AP: We may be in for two more months of oil disaster before BP can get the leak plugged. James Carville: "We are about to die down here."

You got to like this Althouse quote: "Crusty conservative coating, creamy hippie love chick center."

Summer reading: William Voegeli's Never Enough: America's Limitless Welfare State.

Since the beginning of the New Deal, American liberals have insisted that the government must do more—much more—to help the poor, to increase economic security, to promote social justice and solidarity, to reduce inequality, and to mitigate the harshness of capitalism. Nonetheless, liberals have never answered, or even acknowledged, the corresponding question: What would be the size and nature of a welfare state that was not contemptibly austere, that did not urgently need new programs, bigger budgets, and a broader mandate? Even though the federal government’s outlays have doubled every eighteen years since 1940, liberal rhetoric is always addressed to a nation trapped in Groundhog Day, where every year is 1932, and none of the existing welfare state programs that spend tens of billions of dollars matter, or even exist.

The ADG this morning reports that a Pine Bluff alderman's proposal to rename Hazel Street Martin Luther King Drive. According to the article, the alderman is the only one who's in favor of it. Most people oppose it for a variety of reasons: new street signs at intersections, changes in mailing addresses for businesses and residences, 911 databases, etc. And Pine Bluff already has a city park named for King with a monument. See also the Pine Bluff Commercial's story and letter.

Jeffrey Anderson: Obamacare is not becoming more popular, as Democrats predicted. It's more UNpopular since its passage.

Jennifer Rubin: "Obama has been compared to Jimmy Carter (in his misguided notions about the world), to Richard Nixon (in his sleazy backroom dealing and lack of transparency) and to LBJ (in his infatuation with government). Unfortunately, it appears that he embodies the worst of three unsuccessful presidents. And like all three, he may manage to drag his party down with him."

New Scientist: When early hunters drove mammoths and other large animals to extinction, the loss of methane from their digestive systems 13,000 years ago triggered the global cooling period that followed. Methane is a greenhouse gas.

Talk Business: In Arkansas' 2nd Congressional district, the gloves have come off in the runoff election. In a mailing, Robbie Wills attacked Joyce Elliott on gun rights, prayer in schools, and abortion. Wanna bet it get worse in the next week?

UPDATE: Jason Tolbert takes Wills to task for his mailer and claims that Wills and Eliott are both leftist Democrats.

The ADG reports that some health insurers will extend coverage early to keep young adults on their parent's plans until they are age 26. Arkansas Blue Cross/Blue Shield, QualChoice, and United Healthcare are among those that will make the early transition under the new law.

May has been a bad month for the stock market, but the WSJ and other economists think that the market may be in a long slide that could continue for years.

AP: The Gulf well plug is not working. Oh my. It's too late to call in Red Adair.

Dennis Hopper is dead at age 74.
I recall him as part of a group of actors who came along during the early 1950s. They included James Dean, Sal Mineo, Natalie Wood, and, I suppose, others. Hopper survived the longest. 

I received this brochure from Medicare about ObamaCare. I didn't know how much of it to believe.

Peggy Noonan: A harsh take on President Obama. Politicians have over-sold themselves, and we have come to expect far too much of government. For example the government can't do anything about the oil leak that BP can't do better. Perhaps neither one can fix it.

Blanche Lincoln complains about labor unions that are opposing her over the card check issue. According to the ADG this morning, Bill Clinton is in Arkansas making the same argument. See Politico.

The Advance Monticellonian is reporting that the Arkansas Archaeological Survey is conducting a mini-archaeological dig on the Monticello Square. They are trying to locate the corner of the clock tower from the courthouse that was built in 1870.

Jason Tolbert gets his video on the Corner. But Bill Clinton still does not answer the question.

The Sistine Chapel.

Ed Morrissey reports on a study that finds increased government spending results in unemployment. "Instead of providing a stimulating effect to the economy, government spending creates pressures on private industry to reduce staff and investment."

