MORE ON THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT’S ACCEPTANCE OF voter intimidation.

In light of this, I suppose no one will object if armed Republican backers show up at the polls next time.

NICK GILLESPIE: What Norm Coleman & Al Franken Have Taught America: The Senate is carrying more dead weight than a Uruguayan rugby team. “Think about it, is any near-bankrupt work unit in America this side of a shovel-ready stimulus project more clogged with redundant and/or phantom employees? Does Massachusetts really need John Kerry and Ted Kennedy? Does Arkansas really need Blanche Lincoln and somebody whose last name is Pryor? I’m betting dollars to donuts that Idaho can get by with either Mike Crapo or Jim Risch.”

IN THE MAIL: The End of Empire: Attila the Hun and the Fall of Rome.

IN WEST CHESTER, Tea Party activists get organized. More here.

The president of the Cincinnati Tea Party organized the community tea party, which was much more subdued than other rallies held earlier this spring.

And that’s how it was intended.

“It’s about organization. This is where we get people involved in the movement and really it was a relatively small group that put together the rallies on April 15 and March 15,” said Mike Wilson. “Here we’re trying to branch out and harness some of the energy, get them involved and get them making a difference spreading our message.”

Similar community events are planned in June and on July 4.

Good.

WHAT TO DO ABOUT NASTY INTERNET COMMENTERS: A forum organized by the News-Sentinel.

AN IMPORTANT CLEAVAGE MYSTERY SOLVED.

MORE STATE-LEVEL TEA PARTY ACTIVISM IN NEW YORK: “The people who organized ‘tea parties’ across the state are now planning a rally in front of the state capitol in Albany as they speak out against elected leaders. Rus Thompson is now looking for people to join him on a bus trip to Albany for the rally. It is scheduled for Tuesday, June 16th from noon until 3 p.m.” There’s a website, too.

NIALL FERGUSON ON INFLATION: How Economists Can Misunderstand The Crisis. “On Wednesday last week, yields on 10-year US Treasuries – generally seen as the benchmark for long-term interest rates – rose above 3.73 per cent. Once upon a time that would have been considered rather low. But the financial crisis has changed all that: at the end of last year, the yield on the 10-year fell to 2.06 per cent. In other words, long-term rates have risen by 167 basis points in the space of five months. In relative terms, that represents an 81 per cent jump. Most commentators were unnerved by this development, coinciding as it did with warnings about the fiscal health of the US. For me, however, it was good news. For it settled a rather public argument between me and the Princeton economist Paul Krugman.”

LAYERS OF EDITORS AND FACT-CHECKERS SLIP UP: Pa. newspaper ad calls for Obama assassination. “Elchert tells The Associated Press that the newspaper’s advertising staff didn’t make the historical connection.”

It could have been worse. It could have said “Snipers Wanted.”

UPDATE: Reader Robert Crawford writes:

What does it say about the effectiveness of our educational institutions that no one connected that list of presidents to assassination? I can forgive not recognizing McKinley and Garfield as being murdered, but Lincoln and Kennedy?! Wouldn’t those two names make you wonder?

*sigh*

Nothing good. Sigh, indeed.

WHITE HOUSE MOVES TO restrict criticism of stimulus projects?

UPDATE: “How dare you petition the government!”

REASON: Islam, The Media and Political Correctness.

OH NO! “Sigh. Yet another morning show segment designed to scare the crap out of parents by declaring a ‘new’ trend that’s taking our nation’s youth on downward spiral towards hell.”

IS THE STIMULUS WORKING? Arnold Kling explains:

As we know, most of the stimulus spending does not take place until next year and beyond, so the short-run gains are puny. On the other hand, the big increase in the projected deficit creates the expectation of higher interest rates, which raises interest rates now. These higher interest rates serve to weaken the economy.

According to this standard analysis, the stimulus is going to hurt GDP now, when we could use the most help. Much of the spending will kick in a year or more from now, with multiplier effects following afterward, when the economy will need little, if any, stimulus.

