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A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves. -- Edward R. Murrow
Publisher & Editor: Marie Burns
News Ledes -- December 24
Guardian: "Interpol is seeking the arrest of Jean-Claude Mas, the founder of a French company whose breast implants are at the centre of a global health scare. The international police agency has issued a red notice for Mas. His firm Poly Implant Protheses (PIP), which went into administration last year, supplied implants to tens of thousands of women in Europe and South America."
** New York Times: "The Justice Department on Friday blocked a new South Carolina law that would require voters to present photo identification, saying the law would disproportionately suppress turnout among eligible minority voters." Washington Post story here.
New York Times: "Tens of thousands of protesters gathered [in Moscow] on Saturday afternoon for a second large antigovernment demonstration, as a wave of new activists struggle to convert an inchoate burst of energy into a durable political force."
New York Times: Pakistan lurched between crises on Friday with its military chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, dismissing talk of a coup and canceling a visit from a top American general, a sign that Pakistani fury at the United States over airstrikes that killed 26 soldiers is far from abating."
Al Jazeera: "Raul Castro, Cuba's president, has announced plans to pardon 2,900 prisoners, including foreign nationals, for 'humanitarian reasons'. In a speech to legislators on Friday, Castro cited an upcoming visit by Pope Benedict XVI among the reasons for the amnesty, saying the humanitarian act was 'a demonstration of the generosity and strength of the revolution'. He said 86 foreign prisoners from 25 countries would be freed, and that diplomats would be notified shortly."
Al Jazeera: "Arab League monitors are expected to meet Syria's foreign minister a day after suicide bombers killed 44 people in attacks Damascus blamed on al-Qaeda, but which the opposition said were the government's work."
New York Times: Newt Gingrich & Rick Perry failed to qualify for the Virginia Republican presidential primary ballot.
AND, Yes, Ron Paul Really Is Crazy. Reuters: "A direct-mail solicitation for Ron Paul's political and investment newsletters two decades ago warned of a 'coming race war in our big cities"' and of a 'federal-homosexual cover-up' to play down the impact of AIDS. The eight-page letter, which appears to carry Paul's signature at the end, also warns that the U.S. government's redesign of currency to include different colors - a move aimed at thwarting counterfeiters -- actually was part of a plot to allow the government to track Americans using the 'new money.'"
Guardian: "The Queen [Elizabeth] has visited the Duke of Edinburgh in hospital, where he has received treatment for a blocked coronary artery." Related, earlier story here.
Reality Chex Annual Extravaganza of Worst Christmas Songs
Just to get you started, Horatio Sanz, Jimmy Fallon, Chris Kattan & Tracy Morgan:
"'Zat You, Santa Claus?" Buster Poindexter edition:
"Wonderful Christmas Time" is wonderful only for Paul McCartney, who makes about half-a-mil on this every year in residuals:
... In all honesty, I found a lot of horrible songs of this same genre, but I'm not mean enough to share them. You know the kind I mean: renditions of classics destroyed by Christina Aguilera, Neil Diamond et al., or absolute crap by the New Kids on the Block (I had no idea how totally lacking in any form of talent those kids were). Okay, just one more like this -- Mariah Carey & Justin Bieber ruining a song that's already bad:
Then there are all those heart-rending country AND western numbers. Here's a favorite:
"Baby Boomer Santa" from NBC's "Community":
Reminiscent of that, George Thorogood & the Destroyers' "Rock 'n Roll Christmas" (1981):
This one is for frequent commenter JJG. Fa la la la la, Ha ha ha ha:
This is offensive on so many levels:
A perenniel unfavorite, but this is kind of a treat, performed by Randy & Ronnie Brooks. Randy wrote the song:
Okay, this really isn't bad; I just thought it wanted sharing:
This will always be my favorite Worst Christmas Song -- Bob Dylan's "It Must Be Santa":
For an antidote, see today's Off Times Square.
The Commentariat -- December 23
My column in the New York Times eXaminer is on David Brooks' Sidney Awards, Part II. The NYTX front page is here.
... Sweet, right? Oh, not if you're a member in good standing of the Anti-Obama Club:
How the Grinch Was Forced to Give Back Christmas, Temporarily. Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "Facing withering criticism from across the political spectrum and abandoned by Senate allies, House Republicans bowed to political reality Thursday and agreed to a two-month extension of a payroll tax cut for 160 million Americans. The agreement represented a remarkable capitulation on the part of House Republicans, who had two days earlier rejected such a deal with Democrats as the kind of half-measure that their new majority was elected to thwart. And it amounts to a Christmas gift for President Obama, who attempted to paint his Republican opponents as willing to raise taxes for millions of Americans. Such an image could have cost the party politically just as it is gearing up to try to take back the White House and the Senate in 2012." ...
... Jackie Calmes of the New York Times: "What surprised the administration, and not least Mr. Obama, was how much House Republicans would contribute toward the White House’s goal [of portraying President Obama as a stand-tough economic populist] through their miscalculations in waging this holiday-season showdown over tax cuts for 160 million workers and assistance for several million jobless Americans. The stand by House Republicans, which openly divided the party and put them in conflict with Senate Republicans, helped Mr. Obama perhaps as much as anything the White House and Congressional Democrats did."
