And I have a block heater installed on my vehicle, which is even more sensible — it reduces wear and tear of the engine in addition to improving emissions and fuel efficiency during a reduced warm-up period. (It makes sense typically to use block heaters not only in severe cold but any time much below freezing; it is typical now for places like Anchorage to advertise that _plus_ 20 F is when or where you should start using a block heater, and so much of the USA other than the West Coast merits block heater installation and three-season to all-year use.) That's very far removed (and far more sensible than) wave-a-wand stuff like declaring arbitrary future “greenhouse gas” (non-real-pollutant) reductions, mandating arbitrary fractions of generating capacity that must be “alternative energy,” and other destructive nonsense. (The mandates for generating capacity along with the cap-and-trade green-fascist scam and probably the silly greenhouse gas reduction commitments, too, should be deleted from the legislation by the Senate.)

And no, the federal government in our nation and our federal system has no business whatsoever imposing idling time limits or bans on our individual drivers.

Republicans aren't in lockstep — even though they're effectively all sidelined right now.

“I think that global warming 'nonsense' is long overdue.”

Nonsense is never overdue, or ever due. So much of what's in the bill is fit for deletion by the Senate, and the entire “movement” is largely hype and bluster and an excuse for massive interventionism and self-loathing, self-destructive de-industrialization. Climatology has been misappropriated and corrupted for other, dark motives and objectives. Reasonable measures to combat _real_ pollution make sense; the activism we are seeing instead is pathological (diseased) as well as intentionally destructive. No, thanks.

And I think that global warming “nonsense” is long overdue. I just came back from Western Canada and they are miles ahead of us. We couldn't idle our car while waiting in line- which seems like common sense to me.

… At least then we didn't have global-warming-related nonsense in energy policy to accompany command and control over natural gas distribution and a ridiculous opposition to nuclear reprocessing.

But “fear” not, for we may yet get these, too, sometime soon, in addition to global-warming-related nonsense and a tax on fuels for health care spending, in place of or _in_addition_to_ “cap and trade.”

That's both generally and specifically harmful to this country, but I'll concede you have company for both.

Before that LBJ was frequently stymied by members of his own party- either liberals who opposed the war in Vietnam, or Southern Democrats who opposed his civil rights agenda.

Another way of looking at this is that Republicans flushed away millions of dollars on a strategy that was always likely to fail.

Clowning is as clowning does.

Couldn't agree more, Pat. The Dems have used that “we don't have enough votes” excuse for far too long. First up, I expect to see Dawn Johnsen confirmed in short order, since Reid was whining a few weeks ago about how they didn't have a 60-vote majority. Well, that excuse is gone.