (usually via leasing arrangements) the several hundred satellites in orbit. That’s because this Chinese test increased the amount of dangerous space debris by about eight percent. That’s a lot. By common agreement, nations that put up satellites, include the capability for the bird, once it has reached the end of its useful life, will slowly move closer to earth, until it burns up as it enters the thicker atmosphere. This approach leaves no debris, which can collide with other satellites, behind. Even a small piece of satellite debris can, when hitting another satellite at high speed, destroy, or fatally damage, it.

That’s a short-term PR problem. Over the longer term, if the ASAT weapon really works, China has an advantage, of course, in that the United States is far more dependent on satellites than, well, anyone else, making us more vulnerable to an asymmetric attack. I’ve had some thoughts on space weaponry here and here.

BLOGROLL UPDATE: With some help from reader David Milam, the blogroll has been updated, purged of bad links, etc. If I accidentally deleted your blog and it’s not dead, let me know.

PAKISTAN: Not so friendly.

I like what I’m hearing about Azerbaijan, though.

And here’s more news from Afghanistan, courtesy of Major John Tammes.

MOHAMMED FADHIL reports on the surge. “From where I sit in Baghdad I see clearly that those who talk about last chances are in fact rushing failure in Iraq. What they wish to do is to set up a very high bar that is technically impossible jump over within a few months or even a year. Instead we need to identify what we really want to accomplish and can realistically accomplish through this plan. Total victory over militias and terrorists is a fantasy, and there are several examples of advanced nations that still suffer from persistent armed factions as in Spain or even the UK.”

DANNY GLOVER’S AIRCONGRESS has all the video announcements from all the Presidential candidates over the past week, available for your perusal.

And Glover emails: “One thing is certain from all of the activity: Democrats are winning the race online. Their use of technology is much more innovative, and it’s evidence of an Internet-friendly strategy partywide.”

HILLARY CLINTON AS MARGARET THATCHER? Professor Bainbridge says not so fast!

IN THE MAIL: David Clary’s new book, Adopted Son: Washington, Lafayette, and the Friendship that Saved the Revolution.

FACT-CHECKING THE AP AND JAMIL HUSSEIN: Michelle Malkin has photos from Iraq.

She’s also got a column in the New York Post where she reports: “The Sunni mosques that as Hussein claimed and AP reported as ‘destroyed,’ ‘torched’ and ‘burned and [blown] up’ are all still standing. So the credibility of every AP story relying on Jamil Hussein remains dubious.” That’s what the photos are about.

UPDATE: More AP problems here.

THE LIFEBOAT FOUNDATION now has a blog.

DAN RIEHL ON RELIABLE SOURCES: Allah has the video.

DUKE (NON) RAPE UPDATE: K.C. Johnson posts a Sunday roundup on this continuing disgrace.

AUDIO/VIDEO QUALITY ON WINDOWS VISTA: Microsoft responds to critics, but judging from the comments, the critics aren’t satisfied.

I’m in no hurry to upgrade, especially after reading this (I don’t like the whole gadgets-as-tyrants paradigm), but what’s interesting about Vista’s reduced quality for protected commercial content is that it appears it will make the quality of unprotected amateur video, etc., noticeably better than the big-media stuff with copy protection. My big worry about Vista was that its copy-protection schemes would make producing my own content harder. Maybe they will, I’m not sure, but it seems pretty clear that the end result of all this copy protection will actually be a quality advantage, from the viewer’s perspective, on the part of unprotected content. Now you’ll be able to tell the “professional” product because it looks worse than amateur products. That’s hilarious. And with things like Sony’s new HD network that’s open to amateur content, this may make a big difference in what people watch, especially as I note that once you get an HDTV you become much more sensitive to issues of video quality. So perhaps all the fancy HDTVs people are buying will be showing homemade video because it looks better. Maybe this is all a clever Microsoft plan to take Hollywood down, all while appearing to do its bidding . . . .

