CHANGE: Stimulus to Fund 3 Huge Wind Turbines In Providence … Made In China.

AT AMAZON, Mother’s Day gift ideas.

ROGER KIMBALL: Thoughts On The Arab Spring, Egyptian Desk.

ROGER PILON ON ALL-CONSUMING POLITICS:

Gov. Barbour’s explanation for why he will not seek the 2012 Republican presidential nomination — because a candidate today “is embracing a ten-year commitment to an all-consuming effort, to the virtual exclusion of all else,” and he cannot make such a commitment — is not only refreshingly candid but points to a much deeper problem.

We are moving inexorably not simply to news but to politics 24/7/365. And what better example than our current part-time president who, with no primary challenger in sight, is already on the campaign trail (did he ever leave it?), when the election is 19 months away. Some of us are old enough to remember when elected officials served — and ran for office or reelection only around election time.

Part of the reason for the change is the need today for vast amounts of campaign cash. But the deeper reason, I submit, is because politics has taken over so much of life.

Yes, as Jerry Pournelle says: “We have always known that eternal vigilance is the price of freedom. It’s worse now, because capture of government is so much more important than it once was. There was a time when there was enough freedom that it hardly mattered which brand of crooks ran government. That has not been true for a long time — not during most of your lifetimes, and for much of mine — and it will probably never be true again.”

And, of course, when you have a system of government so demanding at top levels that few normal people care to participate in it, you will get few normal people at the top levels.

LIBERTARIANS EXCITED about a Gary Johnson candidacy.

HOW THE PUBLIC WOULD CUT THE BUDGET:

Americans are reportedly childish about the debt crisis. The public says the budget deficit is a serious issue. So serious that Americans will let other people sacrifice. Rich people. We know the enemy of U.S. debt, and it’s us. You, dear reader, are framed as a hypocrite. But is that true?

Last week’s Washington Post carried a familiar headline: “Poll Shows Americans oppose entitlement cuts to deal with debt problem.” Bloomberg News led a December article: “Americans want Congress to bring down a federal budget deficit that many believe is ‘dangerously out of control,’ only under two conditions: minimize the pain and make the rich pay.” Politico recently reached for Shakespeare with its conclusion: “the fault lies not in our stars but in ourselves.”

But the fault may actually lie in misreading the stars (data) and how our political stars (lawmakers and pundits) misread us. Americans appear willing to make hard choices, according to a largely unnoticed but landmark study. Given the chance, the public cuts much of the deficit and saves Social Security.

Given the record of the politicians — and the press — neither group is in any position to cast aspersions.

HMM: PJM Exclusive: Actually, Stuxnet Has Completely Paralyzed Iran’s Bushehr Plant.

STEPHEN GREEN: Is the “Age Of America” Really At An End?

ELIE MYSTAL: Is The New York Board Of Law Examiners Threatening Me?

CHANGE: Florida Senate hopeful looking to follow Marco Rubio’s lead.

THIS’LL BE INTERESTING: Customers Sue Apple Over iPhone Location-Data Collection.

AN AMERICAN PREFERENCE CASCADE?

THE HILL: House Republicans question Google, Apple on consumer privacy. “The lawmakers asked a series of questions including how long their devices store data, which laws apply to the companies, and whether the companies are planning to implement measures to alleviate privacy concerns. They addressed their questions to the famous chief executives of those companies, including Steve Jobs of Apple and Larry Page of Google, requesting a response by May 9.”

MICKEY KAUS:

The LAT doesn’t point it out, but there’s a huge gap between the preferences of “white” voters and “Latino” voters in the paper’s poll when it comes to cutting pension benefits for public workers or raising their retirement age. On the issue of cutting retirement benefits of future government employees, whites are 62-32 in favor. Latinos are 53-39 against. On raising the retirement age, the gap’s even bigger: whites favor it by a margin of 33 percentage points (63/30). Latinos oppose it by a margin of 16 points (39/55). Yet on other big vs. small government budget issues–e.g. capping state spending–the two groups are very close together.

He has a theory as to why.

ROBERT SAMUELSON: AWOL on the deficit: “Obama has no plan to balance the budget — ever.”

