MORE TEA PARTY PICS: Reader Kenny Hill writes: “Montrose had two Tea Parties, one at lunch and one in the evening. Here’s a few shots from evening party. Thanks for all you do!” It’s Montrose, Colorado. And there wasn’t an “angry old man” in the bunch.

And here are some more pictures and a report from Cave Creek, Arizona.

And reader Jason Ruser writes:

Well, waddaya know? There was a tea party not 5 miles from my up in Oceanside, at Oceanside’s City Hall.

Met lots of friendly folks, many of which had home made signs of note.

They were a pretty non-threatening lot, unless you are threatened by little old ladies with American flag hats and doggies they dote on. Even had complete families out.

I only met one goofball who was handing out infowars CDs. “They are very professionally made, Sir…” Uh-huh.

A couple of motorcycle cops (riding BMW cycles) I polled said the crowd looked to be “Two thousand-ish.”

Here are some links to photos for your enjoyment.

UPDATE: Reader Robert Williams sends this picture from Raleigh, NC.

ANOTHER TEA PARTY in Ft. Wayne, Indiana:

Hundreds gathered outside the Allen County Courthouse to hear speakers who warned of eroding freedoms as politicians bankroll pork-barrel spending and government bailouts with loans from socialist countries like China.

The speakers called upon rally participants to forget party lines and unite in support of their country, their faith and capitalism.

And yet critics say the Tea Party movement is partisan, and doesn’t know what it’s for.

REGULATORY DESPOTISM. “No elected politicians passed a law in any legislature mandating that would-be gun-owners explain why they bust up with their sweethearts. But some no-name official somewhere in the permanent bureaucracy did, and that’s that.” Tar and feathers, or some other measure to ensure personal responsibility.

OBAMA: The American Gorbachev?

GAY MARRIAGE HAS WON: “Note the main message Frank is pushing here: In an America where in the latest CBS news poll, just 33 percent of Americans support gay marrriage, gay marriage has won. Gay-marriage advocates are using their seats of power to punish and shut down debate.”

Unlike Maggie Gallagher, I favor gay marriage. But it seems to me that in this — as in other areas — those pushing the “bigotry” meme are in fact more interested in calling others bigots than in accomplishing anything.

THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: Joe Biden Collecting Social Security Bonus:

Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. announced last month that Social Security beneficiaries will get one-time $250 stimulus bonus payments beginning in May.

He didn’t mention that he will be one of the recipients.

The annual tax returns for Biden and his wife, Jill, released last week, show he began collecting Social Security benefits in 2008. He became eligible for full benefits in November when he reached age 66. Social Security beneficiaries will receive their $13 billion share of the $787 billion Obama stimulus package as early as May. Each of more than 50 million Social Security beneficiaries is entitled to $250 under the stimulus measure.

“These folks need the money,” Biden said in announcing the payment schedule. “People are going to be actually spending that money.”

Asked about Biden’s decision to begin collecting benefits, spokeswoman Ann Marie Tomasini issued a brief statement: “Vice President Biden is eligible under the law to collect his full benefits at age 66.”

So if paying taxes is patriotic, what about collecting benefits?

HMM, AGAIN: I’m not sure what Andrew Sullivan means by this post, in which he incompletely quotes my post here.

Perhaps he’d care to address the (omitted) quote from the Times debate about Nancy Pelosi and other leading Democrats endorsing waterboarding? Well, all kinds of people were endorsing torture back then and have later changed their tune, though Barack Obama was still sounding iffy last Fall. I, on the other hand, have always opposed torture — even when it got me compared to Mike Dukakis, — and even back in the fall of 2001. But, as I said a number of times, I think the subject has been turned into a partisan weapon — ignoring the pro-torture stands of many Democrats (and see this, too) — and that’s made me suspicious of the motives of those pushing it. In Andrew’s case, it may cause some people to forget how vigorously he supported the Iraq War, and George W. Bush, for a while, until his interests turned to gay marriage, and going after Republicans, but not so much Democrats, on this issue. Some people still remember.

