Meow! Woof! More after the jump.

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Please see here for a correction to a previous post regarding the Daily Trojan.

Reggie Bush won’t be the #1 pick in tomorrow’s NFL Draft. Instead, the Houston Texas will take N.C. State’s Mario Williams with the first pick. (Hat tip: Chris and Mad Max.)

New Orleans has the #2 pick, and Peter King wrote earlier today that the Saints would definitely take Bush “in the unlikely event” they had the chance, which they now do. But Andrew thinks they may work out a trade and Bush may end up with Norm Chow and Tennessee, which picks third. We’ll see.

Here’s an audio clip of the USC vs. Notre Dame debate today at DeBartolo.

source file
MP3 File

Photos after the jump.

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Rush Limbaugh arrested on prescription drug charges and released on bail, law enforcement officials in Florida, tell AP. Visit CNN for the latest.

Rush Limbaugh has been arrested on drug fraud charges.

UPDATE: A settlement has been reached. More here.

With United 93 coming out today, I thought it would be appropriate to post a trio of video clips of the 9/11 attacks (specifically, the World Trade Center attack) that I don’t believe I had seen before until I found them on YouTube last night. I might have seen the first one before, but the second and third ones, I definitely hadn’t. All three are worth watching, if only to remember the true horror of that day and the true nature of the threat we face — a threat which is not, contrary to an IM conversation I had the other day with a liberal commenter on his blog who shall remain nameless unless he wishes to identify himself, invented or exaggerated or trumped up by the Bush Administration to scare us*, but which in fact is frighteningly real and ever-present. If you don’t occasionally watch video clips like these (or movies like United 93), it’s easy to allow the shock and horror of 9/11 to recede into the backgrounds of our memories, and be replaced by a sort of dull sense of anger and sadness. But if you watch these clips, that becomes impossible… absolutely impossible. And I think that’s a good thing.

The first clip, as I said, I might have seen before; I’m not certain. At any rate, it’s quite similar to a whole bunch of other amateur videos of the WTC attack, taken from miles away (e.g., from New Jersey or Brooklyn), that we all saw endlessly replayed in the immediate aftermath — and then endlessly not replayed in the years since. Regardless, it is stirring and horrifying because of what it shows and because of the memories it brings back. You listen to the cameraman and his wife/girlfriend talking as the attack happens (warning: there is a lot of profanity), and you remember how you felt when first saw what had happened. Among other things, it’s a reminder of how incredible it seemed that we were actually being attacked: “Oh, Jesus Christ, is that what that means?” the woman asks, 40 seconds after the second plane hit. “Yeah. That was a f***ing attack,” the man responds, a statement that now seems obvious but at that moment seemed completely unbelieveable.

The second clip is labeled on YouTube as “never before seen video,” and I believe that must be accurate, because I know I’ve never seen it before, and it’s such amazingly good footage that I’m certain it would have been one of the most frequently replayed videos of the second WTC plane crash if the media had gotten a hold of it in the attack’s immediate aftermath. What makes it amazing, in contrast to other footage of the attacks, is how sterile it is: the camera is obviously sitting on a tripod or something similar, and there are no people within earshot of the camera, so all you can hear are the sounds of the explosion and the distant sirens, and the view of the crash is totally unflinching — literally. There is no startled flinch, no abrupt camera movement: the camera simply stares directly at the South Tower, totally and literally unmoved, as it is blown up by terrorists. The total lack of any visible or audible human reaction whatsoever makes the video positively eerie. It could be a great Hollywood special effect, if only it wasn’t so horrifyingly real.

The third and final clip (also here) is, without question, the hardest to watch. It brings back the awful feeling I felt in the pit of my stomach all day on September 11, 2001. Why? Because it’s the exact opposite of the second clip — it’s anything but “sterile.” It shows the South Tower collasing, and it was shot somewhere in southern Manhattan, but outside the immediate surrounding area of the WTC, at street level. As a result, you can hear the raw human emotions of literally dozens or hundreds of people, all reacting simultaneously to the same incomprehensible, inconceiveable sight: the collapse of one of the 110-story World Trade Center towers. What sets this video apart from so many other videos of the tower collapses is that it was obviously shot from a considerable distance, so the primary reaction of people all around isn’t immediate fear for their lives, like the folks right near Ground Zero who had to run like hell to escape the dust cloud. The people in this video were, in that particular moment, physically safe. So the emotion you’re primarily hearing isn’t fear; it’s a combination of utter shock, horror, revulsion, and inexpressible sadness. These people knew they were actually watching countless human lives snuffed out before their eyes. What stands out most is one male voice, apparently coming from a guy standing somewhere behind the cameraman. He is completely overcome, saying “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God” over and over again. If this video doesn’t make you feel like you’ve been punched in the gut, you’re not human.

What makes all three videos even more horrifying, if that’s possible, is the realization that there are people in this world who could watch them and be happy about what they’re seeing. People so evil, this ghastly carnage would actually make them smile, laugh, and even praise God. That is the enemy we face — and we must never forget it until they are utterly defeated.

