The Commentariat -- Dec. 11, 2012

** Frank Bruni: "In a country that supposedly draws a line between church and state, we allow the former to intrude flagrantly on the latter. Religious faith shapes policy debates. It fuels claims of American exceptionalism. And it suffuses arenas in which its place should be carefully measured." CW: which raises the question -- how can a guy like Bruni, who is usually so fatuous, suddenly be so right? I guess the Lord works in mysterious ways.

Local News -- Race to the Bottom

Reuters: "Michigan legislators on Tuesday approved laws that ban mandatory membership in public and private sector unions, dealing a stunning blow to organized labor in the home of the U.S. auto industry. Republican Governor Rick Snyder was poised to sign the bills into law within days."

The Detroit Free Press & Lansing State Journal have live coverage of events surrounding the anticipated passage & signing of a state right-to-work bill.

John Flesher & Jeff Karoub of the AP: "Authorities in Lansing were bracing for an onslaught of demonstrators Tuesday at the Michigan Capitol as the Legislature reconvenes for what could be final votes on bills. Hundreds of people gathered early Tuesday to get inside."

Chad Livengood, et al., of the Detroit News: "Democrats also were upset by a memo that was sent to state workers explaining Snyder's position on right to work and urging safety precautions during protests at the Capitol. The memo ... was sent to thousands of state employees just as Snyder and Republican legislative leaders last Thursday announced their support for the legislation.... The memo plugged the benefits of right to work and warned state employees, some of whom are unionized, to keep their cellphones charged, avoid walking alone and follow other safety practices. Ray Holman, legislative liaison for UAW Local 6000, which represents 17,000 state employees objected state-owned equipment was used to send what he called a political message. 'It talked about the virtues of the right-to-work legislation, and the undercurrent is that union people are going to be engaging in criminal activities,' he said."

Michael O'Brien of NBC News: U.S. Rep. Sander "Levin [D-Mich.] said Democrats want Republicans to change their proposal to allow for voters to repeal the law through a ballot initiative, as voters did in Ohio. The Michigan law is coupled with an appropriations bill that would exempt it from a popular vote challenge.... Supporters of organized labor ... believe they would be able to use a citizens initiative under Michigan law to eventually challenge the right-to-work law. Under such a scenario..., they could force a vote to undo the law in 2014." ...

... Levin has an op-ed in the Free Press, in which he notes that Gov. Snyder has no idea how unions work: "The governor has said that under current law Michigan workers 'have to join a union and pay dues' and that if they choose not to they 'can lose their jobs.' In fact, for many decades federal and state laws have made it clear that no one is required to join a union or to pay dues. And no one can lose his or her job for refusing to do so. Workers pay dues if they join the union, but if they choose not to, the most that can be required of them ... is that they pay an 'agency fee' for their share of administering the contract."

** Detroit Free Press: a "Koch-funded group, the American Legislative Exchange Council [ALEC], which promotes a radical right-wing agenda in states across the country, supplying 'model legislation' to sympathetic lawmakers [appears to be behind the Michigan bill]. Michigan's proposed right-to-work bills mirror the ALEC language practically word-for-word.... [Gov.] Snyder says right-to-work was put on his agenda. But he owes his constituents more detail about who put it there, and how they got his ear."

Rich Yeselson of American Prospect: "If union adversaries can pass a right-to-work law in the home of the once-powerful United Auto Workers, they can pretty much do it anywhere.... 'Right to work' laws, which permit employees working at a unionized workplace to refuse to join the union or to pay the union the cost of representing the worker, are designed to weaken the economic and political power of organized labor and, by extension, wage workers. Full stop. They allow workers to 'free ride' all the benefits of a collective-bargaining agreement ... negotiated by the union without paying any of the union dues their fellow employees pay."

"The Freedom to Freeload Law":

Marcy Wheeler of Emptywheel: "Making MI a RtW state effectively embraces a vision of the state as Indiana or Mississippi or Bangladesh. Making MI a RtW state embraces the idea that we should be dumb labor, not innovative technology, just another entry in the race to be the cheapest, most desperate state."