KANSAS CITY STAR: Tea Party Movement Captures Real Concerns. “What we’re seeing is a center-right populist outpouring prompted by the long-term implications of President Barack Obama’s gargantuan budget, his spending plans, the massive tide of red ink those plans will generate — and, most important, what all that implies about the future balance between the government and the private sector.”

MEGAN MCARDLE: Why are all the recession ads so terrible? “I hate to sound like Andy Rooney, but I think the time has come to retire the ad campaigns from retailers promising to ‘help’ us with the recession by . . . giving us modest discounts on non-essential consumer goods.”

BOOKS GETTING A BOOST FROM OBAMA: Obviously, Mark Levin’s Liberty and Tyranny, and Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. But also Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom, and Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism. And Amity Shlaes’ The Forgotten Man. Others?

UPDATE: Reader Michael Nevers writes: “Heinlein’s Moon is a Harsh Mistress. I’ve read suggestions to read it recently in Tea Party comment threads, so I did. Decent book on the whole and wonderful for something written in the 60′s.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Alan Martin writes “Common Sense is #44 at Amazon.” And reader Doc Duke writes: “The 5000 Year Leap, both the original edition, and the 30 year anniversary edition.”

MORE: Reader John Richardson writes: “My vote for a book that is doing well in sales due to Obama would be James Wesley, Rawles’s “Patriots: A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse.” According to Amazon.com, it is #13 in Contemporary Fiction and #5 in Mystery and Thrillers. Not bad for a book that is coming from a small press with very little publicity other than in forums and blogs.” Yeah, but kinda depressing given what it’s about.

TAXES: Congress going after online shoppers. Technically this isn’t new taxation, as you’re supposed to pay “use tax” on things you buy online from out of state. (I do this). But most people don’t, and to them it will feel like a new tax.

HEH: Janeane Garofalo on Dissent, Then and Now. Yeah, the contradiction’s obvious. But mostly, I notice how much better she looked, and sounded, back in 2003. What happened?

UPDATE: Reader James Somers writes: “Glenn, you pose the question of what happened to Janeane Garofalo between 2003 and now. I’d submit that it takes a lot of energy to be that angry: it uses you up, consumes you, wastes you. People like Garofalo spent the better part of eight years in an absolute rage, and it took an awful lot out of them. And pace the idea that it’s the right that’s now out-of-control angry: the continuing temper tantrums of people like Garofalo and Roesgen suggest that a good chunk of the left is still quite mad.”

Yeah, but that’s a cautionary note to folks on the right now, too. Don’t let the anger build up and consume you. Be a happy warrior instead.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Hate: It Does A Body Bad. Indeed. Plus a warning from Diane Duane, via Moe Lane.

MORE: Reader Stephen Eisenbies writes: “I was just looking at JG’s facebook fan page and there are lots of people criticizing her for her dumb race-baiting rant on Olbermann. In a web 2.0 world, there sure are a lot of opportunities to let these people know what we think. Perhaps this could be encouraged a little more.”

STILL MORE: Reader Joe Ware writes: “Re: item on the cost of being angry. I was at the Alamo Tea Party and the prevailing mood was actually quite happy. People were smiling and friendly, perhaps reassured that they weren’t alone and pleased to be at the birth of something we hope will be significant.” Yeah, that seemed to be the mood where I was, too.

Plus, my vindication.

JOHN TIERNEY: The Dark Secret At Blood Falls.

JACOB SULLUM: Federal Prosecutor Tries to Silence Drug Policy Activist (Again). Note that Siobhan Reynolds is, as far as I know, no relation.

IN BRITAIN, BORN A CITIZEN, living in subjection.

DURBAN II UPDATE: Roger Simon rubs shoulders with Ahmadinejad. Plus, Alan Dershowitz gets a talking-to from the security guys.

SOME TEA PARTY PHOTOS from Fresno. “Fresno had over 7.500 attend the most polite protest I have ever witnessed.” Plus, “Black People Against Obama,” and “Mixed People Against Obama.” Hey, that’s not part of the narrative!

