WHO ARE THE DEMOCRATIC GUN-GRABBERS IN THE US SENATE? Let’s find out!

CHANGE: Twinkies Maker Preparing for Chapter 11 Filing.

Winston Zeddmore and Dr. Egon Spengler could not be reached for comment.

RELATED: Mike Brownfield of the Heritage Foundation on “Twinkies, Kodak, Bailouts, and the Free Market:”

[The free-market system] is under attack from the inside and the outside. From the outside, the Occupy Wall Street movement has assailed corporate America and profits, decrying inequities and crucifying capitalism. Unions are shouting down corporate executives for not sharing enough profits with their workers, and private equity firms are under attack because under our system, companies can, in fact, go out of business. In short, “success” and “profits” and “capitalism” have become pejoratives.

From the inside, the free market is under attack from a government that is picking winners and losers and deciding which companies should and should not survive. The Obama Administration has singled out “green energy” as a “winner,” doling out millions to companies like Solyndra because, in its view, producing solar energy is the “right” move for America—even if those companies can’t stand on their own two feet.

Likewise, when General Motors and Chrysler stood before Congress and begged for a bailout, they argued that they needed taxpayer relief as they struggled with massive debt, high fixed costs (labor/pension/health care costs), and declining sales. The Detroit automakers found a friend in Washington, receiving bailouts under two Administrations.

Does it seem fair that Solyndra and GM receive taxpayer funding when they can’t make it in the free market? Unfortunately, “fairness” is a word that takes on a new meaning in a crony capitalist society. Under the rules of this game, those with the best friends in power reap the benefits, while all others are stuck playing by the rules they set.

Call it “The New Feudalism,” to coin a phrase.

CAPITALISM: THE UNKNOWN IDEAL: Ron Paul defends Mitt Romney.

UPDATE: It’s an even more magnanimous gesture given that the 2012 presidential race is now down to a two-man race between Paul and Romney

At least if you ask Paul’s advisors….

YOU CAN CHECK OUT ANY TIME YOU LIKE, BUT YOU CAN NEVER LEAVE: At Commentary, Seth Mandel writes:

The New York Times tries admirably to parrot the administration line, calling Daley’s departure a “distracting shake-up in a White House that has prided itself on a lack of internal drama, with a tightly knit circle of loyal senior advisers playing a steadying role.” But the paper is forced to give away the game later on in the story, revealing the Obama White House for what it is: the Hotel California of presidential administrations:

While the president said he asked Mr. Daley to reconsider his decision, he did not apply the kind of pressure he brought to bear on Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, who has for several months been eager to return to New York.

The Times is right; Geithner has been begging to leave. And far from being chock full of “loyal senior advisers,” the White House is made up of people trying desperately to get out before their term is up (Daley, Geithner) and comically disastrous hires to which Obama has shown a generous amount of loyalty (Eric Holder, former press secretary Bob Gibbs).

Of course, for some reason, we haven’t seen the rash of newspaper stories on how Obama prizes loyalty over talent and competence, the way we did with George W. Bush. Perhaps the Times will be getting around to that any day now.

“You can’t get to the White House without stepping through the looking glass,” Jim Treacher writes on the Obama-in-Wonderland PR fiasco only now coming to the surface, but for some, escaping from the rabbit hole is even more difficult.

HANDBAGS AND GLADRAGS: Judging our politicians by what they wear. That tends to happen once you’ve replaced morality with aesthetics.

A SOCIETY DOES NOT SURVIVE, UNLESS IT HAS A REASON TO SURVIVE: Video of Dennis Prager telling University of Denver students, “I believe the greatest threat facing America – I’ve believed this my entire adult life — is that we have not passed on what it means to be an American to this generation.”

UPDATE: Video of Prager explaining the definition of “social” justice.

HUNTSMANIA! Video: Enthusiastic Huntsman supporters wonder aloud why he isn’t running as a Democrat.

Or for the Swedish parliament.

Still though, it is possible to find at least a couple of excellent arguments in favor of a Jon Huntsman presidency if you just look close enough.

WE ARE ALL OCCUPIERS NOW, Jim Geraghty writes, based on the rhetoric that Romney’s opponents have been tossing around to attack him:

If Romney’s opponents embrace the rhetoric and class warfare of the Occupy Wall Street crowd any closer, they’re going to start pooping on police cars.

So, here we are, at the day of the first primary, and the main objection to Mitt Romney from Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry is that he fired a bunch of people? More than his liberal-softie sounding rhetoric in 1994 and 2002? More than his crusade to liberate us from the individual mandate of Obamacare in order to leave the states free to enact their own individual mandates? More than the fact that he’s won exactly one general election in his life, in a year that the left-of-center vote was divided?

Objections to private-sector layoffs from the party that wants to shrink government? How do we think all of those employees of the federal bureaucracy will get off the payroll? Mass alien abductions?

How bad is it? In a follow-up post, Jim spots this turn of the phrase, from a Democratic candidate turned media spokesman whom in 2006 was seen as relatively moderate, at least in comparison to the average MSNBC-approved candidate:

On MSNBC a moment ago, Harold Ford Jr. just asked, “Can Romney recover from his association with private equity?” The demonization of the free market is complete.

This is, of course, in the context of a discussion of the Republican primary.

Not to mention being  kind of a strange question to ask from a recent former vice chairman and senior policy adviser at Merrill Lynch, who’s now with Morgan Stanley.

