A GRAND UNIFIED THEORY OF OBAMANOMICS. The other possibility, of course, is that he’s clueless. Never attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence, and after the Geithner/Daschle/Richardson/Killefer/Carrion/Kirk problems, incompetence is looking like the strong horse. [That’s what they’re expecting you to think! — ed. Ah, it’s all becoming clear now . . . .]

UPDATE: Oh, yeah, and the Chas Freeman thing, too. It’s hard to keep track of all the appointment debacles.

HORSE, BARN DOOR, ETC.: Now Freeman Gets Vetted? “Eli Lake reports that Chas Freeman is indeed to be investigated by the Inspector General. At issue are his ties the to China National Offshore Oil Corp, in which the Chinese government has a majority stake, and his role as president of the Middle East Policy Council (MEPC), which is in part Saudi-funded. And not surprisingly, the backpedaling has already begun.”

The Obama Administration’s record of appointments so far has not been exactly brilliant. And these people think they can run the economy?

MIGHT AS WELL GO BANKRUPT? GM Gets ‘Going Concern’ Warning from Auditors: Evidence That Buyers Have Shunned the Bailed-Out.

MURTHA UPDATE: The Hill: PMA politics may infect 2010 races. “The federal investigation into potentially corrupt political contributions by the lobbying firm PMA Group has created a quandary for many lawmakers — especially those with tough races in 2010. . . . What they all have in common is that very few are willing to part with substantial sums of money to head off potential future troubles. Among those parting with the money, the biggest recipients are giving back a little and only the smallest recipients are giving it all away.” Showing the same foresight and self-discipline they show in other settings . . . .

THE “TEA PARTY” SPIRIT IN NEW JERSEY: Protest outside Hoboken City Hall reveals anger, frustration.

Were Hoboken City Council people scared to walk into City Hall tonight?

They would have had to walk past the 100+ irate and frustrated residents who rallied outside the building as part of a protest organized by Hoboken Revolt and LowerHobokenTaxes. You can watch some of the rally above, as resident Richard Pasquarelli and others lead the charge against City Hall.

Protestors held signs demanding lower Hoboken taxes, shouted for a recall of elected officials and someone even held a tarred-and-feathered effigy of Mayor Dave Roberts. (No, they didn’t set it on fire.)

It’s early yet. Video at the link.

“SMART DIPLOMACY?” President Barack Obama just plain rude to Britain. Don’t call us in future.

I thought our allies were going to like us more once Obama replaced Bush. Plus this: “Whatever might be said about Bush era diplomacy, Dubya never sold our allies down the river. Disagreement is one thing; converting such stalwarts as the Czechs and the Poles into bargaining chips is quite another.”

IN THE LATEST ASK DR. HELEN SHOW, a talk with Richard Driscoll, author of a new book on why women don’t understand men. First 1500 plays are free! After that you have to subscribe ($5/month).

CBS NEWS / WEEKLY STANDARD: A Growing “Tea Party” Movement? “There seems to be real bitterness about the idea of forcing people to subsidize the imprudent housing choices of their neighbors.”

UPDATE: Reader Jeff Redman points out that CBS is just republishing a Weekly Standard story. I thought they deserved credit for that, but I’ve revised the heading to make it clear, in case people don’t bother to follow the link.

THE BEST CONGRESS MONEY CAN BUY! Raided Lobby Firm Still a Force On Capitol Hill. “Even as news of the investigation into mega-lobby firm PMA Group grows, Democrats are fighting efforts to check the tarnished group’s influence. . . . In what could politely be described as a rearguard action, Democratic lawmakers have defeated an effort to start a congressional ethics investigation into the firm. PMA operated in DC for many years, and funnelled millions of dollars into dozens of lawmakers’ campaigns.” Read the whole thing.

Actually, I’m not sure they’re the best Congress that money can buy — just that they’re a Congress that money can buy . . . .

Meanwhile, Tom Coburn tried to ban firms under investigation from receiving earmarks, but that didn’t work:

Like the House, the Senate has opted to protect the clients of the PMA lobbying firm, whose contributions to Democrats are the subject of a federal investigation. Just over an hour ago, by a vote of 43 to 52, the Senate rejected Sen. Tom Coburn’s (R, Okla.) amendment to eliminate the PMA earmarks from the Omnibus bill.

Coburn’s statement is at the link.

DID PAUL BEGALA Punk The Post? “The news that Begala helped cook up this attack last October and has secretly been tasked with carrying out should embarrass the Post a little for using him in this piece. It certainly puts a different spin on the story. It also places the responsibility for the personal attacks on Rush and his earlier addiction to painkillers squarely on Barack Obama’s shoulders. This is his operation, and Begala’s his errand boy here.”

