C.J. BURCH ON THE WAPO access-selling scandal: “When a journalist says something now don’t you have to wonder who paid him to say it and why? And until you figure that out isn’t what the journalist says suspect, whether you happen to love him or hate him or even agree with him on policy issues? Aren’t we past the point of giving the benefit of the doubt to journalists?”

Upside — maybe we can pay them to cover actual news. It’s a thought!

WATERING THE PLANTS: Town Hall Plants Take 2: Once Again… All of the Audience Members Called On By Obama Were Supporters.

JOHN NOLTE REVIEWS The Hurt Locker. “Katherine Bigelow’s direction of ‘The Hurt Locker’ is masterful and might very well place her back where she belongs, at the top of anyone’s list looking for a top-shelf action director. But that’s not enough to save the film from episodic plotting, jarring and unnecessary political statements, a troubling depiction of our troops and an even worse portrayal of the Iraqi people. This is a movie you want to like, but an unsettling after-taste lingers long after the thrill of the set-pieces fades.”

DESPERATELY SEEKING SILVER LININGS:

Have you noticed a change in the economic news over the past year or so? It’s a deliberately ambiguous question: The actual news has gotten worse, but the coverage of it has changed in tone. Today, reporters are eagerly looking for the light at the end of the tunnel. A year ago, and for a long time before that, they couldn’t wait to get into the tunnel.

What changed? Yeah, like you need to ask.

People have been joking about the “state-controlled media,” but in fact it’s worse — a real state-controlled media might be forced to maintain at least a pretense of objectivity and balance . . . .

THOUGHTS ON SNARK.

BUT THANKS FOR THE VOTES AND MONEY, SUCKERS! Obama deputy campaign manager abandons DOMA & DADT as priorities. Is this the hope and change you were waiting for?

But Chris Geidner offers reassurance to the faithful. Who’ll turn out to be right? We’ll see, but in my experience the “extremists” who distrust Obama — on both right and left — seem to have the better track record so far . . .

JUSTIN BINIK-THOMAS sends this picture from the Madeira, Ohio Tea Party, currently in progress. He says there are “hundreds” present.

FROM PHIL VALENTINE, a campaign to give the Senate some balls.

STUFF TO KNOW before jumping from XP to Windows 7.

JUST TO BE CLEAR, I don’t think the Instapundit feed on Twitter is any sort of a scam. I think it was just set up by someone trying to help. I just want to upgrade it and need the keys. I figured it would be easier to ask the person who set it up for me first, rather than going through Twitter.

EATING IN FRANCE, DYING INSIDE. My experiences have been better, but I’ve never actually lived there.

HYBRID ANYTHING? Retrofit kit that turns ordinary cars into plug-in hybrids. Sounds too good to be true, but I hope it pans out.

ADVICE ON PHOTOGRAPHING FIREWORKS.

WHY ISN’T AMERICA HIRING? “America isn’t hiring precisely because of government policy. Small business owners, who are usually the first into and the first out of the job pool, are standing by the fence and watching. They are paralyzed by regulatory uncertainty. If they hire someone who ends up doing poorly, will they be able to fire that person? Will they have to pay their health care bills after they’ve been terminated? If so, for how long? Who will pay for all these stimulus checks? If it will turn out to be small business, why would they hire instead of keeping costs low to prepare for the big tax bill? Where will the market move? Are you in the right business or are your clients in a politically disfavored industry? . . . Jobs aren’t languishing despite the government’s best efforts. They’re languishing because of them.” Read the whole thing.

Employment numbers certainly aren’t living up to Obama’s “stimulus” promises.

JIM GERAGHTY: “This Fourth of July, a lot of grassroots activists will be holding their second round of tea parties - 612 at last count. If you attend one this weekend, go, enjoy yourself, get fired up, take reassurance and confidence that you’re not alone. But, if I may make a recommendation, try to walk away with something of a plan. . . . Hopefully, Tea Partiers this weekend will come away with plans to attend city council meetings, Congress member’s meet-and-greets, their town-hall meetings with constituents. Don’t be rude, but be firm.” Good advice.

NEW RESEARCH ON telomerase, stem cells, and cancer.

ONLY 25 BUCKS for a hand-cranked emergency radio/flashlight/cellphone charger.

UPDATE: Not anymore — “dynamic pricing” strikes!

ASK DR. HELEN: The Insta-Wife on depression, the Internet, and the benefits of a “caveman” approach to life. She talks with Dr. Stephen Ilardi, author of The Depression Cure: The 6-step Program to Beat Depression Without Drugs.

FORGET GREEN SHOOTS: They’re just weeds.

REPUBLICANS blame Obama for job losses. Well, it’s not what he promised when the stimulus was up for a vote, is it?