UPDATE: Reader David Aldridge emails:

Your point that user-generated content will be the only true HD content available on Windows Vista is interesting, but I think misses the larger issue: the stark demarcation that will arise between legal vs. pirated movies. On Windows Vista, the only way to get true HD movie and TV content from your $2000 home-theater PC will be to download illegal pirated content!

I cannot believe Microsoft/Hollywood haven’t seen this coming – it’s not like pirated movie downloads are an unknown problem; they’re ~35% of all internet traffic. HD content is an increasing portion of that. Blu-Ray and HDDVD protection schemes are likely to be completely broken in a matter of months, and once that happens, the various crippled features in Vista will only affect one type of user – the law-abiding ones who would never pirate a movie. Those users will suffer, while the pirates will party on. What’s the point, Microsoft?

I think it’s all an insidiously clever plan.

ANOTHER UPDATE: More thoughts here:

From my point of view and, I think, that of many other consumers, the issue isn’t whether the delivered resolution is better than a standard DVD. It’s whether the delivered resolution is what we expect it to be when the format promises an HD image.

Yes. It may be that to Microsoft a less-than-HD image can still provide “a great user experience,” but as always the question is “compared to what?” Compared to true HD, not so great — and that’s the comparison people will be making. Meanwhile, reader Charlie Nixon emails:

Though I’ve been reading your site for years, this is the first time I’ve ever felt compelled to write in. I’ve got a lot of experience with all type of Digital Media players. I’ve used most of the Media Center software out there, and except for the xbox media center (xbmc), Microsoft’s Media Center is definitely the best out there. This harping about DRM is just classic Microsoft-bashing. People are going to want view protected HD content through their computers. Microsoft is constrained by the law to follow the DRM restrictions associated with the HD technologies. They don’t go one step beyond what’s required by the blu-ray or HD-DVD or Cablecard spec. What was Microsoft supposed to do? Not offer HD playback? Allow illegal playback of content? Somehow “force” content producers to back down from DRM? None of those scenarios are reasonable or likely.The fact is DRM is here to stay. Instead of hysterically insisting that all media be DRM-free, perhaps we should focus on building a consensus of what a reasonable DRM scheme would look like.

Content creators dictate the DRM schemes. Our lawmakers are responsible for passing anti-consumer laws. Consumers should take responsibility for buying DRM-laced content. Player manufacturers (Microsoft) are simply hamstrung by a confluence of the law and consumer demands. Consumers who don’t like the DRM included with Windows Vista have a cheap, trivially easy solution: don’t buy media that requires DRM. (For additional points, write them and let them know why you’re boycotting their products.) The content companies are the “bad guys” here, not the player manufacturers.

Er, okay, but then don’t call it a “great user experience.” And, actually, if Microsoft didn’t support HD content because of crippling DRM, it might well have influence.

RENT A DEMONSTRATOR — you can even do it online! (Via Kaus.)

RON ROSENBAUM: I like Hillary because she’s mean.

I think that’s what Jack Balkin was getting at.

UPDATE: Mark Steyn is unpersuaded: “I yield to no-one in my respect for the Clintons’ ruthless brutal demolition of Newt, and that guy who succeeded Newt for 20 minutes, and Gennifer and Kathleen and all the rest. But there’s no evidence to suggest either Clinton has any interest in applying these techniques to tougher adversaries beyond these shores.” Hmm. Well, Hillary has been pretty good on the war — she’s gotten wimpier of late as a matter of political positioning, but less so than, say, Chuck Hagel.

ANOTHER UPDATE: On the other hand, Saturday Night Live is ripping her.

DON SURBER ON ROBERT BYRD AND PORK:

Seeing a federal judge sentence Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, R-Calif., to eight years in prison may have sobered some people up. He pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to commit bribery, mail fraud, wire fraud, and tax evasion for accepting $2.4 million in bribes for steering defense contracts to MZM Inc.

And the bloggers on the Internet, led by Daily Kos on the left and Instapundit on the right, are demanding better transparency on the budget. It is their money. They want to know where their money goes.

Byrd may be agreeing with them. It is hard to tell.

