OBAMA’S LEGACY? China’s yuan ‘set to usurp US dollar’ as world’s reserve currency.

Hmm. How could that possibly happen?

AND I’M LAME FOR NOT TRYING IT OUT: Reader Rachel B emailed a while back about the Flip Mino HD camcorder:

I bought the Flip Mino HD a couple of weeks ago, and I haven’t put the thing down. With a 3 and 1 year old, I needed something small that I could access quickly. It’s the size of a cell phone, is easy to use (only a few buttons) and downloading is a snap. I was concerned that the size would make for shaky video, but the picture is very steady and very clear. The unit charges when you connect to your pc, so no hassle with batteries, and the software is very user friendly. There is a quick and simple movie maker that lets you add titles and background music. I love this thing. My husband has been serving in Afghanistan since October, so I’ve been emailing videos every night since I bought it. He loves it. Just tonight I captured our one-year olds first steps, made a quick movie, and emailed it to family and friends. I really love this thing! I just wish I bought it sooner.

I’ve got one and I’ve been meaning to review it. I actually bought it as a backup when we covered the Tea Party protest, but since all the high-tech stuff we used worked perfectly I never got it out, and I haven’t done anything beyond a few minutes of out-of-the-box fiddlining with it. Ditto the local protest in Knoxville. But I’ll try to give it a proper tryout soon and report.

WSJ: Obama’s Military Tribunals: Another Friday, another bow to Bush’s antiterror legacy. “In any event, Mr. Obama deserves credit for accepting that the civilian courts are largely unsuited for the realities of the war on terror. He has now decided to preserve a tribunal process that will be identical in every material way to the one favored by Dick Cheney — and which, contrary to the narrative that Democrats promulgated for years, will be the fairest and most open war-crimes trials in U.S. history. Meanwhile, friends should keep certain newspaper editors away from sharp objects. Their champion has repudiated them once again.”

Meanwhile, some snark from Prof. Julian Ku: I Can’t Wait to See Neal Katyal’s Argument In Defense of Military Commissions. “The ACLU has vowed to litigate this, no matter what, so there will be at least one argument somewhere. If that’s the case, it would be really cool if the OLC memo on the legality of the new military commissions was drafted by blogger extraordinaire Marty Lederman (whose appointment was hailed as a strong signal that things were really going to change), and (even better), that Deputy Solicitor General Neal Katyal ends up defending the new commissions in court! If that happens, I really hope someone reminds Neal of his 2007 Slate article.“

HOPE! G.M. Notifying 1,100 Dealers That They Will Be Dropped. As in, I hope there’s not much more news like this . . . .

So do the folks at the newspapers that have just lost a lot of advertisers.

Plus, more change! GM to import cars from China! “As thousands of General Motors workers await word on more U.S. plant closures, reports that the company plans to import Chinese-made vehicles to the U.S. have created a political problem for the automaker and the White House.” This bailout is really saving jobs. Hurray!

A NEW ANGLE ON PELOSI’S FLIPFLOPS, from reader Doug Welsh: “I’m amazed at how Nancy Pelosi’s current circumstances are similar to the Democrats’ accusations that Bush lied us into the Iraq war. They saw the same intelligence that Bush (and Clinton before him) saw, indicating that Saddam had WMD. Few if any questioned the validity of the information. Most voted for the war. But when the war became unpopular they turned and claimed they had been misled by Bush. This was all a lie and political posturing, but it was effective then. I’m glad to see the Republicans are a little smarter this time and are countering more effectively. I wonder if it is possible to tie the Dems current hypocrisy to the earlier event.”

Plus, Pelosi in a Pickle: “Even Richard Nixon didn’t have this much trouble explaining what he knew and when he knew it.” And this:

Pelosi wouldn’t be in such trouble if she’d just acknowledge that she didn’t object to waterboarding because, in the aftermath of 9/11, protecting America was Job One — and Washington didn’t care what it took to get the job done.

As New York’s Sen. Chuck Schumer told a Senate hearing in 2004:

“I think there are probably very few people in this room or in America who would say that torture should never, ever be used, particularly if thousands of lives are at stake.”

“It’s easy to sit back in the armchair and say that torture can never be used,” he added. “But when you’re in the foxhole, it’s a very different deal.”

