I GUESS THERE MUST STILL BE PEOPLE WITH JOBS HE HASN’T ALIENATED: Obama Puts Mortgage Interest Deduction On Chopping Block. And how’s this going to impact the housing bust?

UPDATE: Related: How To Kill A Recovery.

ANOTHER UPDATE: A reader emails: “Speaking for myself, just the rumour of ending the mortgage deduction has caused me today to call off my house search. Not just because of the loss of the deduction to me personally, but because it’s easy to imagine this crashing prices, which is all you need to, in fact, crash prices.”

REASON TV: Joel Kotkin on Why America Will Still Lead the World in 2050.

Tunku Varadarajan: “Why has no Indian-American liberal risen as high in the Democratic ranks as Jindal and Haley have done in the GOP? Could it be that because Democrats put more of an emphasis on identity politics, an Indian-American Democrat would have to contend with other ethnic constituencies that might think that it’s ‘their turn’ first? And once you go down the ‘identity’ route, your success as a politician tends to rest more on the weight of numbers—the size of your ethnic constituency, or your racial voting bloc—than on the weight of your ideas. The most striking thing about Jindal and Haley’s success is not that they are Indian-American politicians who have triumphed in conservative Southern states, but that they are conservative Southern politicians who just happen to be Indian American.”

K.C. JOHNSON: BASTARDIZING ACADEMIC FREEDOM:

A newly announced project called “Crying Wolf,” organized out of the Center on Policy Initiatives, seems blithely unconcerned with any requirements associated with academic freedom. As John has noted, project coordinators Peter Dreier (a distinguished professor of politics at Occidental College), Nelson Lichtenstein (a historian of 20th century U.S. history at UC Santa Barbara who directs the university’s Center for the Study of Work, Labor and Democracy), and Donald Cohen, CPI executive director, are recruiting professors and graduate students (in “history, sociology, economics, political science, planning, public health, and public policy”) to perform “paid academic research” that can “serve in the battle with conservative ideas.”

The initiative is open about its biases: it intends to “construct a counter narrative” against what it describes as conservative opinions about taxation and regulation policy.

Read the whole thing.

FASTER, PLEASE: Scientists Uncover Protein That Thwarts Tumor Invasion.

TIGERHAWK ON Sarah Palin’s breasts, and the boobs who are making an issue thereof.

Plus, from the comments: “This is so much better than thinking about Helen Thomas.”

PAUL HSIEH: Free Speech: Use It Or Lose It.

SOLAR SAIL spreads its wings.

NO SURPRISE: Teen automobile crash rates are higher when school starts earlier. “Results indicate that in 2008 the teen crash rate was about 41 percent higher in Virginia Beach, Va., where high school classes began at 7:20 a.m., than in adjacent Chesapeake, Va., where classes started more than an hour later at 8:40 a.m. There were 65.4 automobile crashes for every 1,000 teen drivers in Virginia Beach, and 46.2 crashes for every 1,000 teen drivers in Chesapeake.” The Insta-daughter, who’s now getting enough sleep, has speculated that the stereotypical “teenage personality” is the result of sleep deprivation and public schools. It’s plausible. . . .

THE COVER UP IS WORSE THAN THE OIL SLICK: Tom Maguire: “They told me if I voted for McCain that the scientific process would be politicized…”

BANDWIDTH: There Is No Way AT&T Will Be Able to Handle the iPhone 4.

THE CARNIVAL OF SPACE IS UP!

COMING THIS WEEKEND: The H+ Summit at Harvard. If you can’t make it, don’t despair — they’ll be webcasting.

HMM: Nevada Senate: Angle 50%, Reid 39%.

IN THE MAIL: From John Curtis Samples, The Struggle to Limit Government: A Modern Political History.

PJTV: CARBON COPS: The EPA’s Assault on Your Freedom & Thursday’s Big Vote in the Senate.

HOW’S THAT “SMART DIPLOMACY” WORKING?

[London] Mayor Boris Johnson demanded an end to “anti-British rhetoric, buck-passing and name-calling” after days of scathing criticism directed at BP by the President and other US politicians.

Former Conservative Party chairman Lord Tebbit branded Mr Obama’s conduct “despicable”. And with the dispute threatening to escalate into a diplomatic row, Mr Johnson also appeared to suggest that David Cameron should step in to defend BP.

He spoke as the US onslaught against the firm became a “matter of national concern” — especially given its importance to British pensions, which lost much of their value today as BP shares plunged to a 13-year low.

Remember when people said Bush’s cowboy attitude was alienating allies? Meanwhile, Obama’s hate speech is promoting violence against BP: “Windows at the BP Gas Station on Highway 51 at Custer Drive were shot out overnight. Folks who work at the store believe the suspects were expressing anger over BP and how it’s handling the oil spill. . . . Incidents of anger spilling over at locally owned BP gas stations have been reported in several areas.” I’m sure all the commentators who were talking about the violent fascist threat of tea partiers will jump to weigh in on this one . . . .

WAPO: Kagan has many achievements, but her world has been relatively narrow. “She has arrived at the age of 50 in a blaze of accomplishment. But her achievements can obscure how relatively narrow her world has been. . . . Her friends are elite lawyers of a certain set or Democratic operatives with staying power. She cultivates their company, holds their confidences, gives them the best presents and solicits their ideas, said several friends among the four dozen people interviewed for this article.”

ABRAHAM MILLER: Helen Thomas’ Exquisite ‘Weimar Moment’ Reflects Progressive America. “It’s also a pretty darn good impersonation of former Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott’s own Weimar moment a decade ago.”

IN DEFENSE OF GREEDY GEEZERS: “Simpson overlooks the fact that one reason why seniors want to protect their social security checks is so they can preserve some of the income they have saved and pass it down to their children. Another reason is that, with Medicare having been drained of something like $500 billion to pay for Obamacare, and with the commission considering Medicare as a target for further cuts, seniors understand that they probably will need to spend more of their income on health care than they had planned to. It’s not greedy to be thinking about taking care of one’s health.”

DON SURBER: Don Surber: There’s more to the Helen Thomas case — American liberals once opposed anti-Semitism.

Related: Rabbi Who Taped Helen Thomas Is Inundated With Hate Mail and Death Threats.

SHOCKER: Audit: D.C. doesn’t follow own laws on jobs, wages. Laws, like taxes, are for the little people.

SHOCKER: ACORN employees tell FBI of deliberate election fraud, according to new documents.

CHRIS STIREWALT: Obama Falls Headfirst Into The Hypocrisy Trap. “Obama says he’s sick and tired of the Washington blame game, but still can’t resist doling out piles of blame himself. His compulsive, reflexive finger-pointing at Republicans, George W. Bush and vague villains on the right is not only unbecoming, it also reinforces the gathering public verdict that Obama is a weakling. Victims do not make good leaders.”

MARKDOWNS ON Father’s Day gifts.