PHOTOS: Tea Partiers In Arizona Greet Obama’s Limousine.

Well, that’s how it all started, back in 2009.

HMM: Scrubbing the “Protocols of the Elders of Ron Paul.”

DOWNGRADE-O-RAMA: FITCH GOES ON RAMPAGE: CUTS SPAIN, ITALY, BELGIUM, CYPRUS, AND SLOVENIA.

SPENCER ACKERMAN: Note to some of my fellow progressives: If we can’t argue about Israel without using anti-Semitic tropes, then the debate is lost before it even begins. Well, then. . . .

“SMART DIPLOMACY?” “Each day that goes by gives the White House more reason to regret its Libyan adventure. The overthrow of Gaddafi was a good thing, but from both the humanitarian and strategic points of view, nothing has changed. The war continues to look at best like a diversion, at worst as if the US fell for a cynical French ploy to get oil in a way that damaged our long term strategic interests.”

TECHNOLOGY: Vehicles To Start Warning Each Other Of Collision Risk.

THE WORLD’S FASTEST HYBRID.

TECHNOLOGY REVIEW: Natural Gas: The Next Presidential Transportation Fad.

Related: Prof. Mark Perry: Obama Deserves No Credit For Oil and Gas Boom. No kidding.

IN THE MAIL From Dave Wallace, The Master of Izindi.

ALEX LONG: Professionalism and Matthew Shardlake. “This Essay/Book Review examines the Matthew Shardlake series by C.J. Sansom. In particular, it examines the question of whether the sixteenth-century fictional lawyer Shardlake can serve as a role model for twenty-first-century lawyers, both in terms of his ethics and his professionalism.”

GOVERNMENT MOTORS: From The White House To The Statehouse.

THE ECONOMIC CASE AGAINST OBAMA, All In One Chart. Bottom line: He made things worse.

MORE ELIMINATIONIST RHETORIC: Democratic lawmaker likens GOP to terrorists for legislative tactics. Does Dave Neiwert know about this?

SHOCKER: Soros May Benefit From White House’s Natural Gas Proposal. And we already know that Warren Buffett benefited from the Keystone decision. It’s a billionaire-crony-capitalism-fest!

“PATHETIC:” GDP Up Only 1.7% for Year.

Related: Household Wealth Falls For Second Straight Quarter.

HMM: AT&T presses Congress to pass spectrum bill that restricts FCC.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE “HOPE?” Bloomberg View: The Words Not Spoken In Obama’s Speech Speak Volumes.

TALK RADIO: Now In Spanish.

LOWER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Picture of Snoozing Teacher Gets 9th-Grader Suspended. “A ninth grader who snapped a picture of a snoozing substitute teacher with his cell phone camera and posted it on a social network is in hot water with his school district.”

One argument in favor of public education is that it teaches students lessons about government early. That certainly happened here.

K.C. JOHNSON: The Times Vilifies Another Athlete, Presenting No Evidence. “But, of course, this is the New York Times. And if the Duke lacrosse case left no other legacy, it’s that the paper frames its coverage of campus allegations of sexual assault in such a way that ignores issues of due process.”

On the other hand, they know how to send the desired message.

AT AMAZON, markdowns and ideas on Valentine’s Day gifts.

And, today only, a sale on Popchips.

BILL WHITTLE: Firewall: The Vote Pump.

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: CNN TRIES TO WHITEWASH OBAMA’S ALINSKY TIES.

SOTU SNAFU: “Remember that 23-year-old cancer patient sitting in Michelle Obama’s box at the State of the Union? The one who the White House said got covered under the young adult dependent provisions of President Barack Obama’s health care reform law? Well, Adam Rapp may have actually been covered by a similar law from his home state of Illinois. Or maybe not.”

THIN-SKINNED AND INSECURE: WaPo: Obama exchange with Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer reveals his testy side. If he were a Republican, he’d be sexist, too.

JAMES TARANTO: Alternative Certification and ‘Colorblind Racism’ — The sooner the higher-education bubble bursts, the better.

The higher education industry’s credential cartel is under financial threat owing to the necessity of state and local (and eventually federal) budget cuts and the increasing sense that a degree isn’t worth incurring a mountain of debt. It is under legal threat, too. There is a strong likelihood that the Supreme Court will abolish or severely curtail the use of racial preferences in college admissions sometime in the next few years, a possibility that led to gnashing of teeth at the New York Times editorial board. Thanks to the senescence of white guilt, explicated here Monday, it is also under cultural threat.

