TUNKU VARADARAJAN: Obama Should Visit India — Soon. “There is no doubt that the Indian political establishment was rooting for McCain in the U.S. elections, believing that the Republican candidate was a better guarantor of India’s interests. Yet President Obama should resist any reflexive inclination he might have to treat India as ‘Bush country.'”

FROM FABIUS MAXIMUS, skepticism about claims of an Iranian bomb.

RASMUSSEN: Following Passage of Stimulus Bill, Consumer Confidence Falls to Record Low.

UPDATE: Dan Riehl thinks Rasmussen’s headline is unfair.

SOCIAL COLLAPSE: Best Practices.

VIDEO: Roger Simon on Greg Gutfeld’s “Redeye,” talking about his book, Blacklisting Myself.

PICTURES FROM THE taxpayer protest in Seattle. Reportedly, there’ll be one in Denver tomorrow, and people are trying to organize them in Nashville and NYC.

More here.

RECIPE: World’s Easiest Biscuits.

Q & A WITH A BILLIONAIRE SPACE TOURIST.

ANN ALTHOUSE: Why Can’t I Buy Gas Without Ethanol in It? And, in the comments: “If you want to know why you can’t get gas without ethanol in it, look at the number of corn state Senators in DC.”

Plus this: “I see a market opportunity for vintage service stations selling artisan gasoline.” Hand-refined!

SIGN ME UP . . . ER, LAST: Using electrical stimulation to copy facial expressions.

HEADLINE OF THE DAY: Saudi Oil Minister Warns Against Hasty Transition to Renewable Energy.

SUITABLE FOR STOCKPILING: A bunch of battery markdowns.

STIMULUS AND RECOVERY? We’re in a hole, yet we dig even deeper.

Our elected representatives in Washington sold the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009” as a stimulant for the economy, but it is, in fact, Viagra for the leviathan state. The legislation effectively repeals welfare reform, the single most successful domestic policy of the 1990s. I must have been in the bathroom during that debate. . . . Not only are we nationalizing the banks, but the legislators overseeing the banking industry regulate about as well as I play the left-handed harpsichord.

Christopher Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, who got a sweetheart mortgage from Countrywide and carried water for Fannie Mae like Gunga Din, should be testifying before his own committee in an orange jumpsuit in exchange for early release. Instead, he’s spewing righteous indignation about the malfeasance of the people who used to buy him lunch.

Read the whole thing. Meanwhile, Frontline is treating Dodd as an unbiased expert. “And the Dems want a Fairness Doctrine?” Maybe the Frontline folks missed this.

EARTH UNDER THREAT from dark comets?

SO I GUESS I DON’T HAVE TO FEEL GUILTY ABOUT SELLING LAW DEGREES: 76% of Young Lawyers Are Happy With Their Career Decision.

HISTORY: “The first integration of Southern schools occurred with little fanfare in September 1955 in Oak Ridge.”

GEORGE W. BUSH: Lincoln’s Heir? “Such is the surprising albeit unintended message of John Fabian Witt’s piece in Slate.” And now we get, if not the carpetbaggers and scalawags, at least the corruption of the Gilded Age?

AUTOBLOG: Prius Proves Pricey Come Repair Time.

SPACE LAW: An interview with James Dunstan.

A NEW SITE: AUDITCONGRESS.COM: “Audit them all and let the IRS sort it out.”

“LINCOLNITES” in East Tennessee.

IN THE MAIL: From Matthew Sweeney, The Lottery Wars: Long Odds, Fast Money, and the Battle Over an American Institution.

REASON TV: Freedom of Expression in the Age of Obama.

Knoxville, Tennessee. In the era of hope and change.

UPDATE: “Dude, where’s my utopia?”

ANOTHER UPDATE: What, me negative? Not compared to the President!

AT THE HUFFINGTON POST: Open Letter to a Craven Reporter on Iraq. “I saw many of the same things you did. But I’ve come to very different conclusions. That, I believe, is because you had a pre-existing agenda you were determined to conform evidence to (i.e., war is bad, the U.S. is waging a war, so whatever it’s doing in Anbar is bad); and because you’re a coward.” (Via Jules Crittenden, who has some thoughts).