New National Post Column From Me: ‘Shilling for the House of Saud': It’s about former U.S. ambassadors who make a fine living standing up for the House of Saud when no one else will. Please read it; even if you’re familiar with the subject, there will hopefully be a few new facts for you.

For those interested in the topic, here are some other links: An Oct. 30, 2001 column by Thomas Friedman about Saudi pressure to remove Arabic-speaking U.S. ambassadors, the Feb. 11 Washington Post article in which the Saudi financial ties to former ambassadors are detailed, and in which Prince Bandar is quoted as saying "If the reputation then builds that the Saudis take care of friends when they leave office … you'd be surprised how much better friends you have who are just coming into office." Here’s Joel Mowbray’s National Review archive (Mowbray, who has been uncovering dirty details about the “Visa Express” system all summer, was detained by State Department toughs after a press conference and pressured to give up a confidential source); here’s Pat Roush’s heartbreaking story about having her daughters kidnapped by her Saudi ex-husband while the Embassy looked the other way (here’s her sworn June 12 testimony to Congress, and here’s still more from those jaw-dropping hearings, and here’s a link to Bush Spokesman Ari Fleischer answering a question about Roush the next day by saying “that’s the first I’ve heard of this”). I assembled this list of offensive Wyche Fowler quotes back in January.

Time willing, I’ll be doling out bits of my leftover research over the coming week, especially regarding the current apologist ambassador, Dubya’s former lawyer Robert Jordan. I think the man should be impeached, for starters, and it is frankly appalling, though not surprising, that he was appointed in the first place. On Sept. 12.

08/24/2002 10:04 AM  |  Comment (4)

Well, That’s Confusing!: The number-two search term bringing people to this site in August? “Matt Welsh.” Three and four are also weird -- Sydney Schanberg and Barbara Kingsolver. Here’s a funny search term for which to be ranked fifth (even though I was only quoting Jon Stewart and Nick Denton). I’m also the number-four listing for David Talbot, oddly.

08/24/2002 12:46 AM  | 

Mo Vaughn Caught Cross-Dressing: At RallyMonkey.com.

08/24/2002 12:32 AM  | 

Three Years Ago, This Site Would Have IPOd at $100 Million, Easy: Found, naturally, at the strangely bovino-centric Babalog.

08/23/2002 11:53 PM  | 

CNN’s Trouble With European Geography: Via Rick Bruner. On that topic, just last week our local TV news legend Hal Fishman talked about those terrible floods in “Czechoslovakia” …

08/23/2002 11:48 PM  | 

Lileks, on Ann Coulter’s Comment About How McVeigh Should Have Blown up the New York Times:

Let me be on record that this is an appalling and inexcusable remark, and it turns my stomach. Of course she was being outrageous to make a point, but it was a stupid point, stupidly made, and it has the effect of making those indifferent to her presence in the ranks wish she would dry up and blow away. McVeigh blew up a fucking daycare center, Anne; that ought to be your main regret, not that he failed to drive a shard of glass through Maureen Dowd’s eyesocket. No doubt some on the left winced when Mikey Moore agonized over the terrorists’ decision to strike New York, because it hadn’t voted for Bush. Same thing. Cheap shot, loud mouth, small mind.

08/22/2002 10:49 PM  |  Comment (22)

Greg McIlvaine’s Anti-Terrorism Art Show: My pal Greg has a big show coming up August 31, showcasing his exciting new portrait series. He’s even put out a press release, under the headline “Los Angeles Artist Pursues Happiness Through Paintings In Response To Sept. 11.” Check it out:

