A.P. REPORTER GLEN JOHNSON: “RUDE AND UGLY.” Hey, it’s only sheer good luck that he wasn’t outright murderous!

DO HOUSE REPUBLICANS “GET IT?” I hope so, but “hope” is the operative word.

CALIFORNIA BUDGET BLUES. “But lost in the furor is any self-reflection, such as why would UC Davis recently pay John Edwards, multimillionaire trial lawyer, $50,000 plus to give a brief lecture on poverty? Such questions are never answered, much less raised, since the problem is always framed as a matter of a shortage of income, never a surfeit of unnecessary expenditure. . . . At some point we Californians should ask ourselves, how we inherited a state with near perfect weather, the world’s richest agriculture, plentiful timber, minerals, and oil, two great ports at Los Angeles and Oakland, a natural tourist industry from Carmel to Yosemite, industries such as Silicon Valley, Hollywood, and aerospace—and serially managed to turn all of that into the nation’s largest penal system, periodic near bankruptcy, and sky-high taxes.”

SOMEHOW, I THINK THIS WAS OBAMA’S PLAN ALL ALONG: “John Edwards and Hillary Rodham Clinton criticized Barack Obama’s praise of the Republican Party and Ronald Reagan – an anathema for many Democrats, particularly union members considered crucial to winning Nevada’s Democratic caucuses Saturday.”

PAUL STARR WARNS DEMOCRATS THAT they can still blow the election. Luckily for them, they only have to run against the Republicans, or they’d really be in trouble. . . .

HOW TO write a novel in two months (while still blogging).

THOUGHTS ON men, women, and retirement.

UPDATE: Somehow, I’m reminded of this Maureen Dowd column from 2001.

TALIBAN WEBSITES hosted in the U.S.?

REWIRING YOUR BRAIN to support multitasking. I’m pretty sure I’ve done that . . . .

BUSH’S STIMULUS PLAN. Compare to Hillary’s.

Plus, criticism of “stimulus” plans from the Republican Study Committee. I’ll just note that there are worse things than recessions, and trying too hard to stop one may be worse than letting the business cycle run its course.

UPDATE: I’m reminded of these 2001 words of wisdom from Andrea See: “This story reads like the government’s trying to be comforting about the economic trough we’re in. Anyone with half a brain (and did a basic class in economics) would know economies move in cycles. We’ve had the high point, now it’s time for the low. Sucks as it does, it really needs to happen.”

FRED THOMPSON RESPONDS TO HUCKABEE on the Constitution.

UPDATE: Eugene Volokh defends Huckabee.

JAY GRODNER UPDATE: The anti-military lawyer who keyed a Marine’s car had his day in court and it wasn’t pretty. Blackfive has the story.

THOMAS EDSALL: Will the GOP blindside the Dems on national security?

Hmm. Blindside? How can it be blindsiding when, as Edsall says, “Republicans are making no secret of their intentions in the general election.” I guess if you take advantage of a national-security blind spot, you can still blindside, even without secrecy. None is so blind as he who will not see . . . .

UPDATE: Related thoughts here.

RON BAILEY: “I can remember in the 1980s when all the ‘smart’ folks were panicked about the Japanese buying up all the best real estate such as the Rockefeller Center. The American sellers laughed all the way to the bank in that deal. Sheesh!”

SOMEWHERE, T.M. LUTAS IS SAYING I TOLD YOU SO: “Iraq’s army and police could be ready to take over security in all 18 provinces by the end of this year as the U.S. military moves toward a less prominent role in the country, U.S. officials said on Thursday.”

Well, he’s got more reason than most.

“MAD COW” DISEASE: The 21st Century’s Swine Flu?

High numbers of future deaths in the UK from the human form of mad cow disease are unlikely, researchers have said.

The Imperial College team calculate there will be around 70 future deaths.

They say the worst case scenario could see another 600 deaths, but that this is unlikely.

(Via An Englishman’s Castle).

JONAH GOLDBERG IS CURRENTLY #1 on Amazon. I hope he sends a nice thank-you note to all the lefty bloggers who have been savaging him. I don’t think he could have done it without them!

BYLINES OF BRUTALITY: “As Casualties Mount, Some Question The Emotional Stability of Media Vets.”

MATTHEW YGLESIAS WRITES:

One thing that doesn’t get talked about enough is that people in Washington are pretty out of touch with the basic economic picture in the United States. Not in the usual, pat, pseudo-populist “oh you’re out of touch” sense but in a pretty literal one — the DC metro area is both quite affluent and economically unusual.

That’s right, notwithstanding the D.C. area housing bust. But the difference is even greater than Yglesias suggests. Bad news for the country is usually good news for the DC area, since it tends to promote more government programs and spending, meaning more jobs not so much for government workers as for lobbyists, contractors, and other hangers-on, And journalists and pundits!

In the comments, people talk about different parts of the country and how they’re doing. Around Knoxville, things aren’t too bad. Houses aren’t selling very fast, but in my opinion that’s partly because people are asking too much. In a development near me, people are trying to sell houses that they bought a couple of years ago for $300-350K for over $400K. They’re actually asking more, in some cases, than the developer is asking for brand-new houses in the neighborhood; the brand-new houses, meanwhile, seem to still be selling. Meanwhile, I see lots of help-wanted signs. Things may slow down, but at the moment it’s certainly not visible to the casual observer. In other places — Cleveland, for example, or Detroit — it certainly is.

EZRA LEVANT UPDATE: The suicide of reason in Canada.

AMY ALKON: “For people who are supposedly about seeing women ‘as people first,’ these feminists sure are all about pussy!”

RAND SIMBERG WRITES in defense of (Fred Thompson’s) laziness. “As an engineer, I’m extremely impressed with his efficiency. “

MORE ON why beer is good for you.

HOW CAN YOU TELL THE DIFFERENCE? “Max Sawicky’s old blog, now manned by new faces, is apparently no longer specializing in passionately and unapologetically left-wing heterodox economics. Now they just spout random nonsense.”

HOWARD KURTZ: “I just got back from Michigan and South Carolina, so I’m prepared to share my insights on how the Republican race is going. . . . Journalists are ticked off because the Republican race is defying our attempts to wrap it into a nice, neat narrative. This is what we do for a living. And if we can’t say what’s going on, who needs us? You could get just as good a take from your Uncle Harry.” Yep!