SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE: From Federal Obama Notes to Geithner Tax Cheat Stamps.

IN THE HARTFORD COURANT: Why We Just Can’t Trust Dodd:

Sen. Christopher J. Dodd went one contrivance too far last week at his carefully choreographed press event to explain his mortgage deals with Countrywide Financial. Dodd has engaged in so many contradictions in trying to manage the gathering storm that he probably did not recognize his stunning blunder.

At his Monday event, Dodd wouldn’t let reporters have copies of the selected documents he let them glimpse. Instead, Dodd released a report from a Chicago firm hired with campaign funds to review his mortgage transactions. The report is carefully constructed to vindicate the Dodds and even make them appear to have fared worse than many other borrowers. It includes references to “detailed evaluation” of internal Countrywide documents that the mortgage giant used in processing the Dodds’ applications for more than $800,000 in loans. The firm hired by Dodd, it’s clear, had documents from Countrywide. . . . Monday’s revelation tells us something we are reluctant to conclude about a leader: We cannot believe Christopher Dodd.

During his 35 years of representing Connecticut in Washington, Dodd created and could draw upon a deep reservoir of goodwill at home. In the past eight months, Dodd has drained it down to a muddy swamp of suspicion. He’s mired in muck and he keeps making it worse.

Read the whole thing.

A RATHER COOL SELF-PORTRAIT from Melissa Schwartz.

IN THE MAIL: Via reader Mike Daley, David Marusek’s Mind Over Ship. Marusek is the author of Counting Heads, which I read and liked a while back.

FEELING UNSTIMULATED? Watch this.

UPDATE: And check out this video on the stimulus from SNL.

HERE I COME to save the day!

When asked whether the stimulus package had turned into a spending spree, President Obama acknowledged it with pride. “That’s the point. Seriously, that’s the point.”

But that’s not the point; not the point at all. And it’s a shame BHO doesn’t realize it and a greater shame if he does. The real question is whether current government solutions to the crisis contribute to political risk or reduce it. That means knowing what’s broke before applying the screwdriver to the screw.

Oh, “the screw” is well underway . . . .

RON PAUL: GOP is “born again” on spending.

VACCINATION UPDATE: MMR doctor Andrew Wakefield fixed data on autism. “THE doctor who sparked the scare over the safety of the MMR vaccine for children changed and misreported results in his research, creating the appearance of a possible link with autism, a Sunday Times investigation has found. Confidential medical documents and interviews with witnesses have established that Andrew Wakefield manipulated patients’ data, which triggered fears that the MMR triple vaccine to protect against measles, mumps and rubella was linked to the condition.” Good grief. How many people’s lives and health might this have cost? A lot:

Despite involving just a dozen children, the 1998 paper’s impact was extraordinary. After its publication, rates of inoculation fell from 92% to below 80%. Populations acquire “herd immunity” from measles when more than 95% of people have been vaccinated.

Last week official figures showed that 1,348 confirmed cases of measles in England and Wales were reported last year, compared with 56 in 1998. Two children have died of the disease.

Plus, another bogus high-profile article in The Lancet? Who do they use for peer review? Michael Moore?

UPDATE: Related item here.

DANIEL SOLOVE: Why the Innocent Are Punished More Harshly Than the Guilty.

MAYBE THEY’RE DOING ADVANCE MARKETING FOR THEIR 2020 FEMBOT LINE: Today’s Playmates Are More Like Anime Figures Than Real Humans.

THE FEDERAL OBAMA NOTE. Were people doing stuff like this with Bush in 2001?

UPDATE: Reader Bill Chunko emails: “I couldn’t help but notice that the Obama dollar is only worth 30 cents.” Heh.

WELL, THAT SORT OF THING GOT US OUT OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION, RIGHT? “Attacking Iran is a shovel-ready project.”

CHRIS DODD UPDATE: From the Stamford Advocate:

In the wake of the latest revelations concerning U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd and his controversial mortgage dealings, the same question arises again: How could such an experienced politician have handled this so clumsily?

The situation first came to light when Portfolio magazine last year reported Sen. Dodd and his wife may have been granted improper treatment by Countrywide Financial Corp. The news would have been troubling in any event, but the fact that Countrywide was in the midst of an epic collapse in the national subprime mortgage market and that he is chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, which wields considerable authority over the nation’s financial sector, brought the potential scandal to a new level.

This week, the Dodds finally responded to requests they have dodged since last summer to reveal their Countrywide dealings in detail. Reporters, though, were not allowed to make copies or take away any documents. In a situation that demands transparency, this was another unforced error.

Indeed.

HOW TO MAKE BIODIESEL AT HOME FOR CHEAP. Hands-on help from Daryl Hannah not guaranteed.

JOHN KERRY: You Know What’s the Problem With Stimulus Tax Cuts? All That Freedom.

A WARNING FROM PLATO: How Republics Die.

BUDGET PROBLEMS FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA: “University of North Carolina officials say a 7 percent budget reduction could mean a loss of almost 1,700 jobs and the cancellation of hundreds of classes over the system’s 16 campuses. Leaders of the statewide university system have been working to accommodate an anticipated 7 percent budget cut. The state funds the universities and is facing a $2 billion budget shortfall.” I think we’ll see more of this at various universities around the country.

DIDN’T WE SEE THIS COMING way back in November?

JAMES DUNNIGAN: France Fears Its Islamic Soldiers.

IS THE WHITE HOUSE TAKEOVER OF THE CENSUS constitutional?

A BUNCH OF Blu-Ray markdowns this weekend.

KATRINA IN KENTUCKY: What accounts for Obama’s slow response to Kentucky’s ice storm victims?

BUT I THOUGHT THAT IN THE OBAMA AGE EVERYONE WOULD LOVE US: “Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa ordered a U.S. Embassy official expelled on Saturday after accusing him of interfering in the country’s affairs, a move that will test ties with Washington.”

MORE HOME-STATE PRESSURE ON CHRIS DODD:

Simmons took a decidedly different tone when discussing Dodd. Calling the senator only “the incumbent,” he suggested that Dodd had upset his constituents by “moving to Iowa” during his ill-fated bid for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.

He also hinted that Dodd was guilty of what he said the military would call “dereliction of duty” by brokering the 1999 repeal of a key New Deal law that regulated the financial services industry.

Reminded that the primary sponsor of that measure was former Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, Simmons said, “And where’s he?”

Asked if he considered Dodd politically vulnerable, Simmons responded by pulling out a copy of a newspaper editorial cartoon about Dodd’s controversial mortgages obtained under a “VIP” program at Countrywide Financial.

“The funny pages are not a good place to be,” he said.

The Dodd story’s not so funny.

GREG MANKIW: It’s No Time for Protectionism.