The Commentariat -- Dec. 26, 2013

CW: Finally, a convincing Christmas miracle: I agree with George Will: "Thousands of prisoners are serving life without parole for nonviolent crimes. [Federal Judge John] Gleeson ... is ... dismayed at the use of the threat of mandatory minimums as 'sledgehammers' to extort guilty pleas, effectively vitiating the right to a trial. Ninety-seven percent of federal convictions are without trials, sparing the government the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Mere probable cause, and the meager presentation required for a grand jury indictment, suffices. 'Judging is removed,' Gleeson says, 'prosecutors become sentencers.' And when threats of draconian sentences compel guilty pleas, 'some innocent people will plead guilty.' Barack Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder and Sens. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) are questioning the regime of mandatory minimum sentences, including recidivism enhancements, that began with the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986. Meanwhile, the human and financial costs of mass incarceration mount." ...

... Hmm, maybe Will is borrowing a sliver of Bill Moyers' show, which aired about a week ago. The transcript is here:

... Here, BTW, is David Simon's talk at the "Festival of Dangerous Ideas," a bowderlized version of which the Guardian published (& I linked) a few weeks ago -- Moyers mentions the lecture at the top of his show:

Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "A measure that President Obama is considering as a way to curb the National Security Agency's mass storage of phone data is already facing resistance — not only from the intelligence community but also from privacy advocates, the phone industry and some lawmakers. Obama last week suggested that he was open to the idea of requiring phone companies to store the records and allowing the government to search them under strict guidelines." ...

... Peter Walker of the Guardian: "Edward Snowden ... has recorded a Christmas Day television message in which he calls for an end to the mass surveillance revealed by his disclosures. The short film was recorded for Channel 4, which has 20-year history of providing unusual but relevant figures as an alternative to the Queen's Christmas message shown by other UK broadcasters. It will be Snowden's first television appearance since arriving in Moscow":

... Here's Queen Elizabeth's message:

Helena Pylväinen: "A Visit from the NSA." Here's a stanza:

To a familiar housetop the coursers they flew
(From satellite footage they already knew),
And then in a twinkling I heard in the roof
Jingling GPS trackers attached to their hoofs.

** Linda Greenhouse: the National Archives' new permanent exhibit, "Records of Rights" "presents, through a few hundred documents chosen from the billions in the archives' collection, the story of constitutional rights as an unfinished journey, an 'ongoing struggle,' in the words of one of the wall labels.... There is much here that goes beyond the obvious. The display is subtle and sophisticated, documenting ... 'the expansion -- and sometimes the retraction -- of our rights.'" Here's the National Archive's main page on the exhibit, which -- via links -- provides a sort of virtual exhibit.

Do Nothing Congress. CNN: "The worst Congress ever. That's the verdict from two-thirds of Americans about the track record of the 113th Congress, according to a new national poll. And a CNN/ORC International poll released Thursday also indicates that nearly three-quarters of the public say that this has been a 'do-nothing' Congress." ...

... Do-Nothing Congress Whacks the Vulnerable, Ctd. Amrita Jayakumar of the Washington Post: "Struggling homeowners could be hit with an unexpected tax bill in the new year. A law that spared people who owe more than their homes are worth from being saddled with extra taxes when their banks provide mortgage relief is expiring next week. Congress hasn't extended it." ...

... Do-Nothing Congress Whacks the Vulnerable, Ctd. The Washington Post publishes this reminder by Ylan Mui: "An estimated 1.3 million long-term unemployed workers ... are expected to be affected when the [unemployment benefits extension] program expires [this Saturday]. The extended benefits, staunchly opposed by Republicans, were left out of the bipartisan federal budget agreement reached this month." ...

