Is it just me, or is it a poignant commentary on the sad decline of American individualism that a flaccid, big-government yes man like Ken Salazar gets away with wearing a fucking cowboy hat these days? Meh. Here.

Harsanyi: According to Nobel laureate and raconteur Paul Krugman, Gov. Scott Walker and “his backers” are attempting to “make Wisconsin — and eventually, America — less of a functioning democracy and more of a Third World-style oligarchy.” Now, it’s common knowledge that throwing around loaded words like “socialism” is both uncivil and obtuse, so it’s comforting to know we can still refer to people as “Third World-style oligarchs.” And boy,

David Brooks likes the crease in Mitch Daniels’ pants! Still: If we compare job growth in Indiana with job growth (or more accurately loss) with its mostly Democratically governed neighbors, it doesn’t look especially good. Indiana lost 6.5 percent of its jobs between December of 2004 (the month before Daniels took office) and December of 2010. This beats Michigan’s 13.0 percent and Ohio’s 7.7 percent, but is worse than Illinois’

Recovery Summer, 2: Electric Bugaloo! Budget and debt problems at all levels of American government also threaten to crimp the domestic recovery. Struggling state and local governments may dismiss more workers this year as many face their deepest shortfalls since the economic downturn began, and a Congressional stalemate over the country’s budget could even lead to a federal government shutdown. “The irony is that we just barely got ourselves up

Rasmussen: Voters continue to be closely divided over the question of public employee unions themselves. Fifty percent (50%) at least somewhat favor such unions, while 44% oppose them. These figures include 25% who Strongly Favor the unions and 25% who are Strongly Opposed. Last month in a survey of American Adults as opposed to Likely Voters, 45% supported public employee unions, while 45% opposed them. Support for the unions was

Wait, “civil war,” did you say? Quick! Somebody remove Reuters from Brian Kiteley’s news aggregator. BECAUSE OF THE FRINGE EXTREMIST HATE!

Unleash the beast: A state House committee has narrowly approved legislation that would repeal collective bargaining rights for municipal employees in Oklahoma’s 13 largest cities. The House General Government Committee voted 9-7 Wednesday to repeal the Municipal Employees Collective Bargaining Act. The measure was passed by lawmakers in 2004 and requires cities with populations of more than 35,000 to collectively bargain with their workers. The community services director for Midwest

So let’s see: on the one hand, Obama is refusing to defend a duly signed, bi-partisan enacted law that has withstood legal challenge for 16 years. On the other hand, President Bush defended a law his administration crafted and asserted did not violate the Constitution — a debatable point that took us into the weeds of NSA data mining, ECHELON, the physicality of binary code in space, and legislative record

What you can’t have: 1. incandescent bulbs 2. high-flow shower heads 3. large capacity flush toilets 4. cupcakes / bake sales / pizza parties / vending machines at school 5. oil drilling/exploration/refineries 6. salt 7. health care choice 8. spilled milk 9. unregulated farmer’s market produce What you can have: 1. a fresh new needle every time you want to shoot heroin into the webbing of your toes. 2.

Most transparent administration ever! The White House scoffs at the notion of an ulterior motive for scheduling meetings in what are, after all, meeting rooms. But at least four lobbyists who’ve been to the conference rooms just off Lafayette Square tell POLITICO they had the distinct impression they were being shunted off to Jackson Place – and off the books – so their visits wouldn’t later be made public. Obama’s