EXAMINER: Obama’s strategy requires the perpetual crisis his economic policy produces.

President Chaos Umpire! “Chaos Umpire sits, And by decision more imbroils the fray. By which he Reigns.”

UPDATE: The strategy of perpetual crisis. Plus this: “I bet if the entire Obama Administration and Democratic Congressional Leadership were sentenced to hang on December 1, 2009, if the stock market were not above 9000 and unemployment were not below 7%, they would become raging tax-cutting pro-business libertarians overnight.”

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER: Anthrax Attack Aftermath: Feds to Increase Scrutiny of Workers at Biodefense Labs.

THE HILL: OBAMA HONEYMOON FADES:

Some Democrats have started to worry that voters don’t and won’t understand the link between economic revival and Obama’s huge agenda, which includes saving the banking industry, ending home foreclosures, reforming healthcare and developing a national energy policy, among much else.

While lawmakers debate controversial proposals contained in the new president’s debut budget — cutting farm subsidies, raising taxes on charitable contributions, etc. — there is a growing sense that time is running out faster than expected.

Read the whole thing.

A DERELICTION of journalistic duty.

WALL STREET JOURNAL: Obama, Geithner Get Low Grades From Economists. “U.S. President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner received failing grades for their efforts to revive the economy from participants in the latest Wall Street Journal forecasting survey.”

UPDATE: Related item here: “In an administration that increasingly seems baffled by the financial crisis, a White House official who is willing to pierce the illusion of happy consensus can do a real service. We don’t need jolly, bogus reassurance. We need real thinking and a more open and productive debate. The administration’s top economist has now publicly, if elliptically, served notice of the likely inadequacy of the administration’s plans.”

Of course, Pelosi’s solution seems to be more of the same.

EARMARKS AND CORRUPTION:

You hear it over and over. Denouncing earmarks is Congress’ second favorite pastime. Almost as popular as earmarks themselves.

The budget that President Obama signed today has more than 8,500 earmarks. Obama says the frenzy has to stop.

Let’s be clear. Yes, the relative size of earmarks is small, just a percentage point or two of federal spending. . . . On the other hand, here are the arguments –against– earmarks.

First: Randy “Duke” Cunningham, doing jail time for pocketing bribes from defense contractors.

Next: Corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who once described the appropriations committee as an “earmark favor factory.”.. He went down in flames.

Congressman Bob Ney went down with him.

Then there’s Senator Ted Stevens, who made Alaska the earmarks capital of the U.S., guilty of corruption, now fighting to avoid jail time.

And, currently, Pennsylvania Democrat John Murtha is under federal investigation for 114 million dollars in earmarks that he funneled to generous campaign contributors in the defense industry.

Bottom line. Don’t think of earmarks as pork. Think of them as a cash cow for the corruption of congress.

Yes.

MEGAN MCARDLE: “Apparently, the restrictions that Congress is putting on bailout monies is pushing a number of institutions to give the money back. What to think of this? One’s first instinct is to say that this is an unalloyed good–the restrictions have made taking the funds costly enough that only truly troubled institutions will do so. The problem is, that’s precisely what the Fed was trying to avoid. . . . It’s also possible that some of the measures that express our collective rage at the bankers could tip the banks over the edge. It’s satisfying to make AIG cut out junkets for independent insurance agents, but it also probably means that fewer AIG policies will be sold. Since we now own the company, we probably cost ourselves money in order to express our outrage”

PLAYING mind games.

GOOD THING WE’RE NOT FACING A FINANCIAL CRISIS: “More than one out of every five dollars of the $126 million Massachusetts is receiving in earmarks from a $410 billion federal spending package is going to help preserve the legacy of the Kennedys.”

BUSH OBAMA ISSUES SIGNING STATEMENT ON SPENDING BILL. That’s Drudge’s take on the bill-signing.

ROSS DOUTHAT TO TAKE BILL KRISTOL’S SLOT at the New York Times. A good pick.

IF YOU STRIKE ME DOWN, I shall only become more powerful than you can imagine.

UPDATE: Beware the Debt Star.

“THERE IS NOBODY THERE.”

HERE’S A REPORT ON Rochester, New York’s “Tea Party” protest today.

And here’s a Flickr set by Chuck Simmins.

GIVE MSNBC CREDIT: They haven’t disappeared this online poll, even though Obama isn’t doing very well.

UPDATE: Moe Lane is depressed.

INTERESTING MAP: 35 Counties Account for 50% of foreclosures. “And yet, California is, on average, the happiest state in the nation. Weird how things work.” Why shouldn’t they be happy? — the rest of us are paying their mortgages. . . .

WELL, THAT’S A RELIEF: Adviser Says Obama Administration Is Not Overwhelmed By Economy.

TIM CARNEY: Obama injects politics — and profit — into science.

ASK DR. HELEN: Going John Galt with Megan McArdle and three PJTV viewers who are planning to do just that. Plus, are we seeing a “capital strike?”

A REALLY EXCELLENT VIDEO from the Kansas City “Tea Party” protest.

UPDATE: Hmm. They marched on Claire McCaskill’s office, and she voted against the earmark-filled Omnibus bill.

ANOTHER UPDATE: A Kansas City reader emails:

She also spoke out – called other Senators out – against earmarks right after the march.
No one was in the office the day of the march, so you wonder how aware they are of it.
It got scant local coverage. Surely they must know it went down and had good turnout.

And, interestingly enough, Missouri Senator Kit Bond, Republican, is one of the “pork kings” in the Senate. Right up there with Senator Feinstein.

Maybe they should march on his office, though he’s not running for re-election.

Hat’s off to her, anyway. I suppose.

Indeed.

JOHN PODHORETZ twirls his evil mustache.

SCOTT BUDMAN: Palm Goes All-In.

WORRIES ABOUT Extremism at the Justice Department.

SHE SENT HIM TO JAIL FOR RAPE: Now they’re friends. But he spent 11 years in prison before DNA evidence cleared him.

SO WOULD MORE GUN CONTROL HAVE PREVENTED the Alabama shooting that killed 11?

Well, stricter gun control didn’t prevent today’s German school shooting that killed 15.