CHANGE: Federal Payroll Biggest In History.

QUESTION TIME: I thought the whole “Question Time” thing with Obama and the Republicans went pretty well, and I’ve joined with a bunch of other left and right bloggers, etc., in calling for it to be made a regular thing. If you agree, there’s a petition at the link. More here.

RON BAILEY: Climategate Update 1: The China Syndrome. “In any case, Phil Jones and the CRU crowd are in the process of finding out the truth of the old adage, ‘It’s not the crime, it’s the cover up’ that eventually brings someone down.”

SIGN OF THE TIMES.

SO I WAS QUOTED IN THIS NPR STORY ON ANDREW BREITBART, which was pretty good, really. But this story — which on my station ran right afterward — really underscores Breitbart’s point about the media trying to control the narrative. It’s all about a crumbling coastal building in California and the threat of coastal erosion from “climate change.” If you listen closely, the story doesn’t quite say that the seas are rising and that’s why that building is in trouble, but it certainly gives that impression. And it never admits that there are any questions about the whole climate-change debate. Narrative, indeed.

UPDATE: Reader Thomas Lyttle writes: “Listened to the NPR Breitbart report while going to dinner. Was surprised to hear the reporter describe you as the ‘conservative’ blogger Instapundit. It doesn’t use that term in the written version you linked to, but the as-broadcast version sure did. Check it out.” Yeah, I know. Sigh. I fight it, but basically to a lot of media folks if you’re not in the Obama tank with them you must be a conservative.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Susanna Cornett writes:

Glenn – Just send those reporters who don’t get the difference between “libertarian” and “conservative” to me. Because…

I’m a conservative. Conservatives are friends of mine. And you’re no conservative. Heh.

Indeed.

LANCET RETRACTS 1998 STUDY LINKING VACCINES AND AUTISM.

AT THE ECONOMIST, A DEBATE: IS OBAMA FAILING?

MOODY’S: Obama Budget Threatens U.S. Bond Rating. More here.

QUOTE OF THE DECADE: “‘We need to stand up to the special interests, bring Republicans and Democrats together, and pass the farm bill immediately,’ Barack Obama.”

WONDERING WHY REUTERS WITHDREW ITS “BACKDOOR TAXES” STORY.

I think the answer is here.

RAHM EMANUEL COMPARES DEMOCRATS TO RETARDED PEOPLE, then apologizes to retarded people.

NERD TOYS TO develop young nerd minds. My favorite is the “Dismember Me” Plush Zombie.

IF THAT’S TRUE, WAS HE REALLY CHEATING? Jenny Sanford Exclusive: Husband Refused to Be Faithful in Wedding Vows. “South Carolina first lady Jenny Sanford recalls how she made the ‘leap of faith’ to marry husband Gov. Mark Sanford even though the groom refused to promise to be faithful, insisting that the clause be removed from their wedding vows.”

UPDATE: Okay, I remember going to a wedding back in the ’70s where a couple read vows they’d written themselves, making clear that they weren’t sexually exclusive. And yet, not too many years later, she was royally unhappy with his philandering. Was that unfair?

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader John Richardson emails: “Did you notice that Jenny Sanford’s former boss at Lazard Freres was Steven Rattner. As in Steven Rattner, Obama’s former Car Czar. What an interesting coincidence.” It’s a small world among the political elite.

DAN COATS TO challenge Evan Bayh.

JIM GERAGHTY: An Incorrigible Way Of Counting Unemployment.

MARK STEYN: The Muslim World, Yesterday and Today.

When the Western world was strong and self-confident about its values, they wanted to Westernize. Now, not so much.

VIRGINIA POSTREL: Amazon vs. Publishers and Apple: What Should E-Book Prices Look Like? Plus, thoughts on utility strategy.

FRED THOMPSON: “Obama’s offering a payroll tax cut, but only for small business. Ok, fair’s fair. We pay taxes, but only for small government.”

WASHINGTON POST: Sarah Palin will rally for Tea Party activists in Harry Reid’s home town.

Hey, it’s not just Sarah Palin. Obama’s been helping out the Tea Party in Nevada, too.

UPDATE: Sarah Palin: Why I’m Speaking At Tea Party Convention.

MORE: Obama apologizes to Harry Reid for bashing Las Vegas.

STILL MORE: A reader emails:

I work for a large bank and used to attend an annual conference in Las Vegas, until Obama declared war on that poor town. Las Vegas hosted the Asset Securitization Forum with about 8000-12000 attendees. It was the perfect place as the facilities are enormous and could handle large amounts of people comfortably, a room at the conference hotel (The Venetian, Wynn,etc.) or one right next door was half what a NY hotel room is, there are cheap, plentiful flights from everywhere and you could see enough clients and contacts to save 10-15 other trips. If you gambled it was with your own money, it’s not like the firm gave you a bundle of cash and told you have fun.

After the One attacked Vegas (And half the people didn’t go last year) the conference was moved this year … to Washington D.C..

The best of hands indeed.

If I were a Nevadan, I’d be unhappy.

MORE STILL: Reader Lennie Smith writes:

I live in Las Vegas and I can tell you it’s not a great place to be these days. The only place worse these days is probably Detroit or the central valley of California – a place where I have a lot of family. We have high funemployment and a high foreclosure rate in Las Vegas. Much higher than the reported number would show due to the independent contractor nature of construction and real estate jobs.

After the president’s remarks in February, quiet a few companies canceled their conventions here and as a result, people who depend on them lost their jobs.

Now he has upped the ante and the only silver lining I can see in this is that it hurts Reid. After a good 50 year run I don’t see the town bouncing back for a long time. We might even have to reinvent ourselves as a ghost town.

I never thought I’d feel sorry for Las Vegas.

FINALLY: Another reader emails:

I just got back from the ASF in National Harbor, Maryland – basically a cluster with one large hotel, the Gaylord National, and a cluster of small ones like Marriott Residential and Hampton Suites. This was the first year I was senior enough to attend as part of my firm’s team, and what a let down. After years of stories about working and playing hard in Vegas, I end up in an isolated, frozen swamp 10 miles outside DC. And yes, I most certainly blame Obama.

An “isolated, frozen swamp.” Sounds like the 9th circle of Hell.

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: Contract from America: ‘tea party’ crafts its election manifesto.

Related: Tea Party Star Leads Movement On Her Own Terms. About Keli Carender, aka Liberty Belle, who helped kickstart the whole thing.

THE NEW SPACE POLICY: Heads are exploding all over the place.

ILLINOIS UPDATE: Andrzejewski Get-Out-the Vote Effort ‘On Fire.’ Well, we’ll know soon if it worked.

CHANGE: “The Heritage Foundation annually ranks the world’s economies in order of freedom. This year, the United States fell to number eight, now classified as ‘mostly free’ rather than “free.” Canada’s economy is now rated as freer than ours.”

BILL WHITTLE: Super Bowl Democracy.

SIGN of the times.