This week, Byrd made an eloquent defense of secret appropriations by senior senators who are wiser than their colleagues on the spending of the federal dollar.

But he also seemed to say he will change the earmark process.

I’ll always remember Byrd for this speech, but maybe if he does something about earmarks that’ll change. I guess it could happen: Only Nixon could go to China, right? I like this observation, too: “How safe is a seat in Congress? When Democrats lost control of the House in 1994, Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., lost his gig as House appropriations chairman. This month, Obey returned as appropriations chairman.”

A LOOK AT BLOGS AND THE ’08 ELECTION:

Kissing babies? Old hat. Shaking hands? How very 20th century. The 2008 campaign is going to be all about blogging, podcasts and YouTube.

Both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton announced they were running on the Internet, following the lead of ex-Sen. John Edwards and ex-Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack.

The road to the White House goes through Cyberspace now.

A recent Pew report found that nearly 20% of voters in the 2004 election relied primarily on the Internet to get their political news. That’s going to soar.

I think that’s right.

NEWS FROM SOMALIA: “The last major warlord to withhold support from Somalia’s government surrendered his weapons and militiamen on Saturday — a boost for a fledgling leadership that still faces threats of guerrilla attacks from the Islamic movement that fled the capital.”

IRAN AND ISRAEL: “This Holocaust will be different.”

THE CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE WANTS TO RAISE YOUR CHILDREN:

A Democratic assemblywoman from Mountain View says she will submit a bill next week — once it is officially drafted — proposing that California become the first state in the nation to make spanking of children 3 years old and under a misdemeanor. Penalties could include child-rearing classes for offenders to one year in jail.

Just the mention of the bill has become a minor statewide perturbation, sparking denouncements from many Republican lawmakers (the State Senate minority leader, Dick Ackerman, declared, “I’m trying to pick a word other than crazy, let me see, not well thought out.”), heated debates among parents (“A bill should be passed to allow other parents to smack the parents of undisciplined children,” wrote one Internet poster) and some self-reflection on behalf of the governor, whose proclivity for calling others girly men has been replaced of late with dialoguing about his feelings.

I liked Arnold better before he became a girly-man himself. And I’d have more confidence in the California legislature’s ability to run people’s lives if it were better at running California.

COLD BLOODED, but “refreshingly free of emotional baggage.”

BEN CARDOZO VS. BAT MASTERSON: An amusing legal story.

GETTING AWAY with murder.

ANDREW SULLIVAN leaves Time for The Atlantic.

CALIFORNIA EARTHQUAKE: Moving the California primary ahead to February?

WHO KNEW? Hillary is running for President.

UPDATE: Hillary’s announcement analyzed here.

ERIC SCHEIE: “If Jimmy Carter is any indication of what’s going on with the Democrats, and Dinesh D’Souza is any indication of what’s going on with the Republicans, not only is the war on terrorism lost, I’d say so are the two parties.”

We’ve had a highly dysfunctional political class for decades, something that’s been mostly masked by how well the rest of the country has been doing. But such dysfunction isn’t costless.

APPARENTLY THE OIL-FOR-FOOD SCANDAL was just business as usual at the United Nations: “Has North Korean leader Kim Jong Il subverted the United Nations Development Program, the $4 billion agency that is the U.N.’s main development arm, and possibly stolen tens of millions of dollars of hard currency in the process? According to a top official of the U.S. State Department — using findings made by the U.N.’s own auditors — the answer appears to be a disturbing yes, so far as UNDP programs in North Korea itself are concerned. And just as disturbingly, the U.N. aid agency bureaucracy has kept the scamming a secret since at least 1999 — while the North Korean dictator and his regime were ramping up their illegal nuclear weapons program and making highly publicized tests of intermediate range ballistic missiles.”

DAVE KOPEL’S CHINESE WEBSITE is now operational. Among other things, you can find a Chinese translation of an article I wrote with him on nanotechnology.

