DID PUTIN have a facelift?

CIA USING SECRECY TO HIDE ITS PROBLEMS? Say it ain’t so! I wonder what Steve Hendricks would say?

“BITCH” REMARK NOT WELL-RECEIVED: Women’s groups outraged by ’sexist’ View co-host Joy Behar.

VOTER FRAUD: Daytona Beach Commissioner Arrested On Fraud Charges. “Daytona Beach City Commissioner Derrick Henry and his campaign manager, Genesis Robinson, were arrested Wednesday, charged with committing absentee ballot fraud during Henry’s 2010 re-election campaign, the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office said.”

L.A. TIMES: Obama’s Justice Department wins hundreds of awards from itself. I won an award from myself too . . . the first annual Glenn H. Reynolds Award For Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence. When and where should I schedule the ceremony?

UPDATE: Did nobody get the Simpsons reference? Or was it just too obvious?

THE FUTURE’S SO BRIGHT, I gotta wear shades.

NUCLEAR MISSILE FAIL. Not encouraging.

HEH: FULL BURN.

THE GIFT THAT KEEPS GIVING: Rev. Jesse Jackson condemns Williams firing. “The Rev. Jesse Jackson on Wednesday compared NPR’s firing of Juan Williams to the Agriculture Department’s firing of Shirley Sherrod.”

KATIE COURIC on “the great unwashed middle of the country.” Jim Treacher retorts by calling Couric “the great unwatched.”

BYRON YORK: Clinton on the stump: Does he really want Obama and Dems to win?

CAPTAIN’S JOURNAL: High Value Target Campaign is Failing in Afghanistan.

BLOGGER SUED . . . for linking to Mark Steyn? Lame. More here.

SO LAST NIGHT I DROVE TO NASHVILLE for festivities regarding Amy Bourret’s new novel (we went to law school together) and today I drove back in time to record a PJTV interview. “Scheduled posts” keep the blog humming along, but if I missed your email, sorry! They don’t cover that.

AT AMAZON, markdowns on cellphones and accessories.

BOB KRUMM is back.

BOOED FOR BLAMING BUSH — in Massachusetts.

ARE WE EXPERIENCING a new Class War?

HOPE, CHANGE, AND A NEW KIND OF POLITICS: ABC News: Exclusive: Democrats Ask Pentagon for Info on Potential Obama Challengers. “The Democratic National Committee formally has asked the Pentagon for reams of correspondence between military agencies and nine potential Republican presidential candidates, a clear indication that Democrats are building opposition-research files on specific 2012 contenders even before the midterm elections.”

UPDATE: “So they’re digging for dirt early. That’s the Chicago Way…but in this case, the usual dirty tricks department may come back to haunt them. Voters are developing longer and longer memories.”

PROF. JACOBSON: New Video Exposes The False Narrative of the “Stomping” Victim. Just as fellow lawprof Ann Althouse suspected.

Yet another argument for those ubiquitous video cameras I’m always touting.

UPDATE: Ed Driscoll: Shhh—Nobody Tell MSNBC.

MICHAEL BENNET’S message control. Good grief.

MEGAN MCARDLE: “The elites aren’t quite as smart as they think they are.” No, they aren’t.

More: “Elites are often missing crucial knowledge, and unaware of it. In some ways, that effect is more pronounced than it used to be, with more and more of the elites drawn from a narrow class of extremely well-educated people from a handful of metropolitan areas, few of whom have ever, say, been responsible for a profit and loss statement, or tried to bring a gas station into compliance with local and federal EPA regulations. In a world where your primary output is words, it is easy to imagine a smoothly operating process based on really smart rule-making.” It would help — a little, anyway — to read Seeing Like A State.

REASON TV: Libertarian Party Candidate Dale Ogden on the California Governor’s Race .

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: So You Want To Get A Ph.D.

ANN ALTHOUSE IS still not impressed with the MoveOn “stomping” story.