... George Zornick in the Washington Post: "With polls already showing a potential voter backlash and local news outlets giving the story serious play, advocates are ratcheting up the pressure even further by taking out television ads depicting Republicans as heartless Scrooges.... What is particularly useful about this approach is that there's no pressure coming from the other side -- unlike, say, the debate over 'Obamacare,' there are no well-funded conservative groups out there pressing for an end to the emergency unemployment program.... The conservative grass roots don't appear to be fired up about the issue":

... The Fake War on Christmas Goes to Congress. Rebecca Shabad of the Hill: "Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) on Tuesday vowed to protect Christmas against what he called a 'vocal minority' offended by its symbols and traditions. 'There is a vocal minority that is offended at the rest of us who want to celebrate Christmas,' he said Tuesday on 'Fox and Friends.' 'Just because someone is offended doesn't mean that they can shut down the religious celebration or acknowledgment of every other American.' Lamborn recently introduced a two-page resolution, H.Res. 448, that would strongly disapprove of efforts to ban Christmas references, while supporting anyone who wants to promote its symbols." ...

... OR, as D. S. Wright of Firedoglake puts it, "After spending a term outright attacking the poor and meek -- whom Jesus spoke favorably of -- House Republicans want the symbols of Christ's birth to be protected from a phantom menace." ...

... CW: ALSO, the author of the Gospel of Matthew has Jesus sternly & repeatedly warn against people like Rep. Lamborn, in a series of verses that describe hypocrites who flaunt their piety & in so doing disgrace themselves before God. The one big difference: Matthew's hypocrites do give alms to the poor.

Mary Elizabeth Williams of Salon: "2013 -- the Year in Sexism."

John Carney of CNBC imagines "some of the biggest names in economics and econ-blogging [getting] into a fight about Christmas." CW: Carney proves himself a fine mimic.

Ken Belson of the New York Times: "Most researchers believe that C.T.E., or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the degenerative brain disease found in dozens of former N.F.L. players, can be diagnosed only posthumously by analyzing brain tissue. Researchers at U.C.L.A. have developed a test they assert might identify the condition in a living person by injecting a compound that clings to proteins in the brain and later appears in a PET scan. But some are skeptical."

Quack. Wes Venteicher of the Chicago Tribune: "Jesse Jackson Sr. has ... compared ['Duck Dynasty' star Phil] Robertson's recent comments about African-Americans, gay people and women to comments made by the driver of Rosa Parks' bus. 'At least the bus driver, who ordered Rosa Parks to surrender her seat to a white person, was following state law,' he said in the release. 'Robertson's statements were uttered freely and openly without cover of the law, within a context of what he seemed to believe was 'white privilege.' Jackson's human rights group, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, has demanded meetings with A&E and with Cracker Barrel regarding the two companies' treatment of Robertson...."

News Ledes

AP: "A Roman Catholic church official who has been jailed for more than a year for his handling of priest sex-abuse complaints had his landmark conviction reversed and was ordered released Thursday. A three-judge Superior Court panel unanimously rejected prosecution arguments that Monsignor William Lynn, the first U.S. church official ever charged or convicted for the handling of clergy-abuse complaints, was legally responsible for an abused boy's welfare in the late 1990s.

New York Times: "The United States is quietly rushing dozens of Hellfire missiles and low-tech surveillance drones to Iraq to help government forces combat an explosion of violence by a Qaeda-backed insurgency that is gaining territory in both western Iraq and neighboring Syria. The move follows an appeal for help in battling the extremist group by the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, who met with President Obama in Washington last month."

AFP: "Nationalist Prime Minister Shinzo Abe paid an inflammatory visit to the Yasukuni war shrine Thursday, angering China which accused Japan of whitewashing a history of warmongering and said it must 'bear the consequences'. South Korea also blasted the 'anachronistic' move and Tokyo's chief ally the United States declared itself disappointed with an act that it said would worsen tensions with Japan's neighbours."

AP: "Thailand's election commission on Thursday called for upcoming polls to be delayed as street battles between security forces and protesters seeking to disrupt the ballot killed a police officer and injured nearly 100 people, dealing fresh blows to the beleaguered government. Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra wants the Feb. 2 elections to take place as scheduled, believing she would win handily and renew her mandate. The street violence adds to pressure on her to take a tougher line against the protesters, risking more chaos and possible intervention by the army."

