FASTER, PLEASE: Bacteria rebuilt to make oil.

CLIMATEGATE UPDATE: London Times: Scientists in stolen e-mail scandal hid climate data. “The university at the centre of the climate change row over stolen e-mails broke the law by refusing to hand over its raw data for public scrutiny. The University of East Anglia breached the Freedom of Information Act by refusing to comply with requests for data concerning claims by its scientists that man-made emissions were causing global warming.”

GERMAN HOMESCHOOLERS GET political asylum in the United States.

STUNNED WALL STREET FIRMS don’t want war with Obama.

They may not want it, but Obama wants war with them. Yes, he’s an idiot for wanting to attack Wall Street — from which he has gotten far too much money to make his attacks look like anything but self-serving demagoguery — but that’s his take. My advice: As a great leader once said, Get in his face! Push back twice as hard!

THE ANCHORESS: So I told the Pope, he should try to get an Instalanche.

MICHAEL LEDEEN: The Pundits Join the Revolution.

A.P. FACT-CHECKS OBAMA: “President Barack Obama, who once considered government spending freezes a hatchet job, told Americans on Wednesday it’s now part of his solution to the exploding deficit. He didn’t explain what had changed.” Read the whole thing.

“NOTICEABLY MONOSYLLABIC.” Heh. That’s me!

A MONEYBOMB for Tea Party-backed Illinois Governor Candidate Adam Andrzejewski. I understand he’ll have Lech Walesa campaigning for him.

UPDATE: Here he is on Fox. (Bumped).

ANOTHER UPDATE: On the Lech Walesa bit, Sean Kinsell writes: “If that’s a joke on his Polish surname, I’m pretty sure a better one would have been that it’s Pat Benatar’s maiden name.” Uh, no. He really will have Lech Walesa campaigning for him.

FROM JUSTICE ALITO, a “you lie” moment? “POLITICO’s Kasie Hunt, who’s in the House chamber, reports that Justice Samuel Alito mouthed the words ‘not true’ when President Barack Obama criticized the Supreme Court’s campaign finance decision.” Drudge is calling Obama’s criticism “intimidation,” but apparently, they weren’t so intimidated. As I said before, Obama’s behavior wasn’t very Presidential, and it wasn’t very wise.

UPDATE: Brad Smith: “The president’s statement is false.”

MORE: “When you hear the president of the United States demagoguing the First Amendment, you sit there and you take it, son.”

No, actually, you don’t, and Alito didn’t. And that will step on Obama’s press tonight and tomorrow, turning his demagoguery into a negative for him. That’s why Presidents usually act Presidential. Not so much because it’s dignified. But because it’s smart. That’s something that Obama, with his limited experience on the national stage, hasn’t figured out yet.

MORE: Video.

Plus, from Dan Riehl, “If this becomes the narrative it hurts Obama and distracts from any thing he may have wanted to accomplish with the address.”

And from Prof. Randy Barnett:

In the history of the State of the Union has any President ever called out the Supreme Court by name, and egged on the Congress to jeer a Supreme Court decision, while the Justices were seated politely before him surrounded by hundreds [of] Congressmen? To call upon the Congress to countermand (somehow) by statute a constitutional decision, indeed a decision applying the First Amendment? What can this possibly accomplish besides alienating Justice Kennedy who wrote the opinion being attacked. Contrary to what we heard during the last administration, the Court may certainly be the object of presidential criticism without posing any threat to its independence. But this was a truly shocking lack of decorum and disrespect towards the Supreme Court for which an apology is in order. A new tone indeed.

It’s the usual Chicago approach to criticism, I’m afraid.

On Facebook, Kevin Hill writes: “Not quite as good as ‘E pur si muove.’ But close.”

JIM GERAGHTY: I Was Completely Wrong About Barack Obama.

WELL, I PREDICTED THE “UNGOVERNABLE AMERICA” MEME, but Arnold Kling has some deeper thoughts. “The theory is that there is a discrepancy between trends in knowledge and power. Power in the United States is remarkably concentrated. We are creating increasingly specialized knowledge, which means that the information needed to make good decisions is located outside of Washington, D.C. And yet we have a central government attempting to do for 300 million people what governments in places like Singapore, Hong Kong, Denmark, and Switzerland do for many fewer people.” I also think that the people governing us have become objectively dumber over the last 50 years or so.

