IN HAITI, a milblogger rescue mission. I just donated a hundred bucks. (Bumped).

GOOD FOR REPUBLICANS? Bad weather forecast for Tuesday in Massachusetts.

GLENN GREENWALD: Krugman, Gruber, and non-disclosure issues. “The issue is the non-disclosure, and — most serious of all — the misleading attempts by the White House and others to depict him as being ‘objective’ and independent rather than disclosing that he was being paid a significant amount of money by the very party whose interests his advocacy was advancing (which happens to be one of the misleading schemes Sunstein explicitly advocated in his 2008 paper). . . . That’s the only issue here: for many people, there’s a big difference between hearing from a truly independent authority about Obama’s plan and hearing from someone being paid many hundreds of thousands of dollars by the administration.” Those “others” would include the media organizations whose high ethical standards and layers of editors and fact-checkers are supposed to protect readers . . . .

BOSTON GLOBE: Obama here for Coakley, trailing a diminished aura. “The feverish excitement that propelled Barack Obama and scores of other Democrats to victory in 2008 has all but evaporated, worrying party leaders who are struggling to invigorate the base before Tuesday’s Massachusetts Senate race and November’s critical midterm contests, pollsters and party activists said.”

Related: Patrick Kennedy a big fan of, um, “Marcia” Coakley. Marcia, Martha, what’s the difference? She’s the party pick. That’s what’s important.

UPDATE: Reader Morris Boggs writes: “At least he didn’t say ‘Marcia Moxley’.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: “The personal touch turns chillingly impersonal.”

MARKDOWNS ON TVs, Cellphones and Electronics.

NEW YORK TIMES airbrushes a Bob Kerrey quote on evolution?

FIREDOGLAKE: Progressives, please help defeat Coakley.

MORE PROBLEMS IN HAITI. “In search and rescue, as in the distribution of food and medicine, there is a tragic disconnect — between good intentions and resources piled high at the airport, and a city of three million, most of them aware of the global drive to help but still untouched by it.”

Meanwhile, Dr. George Milonas writes: “If Obama thinks Bush is such an incredible incompetent, why did he send Bush to help rescue the Haitians? Does he hate black people that much that he is willing to inflict Bush on them?” Heh.

Related: Survivors found in ruins condemned as tombs by Haiti rescuers.

FRED BARNES: KIRK CAN’T VOTE AFTER TUESDAY.

Massachusetts law says that an appointed senator remains in office “until election and qualification of the person duly elected to fill the vacancy.” The vacancy occurred when Senator Edward Kennedy died in August. Kirk was picked as interim senator by Governor Deval Patrick.

Democrats in Massachusetts have talked about delaying Brown’s “certification,” should he defeat Democrat Martha Coakley on Tuesday. Their aim would be to allow Kirk to remain in the Senate and vote the health care bill.

But based on Massachusetts law, Senate precedent, and the U.S. Constitution, Republican attorneys said Kirk will no longer be a senator after election day, period. Brown meets the age, citizenship, and residency requirements in the Constitution to qualify for the Senate. “Qualification” does not require state “certification,” the lawyers said.

Read the whole thing.

WANT AUDIENCE INTEREST? Danny Glover trumps Pat Robertson. Want Old Media interest? It’s pretty much the opposite. “Dear old Pat still thrills the oldies and the old-at-heart. But I wouldn’t be relying on controversial curse-calling Christians to fuel continued audience interest. Craptacular Copenhagenite claims, on the other hand, seem rather more topical. Fault lines run beneath both. Neither is as destructive as the quake, yet one refers to events of today instead of events centuries past. It’s called ‘news’ for a reason.”

A NEW PJM/CROSSTARGET POLL: Brown Up 9.6 Percent Among Likely Voters.

UPDATE: Hmm. That margin exactly agrees with this Merriman River Group poll, for whatever that’s worth.

HAITI’S EARTHQUAKE, through 16-year-old eyes.

ANN ALTHOUSE DISSECTS THE COAKLEY MESSAGE: Oh, no! It’s men in trucks! Plowing in from Texas! Running down all the women! Rape! “See how that article — by Jonathan Martin in Politico — tried to flip you? First, nonentities were presented as prejudiced against a woman, ready to vote against Coakley because she’s a woman, and then, suddenly, liberals are supposed pushed to feel that they ought to vote for her because she’s a woman.”

PRESIDENT OBAMA calls up reserves for Haiti relief.

UPDATE: JLOTS?

ALFONZO RACHEL: MASS HYSTERIA, Part Two: Brown’s Momentum Builds, Coakley’s Desperation Grows.

UPDATE: Reader Kelly Jefferson writes:

My mother was one of the teeming masses who attended the Scott Brown rally at Mechanics Hall (http://www.mechanicshall.org/) in Worcester, Massachusetts, this afternoon. Thought you might like the sign she brought (attached).

