SHOCKING AUTO-COLLISION NEWS:  IIHS finds sub-compacts fare poorly against mid-size sedans.

IN THE MAIL: Transhuman: What Humanity Becomes Next. A collection of science fiction imaginings of transhumanity. Including contributions by James P. Hogan and Sarah Hoyt, among other luminaries.

HOMELAND SECURITY: The Constitution Is A Subversive Manifesto Per DHS. “Only in a highly politicized bureaucracy could the Constitution be viewed as a subversive manifesto.”

HEH: “Obama requires tea party protests to use government-funded leaf.”

KMIEC AND ADLER ON DAWN JOHNSEN: I agree.

LET’S TALK TURKEY: Staged Military Photo-ops Suddenly Awesome!

WITH ALL DELIBERATE SPEED:

More than a year after the House created the Office of Congressional Ethics, the quasi-independent panel is beginning to show signs that it is tackling investigative duties assigned to it by lawmakers, some of whom had raised questions about what the office was doing.

It was disclosed last week — though not by the ethics office, which is bound by secrecy rules — that the office had begun reviewing possible contacts between associates of Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr. and then-Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich over naming Jackson to Barack Obama ’s old Senate seat. . . .

Those confidentiality rules make it difficult for outside groups to evaluate whether the new ethics office is being effective, said Meredith McGehee, the policy director for the Campaign Legal Center, a watchdog group. . . . For example, Republicans have been aggressively pushing for investigations of powerful Defense Appropriations Subcommittee chairman Rep. John P. Murtha , D-Pa., and his ties to The PMA Group. Clients of PMA — a defense lobbyist — received earmarks thanks to Murtha, who garnered campaign contributions from those with ties to the firm, including its founder and his relatives.

However, because of the confidentiality rules imposed on the ethics office, it is unlikely the public will know anytime soon if the office is investigating Murtha, unless there is a news leak.

I’m not holding my breath.

EXAMINER: Angry taxpayers to rally at Tea Party protests.

If things go as organizers plan, thousands of ordinary, hard-working Americans will hit the streets Wednesday in hundreds of Tea Party Protests called to oppose the high-tax and deficit spending policies of President Obama and the Democratic Congress. Some observers have compared the Tea Party Protests to the Tax Revolt that began in California in the 1970s and spread nationwide, eventually providing important support for President Ronald Reagan’s landmark 1981 tax rate cut. But there really is nothing in modern American political history to match the spontaneous explosion of grassroots political activism in recent months among what once was known as the Silent Majority.

The movement started with a “Porkulus” protest organized by Keli Carender, a blogger-mom in Seattle getting her first taste of political activism, three days before the now-famous Feb. 19 television news rant by CNBC reporter Rick Santelli from the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Carender was concerned about Obama’s $787 billion economic stimulus package. Blogger Michelle Malkin got wind of Carender’s activity and touted it, which led to similar protests in Colorado, Arizona, and Kansas. A national movement caught fire, organized by a bunch of mostly unconnected people who found each other via social networking on the Internet. These facts about the origins of the movement render especially goofy recent accusations from pro-Obama groups on the left that the Tea Party Protests are somehow part of an evil right-wing conspiracy funded either by CNBC or Fox News.

Part of the reason for the mean-spiritedness in some of the attacks from the pro-Obama groups is likely the failure of efforts to turn out large crowds in support of the chief executive’s $787 billion economic stimulus package and $3.6 trillion 2010 federal budget, with its $1 trillion deficit and comparable floods of red ink for a decade thereafter. The recent “New Way Forward” gathering here in D.C., for example, was heralded by organizers as the first of a wave of counter-Tea Party Protests, but barely a dozen people turned out. Similarly, much-publicized efforts to use the 13-million email addresses compiled by the Obama campaign to generate pressure on Congress barely caused a ripple.

Indeed.

ROGER COHEN: Fearing a Martian Invasion?

CAP AND TRADE: The Next Bernie Madoff?

JEFFREY ROSEN on Harold Koh and international legal norms.

UPDATE: Did a server move last night — posts by me are sometimes showing up as by “admin” instead, and there are a few other glitches. Please bear with me here.

BALTIMORE SUN: Tea Party Movement Picking Up Steam.

GERARD VAN DER LEUN: 41 Seconds in Which Social Media Avatars Diagnose the Condition of Mister Mainstream Media.

SHANNON LOVE on greed for money vs. greed for power.

ANDREW BREITBART: Jon Stewart, Democratic Shill. “If the targets were switched and Democrats had the same five-day-a-week bull’s-eye placed on their heads, no one doubts that financier George Soros and Media Matters would wage a well-funded rampage to destroy Mr. Stewart and his scribes. Nancy Pelosi would be demanding a comedy Fairness Doctrine. And ‘The Daily Show’ and its partner in crime ‘The Colbert Report’ would be taken off the air within 30 days of electoral primaries and within 60 days of general elections to comply with McCain-Feingold.”

CONSUMER CONFIDENCE: So how’s that auto bailout working? “On the other side of the hall, an electrician, Kurt Moore of Pleasant Valley, N.Y., sat in a Toyota Highlander and explained why he was not going to buy American anytime soon. ‘You know how they say, “Never buy a car made on a Monday or a Friday?”‘ he said, getting comfortable in the passenger seat. ‘It’s because the people building the cars aren’t focused on the job. Well, how well do you think they’re focused today, with all this talk about how they’re going to lose their jobs?'”

JONATHAN MACEY: “To socialize the American economy, it is not necessary to nationalize every business in the United States. All it requires is to put the corporations that control the finances of all of the companies in the economy under government control. And that is what is happening now. . . . Apparently, members of Congress liked the special treatment that Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd received in getting his mortgage through Countrywide. We’re going to see even more of that kind of thing — and outright corruption on a much bigger scale — when the government is in direct control of the financial institutions and making the credit decisions that businesses large and small depend on to survive.”

JULES CRITTENDEN ON the new bloodthirstiness.

BARACK OBAMA’S APPROVAL RATING: Still regressing toward the mean. “Barack Obama’s ‘approval index’ as measured by Rasmussen Reports (the difference between those who strongly approve and strongly disapprove of his performance) has declined steadily since his inauguration. There is nothing surprising about this, but Obama’s honeymoon proved short as disapproval has risen more quickly than was the case for most recent Presidents. Currently, Obama’s approval index is mired at +2, the lowest of his administration.”

A HEADLINE THAT EXPLAINS WHY THE LEFTIES ARE UPSET: Move Over, MoveOn: Tea Parties Spark Conservative Insurgency Online.

Related: Danny Glover, The Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy.

Also, this: “Savor, please, the rich, nougaty irony of a leftist complaining about ‘grassroots’ movements actually being orchestrated from the top down.” Do be sure to click on the links — it’s as if they’ve spent the last little while doing things to undercut their message about the tea parties now . . . .

HAPPY TAX FREEDOM DAY.

HAROLD FORD, JR. will not run for Governor of Tennessee.

FISH, BARREL: Fact-Checking Paul Krugman. And Kevin Drum.

USEFUL, BUT WEIRD-LOOKING: Socket Sense Surge Protector Extends or Contracts as Needed.