NEWS YOU CAN USE: “America has more fossil fuel resources than any other nation. Russia is second, Saudi Arabia is third. On Thursday, a representative of the Government Accountability Office testified before the House Science Subcommittee on Energy and Environment that the Green River Formation alone–it is located at the intersection of the states of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, and mostly underlies federal lands–contains as much oil as the entire proven reserves of the rest of the world combined. America is uniquely blessed in its energy resources.” If I were the Russians and the Saudis, I’d be paying off some Green groups to block development.

THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED REPUBLICAN, WASHINGTON WOULD FILL WITH CORPORATE SUCKUPS, AND THEY WERE RIGHT! Democrats’ Fund Taps Corporate Donors for Convention. “Democrats have trumpeted their ban on corporate donations to their national convention this summer, saying that it shows they are free from the influence of special interests. But through a special fund, convention planners are accepting millions of dollars in corporate contributions to help pay for many of the activities outside the convention hall—as well as some expenses directly related to the event. Donors include Wells Fargo & Co., Bank of America Corp. and Duke Energy Corp., all significant employers in Charlotte, N.C., where the convention will be held in early September.”

AT AMAZON, today’s Digital Deals.

Plus, today only, $0.99 Each for Screen-Adapted Kindle Books.

KATIE GRANJU AIMS TO end the Mommy Wars once and for all.

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Many households have a negative net worth, study finds.

JIM TREACHER: #ASKMICHELLE: “Have you ever wanted to ask Michelle Obama a question? Sure, we all have! That’s why the social-media geniuses in the White House created the Twitter hashtag #AskMichelle. And it’s been going almost as well as all the White House’s other Twitter hashtags.”

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY: Japanese researchers using particle accelerator to breed salt resistant rice.

Japanese researchers at the Riken Nishina Centre for Accelerator-Based Science have been using their particle accelerator to cause mutations in rice for over two decades with the aim of breeding rice that is more resistant to saltwater. Up to now their results have been limited; just one new salt resistant rice variety has been created and it faced mixed reactions regarding taste. But now, because of the tsunami in that country last year that contaminated a lot of farmland with seawater, efforts there have picked up and researchers are reportedly coming close to developing a whole host of new saltwater resistant strains.

Faster, please.

CLARICE FELDMAN: UNDEAD!

Readers who heed what the media says would have thought the tea party bitter clingers were dead, so this week’s election results must have seemed to them like the attack of the zombies.

The zombies made their appearance known in Wisconsin, Indiana, and Nebraska.

Indeed they did. As I pointed out ages ago, Tea Partiers have swapped showy rallies for the unglamorous grunt-work of actual politics. Such efforts tend to go under the radar, until Election Day.

THEY’RE TRYING TO IMPOSE A NARRATIVE THAT DOESN’T WORK: In this story by Kirk Johnson: Cutbacks Hurt a State’s Response to Whooping Cough. See, here’s the problem:

Whooping cough, or pertussis, a highly infectious respiratory disease once considered doomed by science, has struck Washington State this spring with a severity that health officials say could surpass the toll of any year since the 1940s, before a vaccine went into wide use.
Although no deaths have been reported so far this year, the state has declared an epidemic and public health officials say the numbers are staggering: 1,284 cases through early May, the most in at least three decades and 10 times last year’s total at this time, 128.

Now here’s the narrative-advancing bit:

The response to the epidemic has been hampered by the recession, which has left state and local health departments on the front lines of defense weakened by years of sustained budget cuts.

Only here’s what’s really going on:

If the signs are there, he said — especially a persistent, deep cough and indication of contact with a confirmed victim — doctors should simply treat patients with antibiotics. The pertussis test can cost up to $400 and delay treatment by days. About 14.6 percent of Skagit County residents have no health insurance, according to a state study conducted last year, up from 11.6 percent in 2008.

“There has been half a million dollars spent on testing in this county,” Dr. Leibrand said late last week. “Do you know how much vaccination you can buy for half a million dollars?” And testing, he added, benefits only the epidemiologists, not the patients. “It’s an outrageous way to spend your health care dollar.”

So the real problem isn’t that there isn’t money, it’s that the money is being spent for the benefit of the “public health community” rather than for, you know, the public health of the community.

Which is usually what’s going on when people talk about the damage done by “budget cuts.” And I’ve warned about this, and about the New York Times’ heavy-handed narrative management, before.

UPDATE: Reader Ron Jones comments:

Two points: first, as the article eventually gets around to, the cause of this outbreak is vaccine refusal, not vaccine expense or shortage.

Second, that draconian measure of treating rather than testing is standard procedure in an outbreak no matter how much money is in the system. It’s common sense, not an austerity measure.

