MICHAEL SILENCE: In-depth, fair AP Tea Party story coming.

NASA WARNS OF “huge space storm” in 2013.

Given that the computer models aren’t working where solar behavior is concerned, there’s a temptation to dismiss this. But history suggests that such a storm is just a matter of time, so hardening up the power grid, etc., is a good idea regardless. We certainly don’t want to risk a One Second After kind of scenario. Some background here.

UNDERWEAR that could save your life.

PJM: Dept. of Energy’s Cathy Zoi: Still Flouting the Law, Still Stonewalling the Investigation. “Assistant Secretary of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Cathy Zoi, ex-CEO of Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection, maintains major investments in ‘green’ companies that benefit directly from her decisions.”

ALAN BOYLE: Next Stage Ignites In The Rocket Biz.

IN THE MAIL: From C. Bradley Thompson, Neoconservatism: An Obituary For An Idea.

NICKEL-AND-DIMING THEIR WAY BACK TO SOLVENCY. At our expense, of course. U.S. Banks May End Free Checking Accounts.

Related: More Than 90 Banks Miss TARP Payments.

DEFLATION? Consumer prices dip for second straight month. “It marked the biggest decline since consumer prices plunged 0.7 percent in December 2008. That was a period when the worst recession since the 1930s stoked fears of deflation. The country didn’t get stuck in a deflationary spiral then, and probably won’t now, economists say.” Plus this: “Prices for education and prescription drugs each increased 0.3 percent — categories that are up sharply over the past year. Prices for airline fares jumped 1.9 percent last month, while prices for tobacco and other smoking products rose 1.3 percent, the most in nearly a year.”

UPDATE: Reader Paul Jurkoic writes:

I’m sure that whatever happens, it’ll be “unexpected.”

Heh. Indeed.

TIMOTHY DALRYMPLE: Is the Tea Party a “Social Justice” Movement? “The irony is that one cannot exclude the Tea Party from the social justice category without betraying that ‘social justice’ is a partisan political theory.”

OF COURSE THEY DID: Congress members overseeing firms involved in gulf spill held oil, gas stock.

WILLIAM JACOBSON: The Most Important Judicial Nomination You Never Heard Of Set For Vote Today.

SHADY MANEUVERING: An Offer BP Couldn’t Refuse. “Last night on CNN former Clinton Administration message man James Carville said: ‘It looks as if President Obama applied a little old-school Chicago persuasion to the oil executives.’ Making ‘offers you can’t refuse’ may be a great way to run the mob, but it is no way to run a country.” I agree. Let BP fail if its liabilities exceed its assets — don’t turn it into a government-controlled slush fund.

At the Financial Times it is observed that oil has become the new tobacco. But note that all the vilification of tobacco companies was really just about extracting a settlement that let greedy politicians get their hands on a stream of tobacco cash — which was then not spent as the politicians had promised.

UPDATE: A Tolkien analogy.

FARHAD MANJOO: Starbucks is smart to stop charging for Internet access. Fancy hotels should follow suit. Why do cheap hotels (e.g., Hampton Inn) give wi-fi away, while expensive hotels charge for it — and the more expensive the hotel, the more they charge? It’s not like the wi-fi is better at expensive hotels. It’s often worse.

PETER MAASS, the author of Crude World, on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

JOBLESS CLAIMS RISE: Unexpectedly!

INSTAVISION: I talk to Mickey Kaus about his Senate run, politics, and what lessons bloggers and candidates can learn from his experience. Plus, the importance of having fun.

And if you like this, consider subscribing to PJTV. (Bumped).

IS THERE SOMETHING WRONG with 30-something men these days? Or not?

CONTAINING THE OIL SPILL by flooding the Gulf? “The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is considering a plan, proposed by scientists, to use dams to divert more water toward the mouth of the Mississippi River, which could keep the BP oil slick from penetrating the vulnerable coastal wetlands.”

HOW TO CUT THE COST of a midlife crisis.

A FATHER’S DAY CONTEST at Encounter Books.

I DOUBT THEY’LL DO ANY BETTER THAN THEY’VE DONE IN THE GULF: U.S. rolls out new sanctions against Iran in effort to plug leaks. Plug the damn hole!

PHOTO: Charlie Crist’s powers of observation.

UPDATE: Reader Mark Linder writes: “Someone should let the Governor know that it’s not baby oil he should be looking for.”

SPAIN: The New Crisis In Euroland.

DAVID BERNSTEIN: Context Matters: A Better Libertarian Approach to Antidiscrimination Law.

DANA LOESCH: “I can’t wait to tell my Baptist mother that her daughter is in Playboy.”