President Obama previewed his budget over the weekend in his weekly address: "My budget freezes annual domestic spending for the next five years – even on programs I care deeply about – which will reduce the deficit by more than $400 billion over the next decade. This freeze will bring this type of spending to its lowest level as a share of the economy since Dwight Eisenhower was president."

The latest move by the coalition of labor unions, politicians, and competing retailers trying to keep Walmart out of New York City is a campaign against a real estate company, Related, that wants to rent space to the chain. Related is led by Stephen Ross. Reports Crain's New York:

Plans are in the works to bring a group of former Walmart workers to Mr. Ross to talk about their experiences with the retailer. Other actions against Related are also being planned, including demonstrations outside board members' homes and the firm's Columbus Circle headquarters.

Demonstrations "outside board members' homes"? Now there's a pleasant tactic. Sound familiar?

The Crain's article also says:

Harvard economist Gregory Mankiw has a column in the New York Times taking issue with President Obama's "winning the future" formulation in respect of America, China, and India.

Atlas Shrugged Part I the movie, based on the Ayn Rand book, will be in theaters on April 15 (traditionally tax day, though this year most individuals have until April 18 to file because of Emancipation Day). The trailer is embedded below.

"Our assessment is that the Egyptian Government is stable."

— Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, January 25, 2011. Highlighted in a post here on January 26.

The governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, a Republican, is taking on government employee unions in the state, the New York Times reports. The Times says that among the "key provisions" of the governor's plan are, "requiring government workers to contribute 5.8 percent of their pay to their pensions, much more than now; and requiring state employees to pay at least 12.6 percent of health care premiums (most pay about 6 percent now)."

The Republican Study Committee is marking President Reagan's 100th birthday by cutting a somewhat dark video ad interspersing his comments with those of contemporary Democrats.

National Public Radio has a derisive piece about the proprietor of Grant's Interest Rate Observer, Jim Grant, while the New York Sun has a laudatory editorial on essentially the same topic.

Paul Krugman begins his New York Times column today as follows:

There was a time when Republicans used to refer to themselves, proudly, as "the party of Lincoln." But you don't hear that line much these days. Why?

The main answer, presumably, lies in the G.O.P.'s decision, long ago, to seek votes from Southerners angered by the end of legal segregation. With the old Confederacy now the heart of the Republican base, boasting about the party's Civil War-era legacy is no longer advisable.

But sooner or later, Republicans were bound to notice other reasons to disavow Lincoln. He was, after all, the first president to institute an income tax. And he was also the first president to issue a paper currency — the "greenback" — that wasn't backed by gold or silver.

"Lebanese Bank Is Accused of Money Laundering," is the headline over a New York Times dispatch about an American government action against Lebanese Canadian Bank. The article reports:

Political observers were not sure what impact the complaint would have on relations between the United States and Lebanon....The observers said that the American complaint against Lebanese Canadian Bank was likely to be viewed as one more attempt by the United States to cast a harsh light on Hezbollah, which the Obama administration considers to be a militant group propped up by Iran.

The Star-Ledger of New Jersey has a dispatch from Trenton about Governor Christie's revision to the state's 10-year "energy master plan." Quoted in the story are:

• The director of the New Jersey Sierra Club
• The political director of the New Jersey Environmental Federation, who is calling for a "carbon-free, nuclear-free" New Jersey by 2050.
• A Democratic state senator who chairs the environment and energy committee
• The CEO of "American Clean Energy, a solar project developer."

Four of four sources quoted in the article are essentially "green" and/or political opponents of the Republican governor. Not a single one asks why a state would need to have a 10-year "energy master plan" in the first place, or cautions about the problems inherent in such planning.

The California state supreme court has ruled that retailers can't ask customers for their zip codes. The Los Angeles Times and Associated Press have news stories, but none get into just how ridiculous is the ruling, or the law on which it is purportedly based.

For one thing, if a customer doesn't want to provide the retailer a zip code, the customer can always just refuse and see what happens. I've done this from time to time and I've yet to have my money or payment refused. And if the retailer refuses to close a sale without a zip code, nothing is stopping the customer from walking out of the store and making a purchase instead at some other merchant who demands less personal information.

The law and the ruling advantage online retailers, which ask for zip codes along with shipping addresses and credit card billing addresses, over brick-and-mortar retailers, which don't routinely collect that information.

A movement is afoot to draft the author and journalist Amity Shlaes, a friend and former colleague of mine at the New York Sun, to run for U.S. Senate in New York. More information here and here.

The Economist has a dispatch from Japan, reporting on two local politicians there elected on a "plan to cut local taxes by 10%, slash salaries for elected officials, and shed overlapping public services."

"The False Promise of Green Jobs" is the headline of a new article by Bjorn Lomborg, who writes, "the number of jobs that these policies create is likely to be offset – or worse – by the number of jobs that they destroy."

More: "Alternative energy sources such as solar and wind create significantly more expensive fuel and electricity than traditional energy sources. Increasing the cost of electricity and fuel will hurt productivity, reduce overall employment, and cut the amount of disposable income that people have....Despite a significant outlay, government efforts to create green jobs could end up resulting in net job losses."