Obama Proves He's No Scrooge

Presumably after being visited by three spirits who managed to do it all in one night, President Obama signed an executive order on Friday giving all federal employees a half-day on Christmas Eve, the Hill reports. And government employees will still be paid for those four hours off, to boot. The Washington Post notes that the executive order generated seven pages of questions and answers from the administration "because nothing is simple in Uncle Sam's land." One of those clarifications: Department heads can decide if some employees are too essential to be let off early for Christmas. Sounds like bad news for NSA deputy director Bob Cratchit. (More Barack Obama stories.)