IN THE MAIL: Still a House Divided: Race and Politics in Obama’s America.

TAXPAYER-FINANCED ROMANCE at the Department Of Justice.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: The Wilsonian World Order Has Once Again Been Postponed. “As I wrote at the time, if you play your cards cleverly and all the stars align, from time to time you can have a Wilsonian war. What you can’t get is Wilsonian peace: a Kantian world order based on liberal values and the rule of law.”

FORFEITURE ABUSE: Federal & Local Law Enforcement Agencies Try to Take Family Motel from Innocent Owners.

READER JOHN STEAKLEY SENDS this CNN piece on “Why Men Are In Trouble” and comments:

Bennett identifies the problem but misses the solution by a mile.

Men aren’t ambitious. Why should we be? Ambition is greed. Greed is evil. We don’t want to be evil, do we?

Men aren’t working. Why should we? Unemployment isn’t our fault. It’s the fault of greedy people on Wall Street who won’t “give” us a job. Even if unemployed, the government will still give us free health care. Why work?

Men aren’t fathering. How can we? Courts aren’t known for giving custody to fathers. If our wives decide one morning to leave and take the kids, we can’t stop her.

Men aren’t earning. Why should we? People who earn “too much” exploit others, and don’t pay their “fair share” even after the government punishes them with progressively higher tax rates. We don’t want to look like an exploiter.

Healthy young males are . . . shrugging.

Indeed. You get more of what you reward, and less of what you punish.

MAKING THE NEXT FINANCIAL CRISIS WORSE, one regulation at a time.

THE ANCHORESS: Is Steve Jobs the last capitalist we’ll be permitted to admire?

Who cares what’s “permitted?” I aim to misbehave.

BUSINESS INSIDER: They Should Be Occupying K Street.

OWS protestors are highly critical of big corporations lobbying Congress and Washington DC regulatory agencies to tilt the playing field in big business favor. It sounds like they don’t appreciate the virtues of crony capitalism, otherwise known as “The Chicago Way”.

Well guess what?

Companies that are successful lobbying the Washington DC apparatus are simply playing off big government. To kill the effect of lobbying, skewer the beast and make government smaller.

Allowing companies to stay alive with government support also empowers big government. Allowing the capitalistic force of creative destruction is something the Tea Party is behind. What about Occupy Wall Street?

There are some troubling signs with Occupy Wall Street. The SEIU is busing people to join the marches. Other unions, and socialist Senator Sanders are supporting the cause.

Of course they are.

MICKEY KAUS BUSTS more bogus Solyndra defenses.

AT AMAZON, bestsellers in Blu-Ray.

MICHAEL WALSH: “Fast and Furious” Scandal Has Justice Department in Full Panic. With reason. Careers are already being ruined, and people will quite possibly go to jail over this.

On top of stonewalling Rep. Darrell Issa’s House investigation of the mess, Justice has floated a series of contradictory excuses:

* There was no such program.

* Even if there was, Holder never knew about it.

* Even if he should have known about it, he might not have read Breuer’s memos.

* Even if he read Breuer’s memos, he misunderstood the simple question: “When did you first know about the program, officially, I believe, called Fast and Furious?” . . .

There’s still plenty of time for Justice and the other implicated agencies to come clean. But to date, all we’ve heard is dog-ate-my-briefing-book excuses and desperate attempts to change the subject.

Just remember DoJ folks — it’s not the crime that ensnares most federal workers, it’s the coverup.

UPDATE: A reader emails: “The Dems used to be pretty good at hounding CEOs about ‘known or shoulda known’ standard of business ethics.” Indeed.

RETREAT: WaPo: Democrats shift the definition of ‘rich’ in battle over taxes. “As they head into the 2012 campaign, Democrats are changing their definition of what it means to be rich. Forget about families making $250,000 a year. Today, the party is only interested in millionaires.” The problem, of course, is that this may play better than their earlier line, but you can’t raise enough money unless you reach down well below $250,000 for tax increases. So while this sounds better, it also increases the gap between their rhetoric and their plans.

