NYT: THE S.E.I.U., BLAGOJEVICH, AND OBAMA: Union Linked to Corruption Scandal. Final sentence: “Mr. Stern has named a panel of experts to develop a tougher ethical code for the union.” Sounds like they’ve read the book!

WALL STREET JOURNAL: WHITEWASHING FANNIE MAE: “Mr. Waxman’s documents prove beyond doubt that Fan and Fred turbocharged the housing mania with a taxpayer-backed, Congressionally protected business model that has cost America dearly.”

TEST-DRIVING the Zap Xebra electric car.

SOME THOUGHTS ON WHO OWNS THE MOON, from Virgiliu Pop. It’s a subject I’ve discussed myself.

SPACE UPDATE: NASA has become a transition problem for Obama.

UPDATE: Related thoughts from Rand Simberg.

SEX, THIGHS, and video games.

IN THE MAIL: From Philip Smith, Walking Through Walls: A Memoir.

POLITICO: 7 Blago questions for Obama. Will he hear any of these at his next press conference? (Via Ann Althouse, who has some thoughts). Submit these to Change.gov and watch them get removed as “inappropriate!”

ASSOCIATED PRESS: Analysis: GOP handed gift in Rangel ethics case.

NEW YORK TIMES: Mr. Rangel’s Problems Roll On.

Plus, a multi-scandal roundup at the Washington Post. But it leaves out the Chris Dodd / Countrywide scandal.

PLAYSTATION HOME launches today.

MICHELLE MALKIN AND I talk about Blagojevich, Obama, Chris Dodd, Charles Rangel, William Jefferson, Eliot Spitzer, and a host of other political and moral leaders, on PJTV.

MORE ON THOSE UNDERFUNDED / OVER-GENEROUS PUBLIC PENSIONS:

Massachusetts cities and towns will probably face bigger payments into pension plans that cover their workers and retirees because of this year’s stock market plunge, potentially forcing communities to cut spending on police, schools, and other services. . . . Even before the market crashed, most communities didn’t have enough money set aside for pensions. Of 106 public pension funds, only three were fully funded by Jan. 1 – meaning they had sufficient assets to meet obligations to current and future retirees – according to the latest figures available. Eighty-two systems were funded below 80 percent, the level pension specialists generally consider acceptable, and seven had less than 50 percent of the money needed.

I love the next sentence, which begins: “While there is no indication that government pensions are in jeopardy . . . ” Er, except for the indications just above. This problem is widespread, and still underappreciated.

UPDATE: Reader Santiago Valenzuela writes: “So long as there remain people who the government can take money from, are they really in danger? Think of yourself as a savings account that earns interest for the government. In tough times the government just siphons a little (or a lot, or all) more off from their savings than they normally do. Since they think of citizen-subjects in that manner, what reason do they have to worry?”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Massachusetts state troopers earning over $140K a year? “Couldn’t the declining state of Massachusetts get troopers to work for a lot cheaper?”

MICKEY KAUS: The trouble with the bailout deal. To me it looks like Fannie Mae as a model for, well, everything . . . .

JOHN KASS: By Chicago standards, Blagojevich isn’t crazy.

Plus, Emanuel and Blagojevich.

UPDATE: Obama’s Whitewater?

TIGERHAWK: “Conservatives were up in arms over the “God damn America” sermon, but I have a bigger question. Why did Barack Obama spend twenty years listening to a man whose command of history is such that he thinks that December 7 commemorates the day the United States bombed Hiroshima?”

UH OH: “It must be a conspiracy. Chinese parents are selling plasma-screen TVs to America, and saving their wages to buy their kids pianos – making American kids stupider and Chinese kids smarter. . . . Americans really, really don’t have a clue what is coming down the pike. The present shift in intellectual capital in favor of the East has no precedent in world history.”

JOHN FUND: Obama Was Mute on Illinois Corruption.

OOPS: Blagojevich Scandal Claims Another Victim.

JAMES TARANTO: “Now that Barack Obama has won the presidency, perhaps it is time for American interrogators to revise their practices to bring them into line with European ones.”

I’ve made similar suggestions myself.

L.A. TIMES: It’s the Democrats’ turn to cope with scandals.

MSNBC: So who’s corrupt now?

UGH: In Chicago, Political Celebration Gives Way to Political Shame.

MORE MEDIA TROUBLES: Hit by Recession, NPR to Lay Off Seven Percent of Staff. I’m sorry to hear they’re getting rid of Day to Day, which was my favorite NPR show.

THE BEST science fiction and fantasy DVDs of 2008.

IT’S NOT JUST BLAGOJEVICH: Rangel’s Problems Dog Democrats. Then there’s Chris Dodd . . . .