THIS CHRIS DODD DISCUSSION at the Hartford Courant suggests that there are a lot of home-state folks who are unhappy with his financial shenanigans.

R.S. MCCAIN VOLUNTEERS TO BE Israel’s first Gentile Prime Minister. Hey, in the age of Obama, anything can happen. And heck, he’s got a better shot than Glenn Greenwald.

GENOCIDE? Britons flee French island of Guadeloupe as rioters turn on white families. Plus, the death of the tourism-based economy? “People are scared. No one wants to go there and those that are there want to get out. . . . We have a huge deficit of tourists ahead of us. At least 10,000 tourists have cancelled vacations in Martinique and Guadeloupe.” Idiots. Of course, that’s in style these days.

BILL MOYERS: The Power of Outing.

ISLA FISHER AND AMY ADAMS: They sure look alike, and they both look good!

A READER EMAILS: “MSM seems to be golluming Obama. Do I use it correctly?” I think so.

OF THE IDIOTS, BY THE IDIOTS, and for the idiots.

EVAN COYNE MALONEY’S INDOCTRINATE U. will be on the air several times starting tomorrow night. Also it’ll be showing at the New York International Independent Film Festival. Information at the link.

UPDATE: Link was bad. Fixed now. Sorry!

THE WHITE HOUSE ENCOURAGES SANTELLI, ON PURPOSE: “They’d rather the opposition be identified with Santelli and stock brokers than with, say, a Joe the Plumber type.”

Related item: “My husband and I always discuss, ‘Why do we try to better ourselves, when it seems if you do nothing, you get all the help in the world?’”

Like the song says, they’ll turn us all into beggars ’cause they’re easier to please.

UPDATE: C.J. Burch isn’t buying the White House strategy: “It was a stupid attack all the same, and will look more stupid next week as their plans for the bank bail out become more obvious. Not even a press as supine as this one can allow itself to become the president’s red headed step child.” I dunno, I’m expecting heavy orders for henna . . . .

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Frank Hosford notes Obama’s thin skin: “The Obama White House started with Hannity, then Rush, & now CNBC?? I’m confused: I thought we had freedom of the press?”

MORE: Reader Kyle Lagrois isn’t buying the White House take (via Ambinder, above) either:

Have you ever noticed Marc Ambinder is the reliable, go-to guy to give a reasonable or political explanation AFTER Obama does something that may look like a screw-up? . . .

Today, Gibbs called out a reporter in a very unseemly way, and Ambinder wants to paint it as some sort of strategic genius.

Keep an eye on it. He is- somehow- able to channel how Obama might want you to view what’s happened.

Meanwhile, Dan Riehl thinks that the White House isn’t upholding its dignity very well. “Although I might be concerned about any private info on file with the government were I Santelli. I think we’re seeing a WH that looks like it’s being run more like a Chicago Ward, than the house that most presidents lived in. This is about attacking everyone and everything that opposes you. In the end, it demeans the office and raises serious concerns as to whether these people can be trusted with the power they now have.”

Plus, Tom Elia wonders what, exactly, Gibbs brings to the table:

The most interesting thing about White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs response to CNBC’s Rick Santelli’s criticism of the Obama Administration’s anti-foreclosure plan was Gibb’s assertion that Santelli ‘doesn’t know what he’s talking about.’

Before joining CNBC, Santelli spent 20 years in the trading business, both on and off the trading floor.

Gibbs has spent his whole life in politics and apparently has no business experience, spending most of his professional career as a political spokesman.

To be fair, Gibbs has at least as much business experience as Barack Obama or Joe Biden.

MORE: The Anchoress emails:

Can anyone imagine Bush calling out Randi Rhodes, or his press sec mocking a member of the press?

Bush’s White House did not go after members of the press, or get defensive toward them. The press hated him, and his whole staff, but the admin never returned in kind.

Class tells.

Indeed it does.

SIDING WITH THE LITTLE GUY!

Intermittently, and for the TV cameras, you might be able hear a Sen. Dodd or a Sen. Schumer raise their voices in indignation over the predations and the self-dealing of the moneychangers. But then you remember that this is the same Chris Dodd who accepted two “courtesy” mortgages from Countrywide’s Anthony Mozillo, and that this is the same Chuck Schumer who backed Wall Street deregulation as he was collecting fat checks from the Street to fill the coffers of his Democratic Senate Campaign Committee.

