ANOTHER TEA PARTY PROTEST IN SANTA BARBARA:

With cries of “Repeal, recall, revolt!” several hundred demonstrators took to downtown Santa Barbara’s streets Saturday to protest big government and big spending.

“I’m here because I’m worried about the direction our country is going,” said Anita Dwyer, a Lompoc resident.

Billed as Santa Barbara’s “Big, Cool Tea Party,” the gathering attracted people from as far away as Oregon as taxpayers turned out to voice their discontent over the way President Obama and Congress are handling the U.S. economy, with increased taxes and spending. Sacramento was singled out for its share of criticism, too. . . . The event, sponsored by Santa Barbara County Tea Party, was one of hundreds of similar demonstrations taking place across the country. The tax revolts are based on the 1773 Boston Tea Party in which a group of colonists dumped more than 300 cases of English tea into Boston Harbor as a protest against British taxation. The British responded with several harsh measures that united the colonists in their quest for independence and foreshadowed the Revolutionary War.

Lots more Santa Barbara photos in this gallery. Also, there’s lots of tea party information here and here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Here’s a picture of rock star Lloyd Marcus at the Santa Barbara protest, taken by Helene Bidwell. He’s the author of this Tea Party anthem.

ED WHELAN: Look Who’s Politicizing Justice Now.

Intense controversy has flared in recent years over a previously obscure but high-powered office in the Department of Justice — the Office of Legal Counsel. OLC has traditionally provided the final word to executive branch officials on the meaning of the Constitution and federal statutes. Disputes over whether it faithfully carried out its assigned role in national security matters during the Bush administration have erupted on newspaper front pages. Whatever the merits of those disputes, virtually everyone has agreed that it is imperative that OLC provide high-quality legal advice that is not slanted to advance a president’s policy agenda — and that the president and his top advisers respect that advice.

But now it appears that we have an attorney general who is himself running roughshod over OLC.

Read the whole thing.

THUS I DO REFUTE IT: Obama calls for world without nukes.

North Koreans launch rocket:

North Korea defied the United States, China and a series of United Nations resolutions by launching a rocket on Sunday that the country said was designed to propel a satellite into space, but that much of the world viewed as an effort to prove it is edging toward the capability to shoot a nuclear warhead on a longer-range missile.

Sigh.

MARK LEVIN’S Liberty and Tyranny is now number one on the New York Times bestseller list.

NOW THEY’RE ATTACKING “PASSIVE DRINKING.” Which is interesting, since there’s actually no such thing, telling me that the anti-alcohol crusaders are a dishonest lot.

Can we regulate meddling like tobacco? Or better yet, treat it like they treat crack in Singapore?

TIMELY: Psychology Today: A Field Guide to Narcissism. “Deep desire to be at the center of things is served by extreme self-confidence, a combination that makes narcissists attractive and even charming. Buoyed by a coterie of admiring friends and associates—protected by the armor of positive self-regard—someone with a mild-to-moderate case of narcissism can float through life feeling pretty good about himself. Since they feel entitled to special treatment, they are easily offended, and readily harbor grudges. Yet narcissists are often very popular—at least in the short term. . . . A narcissist can be hard to identify, in part because he is likely to be much more fascinating than you would expect for someone so self-absorbed, and in part because you wouldn’t think someone with such self-regard could be so defensive and needy.”

I’VE DESIGNED-IN A RANDOMNESS COMPONENT just to foil the reverse-engineering efforts.

WSJ: Obama Retains Bank Control By Refusing To Accept TARP Repayment.

TIGERHAWK: “The question, of course, is whether Gaston is in league with the president. If so, President Obama should remember that the mob can devour unanticipated targets.”

Plus, post-Post-partisanship.

MURTHA UPDATE: Rep. Murtha Wants $134M In Earmarks: Pennsylvania Democrat Asks for $20 Million for Clients of Firm Under Investigation.

MORE TEA PARTY COVERAGE ON PJTV.

PHOTOS: The world’s most amazing holes.

CHARLES JENNINGS: Banning overseas tax havens won’t solve anything.

BRINGING BACK the glamorous mustache.

LIST: “TOP LIBERTARIANS on Twitter.“

AMANDA RIPLEY on using Twitter for emergency communications.

NEWSDAY: Northport Harbor “tea party” protests big government.

Chanting “Give us rain, give us thunder, we won’t let the government plunder,” a crowd of more than 300 sloshed through puddles to protest what they believe to be government tyranny by dumping two boxes stamped “tea” into Northport Harbor.

“I’m very unhappy with the administration, where they are bringing the country . . . we don’t need bigger government,” Theresa Baron, 41 of East Northport, said at the Freedom Friday Tea Party. “Let the free enterprise work. The government doesn’t have to solve every problem.”

Read the whole thing. Video at the link.

RAND SIMBERG is liveblogging the Space Access Conference. So is Jeff Foust. More here.

WHAT MONEYBALL missed.

DO-IT-YOURSELF magazines made easy.

NO, WE CAN’T: Barack Obama fails to win Nato troops he wants for Afghanistan.

AS SEEN ON TV: Testing out the slap chop.

AN INTERVIEW with Michio Kaku on Physics Of The Impossible.

ORAL HISTORY: Some firsthand reports on surviving the Great Depression.

WIRED: We Drive Nissan’s Electric Car, and It’s Sweet.