I’M SHOCKED AT THIS ACT OF POLITICAL INFIDELITY: “The New York State chapter of the National Organization for Women attacked Ted Kennedy for his endorsement today with some real heat. . . . ‘Women have just experienced the ultimate betrayal. Senator Kennedy’s endorsement of Hillary Clinton’s opponent in the Democratic presidential primary campaign has really hit women hard.'”

KILL HILL?

MORE ON THE BENEFITS OF exercise and booze.

OUR ORWELLIAN CLASS.

TAKING THE X-PRIZE APPROACH TO A NEW LEVEL: Billion-dollar prizes for big problems.

READER RICK GIOVANELLI SENDS THIS STORY ON THE ECONOMY from The New York Times and observes, “Don’t you wish Vegas or the online markets would let you bet on things like the number of articles linking a weak economy to President Bush compared to the number of articles (approximately zero) linking him to the strong economy of the past 4-5 years?”

You don’t bet on certainties. But I’m reminded of a passage from Mark Penn’s book on how the media treated the economy in 1992:

I have found over the years that there is often a huge disconnect between belief about the economy and the true economic state of affairs. Until the statistics are actually published, people tend to assess the economy through the eyes of the national media. In 1992, when Bill Clinton won the presidency based on worries about the economy, the statistics that came out after the election showed that the period leading up to November had actually been a period of record growth. . . . In his 1996 State of the Union speech, President Clinton said we had the best economy in thirty years — a statement that sent a flurry of reporters to check actual statistics rather than popular political movements and sweeping, politically motivated statements. The more people looked at the facts, the more they agreed, and six months later, there was near-unanimity that the economy was in good shape. Had the economy changed? No, what had changed was knowledge about the true facts of the economy.

Hmm. Regardless of the data, we get bad economic “news” when there’s a Republican in the White House., and good economic “news” when a Democrat is running for reelection. Perhaps that New York Times headline — “Echo of First Bush” — is more accurate than I first thought . . . .

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: Bush announces the order:

On Tuesday, President Bush will issue an Executive Order directing Federal agencies to ignore any future earmark that is not voted on and included in a law approved by Congress. This will effectively end the common practice of concealing earmarks in so-called report language instead of placing them in the actual text of the bill. This means earmarks will be subject to votes, which will better expose them to the light of day and help constrain excessive and unjustified spending.

The Executive Order will provide that with regard to all future appropriations laws and other legislation enacted into law, executive agencies will not commit, obligate, or expend funds on the basis of earmarks from any non-statutory source, including requests included in congressional committee reports or other congressional documents, or communications from or on behalf of Members of Congress, or any other non-statutory source, except when required by law, or when an agency itself decides that a project or other transaction has merit under statutory criteria or other merit-based decision-making.

Good for him. If he’d done this in 2005, of course, the GOP might have kept its majority. But this is still the right thing to do.

UPDATE: Mark Tapscott calls it an empty gesture because it applies only to future bills. Not quite empty, but not enough.

LEONARD DAVID notes some planetary defense lessons from recent asteroid flybys.

FROM ROGER KIMBALL, thoughts on being an idolatrous infidel.

THE TRUTH ABOUT JENA: “Why America’s black-and-white narratives about race don’t reflect reality.”

TOOLMONGER is a blog that’s — I guess this is no surprise, given the name — all about tools. Here’s their Top 5 List for this week.

IMMIGRATION PUSHBACK FOR HILLARY: “Immigrant-rights advocates and some Latino leaders are voicing concern at Senator Clinton’s campaign-trail rhetoric about swiftly deporting immigrants with a criminal past.”

ARTHUR CHRENKOFF analyzes news coverage from Iraq.

BREAKING OPEC: Bob Zubrin has an oped in The Rocky Mountain News. Read it!

BAD NEWS FOR OBAMA: Tony Rezko has been arrested.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: A 12-step program for Earmark Withdrawal? This sounds promising:

As every reformed addict knows, the road to recovery is long and hard. So it is for Republicans who became addicted to spending “earmarks” while running Congress, lost their majority in large part because of it, and are now struggling with mixed results to dry out.

Their latest halting effort in what appears to be at least a 12-step recovery plan will come tonight, when President Bush uses his State of the Union address to lay down his toughest anti-earmarking pledge to date. We’re told he will tell Congress that he will veto any fiscal 2009 spending bill that doesn’t cut earmarks in half from 2008 levels. He will also report that he is issuing a Presidential order informing executive departments that from now on they should refuse to fund earmarks that aren’t explicitly mentioned in statutory language.

Read the whole thing. It’s progress. Too bad he didn’t do this years ago. But still, it’s progress.

ISSUES FOR THE TRUSTEES of large, wealthy universities.

A LOOK AT AMERICA’S first criminal domestic violence court. Back in 1946.

PREVENTING OVARIAN CANCER, with birth control pills.

I DIDN’T REALIZE THAT AL GORE was visiting China.

THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION ON female genital mutilation.

THE FINAL MISSION: Michael Totten posts a new report from Fallujah.

BILL QUICK: “A McCain-Huckabee ticket? That’s a guaranteed write-in for Fred Thompson from me.”

Yeah. Unlike Bill, I can handle McCain. But not Huckabee. He’s Jimmy Carter all over again, though admittedly without the cat-killing.

MORE ON CHEAP, CORN-FREE ETHANOL: Bring it on.

MICKEY KAUS: “McCain seems to have conned a lot of Republicans into thinking he’s transformed his position on immigration.”