CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER ON OBAMA’S PLANNED BUDGET CUTS: “A Q-tip Not a Scalpel, A Fraud… Lunch Money” (Video).

A MILD REPLY TURNETH ASIDE WRATH: But probably not this time. . . .

WOW: 3 in 10 Californians Identify With Tea Party.

Plus this: Poll shows Scott Brown could top Obama in prez run. That’s ridiculous. A guy who’s barely even been elected to the Senate, going to the White House in just a couple of years without accumulating any real experience at the national level? Spare me the absurd speculation. Couldn’t happen.

BAD NEWS FOR THE PAY MODEL: After Three Months, Only 35 Subscriptions for Newsday’s Web Site.

NEW YORK TIMES: Democrats Slam Brakes on Health Care Overhaul. “The gear shifting by Democrats underscored how the health care effort had been derailed by the Republican victory in the Massachusetts special election last week.” Was Dr. Koop’s ad the last straw?

KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND: The Next Martha Coakley?

IT’S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR: Get yer tax-prep software right here. Remember, if you don’t pay ’em, some Chinese guy will have to buy another Treasury bond.

UPDATE: Reader Kevin Greene emails:

I dunno … I was thinking of going the Tim Geithner route and just not paying this year.

Maybe Obama will give me a job.

Well, for that you gotta have the Turbo Tax first. You know to take the blame.

ANDREW BREITBART AND ROGER SIMON go shooting with Rick Perry.

HMM: VA Man Arrested In NJ Had Map Of Fort Drum.

HOPE: Record number of young Americans jobless. “The U.S. economic recession has taken a particularly heavy toll on young Americans, with a record one out five black men aged 20 to 24 neither working nor in school, according to research released on Tuesday.”

ELLIE LIGHT, revealed? But then things get freaky-deaky. Emphasis on the “deaky.”

Plus, from the comments: “Betty Jo Bialowsky!” “You mean….. Nancy?”

CHRIS ANDERSON: In The Next Industrial Revolution, Atoms Are The New Bits. “The tools of factory production, from electronics assembly to 3-D printing, are now available to individuals, in batches as small as a single unit. Anybody with an idea and a little expertise can set assembly lines in China into motion with nothing more than some keystrokes on their laptop. A few days later, a prototype will be at their door, and once it all checks out, they can push a few more buttons and be in full production, making hundreds, thousands, or more. They can become a virtual micro-factory, able to design and sell goods without any infrastructure or even inventory; products can be assembled and drop-shipped by contractors who serve hundreds of such customers simultaneously.”

I had a column on this a while back.

UPDATE: Reader Ry Jones emails: “You can rent makerbots and lasers in Seattle, by the minute.”

WORKING TOWARD creating better blood vessels.

JAMES O’KEEFE ARRESTED BY THE FBI: “Also arrested were Joseph Basel, Stan Dai and Robert Flanagan, all 24. Flanagan is the son of William Flanagan, who is the acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, the office confirmed. All four were charged with entering federal property under false pretenses with the intent of committing a felony.” Hmm. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: More from Dan Riehl.

ANOTHER UPDATE: More here, including a statement from Andrew Breitbart, who says he didn’t know anything about it, and this comment: “The editors of Big Government claim they knew nothing about it, which is almost certainly true: No way would Breitbart be so stupid as to sign off on tapping a senator’s phone.” Indeed.

DETROIT: From Motor City to Urban Farm?

A BUNCH OF new releases on DVD and Blu-Ray.

REASON TV: Virginia is for (Liquor) Lovers.

BOINGBOING: Through My Father’s Lens: Mardi Gras 1956. Very cool.

JOHN TIERNEY: WHO’S CONFLICTED NOW? “I’ve previously wondered why so many on the green side of the climate debate were so willing to play the conflict-of-interest card, as Dr. Pachauri was doing quite recently himself. It struck me as a risky political strategy — because there seemed to me to be more money to be made on the green side — as well a needless diversion from the scientific debate. So while I see some justice in this argument coming back to bite Dr. Pachauri, I still wish both sides — and the journalists who cover any kind of scientific dispute — would pay less attention to money.” The surest way to see that this happens is to call lots of attentions to conflicts like Pachauri’s.

JOHN SCALZI is running for President of the Science Fiction Writers of America. From the comments: “I, for one, welcome our coming scalzian overlord.”

HMM: Fisker-GM plant deal under scrutiny from Judicial Watch.

When Fisker Automotive announced it would buy an old General Motors plant in Delaware last fall, it was mostly reported as good news. The one bit of controversy was what role vice president Joe Biden played; Fisker said he was emphatically not a factor for locating the plug-in hybrid plant in the veep’s home state.

That statement wasn’t enough for conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch, which is filing a Freedom of Information lawsuit over documents relating to the purchase, the Newark Post reports.

I suspect there’s a lot of room for legal challenges over a lot of the bailout transactions, and if the right had the kind of legal infrastructure that the left had this would be generating more litigation than Guantanamo.

SEISMIC HOT ZONE: Does the Haiti quake foreshadow more Caribbean disasters?

GRAND ROUNDS IS UP!

IN THE MAIL: A Poul Anderson collection, Young Flandry. If I recall correctly, Dominic Flandry lives in a decadent society where a once-dominant civilization is gradually collapsing as its ruling class shows a lack of cultural self-confidence and a focus on short-term personal gain as opposed to the long-term interests of society. It’s nice to read this sort of escapist fiction. . . .

MORE ON HAITI from The Anchoress.