RECOVERY BUMMER (CONT’D): Economy’s Spring Slump Could Last Through Summer. Ya think?

OF COURSE HE DOES: Obama Fears Losing Reelection More Than Default. He can at least try to blame the Republicans for default. If he loses reelection the blame will fall entirely on him.

Related: Poll: GOP Has 10-Point Edge Over Democrats In Public Trust On Economic Issues. “The 10 point lead is the widest margin held by either party in months and has opened up in recent weeks as President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner have become the central players in the debate over how to deal with the approaching debt-ceiling crisis.”

JEFF JARVIS goes all Howard Beale.

WAIT, I THOUGHT HE WAS A “RIGHT-WING CHRISTIAN?” Parts of the manifesto written by the suspect in Norway’s terrorist attack were taken almost word for word from the writings of “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski. Still, if you’re going to commit terrorism, I guess committing plagiarism is small change.

UPDATE: Hmm: Who Added “Christian” and “Conservative” to Norway Shooter’s Facebook Page Yesterday?

WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Why Does Obama Hate Texas?

EXPLAINING THE DEBT: Weight.

NOW YOU’RE GETTIN’ NASTY. Bachmann Compares Pawlenty to Obama.

GOLDFISH ENCOUNTER THE DEBT PROBLEM.

CORNEL WEST FLUNKS THE PRESIDENT. “What happened was that greed at the top has squeezed so much of the juices of the body politic. Poor people and working people have not been a fundamental focus of the Obama administration. That for me is not just a disappointment but a kind of betrayal.” You don’t need a weatherman to see which way the wind is blowing.

DOOMED BY DEBT: “Doomed by Debt is a comic book created by Power Line reader John Doe, and it placed in ninth place in the 2011 Power Line Prize contest.”

SEX SCANDAL UPDATE: Oregon Democratic Rep. David Wu Hears Calls For Resignation. “Pressure on Democratic Rep. David Wu to resign intensified Saturday as leaders in his own party began confronting the embattled Oregon lawmaker over allegations that he had an unwanted sexual encounter last Thanksgiving with a young California woman.”

Meanwhile, Ann Althouse is skeptical of the charge. Are the Dems just trying to get him out of the way so they can run somebody stronger?

Plus this: “Note that the woman who has brought this chaos into Wu’s career is shielded by the newspaper’s policy not to ‘use the names of victims of sexual assault without their permission.’ That’s convenient. I think if you are going to have a policy like that, you should not report at all unless the alleged victim has reported a crime to the police. It’s not fair.”

SYRIA UPDATE: Syria Tightens Screws On Homs, Assad Sacks Governor.

AT AMAZON, it’s the Grocery & Gourmet Outlet Sale.

SCOTT JOHNSON: Someone Is Putting Words In Jen Rubin’s Mouth. “The Washington Post management doesn’t seem to get it. One James Fallows — he who made light of earthquakes in China and never offered a word of apology for his screwy defamation of conservatives in the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords — and a swarm of foul-mouthed and openly anti-Semitic tweeters have raised a ruckus over a Washington Post/Right Turn post in which Jennifer Rubin speculated that there might have been an al Qaeda connection in the Norwegian terrorist attacks.”

Related item here. I guess when Glenn Greenwald does it, it’s different.

And yeah, we’ve never seen much of an apology for the blood libels revolving around Jared Loughner, have we?

UPDATE: God and Oslo:

In the Arkansas army shootings and the Ft. Hood shooting and a host of others, the media and the left have sought to downplay any possible connection to Islam the attackers or would be attackers have had. And when those of us on the right have pointed it out, we’ve been accused of racism and those on the left have demanded to know why it even mattered.

Contrast that with the coverage of the Oslo shooter and already the New York Times is making sure in its first few paragraphs everyone knows the guy described himself on Facebook as a “conservative Christian.”

That’s because they don’t want to encourage prejudice against Muslims.

MORE: Kook Lefty Bloggers Say Sarah Palin, The Right, Caused the Norway Massacres. Well, to be fair, everything is Sarah Palin’s fault.

And some related thoughts here.

MORE STILL: Prof. Jacobson: My Challenge To Charles Lemos. Well, Jacobson, you did rely on the New York Times . . . .

