POLL: Public has no idea how high police and fire salaries are.

UPDATE: Reader Mark Ferrigno emails:

I can’t agree more. I live in Hawaii and the Honolulu Police Officers have had a 33.8% increase in the last 4 years. No one I work with believed me until I printed out and showed them the article

http://www.kitv.com/news/13391209/detail.html

Of course the “police spokesman” tells us the increase is need to “recruit and retain” officers. Hmm, head over to the HPD website and you will discover that they are not hiring. Guess that did the trick!

I wonder how many quit prior to the increase citing “low pay” Educated guess is zero.

Oh yeah, and the starting pay is 51K a year and after 5 years Officers also have the choice of using their own private vehicle for law enforcement duties as part of a subsidized program.

I would guess that retention isn’t that tough.

WASHINGTON EXAMINER EDITORIAL: Voters elected Republicans to end Obamaism, not expand it.

SCOTT JOHNSON: Gangster Government, TSA Edition.

HIDDEN DEFICIT: Cooking the Books: The 2010 Deficit Was $2.1 trillion.

ARE REPUBLICANS in danger of losing Middle America after all?

UPDATE: Reader Clint Block emails:

There is something which has been bothering me for some time: Oftentimes the term “middle class” is used as a rough equivalent of “median income”, as in “middle class tax cut” etc..

Originally the term Middle class referred to the merchant or Bourgeois class who were not tied to the land, like the feudal aristocracy and the peasants, nor part of the Clerical class. In other words, the entrepeneurial class. Middle class values were entrepeneurial values.

Republicans should stand for entrepeneurial values, not just the values which happen to be those of median income earners.

Well, that’s more likely to happen if they think there’s more to be gained by doing so . . . .

ROGER SIMON: Brain-Dead In Seattle.

PIGFORD UPDATE: Former Agriculture Secretary Confirms FBI Investigations Into USDA Inside-Job Pigford Fraud.

Related: Testimony: FBI Investigated ‘Broker’ Who Allegedly Recruited Pigford Claimants for Commission Cash.

DALLAS FEDERAL RESERVE: The Fallacy of a Pain-Free Path To A Healthy Housing Market.

CHANGE: Obama Readies First Execution.

WELL, YOU CAN STILL ORDER Amazon Gift Cards, but other than that you’re pretty much out of luck for delivery by Christmas at this point, unless you live in the select cities with local delivery on Christmas Eve. Otherwise, if you’ve procrastinated this long, it’s either gift cards, or braving the malls tomorrow.

Thanks to all the InstaPundit readers who’ve bought through the links on this page, or the search box in the right sidebar. I thank you, and my family thanks you!

THE TWELVE BOTS OF CHRISTMAS?

STEVE CHAPMAN on the state of global freedom.

TSA STRIKES BACK AT CRITIC: “An airline pilot is being disciplined by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for posting video on YouTube pointing out what he believes are serious flaws in airport security. . . . The YouTube videos, posted Nov. 28, show what the pilot calls the irony of flight crews being forced to go through TSA screening while ground crew who service the aircraft are able to access secure areas simply by swiping a card. . . . Video shot in the cockpit shows a medieval-looking rescue ax available on the flight deck after the pilots have gone through the metal detectors. ‘I would say a two-foot crash ax looks a lot more formidable than a box cutter,’ the pilot remarked.”

This is precisely the sort of vindictive — while fundamentally ineffective — behavior we expect from Janet Napolitano. And once again, we are not disappointed.

DEATH COMES TO RIVERDALE: Archie Comics explore alternate history.

13-YEAR-OLD BOY BUSTED FOR POSSESSING MAGIC MARKER. “A good thing he apparently didn’t draw boobs, or they probably would’ve booked him as a sex offender, too.”

ALAN BOYLE: Turn to the Weird Side of science.

GRATEFUL CHRISTMAS THOUGHTS from Toby Buckell.

ANTIBIOTICS AND irritable bowel. Also help from probiotics. Pretty sure you can’t do both at once, though . . . .

GIMME A BIG MAC, FRIES, AND A BUNCH OF KILOWATTS.

A BREAKTHROUGH IN TB Diagnostics.

SWEATING OVER THOSE Christmas dinner menus. No sweat for me — we did Thanksgiving, so Christmas is at other people’s houses!

EUROPE: Hungary Faces Further Downgrade To Junk Category.

JENNIFER RUBIN: Did The “No Labels” Folks Read Arlen Specter’s Speech? Two thoughts: (1) I’m not even sure that Arlen Specter read Arlen Specter’s speech; (2) When people like Specter talk about “civility,” what they really mean is “deference to me.”

HOME INTERNET with anonymity built in.

NAVY USES RAILGUN to launch fighter jet.