WELL, THIS SUCKS:

The wizardry of contextual advertising and blog publishing platforms will allow internet publications to flourish in a thousand niches. Well, that was the theory. The practice? AOL is closing down a slew of smaller blogs it bought from entrepreneur-provocateur and Valleywag staple, Jason Calacanis, in 2005. The bulk of AOL’s ad revenues from its blog network, running at more than $1m a month according to Calacanis, come from a few star brands such as Engadget, Autoblog and Joystiq. They’re in traditional broad categories: consumer electronics, autos and video games. The Time Warner internet unit has told editors of smaller and unprofitable sites that they will be shuttered at the end of the month. So far, we’re hearing lesser-known titles such as BBHub, Divester, DV Guru and PVR Wire; do let us know about others, so we can establish a count.

I like Divester, and I’ve linked to it a number of times. On the other hand, it seemed to mostly push dive gadgets — it’s always seemed to me that there’s more dive-niche money in travel ads.

GET YOUR SURGE ON, at The Mudville Gazette.

AT JEFF JARVIS’S PLACE: Questions for Davos.

A WHILE BACK, when the Insta-Mom posted some kids’ book recommendations here, a lot of readers suggested that she start her own blog devoted to kids’ books. Now she has — it’s here.

JAN CRAWFORD GREENBURG has started a new blog. Not surprisingly, she’s also got a new book coming out.

WHAT ELITE PROFESSORS THINK: Does it matter?

BILL HOBBS: “For a guy who says he’s not running for political office, former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson sure is raising his public political profile lately.”

IRAQIS SPEAK TO AMERICA: At Hot Air.

TV WEATHER PERSONALITIES square off over global warming.

THE USS ARIZONA IS WASTING AWAY: “If you’ve been thinking of visiting the memorial at Pearl Harbor, consider booking the trip sooner than later.”

DON SURBER on the new Senate ethics bill: “If it is such a good bill, why did it get such widespread support? I do not recall a single one of these senators saying he or she is giving up a damned thing in this bill.”

HUGO CHAVEZ VS. HARRY REID.

WORRIES ABOUT AL QAEDA TRYING TO COME BACK: And note the Algerian angle.

NO CHARGES for Paul Hackett. (Via Volokh).

HUGH HEWITT offers a weekend assignment.

JAMES PETHOKOUKIS: “Can the ‘Seattle Democrats’ Save Globalization?”

JACK SHAFER SAYS WE SHOULD ABOLISH THE FCC: He makes a strong argument.

FRED THOMPSON is podcasting.

WIN A FREE TRIP TO SPACE? That’s what FreeSpaceShot.com is promising. Detalis here.

“BLUE DOG” DEMOCRATS to split with party over Iraq?

HEH.

People in the newspaper business seem awfully gloomy about the future right now, and with reason. But there’s one bright spot: The Wall Street Journal‘s publisher Gordon Crovitz, who describes himself as “the last person in the country with ‘newspaper publisher’ in his title who nonetheless is an optimist.”

We’ll talk about why he’s optimistic, about how the Wall Street Journal’s online edition came to be the fourth biggest newspaper in the country — bigger than the Washington Post or the L.A. Times — and how newspapers, and newspaper publishers, should be adapting to the new era. Plus, his view of blogging as “a great journalistic art form.”

You can listen directly — no downloading needed — by going here and clicking on the gray Flash player. You can download the file directly by clicking right here, and you can get a lo-fi version suitable for dialup, cellphones, etc. by going here and selecting lo-fi. And, of course, you can always subscribe via iTunes. We like it when you do that. Check out past shows and look for new ones at GlennandHelenShow.com. As always, my lovely and talented cohost is taking comments and suggestions.

Music is “Superluminal” by Mobius Dick. This podcast sponsored by Volvo USA. If you buy a Volvo, tell ‘em it’s all because of The Glenn and Helen Show.

ASTROTURFING THE ANTIWAR MOVEMENT: An interesting report from The Mudville Gazette. Are parts of the news media this easily suckered, or are they happy to play along?

MICHAEL TOTTEN POSTS A PHOTO ESSAY from Hezbollah’s “Capital” in Lebanon.

