JOE SESTAK not making way for Arlen Specter. Well, he probably figures he’ll get some Republican donations in the primary. And he’s probably right!

“THAT WAS RETRIBUTION.”

JOHN ALLISON, AYN RAND, and turning a profit morally.

CHRYSLER: THE CAR OF THE FUTURE: “And though I’m not a gearhead, I’m a little surprised to hear the administration saying that Chrysler is going to be saved by–Fiat’s world-class engineering.” Plus, this: possible Chrysler savior Fiat has low reliability scores.

The country auto industry is in the very best of hands!

FROM A.P., a roundup of swine flu developments worldwide. Plus, more schools close, as flu-fighters warn against complacency.

CAR LUST: Remembering the 1970 Pontiac Grand Prix 455. My friend Doug Weinstein had a 1973 — he bought it used from Ernie Grunfeld — and it was a pretty nice car, though a gas-hog par excellence.

DARREN HUTCHINSON: Kinder, Gentler Military Tribunals? Change! Plus a useful summary:

Obama has embraced many of the same positions that liberals and Obama himself criticized. For example:

* Obama and members of his administration have embraced the use of rendition. Many of Obama’s most ardent defenders blasted progressives who criticized Obama on rendition as jumping the gun. Today, their arguments look even more problematic than in the past.

* Obama has invoked the maligned “state secrets” defense as a complete bar to lawsuits challenging potential human rights and constitutional law violations.

* Obama has argued that detainees at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan do not qualify for habeas corpus rights, even though many of the detainees at the facility were not captured in the war or in Afghanistan.

* Even though it no longer uses the phrase “enemy combatants,” the Obama administration has taken the position that the government can indefinitely detain individuals, whether or not they engaged in torture and whether or not they fought the United States on the “battlefield.” This logic combined with the denial of habeas to detainees in Afghanistan could make Bagram the functional equivalent of Guantanamo Bay.

If the New York Times article is accurate, then the use of military tribunals issue will join the list of policies that Obama has endorsed, despite the loud liberal criticism that Bush received when he did the same things.

Indeed.

UPDATE: From Jules Crittenden: “What are we on, Day 103? I think that Change shark just officially got jumped.”

REUTERS: Barack Obama is revelling in presidential power and influence unseen in Washington for decades.

He certainly feels comfortable making threats.

THE EXAMINER: President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, and Others Owe 1.2 Million Tea Party Patriots Apology.

UPDATE: Reader Marc Greendorfer emails:

You linked today to a Washington Examiner editorial regarding the dismissive statements made by the Obama administration on the tax protests. What struck me about the statement from President Obama was how much change there has been from the days of that Darth Vader of civil liberties, President Bush. I can’t recall a single instance during his eight years where President Bush derided American citizens who took to the streets to protest his administration. In fact, I think that President Bush always acknowledged the right of citizens to disagree with him and he was always respectful of that dissent. If Obama’s mocking of dissent is the change he promised I don’t think I like it.

As I noted earlier, you can say what you like about George W. Bush, but he didn’t have a skin whose thickness was measured in Planck lengths. Or, to put it more simply . . . you can say what you like about George W. Bush.

UPDATE: Reader Jake Jacobsen writes: “Your respondent insists that GWB never denigrated those protesting him, actually he did…” By calling the Minutemen “vigilantes.” Hmm. I’ll leave it to readers to decide how comparable the two situations are.

FABIUS MAXIMUS: It’s Official: TARP Is Just Theft.

SLASHDOT: Flu Models Predict Pandemic, But Flu Chips Ready.

SWINE FLU VACCINE PROSPECTS LOOKING GOOD SO FAR: “So far, all of the swine flu viruses isolated from infected people have been virtually identical, which should simplify the development of a vaccine, an official from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.”

A MERMAID SIGHTING near Knoxville.

HMM: Pew Poll: Public Takes Conservative Turn on Gun Control, Abortion. “For the first time in a Pew Research survey, nearly as many people believe it is more important to protect the right of Americans to own guns (45%) than to control gun ownership (49%). . . . The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted March 31-April 21 among 1,521 adults reached on landlines and cell phones, also finds public opinion about abortion more closely divided than it has been in several years.”

UPDATE: Hmm. Related? Obama says abortion rights not a top priority.

Plus this: “Obama knows passage of the FOCA would mean lasting reproductive Freedom for women, which in turn would allow women the Freedom to cross party lines more readily. So…Obama punts women into the abyss of ongoing begging for control over their own bodies, and ongoing servitude to the Blue party.”

BLACKFIVE: “A serious leadership problem.”

CORY DOCTOROW: US Trade Rep lies about Canadian piracy.

SWINE FLU COVERAGE? Corporate laid him off. Health care reporter. Non vital.

YOUR ENLIGHTENED MAINSTREAM: Video: Miss California is a piece of garbage with breast implants or something.

It’s stuff like this that makes all the “have you no decency, sir?” stuff from the left hard to swallow. Plus, “gay gynephobia?” There does seem to be a lot of misogyny coming out of the gay-marriage crowd lately. I don’t think it does them any credit, and if it were coming out of people who didn’t possess the Official Victim Sanction it would be denounced mercilessly by the usual chin-tuggers. Instead, as Gloria Feldt demonstrates, they’re joining right in.

Meanwhile, you probably can name Ms. Prejean, but can you name this year’s Miss USA?

BACK TO THE FUTURE: U.S. May Revive Guantánamo Military Courts. “The Obama administration is moving toward reviving the military commission system for prosecuting Guantánamo detainees, which was a target of critics during the Bush administration, including Mr. Obama himself.”

WOMEN SKI JUMPERS TAKE ON THE VANCOUVER OLYMPICS, and I take over the PJTV Sports Desk, interviewing world champion Lindsey Van and U.S. Women’s Ski Jumping Association President DeeDee Corradini — asking a question I never expected to in the process.

Hey, female athletes in spandex, and corrupt, selfish international organizations. What more do you want on a Friday night?

THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: ‘Secret’ CIA document on White House Flickr feed.

BANKRUPTCY LAWYER TOM LAURIA talks about the Chrysler deal. And threats from the White House. (Bumped).

AN EMOTIONAL Cyclone.

THE DALAI LAMA TALKS ABOUT GEORGE W. BUSH, and the Anchoress needs a drink.

THE NOMENKLATURA always get nice shoes.