Does that make it clear why the New Deal prolonged the Depression?

Hillary Clinton says we are not paying enough taxes.

The AP plays up Bill Halter in this story.

 The Corner quotes Charles Krauthammer:

It's three [Democratic] constituencies: gays, Hispanics, and Jews. It used to be said — the president before an election had to go to Ireland, Israel and Italy. Well, now it's Jews, Hispanics, and gays if you are going into a midterm election, [and for Democrats] it looks real bad.

Ann Althouse reflects on Art Linkletter's death and career. He died yesterday at age 97. He became associated with the belief that LSD caused suicides. I did not remember that, but I have clear memories of his program about kids saying the funniest things.

John Brummett and his arrows on Arkansas political races.

Adm. Thad Allen of the Coast Guard says that the "top kill" effort has stopped the flow of oil from the well in the Gulf.

David Paul Kuhn: Why we still fight the old 1960s battles.

The AP sees Blanche Lincoln moving to the left in her runoff campaign against Bill Halter.

Jason Tolbert: Blanche Lincoln will vote for repeal of "don't ask, don't tell."

Oh my! Willie Nelson has cut his pigtails.

It looks like that Blanche Lincoln will not agree to a debate with Bill Halter in the days leading up to the runoff. This is being reported in several places. See ADG. That's good because I've heard just about all I care to from both of them.

Jason Tolbert has an interesting post on Blanche Lincoln's new ad. Why, he asks, is Blanche making a big deal about derivatives in this campaign? Arkansans don't care what they are. In fact I'm not sure I do.

It just seems like a last gasp to me. 

Betsy's Page: Mark Twain's autobiography will be published this year. He wanted his personal account delayed for a hundred years. He got his wish, but now we will read about his "electric vibrating sex toy."

The dollars-for-dishwashers program, as it is sometimes called, is not going too well here in Arkansas. The ADG this morning reported that only about a third of the funds were expended in over two months.

John Brummett on Blanche Lincoln's derivatives proposal: "nonsensical."

Dr.  Helen says that Sex and the City 2 is politically incorrect -- and very funny. It's about time. I think politically incorrect movies would sell a lot of tickets.

Rasmussen: 63 percent favor repeal of Obamacare. That's the highest ever.

Many people believe that this country is headed in the wrong direction, and they are voting out incumbents seen as connected to the Washington establishment. How does Arkansas fit into this pattern? Not too well. We are out of step, disconnected. Why? See Arkansas Watch.

According to Time, the German birthrate is shrinking fast. This is one of the problems that explains Europe's recent troubles.

The ADG has an article today about people who buy drugs online from Canada. This practice is illegal but widespread. They go to CanadaDrugs.com/, a  pharmacy affiliated with the Canadian International Pharmacy Association. They have about 8,000 customers in Arkansas, according to the article.

The NYT has a column on Europe and its problems. People in some countries are just not working enough, and their lifestyle is based on borrowing.Their liberal benefits are no longer sustainable.

At Power Line John sums it up nicely:

But this particular fact was news to me:

In Sweden and Switzerland, 7 of 10 people work past 50. In France, only half do.

Past 50? That assumes that the average worker (not the average person) will work for approximately 30 years, which these days is barely more than one-third of his or her life expectancy. Whatever possessed the French, and other Europeans, to think that a person can support a lifetime's consumption with a third of a lifetime's work? Haven't the Europeans heard of the curse of Adam?
Which prompts the thought that the Europeans are post-Chrisian in this sense, too: they have tried to "liberate" themselves from the curse of Adam by substituting borrowing for working, and from the curse of Eve by not having children. It was entirely foreseeable that neither of these efforts would end well.

Jason Tolbert comments on the Lincoln/Halter/Morrison election outcome. He calls it a Pyrrhic victory.

Ann Althouse discusses the new Texas social studies standards.