Not only did supporters fill the Great Hall (shown), but they also filled the overflow room downstairs and the overflow-overflow room at the Crowne Plaza hotel down the street.

Love the sign.

BILL QUICK: Some Things We Take For Granted.

ANN ALTHOUSE: We’re going to have to pay to read the NYT on line. “For me, reading on line is tied to blogging. I’m not going to spend my time reading sites that I can’t blog, and I’m not going to blog and link to sites that you can’t read without paying. Currently, I link to the NYT a lot, perhaps several times a day. I don’t know how much of their traffic is sent their way from blogs, but it’s one more factor that will limit their readership. You’d think what a newspaper would want most is readers, both to influence and to sell to advertisers. I know they need to make money, but I wish advertising was the way. Once they close themselves off — as they did once before with the failure known as TimesSelect — they sacrifice readers and lose appeal for advertisers.”

You have to make money somehow. Is this the way to do it? I’m skeptical, but in a way I’d like to be wrong, as there don’t appear to be any generally applicable schemes for making money from news on the Web.

UPDATE: More thoughts from Jeff Jarvis. “But note the verb that started off the paragraph above: should. Readers who read more should pay more. This is the product of journalism’s sense of entitlement. “

GREYHAWK DOESN’T UNDERSTAND THE COAKLEY STRATEGY:

I’m not in Massachusetts, so I’m really puzzled by some of the assumptions of the strategists in the Coakley campaign. Besides bringing this “Scott Brown defends young, unwed mothers” issue to the forefront, did they really think emphasizing Brown’s opposition to forcing Nuns to perform abortions was a vote-getter for their side? And what does that have to do with his Guard service?

They’re just flailing now, hoping that something will work.

DAN FROOMKIN: Voters Who Lost Faith In Dodd Wouldn’t Trust Obama’s Economics Team Either. “Voters get it: Certain actions are disqualifying from public life. So I can’t help but imagine what would happen if the public were allowed to directly weigh in on the cast of characters who make up President Obama’s economic team.”

SANJAY GUPTA FROM HAITI: “I’ve never been in a situation like this. This is quite ridiculous.” Plus this:

Retired Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, who led relief efforts for Hurricane Katrina in 2005, said the evacuation of the clinic’s medical staff was unforgivable.

“Search and rescue must trump security,” Honoré said. “I’ve never seen anything like this before in my life. They need to man up and get back in there.”

Honoré drew parallels between the tragedy in New Orleans, Louisiana, and in Port-au-Prince. But even in the chaos of Katrina, he said, he had never seen medical staff walk away.

“I find this astonishing these doctors left,” he said. “People are scared of the poor.”

Good grief.

SPACE SHUTTLE FOR SALE: CHEAP.

Here is a recession bargain: the space shuttle. NASA has slashed the price of the 1970s-era spaceships to $28.8 million apiece from $42 million.

The shuttles are for sale once their flying days are over, which is scheduled to be this fall.

When the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in December 2008 put out the call seeking buyers at museums, schools and elsewhere, the agency received about 20 inquiries. An agency spokesman, Mike Curie, said he expected more interest, especially with the discount.

Does that include delivery?

ASSOCIATED PRESS: After A Year, Hope Turns Into Disappointment.

JON STEWART vs. Rachel Maddow.

ON THE LEFT, STRAINING TO DEFEND MARTHA COAKLEY . . . over the Amirault case? “She’s conceding that the Amirault case was a travesty of justice, and that Coakley was wrong for her extraordinary efforts to keep Gerald Amiralut in prison. But she’s then arguing that Coakley deserves a pass specifically for her actions in the Amirault case, anyway, because all prosecutors do it, and because it’s what Coakley had to do to accumulate political power and move on to higher office. That is one hellaciously disturbing statement of values.”

And a familiar one. You can’t make an omelet without breaking some eggs, revolutionary truth is better than bourgeois truth, yada yada.

AN IMAGE I COULD HAVE DONE WITHOUT: Barney Frank: “Obama is not Martha Coakley in drag.” Not sure who that statement is meant to help . . . .

UPDATE: Reader Steve Corcoran writes: “With all the gaffes that she has made, I’m starting to think that Martha Coakley is Joe Biden in drag.”

HOW TO CREATE a slow-cooker soup bar at home.

A REPORT FROM THE SCOTT BROWN RALLY AT WORCESTER: “It’s an absolute mob scene. The police have closed off the streets. It’s mind blowing. The hall is already full, and it holds 3,000 people. There may be another 1,000 people outside.”

Meanwhile, reader Sean Fitzpatrick writes: “Pictures don’t do justice. Nothing like this in Mass since JFK. Worcester rally starts in thirty minutes and the streets are already packed.” Here’s a pic.

