Ann Althouse has a hilarious post about the possibility that terrorists will have bombs implanted inside their bodies, males in their buttocks or females in their breasts, since we are scanning every passenger and in effect seeing everybody naked. She adds:

So all we passengers need to do is keep an eye out for other passengers aiming hypodermic needles at their big breasts (or asses), and everything will be just fine. Unless you care that the authorities saw you naked. Better get used to it! This is war.

See this about breast implant bombers.

Salt Lake Tribune: Documents relating to events in Mormon history have come on the market, but they were quickly snatched up by the Mormon church.

The Arkansas News Bureau observes that the "social Media" are suddenly making a big impact on Arkansas. Twitter, Facebook, and blogging allow anyone to participate in politics, communicate quickly, and by-pass the traditional media. These trend may not be totally new, but they are more in evidence now. Arkansas politics has been in a logjam for a long time, and now it may break free of the network of smug politicians who have largely looked out for themselves.

Blanche's office is sending out Tweets, according the Cleveland Plain Dealer. For more on her online efforts see here.

Republican John Boozman will announce that he will oppose Blanche Lincoln for the U.S. Senate. This is more than a rumor, and it is making national news. He is the third Arkansas Congressman to decide against running for re-election.

Thought for a cold winter day: Embrace the bourbon. Unless your choice is Scotch.

I like Ann Althouse's desk in her office, which she has posted several times. I like the glass top table, but four laptops? All of them appear to be Macs.

How does she get any work done in a crowd?

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan: "I think the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans was Hurricane Katrina." Wow. See also here.

Truth as a mere problem for lesser mortals

Victor Davis Hanson: "All politicians fudge on their promises. But this president manages to transcend the normal political exaggeration and dissimulation. Whereas past executives shaded the truth, Barack Obama trumps that: on almost every key issue, what Obama says he will do, and what he says is true, is a clear guide to what he will not do, and what is not true. It is as if “truth” is a mere problem of lesser mortals."

The Corner pointed me to the news that Ralph McInerny died. He was the author of the Father Dowling Mysteries. Here is his own account of his life as a writer. As he says, every reader of fiction aspires to be a writer.

Jason Tolbert: Mike Ross puts a stop to rumors that he will run for the Senate, he will seek re-election to the House.

Ann Althouse links to an article in which Howard Zinn, the radical historian, predicts that Obama will be a mediocre president. But in the context of Howard Zinn, that is not a bad thing.

Special Report with Bret Baier just before the SOTU address:

KRAUTHAMMER: If the president is under the impression that it's one more speech, one more attempt rhetorically, he is reaching a level of obliviousness which approaches clinical denial.
BAIER: But in his mind he is trying to, what, build up political capital that was lost from last week?
KRAUTHAMMER: I think - look, I would be reassured if I thought he was cynical in saying all of this and believing otherwise. But if he believes it, I think he has lost touch with political realities, and in the end, meaning in November, he'll pay.

Dick Morris on the SOTU: "Ultimately, the fate of the Obama presidency depends on whether he is right or his conservative critics are. If he’s correct, more spending will bring down unemployment and put people to work. If he’s wrong, the deficit that results from his spending will keep joblessness high."

Well, the experience of the New Deal, which did not end the Depression, proves that Obama is wrong. And so does the stagflation of the 1970s. 

Howard Zinn, a radical left-wing historian, perhaps even a communist, is dead. He believed everything about American history was awful. Freshmen and sophomores, some of them, liked to read him until they grew up.  Ron Radosh has this summary.

Washington Post: Obama has lost his grip on reality.

On health care:

On this issue, elected Democrats are desperate for leadership. They want to avoid total defeat on last year’s highest legislative priority, while pivoting swiftly to the economy. Obama gave no indication of how this feat will be accomplished. Instead, he called attention to his own virtue, foresight and tenacity in pursuing the issue. His approach was entirely self-centered. Democrats in tough races can only conclude that the president is indifferent to their political needs. On health care, it is every Democrat for himself.

More:

Barack Obama has lost his promise. He has lost his momentum. He has lost his touch. He has lost his filibuster-proof Senate majority. He has lost his first year in office.
Tonight, he lost his grip on reality.

