Late Night Line, May 17

• Iraq the Model on The Longest, Hottest Summer in Baghdad. It’s not pretty. It’ll get worse.
• The Da Vinci Code has been broken at Cannes. “Laughter and catcalls” greet screening. The wrap-up at Libertas.
• Just in case you were concerned, Alcibiades @ Keshertalk reveals that the magic used in the Harry Potter Series is kosher.
• La Shawn Barber reports she has passed the two million unique visits mark. Take a bow and then return to your post, La Shawn.
• New & Noteworthy: Milblogs , for all your Networked Warrior Needs. (A service of Mudville Gazette .)
• A little reminder of our place in the Big Picture.
• Solving the high cost of education with a little help from tech support over at brothersjudd.
• Best Headline Award for last night’s immigration speech goes to the Jawa Report for “Bush Speech - Calling A Spade A Spork”
• If Hudnall keeps getting deeper into his Tayor Hicks idolization, we’ll probably have to schedule a cyber-intervention. I’m just sayin’.

Fish. Barrel. Bang. Yale @ Horsefeathers takes aim at the New York Times editorials that “seem to be written by ignorant, feckless people, barely out of their jeans and sandals and still in the sway of a social-political fantasy of paradise.” Then he pulls the trigger. Results? Lethal.

The Top Mortacracies of 2005 For Professor Rudy Rummel democide is “murder by government, where murder is understood as it is defined in civil law.” When he says mortacracy he means “a regime that commits mass democide, such as did Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, communist China, and Pol Pot’s Cambodia, among others.” Via Deans World, Rummel presents a report on the worst nations in the world. A long but important study found here.

By Any Means Necessary Riehl’s World thinks the Mexican government is prepared to actively undermine new immigration barriers — with lawsuits and more.

The MSM is Winning Instapunk says the drip-drip-drip method triumphs over all: It doesn’t have to be true, it doesn’t have to be fair, it doesn’t have to be consistent in its terms. All that matters is that it is repeated with uniform constancy: drip, drip, drip. George W. Bush is no good. George W. Bush is no good. George W. Bush is no good.

American Digest chimes in with Cracked Bells : It won’t stop because, like bears hooked on garbage, the mainstream media of the United States know only two things and tell only two stories: Vietnam and Watergate.

Totten and Middle Eastern Google Trends Michael Totten discovers Google Trends and calls up the top ten countries where Google searches for “Oh man. Man oh man”. And “Osama”.

Keith Richard's Brain Speaks Out “Please allow me to introduce myself. I’m Keith Richards’ brain. A brain of swollen pain, as you’ll be aware if you’ve picked up a newspaper in the past few weeks. For nigh on 63 years, I’ve avoided the unpleasantness of media scrutiny, until my human-form hostpod – Mr Richards, as you call him – recently decided to climb up a coconut tree. Well, technically, I suppose it was my decision; I’ll accept the blame for that. But it wasn’t my decision to fall out of the damn thing and land on me.”

Hat tip: Ed Driscoll

Andrew Sullivan on the Immigration Debate Andrew Sullivan gives the Malkin Award to Vox Day.

Chomsky and Hizbollah Little Green Footballs has the video.

Chomsky chose to provide “Umm Kamel” with the most detestable pictures, from the Israeli perspective, by smiling and shaking hands with Hizbullah’s leader in South Lebanon, Nabil Qauq. Then they both entered the prison’s Hall of Martyrs.

The Pentagon 9/11 video Hot Air has the released security video of a 757 hitting the Pentagon on September 11. The aircraft is low on the ground. For a great guide to understanding the video visit this primer.

The Ward Churchill report The Pirate Ballerina links to the Ward Churchill report: the “investigating committee finds ‘deliberate’ misconduct in six of the seven allegations”. Churchill calls it a “travesty”. And Marathon Pundit comments.

To the dogs Yes, Laurence, they beat you to it. Dog-bloggers are getting into the podcasting act also. Also Kim talks about politics and dogs (the canine kind) with Tammy Munson.

Leveling with America Mark Steyn asks whether it is better to connect or not to connect the dots? American Future muses: what if surveillance was needed to connect the dots? Would that constitute McCarthyism?

Cross-media bloggers Publius Pundit describes the sudden prominence of Alek Boyd, who “was on five television and radio shows yesterday” and how he got that way: the realtime marriage between activism, investigative journalism and the Internet.

Don't do it!

General Akashi Gidayu preparing to commit Seppuku.

(Hat Tip: Protein Wisdom) Karl Maher urges Republicans not to go all self-immolation over illegal immigration and reminds them of what the Bush Administration has accomplished over the past six years.

Give us your hunted (Hat tip: LGF) On her way to becoming a legal immigrant to the United States, Ayaan Hirsi Ali submits her resignation statement as a member of the Dutch Parliament.

Over at the blog named in her honor, Okke Ornstein laments the way Ali’s adopted country—which used to be known for its tolerance—has turned its back on her. “No more tolerance and open society in the Netherlands. They’ve all gone mad, it’s like watching a woman being stoned in Somalia. Yesterday, a poll showed overwhelming popular support for taking away Dutch citizenship from the MP who lives under constant police protection. Holland used to be a safe haven for freethinkers, refugees, the persecuted. Not any more.”

