I WAS HOPING THE FUTURE WOULD HAVE BETTER BATTERY LIFE: First 4G Android Phone Feels Like the Future.

Well, we were warned.

JAMES TARANTO: Barack Obama Explains His Job:

What exactly is the job of the president of the United States? Let’s ask the man who currently holds that position, Barack Obama:

My job right now is just to make sure that everybody in the Gulf understands this is what I wake up to in the morning and this is what I go to bed at night thinking about: the spill.

Obama’s job description is fascinating. He has been depicted as a proponent of “activist government,” but this may be a bum rap. Now he tells us he thinks that if he somehow gets people to think about him and how much he’s thinking about what he thinks they think he should be thinking about, his job is done.

Which raises only two questions: First, if the requirements of his job are so modest, why is he still having trouble meeting them? Second, couldn’t all this cogitation be done at a cost of less than $3.5 trillion a year?

Ouch. Does this sound like “Message: I care?”

L.A. TIMES: Mickey Kaus vs. The Box.

THE HOT NEW TREND: “Personal secession.”

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD on Pentecostalism and the War On Terror.

AMATEUR ASTRONOMER spies on spy satellites.

MARKDOWNS ON lawn, patio and garden gear.

DE-TINGLED: Rush is right, says … Chris Matthews?

VIDEO: Don’t Touch Me.

OBAMA’S WAR: Can War Crimes Charges Be Far Away? Well, the basic rule is that any effective tactic used by the United States must be some sort of war crime.

More sophisticated analysis from Kenneth Anderson. At any rate, the currently popular way of insulating oneself from war-crimes charges is to simply gain a reputation for beheading critics. I don’t see that from the Obama Administration in the near future, but maybe they could send a pitchforked SEIU mob to the Special Rapporteur’s house . . . .

SPACE: Another Customer For Commercial Crew Transportation. “Bigelow Aerospace is developing inflatable modules, but needs vehicles to get them to space.”

JOHN DICKERSON: Bystander-In-Chief. “When asked directly about the Katrina comparison, Obama deferred to the judgment of history, sounding like his predecessor did when he was asked those kinds of questions.”

SOME OUTDOOR PROJECTS for Memorial Day weekend.

HMM: Sestak was ineligible for job Clinton offered.

KATIE GRANJU: Yes, I am still pregnant.

AT POWER LINE, a review of Gabriel Schoenfeld’s Necessary Secrets: National Security, the Media and the Rule of Law. “Schoenfeld’s book does something that hasn’t been done before. It provides an unexpurgated account of the media’s disclosure of highly classified national security information, some of which — such as the James Risen/Eric Lichtblau New York Times story blowing the NSA al-Qaeda eavesdropping program, and the Risen/Lichtblau story blowing the SWIFT terrorist finance tracking program — has violated the espionage laws of the United States and done great damage to American national security. Unfortunately, such acts of espionage will land you a Pulitzer Prize rather than time in the clink.”

HMM: Denver Post Goes Silent on Senate Candidate Job Offer Scandal.

REP. ERIC CANTOR: The Unprecedented Intensity of the YouCut Movement.

TRANSPARENCY: Destroyed by Court Order: The Footage of a Landrieu Staffer Admitting the Senator’s Office Had No Problem With Their Phones.

HARRY REID: Comeback Kid?

HEADLINE OF THE WEEK: Italian priests’ secret mistresses ask pope to scrap celibacy rule.

THE WAR AGAINST PHOTOGRAPHY: Radley Balko has more on Maryland. “Graber is due in court next week. He faces up to five years in prison. State’s Attorney Joseph Cassilly has also charged Graber with ‘Possession of an Interception Device.’ That ‘device’ would be Graber’s otherwise-perfectly-legal video camera. . . . Perhaps that officer was merely misinformed. But Maryland police spokesmen and prosecutors are giving the impression that the state’s wiretapping law is ambiguous about recording on-duty police officers. It really isn’t. They’ve just chosen to interpret it that way, logic and common sense be damned. . . . A cynic might conclude that law enforcement officials in Maryland are reacting to the McKenna embarrassment by threatening and cracking down on anyone who videotapes on-duty cops, and they’ll interpret the law in whatever way allows them to do so. At least until a court tells them otherwise.”

