YA THINK? “The PATRIOT Act was always a police wish list.”

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: Enough With The Deficit-Fueled Stimulus.

You could stimulate the economy more with tax cuts and a regulation moratorium, but there are insufficient opportunities for graft there.

ROGER SIMON: Notes from the Spin Room — Perils of the ‘P-word’. Plus this: “I wish Gary Johnson were the libertarian standard bearer. He may have his eccentricities, but the former New Mexico governor is at least a fun guy to have drinks with. When I met him, I almost wanted to start smoking joints again. Well, not quite. On a more general point, just who does decide who gets to be included in these debates? Why Santorum and Huntsman but not Johnson?”

Plus this: “Romney and Perry were fine. We should be so lucky if either of them replaced Obama tomorrow morning. I’d treat everyone to champagne from here to Ohio. Huntsman is another matter. For a while I sort of liked him, but then things started to roll down hill fast. His pretentious belief in man-made global warming as settled science is so silly you want to guffaw. And then there’s his isolationist foreign policy. Sorry. No sale.”

UPDATE: Big Losers In Last Night’s Debate? The Moderators.

More here: “These questions were clearly fair game, but the phrasing and tone of the moderator made them seem far more akin to a scene from the Spanish Inquisition. Honestly, by the end of the evening I had lost track of the number of questions which were far less solicitations of opinion and policy than accusations. It was as if Brian Williams and company were looking for the candidates to apologize for being conservatives. As the night progressed, it became clear that the hosts would be severely disappointed.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Jim Treacher: Perry vs. Everybody.

Plus, from Ann Althouse on Chris Matthews:

So Mr. Science there — the man whose leg felt a thrill when he heard Barack Obama — says “big, hard, bad” and “hard, bad” when he sees Rick Perry. I’d say Matthews is scared. He’s spewing emotion. But he would like us to believe he’s devoted to science! A burbling bundle of emotion attempts to embody seriousness about science. It’s absurd. . . . Let’s look at the transcript and try to inject a little reality into the Matthews word-mush. . . . Perry said he wanted accurate science and more science — especially when it is the basis for proposals that would have a “monstrous economic impact.” . . . Matthews, brought on to analyze the debate, seems barely to have heard what Perry actually said. He simply unleashed a torrent over words around the subject of science and tried to scare people — if anyone was still watching — about this yahoo monkeyman Perry.

I remember a couple of decades ago when Matthews was a respected commentator. Now I’m wondering why.

WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Obama’s ‘Stimulus-Lite’ won’t revive America’s economy. “There is an old saw that insanity means doing the same thing over and over, in the vain hope that the outcome will somehow change. But having seen the early reports on the jobs package that President Obama is expected to propose tonight during his speech before a joint session of Congress, it appears the chief executive is attempting a variation: Insanity is the belief that if something doesn’t work, it will eventually succeed if you just do it with less gusto the next time.”

POLITICO: The incredible shrinking Obama. “The once-muscular presidency of Barack Obama has undergone a dramatic downsizing – in power, popularity, prestige and ambition – to the point where even Obama die-hards are starting to question his ability to right the economy or win reelection.”

That Politico says this is bad, but what’s worse is what Andy Stern says:

“He has sort of lost the sense of power and mystique of the presidency,” says longtime Obama ally Andy Stern, former president of the powerful Service Employees International Union. “There’s also a sense that people aren’t scared of him. That’s very dangerous.”

Well, he’s proved a paper tiger over and over again — but, then, so has the SEIU. But this kind of public disrespect from his core constituency — and SEIU is certainly his core constituency — bodes poorly. Is the Hillary primary challenge coming?

Hey, who needs Hillary? I’ve got your primary challenger right here! Al Gore unhappy with Obama for dropping EPA’s new smog standards. “Gore’s obviously deeply pained that his pet issue has been given short shrift by the White House; nothing would do more to push climate change back on the national radar than a surprise presidential run by a former VP turned Democratic nominee turned Nobel winner.” Run, Al, run!

BYRON YORK: Perry Comes Out Strong, But Faces Grave Danger.

