Morning Constitutional – Monday, 19 December 2011

Holy crap we’re back (probably temporarily) and good morning, everybody. The issue of Playboy featuring Lindsay Lohan is breaking sales records according to Hugh Hefner. Now, your morning constitutional:

Party Center, Dear Leader, Father of the People, Guiding Sun Ray, Great Man Who Descended From Heaven, Leader of the Party and People, Bright Sun of the 21st Century, Sun of Socialism, Leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces Kim Jong-il has died of a heart attack. His 25-year-old and relatively unknown son, Kim Jong-un, is expected to take power.

Revolutionary playwright and former Czech President Vaclav Havel passed away this weekend at 75.

The last American troops left Iraq Sunday, as the war in Iraq finally comes to a close.

The House opposes a two-month payroll tax cut extension compromise that passed the Senate this weekend. House opposition is rooted in the short-term nature of the extension. Yet, the short-term extension was necessary because the House is demanding an unrelated provision that would force the administration to grant a permit for the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline, which the administration and Senate Democrats oppose. The payroll tax cut will end at the end of the year if no deal is reached, which could hurt the already slowly-recovering economy.

When Republicans aren’t blocking nominees for one economic regulatory agency, they’re blocking others: Indeed, while Senate Republicans successfully blocked Robert Cordray’s nomination to head up the new Consumer Protection Bureau, the stalemate also stopped the Senate from approving nominees to head the FDIC and the Office of the Comptroller. Oh, and they’re trying to make sure there isn’t enough money to efficiently implement Frank-Dodd banking reform.

Tensions between the Pakistani army and its civilian government has forced President Asif Ali Zardari to return home from Dubai early.

Syria has signed onto an Arab League plan that allows observers to monitor an effort to end Syria’s crackdown on anti-government protesters.

Four months later, how stupid was it for S&P to downgrade the U.S. credit rating?

Holy crap, Ron Paul is now the Iowa front-runner.

Even though Romney retired from Bain Capital 13 years ago, they’re still paying him millions of dollars each year.

ABC cut four minutes of the famously anti-commercial ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ to make room for more commercials. Here’s ten things you may not know about ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas.”

Finally, one of a pair of robbers in Madison accidentally butt-dialed 911, making their arrest super easy for police.

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