UPDATE: Reader Larry Price sends this picture of the “angry old white men” standing in front of him at the Atlanta Tea Party.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Another one of those angry white guys, in Virginia Beach.

MORE: Lefty reader Nicholas Klemen writes: ‘You found photos of 6 black people at tea parties! Thats proof that there isn’t any racism going on at the protests. Take that Dems! Keep up the good work.” Well, there wasn’t any sign of racism at the Tea Party I attended, nor have I seen any reports from anywhere else. All I’ve seen are bogus claims of racism from apparatchik lefties who are — as Bob McManus predicted a month ago — hitting this note for lack of anything else to say, and because it’s their tired response to anything threatening.

That’s not the moral high ground you’re standing on, Nicholas. It’s just a big ol’ pile of crap.

Are the Tea Parties as heavily white as a Code Pink protest or a Howard Dean meetup? Maybe, I dunno. (And didn’t Dean call for white guys with Confederate flags to join the Democrats?) But the “Tea Partiers are racist” argument is typical sloppy sloganeering and deserves even less respect than I’m giving it here.

FINALLY: Some thoughts from Justin Katz. And be sure to check out these photos, too.

THE FORCE IS STRONG: Eight police officers serving with Scotland’s largest force listed their official religion as Jedi in voluntary diversity forms, the BBC reported. How many were “Sith?”

A BLAST FROM THE PAST: The Nazification of Bush, in 2003.

Related item here.

WELL, FOR HIM, CERTAINLY: Axelrod: The Tea Party Movement Could Be “Unhealthy.”

IF YOU STRIKE ME DOWN, I shall only become more powerful than you can imagine.

I dunno — I can imagine an awful lot.

TONS OF RELEASED DRUGS taint U.S. water. I’d like to know the concentrations, though — other studies I’ve seen are in the parts-per-trillion level, which is extremely tiny. Words like “traces” or “evidence of” don’t tell you much.

UPDATE: A reader sends this on oral contraceptives in the water supply. Do we need better sewage treatment? I’d like to see more hard data, and less speculation.

“FALSE NOSTALGIA” for record stores?

2 SHOT DEAD at gun-control rally.

UPDATE: The shooting happened in 2002. It’s just the trial that’s going on now.

PARTYING LIKE IT’S 1934.

SOME REPORTING FROM YESTERDAY’S PHILADELPHIA TEA PARTY over at Blonde Sagacity. Turnout was about 1500 people.

TEA PARTY NATION is a social-networking site for the Tea Party crowd. It’s set up by Judson Phillips, who organized the Tennessee Tea Parties movement.

WELL, THE E.P.A. WILL MAKE SURE THIS NEVER HAPPENS: “OK, this is big news. A research team has worked out a way to nearly triple the efficiency of the Fischer-Tropsch process. This means cheap synthetic hydrocarbons from coal are on the horizon.”

MALWARE UPDATES: Now it’s Zombie Macs!

TEA PARTY FOLLOWUP: What a handful of people can accomplish. Try showing up a a Congressional meet-and-greet and asking some questions. Then YouTube the response.

THE HILL: Obama Defends Interactions With Chavez.

CLIFF MAY: Romancing the Jihad.

GET 100 MPG with a Hybrid Hummer.

IN THE MAIL: From David Ignatius, The Increment: A Novel.

NOTES FROM behind the Tea Party lines.

TWO CONGRESSMEN WITH ONE PROBLEM:

In Illinois, U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Chicago, has been best known for getting federal funds to improve impoverished areas of his district in both Chicago and the south suburbs and for his push to develop a third Chicago-area airport near Peotone.

In Indiana, U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Ind., has worked long and hard on behalf of the steel industry, the major economic engine in his Northwest Indiana district.

But within the past few months, both men now find themselves better known as being under the microscope of federal investigations into whether they have crossed an ethical and perhaps legal line.

Read the whole thing.