UPDATE: Fitzpatrick sends another picture from inside the hall, and comments: “If the Brown campaign were worried that they wouldn’t fill the hall then they needn’t have. It is standing room only and the hall management is concerned about OVERcrowding.”

I like the “Whole World Is Watching” sign at the lower left. Yep. And sometimes via cellphone pics.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Meanwhile, reportedly, Coakley can’t fill a hall. “Martha Coakley and Barack Obama held a rally today in Boston. They couldn’t fill the hall. . . . It holds 3,000 and frankly only 2,000 to 2,500 showed up.”

UPDATE: DaTechGuy says that Cameron is wrong and there were plenty of people to fill the hall. “Cameron was inside and I wasn’t so I don’t doubt that he saw a hall that was not filled, but it wasn’t for lack of supporters as at least 500 people that I presume were Coakley supporters were not let in. I know since I was in the middle of them. In fact I personally spoke to a woman with a cane and a pronounced limp who had been passed through but was sent back due to fire limitations. (more on her later tonight). Perhaps it was a question of security. There were easily more Brown people outside protesting than Coakley people waiting to come in (more on that later) so maybe they were worried about screening out people who opposed the president and the candidate getting in so the campaign had to keep a tight leash to avoid mass heckling.”

More from the Northeastern event here, including an interview with Reason’s Michael Moynihan.

And I guess they were right to worry about hecklers. “The big news here isn’t so much that a heckler appeared at a Coakley rally — with passions this high, it would have been news if one hadn’t — but that a series of hecklers threw Obama so far off his stride. It didn’t matter to the people who attended this rally, of course, but it’s a bit strange to see an experienced politician allow a couple of loud voices to interrupt for as long as this goes … and then to ask ‘Where were we?’”

SMURFS, SPIES, AND JELL-O SHOTS: If you missed it on XM/Sirius satellite radio, the latest PJM Political is online.

CHARLIE COOK: Brown Now Favored To Win. Okay, but don’t get cocky.

There’ll be a new PJM/CrossTarget poll coming out at midnight Pacific Time.

HOMELAND SECURITY UPDATE: The System Worked!

A Waupaca woman finds herself in the middle of a major security investigation at Cleveland’s airport.

Kimmy Janke had gone through security. In fact, she was in a secure part of the terminal when she stopped to go to the bathroom before making her connecting flight.

That’s when she found a loaded handgun. . . . A Cleveland police report confirms a fully-loaded .40-caliber pistol was left on top of a toilet paper dispenser.

“A little kid could have grabbed that. The wrong person could have grabbed that. You never know,” Janke said.

We’ve since learned the gun was traced to a federal customs agent.

Customs officials have denied all requests to explain why a highly-trained agent left her gun in the bathroom, claiming there is an internal investigation.

The country’s in the very best of hands.

UPDATE: A reader who requests anonymity writes:

I suspect that the agent that left her pistol on the toilet paper dispenser wears a waistband holster and didn’t want the thing to hit the ground when she dropped trou and possibly get snatched by someone with fast hands in an adjoining stall. Understandable. Do we need to mandate that all plainclothes LE types wear shoulder rigs?

On the Barney Miller series everyone wore very fashionable itty bitty revolvers in waistband holsters except Fish. He, as I recall tended to frequent restrooms frequently and was the only one to use a shoulder holster. I say he, or his writer, was the only one paying attention.

The restroom problem is an issue when carrying concealed. However, we expect federal agents to have figured out what to do about it, particularly in secure areas.

MORE: Reader Matt Green writes:

SOP that I was trained to when using a stall is to put the pistol in the crotch of your pants, both to protect it from the bathroom floor, and prevent you forgetting the weapon. If this person was allowed to retire, they may have been older and not up on current weapons handling training. They may also have been a desk jockey who wasn’t used to wearing a weapon, and didn’t miss it when it was gone. Most street cops and regular pistol carriers would notice right away if their weapon was absent.

You’d think.

GREG MANKIW: “Is galloping inflation around the corner?”

SCOTT BROWN: From MoneyBomb to VoterBomb.

ON THE UPSIDE, LESS BACKSTRAIN. On the downside, less exercise? Women’s handbags getting lighter: “A typical bag now weighs 1.5kg (3.3lbs), against the back-breaking peak of 3.5kg (7.7lbs) in 2006. . . . The cause is a combination of the recession and lighter gadgets.”

AND HARRY REID’S ONLY MAKING THINGS WORSE: Creams Offering Lighter Skin May Bring Risks. “Dermatologists nationwide are seeing women of Hispanic and African descent, among others, with severe side effects like Mrs. Ross’s from the misuse of skin-lightening creams, many with prescription-strength ingredients, which are sold in beauty shops and bodegas and online.” No, really, the article mentions Harry Reid.