AP: Abu Mohammed al-Golani, "the shadowy leader of a powerful al-Qaida group fighting in Syria, sought to kidnap United Nations workers and scrawled out plans for his aides to take over in the event of his death, according to excerpts of letters obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press."

AFP: "Russia on Thursday started issuing visas to foreign crew members of a Greenpeace protest ship and dropped the criminal case against the last member of the 30-strong team. Italy's Christian d'Alessandro was notified by investigators that the case against him had been dropped, Greenpeace said. Earlier this week, Russia closed the cases of the other 29 crew members of Greenpeace's Arctic Sunrise ship under a Kremlin-backed amnesty."

Washington Post: "President Obama spent a quiet Christmas ... in his native Hawaii thanking military service members and their families for their 'incredible sacrifices' to their country. After opening presents and singing Christmas carols with his family at their lush and secluded vacation compound, Obama paid a visit to about 580 active duty troops and their families at Marine Corps Base Hawaii in what has become an annual tradition for this president. He said he also called 10 troops who are deployed in such far-away locales as Afghanistan, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia."

Happy Generic Holiday

In our continuing effort to identify The Real Santa Claus, here are a few highlights:

Yesterday, contributor Dave S. led us to this summary of the origins & evolution of Santa Claus by Brian Handwerk for the National Geographic. Here's an even more abbreviated version from the History Channel:

A Holiday Gift from Contributor Mae F.: "Six to Eight Black Men" by David Sedaris:, who elaborates on the Dutch Sinterklaas:

     ... The text (plus audio & illustrations) is here. ...

The "Real" Sinterklaas arrives in Amsterdam (or someplace) from Spain (or someplace.) He is accompanies by six or eight Zwarte Piet.Leo Cendrowicz of the Guardian: "While families exchange presents and eat cakes to welcome Santa Claus's slimmer and more sober ancestor, criticism of the crude depictions of his sidekick, known locally as Zwarte Piet, has reached the United Nations. The clown is usually portrayed by a white person in blackface, who goes around offering sweets to good children and, according to legend, threatens to collect naughty ones in a sack to be taken to Zwarte Piet's home in Spain. But he is increasingly reviled by critics as a racist relic of Christmases past." CW: Zwarte Piet, surely coming to a Southern U.S. town any day now. To voice disapproval of this holy tradition would be trampling on the First Amendment, I'll betcha. You think Sarah Palin looks great in "Duck Dynasty" camo? Wait till you see her in Zwarte Piet blackface.

The Science of Santa:

Still, I'm going with the clues Dylan gives us in this thoroughly-researched analysis (reprised from my "Worst Christmas Songs Ever -- 2012"):

David Edwards of the Raw Story: "An African-America Santa Claus was shot in the back with a pellet gun during a toy giveaway in Washington, D.C. on Christmas Eve -- and the whole thing was caught on video by a local news crew."

Politico has a Santa Quiz. I flunked.

Delia Ephron has a Christmas Manners Quiz in the New York Times. Unlike Politico, she does not provide correct answers. However, she has given me some ideas on how to react to the bizarre & merely awkward happenings at holiday gatherings.

New York Times. Thanks to MAG for the link.

NEW. Also via MAG, Gary Shteyngart, in a New York Times op-ed, on "the Most Unknowable Time of the Year."

Dario Thuburn of AFP: "Pope Francis held his first Christmas Eve mass in the Vatican by highlighting the role played by humble shepherds in the Nativity, as thousands flocked to the historic site of Jesus's birth in Bethlehem."

