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From Fox's Journal Editorial Report, Wall Street Journal editorial director Daniel Henninger along with host Paul Gigot and another of their editorial writers, Matthew Kaminski discussing what Gigot called the "biggest foreign policy story of 2011, the Arab Spring. And in typical Fox fashion where what's up is down and black is white, we get this bit of commentary on the cause of the uprisings from Henninger:

HENNINGER: Now, admittedly our options are limited, but why are they limited? The Arab Spring started last January. At least eleven nations erupted against existing dictatorships. The United States' reaction was we don't know what to do because we don't know who these people are, because we aren't engaged with those people.

GIGO: But for precisely that reason, we played or in part because of that reason, in part because of the reluctance of the Obama administration to lead in the world; you know they like to “lead from behind” as one of the advisers famously told The New Yorker. They've played a pretty passive role here. And so is that...

HENNIGER: Well I think they've done that as a matter of policy. They do not want to lead. They want to engage with other multilateral institutions. But I think what you're seeing in the Middle East is a microcosm of what the world looks like when the world's leading power disengages itself. It begins to spin out of control on its own and this is why this will occur in other parts of the world if we don't show global responsibility.

Which by engaging, what they're talking about naturally is threatening to or allowing Israel to go ahead and bomb Iran. They're just aching for a return to the days of George W. Bush and the neocons and more military engagements in the Middle East, facts and how badly that's worked out for us in the past be damned and they'll use any excuse to continue to push for just that as they did here. Heaven forbid we've got all this messy protesting and uprisings going on where people are tired of dictators and oppression. We'd better get more "engaged" to put a stop to it.

I think our meddling in the Middle East and propping up these dictators over the years that the populations are rising up against has done quite enough damage already, thank you. And to claim that we're not "engaged" already when we've still got thousands of troops and contractors over there and are doing drone attacks in the name of this fiasco they call the "war on terror" is utterly ridiculous.

The last arrest at Zuccotti Park at 11:59 p.m. EST Dec. 31, 2011.

Happy New Year, all!

Stephen Colbert (with the Roots) takes what is admittedly the worst song of the year, and makes it...special.

Miss Cellania has a list of lists for best music of the year.

What 2011 music caught your ear in 2011? And it's an open thread. Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year! Here's some Ramones from London 34 years ago tonight.

New York Times reporter, Colin Moynihan, and Robert Stolarik, photographer look back at the birth of the Occupy Wall Street protests in Downtown Manhattan.

Produced by Zena Barakat and Emily B. Hager

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Matt Taibbi has done a stellar job of researching and really digging down into the causes of the Wall Street meltdown. When Megan McArdle faces off with him over whether Goldman Sachs deserves to face criminal charges for their participation, she's outclassed and outspent.

By the way, the "Timberwolf" deal referred to in the video is the same one Carl Levin referred to as a sh*tty deal in the Senate committee hearings as he repeatedly quoted emails turned over to the government during discovery.

Since May, when Taibbi and McArdle went head on at each other over this, the lawsuit filed by Basis Yield Alpha Fund was dismissed and refiled. Basis Yield is seeking $1 billion in damages, alleging that Goldman knew they were selling toxic securities at the time.

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From part of Fox's "business block" on Saturday mornings, Cashin' In, the topic for discussion was whether or not eight states raising their minimum wage on January 1st is going to help or harm the economy. Naturally a couple of the panelists, Tracy Byrnes and Gary Kaltbaum claimed that it was going to do damage and advocated for eliminating the minimum wage altogether and just letting the "free market" take care of itself.

I'd like to see either of those two try to actually live off of minimum wage for a year. Panelist Wayne Rogers was ambivalent and didn't think the modest increase of 28 to 37 cents per hour when we're only talking about eight states was going to have any impact on the economy at all.

The one dose of sanity was the final panel member, David Mercer, who actually brought up the fact that we've got record income disparity and a wealth gap that's equivalent to China, Sri Lanka and Rwanda. That didn't seem to phase Byrnes one bit who was more concerned about "eating into businesses bottom line."

Apparently she doesn't share that same concern for families who are so poor they can't afford to eat at all.

Happy New Year! Here's some Ramones from London 34 years ago tonight.