WASHINGTON POST: How Chávez tries to hide the truth about his government. “ONE OF the principal goals of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’s foreign policy is preventing governments or international organizations from telling the truth about him. Over the past couple of years, captured documents and other evidence have established beyond any reasonable doubt that Mr. Chávez’s regime has provided haven and material support to the FARC movement in neighboring Colombia — a group that is known for massacres of civilians, hostage taking and drug trafficking, and that has been designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department and the European Union. That places Mr. Chávez in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions and, at least in theory, exposes him to U.S. and international sanctions. Luckily for Mr. Chávez, the Obama administration and other Security Council members have shown little interest in recognizing what, in terms of state sponsorship of terrorism, amounts to a smoking gun.”

FORGET THE FLYING CAR: The Boat Car Is Back!

THIS WEEK IN THE FUTURE.

PJTV: Kruiser Control: Ed Schultz Takes It on the Chins & Michelle Obama Goes Marie Antoinette.

DO YOU NEED TO BUY divorce insurance?

Not if you make your marriage divorce-proof. Is there really such a thing?

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Why Does College Cost So Much?

THE LAW MARKET: U.S. Law Firms Are Losing Out To Britain over fears of excess litigation risk.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE BURSTING? Hundreds of Colleges Fail to Make the Grade on Financial Responsibility. Only one law school, though.

MEGAN MCARDLE: Why Pay Off the House Early?

STARTING LAW SCHOOL IN THE FALL? Advice for Pre-1Ls. (Via David Lat).

IN THE MAIL: From John R. Coats, Original Sinners: A New Interpretation of Genesis.

LOOKING INTO MICHELLE OBAMA’S FALLING POPULARITY:

Michelle Obama got bad press galore during the 2008 campaign. She got her image readjusted — feminized, really. She became the wonderful mom, fashion icon, and purveyor of vegetables. You can just imagine how much she liked doing that. But as she stretched out within the hyper-feminine role imposed on her, she got into the manifestation of femininity that rubs people the wrong way. Too much shopping and free-spending on superficial, materialistic pleasures. It’s the classic feminine protest against confinement in a feminine role. Don’t like it? Then don’t limit powerful women that way. But if Michelle Obama isn’t limited, most people won’t like her. We saw that in 2008. I mean, I liked her, but it didn’t play well generally.

She’s likable enough.

GALLUP: Trust In Media Continues To Decline. With reason.

JAMES TARANTO: The Carnival Police: Joe Conason waxes nostalgic for racism.

PUTTING THE “NET” IN NETBOOK: The Litl. “The Litl looks like a laptop, but there’s no hard drive and not much internal memory. Its stripped-down simplicity reminded me of Apple’s marvelous iPad, but there’s no touchscreen and no way to install those handy software apps. Instead, the Litl works like a series of windows on the Internet, giving users access to a variety of online services, from streaming music and video to word processing.”

A GUIDE TO MOVIES with the Hitchcock touch.

OBAMA VOTER: Yeah, I made a mistake. “Now, the 40-year-old is rethinking her lifelong support for the party. She has been without steady work for two years, lost her home and car and began receiving cash assistance from the state for the first time. This year, she says, ‘I’m willing to take a chance on something different.’ Another possibility, she says, is that she won’t vote at all.”

THEN AND NOW: A disturbing photo essay.

JIM TREACHER: Yes, Barack, we certainly can smell it. “Don’t you see the difference? Linda McMahon ran a successful, profitable business that brought entertainment to millions of people, so, naturally, she’s evil. Obama just wanted to score some votes by making an awkward, ridiculous, forced appeal to people he doesn’t know and would’t be caught dead with under any other circumstances, so he’s the good guy.”

UNIONS VS. UNIONIZATION: UFT Fires Employee Who Tries To Form Union.

SOLAR FLARES and electromagnetic dangers to the power grid.

SOMETHING FOR NOTHING: State Debt And The 2008 Presidential Vote. “According to Moody’s, the average state per capita debt of the 28 Obama states is $1,728 while the average debt in the 22 McCain states is less than half, at $749. This information alone says a lot about voters and their attitude towards government and debt. Voters with a propensity to elect politicians who burden future generations who can’t yet vote with huge debts voted for Obama while fiscally responsible voters generally voted for McCain. This trend gets starker when you look at the debt in the states that voted overwhelmingly for one candidate.”

RICHARD FERNANDEZ: “Forgotten in the discussion about the President Obama’s falling domestic popularity is his even more precipitous decline in the esteem of the Arab world. . . . The hope that appeasement would be rewarded by respect has earned the President a kick in the nose. Perceived strength generates its own legitimacy in rough places; Arabs who have traditionally feared Persia now believe it has a right to build nuclear weapons. They have watched Iran push the President’s flaccid arm down to the table and drawn their own conclusions. The policy of apologizing for America has not won friends or influenced people; it has not even delegitimized Iranian expansionism. It has produced the contrary result.”

THE “PROFESSIONAL LEFT” vs. Charles Krauthammer.

JONATHAN STRONG: Liberal blogger Matt Yglesias advocates lying on Twitter.

Par for the course. Haven’t seen much maturation from Matt over the years.

Meanwhile, Ed Driscoll reflects on the media’s penchant for “tabloid Taqiyya.”