Don Suber has some trenchant comments about last night's "you lie" moment.

According to the ADG, Blanche Lincoln is cross ways with the League of Conservation Voters, an environmental group. They plan to put her on its 2010 "dirty dozen" list of candidates to be defeated. She supports an effort to block the EPA from regulating greenhouse gas emissions, which supposedly cause global warming. She has also not supported cap-and trade. Well, I'm sure she's upset about that.

Apple Computer introduced its iPad tablet computer yesterday. The price tag is $499, high but less than expected. Some bloggers have had a lot of fun with the name. See Ann Althouse.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito mouthed the words "not true" when Obama criticized the court's recent campaign finance decision. This was another breach of decorum, another Joe Wilson moment, but who committed the foul? See Politico. Ann Althouse caught this too.

On the Corner: Obama's spending freeze of one-seventh of the economy letting the remaining six-sevenths grown. This is the same as ordering at McDonald's:

Big Mac, large fries, Diet Coke.

Hillary probably won't serve two terms as Secretary of State. Who would want to? I mean, what's the point?

A medieval fortress will open in the Ozarks at Lead Hill, Arkansas, in the Spring 2010. See a map here. This project is vaguely reminiscent of Coin Harvey's Mounte Ne resort located near Rogers, Arkansas.

Blanche Lincoln is still raising campaign money and has about $5 million in the bank.

Michael Ledeen sums up the State of the Union for me:

This fear is extremely broad-based.  It is not limited to social class nor to domestic or foreign policies.  Banks are not lending, companies are not hiring, because they are afraid of what Obama will do next.  Both are afraid of onerous taxes, including new health care burdens, and the banks fear new regulations and the consequences of the recently declared war on evil bankers by the president.  Seniors are afraid they will be deprived of medical treatment.  Juniors are afraid they are going to be forced to buy health insurance they don’t think they need.  Across the board, Americans are afraid they’re not going to find work, and won’t be able to afford a house.  And, as the Massachusetts vote showed, Americans are worried about threats from abroad, worried about Iran, afraid of terrorist attacks, and afraid the Obama Administration doesn’t take all this seriously enough.  As Scott Brown put it, most Americans think our tax dollars should go to fighting terrorists, not to pay lawyers to defend terrorists.

In May, St. Vincent Health System will begin construction on a health-care campus in west Little Rock, according to the ADG. It will be located just south of the Promenade at Chenal on Chanel Parkway. West Little Rock currently has no emergency medical treatment facility. So this is a welcomed addition.

NYT: Democrats put a lower priority on health care reform. That's good but they still have not caught on to the message of the American people.

AP Report: Evan Bayh and Blanche Lincoln will both oppose a trick to evade Republican opponents in the Senate in reconciling the House and Senate bills on health care.

Jason Tolbert reports this statement: "Washington D.C. is not listening to the people of Arkansas. We are tired of government bailouts and run-away spending." This statement was made by State Sen. Gilbert, who may get into the U.S. Senate race against Blanche Lincoln. But Gilbert was referring to John Boozman, whom Gilbert would face in the Republican primary.

Michael Barone, whom I've already linked to today, is at his best when he closely analyzes an election to see who voters really are. In the recent Massachusetts election, the "educated classes" and upscale voters went for the Democrats. They have a "quasi-religious" belief in government bureaucrats' ability to allocate health care resources, as they like to say. But voters in middle-income suburbs voted for Scott Brown. That left the "educated classes" sputtering in their cappuccinos, or something.

Barone says, "In a race where the Republican promised to be the decisive vote to kill the Democrats' health care bills, working class and minority voters did not rally to save them."

Joe Queenan, who has apparently been taking history courses and enjoying them, has some really funny stuff on the Leno-Conan conflict. You need to read it for yourself, but in this version, Jay Leno gets to play Adolf Hitler. Conan O'Brien plays Czechoslovakia. NBC then plays British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. Jay/Adolf won. Okay. Who is going to play Poland?

