L.A. TIMES: So does Democrat Pete Stark represent California or Maryland? “California’s Rep. Pete Stark, a senior House Democrat who helps write the nation’s tax laws, has been claiming a $1.7 million Maryland home as his principal residence in recent years, although he represents the Golden State’s 13th District on the east side of San Francisco Bay. The 77-year-old Stark has saved himself nearly $3,900 in state and county taxes by claiming the six-acre waterfront estate as his principal residence, according to an investigation by Bloomberg News. Maryland law allows the tax break only to those residences used ‘for the legal purposes of voting, obtaining a driver’s license, and filing income tax returns.'”

Taxes are for the little people! But it would be amusing to see someone file suit to have him declared ineligible for his seat. I don’t think it would fly, but . . . .

AN IPHONE MUSIC VIDEO.

VOTE OF CONFIDENCE? “Tim Geithner’s second shot at laying out a plan to rescue the nation’s banking system is being received a lot better than his first. At this moment, the Dow is up over four percent.”

INTRODUCING the world’s cheapest car. ” India’s Tata Motors on Monday launched the world’s cheapest car, the Nano, hoping to revolutionise travel for millions and buck a slump in auto sales caused by the global economic crisis. Company boss Ratan Tata said the no-frills vehicle, slated to cost just 100,000 rupees (2,000 dollars) for the basic model, will get India’s middle-class urban population off motorcycles and into safer, affordable cars.”

AS SEEN ON TV: Does the Twin Draft Guard work?

FOR TRUCKS, fuel-saving Predictive Cruise Control.

THE PERILS OF RECESSION: More Women Going From Jobless To Topless. (Via NewsAlert).

TOM SMITH: Things Aren’t So Bad.

LAST WEEK I LINKED THIS RECIPE FOR MONGOLIAN BEEF, from the delightfully named “Crepes Of Wrath” food blog. Christopher Johnson tried it and emails: “Thank you for the Mongolian Beef. Really. Thank you a WHOLE lot.” Apparently, it worked out well. I haven’t tried that one, but maybe I will. I should note that that link — like a lot of the more interesting ones here — was sent to me by Paul “Evil Genius” Music, an endless font of interesting web stuff.

THOUGHTS ON reforming the White House Office of Political Affairs.

IN THE MAIL: Mark Levin’s Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto. It comes out tomorrow.

HARTFORD COURANT: Dodd’s Self-Inflicted Wounds Taking Toll.

Plus, Dodd’s stock with voters began dropping before AIG.

ROGER SIMON: The MSM should resign over Obama’s failure.

Barely two months after the inauguration, the mainstream media has its proverbial knickers in a twist over Obama’s ineptitude in office. Even Thomas Friedman – that most conventional of all purveyors of the conventional (except David Gergen – and he’s been straying off the reservation too) – is now complaining the onetime Messiah is not taking the financial crisis seriously enough, “getting in trouble cracking jokes on Jay Leno comparing his bowling skills to a Special Olympian.” Meanwhile, CNN is appalled the President pushed through a skillion page skillion dollar stimulus bill no one seems to have read.

Hello, children, you elected this guy. Take some responsibility!

No, don’t go complaining the people did that. You did it. Obama is your man, your hero. You never vetted, never examined him in any depth at all, even though the candidate had hardly any experience other than running for office. (Oh, yes, he was a “community organizer.” So was I, in a sense. You want to elect me?)

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: Read this, from the New York Daily News, too:

That Congress is a gang of cheap connivers is not news. Chris Dodd, Charlie Rangel, Charles Grassley, Barney Frank – they have been national embarrassments for years.

But now they are dangerous, emboldened by public fear and anger. They know nothing, but have power and smell opportunity for more.

Missing in action is the Barack Obama who vowed to unite the country around common values. Lately he has been the very opposite of the man he promised. Instead of hope, many have a growing fear of the arrogant government he leads. . . . He is not a reformer who fixes things. He fancies himself “transformative,” a man who reshapes and reorders. It apparently begins with smashing the existing order under the pretext of managing the crisis he inherited.

Read the whole thing. And, apropos of Roger’s comments, note this passage:

During the campaign, a fellow journalist confided that “I know Obama is a Manchurian candidate, I just can’t figure out what for.”

I laughed then, but no more.

We had a major abrogation of press responsibility during the election.

NEWSWEEK: Follow the bailout cash: “There was plenty of outrage on Capitol Hill last week over the executive bonuses paid out by AIG after getting federal bailout money. But another money trail could make voters just as angry: the campaign dollars to members of Congress from banks and firms that have received billions via the Troubled Asset Relief Program.”

