STEVE CROWDER: CSI: SANTA!

RASMUSSEN: A NEW LOW FOR OBAMA: “23% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-two percent (42%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -19. Today is the second straight day that Obama’s Approval Index rating has fallen to a new low. Prior to the past two days, the Approval Index had never fallen below -15 during Obama’s time in office.”

UPDATE: Even the DailyKos tracking poll is looking grimmer.

MARK STEYN: Obama Goes From Dazzle To Drone.

I’VE SEEN THIS SORT OF THING BEFORE IN LAW PRACTICE: completely blacked-out documents in response to WAMU FOIA request. Generally you can go back to court and force them to release more, but it’s a pain. Which it’s meant to be. On the other hand it makes ’em look like they’re hiding something. Because, you know, they are. Another standard tactic: Sending a boilerplate list of all FOIA exemptions and claiming that everything falls into one or the other, without producing a Vaughn index listing documents and specific claims of exemption.

BOND NEWS: Nations’ mounting debts worry global investors.

FRANK MUNGER: Even Scientists Retire — Occasionally.

BITES FROM THE APPLE: A roundup of news from the Apple Empire.

THOUGHTS ON CLIMATE AND DATA, from Jerry Pournelle.

WAR-ON-TERROR NEWS AND MORE, at Fred Pruitt’s Rantburg.

L.A. TIMES: Houston picks conservative Annise Parker as mayor, first lesbian to head a major American city.

EMILY BAZELON: My boys love space; I couldn’t care less. “Also, and inconveniently, my boredom plays straight into tedious gender stereotypes I hate to reinforce. What’s the message I’m sending: Men are from Mars and women are from … not even Venus?”

OOPS: ATF Gun Licensing Director Russell Vanderwerf Arrested.

TRANSPARENCY! Number-two Senate Democrat ‘in the dark’ about health care bill.

GEORGIA GOV. SONNY PERDUE: “Conservation shouldn’t be a word of sacrifice; it really should be a word of honor.”

VIDEO: Lord Monckton addresses a Greenpeace-campaigner on global warming.

WHAT ASTROTURF looks like.

SO MAYBE IT’S NOT A 1970s RERUN AFTER ALL: ‘Welcome to Obamaville’ Sign Marks Colorado Homeless Tent City.

MORE LIVES SAVED BY MTV: “A Times Square bloodbath was narrowly avoided because the machine-pistol-toting thug who fired at a cop flipped the gun on its side like a character out of a rap video, causing the weapon to jam after two shots, law-enforcement sources said yesterday.”

LOTS OF MARKDOWNS on camera and photo products.

CLIMATEGATE: From Russia With Love?

GEOTHERMAL PROJECT IN CALIFORNIA SHUT DOWN: Too bad. With all those millions of degrees to play with, it could’ve been big . . . .

ANN ALTHOUSE spanks CNN for getting it wrong. “Is this willful misreading or crashing idiocy? Gadahn says ‘Muslim’ and CNN turns it into ‘innocent.’ Read on and we see that these are not peaceful sentiments. This is a call specifically aimed at Muslims to side with al Qaeda.”

AN INSTRUMENTAL TRUTH.

I HOPE THIS IS TRUE: Reports of a military mutiny in Iran.

TOY DEALS you shouldn’t pass up.