Ed Kilgore: why have Michigan Republicans jammed through the right-to-work bill in an extraordinary lame duck session? They "were rightfully afraid they wouldn't have the votes in the House had they taken this up as normal legislation in the next session of the legislature."

Here's President Obama talking to workers at Detroit Diesel Monday. He got enthusiastic but not extraordinary applause till he got to this part:

     ... Video of the full speech is beneath today's Ledes.

Charles Pierce: "We have had almost 30 years of Democratic politicians holding unions at arms-length. Between lax environmental regulations, non-existent workplace rules, and sweetheart local corporate tax breaks, the 'race to the bottom' that the president derided has been going on for decades, with no end in sight. This country is a company town now." Thanks to James S. for the link.

Cliff Notes

Frank Newport of Gallup: "Americans continue to give higher approval ratings to the way President Obama is handling the fiscal cliff negotiations than they give to the Democratic leaders or the Republican leaders in Congress." Favorables: Obama: 48 percent; Congressional Democrats 38; Congressional Republicans: 26. Bear in mind that about 75 percent of those polled have no idea what the "fiscal cliff" is all about.

How Gerrymandering Kills Democracy. Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times on why House members won't go along with raising taxes on the rich: they represent -- often gerrymandered -- districts where they won by large margins on a promise of no new taxes. CW: the members Weisman cites claim their constituents don't want them to raise taxes on the rich; I don't know that there's proof they're right. Indeed, Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), an early advocate of passing the middle-class tax cut as a stand-alone bill, says they're wrong:

I don't think voting to cut spending, restrain and reform entitlements and make the Bush tax cuts permanent for 98 percent of the American people is voting against the will of anyone's constituents, including my own.

** The Audacity of Dopes. Everything Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) says is a lie. Steve Benen breaks down Graham's mendacious performance on Fox "News." Watch the video. Best part: Lindsey urges Obama to "man up." Benen writes, "... even looking past all [the lies], the eight words to remember here are these: 'We're not going to raise the debt ceiling.' In other words, according to Lindsey Graham, Republicans intend to hurt Americans on purpose. They will, quite deliberately, hold the global economy and the full faith and credit of the United States hostage -- again -- until the president agrees to take benefits away from senior citizens."

Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post: "... there are four parts to Medicare: Part A (hospital insurance), Part B (medical insurance), Part C (Medicare Advantage -- private plans for parts A and B), and Part D (prescription drug plans). When Graham speaks about the 'imminent bankruptcy' of Medicare, he is only speaking about the Part A trust fund, which would be exhausted by 2024.... Moreover, though the fund would be 'depleted,' it would not be 'bankrupt.' ... Not only did he repeat the error of treating all of Medicare as one entity, but he did the same with Social Security. Moreover, his reference to Medicaid makes little sense, even if one has very expansive definitions of the words 'bankruptcy' and 'imminent.'"

Robert Pear of the New York Times: "The Obama administration gave conditional approval on Monday to health insurance marketplaces being set up by six states led by Democratic governors eager to carry out President Obama's health care overhaul. The six are Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Oregon and Washington. At the same time, the administration rejected pleas from other states that want to carry out a partial expansion of Medicaid, to cover fewer people than the president and Congress originally intended."

What's the Matter with Genachowski? Bill Moyers and Bernie Sanders discuss FCC Chair Julius Genachowski's plan to give a huge gift to Rupert Murdoch:

     ... The transcript is here. P.S. I wrote to Genachowski. If you'd like to write, too, his e-mail address is "Julius.Genachowski@fcc.gov Clicking on the link should call up your mail program. Link fixed.

Hoist on Their Own.... Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The high court's decision last week to hear two cases relating to same-sex marriage puts that issue at the center of the national debate. And it does so at an exceedingly awkward time for Republicans, many of whom are trying to downplay or moderate their party's views on social issues to chart a path back to electoral success. In June, the House of Representatives told the Supreme Court that the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act 'is an issue of great national importance' that urgently requires the justices' attention. The 1996 law denies federal benefits to same-sex married couples. But when the court agreed on Friday to hear one of the DOMA cases early next year, the Republican leadership had nothing to say about it."