This is a disgrace. State’s Attorney Joseph Cassilly should hear from Marylanders who care about freedom — and this seems to be me to be another argument for federal civil rights legislation guaranteeing the right to photograph police. With hefty damages, and a waiver of official immunity, for cases like Graber’s. . . .

IN THE MAIL: From Mahmood Mamdani, Saviors and Survivors: Darfur, Politics, and the War on Terror.

FIRST HEARING: 8 month old hears for first time as cochlear implant is turned on.

This is the kind of thing I’m talking about when I say “Faster, please.”

PETER SUDERMAN ON Consumer-Driven Health Care.

WHY ARE WE AWARDING so few Medals of Honor?

GEORGE WILL: The Tea Party’s Wisconsin Hope.

A NOT-SO-POSITIVE TAKE on the whole “swarm power” thing.

HOW NOT TO DATE like Carrie Bradshaw.

WELL, THESE WERE JUST A MATTER OF TIME: the George W. Bush “Miss Me Yet?” T-Shirt.

IN D.C., Democratic hearts are breaking.

HEH: “Delightfully, innocently, acerbically self-unaware.” Indeed.

TAR BALLS IN THE TRUNKS: Today in “Imagine If Bush Said It.”

FEMALE LEGAL SECRETARIES SOUND OFF:

One discovery: Legal secretaries said they preferred to work for male associates and partners. In written responses, the secretaries said females were emotional and demanding, with “more to prove” and a penchant to “put on airs,” the story says.

This was the pattern at my old law firm, but that was 20 years ago. I would have expected more change since then.

DAILY CALLER: What Obama has been doing while the Gulf Coast dies.

OOPS: He Was Supposed to Be Competent: The spill is a disaster for the president and his political philosophy. “This is his third political disaster in his first 18 months in office. And they were all, as they say, unforced errors, meaning they were shaped by the president’s political judgment and instincts.”

RAYMOND IBRAHIM: Obama’s Top Counterterror Adviser’s Inability to Think Outside the Box Bodes Disaster.

HEADLINE OF THE DAY: Palin’s Douchebag Stalker Suddenly Concerned About His Privacy.

CONGRESS TAKES TIME to remember Gary Coleman.

OUCH: “There are legitimate questions as to whether he’s out of his depth or not.”

PRE-EMPTIVE DENIAL: Harry Reid: ‘I had nothing to do’ with Sestak deal.

GOOD GRIEF: Pathetic: BP Buses in Temps for Obama Photo Op. “Well, we all figured this would be a carefully choreographed photo op for the current occupant of the White House, but little did we know having their boot firmly on the neck of BP meant the folks at BP were obliged to send in some stooges for the visuals.”

FORESIGHT: Obama proposed downsizing Coast Guard crisis center three months before spill.

WHEN GERM WARFARE HAPPENED. “These attacks, orchestrated by Japan’s infamous Unit 731 between 1932 and 1945, are the only documented mass use of germ weapons in modern times. Scholars say that we will never know exactly how many were killed. Sheldon H. Harris, the late American historian, estimated in a pioneering work that between 10,000 and 12,000 Chinese prisoners perished in the bloodcurdling experiments that Unit 731 performed in Japanese-occupied Manchuria. Another 300,000 to 500,000 civilians died, he wrote, as a result of Japan’s massive germ assaults on more than 70 Chinese cities and towns.”

HOW TIME FLIES: “So it’s not youth that slows our time perception, but the fact that grammar and middle school involve incredibly long stretches of boredom.”

MICKEY KAUS demands a retraction from Salon and Alex Pareene.

MARKDOWNS ON Wusthof cutlery.

AS PART OF A SERIES ON THE CREATIVE PROCESS, Steven Pressfield interviews me on time-management and more.

