TOMORROW: A rally for Liu Xiabo and the victims of communism.

PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE: “Welcome To The Future, Where The Stars Belong To Corporations.”

JENNIFER RUBIN: Liberals’ Sense Of Betrayal Should Come As No Surprise. “I don’t agree with Reich on the merits, but he sure does have the narrative correct. It’s as if Ronald Reagan entered office and announced unilateral disarmament.”

Related: Mitch McConnell’s Make-or-Break Week.

UPDATE: Ralph Nader: I am looking for someone to challenge Obama in 2012.

CAROLINE MAY: Will Pigford Vindicate Breitbart? “Indeed there have been reports that USDA employees and FBI officials estimate that the number of fraudulent claims from Pigford — exacerbated by ambitious trial lawyers and community organizers — range from 50 percent to 95 percent.” Would a False Claims Act suit work here? Because if it can, it’ll make somebody rich.

THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR JOHN MCCAIN, WE’D SEE RACIAL PROFILING RUN WILD. And they were right! “The head of a New York taxi driver organization came under fire on Wednesday for suggesting that cab drivers should racially profile passengers before picking them up to help avoid getting attacked.”

CANADIAN HEALTH CARE: “She was crying out, ‘I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe’. . . Nobody attended to my daughter.”

(NO) CHANGE: The Hill: Tax cut deal can’t be changed, Biden tells House Democrats.

NICHOLAS JACKSON: How I Killed Pluto And Why It Had It Coming.

AT AMAZON, markdowns on gourmet food.

REASON TV: GREAT MOMENTS IN UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES.

UPDATE: Chris Kobus says the ethanol part is wrong.

ONE SNUGGIE for two people?

RADLEY BALKO HAS A NEW BLOG, Nashville Byline.

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR ON PIGFORD: Why are USDA officials off the hook in case of bias against black farmers? “As President Obama signs a taxpayer-funded settlement in case of bias against black farmers, some Americans ask: Why didn’t any heads roll? Ex-USDA employee Shirley Sherrod is one. . . . USDA’s failure to punish those responsible for bias against black farmers has drawn criticism from an unlikely alliance that includes black farmers, conservatives such as Rep. Steve King (R) of Iowa, Sherrod herself, and, bizarrely, conservative activist Andrew Breitbart, who posted the video that got Sherrod fired.” I don’t know why the Breitbart bit is bizarre — he’s been consistently against racism, at USDA and elsewhere, after all.

Plus this:

Some conservatives argue that USDA failure to punish certain career officials, many of whom still are in place in county offices across the US, is an indication that the Pigford settlement is less about USDA practices and more about righting generic historical wrongs to score political points with the Democratic base, including blacks.

“They admit to no wrongdoing, they press the taxpayers and apparently have succeeded in squeezing $2.3 billion out of the taxpayers, but they don’t have any blame, and they’re not punishing anybody,” Representative King said recently. “So, how can Americans that think logically accept that as a rational position?”

Sherrod herself struck a similar tone in a July interview on NBC’s “Today” show.

Read the whole thing.

OH, YEAH, BABY: Applying ObamaCare to Congress. But following the law is for the little people: “Here is the Congressional Research Service report on the provisions that oust members of Congress from their health insurance. And here is the letter in which an Obama appointee announces that the administration will ignore the law.”

GREECE ON THE PACIFIC? California Budget Gap May Reach $28.1 Billion Over 18 Months, Brown Says. “Standard & Poor’s rates California general-obligation debt A-, its fourth-lowest investment grade and lowest of any state. Moody’s Investors Service gives it an A1, one step higher and the same as it gives to Illinois.”

ED DRISCOLL: A Little Late For The Third Way.

AN ARMY OF DAVIDS: Private Citizen Goes Undercover, Performs Sting On High-Ranking Nazi.

WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Obama Uses Labor Board To Revive Card Check.

BRRR: Britain: Now the Army moves in to clear away snow in coldest December for 100 years as fuel runs out at petrol stations in Scotland and East Anglia.

DANIEL HENNINGER: OBAMA CAN’T TRIANGULATE:

It won’t happen. This president can’t do it.

Ghosts of the Democratic past—Hubert Humphrey, Al Smith—have been known as Happy Warriors. Barack Obama is a Class Warrior with every fiber of his being. And he isn’t happy.

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: Okay, there’s also this passage:

Will the nation’s new economic royalists step forward, rope in hand, to produce enough economic activity to help Mr. Obama to a second term of retribution? Maybe not. According to the National Association of Manufacturers, some 70% of manufacturing concerns in the U.S. have owners whose business is taxed at the individual rate (S corporations and the like). These are the people expected to commit capital to new hires and equipment.

But if an angry, let-me-be-clear Barack Obama just looked into the cameras and said he’s coming to get you in two years, what rational economic choice would you make? Spend the profit or gains 2011 might produce on new workers, or bury any new income in the backyard until the 2012 presidential clouds clear?

John Galt was unavailable for comment.

BYRON YORK: Dems Slip Indian Gambling Measure Into Spending Bill.

CHANGE: Bush Fans 13 Times More Engaged on Facebook Than Obama Fans. “Nor is this a trend isolated to George W. Bush, who has seen a resurgence in the polls lately. The other Republican mega-brand on Facebook, Sarah Palin, also sports a much higher rate of fan interactions than Obama.” Well, it hasn’t been much fun being an Obama fan lately, I imagine.

SHOCKER: Berkeley City Council Plans Vote to Honor Wikileaks Leaker Bradley Manning.

HOW TO GET tracked down and killed.

CHANGE: US Treasuries hit by biggest sell-off in two years. “US Treasuries suffered their biggest two-day sell-off since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, following a torrid month that has seen borrowing costs for western governments soar.”