AT AMAZON, Valentine’s Day Gifts: Markdowns and Recommendations.

INSTAVISION: I talk with Charles Sykes, author of A Nation of Moochers: America’s Addiction to Getting Something for Nothing.

SMACKDOWN: Keith Hennessey Responds To Ezra Klein’s Obama-Defending Deficit Chart.

MICHAEL WALSH: A Failed “Fast And Furious” Whitewash. “Today’s Capitol Hill hearing on the ‘Fast and Furious’ mess promises drama that may well rival the 1954 Army-McCarthy hearings or gangland chieftain Frank Costello’s memorable 1951 testimony in front of Sen. Estes Kefauver’s hearings on organized crime. . . . By turns whiny, petulant and deceitful, Holder would rather accuse his critics of racism than substantively address the scandal. But with each ‘withdrawn’ letter, Friday-night document dump and sudden resignation, it becomes ever more clear that the man who facilitated the outrageous Marc Rich pardon for President Bill Clinton is incapable of shame.”

FRANK J. FLEMING: What We Need In This Country Is More Apathy!

SHARED SACRIFICE: House Approves Bill To Freeze Federal Worker Pay Through 2013.

IT’S LIKE IT’S ALL JUST A CLASS WARFARE SCAM: “BUFFETT TAX” WOULD BE ONLY A TINY HELP IN CLOSING BUDGET DEFICIT. “It’s also a myth that all the ultra-rich enjoy low tax rates. In 2007, the richest 1 percent of taxpayers paid an average tax rate of 29.5 percent and provided 28.1 percent of federal revenues, reports the CBO. On their wages and salaries, many of the ultra-rich pay the top income tax rate of 35 percent plus a Medicare tax of 1.45 percent. . . . So, raise tax rates on Warren Buffett and others to upper-middle-class levels. But recognize that the anti-wealthy populist rhetoric is mostly political expediency. It distracts from the serious issues the country faces — creating jobs and closing long-term budget deficits.” Which is precisely what it’s meant to do. Or more specifically, to distract from how Obama has made the economy and in particular the federal budget deficit and national debt, much worse.

DON SURBER: OBAMA HIDES FROM THE PRESS.

J.E. DYER: God And Bain: What bothers some people about Bain Capital is a problem with government, not business.

THE DISCOVERY PROCESS SHOULD BE INTERESTING: Brian Terry’s Family Files $25M Lawsuit Against ATF. “In any normal election cycle this would be a blockbuster story plaguing the administration. But since the media’s man is running for re-election, expect little if any mention.” Word still gets out.

UPDATE: A reader says it’s a “Claim,” not yet a lawsuit. Hmm. How fast and how much they pay up, if they do, will tell us a lot about how afraid they are of discovery.

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: In Colorado, A Business Self-Defense Bill.

Lawmakers will hear testimony on a proposal to allow Colorado business owners and employees the right to use deadly force against suspected intruders.

The bill dubbed “Make My Day Better” expands legal protections to businesses. Colorado homeowners already have those protections under a law nicknamed “Make My Day.”

This isn’t the first time Republicans have tried to give legal protections to business owners and employees. Their proposals have failed in the past when Democrats controlled both chambers.

Sad that a common-sense proposal like this is even controversial.

LEGAL EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Law Firms Keep Squeezing Associates.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: “Should I Tell My Boyfriend About My Debt?”

PATRICK RICHARDSON: Fisking Eric Holder’s Prepared Remarks for the Fast and Furious Hearing.

WHY SEVERAL HUNDRED THOUSAND JOBS are about to “vaporize.”

REMEMBER: February 14 is Starbucks Appreciation Day for Second Amendment supporters.

WHY ARE THE CHINESE BUYING SO MUCH GOLD?

Although indicators showed the Chinese economy faltered only at the end of September, there had been a growing sense of pessimism inside the country for months before then. Beijing, after all, could build only so many “ghost cities” before citizens began to notice. As Joseph Sternberg of the Wall Street Journal Asia said on the John Batchelor Show last Wednesday, “people inside China seem to be losing faith in the Chinese growth story that we’ve been hearing so much about for the past few years.” Estimates of capital flight are sketchy, but it appears there was $34 billion of it in the third quarter of last year and a $100 billion in the fourth.