This is the flaw with using spending rather than tax cuts as a stimulus. The lags are longer when you use spending.

Of course, if the real goal is to promote government at the expense of civil society and to create a one-party state in which business success is based on political favoritism, then the stimulus is working exactly as intended.

Indeed.

REUTERS: Global Markets Weekahead: Return of inflation? “Surging oil and commodity prices coupled with a falling dollar are prompting some investors to brace for a return of inflation, which would benefit equities and damage most government bonds.”

On the other hand, there’s this: Euro-Zone Inflation Rate Falls to Zero.

MEGAN MCARDLE: Sotomayor and the Problem of Affirmative Action.

1974: Lots of praise for the 5 mph bumper requirement, in the comments.

STIMULUS! Crude Oil Caps Biggest Monthly Gain Since 1999 on Dollar Drop. Money quote: “The devaluation of the dollar is leading to the revaluation of energy and commodities in general.” Nothing says “economic recovery” like “expensive oil!”

SO SEND HIM A BILL TO REQUIRE WEAPONS TRAINING IN HIGH SCHOOL: Phil Bredesen conflicted on guns: “He may be against guns in restaurants but by his own admission seems to have no problem with minors having guns at high schools.”

EUGENE VOLOKH: “Wise Latina” speech: troubling.

President Obama agrees.

UPDATE: Latinos for impartiality.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Paul Harper writes:

Is it just me or does the administration seem to be very, very much on the back foot right now? Maybe it’s Kim, maybe it’s the appalling jobless figures, the debt, failed treasuries, or something the Chinese said, but it looks to me like the WH is very much looking for some enemies to blame.

The initial ‘be exceedingly careful’ preemptive attack failed completely to divert attention from the ‘wise Latina’ statement. As a result, the administration can’t rely on patterns of accusations that worked extremely well in the past. Are the Brits the new French?

I think it a big mistake to underestimate the President’s mind-control powers, however, especially over the press. I expect pliant Dems will give him everything he wants. Republicans are currently rudderless.

Well, the press covers for people until it stabs them in the back. Will that happen with Obama? Probably, eventually. I think they hope to put it off 5 or 6 years . . . . Meanwhile, the backtracking probably doesn’t help.

MORE: From James Taranto, an Archie Bunker analogy. Plus, “the infamous ‘douche bag’ case.”

A STRONG REVIEW for the new, lightweight, Eee PC 1008HA Seashell Netbook. Looks like they’ve made the keyboard on this one as good as on the HP 1035, which is saying something, especially as the keyboard was always Asus’s weak point.

HOW MANY JOBS HAS THE STIMULUS CREATED? Stimulus Czar doesn’t know.

LUCKILY, IT WASN’T IN A PARK: Woman holds fugitive at gunpoint awaiting police in Maryville. “Ryan said she never actually pointed the gun at Rummage, keeping the muzzle pointed toward the floor. But she did tell him, ‘If you run, I will shoot you.’ She says she did not know whether Rummage might try to arm himself with a knife and take her and her daughter, who prefers to remain unidentified, hostage or possibly harm them. And she did not want him loose in society.”

STEVE CHAPMAN: Identity Politics, Left and Right.

DO CREDIT CARDS REALLY INCREASE SPENDING? Apparently not.

That’s my experience, too. I used to put nearly everything on Amex, but a few years ago I started using cash for all my ordinary purchases. I couldn’t tell that I was spending any less.

POLITICO: White House concedes Sonia Sotomayor misspoke in 2001.

UPDATE: Associated Press: “Sotomayor did not live her entire childhood in a housing project in the South Bronx — she spent most of her teenage years in a middle-class neighborhood, attending private school and winning scholarships to Princeton and then Yale. And Sotomayor’s life and lifestyle after law school largely resemble the background of many lawyers who rise to powerful positions in Washington.” But there’s also this: “Her ethnic consciousness was apparent in the earliest days of her career, in the New York City prosecutor’s office.”