Zee Links and Minifeatures: March 2006 Archives

Carnival of the Vanities Recommended: Critical Mastiff

**********



Do they know the Taliban isn't running things any more? Christian Convert Vanishes After Release. With mobs shouting "Death to Christians", and his family being the ones who turned him in, does anyone have an idea whether he went into asylum, sanctuary, or an unmarked grave somewhere?



LATER: Via Strata-Sphere, The Anchoress has a lot of worthwhile things to say.



LATER STILL: Justus For All links to a story that shows Rahman arriving in Italy. So much is good. I just hope the Islamists don't chase him down there.



Jawa Report notes that the Afghani parliament is still obsessing. I wish I could say that I was surprised, but I'm not.



neo-neocon has a post comparing the Inquisition to the Afghanistan situation. It's not every day the Inquisition comes out more civilized than anything else.



**********



A hopeful sign. Kadima Party Projected As Winner in Israel Being a RINO, in my opinion a Kadima-type party would likely be good for the US.



**********



Fed Boosts Interest Rate to 4.75 Percent, thus underscoring the fact that the Fed is composed of bankers, not economists, whatever their credentials. Their primary goal is to keep inflation in check, not to grow the economy at a healthy pace. I'm seeing some very troublesome indicators, both in statistics and in terms of anecdotal evidence. A lot of big money is looking for rocks to hide under, and the Fed isn't helping matters.



**********



Boxing Alcibiades has a good article about top level predators.



**********



Opinion Journal has an excellent editorial about the "waiting for Bush's term to expire" idea that's going around the middle east (among other places).



**********



There's a big stir about the Donkey's new strategic direction today. Dr. Sanity has the only take on the matter that makes any sense.



**********



Armies of Liberation reports that the UN is moving to replace the African Union peacekeeping force. Given UN Peacekeeper's proclivities, I'm not certain whether this is a good thing or not, but given how militarily weak the Janjaweed are, at least the UN troops will have the option of doing something helpful.



**********



Moderate Voice has a guest article that demonstrates what is wrong with the immigration bill under consideration.

Carnivals:



Carnival of Personal Finance Recommended: Debt Hater, Ask Uncle Bill



Carnival of Investing Recommended: Sound Money Tips (Timeshares are an awful investment)



RINO Sightings Recommended: Decision '08, Inside Larry's Head

**********



Utterly Cool! Researchers Develop Ultra-Thin Plastic



**********



Sometimes things go right: FEC Won't Regulate Internet Politics (Or at least gives blogs the same exemption as newpapers, etcetera).



Money quote: "There will be no second class citizens among members of the media"



**********



Mudville Gazette covers Scalia debunking the claim that enemy combatants have the right to a trial. He had a son over there, by the Maureen Dowd test that gives him absolute moral authority.



Captain's Quarters originally thought, with some reason, that the quote was grounds for Scalia recusing himself, but updated with a more balanced "maybe not".



My take on grounds for recusal is that it needs to be higher than that. Taking sides on an issue, publicly or privately, is not cause for recusal. Should Ginsberg recuse herself from abortion cases? She has certainly spoken on abortion, both before and since joining the Supreme Court. Should Rehnquist have recused himself from Casey vs. Planned Parenthood, seeing as he wrote the dissent in Roe vs. Wade, a clearly similar case? The justices are permitted the same first amendment rights as everyone else. They do not give that up when they take the oath of office.



**********



I've said several times that China's attempt to censor the internet is wasted effort. Once they've got the access, it's not much effort to learn how to find whatever you want with just a little patience.



However, via Dean's World, here's an article at babalu about a Cuban who is on a hunger strike for internet access. He is almost certainly going to die, because the only way the Castro regime can stay in power is to keep the Cubans ignorant of what goes on in the rest of the world. Let them so much as get regular email to their relatives in Miami, and Fidel is done for.



If he is willing to pay that kind of price, the very least I can do is to publicize it.



We truly live in an age of under-appreciated heroes.



**********



I've got Carnival of Liberty tomorrow, and therefore, there will be no new financial post, but check back in the morning for the Carnival. I'll try to have something new ready for Wednesday.

Think of the history he lived through! Kolkata tortoise, Clive's pet, dies at 250 years. Here's a biography of his first owner, Robert Clive, who was one of the reasons the British conquered India instead of the French.



The Plassey Campaign. The Mutiny. The Great Game. Gandhi. The Partition and Independence. Nuclear India. Market reform. And that's just in India. When this tortoise was born, there was no United States. Poland had not yet been partitioned. Mozart may or may not have been born. Napoleon wasn't born yet, and the French Revolution was decades in the future. The Ottoman Empire had not yet begun to decay. Venice was still an independent nation. Cook had not yet discovered Hawaii. The Barbary Pirates were the terror of the Mediterreanean and beyond.

**********



Michael Barone has a convincing argument that we should re-examine the benefits and costs of "don't ask, don't tell" policy towards homosexual folks in the military.



I admit that I don't like "don't ask, don't tell," although I have defended it in the past. The purpose of the military is to keep us safe, and any other considerations have zero weight against that function, IMHO. There is no "right" to serve in the military. If, however, the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" would not damage the military in effectiveness, retention, morale, or otherwise, then personal prejudices of anyone anywhere in the progress against homosexuals swing precisely zeo weight with me, and it should be repealed. In fact, I'd probably favor it just to tick off Fred Phelps (As Volokh Conspiracy notes in the referenced article, sometimes you've gotta let a jerk be a jerk. But that doesn't mean you have to like him).



**********



I want to believe in moderate Moslems (and the one article documents some), and even moderate mullahs, but then I keep running across stuff like Danish Imam Caught Making Death Threat on Hidden Camera and Peaceful Religion Watch. Stuff like this are a good reason to read Little Green Footballs, and MEMRI, which is his source for a lot of it. I tend to believe what they say when they think the West isn't listening.



HT to Captain's Quarters for a link to a biographical essay of Mohammad-Ali Ramin, a hardline advisor to Iran's president.



Captain's Quarters also has the good news that Stephen Harper, the new Canadian PM, has been attempting to sway Afghani president Karzai on behalf of the Abdul Rahman, the gentleman that's being tried for apostasy because he converted to Christianity - sixteen years ago. (In case you haven't been following the story, they offered him absolution if he recanted, but he wouldn't. Then the mullahs, perhaps realizing the political danger, tried to pass him off as not guilty by reason of insanity, which is itself going over like a lead balloon among the international community). Relating to this, Scrappleface has a (satirical) suggestion for what to do now that the FAA lawyer has blown the Massaoui prosecution.



