ROCKET ENGINES LEGAL AGAIN! “District Court Judge Reggie B. Walton for the District of Columbia today issued an order finding in favor of the Tripoli Rocketry Association and National Association of Rocketry vs. The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. . .. . Walton’s order granted a summary judgment motion in favor of the plaintiffs TRA and NAR, denied the summary judgment motion of BATFE, and vacated the classification of Ammonium Perchlorate Composite Propellant (APCP) as an explosive.”

HEH: AIG execs demand Senators “resign or commit suicide.” “In all candor, I don’t know why they’re so exercised by some bonuses. These pathetic excuses for politicians cost the taxpayers trillions of dollars and, worst of all, they’re still in power.”

It’s a fair cop.

SHANNON LOVE OFFERS SOME FURTHER THOUGHTS ON GOVERNMENT AND MORAL HAZARDS, with particular reference to the current financial crisis.

A FIRST-AMENDMENT REMINDER FROM EUGENE VOLOKH:

Of course, there’s the now customary quote about the “difference between free speech and hate speech” . . . No, there is no such difference under First Amendment law. Nor does First Amendment law draw a distinction between “commentary on Islam” (or Christianity or Judaism or atheism or whatever else) and “talking about politics,” since much commentary on religion is commentary on politics.

Read the whole thing.

JAY AMBROSE on the “Tea Party” movement.

THE HITS JUST KEEP ON COMING: Killing Farmer’s Markets in the name of “food safety?”

MICKEY KAUS: The Uninvited. “Ezra Klein has taken a lot of what could be highly informative back and forth on the World Wide Web and privatized it, much as rich people in gated communities reclaim green space from the public sphere and wall it off behind guards and fences. It’s not an egalitarian or democratic impulse.”

UPDATE: Reader Michael Grubbs emails:

Funny, isn’t it, how during the Bush Administration, the New York Times and the “mainstream” news organizations spilled national security secrets on a whim, but Journolist is a sacrosanct temple of secrets. The CIA should run all secret programs from within a “tea party” protest, it will guarantee a media blackout.

Heh.

A SIX-POINT SHIFT IN PARTISAN IDENTIFICATION NUMBERS: I’ll call it a blip this week. If it lasts, I’ll call it a big deal.

On the other hand, on the non-blip side, there’s this from Pew: Obama approval drops. But it’s not like the GOP is picking up the slack.

MAUREEN DOWD: “Barack Obama even needs a teleprompter to get mad.”

MEGAN MCARDLE ON A.I.G. Bonus Clawbacks:

This has interesting implications for the banks that have already taken government funds, and certainly, any banks that might be considering doing so in the future. I suspect it would be hard to write a specific tax that applied only to AIG and not, say, to Citibank–and that’s assuming that the Democrats in Congress would want to. I think it’s safe to assume that if this passes, any banks that possibly can will rush to return bailout funds to the Treasury. And perhaps this is a good thing. But the attempt to shield shaky banks behind a general distribution of funds will be over.

I suspect that it would also not do any good things for whatever future plans Treasury has. All of the plans I’m currently aware of involve substantial voluntary participation from sound financial institutions. I don’t think you’ll get much voluntary cooperation from banks if you declare that any acceptance of government funds will involve substantial risk that they will appropriate your paycheck.

Our political class lacks the self-discipline needed to handle a crisis. They’re too busy reacting to headlines, polls, and fears of headlines and polls. The result is . . . well, endless screwups like this.

WHAT’S BREWING NEXT for the Tea Party movement?

MORE ON THOSE A.I.G. BONUSES: Lawmakers Turn Fire on Obama Administration Over AIG Bonuses. “Lawmakers outraged at bailed-out American International Group’s move to pay $165 million in executive bonuses are turning their fire on the Obama administration, asking why top officials didn’t act to prevent the pay-out earlier.”

Plus, Stimulus Backroom Deal Backfires. And Chris Dodd is claiming ignorance:

In an interview with CNN, Dodd denied inserting that exemption at the 11th hour, and insisted he doesn’t know how it got there.

You know, if people had had time to actually read this bill before it passed, they might have avoided a lot of problems. Of which this is likely just the first . . . .

UPDATE: The potentially larger AIG problem:

The political hue and cry over the millions in bonuses for AIG execs has hit fever pitch but there are major questions about what AIG has done with far larger portions of the federal bailout money it’s received over the past year than the $165 million in bonuses given to derivatives traders.

AIG disclosed on Sunday night that it has given over $100 billion (with a B folks) — more than half of the $173 billion in federal dollars — to other financial institutions and state municipalities.

Indeed, the whole bonus issue is kind of a distraction.

TAKING GUNS OUT OF COCKPITS: A dumb initiative — although to be fair the Bush Administration engaged in a lot of foot-dragging on this program too.

OUCH.

SOME VIDEO from the Arkansas Tea Party tax protest at Joe Biden’s event.

MUST-SEE PJTV: Yaron Brook of the Ayn Rand Institute says don’t go John Galt — it’s “time to fight.” Plus, the Internet as a virtual Galt’s Gulch, and the continuing relevance of Atlas Shrugged.

ANOTHER QUESTIONABLE POLICY MOVE: Involving ACORN in the Census. What could go wrong?

MEET THE NEW BOSS, yada yada.

MORE ON THE VETERANS’-INSURANCE SCREWUP from The Mudville Gazette. “I’m the suspicious type. The contemplated move is obvious political suicide, but it seems to me there could be a move afoot to get at least some of the various veterans organizations to sign off on some other “cost saving measure” in return for dropping this bit of hari kiri.”

TAKING CHANCE is now available for pre-order on Amazon.

I GUESS IT’S TOO BAD NOBODY READ IT BEFORE IT PASSED, THEN: The Stimulus Bill Explicitly Guarantees Contractual Bonuses Executed Before February 11. Yeah, I know, I already mentioned this. But it’s a point worth making again — they rushed this stinker through, and now it’s biting them on the ass. Good.

INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM: Contributions To Obama Campaign Track Bailout Money. “In receiving $43.5 billion for their investment of just over $3.3 million, it looks like the banks that gambled on Wall Street certainly got their money’s worth out of their investment in Barack Obama.” Read the whole thing. (Bumped).

NATIONAL DEBT HITS RECORD $11 TRILLION. The upside — that won’t seem like a lot in a couple of years, when it’ll take one of these to buy a gallon of gas!

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: Obama to appear on Leno – will he bring a teleprompter? Is it just me, or are the MSM headlines getting a bit less respectful?

UPDATE: “The President’s watching. Let’s make him cringe and squirm.”

GEITHNER VS. DODD? Glenn Greenwald says that Treasury is making Dodd a scapegoat for its own screwups.

UPDATE: Dan Riehl calls this a “half-truth” and notes that Charles Rangel is getting involved.

ANOTHER UPDATE: White House Confident in Treasury’s Oversight.Financial Post. “To use a current cliche, frequently deployed to humiliate bankers and CEOs: He doesn’t get it. Barack Obama, that is. He just doesn’t get it, and nor do millions of others who are following the U. S. President on his long destructive march against bankers and corporate executives for their alleged ‘recklessness and greed.’ . . . The leading government-created disaster behind the financial crisis is U. S. housing policy and the multi-trillion dollar securitized mortgage market created by the U. S.-government backed mortgage agencies known as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In comments in 2007, Mr. Bernanke reported that the two agencies, with $5.2-trillion in mortgage obligations, posed a systemic risk.”