The Corner has Krauthammer's take on Obama's statement that he would "rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president. What about the possibility of being a mediocre one-term president? Krauthammer adds:

I think what's even more astonishing than the result in Massachusetts last week was the Democrats’ response over the weekend in how they understood the election. It was a marvel of obliviousness, obtuseness, and unbelievably condescending arrogance.

We heard the president say that the reason they suffered in Massachusetts is because he has been so busy doing all this good stuff for the American people he hasn't had a chance to go out there and to communicate the shared values.

This guy has been on the tube more than Regis. This is a guy who has given more interviews, press conferences, and speeches than [in] any president's first year in history. The guy gave 29 speeches on health care.

Michael Barone: Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana is another Democrat in trouble. No one thought he would have difficulty getting re-elected.

Power Line has more. 

Pernell Roberts, who played Adam Cartwright on Bonanza, is dead at age 81. Now all of the Cartwrights are dead. Ann Althouse says he was a Shakespearean actor who denigrated the show. But he banked his check every week -- I'm just guessing here, lol.

Hot Air has a post on the Marion Berry's Obama quote cited earlier. "The big difference here and in 1994 was you've got me."

The ADG this morning has a lot on Arkansas politics. Berry won't run again because of unspecified health problems. His retirement along with Vick Snyder's and Blanche Lincoln's dismal polling numbers have thrown state politics into disarray. The political environment is in "full boil," according to a comment in the paper. Arkansas is entering "a once-in-a-generation moment when longtime politicians retire, opening up opportunities for a host of younger, ambitious office seekers," as David Pryor put it.

Subscription required to real full articles. 

Talk Business puts the political news in context:  63 percent of Arkansas "strongly disapprove" of the job Congress is doing.

On Wednesday Apple will introduce its Ebook, a device designed to compete with Amazon's Kindle. It will be comparable to an IPhone or IPod Touch, without the phone or perhaps the music. You've got to believe this will be an awesome device.

Instapundit called attention to this link from Politico regarding Marion Berry, who claims that Obama dismissed any comparison between now and the 1994 health-care debacle.

Berry recounted meetings with White House officials, reminiscent of some during the Clinton days, where he and others urged them not to force Blue Dogs “off into that swamp” of supporting bills that would be unpopular with voters back home.

“I’ve been doing that with this White House, and they just don’t seem to give it any credibility at all,” Berry said. “They just kept telling us how good it was going to be. The president himself, when that was brought up in one group, said, ‘Well, the big difference here and in ’94 was you’ve got me.’ We’re going to see how much difference that makes now.” [snip]

“I began to preach last January that we had already seen this movie and we didn’t want to see it again because we know how it comes out,” said Arkansas’ 1st District congressman, who worked in the Clinton administration before being elected to the House in 1996... "I just began to have flashbacks to 1993 and ’94. No one that was here in ’94, or at the day after the election felt like. It certainly wasn’t a good feeling.”

Those quotes are from a Jane Fullerton article in the ADG. 

Doug Thompson believes that John Boozman, Congressman from Arkansas' 3rd District, will win the U.S. Senate race against Blanche Lincoln if he chooses to run.

Marion Berry is retiring today. The news is on the web and in the ADG. Fox News: "There has not been this much turmoil in Arkansas politics in a long time," Berry told Little Rock radio station KUAR. "I would be afraid to predict anything. I think in the next couple months you could see all kinds of stuff coming down the pike."

No one knows what compelled him to this decision. 

Washington Post: Marion Berry will announce his retirement from Congress tomorrow morning. Many blogs have already commented but see Jason Tolbert.

AP Report: Obama will be blamed for the recent dramatic market drop.

Louisiana State Senator A.G. Crowe is planning to introduce a bill in the 1010 legislature in Baton Rouge that would make Obamacare illegal if it violates state law. He also claims that Obamacare violates Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, which defines the power of Congress.

The Central Arkansas Library System, which has been in the news lately, will switch from bar codes to a radio frequency identification chip (RFID) for keeping track of library books and DVDs, etc. This will make it possible for patrons to check out their own materials without individually scanning each item. The conversion will cost $1.4 million and should be completed this year. Each item housed in all the system's branches will have to be embedded with RFID tags. As usual it will be quite a job.

The first branch library to undergo the conversion will be the John G. Fletcher branch.

