WIRED FOR SILENCE: Patrick Fitzgerald’s Rezko Watchers. “Considering they weren’t called as witnesses in any trial, considering how long – a decade – it took for Barton to be sentenced, how long it’s taking for Mahru and Frawley to be sentenced, plus how no evidence, from any transcript, of any recorded conversation, involving any of the three, ever made it to a trial – it makes you wonder: Just what were they assigned to do in Rezko’s presence?”

(Via NewsAlert).

DON’T GET YOUR FACELIFT from an ear doctor.

A DIVIDER, NOT A UNITER. “It is a dangerous game that Democrats play, one that requires constant racial dissatisfaction and distrust. Unable to find actual racism among conservatives, Democrats have taken to pretending conservative arguments are Racial Code Words. I picked Juan Williams apart yesterday. Kathleen McKinley blogging for the Houston Chronicle took care of her town’s Democratic Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee.”

THIS IS KIND OF A FALSE EQUIVALENCE: “To protest a bill that would require women to undergo an ultrasound before having an abortion…. Virginia State Sen. Janet Howell (D-Fairfax) on Monday attached an amendment that would require men to have a rectal exam and a cardiac stress test before obtaining a prescription for erectile dysfunction medication.” I’m okay with abortion, but presumably the reason for an ultrasound is to let women see what they’re aborting. The response, on the other hand, is just kindergarten style payback. That it’s being widely lauded for cleverness is just sad.

UPDATE: From the comments: “How about a proposal that as long as abortion is legal men are exempt from child support unless they chose to do so.” A logical extension of my body, my choice, but not likely to play well. It’s “my choice,” not “my responsibility.”

TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: Thoughts on the failure of the antiwar movement. Of course, it turned out their biggest failure was electing Barack “Drone-killer” Obama . . . .

AT AMAZON, outlet deals in Camera & Photo.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Living In an Elitist Bubble Doesn’t Mean You Can’t Relate to the Rest of America.

ROGER SIMON: Why Gingrich Lost Big And What’s Next. “After his solid victory in South Carolina, Gingrich did not continue the obvious strategy that got him there – running against Barack Obama by presenting himself to Republican voters as the great orator and thinker who could bring down the noxious incumbent, the man who rose above internecine intra-party squabbles for the greater good of his country. Instead, he did the exact opposite. He spent the balance of his time in Florida running against Romney when he had already beaten the former governor in South Carolina. Talk about dumb. Newt let his personal antipathy overwhelm his good sense. He played defense about the picayune and the irrelevant when he should have played offense on the philosophical and substantial.”

Plus, sore loser Newt. Yep. Newt’s intellect and speaking skill are his strong points. His ego is his weak point.

More thoughts on speeches, and some criticism of Romney’s, from Ira Stoll. “Please, folks, remember, if voters are looking for an anti-Wall Street candidate who is going to divide Americans by pitting them against the financial industry, there already is such a candidate. His name is Barack Obama. It’s not constructive. It’s verging on dispiriting.”

UPDATE: Alexis Garcia: This Race Isn’t Over.

BEHIND THE SCENES at the Mojave Spaceport. Somebody send a copy to Mitt Romney, who’s still got a lot to learn on this subject.

ROMNEY WINS FLORIDA, and wins big.

UPDATE: Some thoughts.

ANOTHER UPDATE: James Taranto: The Case Against The Case Against Romney. “In a Forbes.com column, our friend Richard Miniter aims to debunk the common view that Mitt Romney is ‘electable.’ This column will serve as a rebunking.”

MORE: Sean Trende: Gingrich and Romney Are “Unelectable”? So Is Obama. “It’s understandable that the focus would be on Republican candidates in the midst of a GOP primary. But we shouldn’t forget that the general election — like all incumbent elections — will largely be a referendum on Barack Obama. And, under current conditions, Obama is every bit as unelectable as the Republicans supposedly are.”

GALLUP: Obama Approval Above 50% In Only 10 States. And the District of Columbia, natch.

LOTS OF FLORIDA COVERAGE at The Tatler.

REPORT: Romney Up Big In Exit Polls.

WHO REALLY STOPPED SOPA, AND WHY:

In Washington, the accepted wisdom by year-end was that the technology industry had matured at last into a lobbying force commensurate with its size and pocketbook. But what everyone missed was that the users had opened a third front in this fight, and clearly the one that determined its outcome.

The bitroots movement wasn’t led by Google. It wasn’t led by anyone. Even to look for its leaders is to miss the point. Internet users didn’t lobby or buy their way into influence. They used the tools at their disposal—Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter and the rest—to make their voices heard. They encouraged voluntary boycotts and blackouts, and organized awareness days. This was a revolt of, by and with social networks, turning the tools that organized them into groups in the first place into potent new weapons for political advocacy. The users had figured out how to hack politics.

Somebody should really write a book on this phenomenon.

VIDEO: Self-Guided Bullet Spots, Steers and Nails Its Target. “Each self-guided bullet is around 4 inches in length. At the tip is an optical sensor, that can detect a laser beam being shone on a far-off target. Actuators inside the bullet get intel from the bullet’s sensor, and then “steer tiny fins that guide the bullet to the target.” The bullet can self-correct its navigational path 30 times a second, all while flying more than twice the speed of sound.”

22 MILLION JOBS? Not hardly.

THE GROWTH OF THE ACCORDION FAMILY. It’s a worldwide phenomenon, and it’s certainly on the upswing here in the United States. “In the United States, we have seen a 50-percent increase since the 1970s in the proportion of people age 30 to 34 who live with their parents. As the recession of 2008-9 continued to deepen, this trend became even more entrenched. Kids who cannot find jobs after finishing college, divorced mothers who can’t afford to provide a home for their children, unemployed people at their wits’ end, the ranks of the foreclosed—all are beating a path back to their parents’ homes to take shelter underneath the only reliable roof available. . . . They fall back into the family home because, unless they are willing to take a significant cut in their standard of living, they have no other way to manage the life to which they have become accustomed. Moreover, if they aspire to a professional occupation and the income that goes with it, a goal their parents share for them, it is going to take them a long time and a lot of money to acquire the educational credentials needed to grab that brass ring. Sheltering inside an accordion family leaves more money to pay toward those degrees.”

NOBODY TELL ANDREW SULLIVAN: AIDS Prevention Inspires Ways to Make Circumcisions Easier. “The goal is to circumcise 20 million African men by 2015, but only about 600,000 have had the operation thus far. Even a skilled surgeon takes about 15 minutes, most African countries are desperately short of surgeons, and there is no Mohels Without Borders.”

ANOTHER DRUG RAID FAILURE: FBI Raids Wrong House, Enters Using Chain Saw. There should be no official immunity for no-knock raids.

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PANIC AT THE WHITE HOUSE? Gruesome 2012 Economic Forecast Could Doom Obama.

Well, it started out bad, and he made it worse.

A SHORTAGE OF HARD DATA: How Well Do Wind And Solar Actually Work?

JUST A REMINDER: Jon Corzine Raised $500,000 For Obama.

DANA LOESCH interviews Rick Santorum.

OAK RIDGE PHOTOGRAPHER ED WESTCOTT celebrates his 90th birthday. “In 1942, Ed Westcott was among the first few dozen employees to arrive at the East Tennessee site for ultra-secret work on the first atomic bombs, and he was the only one authorized to use a camera.”