POLITICO: Deciphering Leon Panetta’s Iran press dance. “Officials and strategists the world over are trying to parse Washington Post columnist David Ignatius’s bombshell revelation that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta believes Israel will attack Iran in the coming months and is pleading with the Israelis to put off any strike. Had Panetta, who’s developed a reputation for being gaffe-prone during his short time as defense secretary, possibly been a bit too candid in the presence of a fellow old Washington hand? Or was Panetta crazy like a fox, using an influential columnist to make the threat of an Israeli strike to strengthen the U.S.’s ability to rally its partners into putting tougher sanctions on Iran?”

TODD ZYWICKI IN FORBES: The “Robo-Signing” Settlement: Seeds of Recovery, Or Chaos?

CHANGE: Women, girls taking up guns, shooting in higher numbers. “Research by the National Sporting Goods Association shows female participation in target shooting grew by 46.5% between 2001 and 2010. And an October 2011 Gallup Poll found 23% of women own a gun.”

UPDATE: Reader Floyd Ferguson writes: “I am an Appleseed Project instructor: we teach a two day fundamentals of rifle marksmanship and American history, and I can tell you that the interest by women this past year has been simply unbelievable. Easily a third to half of our firing lines in Dallas Fort Worth are female. This weekend we are hosting a Ladyseed, for women only, and it has been sold out for weeks. The past year has been simply amazing!”

PAUL BEDRARD: Michelle’s ski trip marks 16 Obama vacations. “First lady Michelle Obama’s weekend jaunt to Aspen, Colorado for a President’s Day ski holiday with her daughters Sasha and Malia makes the 16th time members of the first family have gone on extended vacations during their three years in office.”

ROGER SIMON: Capitalism Is Saving Obama.

UPDATE: Reader Andy Burden writes: “Maybe so, but never underestimate the power of ‘bad luck.'”

Indeed.

WHY CAPITALISM IS HERE TO STAY: It’s the only system known to humanity that increases both growth and freedom.

JOBS: Robert Higgs: Private Employment Has Recouped Only Three-Eighths of Its Recent Loss.

THE HILL: House GOP hopes ‘Solyndra economy’ becomes Obama’s political epitaph.

UNEMPLOYMENT: “Unemployment is down, according to the official numbers, yet more people than ever are not working. What are they doing instead? The New York Post reports that an astonishing number of them are classifying themselves as disabled in order to continue receiving government benefits.”

EVEN THE MOMMYBLOGGERS ARE UPSET: CafeMom: Gas Prices Are Going Up & It’s Obama’s Fault.

ENERGY: U.S. oil gusher blows out projections. “The United States’ rapidly declining crude oil supply has made a stunning about-face, shredding federal oil projections and putting energy independence in sight of some analyst forecasts.” No thanks to the Administration.

TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: Typically, one attacks beliefs as “simple” when it isn’t feasible to attack them as “wrong.”

IN KNOXVILLE’S OLD CITY, RALLYING FOR ROMNEY.

AT AMAZON, bestselling books on Survival Skills.

ED DRISCOLL: Two Gray Ladies In One. “In 2008, the New York Times, the Washington Post, NBC, and tacitly, the San Francisco Chronicle all supported the notion of the then-incoming President Obama raising energy prices on consumers. Have gas prices risen sufficiently ‘gradually’ to benefit Mr. Obama’s reelection chances? The Times doesn’t seem to think so, despite having called for them to rise three and a half years ago.”

REVERSE-CLIMATEGATE FAIL: Peter Gleick Admits To Dishonesty In Obtaining Heartland Climate Files. Which only raises the credibility of those who claim that the major document is actually a fake: “Another question, of course, is who wrote the climate strategy document that Gleick now says was mailed to him. His admitted acts of deception in acquiring the cache of authentic Heartland documents surely will sustain suspicion that he created the summary, which Heartland’s leadership insists is fake. One way or the other, Gleick’s use of deception in pursuit of his cause after years of calling out climate deception has destroyed his credibility and harmed others.”

