Today’s Links: October 6, 2011

OPINION

NATIONAL REVIEW EDITORIAL: “Truth in Budgeting”
“As Americans struggle to balance their checkbooks in the real world, lawmakers in Washington continue to apply postmodern accounting tricks to mask their out-of-control spending habits. New legislation introduced by Sens. Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.), top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, and Olympia Snowe (R., Maine) would help to tamp down some of these shenanigans.”

DIANA FURCHTGOTT-ROTH: “DOE Hasn’t Learned Its Solyndra Lessons”
“Some might think the Energy Department learned from the September Solyndra bankruptcy, in which taxpayers have a $528 million exposure. Surely September would have been a good time to halt the Energy Department’s loan guarantee program and understand why this program has become the poster child for crony capitalism.”

MATT WELCH: “Jonathan Chait’s Latest Libertarian Fever Dream”
“Yesterday, I wrote a blog post about howNew York Magazine political writer Jonathan Chait (late of The New Republic) is looking on the bright side of potential “fear of extremism and mob violence” in the Occupy Wall Street protests (which, as far as I can tell, haven’t really featured anything like either). He has written a long response (decorated by a glamourpuss shot of Nick Gillespie!) that you can read here. ”

NEWS

FAST & FURIOUS OPERATION – New Docs Show Eric Holder Lied About Botched ‘Fast and Furious’ Gun Smuggling Scandal
“New documents, released this week, indicate that Holder may have lied to Congress about how much and when he knew about the sting, known as Operation Fast and Furious, in which U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) agents allowed more than 2,000 firearms to “walk’ across the U.S. border to Mexico and into the hands of Mexico’s brutal drug cartels.”

TECHNOLOGY – India Releases World’s Cheapest Computer at £22 
“The seven-inch tablet was developed by a UK-based technology company in partnership with the Indian government. Two years ago Indian officials presented a “$10 laptop” which turned out to be a storage device. It later pledged to develop a $35 laptop, which became the £22 tablet unveiled yesterday. It operates on Android’s 2.2 operating system, has only 2GB of memory and its screen is spongy to the touch and temperamental. But at £22, it is £377 cheaper than the iPad 2 and £357 cheaper than the Samsung Galaxy.”