Marion Berry has indicated that he may not run for another term. I'm not sure if that's the final word, but he gave an interesting interview that the ADG reports this morning. As usual a free link is hard to find.

Berry described the current health-care story as a re-run of the Clinton experience. HilliaryCare collapsed in 1993-94. Berry said, "I just began to have flashbacks to 1993 and '94. Republicans went on to pick up 54 House seats and 8 Senate seats. He said he's been warning the White House about forcing Blue Dogs to support bills are are unpopular with voters back home. But they just keep tell saying how good it will be. Berry also criticized the back room deals and secret meetings. 

In an earlier interview, Berry said health care was dead.

Rumors are running wild in Arkansas politics. Talk Buinesss blog reports that Blanche Lincoln may be looking for a graceful way out -- an Obama appointment of some kind.

But all kinds of potential candidates are waiting and watching.

For the first time, most union members are government workers, not corporate employees, reports the NYT. The source of the data is a Bureau of Labor Statistics report.

A new poll says that 58 percent of Arkansans oppose health care legislation now being considered in Congress. “It is unfortunate that both of our U.S. senators chose to listen to their party versus their constituents in the state of Arkansas,” said Bob Porto, chairman of the Tea Party chapter in Pulaski County. “It’s clear where citizens of … Arkansas wish to send a message, but our senators, both senators, are not listening.”

Even after the Scott Brown upheaval in Massachusetts, I still don't believe our Democrat leaders in Arknasas get the message. I received a letter from Blanche yesterday that was full of the same platitudes I've seen in earlier letters, but she did make some noises that seemed to favor tort reform.

Rasmussen: 61 percent say it's time for Democrats to drop health care.

The Jets play the Colts tomorrow, and Joe Namath will be there, but he's not guaranteeing anything this time.

This is why I don't watch movies any more.

Conrad Black delivers a scathing indictment of Obama's first  year. "It has been a year of fecklessness, amateurism, and posturing. Less that is useful has been accomplished by this president in his first year than by any president since Herbert Hoover, and he was ambushed by the Great Depression after seven months."

Huckabee is out polling Obama. Just wait, that will change.

NYT: The man accused of killing a soldier at a Little Rock military recruiting station last year claims he is affiliated with Al Qaeda.

Everybody but me seems to be lining up to run for something in Arkansas.

The nation's mayors grade Obama: F. That sounds like is comes from the grass roots to me.

Burger King will open a Whopper Bar, a new marketing concept, in Miami's South Beach that will sell beer. Gimme a Whopper, fries, and a beer. Gonna be expensive. But will McDonald's be next? What will they call it, McBud?

Krauthammer:

After Coakley's defeat, Obama pretended that the real cause was a generalized anger and frustration "not just because of what's happened in the last year or two years, but what's happened over the last eight years."
Let's get this straight: The antipathy to George W. Bush is so enduring and powerful that . . . it just elected a Republican senator in Massachusetts? Why, the man is omnipotent.
And the Democrats are delusional: Scott Brown won by running against Obama, not Bush. He won by brilliantly nationalizing the race, running hard against the Obama agenda, most notably Obamacare. Killing it was his No. 1 campaign promise.

Power Line has more on "Pants on the Ground." I was not aware of who "General" Larry Platt is.

A leap in the dark

Ann Althouse has a powerful statement on Scott Brown and health care reform.

Health care talks are collapsing. How quickly things can turn around.

The Arkansas Supreme Court has rejected an appeal to reconsider its decision in the library tax case, according to the ADG. Though approved by the voters, the tax collections began a year too soon, and now Bobby Roberts, director of the Central Arkansas Library System, will have to pony up the money for refunds. We are talking about $4 million in property taxes. An individual taxpayer who owned a $100,000 house in 2007 will get back $45. But the tax was applied to other property like automobiles.

Now a can of worms is open, and questions remain about how and when the money will be refunded. The library may have to cough up the money right away. It could draw on its reserve fund. Is interest owned on the money? That question is unsettled. How will the money be repaid? Will it be returned as a tax-credit? What if a taxpayer does not have any taxes due? We are talking administrative nightmare here, lol. What about a refund in the form of a simple check? But then the questions is, who will issue that check? 