LOS ANGELES, CA -- (INTERNET WIRE) -- 08/21/2002 -- Artist Gregory John McIlvaine opens his solo gallery show entitled "The Pursuit of Happiness" at the LA River Lil' Frogtown Gallery this Saturday, August 31 with a reception from 6-9PM. McIlvaine, who received an MFA from Otis School of Art in 1994, was inspired by the tragedy of Sept. 11 to create a series of portraits of friends, loved ones, heroes, and other inspirations. McIlvaine says, "In thinking about what I personally could do to fight the fundamentalism and intolerance that this terrorism represents, I tried to make a series of paintings which express a love of life and creative individualism. I chose to portray friends and heroes in an attempt to celebrate the joy that comes from community, scholarship, inquiry, and creative work. There's also an element of humor which is always present in my work and hopefully makes it more accessible." […]

"As we grieve, we also remember and celebrate the spirit of freedom and individuality that our enemies are trying to destroy. Hopefully my show can be part of that process."

08/22/2002 10:36 PM  | 

Funny Pragueish Story About Os: By Dan Hilldale.

08/22/2002 05:49 AM  |  Comment (1)

What the Hell’s Wrong With You People?: Yesterday, when I’m on another terrible deadline, you make it the second-highest trafficked day ever (uniques/visits/pages/files/hits of 3,943/4,445/7,116/21,686/27,744). Nothing in the referrals explains it. You’re not all so easily excited by cheap NPR slurs, are you?

08/22/2002 05:34 AM  |  Comment (6)

Eric Neel Channels Lileks: A fine column about sports, attention spans, and parenting.

08/21/2002 01:45 PM  |  Comment (1)

Overheard on NPR, Part II: They are right now broadcasting something on controversial satire such as Ted Rall’s “terror widows” cartoon. Reporter stated that, after that cartoon was published, “there were new calls for stronger censorship laws.” Gosh, I don’t remember a single such “call,” though admittedly I only subscribe to 20 publications, and spend all day online devouring websites & listening to the news radio.

08/21/2002 12:48 PM  |  Comment (12)

Dumb html Question for Y’all: I’ve got a great chart to show you, with three lines of data: names of countries (flush left), their population figures (aligned around a decimal point), and a bonus third column of single-digit numerals counting something or other. How do I make it look like I want?

08/21/2002 03:15 AM  |  Comment (12)

NPR Crapola on the McKinney Defeat: I’m up late, reading horrific congressional testimony about various Saudi atrocities, and suddenly the morning NPR does a mini-story on Cynthia McKinney getting whupped yesterday, introducing her as someone “not afraid to speak her mind,” beaten by an opponent who was “supported by whites and Republicans.” Now, NPR laments, the black community fears it might have lost an “outspoken” leader. There was nothing about Mckinney's shameful embraces of disgraced Saudis. The overall picture painted was that of someone who was just too damned honest for modern politics. Good God. UPDATE: A reader points out in the comments that later reports were more balanced. The bit I heard was an extended headline/teaser, about 20-30 seconds, if my weary brain heard it correctly.

08/21/2002 03:09 AM  |  Comment (24)

Chinese Dam on the Verge; 10 Million Could Be Affected:

08/20/2002 11:13 PM  | 

The 21st Hijacker!: FBI officials just released a global APB for a cute little Saudi boy named Saud A.S. al-Rasheed, who they say is connected to the Sept. 11 massacre. He’s 21, and not believed to be in the United States at the moment.

08/20/2002 11:04 PM  |  Comment (3)

Happy Birthday, Laura Crane!: May Santa Jeebus give you a nice yard-giraffe.

08/20/2002 03:57 PM  | 

R.I.P., Gaston the Czech River-Seal!: Four Czech seals used the recent floods as an excellent opportunity to emigrate from their grim zoo. Little Gaston, a young father of a two-month-old, made it all the way past Dresden before being captured by the Enemies of Seal Freedom. Presumably pissed off and exhausted, Gaston the river-seal died en route back to the drenched Czech capital. One can only hope against hope that a new breed of crafty Central European river-mammals will flourish in the wild, sneaking into the ancient cities at night to raid the carp farms.