When the New York Times climate blog is saying this, you’re in real trouble. Meanwhile, check this out: Heartland Memo Looking Faker By The Minute.

UPDATE: Reader Kevin Coenen writes:

The most laughable line in Gleick’s confession is that he did it as a result of his “frustration with the ongoing efforts — often anonymous, well-funded, and coordinated — to attack climate science and scientists and prevent this debate, . . .” Revkin’s commentary follows on with his lament that this will “greatly set back any prospects of the country having the “rational public debate” that he wrote — correctly — is so desperately needed.” Debate? Huh? They now are talking about a needed debate on climate change. Al Gore, the UN climate panel and all “rational” scientists have been telling us for what now seems like a decade that the science is settled, there is a scientific consensus, that there can be no debate. Now they write as if all they ever wanted was a debate on the merits.

“Oh what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive.” They cannot stop themselves. Good grief.

Indeed.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Much more, from Charlie Martin.

MORE: Reader Paul Strasser writes:

I note that Gleick denies he wrote the fake part of the Heartland docs and that someone anonymously mailed them to him.

This is remarkably similar to the supposed source fo the Rathergate memos in which Rather’s source apparently got them from a mysterious stranger at a state fair or some such.

I suppose the “A stranger gave them to me so I can’t be sure if they’re really accurate but the information jibes with my beliefs” is the left’s version of “my dog ate my homework.”

Schadenfreudily yours.

Heh.

WHAT HAPPENED a year ago in Wisconsin.

AT AMAZON, up to 75% off on videogame downloads.

Also, until midnight: $2.99 game downloads.

WHAT’S SLOWING YOUR SMARTPHONE DOWN: Flash memory.

DAVID BOAZ: Why We Honor George Washington. “Today is some vaguely named ‘Presidents’ Day,’ but Wednesday is the anniversary of George Washington’s birth. So it’s a good day to remember the contribution he made to the American republic.”

THE HILL: Google draws more scrutiny after accidental tracking of Apple users.

12 TIMES WHEN BEING CHEAP CAN COST YOU.

HOLLYWOOD DESPERATION: An I Am Legend Sequel with Will Smith?

SEISMIC RESISTANCE: Model Analyzes Shape-Memory Alloys for Use in Earthquake-Resistant Structures.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Beyond Blue Part 5: Jobs, Jobs, Jobs.

Currently, the American legal and regulatory system is set up to bind as many people to employers as possible. The government wants you to be a wage slave and sets up a regulatory framework that keeps as many of us as possible yoked to bosses and management. The IRS doesn’t like the self-employed, fearing they many conceal income. Banks and credit card companies view such people with suspicion, and it is notoriously difficult for start ups and part time enterprises to have access to formal finance. Many services are hard for the self-employed to get on terms like those made available to employees of large corporations: from health insurance to retirement planning, many things are harder and more expensive for the self-employed. The payroll tax system is brutal: the self-employed pay both the employer and employee halves of Social Security and Medicare taxes, almost 20 percent of income and likely to go higher. Many cities will tack on unincorporated business taxes, mass transit taxes, and other interesting feudal exactions and dues.

There are other, subtler ways in which the current system favors old style large employers over small firms. The cost of hiring people can be prohibitively high for small businesses: the paperwork involved in hiring so much as a cleaning person or babysitter can be cumbersome. Hiring full time workers involves negotiating the requirements for worker compensation, unemployment insurance and much else. The cost of these barriers cannot be calculated: jobs foregone, businesses stifled in their cradles, ideas untested, innovations untried.

In order to create the kind of job and service explosion that can provide better incomes for more Americans going forward, the government needs to shift policy. It must favor the small firm and entrepreneur: the owner-proprietor group needs to become the apple of the government’s eye. Their taxes should be cut; their paperwork burdens drastically reduced; regulations should be rewritten and simplified to meet their needs.

Indeed.