HERE’S SOMEBODY who enjoyed listening to Kerry’s speech more than anyone I know. Of course, there may be an explanation for that.

I WAS FOR THE DRAFT BEFORE I WAS AGAINST IT! Rep. Jim McDermott is warning teenagers that Bush plans to renew the draft even as he himself is sponsoring legislation to reinstate the draft. (Via Forest for the Trees).

UNSCAM UPDATE: Claudia Rosett looks at evidence that oil-for-food money went to Osama.

Why not? Look where else it was going.

MORE ON DARFUR, from the Washington Post.

HEH: More non-photoshop photo fun.

TRAFFIC: July sets a record, with over 4.3 million pageviews. Note the dip in June, though — is this what I get for taking a vacation?

It was worth it.

I STILL HAVEN’T READ the 11th Circuit’s opinion upholding Alabama’s dumb anti-sex-toy law, but AmazonChyk’s takedown is pretty scathing: “Far be it for me to postulate as to why the Alabama legislature would pass such an inane law. Perhaps they were concerned that residents of the state were having better sex lives than they were. Or perhaps some members of the Alabama legislature felt they couldn’t compete with the Rabbit.”

There was some effort to pass such a law in Tennessee, but a group called “Well Endowed Tennesseans” made a similar argument impugning the manhood of Tennessee legislators, and once the morning-drive DJ’s picked it up the law was laughed down. Appropriately enough.

UPDATE: Diligent archive research has produced a copy of one of the W.E.T. press releases, which can be read by clicking on “more.”

(more…)

POLETOWN OVERRULED:

Reversing more than two decades of land-use law, the Michigan Supreme Court late Friday overturned its own landmark 1981 Poletown decision and sharply restricted governments such as Detroit and Wayne County from seizing private land to give to other private users.

The unanimous decision is a decisive victory for property owners who object to the government seizing their land, only to give it to another private owner to build stadiums, theaters, factories, housing subdivisions and other economic development projects the government deems worthwhile. . . .

In the original Poletown ruling, the court allowed the City of Detroit to seize private homes and businesses on the east side so General Motors Corp. could build an auto factory. The bitterly contested seizures and the court’s ruling in favor of the city had national implications and led to similar rulings elsewhere.

Thousands of homes and dozens of churches and private businesses were bulldozed in Detroit’s former Poletown neighborhood to make way for the GM plant.

In Friday’s decision, known as Wayne County v. Hathcock after one of the landowners in the case, the court ruled that the sweeping powers to seize private land granted in the 1981 Poletown case violated the state’s 1963 constitution.

Howard Bashman has lots more, natch.

KERRY MARINE PHOTO OP MISFIRES:

July 31, 2004 — SCRANTON, Pa. — John Kerry’s heavily hyped cross-country bus tour stumbled out of the blocks yesterday, as a group of Marines publicly dissed the Vietnam War hero in the middle of a crowded restaurant.

Kerry was treating running mate Sen. John Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, to a Wendy’s lunch in Newburgh, N.Y., for their 27th wedding anniversary — an Edwards family tradition — when the candidate approached four Marines and asked them questions.

The Marines — two in uniform and two off-duty — were polite but curt while chatting with Kerry, answering most of his questions with a “yes, sir” or “no, sir.” . . .

“He imposed on us and I disagree with him coming over here shaking our hands,” one Marine said, adding, “I’m 100 percent against [him].”

A sergeant with 10 years of service under his belt said, “I speak for all of us. We think that we are doing the right thing in Iraq,” before saying he is to be deployed there in a few weeks and is “eager” to go and serve.

Ouch. The Kerry campaign will probably blame this on dirty tricks by, er, someone.

UPDATE: Caption contest here, at The Mudville Gazette. (Here’s the Reuters link.)

ANOTHER UPDATE: More here. (Via Bros. Judd).

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Patterico notes that The Los Angeles Times is presenting an airbrushed version of the story: “Let’s recap. John Kerry tries to get a photo-op with some soldiers, and it backfires, badly, with the soldiers expressing resentment at having been used. But that’s not news. Meanwhile, one boy was holding an anti-Bush sign along Bush’s campaign trail — and that’s news. Business as usual at the objective and non-liberal L.A. Times.”