Now, as Vedder reports, there is a competitive threat as well. We can expect that the higher-ed industry will do whatever it can to crush this threat. The obvious point of attack would be to claim that the new skills tests have a racially disparate impact.

No industry loses market share without a fight.

FLACK ALERT: Media Matters solicits lawmaker ‘allies’ to steer media coverage.

OUTRAGE: Vice President Joe Biden Owes An Apology To Indian Americans.

I’m blaming his low IQ.

USING BOOK-MENTIONS OF BACON TO PREDICT WARS: Two observations: (1) Is there anything it can’t do? (2) Uh oh.

UPDATE: A reader emails: “Historically, there may well be a co-relation to the phrase ‘to save one’s bacon.’ That, and traditionally bacon as a preserved food was a common military ration. Curiously, the Cold War, Korea and Vietnam do not register on the bacon-o-meter, possibly because ‘bacon’ in the modern era has largely been replaced by the word ‘ass.’ And because the Cold War otherwise lacked sizzle. The current spike in bacon references is probably a confluence both of the religious particulars of our current conflict, and this happy time of culinary liberation in which we dwell, when bacon is being embraced and celebrated in new and exciting ways.”

Meanwhile, reader John Scanlon writes: “Google Ngram on ‘liberty’ is pretty depressing.”

True, although “freedom” is somewhat better. Still dropping off, though.

FUEL ECONOMY IS FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE: Obama Leaves Event Promoting Clean Energy in Motorcade of 22 Fossil-Fueled Vehicles (Video).

WELL, THAT’S PRETTY MUCH THE KISS OF DEATH, ISN’T IT? Biden visited DOE-backed, bankrupt green company.

Just as President Obama toured Solyndra LLC before that taxpayer-funded company declared bankruptcy, so Vice President Joe Biden gave a speech at Ener1, an electric car battery company that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy today despite $118.5 million in stimulus money from the Department of Energy (DOE).

“We know what’s coming — you don’t have to be a fortune-teller to see where the automobile industry has to go,” Biden told Ener1 employees last year. “So why not? Why not have it made in America? That’s why we went out there and came up with $2.4 billion for battery technology.”

House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chair Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., recalled Biden’s visit and the failures of Solyndra and Beacon Power earlier this year. “One bankruptcy may be a fluke, two could be coincidence, but three is a trend,” Stearns said in a statement today. “Our investigation continues, and we are working to ensure taxpayers never are never again stuck paying hundreds of millions of dollars because of the administration’s risky bets.”

Risky bets, payoffs to cronies, whatever.

Plus: Advice To Companies: “Don’t Let President Obama Notice You.”

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK ASLEEP: ‘Dozing’ security officer admits violations, resigns; WSI says photos taken in unclassified area at ORNL.

SHOCKER: Poll: Most Say High Court Should Reject Health Insurance Mandate. “A new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that more than half of Americans say the Supreme Court should rule that the health overhaul law’s requirement to have health insurance or pay a fine is unconstitutional. The poll by the nonpartisan foundation found that 54% of those surveyed said the Supreme Court should rule against the mandate while only 17% said the court should uphold it and 29% either didn’t know or didn’t answer.”

HMM: China’s very mysterious data. “I could not help noticing that China’s imports from Japan fell 16.2pc in December. Imports from Taiwan fell 6.2pc. The Shanghai Container Freight Index fell 1.4pc to a record low of 919.44 in November, after sliding relentlessly for several months. It has picked up slightly since. The Baltic Dry Index measuring freight rates for ores, grains, and bulk goods, has fallen 44pc over the last year. Kasper Moller from Maersk in Beijing said weak Chinese demand for iron ore was the key culprit.”

#PBSFAIL: The NewsHour on PBS Tonight Jumped Right On the U.S. Manufacturing Jobs Controversy.

THE YEAR IS YOUNG: Worst News Story of 2012? “That’s right; Reuters wrote that Rubio voted against Obamacare, but, as with Sotomayer’s nomination, he wasn’t in the Senate yet. This kind of journalistic incompetence is stunning. How can any reporter–here, David Adams of Reuters–write that Rubio voted a certain way, without even checking to make sure he was in office at the time? And where did the false idea come from in the first place?”

Um, Media Matters, maybe? Just a wild guess . . . . Of course, calling this “incompetence” is charitable.

MICHAEL MANN’S climate emails.

TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: “Krugman says that ‘conservative columnists and newspapers’ have made a ‘concerted effort’ to smear him. But, as Virginia Postrel points out, they haven’t. The whole thing has come from one guy’s website (and Andrew Sullivan, a gay man who used to edit The New Republic, isn’t a credible front for the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy.)” Well, that was true.

