The specter of a tall, lugubrious president with the ominous presence of Lurch (as in “you rang?” ), a wispy-voiced Senate majority leader (think of him as Uncle Fester) and a willowy, washed out female Speaker (Morticia) seeking to ram un-digestible massive health care castor oil down the unwilling, gagging throat of the American people is just about an historic first.

Probably only the since Kansas-Nebraska act which put slavery or abolitionism to a vote…which the North hated and even the South’s Sam Houston despised…has this spectacle been seen. Then …

“I’m a big supporter of non-censorship,” Obama said. “I recognize that different countries have different traditions. I can tell you that in the United States, the fact that we have free Internet—or unrestricted Internet access—is a source of strength, and I think should be encouraged.”
The critical remarks were played down in the Chinese media and scrubbed from some Chinese Web sites.
The event was streamed live on the White House Web site, but the connection was choppy and delayed. The State Department said later more than 7,000 Chinese Internet users watched …

From Cafe Hayek, a Letter to the Editor of the New York Times
Columnist Paul Krugman writes that policies to promote “job sharing” are “worthy of consideration” (”Free to Lose,” Nov. 13).
Let’s start at the New York Times.  I know several economists currently without jobs (and certainly without regular newspaper columns).  I propose that Times Co. chairman Arthur Sulzberger reduce Mr. Krugman’s presence on the editorial page to, say, one column per year.  The remaining hundred or so columns that Mr. Krugman would otherwise have written for the NYT can be …

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“Stay home if you’re sick. Wash your hands frequently. Cover your sneezes with your sleeve, not your hands”
Sage advice from President Barack Obama regarding H1N1 Flu prevention. No word from the Executive Office of the most powerful country on earth concerning Kleenex or handkerchiefs.
More soaring rhetoric from Barack Obama here

It’s official: President Obama is not afraid of Canadians.
Asked at a North American summit in Mexico today about the fact that the Canadian health care system has “become a political football” in the United States during the debate over health care, Mr. Obama said he expects “Canadians will continue to get dragged in by those who oppose reform.”
“I don’t find Canadians particularly scary, but I guess some of the opponents of reform think that they make a good boogeyman,” the president said at a press conference with Mexican President Felipe …

Windfall: an unexpected, unearned, or sudden gain or advantage.
Every so often, when oil and gasoline prices spike higher, US oil companies make a boatload of money.  Given their size – in terms of both revenue and assets – and given the cost of exploration and the volatility of the commodity they work with, this ought to be no big deal.
But it always is. When oil companies make a lot of money, populist politicians get angry and often demand “windfall” profits tax on “Big Oil.”
I have never understood this because when …

President Barack Obama marks his first 100 days in office, occasioning approximately 5,000 articles about this historic milestone event. Watch for the following interpretations:
Refreshing Change Pundits cleaving to this point of view will extol the new “tone” that Mr Obama has set, saying how “welcome” it is to have a US president who is not a “cringe-making embarrassment”, etc.
The attractiveness of the new first lady will be adduced, as well as the general darlingness of the first daughters. The new sustainable vegetable garden on the White House lawn will also …