AT AMAZON, markdowns in Sports & Fitness.

CONGRESSMAN WU’S creepy enablers.

This is as much a scandal for Pelosi and her failed leadership as it is a scandal for Wu. We’re talking about the same proud feminist leadership and the same dysfunctional ethics panel that have dragged their feet on cleaning Capitol Hill’s mountain of other dirty laundry while providing cover to other predatory Dems:

They slapped New York Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel on the wrist for serial tax-cheating.

They have yet to bring California Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters to trial after charging her last year with three violations related to her crony TARP bailout intervention on behalf of minority-owned OneUnited Bank in Los Angeles.

They are just now looking into former New York Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner’s possible abuse of government resources while sending lurid messages and photos to young women across the country.

And they have only recently reauthorized a probe into the aftermath of allegations that former New York Democratic Rep. Eric Massa sexually harassed several young male staffers.

In that case, you’ll recall that Pelosi’s office and Democratic Rep. Barney Frank’s office had both been told by Massa’s top aides of the out-of-control abuse of underlings — but said and did nothing for months.

Wu’s a creep. But the pattern of malign neglect on the part of his Washington enablers is even creepier.

They protect him while he’s an asset, then dump him when he becomes a liability. Not exactly a pattern of neglect.

A “FAT CAT” IN THE WHITE HOUSE?

HOLLYWOOD BLOCK PARTY gets out of hand.

SHANNON GOESSLING: Ice Age Threat Should Freeze EPA Global Warming Regs. Obviously, Shannon has never read Fallen Angels. Otherwise she’d know that even an actual, as opposed to threatened, ice age would simply be a reason to redouble our efforts against global warming.

AT AMAZON, 25% to 75% off toys.

UNEXPECTEDLY: Pending home sales rise.

And initial jobless claims fall. Also good news. But watch for these to be revised upward, as usual.

CHANGE: ABA Approves Reforms to Law School Placement Data Reporting.

NATIONAL MOTORISTS ASSOCIATION: Are Driver’s Licenses Really Necessary? I think they’ve been sufficiently abused — look how many states will take them away from teenagers who get bad grades, and otherwise deny them for reasons having nothing to do with safety — that states shouldn’t be allowed to license drivers. Instead, I think you should simply demonstrate financial responsibility, either via assets or insurance. The problem with this approach is that it offers insufficient leverage to the governing class.

IRA STOLL: Five Facts About The Debt. Including this: “You can fool around with inflation and with the percentage of GDP and with the revenue side of the equation, but the bottom line is that the federal government is spending about double what it was at the end of the Clinton administration. For all the clamor on the left to bring back the Clinton-era top tax rates, there are few, if any, politicians in Washington talking about bringing back the Clinton-era spending levels.”

RAND SIMBERG ON the deanimation of Robert Ettinger. “His body won’t be buried or burned, as most people in his non-metabolizing state are, because those methods of interment would result in a state that even he and they would have recognized as death. Instead, as his bodily functions progressively failed, with a tub of chilled water at bedside, he was declared legally dead so that he could have himself chilled down, his fluids replaced with an anti-freeze solution, ultimately to liquid nitrogen temperatures, to continue a quest on which he had spent most of his life to date: to live indefinitely long. He is not the first to be so preserved, though he is one of only a few hundred in history. But he is the man who made knowledge of the notion widespread to the point that there is a popular mythology of it (no, Walt Disney was not frozen).”

TAXPROF: Obama’s Attempt to Scare Seniors With Social Security Lacks Any Legal Foundation.

POLITICAL CLASS FAIL: Canton City Council Prez More Upset About Gun Laws Than Irate Cop. “Schulman was recently interviewed by WHLO radio. While he wouldn’t comment on the shocking disregard for the law by officer Harless, what seems to have gotten him really hot and bothered are all of the “out-of-town” emails and phone calls the city has been receiving. Not to mention the crushing inconvenience of the second amendment. . . . The real problem isn’t that Officer Harless conducted himself like a jack-booted thug, violated a motorist’s Constitutional rights and threatened to execute a citizen who was licensed to carry a gun. It’s good to hear, Councilman Schulman, that the people of Canton ‘are being protected.’ The question is, who will protect the people of Canton from policemen like Daniel Harless?”

CATO: Boehner’s New Plan Doesn’t Actually Cut Spending. “The ‘cuts’ in the Boehner plan are only cuts from the CBO baseline, which is an assumed path of constantly rising spending. . . . The way to make real spending cuts is to abolish programs and agencies. But it’s been eight months since a landslide election that focused on the issue of spending cuts, and the Republican leadership hasn’t proposed any major terminations.”

OBAMA NEEDS NEW WRITERS: GOP aims to gut Christmas, White House alleges.

Of course, Congress isn’t looking so hot either: Clyburn: An Executive Order To Raise The Debt Ceiling Would Be Like The Emancipation Proclamation Or Something.

But what does he mean by this? “We integrated public schools by executive order.” Silly me, I thought the Supreme Court had something to do with that.

PROGRESS IN GROWING natural replacement teeth: “The significance here isn’t just in the ability to grow teeth. The jaw responded to the teeth by growing supporting bone and nerves. The bone growth wasn’t enough to restore full normal bone support. So there’s still a need to develop methods to control bone growth. But the result suggests the potential to achieve full restoration of both bone and teeth after periodontal disease or trauma. The era of regenerative medicine is drawing near.”

Faster, please.

WANT JOBS? Cut Local Regulatons.

“CONFLICT OIL” VS. “ETHICAL OIL.” Love the graphic.

RICK PERRY LEADS in Ace’s straw poll, too.

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: A top Labor Department official in charge of helping veterans find jobs resigned this week amid findings that he had steered work to favored contractors.

RUNAWAY GROWTH: Report: Global Nissan Leaf sales top 10,100.

AWOL SERVICEMAN ARRESTED FOR PLANNING FOLLOW-UP ATTACK ON FORT HOOD: “When he was arrested, Abdo was in possession of large quantities of ammunition, weapons and what appeared to be the makings of a bomb, according to early accounts from law enforcement. He had also apparently purchased an Army uniform with Fort Hood patches from a local surplus store. Abdo told ABC News in 2010 he was Muslim and should not have to participate in what he called an ‘unjust war’ in the Middle East.”

An alert gun-store clerk notified authorities. Good thing the ATF didn’t decide to let this one “walk.”

GLOBAL NOT-SO-WARMING? New Data From NASA. “NASA satellite data from the years 2000 through 2011 show the Earth’s atmosphere is allowing far more heat to be released into space than alarmist computer models have predicted, reports a new study in the peer-reviewed science journal Remote Sensing. The study indicates far less future global warming will occur than United Nations computer models have predicted, and supports prior studies indicating increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide trap far less heat than alarmists have claimed.”

INSIDER TRADING AND REGULATORY ABUSE: Dirty Deals In The Department Of Education? Once we abolish it, we won’t have to worry about this sort of thing . . . .