ASSOCIATED PRESS: Obama Prayer Leader Linked to Hamas: “A Muslim scholar chosen to speak at President-elect Barack Obama’s inaugural prayer service Wednesday is part of a group that federal prosecutors have linked to terrorists.”

UPDATE: Scott Johnson: “In a sense, the Obama inaugural’s inclusion of Mattson represents continuity with the Bush administration. While one arm of the government has blown the whistle on leading American Islamic groups including CAIR and ISNA, other arms of the government have treated the groups as respectable members of civil society. This is one area where change is actually called for and the status quo obtains.” Ouch.

ANOTHER UPDATE: There’s also the Grover Norquist problem.

SOME NOT-SO-ENCOURAGING ECONOMIC NEWS: “Freight rates for containers shipped from Asia to Europe have fallen to zero for the first time since records began, underscoring the dramatic collapse in trade since the world economy buckled in October.”

UPDATE: I emailed a reader in the shipping business over there to ask if this was true. Response:

Very.

This is the most hard hit trade. I’ve heard of rates as low as $75 for Asia-Europe, which is far less than bunker, but better than a non-operating vessel. Maybe we’ll see an uptake in the use of refrigerated containers as a low-cost travel alternative. :) I can see laid-up ships from the window of my apartment. Just one look and you can tell the bulk market has collapsed. Pictures forthcoming.

I believe this is a reflection of the drop in oil price since many shipping companies had a ‘floating bunker’ scheme to protect them from an oil spike. Now that the oil price has tanked the calculation can sometimes result in negative rates. Coupled with the spread of the financial crisis from capital goods to consumer goods being manufactured in China, it has only made the situation in Asia worse. I wouldn’t be suprised if a million of the Chinese traveling home next week for the New Year were told by their employers not to come back.

And what will that do for political stability in China? This just underscores Daniel Drezner’s point: “Here’s the thing: while Iran, Israel/Palestine, peacekeeping, etc. are all important topics, the bilateral economic relationship should be the top issue on the agenda. It should also be second (exchange rate policy), third (fiscal policy), fourth (trade policy) and fifth (regulatory coordination) on the agenda, by the way.”

FEELING THE LOVE, at a pro-Hamas rally.

“Jews haven’t been so vilified since Islamists attacked the US on 9/11.”

UPDATE: Jew-baiting, then and now. Buy a gun. Related item here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Explaining the cycle of violence.

POLITICO: “With Barack Obama’s approval ratings in the 70s and his visage plastered on every shop window and Metro card in Washington, it’s hard to remember that 58 million Americans voted for the other guy.”

REP. JIM COOPER THINKS the Blue Dogs are coming into their own.

A PRICEY PARTY in a dicey economy. If a Republican did this, it would be a sign that he was out of touch with the country’s needs.

OBAMA SAYS Bush is a “Good Guy.” “I think personally he is a good man who loves his family and loves his country. And I think he made the best decisions that he could at times under some very difficult circumstances.” Once again, I agree with Barack Obama.

And so does the Dalai Lama! Though I, personally, wouldn’t go so far as to say that “I love President George W Bush.” But then, the Dalai Lama is a lot more spiritual and loving than me.

SOME PHOTOBLOGGING: I still love the Nikon D300, which I’ve now had for about nine months. I used it to take photos for my Popular Mechanics piece on the Clayton I-House, and I had occasion to use some accessories I don’t use much. (The exterior photo is a PR handout — the I-House I toured was in a less photogenic location. The interior shots are mine.)

Outside the studio setting, I generally despise flash photography — it tends to flatten things out, and I much prefer to shoot available-light even if the available light isn’t that great. But sometimes you need a flash, and I have a Nikon SB-800. (The newer version is the SB-900 but I don’t use flash enough to upgrade, and the 800 is a hell of a flash).