The Christ's Penis. Lee Siegel in the New Yorker: "A credo of the Franciscan order was nudus nudum Christum sequi ('follow naked the naked Christ'). It was a radical call to cast aside worldly wealth and belongings and acknowledge the fragile, fallen nature of all men and women. But in casting aside Christ's garments, the Franciscans made Christ's nude body a focal point. As a result, according to [scholar Leo] Steinberg, from about the middle of the thirteenth century until the sixteenth century artists lavished particular care on Christ's penis, the part of Christ's body that made him most mortal, and which proved his union with humankind.... Pope Francis could well agree with Steinberg, who lamented that the human Christ disappeared 'as modern Christianity distanced itself from its mythic roots; as the person of Jesus was refined into all doctrine and message, the kerygma of a Christianity without Christ.' ... One might add that in our own epoch the Catholic Church's denial of Christ's sexuality runs parallel to its denial of human sexuality, taboos that resurface in once scandal after another."

Capitalist Jesus. Richard Schiffman of AlterNet in the San Diego Free Press: "The King James Bible, not to mention more recent translations like the New International Version (NIV), are veritable primers of progressive agitprop, complains Andy Schlafly, the founder of Conservapedia.com. (His mother [is] Phyllis.) ... Andy Schlafly's group ... have invited ... the 'best of the public,' whose assistance is solicited in proposing new wording for left-leaning Bible verses.... What they are looking for is not exactly egghead scholarship, but a knack for using words they've read in the Wall Street Journal. They have a list of promising candidates on their website -- words like capitalism, work ethic, death penalty, anticompetitive, elitism, productivity, privatize, pro-life -- all of which are conspicuously missing from those socialist-inspired Bibles...."Via David Edwards.

Dancing Ladies Get Big Raise. Katrina Bishop of CNBC (Dec. ): "The cost of buying your true love all the gifts named in the holiday song 'The 12 Days of Christmas' has shot up in 2013, according to a holiday-themed index, significantly outpacing the rate of U.S. inflation.... The biggest riser on the index was the nine ladies dancing, which increased in price by 20 percent over the year."

Elon Gilad of Haaretz writes a brief history of Christmas celebrations.

Amanda Marcotte in the Raw Story: "Keep the Saturn in Saturnalia": There "really is a fear [among some Christians] that if non-Christians are allowed an equal space in society, then people, especially young people, might start to realize that you don't have to be a Christian. And, let's be blunt: A huge chunk of people, upon finding out they don't have to be Christians, are going to say, 'Well fuck that then, I'm sleeping in on Sundays.'" ...

Saturnalia festival in Chester, England. No Christians were burned at the stake nor did the "Roman" soldiers declare a war on Christmas.

... Oh, to be in England now that Saturnalia's here. In Chester, England, near the Wales border, "crowds" are "delighted" by the annual celebration of Saturnalia. Torch-lighting is part of the parade festivities, not -- as in New Jersey -- one of numerous attempts by Christians to destroy a Saturnalia billboard.

SNL's "I Wish It Was Christmas Today" has made past Worst lists (I think this is SNL's second version). ...

     ... Update: Video removed as it started loading automatically. You can still find this classic here. ...

... I did not intend to run the "Worst Christmas Songs Ever" feature this year. But SNL outdid itself last week, so I can't resist adding their entry:

Antidote, from the 1998 Winter Olympics:

Presidential Weekly Address:

News Ledes

Guardian: "Utility crews from Maine to Michigan and into Canada worked on Wednesday to restore power to more than half a million homes that were left in the dark by last weekend's ice storm, which has been linked to 27 deaths. In the United States, the death toll from the storm reached at least 17 on Wednesday, from traffic accidents and carbon monoxide fatalities."

Hill: "Iran President Hassan Rouhani is endorsing the spirit of Christmas. Rouhani on Tuesday retweeted two tweets, one by Iran's supreme leader and one by its foreign minister, that focused on the spirit of Christmas. The tweets appear to be a part of a continuing effort by Rouhani to put a friendlier face toward the West."

Washington Post: "A U.S. government contractor kidnapped by al-Qaeda militants in Pakistan in 2011 has recorded a video message calling on the Obama administration to negotiate with his captors, saying he feels 'totally abandoned and forgotten.' Warren Weinstein looked ashen and sounded lethargic as he pleaded for renewed interest in his case and asked the U.S. government to consider releasing al-Qaeda militants in its custody. The 72-year-old development expert from Rockville, Md., began his address by urging President Obama to step up efforts to get him released."

