This is the kind of holiday story I like to see.

Local Muslim leaders lit candles yesterday at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to commemorate Jewish suffering under the Nazis, in a ceremony held just days after Iran had a conference denying the genocide.

American Muslims "believe we have to learn the lessons of history and commit ourselves: Never again," said Imam Mohamed Magid of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society, standing before the eternal flame flickering from a black marble base that holds dirt from Nazi concentration camps.

[Hat tip Instapundit.]

Bump and Update: Iraqis want the Marines charged in an Iraqi court. They fear they won't be held accountable in the U.S.

Update: Four Marines have been charged with murder. In all, eight marines have been charged with crimes in the Haditha killings.

Bump and Update: Twelve counts of murder have been filed against Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich who commanded the marine squad near Haditha when 24 people were killed.

Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, who commanded a squad of marines near the town of Haditha in November last year faces 12 individual counts of murder and an additional count for ordering the troops under his charge to "shoot first, ask questions later", the charge sheet released to his attorney, Neil Puckett, said.

The charges do not include premeditated murder, and Sgt Wuterich faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Bump and Update: Charges will be announced at 4:00 pm ET.

As a follow-up to TChris' post here, Wolf Blitzer had newly elected Congressman Keith Ellison on the Situation Room this afternoon.

Background:

In a letter released to CNN Wednesday, Goode wrote in part to a constituent, "I do not subscribe to using the Koran in any way. The Muslim representative from Minnesota was elected by the voters of that district and if American citizens don't wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran."

Ellison's response: Goode "has a lot to learn about Islam."

"I would urge Congressman Goode to have his congregation reach out to a synagogue or a mosque and start some inter-faith dialogue so we can increase understanding among each other as American of different faiths," Ellison said.

As this post points out, the Constitution prohibits any religious test for public office. Somebody needs to give a copy of the Constitution to Rep. Virgil Goode (R-of course he is-VA). Goode warned his constituents that the election of a Muslim to Congress (Rep. Keith Ellison) should be seen as a “wake up” call because there are “likely to be many more Muslims elected to office” if we don’t “adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America.”

Goode’s remarks are offensive beyond measure. Only citizens can hold office, and Muslim citizens have as much right to hold office as citizens of any other religion. Isn’t the Constitution, including its prohibition of religious tests, a part of our “traditional values”? Does Goode remember that he’s sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution?

Goode’s comments also reflect an appalling degree of ignorance. Our country’s first Muslim Congressman isn’t an immigrant; he was born in the USA and he traces his American ancestry to 1742. Do Goode’s own roots extend that far into the American past? Why does Goode think he’s more an American than Ellison?

[Update: Thanks to our good friend Skippy for the great photo. Check out his post on the blizzard, and Cookie Jill found this site of Colorado webcams.]

Wow. I really feel for all those people stuck in the aiport for two days or more. The Denver Airport just announced it won't reopen until noon on Friday.

My blizzard pictures are here. I'm just about to venture out -- on foot. Forget about driving anywhere.

There are lots of people and their dogs in the street, it's still snowing, and I can't open my balcony door so I'm getting a little bit of cabin fever. (Check the difference from when the blizzard was only hours old.)

See you later. I hope to have more pictures upon my return.

Update: I'm back and have updated the pictures with street scenes. I was way overdressed, it's not cold out. The main streets (all the one way streets near downtown, in Uptown and Capitol Hill) are plowed. Lots of people are driving.

The biggest action was at...the liquor store!

The original Eschaton has been restored. No need to go to the temporary site anymore.

Typical Rudy. He thinks he can reinvent himself.

On Rudy Giuliani's new exploratory committee website you can find a bio of the former Mayor and current frontrunner for the GOP Presidential nomination. The bio describes his current marriage as follows: "In May of 2003, Rudy married Judith S. Nathan. Mrs. Giuliani is a registered nurse with an extensive medical and scientific background." Yet intriguingly, Rudy's bio makes no mention of the two children he had from his second marriage to Donna Hanover, who similarly goes unmentioned.

Why isn't the mainstream media all over this? Editor and Publisher has the details on the increase of troop suicides in Iraq.

Twenty-two U.S. soldiers in Iraq took their lives in 2005, a rate of 19.9 per 100,000 soldiers, just over the rate in 2003 (the year of the U.S. invasion). In 2004, the rate had slid to 10.5 per 100,000, which the military said was due to efforts at prevention.

....A survey of the morale and mental health of U.S. soldiers in Iraq in late 2005 found 13.6 percent of the soldiers reporting symptoms of acute stress and another 16.5 percent describing a combination of depression, anxiety and acute stress. These numbers, about 30% total, were also up from 2004.

The continuing faux-negotiations of our Lefty wonks with Libertarians is an interesting exercise but it does suffer from a fatal flaw in my view - our Lefty wonks are attributing ideological rigidity to liberal policy prescriptions that simply does not and has never existed. To be a liberal DOES NOT mean being for big government programs, state intervention and single payer healthcare as a matter of ideology. Rather to be a liberal is to to have a set of values and objectives for which good policies to achieve those values and objectives are sought. The policies need not involve state intervention - they need only work. Here is an example of what I believe is this flawed thinking. Ezra writes:

Ryan Sager writes:

Democrats gained with libertarian voters in 2006, without alienating other major voting blocs. This at least puts a dent in the idea that no one can offer anything to libertarians without sending the rest of the electorate screaming from the room like a call girl from Milton Berle.

This seems...wrong. Did Democrats actually offer anything in 2006? I mean, sure, a minimum wage increase and governmental power to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies, but is that really the sort of concessions Sager is hoping for? Or did 2006 prove that offering an end, or at least a check, to a buffoonish war attracts voters of all stripes?

Actually Democrats DID offer a different set of values and priorities to the country. They did contrast what values and objectives are important to them as compared to the values and objectives of the Republicans. Some called it Populism. Some called it the Common Good. But it was an important message sent and really, while wonks and the Beltway Elite like to act as if specific policy proposals are the basis of voter choices (this is especially true during Presidential primaries, when the Media and wonks pore over in great detail competing tax plans and the like as if these can ever mean more than a statement of a candidate's values and priorities). Indeed, it is a flaw seen in much Democratic political thinking.

Our Lefty wonks have turned an interesting political exercise into yet another battle of the plans. To me the politics, not the policies, remains the more interesting part of this discussion. More on the flip.

President Bush seems determined to send more troops to Iraq. He's even warning us to expect more losses.

Deaths of U.S. troops in Iraq now have reached 2,950. When will this man stop? Or a better question, who can finally stop him?

Digby is having and end of year fundraiser and as usual, eloquently explains why bloggers need contributions to keep on trucking.

Digby is an absolutely essential daily read for progressives. Please keep it going.

As I wrote two weeks ago, bloggers need Christmas heart too.