The War on Christmas will be televised.

In case you didn’t know, George Bush is still the effective President of the United States. The title of the New York Times lead article inadvertently proclaims this truth: Bush Tax Cut Deal with Jobless Aid Said to Be Near.

Senior Administration officials tried to cast their deal on the Bush tax cuts in a positive light, even as forces on the left and right were mobilizing against it. The deal is so shaky that the White House officials and the President would only call it a “framework.” Several Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate are already either simply opposed, or dedicated to mobilizing for defeat of the package, and the Senate Majority leader delivered a terse one-line statement only agreeing to discuss it with his colleagues. The biggest news here is that this deal isn’t done.

Wow. Children of War, directed by tonight’s guest Bryan Single, is jaw dropping stunning in both content and delivery. The story of children abducted and forced to join Ugandan rebel Kony and his Lord’s Resistance Army, then rescued by government soldiers and brought to Rachele Rehabilitation Center is powerfully filmed in black and white over a three-year period.

Single and his crew had unprecedented access to process of healing these children, and focused on three in particular: Akulu, Nyero, and Polycap. Akula was kidnapped and given to rebel leader Abonga Papa as his wife. Polycap and Nyero gradually open up to their counselors and admit to having killed; they come to realize that their will was not their own.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, speaking with sailors aboard the USS Lincoln today, said that he didn’t expect Congress to pass a legislative repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell anytime soon, “even though he wishes it would.”

After months of actively signaling weakness on extending the Bush tax cuts for the rich, President Obama is about to reach a “compromise.” According to reports, it sounds like the compromise with be a temporary extension of the Bush tax cuts for all, a year-long extension of unemployment insurance, and an extension of some of [...]

I don’t think we should jump on this fully until we see a full solution. But enough of the usual suspects have signaled that a tax cut deal is imminent, with the same broad contours, that we should take a look at the particulars. Here’s Jon Ward (although others have corroborated): The deal will extend [...]

The fly in the ointment of this tax cut deal appears to be in the House of Representatives, though the bigger problem could come from intransigent Republicans who don’t want to extend unemployment for another year.

It takes guts to get out in front of this when the White House is trying to strong arm people while they take bows with the Chamber of Commerce and Jamie Dimon. High marks for the Sierra Club for showing leadership and being willing to do so.

We have a party that failed to make the argument, and a President clearly following the blueprint of his deficit hawk ex-budget director, with the emphasis on extending the tax cuts, “fixing” Social Security through benefit cuts and rapprochement with the business community. This is not, then, just about negotiating. It’s about policy, a policy that liberals see as completely misguided, at odds with the real problems facing the country (the continuing unemployment and housing crises) and simply more concerned to pleasing banks and elites than making the economy better for working people.