ZIMBABWE UPDATE: Opposition braced for dirty war as Mugabe clings on to power.

POLITICO: No Campus Surge for Obama in Pennsylvania.

TODAY WAS THE FIRST REALLY NICE DAY in a bit, and although I was busy I managed to get out with the D300 and take a few pictures. I took Ken Rockwell’s advice and turned the saturation way up. This worked well for the flower, but I think it was a bit much for the already-vivid green of springtime grass in Tennessee. He’s in California, where I think the colors tend to be a bit muted. Still, it looks good.

Don’t know why he brought his Mercedes to the park for polishing, but he looked like he was enjoying it.

A REPORT FROM BAGHDAD.

VIDEO: Charlton Heston on gun rights.

G.M. ROPER on the politics of hope.

SOME PEOPLE WOULD CERTAINLY LIKE FOR THIS TO BE TRUE: Dan Senor: Condoleezza Rice Is Pursuing the VP Spot. And it’s probably good for McCain if a potential running mate has more actual experience than both of his potential opponents put together.

WORKING TOO HARD CAN GIVE YOU A heart attack-ack-ack-ack-ack. You oughta know by now.

ECONOMICS: Reader John Lewis emails a number of center-right blogs:

I’m a long time reader and fan of your blogs and a staunch Republican, but am increasingly worried that the approach to ignore or minimize economic bad news is not going to work in this election cycle. It seems to me that none of you are particularly interested in economics, however, I’m afraid that we are all going to be interested by the time this business cycle is over. There is a very good chance that the unemployment rate will be significantly higher this November than November of 1996.

This may well be true; we’re overdue for a recession — we haven’t had a really deep one in over 25 years — and my sense is that there remains a lot of economic idiocy still to be wrung out of the system, which is what recessions are for.

Speaking for myself, though, I’m not an econo-blogger. I tend to be over-pessimistic, but I guess I have tuned out a lot of the media econo-doomsaying because they’ve been predicting massive economic collapse for pretty much my entire sensate life and so far it hasn’t come. Plus, at the moment they’re playing their usual pre-election gloom-and-doom game in the hopes of helping the Democrats.

Which doesn’t mean that the economy is necessarily doing better than they say, since their bias is exceeded only by their laziness and ignorance. As I noted some years ago about their Iraq reporting, the fact that they’re transparently playing up bogus bad news doesn’t mean that there isn’t genuine bad news that they’re not reporting, because reporting that would require knowledge and effort. So you can’t just apply “Kentucky windage” and assume that things are better than the reports say. They may actually be worse, just in a different way than is reported . . .

Lewis continues:

There are a large number of recent proposals and actions by both Democrats and Republicans that fly in the face of any sort of capitalist belief system and will almost certainly serve to extend the depth and duration of the downturn. Bailing out homeowners? By whom? Renters? I shudder to think about how socialist we could become under a Democratic administration. The proposals by Clinton and Obama have been astounding.

Bottom line is that I am surprised by how little interest has been shown by conservative (or libertarian) blogs in the ongoing financial crisis. There seems to be no one in the conservative political blogosphere standing up against these dramatic expansions of government programs and interventions into our markets.

He’s right about this. The bailout-and-regulation proposals seem more like payoffs and power-grabs than good policy to me. Anyway, here’s a post by Professor Bainbridge that addresses some of these issues. And I love this bit: “bursting of bubbles inevitably leads to ‘a kind of speculative frenzy in regulation.’”

We’re probably seeing that now.

UPDATE: A hedge-fund reader emails:

Defending free markets and letting risk takers take their lumps is simply outside the realm of polite public discourse these days.

Most folks in hedgefundland are seething at the upcoming spin of the regulatory and tax ratchets, but the chattering classes only extol an expansion of the regulatory gobbledygook that got us here.

Bernanke’s repeated blinking when confronted with chaos, first during the SocGen debacle in January and recently with Bear Stearns, left laissez faire folks no political cover.

Free market types assume silence is preferable to calling in mortar fire on themselves.

Well, that’s a cheerful take. If the folks in hedgefundland are unhappy with what the Chattering Classes are saying, my suggestion is to do something about it. Emailing bloggers is a start, but only a very small one!

