IN THE MAIL: From David Drake: The Complete Hammer’s Slammers: Volume I.

AMY ALKON ON the Daddy Gap.

IRWIN STELZER: Global Economy Has No Substitute For Falling U.S. Dollar.

NOT SEEING A STORY HERE: Various people are emailing me saying “Obama declared a national emergency over swine flu, but his own daughters aren’t being vaccinated!” But if you read the story, you get this:

The Centers for Disease Control recommend that children ages 6 months through 18 years of age receive a vaccination against the H1N1 flu virus. At this time only children with chronic medical conditions are receiving the vaccination because their immune system is not strong enough to fight off the strain.

So they’re not getting the vaccine because there’s a shortage, and they don’t fit the triage guidelines. Seems to me that’s just how it ought to be. It would be a bigger scandal if they’d been jumped ahead of the line.

UPDATE: On the other hand, this photo, from the huge shot-line in Milwaukee, is pretty funny. (Via Gateway Pundit). More on long lines here. And some related thoughts from Mark Tapscott. “President Obama’s late-night declaration of a nationwide public health emergency last night shouldn’t be allowed to obscure the most important lesson of the developing swine flu crisis – The same government that only weeks ago promised abundant supplies of swine flu vaccine by mid-October will be running your health care system under Obamacare.” But note the discussion here.

THE CHICAGO WAY: Chicago prosecutors go after the Innocence Project. “Punch back twice as hard!”

UPDATE: Reader Kristen Pecoraro writes:

A key line that leaped out at me from your link to the Times story on prosecutors looking at journalism student’s grades was this:

“Every time the government starts attacking the messenger as opposed to the message, it can have a chilling effect,” said Barry C. Scheck, a pioneer of the Innocence Project in New York, …”

Fox News, anyone?

Hey, it’s the Chicago Way. But the parallel is pretty striking — if you don’t like what they’re reporting, why, then, they’re not really journalists!

UPDATE: Reader C.J. Burch writes: “It’s more chilling than that. If they don’t like what a journalist is reporting, he/she isn’t really a person. Politics is getting that way, too.”

AMERICA’S DELI CAPITAL: Los Angeles?

THERE’S GOT TO BE A MORNING AFTER: L.A. Times: Democratic Party encounters ‘Obama hangover’ in state, local elections.

INGRATES.

CHRIS DODD UPDATE: U.S. House Committee To Subpoena Countrywide Records. Of course, some of those records have been “lost.”

GENEROUS PAY for new Freddie Mac CFO. “The government-controlled mortgage finance company is giving CFO Ross Kari compensation worth as much as $5.5 million. That includes an almost $2 million cash signing bonus and a generous salary that could top $2.3 million.” It’s okay to pay him a lot. He works for the government. “Freddie Mac is not just another company. It’s alive today, and nearly 80 percent owned by the government, only because almost $51 billion in taxpayer funds were pumped into it over the last year. More bailout money also may be needed in the quarters ahead as losses from its troubled mortgages mount.”

SHOULD ISRAEL attack Iran? The alternative would seem to involve waiting for Iran to attack Israel. If I were the Israelis, I’d inform a lot of influential countries in the region that they were targeted for nukes should Israel cease to exist, and then let them take care of the problem. But hey, that’s just me. No doubt “smart diplomacy” has a different solution.

OBAMACARE: Making Someone Else Pay.

U.K. ECONOMY: Record Recession. “It is the first time UK gross domestic product (GDP) has contracted for six consecutive quarters, since quarterly figures were first recorded in 1955.”

A WHILE BACK, I mentioned Barry Friedman’s new book, The Will of the People. It gets a good review here.

WHEN JOURNALISTS attack!

BOINGBOING: 555 California security guards in San Fran threaten to punch sidewalk photographer, break his f*cking camera.

Troy had heard the reputation that the 555 California Building’s security guards had for hassling photographers, so he tried out the experiment of photographing (legally) the building, and was met by potty-mouth security guards who threatened to break his “fucking camera” and punch him in the face. A rep from property managers Voranado Realty later apologized and said that this wasn’t “typical of our security team.”

I think a lawsuit is in order. I also think people should go by and photograph these guys daily. But when I first saw the headline, I thought there were 555 security guards. Now that would have made an impressive picture . . . .

BOB SOMERBY spanks Rachel Maddow. Tom Maguire provides color commentary.

HMM: Obama Administration Aggressively Defends “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in Court.

MICKEY KAUS: The Man Who Didn’t Save GM.

A BUNCH OF interesting food links.