USS COLE BOMBER KILLED IN YEMEN AIRSTRIKE.

SOCIALIST FRANÇOIS HOLLANDE WINS FRENCH PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION: A round-up of links and thoughts as to how Sarkozy’s defeat impacts the immediate future (or lack thereof) of the EU from Donald Douglas at his American Power blog.

UPDATE: More from Rob Long at Ricochet: “The great thing about France is, if you believe in socialism you call yourself a Socialist and other people are allowed to call you  Socialist…”

LONGEVITY UPDATE: At Oxford, Aubrey de Grey debates Colin Blakemore on life extension. Video at the link.

ARIANNA’S POWER SCALED BACK AT AOL? “Oh, yeah, baby: An investor rebellion against AOL CEO Tim Armstrong’s spending spree, and now Arianna’s shrewdly trying to peddle her wares to ‘private equity firms’ — another buyout to pay her yet another tidy lump sum? She doesn’t stay bought very long, does she?”

MORE HOPENCHANGE: “The Coming Taxmageddon Will Crush Stocks by at Least 30%.”

LABOR FORCE DISAPPEARS IN OBAMA’S DEPRESSION: “The big news in Friday’s employment report was not the miserable 115,000 jobs the economy added in April, but the disappearance of 340,000 workers from the labor force. We haven’t seen unemployment on this scale since the Great Depression,” David P. Goldman writes, adding, “If you’re not scared, you haven’t read the numbers.”

No wonder the president might be feeling a bit lonely these days.

RELATED: From Jim Pethokoukis of the American Enterprise Institute: “The awful April jobs report: Is the ‘real’ unemployment rate 11.1%?”

MAYBE BRINGING BACK KATHLEEN PARKER MIGHT HELP? Nahh — “Eliot Spitzer’s ‘Viewpoint’ Ratings Predictably Plummet Since Olbermann’s Current Exit.” As Tim Graham adds at Newsbusters:

Eliot Spitzer can’t even hold on to Keith Olbermann’s puny audience at Current TV. The paper’s headline said “predictably plummet.” Compared to Olbermann’s average in March, over the same time period, Nielsen has Spitzer’s four-week average down 62 percent with adults 25-54 (14,000, down  from 38,000) and 68 percent with total viewers (46,000, down from 145,000). The demo average managed to reach 19,000 in its second week, but dropped to 12,000 in the third and just 9,000 in the fourth.

Current TV — making CNN’s ratings look better every day!

UPDATE: Prof. Joseph Olson emails, “Eliot Spitzer is used to paying for his audience.  TV doesn’t allow that.” Heh.™

NEWS FROM MOJAVE: A Desert Town on the Way Up … to Space. Read the whole thing.

Related: XCOR’s space-age motorcycle. Video here.

THE END OF AN ERA?  Japan ‘switching off’ final nuclear reactor.

UPDATE: Link was broken before. Fixed now. Sorry!

THE ANARCHISTS’ FASHION GUIDE: Love the photo and its caption, which illustrate that it takes a fair chunk of change — and a goodly number of corporate brand names – to outfit the well-dressed anti-corporate anarchist these days. Presumably he also shops at Occupy Wall Street-appeasing Men’s Wearhouse for his day job.

AT AMAZON, it’s coupons galore!

NBC NIGHTLY NEWS IGNORES OWS CONNECTIONS IN CLEVELAND BOMB PLOT, and presumably they’ll also ignore this: “Bombing Suspect Who Has Nothing to do With Occupy Cleveland Signed Lease for Occupy Cleveland Warehouse.”

When asked about the above incident, a representative of the Southern Poverty Law Center recently admitted, “We’re not really set up to cover the extreme Left.” That sounds like a pretty good summation of the MSM’s ideological blinders as well.

Catastrophic change in publishing meets the education bubble?  The cost of textbooks used to be justifiable given small print runs, need for frequently updated editions, etc.  Electronic publishing removes those justifications.  Academic publishers have fought the e-model tooth and nail.  Reality can’t be ignored forever, though, and things are starting to change.

PANETTA: CLIMATE CHANGE HAS ‘DRAMATIC IMPACT ON NATIONAL SECURITY:’ This seems like it could be a great opportunity for Romney to have a little fun with Obama, by issuing a speech saying that if his administration really believes that, they should put the environment where their mouth is, and start campaigning solely via the Internet, ground Air Force One except for national security missions, and slash the president’s enormous, seemingly ever-expanding motorcade.

As the Professor is wont to say, I’ll believe there’s a crisis when the people who tell me that there’s a crisis start to act that way themselves.