Not every Chinese citizen is in the position to export cash, so the next best tactic for the nervous is to buy gold, a refuge from plunging property prices and declining stock markets as well as an anticipated depreciation of their currency.

Makes sense.

CNN: ERIC HOLDER’S “FAST AND FURIOUS” WOE. “Attorney General Eric Holder has made it clear that he thinks he has been subjected to a heavily politicized process over Fast and Furious. If he has — and that’s still an if — I suspect that some folks at CIA know exactly how he feels.”

“I WAS JUST TRYING TO PUT ON A SHOW.”

TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: Soledad O’Brien’s multiethnicity.

ANOTHER DOJ SCANDAL? “A U.S. Justice Department source has told The Daily Caller that at least two DOJ prosecutors accepted cash bribes from allegedly corrupt finance executives who were indicted under court seal within the past 13 months, but never arrested or prosecuted.” Stay tuned.

WHAT MITT ROMNEY REALLY SAID. “Romney as the nominee will be flyspecked and criticized over every word. He needs to avoid actual gaffes. But he can’t keep the media from editing out all the inconvenient parts of every sentence, paragraph and interview. He’ll need to work on talking directly to voters, making his case in ads and debates. The good news for him, at least in the primary, is that the media that are predisposed to pounce on every (other) word and offer the most negative interpretation of his every statement and performance appear to have zero influence among voters.”

Frankly, I think he’s got a point. People whose livelihood comes from the government — whether the very poor, or the government employees — are doing fine. It’s people who depend on the actual economy who are hurting.

Meanwhile, my call for “shared sacrifice” back in 2008.

UPDATE: Reader Jeffrey Hollister writes: “I wonder if anyone has passed along your wise advice to Team Romney: always have your own video crew recording everything whenever the MSM’s cameras are rolling.”

I may be wrong, but I don’t think a lot of folks there read InstaPundit.

MORE: Bill Quick says I’m wrong. But the “very poor” on government assistance, while they have serious problems, haven’t been hit by the economic downturn the way the middle class has.

STILL MORE: Brian Epps says Bill Quick is right and I’m wrong:

The very poor have to spend more, as a percentage of their income, on food and transportation than those better off. When one considers the fact that gas and food prices have risen dramatically in the last three years with no end in sight, I’d say that there is reason to be concerned about the very poor.

While income inequality has dropped in recent years in dollars, in terms of actual buying power, the poor have had their incomes slashed by Obama’s inflation tax on necessities. Even if one wants to get out of the hole and off the dole, the path to self-reliance has had caltrops tossed on it with the increase in minimum wage and the current policies that discourage hiring, especially on the low-wage, low-skill level most of the very poor are qualified for.

Good point.

INTRODUCING THE Campaign For Primary Accountability. How about somebody going after Lamar Smith?

UPDATE: Ask and ye shall receive.

BUSTING ANDREW SULLIVAN for “prejudice and bigotry.” “Test yourself out, Andrew. Imagine some friend of yours told you something like that about some other religious group. Test it with every religious group can think of, referring to political candidates that you like and dislike. Hold yourself to a neutral standard. Are you satisfied with what you’ve put out there?”

UPDATE: Will Collier emails:

Disclaimer: I’ve got no particular use for Romney or anybody else still running this year. That said, whenever a yahoo like Sullivan pulls the “fake friendly” Mormon card over the next year, the response ought to be this speech from the end of the (in)famous South Park “All About Mormons” episode…

Look, maybe us Mormons do believe in crazy stories that make absolutely no sense, and maybe Joseph Smith did make it all up, but I have a great life. and a great family, and I have the Book of Mormon to thank for that. The truth is, I don’t care if Joseph Smith made it all up, because what the church teaches now is loving your family, being nice and helping people. And even though people in this town might think that’s stupid, I still choose to believe in it. All I ever did was try to be your friend, Stan, but you’re so high and mighty you couldn’t look past my religion and just be my friend back. You’ve got a lot of growing up to do, buddy. Suck my balls.

Sullivan’s got no standing to criticize anyone for fakery..

REMEMBER: February 14 is Starbucks Appreciation Day for Second Amendment supporters.

UPDATE: Sorry — had tomorrow down before. Not sure how I got that wrong.