RETAIL SALES DROP IN DECEMBER as sales for all of 2009 show record plunge.

NEXT-GENERATION cellular networks. While they’re upgrading, they need to be providing backup power . . . .

WORLD SUPPLY OF CARS exceeds demand. By a lot: “World automakers can build 94 million cars and trucks a year, but that’s 30 million more than it can sell, he said. Bankruptcies and economic struggles have forced cuts in North America, but European manufacturers have not closed plants, often because they are paid by governments not to, he said.” If that’s right, it’s a staggering overcapacity.

USING NANOWIRES TO inject molecules directly into living cells.

GRUBERGATE: A story big enough to bring Ace and Jane Hamsher together. And yet, as Ace notes, it’s not getting the kind of attention it deserves. Well, unlike the less-important Armstrong Williams scandal, there are no Republicans involved. And reporting on it would underscore the gullibility of the traditional media, yet again.

VIDEO: M4 vs. M4A1.

TYLER COWEN: Why is Haiti so poor?

IN THE MAIL: Kings of Tort: The True Story of Dickie Scruggs, Paul Minor, and two decades of political and legal manipulation in Mississippi.

CHANGE: Poll: Majority Would Vote Against Obama Re-Election. “Democrats can’t blame this one on Rasmussen. The National Journal polled 1200 adults nationwide to determine whether they would vote for Barack Obama’s re-election based on his first-year performance. In a stunner, 50% said they’d vote for ‘someone else,’ while only 23% said they would definitely vote for Obama.”

MASSACHUSETTS: With less than a week, Senate race finally on.

Plus, thoughts from Howie Carr. “You might be a Scott Brown voter if . . . You’re wondering why the cops, who should know Martha Coakley best, are all endorsing Scott Brown.”

MICKEY KAUS: How to blow it all in one Tweet.

AYLA AND ARIANNA BROWN come out swinging for Dad.

FROM TURKEY, A NEW POLICY: “Neo-Ottomanism?” They sense an American loss of resolve, and try to fill the power vacuum.

AMERICA’S New Year’s Unemployment Hangover. Striking graphic.

HEADSTART: ANOTHER GOVERNMENT PROGRAM THAT DOESN’T WORK? “The evaluation, which was mandated by Congress during the 1998 reauthorization of the program, found little impact on student well-being. After collecting data on more than 5,000 three and four-year-old children randomly assigned to either a Head Start or a non Head Start control group, the Department of Health and Human Services found ‘few sustained benefits’.”

THE SYSTEM WORKED! TSA: Security fails to spot gun at Mont. airport. “Officials say security screeners at a Bozeman-area airport failed to spot a gun in a passenger’s luggage last month, but the man turned himself in when he realized his error.”

IT’S THE 21ST CENTURY: Wheelchair Gunman Surrenders To Police Robot.

VERONIQUE DE RUGY: The High Cost of No Price: A simple chart will help you understand why healthcare spending has gone out of control. “Economists have shown that if a good’s price is zero or decreasing, then the demand for this good will likely increase. In 2008, consumers were only directly responsible for 11.9 percent of total national healthcare expenditures, down from 43 percent in 1965, according to new data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This means that someone other than consumers pays roughly 88 percent of all healthcare costs, giving consumers little incentive to mind costs and much incentive to over-consume.”

ABC NEWS: Transparent And Accessible? Obama Hasn’t Held A Press Conference In Many Months.

PATRICK MCILHERAN: The Patsies Catch On To ObamaCare. “Nor is it just money. The ticked-off people in Pewaukee weren’t telling Feingold not to tax them to cover the not-quite-poor. They were telling him not to mess with their coverage, because Obamacare does just that, corralling millions of people into federally designed plans. Federal panels may tell doctors what treatments to use. The Internal Revenue Service may tell us all what kind of plan we must, or must not, buy.”

BRANDON DARBY LEARNS ABOUT DOMESTIC TERRORISM DOUBLE-STANDARDS.

MAYBE THEY SHOULD ADJUST EXPECTATIONS? New jobless claims rise more than expected. ‘Cause we seem to see this headline almost every week. . . .

Plus this: “The increasing number of people claiming extended unemployment insurance indicates that even as layoffs are declining, hiring hasn’t picked up. That leaves people out of work for longer and longer periods of time.”

UPDATE: A longtime reader emails:

Glenn, in the unlikely event you publish this email, I’d ask you not use my name. As a partner in a midsize firm (annual gross about $50,000,000) I can give you our perspective on hiring: we’re not doing it. And we’ve always been in hiring mode in the past. We’re not struggling, but we simply are not willing to take on the risk of hiring people in this environment. Just look around: small businesses are still closing. How many “For Lease” signs do you see right now in front of empty commercial properties that used to house small and mid-size businesses? With taxes and interest rates expected to rise later this year or next, thus sucking even more cash out of the economy, and consumers still cutting personal spending, most businesses would be idiotic to go on the type of hiring sprees that would be necessary in order to create robust job growth. Instead, many businesses are still looking everywhere they can to slash expenses. Unfortunately, that includes payrolls.

I doubt anybody in the Obama Administration gets this. They’d have to take a break from their obsession with health care reform, and you know, actually talk to people who run businesses to understand what’s going on. But except for hobnobbing at fund raisers with the occasional fund manager or Fortune 500 CEO who’s so rich he can afford to be a liberal Democrat regardless of what happens, they don’t do that.

This seems right.

THE CARL VINSON is heading to Haiti to provide earthquake relief.

GILLIBRAND GOES AFTER Harold Ford, Jr.

LENO, O’BRIEN AND NBC’s Quagmire. “The peacocks have come home to roost.”