A great flash is still a flash, though. But inside the I-House I had to take wide-angle photos (I was using the 12-24 ultrawide zoom) in a sizable space, and had to contend with very bright sunlight slanting in through the windows as it was a brilliantly clear winter day outside. My favorite flash is a bare-bulb setup, but the (cheap!) Gary Fong Lightsphere diffuser that fits on top of the flash makes a very close second. I held the flash above and to the side of the camera with the diffuser attached and the light was nice — filling in shadows and helping to overcome the effect of the bright sunlight without being overpowering.

Here’s an outtake, which shows the flash in use in the reflection on the upper right.

I haven’t used ‘em, but there are also diffusers for point-and-shoot cameras and for the little pop-up flash on most digital SLRs. I suppose they’d help, though in both cases the flashes are weak enough that if you diffuse ‘em I imagine there isn’t a lot of light left.

THOSE MANY LAYERS OF EDITORS AND FACT-CHECKERS think that Meryl Yourish and Neo-neocon are the same blogger. Hope Meryl’s correction comes faster than mine!

Plus, unable to distinguish “principle” from “principal.” Yeah, Carlos, they need your money — but is this a good investment?

WELL, THAT’S A RELIEF: Starting Tuesday it will be okay to wave the flag again.

SOME EIGHTIES BALLADS, for your, um, delectation.

A LOST OPPORTUNITY: “Man, the unfunny Daily Show would have had a field day if Geithner (not paying his taxes) were a Bush appointee.”

STEVE JOBS: An Indispensable Man?

ROGER SIMON: Iraq: Peter Beinart and la phrase obligatoire.

GEORGE FILLMORE EMAILS that the Flight 1549 story reminds him of the Frankie Housley story. Yes, but with a happier ending.

SUDDENLY, THOSE “GREEDY BASTARDS” ON WALL STREET don’t seem that bad.

YET ANOTHER REASON to hope that there’s no life on Mars.

UPDATE: Gary Hudson emails:

On the subject of life on Mars, the Fermi paradox, etc., there is another explanation for why we may not see extraterrestrial intelligent life, yet the universe could be crawling with bacteria.

In Power, Sex and Suicide, the Story of Mitochondria, Nick Lane argues that the evolutionary accident of mitochondria being survivably incorporated into a primitive eucaryotic cell happened by accident, and only once. It was this accident (if accident it was) that allowed multi-cellularity to become established. Without mitochondria, bacteria could not grow large enough and could not produce enough energy to form differentiated multicellular life, a prerequisite to intelligence.

If Lane is correct, then the step from non-life to life probably happens all the time, everywhere, using the same biochemistry. But the accidental incorporation of an alpha-proto bacterium into a host cell may have occurred only once in the long history of the universe. In that case, there’s pond scum everywhere but life as we envision it – with more than two cells to rub together – nowhere but Earth. Depressing thought, perhaps. On the other hand, more room for us.

Works for me.

POPULAR MECHANICS: What Went Right: Flight 1549 Airbus A-320′s Ditch into the Hudson.

WALTER OLSON: Scrap The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act.

RANKING the classics.

MICHAEL GRAHAM: “Looking for this week’s classic American tale? Forget the rise of Barack Obama. It’s the fall of Flight 1549.”

But Barack Obama’s election allows Americans to feel better about themselves, for electing him President. Chesley Sullenberger’s accomplishment, on the other hand, stresses the benefits of hard work, experience, and coolness under pressure — things that require effort, and that might make Americans feel worse about themselves to the extent that they realize that they might not measure up. That’s why Sullenberger’s triumph is an old-fashioned one, and Obama’s is tailor-made for the 21st Century.

On the other hand, there are reasons for Americans to feel good in the Flight 1549 story, too:

If you believe the worst about Americans, you’d expect Thursday’s crash to create a mob of greedy, selfish jerks clawing away for the first shot at an exit. Instead, passengers reported that it took just a single cry of “Women and children first!” and total strangers facing possible drowning stepped aside to let mothers and their infants pass.

And after the crash, the first responders weren’t government rescue workers, but nearby passenger ferries. One ferry worker, Cosmo Mezzina, confessed to reporters afterward that he didn’t even know what the call “man overboard” meant. But he and his co-workers headed straight to the sinking airplane.