**********



D'oh! Church Sign Smackdown! HT Hugh Hewitt



While we're on the subject of humor, Ann Althouse covers South Park's revenge on Scientology.



**********



Michelle Malkin notes another good deed that didn't go unpunished. Coalition forces rescue these three moonbats (a fourth was executed by the terrorists holding them), and their website says "Celebrate the peacemakers release", as if the terrorists were going to let them go any day, instead of executing them one by one for maximum effect.



**********



Do you think that the fact that (via Michelle Malkin) this study was conducted in Berkeley, and the kids' personality was evaluated by preschool teachers in 1969-1971, might have anything to do with the evaluation? Do you think that the attitudes of the researchers might have had some selection bias?



This doesn't pass the smell test on the undergraduate level. For crying out loud, my basic Psych professor or any of my statistics profs would have had apoplexy had I turned in work like that. As a serious scientific study, it looks a lot more like activism and self-validation.



**********



Via Instapundit, StrategyPagenotes (in part):

The Internet and cell phones have changed all that. Now, whenever the military offends a lot of civilians, the words gets around (nationwide) quickly (within hours.) These embarrassing situations (especially when the military seizes land it needs, or causes a mess with pollution, or other bad behavior by the troops) tend to get into Chinese or foreign media, and that does not make the big shots in Beijing happy at all.

This is part of the reason why I'm not too concerned with the Chinese censoring the search engines and other stuff on the internet. Such techniques work about as well as building half a dam. It's not so convenient, and it's not so easy as it is for us, but people will find ways and the information will get around. To stop it from doing so would require plugging email, instant messaging, cell phones, etcetera - every method of fast communication, without which China cannot compete any more than we could.



My offer to perform searches if anyone in a censored country asks is still valid, by the way. Not that I think it's necessary, just my way of twitting the tyrants.



The whole referenced story is only about 300 words, if you're considering reading the whole thing, it's fast.

Carnival of Investing



Carnival of Liberty Recommended: State of Flux



Carnival Of The Vanities



Carnival of the Clueless Recommended: Nose on Your Face



By my reading of the schedule, I've got the Carnival of Liberty next week. Email to me or use the Conservative Cat Submission form. BlogCarnival may also work if the proprietor updates it.

**********



I just got a response to when the new VantageScore credit scoring will be implemented. The goal is for June. Here is the response I got:

Thank you for your recent inquiry about our VantageScore announcement of last week. I apologize for the tardiness of my response but the consumer, business and press interest in this topic was such that we were unable to answer all of the inquires in a timely manner.



With regard to your questions, we're planning to offer VantageScore to consumers in the June timeframe. At that time we'll begin to distribute consumer-facing materials which will answer all consumer questions. Until then, we're focusing on our business clients and their adoption of this new and revolutionary score.

Revolutionary? Well if consistent evaluations among the big 3 can be considered revolutionary, I suppose. Next week: Driving in the correct direction down a one way street and occasionally adhering to speed limits!



**********



Just want to say a quick thank you to Casey Software and Educating the Wheelers, who have both put in plugs for this site recently. Thank You both.



**********



I keep talking about the scam artists, liars, and thieves I encounter in the business I'm in. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of people trying their best to do the right thing as well. Most of the crooks simply don't know any better, but some of them are intentional crooks, looking for the shortest route between two large scores.



Mortgage Fraud Blog writes about this last group. I'm adding him to the right hand roll as a useful place to check out when you start to get complacent.



**********



Moslems practicing polygamy in the United States. Law Enforcement does nothing to them, while persecuting the Mormons (and any other polygamists)



HT to Wizbang



**********



Iraq the Model had some good thoughts on the three year anniversary of the invasion.



**********



Yesterday, there was a successful jailbreak that killed 17 cops in Iraq. Today, they tried the same tactic and got their heads handed to them.



Also, Israel May Be Next al-Qaida Battleground.



Somebody must be feeding Zarqawi stupid pills. Good job, whoever you are. They can't beat the americans, so they're going after the one country with more experience against their tactics, and that doesn't handicap it's military in dealing with their enemies, either. Okay, it's a recruiting coup - those who've heard Israel slandered since they were born will sign up right and left. But Israel doesn't fool around about this stuff, and there's no way al-Qaeda will break their will.

Carnivals:



Carnival of The Capitalists Recommended: Slow Leadership, Ask Uncle Bill



RINO Sightings Recommended: Techography, Strata-Sphere, Dean's World



Carnival of Personal Finance Recommended: Roth and Company (It's good to see I'm not the only one pounding my head against the "I need the deduction!" stone wall)

**********



Stuff like this are part of why I think the Iranian government is doomed. Freed Iranian Journalist Remains Defiant. This guy is really speaking truth to power - and that power can and will do horrible things to him. Here in the US, few of them are anything but poseurs - they do it to bond with their peers, safe in the knowledge that nothing will happen, in fact they will be praised for their "daring". Akbar Ganji has no such knowledge, none of the protections of our professional dissidents, none of their advantages, and he speaks out anyway.



**********



Mr. Completely has a solution to those folks who are complaining about the treatment of enemy combatant detainees.



**********



Armies of Liberation notes that the man who alerted Yemeni authorities to the incipient jailbreak of 23 Al-Qaeda prisoners is still in jail himself. And no, he wasn't in jail until he made the report.



Do I need to connect the dots for anyone?



**********



Belmont Club, on the other hand, offers an evidence based refutation of the idea that civil war exists or in imminent in Iraq. Actually, Wretchard is very restrained in calling "Bull****!', but I suppose it's a case of where you draw the line.



**********



HT to Hugh Hewitt for a pointer to this Middlebrow article on the long view of George Bush.



Shakespeare had it right:

This day is called the feast of Crispian:

He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,

Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,

And rouse him at the name of Crispian.

He that shall live this day, and see old age,

Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,

And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian:'

Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.

And say 'These wounds I had on Crispin's day.'

Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,

But he'll remember with advantages

What feats he did that day: then shall our names.

Familiar in his mouth as household words

Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,

Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,

Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd.

This story shall the good man teach his son;

And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,

From this day to the ending of the world,

But we in it shall be remember'd;

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;

For he to-day that sheds his blood with me

Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,

This day shall gentle his condition:

And gentlemen in England now a-bed

Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,

And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks

That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

**********



Volokh Conspiracy has the missing South Park episode.



I'll admit that my opinion of Scientology and L. Ron Hubbard have always been colored by the legend among sf fans that he got mad one day and said, "I"ll show all of you. I'll found a religion!"



On the other hand, with a biography that reads like this, I don't need a lot of external coloration.