MURTHA UPDATE: Murtha’s Earmarks Keep Airport Aloft: State-of-the-Art Pennsylvania Facility Sees Few Travelers but Lots of Funding. “Murtha, dubbed the King of Pork by critics, consistently directs more federal money to his district than any other congressman — $192 million in the 2008 budget. His pattern of steering millions in earmarks to defense contractors who give to his campaign and hire his allies as lobbyists is being scrutinized by the FBI as part of an investigation of a lobbying firm led by one of Murtha’s closest friends. The lawmaker, who uses the airport frequently during his campaigns, has steadily steered millions of taxpayer dollars to it to build a new terminal with a restaurant; a long, concrete runway sturdy enough to handle large jets; and a high-tech radar system usually reserved for international airports. The airport’s passenger count has fallen by more than half in the past 10 years. When Johnstown native Bill Previte arrived on a recent morning, he lamented that his plane was half-empty and that the terminal was deserted.”

JERRY POURNELLE ON OBAMA AND THE PIRATES: “Reagan famously delegated control of this kind of event to the on the scene commanders. I have no evidence that Obama did not do much the same thing, although this purports that he did not. Colonel Beckwith told me about the failed hostage rescue in Iran; I believed his story, so I have some evidence that Jimmy Carter did not delegate authority to local commanders, but in fact insisted on being involved all the way down the line. I have absolutely no evidence regarding the current situation. The pentagon scuttlebutt I have heard gives Obama good marks on this incident.”

MARK STEYN on the Tea Party movement. “Doing the job the Boston Globe won’t do, Glenn Reynolds, the Internet’s Instapundit, has been posting many photographs of tea parties. For a movement of mean, angry old white men, there seem to be a lot of hot-looking young chicks among them. Perhaps they’re just kinky gerontophiliacs. Or perhaps they understand that their generation will be the principal victim of this grotesque government profligacy.”

As I get older, the notion of kinky gerontophiliacs becomes steadily less troubling. . . .

UPDATE: Nice to be appreciated.

PATTERICO: CNN the Latest Corporate Thug to Use Copyright As a Weapon to Eliminate Embarrassing Clips from YouTube. “If CNN wants to sue me, we can make this a test case.”

HOPE AND CHANGE: “U.S. venture capital investments sank 61 percent in the first quarter, dropping to the lowest level in 12 years as financiers became even warier about sinking funds into startups during a deepening recession.”

HEH: Chris Dodd: ‘Fighting for Consumers’ While Taking Cash From Pawnshop Owners. “The Democratic senator raised more than $44,000 from pawnshop owners and other businesses that provide high-interest loans, often to those with bad credit, according to campaign finance reports.”

THE RAPID GROWTH OF NOTEBOOKS AND NETBOOKS. “In 2004, only 2 percent of notebook computers sold in the United States cost less than $800. In 2008, some 35 percent did, according to data collected by the NPD Group, another research firm.”

QUESTION OF THE YEAR: Are losers attracted to Facebook or does Facebook addiction turn people into losers?

“OBAMA SILENT ON ORTEGA DIATRIBE.” I thought once he was elected everyone was going to love us . . . .

UPDATE: Actually, Obama said “I’m grateful that President Ortega did not blame me for things that happened when I was three months old.” That rhetoric sounded familiar. Remember this?

SO I FINISHED WILLIAM FORSTCHEN’S One Second After, and it’s pretty good — sort of an Alas, Babylon for the 21st Century. Forstchen hopes to attract attention to the danger of an EMP attack, and I hope he does. I’m somewhat less positive about whether that will produce any actual, useful preparation.

Meanwhile, there’s also the worry about EMP problems from solar storms. We need to be hardening up our infrastructure in all sorts of ways; this is one.

ERIC POSNER ASKS THE TOUGH QUESTIONS: “Why doesn’t the Obama administration prosecute CIA officials who violated laws against torture? Could it really be indifferent to its obligation to prosecute under international law? And why have the prospects of a “tap on the shoulder” receded in Spain? I answered these questions in the course of predicting these developments, in earlier posts, here, here, and here.”

I’m still waiting for the promised Jane Hamsher pitchfork mobs to go after Obama.

