Jim Traficant (Dem. OH), who has nothing to lose at this point, having been convicted of enough crimes to put him behind bars for the rest of his currently natural life, will defend himself before the House next week in a futile attempt to keep his seat. The Repubs will vote against him because they have some principles and won’t put up with corruption, and the Dems will vote against him because he’s been disloyal and not willing to tolerate their own corruption (though he’s quite satisfied with his own corruption, which is why he’ll almost certainly be expelled).

Here’s hoping that he’ll blow the lid off all of the stuff that the House (and Senate) Democrats have been covering up for years, a coverup that he’s been not just asked, but threatened for years, to go along with.

This just may turn out to be “must-see TV.”

As an aside, I once met with Rep. Traficant in the subway between the House office buildings and the Capitol. He smiled and said, “How are you doing?” as though he knew me. That’s how pols get elected and reelected. They never know whose vote they might influence or whether they’re voters in their district, so the easiest thing is to assume that everyone is.

That’s not the headline from Ha’aretz, but it might as well be. The lead of the story is that we will start the regime change in Iraq before the elections, but the real story is that the French government doesn’t necessarily think that a bad thing.

France’s traditional reservations about a military operation against Iraq have been blatantly weakened in the weeks since French President Jacques Chirac was re-elected without the need for power sharing with the Left. Bush’s military doctrine, which calls for a preemptive strike against countries and entities that might use terror or weapons of mass destruction, is accepted by Paris despite its reticence. “If we know that Libya is going to launch a missile at Marseilles, we won’t wait until [Libyan leader Moammar] Gadhafi pushes the button, but why say so ahead of time?” said one strategic planner in the French Foreign Ministry this week.

One of his colleagues added that his government now tilts toward welcoming an American decision to topple Saddam, both because of the general intra-Arab politics and within the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. For the Arab world, the collapse of dictatorial or dynastic regimes and intensification of the democratic process will eventually sweep through countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. France is worried that without an added degree of democracy, the political protests could be channeled into Islamic fundamentalism and result in civil wars, which would send hundreds of thousands of refugees onto the country’s southern beaches seeking asylum.

John Magaw has resigned. It’s not clear if his replacement will be less protective of federal employees’ monopoly on firearms. But if he is, this will be cause for rejoicing.

[Update at 2:44 PM PDT]

The news is even better. He didn’t really quit–according to USA Today, he was sacked.

Fortunately for him, not quite like this guy, though.

Boy, I ought to start a Leftist Internal Contradiction Watch.

Her Highness isn’t very happy with the campaign finance “reform” that she voted for.

It’s a good thing she doesn’t have a temper, as all those “Clinton haters” have maliciously accused her of. Otherwise she might get really nasty. Why, she might even call Russ Feingold a “f***ing Jew bas***d“…

David Limbaugh points out the cheery sight of marginalized leftists at war with each other.

A large majority of Palestinians say that they will support Iraq if it’s attacked by the U.S.

Yet another faulty implementation of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” If the Palestinians are trying to elicit sympathy from Americans, they continue to find surefire ways to achieve just the opposite.

My latest Fox News column is up. It’s basically a rehash of my earlier post on the relationship between cryonics and space.

It looks like a space tourist flight is back on for this fall. It’s being reported that MTV will sponsor Lance Bass.

One potential hitch, though. The flight is only three months away, and the protocols agreed to last year stipulated six months of training. Personally, I don’t see the requirement myself, but it will be interesting to see how this issue is resolved.

Radley Balko needs some legal advice to preserve his freedom of speech, and to publish the truth about irrational drug warriors.

Shepherd Smith on Fox News is reporting a bomb blast in Tel Aviv.

[Update]

Now they’re saying there were two bomb blasts.