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BRYAN PRESTON: Debate Score: Lots of Heat, Little Sunshine in Florida’s Republican Debate.

Plus, Space Policy:

Gingrich should never have talked about a colony on the moon. His idea of loosening regulations and offering prizes to encourage private enterprise in space makes a great deal of sense, but it wouldn’t lead to a commercial colony on the moon, at least not for a very long time. The market would be primarily space tourism, satellites, commercial use of orbital space. He looks like a geek surrounded by grownups, not really a fair characterization but one that Gingrich invited.

On the other hand, Romney — who should have said the above — came across like a know-nothing on space policy, yet again.

UPDATE: Coming: A space-based anti-Romney ad featuring Burt Rutan?

THERE’S THAT WORD AGAIN: Sales of U.S. New Homes Unexpectedly Decline in December. “Sales of new U.S. homes unexpectedly declined in December for the first time in four months, capping the slowest year on record for builders.” And note that November was revised down.

CHARLES MURRAY ON Elite Ignorance of Ordinary Americans.

It’s not just ignorance. It’s oikophobia. Coupled, quite frequently, with eleutherophobia.

MINTER’S RING: The Story of One WWII POW.

STEPHEN GREEN IS OFF DRYING OUT, SO Jazz Shaw has taken over drunkblogging duties for tonight’s debate.

UPDATE: More liveblogging here.

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INSTAVISION: The State Of The Tea Party, with Tea Party Patriots co-founder Mark Meckler. (Bumped).

A REVIEW OF the Ruger LCP. I put a couple of hundred rounds through one a while back, and found it surprisingly accurate for a gun so small. I do recommend the Crimson Trace laser sight, though. I’ve installed those on several guns and they’re surprisingly easy to install and very useful.

PETER WEHNER: “It’s stiff competition, but arguably Barack Obama’s chief courtier in the press is Jonathan Alter.”

Amie Parnes of The Hill is giving it her all, though.

FREE: Reader Patrick Chiles writes: “Thought you’d like to know that I’m running a one-day promotion of my SF thriller, Perigee. The e-book is free on Amazon until midnight Pacific time.”

LIFE IN THE ERA OF HOPE AND CHANGE: FBI Releases Plans To Monitor Social Networks.

AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES and the law.

DISASTER PREPAREDNESS: Alabama tornadoes: Storms show limits of warning sirens.

That’s why it’s good to have a weather radio. I have this one, and it’s been good. But some readers who have both say that this one is better.

UPDATE: Reader Jenny Parker writes: “Glenn, my weather radio (neither one of your links) wasn’t being reliable the other night, so we tried the Wx Alert USA app for our phones, and it was fantastic. We just programmed it to sound for tornadoes, but it will sound or message for whatever you like (only absent zombies, really). Gives off the hideous NOAA sound, sure to wake you from anything.” Hmm. I’ll have to give that one a try. Though the reviews seem uneven.

THAT’S OKAY, HE’S NOT A REPUBLICAN: Biden Does Fake Indian Accent During Outsourcing Speech?

FROM FOSSIL IDEOLOGY to fossil fuels.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: 8 Ways To Avoid One-Night Stand Awkwardness.

WHAT IF A CRUISE SHIP wrecked in Alaska? “The Costa Concordia wreck shocked the world last week. Although at least 16 died, thousands more lived because they were able to escape the ship into the warm Italian waters. However, ship traffic to frigid Arctic waters is on the rise. And if the Costa Concordia had run aground in the Bering Sea rather than the Mediterranean, the result probably would have been much deadlier.”

UPDATE: Well, there’s this unfortunate precedent, forwarded by reader J.M. Heinrichs.

WHAT’S HAPPENING IS THAT COLLEGE STUDENTS ARE BECOMING MORE LIBERTARIAN:

Even though on an issue-by-issue basis the opinions of incoming freshmen are becoming less conservative, the number of liberal students per se is not necessarily on the rise.

As students over the past couple of years have become more likely to self-identify politically as “middle of the road” (47.4 percent in 2011, up three percentage points since 2009), the percentage who consider themselves “liberal” has actually declined more than that of those who say they’re “conservative.”

Which makes sense. More here.

ROCKET MEN: Meet the 21st-century pioneers who want to take you into space.

SHOCKER: 2012 Business Tax Climate: Chilliest in Blue States.

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Why You Should Spend A $2 Bill At Starbucks On February 14.

RWANDA’S coffee success story.

MEGAN MCARDLE: HOW RICH IS WARREN BUFFETT’S SECRETARY?