CLARK HOYT: Yes, GruberGate is a scandal. But with a quick Bush-guy-did-it-too head-toss thrown in.

WHAT THE WORLD HAS BEEN WAITING FOR: Lady Gaga Barbie.

I still prefer SpongeBob Barbie.

ON THIS WEEK: Tucker Carlson to Katrina Vanden Heuvel: Stop Saying ‘Teabaggers’.

HMM: Lack of Progress of LGBT and Other Issues Threatens To Derail Democratic Majority. Well, if I were a Democratic gay-rights activist, I’d be pretty unenthusiastic at this point. And, actually, gay rights is one of the places where Obama has actually managed to disappoint me, as opposed to living down to my expectations. . . .

IN THE MAIL: From Roy Spencer, The Bad Science and Bad Policy of Obama’s Global Warming Agenda.

IF YOU MISSED IT YESTERDAY, be sure to check out AlfonZo Rachel’s guerrilla reporting from Boston.

PHOTOS FROM HAITI:

SALENA ZITO: POLITICAL THERMOMETER. “Wise strategists need look no further than U.S. House races in Pennsylvania to gauge the country’s political temperature. . . . What House races in Pennsylvania show is that freshman and sophomore Democrats nationwide are vulnerable. Incumbents of each party should be wary of being tossed out by frustrated voters.”

L.A. TIMES: In Massachusetts, Voter Discontent Threatens Democrats. “Several factors have been cited to explain Brown’s surge: He’s affable and telegenic, and has run an aggressive campaign, compared to Coakley’s more reserved effort. But interviews with potential voters also revealed a persistent feeling that Obama and his allies in Congress have misread the public mood and have failed to concentrate on priorities such as the economy.”

TAM ISN’T FEELING THE HAROLD FORD LOVE: She writes: “With Harold Ford suddenly talking about his love of gun safety, maybe folks need to be reminded that he didn’t listen to the mandatory gun safety briefing at CCA?”

IN NORTH CAROLINA, a challenger for Heath Shuler.

He’s vulnerable, and he’ll probably wish he’d been a bit nicer to the Asheville Tea Party folks. . . .

THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER is looking for one brave Democrat.

HYPOCRISY UPDATE: Roy Edroso, call your office! Roy has an office? More here.

CATERINA FAKE: Great Engineers: Where Are They?

WELL, IT WAS THE BIRTHPLACE OF FASCISM: Italy Proposes Mandatory Licenses for People Who Upload Video.

HAITI UPDATE: London Times: Haiti earthquake: a few more rescues, but aid still slow. “Nobody can go anywhere without security in the city. No aid workers can go anywhere without taking risks with security. That adds to the difficulty of delivering the aid because you not only have to have transport – which is rare – you also have to have some sort of security with you, or you are taking a risk. People are getting angry, people are getting hungry and thirsty.” This is sounding kind of familiar.

As I mentioned before, disaster relief isn’t like ordering a pizza. It’s hard to get aid into a place where the infrastructure has been wrecked and ordinary social order broken down. I’m seeing some people start to go after Obama on this in an obvious echo of the Katrina-based criticism of Bush. I understand the appeal of payback, but I don’t see any evidence that Obama has blown it here; this stuff is just hard. Of course, the press won’t go after him the way they went after Bush, but that’s a given.

UPDATE: Reader Kevin Greene writes:

Glenn I hope your readers are paying attention.

Granted, Haiti didn’t have a very robust infrastructure to begin with, nevertheless its experience should be an object lesson for every American: In a natural disaster, aid is probably not coming nearly as fast as you think it should. It isn’t coming as fast as you think it will. And aid isn’t coming as fast as you’re going to need it.

If you’re not prepared to go it on your own for at least a couple of weeks, with your own supplies of food and especially water and emergency medical supplies, then you probably deserve your fate. Those of us who survive will be all the better off in a significantly cleansed gene pool.

Might be a good time to link people to this … just as a reminder that the United States is also due some natural disasters of epic proportions.

Well, if the Yellowstone Caldera really blows, the only good preparation will be a trip to Australia — taken before it lets go. But this Haiti earthquake has had me thinking about the New Madrid fault, which could wreck things across a very large part of the United States. And, yeah, you need to be ready to look after yourself for at least a week, preferably two or three at a minimum.

Lots of disaster-preparedness resources here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Some readers think Kevin Greene’s comments are a bit harsh. Well, yeah, but I think they were meant to get your attention. Did they?

Meanwhile, reader Jeff Cook writes:

What I haven’t seen posted, and know from personal experience, is that there is almost nothing worse than a flood (i.e. New Orleans).