**********



I've had a busy few days. Trying to push-start the sister site (there is no way not to have to push start a new business. I'm informed that large amounts of start up capital make grease the skids, but increase the mass at least enough to compensate). Mellon, the sweet one of my two dachshunds, is having trouble with her back legs (The vet says he's hopeful that steroids will help), and of course, Hilda's birthday (We got her officially sixth birthday'd). I don't want to split up my two posts on the Good Faith Estimate anyway, and I think I'll have something for you by Wednesday morning. It's more an embarrassment of riches than anything else. I've got about forty articles started, I just need to decide which one to finish..

Evolution has a good article debunking the religious right's opposition to an HPV vaccine, HPV being one of of the leading causes of cervical cancer.



What part of "straw man" do you not understand?

**********



Security Watchtower notes that our new National Security Strategy name both Iran and China as major concerns.



**********



Rhymes With Right brings up evidence wherein the Court of Review indicated that the President has the constitutional authority to order the wiretaps he did.



There are at least three reasons why the Donkeys are running from Senator Feingold's motion of censure. First is politics. Second is the facts of the law. Third is the fact that not doing it would be one of the stupidest things any nation has ever done.



**********



Wizbang has a thoughtful article on the nature of impeachment, and what grounds Congress has for impeaching Bush, and what the consequences would likely be. Basically, disastrous for the Donkeys.



**********



Victor Davis Hanson does some compare and contrast, and looks at the results.



**********



Michelle Malkin and Captain's Quarters both have excellent reporting on the released Iraqi documents documenting a connection to Al-Qaeda. The former is from a Legacy Media response to it perspective, the latter from a coordinating the actual information perspective.





Dr. Sanity has some more evidence of the ill health of the Legacy Media.



**********



Off to Celebrate the Leprechaun's birthday! Hilda turns six today! We're having a family party tomorrow.



Yes, her favorite color is green.

Carnival of Liberty Recommended: Robot Guy. As an addition, Barry Goldwater established before he left the senate that it takes only an Executive Order to withdraw from a treaty. If it looked like there might be something to gain, that would be a real possibility with a realpolitik president. Charlotte Capitalist





Carnival of the Vanities

**********



Now THERE'S a couple that knows how to fight!



**********



Is there anyone who thinks this isn't posturing for the far left? Feingold Accuses Democrats of 'Cowering'. Money quote: "Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., tried to hold a vote Monday on Feingold's resolution but was blocked by Democrats"



(later) Captain's Quarters documents the Donkeys as they run from this bill.



In short, it's to their political advantage to have it before Congress. But as for actually voting for it, that sound you hear is crickets chirping. On the moon. They know it's a loser, and their votes on the issue would come back to haunt them, some in a few months, and others, particularly in 2008.



**********



pfadvice is claiming a new scoring system for credit has been agreed to.



I found this as confirmatory evidence, and more on Experian's website. All Transunion has is an announcement popup with no significant information. Equifax had a similar announcement with a bit more information, but nothing substantial. I emailed the given contacts to find out what the implementation schedule and scoring mechanisms will be.



**********



HT to Tinkerty Tonk for a pointer to false child abuse complaints at Sean Gleeson. The linked post is part one of a five part saga, and I left the following comment on part 5:



You have a valid professional complaint against this lowlife, who if he cannot be bothered to follow the law, should not be in the profession. Here in California, that's a violation of the professions code. It probably is in OK as well.



Here is a list of OK Realtors Associations:



http://www.ired.com/boards/ok.htm



Here's a link to the Oklahoma Real Estate Commission



http://orec.ok.gov/



Complain to both the Board of Realtors and the state. The former is a professional association that probably won't do anything, but they'll make his life interesting (in the chinese sense) for a while. Even if they throw him or his brokerage out, it doesn't put them out of business. The latter is where you have a real chance to stop this nincompoop before he does this to anyone else, with possibly tragic results.



end comment



Several years ago one of my neighbors (who thinks - erroneously - that I don't know who it was) falsely accused me of animal abuse. Fortunately, I had just been to the vet that day for a routine visit. I referred the inquiring officer to the vet, and I got a quick letter saying that the complaint had been found to be groundless. That lucky coincidence saved me no end of heartache, and that was for a dog. Now, I love my little dachshunds, but they're not my girls. My father-in-law was a Child Protective Services worker for several years, and I've heard some front line stories about abuses of the system, which easily takes the gold medal for overzealous reactions and defenses away from Torquemada's Inquisition. I don't blame the CPS people; it's the way the legislatures write the laws to comply with political interests. Organizations who make campaign contributions win. Lawyers win. Doctors win. Social workers win. People with political agendas win. Parents, families, and especially children all lose.



False accusers belong in the same hell they try to put other people into. My sense of accusers who aren't willing to sign their names to a public complaint is that the complaint should automatically be consigned to the wastebasket without wasting a the time of any living human. If someone really believes they're stopping child abuse, they should be proud to step forward and take credit for the report. I would be. The only reason for not doing so is because you are ashamed of what you did. And if there ever is a case where there are credible reasons why someone might suffer (say, because the person turned in is a mafia don), it should need a judge's order to seal it.



**********



I thoroughly agree with Michael Barone, among others. Like him, the one subject that turns me into a flaming left winger is CEO pay. (Actually, a lot of other current and former financial planners are this way.) It doesn't bother me so much for the privately held corporation - although they're a lot less generous than the public ones. It's the publically traded companies lack of self-interested strong negotiators that all go along with the culture so that their own lavish compensation package doesn't suffer the same examination.



**********



Via Michelle Malkin a 5 minute video that in the end, demonstrates what a good thing it was for the Jedi and Sith that they never encountered D'Artagnan or Cyrano. Stop thrust, anyone?



**********



Armies of Liberation doesn't write exclusively on Yemen. Today, she has an excellent article on the Phillipines and what may be the root of their problems: identity group politics.



**********



Asymmetrical Information examines the health care system and its constraints, mostly political.



I've always said it is pretty easy to design a fair, rational, economical health care system - but that it's politically unworkable. It is also easy to design a politically correct healthcare system, but such will reliably fail far worse over the long term than anyone's worst nightmare of an unrestrained free market.



As an illustration of the first point, consider a healthcare system where the young - up to about age 25, where most folks who are going to graduate college have done so - get automatic free care, and the coverage declines over time to where those over whatever age is the limit for productive work get only routine or preventative care.



As an illustration of the second point, every universal coverage scheme ever tried. They have all proven themselves economically untenable, actuarially.



**********



Big Lizards has the report on corruption within the Iraqi army that was planning to allow terrorists to infiltrate for purposes of attacking the green zone.



