CAR LUST: The sublime joys of the Ford Fiesta.

AIG BONUSES: Tom Maguire comforts Josh Marshall and makes some observations of his own.

UPDATE: Jim Geraghty:

Despite this administration’s reflexive instinct to talk about the problems it inherited, the fourth round of AIG’s government assistance — an additional $30 billion — was approved March 2.

Why couldn’t someone at Treasury* have made that assistance contingent on not handing out additional bonuses to managers who put the company in this hole?

* I suppose it might help to have someone besides Tim Geithner working at the Treasury Department, to help manage issues like these . . .

We’re seeing management by headline — and the bonuses weren’t in the headlines on March 2.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Horse; barn door:

Two details on those AIG bonuses just came out. First, according to the Wall Street Journal, the bonus checks went out on Friday. In other words, AIG no longer has the money.

Second, from CNBC: “Many of the employees who received bonuses are not American and may not care that American taxpayers are outraged over the incident.”

Another bang-up performance from the Treasury Department.

FABIUS MAXIMUS: Globalization and free trade – wonders of a past era, now enemies of America. As is often the case, I disagree, but he’s worth reading for a contrary take.

MICKEY KAUS: “This isn’t an excess of Obama administration ethics. It’s a deficiency of Obama administration cojones.”

I BLAME GLOBAL WARMING: Global and Northern Hemisphere Tropical Cyclone Activity [still] lowest in 30-years. “Tropical cyclone (TC) activity worldwide has completely and utterly collapsed during the past 2 to 3 years with TC energy levels sinking to levels not seen since the late 1970s.”

VIA GOOGLE STREET VIEW, Ferraris in their natural habitat.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Annual salamander love-in means spring is on the way.

THE JOYS OF streaky bacon.

CAN ELECTRIC-VEHICLE STARTUPS survive the mainstream auto collapse?

BILL ALLISON: A Few Questions for Senator Dodd.

TWO MORE STATES MOVE to limit red-light cameras.

DARREN HUTCHINSON: Sincere Or False Outrage? The Obama Administration Smacks Down AIG. “Prior to his inauguration, President Obama met with Democrats in Congress and threatened to veto any bills that placed tougher restrictions upon the usage of TARP funds. Some Democrats, seeking greater oversight surrounding the distribution and use of TARP assistance, proposed measures that would govern the second distribution of $350 billion in federal funds for the program. Now, the White House worries that voter disenchantment with banks and bailouts will kill public support for the President’s other initiatives.”

Related: Why Barney Frank’s Phony AIG Outrage is Worse Than the Bonuses.

UPDATE: HYPOCRISY: “I am mystified by Barney Frank’s desire to recall the AIG execs’ bonuses, not so much over the idea that corporate-welfare recipients should not have grandstanding demagogues chastising them for their hypocrisy, but rather the notion that someone of Frank’s ethical past would play Old-Testament railing prophet. . . . Frank received more than $40,000 in campaign contributions from the bankrupt Freddie and Fannie, despite his own role as supposed fiscal watchdog on the House Financial Services Committee. . . . So please, Representative Frank, Senator Dodd, and all the rest — give back all that campaign cash to our government, and then in silence endure what you helped to conceive.”

JEFFREY TOOBIN on the rise of Roland Burris.

THEY DIDN’T WANT THEM IN GUANTANAMO. In fact, they just didn’t want them. Europe’s Hedging on Inmates Clouds Guantánamo Plans. “European countries that have offered to help the Obama administration close the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, have begun raising questions about the security risks and requirements if they accept prisoners described by the Bush administration as ‘the worst of the worst,’ according to diplomats and other officials.”

GIMME BACK MY BULLETS: DOD Ends Sale of Expended Military Brass to Remanufacturers. I’ll defer to those who know more about this subject than I do as to whether it’s really a big deal or not, but judging from my email quite a few people think it is.

RETHINKING FINANCIAL REGULATION: Simple Transparency, Open Source, and XML. But then what would the regulators do?

ALEC BALDWIN used to think taxes were good. If I were a GOP member of Congress, I’d tack provisions hitting Hollywood’s tax advantages on to every bill . . . .

THE CARNIVAL OF SPACE is up!

Also, the Carnival of Personal Finance.

FOLIC ACID SUPPLEMENTATION raises risk for prostate cancer?

RASMUSSEN: “The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows that 36% of the nation’s voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-two percent (32%) now Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of +4, his lowest rating to date (see trends).”

But here’s the big news: “American workers are far more likely to belong to the investor class than a union. Just 9% of non-union workers would like to join a union.”