Related: “It’s tempting to say that the Democrats have gotten lazy of late, but I don’t think that’s why their attacks have been so clumsy. They’re afraid (and for good reason) and that fear has made them sloppy and desperate.”

STILL MORE: Ed Driscoll looks on the bright side: At last, one man’s terrorist is no longer another’s freedom fighter!

Plus, Jeffrey Goldberg:

The question arises, then, why did Jennifer Rubin make this outrageous assertion about jihadism and Norway?

Well, perhaps it was because she was reading the Atlantic. Shortly after the bombing in Oslo, the Atlantic re-posted on its home page a very interesting piece from last year by Thomas Hegghammer and Dominic Tierney entitled “Why Does al Qaeda Have a Problem With Norway?” You can read it here. In the piece, Hegghammer and Tierney discuss why Norway, against all odds, has become a favored target of al Qaeda. They give several reasons, among them fallout from the Danish cartoon crisis, and Norway’s participation in the war in Afghanistan. And then they bring up a third possibility: The presence in Norway of the aforementioned Mullah Krekar.

Read the whole thing, especially if you’re, say, James Fallows.

AND MORE STILL: Reader Bill McLane writes:

I noted the disparity between the FT. Hood killer and the current one in the Times’ coverage. Blaring headline level. And jumping right in to link the nut-case killer to the “right wing,” and we know who they are, both in Europe and at home.

There is a wonderful book, The Tyranny of Guilt: An Essay on Western Masochism, by Pascal Bruckner. He examines just about every ramification of this tendency (what Hitchens in a blurb to the book calls this “morbid addiction to self blame”) to condemn the West while glossing over the real, much more serious threats to civilization. And can you believe it?–The book was written first in French. The English translation came out last year.

Yes, I have a copy.

Plus, why so much racism against blond Norwegians?

THE MOST-IMPLANTED MEDICAL DEVICES.

DIPLOMACY: Pakistan Senate Condemns Gay And Lesbian Event At U.S Embassy.

HAZY SCIENCE: Does Hot Weather Lead To More Violence? In the pre-air-conditioning days, hot summers led to a lot of people out on the streets at night because indoors it was too hot to sleep. Now, we get the opposite effect.

Plus: “Angry people can be soothed with a cold drink.”

ANOTHER MEDICAID “STING” VIDEO: “As always, this is a must-watch that will leave you shaking your head in disbelief. By now I am convinced it is darn-near impossible to actually get turned away for any reason when walking into a Medicaid office. You could say ‘I have a stack of corpses in my basement; will that be a problem?’ and they’d probably just tell you not to put that on the application.”

STATES WHERE PEOPLE PAY THE MOST (AND LEAST) in taxes.

INFORMATION WANTS TO BE FREE: ‘Guerilla Activist’ Releases 18,000 Scientific Papers. “The move comes in protest after a Harvard researcher was arrested this week, and intensifies a fight over open access to scientific records.”

HOW TO SHOOT YOUR OWN 3D MOVIES: “It’s no accident that some of these cameras’ manufacturers are also selling 3D TVs—they are banking on user—generated content partially filling the void until Hollywood produces more 3D Blu-rays. And that strategy may work: There are already subcultures of 3D enthusiasts shooting everything from homemade 3D nature clips to 3D music videos and distributing them online.” I looked at a lot of 3D gear last time I was at the Consumer Electronics Show, and I have to say it didn’t really excite me.

AT AMAZON, A SALE ON AA and AAA batteries. Also D batteries.

BERNIE SANDERS: What Obama Needs Is A Primary Opponent.

I LIKE THE OLD STAR TREK BETTER: Live long and prosper? Nah, death panels and 9% unemployment!

CARS: We Are Sorry To Inform You That The Big Turnaround Has Been Postponed For Another Year. “Suddenly, automakers aren’t so sure anymore about all that pent-up demand that will bring back U.S. car sales back to their old glory. Reuters asked around and didn’t come back with good news. Hyundai Motor America Chief John Krafcik is the most outspoken: ‘When people don’t have home equity, it’s often very difficult for them to pull that trigger and buy a new car. Jobs are still an issue, housing is still a big issue and I don’t think that’s talked about enough in the context of our industry.’”