OUCH: “White. White. White. Race. Race. Race. Oh, you Democrats. You’ve really made a nice place for yourselves.”

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION FOR CONSERVATIVE ACADEMICS? The roots of racial affirmative action lie in a history of institutions that claimed to be trying to hire a more diverse faculty, but actually persisted in closed, old-boy-network hiring — and sometimes even engaged in deliberate and dishonest efforts to avoid hiring minorities. Does this new phenomenon reflect a similar fear with regard to intellectual diversity?

RICK MORAN: Why Hillary won’t give up.

UGH: The death toll in that China earthquake has hit 15,000.

JERRY POURNELLE:

I have a number of letters about McCain and why we ought to vote Libertarian and “Send a message.” I understand the argument.

The fact is that the Democrats will control Congress. If they also control the White House, we will have a series of legislative packages that will make the Great Society look like a libertarian government. . . . The argument is to give the Democrats their head, and pick up the pieces after the inevitable crash. I think that overlooks the resilience of tax and tax, spend and spend, elect and elect regimes. We haven’t seen much in the way of reforms in Europe. The Democrats will create new bureaucracies that can never be dismantled: an example is the Department of Education. Reagan came into office determined to abolish it. Now it owns US education, and No Child Left Behind is entrenched. The Iron Law of Bureaucracy is inexorable.

He concludes: “The post-Gingrich Republicans who invented ‘big government conservatism’ have much to answer for.”

BUT WITHOUT MUCH NATIONAL MEDIA COVERAGE: Rezko trial goes to jury.

AGEISM VS. RACISM: A look ahead to November. . . .

UPDATE: Related thoughts here.

POWER LINE: The Republican losing streak continues. And yet I’ll bet the GOP delegation in Congress won’t take the lesson. Nothing else has worked, after all.

DON SURBER: Making American politics too dainty.

WOW: “Obama only wins 53% of WV DEM PRIMARY VOTERS in a matchup with McCain.”

FINAL VOTE TALLY: Hillary 67, Obama 26. That’s a thumpin’.

SHE ALWAYS DID HAVE A NOSE FOR UNUSUALLY SHREWD INVESTMENTS:

Propelled by her husband’s post-White House earnings, Sen. Hillary Clinton’s average net worth soared from red ink to $30.7 million between 2000 and 2006, the fastest financial climb among members of Congress who arrived without assets, a watchdog group reported Tuesday.

Unsurprisingly, however, McCain and Obama have made out okay, too. It’s a good thing that we elect such financially savvy folks to Congress. That must explain why the country’s finances are in such good shape. Here’s much more at the Sunlight Foundation website. And check out their Project 535 page too.

I WAS OUT IN MARYVILLE TODAY, and ran across one of those ignorant, rural Appalachian types, clinging to his gun.

TALKLEFT: There is no nominee. Kinda has a Sarah-Connorish ring to it . . . .

MICKEY KAUS: “Dave Weigel of Reason describes the confident union push for ‘card check’ legislation in the next Democratic administration. This is a much more significant issue than the manufactured debate over a gas tax holiday (sorry, Jon!). It’s a permanent structural change in the economy. With “card check,” unions wouldn’t have to win the right to represent workers in a regular secret ballot election. They’d merely have to collect cards from a majority of workers.”

SINCE COOKWARE IS A FREQUENT TOPIC AROUND HERE, I should note that they’re having a 50% off sale over at Amazon. I guess, post-Mother’s Day, they’re trying to clear stuff out. (Bumped, because it’s a good sale, and no, I don’t know why the formerly-pricey Calphalon is suddenly so cheap. Probably a sign of the Apolcalypse.)

UPDATE: Susanna Cornett emails: “Glenn – Thank you for the link to the cookware deal at Amazon. I ordered several things, and then found out at checkout that they were eligible for a 4-for-3 deal! So I got one of them free, saving another $18. I didn’t just get Calphalon, so I don’t think it’s connected to a specific brand. I checked back, and found that the ones eligible for 4-for-3 say so on their individual specs page. You may want to bump that post up one more time!”

Consider it done!

DON’T TUG ON SUPERMAN’S CAPE.

HERE’S A LINK to the results from that special Congressional election in Mississippi. No clear leader yet.

UPDATE: Still close, but with 82% in, Childers (the Democrat) is projected the winner. The GOP Congressional delegation didn’t learn its lesson in 2006, and they’re paying the price now.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Tom Brosz blames a last-minute dirty trick by Democrats. But the GOP keeps losing these races they shouldn’t lose.

CURRENTLY SHOWING HILLARY 62, OBAMA 31, with 18% of the vote in. Don’t know if that’ll hold, but if it does a 2-1 margin, or something close to it, ain’t hay. Still, the Democrats who matter seem to have decided that Obama should get the nomination.

UPDATE: With 31% in, it’s Hillary over Obama, 64 to 29.

ANOTHER UPDATE: It’s now 65 to 28, with 42% of the vote in. Whether this election “matters” or not, that’s a clobberin’.

DAVE WEIGEL: “If he had lost Indiana by a landslide and North Carolina by a little, West Virginia’s primary would be getting more attention than it is. And even the little attention it’s getting is focusing on Obama’s crippling weakness with a certain segment of white voters.”

A WEST VIRGINIA ROUNDUP.

UPDATE: More from Salena Zito.

THE MUDVILLE GAZETTE: OBAMA TELEGRAPHS HIS FIRST PUNCH. “In response, McCain and other Republicans are busy creating ‘kick me’ signs to wear throughout the upcoming political season.”

MCCLATCHY: Clinton scores big win in W.Va., but does it matter?

LOOKING AT Obama’s Appalachian problem.

UPDATE: TalkLeft: “West Virginia is not an anomaly. Obama’s white working class problem is EAST of the Mississippi. It is not just Appalachia. It MUST be addressed. Calling West Virginia names is not going to solve the problem.”

IT’S NOT JUST ME: Tim Blair has made a move, too.