ANOTHER WATCHMEN REVIEW, from Will Collier.

DALLAS MORNING NEWS: FLAKE IS FIGHTING A LONELY BATTLE AGAINST EARMARKS:

Arizona congressman Jeff Flake, who is fed up with the process, recently tried to get the House ethics committee to investigate links between congressional earmarks and campaign contributions. Not surprisingly, his resolution died – despite the support of nearly all House Republicans, including those who represent North Texas districts, and 17 Democrats, including Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Austin, the sole Texas Democrat in Flake’s corner. . . .

Flake should continue his crusade to expose Congress’ charade, which encourages waste and tolerates political corruption. The $410 billion omnibus spending bill contains at least $8 billion in earmarks, including 13 pet projects for clients of PMA Group, a lobbying firm under investigation for suspicious campaign donations to members of Congress. PMA had close ties to Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., and other influential lawmakers who received substantial contributions from PMA’s employees and clients.

Indeed. Read the whole thing.

MICKEY KAUS: First Time The MSM Has Ever Ignored Warren Buffett: “The press accounts I’ve read have wildly underplayed Obama supporter Warren Buffet’s criticism of the President on CNBC today. It’s fairly pointed, and Buffett comes back to it, suggesting he has a message he’s trying to deliver.”

Kaus has the transcript, with key bits highlighted. Among Buffett’s messages: “I don’t think anybody on December 7th would have said a `war is a terrible thing to waste, and therefore we’re going to try and ram through a whole bunch of things and–but we expect to–expect the other party to unite behind us on the–on the big problem.’ It’s just a mistake, I think.”

NEW YORK CITY’S ECONOMY IS in the dumps.

WELL, CRAP: Obama Says Government Will Not Open the Door for Human Cloning. And why not? This goes back to the very early days of InstaPundit. Good grief. I was hoping for more sense on this subject.

Some related thoughts here. And this advice will probably carry over to the Obama Administration, too.

A LOOMING Public Pension Disaster? “That is the weak and easy road to take, and so, with history as our guide, we can be nearly 100% sure that our leadership will follow that route as certainly as water will seek a drain.”

NATE SILVER ON CHRIS DODD’S COUNTRYWIDE FALLOUT:

Chris Dodd’s approval ratings have fallen and aren’t getting up; he may be challenged by former Rep. Rob Simmons and populist icon Larry Kudlow. Connecticut is still a very blue state and Dodd is among the best fundraisers in the Senate, so this is a more difficult pickup opportunity than it appears on paper, but things are certainly getting interesting, particularly if the state’s Republicans have enough common sense not to nominate Kudlow.

Kudlow’s a swell guy, but he’s probably not their best candidate.

IT’S TEA PARTY TIME!

CHRIS DODD UPDATE: Some bad poll news for Dodd:

A new Quinnipiac University Poll shows U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd facing a tough re-election bid in 2010 if his challenger is former Republican U.S. Rep. Rob Simmmons of Stonington.

If the election were held today, Dodd would garner 42 percent of those surveyed while Simmons would win 43 percent.

That sweetheart mortgage deal isn’t looking like such a bargain, now . . . .

THE CALGON PRESIDENT?

JOHN TIERNEY: Politics-free science?

I was interested to see that this new memorandum instructs agency administrators to “have appropriate rules and procedures to ensure the integrity of the scientific process within the agency, including whistleblower protection.” Do you suppose this protection will inspire any government scientists to question Mr. Obama’s claim that global warming is causing “storms that are growing stronger with each passing hurricane season”? How many government economists will speak about the theoretical and practical advantages of a carbon tax over the cap-and-trade system being promoted by the administration? How many federal scientists discuss the environmental problems blamed on the ethanol subsidies favored by Mr. Obama?

If there are whistleblowers feeling newly empowered, please feel free to post comments here.

Heh.

Meanwhile, here’s some of my criticism of Bush on science and politics. I have to say that Obama’s not looking very different.

A BIG SALE on tools and home improvement stuff.

EUROPE’S EXTENSIVE REGULATIONS didn’t prevent financial disaster. (Via NewsAlert).

TUNKU VARADARAJAN: Taliban That I Have Known.

A WORM RETURNS: “A third version of Downadup has been identified by Symantec, which says the new variant gives infected machines more powerful instructions to disable antivirus software and analysis tools, among other actions.”

FROM JOHN SCALZI, a quick Watchmen review.

MORE ON CHRIS DODD, from a Connecticut blogger. Plus, a look from the Connecticult Local Politics blog. And Political Wire says that there’s a new poll coming out tomorrow.

TECHNOLOGY: U.S. Forgets How To Make Trident Missiles.

DEREK LOWE: Merck buys Schering-Plough: first thoughts.

NEW CHARGES in the Palin email hacking case.