GALLUP DELIVERS MORE BAD NEWS:

In the accelerating chronicles of the Democrat’s decline, Barack Obama has just achieved a new level of disapproval among American voters:

On the 990th day of his presidency, 52% of his countrymen disapprove of the Chicagoan, according to Gallup’s latest three-day rolling average.

That means Americans now think as little of their own president as they do of Vladimir Putin, the former Russian spymaster and authoritarian tough guy who’s expected to become president again over there.

On the upside, you can spin it this way: Obama’s polling as well as a guy who’s practically certain to get another term!

JAMES TARANTO: Tea Party Envy: Be Careful What You Wish For, Liberals.

Yesterday we had a few laughs at the expense of Tea Party enviers in the media like E.J. “Baghdad Bob” Dionne and Nicholas Kristof–easy targets, we’ll admit. But let’s note that there are a few similarities between today’s raging lefties and the Tea Party–or at least the Tea Party as the left imagines it.

For one thing, the Occupiers are mostly white, as Malcolm Sacks, “a New York activist who has been participating in the Zuccotti Park occupation,” tells al-Jazeera. . . .

Meanwhile, at National Review Online Charles Cooke has video of an Occupier berating a Jewish man with anti-Semitic slurs. Cooke reports that “shortly after my video camera was switched off, [the Occupier] (inexplicably) shouted the N-word at the same man.”

Read the whole thing.

THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER EDITORIALIZES: Palin was right to forego 2012 presidential run. “It is time for Republicans to snap out of it, stop pining for a knight on a white horse and choose a nominee from among the candidates already in the race.”

ERIC HOLDER’S DUBIOUS HISTORY OF CONVENIENT AMNESIA. “In truth, I’d be very surprised if it turned out that Mr. Holder was as much in the dark as he claims. Fast & Furious was a very strange and controversial program, and there was plenty of Justice Department participation in it: ATF is a Justice Department agency; the investigation was being conducted jointly with a U.S. attorney’s office (i.e., a DOJ district office); the investigation featured eavesdropping applications, which have to go through the Justice Department; and White House officials were apparently being briefed about the program. It would be odd indeed if the AG were out of the loop. . . . I don’t want to rehash all the unsavory details; I just want to focus on the following: When Clinton’s pardon of Rich blew up, Congress held hearings. Despite the fact that he had interceded on Rich’s (and Quinn’s) behalf even before the pardon shenanigans, Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2001, under oath, that ‘Mr. Rich’s name was unfamiliar to me’ in 1999, when Quinn first beseeched Holder to help Quinn try to convince SDNY prosecutors to drop the charges. Holder elaborated that he had ‘gained only a passing familiarity with the underlying facts of the Rich case’ when, in the ensuing months, he helped push for the pardon. He claimed that he had been too busy to inform himself about the case of the criminal for whom he was lobbying — a man who had been on the FBI’s top-ten list of wanted fugitives.”

SURE, WHY NOT? What We Really Need is Anti-Corporate Anarchy, With Our ‘Organizers and the Law Team’ Writing Our Demands. “Anarchy — you keep using that word. I do not think it means…No, actually, you’re using absolutely spot-on, even if you don’t know it.” It’s not anarchy until it’s been through the approved committee process.

But really: If you’re not protesting against President Goldman Sachs, you’re not protesting against “Wall Street.” You’re just a hack. Sorry. “The modern anarchists are just the far-left’s muscle. Look at when and where they show up, who they march with and for, and how carefully the press ignores them and their acts.”

SHAKEUP: ATF officials reassigned in latest Fast and Furious fallout. Anything that inflicts pain on a rogue agency is good — even flatworms are smart enough to turn away from painful stimuli — but we need to see people losing their jobs, and probably going to jail, over the misconduct that has taken place.

And we need a competent, honest special prosecutor on this, ASAP.

WASHINGTON POST FACT-CHECK: The DNC’s ridiculous attack on Mitt Romney’s Social Security stance.

IT’S LIKE “GROUNDHOG DAY,” BUT WITH HIGHER TAXES: Democrats Propose Another Surtax on Millionaires.

