IN THE MAIL: From James Anderson and Mark Sebanc, The Stoneholding: Legacy of the Stone Harp.

NEW GOVERNMENT POLICY: De-suburbanization?

UPDATE: The comments are unsympathetic, to say the least. And reader Rich Egan writes: “It is so much easier for the people running things to put us all together and besides that leaves so much more room for the estates of the superior people .”

Funny you say that, Rich. Robert Breugmann’s book, Sprawl: A Compact History, notes that rich people always have places outside the city, and always complain when the working folk start moving out there, too. I had a column on the subject here.

ALTHOUSE ON CLIFT ON why women continued to support Ted Kennedy despite Chappaquiddick, the Palm Beach rape case, etc. “Face it. Liberal politics always came first for the so-called women’s groups, which is why they are not really women’s groups at all.” I think it’s abortion. Abortion gets you a pass as long as you’re useful if you’re a Republican (see., e.g., Robert Packwood), and as long as you live if you’re a Democrat. But maybe we’re saying the same thing here.

NEGATIVE STIMULUS. Reader C.J. Burch writes: “You know Muir is pretty much beating Gary Trudeau’s eyes out at Trudeau’s own game. Heh.” Indeed. But then, Muir is mocking the powerful, while Trudeau is covering for them. . . .

STIMULUS! AP IMPACT: Secret process benefits pet projects. “Despite Obama’s promises that the stimulus plan would be transparent and free of politics, the government is handing out $720 million for border upgrades under a process that is both secretive and susceptible to political influence. This allowed low-priority projects such as the checkpoint in Whitetail, Mont., to skip ahead of more pressing concerns, according to documents revealed to The Associated Press.” Say it ain’t so. More, with references, from Omri Ceren.

CHARLES RANGEL UPDATE: Rangle Untangle: DC Dems Move to Save Him. “House Democrats are willing to rally around Rep. Charles Rangel in his latest spate of tax missteps — but only as long as no more embarrassing revelations come to light, sources told The Post. The head of the powerful Ways and Means Committee last week amended six years’ worth of financial disclosure forms and revealed he’d earned $1.3 million in previously unreported income. That’s on top of ongoing House Ethics Committee probes into four other areas of Rangel’s financial past — including failure to properly report income taxes on a Caribbean villa he owns. ” Of course, there’s also a risk of criminal prosecution, but I suppose he feels pretty safe with Eric Holder at Justice, who’s already shown considerable willingness to let politics influence decisions on who to prosecute.

Really, this isn’t a bug, but a feature: The more vulnerable he becomes, the easier it is for the Democratic leadership to keep him in line.

NPR: “Tea Party Express” Takes Protests Cross-Country.

UPDATE: A report from the Rush Holt town hall in New Jersey.

TOWN HALL SPEAKER THREATENED — IN CANADA: Copyright Town Hall security threatened MP, students with ejection for handing out flyers.

At last week’s Canadian copyright town hall meeting in Toronto — the one where the speaker-roster was overwhelming stacked with representatives from giant entertainment conglomerates — security guards prevented the Canadian Federation of Students from distributing literature by the doors that advocated for more liberal copyright rules. They also stopped a Member of Parliament from one of the opposition parties from distributing flyers.

Gosh, it sounds like healthcare here in the States. Nobody wants to hear what the people think, do they?

UPDATE: And look at what’s going in in New Hampshire. “In four short years Carol Shea-Porter has evolved from a rabble-rousing, town hall disrupting anti-war activist who once had to be forcibly removed from a President George Bush event in Portsmouth to a Member of Congress who instructed armed security guards to remove a frustrated voter from her own town hall event in Manchester on Saturday.”

THE PC WORLD FIGHTS BACK AGAINST STEREOTYPING BY THE MAC CROWD. As someone who’s bi-computeral, I can say that the difference is exaggerated. The Macs crash a lot more than advertised — especially when browing the Web, where performance seems to have gotten worse with software updates — while the PCs quickly get expensive as you add features.