I WONDER IF ANY “TEA PARTY” PROTESTERS WILL SHOW UP? U.S. Rep. Schakowsky will speak at May Day Dinner. “U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, a leading advocate for women’s issues in Congress, will be the featured speaker during the Peoria County Democratic Women’s annual May Day Dinner on May 3 at the Lariat Steakhouse.” There were 3,000 Tea Party protesters in Peoria. They might take exception to her calling them despicable and shameful.

A CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR ARTICLE on the Tea Party movement. “Yet the idea of non-traditional protesters using bottom-up organizing to foment a national movement in the span of 60 days may have marked a turning point for the tea partiers – especially since the high attendance estimates rivaled the estimated 500,000 or so protesters who converged on New York City and several other major cities to oppose the Iraq War on Feb. 15, 2003.”

JERRY POURNELLE:

It was obvious to me at the time DHS and Patriot Act (and TSA!) were bad moves. Aside from the fact that amalgamating many inefficient bureaucracies into one multiplies not divides the inefficiencies – efficient government is not an overriding concern of mine – centralizing power to meet a crisis leaves the centralized power available for abuse long after the crisis is forgotten. The chances that a future Democrat administration would disband DHS and repeal Patriot Act were patently zero even at the time. Expand, politicize, and abuse now are the order of the day, and I am not surprised in the least.

Both major parties seem now irredeemably statist. Many Republicans are starting to say the right things once more, but I doubt 51% will trust the party again soon enough to help. Nor should we, on the record. I attended the public signing of the Contract With America, and I watched as it was abandoned by Republican “realists” who seemed to think that absolute power in *their* hands was kinda neat.

What becomes of the Tea Parties looks crucial to me. “Federalist” might be a good name for the result – small-f federalism would be far better than what we have, and regardless of the details of the history the name has an intrinsic respectability that would make the new alliance somewhat harder to demonize in the bitter political warfare it would instantly face.

A third party? I see that as possible, but I’m not sure whether it would be a good thing or not.

HONEYBEE UPDATE: A cure for colony collapse?

HMM: Could Hillary-Movie Case Bring Down McCain-Feingold?

HMM: The American mood: Is the angst bottoming out?

If so, should it be? IMF predicts prolonged, deep global recession.

Plus, US economy goes back to 1955 as deflation returns.

Well, things could be worse.

Plus, Time for the Fed to go negative?

UPDATE: Hey, I just remembered that I was thinking along the same lines as Mankiw back in November.

IS IT 1773? Or 1765?

SPACE-DEBRIS UPDATE: Shuttle Dodges Space Junk Risk.

SPEED CAMERAS IN TENNESSEE: “The Tennessee state Senate Transportation Committee on Tuesday voted 9-0 to authorize the use of speed cameras in so-called ‘work zones’ on interstate highways. The vote was unusual in that state Senator Tim Burchett (R-Knoxville) presented his legislation as if it would prohibit the use of speed cameras, even though the actual legislative text has the opposite effect.”

TEA PARTIERS BOO REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMAN: “The message from folks in Greenville to Congressman Gresham Barrett was clear Friday evening: Voters are mad about the $700 billion bailout he voted for and the massive government stimulus package he is now supporting. Barrett, a Republican, attempted to speak before an estimated crowd of 4,000 people at a Post Tax Day Tea Party in the Upstate only to be greeted by boos from most everyone in attendance.” More here.

Meanwhile, look at these photos of lily-white protesters. But not at a Tea Party. . . .

GRISLY SLAYINGS BRING MEXICAN DRUG WAR TO U.S.: “Five men dead in an apartment. In a county that might see five homicides in an entire year, the call over the sheriff’s radio revealed little about what awaited law enforcement at a sprawling apartment complex. . . . Some of the men showed signs of torture: Burns seared into their earlobes revealed where modified jumper cables had been clamped as an improvised electrocution device. Adhesive from duct tape used to bind the victims still clung to wrists and faces, from mouths to noses.” I spent a fair amount of time in — well, near — Columbiana as a kid. It does seem a far cry from the Mexican drug wars, but they’ve come a long way.

