THE DANGERS OF A narcissistic political class.

ASSOCIATED PRESS: Fact Check: Obama Disowns Deficit He Helped Shape.

“That wasn’t me,” President Barack Obama said on his 100th day in office, disclaiming responsibility for the huge budget deficit waiting for him on Day One.

It actually was partly him – and the other Democrats controlling Congress the previous two years – who shaped the latest in a string of precipitously out-of-balance budgets.

And as a presidential candidate and president-elect, he backed the twilight Bush-era stimulus plan that made the deficit deeper, all before he took over and promoted spending plans that have made it much deeper still. . . . His assertion that his proposed budget “will cut the deficit in half by the end of my first term” is an eyeball-roller among many economists, given the uncharted terrain of trillion-dollar deficits and economic calamity that the government is negotiating.

Calamity, indeed.

UPDATE: Oh, what the hell — let’s run that graphic again.

CAN NEWS find a business model in the digital age? Good question. I think that people are still willing to pay for trustworthy factual reporting — it’s just that not many seem willing to supply it. But it’s also possible that, because of bundling, people have been buying more news than they wanted all along, and now that media delivery is unbundled, they’re only buying as much as they want, and that’s a lot less. I’m not sure.

STEPHEN GREEN IS drunkblogging Obama’s big primetime presser.

Plus, a question: “The president said something about bringing down the budget deficit? How exactly is quadrupling the deficit bringing down the deficit?”

IS IT TOO SOON FOR SUMMER TOYS? Pick stuff that lets kids play outside, so they can get some fresh air and vitamin D.

PJTV: I talk with Mark Levin about his new book, Liberty and Tyranny, about the Tea Parties, and about what people should be doing in politics today.

DINNER FOR FOUR, for under ten dollars. “Chicken Thighs with Brazilian ‘Vinaigrette’ Salsa.” I much prefer cooking chicken thighs to breasts — first, you get breasts everywhere, and second, the thighs have much more flavor.

CAYMANS FACING A Tamiflu shortage.

HOPE AND CHANGE: “Unemployment rose again in the Chicago area last month, and is now approaching the 10 percent mark. . . . But compared to some metro areas, Chicago isn’t faring badly. There are 109 metropolitan areas in the country that posted unemployment rates of 10 percent or more in March, up from a mere 14 such areas in 2008. The highest was in El Centro, Calif., where unemployment stood at 25.1 percent – as bad as the national average during the depths of the Great Depression in 1933.”

HMM, THIS DOESN’T SOUND GOOD: WHO raises flu threat level, warning pandemic imminent.

UPDATE: On the other hand, there’s this: Only 7 swine flu deaths, not 152, says WHO. Maybe we should rename it the Litella Flu?

POPULAR SCIENCE: Why Are Airplane Seats So Miserable, And What Can Be Done About It?

ANOTHER ONLINE POLL ON OBAMA, over at CNN. (On the right, scroll down a bit).

EPIDEMIC OF FEAR: Austin Bay on Swine Flu.

UPDATE: Link was wrong before. Fixed now. Sorry!

WHO CARES ABOUT the invention of the sewing machine?

ALFONZO RACHEL TALKS ABOUT LIFE AND ART, on the latest Ask Dr. Helen.

CAR LUST: The joys of the world’s most famous Pontiac Trans-Am. Back, you know, when there were Pontiacs. . . .

MATT WELCH AND NICK GILLESPIE ON THE 100 DAYS: After 100 days, the new president has revealed himself as an effective salesman of exhausted ideas.

On issue after issue, Obama has made it clear that instead of blasting past “the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long,” (as he promised in his inaugural address), he’s moving full speed ahead toward policy prescriptions that already had less fizz than a case of Billy Beer back when Jimmy Carter was urging us all to wear sweaters and turn down our thermostats. Instead of thinking outside the box, Obama is nailing it shut from the inside. . . . For those Americans who voted for Obama, a question: Is this the change you had in mind?

Well, hey, if they can bring back the jumpsuits . . . .

JOHN GALT, GONE: Mack, Lewis Blame Pay Limits for Executive Departures. “’We have lost strong revenue generators over the past three months to competitors that are not facing the same compensation restrictions that we are,’ Lewis said.”

SWAP YOUR OLD HD-DVDs FOR BLU-RAY, courtesy of Warner Brothers. Well, it’s not exactly a “swap,” since you get to keep the old one. Will other studios follow this lead?

MSNBC IS RUNNING an online poll on Obama’s performance.

FROM THE WAPO, More Murtha Earmark News. “Some locals call the Johnstown airport ‘Fort Murtha’ because of the steady stream of wartime projects announced at the facility. Although its runway is capable of servicing the largest airplanes in North America, the airport is used only by small commuter airplanes that make six trips a day back and forth to Dulles International Airport. Many of the commercial flights, which are subsidized by federal transportation dollars, carry only a handful of passengers. On a recent visit, all of the flights departing the airport were less than half-full, and one had only four passengers — screened by seven federal airport workers. All told, Murtha has steered about $150 million in federal funds to the airport. This spring, it was among the first four in the country to receive stimulus funds.”

HYPERMILING WITH THE Ford Fusion Hybrid: “The final number: 1,445 miles on a tank of gas.” Good grief.

NO WONDER OBAMA WAS ATTACKING THE TEA PARTIES: Hundreds of Tea Party Protesters Greet Obama in St. Louis. It would be amusing if this happened everywhere he went. Hope and change! And a new kind of politics. . . .

UPDATE: Video. “We’d like to thank the national media for talking to those 6 Obama supporters.”

NEW HAMPSHIRE SENATE VOTES TO legalize gay marriage. It’s already passed the House, so it seems very likely to become law. I support gay marriage, of course, but I’m much happier to see it happen by legislation than by judicial decision.

NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: Fat droplet nanoparticle delivers tumor suppressor gene to tumor and metastatic cells. Clinical trials are underway.