Indeed. So is Johnson spinning, or was he spun? Either way, he looks kind of bad. And here’s something I wrote on the vaccine refusal business a while back.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Mike Lee emails:

My wife is a pediatric RN in Seattle.

You are right. This is totally about vaccine refusal, caused by nutjob parents both left and right.

Jenny McCarthy autism believers, apocalyptic home schoolers, both are at fault.

We each had to get pertussis vaccinated because my wife’s so exposed.

Nobody’s died yet because the current horrible health care system jumps right on it.

In a perfect legalistic world, we could file a class action lawsuit against these idiots.

Yes, the quacks do far more damage than the “evil” drug companies, and risk far fewer consequences. And the quacks are not immune from the profit motive, either.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Change—and Some Hope.

And the greatest coup of all, Bill Maher neglected to say, was convincing this administration to try antiquated and discredited policies in order to make the economy sputter, so they could keep Obama from being reelected!  Fiendish!

HOME AGAIN, HOME AGAIN, JIGGITY-JIG: I’m tanned, rested, and ready, and my guest-bloggers have done a terrific job. Thank ’em all, and maybe they’ll stick around for another day. I wouldn’t mind!

PAUL EHRLICH WAS UNAVAILABLE FOR COMMENT.

Incidentally, it’s worth flashing back to all of the doomsday enviro-prognosticators of the 1970s, and how much they got wrong — hilariously so, in retrospect:

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I blame the Frisbee Ion.

DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE.

A LEGITIMATE POLITICAL MOVEMENT.

(Via Frank J.)

PREDICTING THE TABLET COMPUTER, IN 1994:

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SEVEN DAYS IN MAY: “Remember the phrase ‘No Drama Obama?’ Perhaps it should be retired after this week.”

RELATED: At the Corner, Victor Davis Hanson on “The Face of Things to Come.”

The metaphor, it hurts.

WARGAMING THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE: Moe Lane writes:

It’s funny, really.  Somebody like Mark Halperin sees this:

Barack Obama’s decision to base his re-election campaign outside of Washington seems to be working pretty darn well. The campaign’s massive, high-rise headquarters in Chicago’s Loop achieves a fine balance between 2008’s hip-casual dorm room (there’s a Ping-Pong table and cheeky homemade signage) and 2012’s systematized Death Star (there are more employees than I have ever seen in a political campaign, with work stations subdivided as ever more employees are added). The place hums from early morning until late at night, designed for maximum efficiency and manifest focus.

and thinks “Success!” I see it and think “High burn rate.”  Also: “Hubris.”  Let’s talk about why.

With maps of various electoral college scenarios for November. Read the whole thing.

RELATED: At the Corner, Victor Davis Hanson on “The Face of Things to Come.”

CAN THE CENTER HOLD in Greece with the swell of Nazis and Communists?

YOU’RE GOING TO NEED A BIGGER BLOG: Walter Russell Mead on “News You Won’t Find At The New York Times.”

Mead focuses on news from the Wisconsin recall race, but considering the size of the cocoon the Times builds, that headline could cover just about anything.

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UNEXPECTEDLY! GOV. JERRY BROWN SAYS CALIFORNIA FACING HIGHER-THAN-EXPECTED $16 BILLION BUDGET SHORTFALL:

California’s budget deficit has swelled to a projected $16 billion — much larger than had been predicted just months ago — and will force severe cuts to schools and public safety if voters fail to approve tax increases in November, Gov. Jerry Brown said Saturday.

The Democratic governor said the shortfall grew from $9.2 billion in January in part because tax collections have not come in as high as expected and the economy isn’t growing as fast as hoped for. The deficit has also risen because lawsuits and federal requirements have blocked billions of dollars in state cuts.

How come the Red Queen’s Race only seems to happen in the bluest of regions?

UPDATE: Speaking of the Red Queen’s Race, “The History of Stockton: Chapter Nine.”

MORE: “Report: Occupy LA Costs Taxpayers $4.7 Million; Entire Movement Close to $30 Million.”

MITT ROMNEY USES JIMMY CARTER AS CAMPAIGN WEAPON: Why would Obama (and arguably by extension, the Politico) complain, when Obama has – voluntarily — favorably compared himself with Carter? And incidentally, note the “dog whistle” opening in the Politico article:

For President Barack Obama, Mitt Romney is an obvious throwback to another era — a stiff Father Knows Best-type who straps the dog to the station wagon and marries his high-school sweetheart.

The presidential candidate does what to his dog?

BLIND NJ MAN GETS GUNS BACK YEARS AFTER POLICE TOOK THEM AWAY — Judge rules Steven Hopler’s disability can’t take away right to bear arms.

Warner Todd Huston paraphrases the police’s initial response thusly: “New Jersey Police Say Blind People Don’t Deserve Constitutional Rights.”