THAT DIDN’T TAKE LONG: Sheriff Dupnik now facing recall bid.

TIM PAWLENTY’S BOOK SALES NOT TOO IMPRESSIVE. Well, he wrote a book called Courage to Stand, but then — the week it came out, when tested publicly at a crucial moment — he sat.

And yeah, that matters. As I write this, his Amazon rank is 5,185 — which seems about right.

WORRIES ABOUT THE GROWTH IN “populist resentment of public employees.” Now where could that come from? Something that can’t go on forever, won’t. The current system of public finance can’t go on forever.

MSNBC SAYS SAYONARA TO KEITH OLBERMANN.

Or as some call him, he who must not be named.

UPDATE: Reader Adam Kiwiatkowski emails: “His viewer is going to be bummed.”

And, apparently, Comcast has now become the evilest corporation on the planet.

Plus, from Don Surber:

The FCC just approved GE’s sale of MSNBC’s parent company — NBC/Universal — to Comcast. The Obama administration just hired GE’s CEO to a big position.

I think some moves are being made behind the scene.

Hey, Olbermann, this was the president you wanted.

He was a useful idiot for a while. Now he’s no longer useful. Expect to see more of this kind of thing.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Goodbye to one of the world’s worst people.

MORE: Top 10 New Job Suggestions For Keith Olbermann. My favorite: “Audition for the part of the creepy gym teacher on MTV’s ‘Skins.'”

I was only on Olbermann’s show once, on election night 2004, when he was still more or less sane.

LAW PROFESSORS KISS A PIG FOR CHARITY.

RELEASES: New Fantasy and Science Fiction Releases For The Kindle.

POLIWOOD: Predicting the Oscar nominees. Plus why conservatives should stop dissing Hollywood and take it over.

THE MOST-EMAILED New York Times Article Ever. That this parody is spot-on doesn’t make me feel good about the NYT’s future.

JON STEWART blasts Steve Cohen for Nazi comparison.

WELL, THAT WOULD BE NICE: A biofuel breakthrough that could yield $30/barrel oil?

AT AMAZON, it’s the Friday Sale.

MILITANT ISLAM in Norway.

BACKDOOR BILINGUALISM? “As Stoll notes, legislation that did what the FCC just did would never pass Congress. I don’t even think it would have passed last year’s Congress. But don’t lawmakers have the power to reverse the FCC?”

IOWAHAWK: Dear Nazi.

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: Everything Starts With Repeal.

THIS MUST BE MORE OF THAT “SMART DIPLOMACY” I’VE BEEN HEARING ABOUT: CHINESE TIGER ATE U.S. DOVE FOR LUNCH.

COMPANY FIRES LAW FIRM because of unfounded legal threat on company’s behalf. As I’ve noted before, lawyers need to be more careful about these threats. There’s even potential professional-responsibility liability for making unfounded legal threats, and — thanks to the Internet — more and more people are willing to punch back twice as hard, and expose you as a bully and a fool if you overstep.

MICHAEL WALSH: Cultural Vandalism.

JENNIFER RUBIN: Mike Pence: Will He, or Won’t He? Plus this: “And if he doesn’t run for president, what better figure is there to primary Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.)?”

TIM PAWLENTY: Don’t Raise The Debt Ceiling — Reform Entitlement Spending.

DAN BAUM IN THE HUFFINGTON POST: After Tucson: Stricter Gun Laws Aren’t the Answer.

Gun control not only does no practical good, it actively causes harm. It may be hard to show that it saves lives, but it’s easy to demonstrate that we’ve sacrificed a generation of progress on things like health care, women’s rights, immigration reform, income fairness, and climate change because we keep messing with people’s guns. I am researching a book on Americans’ relationship to their guns, and keep meeting working-stiff gun guys — people whose wages haven’t risen since 1978 and should be natural Democrats — who won’t even listen to the blue team because they’re convinced Democrats want to take away their guns. Misguided? Maybe. But that’s democracy for you. It’s helpful to think of gun control as akin to marijuana prohibition — useless for almost everything except turning otherwise law-abiding people into criminals and fomenting cynicism and resentment. All the talk of a new large-magazine ban hits gun guys’ ears like liberals using this disaster to trim back gun rights a little. It reinforces the toxic narrative that the Democrats are the enemy of regular guys, which is the last thing we need right now.

Well, the toxic narrative is pretty much true, but this is a good piece.

UPDATE: Reader Jim Hogue on the “toxic narrative:”

Older white males are the enemy of every TV show, commercial, and the Democrat party.

We got the memo they sent decades ago.

Sorry Dan. Too little, too late.

Ouch.

HMM: Oilman: Bakken holds 20 billion barrels of oil. Well, that’s several times the official estimates, but I hope he’s right.

UPDATE: Sadly, numerous readers wonder when the Feds will figure out a way to shut them down.

TO REALLY LEARN, quit studying and take a test.

BRAIN GENES influence friend choices.

CALIFORNIA DECLARES FISCAL EMERGENCY.

Related: Facing $360 million deficit, San Francisco pays city workers $170 million in bonuses.

UPDATE: I don’t think that this is so bad, necessarily, but it won’t play well: “Finances are so dire at the University of California that it might have to turn away qualified students, but UC has still found a way to reward hundreds of employees with more than $4 million in incentive pay and raises.”