MARIST POLL: 49% of New York voters think economy is worsening, only 11% think it’s improving. “Compared with Marist’s November 2009 survey, more voters now say the state’s economic situation is on the decline. At that time, 39% thought the economy was deteriorating while 15% said it was improving.”

MOTHER JONES: Key Democrats Try To Kill Climate Legislation. But don’t worry — they plan to replace it with something that generates more graft, so we’ve got that, anyway . . . .

On the other hand, if graft is what it takes to kill cap-and-trade, maybe it’s worth it, especially if the offshore-drilling stuff stays in. Hey, you don’t expect those guys to do something good for the country without graft, do you? This is Congress. When you’ve got something valuable, you don’t just give it away.

CHICAGO TV blacking out Lech Walesa? “Unfortunately for Chicago residents, and the Polish community specifically, if you get your news from the city’s local television stations, you might not have even known that he was in town, let alone that he attended a Tea Party, and endorsed Adam Andrzejewski for governor.”

ARNE DUNCAN ON HIS KATRINA COMMENT: “It was a dumb thing to say.” Luckily, he could count on the press going easy on him.

JACOB SULLUM: Obama: ‘I Don’t Think I Said That.’ In Exactly Those Words. In That Particular Speech.

WELL, SHE’S CLEARING HER THROAT, ANYWAY: The Fat Lady Sings for Keith Olbermann?

UH OH: Rising FHA Default Rate Foreshadows A Crush of Foreclosures.

HOWARD NEMEROV: Why Do Democrats Promote Campaign Finance Reform? “Perhaps because they became far and away the biggest beneficiaries of corporate money after McCain-Feingold became law.”

BIG GOVERNMENT rounds up some Congressional pork.

INSTAVISION: A special joint interview with the Insta-Wife, talking with Prof. Walter Sinnott-Armstrong about brain imaging, interrogation, and more. (Bumped).

LABOR UNIONS LOOK TO take down tea parties. (Via NewsAlert).

UPDATE: Reader Paul Jackson emails: “Would it be appropriate here to say….’If you strike me down I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine’??” That has certainly been the pattern, hasn’t it?

BOINGBOING: MAKE Volume 21: Desktop Manufacturing.

BYRON YORK: GOP presses Holder on Justice’s terrorism policies.

THE JOYS OF socialized medicine.

ABSTINENCE EDUCATION: May actually work, got funding cut anyway.

UPDATE: Reader Thomas Williams writes:

“They told me that if I voted for McCain, scientifically proven programs would be defunded for ideological reasons, and they were right!”

That formula of yours is really endlessly useful.

It is, isn’t it?

POLITICS: Copenhagen Keeps On Giving.

HAROLD FORD, JR. on Stephen Colbert.

MORE ON THE AMAZON/MACMILLAN PRICE DISPUTE, from Toby Buckell. Plus, more from Charlie Stross.

COOKING THE STIMULUS-JOB BOOKS:

But in the final quarter of 2009, the administration no longer asked recipients whether all of those jobs were actually created or saved by the stimulus money or whether some of those jobs might have existed without the stimulus money.

Instead, it now simply counts all existing jobs paid for with stimulus money as saved jobs, whether or not they would have been lost without the money.

The new, more expansive definition will make it more difficult to isolate the effects of the stimulus law, which is officially called the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, but should make it easier for states and employers to calculate jobs. But the new definition also means that the new tally of 599,108 jobs reported in the fourth quarter cannot be compared with the earlier figures from 2009. . . . Stung by a storm of criticism this fall after numerous errors in the jobs reports were publicized, the White House released the latest figures quietly. This time there was no news conference, as there was last time, but rather a statement late Saturday night from Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. stating that the stimulus was on track.

Hide the decline!

BUT IS IT REALLY A “SCREW UP?”

PLUS-SIZED VERSIONS of the Palm Pre and Pixi.

MORE CORRECTION REQUESTS FROM Retracto, The Correction Alpaca.

REPORT: Obama Budget Contains Middle Class Tax Increase.

Don’t be ridiculous. Obama promised no tax increase for people making under $250K.

UPDATE: Backdoor taxes story withdrawn by Reuters.

RESISTANCE IS FUTILE POPULAR:

Virginia’s Democratic-controlled state Senate passed measures Monday that would make it illegal to require individuals to purchase health insurance, a direct challenge to the party’s efforts in Washington to reform health care.

The bills, a top priority of Virginia’s “tea party” movement, were approved 23 to 17 as five Democrats who represent swing areas of the state joined all 18 Republicans in the chamber in backing the legislation.

The votes came less than a week after President Obama implored Democrats in Washington not to abandon their health-care efforts, urging them in his State of the Union address not to “run for the hills” on the issue.

But the action in Virginia, a state that backed Obama in 2008, could indicate that the president is failing to reassure members of his own party that current reform efforts remain worthwhile.

Tea Party 1, Obama 0. And that’s just in Virginia.

DON BOUDREAUX ON CHAIT AND YGLESIAS: Any principle here?