FROM BRUCE YANDLE: An Economic Situation Report.

SO MUCH FOR POST-PARTISANSHIP: Obama does not appear open to meeting with Cantor, Boehner before speech.

JOURNALISM: Second NYT Reporter Faces Allegations of Serious Misconduct.

GALLUP: Obama Approval Among Hispanics Hits New Low.

JOB CREATION, AND DESTRUCTION: Gibson CEO Will Attend Obama Jobs Speech.

SHIKHA DALMIA: Social Security Isn’t A Ponzi Scheme — It’s Worse. “When a Ponzi scheme can’t con new investors in sufficient numbers to pay the previous investors, it collapses. But when Social Security runs low on investors—also called poor working stiffs—it raises taxes.”

BANANAS: Another Echo Of The Carter Era.

SCORING the GOP debate.

IS “WE’RE A SCAM” AMONG THEM? Things Social Security Won’t Tell You. Pretty much, actually.

BRENDAN LOY: Tropical Storm Nate joins Katia and Maria; could become major Gulf hurricane.

SO I’M READING S.M. STIRLING’S JUST-OUT The Tears Of The Sun, the latest in his Change stories, in what passes for my “spare time” lately. So far it’s quite good, on a par with the others in the series. It’s a big month for science fiction, as it’ll also see the publication of Neal Stephenson’s Reamde: A Novel. (No, that’s not a typo.) Alas, nobody’s sent me an advance copy of that one, but then I don’t really have time to do much more reading right now anyway, alas.

ANN ALTHOUSE WILL BE live-blogging the Republican debate.

Plus, there’ll be Drunkblogging from Stephen Green.

UPDATE: Althouse’s summary:

My overall impression? The moderators tried to provoke a war amongst Republicans, and Gingrich was the hero of the evening by calling them out. I thought Huntsman did himself some good, and Bachmann for some reason didn’t find a way to stand out. The main focus was on Perry and Romney — in part because the moderators made that happen. And I think Romney looked better than Perry. As they say, he seemed presidential. He had a lot of poise and he made plenty of sense. Perry seemed rough, but it was his first go round.

And Stephen Green’s:

Maybe that has more to do with Obama than any of candidates themselves — and I suspect that it does. But I’ll take this opportunity to quote Robert Heinlein, who said that the difference between bad and worse is much greater than the difference between good and better.

And most any of these candidates — even Santorum, whom I despise, and Huntsman, who I think is useless at best — rises above Heinlein’s level of “bad.”

Yeah, they’re all better than Obama. But that’s setting the bar pretty low.

ANOTHER UPDATE: More from Ira Stoll.

AT AMAZON, markdowns on football gear.

WISCONSIN: David Blaska asks the incendiary question: “Is Justice Ann Walsh Bradley a liar or just very troubled?” Ann Althouse examines the evidence and comments: “His conclusions are harsh, but I don’t think he misrepresents what is in the file.”

ROGER SIMON IS photoblogging from the Reagan Library, site of tonight’s GOP debate.

CHARLOTTE ALLEN looks into Nevada’s higher education bubble.

CHANGE COMING TO BRITAIN? Jim Bennett emails: “Cameron is quietly walking back from the extreme anti-victim features of English law. At some point people will start to discuss whether the right to self-defense implies a right to effective means to exercise that right.”

He also sends a link to this story: Shopkeeper, 72, will not face charges over florist raid death. “An elderly shopkeeper, Cecil Coley, who stabbed to death a burglar in Manchester will not face charges, as prosecutors reassured homeowners they can use reasonable force to protect themselves, their families and their property.” Sad that something like this counts as progress. But it does. He should get a medal. And note the poll.

HIGHER EDUCATION UPDATE: College Pays $50,000 to Professor Who Lost Job After Challenging Harassment Policy. Unsurprisingly, F.I.R.E. was involved.

From the comments, an important question: “And what has been the penalty for the administrators involved in this vendetta?”

CEOs TO OBAMA: Want Jobs? Try Getting Out Of The Way.