It was foiled by the Iraqi army. They took down their own people, even their own bosses in some cases.



That sound you hear is me cheering. They get it, at least enough of them to make the difference. It's about the rule of law, and what's best for Iraq as a whole. Many americans could use this reminder. This is the final piece of evidence for me to know that our efforts in Iraq have borne the necessary fruit. There will still be casualties, setbacks, and all sorts of problems.



If I had anything to do with the effort in Iraq, I'd say I was proud of them. You folks who have been or are over there, pat yourselves on the back. You have a right to be proud of a job well done!

Carnivals



RINO Sightings



Carnival of Personal Finance



Carnival of Capitalists



Carnival of Investing. Recommended: Dividend Guy



Carnival of Debt Reduction

**********



Dr. Sanity has a worthwhile read on the status of Iran's nuclear weapons and the implications if they are actually used. The civilized nations could easily destroy all of the Islamic ones, radicalized or not, and the first time such weapons are used on the west, the only rationally defensible solution will be massive retaliation. Yet there are still those in this country so convinced that we are the evil ones for attempting to confront evil.



There is an old proverb about "Run from a man with a knife, for his reach is limited. Charge a man with a gun, for he does not have to reach you to kill you."



Nuclear weapons are a gun with a very long reach indeed, and we're all out in the open.



**********



I've been wondering how long it would be until this was challenged: DUI defense lawyers challenge breath test. Actually, they're challenging the machine. In no other case that I can think of is the critical witness for the prosecution immune to challenge as far as credibility. Turns out, the code isn't copywrited, either - it's a trade secret like the formula for Coca Cola. That's all well and good, but the testimony of Coca Cola isn't putting people behind bars, and until the code and the range of possible inputs is analyzed, we're taking the machine's testimony on faith. If DNA analysis, ballistics, and any number of other forensic techniques are subject to analysis and scientific review, so should this be.



I don't want to encourage drunk drivers (I don't drink myself), but this violates a basic constitutional protection, the ability to examine the evidence against a defendant.



Transparency is good. Accountability is better. The former enforces the latter. Secrecy does neither.



**********



Leave it to the FAA bureaucrats to screw things up: Judge Unexpectedly Halts Moussaoui Trial.



**********



Q and O reports that the Dutch have figured out that even tolerance has its limits.



**********



neo-neocon has a lengthy profile of Dr. Wafa Sultan, who confronted the Arabic Muslim world's prejudices on Al-Jazeera, and has now received death threats and as Atlas Shrugs reports, is in hiding and in need of protection.



**********



Dr. Sanity notes the religious fervor on the part of the leftists of the world, and why they are so hostile to religion. It is because they have their own god of exclusive worship, who tolerates to straying from the one true religion. They are also hostile to reason, for their faith excludes it.



I had some small thoughts here, but Dr. Sanity does a better job.



**********



Captain's Quarters has some worthwhile thoughts on changing the primaries. I like the idea of primaries as close together as possible. The current schedule has the nominees determined before California - the largest state - even gets to vote. Out of the seven presidential primaries since I've been able to vote, not once have the eventual nominees for both parties not had the nomination locked up before polls opened in California.



I want to see those who want the job to be forced to campaign nationwide. It forces them to organize nationwide, and allows less gaming of the system, using all of the resources early in the hopes that you'll be a contender and attract more donors.



The last time we had a convention fight between two or more candidates in the same party was 1952 (and Eisenhower won the general election). Looking at the candidates fielded since then as opposed to before, I cannot make a serious case that the more recent actual nominees are superior. In actuality, except for Gerald Ford and Bush pere, they have all been the candidate of the party separatists, rather than the candidate most able to appeal to most of the electorate. The ability to appeal to primary voters of one party has become distinct from the ability to win general elections - and the sooner we realize this and take steps to reverse it, the better off we will be.



**********



I just noticed, but Strata-Sphere has been on a tear lately with vital updates about FISA, Plamegate, and the Dubai Ports Deal not being dead.



This guy needs the reward of as much recognition as possible for his hard work. I really suggest reading his entire front page (the first link in this category)



**********



I'm kind of tired, so I'm not going to promise to adhere to my four new specialty articles per week schedule for a while. I usually let a carnival day go without a new article, so that's no different today. I have one waiting to go tomorrow morning, but after that I may need some recharge time, and so be less prolific for a while.



I have forty-plus article ideas posted and at least partially fleshed, but there's a lot going on outside of this URL right now.



I'm always open and enthusiastic about new ideas and questions, so don't hesitate to ask, but I think I may need some recharge time, so don't be surprised if the morning article is a repeat more often than you're used to for a couple weeks, and these Links and Minifeatures are shorter and come less often.

This is a very good sign: Unlikely Alliance Takes on School Conflict. Homosexual advocates and Fundamentalist Christians coming together to build a framework for discussion?



Now where did those four horsemen go? They were here a minute ago...

**********



I really suspect this is going to really hurt us in the long term. DP World will transfer fully the U.S. operations ... to a United States entity. If being moderate politically and strong allies in the war on terror doesn't help get them business, and gets them castigated like this, they've got to be asking themselves why they are our allies.



Willisms seems to have the definitive take on the matter.



Wizbang has a list of other things we need to do in order to maintain any policy consistency.



Captain's Quarters has a list of those who lost face because of this.



Scrappleface covers the poetic justice angle very well. Give the contracts to Wal-Mart!



**********



Interesting proposal: Senator Brownback wants to use DC as tax lab



**********



Blackfive has some interesting statistics about the press. It jibes with my experiences.



**********



Enceladus may have life They found liquid water geysers.



**********



Don Surber makes a point that needs making about the federal budget. Worrying about porkbusting is much ado about practically nothing, at least on the scale of where the money is spent. If you want serious cuts in the federal budget, we've got to start cutting entire departments. This is why I want the entire federal budget process altered, and one bill per year that authorizes the maximum the government can spend.



**********



Q and O makes the same point I made about father's responsibility a while ago.



**********



Belmont Club has an article on the strategies and tactics that win wars - directed at the minds of the enemy.



**********



I'm not qualified to assess the weapon's performance, but I like the idea behind this. Now the Marines can drop six grenades on their current Target of Choice in three seconds, at much longer ranges than thrown ones. The have been fast firing grenade launchers for decades, but this is the first I've heard of them at the man portable level - which means there can be a couple per squad.



**********



Volokh Conspiracy covers the fact that the ABA is requiring quotas for minorities in violation of many laws, is effectively requiring law schoold to violate the law in order to meet those quotas, and may lose their ability to accredit law schools as a result.

