HOPE: Consumer Confidence Plunges In June. “Recovery Summer, or Recovery Bummer? Economists are beginning to wonder whether we’re heading into a double-dip recession, or whether the first one ever really ended.”

Anecdotage: A woman who works at a local used bookstore told me they’re not selling nearly as many hardbacks as they used to — people won’t spring for them any more, even at the reduced prices. That doesn’t sound like a recovery to me.

NRA ON DISCLOSE ACT: We had to put the Second Amendment ahead of the First.

LET’S NOT IGNORE Al Gore’s second chakra.

Related: Feminism dies from global warming?

IN THE MAIL: John Birmingham’s new book, After America. I actually read it as soon as it came in, and it’s a worthy sequel to Without Warning.

POLITICO: Democrats quietly cheer high court gun ruling. “Democratic candidates across the map figure they have one less issue to worry about on the campaign trail. And they won’t have to defend against Republican attacks over gun rights and an angry, energized base of gun owners.”

VIDEO: Jon Stewart Asks David Axelrod: Has This Government Proven Itself Competent Enough To Regulate Industry?

NICK GILLESPIE: Libertarians write their own invitation to the party.

VERONIQUE DE RUGY: The Cost Of Public-Sector Unions.

IN MASSACHUSETTS, Democratic candidates starting to attend Tea Party forums.

CHARLIE CRIST SUED for return of donations.

MOCKING Al Gore’s reported taste in make-out music.

DAN RIEHL SAYS THE GOP IS BLOWING IT: “The DNC gets new media in ways the GOP still refuses to embrace. It’s intent on controlling the narrative, while the DNC is more interested in fueling constituent and blog-based activism from the Left. Democrat-aligned parties have also funded the mechanisms to accomplish it. You can go to even deeply Red districts and find an activist infrastructure on the Left, often blog-based. Meanwhile, GOP campaigns pay consultants to send out annoying spam emails to every blogger under the sun.” That does sound right to me.

UPDATE: Reader Matthew Bowdish writes:

I completely agree. I am a physician incensed about ObamaCare and I have given more money to Republican candidates this year than ever before. I have also repeatedly offered to personally help two Congressional campaigns here in Colorado, without even a peep back from either campaign. One of my colleagues in Michigan told me that she had the same experience. Yes, they are perfectly happy to send us fundraising emails every two days…But why not take advantage of people who are very educated on the health bill and motivated to assist them in fighting those who voted for ObamaCare?

They’re afraid of losing control.

RADLEY BALKO: Confirmation Theater: Elena Kagan is set to participate in a confirmation process she once dismissed as a charade.

CRITICIZE A KLANSMAN, get attacked from the “left.” Well, a lot of “blue Texans” were Klansmen, back in the day, so it makes sense. . . .

ANN ALTHOUSE IS blogging the Kagan hearings.

UPDATE: From the comments:

Interestingly enough in the last several years there have been four big SCOTUS cases which IMHO, really define our freedoms and personal liberty Kelo property rights; Citizens United free speech; Heller 2nd amendment and now McDonald.

I hear a lot from liberals about how the right wants to curtail freedoms, we’re fascists yet when I look at where the liberal Justices ruled or dissented in those aforementioned cases I think it’s pretty clear who are the real curtailers of freedom and liberty.

After all when the State can take your property, restrict your political speech and disarm the populace, you really don’t have much left in the way of freedom.

I’d like to know what Kagan’s opinions are on those cases.

Me too, though I think I can guess.

SHOCKER: Who Pays The Taxes.

MARKDOWNS ON ice cream machines.

STEPHEN GREEN’S HAIR OF THE DOG: A Nightmare On Libertarian Street.

POLITICS: Obama Postpones Tax Talk Until After Election.

MEGAN MCARDLE is back from her honeymoon and blogging up a storm.

THE SECOND PHASE OF the great American disillusionment.

CRAZED SEX POODLE DUCKS MEDIA IN SAN DIEGO: And the real story: “If Al Gore were a Republican he’d have an army of media tailing his every move. But since he’s a hero to the left he gets to avoid even having to respond to allegations he’s an out of control crazed sex poodle.” I guess the word’s gone out on Journolist to give him a pass. Plus, you don’t want to lose the big game.

TUNKU VARADARAJAN PREDICTS: Kagan Will Sail Through.

HOPE: “Americans socked away more savings in May than at any time since September, as they continued to be cautious spenders, according to government data released Monday. According to the Commerce Department, the personal savings rate in May — the part of every paycheck that goes unspent — rose to 4 percent, the highest amount in nearly a year, as worried consumers saw stocks tumble in the United States and debt problems spread across Europe.”

Plus this: “Personal income in May rose by only 0.4 percent, which was less than expected. More worrisome is the fact that almost all the wage growth is coming either from the government — via temporary census jobs, which will end when the decennial count concludes in the fall — or from businesses that have received government stimulus funds. In short, very little growth is coming from the private sector.”

THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR MCCAIN-PALIN, we’d have women who were okay with book bans in high office. And they were right.