Should something as huge as the remaking of the healthcare system in America be done in such a "unipartisan" manner?  Ask Barack Obama.  That was then:

And this is now:

White House officials tell ABC News that in his remarks tomorrow President Obama will indicate a willingness to work with Republicans on some issue to get a health care reform bill passed but will suggest that if it is necessary, Democrats will use the controversial "reconciliation" rules requiring only 51 Senate votes to pass the "fix" to the Senate bill, as opposed to the 60 votes to stop a filibuster and proceed to a vote on a bill.

So then, it requires a "sizeable majority" so long as it doesn’t take too long.  Then all bets are off.  Gotcha.

There are those who say that our government is "us", so to speak, and thus if health care reform passes, it’s because we wanted it.  Well, except that a majority of us don’t.  This isn’t representative government.  Yes, the general idea did enamor more folks when it first hit Congress, but the more people know about it, the less they have wanted it.  With one exception, opposition to it has been over 50% since the middle of September, and peaked over 50% often before that. 

Most of us don’t want this monstrosity.  But Obama is more than willing to shove aside his principles of good governance, and do precisely what he accused Bush and Rove of, in order to get his way.  Representative government indeed.

Good morning.

1. Climate change, part of the problem with the AGW proponents, is that cold weather is never evidence of climate change, as it gets the response, “climate is not weather.” What’s the problem with that, well, the problem is that every example of warmer weather is in fact used as evidence for climate change.
2. Not unrelated to the above.
3. In fact, 25, oops, 15 year trends aren’t, apparently, significant either.
4. An interesting data point.
5. Chile, Haiti and the Chicago school.
6. Of Cuba.
7. GM vs Toyota and the government response to recall.
8. If you need another reason why government shouldn’t be involved at all in healthcare.
9. That defence is an indictment.
10. Mech art, very cool.
11. For those who key on Ms Palin.
12. Tactics and praise. And aside: I played a little ASL when I was younger, enough to realize how very cool it was. I never got very good at it however.