THE NEW CIVILITY IN NEW JERSEY: “I want to punch him in his head.” You’ll just break a knuckle, dude. But maybe he’s responding to suggestions from Wisconsin Democrats.

JAMES JOYNER: “Leon Panetta has been brought in to oversee significant cuts to the U.S. Defense budget. Meanwhile, we’re in six wars. . . . But it’s shocking that we’re in half a dozen kinetic military operations and your average American would be doing well to name three. Something’s not quite democratic about that.”

TOBY HARNDEN: Down On The Fourth of July: The United States Of Gloom. “The last comparable Fourth of July was probably in 1980, when there was a recession, skyrocketing petrol prices and an Iranian hostage crisis, with 53 Americans being held in Tehran. . . . Obama’s promise of a national transformation after the Bush years, moreover, means that the thud of coming back down to earth has been that much harder.”

So much for all the hope-and-change talk.

AT AMAZON, markdowns in Home & Garden.

WISCONSIN DEMOCRATS: Spokesman Calls For Violence Against Republicans.

ROGER KIMBALL: Annie Sprinkle Does The Times.

STACY MCCAIN BOASTS: “Satan Reads This Blog.” Well, a rather minor imp, at best.

A TALE OF Two Shutdowns. “Minnesota’s government shutdown has made national news, in part because it foreshadows, in some respects, the battle that will play out in Washington over the next month on the debt ceiling. What has happened in Minnesota is clearcut: our Republican legislature passed a budget for the next two years, consisting of nine spending bills. Our Democratic governor, Mark Dayton, didn’t think the legislature spent enough money, so he vetoed them. As a result of Dayton’s vetoes, state agencies ran out of funding as of July 1 and, with the exception of certain critical functions, the state’s government shut down. . . . This is not the first time Minnesota has experienced a government shutdown. In 2005, during Tim Pawlenty’s first term as governor, there was a partial shutdown that lasted for nine days. It is instructive to compare the events that led to the shutdowns of 2005 and 2011.”

JEFF DUNETZ on Eric Boehlert and Jew-Bashing.

SUSANNAH BRESLIN: How To Be An Award-Winning Blogger.

STEVE CHAPMAN: “After repeatedly saying President Obama had taken over during a recession and made it worse, Mitt Romney now denies making that statement, which makes him look silly. He’d have been better off sticking to his original claim — which by one important measure is actually true. Under Obama, the economy has stopped contracting and resumed growing. So the recession is officially over. But most people judge the economy by how many people are working. And that number is pitifully low — far lower than when Obama took office.”

A REVIEW OF THE HP TOUCHPAD TABLET. “With its stellar software hobbled by bugs and appealing hardware dogged by bloat, the TouchPad poses the question: What’s it worth to be second place to the iPad?” I saw on Facebook that Dana Loesch was excited by the TouchPad until she actually tried one. Then, kind of disappointed. Bummer.

PERHAPS NANNY BLOOMBERG SHOULD TURN HIS ATTENTION FROM TRANS-FATS FOR A MOMENT AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS: Chaos on Christopher: Iconic Village stretch overrun by drug dealers, prostitutes, violent youths. “I’ve never seen it like this. Fifteen years ago, you could walk down the street and you wouldn’t have to worry about getting mugged on your way home.”

Meh, who am I kidding? He can’t even deal with the bedbug problem.

THE MASSACHUSETTS WAY: “Just because you flunk the bar exam seven times doesn’t mean you can’t become a judge. At least not in Massachusetts, and not if one of your brothers is already a (Jane Swift-appointed) judge and another one is a big-time lobbyist who donated more than $100,000 to Beacon Hill pols. It also doesn’t hurt if you were hired into the hackerama by none other than Jailbird Jackie Bulger, Whitey’s ex-con brother.”

GEORGE LUCAS VS. GREENPEACE: “Obviously, George Lucas’s concern about protecting his copyright overrides his concern about offending treehuggers. Is he just being a big Jabba? Is this yet another sign that the global-warming fad is over? Both?”

SOME ADVICE TO BLOGGERS.

THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR JOHN MCCAIN, we’d see an environmental nightmare, with oil spills from the Gulf of Mexico all the way to . . . Montana? I scoffed at such fear-mongering, but once again, they were right! “An undetermined amount of crude oil spilled from an ExxonMobil pipeline into the Yellowstone River in Montana, prompting evacuations of nearby residents on Saturday, authorities said.”

HMM: Big Banks Easing Terms on Loans Deemed as Risks. “Two of the nation’s biggest lenders, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, are quietly modifying loans for tens of thousands of borrowers who have not asked for help but whom the banks deem to be at special risk.”

MARKDOWNS IN Home Audio And Video.

PROF. JACOBSON: “The New York Times and New York Magazine have the long knives out for Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. But tell me, what precisely is it the DA’s office did wrong in the Strauss-Kahn case?”

My question: Shouldn’t we know the accuser’s name now?