• West Virginia Governor Bob Wise gets worked up over a T-shirt:
  

  Gov. Bob Wise sent a letter to Abercrombie & Fitch on Monday demanding that the clothing retailer stop selling a T-shirt that spoofs the state with the slogan, “It’s All Relative in West Virginia.” Wise said the T-shirt depicts “an unfounded, negative stereotype of West Virginia.” “I write to you today to demand that you immediately remove this item from your stores and your print and online catalogues,” Wise wrote. “In addition, these shirts must be destroyed at once to avoid any possibility of resale and proof be given thereof.”

  I can appreciate the governor’s interest in his state’s reputation, but it’s a T-shirt.

• Via Wizbang!, some loser got in over his head and is now trying to auction his debt:
  

  I’m sorry for buying things I didn’t need, doing things I didn’t have to do and I’m sorry for buying into the notion that I need material things to be happy. I sold the world a lie and the world marked it up and sold it back, and now I’m asking for your help. If there is anyone out there that has $20,000 sitting around and doesn’t know what to do with it, don’t go to the casino, don’t go and buy things, don’t add an addition to your mansion, forget about the 24″ rims on your fully loaded Escalade, pass the caviar, pass the dom and the gucci dress. Forget about the rollie or the diamond tennis bracelet. Those things won’t fill your void, so I’m asking you to fill mine.
  . . .
  As I receive donations, I will gradually lower my starting price until my debt is paid. I am not a charity case but I am asking for help. I want to give back the money I owe before I set out. I ask and therefore I shall receive.

• Mars Rover Opportunity has a blog.

I’m sure this will usher in a new era of peace:

Israel will try to kill the entire Hamas leadership, striking whenever an opportunity presents itself, a security official said today.
The decision was made secretly by the Israeli Cabinet last week, in response to a double suicide bombing at an Israeli seaport, the official said on condition of anonymity.

By way of Damn Foreigner, I see in one of Billmon’s posts that once upon a time Israel was actually a big financial supporter of Hamas, who it thought would be a useful counterbalance to the PLO. Funny how the wheel turns, isn’t it? Just as the United States once supported Saddam Hussein and the fore-runners of the Afghan Taliban as strategic allies.
Now we’re engaged in political engineering in Iraq. But I’m sure this time it will be different. This time we have “adults” calling the shots, who’ve undoubtedly got the new democratic Iraq all planned out.
Nothing unforeseen will happen this time around, will it?

Take a look at what Conrad Malsom had to go through when he attempted to report spotting Ohio highway shootings suspect Charles McCoy Jr. to Las Vegas emergency responders:

Malsom found McCoy’s car Tuesday night in a motel parking lot near the Las Vegas Strip and made more than a dozen calls to 911 in which he was transferred or told to call the department’s non-emergency phone number.
“Most citizens would have gotten fed up and hung up in disgust,” [Sheriff Bill] Young told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “When citizens want to help us, I don’t want anything in our system to frustrate or deter them.”
On recordings of the calls, a determined Malsom can be heard pleading with operators to send officers to apprehend McCoy.
“This is most important. I’ve been turned down by 911 because this is not life-threatening. I’m parked next to the Ohio beltway murderer. The shooter, the sniper’s car here in Las Vegas,” Malsom said in a call placed at 11:35 p.m. Tuesday.
“Mmm-hmm,” the operator replied.
“Don’t transfer my call, please,” Malsom said.

Good thing McCoy didn’t shoot anyone else while Malsom was trying to reach the police.

This letter to the editor adds perspective to the Bush administration’s priorities:

I was wondering why the Republicans believe that hearing a four-letter word on the radio is more damaging than death or catastrophic injury. Consider that the Bush administration wants to increase FCC fines for indecency up to $500,000 per violation per station, yet at the same time, it wants to restrict noneconomic damages in tort cases to $250,000 or $350,000.
So if a DJ says a four-letter word on the radio, the harm is so appalling that a fine of $500,000 per word, per station is justified. But if someone is paralyzed, killed or otherwise catastrophically injured, the most the family could get for the (noneconomic) loss would be up to $350,000.
Apparently, Republicans have reworked the children’s adage about words never hurting to: “Sticks and stones may break someone else’s bones, but words will hurt me worsely.”
Dennis Mulvihill
Cleveland

Via Eschaton.

More evidence supporting Richard Clarke�s claims. The Center for American Progress has a page up documenting the Bush administration�s 2001 reductions in counterterrorism.
In short, Attorney General John Ashcroft dropped counterterrorism as one of the Department of Justice priorities, rejected FBI requests for more counterterrorism resources, and “cut” money for counterterrorism equipment grants.