And Sean Hackbarth protests that he’s been covering this stuff.

MORE: Thanks, Gerard. And it’s hard to argue with this: “If They Could Do Math, They Wouldn’t Have Been Journalism Majors.”

A REASON TO SIGN UP FOR ANONYMIZER?

The online behavior of a small but growing number of computer users in the United States is monitored by their Internet service providers, who have access to every click and keystroke that comes down the line.

The companies harvest the stream of data for clues to a person’s interests, making money from advertisers who use the information to target their online pitches.

The practice represents a significant expansion in the ability to track a household’s Web use because it taps into Internet connections, and critics liken it to a phone company listening in on conversations. But the companies involved say customers’ privacy is protected because no personally identifying details are released.

Kinda irritating, anyway.

OUR FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT: Not Bill Clinton, but Warren Harding. Though the two share some traits.

POCKET ROCKET: Remembering the Acura Integra GS-R.

JOHN BIRMINGHAM: Bring on the Multiverse!

A NEW KIND OF POLITICS: “Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) declined twice Saturday to personally repudiate a liberal radio host’s declaration that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is a ‘warmonger.’”

Apparently, Obama lacks the backbone to repudiate any of his supporters. I’m not the first to note the contrast here. I expect the press to give him a pass on it, but people will notice nonetheless.

THE LONDON TIMES: Iran joined militias in battle for Basra. Another thing that Nancy Pelosi doesn’t want to hear about, I suspect.

VIDEO: motorcycle-jumping records broken. Plus, sword-swallowing and gratuitous dancing girls. And fireworks! What’s not to love?

ANDREW BOLT NOTES “a marker indicating what a PR disaster the Olympics have turned out to be so far for China, when even Rudd is now nervous about saying he’ll go.”

HEH: Gore-o-theism?

NOTE FROM THE DEAN: My colleague Greg Stein has published two form letters for Deans to use in response to U.S. News rankings changes, in the Chicago Tribune. And I love the bio tag at the end.

IN THE MAIL: Two books by Liz Williams, Snake Agent and The Demon and the City, both in the science fiction / fantasy “Detective Inspector Chen” series. I haven’t read ‘em but they sound vaguely reminiscent of Charles Stross’s The Atrocity Archive or Tim Powers’ Declare.

BEWARE THE HEALTH RISKS OF BLOGGING!

A growing work force of home-office laborers and entrepreneurs, armed with computers and smartphones and wired to the hilt, are toiling under great physical and emotional stress created by the around-the-clock Internet economy that demands a constant stream of news and comment. . . .

Two weeks ago in North Lauderdale, Fla., funeral services were held for Russell Shaw, a prolific blogger on technology subjects who died at 60 of a heart attack. In December, another tech blogger, Marc Orchant, died at 50 of a massive coronary. A third, Om Malik, 41, survived a heart attack in December.

Other bloggers complain of weight loss or gain, sleep disorders, exhaustion and other maladies born of the nonstop strain of producing for a news and information cycle that is as always-on as the Internet.

To be sure, there is no official diagnosis of death by blogging, and the premature demise of two people obviously does not qualify as an epidemic. There is also no certainty that the stress of the work contributed to their deaths.

But that won’t stop the story from rolling on as if these things have been proven! Blogging can be stressful, but it’s not digging ditches. If you think otherwise, you’ve never dug a ditch. (Via Memeorandum). Which is not to say that bloggers shouldn’t get away from the computer now and then. Maybe even yoga for geeks!

Plus this: “I guess it’s all individual but for God’s sake if it’s killing you go work for the Ny Times, seems to be a cakewalk over there.” Indeed.

Best take: “I hear waitressing is kinda tough.”

And yeah, I’m linking to the New York Times a lot this morning. Just trying to help ‘em out!

MORE: Laughing at death. And more death-defiance here. Say, now that blogging turns out to be such a highly dangerous endeavor, will that mean the end of “chickenhawk” slurs in the blogosphere?

NATURALLY: “An impressive list of earth-friendly possessions.” Buy ‘em all!

UPDATE: Green beards for environmental hypocrites. Don’t miss the picture of the house.

