The choice is Obama’s: He can continue to act like a Republican and see his numbers continue to tank, or he can tack back away from the far right and back to the center and left, and be re-elected.

Baby, it’s cold outside. Watertiger and Athenae will be Virtually Speaking this evening, tune in for some progressive talk. David Axelrod fills in for Timothy Geithner, who is recovering from a kidney stone “incident.” and there’s more…

Pluto’s Christmas Tree. This Walt Disney cartoon was released on November 21, 1952. Grab your popcorn, put your feet up on the seatback in front of ya, and aim your spitballs at the ushers please. This is Late Late Night FireDogLake, where off topic is the topic … so dive in. What’s on your mind?

This is shaping up to be the Best Christmas Ever, Comrades! Our Socialist President has pretty much destroyed capitalism as we know it, and was clever enough to hide his True Agenda by not even doing anything remotely socialist or even social-democratic. Which is a neat trick, when you think about it. Well played, Obamavitch! [...]

I think we finally have a hook to get immigration reform passed! Sarah Palin and Joe Lieberman have accidentally shown us the way forward with their very rational and well-informed responses to Wikileaks’ Cowardly Attack On The Very Foundations Of Our Civilization.

This is the gambit that Republicans have worked for a generation – make taxes so low and deficits so burdensome that pressure builds to slash spending. They claim that tax cuts shouldn’t be counted as part of the deficit but that any spending must be offset or eliminated. It doesn’t have to make sense. Because it’s working.

Because nothing says “we’re going to let you practice your faith in peace” more than recruiting your children into Terror Theater™ productions they couldn’t possibly carry out without the Feeb’s active intervention. Nothing says that you’re “free from intimidation” like putting you on a no-fly list to prevent you from accepting a job elsewhere in America. Nothing says “free from suspicion” like isolating children from their loving families through fake-jihad recruitment, cash payments, and provision of Terror Theater™ techniques and traps.

Against all predictions, the world’s nations met in conference on the climate and accepted the reality that a desperate situation demands rational action. It’s absolutely riveting that an agreement has been hammered out in recognition of our world’s deteriorating situation, despite all the past disagreements among nations.

It’s a propitious time to be welcoming in Greg Mitchell for a discussion about his book “The Campaign of the Century.” Over the past couple weeks, Mitchell has virtually turned over his blog at The Nation to painstakingly chronicling the Wikileaks story, and chronicling how the political, corporate and media elite have mounted an effort to discredit, destroy and punish Julian Assange. 76 years earlier, these forces came together in an electoral context, to disable the candidacy of Upton Sinclair for Governor of California.

A new report from the Vermont Legislature’s Joint Fiscal Office shows that decriminalizing marijuana would result in the state saving roughly $700,000 a year, making it a fiscally conservative move.