IN THE MAIL: From Kurt Lash, The Lost History of the Ninth Amendment. Larry Solum calls it “magnificent.”

CHRIS DODD UPDATE:

By almost every measure, Washington is hopelessly corrupt.

And we are at once victims and accomplices.

Career politicians are spending the country to near-bankruptcy as they feather their own nests, tighten their leash on our necks and pat us on the head. They take our money, bend it to their will, then return small portions of it at their discretion to make us feel it has all been worth it.

Washington is to the taxpayer as the drug cartels are to the addict. . . . Meanwhile, with the power to give out our money as they wish, congressmen take campaign money from lobbyists and industries they regulate. Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., is only the latest poster boy for that, but boy is he a good one. There may be no one who better represents all that is wrong with Washington. The powerful Senate Banking Committee chairman got a sweetheart mortgage from Countrywide; he has received $280,000 in campaign contributions from troubled insurer AIG; and he made sure that AIG executive bonuses were untouched by Congress — then claimed for 24 hours that he knew nothing about it, before reporters forced him to admit the truth.

Polls show Dodd is in re-election trouble. But don’t hold your breath: Despite record-low approval ratings for Congress last year, we continued sending our congressmen back at about a 90 percent retention rate.

We have, sadly, been corrupted.

Read the whole thing.

BANANA-REPUBLIC BUDGETING? “It was surely an act of hubris for President Obama to ask Congress to approve a $3.6 trillion federal budget for 2010 that runs a trillion-dollars worth of red ink its first year and then projects half-trillion deficits every year thereafter for a decade. Congress has never before been asked to consider spending of such magnitude, not even during wartime. Obama’s budget proposal also included provisions committing the nation to far-reaching policy changes that are certain to drive federal taxes higher, send gasoline and electricity costs soaring, socialize doctors and patients by putting Washington bureaucrats in charge of health care, and make Uncle Sam the Daddy Warbucks of college tuition for everybody. . . . So how did Congress deal with this landmark legislation? The House of Representatives gave opponents exactly 20 minutes to present an alternative, then gaveled the Obama measure to approval. The Senate approved it after considering a handful of amendments. But note that even before the 2010 budget was approved, this Congress had approved spending more than $1.2 trillion, or $24 billion per day. That’s $1 billion every hour since the 111th Congress convened in January.”

LOOK WHO ELSE IS PROFITING FROM TARP FUNDS:

Warren Buffett promoted the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP), and lambasted the greed on Wall Street, yet he is one of the main benefactors of the TARP largesse according to a Sacramento Bee story.

Buffett endorsed Barack Obama for President last year, and Obama tapped Buffett to be a member of the candidate’s economic team. Obama requently referred to Buffett’s endorsement during the campaign as proof that he had the capability to deal with the troubled US economy.

Maybe he’s trying out for the role of Orren Boyle. Plus this:

The Obama administration has been blaming Republicans for the economic mess (and there is some culpability there too), yet the Democrats keep showing up with millions of dollars in their pockets. Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd received special treatment from Countrywide on his mortgage, Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel received about $300,000 for very little work at Freddie Mac, former Clinton OMB Director Franklin Raines reaped about $90 million from [Fannie Mae] by inflating profits — and the list goes on.

But what is really troubling is the chicanery that Warren Buffett and other Democrats employ to blame eveything on Wall Street when it is Washington that is largely to blame.

Say, can we get a list of Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac bonus recipients? I mean, since Congress’s need for the AIG names was so urgent.

A LITTLE “REFRESHING CHANGE” from Hollywood.

PAKISTAN BECOMES Flog-istan.

STARTING TONIGHT ON PJTV: The Nationwide Tea Party Coalition gets its own show.

MURTHA UPDATE: Ex-Pittsburgher in middle of earmark scandal.

Described as bright, blunt and ambitious, Mr. Magliocchetti left a post as a staff member for the House Defense Appropriations subcommittee more than 20 years ago and set up shop as PMA Group, which became the premier lobbyist for defense firms seeking billions in federal dollars. Last year alone, PMA’s clients paid the firm $13.5 million to help them secure hundreds of millions in federal contracts.

“He was a guy who knew how to put the pieces together,” says one congressman, a close friend who spoke only on condition of anonymity, worried at the consequences of being tied publicly to a man now at the center of the newest lobbying scandal. Those pieces fell apart with frightening speed amid a federal investigation that ended Mr. Magliocchetti’s career and turned a harsh light on the long-standing practice of steering federal dollars to pet projects, a practice known as earmarks.

Now, with prosecutors investigating Mr. Magliocchetti’s political giving, as well as about his connections to various members of Congress, the controversy over earmarks has gathered renewed momentum with Mr. Magliocchetti, a Pittsburgh native, as its focus.

