THE OTHER RAY BRADBURY VIDEO.

CHARLIE RANGEL ON THE HOT SEAT, LASHING OUT:

“Frankly, he has not been around long enough to determine what my dignity is,” Mr. Rangel said of the 49-year-old Mr. Obama. “For the next two years, I will be more likely to protect his dignity.”

The unexpected eruption seemed to reflect the increasingly bitter relations between the embattled 20-term Democrat from Harlem and a president who is trying to protect his party’s prospects in a difficult midterm election season.

And it came during an uncomfortable evening for Mr. Rangel, who made a rare appearance with his five challengers and found himself facing harsh public attacks in front of his constituents at a Baptist church in the heart of his Harlem district.

Long accustomed to being showered with praise and accolades, and surrounded by friendly crowds who treated him like a folk hero, Mr. Rangel could not escape the controversy that has shaped his re-election bid: the 13 charges of ethical violations issued against him by a House panel last month, including hoarding below-market apartments and improper fund-raising.

Read the whole thing.

RASMUSSEN: Forty-eight percent (48%) of U.S. voters now regard President Obama’s political views as extreme.

PLANNING AN ANTI-PELOSI PROTEST IN SAN FRANCISCO.

HOUSING BUBBLE GOES POP.

“There is no iron law that real estate must appreciate,” said Stan Humphries, chief economist for the real estate site Zillow. “All those theories advanced during the boom about why housing is special — that more people are choosing to spend more on housing, that more people are moving to the coasts, that we were running out of usable land — didn’t hold up.”

(Via HotAir). Of course, once everyone believes this it’ll probably cease to be true. Judging by the overpriced houses for sale in my neighborhood, though, we haven’t hit that point yet.

MUDVILLE GAZETTE: When did the actual last combat brigade return from Iraq?

GIMMICK OF THE YEAR: The campaign Barf Bag. “Sick of congress? Vote for . . . .”

ED DRISCOLL: Steep Drop In Intelligence of Newsweeklies Finally Explained.

JAMES TARANTO: Suddenly, it’s not “racist” to criticize the president. “Obama was no less black when he took office with very high approval ratings. To the extent that voters have soured on him since then, it is because they have exercised judgment, not yielded to prejudice.”

A FISHERMEN’S FLOTILLA PROTESTING OBAMA AT THE VINEYARD? No doubt Katie Couric will be all over this touching human-interest story.

ADVICE TO TEA PARTIERS heading to DC on Saturday. (Via Hillicon Valley.)

P.J. O’ROURKE reports from Afghanistan.

BYRON YORK: For Obamacare supporters, judgment day approaches.

Voters simply aren’t buying the Democratic case that health care reform will insure more than 30 million currently uninsured people and save money at the same time. And when they think about their own health care, people worry that reform will mean less, not more, availability of care, and at a higher cost.

Faced with that bad news, the pollsters came up with several recommendations for Democratic candidates. When talking about Obamacare, Democrats should “keep claims small and credible.” They should promise to “improve” the law. They should avoid talking about policy and stick to “personal stories” of people who will benefit from Obamacare. And above all, the pollsters advise, “don’t say the law will reduce costs and deficit.”

It’s a stunning about-face for a party that saw national health care as its signature accomplishment. “This is the first time we’ve seen from Democrats that they clearly understand they have a serious problem in terms of selling this legislation,” says Republican pollster David Winston.

Yeah, it’s not working out that well.

HEY, IT’S NOT LIKE THEY’RE SPENDING THEIR OWN HARD-EARNED MONEY: Inspector General: IRS Lacks Adequate Internal Controls in Spending $203m in Stimulus Funds. What kind of “stimulus” is IRS spending likely to provide, anyway? Wouldn’t you stimulate the economy more by cutting their budget? . . .

ROGER SIMON: Censorship in the Era of the Ground Zero Mosque and Islamic Debate. “I would like to renew my call for a congressional investigation of possible censorship of Islamic terminology among government workers. I would like to add to that investigation an examination of whether freedom of speech on similar matters is potentially being restricted, intentionally or unintentionally, by members of Congress. It’s worth noting that, according to a recent poll, 61 percent of the country currently opposes the Ground Zero mosque, including such notable colleagues of Ms. Pelosi as Harry Reid and Howard Dean. Any attempt to suppress free discourse on this matter is a frontal assault on our constitutional values.”

AN INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY EDITORIAL ON the Philly blogger-tax plan: “We would concede that Philadelphia might have a case if it spent money in some way to protect or facilitate blogging and bloggers. But it does neither. Bloggers aren’t driving on city streets. They don’t need fire or police service. Nor do they require, as some say a for-profit business does, a bureaucracy of regulators, inspectors or paper pushers who need compensating. They don’t even create trash that has to be collected. They can get by on their own. Philly bloggers, as well as tax watchdogs and speech guardians outside the city, are understandably upset. If city hall can tax speech, it can tax anything. What — and who — is next? Should Philadelphia get away with this, other cities will surely follow. Constitutional rights are small hurdles for covetous lawmakers.”