08/20/2002 03:52 PM  |  Comment (1)

L.A. Times Politically-Correct Brainfart of the Week: As mentioned on LA Examiner, check out this ridiculous front-page attempt to find racial inequality in pedestrian deaths.

08/19/2002 02:25 PM  |  Comment (2)

Optimism About the Spread of Global Democracy: From Joshua Muravchik, once again. (Via Matthew Yglesias)

08/19/2002 12:51 PM  |  Comment (1)

Budapest Spared, Mostly: Those dual-monarchists apparently knew how to protect a city against an angry Brown Danube. Up the river, meanwhile, my Slovak friends continue to suffer, as they always do, from an almost total media black-out. About the only thing I could find about lovely Bratislava, the “Cincinnati of the ‘70s,” as Layne called it, was this deeply disturbing photo….

08/19/2002 12:30 PM  | 

Give Bill Quick a Job! :

08/19/2002 12:14 PM  | 

Herold, to Inquiring Reporter -- ‘Why Are You so Interested?’: I’m pretty much tired of reading about Marc Herold’s bogus civilian-deaths estimates, but this Weekly Standard column by Joshua Muravchik shows the professor and his work to be hostile to the very scrutiny he initially claimed to covet. (Via Glenn Reynolds)

08/19/2002 11:58 AM  |  Comment (1)

Why Gray Davis, Unlike Wilson and Reagan, Won’t Raise Taxes on the Rich During a Budget Crisis: From the L.A. Times’ George Skelton today:

Gov. Gray Davis also opposed [a bill raising top rates], claiming that California already is too dependent on the volatile income tax.

Davis never has been a tax-the-rich populist.

He has been running from Gov. Jerry Brown's tax-and-spend image ever since serving as Brown's top aide back in the '70s.

Moreover, Davis has been convinced by his chief of staff, former U.S. Rep. Lynn Schenk of San Diego, that tax hikes are political killers. Schenk is convinced that voters bounced her from Congress in 1994 because she supported President Clinton's tax increase.

08/19/2002 11:39 AM  | 

Good Survival Tips for Working at Home: From Havrilesky. (Scroll down to the post below this one, as well.) Think it’s time to walk down the hill and bang on her door, preferably at 8 a.m.

08/18/2002 10:49 PM  | 

Wearing my Hat on my Sleeve:

08/18/2002 10:10 PM  | 

The Best Springsteen Appreciation I’ve Read in Years, Maybe: Not that I’ve been fishing around, or anything….

It’s by Penn Jillette, in this week’s Las Vegas Weekly. You might know Jillette by his magic/comedy act, which he performs with his short pal, Teller. Hilburn can go ahead and finally retire now.

08/18/2002 08:02 PM  | 

Lots of Recent Content From Virginia Postrel: I’ve been on deadline and/or out of town, so I’m sure this will not be news to 80% of you, but Virginia is back with many interesting comments and links, including an I-told-you-so on AOL/Time-Warner, and some stuff about her great recent column in the NYT.

08/18/2002 07:46 PM  | 

Some L.A. Rock History for you: Via L.A.’s newest rock critic, Kate Sullivan:

I will never forget the Guns 'N Roses riot at the L.A. Street Scene downtown, right at the height of the whole weird metal shebang --L.A. Guns played, and Guns 'N Roses, and Jane's Addiction --- fuck. Sometimes I can't believe it happened. I couldn't even get into the G 'N R show but we were hanging out in the parking lot, and you could feel (and hear) the hugeness of what was going on inside -- and then people started running out followed by cops on horseback, and then someone threw a bottle, and then we were all running as fast as we could to avoid being beaten and tear-gassed. The cops were so out-of-control back then under Darrell Gates. Actually, I think the cops started that riot on purpose because they hated the L.A. Street Scene and wanted to figure out a way to kill it forever. It worked, of course. That was the last year they ever did it.

I'm listening to Led Zeppelin !V right now.

08/18/2002 07:21 PM  |  Comment (5)

Hi! What are you doing down here?