POLL: Should Helen Thomas be kicked off the White House Press Corps for her anti-semitic remarks?

PORTING DIGITAL MEMORY: Neural Interfaces and Controllers.

IT’S THE THIRTIES ALL OVER AGAIN — Time To Blame The Jews! “Consciously or not, our President — with his increased, and pompously self-righteous, pressure on Israel — has sent a message to the world. It’s time to blame the Jews. And the world, in economic extremis, is all too eager to find someone to blame.”

MIXED MESSAGES: With DoJ threatening prosecution, Obama slams BP for ‘lawyering up.’

THE NEW CONVENTIONAL WISDOM: “While the Turks call for a ‘final solution,’ Carly Fiorina says there has been more condemnation of Israel than there was of North Korea when it sank a South Korean ship. She says bad things are happening in the world because Obama is displaying weakness.”

DUBYA SPEAKS.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Terrible Twins: Turkey, Brazil and the Future of American Foreign Policy. “If you combine the geopolitical and cultural realities, you see two countries whose interests are diverging from those of the United States and are also increasingly shaped by cultural forces that oppose the historical American project of building a global liberal capitalist order. That is a powerful combination of forces, and no one should think that the recent foreign policy conflicts with the United States are small things. Something fundamental is changing here, and we, the Turks and the Brazilians will only slowly come to understand what has happened and what it means.” Actually, I think the Turks and the Brazilians have a pretty good idea what’s going on. Our “smart diplomacy,” however, seems behind the curve.

CUSTOMER FAVORITE grilling tools.

PJTV: The Week In Tea: Dana Loesch and AlfonZo Rachel on the Tea Party movement’s new enemies — the Black Panthers?

AN ORDERING GLITCH? Does Nissan really expect Leaf buyers to plunk down $2K for a charger then order the car? “We don’t think Nissan really intends for it to work out this way, but the installation of the charger should be tied to the purchase of the vehicle. That’s probably Nissan’s actual intention, but the lack of specific info is creating a stir that the company needs to quell before potential buyers are dissuaded from buying the Leaf. If Nissan actually expects potential buyers to purchase and install the charger without a set price and guaranteed order for the Leaf, then it could be setting itself up for some real unhappy customers.”

GALLUP: Support for Kagan weak. “A USA Today/Gallup poll finds just under half of Americans, 46%, in favor of the Senate’s confirming Elena Kagan’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. That level of support is generally lower than what Gallup has found when it first polled about other recent court nominations, trailing all others except Harriet Miers and Robert Bork.” This really surprises me, as Kagan hasn’t been the target of nearly as much bad publicity as those two received. Is it because of Obama’s sagging popularity, or something else?

EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS: Wal-Mart Teams With Online University to Educate Workers.

INFLATING THE JOB NUMBERS? Report: Census Deliberately Hired More Workers Than It Needed.

I BLAME HELEN THOMAS:

LA QUINTA, Calif. — Seven seniors at a Southern California high school were facing disciplinary action for participating in a game called “Beat the Jew” in which losers were subjected to “incineration” or “enslavement,” a school administrator said Friday.

The game involved some students playing the role of Nazis who blindfolded and dropped off other students playing Jews who must find their way back to the campus, said Sherry Johnstone, assistant superintendent of personnel for Desert Sands Unified School District.

I wonder if the campus is a stand-in for Germany . . . .

A REPORT FROM THE THROBBING HEART OF THE KAUS FOR SENATE CAMPAIGN.

I’m not sure, though, that “knocked boots” means what the NYT copy desk seems to think it means . . . .

UPDATE: Reader Dan Bridgwater writes: “Wow, maybe the writer is right, and we’re just going to the wrong parties…” Story of my life.

WELL, IT CALLS FOR AN INVESTIGATION, AND THE LAW ENFORCEMENT FOLKS SEEM TO BE DRAGGING THEIR FEET: Social media coverage on Henry Granju’s death grows.

ORBITAL BULLS-EYE: Shuttle successor succeeds in first test flight.

As I noted earlier, Obama’s other policies may be crashing and burning, but the space policy seems to be doing well.

“SINGULAR FOCUS.”

POLL: SESTAK FALLS BEHIND TOOMEY. Maybe he should’ve taken that job offer. . . .

JAY LENO: How the Mercury brand lost its edge. “I think it’s easy to understand where Mercury went wrong. Its cars often weren’t different enough from Ford products. . . . Why would anybody want to pay more for what was basically a Ford with a few different trim pieces and more sound deadener?”

A CLOSEUP LOOK AT the James Webb Space Telescope.

AT AMAZON, it’s the Friday Sale.

KRUISER CONTROL: District 8 is Scarier than District 9, Plus the Helen Thomas Polish Joke (That’s No Joke).

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: Those Troublesome Jews. “The whole point of this relentless international campaign is to deprive Israel of any legitimate form of self-defense. . . . The world is tired of these troublesome Jews, 6 million — that number again — hard by the Mediterranean, refusing every invitation to national suicide. For which they are relentlessly demonized, ghettoized and constrained from defending themselves, even as the more committed anti-Zionists — Iranian in particular — openly prepare a more final solution.” I think if I were Israel, I’d build a Doomsday Machine. It’s the only way to make the rest of the world anxious for Israel’s survival, instead of its destruction. . . .

TRANSPARENCY! Shutting up the Office of Congressional Ethics.