In sum, the presentation of these numbers is quite confusing, and I suspect a little bit of cherry-picking to maximize the invidiousness of the comparison. Ms. Bosanek probably does have a somewhat higher effective federal tax rate than her boss, and it may even be much higher. But if so, this is because she is a very unusual taxpayer–exactly the opposite of what is implied by comparing Warren Buffett’s taxes to those of his secretary.

Update: apparently, she makes $60K. So I gather what Buffet is talking about is comparing her federal marginal tax rate, including both sides of the employer tax, to what must be his effective tax rate, since there is no marginal rate of 17.4%. That comparison is beyond bizarre.

About as honest as I’ve come to expect. And let me add: What a cheapskate Buffett is. My secretary at Dewey Ballantine made over $50K back in the 1980s, and he’s only paying his secretary $60K today? Hey, Warren — how about focusing your redistributive efforts a little closer to home?

AN ONLINE POLL ON REPEALING VIRGINIA’S ONE-GUN-A-MONTH LAW. So far the “yeses” are winning, which seems right to me.

ONE STEP TOWARD THE JETSONS: A Folding Electric Car.

NORTH CAROLINA GOVERNOR BEV PERDUE won’t seek a second term. “Seek” being the operative word in this case, I think. Her record has been poor. (Via NewsAlert.)

IS CHIVALRY DEAD? Male and Female Perspectives. My observation is that chivalry can exist only when embedded in a larger social structure that supports it in various ways. Abolish that structure — as has been done quite deliberately — and chivalry is unlikely to survive.

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Poll: “85 per cent of respondents believe that the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution means that individuals have the right to keep and bear arms, while only seven per cent openly disagree with this view.”

CHUCK SIMMINS: Whip Inflation Now!

#BLOOMBERGFAIL: NYC ‘food police’ caught in an ad lie. “A fear-inducing advertisement, posted around New York City, warning that too much sugary soda will give you diabetes and cause you to lose limbs has come under scrutiny because the amputee in the poster lost his leg due to Photoshop, not diabetes.”

IN THE MAIL: The Grand Jihad: How Islam and the Left Sabotage America.

FAST AND FURIOUS: Rep. Darrell Issa says Holder should apologize to Mexico: ‘Justice has blood on their hands.’

CONVENIENT MEMORY LAPSE: “If you came away from President Obama’s State of the Union address thinking nothing worth mentioning happened during his first two years in office, then you got precisely the message he intended.”

RAND PAUL UPDATE: A security video of U.S. Sen. Rand Paul at a Nashville International Airport checkpoint doesn’t show him being “irate,” as police asserted. I’ll bet he is now.

MORE ON THAT GINGRICH MOON BILL: Reader Jonathan Fellows writes:

It looks like the bill was introduced in the 97th Congress as HR 4286, The National Space and Aeronautics Policy Act of 1981. Title IV of the bill dealt with the government of space territories.

The bill had 12 cosponsors — both R’s & D’s, including Tim Wirth, Robert Roe, Charlie Wilson, Bob Dornan, & Ed Derwinski.

Yes, that comports with my (vague) memories from the time. I think he may have introduced it more than once, though.

UPDATE: It’s also sad to see all our punditry miss out on what Newt’s doing here — he’s pandering to the tens of thousands of space workers in Florida who have been, or will be soon, laid off under Obama. Honestly, this should have been the lead item: “Pandering Newt,” not “Daffy Newt.” Do try to think outside the storyline, people.

EMILY EKINS: George Washington Would Beat Out Romney as Richest President; John Kerry Would Have, Too.

TEDX AMSTERDAM: Guns For World Peace. “The gun may be one of the most important instruments of peace and stability that we have in this world.”

UPDATE: Various readers object that he’s not talking about guns in the hands of citizens, which is true. But what he says is shocking enough to contemporary Euros, even if it is in accordance with their traditions. As Sanford Levinson has noted, though, their traditions are not ours:

Such analyses provide the basis for Edward Abbey’s revision of a common bumper sticker, “If guns are outlawed, only the government will have guns.” 67 One of the things this slogan has helped me to understand is the political tilt contained within the Weberian definition of the state — i.e., the repository of a monopoly of the legitimate means of violence 68 — that is so commonly used by political scientists. It is a profoundly statist definition, the product of a specifically German tradition of the (strong) state rather than of a strikingly different American political tradition that is fundamentally mistrustful of state power and vigilant about maintaining ultimate power, including the power of arms, in the populace.

In this, as in many things, of course, American elites often take their cues from the Germans.

SUSANNAH BRESLIN: Downsized: What I Learned After I Lost My Job a Year Ago. “Here’s a fact: I have three regular part-time jobs now, and the reason I have each one of them is because of a white man.”