When the fire burns out, when the tornado moves on, when the earth stops wobbling, you’re left with a mess and a bunch of bodies. With a flood, your left with a mess, a bunch of bodies and ten feet of water on top of them, and almost nowhere to even land a helicopter, not to mention drive a Humvee or park a generator.

I’ve been through one, (Texas Medical Center 2001) and worked in the aftermath of Katrina. Pure misery and helplessness. No excuse for having a quarter horse association president as your FEMA director, but some perspective of the relative difficulty of response is appropriate.

Yeah, and the damage extended over a very large area, blocking roads, railroads, etc.

MORE: Another reader emails:

You are very correct to be thinking of the New Madrid Fault at times like this. The New Madrid when it goes off will make Haiti look like a garden party.

There is a sort of sneering that goes on at times like this. Look at at that backward country down there. The question is does anyone think Memphis and St Louis would fare any better? Memphis despite knowing better built a huge glass pyramid on a sandbar. Those brick homes and office buildings will come tumbling down with perhaps much more devastation

The death and destruction would have world wide consequences. The Mississippi River would likely change course after the levees break and wipe out critical parts of the United States and indeed the world’s food supply in the Delta. The nation’s most critical Highway would be out of use for some time. In fact the Mississippi River might be coming through your home. What about the critical pipelines that take all that critical oil and gas up north.

There would massive food disruptions and yes rationing on a nationwide basis.

The massive death and disease would be something else.

Here is the frightening thought. Haitians are used to have no support and largely having to get by on their own. In my view the average American might not have the survival skill that the people of that Island do. It might not pretty.

So while look at poor Haiti perhaps we need to be preparing here.

This is not some DOOM and GLOOM History Channel scenario. The Madrid Fault will go off and it is very overdue

One would think the media would make the connection and might mention this all this.

Last time it happened, there was damage in Knoxville — and there wasn’t much of Knoxville to damage. There have been some efforts to prepare for this, particularly in the Memphis / St. Louis corridor, but not enough. Here’s an earlier post on that.

And another reader emails: “When one adds in the looming San Andreas fault catastrophe and the cataclysmic danger to the east cost from the megatsunami that a Cumbre Vieja eruption-caused collapse of the La Palma mountainside in the Canary Islands would most likely cause, there isn’t much of the US that ISN’T under some Sword of Damocles or other.” Carpe Diem, and all that. But also be prepared. . . .

STILL MORE: Reader Ben White emails that people are being too gloomy:

You can look back at any number of disasters that have hit different parts of the US. Remember the disastrous Mississippi River flooding? No widespread deaths. No panicking. No anarchy. Remember the hurricane after Katrina that hit Texas? You probably don’t, because there was no widespread media-hyped chaos. It was hurricane Rita.

The difference is the people. Midwesterners won’t have the problems that New Orleans residents have. Living in a neighborhood with smart, capable people of good character is, by itself, an effective disaster preparedness measure. New Madrid is a threat, but it threatens us where we are the most resilient.

Your readers should try to remember what country they live in. America may be in decline, but every town is not Detroit (or New Orleans, or Washington DC) yet.

Well, people tend to do better than expected in disasters, but a major New Madrid quake would be awfully bad.

DETROIT NEWS: Climategate panel: Are green auto rules based on flawed science?

BACKING OFF ON THAT 2007 NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE ESTIMATE: “U.S. intelligence agencies are quietly revising their widely disputed assertion that Iran has no active program to design or build a nuclear bomb. Three U.S. and two foreign counterproliferation officials tell NEWSWEEK that, as soon as next month, the intel agencies are expected to complete an ‘update’ to their controversial 2007 National Intelligence Estimate, which concluded that Tehran ‘halted its nuclear weapons program’ in 2003 and ‘had not restarted’ it as of mid-2007. The officials, who asked for anonymity to discuss sensitive information, say the revised report will bring U.S. intel agencies more in line with other countries’ spy agencies (such as Britain’s MI6, Germany’s BND, and Israel’s Mossad), which have maintained that Iran has been pursuing a nuclear weapon.”

As I noted before, the purpose of the National Intelligence Estimate was to paralyze us until after the elections. It worked. Some . . . searching inquiry into how that came about, however, might be worthwhile.

Meanwhile, Ron Rosenbaum’s demand for pundit apologies is likely to remain unanswered.

MICHAEL GRAHAM: Brown Supporters: The Most Motivated Voters Ever? “I’ve never seen anything like it. . . . People are begging for stuff to do, and the campaign can’t keep up with the demand. On Saturday, driving between Ashland and Littleton, I saw more people displaying home made signs than printed ones.”

REPORT: An Anti-ObamaCare Protest in Troy, Michigan.