Greg Sargent: "... sources tell me the legal team representing the plaintiffs in the Proposition 8 case -- Ted Olson, David Boise, and Ted Boutrous -- plan to lobby the administration to publicly declare that the right to gay marriage is protected by the constitution, and to file a legal brief supporting their argument to that effect."

Desmond Butler of the AP: "After years of battling each other on trade issues, U.S. and European officials are contemplating a dramatic change in direction: joining together in what could be the world's largest free trade pact in an attempt to boost their struggling economies. Discussions are in the most preliminary of stages and there would be significant obstacles to overcome, including sharp differences on agriculture, food safety and climate change legislation. Still, top EU and U.S. officials have said they want to see it happen. And America's main labor group, often the biggest opponent of U.S. trade pacts, says it wouldn't stand in the way."

The other day I ran a video of President Obama's visit with a Virginia family, & I mentioned he did all the talking. Turns out they got to speak, too. Pretty sweet:

AND Mitt Romney is a winner after all! AND the first runner-up! (Okay, he's already the first runner-up in that other contest known as the presidential race. So this is just icing on the cake someone left out in the rain.) Mother Jones: Romney made "the most notable quote of the year, according to the editor of the Yale Book of Quotations." Read the linked article for the full Top Ten. Romney's winning remark:

There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what...who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims. ...These are people who pay no income tax. ...and so my job is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.

     And his runner-up entry:

We took a concerted effort to go out and find women who had backgrounds that could be qualified to become members of our cabinet (in Massachusetts). I went to a number of women's groups and said, 'Can you help us find folks?' and they brought us whole binders full of women.

Right Wing World

We Have No Idea Where We Get Half Our Money. David Corn of Mother Jones: Both Dick Armey, the recently department chair of the tea party funder FreedomWorks, and Matt Kibbe, its president, claim they have no idea of the identities of the two big donors who gave them $12 million, or slightly more than half of their annual income. So they're a front group that doesn't know who they're fronting for? Uh-huh.

Katrina vanden Heuvel in the Washington Post: "The Republicans' unreconstructed paranoia about an organization dedicated to global cooperation isn't new.... No, now it's just been mainstreamed in the GOP's circulatory system, another example of the party's increasingly delusional, and ossified, worldview.... It's mean, it's mental and, frankly, it's a menace."

Right Wing World, where facts are left-wing propaganda. Paul Krugman on Mary Matalin.

News Ledes

New York Times: "President Obama said Tuesday that the United States would formally recognize a coalition of Syrian opposition groups as that country's legitimate representative, in an attempt to intensify the pressure on President Bashar al-Assad to give up his nearly two-year bloody struggle to stay in power."

New York Times: "North Korea defied the likelihood of more sanctions by the United Nations Security Council to launch a rocket on Wednesday, demonstrating that the government of its new leader, Kim Jong-un, was pressing ahead to master the technology needed to deliver a nuclear warhead on intercontinental ballistic missiles."

New York Times: "... three months after the assault that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, the investigation into the attacks has been hobbled by the reluctance of the Libyan authorities to move against Islamist extremist suspects who belong to powerful militias.... While the F.B.I. has identified several suspects, none have [sic.] been arrested and some have fled Benghazi."

New York Times: "Fourth- and eighth-grade students in the United States continue to lag behind students in several East Asian countries and some European nations in math and science, although American fourth graders are closer to the top performers in reading, according to test results released on Tuesday."

Reuters: "Former South African President Nelson Mandela, who is 94 and has been in hospital since Saturday for tests, has suffered a recurrence of a lung infection but is responding to treatment, the government said on Tuesday."

