Intelligence, Please…

It’s very rare that I take on one of my own, but I was completely taken aback by Joe The Prophet’s post on Wikileaks of earlier today.

There were several excerpts in that post that left my skin crawling.

• “I am a 100% supporter of Wikileaks.org.” 100%, huh? Not one single question about their motives, or what’s at stake? “Transparency” is the new political buzzword to accompany the advent of globally-networked technologies in the 21st century, in much the same way that “independence from foreign oil” has been a buzzword since the days of the Nixon Administration, when Saudi Arabia took charge of OPEC, and oil prices skyrocketed – note that not in 40 years has America actually found that independence. It is designed to alleviate fears – not to become a manifest reality of political life.
• “…I have yet to see any direct proof that it [has compromised American troops on active duty].” Aside from the fact that you fail to recognize that we classify information to protect our human and physical assets in the first place, exactly what constitutes “proof?” How many bodies do you need to see? How many coffins with American flags draped over them before you realize what a categorically bad idea Wikileaks is?
• “In April, Wikileaks released video of a U.S. helicopter attack on civilians.” And according to this Benjamin Friedman piece from CATO @ LIBERTY, Julian Assange is playing politics with the war in Afghanistan, calling the video “Collateral Murder” despite the pilots’ obvious attempts to comply with the rules of engagement:

My problem with WikiLeaks is its practice of stamping its politics on its leaked documents. For example, in April, when it released that gruesome video of U.S. Apache helicopter pilots in Iraq enthusiastically killing civilians that they mistook for insurgents, WikiLeaks titled the video “Collateral Murder,” despite the obvious efforts of the pilots to comply with the rules of engagement.

Now rather than simply put its documents on the web and let people draw their own conclusions, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange holds a self-congratulatory press conference where he declares “it is our experience that courage is contagious” and compares the document release not just to the leak of Pentagon Papers but to the opening of the Stasi archive in East Germany. Certainly U.S. forces in Afghanistan have committed war crimes (it would be hard to run a war of this scale and avoid them completely) and spun the war’s progress. If these documents reveal more of those doings, that’s a good thing. But even the harshest critic of the war’s conduct ought to be able distinguish it from the activities of a Stalinist secret police force. I bet that the Stasi, faced with a similar leak problem, would have found a way to plug it by now.

Grandiosity is also evident in Assange’s recent response to transparency advocate Steve Aftergood’s critique of WikiLeaks seeming lack of privacy standards. In one paragraph, Assange irrelevantly brags that he spoke before European parliamentarians, asserts that “WikiLeaks not only follows the rule of law, WikiLeaks is involved in creating the law,” announces its opposition to “plutocrats and cashed-up special interests” (not secrecy?), and then claims to have inspired Senate legislation to make Congressional Research Service reports public, even though bills to that effect predate his organization’s existence by nearly a decade.

• “This has bad news written all over it for the President choosing to continue the Afghan war, but it doesn’t mean much better for the Republican party.” You’ve already fallen for the political gamesmanship angle, without considering the consequences for the men and women on the ground!

I come from a long line of military veterans. My father, in fact, did classified work for the US Air Force (when he wasn’t caring for the fighting force as a staff cardiologist). His stint in missile launch command has since been declassified, and so I can talk about it here. Many of the military’s successes are also classified. Why? Because if you find a tactic that is successful, you don’t want information about its execution falling into the wrong hands, lest it be exploited.

"Classified" is NOT subject to interpretation!

Has nobody stopped to think that the only classified information Wikileaks has divulged has reflected poorly on the United States? Has nobody considered the political motivations? I’m guessing Joe The Prophet hasn’t, since he writes of the organization he supports 100%, “The organization has grown in popularity/notoriety, and the U.S. government doesn’t know if it’s a mere fad organization that got lucky, or the start of a trend that would be devastating to government secrecy.” The government has – in many cases, particularly relating to national security – very compelling reasons for keeping secrets! And when did hunting down Osama bin Laden become an issue of political popularity? Is Joe The Prophet advocating mob rule? If so, let him defend it!

Not since the 4th grade when I took piano lessons while the rest of middle school played football have I liked fighting. I do not like war, and I wish that we, as a nation, weren’t eyeballs deep in two of them. But to herald Julian Assange and Wikileaks as some sort of courageous and heroic raconteur of the evils of the American Empire is reckless.

Remember when Michelle Obama told us we had too many fatties running around?

From a joint effort of the folks at the DNC and MyBO:

George –

Every year, our family tries to come up with a fun way to wish Barack a happy birthday.

And this August 4th, when he turns 49, I have something new in mind.