SCHTICK WEARING THIN: Jon Stewart on Obama: ‘You Opened With I Killed Bin Laden?!’

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INSTAVISION: The State Of The Tea Party, with Tea Party Patriots co-founder Mark Meckler.

SO MUCH FOR ALL THAT “FAIR SHARE” TALK: 36 Obama aides owe $833,000 in back taxes. Well, as Tim Geithner demonstrated, taxes are for the little people.

HIGHER EDUCATION UPDATE: Universities Not Happy With Obama’s Tuition Criticism. “Even the suggestion of using federal financial aid to force colleges to lower prices drew criticism from many higher education experts Wednesday. . . . In his words, several experts in the economics of higher education heard an echo of a short-lived proposal from 2003: Rep. Howard (Buck) McKeon, a California Republican who was then chairman of the Committee on Education and the Workforce’s 21st-Century Competitiveness Subcommittee, proposed penalizing colleges that increased their cost of attendance by more than twice the rate of inflation for two consecutive years, including cutting off federal aid.”

HYPOCRISY: Obama attacks handouts — and then adds handouts. He’s only against handouts to the wrong people.

RAND SIMBERG: A Twinkle of Hope: Obama has moved space policy in the right direction, but we still have a long way to go. Read the whole thing.

CHANGE: Army budget cuts will trim 8 brigades, reduce troop force by 80,000 soldiers. “The Army’s force reduction has been expected by analysts, but the cuts are now getting finalized as part of the Pentagon’s 2013 budget, which is the first that will deal with a $487 billion reduction over the next decade.”

JOHN HAWKINS INTERVIEWS MARK LEVIN about his new book, Ameritopia: The Unmaking Of America.

MEDIA SUCKUP ALERT: In The Hill, which is usually more professional:

A relaxed, confident Barack Obama hit a pitch-perfect high note last week at the famed Apollo Theater in New York.

President Obama sang, “I’m so in love with you” — from Al Green’s hit “Let’s Stay Together” — and showed the world just how comfortable — if not sanguine — he is as he heads into the election year.

At Tuesday night’s State of the Union address, the same gravitas was on full display as a combative Obama took to the House lectern and told lawmakers in no uncertain terms that he would not “back down” in moving ahead with his agenda. Both public appearances illustrate the assuredness and moxie the president has exhibited in his quest for another term.

You get more objectivity from Tiger Beat.

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Congress Doesn’t Want to Give Up Its Insider Trading Privileges.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: The Coming Crash In Legal Education.

MICHELLE OBAMA’S WAR AGAINST SCIENCE? Study Finds No Childhood Obesity Link To School Junk Food.

THE ECONOMIST: The Zero-Sum President.

MEGAN MCARDLE: The President’s Nostalgianomics.

MEDIA COMMANDMENT: Thou Shalt Not Write Bad Things About Obama.

TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: “Yeah, it would be bad to set up a big, centralized European superstate and then have it run along fascistic lines, wouldn’t it? But then, how likely is that, based on history?”

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SUMMING UP the SOTU.

WINNING SOTU COMMENT:

Let me be clear, O is and always has been an ordinary political hack who was picked up by a brilliant campaign because he happened to be in the right place at the right time. This brilliant campaign ran him, and ever since he’s been trying and failing to lead the country. He’s been a failure from the beginning because he’s been a fraud from the beginning.

Pretty much.

HOPE: Obama’s SOTU ratings tank 12%, worst of presidency.

CHANGE: UK heading for first double-dip recession since 1975.

THE PRISON OFFICIALS SHOULD GET HARD TIME FOR THIS, BUT THEY WON’T: Man Held in Solitary Confinement 2 Years After DWI Gets $22M.

A man who spent two years in solitary confinement after getting arrested for DWI was awarded $22 million for suffering inhumane treatment in New Mexico’s Dona Ana County Jail.

Stephen Slevin was arrested in August of 2005 for driving while intoxicated, according to NBC station KOB.com. He said he never got a trial and spent the entire time languishing in solitary, even pulling his own tooth when he was denied dental care.

“‘[Prison officials were] walking by me every day, watching me deteriorate,” he said. “Day after day after day, they did nothing, nothing at all, to get me any help.”

Really, these guys should have to spend 6 years in solitary each. But, of course, all that happens is that taxpayers get stuck. Don’t respect these guys. They don’t deserve it.

UPDATE: A reader emails: “Who was governor when this guy was in stir? Just curious as that would seeem to be a black spot on that persons rep or something.” Nah, only if he were a Republican.