Bernanke is concerned about signs of some easing of underwriting standards. He's talking about commercial stuff, but he's a long way behind the curve in the residential market.

**********



From a service I get:

...the number of foreclosures nationwide was up 24.5% in the fourth quarter of last year from the first quarter of 2005. A nearly 25% increase in foreclosures last year, combined with slowing sales, softer home prices and higher mortgage rates has many analysts concerned. Hardest hit by rising foreclosure rates during 2005 were Massachusetts, up nearly 200%; Connecticut, up 188%; Michigan up 170%; Virginia up 151% and Maryland, up 117%. Nationwide, the number of foreclosures during the first quarter was 188,122 but by the final quarter was 234,278. In Massachusetts, the foreclosures jumped from 616 to 1,843; Connecticut, 1,456 to 4,202; Michigan, 4,411 to 11,937; Virginia, 380 to 956 and Maryland, 667 to 1,448. Georgia documented the highest foreclosure rate among the 50 states -- one new foreclosure for every 422 households, and Nevada was 2nd with one in 483 households. California has one property in foreclosure for every 1,306 households.

**********



Don't want to see the other side of the story? Only want to hear your own polemics, be they conservative or liberal? Balloon Juice notes a search engine that tells you if the results are conservative or liberal. I'll bet it succeeds, handsomely, too. "We have an exclusive lease on Truth" seems to be one of the most universal human mindsets.



Looks like it's time to enlarge the echo chambers on both sides of the political spectrum.



**********



Strata-Sphere notes that the Senate has decided to work with the administration on the wiretapping issue, folding it's bluff of hearings.



**********



Enrevanche directs us to a cool page full of .pdf downloads on risks caused by political factors



**********



So much for Yemen's "unusual tolerance of free press" (This Weeks US News and World Report). Armies of Liberation notes that the government prosecuters are asking for the death penalty and confiscation of the Yemen Observer.

Carnivals:



By the way, I've got RINO Sightings this coming week, Monday March 13. Republicans and Independents Not Overdosed (on the Kool Aid). Looking for thoughtful stuff written by middle of the road folks? RINO Sightings is it. The official carnival of the Raging RINOs community. Go here for a list of past and future carnivals.



To submit, either email me or use the Conservative Cat Submission Form (A great carnival resource!)



Carnival of Liberty Recommended: Eidelblog

**********



Right in the middle of the nuclear argument with Iran, Captain's Quarters has the best article on the IEDs and other stuff that's been killing our soldiers being traced to Iran.



This is a casus belli.



There is no argument. President Bush would be justified in putting this evidence in front of an Iranian representative, and saying, "Prove this isn't you or produce those responsible or you will have a war with the United States of America". He also needs to put it in front of every world body going.



Head on war with Iran is not in any way desirable. We would most likely win, but the fallout would be very bad. The best way to get rid of the mullahs regime is from within, but we may not have that choice. Indeed, the mullahs may actually want war in some perverse way, thinking we would play as nice with them as we have with the Iraqi people. I don't think so. I think if they get pried out of power the Iranian people will never let them near it again, but the mullahs may think it's the best way to shore up their regime.



On an entirely different note in the struggle against terrorism, Michelle Malkin notes an Arab American psychologist tongue lashing an al-Jazeera host. Clip here at MEMRI.



**********



One less survivor remains to testify to what he saw. Auschwitz Escapee Herskovic Dies at 91

Three months after being sent from Belgium to Auschwitz, Herskovic escaped by cutting through a chain-link fence with two other prisoners using a pair of wire cutters he had hidden. It was the first night of Hanukkah in 1942...



In his prewar home of Antwerp, Belgium, Herskovic delivered one of the earliest firsthand accounts of the atrocities of the Holocaust.



The resistance swiftly mobilized, placing bricks on railroad tracks to stop a train packed with hundreds of Jews bound for the camps. About 250 prisoners escaped.



"His survival saved hundreds," the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles said in a tribute.

I believe most folks are basically good. I would like not to have to believe it happened, but it did. Never forget.



**********



Wallace and Gromit Fans want statue. Gromit, at least deserves one, despite the fact that he's fictional. Memorials to dogs aren't unknown. Lord Byron did one that may be his best known work. Then there's this one. I happen to think we need more praise, and more memorials for that kind of loyalty where it happens.



Apropos of this here's a post on how Pets can save you money. Given my recent vet bills, not likely (each of my two thirteen year old dachshunds have had vet bills over $2000 in the last year), but that's part of what I agreed to when I brought them home.



**********



Wizbang has a good post up about legal and moral liability versus just plain stupid.



Every time you do something stupid, you roll the dice. The dice turn up bad enough, you get hurt or worse. The level of difficulty varies - many people get away with not wearing a seatbelt for a long time. Walking naked through a bad area at night with $100,000 plainly visible is a lot more likely to get you hurt.



It's not illegal to be stupid. Where else we going to find congresscritters? But it's the only universal capital crime. It may not be the only way to get hurt. Many people are doing everything right but get drastically unlucky in one way or another. But it's an invitation for the hostile universe to jump in and shout "GOTCHA!"



**********



I've always had my suspicions that this was the case, and this particular satire makes a strong case for Universe designed by committee. Multiple committees. Separated by thousands of miles and not communicating with one another. The monotheistic deities we've all been talking about this past millennium
or so? They're the art critics. Let's all go pick at least one god from each classic pantheon to worship!



HT to Politburo Diktat



**********



Argghhh! has some questions that were asked on an International Tourism Webs site (of Canada). The answers are worth laughing at.



**********



Captain's Quarters notes the very welcome news that some House Elephants are trying to return to the issues that brought their party into its majority status, lowered federal spending.



Meanwhile, the Donkeys issue a Contract On America.



Seriously, the Donkeys don't have a message, and they know it. HT Hugh Hewitt



**********



Michelle Malkin indicates what the current immigration plan in the senate wants to do with illegals who are currently here. Give them "gold cards". I wish I were making this up.

Carnivals:



Carnival of Debt Reduction



RINO Sightings Recommended: Ex Donkey, Techography



Carnival of Capitalists



Carnival of Personal Finance Recommended: Million Dollar Goal



Carnival of Investing

**********



Looks like my local rag has decided to sponsor a blog. Here's the link. First glance, it's nothing I'd visit again, but I'm sure that it'll be successful with Legacy Media driving traffic that way.



**********



Another thing the local rag is trying to do is sell us on an airport in Imperial County, 100 miles east, served by a maglev train from downtown. Okay, I think maglevs are cool, but this is a boondoggle on at least two levels.



