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.]

Home Depot is running an ad this month (click on "Pulled Over Santa") where Santa Claus is pulled over by an officer who asks for his license and registration.  Santa can't find the registration, and he sits back looking resigned to the fact that something bad may be in the offing. The elf nervously waves to the officer. The officer then asks: "What's in the bag?"

So, if kids, or even the general public, see this ad, are they supposed to believe that it is legally permissible for a police officer during a traffic stop to ask "What's in the bag?"  

I have an op-ed today on Tuesday's immigration raids in the Washington Examiner.

I cannot accept a government that rounds people up on buses and takes them to undisclosed locations. Who is a winner here? With the exception of companies like Halliburton with federal contracts to build detention centers, I can’t think of any.

Update: Pachacutec at Firedoglake writes more about what will happen to the children of those arrested.

Update: the oped is currently #38 of 14,864 articles. I hope you all read it so it gets bumped into the top ten. The Examiner is viewed as a conservative paper, so this is a chance to speak to those not in the choir.

The threat of a lawsuit has been removed and the Christmas trees have been restored to the Sea-Tac airport.

At Chabad-Lubavitch in Seattle, the Jewish Orthodox educational group that had asked the airport to add the menorah, hate messages soon flooded e-mail inboxes. The group, which had never asked for the trees to be removed, was accused by some of trying to steal Christmas. It quickly dropped its talk of a lawsuit and joined those asking the airport to bring back the trees. That, the airport said, freed it to put them back up.

“By no means did we want to take away any religious symbols or trees from any other culture,” said Elazar Bogomilsky, the Chabad rabbi who is listed as the lead plaintiff on a draft lawsuit that has not been filed....Mr. Reis said, “The rabbi never said, ‘We want to take the trees down.’ That was purely our reaction when we felt we’d been put in an untenable position.”

Don't blame the rabbi. Blame the Port of Seattle for the fiasco.

Can it really take 1,000 federal agents to arrest undocumented workers at one meat-packing plant? According to the Washington Post, the answer is yes:

About 1,000 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents with search warrants entered plants owned by Swift & Co., of Greeley, Colo., charging that "large numbers" of workers illegally assumed the identities of U.S. citizens or legal residents by using their Social Security numbers to get work, ICE officials said.

Company and union officials said agents, some dressed in riot gear, locked down six beef and pork processing plants early in the morning, segregating workers into groups of citizens and non-citizens after questioning. Some illegal workers were bused to detention facilities hours away, labor officials said.

This was big news in Colorado today. 9News (KUSA) set up a hotline for families of those seized so they could find out if their loved one was among those herded up like cattle and whisked off to detention facilities.

The right to petition the government for a redress of grievances has not, so far, saved Cindy Sheehan from a prosecution for "trying to deliver a petition against the war in Iraq to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations." She was convicted yesterday. Her punishment, assuming she isn't arrested again during the next six months: pay court costs of $95.

Sheehan and her co-defendants were acquitted of more serious charges: resisting arrest and obstructing government administration. She was also acquitted of disorderly conduct.

The verdict will not silence Sheehan:

"We should never have been on trial in the first place," Sheehan said in a statement. "It's George Bush and his cronies who should be on trial, not peaceful women trying to stop this devastating war. This verdict, however, will not stop us from continuing to work tirelessly to bring our troops home."

Last month Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo said Miami is like a third world country. Even Jeb Bush took him to task.

But Tancredo will visit Key Biscayne Thursday to give a talk. His topic: the need for immigrants to assimilate.

Why is he going? How about attention:

Tancredo spokesman Carlos Espinosa...said Tancredo wasn't worried about whatever reception he will get in the Miami area.....ny protests or controversy will only draw more attention to the event, he said.

"It's always entertaining. It'll add to the flair of Miami," Espinosa said. "I really do hope we get some protesters. Otherwise, what else are we going for?"

Last Night in Little Rock wrote here and here about the unnecessary use of aggressive tactics to execute search warrants or make arrests -- tactics that needlessly kill innocent people. In a similar vein, deputies who raided an apartment in Wilmington, N.C., intending to arrest 18 year old Peyton Strickland for allegedly stealing two Playstation 3 video games, instead shot him to death. While the details are unclear, here's one account:

Peyton Strickland's roommate, Mike Rhoton, said Strickland was unarmed, but may have been holding a video game controller when he went to the door as it was bashed in by officers.

The Sheriff has so far declined to answer a simple question: why were police using aggressive tactics over a simple theft of property? The Sheriff says Strickland was accused of using violence to take the Playstations, but apparently isn't claiming that Strickland was armed at the time or that he has a history of violent behavior.

The Sheriff also seems to blame Strickland for not answering the door promptly. For this he deserved to die?

The Atlanta Journal-Constitutional reported Sunday in the SWAT shooting case Police recording reveals urgency after shooting. The press finally got the tapes after an open records request.  The officers appear concerned for themselves and not for the elderly person they shoot during the drug raid.

Journalists Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada reported some of the testimony leaked from a grand jury investigation into the use of steroids by professional athletes. As TalkLeft noted here, the reporters adhered to their promise of confidentiality when prosecutors asked them to reveal their source, and again when a judge ordered them to answer. The judge held them in contempt.

In a brief filed yesterday, the San Francisco Chronicle argued in favor of a reporter's privilege:

"Confidentiality is essential for the reporters to sustain the relationships they need with sources and to obtain sensitive information from them," Jonathan Donnellan, a lawyer for the newspaper and reporters, said in the court filing. "Without it, the press cannot effectively serve the public by keeping it informed."

The Constitution prohibits any religious test for public office and forbids the establishment of an official religion, making this proposal the stupidest idea of the week:

The American Family Association, a nonprofit organization that focuses on the news media's influence on society, has entered the fray, calling on people to ask members of Congress to pass a law that would make the Bible the only book that could be used during swearing-in ceremonies.

Some are upset because Keith Ellison, a Muslim who is newly-elected to Congress, might hold the Quran in his hand when he takes his oath of office. These are the same people who insist the United States is a Christian nation, when in truth it is a religiously diverse nation.

Whether Ellison holds one of the many versions of the Bible, the Quran, the Torah, or the most recent Playboy magazine is his business. That's what freedom (including religious freedom) is all about. Why does the AFA hate our freedoms?

CNETnews.com has this article by By Declan McCullagh and Anne Broache: FBI taps cell phone mic as eavesdropping tool.  Brave new eavesdropping via a cellphone that is not even turned on: