What does it matter if you get 60 senator votes for something that will never pass the house?

"Forget the halls, let's deck the elves!"

APO's are also used by gov't workers overseas, and Peace Corps "volunteers" who earn a whoppin' 25 cents an hour.

Especially for a product that, while it is slightly below required specifications, is still perfectly sufficiently strong to do what it's supposed to do.

Officials with the Food and Drug Administration, the CDC and the company all said they believe the strength of the recalled doses is still high enough to protect children against the virus. No potency problem has been detected in the same vaccine packaged in other types of syringes or vials, Lavenda said.

Trying to save Christmas, Congress is setting itself up for one wild Groundhog Day of budget woes come February.

The House, anxious to go home, is to begin voting Wednesday on four year-end bills, most of which share one thing in common: a two-month punt on every tough issue, from managing the federal debt to helping the nation's growing ranks of long-term unemployed.

Adding to the embarrassment is the fact that after a late night of phone calls Tuesday, Senate Democrats appear short of the votes needed to block the historic repeal of the estate tax Jan 1. A two-month extension of that levy on the wealthy was dropped therefore from the lead House measure, and given the record deficits facing the government, this is an extraordinary failure for the White House and Democrats.

Going into Wednesday's House voting, the Pentagon's $626 billion budget will be the lead locomotive, pulling a train of two-month extensions affecting jobless benefits, Medicare payments to physicians, the federal highway program and even satellite television and the Patriot Act. A separate debt bill will follow to get the Treasury past any threat of default in January, but, again, the termination point is two months away: far short of the long-term $1.8 trillion increase needed to get the government through the next year and past the 2010 elections.

It makes for a remarkable February, when President Barack Obama's 2011 budget is also due. And all this will be sandwiched between January's Senate debate on the Federal Reserve's management and what promises to be a painful March fight in the House over new war funding for Afghanistan.

The convergence of so many issues could yet create its own, new dynamic -- and shake Washington into action. Obama's budget is expected to show a greater commitment to deficit reduction, and moderates hope the debt ceiling fight will be a turning point, forcing lawmakers to address long-term liabilities such as Social Security.

Matched against that possibility will be liberal pressure for more emphasis on job creation, given continued double-digit unemployment. Before leaving, House Democrats will put down their marker: an estimated $75 billion investment in new infrastructure investments and public service jobs -- such as teachers and firemen -- threatened by state and local budget cuts.

The president laid out a dire scenario of what will happen if his health care reform effort fails.

 "If we don't pass it, here's the guarantee....your premiums will go up, your employers are going to load up more costs on you," he said. "Potentially they're going to drop your coverage, because they just can't afford an increase of 25 percent, 30 percent in terms of the costs of providing health care to employees each and every year. "

The president said that the costs of Medicare and Medicaid are on an "unsustainable" trajectory and if there is no action taken to bring them down, "the federal government will go bankrupt."

The House approved a $636 billion defense bill Wednesday that funds the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and provides a 3.4 percent pay hike for military personnel.
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The defense bill includes $128 billion for the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan but leaves for later budgeting for the troop surge in Afghanistan recently ordered by President Barack Obama. link