CHANGE: Peter Fonda calls Obama ‘traitor’ at Cannes. “Peter Fonda launched a four-letter attack on US President Barack Obama at the Cannes film festival on Wednesday, calling him a traitor over the handling of the aftermath of the Gulf oil spill. . . . Fonda — a keen environmentalist and co-producer of the film which centres on the explosion of the BP oil rig Deepwater Horizon, the ensuing spill and its consequences — accused Washington of trying to gag reporting on the issue.”

They told me if I voted for John McCain, we’d have a White House that cared more about campaign contributions from Big Oil than about the environment. And they were right!

They said the President would be called afraid of “free black men” by Cornel West, too. And they were right again!

DO “CHILDREN AT PLAY” SIGNS endanger our kids?

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE: The Contest!

HDTVS for $999 or less.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: “If college today has more to do with personal fulfillment than with contributing to the economy, why is the government paying for it?”

FEMINIST OBJECTS TO Philip Roth sitting on her face.

MICKEY KAUS: “You know how you get most histrionically angry at a critic (or friend, or spouse) when you have a gnawing, barely conscious suspicion that they’re at least partially right and you’ve made a mistake–and you feel guilty about it? You have to wonder if the vehement conservative response to Gingrich’s Meet the Press appearance wasn’t in some ways similar: Republicans subconsciously know Ryan has overreached politically. They know they’ve jeopardized their otherwise excellent 2012 chances. Which is why they come down that much harder on anyone who points this out. …”

UPDATE: Jennifer Rubin: Newt Gingrich Plays The Martyr.

JOBLESS CLAIMS: Weekly Claims See Fall, But Jobs Picture Remains Weak. “New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week, but a rise in the four-week moving average to a six-month high indicated the labor market recovery will remain painfully slow. . . . The four-week moving average of unemployment claims, a better measure of underlying trends, rose 1,250 to 439,000 – the highest level since mid-November.” And last week’s number was revised upward.

MITT ROMNEY: Obama can’t handle the truth! “Former Bay State Gov. Mitt Romney fired back at President Obama for barring the Herald from full access to the presidential visit to Boston yesterday, saying the commander-in-chief’s ‘retribution’ against the media has no place in the White House. . . . The White House blocked the Herald from being part of the press pool at yesterday’s Hub fund-raiser, citing the front-page treatment the paper gave to an opinion piece by Romney criticizing the president’s economic policies the last time Obama was in town.”

Plus this: “It’s obvious that those promises of change and transparency were nothing more than empty campaign slogans.”

UPDATE: A reader sends the Herald cover image. Getting into a pissing match with a tabloid is a mistake.

Related: “Nixon would be proud.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Christopher Fox writes:

Best quote so far from the comments section of Howie Carr’s editorial: “So last week when Common was at the White House it was all about free speech. This week, not so much.”

Heh.

OUR POLITICAL CLASS AND the real entitlement problem.

ONE-DAY-ONLY SALE: A video security system.

DEFENSE SECRETARY GATES: ‘No evidence’ Pakistani leaders knew bin Laden was there.

MICKEY KAUS: Yeah, you’re fat.

FOOD: Grain, Soybeans Surge on Adverse Weather From U.S. to Europe. “In the U.S., corn planting was 63 percent complete as of May 15, down from the 75 percent average in the past five years, as soggy fields hindered fieldwork, mostly east of the Mississippi River and in northern states, government data show. Spring-wheat, soybean and rice sowing also were behind the pace of recent years. The Ohio Valley and North Dakota will see more rain this week, AccuWeather Inc. said. . . . Europe’s crop, making up a fifth of global output, is under threat in the U.K., France and Germany from the driest growing conditions in at least 36 years. France, the world’s second- largest exporter, may produce 12 percent less this year than a year earlier, Agritel, a Paris-based farm adviser, said.”

Related: Mississippi Flooding Harms Agriculture in Several US States.

UPDATE: A reader emails:

With all the talk of how-

-food prices are rising
and
-food scarcity is growing

due to ethanol production, cold & wet weather, and other problems, has it occurred to anyone that we’re just one good volcanic eruption (Tambora, etc., but just a good 1990’s Pinatubo would do, or the recent Iceland volcano unrest) away from a serious food crisis? A serious cooling triggered by an eruption would probably drop the temps from the point of marginal production (see what’s going on now) to below the point that serious production issues would arise.