INDEED: “The secret of social harmony is simple: Old men must be dangerous.” (Via TSM).

THE NEW YORK TIMES looks at the mainstreaming of survivalism:

Survivalism, it seems, is not just for survivalists anymore.

Faced with a confluence of diverse threats — a tanking economy, a housing crisis, looming environmental disasters, and a sharp spike in oil prices — people who do not consider themselves extremists are starting to discuss doomsday measures once associated with the social fringes.

They stockpile or grow food in case of a supply breakdown, or buy precious metals in case of economic collapse. Some try to take their houses off the electricity grid, or plan safe houses far away. The point is not to drop out of society, but to be prepared in case the future turns out like something out of “An Inconvenient Truth,” if not “Mad Max.”

I actually wrote a column on this very phenomenon a couple of years ago. It’s real.

UPDATE: More on disaster preparedness here and here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Lou Wainwright emails:

Also, don’t neglect the impact of World War Z! Evaluating my family’s future prospects in light of a Zombie War has been humbling – especially living in Boston, as far as possible from the natural barrier of the Rockies. Having read the book I’m giving significantly more consideration to the depths of our reserves, perimeter defense, surrounding geography, and survival without gas or electricity…not to mention researching the purchase of a katana and other suitable decapitation tools.

Maybe that explains the interest in knifeblogging! But don’t worry Lou, I’ve gotcha covered.

MORE: Reader William Casey emails: “Almost every book on survival preparedness talks about having a year’s supply of food stockpiled. What if you have to evacuate the area hurriedly and permanently?”

You should have a “bugout bag” with necessities, and you might also want some MREs you can throw in the trunk. But obviously you can’t take more than a week or two worth of food when evacuating. The rest, alas, will be left for the zombies, who won’t properly appreciate it. . . .

Here’s a helpful instructional video on the subject from (who else?) the Zombie Squad. And some further suggestions here. You may also wish to include firearms. Note that shotguns, according to Hollywood, are the only firearms generally effective against evil. Here’s a big bugout bag roundup, including firearms, from Say Uncle, though he unaccountably neglects the zombie angle, somewhat diminishing his credibility.

STILL MORE: Background on the Zombie Squad.

IT ALL DEPENDS ON WHAT THE MEANING OF “WE” IS: “Seeing yourself as a part of a tradition and accepting service and sacrifice within that tradition — that’s not ‘we’? Devising a magnificent, marketable political persona — that’s not ‘I’?”

CHARLTON HESTON has died. (Via the Insta-wife.)

UPDATE: More thoughts here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Here’s the family’s statement, and here are some thoughts and reminiscences from Roger Simon.

JERRY POURNELLE WRITES:

It has been suggested by a couple of Platinum subscribers that I think about starting up the old monthly “A Step Farther Out” column; a general report on the sciences or some monthly science news, with an annual “State of the Sciences” essay. I confess I liked doing that.

It’s a good idea. I loved that column when I was a kid, in junior high and high school.

TAKING ON THE WORLD:

We are about to experience the greatest, and most culturally challenging, consumer expansion since the discovery of the New World. In his new book, “Jump Point,” Silicon Valley marketing veteran Tom Hayes reveals that the world’s leading cell phone companies predict the world market for Internet users is about to triple. What had been one billion wireless users just a few years ago jumped to two billion by the end of 2007 – and will jump again to three billion by 2011.

That timeline may be optimistic. But the U.S. needs to get its competitive house in order soon, or it will face a very tough world.

Read the whole thing.

NEW YORK TIMES: McCain Is Vocal on War, but Silent on Son’s Service:

Mr. McCain, now the presumptive Republican nominee, has staked his candidacy on the promise that American troops can bring stability to Iraq. What he almost never says is that one of them is his own son, who spent seven months patrolling Anbar Province and learned of his father’s New Hampshire victory in January while he was digging a stuck military vehicle out of the mud.

No doubt he can expect an endorsement from those antiwar types who have criticized the Bush daughters for not serving in Iraq.

“PINK SLIP NATION:”

Actually, though, the unemployment rate in November 1996, when Clinton rode a soaring economy to victory, was 5.4%. That’s right–three tenths of a percent higher than the “grim picture” of a “pink slip nation” painted by this month’s unemployment report.

