THE JIG IS ALMOST UP: But you can still get overnight shipping until some time this afternoon. Meanwhile, they’re still rolling out last minute Christmas deals and, of course, you can always send a gift-card by email. Even on Christmas morning!

RASMUSSEN: The Tea Party at Year’s End:

The Tea Party movement was one of the biggest political stories during the 2010 election season. From an electoral standpoint, the grassroots movement had it first impact by forcing long-time Senator Arlen Specter out of the Republican Party (and eventually out of the U.S. Senate). By the end of the season, several Tea Party candidates such as Florida’s Marco Rubio and Kentucky’s Rand Paul were elected to the U.S. Senate.

A plurality of voters nationwide expect these Tea Party candidates to sell out and become just like other politicians. However, Tea Party activists are much more confident that these candidates will remain true to their beliefs. Pressure from the Tea Party clearly played a role in the lame duck session of Congress and may be largely responsible for the tax cut deal that was signed by President Obama.

Forty-one percent (41%) believe the Tea Party movement will be stronger in 2012 than it was in 2010.

Count me among those people.

WALL STREET JOURNAL: PolitiFact peddling “PolitiFiction.” “PolitiFact wants to define for everyone else what qualifies as a ‘fact,’ though in political debates the facts are often legitimately in dispute.”

ED MORRISSEY: Time To Abolish The FCC?

Why do we need the FCC in the 21st century? Most television channels are narrowcasters, using satellites and cable channels that don’t eat up limited broadcast space in local markets. The phone system in the US is no longer monopolized, and the issues of access and competition in those areas could be handled by state public-utility commissions, as they are now. The licensing of broadcast stations could be handled by the Commerce Department, or by a greatly-reduced FCC with binding limitations on jurisdiction.

We have managed to free ourselves from the encumbrances of monopolization over the last thirty years. This country doesn’t need a bloated bureaucracy getting in the way of innovation and commerce. It needs government to acknowledge that its communications-regulation apparatus is archaic and in need of downsizing, rather than attempting to nationalize the media.

Indeed.

CHANGE: Hawaii-bound, Obama signals his opposition to gay marriage ‘evolving.’ Of course it is. He’ll be needing to start the 2012 fundraisers soon. . . .

HAPPY FESTIVUS!

PIGFORD UPDATE: Lee Stranahan: Pigford Breeds Internal USDA Corruption. “Pigford researcher, author, and Hoover Institute fellow Peter Schweizer has spoken to multiple sources who claim that not only has at least one individual inside the USDA been responsible for hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraud, but that person is actually still working at the USDA. This is just one more reason USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack needs to consider a career change. It seems like it’s going to take Congressional hearings to allow the whistleblowers to speak openly.”

SO I GUESS THE END-TIMES ARE PRETTY MUCH HERE: Pat Robertson: Time To Legalize Marijuana.

UPDATE: Ilya Somin: “I rarely have anything good to say about Pat Robertson. But the devil-monger deserves his due: I have to commend his call for the legalization of marijuana. Moreover, he cites several good reasons for this stance, including the high cost of prohibition, and the fact that imprisonment of small-time drug dealers and users is ‘ruining young people.’ I suspect that Robertson has begun to realize that the War on Drugs is bad for family values. It will take a lot of good works to make up for all the ridiculous and offensive things that Robertson has said over the years. But helping to end the War on Drugs would be a good start.”

MEGAN MCARDLE: What Are Ratings Agencies For?

JAMES LILEKS ON Christmas music. “I hear a certain song in a certain style, and it stops me dead. I’m ten.”

MICKEY KAUS: UAW READY FOR FRESH TRIUMPHS! “Two of the three firms we’ve organized have already gone bankrupt!”

THE FIERCE MORAL URGENCY OF CHANGE: Congress Bars Transfers From Guantanamo Bay.

CHANGE: Longtime Dem Reps. Levin and Dingell could face redistricting danger.

GALLUP: Americans See U.S. as Exceptional; 37% Doubt Obama Does.

PUBLIC PENSION UPDATE: Alabama Town’s Failed Pension Is a Warning. “This struggling small city on the outskirts of Mobile was warned for years that if it did nothing, its pension fund would run out of money by 2009. Right on schedule, its fund ran dry. Then Prichard did something that pension experts say they have never seen before: it stopped sending monthly pension checks to its 150 retired workers, breaking a state law requiring it to pay its promised retirement benefits in full. . . . The situation in Prichard is extremely unusual — the city has sought bankruptcy protection twice — but it proves that the unthinkable can, in fact, sometimes happen. And it stands as a warning to cities like Philadelphia and states like Illinois, whose pension funds are under great strain: if nothing changes, the money eventually does run out, and when that happens, misery and turmoil follow.”

UPDATE: Paying the pension price.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Stacy McCain charges racism.

MATT DRUDGE IS HAVING FUN.

FOR THE RECORD, Nina Totenberg Loves Christmas, Was Tweaking Eric Holder:

Turns out her critics got it completely wrong: She was, she says, defending Christmas. The DOJ celebration was officially dubbed a “holiday” party, and she was gently mocking that generic designation. “I think that’s kind of silly because it’s obviously a Christmas party,” she told us. “I was tweaking the Department of Justice. It was a touch of irony at the expense of the Justice department, not at the expense of Christmas.”

As for the bloggers who were so quick to judge — without bothering to ask her what she meant: “Jeesh, these folks need a life — and perhaps a touch of the Christmas spirit, as well.”

Merry Christmas!

JAMES TARANTO: Our Islamophobic Political Class.

But incredibly, in neither the 1,000-word writeup nor the four-minute video report on the Holder interview is there a single mention of Islam. Not only are the “radicals” not described as Islamic radicals or radical Islamists, but Awlaki is described as a “cleric”–oh so generic!–rather than an imam.

We surmise that this omission is willful. The media and the Obama administration give the impression that they are extremely careful to avoid mentioning the religion in whose name al Qaeda and similar groups commit terrorist attacks. We have a distinct sense that this is driven by fear–that they are suffering from, if we may coin a word, Islamphobia.

Indeed.

INSPECTOR GENERAL: Risk of Illegal Aliens Working With Nuclear Weapons. “The risk of such access is more than notional as demonstrated by the Office of Inspector General report ‘Security Access Controls at the Y-12 National Security Complex’ (June 2005) . . . which found that, in the past, illegal aliens had gained access to Y-12 on multiple occasions.”

WORST. CONGRESS. EVAH!

AT AMAZON, more last-minute Christmas deals.

Two-day shipping has run out, but you’ll still be able to do overnight shipping until late tomorrow afternoon.

ERICK ERICKSON: Why the Senate GOP went squishy. “Because the Senate GOP wants to cut deals with the Senate Democrats and they know that just Rand Paul, Mike Lee, and Jim DeMint will be able to force deals much more conservative than the Senate GOP is. So Senate Republicans decided to roll over on big issues now knowing that next year they will be forced further right than they might be comfortable.”

VERONIQUE DE RUGY ON EDUCATION SPENDING MYTHS.

STILL MORE GIRLS AND GUNS. Also here.

UPDATE: Also here. Heh.

IS INFLATION STARTING TO SHOW UP in fast food menus?