The Commentariat -- Dec. 10, 2012

The Sunday Funnies

Jake Sherman of Politico: "New York Times economics columnist Paul Krugman seems to be testing the patience of a couple of his fellow pundits on ABC's 'This Week.' Conservative commentator George Will and former White House aide Mary Matalin both directed pointed remarks at Krugman Sunday that broke with the good-natured banter common among the guests on Sunday political talk shows." CW: I happened to be in the kitchen while my husband had this segment on; Matalin & Will once again proved they are the Village Vicious Idiots. You can watch the performances here (if you're willing to sit through several minutes of ads). The segment begins at about 14:45 min. in. ...

... Pam Spaulding of Pam's Houseblend writes a great post of Matelin's & Will's sorta not anti-gay remarks emanating from the same show. She throws in a bonus remark about Ann Coulter.

AND Lawrence O'Donnell takes on the Newt on "Press the Meat." Igor Volsky of Think Progress reports. With video.

NEW. Charles Pierce has a lovely rundown of what-all you missed by doing something useful with your Sunday morning. Thanks to MAG for the link.

NEW. Driftglass fills in the parts Pierce missed.

Cliff Notes

Jake Sherman & Carrie Brown of Politico: "President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner met at the White House Sunday in an attempt to break the logjam on the fiscal cliff. It was their first face-to-face meeting in 23 days." The New York Times story, by Brian Knowlton & Jackie Calmes, is here.

Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said Sunday that he's 'beginning to believe' thatfalling in line with President Obama's call to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans, then shifting the focus to reforming entitlements 'is the best route for us to take' on the 'fiscal cliff.'"

Joan Walsh has a terrific post on the stupidity of raising the eligibility age for Medicare. CW: I'm getting damned sick of the increasing acceptable idea that Obama has to cave on something like this because House Republicans need some "face-saving" measure so they can say they won. Why in hell is it more important to appease a few prima donnas than it is to guarantee more affordable health care to millions of older Americans? What happened to Obama's campaign line about "fundamental fairness"? Oh. I guess it was just a campaign line.

Peter Schroeder & Bernie Becker of The Hill: "The White House has the power to temporarily protect taxpayers from middle-class tax hikes even as upper income rates rise if Congress does nothing and all of the Bush-era tax rates expire in January. Experts and lawmakers alike agree that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has the power to adjust how much is withheld from paychecks for tax purposes -- for all taxpayers or just for some."

** Paul Krugman: "Increasingly, [corporate] profits have been rising at the expense of workers in general, including workers with the skills that were supposed to lead to success in today's economy.... As best as I can tell, there are two plausible explanations, both of which could be true to some extent. One is that technology has taken a turn that places labor at a disadvantage; the other is that we're looking at the effects of a sharp increase in monopoly power."

** Frank Rich: "What's really shocking about the Petraeus affair is not Petraeus's affair but the fact that once again, we were taken in by a secular plaster saint who turns out to bear only a faint resemblance to the image purveyed by the man himself and the mass media that abetted his self-glorification."

Helene Cooper of the New York Times: "Almost two decades after the Clinton administration failed to intervene in the genocide in Rwanda, the United States is coming under harsh criticism for not moving forcefully in another African crisis..., this time in Rwanda's neighbor, the Democratic Republic of Congo.... Critics ... who include officials of human rights organizations and United Nations diplomats ... of the Obama administration's Africa policy have focused on the role of Susan E. Rice ... in the administration’s failure to take action against the country they see as a major cause of the Congolese crisis, Rwanda.... Aides to Ms. Rice acknowledge that she is close to [Rwandan President Paul] Kagame and that Mr. Kagame's government was her client when she worked at Intellibridge, a strategic analysis firm in Washington." ...

... AND speaking of President Clinton, Richard Socarides, who worked in the Clinton administration, has a good, short post in the New Yorker on what the Supreme Court's rulings on the DOMA & Prop 8 cases could mean to the future of gay marriage. His post is a reminder for those extolling the virtues of Bill Clinton that Clinton was not a leader on this issue.

Jason Zengerle of New York magazine: "... a month after the election, Obama's campaign team has managed to cast a 2008-like hue on their 2012 victory. The secret of their successful spin: Instead of talking about how their guy won a second term by methodically defining -- and demonizing -- his buffoon of an opponent, they’re gushing about the ingenuity of their apps and algorithms."

