OIL PRICES TUMBLE to just over thirty-five bucks. Gas futures below eighty cents a gallon. Merry Christmas!

A GRAND CONVERGENCE OF THE IDIOCIES? Rick Warren Derangement Syndrome Now Infecting Birth Certificate Troofers.

ANOTHER CHANCE TO PLAY Name That Party!

Pulaski, Virginia. The Comfy-Chair Revolution comes to McDonald’s. Love the fireplace. There’s free wi-fi, too!

BILL WHITTLE on the great toys of Christmas past.

CARD CHECK: Mickey Kaus vs. Andy Stern.

THE PRESIDENT’S AUTHORITY TO RESPOND TO A NUCLEAR ATTACK: Orin Kerr corrects Dahlia Lithwick, but I’m reminded of an example I heard from Charles L. Black.

Article I Section 10 of the Constitution provides:

No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.

If states — who are expressly barred by the Constitution from engaging in war — may still do so when actually invaded or even “in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay” (which would appear to allow even preemptive attacks under some circumstances) then surely the President, who is commander-in-chief and labors under no such express prohibition, may do at least as much. Certainly anyone arguing otherwise has a very heavy burden to overcome.

CAROL BROWNER: Setting a bad example? I’m sure those paper notes will be shredded and recycled.

MICHAEL MOYNIHAN on the Death of Kwanzaa. Just the other day the Insta-Daughter was remarking that her school used to make a big deal about Kwanzaa, but no more. I blame Trent Lott.

UPDATE: Of course, we can always wish our British friends Feliz ‘dinejad!

SCANDALS INVOLVING the California Air Board. But why is the press ignoring them?

THUD: Venezuelan Crude drops to $27.10 / barrel. Plus, a look at Hugo Chavez’s revenue problems.

STAY OF EXECUTION: Windows XP will continue shipping through May.

BETTER ALL THE TIME: Phil Bowermaster rounds up some good news you probably missed.

MORE ON ATTEMPTS TO PEDDLE revisionist history of RatherGate.

ARIANNA HUFFINGTON WRITES THAT Laissez-Faire Capitalism Should Be as Dead as Soviet Communism. Er, I’m pretty sure it has been, for my entire lifetime. But is it capitalism, or socialism, when you steal content from other blogs to boost your own moneymaking venture?

J. STORRS HALL: The Weather Machine.

GEE, DO YOU THINK? Analysis: Obama Inquiry Has Closed Loop Quality.

UPDATE: “Smells Like Team Spirit.”

IT’S THE Carnival of Christmas!

KATIE GRANJU on newsroom blogging.

CHRIS DODD UPDATE: The Connecticut Post writes, Why is Sen. Dodd stalling on loans?

Isn’t it time that U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd came clean and released documents on two mortgages hew received from Countrywide Financial Corp. that has already sparked a Senate ethics inquiry?

Following a meeting in Westport on Monday with Fairfield County labor leaders, Connecticut’s senior senator once again hedged on saying when he would release the documents. Dodd continues to say the information will be forthcoming but he refuses to say when.

Well, it’s been five month since the disclosure that Dodd and another senator may have received preferential treatment in 2003 on mortgages from Countrywide Financial, which was later implicated in the sub-prime mortgage scandals and eventually was taken over by Bank of America.

When the disclosure came, Dodd said he never sought preferential treatment from Countrywide and pledged he would disclose information about the loans. However, since then it’s been one hedge after another when he’s asked about the matter.

Full disclosure is key because Dodd is chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and is at ground zero in the nation’s Capitol in trying to put a stop to America’s economic meltdown.

Yes, Dodd should come clean on this, or resign.

JAMES PETHOKOUKIS: Obama’s Totally Political Economic Stimulus.

JENNIFER RUBIN: Blagogate and Obama: A List of Open Questions. “Let’s see if the mainstream media ever gets around to demanding answers.” Hey, his campaign issued a report clearing itself. That should be enough for anyone.

UPDATE: Related thoughts here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Best Headline, from Andrew Malcolm at the L.A. Times: Obama team probe of Obama team finds no Obama team impropriety.

JOHN TIERNEY:

My post on John P. Holdren’s appointment as presidential science advisor prompted complaints that I was making too much of Dr. Holdren’s loss of a bet to the economist Julian Simon about the price of some metals. But that bet wasn’t just about metals. It was about a fundamental view of how adaptable and innovative humans are, and whether a rich modern society is “sustainable.” Dr. Holdren and his collaborator, Paul Ehrlich, were the pessimists. . . . They declared that “present technology is inadequate to the task of maintaining the world’s burgeoning billions, even under the most optimistic assumptions,” and of shortages of food and water that would have to be overcome in the next two decades for humans to “be to be granted the privilege of confronting such dilemmas as the exhaustion of mineral resources and physical space later.”

But the predicted famines and resource shortages never arrived. Instead, the amount of food consumed per capita around the world increased over the following decades, and the prices of food and natural resources continued their long-term downward trend.

Let’s hope for better performance in the future. Or maybe I’ll write a book about the politicization of science under the Obama Administration!

CHARLES RANGEL UPDATE: Eric Alterman says the Democrats should ditch Chairman Charlie. “If Rangel has not been corrupted absolutely by his thirty-seven years in Congress, he has come pretty damn close.”

WELCOME TO Nepotism Nation.