First published Dec. 24, 2007.

Traditionally, Christmas Eve is a meatless meal, with twelve courses - one for each month of the year. But there were plenty of customers loading up on kielbasa, wrapped up in brown butcher's paper for the trip home.

"I'm new to the neighborhood. Is there a Midnight Mass anywhere?" I asked the woman standing in line ahead of me. (She looked just like my Aunt Agnes, who was my godmother.)

"I don't know, I don't live here," she said apologetically. "I just come here for the kielbasa."

Watching those Polish faces in the store brought back memories of Christmas Eves past at my grandmother's house on Terrace Street. The Polish Christmas Eve is called Wigilia (meaning "the vigil") and it's aptly named. I remember being such a hungry little kid and waiting and waiting and waiting, because you can't eat until the first star (Gwiazdka, in honor of the Star of Bethlehem) comes out.

The smell of herring made me gag; the only fish I could stomach were the Mrs. Paul's fish sticks, and I'd load up the plate with those and my grandmother's mashed potatoes - they had just the right amount of lumps, beaten with sour cream and ground black pepper. I also liked golumpki, a stuffed cabbage roll. We kids would wash it all down with Javies Cream Soda or Black Cherry Wishniak, while our parents drank beer and whiskey in the kitchen.

Later, after we'd all eaten, my Aunt Connie would pass around pieces of oplatek, or blessed bread - literally, "angel bread." It's a thin, starchy sheet like communion wafers, about the size of an index card and embossed with Nativity scenes. The tradition is to offer it to each member of the family and as they break off a piece, you wish them good health and happiness: Na szczescie, na zdrowie z Wigilia! (In Polish, if you knew it. My siblings and I didn't speak Polish, except for useful phrases like "Do you speak Polish?" "You're such a pig!" and "What do you think I am, a horse?")

And the person who takes the bread wishes you the same. It's a very special moment.

Anyway, I know you all have your own traditions, and I hope they bring you pleasure. And tonight, as the first star rises in the sky, I offer you all a piece of oplatek, wishing you good health and happiness this Christmas Eve, and may a bright star shine over your home.

Niech zawsze nad naszym domem świeci złota gwiazda!

First published Dec. 24, 2007.

So we continue to prop up the housing market, probably because it provides the only positive economic news lately. Is this good for the long-term economy? I dunno, I guess it depends on how talented you are at pretending:

The Obama administration pledged Thursday to provide unlimited financial assistance to mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, an eleventh-hour move that allows the government to exceed the current $400 billion cap on emergency aid without seeking permission from a bailout-weary Congress.

The Christmas Eve announcement by the Treasury Department means that it can continue to run the companies, which were seized last year, as arms of the government for the rest of President Obama's current term.

But even as the administration was making this open-ended financial commitment, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac disclosed that they had received approval from their federal regulator to pay $42 million in Wall Street-style compensation packages to 12 top executives for 2009.

The compensation packages, including up to $6 million each to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's chief executives, come amid an ongoing public debate about lavish payments to executives at banks and other financial firms that have received taxpayer aid. But while many firms on Wall Street have repaid the assistance, there is no prospect that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will do so.

The administration faced a congressionally mandated deadline of Dec. 31 to increase the amount of aid it could provide to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which together have already received $111 billion in assistance.

Treasury said Thursday that its decision did not mean the firms would need $200 billion or more apiece, but that it instead was seeking to assure markets that the government would stand behind the companies. In a statement, Treasury said the move "should leave no uncertainty about the Treasury's commitment to support these firms as they continue to play a vital role in the housing market during this current crisis."

Apparently, David Vitter doesn't think the Senate should be able to go home at a reasonable hour to spend Christmas Eve with their families, and Tom Harkin wants everyone to know just whose stocking deserves a lump of coal.

SEN. HARKIN (D-Iowa): So Mr. President, I know one senator whose family is with their in-laws - their husband's from England and their kids are over there - can't make it for Christmas dinner tomorrow night. I know other person who has to get out to the west because - and there's a lot of storms out there - if they can get that early flight, they can make two legs and get home. If they have to go later in the day, they have to do three legs and they may not make it. There's a lot of people around here that are having a lot of problems with that. We're all here. There's no -- really no reason to hold over the vote. So I'm going to ask unanimous consent that the vote on the passage of the bill and the -- and the vote on the debt limit bill -- occur at 6pm this evening.

PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE: Is there objection?

SEN. VITTER (R-Lousiana): Mr. President?

PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE: Senator Vitter.

SEN. VITTER (R-Lousiana): That request has not been cleared on this side, so on behalf of my colleagues, I will object. And if the senator would like to talk to all of his colleagues about it, that would be fine. But in the meantime, I would object.

PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE: Objection is heard.

SEN. HARKIN (D-Iowa): Mr. President, then I would further ask unanimous consent that the votes that are going to occur at 7am tomorrow occur at 12:15am in the morning.

SEN. VITTER (R-Lousiana): Mr. President?

PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE: Is there objection?

SEN. VITTER (R-Lousiana): Mr. President, my response would be the same and I would object in the same vein.

PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE: Objection is heard.

SEN. HARKIN (D-Iowa): Well I just want people to know who's keeping us here.

Gotta love those "Family Values" types, doncha? David Vitter, true to Republican obstructionism form, if not his wife.

The Senate got past the second filibuster on the compelling video game that is health-care reform, with one level left. While the final vote is theoretically scheduled for Christmas Eve, I saw Sen. Claire McCaskill on my teevee this morning saying that Republicans are trying to drag it out so that members won't be able to spend Christmas with their families.

Now, Claire, while I'm sympathetic to a point (yes, the Republicans are obstructionist scum), if this legislation is really a historic achievement (albeit one that will force many Americans to stretch their finances to the limit to comply), I don't especially care that your holiday schedule is mildly inconvenienced.

But that's just me!

The Senate cleared the second of three key procedural hurdles on President Obama's health-care legislation early Tuesday with another party-line vote, continuing the effort to pass the bill before Christmas.

All 60 members of the Democratic caucus supported the measure to finalize amendments to the health-care package, while 39 Republicans opposed it.

A third procedural vote is expected Wednesday, with final passage of the bill likely to come late Thursday -- Christmas Eve.

Although they lack any obvious way to torpedo the bill at this point, Republicans remain bitterly opposed to the legislation and have shown little indication that they are ready to relent in their increasingly negative standoff with Democrats.

On Monday, hours after a crucial 1 a.m. vote to end a Republican filibuster, the American Medical Association officially endorsed the legislation, while Democratic leaders defended the dealmaking that has brought the $871 billion package to the brink of passage.

Lacking the votes to block the bill, Republicans heaped scorn on the many concessions made to wavering Democrats in the quest to advance the package. GOP critics warned that support for the effort could mean the demise in 2010 of vulnerable incumbents, including Sens. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) and Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.).

Just got off another blogger conference call, this time with Howard Dean, former CIGNA exec Wendell Potter, and Mike Lux.

Dean announced the results of a DFA poll that is "really quite stunning," he said. (You can read the results here.) The Senate cloture vote is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve, he said.

Democracy for America's "No Option, No Mandate" campaign to contact Harry Reid clocked 7000 calls in four hours, too, he said.

Dr. Dean opened the call by saying "this bill has always been a giveaway to the insurance industry, but we were willing to compromise" to get the public option.

He recapped all the compromises we made: "We wanted single payer, but that was taken off the table early on. That was a mistake. We had to get to the place where we had health insurance for all Americans." But now, he said, there's no public option, and no Medicare option.

"You're forced to pay money to an insurance company or get fined $750 by your government, while 27% of your money goes to CEOs who are flying around in these private jets," he said.

He talked about the compromises made for pre-existing conditions, the most disturbing one the ability to charge you 300% more, merely for being older. "It's guaranteed issue, but if you’re making $65,000 a year for a family of four and you’re paying $20,000 for insurance, how is that reform?"

He said the real bad stuff in the Senate bill was

"hidden in the weeds, so you can’t find it."

Dr. Dean brushed aside the "Get a bill, any bill" mentality in Washington. "Any legislation passed will have a huge impact on American healthcare. If they can’t fix it, it shouldn’t pass."

Wendell Potter, former CIGNA executive and reform activist, said the insurance industry got "every single thing they wanted" in the Senate bill.

"There's no individual mandate, no public option. There's also three words, 'benefit design flexibility' in Senate bill – that means the freedom to design plans that will pass more and more of us into ranks of the underinsured - and charge up to 22% of income if someone gets sick," he said.

