RESPONDING TO ANTI-GUN BIGOTRY BY REWARDING ITS OPPOSITE: Beretta Brings 300 Jobs To Tennessee. “For much of the past year, Beretta has been scouting for locations for a manufacturing facility after the state of Maryland passed stricter gun legislation, company officials said.” (Via SayUncle).

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: The Death Of The Humanities. “A liberal arts education was once a gateway to wisdom; now, it can breed ignorance and arrogance.”

TAXPROF: The IRS Scandal, Day 265.

DAILY CALLER: Six reasons why Mike Lee’s tea party response to the State of the Union was AMAZING.

EUGENE KONTOROVICH & JOHN MCGINNIS: The Case Against Early Voting. “For all its conveniences, early voting threatens the basic nature of citizen choice in democratic, republican government. In elections, candidates make competing appeals to the people and provide them with the information necessary to be able to make a choice. Citizens also engage with one another, debating and deliberating about the best options for the country. Especially in an age of so many nonpolitical distractions, it is important to preserve the space of a general election campaign — from the early kickoff rallies to the last debates in October — to allow voters to think through, together, the serious issues that face the nation. The integrity of that space is broken when some citizens cast their ballots as early as 46 days before the election.”

MICKEY KAUS: Who Is The GOP’s Mystery Immigration Speaker?

MEGAN MCARDLE: Not All Democrats Want A Higher Minimum Wage.

There’s no estimate of what this would cost the government. When I tried to generate one, I quickly gave up, because I have no idea what it means to say that this will “affect” more than 2 million employees, or what those employees might be paid right now. Some back-of-the-envelope doodling suggests that it will probably cost the government a lot in actual dollars, but not that much per U.S. citizen. Which way we should look at it is left as an exercise for the reader.

As commentators have pointed out, this is the act of an administration that has given up on big moves. Though Obama will be promulgating this executive order in the context of a broader call for Congress to raise the minimum wage, he does not have the political muscle to force that through. Democrats can speak hopefully of a new populist moment centered on proposals such as a higher minimum wage, but this is the third or fourth time that the president has attempted to launch a new populist, progressive moment. So far, all of his policy rockets have fizzled out on the launchpad, and there’s little reason to think that this will finally light a fire under Congress. So he’s taking symbolic action within his legal power.

But this is not just about a split between Democrats and Republicans; it’s also about a growing split within the Democratic Party over what government jobs are for. Virtually everyone in the party used to support strong public-sector unions and jacking up public-sector wages. But as budgets have tightened, pensions have begun to crowd out other spending, and the public-sector unions became an increasing obstacle to reform, tension has mounted between providing more government services (or even the same level) and giving government workers generous pay packets, gold-plated retirement benefits and nearly ironclad protection from pink slips. . . .

At a time of great economic insecurity, it’s not great politics to make government workers the “haves” of the labor market: paid above-market wages and shielded from the chronic risk of job loss that most of the rest of America faces. Oh, sure, this is true for everyone — professionals often have to take a pay cut to work for the government. But to the average person sweating it out through rounds of layoffs at a job they don’t like very much, government workers seem to have it very good by comparison.

Indeed.

DANIEL MITCHELL: Thanks to Government, Banks Treat You Like Crap and Spy on You.

AT AMAZON, up to 45% off on Woodworking Essentials.

Also, 2014 deals on Tax Software.

Plus, today only: Up to 33% Off on Select Belkin WeMo Products.

FROM THE CATO INSTITUTE, a video response to the State of the Union.

WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Bridgegate Is Nothing Compared To Obama’s Payback Theater.

Consider the government shutdown last fall when the president authorized the needless closing of federal parks and museums in an attempt to smear Republicans. Obama’s team got so carried away that they even tried to close state-run parks in Wisconsin that weren’t dependent on federal funds. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker had to defy federal orders to keep them open.

Then there were the Tea Party groups that challenged the Obama agenda and soon found themselves targeted and harassed by the IRS. Yes, the tax official who ran the program claimed her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in a congressional hearing, but don’t expect any criminal charges to emerge from the IRS scandal. Attorney General Eric Holder’s Justice Department sees no evil in it, perhaps because the government attorney in charge of the investigation is a long-time Obama donor.

Another example of “the Chicago Way” as applied in Washington emerged this week in a legal filing by Standard and Poor’s, which faces federal fraud charges. An executive recounted how then-Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said the feds would seek payback for S&P downgrading the U.S. credit rating. Recall that back in August 2011, S&P dropped its credit-worthiness rating for the U.S. from AAA to just AA+. It was a reasonable decision, given the staggering U.S. debt load and the chronic inability of Congress to agree on annual budgets.

It was also highly embarrassing to a White House then gearing up for a re-election campaign. Two days after S&P’s announcement, McGraw Hill CEO Harold McGraw got a call from a steaming-mad Geithner, who told him the rating agency had made a huge mistake.

I can’t help but feel that the press’s focus on Christie is not just the obvious political shilling, but also, in some sense, a displacement response. Bullied by Obama, but unwilling to go after him for it, they turn their attention to smaller-scale targets that are safe.