Meanwhile, Michael Yon posts a report from Ramadi in Anbar province, Iraq. Excerpt:

Saddam is past tense. There was more consternation among these soldiers when the CSM announced that Coalition-provided fuel was being cut off to Iraqi security forces on 31 December 2006. Along the route, most of the soldiers he informed were surprised at this news. Many soldiers who heard this edict protested in some way or another, but the CSM was firm: No more free gas starting 1 January 2007.

The CSM made it clear that the fuel-edict did not come from Washington, but was an order from the Multi National Force in Iraq. Later during a private meeting between the CSM and an American lieutenant colonel where I was present, the LTC said this blanket fuel-policy could cause his mission to fall flat, and he wanted General Casey to hear that message.

The previous sentence might seem trivial, but to military professionals, the sentence is worth a book. It speaks volumes about the integrity of the lieutenant colonel and to the command culture under General Casey, where honest-and-informed opinions are valued.

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: Totten link was bad before. Fixed now. Sorry!

WHEN POLITICIANS TALK ABOUT “SACRIFICE:” Jim Geraghty does some digging.

NOT A SURGICAL NANOBOT, but close: a surgical microbot.

THE AKAKA BILL IS BACK: Lots of background information here.

IN THE MAIL: Scott Page’s The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies. Defenders of affirmative action as practiced today will find this limited comfort, though, as he’s calling for actual differences among people in organizations, and his analysis provides as much support for notions that universities should hire conservatives and newspapers should hire military veterans, as for requiring minority hires.

Plus, from Frank J. Fleming, his blockbuster The Chronicles of Dubya Volume 1: The Defeat of Saddam.

Frank J. advertises it as “The dumbest book ever written about the Bush administration!” I dunno, there’s an awful lot of competition for that spot.

And it’s blurbed by me, though curiously I don’t remember actually doing that . . . . And I should note that this link counts as a compensated endorsement, as he sent me a free t-shirt that says “Ask me about puppie smoothies.” No, really, he did.

GOOD NEWS: “Mild winter weather has something to do with it. So does heavy selling by financial funds. But a largely overlooked factor in the recent plunge in oil prices may portend an end to the multiyear rise in crude: For the first time in years, the developed world is burning less of it. Fresh data from the International Energy Agency show oil consumption in the 30 member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development fell 0.6% in 2006. Though the decline appears small, it marks the first annual drop in more than 20 years among the OECD countries. . . . The fall in oil use by the industrialized world is a sign that the reactions to higher oil prices by businesses and consumers from the U.S. to Germany to Japan may be adding up to a cycle-turning downdraft in demand. The resulting shift in global cash flows could mean a big boost for oil consumers’ economies at the expense of producers and exporters.”

FEDERAL EMPLOYEES owe $2.8 billion in taxes, according to a report at TaxProf.

DOES AGING AMERICA EQUAL ECONOMIC PROBLEMS?

Chairman Ben Bernanke warned the U.S. Congress on Thursday that failure to take action soon to deal with the budgetary strains posed by an aging U.S. population could lead to serious economic harm.

“Unfortunately, economic growth alone is unlikely to solve the nation’s impending fiscal problems,” Bernanke told the Senate Budget Committee.

Bernanke acknowledged that official projections suggest the U.S. budget deficit could stabilize or shrink in the next few years, but cautioned: “We are experiencing what seems likely to be the calm before the storm.”

Left unchecked, the costs of so-called entitlement programs, such as
Social Security and Medicare, are set to soar as increasing numbers of the baby boom generation retire.

Of course, we could try to deal with this problem by having people live longer.

UPDATE: Yes, of course they’d have to retire later, too. Follow the link, please.

IT’S THOSE THEOCRATIC RED STATES IN THE SOUTH AGAIN: A life sentence for adultery?

Oh, wait . . . .

UPDATE: On the other hand, a murder conviction gets you an apartment and free college tuition — plus, judging from the photo, a really tacky suit, complete with pimp hat and fur coat.

