From the Washington Post: Five weeks after Hurricane Katrina laid waste to New Orleans, some local, state and federal officials have come to believe that exaggerations of mayhem by officials and rumors repeated uncritically in the news media helped slow the response to the disaster and tarnish the image of many of its victims. Claims of widespread looting, gunfire directed at helicopters and rescuers, homicides, and rapes, including those of

1.  Thanks so much to Trevor Smith, for Michael Ritchie’s Survivors.  I love Walter Matthau, and I even like Robin Williams in this flick (probably because he was almost certainly abusing coke and not trying for an Oscar).  And thanks, too, to Todd Day, for Season 2 of “Reno 911.” I loved the first season, so I suspect I’ll like this one, as well. 2.  In other DVD news, I

This whole idea of personal autonomy—I don’t think most conservatives hold that point of view.  Some do.  They have this idea that people should be left alone to do whatever they want to do, that government should keep our taxes down, keep regulation low, that we shouldn’t get involved in the bedroom, that we shouldn’t get involved in cultural issues, people should be able to do whatever they want.  Well,

From the Austin American-Statesman: A Travis County grand jury last week refused to indict former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay as prosecutors raced to salvage their felony case against the Sugar Land Republican. In a written statement Tuesday, Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle acknowledged that prosecutors presented their case to three grand juries — not just the two they had discussed — and one grand jury refused to

From The Washington Times: Iran’s new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has placed the military firmly in control of his nation’s nuclear program, undercutting his government’s claim that the program is intended for civilian use, according to a leading opposition group. Leaders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the force created specifically to defend the 1979 Islamic revolution, now dominate Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, the country’s top foreign policy-making body

In a “shift” from his original position, Oklahoma University President David Boren, a former chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, is now refusing to describe the explosion as a suicide: Dustin Ellison said the student visited his store on Wednesday and asked to buy the fertilizing ingredient often used in bombs. Ellison said Hinrichs didn’t know how much he needed, and the store operator asked why the fertilizer