In case you had any doubts the passage of the health care bill will be just as disastrous for Democrats and the labor movement as the rout of 1994, Rahm Emanuel is here to reassure you. It will be just like NAFTA! And Rahm thinks that’s a good thing.

I asked my dad if he had heard that Jane Hamsher and Grover Norquist had sent a joint letter to Holder asking for an investigation of Rahm Emanuel. He hadn’t been plugged in, but was intrigued, so I told him more about it. He’s now one of Jane’s biggest fans.

In March, Obama ordered all executive branch agencies and departments to study their use of outside contractors. Wonder of wonders . . . they’ve found that in many cases, government workers actually do a better job for the money. IRS collections are better, and now the DOD is getting in on the act.

I’m sure the GOP deficit hawks will be cheering this news, despite the fact that it reverses the eight years of BushCo shoveling money out the door that they enabled and encouraged.

For the sake of argument, let’s take the most expansive theory of how Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to blow up a Detroit-bound passenger jet. According to the Wall Street Journal, Abdulmutallab gets an explosive device from al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen; takes a couple of layovers to get on the plane; boards with his device; ignites it; it fizzles; passengers and crew subdue him. And we’re supposed to be scared of this?

Even as the snow and cold rain fall, I can’t help but start thinking of spring.

Let’s have an open forum today. Tell me, how was your Christmas? How did you spend it? And what was the best thing about it, and your least favorite thing about it?

Featuring The Pat Metheny Group and James Carter with Joshua Redman.

You know where I am going with this, right?

That’s right, I am going straight into a metaphor!

From Twisted Sister and FDL.

But really, nothing says Christmas like sitting on Cthulhu’s tentacle…