UPDATE: More: “Imagine, for a moment, if George Bush and his chief of staff had made coordinated and concerted attacks on Michael Moore, and suggested that the colorful left-wing fulminator — not Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid — was the “true intellectual force” behind the Democratic party. Imagine the howls of protest. And, undoubtedly, the media would have focused on the propriety of a commander-in-chief and his advisers wasting time and political breath on an entertainer. And yet we have President Obama and his hammer, Rahm Emanuel, doing just that in a time of war and economic crisis, and the story is about… Republicans!”

This is why people aren’t as sad about media shutdowns and layoffs as they might be, if the press actually reported things the way it claims to, instead of the way it does. And you can bet that if the chicken-suit thing happens, it won’t get covered much. ‘Cause, you know, it’s not really news when an entertainer picks fights with the President . . . .

“I’M MAUREEN DOWD AND I’VE BEEN HAD.” “A support group for bitter pundits disappointed in Obama is quickly becoming necessary.”

ARE YOU “GOING JOHN GALT?” If so, PJTV would like to interview you:

UPDATE: Reader Ed Clark writes: “I’m thinking more along the lines of Ragnar Danneskjöld.”

DETROIT NEWS: Cap-and-trade plan will sink Michigan. “President Barack Obama’s proposed cap-and-trade system on greenhouse gas emissions is a giant economic dagger aimed at the nation’s heartland — particularly Michigan. It is a multibillion-dollar tax hike on everything that Michigan does, including making things, driving cars and burning coal.”

BREITBART TV: AFL-CIO Union Execs Hold Winter Meeting at Luxury Miami Resort. And at a time of recession and government bailouts. Were there private jets involved?

MORE ON LIMBAUGH’S DEBATE OFFER: “Offering to debate Obama mano a mano, so to speak, Rush puts his attackers on the spot. He shows himself as willing to a engage discussion of ideas. By refusing his offer, they expose their strategy as ad hominem political hardball where you personalize the contest.”

I still think Rush will try the chicken suit idea.

POLL: Obama’s popularity at an all-time high. But there’s this: “NBC/WSJ poll shows gap between popularity of president and his policies.”

Will Obama’s popularity last? The way his team is looking for enemies and scapegoats suggests that they don’t think so.

UPDATE: Reader Donald Gately writes: “The unpopularity of his policies is just the leading edge. Far too many people are still skittish about admitting dislike or distrust of Obama for fear of being labeled as ‘racist’.” Well, we’ll see.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Bill Wiltsch writes:

Guess what – in March of ’01, Bush’s popularity was in the 60’s and rising, not falling. Think that will ever be reported amidst all the fawning “Obama is so popular” stories?

Yeah, but Bush squandered his popularity with a grandiose scheme that Americans initially endorsed by big margins but then soured upon when they saw the bill. No chance that’ll happen with Obama!

HOT AIR: Uh oh: Matthews sounding fed up with Obama’s earmark hypocrisy. There’s a lot of buyer’s remorse out there among pundits, for so early in the term.

JACOB SULLUM: Ask not what your education can do for you . . . “The collectivism implicit in this rhetoric is pretty creepy.” Well, that’s a change.

Plus this:

Evidently each of us has a duty to optimize our educations so we can maximize our earnings and give our country the full benefit of our talents. “Every American will need to get more than a high school diploma,” Obama decrees. But why stop there? If someone with strong mathematical and spatial reasoning abilities majors in sociology instead of engineering, it’s plain that he will not be giving his country as much value (and tax revenue) as he could. What about the potential doctor who decides to play the violin or the writer who could have been a software developer? Given Obama’s premise, it’s hard to see why such choices should be permitted, especially when the country is so generously subsidizing higher education.

We’ve got to all contribute to our society according to our abilities, not our desires, so that we can fulfill the needs of those less fortunate. To do otherwise — to pursue a career because of our selfish “interest” in it — would be unpatriotic.

UPDATE: Yeah, I got a few emails suggesting that not everyone notices the Andrea See quote.

BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS: I like the “humongous bucket of eggs and meat.”

MORE ON Larry Kudlow vs. Chris Dodd.

DAVID HARSANYI: “Many of us are hoping that all those in power fail, because those in power have a grating habit of being annoyingly self-righteous, hopelessly corrupt, resolutely incompetent and completely apathetic about the freedoms that they have sworn to protect.”

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: From Robert Heinlein:

Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.

This is known as “bad luck.”

I’m just sayin’.

BAH: Lamar votes against McCain’s bill to strip earmarks. I hope the Republicans — and the Democrats — who voted against this will hear from constituents.

GLOBAL WARMING AND GEOENGINEERING: Controversy Sails with the Polarstern: “The prestigious German oceanography ship Polarstern is conducting a major experiment of seeding the oceans with iron in order to absorb carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse-effect gas.” Interesting research, but if we get an ice age out of it, I’m suing. . . .

TOM MAGUIRE stands up for Greg Mankiw. Plus this: “Let’s end with a chortle – isn’t it nice to see Krugman and DeLong relying on the Regan-era tax cut fueled boom to justify the Obama-era recovery plan?”