*For the sake of accuracy, said liberal commenter’s exact words were: “Honestly, the conflict is several parts boogy man overblown by Bush.” The commenter went on to admit, “Not to say Al Qaeda is not a serious problem” — but when I said, “All it takes is one successful WMD attack to throw everything into chaos… all it takes is one successful attack. We have to succeed in stopping them every time,” the commenter replied, “Right, because McCarthy was so right… There really were 500 communists in the State Department… honestly, this is standard Republican scare the crap out of people sh*t where we are all at war.” I responded with a list of the various terrorist attacks that have already happened and concluded “WE ARE AT F***ING WAR,” to which the commenter replied “Yes Brendan, these things actually happened…. you know what, these things always happen. They have been happening since before the Persians thought about attacking Greece… to say that this is some kind of mass paradigm shift is crap. You deal with domestic issues with a police power and you deal with foreign issues in a lot of ways which does include but is not limited to the military.” So there, nobody can accuse me of misrepresenting anyone else’s words now.

On Thursday Bush called on Congress to grant him the power to impose higher fuel efficiency standards for automobiles. Previously he has used power given to him by congress to raise the standards for light trucks.

Republicans in Congress, meanwhile, have included a provision in their proposed bill that would grant such authority to the Department of Transportation, however the bill also includes provisions to open up parts of the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge for exploratory drilling, thus making it unlikely to be passed into law as most Democrats and many moderate Republicans oppose such action.

Congress first set fuel efficiency standards in 1975. They were last adjusted in 1990 to a weighted average of 27.5 MPG for each car makers fleet.

With the May Day immigration protest — which promises “to close down Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Tucson, Phoenix, Fresno” — just around the corner, California students are being urged to go to school. On the flip side, the California State Senate has officially endorsed the boycott/protest on a party-line vote, and the Democrats in the State Assembly plan to join the boycott by not having their regular floor session on Monday — but not before they collect their per-diem! Heh! In response to which, Assemblyman Dennis Mountjoy (R- Monrovia) “suggest[ed] that Republicans come to the capital on Monday, the day of protest, and demand that they be allowed to work in the place of Democrat legislators because they are willing to do the work the Dems are unwilling to do. And they will do it at half the pay!” LOL! C’mon, I don’t care who you are, that’s funny right there. (Hat tip: Larry the Cable Guy.)

In a related story, in response to the kerfuffle over the newly released Spanish-language version of the national anthem (”Nuestro Himno”), President Bush said on Friday that “I think the national anthem ought to be sung in English, and I think people who want to be a citizen of this country ought to learn English and they ought to learn to sing the national anthem in English.” No word on Bush’s opinion of Casey’s “Rochester National Anthem.”

Attention fellow NDLSers… Kate Leahy sends along the link to this petition regarding the Notre Dame Immigration Clinic. She writes via e-mail:

The immigration clinic will not be in operation next year. The university is considering hiring two new clinical professors, but there is no guarantee that either of them will be an immigration practitioner. … We could use all the help we can get.

Previously via mass e-mail, from Jessie Tannenbaum:

As you have probably heard, the Notre Dame Immigration Clinic will be closed for the 2006-2007 school year. Many students are rightfully distressed about this. The Administration has been receptive to student concerns, and asked that students submit comments on this issue. To make that process easier, students currently enrolled in the Immigration Clinic created the following petition, which will be submitted to Dean Robinson and the faculty hiring committee.

Again, the petition is here. It contains more details about the situation.

London’s legal community has virtually shut down — because of a judge having too much fun:

Parts of London’s legal community ground to a virtual halt Thursday with lawyers turning into aspiring code-breakers as they tried to decipher a hidden message inserted into “The Da Vinci Code” trial judgment.

With the revelation that Judge Peter Smith inserted a secret code of his own into the April 7 judgment that cleared “The Da Vinci Code” author Dan Brown in his copyright infringement case, lawyers have been hustling to solve the puzzle.

“The chat in the legal community is that not one billable hour has been done today,” lawyer Mark Stephens said Thursday, speaking on his cell phone from the back of a black cab. “Life in London has ground to a halt because everyone barristers, solicitors, partners, managing partners, legal secretaries is working on deciphering it.”

Heh. Crazy Brits. (Hat tip: Scott Fort.)

UPDATE: The code has been cracked, and the message is: “Jackie Fisher who are you Dreadnought.” Huh? Well, the judge explains, sorta:

“Jackie Fisher was England’s greatest admiral after Nelson, and was responsible for the creation of the Dreadnought, which was launched nearly exactly 100 years to the day of the start of the trial,” the judge, 53, wrote in an e-mail message. “Nevertheless, he has been airbrushed out of history.”

Reminds me, somehow, of “a duck in a noose” — the enigmatic phrase that earned my website record-setting traffic (back when my daily unique-hits record had two digits instead of five).