No waiting for approval from an attorney or checking the “rope-to-rescuers” ratio in the regulations. Just Americans helping others in need.

The America we see on TV – the embezzlers, incompetents and opportunists – it’s real. So, too, are the folks who frustrate your daily life here in Boston, who cut you off on the Pike or can’t seem to do simple math at the cash register. Yes, they are a part of the American story.

But they aren’t the whole story. In fact, the same driver who cuts you off today is often the guy who would pull over tomorrow to help you out of real trouble.

Read the whole thing.

READER STEVE FISHER on Circuit City’s Bankruptcy/Liquidation:

Haven’t seen any reports on this from fellow i-pundit electronics geeks.. I stopped by today, hoping for some deals. Saw big crowds, but no deep discounts, yet. E.g., only 10% off flat screens, which were still more expensive than I can find on Amazon or Walmart. Will give it a few more days…

Still more expensive than Amazon or Walmart — guess that’s why they’re going under. I have to say, though, that I would rather they had survived and Best Buy had gone down. Plus a few miles west of me there are two strip malls, across the street from one another, anchored respectively by a Goody’s and a Circuit City. With both of those going into liquidation, that’s pretty bad news for them.

Meanwhile, Jim Geraghty looks back at Hillary’s finger-wagging at Circuit City. “I wonder what she would have had them do.” Donate, and then angle for a bailout? It’s the new winning business strategy!

HMM: “I think those of us who voted for McCain are going to be a lot happier with Obama than the people who voted for him.” Could be.

PETER BEINART IN THE WASHINGTON POST: Admit it: The Surge Worked.

Okay, I admit it! Oh, wait, he’s not talking about me: “It’s time for Democrats to say so. During the campaign they rarely did for fear of jeopardizing Barack Obama’s chances of winning the presidency. But today, the hesitation is less tactical than emotional.”

Plus, a slap at Stephen Colbert.

HOW TO TURN RADICALS INTO MODERATES. Hey, it worked with the Germans.

CHILD SACRIFICE in Gaza.

Bill Moyers thinks it’s genetic.

OH, STOP TEASING US HUGO: Venezuela’s Chavez says Obama has “stench” of Bush.

IN THE MAIL: From Peter Tsouras, Britannia’s Fist: From Civil War to World War: An Alternate History. Britain takes the side of the South in the Civil War, and things go downhill from there.

IF YOU WANT RESPECT, YOU HAVE TO TERRORIZE PEOPLE A BIT, I GUESS: Germany OK’s Hamas Flags at Rallies… Rips Down Israeli Flags.

Who knew that the occasional bombing or beheading was a prerequisite of free speech? But, okay, message received. May the Germans have joy of the incentive structure they’ve created . . . .

UPDATE: A reader is reminded of Tom Kratman’s Caliphate. “Recent events in Germany are eerily similar to the decline of Europe portrayed in Kratman’s novel. Yikes.” Yes, but remember, Barack Obama hasn’t been sworn in yet. Things’ll turn around once that happens.

MARK STEYN: Our Permanent State of Routine Emergency.

So a “federal emergency” is no longer a nuclear strike on Cleveland or even a Category Three hurricane, but now a snowfall in New England and an inaugural ball at the Mayflower Hotel. As Mister Incredible shrewdly observes to his kid in “The Incredibles,” when everybody’s special, nobody is. Likewise, when everything’s an emergency, nothing is: We live in a permanent state of routine emergency.

The metastasization of FEMA teaches several lessons – the first and most obvious being that any new government program, agency or entitlement will always outgrow whatever narrow purpose it was created for. Which is why we small-government types are wary of creating any new ones in the first place. Thus, an itsy-bitsy bit of inconsequential government tinkering on the periphery of the mortgage market expanded to the point where federally mandated home loans to the uncreditworthy came close to collapsing not just the U.S. property market but the global financial system.