PUTTING THE BRAKES ON LIGHT SPEED:

Scientists said yesterday that they had achieved a long-sought goal of slowing waves of light to a relatively leisurely pace and using those harnessed pulses to store an image.

Physicists said the new approach to taming light could hasten the arrival of a futuristic era in which computers and other devices will process information on optical beams instead of with electricity, which for all its spark is still cumbersome compared with light.

This is big — read the story to see why this new approach is a breakthrough — but I’d rather they were able to push the speed of light way up, thus enabling fast interstellar travel . . . .

UPDATE: Ask and ye shall receive: Reader Stephen Waters sends this report (see the box toward the bottom):

ringing light to a standstill is not the only effect that a laser-manipulated atomic gas can have on a light pulse. Last year Lijun Wang and co-workers at the NEC Research Institute in Princeton, New Jersey, pushed the speed of an electromagnetic pulse to greater than the speed of light in vacuum by passing the pulse through a chamber filled with caesium gas . . .

When a carefully tuned probe pulse was then fired into the medium, its speed became greater than the vacuum light speed. In fact, the pulse appeared to come out of the medium 60 ns before it entered!

However, Einstein’s general theory of relativity was not violated because information – due to quantum-mechanical fluctuations – cannot be carried faster than the vacuum light speed, even by the superluminal light pulses.

A long way from warp-drive still, alas.

INTERESTING FOLLOWUP to the Reuters photoshop scandal: “In all of Reuters’ statements and reports on the incident, they’ve never mentioned that a ‘top photo editor’ was also fired. Why were they secretive about this, and why won’t they release the editor’s name?”

AL-SADR AIDE ARRESTED: “U.S. and Iraqi forces arrested a top aide to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Friday in Baghdad, an official in his office said.”

Nice, I guess, but Muqtada himself should enjoy no immunity here.

UPDATE: More thoughts from TigerHawk: “Having failed to bail out in time, it is very heartening that al-Maliki is now supporting a severe crackdown on the Shiite extremists. He knows that his personal risk increases with every Shiite militia commander he arrests, and eventually he will pass through a door through which he cannot return. Still, he is going after al-Sadr’s thugs. That means that al-Maliki believes, or at least hopes, that (i) the new plan has a chance for success.”

STEPHEN SPRUIELL:

The Senate has passed an ethics reform bill, 96-2. The process was not entirely without conservative victories: . . .

All that said, Sen. Tom Coburn (one of the two senators who voted no) had the best take on the bill that just passed: “The problem in Washington is not lobbyists; the problem is us. Unfortunately, many of the provisions in this bill are focused on the wrong problem.”

Indeed.

THE KNIVES ARE STILL GOOD, but the Swiss Army is in trouble.

THE ABA, LAW SCHOOL DIVERSITY, AND ACCREDITATION: Gail Heriot posts another case study.

GOOD NEWS: “Oil prices briefly fell below $50 per barrel Thursday for the first time in 20 months, after the U.S. government reported larger-than-expected jumps in crude oil and gasoline inventories. Oil has dropped 17 percent since the end of 2006 amid weeks of mild winter weather in the U.S. Northeast, a key consumer of heating fuels, and growing energy stockpiles. Stockpiles of gasoline and distillate fuels, like heating oil and diesel, also rose last week, the Energy Information Administration said.”

THE BENNETT AMENDMENT has passed the Senate, which I believe puts an end — for the moment — to worries that bloggers will be treated as lobbyists. Note the party breakdown. (Via Jason Pye).

UPDATE: Professor Bainbridge thinks those worries were bogus all along.

HMM. I LIKE THE SOUND OF THIS: “BAGHDAD, Iraq – Mahdi Army fighters said Thursday they were under siege in their Sadr City stronghold as U.S. and Iraqi troops killed or seized key commanders in pinpoint nighttime raids. Two commanders of the Shiite militia said Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has stopped protecting the group under pressure from Washington and threats from Sunni Muslim Arab governments.” Let’s see if it pans out.

