NOSTALGIA: The joys of Lionel trains.

HEH: The Shepard Fairey Commemorative “Hack” Poster.

More from Jules Crittenden.

CALIFORNIA COURT upholds 1% tax on millionaires. Good news for Nevada and Arizona! And Texas!

THE 75 HOTTEST SITCOM BABES OF ALL TIME. A few of the choices seem a little . . . iffy. But Barbara Eden and Dawn Wells hold up surprisingly well. And Laura San Giacamo, well. . . . . Suffice it to say that she narrated the first season of Helen’s Snapped series on Oxygen, but I was disappointed not to meet her at the premiere party. I really liked her work in Sex, Lies and Videotape, too.

UPDATE: I took this down because a reader complained about spyware. Now people want to know where it went, so I’m putting it back up with a warning. I’m pretty sure that it was just one of those annoying fake-scan java things in the ads, but I’ve disabled the link just in case. Proceed at your own risk . . . .

ANOTHER UPDATE: Okay, other readers say it’s a spyware site, too. I’ve removed the link entirely.

KYOTO PROTOCOL IS DEAD, says NPR.

GIANT RIBBON at edge of Solar System.

TREVOR BUTTERWORTH: A Beer Tax Won’t Reduce The Clap.

NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: Researchers use nanotech to detect early-stage cancer.

IN THE MAIL: From Dave Freer, Dragon’s Ring.

STUNNER: Most Media Ignore Media Protests. Or at least, don’t report on them. “Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson could announce a can opening and every media outlet in town would be there. Some people show up to protest media bias and it’s as if it never happened.”

ANN ALTHOUSE: Al Sharpton is threatening to sue Rush Limbaugh for defamation? But that’s what Rush wants, isn’t it? “Let me explain my theory.”

“IF YOU STRIKE ME DOWN I SHALL–” Oh, hell, you know the rest. New York Times declares Fox News winner in fight with Obama. Best bit: “People who work in political communications have pointed out that it is a principle of power dynamics to ‘punch up’ – that is, to take on bigger foes, not smaller ones. A blog on the White House Web site that uses a ‘truth-o-meter’ against a particular cable news network would not seem to qualify. As it is, Reality Check sounds a bit like the blog of some unemployed guy living in his parents’ basement, not an official communiqué from Pennsylvania Avenue.”

WALL STREETER POSTS $100 MILLION BOND. Thank goodness Obama is standing up to those crooks! Oh, wait: “He was a big donor to Barack Obama — and a charity linked to Tamil terrorists.”

BANKER BONUSES IN TIME OF CRISIS. Last year the bonuses were “bad,” because the bankers hadn’t been brought under control. Now they’re okay, because they’re a payoff. . . .

CONGRATULATIONS TO Washington Institute Book Prize Winner Ron Radosh.

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: Tea Party “Insurgency” Marches Into Key States.

Begun as a loosely affiliated groundswell of Constitution-waving protesters in tri-cornered hats, the Tea Party movement is now starting to rock the political establishment in key arenas.

The growing numbers of Americans coming out to the Tax Day Tea Party, the Fourth of July Tea Parties, and then the 9/12 Tea Party march on Washington are going back to their home districts and keeping up — even intensifying — the fight for smaller government and more transparency on spending and taxation.

In places like New York, Florida, California, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania, local, state, congressional, and gubernatorial seats are suddenly being tugged to-and-fro by the new and unruly political force.

The upshot?

The street energy is welcome for an otherwise moribund Republican party looking for new moorings amid a tumultuous electorate.

The downside is that early examples shows that, in the short run, Tea Party-sponsored candidates could make it more difficult for Republicans as they — Ross Perot-like — split races as they target both “tax and spend” Democrats and those they like to call RINOs, or “Republicans-in-name-only.”

