Presidential candidates, Disney movies, Petraeus' report to Congress, and other things to find on ice

Okay, lots of links, so I'll keep the commentary short.

• First up, I hadn't sat down to read Giuliani's piece in Foreign Affairs yet. And now that I have, uh... he's crazy. Perpetual war for perpetual peace: the Rudy Doctrine. All enemies who happen to be Muslim = Islamofascists. Peace = bowing down to American military might or being crushed. Yglesias has perhaps the most succinct thoughts ("this man is batshit insane"). Jim Henley and Dan Drezner have their own thoughts, which are fairly concurrent. (For a contrast of "Foreign Affairs" articles written by presidential candidates, try reading Edwards' vision here. He may be wrong on trade, but at least he's not a bumbling/maniacal warmonger.)

• Yglesias also has this neat shout-out to a competent reporter actually questioning the boilerplate spin given by the federal government.

• At least Giuliani has these guys standing with him. Oh wait...

• In other campaign news, Hillary: The Play! Next up, Hillary on ice! (Hilariously, Priscilla Barnes plays Hillary. Yeah, that's right, Terri from Three's Company)

• Picking a major in high school: good or bad? I'd lean towards bad, just because I've been gleefully listless since whenever, but I bet it'd be good for a lot of kids to stay involved in their studies. Still, picking your job at age 13 seems like a stretch for ending systemic school failure.

• WashPost has an excellent look at the underbelly of pro wrestling. And here I thought it was all underbelly.

• Wroops.

• America gives Israel $30,000,000,000 in military aid (a 25% increase). At this point, does Israel really need aid? I don't think Israel is existentially threatened any longer. Sure, it was in 1973, but these days, I think they can manage with their booming defense contracting industry. (not to mention, you know, their nuclear bomb).

• Oh, that whole surge report thing? Yeah, turns out Petraeus won't be giving it to Congress after all and the White House will manage the language and the report. But, says White House spokesperson Dana Perino: "The Congress asked for these reports from the President." Yeah, except that's not what they asked for. BarbinMD at DailyKos has the rundown of what they asked for: a report from General Petraeus, who looks to be increasingly expendable for the Bush Administration, in his call for (gasp!) troop reduction. But I thought Bush was the Commander Guy!

• Speaking of Iraq, looks like there's a new coalition. With no Sunnis. Let's see how long this can last.

• Do we need a draft?

• Top ten newspaper websites. Sorry LATimes, you get pwnd.

• A ridiculous picture and video of a crowded wave pool in Tokyo. Yes, there is water in that pool somewhere.

• A long but worthwhile essay from Glenn Loury on why America has become an incarceration nation and its long-term effects. Bottom line: upper- and middle-class America benefit from state violence in the punitive justice system, but society on the whole suffers. At what point, then, are we culpable?

• SomethingAwfulites will have already seen this, but I just saw it on Reddit today, so sucks to your asmar. It's a 435-foot slip-n-slide.

• German physicists claim to have violated special relativity. I'm skeptical. But if they've really broken the speed of light, then Alpha Centauri or bust!

• A great series of movies on the making of the Muppet Show. Damn, that's complicated. Oh, how I love the Muppet Show.

• Freakonomics author Steven Levitt wonders in his new NYTimes blog how to best attack America. Homeland Security begins its surveillance.

• Clicked has a good run-down of Peru earthquake news and information.

• This movie looks awesome.

• Oh, boy, it's High School Musical PART DEUX! (High School Musical also available on ice.)

• In more important music news, it looks like Springsteen is reuniting with the E Street Band for his next album (due for release right near my birthday). In less important music news, Counting Crows is also recording again.

• The decline of a great brand: Jaguar.

• And finally, just in from CNN, massive miscarriage of American justice system takes place. Dahlia Lithwick tracks Padilla's journey of mistreatment here, here, here, and here. Full coverage of the saga from MotherJones here.
  

OK, video time. That Muppet Show thing reminded me of how much I love those wacky Muppets. It's one of the Great Summits in American pop cultural history and two of my favorite performers: Johnny Cash meets Miss Piggy.