MONKEYS, CANDY AND COGNITIVE DISSONANCE.

ANN ALTHOUSE WILL BE LIVEBLOGGING the State Of The Union. And Jason Pye emails that the folks at UnitedLiberty will be liveblogging, too.

Stephen Green, of course, will be drunkblogging it, and has links to various State Of The Union drinking games. Jim Treacher will be liveblogging, too, and while it isn’t formally “drunkblogging,” well, informally it just might be . . . .

The country’s in the very best of hands. Our future’s so bright, we gotta wear shades. So sit back, relax, and watch!

Plus, Sandy Levinson on a SOTU catastrophe. “If we really do believe that there is, say, a 1% probability that a successful attack will take place on the Capitol when everyone gathers for the State of the Union address, that’s a good reason either to revert to an earlier tradition, when Presidents delivered written messages, or, at the very least, telling most of the Cabinet and Justices, for starters, that they can, like the rest of us, watch it on TV. (I note that Dick Cheney did not attend the immediate post-Sept. 11 address to Congress, but did seemingly attend all of the States of the Union address thereafter. But why? I ask this as a fully serious, and not cheap-shot, question.)” Well, Hillary isn’t attending tonight, but not as a security holdout. What does that mean?

UPDATE: More liveblogging from a panel of experts at the Cato Institute.

Also the inimitable Dana Loesch.

Plus, Jules Crittenden is doing the drinking games.

From the Cato Liveblog: “The assertions about the Depression we would have had are outrageous. Their forecasts of the stimulus’s impact have been horrible, so how can they have any credibility on this kind of issue? ” I think it’s full speed ahead, here, credibility be damned. Plus this: “Bastiat is spinning in his grave.”

The “stimulus” didn’t produce any jobs, but if we pass a new stimulus and call it a “jobs bill,” it will!

On Facebook, Alex Lightman writes: “I was looking forward to the State of the Union speech. Then I read most of it, and got depressed. It’s as if he’s running for office, not holding office. I didn’t hear anything about what’s going to be cut. Anyone can make promises to spend other people’s money.”

Reader C.J. Burch writes: “‘The worst of the storm has passed.’ Forget Green and Crittenden, what the Hell is Obama drinking?”

More from Cato: “Wonderful, more government-directed investment. That worked really well with Fannie and Freddie.” Plus this prediction: “He’ll pivot from a new $100 billion jobs bill to cutting the deficit.”

Ann Althouse: “Small businesses are good. (Come on, talk to them.) Big business sucks though. We want to help small business grow… so it can become big business and then we can hate it.”

Seems pretty much like a recycled campaign speech to me.

And not just recycled campaign speech — the Cato folks note this:

“Through stricter accounting standards and tougher disclosure requirements, corporate America must be made more accountable to employees and shareholders and held to the highest standards of conduct.”

–George W. Bush, 2002 SOTU

They told me if I voted for John McCain we’d see a third Bush term. And they were right! [LATER: Tad DeHaven keeps running quotes from Bush SOTUs that match what Obama’s saying tonight.]

More from Cato: “He has decided to run against lobbyists. The populist turn again. Carter did that too.” Those guys are on fire. Just head over there to catch all the gems. But here’s one more: “This is the most awful anti-trade position of any president in a long time.”

More liveblogging from Jason Van Steenwyk.

Ed Driscoll: The Semiotics Of The Anointed.

Stephen Green: “’Our approach would bring down the deficit by as much as one trillion dollars over two decades.’ Fine. But when those two decades mean another 20 or 30 trillion dollars of debt, you’re talking about scooping pee out of the ocean with sieve.”

Plus this: “’Let me know.’ Dude, the voters of Massachusetts just did.”

And: “The guy who just bragged of his (mysterious) 25 tax cuts just ragged on the Bush tax cuts.”

An Obama speech word cloud.

“But we took office in a crisis — and never let a crisis go to waste!” Okay, I kinda interpolated the second part. . . .

Hey, does this sound familiar?