In Massachusetts, they have a 2 to 1 premium ratio, "and they're already having trouble finding affordable, adequate insurance. The industry wants to shift even more costs to individuals and families, having the government pay them half a trillion dollars. The Senate bill meets every one of their requirements," Potter said.

"They will continue to shift the cost burden to consumers and get around not using preexisting conditions by charging for certain factors like high cholesterol."

Dr. Dean pointed out the House bill "is the compromise, we didn’t think it was right to take the option of an employer-based system away if people liked it."

In Vermont, he said, you can't be charged more than double the lowest premium.

Dean listed some more of the insurance company wish list the Senate was so eager to fill. "Getting rid of the anti-trust provision. This contributes to the predatory effect of the insurance companies – they're essentially unregulated. We need to get the provision in, get them regulated.

Wendell Potter talked about something you often hear pushed from the Republican side: "Just let us sell across state lines and let the market decide." As he points out, insurers would go to the states with least regulation.

Paul Hogarth from Daily Kos asked them to address criticism that if the bill is killed, "there's no reform and we’re worse off, the momentum is gone."

"I don’t know that we’ll be worse off," Dr. Dean said. "We ought to strip down this bill and get rid of the mandate. It should have been done by reconciliation."

Continue reading »

UPDATE: Dems broke the filibuster at 2 a.m. EST.

You know, I'm beginning to wonder if the refusal to operate in good faith isn't a form of official malfeasance. Because voters should impeach these senators for simply refusing to do their jobs - like voting for this bill, which funds their unemployment benefits:

Senate Republicans said Thursday that they would try to filibuster a massive Pentagon bill that funds the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, an unusual move that several acknowledged was an effort to delay President Obama's health-care legislation.

Late into the night, Democrats emerged from a huddle confident that they would muster the 60 votes needed to thwart the GOP effort at blocking the military spending bill. An antiwar liberal said he would set aside his reservations and support choking off the filibuster to keep the chamber on a timeline of holding a final health-care vote before Christmas. The vote on the defense spending bill was to occur after 1 a.m. Friday, too late for this edition.

The maneuvering came as Democrats were still trying to round up a 60th vote on the health-care legislation. Sen. Ben Nelson (Neb.), the last holdout in the Democratic caucus and the focus of an intense lobbying campaign by White House officials, rejected an abortion compromise aimed at bringing him on board. Nelson has said he would not support the package unless it explicitly bars the use of federal money for abortion services.

If Nelson's support can be secured over the weekend, Democrats are hopeful that they will be able to begin clearing the parliamentary hurdles that would allow final passage of their version of the legislation by Christmas Eve. That would meet their self-imposed deadline to pass the measure and begin negotiating with House Democrats to craft a final version to send to the president.

Republicans have said their goal is to block the bill and force Senate Democrats to go home and face their constituents, hoping for some supporters of the measure to return after New Year's too fearful to back the legislation.

If the filibuster on the $626 billion defense bill succeeded, Democrats would have to scramble to find a way to fund the military operations, because a stopgap funding measure will expire at midnight Friday. Such an effort might have disrupted the very tight timeline on health care.

Republicans have provided the backbone of support for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and many have praised Obama's troop increase in Afghanistan, so the plan to oppose defense spending Friday morning put them in an unusual position. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) cited the thousands of earmarks in the bill in explaining his opposition, and others cited factors not related to health care.

But Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) was blunt in explaining his support of a filibuster. "I don't want health care," said Brownback, a member of the Appropriations Committee, which crafted the Pentagon funding bill.

[...] Democrats were furious. They believed they had a deal with Sen. Thad Cochran (Miss.), the top Republican on the Appropriations Committee, but by Thursday night Cochran was saying he was unsure how he would vote.