Since the current trend is a 4-5% hike on high-earners every time new spending is required, that seems to indicate that Democrats have only about five bites left at the apple. Then they’ll be out of money for new programs. That’s assuming, as they seem to, that rich people don’t care about money, and will not change their behavior in response to higher tax rates. If that assumption is wrong, then they reach the end of this particular rope much sooner.

Presumably the next step is people who make over $250,000 (which is, indeed, the group already targeted by the Medicare surtaxes). But this group contains a lot of solid Democrats who do not, in my experience, think that the socially just marginal tax rate on such incomes is 80%.

Hey, I’ve got a few revenue-enhancement proposals of my own. Of course, capping the mortgage-interest deduction and eliminating the deductibility of state property and income taxes will hit blue states harder, but hey — shared sacrifice, right?

TIMING IS EVERYTHING: Pitch-Perfect Palin. “Last night, Sarah Palin’s statement — and her breaking news interview with Mark Levin — stressed some extremely important ideas. As such, her not running might well be among the least important topics she touched on. Yes, I know that’s the news that everybody was waiting for — but what interested me most was what Palin said about her vision for America and how she said it. It was crafted very intentionally –and it was simply pitch-perfect. . . . In her written statement — and her immediate follow-up interview with Levin — she made it clear what was important. Saving the country is all that matters, and the first step required for that task is to totally reverse our current course. Of course, that includes removal of the current occupant in the White House.”

You can listen to the audio here.

JOHN HAWKINS interviews Rick Perry on illegal immigration.

THE HILL: Club for Growth warns GOP against vote on China currency.

The Club for Growth has warned Republicans against signing a petition to force a vote on China currency legislation.

The well-funded conservative group has said it will score as a “key vote” any signatures to a discharge petition to force a House vote on legislation meant to punish China for manipulating its currency to lower the price of its exports to the U.S.

The Senate moved forward on China currency legislation this week in a bipartisan vote, and a similar measure was approved by the House last year, with 99 Republicans voting yes.

Mr. Hawley, meet Mr. Smoot.

DAN PRIMACK: They Should Be Marching On Universities, Not Wall Street: “Take a look at We Are the 99 Percent – a website on which protest sympathizers share their tales of economic hardship. Very few of them mention banks, or even bank bailouts. The vast majority of them, however, do mention college debt.” Universities are major Democratic constituencies, and as such unlikely to be targeted.

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: Univision Takes The Low Road Against Marco Rubio.

NEVADA G.O.P. moves caucuses up to January 14.

READER DOUGLAS BASS WRITES: “How many of their parents were anti-vaccine activists?” Mumps Outbreak Reported On Cal Campus.

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Senate Appropriators’ Secret War Against Oversight. “In the last seven months, Congress has failed to send a single cut identified by GAO to the president’s desk. Even worse, instead of cutting the spending identified by GAO, the Senate Appropriations Committee is now proposing to slash funding for GAO itself.”

KEVIN WILLIAMSON: THE JOBS AGENDA: “I don’t know what Steve Jobs’s politics were, I don’t much care, and in any case they are beside the point. The late Mr. Jobs stood for something considerably better than politics. He stood for the model of the world that works. . . . That old Motorola cinderblock would cost about $10,000 in 2011 dollars, and you couldn’t play Angry Birds on it or watch Fox News or trade a stock. Once you figure out why your cell phone gets better and cheaper every year but your public schools get more expensive and less effective, you can apply that model to answer a great many questions about public policy. Not all of them, but a great many. . . . I was down at the Occupy Wall Street protest today, and never has the divide between the iPhone world and the politics world been so clear: I saw a bunch of people very well-served by their computers and telephones (very often Apple products) but undeniably shortchanged by our government-run cartel education system. And the tragedy for them — and for us — is that they will spend their energy trying to expand the sphere of the ineffective, hidebound, rent-seeking, unproductive political world, giving the Barney Franks and Tom DeLays an even stronger whip hand over the Steve Jobses and Henry Fords. And they — and we — will be poorer for it.”

AT AMAZON, markdowns in Tools & Home Improvement.

