FASTER, PLEASE: Moving from Pill-size to bacteria sized robots for surgery and in-body therapies.

ERIC SCHEIE on the value of a “corporate firewall of incompetence.”

HOW DO YOU CUT INCOME TAX FOR 95%, when over a third pay no income tax at all?

WHAT’S WRONG with fighting for plumbers?

Plumbers do important work. Politicians work to be important . . .

UPDATE: Bob Krumm thinks attacking Joe the Plumber was a big mistake. Maybe, maybe not, but these people can’t help themselves — it’s what they do. McCain should try to get an endorsement from some cute puppies, next. . . .

YET ANOTHER JOE THE PLUMBER WITH DOUBTS ABOUT OBAMA: “Joe Shanks, a licensed master plumber and owner of Joe’s Plumbing Service in the Cedar Bluff area, has followed the presidential campaigns the same as his much-quoted counterpart in Toledo, Ohio, who questioned Democratic Sen. Barack Obama over his proposed tax hike for those who make more than $250,000 a year. Shanks, an independent voter, said he’s supporting Republican Sen. John McCain, citing the official’s career experience in office as the deciding factor for him. . . . Shanks likened the decision to a homeowner in need of a plumber – would you hire the guy who just got his trade license, he asked, or a seasoned professional?”

I wonder how many other Joe the Plumber types are out there?

BILL WHITTLE’S AFTERBURNER: Don’t Give Up.

IN FORBES, CLAUDIA ROSETT NOTES THAT we’re not actually on the eve of destruction. Unless we start listening to the folks who have been wrong for decades. Well, good. I think.

DANNY GLOVER: The press and the plumber. They’ve done more investigations into Joe the Plumber in 24 hours than they’ve done on Barack Obama in two years . . . .

UPDATE: Related thoughts here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Alex Bensky emails: “Remember when the Clintons asked the media to lay off Chelsea and they did? I actually thought it showed that the msm were not entirely without principles or ethics. However, not only is Joe the Plumber better investigated than Obama, but we’ve heard more about Bristol Palin in the last couple of months than we heard about Chelsea during the entire Clinton administration.”

MORE: A reader emails:

The harassment of Joe the plumber is the singular biggest mistake of the Obama campaign. The MSM is making Joe a martyr. Heck, DKos just published Joe’s home address. Obama is now not only a Marxist but a Marxist bully – just another Chicago thug. America roots for the underdog and they will not take this action kindly. If Joe were a hero yesterday, wait a few days.

Obi Wan’s line in Star Wars when fighting Darth Vader comes to mind – “Strike me down and I will return more powerful than you can possibly imagine.” Americans will realize what happened to Joe could easily happen to them. And they will remember this come November.

Well, we’ll know soon enough. And reader Donald Gately emails: “Joe the Plumber is the new Linda Tripp, apparently. What I find really fascinating is the fact that the media elites are treating Joe the Plumber as if he is the one who is out of step with mainstream America, while Bill Ayers is an ‘Eagle Scout’ (as per Tom Frank).” I’d missed the Tom Frank bit, but I take the point.

Plus, “exterminate all the brutes.” And also, inside the tanning-bed media. “There is a stench of desperation surrounding this, as if they sense defeat coming from a moment of honesty from Obama about his real intentions to institute a regime of redistribution. They want to discredit the man who only asked the question as if he’s some political operative who magically forced Obama to sound … well, a little like a Marxist. Why? They want to distract people from Obama’s answer by sliming the man Obama picked at random to ask a question. . . . The Tanning-Bed Media seems to feel that they have a duty to expose every last part of Wurzelbacher’s life, but that asking Obama to explain his political partnerships with Tony Rezko and William Ayers, and his long friendship and financial support of rabid demagogues Jeremiah Wright and Michael Pfleger, are not just out of bounds but downright racist.” Whatever it takes.

AUTHORITIES SHUT DOWN a major spam ring.

JACK NEELY LOOKS AT political diversity in Knoxville.

JAMES PETHOKOUKIS: Did Barack “Spread the Wealth” Obama Just Blow the Election? Probably not, but I agree with Pethokoukis that the race is closer than some people are making it sound.

And I noticed the Huey Long angle, too.

A GOOGLE MAP showing the distribution of earmarks in Washington state. Something like this should accompany every spending bill, with everything tagged by sponsor, as well. (Via Andy Roth).

THE COMING CONSERVATIVE RENAISSANCE? Well, it’s about time, I guess.

IS THE RED/BLUE DIVIDE overstated?

AP: FBI investigates ACORN for voter fraud.

JOE THE PLUMBER: They told me that if George W. Bush were re-elected, people would be punished for speaking truth to power. And they were right!

BIGGER, FASTER, stronger.

OKAY, MAYBE I’M RUNNING THE WHOLE Vice-President-as-legislator issue into the ground. But a reader sends this bit from the West Point admissions page:

Each Member of Congress has five cadetships or vacancies at the Military Academy. They may nominate up to 10 candidates to compete for each vacancy. . . . As a Member of Congress, the Vice President has five cadetships for applicants from the United States at large.

Kind of interesting.

USA TODAY ON “CARD CHECK:” Workers deserve to hear both sides, vote in private. “Labor has seen its role decline since the 1950s, when about a third of all private sector employees belonged to unions, compared with about 7.5% today. So it’s understandably eager to find ways to expand membership, particularly at a time when workers are feeling economically vulnerable. But undermining democratic principles is not the answer.”

FINDING ALTERNATIVES TO FOSSIL FUELS using nanotechnology.

DON’T BE EVIL: “Just like the Apple with its iPhone, Google is looking to keep its Android phone programs under tight reins.” Or maybe there’s a good reason?

THE ZAP XEBRA electric car. Actually, it’s a “neighborhood electric vehicle.” If I had one of those, it could handle nearly all my driving on days I don’t go into the office. (I could take it to the office, too, but I’d have to go the back way instead of on the Interstate.)

PLENTY: How much of Madonna’s money should Guy Ritchie get?

THE CASE FOR more vitamin B12.

GOOD THING THE HIGHER EDUCATION SECTOR ISN’T LIKE THOSE GREEDY CORPORATIONS that manipulate standards to make their stocks look better: The Next Front in the Rankings War: Paying Admitted Students to Retake the LSAT?

But wait, there’s more.