CHEVY VOLT KINDA PRICEY AT $41K: Volt’s price induces some sticker shock. “The long-anticipated Chevrolet Volt, General Motors’ electric car, will cost $41,000, the company announced Tuesday, leaving consumers to decide whether its environmental appeal is worth a price far above that of similarly sized conventional autos.” Of course, there’s a $7500 tax credit. I’m guessing that without that, the Volt would be significantly cheaper.

But who can resist this sales pitch? “The Chevrolet Volt will be the best vehicle in its class . . . because it’s in a class by itself.” I’m actually modestly excited about the Volt, but my excitement is tempered by my expectation that GM will probably screw it up somehow. I hope I’m wrong.

MICHAEL BARONE: House Democrats head for a thumping at the polls. Unless the Republicans blow it, which they’re certainly capable of . . .

POST: Rangel In Sleaze Squeeze: Pelosi henchman: He’d better make deal.

ROGER SIMON: Is Oliver Stone Today’s Walter Duranty?

ED DRISCOLL: Michael Calderone, Dave Weigel, and the Telltale Eleventh Paragraph. “Dave Weigel’s JournoList-related departure from the Washington Post ends up being a lateral move, but you wouldn’t know it unless you made it to the 11th paragraph of this article for Yahoo’s ‘Upshot’ column by Michael Calderone.”

BUSTED, WILL PAY UP: Sen. Kerry to pay $500K tax on yacht. “Senator John Kerry said today he will voluntarily cut a check to the state of Massachusetts for some $500,000 in sales tax for a yacht he purchased in Rhode Island earlier this year. . . . Kerry has been dogged by questions in recent days by questions about whether he purposely tried to evade taxes in his home state by listing the $7 million yacht’s home berth as Newport, R.I., when he actually intended to use the boat at his summer home on Nantucket. His yacht purchase was first reported in the Boston Herald.”

JIM LINDGREN: “Asking millions of Americans to sign a birthday card for the President suggests a tone-deafness about the cult of personality. If we lived in a dictatorship, getting millions of subjects to celebrate the Dear Leader’s birthday would be routine, but in a free republic this appeal to get millions of citizens to celebrate a current president’s birthday strikes a discordant note to my ear. No, I am not saying we are in a dictatorship; I am saying that because we are not, we should not be emulating the trappings characteristic of that fundamentally different sort of regime. Nor do I think this is particularly ominous.” Just revealing.

UPDATE: Orin Kerr: Relax, it’s just campaign fluff. And from the comments, there’s this: “They’re pretty clearly trying to recapture the ‘spirit of ’08.’ In that way, this email serves as a nice reminder of how embarrassing the ‘spirit of ’08’ really was.”

WHAT WOULD BUGS BUNNY DO? Celebrate his 70th Birthday.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: From Rev. Wright to the Sherrod Affair.

AUDIENCE: In July, ‘Countdown with Keith Olbermann‘ Saw Lowest Viewership Since April 2008.

REPUBLICANS: Hillary Clinton Was Right.

HMM: Clintonista Rendell: Obama May Be Primaried In 2012. “Has Obama gone from messianic to the Titanic in less than two short years? Yes, Rendell endorsed Hillary over Obama in 2008. Carville has continued to wail away on Obama domestically, to some extent. Now, Rendell throws down the foreign policy card. War has divided the Democrats since George McGovern.”

IF ONLY HE WERE AS CHEAP WITH OUR MONEY AS HE IS WITH HIS OWN: Rep. Barney Frank causes scene demanding discount. “Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank caused a scene when he demanded a $1 senior discount on his ferry fare to Fire Island’s popular gay haunt, The Pines, last Friday. Frank was turned down by ticket clerks at the dock in Sayville because he didn’t have the required Suffolk County Senior Citizens ID. A witness reports, ‘Frank made such a drama over the senior rate that I contemplated offering him the dollar to cool down the situation.'”

THE NEUROSCIENCE of breakups. “A study published in the July issue of the Journal of Neurophysiology found that romantic break-ups activate parts of the brain that are associated with addiction cravings.”

ILYA SOMIN: Tenure and Faculty Self-Selection Reconsidered. Plus, from the comments: “While I can see decent arguments against tenure, they are nothing like so urgent as the arguments against the powers of university ‘administrators’.” Good point.

PETER KIRSANOW on the New Black Panther Case.

AT AMAZON, markdowns on factory-reconditioned tools.

UPDATE: Reader Bryan Frymire writes, “I just saved thirty bucks on a Milwaukee abrasive chop saw I’ve been wanting/needing to buy for a couple of months now. I owe it all to Instapundit!” Happy to help!

PJTV: Sonja Schmidt and Tony Katz are pushing an “Arizona Buycott.”

Hey, maybe they can get Elton John to join them!

“THIRSTY, PEASANTS?”

GOOD NEWS FOR FREE SPEECH: The DISCLOSE Act fails.

HEALTH: What Do You Lack? Probably Vitamin D.

FROM WHITE ROOFS, to white awnings over roads.

JON STEWART: “Andrew Breitbart may be the most honest person in this entire story.”

UPDATE: Dan Riehl: Sad, Jon Stewart Has More Ballz Than Many Right-Side Pundits On Breitbart, Sherrod. That’s true. When the lefties target someone, whether it’s Sarah Palin or Rush Limbaugh, too many rightish pundits instinctively distance themselves. That’s a reflex left over from when things were very different.

NO SURPRISE: Foresight’s student award-winners go on to great things.

RISE OF THE helpful robots.