Plus, new 20-volt power tools from DeWalt.

UPDATE: A reader emails:

I have some of the 20V-Max DeWalts and they are awesome–really the best cordless tools I have ever seen. However, what they are not is 20V tools by any reasonable definition of that term. They are 18V tools in the sense that 18V is their operating voltage when you pull the trigger. Thus the asterisk you see on every use of the term on the DeWalt website.

* Maximum initial battery voltage (measured without a workload) is 20 volts. Nominal voltage is 18.

Hmm.

TEST-DRIVING THE Fisker Karma Hybrid. “The Fisker Karma is a standout luxury and performance vehicle, period. It does double duty as head-turning grand touring machine and fuel-sipping hybrid, making it the first vehicle of its kind. Henrik Fisker designed an arresting sedan with bulging Vette-like fenders, Batmobile stretch, and a sumptuous, ergonomically sound, supremely comfortable cabin. Considering the momentous tasks of starting a car company and producing a car with new technology that actually works, the Karma deserves a pat on the back.” The gas engine is kinda noisy, though. But it is an amazingly good-looking car.

UPDATE: Arnold Kling writes: “When you report on Fisker, you should note that Fisker received a $500 million loan guarantee from us taxpayers, just like Solyndra.” Well, that would make me less likely to buy it — though at this price, the whole question is pretty notional anyway . . . .

HE WILL BE MISSED: Steve Jobs Has Died.

UPDATE: And read this from Virginia Postrel.

WINNERS OF THE 2011 Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition.

OCCUPY HOLLYWOOD & VINE! Reader Paul Schauder writes:

In this month’s Vanity Fair, Johnny Depp admits he’s overpaid. Roughly $300 MM from the Pirates series.

Coincidentally there’s a lawsuit being filed against a studio by unpaid interns for exploitation and breach of contract I think.

Anyway, maybe this is a good time to create a law stating that no-one involved with the making of a movie can make more than 10x the lowest person’s salary.

And that all participants must have an equal share of profits.

Maybe we should Occupy Hollywood and Vine.

I like it. Somebody needs to come up with a “worker-friendly” labor law reform package for the motion picture industry, and attach it to everything. It can go along with my list of Hollywood-related revenue-enhancement measures.

UPDATE: Reader Martin Kunert writes: “Big difference: Hollywood never asked for a bail-out.” My response: Yes they did — in the form of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act and the DMCA. His reply: “That is true.”

SARAH PALIN NOT RUNNING. Audio of her interview today breaking the news to Mark Levin at the Daily Caller.

ARE WE LIVING IN an era of stagnation?

MORE PRIZES, PLEASE: Electric Airplane Wins $1.35 Million Prize From NASA. “NASA announced this week it has awarded the $1.35 million prize for its CAFE Green Flight Challenge to the team from Pipistrel-USA.com. The twin-fuselage, four-seat electric airplane beat out the eGenius team from Germany during two competition days held last week at the Sonoma County Airport in California. The eGenius team will take home $120,000 for second place and another $10,000 for a separate competition from the Lindbergh Electric Aircraft Prize for the quietest aircraft during the week.”

DO MENOPAUSAL WOMEN represent an evolutionary shift?

All I can say is that if a man wrote a piece like this, it would be received differently, if it were published at all. On the other hand, who can hate a game called “Stuff It, Barbara Ehrenreich?”

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Americans Have No Choice But To Get More Frugal.

A RESPONSE to some Occupy Wall Street demands.

My question is, why aren’t they presenting their demands to President Goldman Sachs at the White House? Where do they think Obama’s campaign donations came from? Who has gotten rich — and bailed out — under his Administration?

ASSOCIATED PRESS: Senate Democrats Rewrite Obama’s Jobs Bill: “Senate Democrats are scrambling to rewrite portions of President Barack Obama’s jobs bill as they seek elusive party unity around the measure even as Obama tries to pin the blame squarely on Republicans for Congress’ failure to act. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell moved to call the president’s bluff Tuesday by pushing for a quick Senate vote on the bill, but Democratic leader Harry Reid derailed the effort as all sides maneuvered for position in a potentially defining battle in the 2012 presidential campaign.”