Yeah, it’s almost like they’re two-faced weasels or something.

A FEDERAL PLAN TO TAX MOTORISTS BY THE MILE? I had some thoughts on a similar Oregon plan, here.

NOW THEY TELL US: Guantánamo Meets Geneva Rules, Study Finds. “A Pentagon report requested by President Obama on the conditions at the Guantánamo Bay detention center concludes that the prison complies with the humanitarian requirements of the Geneva conventions.”

So, kinda like the Katrina stuff, this Guantanamo stink was all just a bunch of political propaganda?

UPDATE: Obama Administration Adopts (At Least for Now) The View that Bagram Detainees Have No Habeas Rights.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Katrina backtracking at the White House website.

NEW CLUES for anti-aging therapy. More on SIRT1.

JOHN CORNYN lays down a marker.

HUNTING THE ELUSIVE FAT PILL: “Why is it so hard to make a diet pill that works? For one thing, evolution hates diets.”

JAMES TARANTO: If Eric Holder is serious, he’ll say a word in defense of the New York Post. But, of course, he wasn’t.

I’VE MENTIONED BEFORE that I’m a happy Amazon Prime customer. But here’s another reason to be. I just got an email telling me that the Balance Nutrition Bars I ordered have been recalled b/c of that peanut butter salmonella thing. If I’d bought ’em at Target, that wouldn’t have happened.

UPDATE: Reader Richard VanderHoek writes: “Glenn, my wife bought some Detour bars from Costco, and she was notified by them that they had been recalled. I love Amazon also, but other companies are doing the same thing. Just thought you’d like to know…” And Tracy Heath emails: “I have a great love for my Amazon Prime Membership (which was purchased based on your glowing reviews). I also have a strong love for Target and must give them their due. I received an automated call from Target a few weeks back letting me know that the Peanut Butter Luna Bars that were purchased on my Target Visa account had been recalled. Granted, these calls probably only reached Target card members, but it was a nice touch.” Cool.

“EVERYONE A LOBBYIST.” This works on both state and national levels. If you actually do it.

SEEKING ALPHA: Is Government Part of the Problem or the Solution? “They’ve likened the economy to a nasty car crackup, so it’s fair to ask whether our Congressional/Treasury/regulatory authorities are hauling the wreckage off the highway so traffic can start moving again, or whether they’ve blocked the highway with their emergency equipment and made the backup worse. I’m not optimistic.”

ROBERT GIBBS SAYS RICK SANTELLI SHOULD READ THE PRESIDENT’S PLAN BEFORE CRITICIZING IT.

Which is rich, since that’s more than anyone in Congress did before voting last week . . . .

UPDATE: Reader Michael Grubbs emails: “You gotta admit that Robert Gibbs is entertaining. Totally lacking any self awareness! ‘Nuke’ LaLoosh in a suit.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: CNBC: Santelli Gains Rockstar Status Online.

Love their graphic.

A NEW VERB: To Gollum. “To obsessively and compulsively covet without the ability to enjoy that which you covet.”

REASON TV: Slumdog Thousandaires—What the celebrated movie can teach Americans about economic stimulus.

Indians were enthusiastic about self-rule, but “the problem was that the Indian political leaders had this very Fabian Socialist idea,” says Shikha Dalmia, a senior analyst at Reason Foundation and native of India. “And that completely thwarted the entrepreneurship of the country.”

For decades would-be entrepreneurs staggered under the weight of corruption and bureaucracy. Want to import a computer for your business? You’d have to get permission from a bureaucrat. Want to sell food from a small cart? You’d need all kinds of licenses.

But in the 1990s, India emerged as a high-tech powerhouse. What changed?

“In the 1990s India started liberalizing its economy,” says Dalmia, “and it did three things: cut taxes, liberalized trade, and deregulated business.”

“DEADBEATONOMICS.”

AT GAY PATRIOT: (Some of) Our Critics & Their Imaginary Conservatives. Plus, at the Daily Kos, imaginary white people.

POLITICAL GRAPEVINE: Are the Democrats Having a Hard Time Doing Business By The Book?