JON HENKE: Republicans and Democrats can and should work together. A little. While they still can.

A NANOTECHNOLOGY PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE?

Nanomaterials, the microscopic particles used in everything from medicine to electronics, sports goods to clothing, urgently need more safety testing and tighter regulation, the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution said yesterday.

While the commission’s investigation found no evidence of harm to either health or the environment from nanotechnology, it warned: “The pace at which new nanomaterials are being developed and marketed is beyond the capacity of existing testing regulatory arrangements to control the potential environmental impacts adequately.”

Fast-developing science is a good thing, isn’t it? Here’s a Popular Mechanics column on the subject. Here’s a brief nanotechnology primer, and here’s a longer piece on nanotechnology regulation from the Harvard Journal of Law and Technology.

GAY PATRIOT: Where are the grownups? “This is becoming one long extended temper tantrum.”

Related item here.

LINING UP FOR ANOTHER BAILOUT? Financial problems for the New York Times. Maybe Rupert Murdoch can rescue them!

TOM ELIA SUGGESTS A NEW PULITZER CATEGORY for best non-in-the-tank coverage.

MICHAEL PETRELIS: “I shouldn’t be too hard on the relative small amounts of donations from the top folks at our leading gay legal advocacy firm Lambda Legal. After all, they may have not approved of the closeted campaign operation by the No on 8 folks, or, maybe they knew we were gonna lose and they didn’t want to waste their money with larger donations.”

IN THE LATEST EDITION OF WASHINGTON WATCH, I talk with Virginia Postrel about Obama’s glamour and how it’ll hold up once he’s President, and discuss bailouts, financial scandals, and special prosecutors with Andy Roth and Bill Allison.

It’s free to everybody, with no registration required, and it’s available in both HD and Flash.

UPDATE: A reader emails: “Virginia Postrel? Why, hell yes! I’ll watch that one!” But of course!

WILLIAM SJOSTROM: “It looks as if the Obama administration is going to be a lot more demanding of incoming members than the press ever was of Obama.”

AUSTIN BAY: Obama’s Great Expectations Encounter Sudan.

DAMON ROOT: Why libertarianism matters more than ever in Obama’s America.

JERRY POURNELLE: “We have always known that eternal vigilance is the price of freedom. It’s worse now, because capture of government is so much more important than it once was. There was a time when there was enough freedom that it hardly mattered which brand of crooks ran government. That has not been true for a long time — not during most of your lifetimes, and for much of mine — and it will probably never be true again.”

HEH: Bush Offers Compassionate Version of Auto Bailout Bill.

THE NEW OBAMA RULES: Media prepares the media battlespace for the Obama presidency.

I COULD HAVE TOLD THEM that making money isn’t in my DNA.

THEY TOLD ME THAT IF BARACK OBAMA WERE ELECTED PRESIDENT, PREACHERS WOULD BE JAILED FOR THEIR PRAYERS. And they were right! Preacher Does Time For Writing That Judge Could Be Punished By God.

HMM: US general urges Obama to keep missile defense.

A LIST OF who won what at the CMA Awards.

ED KOCH ON THE BAILOUT: We’ve Been Had.

CHEERLEADING for an auto bailout.

INDIAN ARMY OFFICERS becoming radicalized.

YOU DON’T SAY: Few Will Miss Following Campaign News.

SHOWING SOME LOVE for term limits.

ROYAL NAVY IN FIREFIGHT WITH SOMALI PIRATES: “By the time the Royal Marines boarded the pirates’ vessel, the enemy had lost the will to fight and surrendered quietly.”

OIL PRICES FALL TO $55 a barrel.

AT LEAST IT WASN’T A KORAN: California Cross Stomping.