The one thing that’s certain is that no jobs will be created, though a few politicians hope that their jobs will be saved. . . .

SECURITY: Smart Gadgets Are Like Sleeper Cells In Your Kitchen. “Once a device is hooked up to an energy management system, things get interesting. Did you realize, for example, that your refrigerator’s ice maker’s defrost cycle can be shifted to another time of day by your utility in order to drive down power use during times of peak demand?”

AT AMAZON, markdowns in Sports & Outdoors.

GREEN FAIL (CONT’D): Dept of Labor IG: Obama’s green-jobs training program a flop. “A $500 million green jobs program at the Department of Labor has so far provided only 15 percent of current participants with jobs, leading the agency’s inspector general to recommend that the bulk of the money be returned to the Treasury.”

COVERING THE WHITE HOUSE, OR COVERING FOR THE WHITE HOUSE? Is CBS Silencing Its Fast And Furious Reporter Due To White House Pressure?

GREEN FAIL: U.S. unlikely to hit Renewable Fuel Standard for cellulosic biofuels: report. “There are no commercially viable biorefineries for cellulosic ethanol today.” Seems like they were a little optimistic in setting these targets.

WASHINGTON POST: Opposition to Obama grows — strongly.

Four in 10 Americans “strongly” disapprove of how President Obama is handling the job of president in the new Washington Post-ABC News poll, the highest that number has risen during his time in office and a sign of the hardening opposition to him as he seeks a second term.

While the topline numbers are troubling enough, dig deeper into them and the news gets no better for Obama. Forty-three percent of independents — a group the president spent the better part of the last year courting — strongly disapprove of the job he is doing. Forty-seven percent of people 65 years of age and older — reliable voters in any election — strongly disapprove of how he is doing his job.

Strong opposition to Obama has grown markedly since the start of the year.

Well, he took a bad economy and made it worse, all while seeming contemptuous of ordinary workers. That’s not a recipe for electoral success.

HMM: Alzheimer’s Might Be Transmissible in Similar Way as Infectious Prion Diseases, Research Suggests. “Researchers injected the brain tissue of a confirmed Alzheimer’s patient into mice and compared the results to those from injected tissue of a control without the disease. None of the mice injected with the control showed signs of Alzheimer’s, whereas all of those injected with Alzheimer’s brain extracts developed plaques and other brain alterations typical of the disease.”

CONFRONTING THE COST OF HEALTH CARE: “One of the major factors contributing to the general feeling that people aren’t as well off as they used to be is that they are consuming more and more of their income as health benefits. Though there’s obviously controversy over how much of this represents real gains, there’s no question that a lot of it is an actual material improvement in peoples’ lives. . . . The problem is that people don’t feel richer. In part that’s because the costs are hidden–employers rarely tell you how much health care you’re being ‘paid’ with–and in part it’s because almost all of our health care compensation consists of embedded options, rather than direct consumption.”

GEORGE PRIEST is now blogging for Forbes.

F.I.R.E. OFFERS PRAISE: Getting It Right: Dean of George Mason Law Sets Excellent Example.

CARS: With plug-in sales, GM and Nissan aren’t competing, they’re learning.

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: Indict Eric Holder. “A major-league pitcher was indicted for lying to Congress about steroid use. Administration memos show Eric Holder lied about what he knew about Fast and Furious and when he knew it. What’s the difference?”

Plus this: “Somewhere, Scooter Libby must be scratching his head. He was indicted and convicted simply because his recall of when a meeting occurred differed from others. He didn’t lie about a gun-running operation that led to the deaths of two American agents and at least 200 Mexicans. But Attorney General Eric Holder did, according to memos obtained by CBS News and Fox News.”

UPDATE: “Accessories to murder.”

BROADCASTING ADVICE from Dave Foulk.

LARA LOGAN MIGHT WANT TO LEAVE TOWN: “Tahrir Envy” Meets “Tea Party Envy” on Wall Street.

IN NASHVILLE ON SATURDAY, a rally to support Gibson Guitars.