MICHELLE MALKIN: “Bush administration = Lucy. Bush administration defenders = Charlie Brown. Argh.”

STRATEGYPAGE:

Let’s destroy a myth. In this case that sending more American troops to Iraq will “break the army.” In reality, it works like this.

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: James Ruhland did, and emails:

Very good overall, but one caveat because it keeps coming up, about the military wanting to arrange things so that troops spend one year on deployment and two years at home.

So far, it hasn’t worked that way in reality: At least for the units I’m familiar with. 4th ID, which I am in, was back for a year. 1st Cav, also out of Fort Hood, relieved us. Then we went over, a bit over a year after 4th ID had come back. We got relieved by 1st Cav. – so they had only been back for slightly over a year.

In the meantime, in betweentime, 3rd ID was in the mix both times. From my rough calculations, they were also deployed for a year and home for ~1.5- years.

I know they want to give people more time home, but for a variety of reasons it doesn’t generally work out the way it does “on paper”, with a 1:2 deployed:home ratio.

A lot of people don’t mind that – indeed, at the moment I’m trying to get sent back over right now, having just been back for a couple months. But, then, I’m single. For others it’s a much greater sacrifice.

In that sense, those who call for “more sacrifice” have a point. But not the one they mean to make. I don’t *think* they mean we should expand the ground forces (Army & Marines) up to the size they were in the ’80s by cutting other Federal spending programs (including subsidies of various kinds) that perhaps aren’t a priority in time of war. That kind of sacrifice, which would affect their wants and needs, isn’t what they mean (they mean that *others* should sacrifice: surprisingly, the same people they target whether there’s a war on or not!)

We have a 90s “peace dividend” military fighting what is supposedly the biggest struggle of our time, and not enough people see the disconnect. Indeed, too often they paint a Panglossian picture of things simply because there are so many (so few, but proud) people willing to shoulder the burden the country puts on them, somewhat cavalierly. And those are the better people (the worst people devote all their energy fighting fiercely against their domestic political opponents, rather than our country’s foreign enemies, and see the war not as an American problem but “Bush’s” or “the Republicans”).

For “sacrifice,” I think that incumbent politicians should term limit themselves to a single additional term. Also, there should be a ban on private non-commercial jet travel, and limousine service in large metro areas, for the duration of the war. And a 100% excise tax on movie tickets and DVDs . . .

What? That’s not what they mean?

AS AN INSTAPUNDIT PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER^TM you’re entitled to an advance look at the PJ Media Presidential straw poll. Vote early and vote often!

THE MYSTERY OF THE BLINKING PLAYSTATION THREE: Turns out it’s a lame copy-protection issue. More at the link, including video.

AUSTIN BAY’S BLOG is back up. And he’s just published a new dictionary of milspeak.

PROBLEMS for Ahmadinejad.

Plus he’s got those pesky UFO reports to worry about . . . .

REMEMBERING the “Fairness Doctrine” and the crushing of dissent.

CALL IT “THE PELOSI BOOM!” Consumer spending jumps 6.9%!

It certainly beats the Bush debacle.

YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO CALL THEM “NEW YORK MONEY PEOPLE:” Complaining to the Justice Department about the “Jewish Lobby.”

UPDATE: See this followup post.

ARE TECH COMPANIES FINALLY STANDING UP TO CENSORSHIP by Chinese and other authorities?

Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft and Vodaphone are now committed publicly to a process “which aims to produce a set of principles guiding company behavior when faced with laws, regulations and policies that interfere with the achievement of human rights.” As BSR’s CEO Aron Cramer put it: “This important dialogue reflects a shared commitment to maximize the information available via the internet on the basis of global principles protecting free expression and privacy.”

A number of other companies had the opportunity to join this process – including one of the four companies called on the carpet before Congress last year – but they have lacked cojones. Maybe the first-movers will help them find some?

Rebecca MacKinnon has more at the link.

FLIP. FLOP:

On Dec. 5, Newsweek magazine touted an interview with then-incoming House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Rep. Silvestre Reyes as an “exclusive.” And for good reason.