Arthur C. Brooks: "This is not the culture war of the 1990s. It is not a fight over guns, gays or abortion. Those old battles have been eclipsed by a new struggle between two competing visions of the country's future. In one, America will continue to be an exceptional nation organized around the principles of free enterprise -- limited government, a reliance on entrepreneurship and rewards determined by market forces. In the other, America will move toward European-style statism grounded in expanding bureaucracies, a managed economy and large-scale income redistribution. These visions are not reconcilable. We must choose."

In Texas, politics has invaded the school social studies curriculum. But it's always been there, right?

The euro as we know it may be dead.

Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe is staying out of the Lincoln/Halter race. Smart move.

D. C. Morrison is also staying neutral. 

Charles Krauthammer on the fruits of weakness: "Given Obama's policies and principles, Turkey and Brazil are acting rationally. Why not give cover to Ahmadinejad and his nuclear ambitions? As the U.S. retreats in the face of Iran, China, Russia and Venezuela, why not hedge your bets? There's nothing to fear from Obama, and everything to gain by ingratiating yourself with America's rising adversaries. After all, they actually believe in helping one's friends and punishing one's enemies."

Jason Tolbert: The Arkansas Senate race is, according to some polls, listed as "leans Halter."

Power Line has its take on the recent Senate election in Arkansas.

In my political science courses, incumbents who were forced into a runoff were dead meat. But everything depends on turnout. Who's votes will actually vote in the runoff? We don't know that, but we do know that turnout will be very low. I'd still bet that Lincoln loses on June 8. It seems a lot of people are just looking for a fresh face. On the other hand the left-wing Bill Halter does not fit the mood of voters today. So we will just wait and see.

Talk Business believes that Bill Halter has the momentum. D.C. Morrison's supporters won't be back for the runoff, it says.

If I were Bill Halter, I'd send Morrison a thank you note.

NYT pundits are having a hard time figuring how the Lincoln/Halter/Morrison election results.

B. Alan Sugg, president of the UA system, announced that he will retire on June 30, 2011, after more than 20 years.

Power Line on yesterday's Lincoln/Halter/Morrison vote:

The worst news for Dems may have been the fact that neither Blanche Lincoln nor Bill Halter was able to win the Senate nomination in Arkansas. Instead, the two will participate in a run-off. That's due in part to third candidate D.C. Morrison, whose strong showing (about 14 percent of the vote) suggests that neither Lincoln nor Halter is a very strong candidate.
The run-off will probably weaken whichever candidate survives it. And at the end of the day, the Dems will be stuck with either an unpopular incumbent who squeaked through or a candidate who can probably be painted as too far left for Arkansas.

Rand Paul defeated Arlen Specter yesterday. “I have a message,” Mr. Paul said, delivering a victory speech in Bowling Green. “A message from the Tea Party. A message that is loud and clear and does not mince words: We have come to take our government back.”

Go here and scroll down to 10:14 for the whole speech. 

Salon: Blanche Lincoln's derivatives proposal is effectively dead. It was supposed to boost her left-wing base, but it was killed as she headed for a runoff with Halter.

AP: "It's an anti-Washington, anti-establishment year. And candidates with ties to either better beware."

In Arkansas Lincoln and Halter will face each other in a runoff in about three weeks. Boozman won his primary outright.

See the NYT's coverage of election night.

AP: Toyota has paid its $16.4 million fine for the brake issue. I have still not responded to the recall notice I received. I will, but no hurry.

Houston Chronicle:

Texas doctors are opting out of Medicare at alarming rates, frustrated by reimbursement cuts they say make participation in government-funded care of seniors unaffordable.

Two years after a survey found nearly half of Texas doctors weren't taking some new Medicare patients, new data shows 100 to 200 a year are now ending all involvement with the program. Before 2007, the number of doctors opting out averaged less than a handful a year.

