Charlatans in leisure suits saw dollars dancing in their heads

• Here’s Woody Guthrie, wishing everyone a Happy Hanukkah:

And here’s more from the Forward on “How an Okie Named Woody Guthrie Became Our Best Hanukkah Tunesmith.”

• Bond. Stringer Pentecost Luther Bond.

• Dietrich Bonhoeffer would be pleased to see what’s happening these days in his old stomping grounds up by Riverside.

• The two-thirds of white evangelicals who approve of torture will be happy to learn that, as of Christmas day, disgraced former Abu Ghraib prison guard Charles Graner will no longer be on probation.

I suppose, though, that these pious, “pro-life” and pro-torture Christian folk would disagree that Abu Ghraib was any kind of disgrace.

• Oh, and speaking of disgraceful people who aren’t even smart enough to realize they’re disgraceful. …

• Veronica Dunnachie is a member of Open Carry Texas, the Texas 3 Percenters militia group, and the Texas Republican party, for which she served as an election judge. So far, Rudy Giuliani has not appeared on TV to blame the gun group, the militia, or the Republican Party for Dunnachie’s alleged fatal shooting this month of her husband and step-daughter.

• “It doesn’t help the current climate when people use race as the basis to report crime; it further divides our community. … It’s important to send a strong message that when people manipulate the system, there are consequences.” That’s St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson announcing that charges will be filed against a woman who filed a false report of a violent attack by a black man. 

That was last Monday. Four days later, on Friday, “St. Louis County prosecutor Bob McCulloch told a St. Louis radio station on Friday that he knew some of the witnesses who testified before the Ferguson grand jury were lying.”

“I thought it was much more important to present the entire picture,” McCulloch said, meaning testimony from witnesses who were telling the truth and testimony from witnesses he knew were deliberately lying in an attempt to exonerate Officer Darren Wilson. Suborning perjury. Supporting grand jury. Tomato. To-mah-to.

• And speaking of family annihilators, gun enthusiasts, and false reports to the police, here’s a local story involving all three: “Man faked attack by Pennsylvania mass murderer for attention and money, say police.”