[Program Note: This column is a repeat of a past Christmas column, which originally ran on Christmas Eve, 2007. Since today is the Winter Solstice, I thought it was an appropriate subject. While I apologize for offering up nothing but a re-run today, it was unavoidable, as I will spend most of today driving back and forth to the airport. The good news is that testing of the site was very successful this weekend, and our upgrade is back on schedule. We will be upgrading our core WordPress software at some point between Christmas and the new year, to improve security and add features. The framework for new features will be added during the upgrade, and then individual improvements will happen soon after. As always, I will keep regular readers informed of the progress through program notes such as this one. For today, happy Solstice everyone, and I hope you'll enjoy this timely column. Regular columns will resume tomorrow, and don't forget to check our Friday columns for the next two weeks, for our year-end awards presentations.]

When is Christmas? And why?

These are questions guaranteed to get you funny looks when you pop them, especially in a gathering of wassail-soaked relatives. But if you're tired of hearing the seemingly-eternal "this is what Uncle Fred did when he was twelve" stories, and you're leery of bringing up politics with your kin from Outer Podunk, then it's at least a conversation-starter that's somewhat neutral. Plus, you can reaffirm your nearest-and-dearests' image of you as a latte-sipping fruitcake who moved away from the glory of the heartland and now lives on (say it with an embarrassed whisper) the coast.

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I am finally ready for some testing of new stuff, so I thought I'd warn everyone that the site may not be 100% stable for the next day or so. By Monday morning, it will be back to normal (actually completing the upgrade will not happen this weekend), but it may get a little quirky in the meantime.

As always, apologies for the inconvenience.

-- Chris Weigant

What a difference a week makes, eh?

But before we get to all that, a quick program note needs to be addressed here up front. Every so often in these columns, I start channeling Howard Beale (from Network) and get "mad as Hell and just can't take it any more," and -- rather than the usual Friday Talking Points we normally offer up on a weekly basis almost without fail (well, on average, about 46 weeks out of the year... what can I say?) -- at times we instead are moved by the muse known by her proper name of "Rant."

That's right, the same Greek (or was it Roman?) goddess who inspired Dennis Miller (back before he became a rabid pro-war right-winger and lost his funny mojo as a result) occasionally blesses us here with the inspiration for such a stream-of-consciousness chestal-unloading that it simply defies attempts to divide it into seven discrete and ordinal soundbites. Or any attempts to edit it for length, for that matter (ahem).

This is one of those weeks. You have been warned.

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[Program Note: This column is a repeat of last year's Christmas column, which originally ran on Christmas Eve, 2008. I apologize for the re-run, but I'm still swamped with upgrade work, to make a better and more secure ChrisWeigant.com for you to enjoy next year, so I hope you'll forgive me. Oh, and (ahem) it ends with a call for last year's donation drive. We're not doing a full-on donation drive this year (although we do have Netroots Nation to attend next year), but if you're full of holiday spirit and are so inclined, the donation button to the right should still work (for both PayPal accounts and major credit cards). Anyway, enjoy this peek into where we all were last year at this time, and regular columns will resume with tomorrow's Friday Talking Points. Thanks for your patience.]

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It didn't have to be this way. It really didn't.

The epic struggle for healthcare reform is entering its final days in Washington. And the Democrats (being Democrats) have managed to snatch political suicide from the jaws of legislative victory. But, I keep thinking, it didn't have to be this way. If we had had some real leadership from two key Democrats named Obama and Reid, we wouldn't be where we are now.

Democrats have now positioned themselves so that they will lose politically, no matter what happens in Congress in the next few weeks. Well, I should qualify that by saying there's a slim chance for a better outcome than the one that appears inevitable at this point, but that chance is rapidly disappearing as the calendar dwindles between now and the real deadline for a signing ceremony -- President Obama's State Of The Union address next month.

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President Obama seems to be in the midst of a mini press tour at the moment. To help any future mainstream media interviewers out (should they be at a loss for questions to ask the president), I think it's time to pin Obama down on a few subjects.

