I’m heartbroken [Spike Kinsey/Facebook, via karen marie]

So, here it is.  Senate votes on DREAM, and then on DADT, are set to roll at 1030 Eastern War Time. 

The rules are simple.  A majority vote is required to pass legislation in any parliamentary system.  So if 51 Senators out of a hundred vote —

Oh, screw it.  You know something? If the Founding Fathers knew that the “saucer to cool the tea” crap that they were pushing, in order to head off the possibility of mob rule, would lead to this 60% majority to do anything, they would have said “forget it — let’s just have a unicameral legislature.”  Seriously.

But: play it as it lies.  Scott Brown, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe hold the keys to the kingdom today.  And who said the GOP was dead in New England?

It’s an open thread, y’all.  GO!

We can’t even start writing this without telegraphing the punchline, so please, withhold your outbursts for the benefit of the children and slower members of the audience.

First the setup, as broadcast last week across the wingnutsphere:

Federal Reserve examiners came to the Perkins [Oklahoma] bank last week to make sure banks are complying with a long list of regulations. The team from Kansas City deemed a Bible verse of the day, crosses on the teller’s counter and buttons that say “Merry Christmas, God With Us,” were inappropriate. The Bible verse of the day on the Internet also had to be taken down.

Seems the bank had violated a federal regulation that forbids “the use of words, symbols, models and other forms of communication [that] express, imply or suggest a discriminatory preference or policy of exclusion.” At least, that’s how the Feds saw it.

But all’s well that ends well: After the bank alerted James Inhofe and others to its plight, the Feds backed down, and the crucifixes went back up.

We actually don’t have a problem with Mammon Community Bank getting all pious on our heathen arse. We would just hope that, in the interest of comprehensive exegesis, their daily verse includes the line about overthrowing the tables of the money changers.

After Outcry, Feds Back Down; Banks Can Display Crosses [KOCO]

Captain Beefheart, a.k.a. Don Van Vliet, dies at 69 [Entertainment Weekly]

While D.C.’s Adams Morgan neighborhood has its Festivus Pole and annual Airing of Grievances, suburban Loudoun County may be winning in the “Most Inclusive at Winter Solstice Time” contest.

The ABA Journal reports that the county courthouse in Leesburg is hosting not one, not two, but ten seasonal displays, because of a county policy that the first ten people or groups to apply for a permit get a holiday display. Read more »

“President Obama and his wife Michelle will not be invited to Prince William’s wedding next year. Because Prince William is not yet heir to the throne, his wedding to Kate Middleton is not classed as a ‘state occasion’ — and the couple feel under no pressure to fill the 2,000-strong guest list with heads of state, the Mail understands.” [Daily Mail]

“PolitiFact editors and reporters have chosen ‘government takeover of health care’ as the 2010 Lie of the Year. Uttered by dozens of politicians and pundits, it played an important role in shaping public opinion about the health care plan and was a significant factor in the Democrats’ shellacking in the November elections.”