JIM TREACHER: #DontDoubleMyRate, huh? Dear @BarackObama: Why are we paying twice as much for a gallon of gas as we did on the day you were elected? “Hashtags are fun. I like hashtags. I like it when people in power think they can manipulate social networks, no matter how many times they fail. I like it when they keep stepping on all those rakes.”

THANKS FOR THE INTEREST! My Due Process Right To Record The Police piece (coauthored with John Steakley) now has nearly 1200 downloads.

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH NORTH CAROLINA? State Threatens to Shut Down Nutrition Blogger: Nutrition board says he needs a license to advocate dietary approaches.

Let me just suggest that North Carolina’s political class has more pressing public health issues.

POLITICS IN THE ERA OF HOPE AND CHANGE: Eye on Occupy: Protester at DOJ urges laughing activists to “start killing motherfuckers.”

RESEARCH AGENDA ADVICE, from Chuck Yeager.

WHY “STAND YOUR GROUND” MAKES SENSE: “These are sane laws that protect people.”

OUT: THE PULITZER PRIZE. In: The Walter Duranty Prize.

Starting this year, PJ Media, in conjunction with our good friends at The New Criterion, will be awarding the first annual Walter Duranty Prize for Journalistic Mendacity.

Walter Duranty – it will be recalled — was the New York Times’ Moscow correspondent in the 1920s and 1930s who whitewashed Joseph Stalin’s forced mass starvation of the Ukrainians (the Holodomor) and many other aspects of Soviet oppression.

Duranty was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1932 for his efforts.

Despite numerous attempts by Ukrainian organizations and others, the prize has never been revoked. Duranty’s photograph remains in its honored place on the New York Times’ wall along with the newspaper’s other Pulitzer winners.

The first annual Duranty Prize will be given for what our readers consider the most egregious example of dishonest reporting for the fiscal year 2011-2012 (July 1, 2011 – June 30, 2012).

We will be officially accepting nominations from PJM and TNC readers starting May 1, 2012, at (but if you want to go ahead now, no one’s going to stop you – the email address is functioning).

The problem is that there are so many qualified candidates . . . .

ANNALS OF THE ONE PERCENT: Elizabeth Warren Gets Interest-Free Loan From Harvard.

Students don’t get that deal.

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Not so great, says Harold Meyerson.

THE ADMINISTRATION’S WAR ON WOMEN CONTINUES: Panetta: Marines punished for prostitute attack. “Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Tuesday three Marines on a U.S. Embassy security team and one embassy staff member were punished for allegedly pushing a prostitute out of a car in Brasilia late last year after a dispute over payment.”

Why are we suddenly seeing this culture of contempt for women in the government? Well, these kinds of attitudes start at the top.

FIXING AIRPORT SECURITY: An Interview With Kip Hawley.

JIM TREACHER: Keith Olbermann’s entire career, summed up in 63 seconds.

HOW COMFORTING: Salazar: ‘No one knows’ if US headed to $9/gal gas. “Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said that ‘no one knows’ if gasoline prices in the United States will reach $9 per gallon, and acknowledged that the possibility is outside his control.”

Related: Reid draws line against Keystone. “Senate Democrats will hold firm and reject House Republican demands to include approval of the Keystone oil pipeline in transportation funding legislation, their leader said Tuesday. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said he would not in any way help Republicans move Keystone approval across the finish line.”

UPDATE: David Harsanyi: Actually, if Ken Salazar had his way we’d already have $9 per gallon gas.

WELL, SHOCK AND INCREDULITY, TO BEGIN WITH: What happens when a news anchor holds Obama accountable for his performance?

Also, hate-tweets from the Left.

A CARBONITE COUNTDOWN: “On May 1, Carbonite will release its 1st Q 2012 results after the close of the markets, and will host an investor conference call. At that time, we may get the first glimpse into whether and to what extent Carbonite’s famous March 3, Saturday night jettison of its sponsorship of Rush Limbaugh has affected new subscriber and retention rates. . . . If recent movement in the stock price is any precursor, the market is not expecting good results.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: “Severe Shortage of Skilled Factory Workers As Government Encourages Students to Pursue White Collar Jobs.”

DONALD SENSING ON AFGHANISTAN: In War, Truth Is The First Casualty.

MICHAEL WALSH: “[This] is why the dog meme has legs. Derision is wolf bane to the Left.”

AT FIRST, the world shunned the zipper.

WHERE WAS THE SECRET SERVICE? IT COULD HAVE BEEN DEATH YOGURT: “Getting yogurt on the president, you’ve got a story to tell.”

Oh, right, probably scanning for hookers. . . .

ANN ALTHOUSE PREDICTED IT: “The alliance of Romney and Ryan is so good that I suspect the Obama campaign will toy with mockery that has a homophobic edge. Let’s make their ‘marriage’ seem unseemly. Not so blatantly that they can’t deny it. Any homophobia can be disguised within a socially acceptable distaste for the rich.”

And sure enough: Libtalker: Romney/Rubio Campaigning ‘Homoerotic.’ Maybe these people are just predictable. Plus, from the comments: “I’m sure both of her listeners thought it was hilarious.”

IN ARIZONA, A LEGAL “WITCH HUNT?”

JOHN HINDERAKER: if You Don’t Look Like Obama’s Son, No One Cares. “For Obama, if it doesn’t help his re-election campaign, it doesn’t exist. Whether he likes it or not, however, I think incidents like this one, which have multiplied all across America, will hurt Obama in the fall. Millions of Americans voted for Obama in part because they thought his election would put racial division to rest, or at least contribute to that goal. But the opposite has happened. Obama has been an extraordinarily divisive president.”

UPDATE: More on the story from Tom Maguire.

AT AMAZON, top deals in cell phones.

Also, markdowns on headsets.

IRRESPONSIBLE: Senate Votes to Abandon Budget Control Act. “This means that the consideration that Republicans obtained in exchange for increasing the debt limit is gone. Moreover, some Republicans–I haven’t yet seen the list–voted with the Democrats today. One principal lesson can be drawn from this experience. It happens all the time that Congressional leaders will trumpet a budget agreement that allegedly saves the taxpayers trillions of dollars–not now, of course, but in the ‘out years.’ But the out years never come. Tax increases are rarely deferred to the out years; they take place now, when it counts. But spending cuts? Never today, always tomorrow.”