The L.A. Times also omits this bit: “Edwards and his wife had hearty meals of burgers and fries and shared a chocolate Frosty. Teresa Heinz Kerry pointed at a picture of chili on the menu and asked the cashier what it was before ordering a bowl.”

Somehow, I think similar ignorance on the part of a Bush would get more attention — even if it never happened.

LOVE, PEACE, AND GREASE:

Customs and Excise is investigating a British link to the multi-million pound corruption scandal surrounding the oil-for-food programme which operated under Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq.

Money was allegedly siphoned off from the scheme to fund pressure groups which campaigned against international sanctions against Saddam’s regime.

The campaigns were backed by MPs including George Galloway, the independent MP for Glasgow Kelvin, who was expelled by the Labour Party. There is no suggestion that any British MPs profited personally or knew about the alleged corruption.

Certainly not. Related UNSCAM story here.

DARFUR UPDATE:

There is a school of thought that argues that by the time the United Nations Security Council applies its attention to a crisis anywhere in the world, that crisis will already be out of hand, or the moment to intervene effectively will have passed. That is an argument that is particularly apposite in relation to what is going on in Darfur. The same school of thought also contends that when the UN does finally accept that something must be done, it will do the wrong thing, and do it so slowly that it merely compounds an already hopeless situation. And here we have Darfur again. Given the opportunity to act firmly and decisively, for once to present a united front to face down an aggressor and to protect those who cannot defend themselves, the UN has chosen the path of least resistance. It has shied away from using its power for good in favour of mealy-mouthed attitudes and toothless threats of some future, ill-defined, approbation.

Indeed. (Via Newsfeed).

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS says that John Kerry got it wrong about firehouses. “Solidarity and internationalism, indeed, used to be the cement of the democratic Left. So, do we understand the nominee correctly? Is he telling us that Iraqi firefighters are parasites sucking on the American tit, and that they don’t deserve the supportive brotherhood that used to be the proudest signature of the labor movement?”

GROVER NORQUIST is looking bad.

THE DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP COUNCIL has published an article, which I somehow missed, on “Michael Moore’s Truth Problem.”

And there you have the essential Moore — a worldview of America as a failed project and an abiding danger to the planet. No wonder they so love Moore abroad: His is a 1960s vision, hardened in the pre-NAFTA plant closings of the 1980s, of a nation hijacked by the suits, the very guys who for decades gave Moore’s father a good job at General Motors. It’s from this posture that all the Moorean invective flows.

Full of hateful fiction, Michael Moore’s work is the Turner Diaries of the left, and it’s likely to have a similar consequence. (Via ChicagoBoyz).

UPDATE: Read this, too. Maybe he’s more like a domestic Lord Haw-Haw?

ANOTHER UPDATE: With maybe a touch of Jayson Blair:

The (Bloomington) Pantagraph newspaper in central Illinois has sent a letter to Moore and his production company, Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., asking Moore to apologize for using what the newspaper says was a doctored front page in the film, the paper reported Friday.

Michael Moore — lying? Imagine that. Heck, even Der Spiegel is down on him for dishonesty, and says his words are “like bombs.” Indeed. Funny how the people who were denouncing “hate speech” in the 1990s aren’t after Moore’s 21st Century diatribes against the Zionist Occupation Government.

STILL MORE: A reader writes: “From reading you I thought you were a Constitutional law professor who would understand that people like Moore can criticize the USA without being labeled as one who hates it.”

Actually, the First Amendment provides no protection against being “labeled” as anything. Characterizing Moore’s speech as anti-American is free speech, too. And it’s accurate free speech, I think.

It’s funny that a lot of people seem to feel that the First Amendment embodies a substantive preference in favor of anti-American speech. But it doesn’t.

RICH GET POORER, MIDDLE CLASS GETS RICHER? Those are the Bush economic results, according to EconoPundit Steven Antler and data from the IRS.

Of course, that’s not quite how the New York Times reports it.

YES-NO-MAYBE: Donald Sensing tries to untangle Kerry’s views on preemption.