The train: There are requirements for railways - maximum grade, maximum curvature, etcetera, that roads do not have. Last I was aware, the one railroad path through those mountains is famous worldwide - the Carrizo Gorge segment of railroad is am impressive if expensive solution to a railroad's needs (by the way, it goes back and forth between the US and Mexico fourteen times). For this, those mountains are famous among railroaders worldwide. Maglevs would need to be very high speed to be popular, and I'm not certain Carrizo Gorge can be engineered thus. Therefore, much blasting, resurveying, environmental reports, border concerns. Cost: unknown but very high. Here's one estimate. I think they may be low.



The location: a long train ride for folks after they get to downtown. For people in Oceanside, John Wayne Airport is closer (33 miles) than Lindbergh (56 miles), and a large portion of the former is through the fast, free flowing freeway segment through Pendleton, as opposed to trying to inch south on I-5 (and back through the merge!). For folks in Fallbrook, Ontario is 68 miles, as opposed to Lindbergh's 59 and even going around Pendleton to John Wayne is 69 miles. Downtown is further than Lindbergh to both, by the way, and the parking situation is not so friendly. Then after they get downtown, potential passengers have an hour long maglev ride that's not going to be free. At a guess, nobody south of Miramar (where the new airport should be if they've got half a brain) would even use the Imperial County site. Folks in South County would save time (and probably money) by flying out of Tijuana. People like me make out okay if there's an east county station somewhere, but the only real winners to an Imperial Valley site are the contractors, and the unemployed in Imperial County.



What's going on? The double headed snake of political cowardice and the opportunity for graft. Nobody wants to tell the NIMBYs the truth that that's the only place to put the airport (Actually, joint use of the runways at Miramar makes even more sense, but that would irritate even more people in the high rent districts west of there.) Logistics. The Miramar location is where the space and the freeways for access are. Lindbergh is an accident waiting to happen, and has no room to add runways. We've been beating around this bush for thirty years now. It's time to stop playing games and get real.



**********



Justice prevails! Supreme Court Unanimously upholds Solomon Amendment. This basically says that if you want federal money, you have to allow the federal government - specifically, military recruiters - the same access to campus that you give every other employer. Harvard Law had sued because they "couldn't afford to give up federal money." Guess what? This takes it out of the realm of freedom of speech. You'd think the most prestigious law school in the country could figure that out without appealing it all the way to the Supreme Court. Want to bar military recruiters? Give up your federal money. That would be a protest that might mean something, not the mealy-mouthed "We want our cake and eat it, too!" approach. A refusal to subsidize is not the same as censorship.



**********



U.S. Dismisses Talk of Compromise on Iran Compromise? Iran already has everything it wants except more nukes than any other country. Not to mention they admitted they were bargaining in bad faith. Anything less than a hard line response to this situation is technically known by a common technical military term: "Surrender"



**********



Riehl World View deconstructs an argument between a couple of other members of the 'sphere.



**********



Via Argghhh!, AWST notes that the highly classified Blackstar program (two stage to orbit) may have been decommissioned, assuming it existed, on which AWST is uncertain. Nonetheless, certain peripheral facts support the suppositions, like the retirement of the SR71.



**********



If you're not tired of this story yet, Michael Barone (with help from Wizbang) demolishes the "Bush was warned about the levees" contention of the left wingers in Ancient Media.



**********



Via Instapundit, ChicagoBoyz has a good post on the childless free riders. I'm not certain I agree, but it's certainly worth reading. The childless do subsidize my daughters' education, among other things. On the other hand, my wife and I are spending a very large amount of money raising them, not just in explicit dollars out the door but also in opportunity costs and lifespan spent. Nonetheless, I'm certain we could cut their schooling costs by at least fifty percent with more competition between schools (which puts childless liberals on the horns of a dilemma!). It's hardly selfless devotion on my part, and yet we are investing in tomorrow's economy by raising children, where childless folks are not. I'm not certain how much of a "free ride" this is, however.

Carnival of Insanities Recommended: American Thinker

**********



Strata Sphere has an excellent article on cracking down on those who leak classified information to the press.



I don't care who is in power, leaking of information that can get people killed needs to stop.



Captain's Quarters notes the hypocrisy when the leftist members of the press are hoist by their own petard. It was one thing demanding an investigation into the outing of Valerie Plame which might catch Administration thugs, quite another when it would involve putting reporters in front of grand juries (as the Plame investigation ended up doing). You want to wield power, you are subject to investigation. The president, who was elected, faces far more scrutiny than the publisher of the New York Times, who was not.



**********



Samizdata has the details of thoughtcrime in the UK.



On a related subject, Coyote Blog mourns the unjust execution of Arthur Anderson.



**********



I am not a reporter and do not pretend to be, but I believe if more reporters followed Countercolumn's suggestions, we'd be much better off.



HT to Chapomatic



**********



Camp Katrina has morphed into MilTracker. My understanding is that all new content will go there.



**********



Blackfive has some self-interested rationality on the results of the negotiations with Iran.



He's absolutely right in that in order for negotiations to be successful, both goals must be simultaneously achievable. He misses the corollary that in order to achieve anything by negotiations at all, you cannot be seen as unwilling to do something about the intransigence of the other side. The EUropeans were known by all parties to be unwilling to actually do anything, and so they accomplished nothing beyond providing a smokescreen for Iranian nuclear ambitions for two years. In other words, worse than useless.



At a minimum, the regimes in Syria, Iran, and North Korea, are going to have to get dealt with if the next generation of humans is not to grow up mutated survivors of atomic warfare. Yes, we've got to be careful. Damned careful. We're going to have to get inventive. Neither one of those words means anything like the opposite of firm or determined, which are also components of any possible solution that's actually desirable. It most emphatically doesn't excuse us from having to do it.



Mind you, all of this is about as surprising as gravity.



**********



Q and O has a great essay about fetishizing democracy. No, not as in expanding electoral democracies. As in expanding lowest-common-denominator responses. Money quote:

(Some libertarians, of course, raise the distrust of democracy in to a matter of high principle, by refusing to vote at all. "Voting," they say, "is merely giving consent to a system that takes away my rights! I'll never compromise my principles by participating is such a charade!" Well, maybe so, but it also ensures the election of people who are prone to take away your rights, rather than people that will defend them. This is the very name "self-defeating".



These same people often say that they'd fight to defend their rights. Huh. Let's see if I get this straight: You won't try and defend your rights by voting once every two years, but when jackbooted government thugs drop by with submachine guns, you're gonna pull out a rifle and make a courageous final stand. Go on, pull the other one.

**********



Remember I said it appears as if there's more perception of an Iraqi Civil War in the US than there is the actuality over there? The New York Post debunks that other New York paper.



