• One of the winners of the Nobel Prize for Economics is some American gal, Elinor Ostrom, who is the first lady economist ever to win. Something about communities and resources, anyway it was uncontroversial! [CNN]
• So our government is still working out the kinks in its system of telling when foreign people who visit here actually leave. [New York Times]
• Bombings, bombings, bombings all weekend in Pakistan, all thanks to the Taliban. [WSJ]
• There is a new song on the Internet from the dead, apparently self-referential pop star Michael Jackson called “This Is It.” [LA Times]
• A gang of British Greenpeace people had a sleepover party on the roof of the Palace of Westminster to let everyone know how much they despise climate change, and also politics. [Guardian]
• China is so excited to be able to sell Hummers soonish! There are some minor “regulatory emissions things” to figure out, but other than that, just pure excitement. [Reuters]

The DNC has overreacted to the GOP’s overreaction, and now this whole Barack Obama Nobel Peace Prize to-do is just an infinite regress of hyperbole. Cue Brad Woodhouse, DNC Communications Director: “The Republican Party has thrown in its lot with the terrorists – the Taliban and Hamas this morning – in criticizing the President for receiving the Nobel Peace prize.” Brad Woodhouse, no! Can someone please pause the Internet? We are nearing some sort of event horizon of rationality. [CNN Political Ticker]

• This new tax credit thing for businesses that make up new jobs is not entirely despised by everyone in Congress. Even Eric Cantor is like, whatever! [New York Times]
• But speaking of “entirely despised by everyone in Congress”: Obama’s Afghanistan strategy. [Washington Post]
• NASA has discovered an enormous invisible (?) ring around Saturn that’s the size of 1 billion Earths. Next step will be for them to make the case for why we need to blow it up. [CNN]
• The Taliban in Afghanistan say they have no interest in killing Westerners. Swear to god you guys! [Reuters]
• The Supreme Court will now decide whether YouTube videos of animal cruelty count as free speech or whether they should be banned forever. [WSJ]
• And two more Americas (+ 1 Israeli) won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, for something about ribosomes, which sounds suspiciously like that thing the Medicine people did. [LA Times]

GOOD THING BARACK OBAMA DID NOT ALSO ASK THAT AMERICA RECEIVE THIS TOO: Hey mazel tov to the three Americans who have WON the Nobel Prize in Medicine and therefore the morning. It is also the first time that two lady scientists have shared the prize. “The three scientists won the prize for experiments that showed that the long thread-like molecules that carry genes inside every cell known as chromosomes have protective caps on their ends — like the protective tips on shoelaces — called telomeres, which are replenished with an enzyme known as telomerase.” TOO INSIDERY. [Washington Post]

After Al Gore lost the 2000 election because he was boring, he gained 400 pounds and grew a beard. Then America and all the world loved him! He made a movie about how the Earth is melting, and then he won a Swedish Prize, and soon a back-room deal at the Democratic National Convention will make him our president again. That is, unless President Barack Obama decides to give him some sort of shadow government post as the Climate Change Czar. Rumors are already afoot! MORE »

Each year, the President of the United States hosts Nobel prize winners in the Oval Office, a tradition that made for a slightly uncomfortable meeting today between Bush and Al Gore. Is it just us, or do you think Gore just smelt what the President is grinning about having dealt? [Washington Post]

* By announcing his desire to be president, Fred Thompson expects it to just happen to him. Thus, he redefines the American Dream. [Wizbang Politics]
* One day, we will not ignore Joe Biden as we do today. [The Plank]
* When it comes to raising money, Mark Warner is no Ron Paul. [Election Central]
* Can killing yourself be considered an admission of guilt? [TPMmuckraker]
* Who would have guessed that Michelle Malkin is actually better looking in caricature? [Michelle Malkin]
* A Nobel Prize that will noticeably not be shit upon. [Redstate]