This has been a big — and hectic — year for him. After signing the Affordable Care Act and Wall Street reform into law — and completing his first year as president — I think it’s safe to say we will remember it for a long time.

And I know full well how much he credits this movement, and the work of supporters like you, for the change that we’ve accomplished.

So I’m putting together a birthday card that I would like you to sign. Together with supporters — and me, Malia, Sasha, and Bo — we’ll wish him a happy birthday and let him know that we’re ready to take on the year ahead alongside him.

Will you wish Barack a happy birthday with me?

This year also brought a lot of surprises — some good and some bad.

Supporters like you have helped him make the best of it — by contacting Congress to help push stalled legislation forward, by re-engaging supporters in the political process, by giving back with service projects across the country, and so much more.

And while we can’t know what the coming year will bring, all of us, working together, will continue pushing forward for change.

Will you help make this a memorable birthday for Barack and wish him a happy 49th?

Thanks so much,

Michelle Obama

I don’t know about you, but I think the First Lady has an awful lot of gumption asking me to sign the president’s birthday card after telling America it has had too much cake.

I hear these are actually made of vegetable pulp and corrugated boxes.

Cross-posted at Liberty Pundits.

United States Representative and conservative firebrand Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) addressed conference attendees after lunch today – he made some pretty broad tactical appeals to online activists that have been uncommon to date on the Right, and to that extent, I was pretty impressed with his speech. He also stuck mainly to economic issues, which is what conservative sweethearts will need to do on their end to help coaxing centrist and libertarian voters out of their strongholds, back into the political and policy spheres.

I’m not a cameraman, but you can view (well, hear really) Pence’s speech in its entirety at my Qik profile.

Cross-posted at Liberty Pundits and The Next Right.

Las Vegas is insane.

Everything I’ve heard about this Disneyland-for-adults is true: neon, sparkles, bells & whistles, herds (and hordes) of people, STAR WARS slot machines (pictures later)…I will definitely have to come back here one day for purposes other than business. My friend Jon Henke (@JonHenke) and I flew from DC yesterday by way of Newark, NJ and didn’t even land in Vegas until 1am PT…it was a long day, and I slept in a bit. It was easy to do in my posh suite at the Venetian, with my sunken living room and remote-controlled drapes! Life is hard.

The first panel I attended today featured Todd Thurman (@toddthurman) of the Heritage Foundation, Brian Faughnan (@brianfaughnan) of Liberty Central, and Alexa Moutevelis (@alexashrugged) of the RNC, all moderated by my Liberty Pundits co-blogger Melissa Clouthier (@melissatweets). The panel focused on connecting grassroots activists in the field to policy shops in DC – like Heritage, Cato, or other think tanks – as well as to communications resources and activism training like those offered by FreedomWorks or the Leadership Institute.

Probably one of the better bits of information passed along during the discussion was the notion that activists in the field shouldn’t be shy about engaging DC-based resources. Yes, DC is busy. Yes, DC occasionally has a heightened, over-inflated sense of self. But DC is also sitting on piles of your cash, looking for a way to return value back to you. So don’t be shy about sending emails or picking up the phones to ask for help.

But more than just connecting grassroots activists to DC to get talking points and policy papers to support candidates back home, the panel focused on connecting activist to activist using technology – that means Twitter, Facebook, the blogosphere, and other online resources.

The RNC announced some nascent, new API and they are transitioning all of their online tools to an open-source platform…the API is apparently already available for developers…more on this later. Despite this move to make RNC resources more available to more people, there was some grumbling in the audience that the RNC fails (on occasion) to return voter vaults back to activists on the ground once they pull out of town following a race. This makes people currently involved with components of the Tea Party movement a bit reticent to cooperate with the RNC in Washington.

After a few questions, and after some dancing around the issue, I asked the panel: is there a sense, going into this November’s elections (and subsequently in 2012) that the Right should be worried about the Left exploiting a growing rift between conservatives and libertarians? If so, how can we, or more appropriately, should we be doing anything differently than the suggestions you’ve all made here today to, strengthen the coalition between these two groups?

The consensus from the panel seemed to be that there’s not really any danger this year – libertarians and conservatives agree in principle that the prevailing issue of this election is the economy, stupid. Throwing the bums out is priority #1 in 2010. But the funnel of candidates is currently full, and the new Congressional primary begins, effectively, on November 3 – it is possible that infighting on the Right might get nastier in 2011 and 2012.