“This new data shows the Medicare system is beginning to implode,” said Dr. Susan Bailey, president of the Texas Medical Association. “If Congress doesn't fix Medicare soon, there'll be more and more doctors dropping out and Congress' promise to provide medical care to seniors will be broken.”

This trend, which has been around for some time, is accelerating. Anyway if you are on Medicare, don't move to Texas.

Jason Tolbert quotes Gabe Holmstrom, a Democratic official: "Halter will be job hunting soon."

A new study argues that marrying outside your age range is hazardous to your health.

And now some good words on Warren G. Harding, the most hated president in history departments around the country except for all other Republican presidents.

Alan Snyder has a few good words about Ronald Reagan and Calvin Coolidge. I'm one of the few (former) college history professors who ever said a good word about them in an actual class.

Well, I voted.

Today will be an exciting day. We get to watch the election returns tonight, but the chances are that the Blanche/Bill contest will go on for yet another month.

Jason Tolbert suggests what to watch for tonight. 

Michelle Malkin on last night's Miss USA pageant.

Jason Tolbert explains who he is voting for tomorrow. And he makes a good case.

Conrad Black: Why is Europe in financial trouble? Less than 30 percent do any work. The rest of them want to live off those who do.

The NYT on the Arkansas Senate race. I like this quote: "The Senate is up for grabs — it’s so volatile and fluid,” remarked Gov. Mike Beebe, a popular Democrat also up for election. “Both sides are mad. The left of the Democratic Party’s upset with her. The right’s upset with her. It’s one of those tragic convergences.”

Jason Tolbert: "It looks like Sen. Blanche Lincoln is betting her re-election chances on President Obama’s ability to turn out Democratic voters for her in the primary."

Good luck, Blanche.

AP: Neither Super Saver nor Lookin at Lucky will run in the Belmont. Maybe there's not much point in watching the race, then, unless Calvin Borel picks up another ride.

Jason Tolbert on the ADG's endorsement of John Boozman for the U.S. Senate.

Seniors will want to watch carefully what happens to their Medicare Advantage plans under Obamacare -- especially PFFS plans. So, contrary to Obama, if we like the insurance we have now, we may still not get to keep it.

NYT: The oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico is much worse than anyone ever thought.

NYT: Blanche Lincoln has little support for her bill regulating derivatives.

Lookin at Lucky won the Preakness. Calvin Borel did not have enough horse in Super Saver.

UK Telegraph: Richard Nixon blocked a Soviet attack on China in 1969, according to a Chinese historian.

The National Park Service has awarded two grants to Rohwer Relocation Center in Desha County and Jerome Relocation Center on the border of Chicot and Drew Counties. They were occupied by almost 20,000 Japanese-Americans during World War II. Coincidentally, a state historic preservation group has just placed the two sites on the list of "the most endangered" historic places in Arkansas.

But the Park Service envisions spending over 80 percent of the grant on restoring a train depot in McGehee. True, plans call for an exhibit on Japanese-American relocation in the depot, but that exhibit already exists. Let's not over-state what the grant will do. Nothing is being planned for Jerome.

Calvin Borel and Super Saver will go for the Preakness this afternoon.

On the other hand this video is definitely not funny.

Need a laugh?

Arkansas Times summarizes the last Lincoln/Halter/Morrison debate.

John Brummett and Ron Breeding discuss the May 18th elections.

Michael Barone on what went wrong for Bob Bennett in Utah.

Many people are going with pre-paid wireless phones rather than long-term contracts. I'm stuck with a contract but the idea sounds good to me.

Jason Tolbert blogged the final Lincoln/Halter/Morrison debate.

Robert Samuelson looks at parallels that point to a new Depression.

Speculation: Is Hillary going to run against Obama in 2012?

Cringe

Bill Clinton is raffling himself off to pay Hillary's campaign debt. "How would you like to come to New York and spend the day with me?"

Poll: Americans want lower government spending, not higher taxes.