And reader Martha Philipp writes (well, actually, she wrote last night) from Wisconsin:

I just got back from a tea party in Racine, WI. I am not good at judging numbers but I heard estimates of between 2000 and 3000. It was about 25 degrees and cloudy. The crowd and the speakers were cold but fired up. Massachusetts is carrying the torch but Wisconsin has their back. It was cold enough that I had some trouble with my camera. Here is a shot that turned out.

Just in case you thought all the action was in Massachusetts.

UPDATE: But there’s a lot of action in Massachusetts, too. Synnove Bakke posts on Facebook: “Scott Brown had 6000 volunteers from out of state show!! Atmosphere is amazing and the people are so fired up!!”

INDEED: “If only the media had as much contempt for lying, thieving, corrupt politicians as they do for sports stars who use steroids.”

NO TRIAL BY JEWRY.

PREDICTING THE GOLDEN GLOBES with Google.

COLBERT KING: Peter Orszag strays from President Obama’s prescription for responsible fatherhood.

If it became known that a Cabinet-level official in George W. Bush’s administration — a divorced father of two — was the father of a baby born out of wedlock to an ex-girlfriend, and that the official had announced his engagement to a woman he met while the ex-girlfriend was pregnant, do you believe for one second that reporters, and not just gossip columnists, wouldn’t be having a field day?

Of course they would. Especially if Bush had moralized about family and the need for men to be present in the lives of their children. Opinion writers would be all over Bush if they thought he was deliberately ignoring the aide’s behavior.

Let, however, the absentee daddy of a love child turn out to be an Obama administration official with close ties to Washington’s political and intellectual elite and the media, and the affair is treated as a source of brief amusement and no big deal.

Read the whole thing. And note this:

On that Father’s Day, Obama was in a black church talking to men in the African American community.

Do those views also apply to Peter Orszag, I asked?

Reader reaction varied, but I was struck by the apologists for Orszag.

See, “moral” issues are only for beating up on Republicans. That’s all there is to it. “This week, I contacted the White House for Obama’s views. I’m still waiting for a response.”

MEDIA HYPOCRISY MATTERS FOR AMERICA.

FROM STEVEN BARNES, a review of Daybreakers.

I’m pretty tired of vampire stuff. But I’d really like to see someone make a movie out of Fred Saberhagen’s The Dracula Tape. Not sure Hollywood could pull it off, though. Too bad.

UH OH: Hotline: MA SEN Shows Similarities To ’09 VA GOV.

SCOTT BROWN FOR SENATE is calling for volunteer attorneys.

RECESSION? Sears.com is trying awfully hard.

“GLACIERGATE?” IPCC Claims That Himalayan Glaciers Will Disappear By 2035 Are Melting Away. Another “Emily Litella moment.”

HAROLD FORD, JR. starts a “listening tour” in New York. Hmm. That sounds kinda familiar . . . .

QUOTE OF THE DAY, JOHN YOO EDITION: “I’ve spent my whole career learning to settle down unruly college students who have not done the reading.”

ANN ALTHOUSE: Let’s take a careful look at what Martha Coakley said about abortion and religious freedom. “She’s a lawyer, and she ought to know that Roe v. Wade — along with other abortion cases — does not require services. There is a world of difference between having a right to do something and having the power to make other people do things for you as you try to exercise that right. If you don’t know the difference between those two things, you don’t understand how rights work. Other people have rights too. Refusing to perform an abortion is not a violation of the constitutional right to privacy.”

Plus this: “Tomorrow, the (purportedly) honey-tongued Barack Obama comes to Massachusetts to promote Coakley. I hope he submits to questioning and is asked what Pittman asked Coakley. Presumably, his position is the same, and presumably, he can say it in a less ‘wow’-eliciting way. But the truth is out, and his words — however elegant — can be distilled into the straight, stinging You can have religious freedom. You probably shouldn’t work in an emergency room.”

I wonder if anybody will ask him about this?

BURYING THE LEDE: “So I’m a Mac guy now.”

CHAOS: Anger at US builds at Port-au-Prince airport. Where’s Gen. Honore when you need him?

AT AMAZON, up to 45% off small appliances.

ALFONZO RACHEL REPORTS FROM MASSACHUSETTS: The Coakley-Brown Race Has Surprises the MSM Won’t Show You.

MOE LANE:

The White House press pool is being given the mushroom treatment; and they know that they’re being given the mushroom treatment. But they don’t want to respond appropriately – which is to say, stop letting Robert Gibbs define what are or are not appropriate questions to ask. Until that happens – and the press corps internalizes the notion that Gibbs and the administration needs them a hell of a lot more than they need Gibbs and the administration – they’ll keep getting the mushroom treatment.

I’d be sympathetic, except that elections have consequences.

They expected to be lied to. They just expected the lies to be . . . better.

UPDATE: Much more from Ed Driscoll.

