ASSOCIATED PRESS: Obama Prayer Leader Linked to Hamas: “A Muslim scholar chosen to speak at President-elect Barack Obama’s inaugural prayer service Wednesday is part of a group that federal prosecutors have linked to terrorists.”

UPDATE: Scott Johnson: “In a sense, the Obama inaugural’s inclusion of Mattson represents continuity with the Bush administration. While one arm of the government has blown the whistle on leading American Islamic groups including CAIR and ISNA, other arms of the government have treated the groups as respectable members of civil society. This is one area where change is actually called for and the status quo obtains.” Ouch.

ANOTHER UPDATE: There’s also the Grover Norquist problem.

SOME NOT-SO-ENCOURAGING ECONOMIC NEWS: “Freight rates for containers shipped from Asia to Europe have fallen to zero for the first time since records began, underscoring the dramatic collapse in trade since the world economy buckled in October.”

UPDATE: I emailed a reader in the shipping business over there to ask if this was true. Response:

Very.

This is the most hard hit trade. I’ve heard of rates as low as $75 for Asia-Europe, which is far less than bunker, but better than a non-operating vessel. Maybe we’ll see an uptake in the use of refrigerated containers as a low-cost travel alternative. :) I can see laid-up ships from the window of my apartment. Just one look and you can tell the bulk market has collapsed. Pictures forthcoming.

I believe this is a reflection of the drop in oil price since many shipping companies had a ‘floating bunker’ scheme to protect them from an oil spike. Now that the oil price has tanked the calculation can sometimes result in negative rates. Coupled with the spread of the financial crisis from capital goods to consumer goods being manufactured in China, it has only made the situation in Asia worse. I wouldn’t be suprised if a million of the Chinese traveling home next week for the New Year were told by their employers not to come back.

And what will that do for political stability in China? This just underscores Daniel Drezner’s point: “Here’s the thing: while Iran, Israel/Palestine, peacekeeping, etc. are all important topics, the bilateral economic relationship should be the top issue on the agenda. It should also be second (exchange rate policy), third (fiscal policy), fourth (trade policy) and fifth (regulatory coordination) on the agenda, by the way.”

FEELING THE LOVE, at a pro-Hamas rally.

“Jews haven’t been so vilified since Islamists attacked the US on 9/11.”

UPDATE: Jew-baiting, then and now. Buy a gun. Related item here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Explaining the cycle of violence.

POLITICO: “With Barack Obama’s approval ratings in the 70s and his visage plastered on every shop window and Metro card in Washington, it’s hard to remember that 58 million Americans voted for the other guy.”

REP. JIM COOPER THINKS the Blue Dogs are coming into their own.

A PRICEY PARTY in a dicey economy. If a Republican did this, it would be a sign that he was out of touch with the country’s needs.

OBAMA SAYS Bush is a “Good Guy.” “I think personally he is a good man who loves his family and loves his country. And I think he made the best decisions that he could at times under some very difficult circumstances.” Once again, I agree with Barack Obama.

And so does the Dalai Lama! Though I, personally, wouldn’t go so far as to say that “I love President George W Bush.” But then, the Dalai Lama is a lot more spiritual and loving than me.

SOME PHOTOBLOGGING: I still love the Nikon D300, which I’ve now had for about nine months. I used it to take photos for my Popular Mechanics piece on the Clayton I-House, and I had occasion to use some accessories I don’t use much. (The exterior photo is a PR handout — the I-House I toured was in a less photogenic location. The interior shots are mine.)

Outside the studio setting, I generally despise flash photography — it tends to flatten things out, and I much prefer to shoot available-light even if the available light isn’t that great. But sometimes you need a flash, and I have a Nikon SB-800. (The newer version is the SB-900 but I don’t use flash enough to upgrade, and the 800 is a hell of a flash).

A great flash is still a flash, though. But inside the I-House I had to take wide-angle photos (I was using the 12-24 ultrawide zoom) in a sizable space, and had to contend with very bright sunlight slanting in through the windows as it was a brilliantly clear winter day outside. My favorite flash is a bare-bulb setup, but the (cheap!) Gary Fong Lightsphere diffuser that fits on top of the flash makes a very close second. I held the flash above and to the side of the camera with the diffuser attached and the light was nice — filling in shadows and helping to overcome the effect of the bright sunlight without being overpowering.

Here’s an outtake, which shows the flash in use in the reflection on the upper right.

I haven’t used ’em, but there are also diffusers for point-and-shoot cameras and for the little pop-up flash on most digital SLRs. I suppose they’d help, though in both cases the flashes are weak enough that if you diffuse ’em I imagine there isn’t a lot of light left.

THOSE MANY LAYERS OF EDITORS AND FACT-CHECKERS think that Meryl Yourish and Neo-neocon are the same blogger. Hope Meryl’s correction comes faster than mine!

Plus, unable to distinguish “principle” from “principal.” Yeah, Carlos, they need your money — but is this a good investment?

WELL, THAT’S A RELIEF: Starting Tuesday it will be okay to wave the flag again.