AP: "Egypt's military-backed interim government declared the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization Wednesday, intensifying its campaign of arrests and prosecutions targeting its members and tightening the noose on the group's network of charities and businesses."

Reuters: "Utah's attorney general instructed county clerks on Tuesday to issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples requesting them, as ordered by the federal judge who overturned a state ban on same-sex weddings, or risk being held in contempt of court."

AP: "The government's retooled health care website was put to its biggest test yet as record numbers of Americans rushed to beat Tuesday's extended deadline for signing up for insurance.... HealthCare.gov, where people in 36 states can shop for coverage, received 2 million visits Monday, its highest one-day total, the government said. Traffic was not as heavy on Tuesday but still high.... 'The site is performing well under intense consumer traffic,' said Kurt DelBene, a former Microsoft executive appointed last week to take over management of the online marketplace. 'With the highest volumes we have seen to date, response time is fast and the error rating is low.'"

Washington Post: "The price of a first-class letter and most other mail will rise by 3 cents on Jan. 26, the largest rate hike in 11 years, the commission that oversees the U.S. Postal Service announced Tuesday. The stamp-price increase to 49 cents will be in effect for two years, giving the financially struggling agency a temporary infusion of extra revenue intended to help it recoup losses suffered during the economic downturn between 2008 and 2011."

The Gospel According to Sister Sarah

So people who are so insulted and offended by what he said, evidently, are offended by what he was quoting in the Gospel. -- Sarah Palin, after admitting she didn't read the GQ article in which Phil Robertson made grotesque claims about blacks & gays, still insisting Robertson was citing scripture ...

... Wherein Sarah Palin admiWats on-air she has no idea what she's talking about. CW: And here I thought Palin read "um, all of them." Apparently the "vast variety of sources where we get our news" does not include the GQ article whose content she is so intent to defend. ...

... CW: Now, in the spirit of the day, I shall drop my spontaneous snark & admit I feel sorry for Palin. I think she has a severe learning disability. I doubt she can read at a ninth-grade level. She certainly cannot reason like an ordinary adult. If people patiently & repeatedly explain stuff to her in simple terms, she memorizes the catchphrases & can regurgitate them later in a string that -- because she cannot grasp the underlying concepts -- doesn't usually constitute a coherent sentence. She is embarrassed by her disability & is angry at the herculean effort she has always had to make to hide it. Unfortunately, she transfers her self-loathing onto others. Thus, after admitting she does not know what Robertson said, she quickly "recovers" by (a) blithely asserting words she never read are New Testament scripture, & (b) people who took umbrage at them are anti-Christian; that is, they are "insulted and offended" by Christian teachings. This is not the first time I've watched her cover her ignorance by lashing out at others.

The Commentariat -- Dec. 24, 2013

Michael Shear & Robert Pear of the New York Times: "A record-setting crush of last-minute shoppers descended on HealthCare.gov on Monday, creating long wait times for users and putting new stress on the government's much-maligned health portal as they raced against a midnight deadline to sign up for coverage that will go into effect on Jan. 1.... The high volume of visitors also prompted White House officials to abruptly establish a 24-hour grace period that will effectively extend the deadline, allowing those who sign up on Tuesday to still receive coverage from Jan. 1." ...

... Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "President Obama has enrolled in the federal health-care insurance exchanges, selecting a bronze-tiered insurance plan on the D.C. marketplace.... In advance of Monday's key enrollment deadline, Obama signed up for coverage over the weekend during the start of his holiday vacation here in Hawaii in what a White House official described as a 'symbolic' act to promote the Affordable Care Act.... The president's health care will continue to be provided by the military.... Although Obama was involved in selecting a plan, he didn't sign up himself. The president's staff did that for him, going in person to the D.C. exchange over the weekend...." ...