A CALL TO AUDIT law school admissions data.

Related: 15 more ABA-approved law schools to be sued. “With these lawsuits, nearly 10% of all ABA-approved law schools across eight states will be accused of tortiously misrepresenting job placement statistics and violating state consumer protection laws. As with the previous complaints, the relief sought will include tuition reimbursement, punitive damages, and injunctive relief such as mandatory auditing of employment data and cessation of false advertising tactics.”

PAUL KRUGMAN HAS LOST HIS OWN EDITORS: “NY Times columnist Paul Krugman has a Nobel Prize for his work in international trade but the NY Times editors have totally tuned out his embrace of the Senate Democrats and their China-bashing currency bill.” Messrs. Smoot & Hawley were unavailable for comment.

IN THE MAIL: The Book of Cthulhu.

WHERE FREE SPEECH IS A PRIVILEGE: China Moves to Rein In Microblogs: “Chinese authorities have stepped up efforts in recent weeks to rein in the hugely popular microblogging sites that have become an alternative source of real-time news for millions while challenging the Communist Party’s traditional grip on information. Journalists, bloggers, media analysts and others said the moves are part of an intensifying control of the media landscape ahead of next year’s crucial Communist Party Congress, which will bring the broadest leadership change in China in a decade. Although leadership shuffles here are routinely decided behind the scenes and carefully choreographed for the public, they are still often fraught with uncertainty — and jittery authorities typically want to take no chances.”

Who do they think they are, New York?

UPDATE: Meanwhile, a free speech victory at the University of Wisconsin: Chancellor Folds after Censorship of ‘Firefly’ and Anti-Fascism Posters. “Under pressure from FIRE, national media, and actors Nathan Fillion and Adam Baldwin, the University of Wisconsin-Stout (Stout) has reversed its censorship of theater professor James Miller’s poster featuring a line from Fillion’s character in Joss Whedon’s television series Firefly. Campus police had threatened Miller with criminal disorderly conduct charges, and he was reported to the ‘threat assessment team.’ After Stout censored his second poster, which stated, ‘Warning: Fascism,’ Miller came to FIRE for help.”

FIRE does good work. If you can afford it, consider donating to ‘em.

RON BAILEY: Are Republicans or Democrats More Anti-Science? Comparing the scientific ignorance of our mainstream parties.

WHY THE JAPANESE suddenly hate cars.

WHAT CONGRESS CAN LEARN from state budgets.

TAR, FEATHERS: NY Senators Want To Make Free Speech A Privilege. Of course they do.

BRAND FRATRICIDE AT GENERAL MOTORS: Caddy Buyers Mindless Status Seekers, Says Buick. “The truth, of course, is that bankrupt, bailed-out GM had to keep its Buick division alive because the brand is big in China. They’ve got to come up with some marketing rationale to justify Buick’s continued existence over here. Needs work, though.”

DANIEL INDIVIGLIO: Bloomberg’s Exposé on Koch Industries Reveals … What Exactly? Well, something about Bloomberg, anyway. “All reporters have bias. It’s unavoidable: bias results even through as simple an action as deciding what to write an article about. Much of that bias isn’t necessarily a problem. If you report facts in a fair-and-balanced manner, then readers can judge the story for themselves based on those facts. But at other times, some reporters’ bias cuts so deep that it causes them to produce an article that squints too hard to see smoke when there is no fire. Unfortunately, such an article was produced this week by Bloomberg Markets Magazine on Koch Industries. The article purports to be a hard-hitting exposé on the giant multinational, run by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch. According to Bloomberg, 14 reporters around the globe worked for six months on the story. What did they turn up? Really, shockingly little. And what’s worse: from the very outset, the reporters’ bias against the Koch brothers is utterly clear.”

Look when you’re hearing this sort of thing from The Atlantic, you’ve got a problem.

TODAY ONLY: The Mel Brooks Collection On Blu-Ray, $42.99. We could use a laugh, these days.

STIMULUS FAIL: “Eight new Dodge Grand Caravans, purchased 10 months ago with $186,192 in federal stimulus funds are sitting unused in storage at a county park because Waukesha County has found no takers for its proposed workers’ van pool program.”