Todd Thurman told me after the panel “We just need to make sure we’re talking, and that we’re sticking together in areas where we agree.” I agree in principle with this strategy, but only inasmuch as it’s a first step. Because there is potential for infighting to become nastier on the Right as we approach 2012, it’s important to talk about areas where we disagree too – libertarians remain (rightly) mistrustful of the Big Government GOP – the same GOP that is trying to ride the Tea Party Tiger into new majorities this fall. Ignoring our differences now can be our foil later.

Cross-posted at Liberty Pundits and The Next Right.

I’m traveling today to Las Vegas, Nevada for three days and two nights for the very first time – known to many as “Sin City,” but home to some of my very favorite people on the planet. There are six hyperlinked words there, folks, meaning six clickable links – check them out!

I doubt very much that I’ll actually play much poker over the next few days – not in this economy anyway (never play with what you can’t afford to lose – seriously, if you think you have a problem, contact the Gamblers Anonymous toll-free hotline, 1-888-GA-HELPS, or 1-888-424-3577). Though I make an effort to take one big casino trip per year, I’m headed to Glitter Gulch today for RightOnline 2010, an Internet activism conference for the center-right and right, designed by Americans for Prosperity to mirror the DailyKos’ Netroots Nation, which will also take place in Vegas this weekend.

But I did used to play quite a bit of poker back in my early twenties, back around the time when fellow Tennessean Chris Moneymaker became an overnight celebrity by winning the main event at the 2003 World Series of Poker, after starting his run for poker’s most prestigious championship event at a $40 sit-and-go tournament on Poker Stars.

All the memories of monster bluffs and bad beats, of laughs and friendships created (and alliances forged…) that have flooded back as I prepared for this trip have given me an opportunity to wax nostalgiac quite a bit about my early twenties (the parts I remember, anyway). But today’s post isn’t about my war stories and fisherman’s tales about gambling – it’s about Vegas, baby – Vegas and politics. But not Harry Reid vs. Sharron Angle – I mean poker. And gambling. And what the Hell the government is doing to screw with people’s private lives.

The Poker Players Alliance is a non-profit, membership-based advocacy organization that sprung up in the wake of the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA), and aims to help turn back the tide of state and federal government crackdowns on social and commercial games of chance. They believe (as I do) that poker doesn’t even categorically fit the description; poker is a skill game. And just in case the clip above of no-name (at the time) Chris Moneymaker leveling a tournament-altering blow against poker pro Sammy Farha didn’t convince you, here’s Mike McDermott (Matt Damon, Rounders) on sitting down to play against poker pro legend Johnny Chan:

Okay, okay – Rounders isn’t real. But poker skills are, and there’s a line in the movie that goes something to the effect of “Why do you think the same people wind up at the final table at the World Series of Poker every year? What, are they the luckiest people on the planet?” If any of you out there are poker players, and you’re on Twitter, give the Poker Players Alliance a follow (@ppapoker). From their Mission Statement:

The Poker Players Alliance (PPA) is a non-profit membership organization comprised of online and offline poker players. Our membership consists of enthusiasts from around the United States who have joined together to speak with one voice to promote the game and protect the right to play poker in all its forms.

The PPA’s mission is to establish favorable laws that provide poker players with a secure, safe and regulated place to play. Through education and awareness the PPA will keep this game of skill, one of America’s oldest recreational activities, free from egregious government intervention and misguided laws.

The PPA is committed to defending the rights of poker players. On behalf of our broad membership, we will promote and protect poker through advocacy work in Washington, D.C., and throughout the nation. The Poker Players Alliance will work with key lawmakers to ensure a thoughtful and productive dialogue that represents everyone who enjoys and wants to protect the game.

When I used PPA’s online resources to email my Congressman, Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN 5th), a couple years ago to ask him to use time in the 110th Congress to support a repeal of UIGEA, his staff wrote back and said “Get bent.”

Okay, maybe not, but they may as well have.

Ace-King: the Texas Hold 'Em starting hand known around the felt as "Big Slick." I prefer to call it the "Anna Kournikova;" no matter how good it looks, it rarely performs.

There’s nothing more fundamental or essential to the American system of government than the protection of people’s rights to their private property, which they have acquired through labor (usually now in the form of an income, as opposed to a share of land), and their rights to dispose of that property as they see fit. This has been explored exhaustively by great philosophers and game theorists alike. There are certainly social conservative arguments against gambling (of all forms, not just online gambling) – largely out-dated, out-moded traditionalist and absolutist moral arguments about the lasciviousness of a lawless, old West gambler’s lifestyle (booze, loose women, etc.).