On FOXNews, Bill Kristol says:

The political system hasn't failed. The Brown government has failed I think. That I think is interesting. If you asked the fashionable liberal editorial page editors and economists and professors who should be in charge three years ago, having a European crisis, the last establishment type, the man they would have picked is Gordon Brown just as Barack Obama is the man they have picked here.
And Gordon Brown and Obama have about the same policies, an unbelievable spending. This is pure Keynesianism on steroids. Now Britain looks like Greece, and now the U.S. is moving in that direction. And the voters have thrown Gordon Brown out. So we now have conservative governments in Britain, France, and Germany.
The welfare state is unsustainable and the voters lost confidence in the left to manage the future of the welfare state, to trim the welfare state and reduce in a way to make something sustainable.
The bad news is David Cameron does not look to be like a Margaret Thatcher or a Ronald Reagan conservative and seems more of a European conservative to not be very bold. But sometimes people surprise when they are in office. It's possible he will.

Megan McArdle is also asking Are Democrats plotting to steal your 401(k)?

In the LA Times Blanche Lincoln says, "It's a tough year. It's a crazy year,"

Democrats covet your pension fund. "Democrats have obliquely admitted they covet Americans' pensions. Last week, congressional Republicans told them to stay away. The shame is that they had to do anything at all."

UK Telegraph: The photo of the polar bear stranded on a melting ice floe was photoshopped.

Talk Business: John Boozman is leading in all polls and is expected to win the Republican Senate nomination without a runoff.

Power Line: "If Elena Kagan is confirmed, as she is expected to be, the Supreme Court will contain three female Justices. And it will be a diverse group of women too -- one originally from Brooklyn, one originally from Manhattan, and one originally from the Bronx."

David Cameron, a Tory, has taken up residence at No. 10 Downing Street as Prime Minister.

Ross Douthat looks at what has happened to American families over time, specifically more divorce, and more out-of-wedlock births. The pill and the resulting sexual revolution broke the link among sex, marriage, and procreation. He argues that we have two family models, red families vs. blue families based on a new book by Naomi Cahn and June Carbone. See Amazon here.

Washington Post: "A new poll shows that Arkansas voters disapprove of Sen. Blanche Lincoln's support for health-care reform by nearly two to one. But the embattled Democrat is touting her "yes" vote in a new campaign ad." Well-funded Bill Halter is running to her left, but this is a highly risky strategy on her part.

Robert Samuelson: The crisis in Greece is the welfare state's death spiral. "This isn't Greece's problem alone, and that's why its crisis has rattled global stock markets and threatens economic recovery. Virtually every advanced nation, including the United States, faces the same prospect. Aging populations have been promised huge health and retirement benefits, which countries haven't fully covered with taxes. The reckoning has arrived in Greece, but it awaits most wealthy societies."

Lena Horne has died at age 92.
One of her best was Stormy Weather (1943).

Instapundit is following the events with the GOP in Utah. Bob Bennett, a three-term RINO Senator, is out. A Tea Partier emailed: “. . . We took over the Utah GOP. All of our candidates were elected today without having to go to a primary (or booted in the case of Bennett). Obama has awakened a sleeping giant.”

See also this.

Obama has had a terrible week. "Lost in the bluster of the panel discussion is the real problem for the White House this week, which is the loss of a sense of competence across the board. In that sense, the Gulf spill is akin to Katrina for Bush, and the botched Times Square attack adds onto the impression that this administration has become clueless. The Sunday talk shows will chew that over at length unless the White House dramatically changes the narrative — which is why we’ll probably get a SCOTUS leak today or tonight."

This story has been in the paper here this week. The federal government is suing Arkansas again, this time for American with Disabilities Act violations. The Justice Department alleges violations in the state's system of housing the developmentally disabled in institutions rather than in community settings. The issue is apparently where these people are housed. See the background here.