If you’d suggested in the Seventies a new federal agency to cope with municipal snow removal in Connecticut, you’d have been laughed out the room. But, with government, mission creep isn’t a bug but the defining feature. In mid-September, the “bailout” was a once-in-a-lifetime emergency measure to save the planet. A mere four months later, it’s the new baseline

And yet things don’t actually, you know, get done any better, for all the promises . . . .

UPDATE: Okay, you gotta love this bit, too:

If Washington is now a federal disaster area, it would be nice to think of Barney Frank and the gang waving from the roof of the Capitol until they can be evacuated somewhere safe, like one of the outlying South Sandwich Islands or Charley Rangel’s vacation property in the Dominican Republic. But, alas, Washington is one of those disaster relief cases, where they get the relief, and the rest of us get the disaster.

Indeed.

HOPE AND CHANGE: “Nearly 100 wealthy families and power couples contributed at least $100,000 each to help Barack Obama over the past two years.”

MICHAEL YON on attacks in Kabul.

UPDATE: A reader whose wife is in Kabul emails:

Please don’t use my name, or my wife’s name – she’d be in big trouble. I just wanted to confirm, very first hand, the Kabul attack.

The attack is exactly as described. My wife called shortly after to tell me the explosion went off about 200 yards from her office, but that she was fine. She works for the Army Corps of Engineers as a civilian and is currently deployed to Kabul. Here are the facts as she experienced them:

1. The bomb went off just outside the German Embassy, which is just outside the gate of the compound she is on – within 200 yards of her office.

2. While it was a big explosion, it was not even close to the size she experienced in Baghdad four years ago. As suicide attacks go, this was pretty weak.

3. There were a mix of military and civilian deaths and injuries and some aftermath injuries to rescuers – she thinks the numbers are getting mixed together, but they seem accurate from what she saw.

4. The immediate reports on CNN, FOX, etc. were largely accurate – there is also video from immediately after the attack on AP and other organizations.

5. Security in that area of Kabul is excellent. She is actually more afraid of the frequent earthquakes that happen there.

6. No one on her compound was injured and she didn’t know the people that were killed or injured.

The local feeling is that this is an isolated incident and that it must have been pretty hard to get a bomb to that area and it is unlikely to happen again. Basically, a lucky shot with a fairly small device. They were probably aiming for the general area, as it is the Army Corps offices, the German Embassy and a school that admits girls all in the general area. It is hard to tell the exact target and whether it was a political statement or some weird version of an honor killing.

The funny/infuriating part is that FOX, CNN and CNN Headline were all talking about the inauguration and barely mentioned the attack. It seems significant because it is unusual and US service members were killed in what is generally a safe area, but no one seemed to care. It was hard for me to find information about it. My wife was told not to talk to the press or anyone about it and tell them to watch CNN for information. Yet another indication that the press is failing – I got 100% of my information on-line, from raw video footage and could have posted quite a bit about it if I were a more active blogger.

Obviously, the answer is to be a more active blogger. And, yeah, “news” is what fits the current narrative, not just what’s happening. If the narrative were “Bush losing in Afghanistan” instead of “Hope and Change come to America,” it would have led on every program.

KANGAROO COURT UPDATE: Looks like we may see some “human rights” sanity in Canada.

JONATHAN ADLER: “The Cape Wind experience illustrates how existing regulatory regimes are not particularly welcoming to alternative energy development. . . . If wind power and other alternative energy sources are to ever make a significant and cost-justified contribution to the nation’s energy supply, the regulatory thicket will need to be cleared. The Bush Administration showed little interest in such an undertaking, despite its stated commitment to less onerous regulation and technological innovation. Perhaps the Obama Administration will recognize the need innovation-enhancing regulatory reforms.”

“KEEP YOUR GRUBBY LAWS OFF MY BODY:” Unless, you know, you’re a Federal Health Board.

ABOUT TIME: In Britain, the slowly dawning realization that burglary is a serious crime.

TIGERHAWK: Don’t End the Obama Honeymoon Too Soon. “If Barack Obama weakens quickly few conservatives (other than rank partisans who simply want Democrats to fail) will like the results.”