BUT AT LEAST THE WHITE HOUSE HAS ISSUED A STRONGLY WORDED STATEMENT: Syrian tanks, soldiers lay siege to southern towns. “Syrian leaders deployed tanks and troops against unarmed demonstrators Monday in a sharp escalation of their effort to crush the widening protest movement, prompting the Obama administration to condemn the deadly crackdown and weigh additional sanctions against the embattled government. . . . Gunfire continued in Daraa on Tuesday as residents took refuge from tanks in the streets and snipers on rooftops, and the government cut off water supplies, news services reported. Human rights groups said security forces have rounded up hundreds of pro-democracy activists across Syria since Friday’s protests.”

I hope we’re doing something to help these people behind the scenes, but I kind of doubt it.

MEGAN MCCARDLE: What A Crisis Looks Like: “The real issue starts, not when China starts selling our bonds, but when China stops buying our bonds. As soon as that happens, we’re in big trouble. . . . A lot of people tend to assume that there will be warning signs telling us that we need to get our fiscal house in order: China will slow down its bond purchases, interest rates will gradually rise. But in fact, the lesson of fiscal crises is that the ‘warning signs’ we’re watching for often are the crisis. Unless interest rates increase (or debt buying decrease–which is really the same thing) in a very gradual, orderly fashion, then by the time your interest rates rise, it is already too late to do anything easy; your debt service burden forces you into dramatic fiscal measures, or default. . . . People are willing to lend at decent rates, until suddenly they’re barely willing to lend at all.”

Yes, looking around the world it’s obvious that when things start to fall apart, they tend to do so very rapidly even when that happens after a long period of apparent stability. And yet that always seems to come as a surprise. What we’re seeing now are the warning signs. . . .

Plus, as a commenter suggests, what if the Chinese economy collapses and they’re no longer able to buy Treasuries? That’s hardly inconceivable.

WAPO/ABC NEWS POLL: High gas prices cut into driving habits — and Obama’s approval rating. “Obama, like previous presidents in times of high oil prices, is taking a hit. Only 39 percent of those who call gas prices a ‘serious financial hardship’ approve of the way he is doing his job, and 33 percent of them say he’s doing a good job on the economy.”

UPDATE: Skepticism:

When did everyone decide that it’s high gas prices that are hurting Obama? Seems crazy to me. He’s losing two out of three wars, the economy is flagging, and his signature domestic achievement is unpopular. So it must be the gas! … P.S.: It’s not surprising that in polls people who say they “are feeling serious hardship as a result of gas prices” disproportionately say they “will not vote for Obama in 2012.” Or, rather, it’s not surprising that people who are so economically pressured that they are feeling serious hardship as a result of gas prices say they will not vote for Obama. That doesn’t mean the problem is gas prices. The problem might be the economic pressure. If employment and wages were growing rapidly, would high gas prices even be a factor? … P.S.: Also, if gas prices are seen as a harbinger of a coming burst of general inflation, that’s a different story.

Yes, there are so many reasons to be unhappy with Obama that it’s a mistake to focus too much on just one. And notice, by the way, that the one war he’s not losing is the war he ran against. Just sayin’ . . . .

THE INTERNET TAXMAN cometh.

BYRON YORK: Abdication of Responsibility: “Amid all the threatening and the name calling, one thing was clear. In the furtherance of its political position, the Obama administration has abdicated the Justice Department’s traditional responsibility to defend laws passed by Congress, and now King & Spalding has abdicated the lawyer’s responsibility to represent a client. And they did it over a law that passed with huge bipartisan majorities in a Republican House and Senate, was signed by a Democratic president, and was defended by two Democratic administrations and one Republican one.”

Just remember: King & Spalding is now responsible for the views of any client it chooses to represent, now that it’s clear they’re being vetted for political correctness.

HEH: Did you see that? Pareene, while posturing as an advocate of enlightened tolerance, just gay-baited a guy for being named “Stacey.”

UPDATE: Meanwhile, Little Miss Attila is just-plain-baiting a guy named “Stacy.”

DID JOANNE KLOPPENBURG violate the Wisconsin Judicial Code Of Conduct?

DOUBLING DOWN: Trump: Obama a “Terrible Student” Not Good Enough for Harvard. “I heard he was a terrible student, terrible. How does a bad student go to Columbia and then to Harvard? . . . We don’t know a thing about this guy. There are a lot of questions that are unanswered about our president.”

AT AMAZON, a sale on flashlights and headlamps.

WELL, THAT NEVER TURNS OUT WELL: TN Bankers Assoc. looking to intimidate bloggers?