WALTER SHAPIRO HAS OVERDOSED ON CABLE NEWS. But don’t worry. It was for science.

MILES O’BRIEN: This Week In Space.

MICHAEL MOYNIHAN: The Incredible Incompetence of Martha Coakley: The race for Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat gets weirder—and tighter—by the hour.

Ah, just more grumbling from a Yankee fan.

CHANGE: Ohio Democrat Steve Driehaus Losing To Steve Chabot 39% to 56%. “A new SurveyUSA poll sponsored by Firedoglake shows incumbent Democrat Steve Driehaus substantially behind former Republican Congressman Steve Chabot in Ohio’s 1st congressional district. If the election were held today, Chabot would beat Driehaus in a head-to-head match up, 56% to 39%.”

Related: Did Firedoglake Take Out Vic Snyder? “Rep. Vic Snyder (D-Ark.) announced his retirement today, mixed–but mostly dire–news for Democrats, who were hopeful that he could hold on and defeat his likely, scandal-tainted GOP opponent Tim Griffin. One of the possible reasons for the retirement? A poll conducted by SurveyUSA, paid for by the progressive blog Firedoglake, which tested negative messages about the health care reform bill and whether it made voters sour on Snyder.”

CORY DOCTOROW: Candy-ass vice-principal calls the bomb squad over an 11-year-old’s science project, recommends counselling for the student. “A San Diego school vice-principal saw an 11-year-old’s home science project (a motion detector made out of an empty Gatorade bottle and some electronics), decided it was a bomb, wet himself, put the school on lockdown, had the bomb-squad come out to destroy X-ray the student’s invention and search his parents’ home, and then magnanimously decided not to discipline the kid (though he did recommend that the child and his parents get counselling to help them overcome their anti-social science behavior).” I don’t see the vice-principal’s name, but it should be made public. And the parents should sue.

Really, another reason to take your kids out of public school, where this kind of behavior is increasingly common.

UPDATE: Reader Bryan Woody writes:

I read this story in the Union-Tribune here and loved this line from the story:

“The school, which has about 440 students in grades 6 to 8 and emphasizes technology skills, was initially put on lockdown while authorities responded.”

So a vice-principal at a technology-centric magnet school freaks when a student actually uses technology, and is incompetent enough that he/she doesn’t know how it works?

That’s how it looks. Lame. He (or she) should be disciplined for this clueless overreaction, and probably sued.

COAKLEY CAMPAIGN getting desperate. Also, busing in SEIU folks.

UPDATE: More thoughts from Dan Riehl and William Jacobson. [LATER: From the comments at Jacobson's: "Realistically speaking, though, most 23-month-olds who've been raped with a hot curling iron don't require the morning after pill."]

ANOTHER UPDATE: Busing in those SEIU folks just might backfire. Or maybe this explains why they’ve got to bring ‘em in from out of state, when there ought to be plenty of SEIU folks right there in Massachusetts.

THE DECADE’S cookbooks and food lit.

SPITTING COBRA: Another dispatch from Michael Yon.

BUT STILL, DON’T GET COCKY: Scott Brown pulls ahead on Intrade.

HAITI: “Nothing On The Ground Yet.” At least, not outside Port Au Prince, where this report is coming from.

UPDATE: Not looking good.

WHO’S MISSING HERE? “President Barack Obama joined his two predecessors at the White House on Saturday to kick off a relief drive for earthquake-stricken Haiti.”

His two predecessors? Where’s #39? Is somebody at the White House trying to avoid unfortunate comparisons?

But wait, this isn’t an isolated incident:

The Cook County Democratic party sent out a direct mail piece this week touting endorsed candidates centered on the theme that “throughout history, Democrats have led us to prosperity.”

Pictured is the roll of Democratic presidents of the past seven decades in chronological order, from Franklin Delano Roosevelt to Harry Truman, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Bill Clinton and favorite son president Barack Obama.

Oops. Where’s Jimmy Carter?

Still “history’s greatest monster,” I guess . . . .

UPDATE: A couple of readers note that Bush 41 wasn’t there, either. I kinda put that down to not wanting to be outnumbered by Bushes, but good point. Actually either he (because of his tsunami work with Bill) or Carter (general third-world do-gooder) would have made more sense than W. An alternative theory, from a couple of other readers, is that the Haiti relief effort is going badly and Obama wanted W. in the picture to protect him from criticism. That seems a stretch to me.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Beldar writes:

I’m sure you realize that Bush-41 — born June 12, 1924 — is 85 years old, even though he’s still pretty spry and active for an 85-year-old. He’s a duty-driven old warhorse whose long service to his country looks more remarkable with every passing year, but can we finally permit him to let some other, younger men (including his son) answer the bugle call?