**********



Asymmetrical Information notes a Times Magazine Article by Jon Gertner that says most of the same things I said in my article on The Economics of Housing Development back on December 26th, even if it does mostly wait until page six to start with the meat of the article. He also hypothesizes:

Glaeser speculates that there may be a viral phenomenon whereby once housing prices reach a certain level, residents become aware of high home values and agitate for restrictions; another possibility is that judges have become much more sympathetic to blocking development for environmental reasons. Still another thought: that homeowners, utilizing skills learned during the civil rights movement and political protests of the 1960's and 1970's, became much more adept at organizing against developers. (There appears to be a reasonable correlation between liberal enclaves, zoning regulations and high housing prices.) In any event, Glaeser says, he doesn't know the answer yet, and it may take years to find out.

I just don't care about which side of the political divide is causing the problem, I just want it dealt with in a rational manner.



**********



Armies of Liberation notes that US News has a good article on Yemen due out tomorrow. I look forward to it.



**********



Via LGF, Publish or Perish, the lessons of the Cartoon Jihad.



**********



Via Volokh, Housing Bubble reports that not only are builder cancellations up, but that the builders are keeping the deposits and in some cases coming after the depositors for the difference between what the house sold for and their contracted sale price. You want something guaranteed to chill the market long term? When your potential customers are worried about becoming your insurance company by insuring that you'll get that price.



Foot. Bullet. Hydrostatic shock.



I can imagine the company spokesman: "We're just doing our part to make a bad situation worse."



**********



Full Disclosure and Mea Culpa: A few days ago I wrote about how the children of those who drew the Islamic Cartoons have been threatened. Via Michelle Malkin, I find a report that it's not true.



I can't read the Danish either, and Babel Fish doesn't do Danish to English, but I thought I'd post it in the interests of disclosure. here is a Danish onliner's translation.



**********



Austin Bay has a cute little couple paragraphs on information isolation and overcoming it.

Carnival of Liberal Wrongs

**********



You know the Minutemen, the citizens organization that tries to help Border Patrol by going out and looking at border crossers and telling the Border Patrol what they see?



A taxpayer funded organization is threatening their children.



They are not vigilantes. All that the organizations permits is to inform law enforcement of what they see. For this, they have been villainized in any number of places.



Even if they were vigilantes, the appropriate thing would be to go after them with legal proceedings, not their minor children. I suppose that the constitution affords more protection to children of murderers and rapists than children of law-abiding civic minded citizens? That's certainly what it appears like. Or are the laws the rest of us have to follow suspended for those breaking the law and their enablers?



Rhymes with Right has more.



**********



Michael Totten bears witness to the murderers and torturers in Iraq. I suggest reading the comments as well.

Digger's Realm has finally discovered that illegal immigrants have been getting home loans based on taxpayer ID. Actually, pretty much every single one of the lenders I do business with will do EIN loans.



I wrote on it here on July 20th, 2005. Here's the Business Week article I referenced then. I got a Employer ID Number (EIN) for my dba over the phone with zero documentation. But I can't get a loan with an EIN because I'm a citizen.



In all fairness, one cannot blame the lenders in this instance. My reading of California anti-discrimination law, together with our "shelter the illegals" law practically forces them to deal with the illegal immigrant market. If you have to serve the market anyway, you might as well serve the market.



(It's also worth noting that practically anyone can buy land in the United States. They don't even have to be here in the country, much less here legally. If Osama bin Laden were to contact me for help buying property, I'm not certain it would be legal for me to turn him down).



Add to this the fact that many housing and loan markets are overextended and lenders are trying to maintain volume, and you have the recipe for an ideal environment for questionable loans of all sorts.



It's the responsibility of our elected politicians and their surrogates in law enforcement to deal with this, but they are held hostage by fear. Hispanics are a very strong voting block, especially here in Southern California, and they are afraid of being voted out of office. Never mind that those here legally want illegals curtailed as much as any other american citizen. We're dealing with a political dichotomy here. Hispanic leaders want the illegals here, where the hispanics themselves do not. If the politicians listened to their actual constituents instead of their supposed leaders, the problem could get dealt with.



I haven't done any deals for illegals (that I'm aware of - there are ways to hide it), but I find it very hard to find scorn in my heart for those who have. Given the regulatory environment, it's simple self protection to cooperate.

Well, the commercial side is finally ready for prime time. I had to keep after the programmers constantly to do it on schedule and to spec, but they did get it done. Okay, if I was grading their business practices, their score might only be in the low 80s, but when nobody can manage anything above fifty, grading on the curve of their competing firms means they deserve an A++. Right now we're concentrating on merchant sign ups, but if you have a need and we have the merchant already, we're happy to oblige.



The idea is to have a pool of ethical practitioners in the mortgage, real estate, and insurance industries, that gives them reason not to defraud their clients. The idea is to include financial planners as well as soon as I can find someone willing to sponsor me for the relevant tests.

**********



Govt. Eyes Error That Cost U.S. Billions



Now this needs to be investigated as to whether it was really just an error or not. Billions lost because somebody "forgot" to put a clause Congress required in over a thousand different oil leaseholds? I know that if I was an oil company looking to get a good return on my investment that would certainly be a candidate for a few hundred thousand.



It says they've ruled out computer error, so at the very least someone needs to be fired for incompetence. I don't know any company that would put up with this. Why should we put up with it from public employees?



When did this "error" take place? 1996, 1997, and from 2000 onward. Who does that suggest is responsible?



Suppose this had begun under Bush administration appointees? Is there any doubt that they would be crucified. As it is, I'm justifiably angry that they've took five years to find out about it. But given the fact that they were handed an ongoing problem, that could easily be simple negligence, although I want that looked into as part of the investigation.



**********



Yellowstone Bulge May Cause Thermal Unrest. Offhand, I'd say that's so low a concern as to not be worth mention. I saw a documentary a while ago and followed up by reading a bit. The reason for the geysers is that Yellowstone is a buried caldera that last erupted about 640,000 years ago, and was approximately 1000 times more powerful than Mt. St. Helens twenty five years ago. They're thinking that it would bury most of the plains under a foot of ash if it did so again, and it's overdue. Not a darned thing we can do about it, of course. Geologists are saying that Yellowstone erupts at about 600,000 year intervals - meaning it may be overdue.



**********



Fascinating! Generic Confusion has an article directing us to the Islamic concept of Takaful, which is how they handle insurance contracts. Inefficient by comparison with Western models but it gets around religious prohibitions put into place by a man who just didn't understand economics. (I find the notion of an all-knowing god putting these limitations on human economic activity to be laughable. Such a god would be more than capable of economic designs that are not only moral, but work efficiently.)