LAWRENCE KAPLAN ON KERRY, at TNR — I agree with Tom Maguire that his analysis is “brutal.”

Maguire’s own analysis seems kinder only by comparison.

UPDATE: Tom Oliphant didn’t like it, either. “Kerry stepped on his best thoughts and lines and blurred important proposals and distinctions, committing the sin of interfering with his own ability to communicate with an electorate eager to learn much more about President Bush’s opponent.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Andrew Sullivan: “The truth is: Biden and Lieberman and Edwards and even Obama were more ressuring on the war than Kerry was. Given how important it is for Kerry to burnish his war credentials and how deeply resistant he was to embrace the war in his acceptance speech, I think the candidate has told us roughly where he stands.”

And I neglected to mention Virginia Postrel’s take:

Well, that speech certainly reminded me why I’m not voting for John Kerry. Contrary to much of the rest of the convention, it was a red-meat speech, complete with “Bush lied” rhetoric, pharmaceutical-company bashing, xenophobic talk about outsourcing, and a promise to make health care “a right.” Aside from the much-remarked-upon flag-waving-veteran talk, the speech was mostly made up of (in Kerry’s anti-GOP words) “narrow appeals masquerading as values.” Better a tongue-tied president than a demagogue.

Kerry’s lucky that she wasn’t on TV last night.

Greg Djerejian observes:

Still, would the Dems (most of whom voted for the war, including Kerry) have done it better? . . .

Oh, and let’s be clear. That extra 40,000 troops? Not a single one, emphasis added above and, indeed, in the speech, are heading Baghdad way. Just in case anyone got some crazy idea…But what, heaven forbid, if they were needed there? Non-starter, it would seem. Another indication that faux-realism in Iraq is code for let’s get out sooner rather than later.

Indeed. Why is “realism” never a synonym for “doing the job right?”

STILL MORE: Ouch: “It may well be true that, as a number of pundits have claimed, Kerry gave the best goddamned speech of his career last night. But that’s a little like saying Yoko Ono’s latest CD is her best-ever.”

ZEYAD IS BACK, after a lengthy blog hiatus, and posts links to lots of new Iraqi blogs.

AL JAZEERA is reporting that Zarqawi has been captured. We’ve heard that quite a few times before, so I think I’ll wait for some more substantial confirmation. If true, it was certainly considerate of the Bush Administration to wait until after Kerry had a chance to deliver his speech, and I hope he’ll thank them for their generosity in terms of the timing. . . .

UPDATE: A reader suggests that — given the quality of Kerry’s speech — an arrest of Zarqawi that didn’t distract people from its delivery is proof of Bush Administration conniving. Hmm. Not entirely implausible. . . .

ANOTHER UPDATE: Michele Catalano, who knows all, emails that AlJazeera.com is not connected with the Al Jazeera TV network, and that it’s quite unreliable. Given that we haven’t heard more about this, I’m pretty sure it’s bogus.

WE HAVE A WINNER, in the Bush Twins Photo Caption Contest over at my evil twin’s site.

MICHAEL TOTTEN is back from Africa, and blogging away.

DAVID APPELL says that the convention bloggers mostly failed. I guess the question is, “compared to what?”

MORE PHOTO FUN: And without photoshop!

THAT WHICH MUST NOT BE NAMED: Geitner Simmons notes that the Democratic Leadership Council is tiptoeing around protectionist talk from Kerry and Edwards.

GEORGE MILLER IS RATHER CRITICAL of Kerry:

The sum total of what Kerry knows about “what we have to do in Iraq” amounts to no more than this: Kerry would be nicer to “allies” who try to thwart the democratisation of the Arab world and he would cut costs and get the troops home as soon as possible. Kerry might have more foreign policy ideas up his sleeve, but these were the only words he had to say on Iraq in his entire speech last night.

Kerry was unable to actually articulate what the “job” in Iraq is. He wants to talk about strategy while leaving the objectives nice and fuzzy.

Indeed. Quite a few people seem to have noticed that.

UPDATE: Gerard Van der Leun emails:

He can’t articulate it because the “job” to be done in Iraq is what is now actually being done in Iraq.

You know this I know, but I’m just saying.

Well, yeah.