“It seems to me in our system, even Magliocchetti is innocent until he’s proven guilty,” said Rep. John P. Murtha, D-Johnstown.

Yeah, it’s not like he works for AIG or anything. But who will stand between him and the people with pitchforks? Murtha? I’d say that the “even Magliocchetti” language suggests not so much — despite this: “Mr. Murtha, chairman of the powerful defense appropriations subcommittee, has worked closely with Mr. Magliocchetti and others from PMA.”

NORTH KOREAN LAUNCH produces more interest in new spy satellite systems. I’d say invest the money in expert saboteurs instead . . . .

TYLER COWEN: WHY CREDITORS SHOULD SUFFER TOO: “These firms engaged in deals that A.I.G. could not make good on. The bailout, and the regulatory regime outlined by Timothy F. Geithner, the Treasury secretary, would give firms like these every incentive to make similar deals down the road. If we are going to prevent an A.I.G.-like debacle from happening again, institutions like these need incentives to be more wary of their trading partners.”

GREED: Visclosky asks for $145M in federal earmarks.

U.S. Rep. Peter Visclosky, D-Merrillville, submitted about $145.6 million in earmarks for the 2010 fiscal year appropriations process.

It’s an increase of $32.6 million on the $113 million in earmarks he sought last year. The deadline for requests was Friday, as Congress is considering President Barack Obama’s 2010 budget. . . . The FBI is investigating The PMA Group, one of Visclosky’s largest campaign donors, for relationships between PMA campaign donations and earmarks secured for its clients by members of Congress.

The Post-Tribune examined Visclosky’s 2008 earmarks, which showed he secured more than $20 million in contracts for PMA clients and represented a quarter of the solo earmarks he obtained.

Read the whole thing. Plus, from the New York Times, background: “Federal law enforcement officials who raided the lobbyist Paul Magliocchetti’s PMA Group appear to be examining the firm’s relationship with Representative Peter J. Visclosky, a low-profile lawmaker with big influence over federal spending, people familiar with the matter said this week. . . . Mr. Visclosky, 59, was one of the lawmakers with the closest ties to PMA until its recent collapse. He relied heavily on the firm for campaign fund-raising, earmarked millions of dollars each year to its clients and maintained a close bond with a former aide who worked as a PMA lobbyist. . . . He has received more campaign contributions than any other lawmaker from PMA employees since 1989. . . . Meanwhile, over the last two years, Mr. Visclosky personally directed more than $33 million in taxpayer money — nearly a quarter of the earmarked money he obtained — to clients of the lobbying firm.”

THINGS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED if you were out, you know, having a life this weekend:

Threats of pitchforked mob violence. (More on that here and here).

Does cable-news hype promote mass shootings?

Tea Party protests in Long Island and Santa Barbara.

Politicizing the Justice Department? More on that subject here.

Worries about shutting down the Internet.

An Ann Althouse love story.

And the continuing relevance of Atlas Shrugged.

JIM LINDGREN: It is highly odd that Oliver Willis would attribute murdering cops to those who hold Republican views. Well, it’s only odd from a reasoned perspective. To the JournoList crowd it seems like a brilliant stroke.

Plus, Redistributionists tend to be angry and plot revenge. “It is sad that Willis would point to Republicans as particularly angry or vengeful, when those who strongly favor income redistribution (a central position of the current Administration) are more than twice as likely as strong opponents of leveling to admit that they responded to their anger by plotting revenge.”

COMPLAINTS ABOUT slow police response to the Binghamton shooting. And calls for an outside investigation.

THE ERA OF HOPE AND CHANGE: THE FIRST U.S.-BASED pro Al Qaeda magazine appears.

SOME EVIDENCE THAT THE PEOPLE WHO SAY TWITTER MAKES YOU STUPID may be right. More here.

TIME FOR TAX REFORM? Bruce Bartlett: “Two recent announcements from the Obama administration have started the ball rolling on tax reform. This is a long overdue and welcome development. It’s critically important that Congress enact some sort of major tax reform every 10 years or so because the tax code becomes unbelievably cluttered very quickly with special tax provisions. It’s essential to clear away this underbrush from time to time and look at the tax system in its totality. Unfortunately, the last major tax reform effort took place in 1986.”

I’d like to see major tax reform, too, but I’m skeptical that we’ve got anyone in a position of influence in Washington who really wants to produce a less corrupt system. I’d love to be proved wrong. (Via TaxProf).

NARCISSISM AND VICTIMHOOD: A deadly combination.

THIS POST of Moe Lane’s led me to check my sitemeter. So far, so good in the age of Obama!