REMEMBERING THE BEST PONTIACS in film, music, and TV. Video at the link.

GETTING DEFENSIVE? Obama targets “tea parties.”

ZONATION: Under My Bus: A musical theme for the first 100 days!

SELLING THE GREEN ECONOMY: “Candor and common sense are in short supply.”

LYING TO SHAREHOLDERS, but in a good cause.

COLLEGES ELIMINATE CAFETERIA TRAYS to save water. But what will people use if they want to go sledding?

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION UPDATE: “Barack Obama told me that if I voted for John McCain, I’d see a revolving door between Wall Street fat cats and smoke-filled back rooms of the White House and Congress. What do you know — he was right!”

IN THE MAIL: The Rural Ranger: A Suburban and Urban Survival Manual.

NAPOLEON’S ADVICE TO PRESIDENT OBAMA about the financial crisis.

CHRIS DODD UPDATE: “Already weakened politically by his quixotic presidential candidacy in 2008 and his ties to the failed mortgage giant Countrywide, Dodd found himself at the center of the storm caused by the massive bonuses given to AIG executives. His poll numbers in reliably Democratic Connecticut have tanked badly and he is certain to face serious Republican opposition — in the form of former Rep. Rob Simmons or former Ambassador Tom Foley — in 2010. The good news for Dodd? The bleeding has stopped (for now).” And don’t forget the Irish “cottage” scandal!

Meanwhile, I note that John Murtha, Pete Visclosky, Jim Moran, and Charlie Rangel seem to be keeping a low profile.

SO I HEARD SOME GUY ON THE RADIO saying that the Republicans have changed from the Reagan era — now they’re a bunch of social conservatives. But back during the Reagan era, I remember hearing that the Republicans were . . . a bunch of social conservatives. And back then they were pushing the abortion-banning Human Life Amendment — hard — along with a statutory end-run (the Human Life Bill) that simply declared life began at conception. Also school prayer and all sorts of stuff. I’m not actually hearing much along these lines from today’s Republicans, for whom tepid efforts at limiting late-term abortions are a big deal — but who are nonetheless stone-age troglodytes on social issues because they’ve got the same position as Barack Obama on gay marriage — and I’m wondering where this big shift to the right really is. It’s certainly true, of course, that the GOP wasn’t much good on small government under Bush, though they’re looking better in retrospect as Obama spends and spends. But on social issues I’m not seeing it — is this a real shift, or an imaginary one?

UPDATE: Reader Neil Sorens writes:

You are right about this issue. The Republican Party is less socially conservative now than in the past. You don’t hear a lot of support for anti-sodomy laws nowadays, for example, or opposition to civil unions.

The reason for the change in perception is that with fiscal conservatism abandoned, the only distinguishing characteristic of the Republican Party is now social conservatism.

Good point.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Dan Riehl thinks that the culture has changed:

I think the real shift has been cultural and in media. For espousing ideas that were reasonably mainstream during the Reagan Era, one is promptly labeled a religious kook today. While the Republicans have been and remain the more socially conservative party, the Left has been effective in their demonizing of that aspect, especially every time a social conservative Republican goes astray with a hooker, or in a men’s room, for instance. Lastly, televangelists and some notable moderate Republicans have helped demonize this over time, too.

An interesting aside, compare the average televangelist during Reagan to a Rick Warren and you can see how large parts of the religious community have changed, as well. Then there’s Huckabee.

Read the whole thing.

HOPE AND CHANGE: IRS Releases New Five-Year Plan.

READER MICHAEL RONAYNE SUGGESTS “GOING GALT” WITH YOUR NEXT CAR:

Has anyone considered the opportunities for Going Galt with our car purchases? All we have to do is not buy any General Motors or Chrysler products? And just not new cars, let the old clunkers sit on the car dealer’s lots as well; the used parts business is a very locative revenue stream for the car industry. Don’t buy any socialist American cars. Don’t support the looter socialist state!

What percent of the population would have to support us for this to be effective?

Given that most people will be understandably skeptical about these cars on simple practical grounds, I’d say two or three . . . .

OUR POST-RACIAL POLITICS: The Black-White Divide in American Politics.

COVERING MICHELLE OBAMA: “What’s the point of writing about fashion if you can’t say cutting, critical things?” Yeah, they’d even praise these jumpsuits if she wore them. Heck, they’d praise the Eurotard.

HEY, WAIT, I THOUGHT IT WAS GOING TO SAVE THE AMERICAN AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY: “GM wouldn’t be in quite so deep a hole if it had not sunk a billion dollars, and much of its corporate reputation, into a not-very-realistic plug-in electric hybrid vehicle known as the Chevrolet Volt. Likely to cost consumers more than $30,000 even after a big government tax rebate, the little four-seat Volt ‘is currently projected to be much more expensive than its gasoline-fueled peers and will likely need substantial reductions in manufacturing cost in order to become commercially viable,’ President Obama’s automobile task force reported on March 30.”

I might still have bought one, as an early-adopter type, had GM stayed solvent. I’m much less likely to buy one now, given my moral qualms with GM’s takeover, and my practical concerns about the quality of work likely to come out of the automotive equivalent of a VA hospital. Oh, well, there’s always an Aptera!

HOPE AND CHANGE: U.S. Economy Shrinks More Than Expected. “The U.S. economy contracted at a steeper-than-expected pace in the first quarter, weighed down by sharp declines in exports and business inventories, according government data on Wednesday that showed the economy was still deep in recession.” It’s as if shoveling money into the pockets of political supporters isn’t enough to produce growth . . . .

A SHOCKING DEVELOPMENT: Former Barney Frank staffer now top Goldman Sachs lobbyist: “Goldman Sachs’ new top lobbyist was recently the top staffer to Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., on the House Financial Services Committee chaired by Frank. Michael Paese, a registered lobbyist for the Securities Industries and Financial Markets Association since he left Frank’s committee in September, will join Goldman as director of government affairs, a role held last year by former Tom Daschle intimate, Mark Patterson, now the chief of staff at the Treasury Department.” It’s as if they’re all in bed with each other — bankers, regulators, legislators, all of ’em! Go figure. (Via NewsAlert).

RICHARD LUGAR will back Dawn Johnsen. Well, that’s the smart thing to do.

DAVID FIDLER: The Swine Flu Outbreak and International Law.

ADVICE TO REPUBLICANS: “Relax, the Dems will screw up.” Rather unwise to count on that, though . . . .

30 DAYS IN JAIL for texting in court?

THE PAST AS PROLOGUE: Detroit Edition.

WHAT DO THEY TEACH THE CHILDREN IN SCHOOL THESE DAYS? “We have the video from the interview with Cam last night. I am still speechless. A high school teacher who doesn’t realize that federal law applies to the whole country, including New York. A high school teacher who took what New Yorkers Against Gun Violence said about the law at face value, and who pretty clearly hasn’t researched the topic at all. This is what’s teaching the next generation? God help us.”

I SEE THIS AS A POSITIVE: “A rifle behind every blade of grass.” However, this statement — “In just 3 months Americans bought enough guns to outfit the entire Chinese and Indian armies combined” — doesn’t seem quite true. At least, the claim is that in three months Americans legally bought 3,177,256 guns, but according to this, the combined size of the Chinese and Indian armies is 3,575,000. On the other hand, this article gives China’s army size as considerably smaller. And it’s undoubtedly true that the owners of these guns are at least as knowledgeable in their care and use as the average member of the Indian or Chinese army. Anyway, to paraphrase Bogart, there are some sections of the United States I would advise you not to invade — and that would be, basically, all of them.