Many of you have talked about the need to pay down our national debt. I listened, and I agree. We owe it to our children and grandchildren to act now, and I hope you will join me to pay down $2 trillion in debt during the next 10 years.

It’s from George W. Bush’s 2001 SOTU.

A reader emails: “Oh for heaven’s sake. It’s a freaking stump speech. You’ve been elected all ready Mr. President. Now you have to do things. See the difference?”

The freeze starts next year? And I start my diet tomorrow.

From Dan Mitchell at Cato: “We’ve all done something very naughty if this is the government we deserve.”

Now Obama, after delivering an hour-long stump speech, criticizes the perpetual campaign. Luckily for him, most people will be watching Teen Mom on their Tivo by now.

A reader sends a link to Reagan’s 1982 State Of The Union by way of comparison.

The Insta-Daughter: “He needs to quit referring to Bush. It’s weird.”

Nick Schulz: The Definition of Chutzpah.

John Samples at Cato: “I agree with Chris. It is surprising how unsurprising this speech has been, particularly for a president in deep political trouble.”

More liveblogging at Reason. Radley Balko: “wow. no none is better at trivializing opponents’ arguments than obama.”

A call to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. I’m for it, but I’ll bet there’s not much follow-through.

Stephen Green: “’I have embraced the vision of John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan.’ Okay. Except you embraced the competence of Jimmy Carter & Herbert Hoover.”

Jim Harper at Cato: “Following through on his transparency promises would be a great way to actually deliver change.”

Matt Welch: “8-year-olds sending money to the president don’t make me all tingly inside.”

Reader Rob Lain emails:

Others have probably done this already, but I just ran these numbers:

Obama SOTU 2010 First Person Singular Pronoun Count

I – 96 times

me – 8 times

Bush SOTU 2008 First Person Singular Pronoun Count

I – 39 times

me – 2 times

Think this may wind up correlating to their relative contributions to the national debt, when all is said and done?

I dunno, but what’s funny is that I think Obama was restraining himself here . . . .

Okay, it’s over. My sense is that he was trying a bit too hard. Comparing the mood to last year, the Democratic applause and cheering seemed rather forced, too. Plus, I don’t think his public scolding of the Supreme Court was very Presidential — or, for that matter, very smart.

Krauthammer is noting that Obama treats “Washington” as a pejorative, but that he is Washington now.

Matt Welch: “I think I’ve forgotten it already. Except for the I WON’T QUIT part. Don’t worry, it *is* about you, etc.”

Reader Matt Barger writes: “There has never been a SOTU as patronizing as this. God help us.”

C.J. Burch emails again: “A brittle speech by a brittle administration. He’s done as a political force, I think. If not now, soon.” We’ll see.

And Stephen Green concludes: “We’re into the Big Finish… but there’s no new here. For a guy who got his bottom handed to him in three big elections, he’s strangely reluctant to change course. In fact, he’s not even willing to change tone. Which means, whatever you thought of Bush’s lousy last three years, Obama has already outdone him in being tone-deaf. Let me restate that. This guy hasn’t gotten one single thing done since Porklulus was passed 11 months ago, and he just doubled down. Well, you know what? Who cares how much is in the pot when it’s other people’s money?”

Reader Allen S. Thorpe writes: “It is probably better to think of it as a State of My Presidency speech and it’s probably the best chance he’s had since his Inauguration to speech to this size of an audience. He’d better be in campaign mode, because he’s losing the election right now. From the back of my memory, some familiar words are floating up: ‘Lipstick on a pig.'”

Gerard van der Leun emails with praise: “Excellent digest. All the hot liveblogging lines with none of the screen refreshing tedium.”

Thanks! As Leon Lipson once said, “Anything you can do, I can do meta.” But really, follow the links to the other blogs as this is just the merest skim of cream.

And there’s always the Zomby translation.

Plus, Richard Fernandez weighs in. “Since the current administration is doing all these good things, it will stay the course. It won’t let the aforementioned saboteurs and wreckers stand in the way.”

The McDonnell reponse? The bar for these things is low — and he was certainly infinitely better than Jindal last year. But the big story is the subtext: “I was just elected in a state Obama carried, even though Obama campaigned against me. Whatever he may say under the lights, he can’t save you come election day.” Likewise, the Scott Brown mention.