The Arkansas News has this.

We have no need to ask who caused this slide in stocks. Obama owns this decline in the market. It's all his, he can't blame Bush now. Unfortunately, more is to come.

George Will sums up the our current health care politics.

Doug Smith has good background information on both Blanche Lincoln and Mike Ross.

Dick Morris: The election of Scott Brown was so momentous that Obama will never pass another piece of legislation.

"Let's just stop for a second and understand the magnitude of the earthquake that hit Massachusetts... ultimately this is the end of the Obama ascendancy..."

Maybe a little overstated.

Marion Berry, Arkansas' first District Congerssman and a voter for health care reform, has a candid conversaiton with Talk Business Net. He seems to "get it" more than Blanche and Mark, calling Brown's victory over Coakley "shocking," "a wake up call," and "a political tidal wave." Berry said the prospects for passage of the existing bills are "pertty much zero."

Berry also confided that he did not plan to run for re-election, but he seemed to leave the door open.

Drudge's link to this article is "The Day Health Care Died."

AP headline: Obama seeks bigger banking restrictions. And the Dow dropped 200 points. That's exactly the same thing that happened in 1929 as the Smoot-Hawley tariff moved through Congress.

Nancy Pelosi has announced that she can't pass the Senate ObamaCare bill. She had apparently considered ramming through the Senate version of ObamaCare. She doesn't have the votes.

Remember when the anger at Townhall meetings and Tea Party protests were dismissed as unAmerican and meaningless? In the Post-Brown world that's all changed.

The story is also reported here. 

The ADG ran a full-page ad this morning paid for by Americans for Responsible Health Care. Along with pictures of both Blanche Lincoln and Scott Brown, the ad said in bold letters:

BLANCHE LINCOLN, MEET SCOTT BROWN, YOUR NEWEST COLLEAGUE. But Senator Lincoln, Scott Brown will not be your colleague very long if you fail to hear the voice of the American people and continue to vote for Washington's outrageous health care plan....

The people of Arkansas and the people of America will be watching you very closely in the next few days and weeks to see if you have heard us. We urge you to join us in opposition to this dangerous and  unncesaary intrusion by government into our lives.

Senator Lincoln, if you do not listen to us now, you will hear from us in November.

Cold, but true.

You can see and download the ads here.  Click on AFRHC, then select the ones you want to see. They are in PDF format.

William Murchison on hubris.

It isn't so much that Americans bridle at the idea of health care reform. They bridle at the Democrats' mule-headed attempt to do "reform" the way they want to do it, no questions asked or answered. What happened to Obama's campaign promise to negotiate the final bill on C-SPAN? Well, um, circumstances changed; no point in it, and that's just the way of things, sorry. As Scott Brown said in his eloquent victory speech on Tuesday, "What I've heard again and again on the campaign trail is that our political leaders have grown aloof from the people, impatient with dissent, and comfortable in the back-room working deals."

Talk Business Quarterly, a Little Rock publication, has new poll numbers for Blanche Lincoln. Down again. See here for CQ Politics' take.

In the ADG this morning Mark Pryor said, "Everybody needs to calm down and take a big breath." He added, "It's important for us not to do anything unusual on health care right now."

Blanche Lincoln is all for calming down too. "We have to slow down and figure out what we want to do."

They both seemed to have learned something from Scott Brown's upset victory, but not enough. They are still following the Obama agenda in lockstep.

I predict right now that Hillary will resign as SofS and run against Obama in the 2012 Democrat primary. Other people are talking about this possibility.

Michael Barone has a good interview on PJTV with Glenn Reynolds. He said among things that health care is dead, it won't pass.

Charles Hurt has a terrific post about the Massachusetts news. Selected quotes:

"It was a political earthquake of equal magnitude to the temblor that crushed Haiti."

"Obama owns this."

"Obama completely squandered his historic opportunity and is now poised to become the shortest-lived dynasty in history."

"The only magic trick [Obama] managed to pull off was to rescue the Republican party from the ash bin."

Lessons from the Scott Brown victory.

Evan Bayh: "... [I]f you lose Massachusetts and that's not a wake-up call, there's no hope of waking up." 