Elections Have Consequences: "During a time when secular values are under constant attack by many religious leaders and political candidates, the Secular Coalition for America presents the 2012 Presidential Candidate Scorecard." Thanks to Kate M. for the link.
** The New York Times Magazine devotes itself to "These American Lives," the stories of extraordinary and ordinary Americans who died in 2011. Start here.
** Rania Khalek in AlterNet: "... some American school districts are pushing the boundaries of corporal punishment ... with the use of Tasers against unruly schoolchildren. The deployment of Tasers against 'problem' students coincides with the introduction of police officers on school campuses, also known as School Resource Officers (SROs). According to the Los Angeles Times, as of 2009, the number of SROs carrying Tasers was well over 4,000." And that's not all: "... the Southern Poverty Law Center found that pepper-spray has been used on students nearly 100 times in the last five years" in the Birmingham, Alabama school system.
Bill Adair of PolitiFact defends the organization for making the Democratic claim that the Ryan plan "ends Medicare" PolitiFact's "Lie of the Year." CW: Sorry, I wasn't convinced. You can argue convincingly against anything Rush Limbaugh & Ann Coulter say, but when you're arguing against Paul Krugman & Ezra Klein, you've got to come up with better excuses than that they're part of the "liberal echo chamber." Boing, boing, bullshit. ...
... Update: Krugman responds. CW: Needless to say, I'm with Krugman. ...
... AND R. J. Escow of Campaign for America's Future does a superb job of taking Adair to task. Thanks to reader Bonnie for the link.
Max Abelson of Bloomberg News has a roundup of remarks made by the One Percent about how unfairly the 99 Percent have portrayed them. So in the spirit of the holiday season, I will not persecute these greedy, selfish, hyper-sensitive asses today.
C. J. Chivers of the New York Times: "The United States is discussing with the Libyan interim government the creation of a program to purchase shoulder-fired, heat-seeking missiles from militia members and others who gathered them up during the war.... The talks are the latest step in a multinational effort to contain the risks posed by the thousands of portable antiaircraft weapons that are unaccounted for after rebel fighters overran government weapons depots during the battle against Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s forces."
Right Wing World
** A Campaign of Lies. Paul Krugman: Mitt Romney "has already gotten away with a series of ... fraudulent attacks [on President Obama]. In fact, he has based pretty much his whole campaign around a strategy of attacking Mr. Obama for doing things that the president hasn’t done and believing things he doesn’t believe." While he's at it, Krugman calls out the media for letting Romney get away with this & PolitiFact for its so-called Lie of the Year, which is the truth. You go, Paul. ...
... Vice President Joe Biden in a Des Moines Register op-ed: Mitt "Romney appears satisfied to settle for an economy in which fewer people succeed, while the majority of Americans are left to tread water or fall behind. His proposal would actually double down on the policies that caused the greatest economic calamity since the Great Depression and accelerated a decades-long assault on the middle class. Romney also misleadingly suggests that the president and I are creating an 'Entitlement Society.'... The only entitlement we believe in is an America where if you work hard, you can get ahead."
News Ledes
AP: "Congress on Friday approved a two-month renewal of payroll tax cuts for 160 million workers and unemployment benefits for millions, handing President Barack Obama a convincing victory for his jobs agenda. Back-to-back voice vote approvals of the measure by the Senate and House capped a retreat by House Republicans who had insisted that a full-year bill was the only way to prevent an immediate tax increase on Jan. 1." ...
... Los Angeles Times: President "Obama is expected to quickly sign the accord, allowing him to join his family in Hawaii for his traditional holiday retreat in his home state." ...
... Politico Update: a liveblog of President Obama's statement to the press is here. The full transcript of his statement is here.
New York Times: "Suicide attackers detonated two powerful car bombs outside government offices in Damascus on Friday, in what appeared to be the most brazen and deadly attacks against the government since the start of the uprising in Syria in March. Dozens were killed at the State Security Directorate headquarters and another security installation, SANA, the government news agency, reported."
AP: "Czechs and world leaders paid emotional tribute to Vaclav Havel on Friday at a pomp-filled funeral ceremony, ending a week of public grief and nostalgia over the death of the dissident playwright who led the 1989 revolution that toppled four decades of communist rule.... Havel's wife Dagmar, family members, friends and leaders from dozens of countries gathered Friday at the towering, gothic St. Vitus Cathedral which overlooks Prague. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron were among some 1,000 mourners who bowed their heads in front of the coffin draped in the Czech colors. Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright — paid tribute to Havel at the cathedral, which dates to the 10th century and has not witnessed a state funeral since 1875. 'We will terribly miss him but we will never, ever forget him,' said Albright, who is of Czech origin, in Czech."
AP: "Several thousand Egyptians rallied in Cairo's central Tahrir Square Friday to denounce violence against protesters, especially outraged by images of women protesters dragged by their hair, beaten and kicked by troops."