FROM NPR: A very positive and straightforward piece on Tea Party music star Lloyd Marcus.

UPDATE: Meanwhile, reader Matt Holzmann writes:

It was interesting to note the pro Obamacare protest outside of Congressman John Campbell’s office in Newport Beach yesterday. There were 300 pro Obama protesters and perhaps 125 anti Obama counterprotesters. Very civil.

The Obama protesters are personalizing their message, and they stayed away from the pre-printed signs. The Antis were mainly our version of tea partiers. A lot of Paulians and conservative Republicans. What is weird is that OC is very conservative and completely lethargic. There is not much of a “there” here. People are angry, but not yet ready to say so publicly.

I think the message I took away from this was that the Left is now going to catalog their own demonstrations and protests and use this as a meme in their effort. I expect them to come out with all guns blazing next Monday/Tuesday. I believe we are going to see one hell of a propaganda campaign. It’s going to be interesting.

Indeed. Kind of fits with this report.

UPDATE: Related: Busted… HCAN Organizer Hands Out the Astroturfed Signs at Illinois Town Hall (Video).

It’s good that lots of people take video cameras to these things.

THIS DOESN’T REALLY SURPRISE ME: Air in car tunnels heavily polluted.

FRANK J. FLEMING: We Should Train Our Politicians Like We Train Our Dogs.

But dogs are fundamentally loyal.

TUMORS FEEL the deadly sting of “nanobees:” “Now the toxin in bee venom has been harnessed to kill tumor cells by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The researchers attached the major component of bee venom to nano-sized spheres that they call nanobees.”

HAVING FUN with an inexpensive home video projector.

I HOPE WE DON’T NEED IT ANY TIME SOON: Aerospace Giant Building a Gravity Tractor to Deflect Killer Asteroids.

THE CARNIVAL OF SPACE is up!

BUMMER: Skype Doubles Connection Fees for International Calls.

GRAND ROUNDS IS UP!

APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY: Sandia Designing Factory Mass-Producable Right-Sized Nuclear Reactor. “The presentation talks about a goal of $1500/KW for construction and the press release a financial target of 5 cents per kwh. Those are price levels that already being achieved in China.”

AFTER THE TRANSISTOR, A leap into the microcosm. “Dr. Ross, an I.B.M. researcher, is growing a crop of mushroom-shaped silicon nanowires that may one day become a basic building block for a new kind of electronics. Nanowires are just one example, although one of the most promising, of a transformation now taking place in the material sciences as researchers push to create the next generation of switching devices smaller, faster and more powerful than today’s transistors.” Shouldn’t that be the “nanocosm”?

TOP TEN STOLEN VEHICLES.

FINDING A SCAPEGOAT, When Epidemics Strike.

IN THE MAIL: From Eric Posner, The Perils of Global Legalism. Very timely, I’d say.

BILL WHITTLE: Bill Maher, Barack Obama and the Truth About American Exceptionalism.

BYRON YORK: The clock is ticking on tax cheat Charlie Rangel.

It hasn’t gotten much attention amid news of Ted Kennedy, Obamacare and the worsening outlook in Afghanistan, but an extraordinary situation is developing in the House of Representatives. With each passing day, it’s becoming more clear that the powerful committee chairman in charge of writing America’s tax laws is a financial wheeler-dealer, a serial asset-hider, and a tax offender. . . . Last week, we learned that Rangel filed a grossly misleading financial disclosure report for 2007 — failing to report at least half a million dollars in assets.

It turns out Rangel had a credit union account worth at least $250,000 and maybe as much as $500,000 — and didn’t report it. He had investment accounts worth about the same, which he also didn’t report. Ditto for three pieces of property in New Jersey.

Beyond that, we’ve learned that Rangel has failed to report assets totaling more than $1 million on legally required financial disclosure forms going back to at least 2001.

The news comes on top of revelations last year that Rangel didn’t report — and didn’t pay taxes on — income from a villa in the Caribbean. In that matter, the Internal Revenue Service gave him sweetheart treatment; Rangel paid about $10,000 in back taxes but was not required to pay any penalty or interest.

I wonder if the IRS would be so understanding with an ordinary citizen? Well, okay, I don’t wonder all that much. The IRS spent decades trying to build up a reputation as tough but fair. I’m not sure that’s going so well these days. . . .

SEVEN EQUIPMENT BREAKTHROUGHS that shook up sports.

MATT WELCH ON JOYCE CAROL OATES ON MARY JO KOPECHNE: “The ends are always worth a few strangled means, especially to those wielding or sympathizing with power. If you’re openly musing whether the unwilling, unjust sacrifice of an innocent is worth a broad set of alleged legislative improvements, you’re not asking a morally challenging question, you’re answering it.”

Related: “Benign paternalism and droit du seigneur are two halves of the same coin: The former has excused the latter in monarchical societies through the ages. It’s distressing to see so many alleged ‘democrats’ embrace it here.”

PAUL HSIEH: The Free Market is Not Another Form of Rationing.

MY DELL-BLOGGING YESTERDAY is small potatoes compared to this from Dooce.

BOINGBOING: Did Google Street View spot rapist/kidnapper Garrido?

RASMUSSEN: OBAMA APPROVAL HITS RECORD LOW. “Overall, 45% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President’s performance. That’s down a point from yesterday and the lowest level of total approval yet measured for Obama. Fifty-three percent (53%) now disapprove.”

UPDATE: Several core constituencies souring on Obama.

Plus this: “Obama’s challenge was to push his agenda through a Democratic-controlled government while retaining the affection of the 39 percent of Americans in the middle. The administration hasn’t been able to pull it off. From the stimulus to health care, it has joined itself at the hip to the liberal leadership in Congress. The White House has failed to veto measures, like the pork-laden omnibus spending bill, that would have demonstrated independence and fiscal restraint. By force of circumstances and by design, the president has promoted one policy after another that increases spending and centralizes power in Washington. . . . Trust in government rose when Obama took office. It has fallen back to historic lows. Fifty-nine percent of Americans now think the country is headed in the wrong direction.”

DAN RIEHL: Why Obama Will Bail on Afghanistan. I hope not.

HISTORY: “World War II in Europe began seventy years ago today, with Germany’s invasion of Poland.”

A.C. KLEINHEIDER: Jim Cooper vs. Daily Kos. “Unseating Cooper is a fool’s errand.” Then it’s perfectly suited to the Kos Krowd!