We have always talked about 'lame duck session' after elections. Well, it seems to me the ''duck' has simply expired. We should send all of congress home for the two months after elections and deduct from their pay accordingly. (That'd reduce the deficit a little.) We have, essentially, had a 'lame duck session' for the last two years. When a 40% minority can stop all legislation originating in the Senate, you have crippled the body. And, in all seriousness, the Republicans have managed to say 'NO' until the majority are willing to give in. Yes, even a few Democrats took advantage of their leverage and did the same thing.

The Republicans are touting the electorate's mandate in the last election. They were hard of hearing when the electorate elected the overwhelming majority of Democrats in both houses and a Democratic administration. And, the electorate was apparently hard of hearing or illiterate when they ignored the impossible challenge to enact the very things they had supported in the election of 2008.

The authors of the original Health Care Bill and the Administration allowed the opposition to distort the interpretation of the bill with outright false information to the public. The public allowed the Fox News Network and the entertaining right wing talk show folks to further spread those false statements and interpretations. The most egregious of those claims was the 'death panel' hype. The next was that the government would decide your health care needs and not your doctor. They never acknowledged the fact that insurance companies are now doing that. In other legislation it was that ministers would not be able to preach social responsibilities from the pulpit. That was a negative for those in favor of that bill and a positive for those opposed to it. The result was that it eroded the support from the original supporters of the bill.

The truth was the bill absolutely gave religious leaders and speakers freedom to preach what ever they wanted, so long as they were not telling their parishioners or listeners who to vote for or against. Those two issues along with Tax Reform and freedom from discrimination for sexual orientation were the main planks of the Democratic party. The Republican minority and the right wing media exploited all the dire predictions for the future and the false interpretations of those bills designed to fulfill the promises made by the Democratic campaign.

The Republicans and religious right oppose 'big government' and 'big brother' if they aren't in favor of particular issues. But, they are quite willing to let the government or big brother enforce their religious and economic policies. Deregulation is fine as long as they don't deregulate their protections and advantages.

I will defend the right for anyone to oppose or disagree, but I will not defend their right to use false information to justify their positions. A lie is a lie! There is no such thing as acceptable 'white' lies or lies for the protection of something or someone.