And from Meryl Yourish: Breaking the Obama Code:

Tonight, he addressed the American people, and he addressed Congress. Go back and look at the speech. He was earnest, and his chin was down, his head relatively level, when speaking to Congress. When he spoke to us, his chin rose, and he talked down to us—literally.

Go ahead. Take a look. Note his posture. You’ll see it, too. You and I, we are not his equals. He is above us.

That’s what sets my teeth on edge every time I listen to him.

That’s almost worth rewinding the DVR for, but . . . no, I’ve suffered enough.

Some extensive thoughts from Dan Riehl, including this: “Obama praised the concept of separation of powers, then immediately turned to question the Supreme Court’s recent decision on campaign finance reform. That tendency caused much of speech to ring hollow throughout.”

Alex Castellanos writes: “There were too many Barack Obamas tonight, making too many promises to too many interests. The same president who said he wasn’t interested in relitigating the past . . . did exactly that for over an hour. The same president who yearned for less partisanship also resorted to it without hesitation, often just a few sentences afterwards, blaming his problems on his predecessor one long year into his own administration.”

Jim Geraghty: On His Last Day in Office, Obama Will Still Be Talking About What He Inherited.

More from The Anchoress:

You know, one could argue that President Bush “inherited” Al Qaeda from Bill Clinton, who did little-to-nothing in response to all of Al Qaeda’s provocations throughout the 1990’s and unto the USS Cole bombing. But never, not once, did Bush ever say, “I inherited this…” It’s time for Obama to become a man.

Much more at the link.

John Podhoretz: “One liberal trope after the speech, voiced by Chrystia Freedland of the Financial Times on Charlie Rose, is that Obama is putting Republican politicians on notice he will go after them as the do-nothing impeders of progress. Republicans should pray this is the case, and it may be the case.” In New Jersey, Virginia, and Massachusetts he’s proven impotent. Why should people fear him more now, when he’s weaker?

And reader Eric Naft writes:

You posted a CATO link that mentioned Bastiat, but do you realize exactly how precisely delicious that observation is? In extolling the virtues of the stimulus, President Obama cited several small businesses, including a “window repair company” in Philadelphia.

Having read Bastiat’s influential “That Which Is Seen & That Which Is Not Seen: The Unintended Consequences of Government Spending,” I don’t think he could have chosen more poorly (or perhaps more aptly?). The opening vignette of Bastiat’s seminal work, which demolishes the notion that government spending stimulates anything, is subtitled, “The Broken Window.” It explains that paying to repair broken windows doesn’t help the economy at large because the money used to pay for the repair is money that can’t be used to buy a shirt or to do whatever else the private citizen may be inclined to do with his money.

Has nobody in the administration’s speech-writing team ever read basic economics? Never mind. I think I know the answer to that.

Yes, I do realize. But heck, forget the speech-writing team. What about the economic team?

Plus, what the voters think about Obama’s speech points.

Chris Matthews on Obama: ‘I Forgot He Was Black For an Hour’.

Good grief. Why is this guy still on the air? Oh, wait, he’s not — he’s on MSNBC . . . .

And reader Scott Blanksteen writes:

Obama’s comments about the Supreme Court’s decision enabling foreign corporations to donate in US campaigns are particularly ironic given that it was his campaign that mis-configured their credit-card acceptance software in a way for which the only purpose would be to enable foreign donations!

More on that here, here, and here.

Jules Crittenden: “But seriously, we have just witnessed an extraordinary exercise in presidential oratorical animation that may be without peer or precedent. Can it be said that any American president has ever tried to blame so much on other people, or has been willing to so rapidly abandon his own principles for the betterment of his standing with the people, to seize up the banner against himself in our nation’s time of need, that this nation should not stand against him? For this, the president deserves our unabashed, gaga-eyed astonishment.”

THE STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS: Laphamized by the A.P.

Roots of “Laphamization” here, for those who don’t get the reference. Meanwhile, Aziz Poonawalla has read the advance text and isn’t impressed.

YOU’LL BE ABLE TO livechat about the State Of The Union here.

The technology is from Voices Heard Media, a Knoxville company.