But then, these days, “Gordon Gekko Would Have Fit in With Occupy Wall Street.” And apparently, surviving primary season now requires that both parties to cannibalize their base and their core ideals.

WHAT A LONG STRANGE TRIP, FROM THE BEDROOM TO THE BASEMENT: Raise a Martini glass and join me in wishing happy tenth blogging anniversary to Stephen Green, the VodkaPundit.

CHANGE: SOPA becoming election liability for backers. “Among the fattest targets: SOPA’s lead author, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas), and two of its most vocal co-sponsors, Reps. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.). House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has also felt the wrath of SOPA opponents.”

Keep after them.

THE STEPHANOPOULOS STANDARD: In the Wall Street Journal, Bill McGurn explains how Republicans can turn media bias to their advantage.

Given that Mr. Obama is almost entirely a creation of the media-academia complex, the GOP should be very glad they’ve gotten this taste of what the MSM’s barrage in the fall will be like, for whoever the candidate ultimately turns out to be.

A COMPARISON OF GOP CANDIDATE (AND OBAMA’S) TAX PLANS: Americans For Tax Reform Put together a great chart comparing the tax plans of the six GOP contenders to Obama (see below). There are some policies that jump out to the reader.”

VIRGINIA BALLOT ACCESS BY GOP CANDIDATES: It’s apparently looking much more likely that “there will be additional candidates on the Virginia GOP ballot besides Romney and Paul,” Hans A. von Spakovsky writes at the PJ Tatler.

MARKDOWNS ON Panasonic shavers, trimmers and more.

SWEET IRONY: Righthaven complains about ‘scorched-earth’ efforts to enforce judgments. Make the rubble bounce.

GOD AND MAN AT GOOGLE STREET VIEW: The Sistine Chapel 3d Virtual Tour, found via Myra Adams at the PJ Lifestyle blog.

RICK PERRY AT RED STATE ON ‘THE CHOICE:’ “I, for one, hope it will be. America cannot abide another four years of big, intrusive government, no matter its philosophical goals. It’s time for a change. That entails Americans getting a choice.”

Read the whole thing.

UN-CONSCIOUSLY? Science: Unconsciously, Everyone Wants To Date A Hottie.

IRAN HANDS EX-MARINE DEATH SENTENCE FOR SPYING.

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Is liberalism killing comic books, by making the story lines entirely predictable?

Only as much as it’s killed Hollywood in the last decade by making the story lines entirely predictable. (Scroll down to Brian Anderson look at how political correctness watered down the movie versions of Tom Clancy’s The Sum of All Fears and even the otherwise pretty good Clint Eastwood version of Andrew Klavan’s True Crime. Or just tune into a rerun of most any episode of Law & Order in the post-Michael Moriarty years.)

ELIMINATIONIST RHETORIC: Obama: Republicans threaten the “very core of what this country stands for.”

“BOSCH HAS PROPAGATED THE LIE:” Ann Althouse: A Slate resident feminist hears Gov. Christie talking about oral sex when he’s obviously not.

GOODNIGHT, MOONSHOT: At Reason, Matt Welch turns the lights out on a government-aggrandizing metaphor:

As authors William D. Eggers and John O’Leary argued in their 2009 Harvard Business Press book If We Can Put a Man on the Moon…Getting Big Things Done in Government, the lunar metaphor has experienced far too much mission creep. “The moon landings were without a doubt inspirational, but did they teach too much of a good lesson?” Eggers and O’Leary wrote. “Don’t we need some realism as well as optimism? Simply because you really want to reach a destination doesn’t mean you are going to get there. If President Kennedy had challenged us to send a man to Mars within the decade, we’d have lost that challenge. Just because government put a man on the moon doesn’t mean it can do something really hard.”

There are few things political executives love more than making promises to meet lofty goals by deadlines that will arrive long after they have exited the scene. Under laws passed and edicts signed half a decade ago, and regardless of cost or other feasibility issues, California in 2020 must acquire one-third of its energy from renewable sources. “By 2020,” President Obama said in a 2010 speech, “America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.” Politicians want to bask in the glow of Kennedyesque vision and determination, without getting hung up on the practical details.

But as Eggers and O’Leary point out, these transparent attempts to glom onto JFK’s glamour skip right over the 35th president’s real-world pragmatism. Consider this passage from Kennedy’s terse “Man on the Moon” speech: “This decision demands a major national commitment of scientific and technical manpower, material and facilities, and the possibility of their diversion from other important activities where they are already thinly spread.…It means we cannot afford undue work stoppages, inflated costs of material or talent, wasteful interagency rivalries, or a high turnover of key personnel.”

“It is remarkable today,” Eggers and O’Leary comment, “to read the words of an American president, during a major address to Congress, talking about the bureaucratic challenges of a major endeavor. Interagency rivalries? High turnover?” One of the keys to making the moonshot was grounding it in reality by extending the original 1967 deadline to the end of the 1960s and doubling the original estimated budget when it became apparent that initial projections weren’t viable. Promises detached from reality, like missions detached from concrete accomplishments, are recipes for cynicism, waste, and failure.

Read the whole thing.™

RELATED: At PJ Media, Rand Simberg explores “The Lunar Yellow Peril.” Rand writes that both the US and Chinese “government space agencies should fear is [Robert Bigelow of Bigelow Aerospace] and SpaceX establishing a lunar base, and rendering them both irrelevant.”

HOW IT SHOULD BE: Boston Police Officers Disciplined For Arresting Man Who Filmed Police.

They need to read Morgan Manning’s article.