UNEMPLOYMENT APPLICATIONS up last week.

CALL THE WAHMBULANCE! Righthaven accuses defendant of running up legal fees in copyright case. “Righthaven’s entire business strategy was built around using absurd legal fees to terrify Mom and Pop bloggers into coughing up thousands of dollars out of fear that Righthaven’s legal fees would bankrupt the defendants. Now Righthaven is getting a taste of their own medicine, and not liking it. If there is any justice in our courts (and I doubt that there is), Righthaven will be driven into bankruptcy and Steve Gibson will have to get a real job.” Don’t give up yet. And this is the first time I’ve found myself admiring Democratic Underground, but this is precisely how to respond to legal bullying.

PROTEST FAIL: Indiana unions produce less than 1/3 of promised crowd, even with people being bused in from out of state.

SHOCKER: NPR’s new interim chief donated exclusively to…Democrats.

TRANSPARENCY: C-SPAN Barred From Covering Obama’s First Gridiron.

IOWAHAWK: President Ups Offer For HS Grad Speech Contest, Adds Liquor Store Run.

OPENING: New York’s 26th Congressional District Special Election Set.

AN INSIDER REPORT FROM EGYPT: “The situation is balkanized and highly dangerous and may not calm down, even in six months.”

ANDREW KLAVAN: Your Public-Sector Unions At Work:

A CONSTITUTIONAL-REFORM LESSON INSPIRED BY THE BRITISH: Make Obama King.

Obama loves the idea of being President,” Peters said, “but he can’t make a decision.”

I think there is a lot of truth to that, even in domestic policy, where Obama has passively deferred to Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi on all legislative matters. One can debate whether action is appropriate in Libya or not, but Peters is certainly right when it comes to foreign policy–it is a safe bet that Obama will do nothing, because doing something would require a decision.

That got me thinking: Obama enjoys being president, and he especially treasures the symbolic significance of being the first African-American president. That’s how his supporters feel, too. I haven’t heard anyone defend his actual performance in a long time, but there is still widespread satisfaction with the symbolic value of his presidency. So why don’t we make him king? If being the first African-American president has symbolic value, just think what it would mean for the first King of the United States to be African-American! Plus, Michelle would be a queen and Malia and Sasha would be princesses. How cool would that be?

Read the whole thing.

TWITTER USERS WISH DEATH ON SCOTT WALKER, and Prof. Jacobson asks: Why do these people, many of whom are professionals, feel no fear in expressing such death wishes in the open? They’ve lived for years in a culture of impunity. But that’s changing faster than they realize.

FORGET PEAK OIL, THIS IS SERIOUS: Peak Coffee?

LAW ENFORCEMENT PRIORITIES IN NEW YORK: “I love animals, but there is something surreal about reading what amounts to an episode of CSI because a hamster expired.”

WISCONSIN UPDATE: Democrat staff engineered mob’s unlawful invasion of Wisconsin Capitol Building.

TIM CAVANAUGH: “Remember when election results used to be clear so early that they would all be printed in the newspaper lying in your driveway the next morning? These days even dinky city council elections are likely to wind up in lengthy endgames.”

EXPECT MORE HEADS TO ROLL: New O’Keefe video: Sure, says NPR exec, we can hide a donation from a Muslim Brotherhood front group from the government. Good grief. These people are underperforming even my low expectations.

But there’s this: “Credit where it’s due: Instead of attacking O’Keefe, 22 NPR hosts and reporters have published an open letter condemning Ron Schiller’s remarks. Among the signers are Mara Liasson and Nina Totenberg.”

Also: “Wasn’t the idea of private groups with political influence accepting money from shadowy, sinister donors a big issue in the midterms for Democrats?”

TODAY IN TECH HISTORY: March 10, 1876: ‘Mr. Watson, Come Here … ‘

ATHEISTS for Islam?

THE BILL PASSED IN WISCONSIN EARLIER, while I was off teaching class. Ann Althouse has more. Just keep scrolling.

AN SXSWI PREVIEW.

UBIQUITOUS VIDEO UPDATE: Buy a Kodak Playsport or Playtouch, get a free battery.

Also, markdowns on Nikon coolpix cameras.

RAZIB KHAN: The FDA Not So Hot On The Idea Of You Owning Your Genome. Well, I’m not so hot on the FDA these days, so we’re even . . . .

WILL WILKINSON OFFERS A SCORNFUL REVIEW of David Brooks’ new book. “Brooks supplies neither drama, high emotion, nor the mindbending metaphysics of aging without time. He serves up instead a shapeless story of ruling-class, Davos-goers so tedious, so lacking in passion and intensity, one begins to hope Harry and Erica will be pursued by proletarian lynch-mobs, revealed as rubber fetishists, or at least stranded at sea one ominous afternoon on a friend’s yacht, just so one may be sure these cardboard cutouts have functioning cardboard hearts. . . . The story of Harold and Erica does not really illustrate a new, coherent, science-based theory of human nature. It is a bowl hammered from Brooks’ philosophic predilections into which a jumbled stew of scientific anecdotes is poured. And it is not good stew.”

PAUL KRUGMAN celebrates his own epistemic closure.

SECURING THE CLOUD: Spotting Virtual Intruders.