HIGHWAY ROBBERY? Texas police shake down drivers, lawsuit claims.

WAIT, FIRST THE GUANTANAMO CLIMBDOWN, NOW THIS? Source: No charges likely over interrogation memos.

Wonder how the investigation over TARP deals will turn out?

MORE REVELATIONS FROM THE CHRYSLER BAILOUT TAKEOVER: “Buried in the Chrysler filings was the revelation that US government investments in Chrysler will not be paid back, though the government will probably take an 8% equity interest in Chrysler. . . . David Yermack wrote in the Wall Street Journal last fall that it would have been better if the government had simply written a check to each worker — or even just burned the money.” Seems prescient now!

LARRY KUDLOW: “Why on earth did President Obama ask Timothy Geithner to talk about tax cheats during his overseas tax-plan announcement yesterday?”

YESTERDAY, Knoxville Tea Party organizers took Jim Geraghty’s advice and organized a local event, flooding the office of the County Tax Assessor to protest rising assessments for houses whose value is falling. The Insta-Wife and I covered it for PJTV.

MEGAN MCARDLE: The Dangers of Playing With Credit Markets. “A government, of course, can default whenever it wants, under any terms it wants. It is limited only by the prospect of future difficulties in borrowing money. But in times of duress, politicians–especially in emerging markets–are willing to deal with that comfortably far-off possibility, rather than find the money to pay the creditors now.”

JACK KELLY: The CIA’s Fight With Obama. “Has Barack Obama made an enemy who can sabotage his presidency? The presidency of George W. Bush began to unravel when some in high positions at the Central Intelligence Agency began waging a covert campaign against him.”

ANOTHER LOCALLY-FOCUSED “TEA PARTY” PROTEST.

LOUSY COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS FOR THE NEWLY DEMOCRATIC ARLEN SPECTER: “He should have made sure the 30 pieces of silver were for real.”

Just remember what Churchill said: You can rat, but you can’t re-rat.

UPDATE: Readers say I’ve got the quote wrong, and that it should be “anyone can rat, but it takes a certain ingenuity to re-rat.” I doubt Specter has sufficient ingenuity, but then again . . . .

EARLIER, I referenced a discussion by Slate’s “Dear Prudence” columnist where people complained about over-politicized workplaces. Numerous readers wrote in on the subject.

Steven Den Beste suggested that, since these were nonprofits, employees could complain to the IRS about politicization. And another reader emails:

A friend in a state government agency brought an official hostile work environment complaint against a co-worker’s left wing political harangues and won- in a very liberal state, too.

A gay man in her office – call him “Andy” -drifted into an over the top political activism during the Bush administration. He festooned his cubicles with political posters and never stopped haranguing co-workers with all that was wrong with Bush, their republican governor, etc etc. She’d worked with Andy for almost a decade, so at first she just politely told him she wasn’t interested. Then she flat out asked him to stop. It kept getting worse, not better-an endless barrage of snide comments to her face and inbox full of e-mails of articles and cartoons from left wing publications. Next she complained to their boss. He did nothing, perhaps because as the appointee of the Republican governor he feared being labeled a homophobe should Andy take it to the press. At wit’s end she filed a formal complaint with the state employees’ union that her agency had become a hostile work environment.

It turns out a great many other people in the office – including some as liberal as Andy- found the “this cubicle is a hate free zone” sign above his nameplate highly unprofessional and Andy’s political obsession a major distraction. Once my friend took official action they backed her up about the facts behind the complaint, especially about how Andy wasted their time.

To the expressed relief of more than just my friend, Andy was ordered to tone down the posters, desist with the e-mailing/ copying of materials that had no relation to agency activities and to stop talking politics while on the agency’s clock.

Also, reader Nancy Gubka writes:

Leading up to last November’s election, I thought about filing a complaint with my company’s human resources department over “political harassment” – as in “creating a toxic work environment”. People have a right to their own opinions, but they do *not* have the right to leave their office or cubicle and invade a co-worker’s space in order to harangue them. I’m also not sure that they have the right to gather around the water cooler or other common space and spew leftist hatred and misinformation so that everyone around them is subjected to their thinking and derision.

I did mention it to one more mature co-worker and I think he passed the message on, because I’m not hearing/ seeing this sort of behavior any more. Sometimes it can almost pass as a form of sexual harassment when you have a tall liberal man repeatedly berating a shorter conservative woman.

In any case, I do think this behavior is something that HR professionals will have to deal with sooner rather than later.

Reader Glenmore Shelton, meanwhile, thinks it’s a mistake to complain:

Push back, act offended, and threaten litigation.

And you will quickly find yourself out of work and blacklisted. And unable to get any but a desperate attorney to take your wrongful termination suit on contingency. Apostasy will not be tolerated in the religion of Progressivism.

I’m not so sure, as illustrated above. And reader David Johnson emails: “Regarding your post on Slate’s ‘Dear Prudence’ letter that addresses political comments at non-profits, you might suggest that those afraid to respond in person could use sites such as http://www.annoyingcoworker.com/ or http://www.nicecritic.com/ . These sites allow you to get a message to the person doing the ‘offending’ activity in an anonymous manner. Used judiciously, these are great tools for correcting, ummmm, less desirable habits of coworkers discreetly. Could be good for this as well.”

