CHANGE: Gas goes up nearly 12 cents in Illinois this week.

STANLEY KURTZ: Samantha Power’s Power. “Knowing what Samantha Power wants reveals a great deal about Barack Obama’s own ideological commitments. . . . Samantha Power has a lot to teach us about Barack Obama. She herself draws analogies between the need to redistribute wealth via health-care coverage and the need to divide military and diplomatic power (and, implicitly, wealth) more evenly through the international system.”

ACE IS HAVING FUN: Obama Supporters Defend Obama’s Embrace of Military Tribunals, Gitmo. “I don’t care. Obama is awesome.”

JACOB WEISBERG IN SLATE: Republican Paul Ryan’s budget proposal is brave, radical, and smart.

UPDATE: Reader Dave Ivers emails: “How can I believe a guy who says, with an apparently straight face, ‘Democrats have been more fiscally responsible, producing an actual budget surplus during Bill Clinton’s second term.’? Does he forget the last government shutdown, and who was producing the budgets Clinton signed? Has he forgotten how Clinton claimed those budgets wouldn’t balance the budget for 9, 8, 7 years or whatever? Has he suffered amnesia, or is he just dishonest?”

MITCH DANIELS ON THE PAUL RYAN BUDGET: “First Serious Proposal Produced by Either Party.”

PINHEADS everywhere.

AT AMAZON, a spring cleaning sale.

BORDER SAFETY: Questions Linger After ATF Gunrunning Scandal.

RICHARD VEDDER IN FORBES: The Higher Education Bubble.

NASA MESSENGER PROBE nearly wiped out by solar storm.

OH, GOODY: The Coming Postal Service Bailout.

MOBILE-COMPUTING COMPETITION: Osborne I vs. the iPad 2.

UPDATE: Thoughts from Roger Simon, who has owned both.

NOT GIVING UP ON THOSE RADIO CONTROLLED COPTERS: Reader Christopher Fox writes: “Not to flog a dead horse, but I bought 3 of these, and the price is down yet again. Now we’re down to $21.75 for a brand new RC chopper. Best $20 you can spend today.”

It says $22.19 at the moment, but still cheap. And mine has been fun, and still works!

UPDATE: Reader Paul Bressie still likes ’em: “Bought two for my boys. They’re fantastic. Much more stable and usable than the, um, competitor. After they go to bed, I fly ’em. Great controls!”

And Aleta Jackson at XCOR writes:

I have now purchased _fifteen_ and have just been asked for two more. The young engineers are getting ready to have helicopter wars out in the hangar – I’ll get photos if you’re interested – and two are being sacrificed for parts: the interns get to find out what makes them tick. Great lab for them, and it’s fun for the rest of us too.

Thanks again for the very useful link!

Endorsed by actual rocket scientists!

REASON TV: What We Saw At The “Our Communities, Our Jobs” Labor Rally.

ANN ALTHOUSE: If Kloppenburg wins, her opponents should move on to a “recuse Kloppenburg” effort. Yes, she does seem to have prejudged.

PROFESSOR ARRESTED FOR SHUTTING STUDENT’S LAPTOP IN CLASS? Really? Valdosta State has kind of a bad track record in general, but still . . . .

More here.

USB CARTRIDGE turns 35mm film cameras into digital. “The RE-35 cartridge, in place of film, has a pull-out “sensor” that captures the images and saves them to flash memory within the cartridge. When plugged in to a computer, the cartridge charges and transfers images with built-in software.” I’m not sure if this is real, but I like the idea.

UPDATE: No, not real. I still like the idea, though.

DARING TO PEN an ode to Crisco.

NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: New Type of Drug Kills Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria. “Researchers at IBM are designing nanoparticles that kill bacteria by poking holes in them. The scientists hope that the microbes are less likely to develop resistance to this type of drug, which means it could be used to combat the emerging problem of antibiotic resistance. This type of drug has not had much success in clinical trials in the past, but initial tests of the nanoparticles in animals are promising.”

THE 100 most desirable women in sports. There’s a “Lingerie Football League?” Why wasn’t I told? And, unrelated: What, all those surfers, and Holly Beck didn’t make the list?

MICHAEL TOTTEN’S The Road To Fatima Gate: The Beirut Spring, the Rise of Hezbollah, and the Iranian War Against Israel is out today. Buy a copy. Buy three!

ROLLED OUT TODAY: RAISINGRED.COM, a site dedicated to making Barack Obama a one-term President.

UPDATE: Obama picked a strange time to launch his 2012 reelection bid; Or did he really? “As an unknown political commodity, Obama announced his first presidential campaign 21 months before the 2008 election. As a world-famous face, this time Obama announced 19 months in advance. Why not wait till, say, October? Here’s why: Obama’s sagging approval, stubborn unemployment and a sluggish economy make him appear vulnerable. Not crippled, but vulnerable. In a democracy, that gets potential challengers thinking — and not just Republicans.” (Bumped).

AT AMAZON, top deals in electronics.

POLIWOOD: Producer Joel Surnow: Camelot Fights Back: Who Killed ‘The Kennedys’ Miniseries?

HELL, GREENWALD, I was just angling for a Nobel Peace Prize. But it turns out you have to actually bomb people for one of those, not just post blog entries.

Who knew? I guess I didn’t put in enough hope and change! But by all means, bash me if it makes you feel better about how things have gone under Obama. My skin’s thick enough, and there are a lot of rubes out there suffering cognitive dissonance as they self-identify. If I can ease the pain that comes from realization of how you were played, I’m glad to endure a few blog attacks. Unlike Tomahawk Missiles, those don’t actually draw any blood. But if all this bombing stuff is so bad, well, I just blogged about it. You voted for the guy who’s doing it, and — despite the occasional criticism now — you know you’ll vote for him, and blog for him, again in 2012. So sorry if I’m unimpressed with your moral posturing. . . .

UPDATE: Again? Why not?

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Nathan Wood writes: “Mission accomplished for Greenwald. I just clicked on Salon for the first time in maybe three years. You were too kind to link it, Professor!” Yeah, I knew I was being trolled — but on the other hand, I couldn’t resist rubbing it in again on the whole hope-and-change thing. So, win-win! Yay, blogosphere!

MORE: Obama and Executive Power: How’s that Hope and Change Working Out? Meh. A few pundits are squawking, but they’ll still support him in the election. Call me back when Maddow endorses Nader or Kucinich in the primary. Or Paul (either one) in the general. Most of the Obama supporters are saying, “Those are our jets now!”