That was different, because back then a man from Hope promised Change.

A LOOK AT the state of the bookstore business.

TOM MAGUIRE: “‘Rocky’ Was Just A Movie?”

I’M SHOCKED, SHOCKED to hear of a Hillary healthcare lie misspeaking:

Over the last five weeks, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York has featured in her campaign stump speeches the story of a health care horror: an uninsured pregnant woman who lost her baby and died herself after being denied care by an Ohio hospital because she could not come up with a $100 fee.

The woman, Trina Bachtel, did die last August, two weeks after her baby boy was stillborn at O’Bleness Memorial Hospital in Athens, Ohio. But hospital administrators said Friday that Ms. Bachtel was under the care of an obstetrics practice affiliated with the hospital, that she was never refused treatment and that she was, in fact, insured.

No doubt if elected, she will be similarly scrupulous about the data on which her policies are based.

IN LIGHT OF EARLIER KNIFEBLOGGING, (also here and here) I note that prices have been slashed on Swiss Army knives. Heh. Slashed.

UPDATE: Boy, mention knives and the email pours in. What’s with that? Anyway, reader Peter Gookins writes:

RE: emergency knives for the car. Take a look at this.

“Not as threatening” as a regular large knife (which is something I don’t worry about) one hand opening, seatbelt cutter, tempered glass breaker. The glass breaker works by spring action – which may be handy if you’re injured and can’t swing a tool – I’ve had one in a nylon case wire-tied to the console shifter for years. We have lots of lakes, canals and retention ponds here in Florida; tying the case to the shifter keeps it centrally located so a passenger can reach it if necessary (the driver may be unconscious) and it will be in the same place even if the car is upside down. With your door pocket placement there may be other stuff placed on top of it, and if the car changes attitude severely enough there’s no telling where it may wind up.

And Col. Douglas Mortimer emails: “I have one of these with only a blade – none of the cool Swiss Army Knife type attachments. Pretty cool for a stag handled Czech switchblade.” Some people might find that threatening.

GODSPEED: Blogger Bob Krumm goes to Iraq.

AIRBRUSHED! A reader emails: “BBC article you mentioned was re-written to be more global warming friendly. The quotes you cited don’t seem to appear any longer.” Yes, if you go here and then follow the link you’ll see that the passage I cut and pasted is no longer there.

Where do they think they are, Australia?

UPDATE: Dale Amon comments:

Making changes in the first few minutes after publication in this fast paced world is necessary. Going back hours or days later and making wholesale rewrites to the public record is not.

One might also note an exception: if one finds they have issued a libellous statement or accidentally published proprietary information or totally false information that is of course grounds for pulling the whole article… or striking out the offending phrase and placing a note like this one underneath. This is what the BBC should have done if they believed they had published incorrect data.

I think that’s right. It seems a bit pretentious to me to add an update noting every minor change made after hitting “publish,” but my general rule is not to make changes that are big enough, or late enough, that they’d make someone’s post linking to me wrong. That’s what the BBC did here, by eliminating the passage I quoted.

THOMAS EDSALL: What Did Bill Clinton Do To Get $15M From Ron Burkle? (Via Memeorandum).

3 A.M.: Another sleepless night for Hillary. “Jeepers, will all business during this Clinton administration be transacted at 3 a.m.? Is it some union-negotiated flex-time deal?”

PINCHED TO DEATH at The New York Times. (Via Memeorandum).

HILLARY CALLS FOR POVERTY CZAR: And the idea gets praise from Dan Collins: “History has shown that Czars are excellent at perpetuating poverty.”

Okay, not exactly praise.

RUNNING AS A GROWNUP: An idea so crazy it just might work!

And the timing is certainly good.

THIS WOULD DEFY ALL CONVENTIONAL WISDOM, OF COURSE: Basra offensive a key step towards reconciliation?

Plus, this is what political progress looks like.

TRASH, COMPACTED: Walls close in on Phelpses.