For the Republicans, the obvious solution is to run candidates who are less RINO-ish. For the Tea Party folks, the obvious solution is to push hard for their guys in primaries, then vote for whoever wins even if they have to hold their noses a bit sometimes. That’s politics. Though even RINO-ish candidates will be less so if they have to worry about primary challenges. (Via NewsAlert).

UPDATE: Michael Greenspan emails: “You’re exactly right, though if either the Republicans or the Tea Partiers learn their lesson before the 2010 elections I’ll be amazed.” Hey, I just blog this stuff. Whether people listen is up to them.

ANOTHER UPDATE: On the NY-23 race, reader Michael Kennedy writes:

Glenn, the Republicans are upset at the tea partiers in NY 23 for backing Hoffman but that will be a nice test. The election is only for one year so little is lost if the Democrat wins a split race. But, if Hoffman wins, they will have to start to take the movement seriously instead of trying to co-opt them. First, I think the tea parties are libertarian, not “right wing.” That’s what I’ve seen in Mission Viejo, where we have turned out 500+ on each occasion.

This will be a very important race, more so than Virginia or New Jersey which are old line pols running on both sides.

I do wish Hoffman’s donation software was better. I tried to give him money and couldn’t.

Stay tuned.

MANDATORY GARDASIL VACCINATIONS FOR BOYS? “If the boys don’t stand to benefit from the vaccine, then are we making boys into The Island? Well, that’s an awfully inflammatory way to start out, I grant you. Here’s another inflammatory way to start out … would forcing boys to be vaccinated against their will but without any medical benefit to them, with the benefits accruing instead to girls, violate Roe v Wade?”

BARACK OBAMA’S NOBEL, the income tax problems it presents, and Charles Dawes.

SUSANNAH BRESLIN: Now That Porn Has Gone Mainstream, Hollywood Is Going XXX.

WELL, THAT’S A RELIEF: Bill Maher: “I’m not a germ theory denier.”

And Chris Matthews responds: “You’re like Tom Cruise saying I don’t believe in therapy.”

Plus, Maher’s ultimate defense: “At least I’m not f–king my interns.” Well, okay then.

EUGENE ROBINSON blasts Obama’s “Drive-By Compassion” in New Orleans. “President Obama’s brief display of drive-by compassion Thursday in New Orleans was, for me, by far the worst outing of his presidency thus far — and the biggest disappointment.”

THIS DOESN’T SOUND LIKE CONFIDENCE:

President Obama mounted a frontal assault on the insurance industry on Saturday, accusing it of using “deceptive and dishonest ads” to derail his health care legislation and threatening to strip the industry of its longstanding exemption from federal antitrust laws. In unusually harsh terms, Mr. Obama cast insurance companies as obstacles to change interested only in preserving their own “profits and bonuses” and willing to “bend the truth or break it” to stop his drive to remake the nation’s health care system. The president used his weekly radio and Internet address to challenge industry assertions that legislation will drive up premiums.

Shrill. Desperate. Bullying. But mostly desperate. Meanwhile, speaking of “deceptive and dishonest,” what about this?

UPDATE: Reader Andrew Linder emails: “I think the question someone ought to ask Obama is whether there is anyone, anywhere who disagrees with his plan but is not ‘dishonest and deceptive’. Is such a thing even possible in Obama-world? “

MARGE SIMPSON Poses For Playboy. The end times are upon us.

CHANGE: Illinois jobless rate hits 10.5 percent in September.

GREAT TEA PARTIES, KID: Don’t get cocky. “Do the failures of the current administration represent a fantastic opportunity for the Republican party come 2010? Absolutely. Is it a done deal? Not until the votes are counted just over a year from now. And a year in the political arena is an eternity.”

Related: Harris Poll Puts Obama Approval at 45%. But remember, Obama won’t be on the ballot in 2010.

UPDATE: Bill Quick: “Here’s the nut of it: The GOP establishment sees their problem as being that they are out of power. People like me see the problem as being that they are out of power because they have turned their backs on the principles those who once voted for them believe in.”