UPDATE: Dan Pfeiffer at the White House blog makes the following acute observation:

The depth of the hypocrisy involved is stunning. Back in 2007, when Congress was debating how to bring the war in Iraq to a responsible close, many of these same folks launched blistering accusations about Democrats' commitment to our troops. Here are just a few of the things they said:

"Playing politics with the critical funding that our troops need now is political theater of the worst kind." – Sen. John Cornyn, [Press Release, 4/26/07]

"We have plenty of time and plenty of opportunity to have political debates... but it’s just unconscionable to me to tie the hands of the very troops that we all say we support." – Sen. John Cornyn, [Transcript, Senate Republican News Briefing, 4/10/07]

"Every day we don’t fund our troops is a day their ability to fight this war is weakened." – Sen. Mitch McConnell, [Press Release, 3/31/07]

"No way to treat the troops, and it is entirely inconsistent with [Senators’] expressions of support for the troops." – Sen. Mitch McConnell, [Congressional Record, 10/4/07]

"I don't understand this attitude of, ‘We can play with; we can risk the lives of these troops by waiting until the last possible minute to get the funding to them." – Sen. Jon Kyl, [FOX News Transcript, 4/10/07]

"Our obligation to those troops must transcend politics." – Sen. Jon Kyl, [Press Release, 11/8/07]

Now though, as we debate not foreign policy but health care, the Department of Defense funding can wait? Incredible.

Lest we forget, the Christmas Eve, 1992 pardons of Bush 41. Open Thread below...

Photo and more from TPM:

Every Monday, Blackwater emails a newsletter to its supporters and potential clients called the Blackwater Tactical Weekly. Often it's a compendium of conservative-media pieces about how everything's awesome in Iraq, accompanied by a few quick company notes. But today's Christmas Eve. And during this season of reflection, the company would be remiss if Blackwater didn't place itself in its proper spiritual context.

Some excerpts:

GIVING... is something with which all Peace Keepers are very familiar... Giving time in ways that most do not understand... Giving up pleasures and presence of family to patrol streets, conflicts and battlefields... Giving up comforts that most take for granted... Giving companionship to a fellow Peace Keeper because you are together in the same endeavor at home and on foreign fields... Giving support to those in need of assistance... Giving life and limb, risking injury or death, so that the people they love and care for may continue to live in peace and safety in their world.

Of course, T.X. Hammes and other actual defense experts don't believe Blackwater and the U.S. military "are together in the same endeavor." Rather, Blackwater's wilding out makes things worse for the U.S. military in Iraq. But in Moyock, NC, nothing says Christmas like cynical exploitation of the troops! Read on...

(Looks like we're having some technical difficulties.)

Every family has their traditions and activities that really bring the holiday cheer. In my family, my kids love to decorate a gingerbread house and all kinds of cookies and sweets and watch all those Rankin/Bass Christmas specials (I like the one with the Heat Miser the best myself). Our big meal is always on Christmas Eve and usually a traditional Scandinavian meal to honor my husband's Danish heritage: roast goose, red cabbage and a lemon mousse-like dessert called citronfromage. The kids can pick one gift to open on Christmas Eve and then the rest come on Christmas day.

This year, my sister, her husband and their 1 year old daughter are here with us. They have a mixed-faith marriage and they're still trying to figure out what traditions they want to continue in their family.

So that's the theme of this open thread...tell us your holiday traditions.

Hey folks, Cliff Schecter here. You may remember me from posting at C&L on election night, or from some YouTube videos where I get a bit "aggressive" with my my moronic GOP counterpart. But I am not here to discuss that.

I am posting in this hallowed space because my good friend Jennifer Abrahamson is the author of a fantastic new book. It's called Sweet Relief: The Marla Ruzicka Story. Some of you may remember Marla for the fact that she was the first person to ever get Congress to earmark funds for the civilian victims of our "collateral damage" in Iraq and Afghanistan. Or that tragically, while working on these very issues in Iraq, at age 28, she was killed by a roadside bomb.

Jen was good friends with Marla and decided to write this book not only to celebrate her life, but also provide an inspiring tale of what one person can accomplish, while also pointing out how we have lost hearts and minds by ignoring those who've become the victims of our advanced weaponry for so long (and still largely do). And any person who pissed off the pathetically racist bimbette, Little Debbie Schlussel, a woman who got Ann Coulter's personal warmth and hydrogen peroxide for her bat mitzvah, must have done something very right.

In any case, I will be hosting a book salon over at Firedoglake today at 5PM EST, where Jen will be live to answer any and all questions. I know, it's Christmas Eve. But you will find no more inspiring tale for the holidays. So if you are one of those people who really ticks O'Reilly off around Christmas time--you know who you are, you non-merry-Christmas-uttering-animists--or even if you do plan to celebrate, but can get a moment off from the egg nog, please come by and join us.