- Via Think Progress, we learn that Mary "Time Warp" Matalin thinks 9/11 happened during Bill Clinton's second term:
MATALIN: I was there, we inherited a recession from President Clinton and we inherited the most tragic attack on our own soil in our nation’s history. And President Bush dealt with it and within a year of his presidency within a comparable time, unemployment was at 5 percent.
- Obama orders a review of watch lists and other airport screening procedures in the aftermath of the failed attempt to bring down a Detroit-bound Northwest plane yesterday. Here's a report on the possible Yemen connection. The BBC has a backgrounder on the Nigerian student under arrest for the failed bombing.
- In Day Two of "Republicans Politicizing Failed Explosion," Jim DeMint bashes unions and throws around accusations of "appeasement." Upping the ante, Pete Hoekstra directly blames Obama, with extra points given to Fox News for leading questions:
Asked by Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace if it is fair to blame the Obama administration for the attacks, the Michigan Republican replied ""Yeah, I think it really is."
- Joe Lieberman's got the war itch and it looks like Yemen's shaping up to be the scratch.
- You had to see this one coming -- the attempted terrorist attack on Christmas Day "could complicate" shutting down the prison at Guantanamo Bay.
- Deaths begin to mount in Iranian protests, and the New York Times is providing near-hourly updates on AP wire reports. In the past hour, the White House released the following statement on the protests:
Statement by National Security Council Spokesman Mike Hammer on violence in Iran
We strongly condemn the violent and unjust suppression of civilians in Iran seeking to exercise their universal rights. Hope and history are on the side of those who peacefully seek their universal rights, and so is the United States. Governing through fear and violence is never just, and as President Obama said in Oslo - it is telling when governments fear the aspirations of their own people more than the power of any other nation.
- Sherlock Holmes film breaks box office record for Christmas Day debut, while Avatar is No. 1 in the "highest grossing film weekend ever," according to Business Week.
- Watchdog groups give the Obama administration high marks for ethics during the first year in office.
- The end of an era:
Percy Sutton, the pioneering civil rights attorney who represented Malcolm X before launching successful careers as a political power broker and media mogul, has died. He was 89.
- Robert Gibbs tells Jake Tapper that President Obama prefers the Senate bill's language regarding abortion funding.
- As we enter the final stretch of passing a health care reform bill, the fight continues over $50 million for abstinence only education -- even though studies (and common sense) have shown that it doesn't work.
- Ezra Klein talks to Tom Harkin about ending the filibuster.
- Tomorrow at 9 a.m., C-SPAN will begin broadcasting classes from the Campaign Management Institute at American University. Helping lead the discussions will be Assistant Director of the CMI Chris McGann, known to you as fellow Kossack and Congress Matters Contributing Editor Casual Wednesday. Tune in between 9 and 9:30 to catch him helping to kick things off, and check the C-SPAN schedules to see when you might catch some of the other interesting speakers they've lined up for classes between tomorrow and the program's conclusion on Jan. 7.
- The top 10 political tweets of the year?
Update: And apparently there's another Northwest Airline Amsterdam/Detroit incident, this one currently being reported as problems with a "disruptive passenger," according to CNN:
A Northwest Airlines jet was met by police at Detroit, Michigan's airport Sunday after its flight crew reported a "verbally disruptive" passenger, airline and airport officials said.
The crew of the Amsterdam, Netherlands-to-Detroit flight requested assistance two days after a man was accused of attempting to set off an explosive device aboard a jet flying the same route. Passengers were being let off the jetliner after landing, according to Susan Elliott, a spokeswoman for Delta Air Lines, which owns Northwest.