Jeff Toobin of the New Yorker: "Unless and until the federal government takes over the business of running our elections -- which will, in all likelihood, never happen -- the process of voting will remain the shambles we saw on November 6, 2012."

James Allworth in the Harvard Business Review on how political corruption stifles innovation -- by privileging established companies and technologies over new ones. CW: It's worth noting that there's another side to the story. There was no greater or more invasive monopoly in the U.S. than AT&FuckingT, but it also was half-owner of Bell Labs, a citadel of innovation that produced 7 Nobel Prizes. Of course if the Justice Department hadn't broken up AT&T, we'd probably still be phoning each other on black rotary dials & paying AT&T a per-minute fee to use the government-developed Internets. Thanks to Dave S. for the link.

Edward Wong of the New York Times: "In a strong signal of support for greater market-oriented economic policies, Xi Jinping, the new head of the Communist Party, made a visit over the weekend to the special economic zone of Shenzhen in south China, which has stood as a symbol of the nation's embrace of a state-led form of capitalism since its growth over the last three decades from a fishing enclave to an industrial metropolis."

Local News

Paul Egan of the Detroit Free Press: "Large numbers of Michigan State Police officers were around the Capitol building early this morning as Lansing braced for a day of protests related to controversial right-to-work legislation working its way through the state Legislature. Today's protests are a precursor to much larger ones planned for Tuesday, when thousands of union activists are expected to converge at the Capitol and supporters of right-to-work legislation have also promised a strong presence there. Union members took civil disobedience training in Detroit on Saturday to prepare for the protests." ...

... Amanda Terkel of the Huffington Post: "The Obama administration told labor leaders that the president will also be weighing in on the right-to-work fight in his speech [to be delivered today at the Detroit Daimler Truck diesel plant], according to union officials who spoke with The Huffington Post." ...

... Greg Sargent: "I'm told that virtually the entire Democratic Congressional delegation in Michigan is set to privately meet with [Michigan Gov. Rick] Snyder today in an effort to persuade him to reconsider the initiative and to find a way out of the impasse.... The lawmakers ... will try to persuade Snyder that proceeding with the anti-union initiative will badly damage the state and that there is a middle-ground way out of the situation...."

Right Wing World

Jonathan Chait on "The Psychology of Defeat": how the leaders of Right Wing World -- especially Charles Krautheimer are handling their pain.

News Ledes

President Obama speaking in Detroit, Michigan:

Washington Post: "Treasury announced on Monday that it is completing its exit of American International Group, the insurance behemoth that nearly imploded four years ago, almost dragging down the entire financial system with it. It plans to sell about 234 million shares, raising about $8 billion and leaving Treasury with a $5 billion profit on its investment. The Federal Reserve, which also invested in the firm, has already unloaded virtually all its holdings, for a profit of $18 billion."

Bloomberg News: "HSBC Holdings Plc will pay at least $1.9 billion to settle U.S. probes of money laundering allegations involving Europe's largest bank..., making it the largest such accord ever. The bank, whose top executives were accused of lax oversight by a U.S. Senate subcommittee in July, has been the target of investigations run by the U.S. Department of Justice, the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Asset Controls, the Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Manhattan District Attorney."

New York Times: "The political crisis over Egypt's draft constitution hardened on both sides on Sunday, as President Mohamed Morsi prepared to deploy the army to safeguard balloting in a planned referendum on the new charter and his opponents called for more protests and a boycott to undermine the vote." ...

     ... Update: "Islamist supporters of President Mohamed Morsi captured, detained and beat dozens of his political opponents last week, holding them for hours with their hands bound on the pavement outside the presidential palace while pressuring them to confess that they had accepted money to use violence in protests against him.

Guardian: "Russian and American diplomats have met in Geneva to discuss the future of Syria with the UN envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, according to the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, who insisted the meeting did not imply Moscow had softened in its support for the Syrian leader, Bashar al-Assad. ...

