President Obama signaled on Wednesday that he might be willing to scale back his proposed health care overhaul to a version that could attract bipartisan support, as the White House and Congressional Democrats grappled with a political landscape transformed by the Republican victory in the Massachusetts Senate race.

via Obama Weighs Paring Goals for Health Bill – NYTimes.com.

I’ve said before that my decision as to whether I will return to America, or try to live abroad and get paid in American dollars, hinges on health care and the economy.  Funny how something as small as a special election in the liberal bastion of Massachusetts could drive me away…

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Bio: Annise Parker, Newly Elected Mayor of Houston – TIME

Awesome:

Her sexual orientation did not emerge as a campaign issue before the Nov. 3 mayoral election among four candidates. But it did prompt attacks before the runoff against Gene Locke, a former city attorney. A group of African-American pastors criticized her supposed “gay agenda,” and a conservative activist distributed flyers featuring her and her partner and asking, “Is this the image Houston wants to portray?” But the attacks did not find traction; a Houston Chronicle/Zogby poll found that Parker’s sexuality mattered to just 18% of likely voters.

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Like Hillary said: No Way, No how, NO McCain, No PALIN.

Sarah Palin was and is a joke.  I’m sad to think that this video may still have relevance, and that Republicans right now have to pick between her, an adulterer, and a prescription-abusing gasbag for their future leadership.  =/

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U.S. to resume Peace Corps and scholarship program in Indonesia – The CNN Wire – CNN.com Blogs.

From my friend Chris, who said “something seems a bit wrong with it.
See if you can spot where CNN went wrong.”

His reference:  Hillary seems to be a bit confused, as she is saying “The United States also plans to start sending Fulbright scholars to Indonesia.”…but, uh, while she was saying that, we were serving as Fulbright scholars in Indonesia.

Fact Check!

(But as an aside, I do hope the start up Peace Corps in Indonesia, because I would so go!)

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Perhaps not enough attention is pair to the old-hand political operatives that animated the Obama campaign so majestically…

Plouffe Piece.

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Lakoff’s work does come through in Obama’s campaigning…but I was more taken aback by the discovery that the Rockridge Institute no longer exists, having been shut down April 30, 2008… =(

Pensito Review » The Secret of Obama’s Success and Why He’ll Keep Winning — He Listens to George Lakoff

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Palin was chosen to flip the high school-educated or less female vote, those disillusioned primary voters formerly referred to as “Hillary Democrats.” There aren’t enough of them to make a difference in the outcome, but over the last two weeks this woman’s incredible attractiveness has proven to draw the attention of voters from other demographics, and there was, as best I can tell from abroad, a reason to be alarmed until she opened her mouth and said Russia wasn’t a problem because you can see it from Alaska. I haven’t seen Tina Fey’s videos yet, but I’ve heard that she will do more to derail the Palin train than Obama ever could.

I’ll also say I’m sad about the whole thing. People here admire our democracy with a naivety that is shared by most Americans. They believe we make decisions on policy, that we’ve curtailed corruption, and that we have a system that enables us to fix problems. From abroad, this election season has just made me so absolutely morose about Democracy in America, which is little more than a parade of pretty faces and petty arguments designed to attract the attention of a populace stupefied by television and attracted by attractiveness. It stands in stark contrast to the democracy of ideas and ideals that people think, at home and abroad, like to think we have.

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This new ad BLASTS McCain for his connections to Big Oil and lobbyists generally.

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Another person who will be in Indonesia, Ken Moore, became my facebook friend today.  On his profile, he had a list of things that are younger than John McCain.  I did a little internet research, and discovered that even SPAM is younger than the Republican nominee: McCain was born in August 1936, and SPAM was created in July 1937.  Just thought I’d share.

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The wife John McCain callously left behind | Mail Online

This article has an overtly anti-McCain bias, but given the subject matter, perhaps that is warranted.  For example, I didn’t know that he’d dumped his crippled wife and married the rich girl only a month later, and that the ex-wife is unwilling to say anything negative doesn’t take away from the challenges the issue poses to him as “a leader for change,” and, most importantly, as a paragon for morality.

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