At the end of this month, a payroll tax cut is set to expire that the White House says would result in a tax increase of about $1,000 per year on most middle-class families. The benefit is popular with the American people, which may be one reason President Obama has been relentlessly promoting it.

The president argues that extending the payroll tax "holiday" through 2012 is vital to the economy. Republicans in Congress are divided over that, but they strongly disagree with the president's plan to pay for it with a surtax on millionaires.

12/9 11a: Joanne Shenandoah (Oneida) is a member of the Wolf Clan of the Iroquois Confederacy and an award-winning recording artist. She helps to kick off the holiday season with her luminous sound in her new release, “Lifegivers.”

12/8 11a: How deep does the importance of marriage run in your family and within your tribal community? When it comes to the sanctity of marriage, how important is it in this day and age? Is there still value in the “I Do” moment, or is it becoming an archaic concept?

12/7 11a: For many veterans who return home from war, the fight to return to a life they once knew can be just as stressful as the battles they faced while serving their country. Veterans returning from foreign battlefields can find that the homes they left have changed since their deployment, adding new stress to their lives. 

12/6 11a: The National American Indian Housing Council is hosting its annual Legal Symposium in Las Vegas. The First Nations Development Institute is accepting proposals for the Native American Food Security grant project under its Native Agriculture and Food Systems Initiative. 

Senate Republicans have blocked the nomination of Caitlin Halligan to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. A Senate majority of 54 voted to break the filibuster, but that number falls short of the 60 votes needed under Senate rules.

Although Halligan won bipartisan praise from legal and law enforcement groups, Republicans portrayed her as a left-wing activist for positions she took while representing the state of New York as its chief appellate lawyer.

How a country treats its gay and lesbian citizens may now play a role in the foreign aid it receives from the United States.

The New York Times reports that the Obama administration issued a memo telling agencies to find ways to deter countries from criminalizing homosexuality.

The Times adds:

Deadly suicide attacks in Afghanistan aimed at minority Shia Muslims have experts wondering whether the war there could be taking a dangerous new sectarian turn.

Tuesday's twin attacks, in the capital of Kabul and the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, killed at least 60 Shia worshippers as they celebrated Ashura, one of their sect's holiest days. It was the first such large-scale attack against Shias in Afghanistan in more than a decade.