IN THE MAIL: Jonathan Zittrain’s The Future of the Internet–And How to Stop It.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: Editorial: Jeff Flake pounds Congress on earmark evasion:

Congress on Tuesday shamed itself by going on record, yet again, for what amounts to operating as its own protection racket. The House voted down a resolution by Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., asking the Ethics Committee to investigate whether there were any quid pro quos between federal spending earmarks and campaign donations linked to the now-disbanded lobbying firm known as the PMA Group. This was the third time in a few weeks the House defeated the Flake amendment. The PMA Group, which mostly handled defense issues, is under federal investigation specifically related to political contributions. The company was founded by a former key aide to Rep. John Murtha, D-Penn. . . .

Do these people think they are invisible? Cover my back and I’ll cover yours is the way too many in Congress view ethics issues. But Flake should not give up. He ought to offer a new resolution, again tied to 2009 PMA-related earmarks, and this time specify just which clauses of Chapter Four of the House Ethics Manual might be implicated. Members who vote again to sweep such a resolution under the rug might as well wear a sign that says Corruption-R-Us. We’ll publish their names.

Sounds good to me.

HMM: Japan warns it may shoot down North Korean satellite launcher. Related thoughts here.

UH OH: Is Geithner Even Worse Than Paulson? “It would be hard to imagine finding a Treasury Secretary worse than Hank Paulson. But there is a growing consensus in Washington that as bad as Paulson was, Timothy Geithner may be even more incompetent.”

CHRIS DODD UPDATE: Dodd Draws Heat Over Cozy Irish Cottage Deal.

DOUGLAS SCHOEN AND SCOTT RASMUSSEN: Obama’s Poll Numbers Are Falling to Earth. “Polling data show that Mr. Obama’s approval rating is dropping and is below where George W. Bush was in an analogous period in 2001.”

JET TRAVEL for the 21st Century. I like it. But this is more likely to scare terrorists away . . . .

A NOVEL IDEA: Treat All Taxpayers Like the Treasury Secretary.

MY MODEST PROPOSAL: Save Social Security by making people live longer!

WARREN BUFFETT’S CREDIT RATING downgraded.

HOPE AND CHANGE: White House objects to UN calling US ‘deadbeat’.

AN OBAMA VOTER: “Sometimes government sounds like a creepy stalker….”

GOING JOHN GALT at a corporate level: “The tidy towns and mountain vistas of Switzerland are an unlikely setting for an oil boom. Yet a wave of energy companies has in the last few months announced plans to move to Switzerland — mainly for its appeal as a low-tax corporate domicile that looks relatively likely to stay out of reach of Barack Obama’s tax-seeking administration.”

BOGUS RED-LIGHT CAMERA PICS in Maryland. “Fox 5 photographers stood at one intersection near 85th Avenue and caught the camera popping off like popcorn. Each ticket is a 75 dollar citation. One motorist shared his ticket. He got cited in his white van, but a closer look at the ticket shows the vehicle is at a complete stop. Complaints are pouring in.” Seems like this should be subject to RICO.

A REPORT FROM YESTERDAY’S “TEA PARTY” PROTEST in Columbia, Missouri: “Hundreds of people gathered at Columbia’s Flat Branch Park on Thursday afternoon to protest President Obama’s stimulus package with an old-fashioned tea party. . . . Rusty Gowin was recently laid off at Columbia’s Square D manufacturing plant. Rusty and hundreds of other like him attended the modern day tea party to show their protest. Americans dressed up as Indians at the first Boston Tea Party where they dumped barrels of tea into Boston Harbor to protest British taxes. These modern protestors say tea is the only thing they have in common with the original tea party protest. . . . Lt. Governor Peter Kinder, a spokesman for congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer and former Columbia State Representative Ed Robb addressed the crowd at the Columbia tea party protest.”

MEGAN MCARDLE: “Having defended Obama’s candidacy largely on his economic team, I’m having serious buyer’s remorse. . . . The budget numbers are just one more blow to the credibility he worked hard to establish during the election.”

CORY DOCTOROW: Obama administration: releasing details of secret copyright treaty endangers “national security”. Er, what?

HMM: So Why DID H. Rodgin Cohen Withdraw as Treasury’s No. 2? Press Is Curiously Not Curious. On the other hand, a colleague of mine who knows this stuff says that he is to banking law what the Dalai Lama is to religion. But this media observation seems on-target: “I suspect that investigation and speculation would have run rampant if a Republican president had pulled the nomination of someone like Cohen; witness the feeding frenzy that followed Bush Homeland Security nominee Bernie Kerik for several days in 2004 even after his nomination was pulled. Instead, we’re supposed to just let this Cohen thing go and move on.”

WELL, YOU DON’T JUST GIVE SOMETHING LIKE THAT AWAY FOR FREE: Specter’s vote on card check must be bleeping golden.

A BIG Tea Party Protest Update.

There will be protests in Columbus, Ohio and Cincinnati this weekend, too. As always, please send me pics, and copy to .

UH OH: China “worried” about US Treasury holdings.

MORE ON VIVEK KUNDRA and that FBI raid.

TROUBLE FOR BILL RICHARDSON? “The president’s staffing nightmares began with Bill Richardson, the erstwhile Commerce nominee, who has told confidants that he was promised the secretary of State job. Now, with looming investigations and sinking polls, Richardson may be lucky to hang on as governor of New Mexico.”

JOHN TIERNEY: Obama’s Drug Policy. “Which way is the Obama administration heading in dealing with illict drugs? It depends which speaker you heeded at Wednesday’s ceremony announcing that Gil Kerlikowske, the Seattle police chief, will become the White House’s new drug czar.”

APPOINTMENTS: How Obama Will Handle U.S. Attorney Posts Still Unclear. Plus this: “Mary Beth Buchanan, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, who oversaw a recent FBI raid of fundraisers close to Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), told local reporters after the November election that she did not plan to voluntarily resign.”