Former Democratic President Bill Clinton, too – who I’d hardly call a member of the Religious Right or moral majority – supported a 4 percent federal income tax on all gambling wins. His thinking suggested basically that, if deadbeat dads were going to gamble their paychecks in a casino instead of paying child support, the federal government would assert its prerogative to levy a Pigouvian tax to force deadbeats to internalize the social costs of their behavior, which ostensibly resulted in externalities impacting child welfare:

[Then-candidate Hillary] Clinton’s history with gaming goes back at least to 1994, when President Bill Clinton suggested a 4 percent federal tax on all gaming receipts to help fund the administration’s health care and welfare reforms. The idea did not get very far before 30 governors convinced the administration that the states depended on gaming revenue for their own budgets, and the administration dropped the idea. But it prompted commercial casinos to organize a political action committee to permanently represent their interests in Washington, DC.

Back to my Congressman, Jim Cooper, who has helped the Obama Administration pass landmark vote-buys like health care reform. Other Lefties (mostly self-proclaimed socialists and other progressives) look at gambling as a tax on the poor – “…a highly regressive form of taxation that thrives by inducing false hopes among the financially destitute.” But Coop is a member of the Blue Dog Coalition, representing the Protestant Vatican, and he would no doubt would reject Clinton’s idealism and levying of a tax on gambling, despite the indignation of some of the Music City’s more progressive voices, because of the effect this would have on Nashvillians who have to travel 4 hours by car to the nearest casino resort town to have a little grown-up fun.

No, Jim Cooper the Spineless Statist that everyone seems to hate (but continues to send back to Congress – good luck to Jeff Hartline) thinks that telling me what I can and can’t do with my money – regardless of the fact that I have no estranged children or alimony to pay, and am not financially destitute (although by no accounts wealthy) – is the best course of action. Once again, the prohibition on gambling is another manifestation of the government presuming providence over all income in America, and what people can and can’t do with their earnings…much less hold people accountable for their decisions to wager income on games in which the odds are methodically and deliberately stacked against them, because they choose to view it as a get-rich-quick scheme. Before anyone calls me a hypocrite, I don’t gamble to make money – I pay for entertainment, and I don’t go over the figures I budget ahead of time. I have, of course, “lost it all” before, but by and large I break even or come close to it – that’s a win in my book. And besides – my freedom to do what I want with my money is more important to me than the money itself.

Former Cato scholar and now Senior Editor for Reason Magazine Radley Balko (who, by the way, recently moved to Nashville) is currently participating in an interesting debate over the legalization of gambling at The Economist website – and if anything I’ve said so far in this blog has been of interest, you’ll be riveted by what Radley is doing over there. After all – Tennessee finally made the lottery legal after prohibiting games of chance in the state constitution over 200 years beforehand.

I’ll try to blog as often as I can from RightOnline this weekend – and I’ll try to cross-post here and at my blog at Liberty Pundits. There may also be some good tactical/strategic discussions and panels, and I’ll try to reserve those for my blog at The Next Right. I encourage any and all of you to follow me on Twitter (@stackiii) for more instantaneous (and likely less-filtered, more hilarious) updates.

I’m about to hop on a plane, so until tomorrow…

Cross-posted at Liberty Pundits.

She was an interesting tactical VP pick for McCain, especially after Barack Obama passed over selecting Hillary Clinton as his VP.

She’s constantly making headlines – people like her. She’s an effective fundraiser, edgy speaker, and potential 2012 presidential candidate.

I'm sorry, folks. I'm educated. I want an educated person representing me in the White House.

I wonder: did she quit spelling class as quickly as she quit the governorship of Alaska?

Update:

Apparently Governor Palin was embarrassed about the flap, and has since deleted the tweet. So, basically, the hyperlink above doesn’t take you anywhere anymore.

Today, le quatorze Juillet, the French celebrate their independence from the tyrannical rule of King Louis XVI who, by the time of the end of his reign, had totally destroyed the glory days of Louis XIV, the Sun King. Today, Americans should bite their tongues and express gratitude for the sacrifices the French made in the late 18th century to help turn the tide against the British in our own Revolutionary War – sacrifices that sunk France into such a debt as to cause revolution there too.

"Aux armes!" (French for "To arms!")

On July 14, 1789, French revolutionists, identifiable by their red head coverings – also known as the red cap of liberty – stormed the Bastille prison, freeing all 7 of its prisoners. This seems silly, but storming the Bastille Prison would be akin to, say, toppling the IRS headquarters on Constitution Avenue in Washington, DC – at night, when 7 janitors were emptying wastepaper baskets.

Okay, okay – stop laughing and be serious: it was a symbolic strike against tyrannical power in Paris. The toppling of the prison paved the way for the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, a political/legal and philosophical/metaphysical document that established first principles for man’s freedom, equality, and duty to others (liberté, égalité, fraternité).

