KRAUTHAMMER: “This is smart diplomacy? This is a debacle. The Russians dismissed it contemptuously. . . . ‘Smart diplomacy’ is a meaningless idea, but if it has any meaning at all, it is not ever doing something as humiliating, amateurish, and stupid as this.”

BRET STEPHENS: The Syria Temptation and Why Obama Must Resist It.

RUSH MAKES OBAMA an offer he can’t accept. “If these guys are so impressed with themselves, and if they are so sure of their correctness, why doesn’t President Obama come on my show? . . . I am offering President Obama to come on this program — without staffers, without a TelePrompTer, without note cards — to debate me on the issues. . . . Just come on this program. Let’s have a little debate. You tell me how wrong I am and you can convince the rest of the Americans that don’t agree with you how wrong we all are. You’re a smart guy, Mr. President. You don’t need these hacks to front for you.”

UPDATE: Reader Mark Brandeberry emails:

This is an interesting tactic on Rush’s part. The White House can’t dismiss the challenge without merit since they themselves have engaged him in their political debate by making him de facto leader of the Republicans. What, the president won’t debate the ‘leader’ of the Republicans on policy ideas? This tactic will most likely cause the WH to move on to another target.

And if Obama won’t accept, Limbaugh can send a guy in a chicken suit to follow him around, and open each show with “XXX days since Obama was invited to defend his ideas on the air . . . .”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader C.J. Burch emails: “Obama is discovering that he has no power at all over people that do not give a damn what the media thinks. If other Republicans were less craven he would be in deep trouble, instead of just headed for deep trouble.”

DODD TOOK MADOFF MONEY: Christopher Fountain isn’t surprised.

WET MARS: Martian “Debris Aprons” Are Full Of Water.

VIDEO: A new trailer for Terminator: Salvation.

JACK LAIL: Journalism Is Not A Federal Earmark.

Well, not yet, anyway. Plus this advice to journalists complaining about bloggers: “I think there’s good evidence that bloggers are driving traffic to sources of original reporting, mainstream or not, so let’s put away the curmudgeon whine.”

HENRY MARK HOLZER: The Alan Greenspan Story.

A QUESTIONABLE CHARITY OFFERS PRIVATE JET RIDES TO POLITICOS: “CBS News has learned that high-profile names on the Educap flight list include CIA Director Leon Panetta, former Sens. Tom Daschle and Ted Stevens, former FBI Director William Sessions and Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. . . . Watchdog Stephen Burd says money spent on the jet comes off the backs of students, who have Educap loans costing up to three times more than government loans.” Note that the Catherine Reynolds in the story is no relation . . . .

THE TESLA ROADSTER, now on sale in Canada.

EVAN BAYH on deficits and fiscal credibility.

I.P. COLLOQUIUM: Doug Lichtman, Charlie Nesson, and Steven Marks, on statutory damages and the Tenenbaum litigation.

THE CONTINUING PUSH to create a global tax cartel.

SCOTT BUDMAN: The Apple Launch That Wasn’t.

WIRED: Key to Eliminating U.S. Flight Delays? Redesign the Sky Over New York City.

HMM: Kirkland & Ellis Will Ask Supreme Court To Consider Incorporation of Second Amendment, in the Second Circuit’s Nunchaku Case.

MATT WELCH: The liberal-libertarian rapprochement is probably dead on arrival. I like the Jackalope analogy.

FORWARD TO THE PAST: “How well would someone in the ‘aughts’ have predicted the 20th century by reading, say, Popular Mechanics?” Read the whole thing, which makes a number of interesting points.

MORE ON Obamanomics.

IN THE MAIL: From Tamara Wilhite, Humanity’s Edge.

REASON TV: What We Saw At The Washington, DC Tea Party.

THIS SEEMS LIKE BAD NEWS: “Selective abortion of female fetuses is common in China, India, and some other Asian countries. A Plos One report finds that Vietnam shows signs of following the same pattern with a rise in the number of male births to 100 female births.”

HMM: Obama’s tax plan hits D.C. burbs hard.

INDEED: Congress Spending Vote Stirs Earmark Debate.

UPDATE: Even Maureen Dowd is commenting: “In one of his disturbing spells of passivity, President Obama decided not to fight Congress and live up to his own no-earmark pledge from the campaign. He’s been lecturing us on the need to prune away frills while the economy fizzles. He was slated to make a speech on ‘wasteful spending’ on Wednesday. . . .Team Obama sounds hollow, chanting that ‘the status quo is not acceptable,’ even while conceding that the president is accepting the status quo by signing a budget festooned with pork.”

IS THAT CRICKET? Obama’s sledging strategy of intimidation.