Another pro-torture Democrat. There used to be a lot of ’em. Now it’s their logic that’s tortured.

CHANGE: Islamists linked to al-Qaeda on verge of toppling Somali government. “More than 135 people have died and 34,000 have fled their homes in the city, leading to warnings from Western security agencies that al-Qaeda could regain a key strategic toehold on the Horn of Africa.”

TIM GEITHNER: “Secretary Loophole?” (Via NewsAlert).

DENVER POST: Dems red-faced over veteran imposter. “He spoke at a Barack Obama veterans rally in front of the Capitol in July, co-hosted several events with then- congressional candidate Jared Polis and attacked Republican Senate candidate Bob Schaffer in a TV ad paid for by the national group Votevets.org. And the mostly Democratic candidates he supported — looking for credibility on veterans issues and the war — lapped it up appreciatively. Now, politicians are dealing with news that the man they believed to be a former Marine and war veteran wounded in Iraq by a roadside bomb, in fact, never served in the military — but did spend time in a mental hospital.”

Doesn’t really matter. Election’s over, and he served his purpose. Meanwhile, advice for the future: If an antiwar “veteran” appears, do a background check. There have been so many fakes — Micah Wright, Jesse Macbeth, etc. — that you can’t just take their word for it.

CHANGE! Coal, Electric Industries Big Winners in Climate Bill Deal.

IMAGINARY MONEY, NEVER LETS YOU DOWN: About That Down Payment for Healthcare Reform (Missing Money Edition). Oh, wait, that was imaginary lovers. Never mind.

STEPHEN GREEN: Caracas On The Potomac.

The numbers would be bleak if they weren’t so scary. A budget deficit four times bigger than last year’s record red ink. One year’s debt equal to 13% of GDP. A record $3,550,000,000,000 budget. And 46% of that spending will be “paid” for by new borrowing.

But wait — there’s less!

There have been 5.7 million jobs lost since December. A lousy Treasury bond auction last week signals slower growth and higher inflation. And retail sales just dropped for the second straight month.

Read the whole thing.

A ROUNDUP OF THIS WEEK’S interesting new gadgets.

JON CORZINE’S financial wizardry.

GOVERNMENT-RUN HEALTHCARE — A SNAPSHOT: VA doc: Other possible equipment errors reported. “Federal officials have been warning thousands of former patients they might have been exposed to infection at three Veterans Affairs facilities, yet other VA patients are not being warned about less serious mistakes with the same equipment at more than a dozen other VA centers. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ chief patient safety officer declined to identify those facilities. Dr. Jim Bagian (Bay-gin) said those instances did not involve an infection risk.” With bonus transparency.

STIMULUS! Obama’s Defense Cuts Cost St. Louis 30,000 Jobs.

UPDATE: Related: Stimulus Ignites Job-Killing Trade War With Canada.

PRESIDENT OBAMA WARNS ABOUT DEBT, and James Taranto comments:

Uh, what do you mean “we,” kemo sabe? Two weeks ago New York’s Daily News ran an op-ed by “an elected official in California”–not Nancy Pelosi, we’d guess–writing under the pseudonym Richard Henry Lee. “Lee” evaluated Obama’s personal finances and found that for several years the future president lived just the way he decried in Tempe.

Hell, he’s living that way now. Or rather, he’s governing that way. . . .

VIDEO: White House Dodges Question About Pelosi.

ENCOUNTERING NEMESIS.

The problem is that between 2003-2008 there was such hysterical antagonism to Bush that the combatants never worried about the often vicious means they used to achieve their supposedly lofty ends, and so now, finding themselves in a position of responsibility, are infuriated that anyone, well, would even conceive of playing hardball as they once did.

The striking thing about the sudden wounded-fawn Democratic syndrome is that Cheney is far milder than Gore was, that the CIA is not the firebrand Pelosi has been, and Bush has been silent about Obama in a way that even Clinton was not about Bush. If this softball stuff excites such outrage, what will happen if politics really get rough, say, as it was around 2007?

I expect we’ll find out.

CHANGE! Obama revives terror tribunals, dismaying liberals. “‘This is the best way to protect our country, while upholding our deeply held values,’ Obama said.”