WHEN PUSHING BACK WORKS: In concession to opposition, Ukraine repeals anti-protest laws; prime minister resigns.

TED CRUZ: Obama Doesn’t Need A Pen, He Needs An Eraser.

JAMES TARANTO: Enemies of Friends of Abe: How the IRS chills freedom of association.

These days “IRS Targets Conservative Group” is a dog-bites-man story. But this one was man-bites-dog by virtue of its placement: on the front page of the New York Times, a newspaper that is usually supportive of this administration’s efforts to suppress domestic dissent. Put it down to a sudden outbreak of news judgment.

The news value to the Times may lie more in the nature of the organization than its trouble with the IRS. “In a famously left-leaning Hollywood, where Democratic fund-raisers fill the social calendar, Friends of Abe stands out as a conservative group that bucks the prevailing political winds,” reads the lead paragraph.

But Friends of Abe–as in Lincoln–has sought nonprofit status under Section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. Tax Code, which would allow it to collect tax-deductible contributions. The IRS has been reviewing the application for some two years, seeking information about meetings where politicians spoke. A 501(c)(3) is prohibited from engaging in campaign activity, such as hosting a fundraiser, but as the Times notes, “tax-exempt groups are permitted to invite candidates to speak at events.”

The most troubling revelation in the Times account is that at one point the IRS “included a demand–which was not met–for enhanced access to the group’s security-protected website, which would have revealed member names.” The Times points out that FOA “keeps a low profile and fiercely protects its membership list, to avoid what it presumes would result in a sort of 21st-century blacklist” and that “tax experts said that an organization’s membership list is information that would not typically be required.”

With the possible exception of academia, show business is about as totalitarian a subculture as you will find in America. Conservatives are a tiny minority, and they fear for their livelihoods if exposed. A few high-profile celebrities are exceptions–the Times mentions Gary Sinise, Jon Voight, Kelsey Grammer and Lionel Chetwynd–but for lesser-known actors and people who work in off-camera jobs, confidentiality is crucial.

This column obtained a letter that Jeremey Boreing, FOA’s executive director, sent members last week in response to the Times story. Its tone demonstrates how seriously the group takes its members’ privacy.

Follow the link to read it. But weren’t the last enemies of Friends of Abe . . . the Confederates? They told me if I voted for Mitt Romney, the government would be taken over by neo-Confederates. And they were right! At least as far as the IRS goes, anyway.

THE HILL: Rand Paul To File NSA Suit Within Days. “The vocal critic of the NSA told the State of the Net Conference on Tuesday that the complaint has already been written and predicted that the challenge would likely reach to the Supreme Court.”

SPINNING THE DOJ REVOLVING DOOR. “A cynic might say that what is corrupt here isn’t the practices of American companies overseas but a regulatory regime so arbitrary and complex that it winds up enriching the regulators (once they pass through the revolving door), because they are the only ones who understand how it works well enough to advise on it. Another case for the Glenn Reynolds anti-revolving door tax of ‘A 50% surtax on anything earned within five years after leaving the federal government, above whatever the federal salary was.'”

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Governing by Pen and Phone: Obama used to sigh that he was not a dictator who could act unilaterally. No more.

There are lots of creepy things about such dictatorial statements of moving morally backward in order to go politically “forward.” Concerning issues dear to the president’s heart — climate change, more gun control, de facto amnesty, more massive borrowing supposedly to jump-start the anemic, jobless recovery — Obama not long ago had a Democratic supermajority in the Senate and a strong majority in the House. With such rare political clout, he supposedly was going to pass his new American agenda.

Instead, all he got from his Democratic colleagues was more borrowing and Obamacare. In the case of the latter, the bill passed only through the sort of pork-barrel kickbacks and exemptions to woo fence-sitting Democratic legislators that we hadn’t seen in the U.S. since the 1930s. And for what? Obamacare (be careful what you wish for) is proving to be the greatest boondoggle in American political history since Prohibition. If Obama sincerely wished to work in bipartisan fashion with Congress, he probably could easily get a majority vote to build the Keystone XL Pipeline, or a backup sanction plan against Iran in case his own initiatives fail.

Note as well that Obama says he will bypass Congress for “our kids.” Politicians usually cite the “kids” when promoting something that is either illegal or unethical.

Indeed.

“SMART DIPLOMACY:” Future Ambassador to China: ‘I’m No Real Expert on China.’ But he was chosen with an eye toward not losing the Senate, not with an eye toward not losing China.

OOPS: How same-sex marriage impacts financial aid: Some families may get less aid now that unions are legal. Welcome to one of the many legal downsides of marriage. . . .

COMPETITION FOR STEPHEN GREEN: more SOTU drunkblogging.

AT AMAZON, deals on Valentine’s Day Gifts.

Plus, 50% off Men’s Rockport Shoes.

BRYAN PRESTON: Obama’s Mismatched, Misfit State of the Union is In the Books.

SASHA VOLOKH: Pictures From Ukraine.

DR. MILTON WOLF: The Family’s Response to the State of the Union. “It’s not just the President who’s ruining our country. Big spenders from both parties are working hand-in-hand to spend money we don’t have.”