UPDATE: Reader M. Simon emails: “No mention of the fact that Phelps was active in Democrat Party political activities. Why? You don’t have to answer. :-)” And reader Chris Smith writes: “So now, if Phelps trots out some jeremiads of the Wright sort, will he get media sympathy?” It’s doubtful. He lacks proper heritage.

INDEED: “One of the striking features of my current troubles with Canada’s ‘Human Rights’ Commissions is the way, in the name of ersatz ‘human rights’, these pseudo-courts trample on one of the bedrock human rights: the presumption of innocence.”

Plus, shocking charges that Australian human rights commissioner Tom Calma is racist. I encourage anyone with similar concerns to file complaints immediately. Make your voice heard for human rights!

WELL, THE GOOD NEWS FOR OBAMA is that this might distract people from the John McCain “warmonger” slur and the Phil Gramm “terrorist” slur: Obama Denies KKK Funding Charges.

OKAY, I LINKED THIS ED MORRISSEY POST on the Obama/McCain “warmonger” issue in passing earlier, but this bit is worth quoting separately:

Contrast this with John McCain’s reaction to the introduction given him by Bill Cunningham in Ohio. When McCain found out that Cunningham repeatedly used Obama’s middle name in the preceding speech, he didn’t wait for the media to ask about it. He apologized, repudiated the comments, and promised to conduct a high-road campaign. And that was just for using Obama’s actual middle name.

Does Obama believe in reciprocity? Apparently not. Obama lets his surrogates do the namecalling at his events, and then comes on stage himself to blather about setting a new tone in politics and uplifting the level of discourse in DC. He has a fabulous start on it thus far, having his campaign events serve as a springboard for slurs against McCain — a man with one son already in this conflict and another about to begin a tour shortly.

Obama heralds himself as the candidate of change. So far, we’re just seeing the same tired, hysterical anti-war rhetoric coming from his events, delivered by a classless Air America host. If Obama wants to embrace that, then voters will understand which candidate talks about changing the level of discourse, and which candidate actually works to change it. Just as with most of Obama’s policies, it’s all talk and no action.

Really, he’s not even close to living up to the rhetoric.

PHIL GRAMM: Terrorist! Boy, this whole hope-and-unity thing sure is taking hold all over.

DIANA HSIEH GETS email from a critic.

APPRECIATING BOB SOMERBY: He has been on a roll lately.

MIXED MESSAGES CONTINUE:

This afternoon Obama says McCain “wants to continue this war in Iraq maybe for another 100 years,” and his traveling press secretary says “John McCain is not a warmonger and should not be described as such.”

Obama really needs to quit with that “continue this war for 100 years” line. He’s been busted repeatedly on it. Is that a new kind of politics — to keep repeating a falsehood even after it’s been exposed?

BELDAR: “George Soros’ head would instantly explode if Obama picked Jim Webb as his Veep nominee.”

A LOOK AT the future of fusion: “The long-term future of energy may well lie in clean, plentiful fusion power – but will the reactors that produce that power carry a ‘Made in the USA’ label?” There’s a brief mention of the Bussard fusion project, which would make that more likely.

ZIMBABWE GETS MORE ATTENTION BECAUSE IT’S A HELLHOLE of dictatorial corruption. But the BBC at least notes Botswana’s success.

According to corruption watchdog Transparency International,Botswana is the least corrupt country in Africa, while the World Bank ranks it among the world’s most politically stable nations.

Analysts credit the country’s success to sound economic policies, and good management of its mineral wealth.

Of course, some people just can’t be happy.

MORE ON OBAMA’S ANTI-GUN POSITION, this time relating to his stance against concealed-carry permits.

REMEMBERING THE ORIGINAL VOLKSWAGEN SCIROCCO: Those were great cars. My friend Doug Weinstein had one in college, after retiring the Grand Prix he bought from Ernie Grunfeld, and he was remarking the other day that he still misses it.

OKAY, THIS IS KIND OF COOL. I emailed the Exposure Manager folks with a question, and got this response:

I saw your D300 mention as I was driving home from the airport and figured I would drop you a note anyway, as it was your D70 review that launched our company 4 years ago. Since then it is has been quite a ride. We currently have over 3,000 photographers that sell through our system, including The Miss USA/Universe organization and the Academy awards. Your initial post definitely set the ball in motion! Thank you again!