WHAT MOVIE makes you laugh the hardest?

IS BARACK OBAMA headed for some sort of a meltdown? “Is he clinging to his podium and teleprompters because he has lost his protective shields and does not trust himself without them? The starry-eyed adulation of the press has simmered down to a mere gaze of hopefulness and longing, accompanied by the barest of criticisms, and Obama translates that as the press being ‘against him. . . . All I know is, I keep seeing these awful White House approved photos, and they daily jar me because they seem to reveal the president in very unflattering, troubling ways, like the work of an obsessed and Obama-hating photoshop expert.”

Ann Althouse has further thoughts.

HMM: Presidents Join Deans in Asking ABA to Remove Faculty Tenure as Accreditation Standard.

J.D. JOHANNES on exercise and the brain.

OBAMA’S SPENDING FREEZE IN SIX WORDS: Big Mac, large fries, Diet Coke.

MATT WELCH: Which First-Time SOTU-er Said It? I guessed right even before the hint.

JOHN AND ELIZABETH EDWARDS LEGALLY SEPARATED: In Tell-All-Book, Ex-Edwards Aide Says Couple Discussed How Cancer Would Help in the Polls. Good thing the press made sure not to tell us any of this while he was running for office . . . .

CHARLES AUSTIN WITH A PRE-SOTU IDEA: “I have a new fiscal metric for the White House: dollars printed or saved. It can make deficits look like a good thing the same way a net loss of 4,000,000 actual jobs since the Stimulus Plan was passed is spun as being successful!” Don’t give ’em ideas . . . .

SOMETHING in the air?

MORE HAITI REPORTING, from Team Rubicon.

TEST-DRIVING THE 2011 BMW 5-Series.

REVIEWING THE REVIEWERS: A roundup of book reviews from all over.

THE iPAD: “Sounds like a feminine hygiene product.”

ANDREW KLAVAN: My State Of The Union.

Plus, Power Line has the White House’s talking points memo.

POLITICO: Top Democrats At War — With Each Other.

UPDATE: Senate Aides to House Dems: Back Off!

EMERGENCY CELL-PHONE POWER, in Haiti.

HISTORIANS GO CRAZY attacking Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism. Seems like kind of a late hit, but I’m sure Jonah will be pleased at the additional sales. Did I mention that it’s in paperback now?

UPDATE: Thin gruel, indeed. “If this is the best the scholars of fascism can do (and where is A. James Gregor, who knows more about Italian fascism than anyone else in American academia?), you needn’t lose any sleep over it.”

KUDLOW GIVING “CAREFUL ATTENTION” to a run against Schumer.

KATIE GRANJU: Dooce, HGTV, and Me.

LOWERING BLOOD PRESSURE with a low-carb diet?

WALRUS-PHOTO recycling. It’s good for the environment! . . . .

ORGANIZED LABOR lost ten percent of its members last year.

UPDATE: A reader notes that this is private sector members. Still plenty of union members on the public payrolls.

MICHAEL TOTTEN: Why They Hate Us: Middle Eastern Politics and the Principle of the Strong Horse. An interview with Lee Smith regarding his new book, The Strong Horse: Power, Politics, and the Clash of Arab Civilizations.

PAWLENTY: Stop the spending, er . . . binge.

LIVEBLOGGING the Apple iPad announcement.

OBAMA VISITS TAMPA TOMORROW, and the Tampa Tea Party folks will be there.

FROM AIR NEW ZEALAND, “Cuddle Class Couches.” I flew back to the States from Auckland on Air New Zealand once, with the entire New Zealand national rugby team on board. They were nice guys, but took full advantage of the free alcohol . . . .

DID A SHOE DESIGNER rip off a fashion blogger?

I MIGHT MANAGE THAT, IF THERE’S BEER WAITING AT THE FINISH LINE: New Study Suggests Humans Could Run As Fast As 40 MPH.

IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE: Washington, DC to be retail market for Chevy Volt.

NEW HOME SALES FALL — UNEXPECTEDLY! “Sales of newly built U.S. single-family homes fell unexpectedly in December, data showed on Wednesday, the latest indication that the government-led housing recovery might be losing some steam.” A lot of stuff seems to be underperforming expectations lately.