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA (CONT’D): Layoff Plans Soar By 126% In September To 115,730, 212% Higher Than Year Ago, Highest Since April 2009. It was bad in 2009, but there might have been a real recovery. Instead, Obama has made it worse.

WHY YOU NEED A GUN IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: “The statistics, contained in the department’s fiscal 2005 budget performance report, show that the average response time for the highest-priority calls — Priority 1 — was 8 minutes, 25 seconds in fiscal 2003, up from 7 minutes, 19 seconds in fiscal 2002 and 7 minutes, 47 seconds in fiscal 2001.”

When seconds count, the D.C. police are only minutes away. More minutes every year, apparently.

IS THE ERA OF FREE STUFF ending? Say it ain’t so!

JERRY POURNELLE: “I will note that the best way to make the US economy grow would be to suspend for five years all Federal Regulations on commerce. Let the states deal with it. You could provide that the suspension will take place in 180 days, and the Congress has those 180 days to reinstate any regulations it sees fit, but one at a time, not en masse. They would probably keep the US Department of Agriculture meat inspections and some programs like that rather than leaving such matters to the states. Some programs would never even be considered, like bunny inspectors. Give them 180 days to restore the necessary and all the others go. The result would be an economic miracle, but of course that will never happen.”

Of course not. Insufficient opportunities for graft.

MEGAN MCARDLE: Stainless Steel and Granite: The Harvest Gold of the Future? “I recently discovered HGTV, a channel I watched devotedly for about three weeks before all the renovations began to look the same to me. Every young couple looking for a house wants stainless steel and granite countertops, and wants them RIGHT NOW. Everyone redoing a kitchen wants the same, ASAP. Which makes me think that these things must be on their way out. . . . My understanding of the luxury cycle is that as soon as everyone can afford a decent replica of high-priced items, the replicated qualities become outre. By that metric, stainless steel and granite have to be on their way out; the only thing more ubiquitous in the American kitchen is the George Foreman grill. On the other hand, maybe in 1948 I’d have been saying that wall-mounted cabinets were a passing fad.”

PERRY FUNDRAISING going great guns.

HEY, REMEMBER LIBYA? NATO Helping Cause Humanitarian Crisis in Libya?

Speaking of which, where’s Khaddafy?

POLITICAL WIRE: Obama Still Pushing A Dead Jobs Bill. Maybe he should start by trying to get at least one Democratic cosponsor in each house . . . .

MARK TAPSCOTT: Is Glenn Beck Re-Inventing TV? “I don’t know that putting broadcast-quality TV-type programming on the Internet is revolutionary, but it is certainly interesting.” No, it’s been done already . . . .

THE HILL: Senate Dems buck Obama on jobs plan. “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) on Tuesday further distanced his Democratic Conference from President Obama by nixing a major component of the White House’s jobs plan.”

Apparently that union pressure didn’t work.

LETTER TO HILDA SOLIS: Don’t mock sick nuclear workers! “According to reports by the Associated Press and other news organizations, the manual uses generic names such as ‘Freddie Krueger’ — the villain in the ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ movies — to reference those making claims.”

SOME NFL Hitler hypocrisy.

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): ‘Depression’ Makes Return to Mainstream Lexicon.

ALAS, WHAT THEY NEED IS A SHRINKING PUBLIC SECTOR: Euro Zone Private Sector Shrinks First Time in 2 Years.

BOB CORKER: China Trade Bill Is Terrible Public Policy.

MATT HOLZMANN: The China Currency Farce In Congress.

We are watching the spectacle of one of America’s great kabuki plays unfold this week on Capitol Hill. Harry Reid and his confederates are trying to blame China for America’s current ills and retaliate with the tools of Smoot Hawley. But the only problem is that they are 20 years too late and a trillion dollars short. That’s how much of our debt the Chinese government now holds.

