THE SPECIAL-INTEREST GIVEAWAYS are underway. “How can congressional Democrats possibly justify giving the same organizations that already got a heaping helping of pork in the stimulus bill another scoop in the omnibus bill while taxpayers are suffering?”

THE HILL: Top Democrats brush off the president on earmarks. They don’t seem the least bit afraid of him, do they?

CHEERFUL ECONOMIC NEWS: “Tens of thousands of boxcars are sitting idle all over the country, parked indefinitely by railroads whose freight volumes have plummeted along with the economy. . . . Railroads, which have seen shipping volumes drop by double-digit percentages in recent months, face a particularly vexing problem. The nation’s five largest railroads have put more than 30% of their boxcars — 206,000 in all — into storage, according to the Association of American Railroads. Placed end-to-end, the cars would stretch from New York to Salt Lake City.”

Plus, a Chinese real estate bust that makes ours look minor. “By Rodman’s calculations, 500 million square feet of commercial real estate has been developed in Beijing since 2006, more than all the office space in Manhattan. And that doesn’t include huge projects developed by the government. He says 100 million square feet of office space is vacant — a 14-year supply if it filled up at the same rate as in the best years, 2004 through ’06, when about 7 million square feet a year was leased.”

MARTIN PERETZ JOINS THOSE STUNNED to discover that Barack Obama isn’t who he convinced himself he was. Plus, amusing comments here. “Who did you expect, Abe Foxman?”

Related thoughts from Jennifer Rubin.

And more at Foreign Policy.

MICKEY KAUS ON MAYOR VILLARAIGOSA: “Even among the ardent L.A. Dems I know, nobody isn’t disappointed in this guy.” He’s like a reverse-Sara Lee.

FIDELITY EXECUTIVE NED JOHNSON NOT FEELING THE HOPE AND CHANGE: Blames feds for crisis, derides U.S. spending.

CHICAGO TEA PARTY PROTEST: This Friday at 11, Daley Plaza.

UPDATE: Also in Tulsa, same day, same time.

Also on Friday, an L.A. Tea Party. 9 a.m., Santa Monica Pier. And in Tempe, Arizona. 11:45 a.m. in Tempe Beach Park. All times local.

Plus, a huge list of events for Friday, from Seattle, to Pittsburgh, to Jackson, Mississippi. See if there’s one in your area.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Roger Simon talks to some Chicago Board of Trade traders about the Tea Party movement.

MORE: Portland, Oregon. 9 a.m. Friday, Pioneer Square. (The reader who sent the link writes, “Don’t mention my name. I work for a newspaper.”) Given Oregon’s proposed 1900% beer tax increase, there ought to be some riled-up people there already.

Also, Sacramento, California.

And Oklahoma City.

Plus, “Fiscal responsibility is the new counterculture!” (Bumped).

STILL MORE: So many of these you can’t keep track. But Some people are trying.

THE HILL: Dodd’s pay rules linked to tough reelection prospects.

Undercutting your president is rarely a smart strategy — unless, like Sen. Chris Dodd, you are fighting to save your political life.

Apparently that’s exactly why the Connecticut Democrat called an audible and put in the stimulus tougher executive compensation rules than those proposed by President Obama. The rules are unpopular with business, and several lobbyists and other observers said they are widely viewed as related to Dodd’s poor poll numbers, which show the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee vulnerable, partly because of reports that he refinanced two mortgages in 2003 at favorable terms with Countrywide Financial.

“It gives all the signs of desperation,” said one Wall Street analyst who follows politics, but who did not want to go on the record for fear of angering the powerful chairman.

Read the whole thing.

THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: ">BIDEN FORGETS “WEBSITE NUMBER” FOR RECOVERY.GOV.

Okay, it’s not a big slip, but he’s in charge of the stimulus, and if Sarah Palin had made it . . . . .

UPDATE: L.A. Times: “.” You know, I haven’t bought the theory, circulating in some quarters, that Obama is an America-hating Manchurian Candidate who’s out to destroy the country. But when he put Joe Biden in charge of the stimulus, I began to wonder if my dismissal was too hasty. I mean, it’s not as if you’d put Biden in charge of something you wanted to succeed . . . .

MORE ON THE BIDEN-STANFORD CONNECTION, with diagram.

VIDEO: GAWKER: Pop-Up Pelosi. “It’s understandable that Pelosi would want the television audience to remember her as Obama’s most ardent supporter. When she steps out of Obama’s radiance, people mostly think about her corrupt business dealings, her crazy cat videos, and her ne’er-do-well son.”

MEGAN MCARDLE ON deficits, “stimulus,” and politics.

ERIC HOLDER: Gitmo is a “well-run, professional facility” that will be hard to close. Now they tell us.

I’VE MENTIONED BACONNAISE BEFORE, but here’s a recipe for your own homemade bacon mayonnaise that’s undoubtedly better.

POWER GRAB?

Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), the longest-serving Democratic senator, is criticizing President Obama’s appointment of White House “czars” to oversee federal policy, saying these executive positions amount to a power grab by the executive branch.

In a letter to Obama on Wednesday, Byrd complained about Obama’s decision to create White House offices on health reform, urban affairs policy, and energy and climate change. Byrd said such positions “can threaten the Constitutional system of checks and balances. At the worst, White House staff have taken direction and control of programmatic areas that are the statutory responsibility of Senate-confirmed officials.”

While it’s rare for Byrd to criticize a president in his own party, Byrd is a stern constitutional scholar who has always stood up for the legislative branch in its role in checking the power of the White House.

It’ll be interesting to see if this gets much play.

THE ATLANTA TAX PROTEST HAS ISSUED AN open call for “protest babes.” Smart move, in more ways than one . . . .

UPDATE: A reader emails:

You should decry this overt sexism. Me and my cue-ball head plan to be there on Friday. We need a call for Protest Himbos.

One thing I’ve learned on the Internet is that everything has its demographic.

ANOTHER UPDATE: New Media pressure works!

HMM: FBI raids University of Florida nuclear power institute. Sounds like financial fraud, not espionage, but stay tuned.

WELL, THAT DIDN’T TAKE LONG: Holder calls for new assault-weapons ban. That, you see, will put an end to the lawlessness in Mexico.

UPDATE: Broken promises:

Remember back in February 2008 when President Obama came to Boise and spoke at a big rally? He made a big point of saying, “I won’t take away your guns,” because those nasty, dishonest Republicans were saying that Obama was going to do that.

It sure didn’t take long for Obama to reveal his intentions.

Weasel out: Banning further sales of “assault weapons” isn’t the same as “taking them away.” Uh huh.

MORE RACIAL CRACKS ABOUT BOBBY JINDAL?

TOM BLUMER: Robert Gibbs’ attack on CNBC’s Rick Santelli is just the latest example of boorish behavior from Obama and his team.

MATT WELCH: The Two Faces of Barack Obama. “Obama aims to be the president of all Americans, a position that appears to be sincere. But I wonder whether in the process he might also want to consider appointing himself chief executive of his own head. All night long, with equally sonorous vigor, he served up confident assertions, only to state moments later, with equal conviction, their near opposite.”

MITT ROMNEY THE FRONTRUNNER FOR 2012?

“THEISTICALLY CONFIDENT” have more children.

VIDEO: Dante’s Inferno game trailer.

OBAMA’S TAX HIKE: Coming in 2010.

UPDATE: Now the White House is saying 2011. The 2010 thing must have been a mistake.