“Well, at least anybody can still buy a truck.”

WOW: Meltdown in PA: Toomey up 14 over Specter?

But wait, there’s more: ObamaCare now 20 points down — in CNN poll.

Plus this: GOP Up 5 In Generic Congressional Ballot — Says NPR.

PATTERICO TURNS HIS PROSECUTOR’S EYE ON THE O’KEEFE STORY and says media reports are not to be trusted. There’s no charge of “bugging,” for one thing. Plus, questions about Carol Leonnig.

ROGER SIMON: On the Eve of the SOTU: Obama the Speechmaker vs. Jobs the CEO.

SMOOTH P.R. MOVE: SEIU Calls Senators “Terrorists.”

IN THE MAIL: The next volume in the Poul Anderson Flandry collection, Captain Flandry.

ALFONZO RACHEL: Truckin’ 2010: Has Obama Set Democrats Up For a Long, Strange Trip?

PREVIEWING THE State Of “The One” Speech.

DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS AS inspiration for crime: “I played D&D for years in junior high and high school, and one of my most powerful characters was a 14th level thief. Yet I never learned how to pick even the simplest lock myself. D&D characters’ skills aren’t transferable to their players, which is really a terrible shame. There are times when my longtime favorite ‘flame strike’ spell could really come in handy.”

SEXUAL STARVATION as a root cause of jihadism: “The bomb wasn’t the only thing burning in his pants.”

BLOGGINGHEADS: Matt Welch to Dems: Have Some Respect For The American People.

WHAT’S MORE EXCITING? The State of the Union speech, or the Apple Tablet announcement?

CLIMATE AGENCY GOING UP IN FLAMES: “A catastrophic heat wave appears to be closing in on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. How hot is it getting in the scientific kitchen where they’ve been cooking the books and spicing up the stew pots? So hot, apparently, that Andrew Weaver, probably Canada’s leading climate scientist, is calling for replacement of IPCC leadership and institutional reform. If Andrew Weaver is heading for the exits, it’s a pretty sure sign that the United Nations agency is under monumental stress. Mr. Weaver, after all, has been a major IPCC science insider for years. He is Canada Research Chair in Climate Modelling and Analysis at the University of Victoria, mastermind of one of the most sophisticated climate modelling systems on the planet, and lead author on two recent landmark IPCC reports.”

THE THRILL IS GONE for Obamagirl. “Now, the bikini-clad ‘Obama Girl’ — who famously cooed about her “crush” throughout the presidential campaign on YouTube videos — admits the thrill is gone. Amber Lee Ettinger — the buxom sensation who lip-synched about her love for then-candidate Barack Obama — said she wishes he spent his first year in office more focused on fixing the abysmal economy.”

IT’S OFFICIAL: Saab Has Been Saved.

JAMES TARANTO WRITES:

Axelrod, speaking of the president, tells the Washington Post: “This is someone who in law school worked with [Harvard professor] Larry Tribe on a paper on the legal implications of Einstein’s theory of relativity.” That’s got to be a joke, but the message is clear: President Obama and his men are a lot smarter than the average voter.

Obama’s smarts are still to be determined, but the Tribe article, The Curvature of Constitutional Space, is real. In fact, I wrote an essay in response in the Columbia Law Review. Only I invoked Chaos Theory, in a form of law-geek one-upsmanship.

OBAMA AIMS TO AX MOON MISSION: I talked to some folks at the International Space Development Conference a couple of years ago who were really high on Obama — they thought he’d emulate JFK when it came to space policy. Not so much, as it turns out. In fact, we haven’t had a pro-space Democrat in the White House since LBJ. The “save the baby” approach is looking more sensible than “the audacity of hope.” But, then, that’s true across the board these days, isn’t it?

But this quote from Rand Simberg remains on point: “It’s not NASA’s job to send a man to Mars. It’s NASA’s job to make it possible for the National Geographic Society to send a man to Mars.” Will the Obama administration get NASA to focus on that approach?

TRAGEDY: Republicans Have A “Hip Gap.”

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: Health Care Bill Still Only “Mostly Dead.” I don’t see Harry Reid as Miracle Max here, but . . . .

