BOB OWENS: ANTI-GUN GROUPS SILENT ON “FAST AND FURIOUS.” “Pressed by PJ Media, they refuse to condemn gun violence facilitated by the Obama administration.”

WSJ: You Know What’s Missing From The Obama Healthcare Anniversary? Obama. Yeah, I’d keep a low profile on that one, too, if it were me. “With the law still unpopular with many Americans, the White House has concluded that it is virtually impossible to change negative public opinions, particularly if Mr. Obama is front and center, a senior administration official said.”

THERE’S THAT WORD AGAIN: New Home Sales Unexpectedly Slip 1.6% in February.

UPDATE: Plus this: China factories falter, euro zone business wilts. And: “Memphis, Tennessee-based FedEx Corp (FDX.N), whose delivery service spans the globe, included a warning with its earnings report issued on Thursday that tepid economic growth was causing it to scale back its outlook for the rest of this year.”

MICHAEL TREDER MYSTERY DEEPENS. Like a spy novel or something.

HMM: Census Data: Inequality Is Linked to Education, Not Taxes.

SO I DON’T HAVE MUCH TO SAY ON THE TRAYVON MARTIN STORY beyond the stuff I’ve linked on stand-your-ground laws, but I am puzzled by one thing: Dem groups are flogging this because they think it’s good for them, but how can it help Obama — who ran as a post-racial figure who would help America put its racial divisions to bed, a sort of anti-Al Sharpton — to have Al Sharpton leading protests and Louis Farrakhan threatening violence?

Sure, it stirs up the base, or part of it anyway — how Florida Latino voters respond may be different — but doesn’t it just add to the unfavorable contrast between Obama 2008 and Obama in 2012? Or are Sharpton, et al., basically tossing Obama’s interests aside to pursue their own? And is that some sort of indicator itself?

UPDATE: Hmm: Report: Zimmerman was on the ground being punched when he shot Trayvon Martin.

Is this true? I don’t know, but you could say that about most of what’s been reported on this case, which is why it’s a bad idea for people to get too far ahead of the story. Stay tuned.

HE’LL BE TANNED AND RESTED . . . BECAUSE HE’S ALWAYS TANNED, AND HE NEVER REALLY DOES MUCH: Joe Biden in 2016? Not so crazy.

ELIZABETH WARREN TO OBAMA: You’re not highly evolved enough.

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: ObamaCare: The Reckoning.

KATIE GRANJU: Bill Shory: Journalist, Mentor and Friend.

NOAH MILLMAN: Why Have Public Universities At All? “Why, after all, should the state subsidize certain educational institutions if what they are fundamentally trying to do is the same thing that private universities do and in the same way?”

AT AMAZON, it’s the NCAA Shop.

Also, today only: A 32GB flash memory card for $32.99.

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: Obama’s War On Women: No Health Care For You! “The administration denies funding for a Texas program that serves low-income women because of a law saying the program can’t fund Planned Parenthood. Is this how the president protects women’s health?”

Health care isn’t for Enemies Of The Regime.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Higher Education Bubble Hits Housing Market:

Don’t think you’re off the hook if you aren’t one of these students who owes money. Many economists now believe that we may be approaching a crisis point at which the crushing debt burden faced by twenty and thirty somethings will forestall important life steps like buying a car, getting married, or owning a home. This last item in particular could be a serious blow for the still-shaky housing market. For Boomers looking to retire and supplement their savings with house equity, this is going to hurt: if the rising generation is too burdened by debt to pay top dollar for housing, retiring Boomers are going to get less of a windfall than they were hoping.

Yep. As I’ve said before, it’s hard to buy a house when you’ve basically already got a mortgage.

ED DRISCOLL: “How Is Your Son?”

ROLL CALL: Obama Takes More Fire Over Keystone Pipeline. “President Barack Obama sought to defuse Republican attacks over his blocking of the Keystone XL pipeline amid soaring gas prices today, but his latest attempt at a compromise came under fire from friends and foes alike.” Best line: “Highlighting a waffle.”

BYRON YORK: Obama Headed For Defeat In Keystone Pipeline Fight.

JAMES TARANTO: Greenhouse Ineffective: A liberal legal legend’s ludicrous ObamaCare defense. “Greenhouse is not a judge, so her opinions are no more authoritative than those of your humble columnist. What’s more, on the merits, her opinion on the ObamaCare case is shallow, disingenuous and silly.”

JIM TREACHER: Past Obama vs. Present Obama on Solyndra.

THE HILL: Republican leaders racking up ‘yes’ votes on Rep. Ryan’s budget. “Conservative House Republicans on Thursday said they support the 2013 budget resolution, leaving GOP leaders increasingly confident they will be able to pass the measure on the floor next week.”

Yeah, but then it hits the do-nothing Democratic Senate.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Obama’s Faith-Based Energy Policy.

When the summer driving season starts soon, and tension heats up over Iran, gas may reach $5 a gallon. Nothing bothers voters more than paying an extra $20 or $30 every time they fill up. In times like these, they soon might prefer even an oilman in the White House to an ideologue whose opposition to new oil development seems more religious than empirically based.

All presidents, of course, usually get the blame or praise when the price of gas skyrockets or plummets, just like they own a bad or good economy, or a successful or failed war.

Obama, however, earns additional blame for the gas rise for reasons well beyond the normal oil bogeymen — tension in the Middle East, rapacious OPEC dictators, oil company greed and Wall Street speculation.

Why? Americans remember that his team boasted about wanting higher energy costs in 2008, when Obama was still basking in hope-and-change adulation. Energy Secretary designate Steven Chu, who doesn’t own a car, pontificated about wanting higher American gasoline prices, hoping they would somehow reach European levels.

Candidate Obama breezily warned of skyrocketing energy prices — the necessary cost of his planned cap-and-trade, anti-global-warming legislation.

Sen. Ken Salazar, who was soon to become Interior secretary, bragged that even if gas reached $10 a gallon, he would not vote to open up new federal offshore oil leases.

Once upon a time, Obama and his supporters believed that high gas and oil prices were either helpful in ensuring that favored subsidized green energies would be cost competitive, or helped the environment. That’s why a now-embarrassed Obama digs in by mocking opponents who call for increased drilling.

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On the Interstate yesterday, I paid $4.12/gallon.

MAJOR SECURITY FAIL? “A group of U.S. federal cybersecurity experts recently said the Defense Department’s network is totally compromised by foreign spies.” Alternatively, it’s a very clever disinformation campaign.

MEDIA MATTERS’ ORCHESTRATED HATE: Now Playing on YouTube and Facebook: ‘Kill Rush Limbaugh.’

“HOW DOES EVOLUTION KILL BLACK PEOPLE?” “And then, Carr became violent.” Non-career-enhancing video at the link. Plus, from the comments, “I guess that rules out the Intelligent Design Theory.”