I caught this statement from Brown's victory speech last night: "And let me say this, with respect to those who wish to harm us, I believe that our Constitution and laws exist to protect this nation - they do not grant rights and privileges to enemies in wartime. In dealing with terrorists, our tax dollars should pay for weapons to stop them, not lawyers to defend them."

And this: "People do not want the trillion dollar health care plan that is being forced on the American people, and this bill is not being debated openly and fairly. It will raise taxes, it will hurt Medicare, it will destroy jobs and run our nation deeper in to debt."

Jim Webb (D-Va.): "In many ways the campaign in Massachusetts became a referendum not only on health care reform but also on the openness and integrity of our government process. It is vital that we restore the respect of the American people in our system of government and in our leaders. To that end, I believe it would only be fair and prudent that we suspend further votes on health care legislation until Senator-elect Brown is seated."

Charles Krauthammer before the votes were counted:

If [Brown] wins health care is dead. They are going to have to start from scratch, if they want to, which would mean bringing in Republicans, rewriting it, tort reform, it would be completely different.
If Brown wins tomorrow the bill as we see it is dead. The only hope is if the House swallows the Senate bill whole, which I think is not going to happen. The only alternative is to delay the swearing in of the Republican in the Senate, and that would be catastrophic for the Democrats.
There is already a question of legitimacy hanging over the bill, a, because it would be the largest change in our social structure, a sixth of the economy, purely on a partisan vote, secondly, because you have huge resistance in public opinion, a spread of at least 10 points against it repeatedly and consistently.

Anthony Weiner (D-NY) is saying the same thing. 

Politico: Democrats are in a quandary about how to proceed on health care. They can't see the obvious.

Brian Mooney of the Boston Globe: "It is difficult to overstate the significance of Scott Brown’s victory because so much was at stake. From the agenda of President Obama and the legacy of the late Edward M. Kennedy to a referendum on the Democratic monopolies of power on Capitol and Beacon hills, voters in a lopsidedly Democratic state flooded the polls on a dreary winter day to turn conventional wisdom on its head."

The AP tries to sum up Scott Brown's victory yesterday.

The number one issue that decided this election was health care. People are opposed to health care reform, and the number one message is pay attention to people!

Think of the term to describe this election:

• Stunning
  
• Tsunami
  
• Wake up call
• Gut-check
• Boston Tea Party
  
• Massachusetts miracle
• Epic upset
  

What a night! What a victory! It is not the Kennedy's seat after all, not even in Massachusetts! It's the people's seat. It's the total rejection of health care reform and a lot more. If the Democrats don't seat Brown immediately, then it's revolution. No doubt. No more bullshit.

Blanche, call your office.

Men marrying up

AP Report: In a Pew Research Center study, men get a greater economic boost from marriage than women. Well, that's not surprising. We now have more women in college than men today, and they worked harder at their grades. So when people marry, the woman is likely to have the better education than her husband and consequently have a better job.

For the full report, see here. Ann Althouse has her take on it.

Alan Wolfe of the Washington Post has a review of Game Change by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin.

In this blog post, Dr. C. L. Gray explains the problem that has developed with Medicare. He favors reform but argues that what Congress is doing is not the answer.

For Dr. Gray's article see here. 

The ADG this morning has an article on why Vic Snyder announced his retirement from Congress. The article emphasized his family situation with four young children, including triplets, and a wife with health problems. No doubt that played a large role in his decision, along with his low polling numbers.

The Tolbert Report says that Jimmy Bryant of Conway will not run for Secretary of State in this election cycle. But it identifies him as the director of the "Achieves" at UCA. Well, no, that should be the Director of Archives. See their website. As Forrest Gump said, misspellings happen.

Dick Morris: "A victory for Scott Brown would represent the Gettysburg of the Obama Administration - its high water mark, its tipping point."

Arkansas Watch is a blog that I plan to read for political news.

The Washington Examiner asks, Will Massachusetts save seniors and doctors from Obamacare? We will know the answer tomorrow.

Canary in the coal mine

Betsy's Page points out that Massachusetts already knows what the rest of us are just getting into: skyrocketing costs in their state-run health-care system. This will play into the election tomorrow.