... OR, as Josh Lederman of the AP put it: "He won't use it, and he didn't actually sign up for it himself, but President Barack Obama has enrolled for health coverage through the new insurance exchanges." ...

... Paul Steinhauser of CNN: "Support for the country's new health care law has dropped to a record low, according to a new national poll. And a CNN/ORC International survey released Monday also indicates that most Americans predict that the Affordable Care Act will actually result in higher prices for their own medical care."

For me, in terms of personal satisfaction, the mission's already accomplished. I already won. As soon as the journalists were able to work, everything that I had been trying to do was validated. Because, remember, I didn't want to change society. I wanted to give society a chance to determine if it should change itself. -- Edward Snowden ...

... Bart Gellman of the Washington Post interviews Ed Snowden. ...

... The Snowden ABR Project -- Anywhere But Russia. RT: "Edward Snowden is offering Germany his help with investigating NSA spying activities on its soil, if Berlin grants him political asylum, Stern reports, citing correspondence with the whistleblower. 'I have a great respect for Germany,' Snowden wrote to the German Stern publication." CW: Last week, Brazil; this week, Germany. Guess we'll have to start playing the Whither Ed? game: Where in the world will Ed Snowden seek asylum next week?

Peter Sullivan of the Hill: "Civil rights leaders and members of the Georgia congressional delegation on Monday called on President Obama to withdraw his nominees for federal courts in the state over concerns about their views and lack of diversity.... According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Obama administration reached a deal with Georgia's Republican senators in September to appoint three nominees to the district court whom they had cleared, in exchange for allowing through the nomination of Jill Pryor, whom the senators had been blocking, to the Eleventh Circuit. Judge Julie Carnes, an appointee of former President George H.W. Bush, is also in line for promotion to the circuit court." CW: Note that, filibuster or not, Southern states can still get the winger judges they want, simply by "blue-slipping" moderate to liberal nominees.

The Shriveling of Bush's Brain. Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times: "At least a dozen 'super PACs' are setting up to back individual Republican candidates for the United States Senate, challenging the strategic and financial dominance that Karl Rove and the group he co-founded, American Crossroads, have enjoyed ever since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision in 2010 cleared the way for unlimited independent spending." ...

... CW: Right on cue, Molly Ball of the Atlantic, usually a credible analyst, writes a Battle of the Democrats handwringing piece to make sure we all know Both Sides Do It. Also, I wish liberalish pundits like Ball would quit writing this: "... McAuliffe succeeded in painting his opponent, Ken Cuccinelli, as an extreme Tea Party ideologue." McAuliffe didn't "paint" Cuccinelli as an extremist; Kenny is an extremist. Using the verb "paint" implicitly accuses McAuliffe of playing dirty; it suggests he smeared Cooch with untrue or half-true epithets. Better: McAuliffe identified Cuccinelli as an extremist.

CW: I missed this piece by Jonathan Chait, published a few weeks ago, but it has & will have a distressingly long shelf-life: "Conservatives can transport themselves for two hours into the hellish antebellum world of 12 Years a Slave and experience the same horror and grief that liberals feel. What they cannot do, almost uniformly, is walk out of the theater and detect the still-extant residue of that world all around them." Chait perfectly captures what "respectable racism" looks like today. I expect it will be harder to eradicate than the kind that caused the Civil War.

Dean Baker in TruthOut: "In his speech on inequality earlier this month President Obama proclaimed that the government could not be a bystander in the effort to reduce inequality.... The problem is that President Obama wants the public to believe that inequality is something that just happened.... This story is 180 degrees at odds with the reality. Inequality did not just happen, it was deliberately engineered through a whole range of policies intended to redistribute income upward."

Alex Pareene of Salon on the President's favorite horrible columnists. CW: Pareene's assessments of the columnists are spot on, but I'm with Barbarossa -- I wish Pareene had documented his source for his assertion that the President just loves to read Friedman & Brooks. With the possible exceptions of Chait & Klein, I doubt Obama reads these pissants because he actually likes them; rather, I suspect he glances at their stuff to get a feel for what leading opinionators are feeding the public.