I had no idea I had that impact. I should’ve asked for equity . . . .

UPDATE: Reader Robert Rafton emails:

It’s not just exposure manager…I was interested in photography as a kid but started up again solely because you bought a D70. I got one too, and now (a few thousand dollars later and fourteen or fifteen cameras later) I’m into the photography big time. You can see some of my work here and at pbase if you like. I don’t know if it’s your type of thing though.

And yeah, I just bought a d300 and it rocks. Considerably better auto-focus than the D200.

I’m glad you’re not into square-dancing……..

So am I! I particularly like this shot.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Okay, here’s one of mine.

THOUGHTS ON wealth and poverty.

OBAMA’S STRIKE-FORCE PROBLEM: “If his policies on the war will not be all that different from McCain’s, he should stop ridiculing McCain for saying openly what his own people are saying behind closed doors. To some extent this is the result of a drawn out primary. Once the general election begins, the press will no longer give Obama a free pass on his vague statements about Iraq (the free ride may already be over). Perhaps Obama will take the opportunity to make his long-awaited pivot to the center–but that will strip the Democrats of their favored line of attack against McCain: that he would continue the war indefinitely while they would end it. Not so, apparently.”

UPDATE: Related item here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Is calling McCain a warmonger the way to spread hope and unity? Note the contrast with how McCain reacted when his introducer savaged Obama a few weeks ago. Obama, however, doesn’t seem able to stand up to the haters on his own team. More at Hot Air, including an explicit comparison between McCain’s behavior and Obama’s. It seems especially unfair — as well as unhinged — to be calling McCain a warmonger when Obama’s people are, sotto voce pushing similar plans for a long-term presence.

MORE: Okay, I linked this Ed Morrissey post on the Obama/McCain “warmonger” issue above, but this bit is worth quoting separately:

Contrast this with John McCain’s reaction to the introduction given him by Bill Cunningham in Ohio. When McCain found out that Cunningham repeatedly used Obama’s middle name in the preceding speech, he didn’t wait for the media to ask about it. He apologized, repudiated the comments, and promised to conduct a high-road campaign. And that was just for using Obama’s actual middle name.

Does Obama believe in reciprocity? Apparently not. Obama lets his surrogates do the namecalling at his events, and then comes on stage himself to blather about setting a new tone in politics and uplifting the level of discourse in DC. He has a fabulous start on it thus far, having his campaign events serve as a springboard for slurs against McCain — a man with one son already in this conflict and another about to begin a tour shortly.

Obama heralds himself as the candidate of change. So far, we’re just seeing the same tired, hysterical anti-war rhetoric coming from his events, delivered by a classless Air America host. If Obama wants to embrace that, then voters will understand which candidate talks about changing the level of discourse, and which candidate actually works to change it. Just as with most of Obama’s policies, it’s all talk and no action.

Really, he’s not even close to living up to the rhetoric.

MORE: Obama camp responds: “John McCain is not a warmonger and should not be described as such.”

TOM MAGUIRE: “Can we count on Keith Olbermann’s pinch-ranter, Rachel Maddow, to pick up on the now-updated/discarded ThinkProgress fantasy and describe McHenry’s ‘two-bit security guard’ as an American soldier? Yes we can! . . . There is a simple lesson here for journalists as well as Countdown performers – if you are getting your content from lefty blogs, mistrust but verify.”

I think it’s a Rovian disinformation operation, to undermine the lefty media before the general election. Or else they’re just dopes. Your call.

A “JUDICIAL REVOLUTION” IN WISCONSIN: The more I see of appointed judges’ work, the weaker my prejudice against elected judges becomes.

IT SEEMS LIKE IT’S DONE NOTHING BUT RAIN around here, but apparently we’re still behind from the drought.

IN THE MAIL: Noah Feldman’s The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State.

A WAVE OF TINY COOL GADGETS, using the new Intel Atom chip.

I JUST POPPED BY JIM FLETCHER’S BLOG after not visiting for quite a while, and he’s now selling some of his excellent Smoky Mountain photos. Worth a look.

