BRAVERY: Obama takes on the teachers’ unions.

THIS IS NOT EXCITING ME AS MUCH AS THE IPAD RELEASE: the new lawnmowers are out.

JEREMY LOTT: Do Washington State Democrats Have A Death Wish? “That’s the question many locals must be asking after the Democrat-controlled Senate held hearings last Thursday, with little notice, packed with supporters for a new bill that would impose a statewide income tax.” I wonder if it’ll create the kind of reaction we saw in Tennessee?

TIM CAVANAUGH: How bad is the Lehman bankruptcy report for Geithner?

ILYA SOMIN: Iran and the Shortcomings of International Human Rights Law.

IF YOU MISSED IT ON SIRIUS/XM SATELLITE RADIO YESTERDAY, the latest PJM Political is now online.

COFFEE PARTY ASTROTURFING? Nonsense. If that were happening, CNN and MNSBC would have told us. . . .

VIDEO: Ed Morrissey at Minnesota’s “Kill the Bill” Rally.

MICHAEL BARONE: Tea party brings energy, change and tumult to GOP. “The Republicans for the last two decades have been a party whose litmus tests have been cultural issues, especially abortion. The tea partiers have helped to change their focus to issues of government overreach and spending. That may be a helpful pivot, given the emergence of a millennial generation uncomfortable with crusading cultural conservatism.”

MAIMON SCHWARZSCHILD: “The economics of legal education today seem unsustainable to me. . . . Then again, unsustainability seems to be a theme in much of the country’s – and not only this country’s – economics and politics today.”

IN THE MAIL: Peddling Peril: How the Secret Nuclear Trade Arms America’s Enemies.

TROUBLE FOR RUSS FEINGOLD? “A new Wisconsin Policy Research Institute poll shows Tommy Thompson (R) leading Sen. Russ Feingold (D) in a possible U.S. Senate match up, 51% to 39%.” State polls are iffy, but this is a big margin. (Via NewsAlert.)

COFFEE PARTY boycotting Fox News? “They did not accept the interview invitation because it would be ‘focused on fostering ongoing political divisions…'”

HOPE AND CHANGE: Obama Supports DNA Sampling Upon Arrest. They told me if I voted for John McCain we’d see a burgeoning Police State — and they were right!

DOMINO’S PIZZA TRACKER: Not what it’s cracked up to be?

MICHAEL BARONE: The Coffee Party Miniphenomenon.

On Wednesday, the day of Barack Obama’s appearance in St. Louis, 2,225 showed up for a tea party rally in St. Charles County and 2,300 participated in a protest outside a Democratic fundraiser in downtown St. Louis. In contrast, 30 people attended a coffee party gathering in St. Louis on Saturday.

The numbers tell you something. Something that the CNN producers might want to take note of.

Actually, I think it’s something they’re trying very hard to ignore . . . .

SARAH PALIN IS Obama By Proxy. “I used to dismiss these contradictions as simply hypocrisy, but perhaps these people are angry at Palin because of her perceived similarities to Barack Obama, not in spite of them. They need someplace to ground the lightning of their frustration and disappointment, and they’re not allowed to be angry at Obama. . . . Sarah Palin is a convenient hate fetish for increasingly nervous and confused Left, because she embodies the qualities of the red-state America they loathe… and serves as a voodoo doll for uncomfortable criticisms of Obama, which they project onto her.”

UPDATE: Reader Steve Hendren writes: “I thought the same thing about Tiger Woods during his recent spate of personal problems. Can’t bring yourself to criticize The One? Have a go at Tiger, instead….” Yeah. I think Tiger’s public persona did a lot to help Obama early on — I heard plenty of explicit comparisons, in fact — so the connection’s even more close.

RETRO-FUN: Remembering Operation.

IN KNOXVILLE, black pastors complain about abortions. You don’t see this kind of thing much.

IS IT WES CRAVEN, OR MONTY PYTHON? The Hill: Do Dems have to finish healthcare by Easter?

THOSE BIGOTED NORWEGIANS: Noted Homophobe Named Norway’s “Role Model of the Year.”

ARE SOME RACES MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS? “How will the Obama administration respond to a formal complaint in the wake of serious black-on-Asian violence at South Philadelphia High School? . . . According to Asian advocates, the whole Philadelphia district has been plagued by harassment and violence towards Asian students for many years. At SPHS, the assaults have occurred in the cafeteria line, in bathrooms, in stairwells, on school buses, and elsewhere. The incidents ran the gamut from verbal abuse, physical intimidation, blocking doorways, cutting in line ahead of Asian students in the cafeteria, use of anti-Asian racial epithets, and more serious physical abuse including shoving, kicking, and punching—sometimes at the hands of more than one assailant. Advocates have accused school officials, including school Superintendent Arlene Ackerman and Principal LaGreta Brown (both black) of indifference to the plight of Asian students in their charge.”

I’m sure Eric Holder will be right on this.

DAN MITCHELL: Keynesian Economics and the Wizard Of Oz.

LONDON TIMES: Does Barack Obama give a damn about us?

Rubes! “The paradox is Europeans think Obama is one of them, that he ran [for office] on repairing American relations with them — damaged by Bush and the war in Iraq — and now feel he doesn’t care about them.” He cares. Hating is a form of caring.

NOAH POLLAK ON the Obama-Israel crisis.