UPDATE: Insta-reader Rich Chapman emails:

Then why does Panetta commute “home” on weekends to Monterrey, Calif. aboard his government issue Air Force C-37A (aka Gulfstream V)?

“I’ve gone home because my wife and family are there and because, frankly, I think it’s healthy to get out of Washington periodically just to get your mind straight and your perspective straight.”

Periodically meaning 27 times in less than a year.

So it’s healthy for Washington bigwigs to spew carbon from private jets for weekend getaways. But it’s not healthy for ordinary people. Or it’s healthy, but somehow healthy things for ordinary people are a national security threat, whereas healthy things for the special people are a national security stimulant. Or something.

I’m guessing under the Obamacare, advanced medicine will be healthy for the special people, but a national security threat for the rest of us. Maybe our bureaucrats can relabel the death panels to “national security panels.” All decent Americans would want to support something with a name like that.

Panetta obviously hasn’t taken the Gore Pledge.

THIS DOESN’T SUGGEST THAT COOLEY HAS MUCH HIGH GROUND TO STAND ON: Cooley Law School Subpoenas Colorado Law Professor for Records of Communications “With Any Person” About How Cooley Reports Employment Figures.

FROM READER PAUL TAYLOR, another reader book to plug: The Burr Conspiracies. $1.99 on Kindle.

SNL SCRAPS SKIT MOCKING OBAMA FOR TAKING CREDIT FOR OBL KILLING, according to the Daily Caller, which purports to have a copy of the script in question:

The full text of the skit, which was authored by comedian Jim Downey, is viewable below. It is not clear why the skit, which also pokes fun at the president’s handling of the economy, was scrapped.

The real President Obama has faced harsh criticism in recent weeks for allegedly politicizing bin Laden’s death by taking too much credit for the operation that killed him.

Instead of the skit, NBC opted instead to air a parody of Fox News Channel’s “Fox and Friends.” That skit, which also featured Armisen, mocked Fox News personalities by portraying them as clueless partisans.

Funny how they don’t want to make a Democratic president “cringe and squirm,” only Republicans. But then, as one of the show’s first writers once quipped in an interview shortly after SNL debuted,  foreshadowing its bland corporatist future, “you can only be avant-garde so long before you become garde.” SNL’s the definition of garde these days.

(Hello from the bridge of the USS Instapundit, by the way.)

LABOR FORCE: Four Years of Obama Undoes Eight Years of Reagan. “Wow this graph really says it all.”

My name is Sarah A. Hoyt and I’m a writer.  It’s been six hours since I last wrote–  Oh, wait, wrong place.  So, hi.  I normally blog here.  I will be one of the people filling Glenn’s not inconsiderable shoes.   Needless to say, honored to be here.  I feel like the kid who is used to his tricycle and just got handed the keys to a Ferrari.

“WE’LL TAKE OUT SCOTT WALKER,” says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. (Go to 7:50 in the video.) Quite aside from the whiff of violence in the phrase “take out,” there’s the odd correction he does, shifting from “they’ll” to “we’ll.” “They’ll” refers to the candidates in the recall election. “We’ll” — I think that means the labor unions.

“STABLE,” EH? Well, as they say at the Kentucky Derby: I’ll Have Another. Thanks for bringing me back, Glenn. Have a great vacation, as we guest horses attempt to inspire the disheartened crowd that many perhaps only partially fill the stands.

WELL, I’LL BE AWAY AND OFFLINE on my annual vacation from the Internet. I’ve left a few scheduled posts, but mostly I’m leaving you with a stable of capable guestbloggers, some familiar, some not. Ed Driscoll will be checking the InstaPundit email from time to time, so feel free to continue to send in tips and comments and he’ll get them to the appropriate parties. Have fun in my absence, and I’ll return tanned, rested, and ready to go!

I HAVE A COLUMN IN TODAY’S NEW YORK POST: Spin of the Times: Bias cloaked as front-page news.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: The War Against The Young.

An analysis of recent jobs figures at Investor.com reveals a disturbing development: the biggest beneficiaries from the economic recovery are Boomers, while everyone else is getting the shaft.

Since the Obama administration took office, there has been an epochal shift. Young workers have continued to lose jobs and incomes, while older workers have actually gained ground.

In fact, the Obama administration has seen a boom in the prospects of the 55+ crowd; their (I should say ‘our’) employment stands at a 42 year high. Net, there are 3.9 new jobs for people over 55 since the recession began in December 2007, but there are 8.1 million fewer jobs for the young folks since that time.

Feel the Hope & Change!