I predict that the honeymoon will end first on the left.

ROGER KIMBALL: Dramamine Alert!

MORE GEITHNER TAX QUESTIONS. Plus, charges of press conflicts of interest.

THE ANGUISH OF Maureen Dowd.

A BUNCH OF Blu-Ray markdowns.

PARTYING LIKE IT’S 1942.

THOUGHTS ON inaugural oratory.

LOOKING TOWARD A FRUGAL FUTURE, at the Detroit Auto Show.

UNIVERSITIES HOPING FOR MANNA FROM HEAVEN OBAMA: “As colleges and students around the country struggle with the effects of the worldwide economic downturn, help appears to be on the way from the nation’s capital. And plenty of it, to judge from a draft of a massive, $825 billion stimulus package released by Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives Thursday.”

HMM: “Two U.S. attorneys appointed by Dubya are refusing to leave the Justice Department when Obama takes office. Their explanation: they’ve got too many corrupt Democrats to prosecute!”

MORE ECONOMIC TRAGEDY: Arabs lost 2.5 trillion dollars from credit crunch.

WHILE AMERICA GETS POORER, Washington is getting richer. “After the 2000 Census, the richest county in America was Douglas County, Colorado. By 2007, Douglas County had fallen to sixth. The new top three are now Loudon County, Virginia; Fairfax County, Virginia; and Howard County, Maryland. All three are suburbs or exurbs of Washington, D.C. . . . All of this is fine if you happen to live in the D.C. area. It’s not so great for the country as a whole. . . . The problem is that, save for the tech corridor in D.C.’s Virginia exurbs, the Washington Metro area doesn’t actually produce anything. Washington doesn’t create wealth, it just moves it around—redistributes it. As government grows and takes control of more and more of the private economy—either through spending, regulation, or taxes—more and more wealth that’s created elsewhere comes to Washington to be devoured.”

Nope. The pattern of wealth flowing toward the capital is one that the United States avoided for nearly 200 years. Not anymore.

HEH. DON’T WAIT: Prepare now for the coming post-stimulus hyperinflation with these million-dollar bills featuring Barack Obama’s picture! Why wait until the government gets around to issuing them in 2011, when they’ll buy a single measly gallon of gas?

They’re also amusing at parties.

GOOD NEWS! THE ECONOMY IS STILL FINE FOR THOSE WHO LIVE OFF TAXES:

While the private sector was shedding millions of jobs in 2008 and government budgets were collapsing under the weight of waste, fraud and carved-in-stone personnel costs, the public sector had another banner year. Governments at all levels hired 164,100 new employees and were largely responsible for the addition of a further 96,600 jobs in education and 371,600 in health care. Now President-elect Obama wants to add 600,000 to the bloated federal payroll. Untold thousands more local, county and state employees will be needed to fill all the new and bigger public facilities built with stimulus cash. As it is, nearly 15 percent of the civilian work force draws government paychecks.

Meaning that Democrats only have to compete for the other 85%. Speaking of Democrats, I love this bit:

Sen. Dodd still has a job, and his recent $4,100 raise will make it easier to afford those sweetheart mortgages he got from Countrywide Financial.

Heh.

HARD TIMES: Boston Globe cutting nearly 20% of staff over 3 months.

POLIWOOD: Roger Simon and Lionel Chetwynd talk about Gran Torino.

THOUGHTS ON ANDREW WYETH’S DEATH. And a related item here.

ARE WE LIVING IN A giant cosmic hologram?

UPDATE: Does this mean the universe is a big computer simulation? Statistically, of course, that’s the way to bet anyway, but there’s a downside: “If we were ever to prove that we exist inside a simulation, it would be proof that the transhumanist assumption is correct — that the transition from a human to a posthuman condition is in fact possible. But that will be of little solace to us measly sims! The simulation — er, our world — could be shut down at any time. Or, the variables that make up our modal reality could be altered in undesirable ways (e.g. our world could be turned into a Hell realm).” I definitely regard that as a bug, not a feature.