UPDATE: Senators running scared. “And that, I think, is the real impact of the polls and the Democratic departures/retirements: those struggling not to be swept out in the 2010 wave will increasingly look at each and every vote through the prism of their own electorate and re-election self-interest. Yes, what a novel concept! But that was not the story in 2009, when congressmen and senators were persuaded over and over again to ignore everything else (e.g., polls, town hall attendees, jammed switchboards) and adhere to the Obama-Reid-Pelosi line. That dynamic is very likely to reverse itself — leaving the ‘leadership’ to chase after members, while members attune themselves to voters back home.”

YOU’VE GOT ME BABE! Megan McArdle comments: “There has been some disagreement among political analysts that I trust as to whether Obama’s advisors started believing their own propaganda–whether they really believed that everything had changed, and they were FDR 2.0. But this suggests an arrogance far beyond that. This suggests that Obama genuinely believed that he was entirely untouchable. That may explain a lot about the past twelve months.”

MICHAEL LEDEEN: The Real State Of The Union: Fear. “This fear is extremely broad-based. It is not limited to social class nor to domestic or foreign policies. Banks are not lending, companies are not hiring, because they are afraid of what Obama will do next. Both are afraid of onerous taxes, including new health care burdens, and the banks fear new regulations and the consequences of the recently declared war on evil bankers by the president. Seniors are afraid they will be deprived of medical treatment. Juniors are afraid they are going to be forced to buy health insurance they don’t think they need. Across the board, Americans are afraid they’re not going to find work, and won’t be able to afford a house. And, as the Massachusetts vote showed, Americans are worried about threats from abroad, worried about Iran, afraid of terrorist attacks, and afraid the Obama Administration doesn’t take all this seriously enough.”

Related: “The drop in individual income tax revenue in fiscal 2009 was the steepest since 1939. As the chart shows revenue continues to plummet in fiscal 2010.” John Galt was unavailable for comment.

SOME MEMORABLE SPECIAL GUESTS from past State Of The Union speeches.

HMM: Expert: Mollohan’s Seat Is In Play.

PETE DU PONT: Coming Tax Hikes Will Cause Greater Economic Collapse Than 2008-09.

MORE THOUGHTS ON JAMES O’KEEFE. Well, stay tuned.

GOOD GRIEF: Report: ‘Thin-Skinned’ Obama Says ‘Press Is Against Me’. “He hasn’t been in public life very long. . . . He’s experiencing it for the very first time. It’s on-the-job training.”

TRANSPARENCY: ‘The Fix Was In’: Obama Donor Gets Sweetheart Real Estate Deal in Chicago.

BOB MENENDEZ, BIRTHER? “Are we given to understand that the Democrats intend to run for office by raising questions about Barack Obama’s eligibility to be president?”

CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE: Government Finances Are On An “Unsustainable Path.”

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER ON OBAMA’S PLANNED BUDGET CUTS: “A Q-tip Not a Scalpel, A Fraud… Lunch Money” (Video).

A MILD REPLY TURNETH ASIDE WRATH: But probably not this time. . . .

WOW: 3 in 10 Californians Identify With Tea Party.

Plus this: Poll shows Scott Brown could top Obama in prez run. That’s ridiculous. A guy who’s barely even been elected to the Senate, going to the White House in just a couple of years without accumulating any real experience at the national level? Spare me the absurd speculation. Couldn’t happen.

BAD NEWS FOR THE PAY MODEL: After Three Months, Only 35 Subscriptions for Newsday’s Web Site.

NEW YORK TIMES: Democrats Slam Brakes on Health Care Overhaul. “The gear shifting by Democrats underscored how the health care effort had been derailed by the Republican victory in the Massachusetts special election last week.” Was Dr. Koop’s ad the last straw?

KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND: The Next Martha Coakley?

IT’S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR: Get yer tax-prep software right here. Remember, if you don’t pay ’em, some Chinese guy will have to buy another Treasury bond.

UPDATE: Reader Kevin Greene emails:

I dunno … I was thinking of going the Tim Geithner route and just not paying this year.

Maybe Obama will give me a job.

Well, for that you gotta have the Turbo Tax first. You know to take the blame.

