If the legislation passes, it’s fair to say that Republicans made it happen. By lying and demagoguing “Obamacare” they rallied liberals, centrists and Congressional Democrats to push policies that had only lukewarm support at best and generated outright anger on the left.

…and a new mayor…now here comes Mardi Gras! Laissez les bon temps rouler, baby!

Seriously, it’s hard to say how much of an impact both of these events — the game and the election — might mean in the long run.

But for now, this is New Orleans’ glorious moment in the sun. Not quite five years after the catastrophe of Katrina, the city is back and rocking out! Between now and Mardi Gras Day on Feb. 16, the region will be riding a high seldom seen in decades past. Let the good times roll, dahlin’!

A Republican friend of mine recently sent me this email after I told him that Claire McCaskill pwned the Medicare recipients at her recent town hall:

“The mistake you are making here isn’t who eats who’s lunch but rather that the Democrats are now the establishment (owning Congress and the White House) in ways they haven’t since the Carter Administration. And you guys are freaking out over a little bit of disruption. For God’s sake man, pull yourselves up and act like you’ve been there before.”

I was thinking about that today. I agree some people are freaking out, but the reality is this: if any sort of comprehensive health care reform bill is passed, then that will be bad, bad, bad news for the Republicans for the foreseeable future.

With a huge majority in the House, and 60 Democrats in the Senate, a popular Democratic President should be able to smite the earth and magically produce a Volvo in every garage. But the Village needing a story will trump up controversy. Coupe or Sedan? Why not a Mercedes option? It’s all the same with arbitrary pre-recess deadlines, bi-partisan support or 70 plus votes. We get process and conflict instead of policy and results.

So, in case you’re worried, especially in light of bogus numbers that Obama’s popularity is plumeting even though he’s done nothing unpopular, remember these few salient facts.

Time’s Karen Tumulty predicts that we’ll be hearing a lot more about the cost of health care reform from insurance industry lackeys, using statements from CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf.

Sarah Palin, last seen wearing fisherman’s waders (which are well known to be the Alaskan version of sack-cloth and ashes) is poised to become Empress of all Media after her sacrificial act of walking away from the glory that is the Governor’s Crab Shack and General Store in Juneau. Nears as anyone can tell it’s so she can save the Fundamentalist Christian Conservative Whackadoodles from the modern-day equivalent of political genocide — which according to the American Taliban means not getting their damn way on every f#@king thing.

Religion and democracy ARE compatible…if they run on separate, parallel tracks, never converging. It makes both stronger. But you can’t put God over the Constitution, any Constitution. Otherwise you eventually get a “supreme leader” who will claim that he alone hears the voice of God telling him what to do. And that’s not democracy.

You don’t have to know anything about the current crisis in Iran. You don’t have to know anything about Iranian history, recent or ancient. You don’t have to have friends or family there. You don’t have to agree or disagree with one side or the other.

All that matters is that you hear this young person reading this poem and know that they are speaking for everyone in history, known and unknown, anywhere and everywhere, who ever cried out to God in the longest, darkest night of doubt and got no answer.

“Glenallen Walken,” — not his real name — is a real live conservative and former Bush official who chooses to remain anonymous. Each week “Glenallen Walken” answers questions from readers of Salon.com about why conservatives think and do what they think and do.

This week, the question was this: “Why are angry white guys shooting people?”

Something big is happening in post-election Iran but you’d never know it from watching television news in the US:

• Near closing time of the polls, mobile text messaging was turned off nationwide
• Security forces poured out into the streets in large numbers
• The Ministry of Interior (election headquarters) was surrounded by concrete barriers and armed men
• National television began broadcasting pre-recorded messages calling for everyone to unite behind the winner
• The Mousavi campaign was informed officially that they had won the election, which perhaps served to temporarily lull them into complacency
• But then the Ministry of Interior announced a landslide victory for Ahmadinejad
• Unlike previous elections, there was no breakdown of the vote by province, which would have provided a way of judging its credibility
• The voting patterns announced by the government were identical in all parts of the country, an impossibility (also see the comments of Juan Cole at the title link)
• Less than 24 hours later, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamene`i publicly announced his congratulations to the winner, apparently confirming that the process was complete and irrevocable, contrary to constitutional requirements
• Shortly thereafter, all mobile phones, Facebook, and other social networks were blocked, as well as major foreign news sources.