TAXPROF: WSJ: The Best Economic Stimulus: A Corporate Tax Rate of Zero.

MICKEY KAUS on trading freedom for “community.”

I BLAME SARAH PALIN: Colder in Alabama than Alaska.

IN THE MAIL: Claire Wolfe’s The Freedom Outlaw’s Handbook: 179 Things to Do ‘Til the Revolution. A kind of anarcho-libertarian Edward Abbey. Much of the advice involves things I wouldn’t recommend, personally, though some of it’s amusing.

CATHY YOUNG on Eric Alterman.

BAILOUT HYPOCRITES:

Of seven newly minted freshman Democratic senators, six voted for releasing the second half of the $700 billion TARP funds in what is being considered Obama’s first major test of strength on the Hill. This would be rather uncontroversial had not five of them, to some degree or another, campaigned against the original, unpopular bailout bill to win their seats.

Check out the TV ad from Jeff Merkley.

GOOD LUCK WITH THAT: “Try to find any of these folks calling for the serious investigation into Chris Dodd that appears warranted, for instance.”

GALLUP: Americans Want Details Before Release of More TARP Funds. “A majority of Americans (62%) say Congress should block President-elect Obama’s request to release the remaining $350 billion in Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds until more details are provided about how the funds will be spent. The rest of Americans are split between saying the funds should be released immediately and saying they should not be released at all.”

I predict that no such details will be forthcoming.

LOOKING AT REPUBLICAN REJUVENATION, at The New Republicans.

TIGERHAWK: Why do professors deplore enterprise? “The question is, why are so many academics, who are ideologically unwilling to pass judgment on just about any value or culture no matter how depraved or defective, so reflexive in their condemnation of the business life?”

SOME AGING-RESEARCH CONUNDRUMS: “You might think that a drug which acts like COX-2 to cause more prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) production and therefore more bone healing is the ticket. But every time we hear about a drug that can reverse some metabolic change that comes with aging we have to ask why the body changed with age in the first place. The decline of COX-2 with age down-regulates stem cells to inhibit stem cell activity. Why? Just an accident of decay? Or was this selected for because older stem cells are at risk of becoming cancerous when they divide?”

FABIUS MAXIMUS: “Some people just want to see the world burn.” Not sure the specific example he chooses is the first one that would come to my mind, but the point holds.

UPDATE: Bill Quick comments.

BITES FROM THE APPLE: A roundup of news from the Apple empire — from Steve Jobs’ health, to the iPhone Nano, and a non-Mac OSX.

POLITICO: Ethics cloud still hangs over Rangel.

UPDATE: Redstate: “The Democrats have made it clear that they don’t give a tinker’s dam about Rep Rangel’s numerous ethical lapses.”

THEY TOLD ME THAT IF I VOTED FOR MCCAIN, we’d wind up drafting young Americans to fight endless wars abroad. And, well . . . .

BLOGS AND comment culture.

WELL, HE COULD ALWAYS JUST READ INSTAPUNDIT. Trust me, it’s outside the bubble.

WASHINGTON POST: Rangel Probe Awaits New Ethics Chair.

JACK SHAFER on Obama’s new press strategy.

“SURE IS A DISGRACE TO JOURNALISM when you’re anonymous.”

OLDER EMERGENCY BEACONS won’t be monitored by satellite starting next month. But a lot of people haven’t switched over to the new ones.

ENDING “HARSH INTERROGATIONS,” BUT WITH AN ASTERISK: “However, Obama’s changes may not be absolute. His advisers are considering adding a classified loophole to the rules that could allow the CIA to use some interrogation methods not specifically authorized by the Pentagon, the officials said, although the intent is not to use that as an opening for possible use of waterboarding.” Plus this: “There are some coercive techniques that he might employ on a ticking time bomb scenario, but he’ll distinguish himself by making it clear that the presumption under the law is that there is no torture.”

This is sounding kind of Dorwinesque.

NPR: “The moral issues related to torture are not a slam-dunk.” They’re not?