Related thoughts from Dan Riehl.

CHICKEN: James Cameron backs out of debate with climate-change skeptics.

THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR MCCAIN, WE’D SEE A FEDERAL BAN ON STEM-CELL RESEARCH ISSUED: And they were right! “The ruling also broadly concludes that the research, also known as ESC, depends on the destruction of a human embryo, and that research derived from embryonic stem cells is also subject to regulation under the Wicker Amendment.”

ANN ALTHOUSE IS UNIMPRESSED WITH THE DAILY CALLER’S LATEST: “What’s wrong with a political blog getting into a lucrative niche? It will need to draw readers too or it won’t get the advertising, and no one can make people read. It’s a built-in safeguard. Really, what is the problem?! It’s so annoying to read an article like this. The headline and first paragraph make you think it’s a big exposé and the rest is a lukewarm mishmash.” Yeah, I thought it was a big story at first, too. Then I read it.

Ace is also unimpressed: “Okay, there’s one guy. But The Daily Caller uses that one instance to prove a general trend through that article-making ‘standard operating procedure’ quote. . . . The media is always incredibly eager to push wedge issues that hurt conservatives — if a story splits conservatives and independents, they love it. If it splits conservatives from the main conservative party, they love it. They never push such wedge issues that hurt Democrats — in fact, they try their level best to either disappear such stories entirely or convince the feuding factions that there really is no dispute, that all sides can agree and move on (and vote together in harmony).”

Now if it had been as bad as these shocking Stacy McCain photos. . . .

LIFEHACKER LIKES this keychain multitool. I carry this very similar one from Swiss Tech. Not as good as a pocketknife/multitool, but a lot better than nothing.

UPDATE: More on multitools from reader Bing Trinidad:

I carry a Leatherman Skeletool CX. I bought from Amazon.com based on a recommendation or a sale notice I saw in your blog.

Its saved me from quite a few binds, but it paid for itself many times over last weekend.

I was coming home from a trip to mountain biking trip to Mt. Diablo in Central California carrying 2 bikes on my 10 year old trunk mount bike rack. I hit a big dip in the freeway on the I-5 and one of the arms on my bike rack collapses. I pull over and see minor damage to the bikes. But the arm that collapsed on the rack had is retention teeth turned to mush. It would not stay up.

I pull out the Skeletool, took the bolt of the assembly, carved out the deformed plastic and carved new rachet gears with the blade into the composite! I reassembled the whole arm, torqued it down with the Skeletool and limped home.

If I didn’t have the Skeletool, I wouldve been stuck in the middle of the I-5 freeway with $ 4000 dollar worth of bikes and no way to transport them.

Thanks for the rec!

You’re welcome! I like my Skeletool, too, but I’m not sure I’d prove that resourceful. Is “Bing Trinidad” an alias for MacGyver?

ANOTHER UPDATE: C.J. Burch emails: “Don’t forget the Leatherman Squirt. It fits right on your key-chain and they sell them at Amazon. I’ve really enjoyed mine.”

MORE: Reader Wesley Taylor writes:

I bought the Zilla tool over a year ago, by Columbia River Knife and Tool.

and while it’s heavier than the skeletool, much of that extra weight translates to stronger pliers than the skeletool, and is more flexible because it uses standard driver bits which you can get at any hardware store in any array or combination to suit your needs. It’s also quite a bit less expensive than a skeletool.

CRKT also sells a “junior” version.

Just remember that, like guns and cameras, the tool you have with you is better than the one in a drawer at home.

SOME PEOPLE ARE WRITING TO ASK WHY I HAVEN’T MENTIONED David Limbaugh’s Crimes Against Liberty. Sorry — nobody sent me a copy, and I didn’t know about it until today. But it’s not, like, a boycott or anything.

UPDATE: Oops. It was right in the stack on the desk — I just hadn’t noticed. The paperwork with it said it was coming out in September, so I’d set it aside, and then forgotten.

HEADLINE OF THE DAY: Minneapolis will pay $165,000 to zombies.

NOT-SO-NEUTRAL? The Hill: Net-neutrality group challenged by ties to MoveOn.Org, ACORN.

OUTSOURCING in the law firm world. This won’t help the higher education bubble, at least in the legal area. “With these trends, new law school graduates will face shrinking labor markets, especially at entry-level positions in big firms. But for the fortunate few who get jobs, their work could get better as outsourced labor performs some of the menial tasks that now account for most young associates’ billable hours.”

Plus this: “There is a wild card in all this: Small and mid-size firms with talented senior attorneys may find that these new pools of outsourced talent enable them to compete with the megafirms. Size may no longer be everything. In fact, it may not be anything at all.” Hmm. Where have I heard that before?

BIRTH CONTROL doesn’t have to mean the pill.