LIGHTNING ROUND: IN DEFENSE OF DENIM.

• President Obama elaborated on plans to expand high-speed rail in the United States today, identifying nine regions that would receive federal funding for the projects. In addition to the $8 billion already earmarked in the ARRA for HSR, the administration committed to an addition $1 billion per year for five years to keep the projects going.
• According to the Yedioth Achronoth, Israel's largest daily newspaper, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel told an unnamed Jewish leader that Barack Obama intends to have a two-state solution "sealed and delivered" in his first term as president. The report claims that the White House doesn't care who the political leadership in Israel is -- the goal remains the same. M.J. Rosenberg notes that neither the U.S. or Israeli government has commented on the report.
• Nate Silver has convincingly estimated the turnout for yesterday's tea parties to be about a quarter million -- fairly impressive but considerably less, as others have pointed out, than pro-immigration protests three years ago, and certainly less than the millions worldwide who protested the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. In retrospect, it seems clear that the protests ultimately were a general-purpose congregation of long-standing resentment against liberal government, which means they probably won't have much power to attract wider political support. The more interesting aspect to watch is how much cross-pollination there will be with the Republican party itself.
• Protests and demonstrations always bring out extremists and radicals, who were hardly representative of most of the tea-baggers. Far more disturbing are the recent comments of conservative politicians who are openly calling for radical acts like seceding from the United States, encouraging violence against your state's governor, calling for open revolution, and whipping up anti-Muslim bigotry. It seems the new radical chic for conservatives is, as David Sirota rightly observes, to "mainstream the militia." Despite this, we have the DHS tiptoeing around the issue of right-wing extremism and hacks like Mike Allen arguing that such extremism couldn't possible be coming from "real America."
• Not to beat a dead horse here, but I think perhaps the best response to George Will's latest expression of senility is invoke the 1970s British heavy metal act Saxon, whose 1981 album Denim and Leather neatly summarized the philosophy behind these controversial fabrics:

  On a more serious note, it might surprise Will to learn that while I am actually wearing denim and leather as I compose this, I also have in my possession -- and even wear! -- bespoke tailored suits, and I plan to purchase more in the future. I hope that's up to his impossibly high standards.

• Remainders: Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA) appears well-positioned to make a Senate run next year; North Carolina emerges as a new bellwether state; and a prominent libertarian debates whether his brethren would be better off escaping the real world in cyberspace, outer space, or seasteading.

--Mori Dinauer