Michael Gerson: "The iPad is one of the most elegant, useful, astoundingly cool objects ever produced by the mind of man. Da Vinci would drool. Newton would show an equal and opposite attraction. Edison would ignore the objections of his wife and buy one, preferably the model with 64 gigabytes."

Power Line: The unintended but entirely foreseeable consequences of Obamacare will be to reduce employment. Employers will not want to have to pay health care for entry-level employees.

In the UK, women blame Blackberrys and iPhones for their poor sex life.   On the other hand, according to ShrinkWrapped, the future of sex is rapidly approaching.

Nashville, Tennessee, has suffered from terrible flooding but has received little attention from the national media.


See also here.

The ADG reports that head Razorback coach Bobby Petrino is selling his house. No, he's not leaving. But, look, he owns two houses, in Fayetteville and one in Atlanta; he will have two kids in college this fall, and he makes only $2.85 million a year. So, he's got to downsize.

He wants over $2 million for the Fayetteville house.

Salon predicts that several Senators, including Blanche Lincoln, will lose primary elections soon.

Politico: Obama is biggest recipient of BP cash.

Legal Insurrection: More black candidates are running as Republicans this year than at any time since Reconstruction. Yes they can.

The ADG this morning reported that the Lincoln/ Halter race so far totals almost $4 million in TV ads in the Little Rock market. Arkansans for Change, a union organization, is the biggest spender.

Jason Tolbert has posted the text of Obama's endorsement of Blanche Lincoln for re-election.

Ezra Klein: Blanche Lincoln's derivatives proposal is not popular.

AP: Apple has sold over 1 million iPads, more than twice the number of iPhones sold when it came out.

A British Army sniper, Craig Harrison, killed two Taliban machinegunners in Afghanistan with two shots from more than a mile and a half away.

After the gunfight at the OK Corral, the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday were tried for murder. That part of the story has been depicted briefly in some western movies, but in Murder in Tombstone: The Forgotten Trial of Wyatt Earp, legal scholar Steven Lubet tells the story in far more detail.

For more see here. 

Jason Tolbert: Blanche Lincoln is now welcoming the support of Obama because she's in the fight of her life, Bill Halter is gaining ground, and she needs African American voters.

Here is the Kentucky Derby race video from YouTube.

Bloomberg:

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair is opposing a Senate measure that could cut off privileges to banks like Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. that don’t segregate swaps trading units.

Bair, in an April 30 letter to Senate Banking Chairman Christopher Dodd and Agriculture Committee Chairman Blanche Lincoln, said the proposal championed by Lincoln would create “weakened, not strengthened, protection of the insured bank.”

AP: Todd Pletcher described Calvin Borel before the race yesterday. "I don't think I've ever had a jockey come to the paddock more focused," he said Sunday. "I would equate it to someone come out for a heavyweight fight. He was in the zone and pumped up. Didn't have much to say, but you could just see the intensity on his face. He was revved up."

"A lot of guys you look at and they're closest to the fence, but they're not on the rail," Pletcher said. "When he gets there, he's scraping paint."

Riding Super Saver, Calvin Borel has won this third Kentucky Derby in the past four years. He says he will win the Triple Crown.

David Harsanyi: "Very few Americans, on the other hand, are inherently opposed to immigration. For the most part, the controversy we face isn't about immigration at all. It's about the systematic failure of federal government to enforce the law or offer rational policy. There's a difference."

A series of World War II pictures of the Pacific theater.

Washington Examiner: The Gulf oil spill is becoming Obama's Katrina. See also here.

Power Line: The pharmaceutical industry is supporting Harry Reid in his battle for re-election. Why? Well, he stood up to special interests, lol.

NPR: Republicans may pick up at least five Senate seats, including Blanche Lincoln's seat.

The ADG this morning reported that less than 4 of 10 public university students in Arkansas graduate in less than 6 years. Six years!

Tiger Woods missed the cut at Quail Hollow by 8 shots. "It is what it is," he said.