There’s been speculation about this for the past few months, but if this story is true, Senator Kerry’s war record and medals may be a little… less potent a weapon…in the campaign than many Democrats had hoped.

If they’re smart, though, they won’t release this stuff too soon. Better to hold it until after the convention.

Anne Applebaum may not know much about space, but her new Pulitzer is well deserved. As Andrew Stuttaford says, you could probably generate a few kilowatts if you hooked up Walter Duranty’s corpse to a generator right now.

Instapundit points out an article in which a police union says that police officers and their families should be above the law, at least when it comes to traffic infractions, including speeding.

While this is outrageous in itself, it would seemingly put the lie to the notion that the purpose of such laws is for public safety, since it’s no “safer” for a police officer’s wife to speed than it is for anyone else. It’s a tacit admission that it’s all about revenue generation, and just as government workers shouldn’t necessarily have to pay taxes (since they’re paid from taxes), they shouldn’t be subject to this revenue de-vice either. Remember this the next time you hear a lecture from a cop about how dangerous it is to exceed the speed limit.

Mark Steyn doesn’t believe John Effing Kerry:

”Oh sure. I follow and I’m interested,” says John Kerry. ”I’m fascinated by rap and by hip-hop. I think there’s a lot of poetry in it. There’s a lot of anger, a lot of social energy in it. And I think you’d better listen to it pretty carefully, ’cause it’s important . . . I’m still listening because I know that it’s a reflection of the street and it’s a reflection of life.”

Really? You’re ”fascinated” by rap and ”listening” to hip-hop? You’re America’s first flip-flopper hip-hopper?…

…If only that MTV guy had said to Kerry, ”Yeah, right. Name a song.” Think Kerry could’ve? Reckon if you bust into his pad and riffled through his and Teresa’s CD collection you’d find a single rap album? Of course, you wouldn’t find any in George and Laura’s CD collection either. The difference is that President Bush doesn’t feel the need to pretend…

… This isn’t entirely a matter of trivialities. The fads and fashions of the world aren’t confined to the Billboard Hot 100. All over the planet, men in late middle age are pretending to like stuff just ’cause it’s what the likes of Maureen Dowd tell them people want to hear. John Kerry pretends to like gangsta rap. Russia pretends it supports the Kyoto Accord. The European Union pretends Yasser Arafat is committed to peace with Israel. The Security Council pretends its resolutions mean something. Kofi Annan pretends the Oil-for-Fraud program is a humanitarian aid effort for the Iraqi people. The International Atomic Energy Authority pretends the mullahs in Tehran are good-faith negotiators on the matter of Iranian nukes.

It’s easy to pander to fashion — whether on pop music, the environment, the Middle East ”peace process” or sentimental transnationalism. But on MTV, Kerry wasn’t done yet. After coming out for hip-hop, he managed to blame the Bush administration’s ”behavior” for making terrorists become terrorists. I guess that terrorism’s just a ”reflection of the street,” too. Doubtless there’s ”a lot of anger, a lot of social energy in it.” The MTV crowd loved the line, and no doubt Jacques Chirac and the Arab League will as well. Welcome to John Kerry’s hip-hop foreign policy: Ask the multilateral gang what’s hip, and hop to it.

Some folks at Free Republic are starting a betting pool on how long “Hot” Air America (as Ralph Nader called it so memorably yesterday) lasts. Based on the reviews I’ve read, from both sides of the spectrum, it may indeed soon be “Dead Air America.”

Europhiles will hate this week’s column by VDH. He says that it’s time to throw our sixty-year-old kid out of the house and make him grow up:

In contrast, the withdrawal of Americans throughout Old Europe

Could this photo be the 2004 equivalent of Dukakis in the tank?

It is reported that Theresa Heinz Kerry is requesting that her husband be provided with a Secret Service agent who knows how to wind surf.

Great, now when he falls in the water, he’ll have someone else to blame and vituperate.

Actually, considering Kerry’s truly favorite athletic activity, perhaps he’ll need agents who can keep up with him when he flip flops.

Bill Whittle has a new essay up, on the difference between intellectual and intelligent.

…What a brilliant point he