http://nytimes.com/aponline/2009/09/18/us/AP-US-Microsoft-Cougar.html
Can't help myself.
On the advent of MS releasing a service pack for Vista a big Cat ala Macintosh naming scheme is seen prowling the MS Campus.
Oh The Irony the irony.

An article cited that if the baucaus bill is passed that the insurance Companies could be looking at an increase of their profits by $900 Billion over the 10 years ( I can't find the article but would love to cite it. It starts with the modest assumption of a $250 premium to reach that number) 
Combine this with the Supreme Courts apparent rush to over turn any limitations on corporate financing of campaigns in the Citizens United case ( the Hillary Movie). A case where the bush wingnut appointees created the issue of the Constitutionality of corporate campaign limitations out of this air and required a rehearing of the case to overturn 90 years of precedents.
Combine the 2 issues where the insurance companies will have an endless supply of new cash and no limits on how they can spend it in the political arena and we are looking at the United States of Aetna.
With an entrenched, relatively, young 5 vote majority of ideologues on the Supreme Court coupled with a Democratic president who appears to be too scared of the right wing to appoint any person that George Bush would not approve of in any legal/ judicial post (Examples; Sotomayor is a right of Center Jurist who was on Gw's list. Most of the AUSA's are holdovers from the Bush Justice department. Holder is tripping over himself to pass out Get Out of Jail cards to any rethuglican who broke the law.) and we might as well hand over the what little is left to the insurance companies.
How long will restrictions applying to state and local races stand when the SC opens the floodgates of corporate funds on the national level? This is a case, like Gore v. Bush, where the "Tenthers' will argue against states rights in favor of federal rules.
Any mandate must be stopped. It is not just our money that we would be handing over to the insurance companies it would be whatever thin shreds of political power that remains in the citizenry's hand that we would be surrendering as well. 
 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/6176989/German-ships-sailing-through-North-East-Passage.html

Withe the opening of the Northeast Passage ( Europe to the Pacific over Russia ) and Canada's continuing battle to protect the waters of the Northwest Passage, by declaring them to be domestic waterways, it is time for the US to decide whether Exxon profits or the world's environment is more important.
Because either route ends up using the Bering Straits as the gateway to the Pacific, and all the associated markets, it is crucial that the US and Russia decide on a navigational/ safety protocols to protect the fragile Arctic eco systems.
The Bering straits are approx. 59 miles wide with islands and rock in the middle. It is turbulent waters and ugly weather. A number of sensitive and rich fisheries exist in the Bering Sea with new ones being explored north of the straits. Oil exploration is being conducted on the Northern continental shelf which is by drilling standards relatively shallow thus, except for weather and ice, easy. 
Essentially a perfect area for marine disasters.
Under the Law of the Sea it is an international waterway. But like the Darnelles and the Kattegat (which drains the Baltic into the North Sea/ Atlantic) the surrounding countries have the right to insist on extra safety precautions for ships in passage.
Things like requiring double hulls and Tugboat escorts. The previous administrations of addled ronnie raygun and the past bush junta has pushed to require that  single hulled vessels, including oil tankers, be allowed passage and resisted tugboat escorts as cutting into the shipping Co's ( read Oil) profits.
The opening of these passages will dramatically shorten the shipping routes between China, Japan, Korea, Western Canada and the US to Europe. It probably will cause a drop in shipping using the Suez and Panama canals , with associated drop in revenue. It will dramatically reduce the shipping around the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn.
The areas that will most directly affected are the homes of the native populations. The Inuits, Eskimo's and other mostly poor and, relatively, politically powerless indigenous peoples. They live largely on subsistence economy based on fishing and hunting. Global warming is already challenging their ability to survive a few oil spills and added pollution is not going to help.
The question becomes whether any of the saving will be properly invested in the protection of the fragile northern climes or will it simply disappear into the pockets of the wealthy. 
Whether the Obama abministration will use the crucial geographic placement of the US to help protect the north or will it decide it is unworthy of any political capital?