SHOW YOUR UNHAPPINESS WITH THE MSM by subscribing to PJTV!

“ANTI-TAX WAVE WASHES THROUGH VANCOUVER.”

UPDATE: Another Tea Party report, from Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Plus, pictures from today’s Philadelphia Tea Party.

SISSY WILLIS: “Let me devour your flesh because I know how to use it better than you do.”

PLAYING EARMARK HIDE-AND-SEEK in East Tennessee.

“STILL SILENT:” I don’t generally tell other bloggers what to blog about. But for those who do, I guess turnabout is fair play.

UPDATE: From the comments: “The only way you’re going to get Sullivan to blog about this is if it suddenly comes out that Chavez is the actual father of Trig Palin.” Heh.

TEA PARTIES ARE STILL GOING ON: There was one in Battle Creek, Michigan today. Photos and report at the link.

BOGUS TEA PARTY VIDEO EDITS at The Daily Show.

ANOTHER POLITICAL TRIUMPH! Auto czarito Rattner “not likely” to face charges, says Obama spokesman.

A TEA PARTY PROTEST IN McMinnville, Tennessee. I hadn’t even heard of this until somebody emailed. I think there were a lot of these in small towns around the country. As Byron York noted, that these are happening in places where protests never happen is the big news.

IOWAHAWK: RED SCARE: “It could happen here!”

CAR LUST: Remembering the MG Midget and Spridget.

OBAMA TRYING TO PROP UP CHRIS DODD?

Plus, Let’s Play ‘Who Gave Chris Dodd More Money Than Connecticut Residents?’

And, Top Five Vulnerable Senate Seats. “Since his initial election to the Senate in 1980, Dodd has won re-election with percentages of 65, 59, 65 and 66. But Dodd has gotten some unfavorable reviews lately, first off reports that he received a sweetheart deal from Countrywide Mortgage, and then over the news of the role he played in the $165 million in bonuses given to executives of the American International Group (AIG) — the insurance giant that was bailed out by the federal government.” Plus that Irish “cottage” problem.

ANDREW KLAVAN: The Little Red Wagon That Can: What I Saw At The Tea Party.

PJM POLITICAL: The Tea Party Wrapup Edition.

STEPHEN GREEN: How the mainstream press takes its marching orders from radical rabble-rouser Saul Alinsky.

WILLIAM JACOBSON: I’m Seething Over the New York Times calling me “seething.”

CQ: Not all Murtha Lawsuits Gone Away.

ANDREW IAN DODGE: GOP Fails to Hijack Maine Tea Parties.

NIKON INTRODUCES the new D5000 SLR.

JOURNALIST, heal thyself.

MICHAEL S. MALONE: Twitter Stays Calm. ” I’m accustomed to superstar start-up companies to be a combination of Scrooge McDuck and Animal House, with a touch of Lord of the Flies. That’s part of the fun. Twitter, by comparison, was so calm and focused that I almost felt like kicking over some chairs just for old time’s sake, like an aging rocker at a New Age music concert.”

TAXPROF: Why Your Tax Bill May Double.

ROGER SIMON will be reporting from Durban II.

ISRAELI ARMY GIRLS.

REPORTING FROM THE 2009 Robotics World Championship.

IN THE MAIL: From Andre Norton, The Game of Stars and Comets, another classic SF reissue from the folks at Baen.

WELL, WHEN THE MOB GETS MORE POWERFUL, PROTECTION MONEY GOES UP: Campaign Contributions Up, Despite Economic Downturn. “As the nation’s economy mires in recession, most Americans are anticipating lower earnings by making do with less – but not those who call Capitol Hill home. Fundraising by 10 House incumbents in the chamber’s most perennially competitive districts topped $2.56 million during the first three months of this year, according to a Washington Independent analysis of campaign-finance reports filed this week to the Federal Election Commission. That total represents an 18 percent increase from the 10 House districts’ incumbent fundraising during the similar post-election period in 2007. The Senate money chase is also hitting dizzying heights despite the dismal economy. Total fundraising for the five closest races in the upper chamber, as rated by the independent Cook Political Report, hit $8.3 million during the first three months of 2009, an increase of 39 percent compared with five similarly competitive races during the same period in 2007.”

