SMOOTH P.R. MOVE: SEIU Calls Senators “Terrorists.”

IN THE MAIL: The next volume in the Poul Anderson Flandry collection, Captain Flandry.

ALFONZO RACHEL: Truckin’ 2010: Has Obama Set Democrats Up For a Long, Strange Trip?

PREVIEWING THE State Of “The One” Speech.

DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS AS inspiration for crime: “I played D&D for years in junior high and high school, and one of my most powerful characters was a 14th level thief. Yet I never learned how to pick even the simplest lock myself. D&D characters’ skills aren’t transferable to their players, which is really a terrible shame. There are times when my longtime favorite ‘flame strike’ spell could really come in handy.”

SEXUAL STARVATION as a root cause of jihadism: “The bomb wasn’t the only thing burning in his pants.”

BLOGGINGHEADS: Matt Welch to Dems: Have Some Respect For The American People.

WHAT’S MORE EXCITING? The State of the Union speech, or the Apple Tablet announcement?

CLIMATE AGENCY GOING UP IN FLAMES: “A catastrophic heat wave appears to be closing in on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. How hot is it getting in the scientific kitchen where they’ve been cooking the books and spicing up the stew pots? So hot, apparently, that Andrew Weaver, probably Canada’s leading climate scientist, is calling for replacement of IPCC leadership and institutional reform. If Andrew Weaver is heading for the exits, it’s a pretty sure sign that the United Nations agency is under monumental stress. Mr. Weaver, after all, has been a major IPCC science insider for years. He is Canada Research Chair in Climate Modelling and Analysis at the University of Victoria, mastermind of one of the most sophisticated climate modelling systems on the planet, and lead author on two recent landmark IPCC reports.”

THE THRILL IS GONE for Obamagirl. “Now, the bikini-clad ‘Obama Girl’ — who famously cooed about her “crush” throughout the presidential campaign on YouTube videos — admits the thrill is gone. Amber Lee Ettinger — the buxom sensation who lip-synched about her love for then-candidate Barack Obama — said she wishes he spent his first year in office more focused on fixing the abysmal economy.”

IT’S OFFICIAL: Saab Has Been Saved.

JAMES TARANTO WRITES:

Axelrod, speaking of the president, tells the Washington Post: “This is someone who in law school worked with [Harvard professor] Larry Tribe on a paper on the legal implications of Einstein’s theory of relativity.” That’s got to be a joke, but the message is clear: President Obama and his men are a lot smarter than the average voter.

Obama’s smarts are still to be determined, but the Tribe article, The Curvature of Constitutional Space, is real. In fact, I wrote an essay in response in the Columbia Law Review. Only I invoked Chaos Theory, in a form of law-geek one-upsmanship.

OBAMA AIMS TO AX MOON MISSION: I talked to some folks at the International Space Development Conference a couple of years ago who were really high on Obama — they thought he’d emulate JFK when it came to space policy. Not so much, as it turns out. In fact, we haven’t had a pro-space Democrat in the White House since LBJ. The “save the baby” approach is looking more sensible than “the audacity of hope.” But, then, that’s true across the board these days, isn’t it?

But this quote from Rand Simberg remains on point: “It’s not NASA’s job to send a man to Mars. It’s NASA’s job to make it possible for the National Geographic Society to send a man to Mars.” Will the Obama administration get NASA to focus on that approach?

TRAGEDY: Republicans Have A “Hip Gap.”

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: Health Care Bill Still Only “Mostly Dead.” I don’t see Harry Reid as Miracle Max here, but . . . .

UPDATE: Senators running scared. “And that, I think, is the real impact of the polls and the Democratic departures/retirements: those struggling not to be swept out in the 2010 wave will increasingly look at each and every vote through the prism of their own electorate and re-election self-interest. Yes, what a novel concept! But that was not the story in 2009, when congressmen and senators were persuaded over and over again to ignore everything else (e.g., polls, town hall attendees, jammed switchboards) and adhere to the Obama-Reid-Pelosi line. That dynamic is very likely to reverse itself — leaving the ‘leadership’ to chase after members, while members attune themselves to voters back home.”

YOU’VE GOT ME BABE! Megan McArdle comments: “There has been some disagreement among political analysts that I trust as to whether Obama’s advisors started believing their own propaganda–whether they really believed that everything had changed, and they were FDR 2.0. But this suggests an arrogance far beyond that. This suggests that Obama genuinely believed that he was entirely untouchable. That may explain a lot about the past twelve months.”

MICHAEL LEDEEN: The Real State Of The Union: Fear. “This fear is extremely broad-based. It is not limited to social class nor to domestic or foreign policies. Banks are not lending, companies are not hiring, because they are afraid of what Obama will do next. Both are afraid of onerous taxes, including new health care burdens, and the banks fear new regulations and the consequences of the recently declared war on evil bankers by the president. Seniors are afraid they will be deprived of medical treatment. Juniors are afraid they are going to be forced to buy health insurance they don’t think they need. Across the board, Americans are afraid they’re not going to find work, and won’t be able to afford a house. And, as the Massachusetts vote showed, Americans are worried about threats from abroad, worried about Iran, afraid of terrorist attacks, and afraid the Obama Administration doesn’t take all this seriously enough.”

Related: “The drop in individual income tax revenue in fiscal 2009 was the steepest since 1939. As the chart shows revenue continues to plummet in fiscal 2010.” John Galt was unavailable for comment.

SOME MEMORABLE SPECIAL GUESTS from past State Of The Union speeches.

HMM: Expert: Mollohan’s Seat Is In Play.

PETE DU PONT: Coming Tax Hikes Will Cause Greater Economic Collapse Than 2008-09.

MORE THOUGHTS ON JAMES O’KEEFE. Well, stay tuned.

GOOD GRIEF: Report: ‘Thin-Skinned’ Obama Says ‘Press Is Against Me’. “He hasn’t been in public life very long. . . . He’s experiencing it for the very first time. It’s on-the-job training.”

TRANSPARENCY: ‘The Fix Was In’: Obama Donor Gets Sweetheart Real Estate Deal in Chicago.

BOB MENENDEZ, BIRTHER? “Are we given to understand that the Democrats intend to run for office by raising questions about Barack Obama’s eligibility to be president?”

CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE: Government Finances Are On An “Unsustainable Path.”