WHEW! 1.2 Billion People To Be Cleared of Potential Sodomy Charges.

MICHAEL TOTTEN interviews Robert Kaplan.

WAPO RESPONDS to access-selling story. Flier was not “properly vetted.”

UPDATE: White House denies involvement.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Kurtz weighs in. “Washington Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth today canceled plans for a series of policy dinners at her home after learning that marketing fliers offered lobbyists access to Obama administration officials, members of Congress and Post journalists in exchange for payments as high as $250,000.” (Bumped).

OBAMA, STIMULUS, AND UNEMPLOYMENT: What was promised, vs. what has happened. Just keep this disparity in mind when you read their health-care projections . . . .

HOPING FOR CHANGE: Honduran Democracy Protesters Bash Obama and CNN. “Thousands of Hondurans protested in support of democracy, the military and the Micheletti government this week in Honduras. The US media has been ignoring these protests.”

BORED OF THE SAME OLD HORMONES FOR INCREASING MUSCLE MASS? You’re in luck! “Mechano Growth Factor (MGF) could become the next rage for athletic dopers.” On the other hand, the actual research shows that it’s promising for treating age-related muscle loss, which is very important.

PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE ON Wal-Mart and Health Care.

MOSTLY JUST A MARKETING GIMMICK: Some airlines adding airbags to first-class seats.

THE TOP TEN manly movie deaths. (Via Tigerhawk).

WOULD WHOEVER SET UP THE INSTAPUNDIT TWITTER FEED drop me a note? (No, I didn’t do it, it just appeared.)

FIVE CLIMATE STUDIES that don’t live up to their hype.

IN THE MAIL: From John Ringo, Eye Of The Storm.

REASON TV ON LIBERALS, CONSERVATIVES AND THE BILL OF RIGHTS.

OUCH: Time Mag: Dying Nation Loses Self in Michael Jackson Trivia.

STIMULUS! Obama To Hold Job Performance Review With Every American Worker.

Obama To Hold Job Performance Review With Every American Worker

CALIFORNIA ON BRINK OF issuing IOUs. Maybe they should consult a state whose budget isn’t a pathetic travesty and see if they can pick up some pointers.

IS OVERREGULATION killing entrepreneurship in America?

POLITICO: Washington Post sells access, $25,000+

For $25,000 to $250,000, The Washington Post is offering lobbyists and association executives off-the-record, nonconfrontational access to “those powerful few” — Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and the paper’s own reporters and editors. The astonishing offer is detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health care lobbyist, who provided it to a reporter because the lobbyist said he feels it’s a conflict for the paper to charge for access to, as the flier says, its “health care reporting and editorial staff.”

The offer — which essentially turns a news organization into a facilitator for private lobbyist-official encounters — is a new sign of the lengths to which news organizations will go to find revenue at a time when most newspapers are struggling for survival.

And it’s a turn of the times that a lobbyist is scolding The Washington Post for its ethical practices.

Ouch. But note that we haven’t heard the Post’s side of it yet.

UPDATE: Here’s the response. News people say business people were off the reservation.

MORE REPORTING ON THE NEW YORK CITY TEA PARTY, and be sure to read this critique, too. To succeed, the Tea Party movement needs to remain true to the grassroots, and move beyond rallies to concrete — and locally-focused — political and electoral action. Some, of course, are already doing that.

UPDATE: Reader Sam Hamman writes: “Is there a website that shows where all the tea parties will be held? Specifically AZ and CA.” Try TeaPartyPatriots.org. Use the “Find An Event” button at the upper right. Also, check these news stories.

RAND SIMBERG ON robot dogs and the space future he looked forward to as a kid.

UNEMPLOYMENT HITS 9.5%, highest since 1983. “I wonder what effect this economy will have on today’s graduating seniors? I bet they learn to be very competitive and aggressive and that those habits stick with them for the rest of their careers. The college class of 2009 is going to have it rough, but that will make them tough.”

Meanwhile, how’s that “stimulus” working out?

YEAH, BUT NIXON DIDN’T GET THE SAME COOPERATION FROM THE “CONTROLLED:” Helen Thomas: Not Even Nixon Tried to Control the Media Like Obama.

BOMBERS throughout history.

HOWARD KURTZ: Black Reporters on the Beat of Michelle Obama: Does Race Play a Role in Coverage? What about gender? All the names I see are women. It would be sexist to assign only men to cover Barack, wouldn’t it?

UPDATE: Reader Richard Palmer writes: “Imagine the reporting on Sarah Palin if she were covered by only pro-life, church-going, mothers who live in small towns. I guess that’s why she didn’t have many ‘girlfriend to girlfriend’ moments with the press.”