Washington correspondent for Agence France-Presse (AFP) Olivier Knox (@OKnox on Twitter, and one among 50 journalists that Craft Media/Digital recommends following) passes along this clip from the American film Casablanca – a stirring rendition of La Marseillaise (the French national anthem), sung in Rick’s café to drown out the Nazis singing the Reich’s anthem:

Incidentally, this is one of only two films in history that showcases La Marseillaise in its entirety – I have blogged previously about the other film in which it appears.

Americans and Brits alike love to joke often about the French. We think they’re stuffy and snotty about their food (and ours), and unappreciative of the sacrifices we made on their behalf in World War II. And let’s face it – a lot of that stuff is frickin’ hilarious:

But today – Bastille Day – we shouldn’t laugh off the causes of personal liberty and economic freedom. Culturally, the French behave to each other’s faces the way Americans behave in the political blogosphere (read: often behind a veil of anonymity or geospatial distance – kind of makes us seem a bit cowardly in our political discourse) – and despite their hostile disagreements, they are still, at the end of the day, proud to be French and proud to be free. Today, we should all don the red cap of liberty, and celebrate the independence of our quirky cousins, the French.

After running across this piece in the Economist today, I was reminded of that timeless adage “You’ll attract more flies with honey than with vinegar.” That’s a woefully good reminder for the Right as Election Day draws nearer.

Plenty of noise has been made in the past few weeks about the abrupt resignation/firing of Dave Weigel from the Washington Post blog “Right Now.” I have been a defender of Weigel’s, in large part because I think people’s expectations of Weigel were too high – and that’s not to disparage Weigel at all, whose work I have followed for a couple of years. The problem was, in my view, that lots of activists expected him to counter Ezra Klein’s “Wonk Book” with an editorial style, using his platform at the Post to propel the Tea Party to the revery where so many believed it belonged. Another part of the problem is that, as Dan Gainor at the Media Research Center notes, the Post was never clear about why it had hired Weigel in the first place. Reporting? Check. Opinion? Maybe? I still think Weigel does a good job of reporting, and if he’s guilty of anything, it’s a preoccupation with man-bites-dog narratives. Aside from all that, I don’t have much to add to the gallons of punditry sloshing around the Internet about Weigel-gate.

The reason I bring Weigel’s short-lived stint at the Post back up for discussion is that the reaction from the activist community to Weigel’s resignation – particularly on Twitter – was pretty vicious, with lots of “Good riddance” and “we told you so.” Then came the announcement that Weigel would be a paid MSNBC contributor on Countdown with Keith Olbermann – and activists were once again a-Twitter with disgust. Thankfully there was an equivalent outpouring of support for Weigel. I disagree with Keith Olbermann frequently, particularly when it comes to his sneering punditry and progressive worldview. I appreciate that he was the first (and for a long time only) mainstream media personality to cover the devastating flooding in my hometown of Nashville earlier this year, and he and I share in New York Yankees fan-dom. But why the Weigel witch-hunt on the Right?

And then it hit me: the Right and center-right are still obsessed with (plagued by?) litmus tests that, unchecked, can be impossible to pass. And not normal litmus tests either – sure, nobody wants to see another John McCain presidential campaign – I mean the conservative base is so energized right now that it has become bloodthirsty, and it’s beginning to feed on itself. Long-time allies to conservatives – the libertarians – have begun to take notice.

I urge everyone to check out this written exchange between Cato Institute’s Brink Lindsey, AEI/National Review Online’s Jonah Goldberg, and FreedomWorks’ Matt Kibbe, a debate on where libertarians belong on the 21st century ideological spectrum, and how they can, should, and might play in the activist/political component of the Tea Party movement. Romantic libertarians like yours truly hope wistfully one day to inform a more rigorous social policy agenda – one that actually gets government out of people’s lives, including their marriages and sex lives – to complement existing tenets of economic freedom upon which, for the most part, everyone right-of-center seems to reaching consensus. But because of these purity tests, many libertarians worry that the emergence of centrist rhetoric at Tea Party rallies is nothing more than a ruse to grab handfuls of votes on Election Day 2010 and 2012, and then Big Government conservatism does us all in – again.

Remember: if the base were 100% correct, they'd be in power, and would never have to relinquish that power because they'd always be right.