ZIMBABWE UPDATE: “Zimbabwe’s opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said today he’s the clear winner over Robert Mugabe in the first round of a presidential election and there’s no need for a run-off.” Lawhawk comments on the desperation: “Mugabe has destroyed the country, and is still holding on to power for as long as he can. The runoff election is yet another way to try and game the results in his favor, despite losing the election. Meanwhile, opposition lawyers were being blocked from going to court to force the publication of the election results.” The chance of ending this nonviolently seems to be shrinking because of this behavior. If this ends up with Mugabe and his henchmen swinging from trees, it’ll serve him right.

MICHAEL HIRSH: The Basra Model.

Basra may well turn out to be Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s Kasserine Pass. That notorious battle, which took place in Tunisia in late February 1943, marked the first large-scale encounter between untested American troops and the battle-hardened Germans. The Americans, to put it mildly, did not do well. But they quickly fired incompetent commanders, adjusted in tactics, and never lost another major battle. In Basra the nascent Iraqi Army—also riddled with incompetence and self-doubt—actually came out looking better against Iraq’s well-established militias than the American Army had 65 years earlier against the entrenched Nazis, says retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey. “At Kasserine we got our asses kicked. These people didn’t,” McCaffrey says. Despite a spate of early grim assessments of Basra in the U.S. media, U.S. military observers on the ground in Iraq are more sanguine, says McCaffrey, who has long been a critic of the war.

Read the whole thing.

MORE ON THE ONGOING STATE DEPARTMENT PASSPORT SCANDAL:

In the latest blow against the agency, court documents show a State Department employee provided personal information from passport applications for use in a credit-card fraud scheme. . . .

Mr. Harris also said the fraud ring submitted credit-card applications using the names and “identifying information” of the persons listed on the passport applications, and that a postal service employee then would intercept the cards before they were delivered to the appropriate residences.

Passport application data includes details such as a person’s date and place of birth, e-mail address, mailing address, Social Security number, former names and travel plans.

But get this: “He was released on his own recognizance, under the condition that he not apply for or possess any passports.”

Glad to know they’re taking this stuff seriously. Just wait until they get all of your health records . . . .

REAL COOKING, with a microwave oven.

MICHAEL S. MALONE: Should Drudge and Huffington Get Pulitzers?

I’d say Totten and Yon should be ahead of both.

UPDATE: As usual, Dan Collins is funnier than me.

MICKEY KAUS: “Clintons’ Tax Returns: The press is focused on where all that money ($109 million) came from. Fair enough. But where did it all go? This seems like a genuine mystery. . . . If it’s all invested, what is it invested in? Green companies pursuing sustainable growth and living wages? Or hedge funds seeking the highest returns?” The latter posing as the former, or I miss my guess. . . .

TRANSATLANTIC POLITICS: A NATO Summit for Putin.

DRIVING WHILE POLYGAMOUS.

CLICK-LICENSE GOOD NEWS: Adobe Relinquishes Ownership of Photos Uploaded to Photoshop Express.

DUMBEST COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT CLAIM YET: Lawsuit Claim: Students’ Lecture Notes Infringe on Professor’s Copyright.

Okay, it’s not quite as dumb as the headline makes it sound, but . . . .

SOME CRITICISM of the New York Times’ Basra reporting.

AT TAXPROF, the Clinton tax returns.

I’M NOT FEELING THAT OLYMPIC SPIRIT: Chinese police kill eight after opening fire on monks and Tibet protesters.

DREAMS OF MY FOOSBALL.

BILL ROGGIO ON BASRA: A look at Operation Knights’ Assault.

I’M SORRY FOR DOING THE RIGHT THING: “Hillary Rodham Clinton’s chief strategist apologized Friday for meeting with Colombian officials pushing a free trade agreement that the presidential candidate opposes.”

Well, that’s par for the course.

WAR PROFITEERS.

BUMPER-STICKER politics.

WELL, THIS IS COOL: I got the new Nikon D300 in the mail — I’ll be reviewing it for Popular Mechanics. Haven’t had a chance to do much more than unbox it and charge the battery so far, but my first impression is of tremendous solidity. I’ve used the D70 and D50 and they feel good, but this just feels much more, well, solid.

