Already it seems the Democrat Congressional leadership is trying to ignore the Republicans with a 100-hour plan to push through their agenda with no input from the opposition. What happened to Pelosi's promise that she would work with the opposition ? Looks like the same old Washington 2-step to me and is further evidence that the 110th Congress will join a long list of prior do-nothing sessions.

In the first session of the House the Dems trotted out the start of their 100-hour plan. The morning was spent on an attempt to reinstall the Pay-As-You-Go plan on new spending and the issue of "pork" items that sneak into bills at the last moment before the bills go to the floor for a vote and there is no time for a review to be made of the items by committees responsible for the bills. That's how a "bridge to no where" gets through. I support the effort to do away with this practice because it will reduce waste and ultimately lower taxes.

Mitt Romney seems ready to join the growing list of hopeful candidates for President in 2008. I like the man's style. He did an outstanding job of bringing the Winter Olympics to Salt Lake City a few years back and he has done a more than adequate job as Governor in a heavily liberal Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He faces one hurdle in the eyes of some, and that's his religion which is Mormon. But, in my view it's no different than the issue of John Kennedy's Catholicism in 1960. Voters back then looked beyond JFK's religion and I think they would do the same with Romney. I had the pleasure of meeting Mitt's father, George Romney 40 years ago when he was making a trial run at the job and I suspect Mitt Romney is a lot like his father.

Barack Obama's revelations of his youth and drugs may kill his chances for the 2008 Democrat nomination. I expect there are still many folks out there who are concerned about electing a drug abuser to the U.S. Presidency. Perhaps there weren't enough of them to keep "I-didn't-inhale" Clinton out of the office, but something tells me it could be a lot different this time around.

Light sweet (i.e., low sulfur) crude has dipped below $ 60.00/bbl. fob NY harbour which is good news for the economy if it will only stay down. Unfortunately, it probably won't stay down for long but should last as long as the winter remains mild in the northern USA. It is still no excuse to slow down the search for more oil and alternatives to it and other forms of fossil fuel energy. Speaking of which, how about the report that mankind ranks 9th as a contributor to global warming ?