JOHN GALT, M.D.? When Doctors Opt Out. “Here’s something that has gotten lost in the drive to institute universal health insurance: Health insurance doesn’t automatically lead to health care. And with more and more doctors dropping out of one insurance plan or another, especially government plans, there is no guarantee that you will be able to see a physician no matter what coverage you have.”

THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY: Sexy, Immortal Billionaires with Super Powers.

HEH: Obama Administration Now Has More Czars Than the Romanov Dynasty.

MARK LEVIN’S LIBERTY AND TYRANNY: Amazingly, still #1 on Amazon.

L.A. TIMES: Barack Obama way wrong on U.S. guns in Mexico:

On his recently-concluded first visit to Mexico, a week after telling Europeans that his country was at times arrogant, President Barack Obama blamed his own country for providing 90% of Mexico’s recovered crime guns.

According to a report by the independent FactCheck.org this afternoon, that’s incorrect. By a, uh, long shot.

The president’s assertion and the reported inaccuracy seems likely to fuel the eternal American gun control debate, especially as it relates to the U.S. role in Mexico’s deadly drug world.

FactCheck.org says:

The figure represents only the percentage of crime guns that have been submitted by Mexican officials and traced by U.S. officials. We can find no hard data on the total number of guns actually “recovered in Mexico,” but U.S. and Mexican officials both say that Mexico recovers more guns that it submits for tracing. Therefore, the percentage of guns “recovered” and traced to U.S. sources necessarily is less than 90 percent.

Furthermore, the 90 percent figure is based on a badly biased sample of all Mexican crime guns. Law enforcement officials say Mexico asks the U.S. to trace only those guns with serial numbers or other markings that indicate they are likely to have come though the U.S.

Bogus numbers? And I thought this Administration was going to end the war on science.

JACOB SULLUM: Obama on Warrantless Surveillance: As Bad As Bush? Worse?

Meet the new boss, yada yada. You were expecting a Chicago machine politician to show an enthusiasm for civil liberties?

STILL MORE ON saline rinses for sinus problems. Lots of readers have written that this helps.

FREE SPEECH IN THE AGE OF OBAMA: Conservative speakers now have bodyguards when they visit universities.

THE NOW-VACATIONING Susan Roesgen. Well, she did act like someone overdue for a vacation. A long one.

Plus, Bill Whittle on the costs of media bias.

CELEBRATE DIVERSITY! “Except veterans, small-business owners, practicing Catholics, gun owners, talk-radio listeners, tea-party attendees, Texans, smokers, limited-government proponents, pro-lifers, taxpayers, NASCAR fans, Boy Scouts, oil-company employees, secure-border advocates, capitalists, global-warming agnostics, Cuban refugees, school-choicers . . .”

HOPE AND CHANGE: Jobless Rate Climbs in 46 States, With California at 11.2% “Only North Dakota and the District of Columbia saw unemployment rates decline for the month.” Well, it’s obvious why DC is prospering! But what’s with North Dakota?

SOCIALIZED MEDICINE AT WORK: Mother who died giving birth in hospital toilet never saw twins. “A woman died in labour in a hospital lavatory after her induction was delayed because of a lack of specialist staff, an inquest was told yesterday.”

JIM GERAGHTY: I Wonder If Obama Will Cite Kudlow to Combat Krugman.

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Moran Campaign Contributors Have Business Before Brother.

More than a dozen defense contractors with business before U.S. Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.), a member of the powerful House Appropriations defense subcommittee, have donated thousands of dollars to Moran’s younger brother Brian, a candidate for governor of Virginia. Brian Moran filed a campaign finance report this week that shows he collected $80,000 during the first three months of 2009 from 18 contractors that have been longtime backers of the congressman. Seven of the firms are awaiting approval of Moran-backed earmarks totaling $14.5 million.

Just a coincidence, I’m sure.

BUSTING OBAMA FOR gun/drug falsehoods.