HOW DO THEY DO IT? Another U.N. “Human Rights” Scandal.

BATTLESPACE PREPARATION: Ohio media going after John Kasich?

Given Obama’s donor-base, complaints about “Wall Street ties” seem kinda thin . . . .

TOM BLUMER: “Obama campaigned on his alleged ‘judgment to lead.’ The Geithner nomination makes a mockery of that claim.”

TOYOTA OFFERS rebates on the 2009 Prius.

NOEMIE EMERY ON George Bush’s Legacy.

TAXPROF: The 2008 Lawprof Blog Traffic Rankings. Just a dollar per pageview, that’s all I ask . . . .

THE NEW CONGRESS IS LOOKING AT NANOTECHNOLOGY SAFETY. There are (some) real issues there, but there’s also a lot of hype. I hope that they don’t get carried away. I’ve written on the subject myself here.

IN THE MAIL: Philip K. Howard’s Life Without Lawyers: Liberating Americans from Too Much Law.

CONGRESSIONAL QUARTERLY: Ethics Case Knocks Against Rangel’s Tax Acumen. “The success of much of President Obama’s agenda might hinge on the heavy lifting of powerful Democratic Rep. Charles B. Rangel, chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee. But the veteran New York lawmaker’s political muscle might be strained in the coming months as his personal finances and fund-raising remain under investigation by the House ethics committee.”

Plus, transparency issues:

Oh, the sheer irony of Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and Nancy Pelosi complaining that the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) lacks transparency. These three Democratic congressional leaders were among the most vocal in seconding President Bush¹s warning last fall that economic catastrophe was right around the corner if the administration¹s $700 billion TARP proposal wasn¹t adopted as soon as possible. And Frank, Dodd and Pelosi were among those cheering loudest when Congress approved TARP over conservative objections that the bill handed Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson $700 billion to spend as he pleased, with barely a whiff of transparency or accountability in the bargain. . . .

It is particularly galling to hear Dodd, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, complain that “President Bush failed to be transparent with Americans about how their hard-earned dollars were being spent.” This is the same Dodd who promised last July ­– last July – to make public all documents relating to a series of sweetheart loans he received from the Countrywide Financial, one of the biggest miscreants in the subprime mortgage debacle. Yet, 216 days later, Dodd still has released no papers.

And counting!

DAVID HARSANYI: So, is dissent still patriotic?

ONE THING I’VE LEARNED FROM BIG MEDIA is that it’s never too early to take a poll! So, an Insta-Poll on the first (almost) 24 hours of the Obama Presidency:

JOHN MCWHORTER on Obama and the black elite.

MTV: Against Inaugural Balls Until They Were For Them.

WE’D ALL LOVE TO SEE THE PLAN.

HOPE, CHANGE, AND A NEW KIND OF POLITICS: New White House Site Slams Bush. Somebody remind them that the campaign is over.

OBAMA, INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL, and despair.

“CAN PUBLIC DEBT ENHANCE DEMOCRACY?” If so, we’re in great shape!

POLITICO: Seven Reasons for a Healthy Skepticism. It’s hard to argue with this one: “We are broke.”

The past several months have produced a rare convergence. Something that politicians of both parties find pleasurable — spending money — has overlapped with what economists and policy experts of all ideological stripes said is urgently necessary. As “Saturday Night Live’s” Church Lady used to say, “How convenient.”

Indeed. Plus this: “Rigorous reporting is even more important when you have one-party rule in Washington. Democrats, like Republicans, are simply less likely to scrutinize a president of their own. The end result here: Don’t expect the Democratic Congress to investigate the Obama administration or hold a bunch of tough oversight hearings.” But don’t expect much more from the press, which has shown no stomach for reporting bad news about Obama, either. Read the whole thing.

Related: PBS’s Gwen Ifill and an Obama Love-In.

BARACK OBAMA GETS the bad-boyfriend benefit. How long does that last, usually?

RON BAILEY on why coal will still be king. Personally, I prefer nice, clean nuclear plants, which should tide us over until nanotechnology solves the power problem for good.

MARKET 100, Pundits 0.

PODIUM PUNDITS is a group blog by a bunch of former White House speechwriters, both Democratic and Republican.

OVER AT CAFE HAYEK, tracking the stimulus-bill pork.

Also, check out ReadTheStimulus.org. Some of their findings are already making the papers.

MY HOPES FOR OBAMA: In this Wall Street Journal symposium. And they put me between two hot babes! Well, it beats being stuck between George McGovern and Al Sharpton . . . .

L.A. TIMES: A record crowd for inauguration? Hard to say. “More than 1 million spectators convened on the National Mall to watch Barack Obama take the oath of office Tuesday, but it was unclear if the crowd surpassed the record thought to have been set at Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1965 inauguration. Though early estimates ranged as high as 2 million people, satellite images of Obama’s swearing-in suggested the crowd was probably about half that, said Clark McPhail, who has been analyzing crowds on the National Mall since the 1960s.”

If not, I’d blame Adrian Fenty, whose prediction of 5 million in attendance must have scared off a lot of people. And, of course, some people who showed up were turned away due to screwups.