I am sympathetic to Brink Lindsey’s point in this respect. Libertarians – who often sacrifice opportunities to “get involved” in lieu of safeguarding transcendent philosophical values for the sake of practical virtue – should not compromise their core beliefs just because Sarah Palin said we need less government and more personal responsibility. But I also think Matt Kibbe makes great points – the Tea Party movement is as fascinating a paradigm shift in American politics as I will likely ever see in my lifetime. It has unbundled the Left almost completely, who has tried to use every tool at its disposal – from race-baiting in formal media outlets to unscientific opinion polling – to couch the Tea Party movement as garden-variety Republican, and quintessentially racist, xenophobic, and homophobic. Kibbe insists that many Tea Partiers don’t know where to place themselves on an ideological scale, and notes that many have never been involved in political discourse before now. This groundswell provides libertarians with that romantic opportunity to inform the policy debate – especially issues like gay marriage, which Tea Party groups support, and like Kibbe, I think it’s hasty to accept Lindsey’s premise with open arms. So Lindsey’s libertarian protectionism can be just as dangerous and self-defeating as the Gainor conservative witch-hunts.

The Tea Party movement is still today very fragile, despite the noise the movement has made and the support it has drummed up. If libertarians and conservatives can agree about anything, it’s opposition to power-drunk Democrats; it’s probably best that everyone focus on that for now, instead of running rampant and reckless with purity tests – and when Republicans win, it will be up to them to follow through on promises they’re making to people getting involved for the first time. Those people don’t know where they lie on the ideological spectrum, but they know that the government is screwing them.

Cross-posted at TheNextRight.com.

That’s the subject of this event I’m attending tonight at Reason Magazine. Matt Kibbe of FreedomWorks, Jonah Goldberg of National Review Online, and Brink Lindsey of the Cato Institute will have it out about “where libertarians belong” in American politics. This has, of course, been an interesting and important question this election cycle, since libertarians make up a sizeable contingent of the Tea Party movement.

As much as I think it’s cool to be able to blog from my phone, live-blogging will probably be kept to a minimum for this. I will probably tweet more than blog in long form, because I’m interested to see where an activist, a journalist, and a think tank scholar believe libertarians can/will/should play in American politics. If you’re not on Twitter, you can click here and just refresh the page a lot.

Update 1

So I didn’t actually tweet a whole lot. Jonah Goldberg said something funny though…he said “For the record, I never really jived with George W. Bush’s philosophy, the whole ‘compassionate conservatism’ thing…My name is ‘Goldberg,’ I tend to be a little more Old Testament…I like my conservatism with a little more smite and wrath.”

Update 2

It doesn’t look like they have video of the event turned around and uploaded yet, but you can check back at either Reason’s YouTube channel (which is chock full of other good stuff), or Reason.TV. I’m sure the video will be up in another day or two.

Today was a bit of a busy day at the office for me – I apologize for not getting an Afternoon Reading post completed. Tonight’s Evening Reading is a bit long – I may break up my “aggregation-plus” and post a new Late Night Reading…we’ll see. Here goes: TWEET OF THE DAY – Honors today go to Jim Geraghty, blogger at the National Review’s Campaign Spot for this little zinger: You can follow Jim on Twitter at @jimgeraghty. Just don’t lap up his pith. HEADLINE OF THE DAY – Some things need no commentary, but I’m guessing that little prank will probably ruffle a few feathers at Reuters. My thanks to a friend (who should probably remain anonymous) for passing that little ditty along. I TOLD YOU IT WAS INCREDIBLE – My phone isn’t the only Android on the market, but that doesn’t matter; smart phones running the Android platform have tripled their market share over the past few months:

Android phone saw the most significant growth in market share in May, up 4.0 percentage points to capture 13.0 percent of smartphone subscribers. Of course, despite Android’s gain, RIM and Apple dominated, with RIM taking 41.7 percent share of U.S. smartphone subscribers, followed by Apple with 24.4 percent share. Microsoft saw a 13.2 percent share and Palm rounded the top five out with a 4.8 percent share. In total, 49.1 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in May, up 8.1 percent from the corresponding February period.

IT’S A SIN TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD – Harper Lee’s hometown in Alabama holds a Boo-fest (that’s Boo Radley) to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the publish of To Kill A Mockingbird:

From July 8 to 11 they’ll give tours of the historic downtown, stage a marathon reading, and auction off a signed copy. They’ll do it all cautiously out of respect for (and maybe a little fear of) the town’s most famous resident: Nelle Harper Lee.

MERCY IS FOR THE WEAK…SEMPER FI, KOBRA KAI! – Some really smart people have figured out that human beings are more inclined to trample the weak for fear of losing posture than to challenge the strong for the glory:

The new study contradicts earlier research showing that when faced with a superior opponent in similar creative language tasks, people tend to work harder. But unlike the current study, which involved competition between ranked schools, the earlier studies did not involve a threat to the competitors’ preexisting real-world status. So an other motivating factor for the students in the new study could be the fact that performing worse than people of lower rank can mean a loss of status, says psychologist Naomi Ellemers of Leiden University in the Netherlands, who was not involved in the study.

