The Sun Rises in the East

And so the public option is dead, as the Democratic Party slowly marches its way towards extinction. When the health care reform process began, we had a health care system designed and run along the lines of a pachinko parlor: most of us sitting on our behinds rolling little balls in our hands much like Bogart in The Caine Mutiny; while the skim went to the Big Pharm/Big Insurance/Big Hospital yakuza-gumi.

Now that President Smarty Pants seems to be having his way, we'll be left with an even bigger and more expensive pachinko parlor in its place -- only the balls will be smaller. However, there will be change of enormous political significance: all Americans will now be forced to play pachinko. Since the one thing Americans hate most is being forced to do anything (especially to think), this will no doubt lead to a take-back of first the House and then the Senate by the Republican Afrikaner Party.

President Smarty Pants ain't so smart, is he?