HEH: Quick! Spend the money before the taxpayers find out! That’s pretty much the motto for this Congress, isn’t it?

IOWAHAWK: Virgin-Americans Vow Fight Against Cap-and-Trade’s Blood Sacrifice Amendment. Heh.

HAIL, ANTS: I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords. “A single mega-colony of ants has colonised much of the world, scientists have discovered.”

A CALL FOR separation of economy and state.

WHO RAILROADED the Amtrak Inspector General.

CYBER-SCARE: Are fears of digital attacks exaggerated?

MEGAN MCARDLE REPORTS FROM ASPEN: “The questions for Goolsbee are much more hostile than they were last year. I don’t know whether to attribute this to the economy, or the fact that the disadvantages of Obama’s policies are now apparent.”

ABOVE THE LAW: Memo to the New York Times: NY Law School is not NYU Law School.

NAVY ELECTRICIAN gets Marines wired.

IRANIAN REVOLUTION (DAY NINETEEN): A roundup at the Berman Post.

I’M SHOCKED, SHOCKED: Rigged? ‘Suspicious’ Iranian ballot papers show name Ahmadinejad scrawled in same handwriting.

MOE LANE: A friendly suggestion to former McCain campaign staffers.

DANIEL JACOBSON: Hands Off Honduras.

HEALTH CARE stagecraft.

KARL MALDEN has died.

MORE TEA PARTY PROTESTS: South Bend, and Laurel, MS. Plus, a big report on the Times Square Tea Party, at The Berman Post. Lots of pictures.

BURIED SECRETS, written in bone.

AFRICA ALONE COULD FEED THE WORLD. But it never will, so long as it’s run by inept kleptocrats.

ATLANTA TEA PARTY BACK ON: “When Atlanta’s major Tea Party scheduled for July 4 at Gwinnett Mall was cancelled by Gwinnett Place Mall of Simon Company, organizers of various freedom groups rallied to sponsor a Tea Party event at the State Capitol in Atlanta. The Atlanta Freedom Rally & Tea Party will be held on Saturday, July 4, from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the Georgia State Capitol at 206 Washington Street SW.”

FROM HERITAGE, some Tea Party talking points.

MELISSA CLOUTHIER TELLS US what women want.

A TIMES SQUARE TEA PARTY REPORT from reader Lisa Fleischman: “Deroy Murdock speaks - asks ‘Do I look like a racist redneck teabagger to you?’. The crowd yells NO! And Murdock says; ‘We’ll, you don’t look like racist redneck teabaggers to me either.’”

UPDATE: Here’s another picture, sent by cellphone.

CAR LUST: Remembering the 1957 Chevrolets.

JACK LAIL: The Internet Age That Vanished. Yeah, my old columns for Nando.net are long gone.

TIM CAVANAUGH: Deadbeat: Not Just A Circumstance, A State of Mind. “When you take deadbeats and give them a free opportunity to get out of contractual obligations they willingly signed before God and country, a fairly reliable majority of them — and often a fillibuster-proof 60+ percent — end up deadbeating again. . . . So if these borrowers really are honest citizens who just need help getting back on their feet, the percentage of redefaulting loans should be going down, not up. That’s not the case, because they are not honest citizens. They’re deadbeats, and it’s time to stop pretending they can be anything else.”

MORE RECIPEBLOGGING: A reader says that this recipe makes a nice side-dish for the Mahi Mahi recipe I posted yesterday. “Just tried this last night. Big hit. Yummy and refreshing. Easy on the ‘dressing’; I didn’t use it all….maybe even serve it on the side.”

INSTAVISION: I talk with Texas Governor Rick Perry about comparative state economies, the Tea Party movement, Janeane Garafolo, and more. And yes, that’s the Knoxville skyline behind me (Sunsphere on the left) and no, I wasn’t really atop the 11th St. parking garage for this show . . . .

DOG BITES MAN: Obama Will Filter Questions for Virginia Town Hall.

SCRIPTING AND PRESS COVERAGE: Bush’s “town halls” vs. Obama’s town halls. “Both White Houses are entitled to hold such events, which are inherently and sensibly orchestrated to benefit each executive. The press is right to note that fact while reporting them. Odd that the Times chose to do that only for the Bush administration, huh?”

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

SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK: TYRANNOSAURUS DEBT!

Lyrics here.

COOL SEARCH ENGINES that are not Google.

BROWN SHOOTS: U.S. Companies Cut Payrolls by 473,000. Plus, U.S. mortgage applications fall to 7-month low. Perhaps the Obama folks overhyped the impact of the stimulus just a bit.

WANT TO LIVE TO BE 1,000? Some things to do right now. Because you’ve got to live long enough for the long-life technologies to become available. . . .

MAKING DON’T ASK DON’T TELL more humane?