Byron York thinks the election will be decided by two factors, the state's health care system and one party government. Neither one is working well.

In presidential library news, there is a new Lincoln library in Springfield, Illinois. The Clinton library in Little Rock has seen a decline of 50 percent in attendance since it opened.

The New York Times will apparently soon begin charging for logging into its website. Well, okay. I'm not upset. But I do know they won't be charging me.

In this AP report, subsidies prop up cotton farmers during our current downturn. But USDA programs are widely known for paying farmers not to farm. Actually the payments go to people who own land that was once farmed. This is like the old New Yorker cartoon that showed an accordion player with a sign that read, "Will not play Lady of Spain, 25 cents."

Ezra Klein, a liberal blogger, offers some perspective on health-care reform, but as usual it's hard to tell what to believe. I'm reminded of arguments that start with, well, it's only 1 percent of the whole budget, but it is still amounts to a gob of money.

If you are following health-care legislation and Medicare, see here for possible good news.

Tom Dillard recently wrote a column on the Fourth District Agricultural School at Monticello, later known as Arkansas A&M College, and now the University of Arkansas at Monticello.

For more history of UAM, see Celebrating a Century of Opportunity: From the Fourth District Agricultural School to the University of Arkansas at Monticello. St. Louis: Reedy Press, 2009.

Or see here. 

Gunfight at Graffiti's

In the Arkansas Times blog, Snyder's retirement prompted the recall of an earlier incident at Graffiti's restaurant when a Republican doctor's wife confronted Snyder and his wife at dinner.  For more see here. And here.

The Arkansas Blog for November 16, 2009, has the details on the events of the Griffiti's encounter.

Ernest Dumas wrote a column on the incident with the same details taken from an email sent out by the doctor's wife. 

Powerline discusses Vic Snyder's retirement under the heading "Another one bits the dust." They claim he is now more likely to vote for the health-care overhaul, but he was going to anyway.

I like this Dan Coston painting entitled "Downtown New Edinburgh."

Charles Krauthammer says that Obama's problem is not about style, it is about substance. He is simply too far left.

Oxford University Press made money in 2008 selling a book about the Mountain Meadows Massacre, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. This university press has published a dozen Mormon books.

Politico has picked up the Vic Snyder news. They've had him on the list of endangered Congressmen for some time. His polling numbers were already bad, but you have to believe that his surprise announcement and the release of a new FireDogLake poll, both occurring yesterday, were not coincidental.

Ron Radosh sums up Obama and his health care problem. Peggy Noonan says the problem is Obama's disconnect. They seem to be using different words to describe the same thing.

My granddaughter pointed me to this video:

Snyder's decision makes me think that Llanche Bincoln, oh, excuse me, Blanche Lincoln, may want to do the same.

WSJ: Vic Snyder, 2nd Congressional district Arkansas Democrat who has favored health reform, has announced his retirement. He was facing re-election this November.

Washington Post picks up on the story.

Jason Tolbert reports that a poll shows that Democrat Vic Snyder is trailing Republican Tim Griffin by 17 points. The poll focuses on Snyder's support of health care reform.

To give credit where credit is due, the poll is from a blog called FireDogLake. 

Megan McArdle on the deal between Democrats and labor unions giving them a two-year exclusion from health-care taxes: "If you think that the Nebraska deal was unpopular, just wait until the administration announces higher taxes on everyone but its friends in the labor movement.  We may see if the popularity of the health care bill still has room to fall."

Powerline is reporting that Martha Coakley is running behind in the Massachusetts Senate race. It's coming down to the wire, and the national implications are huge.

The Boston Herald is reporting shocking poll results. 

George Will argues that health care reform as the Democrats have created it is unconstitutional. "Would it be constitutional for the government to legislate compulsory calisthenics for all Americans? If not, why not? If it would be, in what sense does the nation still have constitutional, meaning limited, government?"

Marginal Revolution: Why is Haiti so poor?

Ben Nelson, now highly unpopular back in Nebraska, is a "man without a state."