**********



Argghhh! debunks John Derbyshire on the readiness downgrade of the one previously level one Iraqi battalion. Reason? A new command rotation and scheduled training.



**********



This needs more circulation: Professor Bainbridge has an eye-opening article about Mr. Clinton seeking patronage for a friend of his.



**********



Wizbang has the authoritative debunking on the Legacy Media's assault on Bush in the form of claiming he was warned in advance of Katrina.



My take is that even if it were an unambiguous warning of disaster - which it wasn't - what precisely is the President to do?



1) Order levees built over the course of decades demolished and rebuilt in a day? If you can read this without laughing, you need a refresher course in reality.



2) Order evacuation? Send Troops? This is not his decision to make, as any number of people have pointed out, and if he had, it would have been correct to impeach him.



3) Stand there with his finger in the dyke (and his thumb elsewhere) while other major problems that he is charged with fester? Okay, I know some people want precisely that. Doesn't mean it's practical, worthwhile, or intelligent.



4) Precisely what he did.



Big Lizards has more.



**********



I knew I wasn't alone! Vodkapundit has a very nice article on the tactical victory and strategic disaster that was Gulf War I. If I live another five thousand years, I might forgive Bush I for multiple-botching that easy opportunity to do something right.



**********



Dr. Sanity and Adventures of Chester have excellent articles about the question of whether Islam is potentially compatible with Western Democracy, and the consequences of yes and no answers.



The only thing that I have to add is that the ideas of Western Democracy may have been claimed to be universal, but not demonstrated to be so, and I'm not certain that even those who laid the cornerstones believed it to be universal. What Western Democracy is, is more accommodating of alternate beliefs and ideas than anything which has been tried or proposed before. Western Democracy tries to incorporate new strengths to the extent possible. I do not believe that failing to incorporate Islam would be a failing. We didn't incorporate much of pre-WW2 Japan, and the only fascism is those poor deluded leftists who think they understand our choices better than we do. Of course, this has become most of them, but I digress.



The exclusion from the world of Islam as presently constituted would make for a dark blot on the soul of Western thought, but not an unbearable karmic burden of precedent. When the axe murderer charges the cop, implement held high and persists despite warnings, warning shots, and the threat of the gun lined up on his chest, the policeman who does what is necessary to preserve his own life and that of any bystanders is not irredeemably stained. Yeah, he may - wrongly - believe that "if only" he had done something different, the axe murderer would still be alive, and blame himself. But a sane response puts the responsibility and any karmic burden squarely upon the axe-murderer. The cop in this scenario is a hero by any reasonable standard. Why not the sane, tolerant society who removed a mad dog who was endangering others and could not be stopped by any lesser response from committing offenses many times worse?



**********



Armies of Liberation connects the dots on the Great Al-Qaeda Prison Break. Doesn't look good for the incumbent regime.



**********



Via Instapundit, a proposal to come up with a rational system of fair use that rewards engineers, not patent attorneys.

Carnivals



Carnival of Liberty Recommended: Combs Spouts Off, Solomon's House



Carnival of The Vanities

(My submission was an editor's choice! The happy dance will now commence!)

**********



I belong in Time Enough For Love. What Heinlein novel should you be a character in?



HT Below the Beltway



**********



All please take a moment to pay tribute to the passing of one of our heroes of yesterday: Robert Scott, author of "God is My Co-pilot", has gone from among us. Story here. This is the guy who painted his propeller a different color every day, to indicate a different squadron. Japanese propaganda broadcasts indicated that they had caught on to the trick somewhat, saying they knew there weren't more than three squadrons of P-40s in Burma. They were right. There was a grand total of one P-40 - piloted by Robert Scott.



**********



Chutzpah: Saddam Asks: 'Where Is the Crime?'



Let's grant your point, Mr. Dictator. How many of those people actually shot at you? How many just happened to be from the wrong village? Considering the fact that your "investigations" killed 48 of those accused, wouldn't a reasonable person have grounds to conclude that perhaps the evidence was extracted by means not in compliance with the search for truth?



**********



Consumerism Commentary notes occupations where women make more than men.



**********



Dr. Sanity has a breath of fresh air on events in Iraq, the war on terror, and how our media are treating it. The media over here is more exercised than the Iraqis are - mostly because they see a chance to "get" George Bush and those evil Rethuglicans. Step back and take a deep breath. I'm not certain I agree that we've already won, but taking action now was significantly superior in outlook to waiting.



**********



Michael Barone has some thoughts on whether the New York Times should be prosecuted for its role in publishing and publicizing classified data. He wonders how we should guard against selective prosecution



My answer is that we shouldn't. Allow any federal prosecutor the discretion to bring charges. Alternately, set up two special prosecutors if we have to, one appointed by Donkeys and the other by Elephants, and either of them could bring charges unsupported by the other. The purpose of bringing charges is to say that there's enough evidence here not to be laughed out of court. It is the purpose of the trial to determine actual guilt or innocence, but the jury can't make that call if they don't get the case. (Limiting it to two special prosecutors would limit the number of cases to the most egregious).



I don't think any member of the press has been prosecuted for this since 1972. I'm thinking that needs to change.



If someone is convicted of something minor, picayaune, or justifiable: That's what executive clemency is for.



**********



Speaking of predictions: Big Lizards is justifiably proud of one of his on the grandstanding of the Donkeys in the Senate.



**********



Captain's Quarters notes that Mexico is violating NAFTA.



**********



By the way, I'm planning on doing an article on buying a home (or not) in the current market. I would appreciate half a dozen or so volunteers, either in comments or email, coming up with the following information about the situation as it exists in your area. You'll get linked if you want it.



1. Purchase price of a home you might buy

2. Down payment you have available.

3. How undervalued or overvalued you think your local market is

4. How much of an value appreciation, percentagewise, your area might see in a typical year

5. What kind of a rate, and at what cost you might qualify for a loan. If you don't say, I can fill in the blanks by assuming A paper.

6. What property taxes are like in your area (assesment rate and rate of increase). If you don't say, I can fill in the blanks by assuming it's California.

7. How much in extra costs you think you'd have beyond the loan and taxes. I can ballpark this if you don't say.

8. The inflation rate you think we'll have. I'll use historical if you don't say.

9. How much per month the rental alternative is right now

10. Whether you are married or single, and your marginal tax rate.

11. Time frame until you need to sell, assuming there's a reason, either in your life plan or just beyond your control (e.g. you're in the military and get transferred every so often, or you work for one of those industries/companies where you have to change assignments to keep them happy)