So today I offer up the questions I would ask, were I interviewing President Obama in the next week or so. Because you never know what media outlet he'll pop up in next.

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First, my apologies. This is going to be a poor excuse for a column, and as a result won't even be posted on Huffington Post, as I normally do on Mondays. We're still dealing with the maintenance backlog here, and preparing for an upgrade. So I didn't even have time today to write a normal column. Which is why I'm apologizing up front.

Instead, today, I'd just like to throw a question open to everyone. Here in California, one of our state legislators would hold a contest each year called "There ought to be a law." Average citizens could write in and propose legislation on any topic, no matter how small or trivial, and the winner would be actually written up and introduced as a bill to the state legislature. Sometimes, it even worked, and a new law was born as a result -- mostly commonsense things that people assumed were illegal already. And mostly small issues that annoy normal people, but which never seem to rise to the level of being noticed by lawmakers.

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Before we begin, I'd like to offer up an apology to Tiger Woods. Last week, I pointed out the hilarity of Woods being a paid spokesman for Gatorade (since their slogan is: "Is It In You?"). This week, Gatorade announced it will be dropping its Tiger Woods sports drink, since obviously the bigwigs at Gatorade are big fans of this column. Ahem. So for the lost income, Tiger, I am truly sorry. Really, I am. Times are tough all over, and I do apologize for your lost income, since you may now be forced to live hand-to-mouth on the mere billion dollars you have in the bank. To say nothing of what divorce will do to your bottom line.

OK, sarcasm (and crocodile tears) aside, let's quickly move on to politics. The past week in Washington has seen somewhat of a frenzy of activity. So many things are getting done (or at least getting talked about) that it's almost impossible to keep track of everything. Whether this is a good thing or not depends on your point of view, of course.

Part of this frenzy is the normal end-of-the year rush in Congress to actually do what they should have been doing all year long -- passing some bills. This happens every year around this time, as the Congresscritters scurry about in a spasm of legislation, so they can take another few weeks off before next year's session begins. "Taking a few weeks off" is the one thing that Congress truly excels at, of course -- evidenced by their stunningly generous vacation schedule all year long. They politely call these vacations "district work periods," which fools absolutely nobody. But, after taking more time off than George W. Bush ever did, Congress always finds itself at the end of the year with a whole stack of things they have failed to accomplish. Which results in a frenzy of things getting passed, or at least debated.

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[Below is the transcript of the speech President Obama's gave accepting the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway. It is an interesting speech, and not exactly the normal remarks given by past recipients. Obama notes the irony of accepting an award for peace just after announcing he will escalate a war. But rather than comment upon Obama's words, we thought it would be better to just present an unedited transcript for you to read today.]

-- Chris Weigant

A Just and Lasting Peace
by Barack Obama
Oslo, Norway 12/10/09

Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Distinguished Members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, citizens of America, and citizens of the world:

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News broke last night that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has what he thinks is a viable compromise piece of healthcare reform legislation, which he thinks could garner the 60 votes he needs to pass the Senate. Unfortunately, details of this compromise have not been officially announced, and Harry is waiting to get numbers from the Congressional Budget Office (C.B.O.) before releasing the text. So, while an accurate assessment of the bill is impossible at this point (since it's like trying to nail smoke to a wall), we can at least begin to look at what is taking shape, based solely on the rumors and leaks in the press so far.

The big headline is, of course, "public option scrapped." But, strangely enough, this hasn't caused the outcry one would have expected among progressive Democrats. In fact, Dr. Howard Dean has openly supported the compromise, calling it "real reform." Which is no real surprise, since it has been reported that Dean was the one to propose the new tradeoff -- which, if true, would tend to automatically make Dean a supporter of his own idea.

So let's attempt to take as good a look as possible at the smoky, smoky details which are emerging from the perpetual metaphysical fog on Capitol Hill.

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