WIRED: Does Iran’s Green Movement Need U.S. Aid?

LUNAR NEWS: Kaguya Spots Uranium, Raising Hope of Nuclear-Powered Lunar Colonies. Of course, at current rates of progress they’ll be Chinese lunar colonies.

THOUGHTS ON the software of civilization.

WORRIED ABOUT YOUR TEETH? Teeth whiteners are okay, but watch out for that orange juice.

INCREASING SKEPTICISM on electric cars?

THE IMPORTANCE OF carrying out “the wishes of the President.” Hey, he won.

GEE, DO YOU THINK? David Freddoso: Brace Yourself for Higher Taxes.

THE WAGES OF CHAVISMO: The Honduran coup is a reaction to Chávez’s rule by the mob.

MORE POSITIVE NEWS ABOUT STATINS. Of course, they have downsides, too.

MICHAEL BARONE: The Republican Party is going to have a hard time coming up with a strong presidential nominee in 2012.

RED-LIGHT CAMERA NEWS: Chicago ‘burb ditches red light cameras, no safety advantage. Indeed. (Thanks to reader Aron Spencer for the link). My earlier thoughts on the subject are here.

A SMALL VICTORY: NyQuil Survives Nanny State Police, For Now.

BOB ZUBRIN IN ROLL CALL: The Costs of the Cap-and-Trade Bill. “Consider: Burning one ton of coal produces about three tons of CO2. So a tax of $15 per ton of CO2 emitted is equivalent to a tax of $45/ton on coal. The price of Eastern anthracite coal runs in the neighborhood of $45/ton, so under the proposed system, such coal would be taxed at a rate of about 100 percent. The price of Western bituminous coal is currently about $12/ton. This coal would therefore be taxed at a rate of almost 400 percent. Coal provides half of America’s electricity, so such extraordinary imposts could easily double the electric bills paid by consumers and businesses across half the nation. . . . But all these bad aspects of the Waxman-Markey bill pale before its potential impact on the world’s food supply.”

DESTROYING TUMORS with computer-guided nanoparticles. Faster, please.

IN THE MAIL: The Ivy Portfolio: How to Invest Like the Top Endowments and Avoid Bear Markets.

UPDATE: Bad timing?

ANOTHER UPDATE: Mebane Faber emails:

A big thanks for the book mention!

Just to be clear, the book only uses the endowments as a starting point. We published a paper in 2007 that would have protected investors from the bear markets of 2008/09 (it’s Chapter 7 in the book). So while Yale and Harvard got hammered last year, our clients and readers should have been just fine. The paper is now the 10th most read paper on SSRN, so hopefully a lot of investors implemented it before the crash.

Interesting.

MORE: Faber emails: “PS Here is the performance for the strategy though 08.”

LITHUANIANS ON THE MOON: Michael Yon posts a dispatch from Afghanistan.

JULIAN KU: Is Obama Really Hypocritical on Signing Statements? Yup. “Hypocrisy is a strong charge. On the other hand, Obama explicitly denounced the ‘theory of George Bush that he can make laws as he is going along’ by using signing statements and then flatly promised not to use any such statements when in office. . . . Is there any defense for Obama? Not really.” Video at the link. Plus, Harold Koh, Kathleen Sullivan, Charlie Savage and other Bush-signing-statement critics are accused, too. I guess it’s only a matter of fierce moral urgency when there’s a Republican president . . . .

UPDATE: Savage responds in the comments, and calls my link above “characteristically vacuous.” I think that’s journo-speak for an accurate report from a blog, since all I did was report Ku’s post accurately. But see Savage’s response for his argument that he has not, in fact, been hypocritical.

And nice to know you’re reading, Mr. Savage.

THIS WOULD MAKE ME HAPPY, IF IT’S TRUE: Barry Goldwater’s Revenge: The Libertarian Shift Among American Republicans.

MICHAEL BARONE: Firefighter Case Shows Seamy Side of Racial Politics.

WOMEN SOLDIERS COME IN HANDY in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In both Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. Army and Marines found it useful to send a female soldier along on raids, as it was less disruptive to have a woman search the female civilians. There was no shortage of volunteers for this duty. The marines, as is their custom, saw more opportunities in this. Thus the marines began sending a team of women on such missions. . . . What the marines had also noticed was that the female marines tended to get useful information out of the women they searched. Iraqi women were surprised, and often awed, when they encountered these female soldiers and marines. The awe often turned into cooperation. Most Iraqi women are much less enthusiastic about fighting the Americans than their men folk (who die in large numbers when they do so.) Being a widow is much harder in the Arab world than it is in the West.

Read the whole thing.

HEH: Poll: Majority of Minnesota Voters No Longer Remember Who They Voted For.