TESTING POLITICAL TOLERANCE at a Chicago school.

CZARS we can believe in?

THIS SOUNDS KIND OF COOL: “Have you ever noticed how a carry-on designed to hold a weekend change of clothes, toiletries and a magazine can end up weighing nearly as much as a checked bag when it is stuffed with electronic devices AND their individual chargers? If you are a gadget head I’ll assume you are nodding your head right now. The iGo everywhereMAX multi-device charger has the potential for lightening this load.” Of course, so would some standardization by consumer-electronics manufacturers, but good luck with that . . . .

HOW SARAH PALIN nearly saved McCain.

NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: More on nanotechnology safety. And more on that subject here.

HOW POTENT A FORCE FOR PEACE IS PRESIDENT BUSH? Sarkozy had only to mention his name to stop Putin in his tracks!

DALE CARPENTER: “Simultaneous protests are planned for small and large cities in all 50 states tomorrow in reaction to the passage of Prop 8 in California. The sites of the protests will be government buildings — mostly city halls and other municipal facilities. (Mormon churches, I’m pleased to say, are not on the target list for tomorrow’s events.)” Locations are here.

ANOTHER DIY ELECTRIC CAR based on a Bradley GT chassis.

WOW: Six Agencies Illegally Scoured Joe the Plumber’s Records for Dirt, Including Office of the Attorney General, So That Information Could Be Turned Over to National Media.

HMM: Trial delayed for UT student charged with hacking Palin e-mail. He has an excellent lawyer representing him.

MEGAN MCARDLE ON TALK OF AN AUTO BAILOUT: “I do think that the UAW is perhaps the grossest example of something toxic about what a lot of American unions have turned into. . . . First, after the unions have put companies into an untenable position, they come to the rest of us looking for a handout to continue the unsustainable levels of pay and benefits. Almost everyone I know makes less than an autoworker, and has a whole lot less job security. Why should they pay autoworkers for the privilege of making cars no one wants?”

POLITICO: Ron Klain arrives with K Street roots.

KATHERINE MANGU-WARD: When is a mainstream publisher also an anti-authoritarian propagandist? When it publishes science fiction.

A “MORE MONETIZED PLAY MODEL” for some videogames?

PETER ROBINSON ON the decline of economic liberty. Well, liberals don’t believe in it any more, and Republicans (e.g., John McCain) seem increasingly ashamed of it. And we libertarians can’t carry the whole load ourselves . . . .

THOUGHTS ON campaign contribution disclosure and technological change.

DON SURBER:

Question: What fuels college tuition inflation?

Answer: Student loans. From the Chronicle for Higher Education: “The volume of private loans shrank by $173-million, or about 1 percent, to $19.1-billion in 2007-8. That decline reverses years of double-digit growth and does not reflect the recent credit crunch. At the same time, the volume of federal loans rose by 6 percent after inflation.”

You have a volatile mix: Inexperienced borrowers, federally guaranteed lenders and the biggest sharks in capitalism: College presidents. Hence, the double-digit inflation in price.

Well, I don’t know if they’re the biggest sharks, but . . . oh, hell, who am I kidding?

MORE THOUGHTS ON TALK OF AN AUTO BAILOUT:

Here’s a stat from my friend, blogger Mark Perry: Total compensation per hour for the big-three carmakers is $73.20. That’s a 52 percent differential from Toyota’s (Detroit South) $48 compensation (wages + health and retirement benefits). In fact, the oversized UAW-driven pay package for Detroit is 132 percent higher than that of the entire manufacturing sector of the U.S., which comes in at $31.59.

I don’t care how much money Congress throws at GM. With that kind of oversized comp-package they are not gonna be competitive.

Yes, they should be forced to drop compensation to the level of the successful foreign auto-manufacturing businesses in America.

UPDATE: Would it help things to accelerate this UAW concession agreement, which isn’t supposed to start until 2010? It’s a start, anyway. (Thanks to reader Will Brantingham for the link).

IS THE SIXTH CIRCUIT OVERRULING MIRANDA? Judge Merritt, for whom I clerked, is reportedly quite upset.

JESSE WALKER: “If I were a Republican, I’d ignore the inane Palin debate and start looking around for a politician who had the good sense to break with the bipartisan consensus and oppose the bailout bill before it passed. Then I’d start planning an insurgency.”

CHRIS MATTHEWS LOOKING FORWARD TO THE “FORD VOLT?” Hardball duo completely fumble American green car discussion. But are they any better on politics? . . . .

THE TROUBLE WITH RAY NAGIN: “Three years and another hurricane later he’s facing a different flood—of crime, corruption, and scandal—and this time there’s no FEMA to blame.”

HMM: ACLU Town Hall Designed To Pressure Obama.

Can they try to do something about Joe Biden’s dumb R.A.V.E. Act, too? I mean, it’s worth a shot. . . .

GOOD NEWS: Indian Space Probe Lands on Moon.

OBAMA’S “VERY BAD START:” How a promising leader turned into the playground bully — overnight!