STOP THE PRESSES – No wait, false alarm. NPR was just hopping on the train that the rest of the universe has been on for awhile:

NPR says it’s abbreviating the name it has used since its debut in 1971 because it’s more than radio these days. Its news, music and informational programming is heard over a variety of digital devices that aren’t radios; it also operates news and music Web sites. Hence: “NPR is more modern, streamlined,” says Vivian Schiller, NPR’s chief executive. She points to other “re-brandings” by media organizations, such as Cable News Network, which has been plain old CNN for years.

AND A STORY FROM NATIONAL PUB-…WAIT, “NPR” – Performance evaluations are bullshit. Maybe not, but I thought it would be funny to make a joke about how stupid NPR’s announcement is:

The problem with the practice, Culbert tells NPR’s Renee Montagne, is that periodic reviews create circumstances that help neither the employee nor the company to improve. As Culbert and his co-author, Larry Rout, write in their book, Get Rid of the Performance Review! annual reviews do not promote candid discussions about problems in the workplace — and their potential solutions. Instead, Culbert says, when workers undergo a review, “They’re going to talk about all their successes — it becomes total baloney.”

CARTOON OF THE DAY – And the public sector ones are the worst: SITTIN’ ON A F_CKIN’ GOLD MINE – “Hot Rod” Blagoevich and Joe F_cking Biden would probably be pals. This, from a reporter covering the trial, recounting the playing of phone tapes:

The governor, clearly on edge this Election Day, unleashes his frustrations toward the Illinois public. “Now is the time to put my f——children and my wife first for a change,” Blagojevich is heard saying. “I f—— busted my a– … I gave your f—— baby health care… What do I get for that? Only 13 percent of you think I’m doing a good job, so f— all of you.”

Seriously, if you’re on Twitter, and you’re not following @joefuckingbiden, you should be. WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU CROSS ROGAINE WITH VIAGRA? – A Florida judge dismisses a defamation suit brought against ESPN by former boxing promoter Don King. If I had to guess, I’d probably say the judge laughed the enigmatic Vegas mogul right out of the court room:

The Court of Appeals affirmed on the basis that Don King had failed to present evidence that a genuine issue of fact existed which would allow a jury to find, by clear and convincing evidence, that ESPN had broadcast the subject statements about King with actual malice.  Don King Productions, Inc., et al, vs. The Walt Disney Company, et al. (No. 4D08-3704).

CIVICS LESSON OF THE DAY – On this day (July 8) in 1776, the Liberty Bell rang out from the Pennsylvania State House (now called Independence Hall) in Philadelphia to announce that a Declaration of Independence had been written and agreed to by all 13 colonies. The first public reading ensued:

Four days earlier, the historic document had been adopted by delegates to the Continental Congress, but the bell did not ring to announce the issuing of the document until the Declaration of Independence returned from the printer on July 8.

MY DAD IS BETTER THAN YOUR DAD – Because he’s a doctor AND he’s on Twitter AND Facebook:

But the docs at one Irving, Texas, OB-GYN practice have taken that ubiquitous display of cute kids into the 21st century. Their patients can post photos on the MacArthur OB/GYNFacebook page, where the doctors post news about their practice and the medical world at large. It has more than 600 fans. Jeff Livingston, who spearheaded the practice’s venture into social media, also manages the @ macobgynTwitter account, which has about 1,600 followers. He sees Facebook as an educational and, perhaps just as important, marketing tool. “People are looking for information online,” Livingston says. “I wanted them to look at our page.” But few doctors have embraced social media as enthusiastically as he has. Concerns about time and patient privacy have deterred many.

SHE’S A GOOD SHEILA, BRUCE, AND NOT AT ALL STUCK UP * – Queen Elizabeth II defies conventional attitudes about monarch’s privilege, and announces a tightening of the royal belt as the global economy continues to sag:

Financially ailing Britain is dramatically shifting away from an era of big government, entering a new age of austerity to fend off the same kind of fiscal crisis now gripping Greece. With her subjects facing a bare-bones budget and a bevy of higher taxes, Queen Elizabeth II has launched what some here describe as a preemptive strike against those who say this deeply indebted nation can no longer afford the gilded trappings of its monarchy. The queen is freezing salaries for royal servants and aides earning more than $73,500 and reviewing all vacant slots with an eye to reducing her staff of 1,400 — which includes a royal piper who plays under her window in the mornings and an official counter of swans. For the first time in her 58-year reign, the queen has also agreed to regular audits of royal expenditures by the same national agency that reviews education, defense and other types of government spending.