Special Report with Bret Baier: Martha Coakley recently held a fund-raising event in Washington DC. She is a Democrat who is running for the Senate against Republican Scott Brown in Massachusetts. Brown has made a point of saying that he will be the 41st vote against health care if he wins the seat formerly held by Ted Kennedy.

Most of the lobbyist who hosted the meeting are associated with such companies as Amgen, Cigna, United Health, Pfizer, Merck, and Humana.

That tells us all we need to know.

Jay Cost is counting the votes in the House for health care, and he comes up short.

Reason: The health care industry funded Obama's campaign.

TaxProf Blog: The IRS commissioner does not do his own taxes. The code is too complex.

Michael Barone: "The Obama enthusiasts who dominated so much of the 2008 campaign cycle were motivated by style. The tea party protesters who dominated so much of 2009 were motivated by substance."

The Little Rock city directors have revived a proposed ordinance to ban yard-parking citywide. Critics say this practice is unsightly and hurts property values. True, but in some neighborhoods parking is very limited, and the city is not getting any complaints about the practice now.

Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel has certified a ballot title for a proposed constitutional amendment that would repeal all state taxes and replace them with a single flat sales-tax effective July 1, 2012, the ADG reports. The General Assembly would determine the tax rate. McDaniel has only cleared the way for supporters to gather the needed 77,468 signatures from registered voters to get the amendment on the ballot on November 2. The Arkansas Progressive Group, a misnamed conservative organization, is pushing the proposal.

The Arkansas Times is already opposed to it as a regressive tax. For more see here.

Byron York in a video says why most people opposed ObamaCare: They don't believe you can insure millions of more people and save money in the process. What could be clearer? He adds that Democrats are passing something that the public doesn't want.

John Fund does not believe that Harry Reid will run for re-election.

The Hill: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce warns that the Obama administration's policies will lead to a "double-dip" recession.

Donn James, a candidate for Congress in Tennessee's 8th District, will run as a "Tea Party" candidate. That district is located in northwest Tennessee, and is in the general area, I believe, that was once represented by David Crockett, a Whig. He's bolting the Republican party. We could see more of that.

Scott Brown as the Republican candidate for the Massachusetts Senate seat held by Ted Kennedy: "It's not the Kennedy seat, it's the people's seat." That is dead on!

For reaction from the Boston Herald see here.

The Politico explains the lack of reaction from the Cllintons in response to Game Change, the new political gossip book by Mark Halperin. The reason is said to be that the sources of the book are former staffers and intimates.

Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel has fired off a letter to Washington objecting to Ben Nelson's "Cornhusker Kickback," which was part of the Senate health-care bill. McDaniel said he will not join the lawsuit planned by Republican attorneys general but contended that the Nebraska deal "would unfairly burden Arkansas." Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor have downplayed the issue.

For the text of the letter see Arkansas Blog.

Yahoo! News: Slaves did not build the pyramids. They were paid laborers. "One popular myth that Egyptologists say was perpetrated in part by Hollywood movies held that ancient Israelite slaves — ancestors of the Jewish people — built the pyramids."

CNBC: Sen. Chris Dodd says health-care reform legislation is hanging by a threat. "If this is all about surviving politically, then we're missing the whole purpose of what we're supposed to be doing," he said. LOL.

Who's ready for higher gasoline prices? We are closing in on $3.00 a gallon.

I was familiar with Google Maps and used the service many times, but I did not know about Schmap. They have guides for many cities, including Little Rock. You have to download and install it.

CQ Politics takes a look the political vulnerability of Harry Reid and Blanche Lincoln. Both are in serious trouble but it's early yet.

The Washington Times is nostalgic about Bill Clinton. I'm not to that point myself.

AP Report: Spending on roads and bridges has no impact on local unemployment and gives very little help to the construction industry. So much for the stimulus.

Rus Bradford's new biography of Nolan Richardson entitled Forty Minutes of Hell will be out on February 9, 2010.

Betsy's Page has some interesting material taken from the new Mark Halperin book, Game Change. She comments that "campaign gossip sure can be fun." This is the book that is the source for the Harry Reid quote on Obama.

Swing State Project: Conventional wisdom is coalescing around Blanche Lincoln as the most vulnerable Democrat up for re-election this year.