regarding the Sebelius matter. This could be a nasty one, as the background confirms:

I always believed Sebelius was going to be problematic all along. Kansas (and specifically Wichita) has become sort of a battleground for anti-choice folks. And most of the controversy surrounds a doctor in Wichita (Dr. Tiller) who performs late term abortions (and I do mean late term). In fact, he is one of only several in the country that do and therefore he attracts considerable patients from all over the country. In fact, more non-state residents receive abortions in the state than residents (see below). Dr. Tiller was recently acquitted of grand jury indictments for allegedly violating Kansas abortion statutes. Sebelius today vetoed amendments to the law that would have virtually shut down Dr. Tiller.

Governor Sebelius brought a lot of this on herself when she misstated campaign contributions she had received from a doctor closely associated with Dr. Tiller -- in fact the sole doctor Tiller uses to corroborate a late term abortion, as required by Kansas law. Kansas changed the abortion statute in the late 90s, requiring an additional diagnosis from a Kansas doctor. The entire intent of the amendment was to shut down late term abortions. Dr. Tiller found only one doctor in the state that would work with him. That doctor contributed to Governor Sibelius campaign fund.

Put simply, the fanatical anti-choice folks have undoubtedly drawn a line in the sand on this one. They are pissed over Tiller, they are pissed over his acquittal, they are pissed over Sibelius and now, pissed about the veto. I'm convinced they're calling in all the markers on this one.

At one time Obama was purportedly considering Sibelius as his running mate. I believe that all this baggage helped doom her for that slot. Here's a little snippet:

"For the past decade, almost half of the abortions performed in Kansas have been for women who didn't live here.

They come from far as California, Maine and even Alaska. But mostly they just cross over the state line from Missouri.

Data recently released by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment show that last year was no different. Of the 10,836 abortions done in Kansas in 2007, 5,162 (about 48 percent) were performed on women who lived outside of the state.

Those on both sides of the abortion issue have theories for why the out-of-state numbers are so high and what it adds to the debate in Kansas.

Most of the out-of-state numbers are attributed to the lack of abortion providers in Missouri.

Other contributing factors are the differences in state laws, especially in regard to those under age 18, and the late-term abortions performed by Wichita-based Dr. George Tiller.
*
Two of Kansas' high-profile anti-abortion organizations point to Tiller's clinic in Wichita as the main reason for the out-of-state numbers.

Tiller's practice, one of the few in the country that offers late-term abortions, draws women from both coasts and many places in between.

In 2007, as in years past, abortions performed past 22 weeks of pregnancy made up a small percentage of Kansas' overall total, less than 4 percent. Yet more than 90 percent of the women getting late-term abortions were from outside Kansas." Link

Sorry for the length of this post. But I thought this background be an interesting read.

can we force them to read it from teleprompters? and then maybe we could arrange to accidentally on purpose get the texts mixed up so that they end up reading something else instead?

... by Jared Diamond, about the failure of civilizations that stuck to ideology instead of adapting to their environment.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collapse_(book)

It seems to me that as long as the Senate Repugs can say "You don't have 60 votes." and Harry Reid says "OK, lets go on to the next thing.", as long as that is the consequence, 59 Democrats are stuck going nowhere. They need to pick their fights well, so the Repugs get no good sound bites and will just show up as obstructionists, and then say "Let's have that filibuster!"