I used to do biological research and got out of it because I couldn't stand how the system worked. I was not surprised at all about the contents of the documents stolen from Hadley. There are good scientists out there, but unfortunately science is not science anymore ... its a career - or a way to make money. When your livelihood depends upon a specific outcome to your research then it becomes all to easy for many to let that outcome dictate the 'science'. I've always believed global warming to be a political or financial based hoax (if you look at the real research its much more likely we're on the brink of the next ice age then some man made meltdown) and its terribly unfortunate that our so called 'leaders' would use it as a means to impose some odd geopolitical redistribution of wealth scheme. These guys should be planning on how we'll deal with 30% - 40% of the northern hemisphere's land mass residing under hundreds of feet of ice. If the data holds up, we have less then 1,000 years to figure out how to support all the displaced people from those regions - and compensate for their property loses.

How do you spell "Fair Trial"?. I mean really ... I hear all these people justifying this with the notion that "we have the best justice system in the world" (which we do, but not when you do things like this), and that by using civilian courts we're somehow going to show the world that we're fair people who should be loved. As opposed to using military courts at the evil Gitmo facility which show how horrible and unjust we are. Here you have the President basically admitting that a conviction is a done deal. You have the attorney general publicly confirming that. Is that the image of "fairness" they want to convey? If I we're looking in from the outside I'd see a corrupt, dishonest bunch of thugs putting up a show trial. It may as well be Iran, Cuba or China. So you've just thrown out all of the supposed benefits of a civilian trial but keep all negatives (like putting another bullseye on NY, the obvious risks to national security, the possibility of acquittal or a mistrial, and spending millions of dollars we don't have on security) so these guys can try and pull one over on the world. We've got some real geniuses running this show.

So ... does the 1.2 trillion include the cost of building new jails to house all of us?

I love this ... federal-state crackdown on what it terms "unjustified premium increases." The companies would have to publicly disclose the justification for premium increases before they go into effect. Can you see it now ....

Insurance company X: We're raising our rates because the government imposed restrictions and additional taxes imposed on us by your elected officials have to be passed on to you ... the consumer. Without the rate increase, we would no longer be able to cover our costs, let alone make a profit. We've already laid off thousands of workers to meet the states requirement to make this a "justified increase", however "justified" isn't defined in the legislation (much like 99% of the other rules it has since imposed) so we're still obligated to tell you.

Honestly ... what is a "justified" increase? Take a look very closely at how these people are treating the employers of thousands of people. Take good notes ... when you have a claim for your "Government plan" don't be to surprised if you get the same bitter mistreatment. After all, Medicare denies 9 times more claims (unjustified medical requests) then private insurance does. Think, IRS for medicine.

Thank god ... finely something sensible. Hoyer's "Vastly superior" comment is hilarious and speaks volumes to the egomaniacal underpinnings of their bloated coup of the health care system. Vastly overdone, vastly overpriced, vastly overcomplicated, vastly devastating to the economy, vastly ineffective and vastly underestimated in cost ... are all more like it. I say ... pass the key points outlined in the Republican plan above now. Wait 5 years and see what happens. Any "crisis" that can't wait that long is pure Democrat fiction, we're much better off taking small meaningfull steps and doing as Obama said in his address to congress - "Take what works and make it better" - thats what this Republican draft seems to do. The Democrat version uses 1990 page to take what doesn't work, require you to live with it and wraps layers of expense and bureaucracy on top of it. If that's their idea of "Vastly Superior" then Chavez reigns over Utopia.