OUCH: Kagan pursued two paths on ‘don’t ask’ at Harvard. “That’s the title of the Washington Post’s front-page story about Elena Kagan’s treatment of the military at Harvard. My reaction is, of course she did.”

DEATH BY the numbers.

INTELLIGENT spy cameras.

AT AMAZON, it’s the Friday Sale.

IT’S CALLED THE KESSLER EFFECT: Pentagon: A Space Junk Collision Could Set Off Catastrophic Chain Reaction, Disable Earth Communications.

Some related thoughts here.

UPDATE: Rand Simberg: Pop Sci overstates the case.

TAXPROF: Obama Has Lost the Country on Taxes: From +19% to -10% in One Year. Loss of trust in honesty and competence will do that.

MOBILE DATA: A gold mine of info for telecommunications companies.

PATTERICO: A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words: Screenshots of the Government’s Admission That James O’Keefe Did Not Attempt to Tamper With Landrieu’s Phones.

TOM MAGUIRE: Sestak: The Coverup Is Coming Together.

Plus, a straw in the wind for Sestak.

HMM: Bond Sales Fall to Least in Decade, Yields Soar: Credit Markets.

FASTER, PLEASE: Body’s Own Stem Cells Can Lead to Tooth Regeneration: Work at Columbia University College of Dental Medicine Holds Promise for a Biological Substitute for Dental Implants. I’ve got a dental implant, replacing a tooth that was damaged by trauma some years ago. It’s fine, but the process was annoyingly lengthy. I’d rather grow a new tooth.

YES, WE CANNABIS.

DO WE CLAMP THE UMBILICAL CORD TOO SOON? “Delaying clamping the umbilical cord for a slightly longer period of time allows more umbilical cord blood volume to transfer from mother to infant and, with that critical period extended, many good physiological ‘gifts’ are transferred through ‘nature’s first stem cell transplant’ occurring at birth. . . . The researchers concluded that many common disorders in newborns related to the immaturity of organ systems may receive benefits from delayed clamping. These may include: respiratory distress; anemia; sepsis; intraventricular haemorrhage; and periventricular leukomalacia. They also speculate that other health problems, such as chronic lung disease, prematurity apneas and retinopathy of prematurity, may also be affected by a delay in cord blood clamping.”

UPDATE: Reader Fernando Colina writes: “So this is a case in which you might say, slower, please?” Heh. Indeed.

SCRAMJET RECORD SMASHED: “A sleek aircraft called the X-51A WaveRider has set the record for the longest hypersonic flight using an air-breathing ‘scramjet’ engine. The engine operated for about 150 seconds – smashing the record set by NASA’s X-43 vehicle, which flew for 10 seconds or so in 2004.”

Other space news: Masten Space Systems Achieves First-Ever VTVL Midair Engine Relight Milestone on Path to Space. “Masten Space Systems, based at the Mojave Spaceport in California, demonstrated yesterday the ability to successfully relight the engine of a VTVL (vertical-takeoff vertical-landing) vehicle in midair. This marks the first-ever midair relight for any VTVL rocket-powered vehicle.”

PJTV: Did Ground Zero Mosque Founder Lie to New Yorkers? Is Real Goal Sharia Not “Religious Dialogue”?

FASTER, PLEASE: Retina Grown From Stem Cells.

CNBC: Eugene Fama on government as the biggest risk to recovery.

UH OH: Spain Loses AAA Rating. “Spain lost its AAA credit grade at Fitch Ratings, which said the country’s debt burden is likely to weigh on economic growth.”

DETAILS ON the Nissan Leaf battery pack.

BUMMER: H+ Magazine is on hiatus.

IN THE MAIL: Tale Of The Tigers, a novel by blogger Juliette “Baldilocks” Ochieng.

BYRON YORK: Obama Dodges, But Sestak Questions Won’t Go Away.

UPDATE: Bill Clinton And The Sestak Scandal.

MORE: Why did the White House contact Joe Sestak’s brother yesterday?

COURAGEOUS RESTRAINT.

COULD FACULTY UNIONS run universities?

