JAMES PETHOKOUKIS: Why Obama Will ‘Own’ the Recession.

CASS SUNSTEIN TO REGULATORY AFFAIRS: Obama to Name Lawyer Friend To Regulatory Affairs Position. “President-elect Barack Obama will name Cass R. Sunstein, a close friend and one of the nation’s top constitutional lawyers, to a senior-level post in charge of government regulation, a transition official said.”

Presumably, Sunstein’s approach was prefigured in his most recent book. We talked with him about that in this Glenn & Helen Show interview.

UPDATE: Todd Zywicki thinks it’s a good appointment. I think that’s right. And note Sunstein’s discussion of the Swedish social security privatization plan.

DAILY OUTRAGE: MEATY EARMARKS for Tom Harkin.

STIMULUS POLITICS: Will the real Christina Romer please stand up?

FROM BLACKFIVE to H.B.O. Now it’s one degree of Kevin Bacon! Trailer at the link.

PROFESSOR KENNETH ANDERSON: The NYT and the information theory of the leisure class.

ON ELVIS PRESLEY’S BIRTHDAY, it’s important to remember how he saved the world from fascism.

MICKEY KAUS: “Will Obama ever stop asking me for money?”

THE BRITISH WORKING CLASS feels betrayed.

UPDATE: Related item here.

SMELLING MONEY: Erin Brockovitch comes to Knoxville. I was talking to a local environmental lawyer who was none-too-happy about some out-of-state bigfeet coming in to try to grab the business.

JOEL ROSENBERG ON GAZA, over at Jerry Pournelle’s place.

IF ONLY BUSH HAD BEEN SUCH A RAMPANT FREE-MARKETEER: “Mythmaking is in full swing as the Bush administration prepares to leave town. Among the more prominent is the assertion that the housing meltdown resulted from unbridled capitalism under a president opposed to all regulation. . . . Rather than a failure of capitalism, the housing meltdown shows what’s likely to happen when government grants special privileges to favored private entities that facilitate bad actors and lousy practices.”

AMERICA’S Berlin Wall.

INSTAPUNDIT: Bringing America together! “The last time I remember reading something on the left-wing blog firedoglake, I found it so offensive I didn’t think I’d ever return to the website. Well, just a few moments ago, while scanning Instapundit, I followed Glenn’s link to a post there which pretty much reflected my views on how the corrupt Democratic Governor of Illinois rolled his party’s leader in the US Senate.”

Plus this: “A tip of the hat to Professor Reynolds for the snort-worthy post of the day. Thanks to the controversy that FireDog Lake caused during the Democrat primaries for John Edwards’ failed campaign we did not ever go back to the site despite our pledge to watch the opposition. It is due to Professor Reynolds’ link to Jane Hamsher’s piece today that took us back there, and after reading it, I had to compose myself to write this. I was laughing so hard I was almost in tears. She has a very valid point.” Kumbaya!

TARGETING JEWS in Britain. How far will this go?

SOME COMIC-BOOK GEEKERY from Jonah Goldberg.

GEE, DO YOU THINK? “The forecast Wednesday of a jaw-dropping $1.2 trillion one-year federal budget deficit will make it harder for President-elect Barack Obama to win broad support for a massive stimulus package that would add even more to the red ink.” This stuff is polling pretty badly and is likely to poll worse as time goes on. Sooner or later, even Congress will notice.

UPDATE: “No one is going to bail out America.”

SO MUCH FOR Oprah and Harry Potter.

BUY TWO BLU-RAY DISCS, get one free.

IN FORT LAUDERDALE: Protester Calls for Jews to ‘Go Back to the Oven’ at Anti-Israel Demonstration.

UPDATE: Israel Acts Because the World Won’t Defend It. I’d say a lot of the world is actively working toward its destruction, or at least cheering those who are.

MICKEY KAUS BUSTS REVISIONIST ACCOUNTS of the Iraq Study Group: “I must have missed the part of the blueprint where the Iraq Study Group called for the Petraeus ‘surge’ strategy.”

The Iraq Study Group has got to go down as one of the biggest dodged-bullets of the Bush Administration. What if he’d listened to those greybeards? We’d have lost, that’s what. It’s all about judgment!

HEH: “Other Than That Mr. Reid, How Was the First Day?”

L.A. TIMES: Reid’s blocking of Burris not about race, Reid declares.

THE FAUXTO THAT WASN’T.

JOE THE PLUMBER IN ISRAEL: Joe the Plumber: Mr. Smith Goes to Jerusalem for Pajamas TV.

UPDATE: CNN’s Kyra Phillips unloads on Joe the Plumber. “I wouldn’t think Phillips, who gained considerable notoriety in a restroom, would think ‘flush’ jokes are all that humorous.” Ouch. Reader C.J. Burch emails: “As long as he doesn’t lie through his teeth he’ll be way ahead of CNN…and most other journalists.” Ouch again.