Loving NYC

P.D. Berger

The Englishman in New York rediscovers his adopted hometown. “This weekend, Sofie and I headed for the amusingly-named Gowanus Canal. It’s only about 20 minutes walk from our apartment and it makes a nice change from the usual route along nearby Fifth Avenue where we inevitably spend too much money on things we don’t need.”

Tangled web of dictators

F-16s

Your daily briefing on all things Iran sits waiting to be read at Regime Change Iran. Of primary interest include reports that “in the past two weeks, Iran has been pumping into Iraq two types of extra-lethal weapons in very large quantities.”

Iran-related: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is thinking about selling Iran some of his military’s US-made fighters—slightly used and, no doubt, well-maintained—certainly to thumb his nose at the US for banning arms sales to his country.

Interview with a female general Marc Danziger—aka Armed Liberal—had lunch with Colonel Janis Karpinski (USAR, ret.), former general and former commander of the the reserve brigade which presided over the infamous Abu Ghraib abuses in Iraq.

Unwarranted Attention Josh Marshall taps into the FBI’s response to reports of warrantless phone record searches. Comments on the original ABC report are at the Volokh Conspiracy and at Balloon Juice.

Burnout in the Blogosphere It’s a bit of an epidemic among political bloggers these days; understandable, but not an option, writes Neo-neocon with Churchillian echoes.

The Adventures of Chester offers some inspiration for the fatigued.

Austin Bay examines those “incremental events” be that have led to the change in tone.

Finally, the post that launched the posts above, A Still, Small Voice from The Belmont Club.

Maryland Senate Race and 'Race'

Benjamin Cardin

The Republicans aren’t the only ones having family squabbles. In Maryland, Democratic US Senate candidate Kweisi Mfume—who is black—claims that the party leadership in his state has favored fellow Democrat Benjamin Cardin—who is not black—in the Senate primaries because of Mfume’s race. Says Captain Ed over the ruckus: “Mfume explicitly chides the state Democratic party for ignoring black candidates, especially after the last gubernatorial election.”

9/11 video to be released Allah informs us that new video of the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon will be released at 1:00 EDT—minutes from now—by the Department of Defense.

From Tripoli to Tehran? Juliette Kayyem @ TPM Cafe thinks that the decision to open full diplomamtic relations with Libya is a good idea, but she’s worried that this carrot is only a prelude to the stick against Iran.

"Imagine There's No Border, It's Scary If You Try" Ye olde Progressive dream of a “World Without Borders.” Frank @ IMAO can imagine it : If Mexicans want to come over here… whatever. And if we want to go to Mexico, that’s cool too. And if the Americans who go happen to be armed soldiers who terminate all the officials in the Mexican government, so what? Let’s not “freak out”

Viva Las Vegas TigerHawk photoblogs his trip to Sin City.

Not as bad as he thought OxBlog’s David Adesnik watched the O’Reilly Factor for the first time: “Now, I’m not saying I like the guy … But the bottom line is that O’Reilly came off tonight as anything but the pseudo-populist rabble-rouser his critics make him out to be.”

How Do We Know Lettuce Doesn't Scream When We Pick It? Advice Goddess comments on Chicago’s ban of foie gras.

A Familiar Arc Intelligence services accused of keeping files on journalists and paying reporters to spy on their colleagues, in a widening scandal… Charges that have unnerved media organizations and further damaged the intelligence agency’s reputation, which is also under investigation for its role in the Iraq war…

It’s real news, but not from where you’re thinking: Laura Rozen @ War And Piece has the details.

Do .Tel Get ready to start seeing internet addresses ending in .tel soon: a new top level domain has been approved by ICANN to serve as Internet telephone numbers. 21Talks tells what this means, while Subrahmanyam Karuturi doesn’t think it will be a success except for the registry owner, and Alec Saunders is not thrilled either.

Stanley Kunitz, RIP

Image: Jill Krementz @ Poets.org

“Stanley Kunitz woke up as a centenarian before dying today at 100,” mourns AmbivaBlog.

A Byrd Flies President Bush’s immigration address has caused its first blogcasualty: Lorie Byrd at PoliPundit.

One big difference There’s one big difference between the US and UK newspapers, says Tim Worstall: fact checking.

Bunker Mentality From Clive Davis: “A troubling piece in the Weekly Standard on how America’s diplomatic effort is hampered by excessive security measures. Georgetown University’s Andrew Natsios believes the increasing emphasis on keeping the bad guys out - understandable in the Green Zone and Afghanistan, it must be said - is having negative consequences around the globe.”

Look, There's an Elephant! David Corn asked Karl Rove one question during Q&A time after his speech at the AEI yesterday and all he got was a non-answer.

Spelling Things Out Was Master Gunnery Sergeant Denogean a good example for President Bush to use in yesterday’s address? Baldilocks thinks he wasn’t.

Mixing Branches and Decorations Nearly five years after 9/11 and more than three after the Iraq war started the press is still doing relatively mistakes in basic military issues, and Cori Dauber @ Rantingprofs assesses how much this affects their credibility.