it's true that the GOP, & perhaps also some SC justices who may be in the GOP/Tea Party's pocket, are right-wing extremists with the agenda of making Barack Obama a one-term president

but the health care reform plan was terribly flawed to begin with, & that, in its perhaps soon-to-be-failed form, is what we got from the first 15 months of the Obama presidency instead of Obama putting the economy first

I grew carrots, parsnips, turnips, broccoli, brussel sprouts, lettuce, spinach, chard and kale... zucchini, crook neck and patty pan.  I got a few tomatoes (it's too cool here on the north coast), potatoes, lots of peas and beans.  What else?  basil, thyme, rosemary, onion, oregano, perennial celery and a gorgeous sage that survived the winter.

We had to take out a tree so we added a granny smith apple.

In one year I grew 300 pounds of produce.  We ate alot, I dehydrated and froze some.  I now have my grandfathers pressure cooker and will make some soups this year.

This winter we had to remove a redwood tree so I added a plum.  A pine tree outgrew it's spot so a little work digging and it was hauled out by the jeep with a chain and a pear tree was immediately dropped in that hole.  

I was very ill in February but was out digging holes while hacking up a lung and put a living fence of espaliered apple trees along one driveway on the west side of the property (along with some artichokes) and popped in some raspberries (which I will train in arches along the fence) in a narrow strip along the east side of the property.

Three days of Supreme Court arguments over the health-care law demonstrated for all to see that conservative justices are prepared to act as an alternative legislature, diving deeply into policy details as if they were members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

Senator, excuse me, Justice Samuel Alito quoted Congressional Budget Office figures on Tuesday to talk about the insurance costs of the young. On Wednesday, Chief Justice John Roberts sounded like the House whip in discussing whether parts of the law could stand if other parts fell. He noted that without various provisions, Congress "wouldn't have been able to put together, cobble together, the votes to get it through." Tell me again, was this a courtroom or a lobbyist's office?

It fell to the court's liberals -- the so-called "judicial activists," remember? -- to remind their conservative brethren that legislative power is supposed to rest in our government's elected branches [...]

Liberals should learn from this display that there is no point in catering to today's hard-line conservatives. The individual mandate was a conservative idea that President Obama adopted to preserve the private market in health insurance rather than move toward a government-financed, single-payer system. What he got back from conservatives was not gratitude but charges of socialism -- for adopting their own proposal.

Link

It's not like we didn't try to tell them this was (1) what was behind the push for the mandate and (2) how the GOP would choose to respond.

I thought this statement was rather confusing:

Dan Rubinstein, the district attorneys' representative on a drug task force, also argued against the bill. He said defense attorneys he's talked to say the threat of a felony is more effective than a misdemeanor conviction, and prosecutors fear it would undercut sentencing reforms passed in recent years.

Why would defense attorneys be for the threat of felony convictions for their clients rather than misdemeanor ones?  

At any rate, glad to see there was moving testimony at the hearings and the bill passed out of committee.  

All I ask is that you check him out.  If this is the future of the Democratic Party, then there may be some hope left.

Check out Trevor talking to Jennifer Granholm on The War Room.

Trevor is one of the nicest people I met when I came to DC.  He is actually a very good friend of my sister's and I think he might be a rising star to watch.