NDLS 1L and Gonzaga alum Kristin is performing in a karaoke contest at Beacon Bowl tonight (Friday), and she needs our support! She writes via e-mail:

I am competing in a karaoke contest tomorrow night at Beacon Bowl at 9:30 pm. The top prize is $5000, with $2000 and $1000 as second and third places, and only six other people are competing! I need all the support I can get, so I was wondering if you weren’t doing anything if you and Becky could swing by for an hour or so. The guy who’s running it said something about choosing judges from the audience, so you can see my motivation! Anyway, I would love it if you were able to come, and please let anyone else who is interested know too! (You have my permission to blog this if you wish)

So, there you have it. Come and support your fellow law student! Go Irish, Go Zags and Go Kristin! :)

Fellow men, do your patriotic duty and help this guy earn a threesome! (SFW; hat tip: Chris.)

UPDATE: He’s well past the 2 million mark now, but it’s almost certainly because of scripts and bots and such. No way is he really getting 55 hits per second. Not even a link from Drudge or Slashdot (or both simultaneously!) will give you that much traffic.

More interesting is the speculation that the whole thing is a conspiracy (or, more to the point, a viral campaign for something calls letsmeetup.info — NSFW).

I can’t find any independent confirmation of this, but commenter Ed — the same guy who tipped me off about the Mark Sanchez sexual-assault story in the first place — again sends along a report based on something he saw on the local NBC affiliate in L.A.:

On KNBC, a reporter was interviewing a USC co-ed who was sympathetic to Sanchez. She had big doubts about the allegation. But she told the reporter something I found profoundly disturbing.

Have y’all seen the tape of Sanchez leaving the Gardens in handcuffs? It’s the only video of this event and it was shot by a female [Annenberg TV News] staffer.

The co-ed told the KNBC reporter that as the [ATVN staffer] was shooting the video, official USC functionaries, from (paraphrase) “the football team and the publicity officeâ€? commanded that she cease taping. They further stated that she was hurting “our schoolâ€? by her actions. The co-ed witnessed the above described behavior by the school officials. …

The photographer went on the record anonymously and stated she had received threats and was concerned for her welfare. She did not name the source of any threat.

As Ed says, that falls under the category of “profoundly disturbing” if true. Luckily, unlike Daily Trojan editors who have a long history of caving in to bullying by the administration (for example, an inside source tells me that the DT photographer who took the infamous Rose Bowl cheerleader photo was actually fired from the staff — notwithstanding the newspaper’s putative “independence” — because the administration was upset about the photo’s wide distribution across the Internet, claiming it hurt the school’s image), this Annenberg TV camerawoman obviously stuck by her guns and kept rolling film. Good for her, and — again, if she really was asked or “commanded” to shut off her camera — shame on USC.

[UPDATE/CORRECTION: I have it on good authority — better authority than my previous inside source — that the above account of the photographer’s firing is incorrect. Although the administration was indeed upset about the photo because they believed it hurt the school’s image, it was not pressure from the administration, but rather the photographer’s attempts to merchanise the photo (which is the property of the newspaper), that led to his being fired. My source assured me that administrative pressure had nothing to do with it — that he would have been fired for his actions whether or not the administration was upset about the photo — and I have no reason to disbelieve that. I was too quick to assume that my initial source’s account was accurate, and for that I apologize. Back when I was at the Daily Trojan, there were definitely some incidents where pressure from university employees had undue influence on editorial decisions, but that was several years ago, with an entirely different set of editors, and my own past experience doesn’t justify my reliance on flimsy sourcing for an allegation that the same thing is happening now.]

The TV report that Ed saw doesn’t appear to be available on KNBC’s website (the video that is online doesn’t include the interview with the “co-ed” that he mentions), and last night’s edition of ATVN doesn’t mention anything about the alleged attempted censorship incident, though it does show the Sanchez video. I’m definitely very curious to know more about this, because if what KNBC reported is true, and the camerawoman and witness are telling the truth, that is truly outrageous behavior by the university: trying to push around its own journalism students in order to create a Cardinal-and-Gold Wall of Silence.

Following up on this post… a very interesting revelation, courtesy of Mickey Kaus:

A Rasmussen robo-poll reports that a third party candidate who promised to build a barrier along the Mexican border and make enforcement of immigration law his top priority beats the generic “Republican” nominee by 9 points– 30-21– and runs practically even with the generic “Democratic” nominee (who gets 31%). The border-centric third-party candidacy actually takes more votes from the Democratic side than the Republican side!. But it draws heavily from both parties, and as heavily from “moderates” as from “conservatives.” …

Yes, this is a robo-poll (though voters may feel more comfortable telling a robot what they really think). And yes, as Rasmussen notes, “This result probably reflects unhappiness with both parties on the immigration issue rather than a true opportunity for a third party.” And yes, candidates with appealing specifics often beat undefined, generic party choices. Still, it raises suspicions about the semi-confected, hothouse Beltway CW that a tough, non-”comprehensive,” enforcement-first approach is a political loser in the short term.