Congressional Race

Lizette Alvarez of the New York Times: The death of Rep. Bill Young (R-Fla.), who represented the Sarasota region for 43 years, "has set off a contest in the first race of the 2014 battle for control of Congress, with both parties hoping for a victory and watching carefully how President Obama's health care law may affect the outcome. Determined to snatch the long-awaited open seat in the March 11 special election, Democrats effectively cleared the field for Alex Sink, a former chief financial officer of Florida, who ran for governor and lost in 2010. Ms. Sink did not even live in the district, Pinellas County, in October; she packed up and moved one county over last month." CW: Sink has already asked me for cash.

Dan Amira of New York: Fox "News" convicts, kills George Zimmerman. Later, they very, very quietly resuscitated & exonerated him. Also, a painting by Zimmerman sold for more than $100K on e-bay.

Weasly Republican Trick. Josh Israel of Think Progress: "In the aftermath of the contested 2000 presidential election, Congress passed the bipartisan Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) to provide federal money to make it easier for Americans to exercise their right to vote and for local governments to ensure smooth elections. But according to the office of Iowa State Auditor Mary Mosiman (R), a $140,000 voter fraud investigation launched by Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz (R) may be improperly using those federal funds on his probe to ferret out largely non-existent voter fraud."

Weasly Trick. Kevin Opsahl of the Logan, Utah, Herald Journal: "Cache County Attorney James Swink announced Monday that the Cache County Clerk's Office will remain closed pending a decision by the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals on a request for an emergency stay on same-sex marriages by the state." ...

     ... Scott Lemieux in Lawyers, Guns & Money: "Once again, states' 'rights' are being used to trump actual human rights, a development that can fairly be called unsurprising."

... Amanda Myers of the AP: "A federal judge Monday ordered Ohio authorities to recognize gay marriages on death certificates, saying the state's ban on such unions is unconstitutional and that states cannot discriminate against same-sex couples simply because some voters don't like homosexuality. Although Judge Timothy Black's ruling applies only to death certificates, his statements about Ohio's gay-marriage ban are sweeping, unequivocal, and are expected to incite further litigation challenging the law. Ohio's attorney general said the state will appeal."

Fish's Swan Song. Stanley Fish writes his New York Times his last column for the New York Times. CW: Ironically, Fish, who has spent a good deal of his career undermining the value of authorial intent, finally divulges the intent of his past columns.

Heartwarming Story Alert. Scott Keyes of Think Progress: "The Obama administration has set a goal of ending homelessness among veterans by 2015, but one city reached that mark a year early. Phoenix[, Arizona,] announced last week that it has eradicated chronic veteran homelessness -- making it the first city in the country to do so -- after it housed an additional 56 veterans on Wednesday."

UPI: "Three-quarters of U.S. adults say they believe in God, down from 82 percent in 2005, 2007 and 2009, a Harris Poll indicates.... Forty-seven percent say they believe in Darwin's theory of evolution, compared to 42 percent in 2005.... No margin of error was provided." CW: If I had to guess, I'd guess that beliefs haven't changed much but a willingness to express nonbelief has ticked up slightly. That is, some nontheists are coming out of the closet. I'd also guess that the stridency of politically-motivated super-Christians is encouraging nonbelievers to push back against the nonsense.

"Christmas in America." Charles Pierce notes how grateful unemployed Americans will be that in their infinite wisdom, the representatives of the people have decided "that people -- other people, naturally, and their children -- will be strengthened in their moral character by completely avoidable deprivation."

CW: If you don't feel like reading the kiddies "T'was the Night Before Christmas/"A Visit from St. Nicholas," Michelle Obama & muppet Abby fill in for you:

... If you'd rather read it yourself, the poem by Clement Clarke Moore is here. ...