15 years ago I trekked up Capitol Hill and across to the Pentagon with my colleagues in the electronics manufacturing industry to plead with Congress and the Department of Defense that China had undervalued their currency and was beginning to destroy America’s manufacturing base. At the time the RMB Yuan was 8.6/$. Today is 27% stronger at 6.3/$.

At the time, the American printed circuit manufacturing industry which we were representing was selling $10 Billion/year of product globally with a 60% market share. Today, that industry in North America is @ $ 2.6 Billion in a global industry worth $56 Billion. The United States industry’s market share is @ 5%. And this is a very high technology business. There are no excuses for this loss.

No, but there are explanations.

SONIA ARRISON ON HOW WE’RE GETTING healthier and wealthier. Current circumstances notwithstanding, she’s right. I should mention that she’s got a new book out.

JAMES TARANTO: The Gray Lady’s True Colors: The proof of the pudding is in the tweeting. “For those lacking basic Twitteracy, ‘RT’ is short for ‘retweet,’ which means that Roberts was repeating a tweet from the account of ThinkProgress, a highly partisan left-liberal opinion site. This would be unremarkable coming from, say, the editor of the Times editorial page. From Roberts, however, it reinforces perceptions that the Times’s news coverage is biased in favor of the left and against the Tea Party. . . . One imagines that Roberts doesn’t mean to be partisan–that he thinks TP is making an interesting, salient point whose merits are obvious to all right-thinking people. Which, of course, would be entirely consistent with what we suspected about the Times back in January.”

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): US Starts New Fiscal Year With $14.837 Trillion In Debt, $142 Billion Increase In Two Days. Actually, I think it’s working out exactly as planned.

THOSE ORDERLY BRITS: Mob takes emergency water supplies during Banbury shortages. “A water delivery driver in Oxfordshire was forced to abandon his supply of emergency bottles after he was threatened by a group of residents. The incident took place on Sunday after two Thames Water pumps at the Bretch Hill Reservoir in Banbury failed.”

DAVID HARDY: Ruling in Heller II challenge to DC’s replacement laws.

DAVID FREDDOSO: A Letter To The New York City Protesters. “Those people you left stuck in traffic have a hard time paying their bills and rents and health insurance and mortgages. They worry about things like finding decent schools for their children to attend and making sure they don’t get fired at work, and fixing leaking roofs and chimneys. You know what they don’t worry about, ever? Smashing patriarchy and capitalism.”

UPDATE: Photos: The Occupy Wall Street Movement Sure Is White. “Remember when the media was obsessed with how many minority members attended Tea Parties?”

THE OBAMA STIMULUS should have been more manly?

THE DEMOCRATIC SENATE DEBATE IN MASSACHUSETTS WAS BLOGGED here, and here. Also here (in the comments).

OCCUPY WALL STREET AMERICA: Obama Flies to St. Louis to Raise Dough… Tea Party Breaks Out.

UPDATE: “Rude, racist” Obama supporters?

GREEN FAIL (CONT’D): $200 million green-tech subsidy results in -100 jobs. “Are you getting the impression that a visit from Obama or Chu might be the kiss of death for green-tech companies? Obama shows up to promote Solyndra and the company sinks into bankruptcy, taking over a half-billion taxpayer dollars with it. Chu personally delivers the jobs-stimulus check to NREL, which then starts trimming jobs.”

CALIFORNIA — a reality-optional zone?

SOLIDARITY: Herman Cain, Rick Perry, Jon Huntsman, Michele Bachmann, Mitt Romney to boycott Univision debate over Rubio report. “Five Republican presidential candidates are boycotting a proposed Univision debate due to allegations that the Spanish-language media giant tried to strongarm Sen. Marco Rubio, a vice-presidential shortlister, with a controversial story about a relative.”

A TEN-YEAR BLOGGIVERSARY. That’s old in blog-years.

BUG-LIKE ROBOTIC DRONES becoming more bug-like. “If two research stipends recently handed down are any indication, the micro-drones of the future may have tiny hair-like sensors all over their bodies and big, compound eyes.” Well, bugs are good at what they do.

UH OH: Italy credit rating slashed by Moody’s from Aa2 to A2.

WHEN POWER IS decoupled from notions of duty.