Yes, we’re uncomfortably close to John Ringo territory. Earlier item here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Mike Wall writes:

The only wise part of the ethanol program is that if corn prices reach “too high” the program can be shut down. This of course would lead to a huge correction in the price of corn, and all other grains as well, as billions of bushels would be released into the world market to get rid of it. I am not saying this is going to happen but the safety valve is there. China also continues to be the elephant in the room as their weather has been poor for several years and there are problems with several crops and water levels in various areas. Combining their increasing prosperity and subsequent demands for higher quality food and meat and declining production Chinese imports could easily be the volcano event rather than a real one.

Well, perhaps we’ll luck out and muddle through. That appears to be our national strategy, anyway.

MORE: Wichita reader Bill Rickords writes:

Watch the price of wheat also….about 60% of our wheat here in Kansas is in “extremely poor” condition due to lack of rain during the time where the heads of grain are filled out. Takes a lot of water for the soft putty like grains to fill out and harden. Heads will be shriveled and not weigh the 60 lbs. per bushel that is wanted. Not much rain this year where it’s needed.

Ugh.

TIM CARNEY: In which I give in to Obama’s Nixonian demands on what the media should cover.

Related: White House Snub Makes Boston Herald Gleeful. “Talk about handing your opponents a club to beat you with. . . . How foolish of the White House to play that game — and how dumb of the White House to get beaten at it.”

As I have pointed out repeatedly, Obama doesn’t act presidential. Presidents act presidential not because they’re stuffy or out-of-touch, but because experience shows that when you don’t act presidential, it often winds up handing opponents a club to beat you with. Obama might know this if he had had significant experience in national politics before running for President, but he didn’t. His staff, alas, is taking its cues from him, instead of remedying his deficiencies.

BYRON YORK: Obama jabs at Romney, previews health care attacks to come.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Safe Sex, And Taxes, Are For The Little People.

One strange thing about these serial sordid trysts in the news (not to mention the 1990s scandals) is the apparent absence of prophylactics during sexual congress — odd, since a three-decade-old government campaign to insist on them was always predicated on “education” and “awareness.” But in the cases of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, John Edwards, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, their extramarital hook-ups led to pregnancies, and the preliminary and tabloid “physical” evidence surrounding the Strauss-Kahn episode seems to show yet another lack of such concern. Factor in Eliot Spitzer’s use of prostitutes, and I think a new campaign either about safe sex or proper background discretion in the selection of partners should be targeted at politicians, multimillionaires, and those with advanced degrees in law.

Plus the likes of Tim Geithner, Tom Daschle, et al. not paying taxes. Perhaps it’s consequences that are for the little people.

CRUEL SUMMER? Data Signal Global Industrial Slowdown. “A global summer slowdown looms as a leading indicator of factory activity has turned down, according to a well-respected independent research firm. The Economic Cycle Research Institute’s long leading indicator of global industrial growth peaked at 0.7 in August 2010, predicting a cyclical peak for industrial activity this summer. The index stood at 0.1 in March, near the lowest level since January 1980.”

THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: Inspector General: 30% IRS Error Rate in $6b Home Energy Tax Credit, Including Claims by Prisoners.

FAMILY VALUES: Muslim Moms Kill Daughters For Marrying Hindus.

CHANGE: Hedge Farm! The Doomsday Food Price Scenario Turning Hedgies into Survivalists. “It may seem a little odd that in 2011 anyone’s thinking of putting money into assets that would have seemed attractive in 1911, but there’s something in the air–namely, fear.”

YOU IDIOT! JOHN EDWARDS RAGES AT MISTRESS RIELLE HUNTER FOR NOT DESTROYING SEX TAPE. “He is performing sexual acts. The woman is holding the camera. He is aware he is being taped.”

GUNRUNNING: MAJOR ATF SHAKEUP: CBS News has learned that virtually all the top ATF managers in Phoenix involved in the controversial “Fast and Furious” operation have been reassigned and replaced.

FORESIGHT@GOOGLE: Use code INSTAPUNDIT to get a $50 discount.

WHY FRANCE KEPT QUIET ABOUT STRAUSS-KAHN: “He has said he loves women, but it seems more accurate to say he loves Socialist women. I suppose he viewed that milieu as providing his supply of new women, and as one where women who caught his eye would either be compliant, or keep quiet about having to fight off his advances. Either way, there are a lot more women — and men — in Socialists circles who know about his activity than have ever said so.”

Plus this: “If I try transposing the situation in New York on Sunday to France, I just can’t do it. . . . Not only because the woman is black and apparently an immigrant. But also because she’s a housekeeper. Perhaps even more than her race, her station in society would probably prevent authorities [in France] from taking her accusations against a rich and powerful man seriously.”