... AND let us not forget what St. Nicholas really looked like (at least by early tradition & forensic reconstruction based on a skull reputed to be his):

Miracle on 34th Street -- Finding Secret Santa. Amy Nelson finds Black Santa at Macy's 34th Street -- after a rigorous search. Nelson blogs here. Via Dan Amira:

... Brian Handwerk for the National Geographic on the origins & evolution of Santa Claus -- still not a universally beloved, fat, jolly white North Pole resident. Thanks to Dave S. for the link to this excellent summary. CW: If you tell the kids the "real" story of Santa Claus, you might want to leave out those bits about prostitution & pickled children.

News Ledes

Politico: "People who can’t finish the online signup for Obamacare health insurance by midnight Tuesday because of problems with HealthCare.gov and a surge of last-minute shoppers can seek extra time to finalize their application and still get covered by Jan. 1, the Obama administration said...."

NBC News: "Same-sex marriages can go on in Utah after a federal appeals court Tuesday denied the state's request to stop them pending an appeal of a judge's ruling legalizing them. In a two-page order (.pdf) entered in 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, Judges Robert E. Bacharach and Jerome A. Holmes declined to grant Gov. Gary Herbert's request for an emergency stay."

New York Times: "On Tuesday, Brian Krebs, the security blogger who first broke the news that Target had been breached, said he believed he had identified a Ukranian man who he said was behind one of the primary black market sites now selling Target customers' credit and debit card information for as much as $100 a piece. Mr. Krebs lays out evidence that the man, Andrew Hodirevski, may be in touch with the criminals supplying Target's credit card data."

Bloomberg News: "Robert W. Wilson, a retired New York hedge-fund founder who committed his life to giving the fortune he made from investing to charities, has died. He was 87. He died Dec. 23 after leaping from his 16th-floor residence at the San Remo apartment building on Manhattan's Central Park West...."

Guardian: "Alan Turing, the second world war codebreaker who took his own life after undergoing chemical castration following a conviction for homosexual activity, has been granted a posthumous royal pardon 59 years after his death."

AP: "Former New York governor Eliot Spitzer and his wife announced late Tuesday that their two-decade-plus marriage is over." ...

... New York Daily News: "The announcement came two days after revelations that Spitzer was in a relationship with former aide Lis Smith, who is the spokeswoman for New York Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio."

AP: "One of the Greenpeace activists detained in Russia's Arctic has been granted amnesty, the environmental group said Tuesday.... The crew members were originally accused of piracy, a charge that was later changed to hooliganism.... The 26 non-Russian crew members have not been allowed to leave Russia because of the pending case. An amnesty law passed last week is expected to clear them of the charges. Several more of the Greenpeace activists are expected to receive similar amnesty notifications." Greenpeace did not name the released activist.

Reuters: "Russia will host international talks on Friday on the elimination of Syria's chemical weapons, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said. The meeting in Moscow will draw together experts from Russia, the United States, Syria, the United Nations and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)...."

AP: "Two space station astronauts ventured out on a rare Christmas Eve spacewalk Tuesday, hoping to wrap up urgent repairs to a cooling system."

AFP: "Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas urged Christian pilgrims from around the world to visit the Holy Land to mark the visit of Pope Francis, set for 2014, in a Christmas message on Monday.... 'As we begin preparations for the visit of His Holiness Pope Francis next year, we call upon pilgrims from all over the world to come and experience Palestine and our Holy Sites,' Abbas said."

AP: "Israel's state archives has published a 50-year-old letter from the Mossad spy agency claiming it unknowingly offered paramilitary training to a young Nelson Mandela, along with documents illustrating the Jewish state's sympathy for the anti-apartheid struggle in the 1960s. The release of the documents on the archives' website in the wake of Mandela's death appear to be aimed at blunting criticism of the close alliance Israel later developed with South Africa's apartheid rulers.... The [current] South African government is a fervent supporter of the Palestinian cause, and the Palestinians frequently compare their campaign for independence to the black struggle that ended apartheid."