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: 20th Century History Down The Danube. “If we revised immigration policy and predicated legal entry on education and skill, ten million Europeans would arrive tomorrow, replete with degrees, expertise, and capital. There is a great unease over here, mostly in worry that no one knows the extent of aggregate debt, only that it is larger than let on and will result in higher taxes and fewer benefits without resulting in budget surpluses. It is always difficult for a government to ask its citizens to pay more than ever, receive less than ever, and end up nevertheless with greater debt than ever. We’re next. . . . If this implosion begins to unravel the EU, I think we will be once again right in the middle, rather than at the end, of history. There is simply too much history, too much memory, too many players over here to think a post-EU continent is going to always look like the Netherlands rather than from time to time the former Yugoslavia.”

WAPO: White House asked Clinton to talk to Sestak about Senate run. More on the Sestak scandal, here.

Related: Sestak or Gibbs — Someone’s Lying.

A GULF SPILL COVERUP AT MMS?

UNEXPECTEDLY: “Consumer spending was stagnant in April while incomes posted a tiny advance, signs that the economic recovery could slow. The flat spending level was the weakest showing in seven months, according to the Commerce Department report. Economists had expected a 0.3 percent rise. Personal incomes rose 0.4 percent, slightly off expectations.” But economists expect better performance in the future.

UNEXPECTEDLY: GDP Revised Down.

THE MEANING OF the Tea Party.

PERFECT CRUSHED ICE with the Ice Ninja.

SHOCKER: NJ Teacher who complained of low pay to Gov. Chris Christie makes $100,000+ with benefits.

COVERUP WORSE THAN THE CRIME: Sestak Can’t Keep Quiet, Plot Thickens.

RON RADOSH on choosing heroes.

MINIATURE POWER PLANTS to create “swarm power.”

MARK STEYN: We’re too broke to be this stupid.

CHRIS MATTHEWS, losing the tingle?

THE EFFECTS OF EXERCISE: A “Chemical Snapshot.” “Exercise-associated changes were seen in more than 20 metabolites, reflecting processing of sugars, fats and amino acids as fuels as well as the body’s utilization of ATP, the primary source of cellular energy. Several changes involved metabolic pathways not previously associated with exercise, including increases in niacinamide, a vitamin derivative known to enhance insulin release.” If exercise were a pill, everyone would be taking it.

CRACKING DOWN ON ILLEGAL ALIENS in . . . Massachusetts?

Related: As Arizona goes, so goes the nation? Ask Massachusetts.

UPDATE: “Racists.”

THE EVILS OF . . . NEXIUM? I take Nexium. My insurance company has tried to move me to Prilosec, Protonix, and Aciphex. I was happy to try these, but none have worked as well for me as Nexium. Others have had similar experiences. I now pay full price for Nexium, since the insurance won’t, which is proof of my sincerity. . . .

TRAVEL AS MENTAL EMBIGGENING: Swarming Swells Locust Brains. “Swarming locusts not only look different and act differently to solitary locusts, they also have much larger brains.”

OUR ANGRY PRESIDENT.

DEMOCRATS IN CONGRESS going after bloggers?

RUSH LIMBAUGH: “I know I’ll be destroyed eventually.”

LATE TO THE PARTY and bringing only leftovers.

HOTLINE: “The DNC, the political wing of a president who launched his campaign decrying slash-and-burn campaign tactics, is highlighting new stories about a sex scandal rocking a GOP primary.” Hope and change!

CHRISTOPHER FOUNTAIN: Should Obama be at Arlington on Monday?

IN PLAY: Eleven Senate Seats?

DAVID BERNSTEIN: Peter Beinart: Trite, Not Courageous. “Beinart’s essay has received a remarkable amount of attention, especially considering that its underlying premise is simply false.”

OBAMA’S KATRINA: “The media started riding Bush about his response to Katrina within a couple of days. Obama got a pass for over a month.”

SURVEILLANCE AND AI: The Future of Surveillance? When Automated Brains Keep Watch 24/7. Oh, goody.

UH OH: “A second, much larger volcano in Iceland is showing signs that it may be about to erupt, scientists have warned.”