FROM MY EMAIL: With breathless anticipation, the crowd awaits the unveiling of the Obama statue. I won't miss him.

THE “I” TEAM LOGO Okay, I couldn't pass it up.

NASA'S MESSENGER SPACECRAFT releases first close-up of Mercury. The detailed image is here.

THE RUSSIANS are hiking the price of rocket rides again for U.S. astronauts — to nearly $63 million. Who'd a thunk prices rise when demand outpaces supply?

UNFORTUNATELY THEY'RE NOT PREDATORS: Mexico confirms use of U.S. drones in drug war. A few well-directed Hellfire missiles would have a salutary effect.

ANOTHER MEMBER OF THE ‘OBLIGARCHY’: Obligarches can’t be bothered with all those laws when they’re busy with their obligations of caring for the little people.

CLIFF’S NOTES on American democracy.

THE GOP FRESHMEN speak up.

Mr. Reid, your record on spending in the Senate is one of failure. You have failed to pass a budget, failed to restrain spending, and failed to put our country on sound fiscal footing. We do not accept your failure as our own. The American people did not send us here to fail. Make no mistake: any government shutdown is the result of your lack of leadership.

Mr. McConnell, Mr. Boehner, if you like your jobs and want to keep them, listen up! America is speaking to you, too.

WHERE IS MY FLYING CAR? Now if they can just get the cost down ....

I GET regular email updates from Virginia's Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli - the most recent titled "Thanks for helping us accomplish so much!" - and he doesn't even beg for money! We need more politicians like him.

GLENN BECK: Obama puts the 'I' in Team. Come to think of it, the Obama administration reminds me of television's "A-Team", the difference being that the A-Team was better organized and actually acted on the side of good.

PRESIDENT OBAMA is calling for the U.S. to reduce its oil imports by one-third over the next decade. Yeah, and increase production of subsidized (read as green) domestic energy. That'll solve the problem.

SEN. JIM WEBB (D-VA): How to save taxpayers $6 billion a year (excerpted from a constituent email) by repealing the corn ethanol subsidy.

Eliminating or reducing ethanol subsidies and trade barriers will help decrease the federal budget deficit, benefit the environment, and lessen our reliance on imported oil. Historically our government has helped a product compete in one of three ways: subsidize it, protect it from competition, or require its use (emphasis mine). Ethanol may be the only product receiving all three forms of support from the U.S. government at this time.

Of course, he's not running for reelection, so he can afford to be honest.

NPR'S ADDICTION:

After decades of mainlining public funds, NPR's brass is understandably alarmed at the prospect of going without its drug. But addictions are unhealthy, and it is a blessing to get free of them. Ron Schiller was right: NPR would be better off if it gave up federal funding. A little tough love from Congress can finally make that happen.

It's time.

YOU CUT vote of the week. I voted for #2, despite the fact that it affects me. I work for one of those "studies and analyses" think tanks, and I'm only too aware of how much of it is unnecessary.

THE OBAMA DOCTRINE: "ad hoc and situational" - whatever the Presidential Teleprompter tells him it is. ADDED: I had hoped TOTUS would teleprompt more intelligently.

HOW TO KNOW when green technologies are real.