THE PROBLEM ISN’T REPUBLICAN PRINCIPLES — it’s unprincipled Republicans. “Because Republicans didn’t stick, we got stuck.”

BAILOUT BANKS BUYING PRIVATE JETS. This whole plan is going swimmingly.

RENTING: Better than owning? Sometimes.

VIDEO: Obama’s Katrina Moment.

MORE TAX PUSHBACK: Corzine Feeling The Heat:

One week after Gov. Jon Corzine stunned taxpayers by declaring he planned to eliminate the property tax deduction on state income taxes for everyone but senior citizens, he told a group of residents at a neighborhood meeting in Eatontown that he was rethinking his position because he was getting a lot of “pushback.” Over the past few years, Corzine hasn’t worried much about pushback. With the election less than eight months away, he’s starting to pay more attention to what fed up taxpayers are thinking. It is likely no coincidence that his change of heart about the property tax deduction came just days after a Quinnipiac Poll showed that Republican gubernatorial front-runner Chris Christie had extended his lead in a hypothetical matchup with Corzine to 9 percentage points. . . .

Clearly, Corzine is in trouble. And he’s starting to act like he knows it. Three years of people complaining about high taxes, the need to rein in unions and his failure to do enough on ethics reform didn’t get through to him. The prospect of losing his re-election bid might. Keep pushing back.

Well, that’s why we have elections.

TAKING DEBT to the next frontier.

THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED OVER THE WEEKEND:

Buyer’s remorse sets in.

“Tea Party” protests in Orlando, Raleigh, Ridgefield, CT, and Lexington. Also in Steny Hoyer’s district. Plus, advice for Tea Party organizers.

Pushback on witch hunts. Plus, hey, they still need private investors! Oops!

Baghdad Bob covers ACORN. More on that here. Also here.

More on Chris Dodd’s Irish “cottage.”

And, finally, more of our Congress’s “taxes are for the little people” attitude. An Army Of Leonas!

SURPRISE! Obama DOJ Sides With RIAA. Interesting discussion in the comments, among people who mostly supported Obama, I believe.

FOCUSING LIKE A LASER BEAM LAVA LAMP on the economy: “Six weeks after President Barack Obama appointed a blue-ribbon panel to help him dig America out of its economic crisis, the board has yet to hold an official public meeting.”

UPDATE: “Amateur Hour.”

CHRIS DODD UPDATE:

We’re as perturbed as anyone about bonuses being paid by a company that has drained tens of billions of dollars from American taxpayers. We’re also amused that one of the principal apostles of outrage, Sen. Chris Dodd, Democrat from Connecticut, apparently added changes to the stimulus bill that made it possible for AIG to pay the big bonuses. Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, is already in hot water because he accepted low-interest personal mortgages from Countrywide, the lender that later went bust. He also may be involved in a shady deal involving his vacation home in Ireland.

It has been hard to keep up with Dodd’s changing stories, but one version has him inserting the bonus-enabling language at the behest of the Obama Treasury Department. Dodd, by the way, was the No. 1 recipient last year of contributions from AIG employees and political action committees, raking in more than $104,000. Barack Obama was a close second, receiving just under $104,000 in AIG money.

We’re not really sure what all of this means — except that Chris Dodd surely is not the man to oversee the revival of the banking industry.

Indeed. Plus, Connecticut Post: Dodd’s actions speak louder than his words.

As a ranking member of the all-important U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs between 2003 and 2008, Dodd accepted donations from the nearly defunct insurance giant American International Group totaling nearly $225,000. In 2008, while we looked to him to represent our best interests, he received $157,194 from a now-quasi-nationalized Citigroup Inc., part of his total annual take of $854,200 from all TARP recipients, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

How can he truly represent his constituents’ best interests when he is accepting vast sums of money from organizations that the government has assisted through the infusion of federal tax dollars? While legal, an objective observer should question the judgment and ethics of our state’s senior senator.

His poor judgment does not stop there. The senator was one of the most significant recipients of money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, now nationalized due to poor oversight and years of legislative mismanagement. According to his office as reported just two weeks ago, Dodd has agreed to return campaign donations from TARP recipients since the government began infusing the companies. What an honorable decision considering that his hand was caught in the cookie jar!

Further, Dodd received from Countrywide Financial, an entity that was sold to Bank of America in order to avoid bankruptcy, a special below-market mortgage rate on his two personal residences. He called a “V.I.P.” number at Countrywide and in so doing abused his position as a lead oversight legislator in the U.S. Senate.

Ouch.

THE HORROR OF Sexsomnia.