YEAH, THOSE LIMITS WORKED OUT GREAT IN CHINA: Two children should be limit, says green guru. I think all “green gurus” should be sterilized first. As an example.

POLITICO: Daschle takes ‘a bad first-day hit’. “If a Bush appointee got rich off of Wall Street in this climate, had a chauffeur from one of his fat cat cronies, had unpaid taxes that amounted to more than what most people make in a year, and then the administration tried to fix it behind closed doors. Democrats would call for his head and would demand ‘accountability.” But will Republicans have the guts to do the same?

ANOTHER CONNECTICUT PAPER calls on Chris Dodd to release his mortgage documents. “The Wall Street Journal said it well: ‘Rare is the politician who could clear his name overnight and chooses not to.’ We again ask Sen. Dodd to release the information. He must know that the continued stalling looks very bad.”

KENTUCKY: Many pleading for faster response: “Smith said FEMA was still a no-show days after the storm.”

SO THE INSTA-DAUGHTER HAS BEEN ILL, and the Insta-Mom came over to spend the night with us. I went shopping for breakfast stuff and saw this: “Batter Blaster” spray pancakes. It’s a spray can like those that dispense whipped cream, only it’s full of pancake batter. And it’s organic!

The pancakes were pretty good (though the Insta-Daughter, a Nina Planck devotee, wouldn’t touch them), but we had more fun imagining similar products, like “BaconBlaster” — sprayable bacon in a can! Wouldn’t that make Scalzi jealous!

HMM: Putin faces signs of mutiny as protests break out in east. “As Russia’s economy begins to implode after years of energy-driven growth, Mr Putin is facing the germs of an unexpected power struggle which could hamper his ambition to project Russian might abroad.”

UPDATE: Unrest in China Worse than Widely Reported.

CONGRATULATIONS TO the Steelers.

WILDCAT STRIKES in Britain. “There were also appeals for the campaign to be stepped up, with one user recalling the fuel protests in 2000 that Tony Blair, then prime minister, at one stage feared could bring down the Government.”

And Janet Daley comments in the Telegraph: “What the strikers at the Lindsey oil refinery (and their brother supporters in Nottinghamshire and Kent) have discovered is the real meaning of the fine print in those treaties. . . . In the grand abstract terms of the enlightenment, the legitimacy of government derives from the consent of the governed, and therefore no government should have the right to hand over its authority to some external body which is not democratically accountable to its own people. So when the framers of the EU arranged for the nations of Europe to do exactly that, they were repudiating the two centuries old political struggle for the rights and liberties of ordinary citizens.” Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: Here’s some background on those fuel protests.

SOME Valentine’s Day gift ideas.

ED CONE REMEMBERS the Greensboro sit-ins. “The Greensboro Four chose a strategy of nonviolence, which made it easy for others to rally to their cause. They showed great physical courage and perseverance, which allowed the spark they had struck to catch and spread. And they sought inclusion in an America that had made them second-class citizens, which helped America become what it had pretended to be.”

In light of Geithner, Daschle, Rangel, and the other shenanigans in Washington, I’d like to see angry taxpayers staging sit-ins at federal buildings around the country. It would be another effort to see America live up to its ideals, and see that the same rules apply to everyone, without discrimination . . . .

MICHAEL SILENCE on old media and new media.

UPDATE: Reader C.J. Burch emails: “If there’s nothing in here about ‘stop lying’ then nothing much is going to get accomplished. Just saying…”

GEE, DO YOU THINK? Big shots on Wall Street, in Congress still don’t get it.

New York’s Charles Rangel and five other Democratic members of the House enjoyed a trip to the Caribbean sponsored in part by Citigroup (see above) in November – after Congress had approved the $700 bailout for financial firms (including Citigroup).

The members no doubt will object to the terms “junket,” but that shoe fits. The National Legal and Policy Center, a watchdog group, has asked Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to investigate the Nov. 6-9 excursion to the island of St. Maarten.

It was called the Caribbean Multi-Cultural Business Conference, but “the primary purpose … for most participants appeared to be to take a vacation,” said the NLPC. And not only was the timing lousy, but “corporate sponsorship of such an event was banned by House rules adopted on March 1, 2007, in response to the (lobbyist Jack) Abramoff scandal,” the group pointed out.

Joining Rangel on that trip were Donald Payne of New Jersey, Sheila Jackson-Lee of Texas, Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick of Michigan, Bennie Thompson of Mississippi and Donna Christenson, delegate from the U.S. Virgin Islands.

There are calls for them to reimburse the taxpayers — but of course, paying the money back once you’re caught isn’t the same as not having done something wrong, however much folks in Washington like to pretend that it is.

I THINK THE ANSWER IS, “because they don’t care what happens to Israel.” How Can the World Be Blind to Israel’s Existential Threats?

KENTUCKY: No power, no FEMA. “Where is the outrage?”

Plus, Kentucky freezes; Obama dines on $100 a pound steak. Reader C.J. Burch emails: “What Katrina taught the media was that they could hurt Bush by lying. What 2008 taught them was that they could help Obama by not reporting at all. What will 2009 teach them? I shudder to think.” A lesson, one hopes.

HMM: Senators to grill Daschle on taxes, clients. “Although not a registered lobbyist, the South Dakota Democrat over the last two years earned more than $2.1 million as a ‘special policy adviser’ at Alston & Bird, a law firm with more than 50 lobbying clients in the health care industry. According to financial disclosure forms filed with the Office of Government Ethics, Daschle also earned $153,200 in 2008 for giving speeches to health care companies and industry groups such as GE Healthcare, a leading manufacturer of medical devices.” Then there’s that whole income-tax thing. . . .

Meanwhile, reader Dale Britton emails: “I think it is incumbent upon Obama to nominate Wesley Snipes for something immediately.”

And reader Thomas Prewitt writes: “I suspect that Daschle will be the new HHS secretary despite his tax fraud. The Senate will accept any excuse Daschle offers for one simple reason: they all are doing the same thing. I vote that we audit everyone in Congress and the Administration and see how many other tax cheats we have.” Works for me.

UPDATE: Dan Riehl notes that Daschle was providing advice on “issues related to taxes” to Alston & Bird clients. Heh. I can see the meeting now: “Just say ‘I forgot.'” . . . .

A 10% CUT AT THE PENTAGON? Well, most of those folks didn’t vote for him, after all.

CHARLES DARWIN, abolitionist.

GAZA UPDATE: ‘Palestinians’ get SMS’s to evacuate their homes.

YUM! Bacon-flavored jelly beans!