Of course, it’s fine for people to talk politics at work, and I don’t think that people should be fired for doing so. But some people seem to want to talk politics instead of work, or to turn workplaces into political cliques, which is generally a bad idea. Most people will put up with it out of fear of confrontation — but, on the other hand, those who don’t will find that fear of confrontation works both ways, and that most people will avoid too much politicking if they think someone will complain and make their own experience even mildly unpleasant.

UPDATE: Another reader emails:

I work in New York City. The day after the election was surreal – everyone was so happy and convinced that all problems would magically disappear. They had an inauguration party in the cafeteria and everyone (except me) attended (I pretended I had a lot of work to do). I can guarantee they did not have a party when Bush was inaugurated. During the election, inauguration and since – it is simply assumed that EVERYONE is for Obama. This includes stories in our weekly emailed newsletter. I keep my opinions to myself because my boss is a very argumentative (think Janine Garafalo) liberal who does not tolerate dissent. She’s actually come running out of her office the day after Sarah Palin was announced as VP to go into a tirade about ‘that woman.’ I found it amazing since she had only been in the news less than 24 hours. Everyone just LOVED Tina Fey’s impression of the ignorant version of Palin. I love my job as long as we don’t talk about politics, but most of the time I just listen to Rush or read Instapundit, Hot Air or NRO when they’re not looking.

Ah, the joys of being subversive.

DIJONGATE! Sorry, I’m declaring this a non-scandal. I like a nice bacon-cheeseburger, and Grey Poupon goes very well. Of course, I’m a pointy-headed law professor.

MORE CREDIBILITY PROBLEMS for The Daily Beast. I don’t think many RPGs are being sold at gun shows. And by “not many,” I mean “not any.”

REPORTING FROM AFGHANISTAN: One Day at Forward Operating Base Salerno.

ANN MCKINNEY’S “BALLAD OF TIMOTHY GEITHNER” currently has over 971,000 views on YouTube. Coming soon, a million!

Meanwhile, she keeps singing, with That’s Pelosi! and the Circular 230 Lament.

COOKBOOKS OF THE FIRST ORDER: James Beard Foundation Book Awards: 2009 Winners.

HOT AIR: Lauria allegations of threats corroborated.

UPDATE: Jeff Goldstein: “Hey, fellas. He won. Ends justifying the means is part and parcel of the leftism you voted for. Perhaps you didn’t care when that mindset was only marshaled in the service of getting elected, but how could you not see that it would spill over into every other thing the man plans to do, from reorganizing the control over car companies in favor of labor, to signaling that he will nominate judges, under the rubric of pragmatism, that will follow the same intellectual path?”

WILL WILKINSON ON LIBERTARIAN DEMOCRAPHOBIA:

Whatever else you can say about Patri Friedman and Peter Thiel’s wholesale rejection of politics in favor of flight to a DIY frontier, it is not confused or incoherent. It is to reject the terms of the local democratic game by exercising the exit option. It’s what the Pilgrims did. It’s what the Mormons did. The difference is that there’s no more ready-made frontier left to settle. And I truly wish them the best of luck.

But I don’t think they take seriously enough the problem of governance in the DIY frontier. One can avoid politics and democratic conflict in the short-run through self-segregation. But this tends not to last that long.

Indeed.

AND THE PRESS IS READY TO DELIVER: Nation Ready To Be Lied To About Economy Again.

After nearly four months of frank, honest, and open dialogue about the failing economy, a weary U.S. populace announced this week that it is once again ready to be lied to about the current state of the financial system.

Tired of hearing the grim truth about their economic future, Americans demanded that the bald-faced lies resume immediately, particularly whenever politicians feel the need to divulge another terrifying problem with Wall Street, the housing market, or any one of a hundred other ticking time bombs everyone was better off not knowing about.

In addition, citizens are requesting that the phrase, “It will only get worse before it gets better,” be permanently replaced with, “Things are going great. Enjoy yourselves.”

The Insta-Wife has noted that CNBC has been in cheerleading mode for weeks, but maybe this is just their market-research talking, not pressure from Jeffrey Immelt . . . .

ARLEN SPECTER: Bringing “fresh new blood” to the Democrats!

YOU CAN’T SEE THESE, THEY’RE PUBLICITY PHOTOS: “Apparently the Obama administration’s policy is to release photos only when doing so might pose a danger to national security.”

NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: Specialized vs. General Molecular Assemblers and the Risk of AGI.

MAKES SENSE TO ME! TN lawmaker wants Hooters to sponsor speed bumps.

THE CHRYSLER FALLOUT: Obama Takes Sides. “The question becomes: are we just bailing out a bunch of politically-connected billionaires? Whenever you get a chance, ask anyone who will listen: Why has President Obama not told us what he plans to give Cerberus in exchange for Chrysler?”

PHARMASAT to test drugs in space.

IF TEA-PARTIERS DID THIS IT WOULD BE FASCISM: Health care activists disrupt Senate Finance Committee hearing. “The mini-protest was organized by Healthcare Now, Physicians for a National Health Program and Single Payer Action, all of whom support a single-payer, government-run health care system.”