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libertarian and swing voter extraordinaire (who has, as I have mentioned before, been guestblogging at InstaPundit this week), has finally decided which way to cast her vote next Tuesday. Read the whole thing.

Germany’s largest newspaper, which has the largest circulation of any in Europe, has endorsed George W. Bush for re-election. Considering the rampant anti-Bushism (and in general anti-Americanism) in the Old European media, and in German media in particular, this may seem shocking. After reading some of their reasons–some pragmatic and others plainly self-interested–though, it does not seem as much a surprise. (Via InstaPundit)

is public enemy number one.

has been flown to Paris for treatment; Israel has lifted its travel restrictions on him temporarily, and claims that he will be allowed the right of return. The Economist has a rather blunt assessment of what could happen in the resulting power vacuum if Arafat either dies or becomes incapacitated.

I got another e-mail from the Yes, Bush Can pranksters:

A week ago, we sent you an email asking for help debunking anti-Bush documents. After receiving hundreds of responses, it become clear that all the documents were actually real: the Bush/Cheney DUIs, the Ken Lay letters, and even the bin Laden memo. For more information visit the documents page:
http://www.yesbushcan.com/falsedocs.shtml

We also received hundreds of emails from concerned bloggers that eloquently expressed the problems with the Bush administration. And as we traveled across America campaigning for Bush, we learned more than we wanted to know about Bush’s policies. We came to see that this administration is a catastrophe for most people.

As a result, we are abandoning our support of Bush and officially endorsing John Kerry for President. You can read more at the Yes Bush Can web site: http://www.yesbushcan.com/
We deeply regret our misguided support and apologize for our previous email. This will be the last email we will send directly to bloggers. If you want to join us in supporting Kerry, you can find out more here: http://www.yesbushcan.com/act.shtml

Thank you for your understanding,

Yes Bush Can

I guess people must still be falling for it, and this e-mail is the punchline.

They’re at it again: MSNBC reports that Google has aquired Keyhole Corp., “a supplier of online satellite maps that allow users to zoom down to street level to specific locations”. True to form, Google has not said what it plans to do with the new acquisition, but surely it will be used for Google Local. (Via Slashdot)

In other Google-related news, while driving in Mountain View the other day (which, as you might know, is where Google HQ are located), I happened to be just behind a BMW M3 with “ADSENSE” on the license plate. Considering the expense of the car and the brazen usage of the brand, I surmised that this was no peon developer. It had to be, I thought, one of the higher-ups who had a lot to do with AdSense’s inception. Maybe Larry Page or Sergei Brin himself. Hmmm.

A recent study reports that tired interns are making serious mistakes. Well, duh. But apparently no one in charge of America’s hospitals wants to change that. Megan McArdle, guestblogging at InstaPundit this week, notes that “the reason is green, and it folds”. While it is true that there is a tradeoff here, that paying for doctors to work more hours (or hiring more doctors) to relieve interns will drive up hospital costs (the hospitals of course pushing those costs onto patients, which will result in a net increase in health care costs for everyone), it seems to me that the increased quality of medical care is worth it. Also, has a numerical analysis been done regarding how interns’ increased propensity for sleep-deprivation-induced error affects the frequency of malpractice suits, and therefore the level of malpractice insurance premiums? Maybe there’s also a financial benefit to letting interns get more sleep.

Reuters is reporting that Palestinian president Yasser Arafat is ill, and may be seriously so. He is 75, and his death could have serious and unpredictable consequences in that region. (Via InstaPundit)

talks about voting dogs and democratic fairy dust:

A lot of the coverage, both formal and informal, of the forthcoming apocalypse in Ohio strikes me as implicitly accepting a really quite stupid bit of democratic romanticism: that it is better that 100 illegitimate votes be counted than to let one legitimate vote go uncounted.

The implicit picture is that voting is a sort of magical expression of citizenship that mystically confers “legitimacy” upon democratically decided results. If some citizens vote, but have their votes tossed out, or if some citizens decide it is too much hassle to get to the polls, then each lost vote is a drop drained from the bucket of legitimacy.

This is an utterly bizzare way of looking at democratic legitimacy, but seems to be part of the civics course democracy catechism, about which journalists especially pretend to be devout. This is why we hear cries of lament if there is low voter turnout. How can democracy be the people’s authentic voice if the people refuse to speak! How can we frolic in the sparkling waters of democracy if the bucket of legitimacy is but half full?

Bucket of legitimacy: I love it! Read the whole thing. (Via InstaPundit)

VH1 while working out this morning (I usually watch MTV or VH1 because they’re just about the only non-news channels that don’t have infomercials on at that time of the morning), and I saw this video for a song called “People Have the Power” by a group (consisting entirely of famous musicians) called Vote for Change. As you might imagine, it’s one of those celebrity get-out-the-vote campaigns, but it might as well have been called Vote for Kerry, especially since it’s affiliated with MoveOnPAC. Listen to the lineup on that stage: Michael Stipe, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Dave Matthews, Eddie Vedder, The Dixie Chicks, John Mellencamp, Bonnie Raitt, Babyface, James Taylor, and those are just the people I recognized. I like most of these musicians, but I’m really not interested in getting political advice from rock stars.