POLITICO: Obama Order Worries Free-Speech Groups.

IN BUFFALO TODAY: Tea Party protests high taxes, ‘failed’ government.

In 1773, a small group of dissatisfied American colonists dumped tea into the Boston harbor to protest King George III’s taxation without representation.‘

More than two centuries later, at least 300 unhappy local taxpayers gathered on the Buffalo waterfront to protest a variety of similar issues . . . .

And when co-coordinator James Ostrowski asked the crowd to make donations that will help the movement distribute fliers and pamphlets to every household in Erie County, dozens of adults, children, and senior citizens — some in wheelchairs — stormed the podium.

The group raised $2,000 on the spot, said Jill Sinclair, a co-coordinator.

As I said before, people seem to have shaken off their apathy.

OMEGA 3 FATTY ACIDS might cut prostate cancer risk.

HEADLINE OF THE DAY: No Hits, No Runs, No Ayers.

LESSONS FOR AFGHANISTAN from the Anbar Awakening.

OKAY, I MENTIONED THIS IN PASSING EARLIER, but it’s worth a post of its own: Washington Post: Obama Town Hall Questioners Were Campaign Backers.

Hey, it’s the new era of transparency and accountability! Well, this is pretty transparent, anyway. Whether anyone will wind up being accountable is a different story. . . .

ARNOLD KLING ON Progressive Corporatism and the resistance thereto.

Kling endorses “mockery” as a response. Well, it’s a start. And Simon Jester is already at work.

NOTE THAT BILL WHITTLE HAS moved onto the Pajamas site.

2009: The Year Print-on-Demand Goes Mainstream.

I MENTIONED THE HUGE CROWD AT MARK LEVIN’S BOOK-SIGNING, but reader Dan Byers sends this video. That’s a truly amazing line. He writes: “My wife and I just got back from Levin’s book signing in Tysons Corner. The line was unbelievable. As much as we love Mark, we decided not to stand out in the cold rain for five hours. But thousands of others seemed happy to do so–here is a quick video I took that shows the size of the line–the passion and size of his following sure make it easy to understand why the Left wants to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine (or ‘Localism,’ it’s kinder-sounding twin).” And why they’ll have a lot of angry people to deal with if they try. . . . The book’s still #1 on Amazon.

UPDATE: Bob Krumm writes: “The video of the line for the Mark Levin book signing was truly astounding. However, if I could give a pointer to recorders of future Levin line videos, it would be a variation of your ‘Protest Babe’ rule. That is, to reenact the scene from Eurotrip where there is an enormous line of people waiting to get into the Louvre and the camera quickly pans past everyone until it comes to a dead stop in front of a particularly attractive woman in the line, before resuming footage of the rest of the line.” Hmm. Are such media techniques too contrived for the blog-world? I mean, next somebody might be doing “man on the street” interviews about Obama with these folks without talking about why they’re at the Mall today. And that sort of manipulative technique would be wrong.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Krumm responds: “You ask: ‘Are such media techniques too contrived for the blog-world?’ If there are protest babes involved—no.”

MORE: So what does this mean? I haven’t read Levin’s book yet — the InstaWife grabbed it and wrote this — but I suspect that neither have the people waiting in line, who are just now buying their copies. I think it has more to do with a transition out of apathy, and a desire to show up and be counted, much like the Tea Party protests. With all respect to Levin, who has a lot of fans, I think this is bigger than him — and I suspect he’d say the same thing.

BRIAN WANG: Sorry, Collapsitarians. He says it’s not going to happen.

CHRIS DODD UPDATE: Dodd’s Troubles Open Debate on Congress’ Ties With Special Interests. “Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd has become the poster boy for critics who say the inevitable ties between longtime members of Congress and special interests are undermining efforts to revive the economy.”

PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE: Geithner’s radical agenda.

Also, see this.

COMMERCIAL SPACE UPDATE: SpaceX’s new Falcon 9 takes a crucial step to the launchpad. Also, earlier this week one of my spies sent me pics of Virgin Galactic’s White Knight Two on a test flight, though not for publication. Nice to see progress in this field, though.

THE TESLA MODEL S: An up-close look.

WHEN WAVES COLLIDE: Michael Barone, Ed Driscoll, Stephen Green, and futurist Alvin Toffler — author of The Third Wave, Future Shock, and more — on the latest PJM Political. Plus John Avlon, Rudy Giuliani speechwriter and author of Independent Nation.

THERE’S A TEA PARTY PROTEST GOING ON IN STAMFORD, CT RIGHT NOW, and reader Bill Hensley sends some pictures.

UPDATE: Speaking of crowds, reader Larry Bronstein is at a signing for Mark Levin’s new book in Tyson’s Corner and writes via iPhone: “The signing event at Tysons Corner is mobbed. The end of the line has been warned that they will have a 5 hour wait minimum and may not be able to see Levin for an autograph. But the line continued to grow. Hasn’t even begun.” For some reason, his picture, sent via iPhone, is appearing just above this update — it’s the one of people waiting in line. Guess I don’t understand the WordPress “gallery” feature yet . . . .

IN THE MAIL: From John Micklethwait and Adrian Woolridge: God Is Back: How the Global Revival of Faith Is Changing the World.

L.A. TIMES: Weeks of Obama’s budget sales pitch and support still slips.

TOM MAGUIRE: My Newfound Respect For Ezra Klein.

UNEXPECTED CONFLICT over the Obama Afghanistan plan.

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

TEA PARTY UPDATE: Cancelled Due To Fear of Success?

CAPE CORAL, Fla. – A tea party to protest government spending and taxing is canceled. Canceled by the government.

Why? They feel too many people could show-up.

That would be awful.

HUNTING FOR the next killer virus.

TEA PARTY UPDATE: “On his FOX News show tonight Sean Hannity just announced that he will be covering the Atlanta Tea Party live on Tax Day. He will also be checking in on other such parties around the country.” This means major coverage on Fox, which means that other networks will have to offer at least grudging coverage. My prediction: They’ll make a huge deal out of these protests, regardless of size, while downplaying the tea parties.

UPDATE: Reader Wendy Cook writes: “Isn’t CNN in Atlanta? Hannity’s show is not my favorite but it’s kinda funny that he would choose to cover a Tea Party so close to the headquarters of a network that mostly ignores these protests. And I just noticed on Drudge that CNN doesn’t even have any programs in the top 6-rated cable news shows. Hmmm.” Yeah, I think he’s baiting them.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Will Collier writes: “Regarding your reader’s question, not only is CNN’s HQ in Atlanta, it’s about half a mile from the Tea Party site at the state capitol. If they show up at all, I predict it will be to air a fear-mongering piece about these vicious right-wingers who want to take healthy organic juice away from The Children.”

Well, CNN President Jon Klein* is bragging about CNN’s straight-news coverage, so this’ll be a good test of whether they can live up to his claims.

* Coiner of the whole bloggers in pajamas line. I believe, however, that Klein has since changed his position.