If you’re interested, here’s Ken Rockwell’s much more technical review. And here’s one from DPReview.com.

UPDATE: This is a pretty detailed review, too.

And don’t miss this one from Thom Hogan. Naturally, I like this sentence: “Looking inside the D300 is a bit like observing the work of a bunch of nano-bots let loose on a D200 to improve it.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Hey, here’s a review from Stephen Green.

A MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY OBSERVATION.

JET PLOT SUSPECTS RECORDED MARTYR VIDEOS:

In chilling videos shown to a jury Friday, men accused of plotting to bring down jetliners over the Atlantic called for revenge for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and praised Osama bin Laden.

Six of the eight defendants videotaped messages denouncing the West for what they said was its suppression of Muslims, prosecutor Peter Wright said as he outlined his case to jurors at a London court.

The defendants, all Britons with ties to Pakistan, are accused of plotting to blow up at least seven jetliners bound for the United States and Canada in 2006.

Some of the group were heard on secret police surveillance discussing plans to take their wives and young children on the suicide missions, Wright said.

Wright showed a jury clips of the so-called martyr videos, recorded for distribution after the attacks. Each man wore a black-and-white checkered head scarf and sat alone in front of a black flag inscribed with a message in Arabic.

Glad they were caught.

UKRAINE: Genocide? Or mere mass murder?

CALL IT coffin-nailgate.

UPDATE: More thoughts here. “If he cannot be honest about his personal addiction to nicotine, what else is he lying about?!?” Nacho cheese Doritos.

IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Is she a Cylon, or not?

KATHY SHAIDLE ON Canada’s “Human Rights” Kangaroo Court.

ALTERNATIVE-FUEL CARS are taking off. “Sales of alternative fuel automobiles (hybrids, flex-fuel vehicles, etc.) rose to a record of nearly 1.8 million vehicles in the USA in 2007.”

MORE MIXED MESSAGES: “A key adviser to Senator Obama’s campaign is recommending in a confidential paper that America keep between 60,000 and 80,000 troops in Iraq as of late 2010, a plan at odds with the public pledge of the Illinois senator to withdraw combat forces from Iraq within 16 months of taking office.”

I’d like that to be true. But is it?

LARRY KUDLOW: “Recessions are part of capitalism. They happen every so often. We’ve had two in the last 25 years. And it looks like we are entering a third one after today’s jobs-loss report.”

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: “The mainstream media are back in the tank.”

CALLING A SOLDIER A “TWO-BIT SECURITY GUARD”? That’s pretty lame. But hey, maybe he can get a job in journalism once the election’s over.

Or, of course, Think Progress could just be wrong again. But Don Surber comments: “The guard might not have been a U.S. soldier. So what? The guy is willing to take one for you. Appreciate it.”

Meanwhile, Tom Maguire has much more.

UPDATE: Oops: “ThinkProgress has now updated its post to note their apparent error regarding the security guard. But there is still no acknowledgement that the video they have posted was selectively edited to remove the self-deprecating context. BTW, for those not clicking the links, Amanda’s two sources for this story were: (1) McHenry’s opponent; and (2) a website quoting the press release from McHenry’s opponent.”

Ouch.

HOW TO BE A REGULAR GUY, when you’ve never been one and generally look down on them. This is a problem that has plagued a lot of Democratic nominees.

IT’S A SMALL WORLD, but one with bigger people in it.

SECRET SERVICE: McCain is not protected. This is old news to InstaPundit readers.

IT’S NOT DEAD YET: “Microsoft will be making Windows XP available for Eee-class ultraportables until 2010, and possibly later. Demand for XP on devices like the Eee and Intel’s Classmate machines has prompted MS to reconsider axing XP entirely this June: the company will now sell XP Home through at least June 2010, and for one year after the release of Windows 7 — which means sales of XP could stretch into 2012.”

WHAT IF THE DEMOCRATS used “winner take all?” The answer: “Clinton would currently have a 120 (1738 to 1618) total delegate lead and a remarkable 167 (1427 to 1260) pledged delegate lead.”

SILENCE on Zimbabwe.