'Tis the Season...

Still busy, but thought this would brighten your day:

MEXICO CITY - Fistfights and shoving matches broke out in the Mexican Congress Tuesday after leftist lawmakers, hoping to block the inauguration of conservative President-elect Felipe Calderon, stormed the podium and tried to seize control of the chamber.

Conservatives, surrounded by security guards, pushed back the protesting lawmakers and vowed to keep order until they formally bestow the presidential sash on Calderon in a ceremony in the Chamber of Deputies this Friday.

The fisticuffs underscore the deep well of bitterness that remains after the closest and most hotly contested presidential race in modern Mexican history and highlight the possibility that Friday's ceremony will be marred by violence.

Members of the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, claim Calderon, a member of the National Action Party, or PAN, stole the July election.

"We're not going to allow this inauguration to happen," said Roberto Lopez, a PRD spokesman. "Felipe Calderon will not govern a single day in this country."

There's only one thing wrong with democracy... it requires people.