CONFLICT: AARP won’t acknowledge financial interest in Medicare copay debate.

DO THEY MAKE DRUGS THAT STRONG? Arguing that Obama is really a conservative.

MICKEY KAUS: “What is VW thinking? It looks as if VW is the likeliest foreign-owned ‘transplant’ automaker to get unionized by the United Auto Workers. That would be because the German firm might not put up a fight, given its tradition of dealing with labor unions. … Here’s a question: Does VW think the UAW wants them to succeed? Why?” Note that the UAW owns a substantial stake in VW’s biggest competitor.

YOUR MONDAY MORNING COMIC RELIEF: Video: Obama Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner Defends “Welcome To The Recovery” Op-Ed.

AS CRIMINAL LAWS PROLIFERATE, more are ensnared. “As federal criminal statutes have ballooned, it has become increasingly easy for Americans to end up on the wrong side of the law. Many of the new federal laws also set a lower bar for conviction than in the past: Prosecutors don’t necessarily need to show that the defendant had criminal intent. . . . The U.S. Constitution mentions three federal crimes by citizens: treason, piracy and counterfeiting. By the turn of the 20th century, the number of criminal statutes numbered in the dozens. Today, there are an estimated 4,500 crimes in federal statutes, according to a 2008 study by retired Louisiana State University law professor John Baker. There are also thousands of regulations that carry criminal penalties. Some laws are so complex, scholars debate whether they represent one offense, or scores of offenses. Counting them is impossible. The Justice Department spent two years trying in the 1980s, but produced only an estimate.” Yet we retain the fiction that everyone is supposed to know the law.

I think ordinary citizens should enjoy the same “good faith immunity” that law enforcement officials enjoy. That they do not is, I suggest, a violation of the Constitutional injunction against titles of nobility. One thing that a title of nobility grants, after all, is exemption from laws that bedevil the little people.

“I’M JUST QUITTING.” “I got a permit to open up an underground coal mine that would employ probably 125 people. They’d be paid wages from $50,000 to $150,000 a year. We would consume probably $50 million to $60 million in consumables a year, putting more men to work. And my only idea today is to go home. What’s the use? I don’t know. I mean, I see these guys — I see them with tears in their eyes — looking for work. And if there’s so much opposition to these guys making a living, I feel like there’s no need in me putting out the effort to provide work for them. So as I stood against the wall here today, basically what I’ve decided is not to open the mine. I’m just quitting. Thank you.”

HMM: If Elizabeth Warren gets in race, don’t expect home run.

MICHAEL BARONE: To Get A Mandate, The GOP Must Win Another Election.

MORE ON JAMES FALLOWS’ HYPOCRISY. That’s not a high horse you’re on, James, it’s a hobbyhorse.

Much more on this story here.

ROGER KIMBALL: The Debt Ceiling And The Fifth Labor Of Heracles.

PREGNANT WOMAN BEATS UP MUGGER: “Officers say they found Matthews, screaming in pain, lying on the street.”

BLACK MONDAY? Obama’s Debt-Ceiling Crisis Strategy Could Sink Wall Street.

JOURNALISTIC PHONE-HACKING, AMERICAN STYLE:

A reporter phone-hacking scandal in Britain has resulted in the closure of that nation’s largest newspaper. Folks outside of journalism might not recall a similar phone-hacking case in the United States with a rather different tone.

On May 3, 1998, the Cincinnati Enquirer published the results of a yearlong investigation of Chiquita Brands International, headed by billionaire Carl Linder, one of Cincinnati’s leading residents. The 18-page spread accused the company of bribery and other crimes in foreign lands and of abusing Central American workers.

The expose seemed destined to win a Pulitzer. But on June 28, the newspaper abruptly ran a front-page apology renouncing the entire story and saying it would pay Chiquita some $10 million in compensation. The apology was repeated the following day, and the day after that.

Yet, the information in the story wasn’t necessarily wrong.

One reporter had simply gone too far in gathering it. Michael Gallagher, a veteran journalist, had illegally dialed into Chiquita’s voice message system and recorded messages. Then he had lied to his editors about what he had done.

I don’t recall any congressional investigations.

OKAY THE HEADLINE OF THIS NEWSWEEK PIECE ON TOM COBURN kinda tips the editors’ hand, but the reporting gets one key bit right — the role of Porkbusters as incubator for the Tea Party. That’s something that a lot of reporters, who keep asking me “where were the complaints about spending under Bush?” keep missing, though often when you mention Porkbusters they’ll say “oh, yeah, I forgot.”

UPDATE: Wow, that was fast — they’ve changed the headline from “Tea Party Turncoat” to “Dr. Maybe.” You can still see the old one in the URL, though.

MICKEY KAUS ON OBAMA’S GOALPOST-MOVING: “See the middle of Chait’s piece for an intriguing analysis of how President Obama had to offer to cut middle-class entitlements in order to … be able to stick it to middle-class taxpayers! It was win-win! (The truth is that Obama’s 2008 campaign pledge not to tax people making under $250,000 was irresponsible, especially if he was planning to ‘stuff the beast’ by passing an expensive new health care entitlement. Is that why he’s so angry? You’re always maddest when you feel a little guilty, no?)”

JOY MCCANN: Ending the War on Salt? Crusader NYC Mayors Would Be Hardest Hit.

Now that Scientific American has underscored the lack of scientific evidence for Bloomberg’s position, I have to ask: When will Mayor Bloomberg end his war on science?

DODD-FRANK’S WINNERS: Revolving-Door Regulators.

Yet another reason for my 50% surtax on post-government earnings . . . . .