CALIFORNIA UPDATE: “California’s controller says he will begin a 30-day delay on tax refunds and other payments starting Feb. 1 because the state is running out of money.”

IS THE OBAMA HONEYMOON STARTING TO FADE?

We’re not there yet, but there are early signs. In the current dust-up over Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s tax problems, even the left-wing Seattle Post-Intelligencer editorial page has admitted there is a double standard. . . . The honeymoon isn’t over yet, and it certainly won’t end before the Inaugural. But starting next Tuesday (ok maybe Wednesday), when President Obama doesn’t bring the troops home, doesn’t close Guantanamo, doesn’t end the recession, doesn’t deliver national health insurance, doesn’t roll back global warming and make the oceans recede — or at least doesn’t do any of these things as fast as the Left would like — then things like the peccadillos of Tim Geithner will start to get more coverage.

Plus, teaching Ann Coulter a lesson she won’t forget.

QUESTIONING OBAMA on the Hamas Charter.

PARSING THE STIMULUS BILL at ReadTheStimulus.org. “$850 Billion, 334 pages, and counting… somebody needs to read it!” They’re looking for volunteers if you’ve got a free hour or two this weekend.

A RADICALLY EXTENDED LIFESPAN, via nanotechnology? Faster, please.

BARACK OBAMA as Lord Dorwin.

HOPE AND CHANGE: Everybody’s cashing in!

PUBLIC HEALTH AND AFRICA: Bush saved 10 million lives.

NEW EVIDENCE points to life on Mars.

Here’s why I hope they’re wrong.

CO-OPTING JOHN MCCAIN? Nothing new about that. Not that McCain’s the only one being co-opted here . . . .

FUNDRAISING for aging and longevity research.

MORE ON TIM GEITHNER AND CONGRESS:

Senators who will vote to confirm his Cabinet appointment do not appear overly concerned by either of these “honest mistakes,” even though one of his larger responsibilities at Treasury will be oversight of the Internal Revenue Service.

Neither do they seem likely to do more than gently slap the wrist of one of their own, Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd, chairman of the Banking Committee.

Dodd, readers may recall, received a sweetheart mortgage deal from Countrywide, as one of that financial firm’s more prominent “Friends of Angelo.” Countrywide, incidentally, has since been acquired by Bank of America.

Meanwhile, over on the House side, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who took up the gavel two years ago with a promise to “drain the swamp” and clear up ethical abuses ignored by her Republican predecessor, has a festering problem of her own — what to do with New York Rep. Charles Rangel, chairman of the House Ways and Means committee. That’s the panel that writes the tax laws all the rest of us are required to follow.

Hope and change!

OUCH: Perino Mocks Obama: ‘Gosh It’s So Complicated To Close Guantanamo Bay’ .

UPDATE: Charles Krauthammer: “Truman’s rehabilitation took decades. Bush’s will come sooner. Indeed, it has already begun. The chief revisionist? Barack Obama.”

YOUR MONEY IS BEING SPENT behind Nancy Pelosi’s closed door. “As congressional Democrats take the lead in responding to the sinking economy, subcommittee and even some full-committee chairmen — who normally wield significant influence in writing legislation — have been forced to wait on the sidelines as monumental bills are written in Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) office.”

UPDATE: Photographic evidence of how the bailout is going . . .

VIDEO: Star Wars: Battlefront 3.

Plus, Microsoft Game Studios is Stingy with the “Halo” themed Wedding Couple.

NAILING THE MYTH of unregulated global capitalism. Yeah, we should be so lucky.

D.C. EXAMINER: Obama’s secret telecom advisor pushing his company’s interest.

A WELL-DESERVED HONOR: Outdoor Wire Names Obama “Gun Salesman of the Year.”

REMEMBER, IT’S ONLY MCCARTHYISM if you disagree with the politics.

“BLUE JOBS.”

MILITARY microsatellites.

JOHN HAWKINS INTERVIEWS TONY BLANKLEY about Blankley’s new book, American Grit.

ADVICE ON dealing with home invasions.