“In a surprise twist in the debate over Iraq,” the story began, Mr. Reyes “said he wants to see an increase of 20,000 to 30,000 U.S. troops as part of a ‘stepped up effort to dismantle the militias.’ ”

“We have to consider the need for additional troops to be in Iraq, to take out the militias and stabilize Iraq,” the Texas Democrat said to the surprise of many, “I would say 20,000 to 30,000.”

Then came President Bush’s expected announcement last week, virtually matching Mr. Reyes’ recommendation and argument word-for-word — albeit the president proposed only 21,500 troops.

Wouldn’t you know, hours after Mr. Bush announced his proposal, Mr. Reyes told the El Paso Times that such a troop buildup was unthinkable.

Go figure. Maybe it had something to do with that Sunni/Shiite confusion thing.

VIDEO: Mary Katharine Ham on Congress, and what it takes to make her “a happy chick,” on MSNBC.

LEGAL TROUBLES FOR NEW ORLEANS’ Mayor Nagin over his illegal gun confiscation program?

Background here and here.

JAMIL HUSSEIN UPDATE: Heh.

THE SILICON BULLET: Will the Internet kill the NLRA?

JOHN BELLINGER, THE STATE DEPARTMENT’S TOP LEGAL OFFICER, is blogging at Opinio Juris this week. Lots of discussion on unlawful combatants, the Geneva Conventions, the laws of war, etc.

APPROPRIATELY ENOUGH, the online Britannica has made its entry on libertarianism — authored by David Boaz — available for free.

LOTS OF LIBBY COVERAGE, over at JustOneMinute. Murray Waas takes a shot: “it is very hard to defend Mr. Waas on this, since he surely knows better.”

UPDATE: Meanwhile, is Richard Armitage leaking again?

ANOTHER UPDATE: Apparently not — at least the BBC attributes the story to Lawrence Wilkerson. Thanks to reader Michael Ware for pointing that out.

HARRY REID INTRODUCES BILL TO REGISTER BLOGGERS? Hmm.

Put this together with a move toward the reintroduction of the inaptly named “fairness doctrine” and it’s starting to look like a rather heavyhanded effort to silence critics.

UPDATE: Much more here, including the revelation that — surprise, surprise — Trent Lott is on board.

DON SURBER:

Big Pharma update. Big Pharma develops a vaccine for a virus that causes 70% of the cervical cancer in the world. Liberals in the West Virginia Legislature stop clubbing Big Pharma long enough to notice this development and to push for a bill requiring girls get vaccinated.

The conservative Daily Mail endorses the idea.

But liberals already are back to clubbing Big Pharma. It is Luddite liberalism.

Puts a different shine on this report:

It sounds almost too good to be true: a cheap and simple drug that kills almost all cancers by switching off their “immortality”. The drug, dichloroacetate (DCA), has already been used for years to treat rare metabolic disorders and so is known to be relatively safe.

It also has no patent, meaning it could be manufactured for a fraction of the cost of newly developed drugs.

Evangelos Michelakis of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, and his colleagues tested DCA on human cells cultured outside the body and found that it killed lung, breast and brain cancer cells, but not healthy cells. Tumours in rats deliberately infected with human cancer also shrank drastically when they were fed DCA-laced water for several weeks.

I hope it pans out, but if it does people will probably find a way to bash the drug companies over it.

NEWSPAPER BLOGS triple readership.

IN THE MAIL: Frank Luntz’s book on communication, Words That Work: It’s Not What You Say, It’s What People Hear. He must be good — check out the blurbs!

Plus, Richard Fenno’s Congressional Travels.

SO I JUST FINISHED READING Larry Solum’s article on open access and legal scholarship and the influence of the Web and the blogosphere on legal academia, and it’s really quite good. I touched on a few of these ideas several years ago, but Larry’s treatment is much more up to date and thorough. I’m on a faculty committee that’s looking at changes in legal scholarship in recent years, and Solum’s piece is right on target with the sorts of things we’ve been discussing.