TERRANCE MALKINSON: The American Cowboy. From the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), no less.

EXPECT A RESURGENCE of the "Welcome to Texas - now go home" bumper stickers: Need a Job? Move to Texas.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON on Our Ten-Trillion-Dollar Man:

[T]here is fear that at some point in the future, Obama will not be known as the first African-American president. Nor will he be cited even as the hope-and-change phenomenon of 2008. Instead, posterity shall know him as the single greatest borrower in American presidential history, a novice who nearly wrecked the U.S. economy by borrowing over $4 billion a day without any feasible proposal how to pay back such a vast sum — taking a post-recession recovery and turning it into a stagflationary mess. In the third year of his tenure, Obama is still left only with “Bush did it” as an explanation of what went wrong.

Read it all.

MEGAN MCARDLE explains yesterday's dueling press conferences:

There's an old Soviet joke that a friend once told me. An old man has been standing in line for bread for eight hours. His feet hurt, his back hurts, and he is faint from hunger. Finally, finally the door opens and the baker comes out. He starts to salivate. He fingers the rubles in his pocket.

"Comrades, go home," says the baker. "There is no flour to make bread today."

Something in the old man snaps. He has been waiting in these lines for decades, and he has had enough. "This is ridiculous!" he shouts. "I fought in the Great Patriotic War! I worked for forty years in the factory! Now you make me wait in line for eight hours when there's no flour? You didn't know this eight hours ago? I spit on you, and I spit on the regime!" And he spits in front of the baker.

A man steps out of line behind him. "Careful, comrade. You know how it would have been in the old days if you had said these things." With his thumb and forefinger, he mimes a gun being fired at the temple.

Defeated, the man steps out of line and trudges home with everyone else. He goes into his apartment and sits down at the table. His wife walks in just as he pours the last of his vodka into a glass, and drinks it down in one gulp.

"Sergei, what's wrong?!" she cries, seeing the look on his face. "Don't tell me they're out of bread!"

"It's worse than that. Much worse." he says heavily.

"What could be worse?"

"They're out of bullets."

She's not optimistic.

WATCH IT: Baby Talk on the Deficit.

OBAMA TO BANKS: We're not defaulting. No, we'll just throw Granny under the bus.

AFTERBURNER: Bill Whittle goes to Miramar.

A 'TWOFER' IN TODAY'S WASHINGTON POST. The Post's two resident knotheads offer these opinions:

Eugene Robinson: Was the Norway killer inspired by Internet hate?

My only surprise with Eugene is that it took him so long to find an excuse to publish this idiocy.

Richard Cohen: Of course Bachmann does not deserve to be in the presidential race. Legislatively, she has done little, she knows next to nothing and what she thinks she knows is wrong.

Substitute "Obama" for "Bachmann" and ask yourself if Cohen said anything similar in the 2008 Democratic primary campaign.

FEDERAL AUDITORS will soon review health insurance rates in 10 states. So I can expect my insurance rates to rise sooner - and more - than expected.

THOMAS SOWELL on the debt ceiling. I tend to disagree with Sowell about the usefulness of the debt ceiling; if nothing else, it does periodically call attention to the problem of government overspending. But I do understand this comment: "'If you didn't invite me to the big take-off, don't invite me to the crash landing.' This was Obama's big spending spree, but 'bipartisanship' requires Republicans to either split the bill or be blamed if the government shuts down or defaults."

ANOTHER CONGRESSMAN bites the dust. At least he might not have to vote on the debt ceiling.

PLEASE don't wake the baby.

CAN YOU IMAGINE the uproar in the U.S. if the government - even partially - funded the restoration of a Christian church?

GROW YOUR OWN CHAIR


From my email.

SLOWLY? Obama May Be Slowly Isolating Himself.

NO, MR. OBAMA, You Cannot Balance the Budget With Rainbows and Unicorns. You may have to register to see the video. It's worth it.

HANG TOUGH, MR. SPEAKER. For those of you that think small business and the elderly support the administration's economic plans, read here and here - especially the comments.

PULSEJET TECHNOLOGY: Can the Millennium Falcon really fly?

Linked from here, complete with gratuitous Nazi comment.

CONGRESS not expected to act soon on FAA extension. As I predicted, keep the essential services going and no one will notice.

It's not the best way to downsize government, but it works.

MAKES SENSE TO ME: "A rising tide of D.C. voters and elected officials is calling on Councilman Harry Thomas Jr. to resign after he agreed to pay the city back $300,000 he was accused of stealing."

To leave him in office would just be giving him a chance to re-steal the $300K. But knowing D.C. voters, he'll remain in office unless convicted - and even then, I wouldn't bet against.