RED STATE UPDATE ON OBAMA AND THE NASHVILLE FLOODS.

You can help via the Nashville Red Cross if you’re so inclined.

UH OH: Democratic Rep. Mollohan faces primary challenge over earmarks.

His rival in Tuesday’s primary is state Sen. Mike Oliverio, who has criticized the agenda of President Barack Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. In a state where Republican presidential nominee John McCain won handily in 2008, that criticism has helped the 46-year-old financial adviser attract the support of some of West Virginia’s tea partiers as well as former Mollohan allies.

“I think the voters in northern West Virginia have simply lost confidence in Congressman Mollohan,” Oliverio said. “They’ve lost confidence in his ability to conduct himself and his affairs in Washington in a proper manner.”

So have I.

AMERICA FALLING BEHIND the mobile-calling curve?

MORE ON MCCLATCHY’S GRIEVOUS ERROR: Don’t leave it to Cleaver, part 16. “We believe that the congressmen’s story was a fabrication intended to defame the Tea Party movement and distract attention from the resistance to Obamacare. Not a single video corroborates it. No independent witness has stepped forward to vouch for it. Given the involvement of Rep. Clyburn in promoting the story, the fabrication extends to the Democratic congressional leadership. It is a scandal that warrants the attention of the mainstream media. In recent installments of this series, we have posted correspondence — both our own and that of our readers — with McClatchy News investigative editor James Asher. (All previous installments can be accessed here.) Readers have continued to forward their correspondence with Asher to us. This correspondence powerfully points out the deficiencies of the messages we have posted from Asher. But it is evident that Asher has no interest in examining the merits of the story.”

RICHARD CLARKE: The Times Square bomb failed. What will we do when the next bomb works?

I dunno, maybe fire Janet Napolitano?

WHAT NOT TO SAY to a lesbian.

NBC: Obama to pick Kagan for Supreme Court.

UPDATE: The count: “Ain’t I a woman?”

CLIVE CROOK: America has good reason to worry about Greece.

TIM CAVANAUGH: Will Janet Napolitano Be Fired For Times Square Incompetence? “Napolitano’s rhetorical slip is a little too serious to be palmed off with some linguistic woolgathering. She has made clear repeatedly that she believes people with Gadsden flag bumper stickers are a greater threat to domestic tranquility than out-of-the-closet terrorists who receive training and material assistance in foreign terror centers. She has been wrong about this every time, and she will continue to be wrong until Americans actually die.” Don’t kid yourself — she’ll continue to be wrong after that, too.

Plus this: “This is an obvious politicization of her office. (Napolitano’s favored targets — health care protesters and disgruntled veterans — are distinguished not by their propensity toward violence but by their opposition to the administration.) “

A CREATIVE PROPOSAL for reducing prison rape.

CYNTHIA YOCKEY: Why Is It a Slur to Suggest Elena Kagan Is a Lesbian?

UH OH: Bank Funding Crunch Deepens as Swap Rates Soar: Credit Markets.

CHEESIEST MOTHER’S DAY PROMOTION YET: It’s Mother’s Day! Have You Subscribed Your Mom to Reason.tv’s YouTube Channel?

JOSEPH POSTELL: It’s time to reform our administrative state.

MARKDOWNS ON PATIO FURNITURE. Personally, I’ve had the best luck with cheap stuff from Target, but not everyone shares my plebeian tastes.

UTAH HEATS UP: Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson to face primary challenge.

POOR POOR PITIFUL ME: Obama uses commencement speech to whine about blogs and talk radio. All these blogs won’t let me be — Lord have mercy on me . . . woe, woe is me.

But will his attacks on iPads and Xboxes help with the youth vote? From beacon of change to crabby curmudgeon in less than 16 months . . . .

DAN MITCHELL: Subsidizing Terrorism with Welfare Handouts: More Astounding Moments in Government Stupidity. As Mitchell notes, Mickey Kaus has been on top of the welfare-terrorism connection story from the beginning. Kaus: He’s a visionary — put him in the Senate!

THIS WEEK IN THE FUTURE.

THEY TOLD ME THAT IF I VOTED FOR MCCAIN, we’d get an Attorney General who’d want to curtail Miranda rights. And they were right!

Attorney General Eric Holder said that Congress should “give serious consideration” to updating the Miranda warning which requires law enforcement officials to inform suspects of their rights – including the right to remain silent.

In an interview on “This Week,” Holder said that the U.S. needs to exam whether the current rules regarding Miranda warnings give law enforcement agents the “necessary flexibility” when dealing with terrorism cases.

Ah, remember all that talk about the “lawless Bush Administration” trampling civil rights, and the fierce moral urgency of change? Well, if you believed that stuff when they were peddling it. . . hey, rube!

Meanwhile, Christopher Fountain writes: “If only we had elected Obama, we wouldn’t have this travesty of justice.”

I don’t think it’s going over well: “Put George W. Bush in blackface and what do you get? Evidently, Barack H. Obama. Why not? Obama and his team have sold out on Iraq, Afghanistan, the Patriot Act, Gitmo, military tribunals, health care reform, financial reform, DADT and offshore drilling, so what’s the big deal about throwing Miranda into the pile? And by the way, what is the ‘new threat’ Holder is talking about?”

THE REVOLUTIONARY PROMISE of Graphene.

ARE MEN SMARTER THAN WOMEN, OR DUMBER? Yes.

ARE CARBS WORSE FOR US THAN FAT? If so, can we sue the nannies who have been trying to force us to eat less fat? If nannyists and “public health” crusaders were held to the same standards as, say, drug companies, they’d all be in jail now.

VOLCANIC ASH CLOUD RETURNS, disrupting European flights.

A BEDBUG EXPLOSION IN NEW YORK CITY. Bring back DDT. “The recent citywide resurgence of bedbugs has been well documented. In 2004, the Health Department tallied 537 complaints and 82 actual violations. Last year, those numbers ballooned to 10,985 complaints and 4,084 violations (given that the problem is thought to be significantly underreported, the notion that there aren’t far more cases is daylight madness).”

Here, by the way, is a recipe for homemade DDT, though I haven’t tried it and don’t vouch for it. Perhaps some readers will know more. Given New York’s problem, I’m surprised there’s not a flood of homemade DDT. It’s happened before.

UPDATE: A reader emails:

Long time reader, occasional writer. I am a PhD synthetic organic chemist; as such, as I found your article on homebrew DDT to be of some professional interest.

The procedure appears to be legit; nevertheless, I would strongly encourage no one to perform the chemistry outside of a lab environment. Most of the ingredients have reasonable levels of toxicity. As a chemist, I’d feel comfortable performing this chemistry in my lab, where I’d have the protection of a continuously drawing fume hood, lots of PPE and pretty decent temperature control. The ingredients aren’t really easy to get (chloral hydrate is hard to get, even for a professional chemist).

Finally, the waste streams from this chemistry would definitely be considered hazardous waste and something that shouldn’t be poured down the drain.

All of this to say, don’t do this in your garage — I think you’d regret it.

Well, I certainly wouldn’t. But then, I wouldn’t even make black powder nowadays, something I did as a kid. Meanwhile, reader Joan Pickett offers a prediction: “The ban on DDT will last right up until they start appearing in the bedrooms of the political class. Bed bugs are fine for you, but not for your…um…betters.”