BALTIMORE SUN: Maybe President Obama should see more C-SPAN. “President Barack Obama has lately taken to depicting the press, especially the cable TV part of it, as a troublesome child. According to him, cable TV never met a “ruckus” it didn’t like, and from time to time, the pundits in the press lose control altogether and get all ‘wee wee’d up.’ . . . I hope someone shows the president at least part of C-SPAN’s coverage Tuesday night. Not just for all the insight into the passions, anger and competing interests on health care that the cameras captured. But also for the way in which C-SPAN showed how balanced, informative, contextualized and even-handed cable TV coverage can sometimes be. Maybe the next time the president dons his media critic cap and speaks about the press and cable TV it will be with some wisdom and nuance — as well as with distinctions made among channels.”

THE BROKEN-TOY EXPERIMENT.

MEDICAL TOURISM:

In our survey of major U.S. employers, we found very little interest in medical tourism.

But there is a great deal of interest in it among the major media – the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and today, Forbes (via the Associated Press) have done major stories on it.

But here’s something curious.

All three stories have featured the exact same medical tourist – Ben Schreiner of Camden, South Carolina.

Sounds like journalists, at least, are bending the cost curve . . . .

LOCKERBIE BOMBER “set free for oil.” Also, they don’t have to worry about bombings and beheadings from the people who side with the victims.

REPORT FROM RALEIGH: Busing in pro-Obamacare marchers. “Oh, and there were many, many identical pre-printed signs.”

UPDATE: Report: Organizing for America Stages Show in Denver. An extensive account, with photos. Who’s paying for the buses?

MOE LANE: Where’s the GOP’s Ted Kennedy?

MORE DOG ABUSE. I still prefer this, though.

UPDATE: Reader C.J. Burch writes: “Oh the humanity! Really, could Michael Vick have done worse?” Not where their dignity is concerned, anyway . . . .

STEPHEN GREEN, THE WEEK IN BLOGS: Bikini Bottom Problems & The Huffington Post’s Most Offensive Question Ever Asked.

THE TUCSON TEA PARTY’S RECESS RALLY: Robert Mayer sends this link to a blog report, and this collection of pictures and videos.

KOLD-TV reported a thousand there. Robert emails:

The townhall went very successfully, with a local news channel reporting 1000 in attendance.

However, one thug showed up at the very beginning and elbowed one of our attendees in the face. . . . The news coverage between the two stations were worlds apart. KOLD 13 gave us great, on topic coverage while KGUN9 focused on the imbecile who disrupted the event. It just goes to show that the mobsters are not the Tea Partiers, but the thugs who are trying to cram through the government takeover of health care.

It does seem that way.

POLL: 62% Like Tax Cuts Over More Government Spending. “The new findings mark a nine-point increase in support for taxpayers as the best judges of spending since January.”

WALL STREET JOURNAL: The best 5 novels on political conspiracy.

THE TOP TEN BOOKS that don’t get enough respect.

WAPO Vindicates Cheney. Apparently harsh interrogation / torture turns out to have worked. “How unusual it is for the media to disillusion us about that and force the moralists to get by on moral ideals alone!”

Kinda makes you wonder what’s in the documents the Administration won’t release.

UPDATE: Marc Ambinder: Does It Matter Whether Torture Worked? No, not unless your position is based on it working or not.

WI-FI PROSTITUTES: “You gave yourself a virus, by the way.”

HEATH SHULER ON HEALTH CARE: Start Over From Scratch.

UPDATE: GOP senator signals fading hopes on health care. “A leading GOP negotiator on health care struck a further blow to fading chances of a bipartisan compromise by saying Democratic proposals would restrict medical choices and make the country’s ‘finances sicker without saving you money.’ The criticism from Sen. Michael Enzi, R-Wyo., echoed that of many opponents of the Democratic plans under consideration in Congress. But Enzi’s judgment was especially noteworthy because he is one of only three Republicans who have been willing to consider a bipartisan bill in the Senate.”

YEAH, GOOD CHANCE I’LL WIND UP with this in my stocking.