... Al Jazeera: "Syrian rebels have captured parts of a large army base in the country's north, just west of the city of Aleppo, activists say."

AP: "Mexico's music world mourned Jenni Rivera, the U.S.-born singer presumed killed in a plane crash whose soulful voice and openness about her personal troubles had made her a Mexican-American superstar. Authorities have not confirmed her death, but Rivera's relatives in the U.S. say they have few doubts that she was on the Learjet 25 that disintegrated on impact Sunday in rugged territory in Nuevo Leon state in northern Mexico."

AP: "South African former President Nelson Mandela's stay in hospital for unspecified medical tests has stretched into a third day. On Monday there was no new word on his condition. Government officials have said the 94-year-old anti-apartheid icon is 'comfortable' and receiving medical care that is 'consistent with his age.'"

The Commentariat -- Dec. 9, 2012

My column in the New York Times eXaminer takes on Paul Krugman, albeit gently, and Republicans, not so gently.

Adele Stan in Washington Monthly: raise the eligibility age for Medicare and "PEOPLE WILL DIE."

Maureen Dowd: "... the Republican decline will be traced to a stubborn refusal to adapt to a world where poor people and sick people and black people and brown people and female people and gay people count. ...

     ... CW: before you get too taken by the Oracle of DeeCee's assurances that the End of the Republican Era is nigh, read Matt Taibbi (a) just for the pleasure, but (b) for his view on political prognostication:

     ... Matt Taibbi on the DeMise of DeMint: "In the minds of those Tea Party conservatives DeMint represents, they debased themselves in supporting an ultimate-RINO type like Romney, and all they got for their trouble was four more years of Black Satan lounging around on the couches of the White House." ...

... Here's the cartoon P. D. Pepe refers to in the Comments section. It took me a while to find it. (It's really helpful when contributors provide links to specific articles or items they mention, so readers can follow up if a particular topic interests them. Also, it always saves me a step!):

Christopher Weyant, Cagle Cartoons, The Hill.Robert Pear of the New York Times: "... affluent Americans will soon be hit with new taxes adopted as part of the 2010 health care law. The new levies, which take effect in January, include an increase in the payroll tax on wages and a tax on investment income, including interest, dividends and capital gains. The Obama administration proposed rules to enforce both last week.... To help finance Medicare, employees and employers each now pay a hospital insurance tax equal to 1.45 percent on all wages. Starting in January, the health care law will require workers to pay an additional tax equal to 0.9 percent of any wages over $200,000 for single taxpayers and $250,000 for married couples filing jointly."

Brian Bennett of the Los Angeles Times: "As soon as the confrontation over fiscal policy winds down, the Obama administration will begin an all-out drive for comprehensive immigration reform, including seeking a path to citizenship for 11 million illegal immigrants, according to officials briefed on the plans. While key tactical decisions are still being made, President Obama wants a catch-all bill that would also bolster border security measures, ratchet up penalties for employers who hire illegal immigrants, and make it easier to bring in foreign workers under special visas, among other elements."

Nicholas Kristof highlights a social services program gone awry. In Appalachia, families have a huge stake in their children's failure to learn to read. CW: Kristof merely criticizes the program & can't seem to think of a way to fix it. I'll bet you can.

Steven Mufson of the Washington Post has a long piece on the U.S.'s natural gas industry, which is about to become a big exporter thanks to fracking & other technology, possibly causing a rise in LNG prices here.

** Pakistan International News: "Former US President Jimmy Carter has slammed American assassination drone strikes in other countries, saying that killing civilians in such attacks would in fact nurture terrorism. 'I personally think we do more harm than good by having our drones attack some potential terrorists who have not been tried or proven that they are guilty," Carter said in an interview with Russia Today. But in the meantime, the drone attacks also kill women and children, sometimes in weddings... so this is the kind of thing we should correct,' he added." Video of the RT interview with President Carter is here. The interview begins about 3:30 min. in. In the first part, Carter blasts Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. I love that guy.

Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times: "President Obama's finance team is offering corporations and other institutions that contribute $1 million exclusive access to an array of inaugural festivities, including tickets to a 'benefactors reception,' a children's concert, a candlelight celebration at the National Building Museum, two reserved parade bleacher seats and four tickets to the president's official inaugural ball." In case your solicitation to go to a $1 million party got lost in the mail, here's a copy. I'm going to try to think of this whole stupid shebang as the Caterers & Musicians' Stimulus Program. ...

... All of Which May Be Moot, What with the World Coming to an End First. Nick Allen, et al., of the London Telegraph: "Ahead of December 21, which marks the conclusion of the 5,125-year 'Long Count' Mayan calendar, panic buying of candles and essentials has been reported in China and Russia, along with an explosion in sales of survival shelters in America. In France believers were preparing to converge on a mountain where they believe aliens will rescue them.

Doktor Zoom of Wonkette reflects on the efficacy of gun ownership as a means of protection. Luckily, s/he has Wayne LaPierre of the NRA & other bright lights to help sort things out.

Has Anybody Seen Mitt Romney? Yes! AP: "Defeated presidential candidate Mitt Romney was a guest ringside Saturday night at the fourth fight between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez." CW: what a cultural trend-setter President Romney would have been. The fights, for Pete's sake?

Local News

Josh Israel of Think Progress: "The Detroit Free-Press, which endorsed Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) in his 2010 campaign and has generally supported him since, blasted his decision to ram through a union-busting 'right-to-work' law in a lame-duck legislative session. At Snyder's urging, the state House and Senate each passed versions of the law this week. The editorial board slammed his move as a 'failure of leadership' and observed that his 'about-face' amounted to a betrayal of Michigan's voters." The Freep editorial is here.

The Last Congressional Race

Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "Rep. Charles Boustany has defeated fellow GOP Rep. Jeff Landry in Louisiana's 3^rd District on Saturday, according to the Associated Press, bringing a close to the final undetermined congressional contest of the 2012 cycle."

News Ledes

** New York Times: Birger Stromsheim, a Norwegian hero of World War II, died Nov. 10 in Oslo at 101. CW: read his obituary, please. Here's the Telegraph's obituary. Here's an excerpt from the book The Real Heroes of Telemark by Ray Mears.

AP: "Egypt's liberal opposition has called for more protests on Sunday after the president made concessions overnight that fell short of their demands to rescind a draft constitution going to a referendum on Dec. 15." Al Jazeera story here.

Reuters: "Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez returns to Cuba on Sunday for more surgery after a recurrence of cancer led him to name a successor for the first time in a sign the disease may force an end to his 14-year rule."

AP: "Pakistani intelligence officials say a U.S. drone strike has killed three suspected militants near the Afghan border."

ABC News: "The American doctor rescued from the Taliban in Afghanistan Saturday by U.S. Special Operations Forces is the medical adviser for a Colorado Springs NGO, his employer confirmed today. Dr. Dilip Joseph and two colleagues were kidnapped by a group of armed men while returning from a visit to a rural medical clinic in eastern Kabul Province...."

Guardian: "Poor countries have won historic recognition of the plight they face from the ravages of climate change, wringing a pledge from rich nations that they will receive funds to repair the 'loss and damage' incurred.... Developing countries had been fighting hard for the concession at the fortnight-long UN climate change talks among 195 nations in Qatar, which finished after a marathon 36-hour final session."

Dallas Morning News: "Irving, [Texas,] police have now confirmed that Josh Brent, nose tackle for the Cowboys, has been arrested and charged with intoxication manslaughter. Jerry Brown, 25, is the person who died. Brown is listed as a linebacker on the team's practice squad." Follow-up story here.

Guardian: "Nelson Mandela is 'comfortable and in good care', South Africa's president, Jacob Zuma, has said after visiting him in hospital."

AP: "British police say they have contacted Australian authorities about a possible investigation into an Australian radio station's hoax call to a U.K. hospital. The callers impersonated Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles and received confidential details about the former Kate Middleton's medical information. The call was recorded and broadcast."