*Once again, bonus points if you get the reference. OBAMA IS GONNA NEED A LOT OF BEER FOR THE SUMMIT HE’LL NEED AFTER THIS – I don’t like Glenn Beck either, but I doubt very much that the Left will make any noise about these violent racists:

Tommy Christopher: What do you think about the rally that Glenn Beck plans to have on August 28, the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream speech,” at the Lincoln Memorial?…Are you aware of it? Malik Zulu Shabazz: I am aware of it, and that Glenn Beck should not be allowed to have this rally. Glenn Beck is a sneaky little devil, and he does sneaky things, and tries to portray that he’s really not the neo-racist that he really is. And for him to go and to secure the Lincoln Memorial on Dr. King’s birthday will meet not only opposition from civil rights leaders, but it’s going to meet direct opposition from the New Black Panther Party.

WAIT A MINUTE, EGON, I THOUGHT YOU SAID CROSSING THE STREAMS WAS BAD – Twitter’s new business model – using “promoted” tweets to generate revenue – has inadvertently pointed people to rival social media site Facebook:

As you can see when you click on the Promoted Topic, the top tweet is from the PredatorsMovie Twitter account. This promoted tweet reads, “They can hear you, smell you, and see you.#Predators in theaters Friday – http://bit.ly/amt8XE” — that bit.ly link takes you to a Facebook page where the trailer is located. So yes, Twitter is effectively promoting their rival Facebook thanks to this latest ad buy.

THEY’RE PART OF THE PROBLEM, GENIUS – The President has renewed the SAVE Award contest, wherein employees in the Executive branch submit money-saving ideas and then vote on them…somehow, I doubt anyone will say “cut the Federal workforce”:

The second annual SAVE Award will start accepting submissions at http://www.saveaward.gov from Thursday through July 22. Federal employees will be able to rank the submissions submitted by colleagues, and the general public will be able to vote on the top submissions later in the year. The contest winner earns a meeting with President Obama, who will include the winning idea in his fiscal 2012 budget proposal. … “The basic premise here is that many of the best ideas exist on the front line,” said Jeffrey Zients, OMB deputy director. “Those doing the work on the front lines have the best ideas on how to make changes. We want to reach out” to get them.

I’D LIKE TO DEBATE THAT – My friend and former Belmont University philosophy-and-political-science-double-major Ben Bryan doesn’t think debate is valuable:

The problem is that discourse dominated by debate produces people with an insubstantial approach to moral discourse. The deeper trouble is not that debates are shallow and narrow-minded, but that incessant engagement in them produces human beings who are shallow and narrow-minded.

MANUFACTURING ASSENT – Apparently this tactic is growing in popularity among Democrats – holding moderated town halls over the phone instead of meeting constituents face-to-face. It’s gutless, but hey – if I took the drubbing over health care that they did, and I was about to lose my job, I’d probably try it too:

Embattled Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.) — last seen suggesting that minorities are not “good American people” — offered a measure of candor on a local radio station in explaining why he was doing “tele-town halls” instead of traditional ones with his constitutents in the flesh: We’re going to do everything we can to get opinions from people, to meet with people, but I’m not going to set myself up for, you know, nuts to hit me with a camera and ask stupid questions.

PLEASE CONTINUE TO USE CONDOMS – Otherwise, Trojan stocks will crash, and I’m not sure the economy can handle that yet:

U.S. government scientists have discovered three powerful antibodies, the strongest of which neutralizes 91% of HIV strains, more than any AIDS antibody yet discovered. Looking closely at the strongest antibody, they have detailed exactly what part of the virus it targets and how it attacks that site. Together with recent research into how to make animals produce antibodies, the new findings constitute a significant step toward an AIDS vaccine.

NO WONDER THEY’RE WORRYING ABOUT SOCCER PHYSICS, WEBSITES, AND VIDEO GAMES – Maybe I’ve been a little tough on NASA over the last couple of days. After all, they do seem to be pretty rudderless:

Where [Obama's] critics have a point is in arguing that NASA lacks a clear mission. Without a directive and funding, talk of visiting Mars or an asteroid is grandiose but empty. Meanwhile, gauzy nostrums about inspiring children and international cooperation are creating political headaches. Last week, NASA administrator Charles Bolden touched off a storm when he told al Jazeera that the agency’s new mission was to “find a way to reach out to the Muslim world” — surely not what anybody had in mind.

BRILLIANT – I defy you to not laugh as hard as I did. See you in the morning – and maybe late night tonight!