ASSOCIATED PRESS: “A sports consultant told an aide to Rod Blagojevich that Barack Obama’s election presented ‘opportunities’ for the then-governor.”

(Via NewsAlert, which has more background).

MATT WELCH: Obama: I Am Not a Socialist, Because Bush Expanded Medicare! “Obama will get no argument from me when it comes to Bush’s disaster socialism. But this new he-did-it-too argument does run counter to another, Hendrik Hertzberg-applauded narrative that Obama has been running with since before inauguration: That his administration’s economic policies represents a sharp break from the policies of his predecessor. As people like Washington Post columnist Robert J. Samuelson have begun to point out, Obama is running high on the contradiction-meter.”

LAURA TYSON DEFENDS OBAMANOMICS.

Meanwhile, Kevin Hassett says it’s a war on business. And some people are wondering if Geithner is being set up as the fall guy.

Also, Nate Silver says don’t blame Obama for the stock market.

UPDATE: “Why are the markets falling?”

Investors really don’t know what kind of decisions will be coming from this administration in the coming year.

The market’s plunge since he took office is not all Obama’s fault, but he’s earned his share.

To refresh, on Election Day, 2008, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 9,625.

On Inauguration Day 2009, the DJIA closed at 7,949.09.

Today the Dow is 6547.05.

Stay tuned.

MORE: The Dow since the stimulus passed:

STILL MORE: Dan Cleary emails: “Call me irrationally exuberant, but I see no reason why we cannot return to January ’09 stock market levels by the end of Obama’s first term.” Hope! Change!

JIM CRAMER answers his critics. “President Obama’s team, unlike Bush’s team, demonstrates a thinness of skin that shocks me. . . . Are they really that blind to the Great Wealth Destruction they are causing with their decisions to demonize the bankers, raise taxes for the wealthy, advocate draconian cap-and-trade policies and upend the health care system? Do they really believe that only the rich own stocks? What do they think we have our retirement accounts in, CDs? Where did they think that the money saved for college went, our mattresses?”

SUPREME COURT RULES AGAINST MINORITY DISTRICTS: “Dividing 5-4, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday that federal voting rights law does not require the creation of a new legislative district when that would include a racial minority group that has less than 50 percent of the population, as a remedy when minority voters’ rights have been diluted.” More here, from Lyle Denniston.

STILL AIRBRUSHING Obama’s Wikipedia page.

UPDATE: Dave Weigel says that Wikipedia is just editing out libel — but looking at what’s on the page, well, that’s awfully charitable of him.

A NISSAN GT-R station wagon? Heh.

ERGONOMIC ERRORS: 5 Design Flaws that Ruined Otherwise Smart Gadgets.

Some related thoughts are here.

PIGEONS ON THE PILL, and other kinds of wildlife birth-control.

COMING SOON: Ezra Levant’s Shakedown: How Our Government is Undermining Democracy in the Name of Human Rights.

A REAL COMPUTER turn-on.

TIME: Connecticut’s Chris Dodd Faces A Backyard Rebellion:

Dodd is looking increasingly vulnerable. The silver-haired father of two young girls is facing his toughest re-election fight ever, and he doesn’t even have an opponent yet. (Though CNBC pundit Larry Kudlow and former GOP Rep. Rob Simmons have both expressed interest in running.) In a January Quinnipiac poll, 51% of Connecticut voters said that they would not vote for Dodd in 2010. . . . Much of Dodd’s current woes stem from a pair of mortgages that he must wish he had never gotten. His reputation still has not recovered from the revelation last year that he received a sweetheart deal on his mortgage, saving upwards of $75,000 courtesy of Countrywide, one of the biggest pushers of the subprime mortgages that have landed the U.S. economy in such dire straits. . . . These days being chairman serves only to remind voters of his own problems with Countrywide and, fairly or not, makes Dodd the face of two deeply unpopular bailouts of Wall Street and an only slightly less unpopular stimulus plan.

And this story doesn’t even mention the iffy Irish “cottage” deal.

NANOTECHNOLOGY FUEL PRODUCTION: Nanotubes For Photocatalysis Produce Methane. “A cheap synthetic system that works better than plant photosynthesis for producing hydrocarbons from carbon dioxide, water, and sunlight might some day provide a great source of energy. Toward that end some Penn State researchers have advanced the state of the art for light-driven methane generation using titania nanotubes. I love to see this kind of advance.” Me too.

CONTROLLING YOUR IPHONE with facial signals. So thanks to bluetooth headsets, you already can’t tell if the person walking down the street talking to him- or herself is crazy nowadays; when this catches on, the fact that they’re twitching their face spasmodically won’t be a clue, either, because they might just be dialing . . . .

HOUSTON CHRONICLE: Mexican Cartels Infiltrate Houston.

A BUGATTI BLENDER? I need a new blender.

A CONTENT-SHARING DEAL among Tennessee newspapers: “This agreement can be seen not only as a cost cutting measure to thin the herd of redundant reporters but also an end run around the Associated Press whose high fees in times of economic decline and industry upheaval have caused many newspaper organizations consternation.”

IN THE MAIL: Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse.

WASHINGTON POST: Obama Aims to Insulate Science from Politics. Hmm. That’s not how it’s worked so far. . . .

IT’S SELDOM REALLY ABOUT SAFETY: “Britain is to cut the speed limit from 60 mph to 50 mph on most roads to ‘save lives’. Does anyone seriously believe this is not in fact to raise more revenue from speeding tickets?”

ASKING the tough questions.

DOLLAR DOWN? BAD NEWS. Dollar up? Bad news!

60 MINUTES on lowering the drinking age.

RADLEY BALKO: Why Did Obama Wimp Out on a Death Penalty Case? “The president who was once a champion of defendants’ rights to DNA evidence as a senator in Illinois has now let his Justice Department oppose that right at the Supreme Court. What happened?” At a guess, institutional politics in the Solicitor General’s office, but that’s just a guess. Or maybe just politics — Elena Kagan hasn’t been confirmed yet, and may not want news stories about a position-switch. But that’s just a guess, too.

ASUS TO RELEASE A foldable, no-fan laptop this year. Cool.