MICHAEL BARONE: The Public No Longer Sees A Government Shutdown As A “Train Wreck.”

Or maybe they just don’t much care for the way the train’s going anyway.

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: A Constitutional Right to Prompt Hearing as to Return of Citizen’s Guns.

UTAH TEA PARTY UPDATE: David Kirkham emails that protecting freedom isn’t only about national — or even state-level — politics:

With all the exciting news going on in Wisconsin (Thank You Ann Althouse!), Ohio, Indiana, New Jersey, and other states (not to mention the rest of the world), it’s easy to forget our own city councils can sometimes have a more direct effect on our lives (like getting arrested) than congress living 2,000 miles away in Washington DC passing crummy Obamacare no one bothers to read.

Just two days ago a wonderful member of our Provo City Council put out a Red Alert to our email groups that a proposed “Daytime Curfew” ordinance was being drafted behind closed doors. In an attempt to curb gang activity the police department (among others) proposed a “Daytime Curfew” for all children under 18 years of age during “school hours.” The council member’s email stated, “…under this ordinance a home schooled child riding his bike to his grandmother’s house could be arrested, searched, and fined simply for being outside.” The liberty minded people of Provo (and adjacent cities who don’t want the disease to spread) sprung into action. Thank God for email! Under withering pressure, our mayor pulled the ordinance from the city council meeting agenda tonight. But that certainly didn’t stop our protests.

Tonight, about 250 people lined the streets around the Provo City building with those wonderful hand-made signs so characteristic of “We The People.” The City Council room was packed and people flowed out into the hall. The Chair asked everyone who was against the Daytime Curfew to stand. The whole room stood up. Then, home schooled children and their parents lined up out the door and one after another they took the mic–many in tears. One girl was so small she couldn’t see over the podium. The Chair asked her to step in front of the podium where I held the mic for her. She had written her speech in her spiral notebook but was too scared to read it. Trembling, all she could utter was her name. I have never heard more moving speech in all my life. Their message was united. Their message was clear…Don’t Tread On Me! (or the 4th Amendment!) . . . Please remind your readers to keep an eye on their local city councils. “The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.”

And those guys bear watching. Plus, they notice a crowd. He adds: “Final note…you are right. ALWAYS have a camera. Lousy photos are better than no photos. Thanks for all you do!” Yes, travel prepared.

GALLUP: American support for Israel near all-time high.

HOPE AND CHANGE SAME: Holder: Gitmo may stay open beyond 2012. “Attorney General Eric Holder left open the possibility Tuesday that the Guantánamo Bay terrorist prison camp might live on beyond President Obama’s first term. Asked in a congressional hearing whether the prison would be closed by November 2012, Holder said: ‘I don’t know.'”

Say, remember when the Obama fans were calling McCain “McSame” because if we elected him, nothing would, you know, change?

LOSING RUTH MARCUS: A ‘Where’s Waldo?’ Presidency. “For a man who won office talking about change we can believe in, Barack Obama can be a strangely passive president. There are a startling number of occasions in which the president has been missing in action — unwilling, reluctant or late to weigh in on the issue of the moment. He is, too often, more reactive than inspirational, more cautious than forceful. . . . Where’s Obama? No matter how hard you look, sometimes he’s impossible to find.” It’s as if we elected an inexperienced community organizer who’s in way over his head or something. But the establishment media seems increasingly willing to point this out lately. That’s big, because without them to prop him up he’s toast.

WHITEWASHING WISCONSIN’S UNION PROTESTS: Just as the press will go out of its way to exaggerate — or invent — negative stuff about the Tea Parties, it covers up the bad behavior of the protesters it likes.

A REMINDER: Natalie Portman, Oscar Winner, Was Also a Precocious Scientist.

THOSE BOGUS-EXCUSE-WRITING WISCONSIN DOCTORS: They’re back! “I have a question for these physicians and for the University which employs them. Would you feel the same about a cadre of physicians who started a website whose sole purpose was to provide doctor’s excuses? Surely it is no different to standing on a street corner handing them out to passersby who happen to share a political ideology. Take the politics out of it for a moment, please, and try to be honest about the ridiculousness involved.”

MICHAEL BARONE: Barack And Me. “Obama today is following the same strategy that Smith did at CEO: trying to preserve an unsustainable status quo by throwing money at it. Smith propelled his company toward bankruptcy. Does Obama want to do the same?”

GOOD LUCK WITH THAT: Bernanke seeks to ease lawmakers’ inflation fears.

THE “NEW CIVILITY” (CONTD): Wisconsin Protesters Mob Republican Legislator, Block His Entrance To The Capitol.

THINK PROGRESS? Think ignorance. I had to double-check to be sure that “Lee Fang” wasn’t actually a character from Atlas Shrugged.

SPIKE GILLESPIE ON temporal abundance and the excitement of YardFarm gardening.

ANN ALTHOUSE: Should the Attorney General be saying “my people”… and not mean the People of the United States?

VIDEO: WWII Veteran Ted Gundy shoots a 5″ group at 1000 yards.

CLAIRE BERLINSKI on food confusion.

AT AMAZON, 60% Off Men’s Sweaters.

UNTESTED AND UNREADY? Hillary, Obama Flub Mideast.

OKAY, THIS ACTUALLY WAS SMART DIPLOMACY: In U.S.-Libya Nuclear Deal, a Qaddafi Threat Faded Away. “Senior administration officials and Pentagon planners, as they discuss sanctions and a possible no-fly zone to neutraliz