CHANGE: Consumer Confidence Tumbled in February. “The present situation index, a gauge of consumers’ assessment of current economic conditions, fell to 19.4 this month from 25.2 in January, originally reported as 25.0. The February index was the lowest in 27 years.” Maybe it’s the renewed healthcare talk? Meanwhile, is this good news, or bad news? First Decline in Core Inflation Since 1982.

TRANSPLANTS THAT DO THEIR JOB, then fade away.

ANOTHER EARMARK SCANDAL? Roll Call: “Rep. Solomon Ortiz (D-Texas) has accepted tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of trips to China from a development corporation in his hometown that he aided by securing earmarks and other federal assistance worth millions of dollars.”

IN THE MAIL: From Eric Flint & K.D. Wentworth, The Crucible Of Empire.

DANA LOESCH AND ANDREW BREITBART: 21st Century Minutemen: Andrew Breitbart, Dana Loesch & Weaponizing Citizen Journalists.

JOSEPH BOTTUM: “Since when has even a blog as interesting as the The Volokh Conspiracy trumped, for a law-school audience, a chair at a major law school and all the speaker’s academic publications?”

Ann Althouse: “In the marketplace of ideas, the currency is page views.”

HEADING FOR THE EXITS on ObamaCare?

HARRY REID PROPOUNDS A SEXIST STEREOTYPE.

He just got over those troubling “negro” remarks. What, is he gunning for Joe Biden’s job?

JOHN HINDERAKER: Who Cares About Race?

DANIEL DREZNER: The Unclean Slate of American Foreign Policy.

THOUGHTS ON Jonathan Allen’s Brief Political Career, from Danny Glover.

SLOGAN OF THE YEAR: “It’s my health, it’s my choice.” From an unlikely source.

THE STORY OF the armed community organizers.

LAW ENFORCEMENT: “Tuason is an East Palo Alto police detective who allegedly posted a note on Facebook threatening to kill anyone he found openly carrying a handgun, even if that person was carrying it legally. The alleged note has led to an outcry from Second Amendment advocacy groups, the creation of an anti-Tuason Facebook group, and an internal police investigation. ”

Perhaps Milwaukee police chief Ed Flynn will hire him. In the meantime, perhaps the East Palo Alto police department needs mandatory sensitivity training regarding Second Amendment rights. That’s what happened in Knoxville after a much less serious incident. More on that here.

RICHARD EPSTEIN ON the end of the Yoo/Bybee investigations.

SILICON GRAFFITI: Ayn Rand, The Goddess Of The Market.

SLATE: The Story The New York Times Won’t Touch.

A little more than a year ago, when the Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim increased his stake in the New York Times Company (NYT), I wrote “I pity the Times Mexico bureau chief who has to tiptoe through who is and isn’t out of favor with the paper’s new sugar daddy.” Now we have a very clear example of how the Times treats Slim within its pages; it’s not pretty, and the journalistic compromise can be seen well beyond Mexico.

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MARKDOWNS ON new Blu-Ray and DVD releases.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: The Tea Party Movement As Major Historical Landmark. “My guess would be that the Tea Party movement is part of a very big wave. . . . For now at least, many Tea Partiers seem to want a populist coalition that focuses on economic and government reform while moving more slowly on social issues. Perhaps the movement is pulling itself together more quickly than past populist upsurges have done because the combination of higher education levels and better communications make today’s populists a little more ready for prime time than some of their predecessors.”

NEW YORK POST: Furor Over Obama’s “Gitmo” Appointees.

Related: Byron York: Eric Holder stonewalls Congress on terror lawyers.