And I would have thought you would know, and have remembered, that Bush-43 has done more actual good in the Third World than the last several presidents put together while he was actually IN the White House, in part through HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment work in Africa, but even more dramatically (if less sexily) through fighting malaria with simple mosquito nets and pest eradication programs in Africa and elsewhere. I seem to recall reading about that on InstaPundit, but perhaps I’m mistaken, so if you want me to run down some links, lemme know and I’ll fire up the old Google engine.

Yeah, sure, Dubya’s never gotten the public recognition for that work that he and the United States deserve, and indeed half the American public thinks he’s a sharp-fanged Grinch who screened video of starving Iraqi babies at night while he and Laura (often joined by the Cheneys) laughed and dined on caviar and champagne. But that’s horseshit, of course, and I hate to see you perpetuate, even gently or by omission, the false stereotypes that the so-called “reality-based community” cling to so bitterly.

(Of course, it’s only fair that Bush-43 be involved in the relief efforts, since he’s 100% responsible for the man-made global warming that CAUSED the earthquake!)

Good point.

MORE: Reader Drew Kelley writes:

Outside of the fact that Bush-41 is 85 years old, it does sort of follow with the last time this type of relief effort was mounted.

The Christmas Tsunami brought together G.H.W.Bush and W.J.Clinton to raise needed funds.

Now, it is Clinton and G.W.Bush.

Hopefully, when this happens again (and it will), it will be when the next President is in office, and the effort can be led by G.W.Bush & B.H.Obama.

Heh.

VIRGINIA POSTREL: Saying It Over and Over Doesn’t Make It True: The NYT’s “Ethics” Rules Cont’d.

REAL JOURNALISM AT WORK: Bill Shory has an excellent reputation in this town, and for a reason.

A RECIPE FOR BRAISED SHORT RIBS OVER POLENTA. If they’re as good as these, they’re awesome.

RASMUSSEN: 67% Say News Media Have Too Much Influence Over Government Decisions.

HELP HAITI with charitable texting. “Text the word ‘HAITI’ to 90999 to donate $10 to the American Red Cross. And get on with your life!”

SOYLENT PINK? In Vitro Stem-Cell Pseudo-Pork on the Menu Soon.

DAN RIEHL: How An Army Of Davids Could Win MA For Scott Brown.

And, yeah, the polls look good for Brown, but don’t get cocky. Remember, if it’s not close, they can’t cheat.

DONALD BOUDREAUX: The Haiti Earthquake and Economic Freedom: Richer Societies Are Safer Societies.

IN THE MAIL: From Mark Bechtel, He Crashed Me So I Crashed Him Back: The True Story of the Year the King, Jaws, Earnhardt, and the Rest of NASCAR’s Feudin’, Fightin’ Good Ol’ Boys Put Stock Car Racing on the Map.

THE HILL: Ethics committee probing Visclosky, Tiahrt for ties to PMA lobbying firm. “The House ethics committee is examining Reps. Peter Visclosky’s (D-Ind.) and Todd Tiahrt’s (R-Kansas) ties to PMA Group, a now-defunct lobbying firm that was raided by the FBI last year. The ethics panel Friday announced that it has extended a review of Visclosky’s and Tiahrt’s activities for 45 more days after an initial probe that began Dec. 2. The committee said it will announce its “course of action” by March. 2.”

COUNT BASIE REMEMBERS THE BLUES.

ANOTHER WAY TO use a gun to protect your property. I’m skeptical.

MICKEY KAUS: The Deal: Join a Union, Get a Tax Break?

Is Health Care Reform Now a Vehicle to Promote Unionization? It’s one thing to delay until 2018 the tax on “Cadillac” health plans for existing union-negotiated plans, to let the parties rejigger the balance between wages and benefits. That’s a standard “grandfather” clause, letting people whose existing arrangements are disrupted keep them going for a while (though why it should apply only to union pay packages is a good question).

But it’s another thing to extend this union loophole to collective bargaining agreements that haven’t been negotiated yet, or to not-yet unionized firms that organize and then tap into existing collectively bargaining benefit arrangements. That would in effect give workers a tax bonus if they should organize between now and 2018. The government might as well mail a “first time union member” check of $3,000 to every American who successfully unionizes his workplace.

Don’t give ‘em any ideas.

NETWORK FLAW CAUSES scary Web error.

“MONEY IS WORTH NOTHING NOW, water is the currency.”

This is something that’s come up in past disaster preparedness posts. If you’re keeping emergency supplies, it’s a good idea to stock a water filter, along with bottled water, etc. And don’t forget that toilet tanks, hot water heaters, and pipes trap clean water.

MARTIN PERETZ: Harold Ford, Jr. Can Win.

CHARLIE COOK: Colossal Miscalculation On Health Care: Obama and Hill Democrats should have focused much more on the economy. They focused hardest on what they cared about most.