Good Morning, Everyone. It is still snowy and cold though not too cold. Just cold enough to snow instead of rain. The weather people are telling us that we may get a white Christmas IF the system coming in on Thursday is cold enough to snow but there is a bit of a chance that precipitation might be rain. Hope not. And I hope it lightens up enough to not interfere with our trip to my sister's for Christmas dinner.

I found this assessment of Obama's recent 'victories' on health care and the Copenhagen 'agreement.' I seem to be using a lot of quotation marks lately. Largely because you have to stretch the definitions a long ways to use the terms to describe what has happened. 'Pyrrhic victories?' Actually it may turn out to be so for both sides. The health care legislation does nothing to control costs and may not, in the end, make either insurance or care more available. The Copenhagen mess is toothless and lets everyone set their own non-binding targets. But that doesn't mean that the Republicans or that China (especially) actually won. China has alienated the other members of the underdeveloped nations coalition who wanted strong sanctions and a binding treaty for deep cuts in greenhouse emissions. I wonder how they will feel towards China at the next round of meetings two years from now? And the Republicans--well I wonder if Democrats can make charges of obstructionism and hypocrisy stick next year. Sure hope so. But then getting more Democrats in the Senate may not do much good. After all it was Democrats who allowed the Republicans to play Grinch.

Beyond Paycheck To Paycheck (at totalcandor) has a good post on 'the real unemployment rate." The video says it all. Take a look.