SOME EIGHTIES BALLADS, for your, um, delectation.

A LOST OPPORTUNITY: “Man, the unfunny Daily Show would have had a field day if Geithner (not paying his taxes) were a Bush appointee.”

STEVE JOBS: An Indispensable Man?

ROGER SIMON: Iraq: Peter Beinart and la phrase obligatoire.

GEORGE FILLMORE EMAILS that the Flight 1549 story reminds him of the Frankie Housley story. Yes, but with a happier ending.

SUDDENLY, THOSE “GREEDY BASTARDS” ON WALL STREET don’t seem that bad.

YET ANOTHER REASON to hope that there’s no life on Mars.

UPDATE: Gary Hudson emails:

On the subject of life on Mars, the Fermi paradox, etc., there is another explanation for why we may not see extraterrestrial intelligent life, yet the universe could be crawling with bacteria.

In Power, Sex and Suicide, the Story of Mitochondria, Nick Lane argues that the evolutionary accident of mitochondria being survivably incorporated into a primitive eucaryotic cell happened by accident, and only once. It was this accident (if accident it was) that allowed multi-cellularity to become established. Without mitochondria, bacteria could not grow large enough and could not produce enough energy to form differentiated multicellular life, a prerequisite to intelligence.

If Lane is correct, then the step from non-life to life probably happens all the time, everywhere, using the same biochemistry. But the accidental incorporation of an alpha-proto bacterium into a host cell may have occurred only once in the long history of the universe. In that case, there’s pond scum everywhere but life as we envision it – with more than two cells to rub together – nowhere but Earth. Depressing thought, perhaps. On the other hand, more room for us.

Works for me.

POPULAR MECHANICS: What Went Right: Flight 1549 Airbus A-320’s Ditch into the Hudson.

WALTER OLSON: Scrap The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act.

RANKING the classics.

MICHAEL GRAHAM: “Looking for this week’s classic American tale? Forget the rise of Barack Obama. It’s the fall of Flight 1549.”

But Barack Obama’s election allows Americans to feel better about themselves, for electing him President. Chesley Sullenberger’s accomplishment, on the other hand, stresses the benefits of hard work, experience, and coolness under pressure — things that require effort, and that might make Americans feel worse about themselves to the extent that they realize that they might not measure up. That’s why Sullenberger’s triumph is an old-fashioned one, and Obama’s is tailor-made for the 21st Century.

On the other hand, there are reasons for Americans to feel good in the Flight 1549 story, too:

If you believe the worst about Americans, you’d expect Thursday’s crash to create a mob of greedy, selfish jerks clawing away for the first shot at an exit. Instead, passengers reported that it took just a single cry of “Women and children first!” and total strangers facing possible drowning stepped aside to let mothers and their infants pass.

And after the crash, the first responders weren’t government rescue workers, but nearby passenger ferries. One ferry worker, Cosmo Mezzina, confessed to reporters afterward that he didn’t even know what the call “man overboard” meant. But he and his co-workers headed straight to the sinking airplane.

No waiting for approval from an attorney or checking the “rope-to-rescuers” ratio in the regulations. Just Americans helping others in need.

The America we see on TV – the embezzlers, incompetents and opportunists – it’s real. So, too, are the folks who frustrate your daily life here in Boston, who cut you off on the Pike or can’t seem to do simple math at the cash register. Yes, they are a part of the American story.

But they aren’t the whole story. In fact, the same driver who cuts you off today is often the guy who would pull over tomorrow to help you out of real trouble.

Read the whole thing.

READER STEVE FISHER on Circuit City’s Bankruptcy/Liquidation:

Haven’t seen any reports on this from fellow i-pundit electronics geeks.. I stopped by today, hoping for some deals. Saw big crowds, but no deep discounts, yet. E.g., only 10% off flat screens, which were still more expensive than I can find on Amazon or Walmart. Will give it a few more days…

Still more expensive than Amazon or Walmart — guess that’s why they’re going under. I have to say, though, that I would rather they had survived and Best Buy had gone down. Plus a few miles west of me there are two strip malls, across the street from one another, anchored respectively by a Goody’s and a Circuit City. With both of those going into liquidation, that’s pretty bad news for them.

Meanwhile, Jim Geraghty looks back at Hillary’s finger-wagging at Circuit City. “I wonder what she would have had them do.” Donate, and then angle for a bailout? It’s the new winning business strategy!

HMM: “I think those of us who voted for McCain are going to be a lot happier with Obama than the people who voted for him.” Could be.

PETER BEINART IN THE WASHINGTON POST: Admit it: The Surge Worked.

Okay, I admit it! Oh, wait, he’s not talking about me: “It’s time for Democrats to say so. During the campaign they rarely did for fear of jeopardizing Barack Obama’s chances of winning the presidency. But today, the hesitation is less tactical than emotional.”

Plus, a slap at Stephen Colbert.

HOW TO TURN RADICALS INTO MODERATES. Hey, it worked with the Germans.