Just so you know

For some perspective.

We are now 1 year into the Obama administration, something hailed as a sea change. Back then, we thought the progressive agenda was finally going to see the light of day.

Lets see where we are now.

First, the EPA declared carbon dioxide a pollutant which can be regulated under the Clean Air Act. Today, 2 senators are putting forth a piece of legislation that would invalidate that.

Next we have health care reform. With Tuesday's election of Republican in Massachusetts, an already deeply flawed, overly-compromised, industry friendly bill now seems totally dead.

We won't have a public option. ("I would advise that we try to move quickly to coalesce around those elements of the package that people agree on,” Mr. Obama said in an interview on ABC News, notably leaving near-universal insurance coverage off his list of core goals.")

We're already talking about massive landslide Republican victories in the November midterms.

Yesterday and the day before, the american stock markets actually went UP in the anticipation that health reform is dead. (You see, that way there is no danger that the almighty insurance company profit will be infringed upon by the poor sick saps paying their premiums.)

Rush Limbaugh is on the radio today, telling people how ridiculous it is to spend money on the environment, saying "there is NO SUCH THING as a green job." He thinks Waxman-Markey is "a redistribution scheme. This is an attack on achievers. It's an attack on wealth disguised as something to get to your heart by convincing you that voting for this, supporting this is somehow going to save Woody Woodpecker, Peter Polar Bear, Flipper and deformed frogs."

The Supreme Court decided today that corporations no longer have limits on how much money they can spend on political campaigns. This reverses 100 years of regulations, and equates the first amendment rights of a company with those of an actual person.

And as a country, we're preoccupied with things like whether terror suspects should be put on trial in New York, or whether Obama was born in Kenya, or the "tea baggers".

I don't know about you, but it feels like we got exactly the OPPOSITE of what we hoped we were getting last January. And the winner of political debate is now the person who can sell the most sensational lie.

Can I leave now?