ANDREW BREITBART AND ROGER SIMON go shooting with Rick Perry.

HMM: VA Man Arrested In NJ Had Map Of Fort Drum.

HOPE: Record number of young Americans jobless. “The U.S. economic recession has taken a particularly heavy toll on young Americans, with a record one out five black men aged 20 to 24 neither working nor in school, according to research released on Tuesday.”

ELLIE LIGHT, revealed? But then things get freaky-deaky. Emphasis on the “deaky.”

Plus, from the comments: “Betty Jo Bialowsky!” “You mean….. Nancy?”

CHRIS ANDERSON: In The Next Industrial Revolution, Atoms Are The New Bits. “The tools of factory production, from electronics assembly to 3-D printing, are now available to individuals, in batches as small as a single unit. Anybody with an idea and a little expertise can set assembly lines in China into motion with nothing more than some keystrokes on their laptop. A few days later, a prototype will be at their door, and once it all checks out, they can push a few more buttons and be in full production, making hundreds, thousands, or more. They can become a virtual micro-factory, able to design and sell goods without any infrastructure or even inventory; products can be assembled and drop-shipped by contractors who serve hundreds of such customers simultaneously.”

I had a column on this a while back.

UPDATE: Reader Ry Jones emails: “You can rent makerbots and lasers in Seattle, by the minute.”

WORKING TOWARD creating better blood vessels.

JAMES O’KEEFE ARRESTED BY THE FBI: “Also arrested were Joseph Basel, Stan Dai and Robert Flanagan, all 24. Flanagan is the son of William Flanagan, who is the acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, the office confirmed. All four were charged with entering federal property under false pretenses with the intent of committing a felony.” Hmm. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: More from Dan Riehl.

ANOTHER UPDATE: More here, including a statement from Andrew Breitbart, who says he didn’t know anything about it, and this comment: “The editors of Big Government claim they knew nothing about it, which is almost certainly true: No way would Breitbart be so stupid as to sign off on tapping a senator’s phone.” Indeed.

DETROIT: From Motor City to Urban Farm?

A BUNCH OF new releases on DVD and Blu-Ray.

REASON TV: Virginia is for (Liquor) Lovers.

BOINGBOING: Through My Father’s Lens: Mardi Gras 1956. Very cool.

JOHN TIERNEY: WHO’S CONFLICTED NOW? “I’ve previously wondered why so many on the green side of the climate debate were so willing to play the conflict-of-interest card, as Dr. Pachauri was doing quite recently himself. It struck me as a risky political strategy — because there seemed to me to be more money to be made on the green side — as well a needless diversion from the scientific debate. So while I see some justice in this argument coming back to bite Dr. Pachauri, I still wish both sides — and the journalists who cover any kind of scientific dispute — would pay less attention to money.” The surest way to see that this happens is to call lots of attentions to conflicts like Pachauri’s.

JOHN SCALZI is running for President of the Science Fiction Writers of America. From the comments: “I, for one, welcome our coming scalzian overlord.”

HMM: Fisker-GM plant deal under scrutiny from Judicial Watch.

When Fisker Automotive announced it would buy an old General Motors plant in Delaware last fall, it was mostly reported as good news. The one bit of controversy was what role vice president Joe Biden played; Fisker said he was emphatically not a factor for locating the plug-in hybrid plant in the veep’s home state.

That statement wasn’t enough for conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch, which is filing a Freedom of Information lawsuit over documents relating to the purchase, the Newark Post reports.

I suspect there’s a lot of room for legal challenges over a lot of the bailout transactions, and if the right had the kind of legal infrastructure that the left had this would be generating more litigation than Guantanamo.

SEISMIC HOT ZONE: Does the Haiti quake foreshadow more Caribbean disasters?

GRAND ROUNDS IS UP!

IN THE MAIL: A Poul Anderson collection, Young Flandry. If I recall correctly, Dominic Flandry lives in a decadent society where a once-dominant civilization is gradually collapsing as its ruling class shows a lack of cultural self-confidence and a focus on short-term personal gain as opposed to the long-term interests of society. It’s nice to read this sort of escapist fiction. . . .

MORE ON HAITI from The Anchoress.