Predictably, news media outlets are touting the historical significance of Pelosi being the first "woman" speaker.

I am underwhelmed.

A female speaker at this point in history of our culture seems more like an inevitability than a remarkable event. Women are present in every field of endeavor and female leadership is no longer considered unusual. As usual, no progress in society is official until the Democrats take credit for it.

The test of real equality is equivalent accountability, so on that basis Pelosi can expect no quarter because she's a rich, white chick. Its the only respectful thing to do.

Democrats have great hopes for the first hundred hours, but characteristically its a lot of smoke and mirrors--the minimum wage is direct assault on the poor and the Crats know it. Raise the price of labor, the demand goes down--its simply economics. Just as the Crats were willing to prey on sick people with cynical and false claims about the promises of embryonic stem cell research, they are now sacrificing the poor on the altar of their political ambitions.

Evil dudes.

The Democrat pledges on spending are not actually a pledge to cut spending, but to extract all the taxes they need to pay for their pipe dreams. You are going to be paying more to the government and the rich still won't pay (after all, they're Democrats...). Some might object to this kind of characterization. You are fully entitled to do so. I am willing to wait for history to vindicate my predictions.

I'll reserve judgment of the "full" implementation of the 9/11 commission recommendations. At this point this seems little more than oneupmanship over the Bush administration on the issue of security, but I'm willing to keep an open mind on this.

The changes to lobbying rules are a ruse--pure and simple. The Democrats are corrupt as the day is long and cosmetic changes to the regulation to insure that no one gets taken to lunch won't have any real effect on the millions that go into politicians pockets (Mollohan made millions when he was in the minority--he's set to make a real killing now...)

As for "breaking the link" between lobbyist and legislation--everything the Democrats have proposed is in fact linked to a lobby...

Congressional pay hikes? Only if the minimum wage is approved? Talk about setting the bar low.

..and the Crats promise not to do anything about social security, insuring that the systematic robbery of the American taxpayer continues unabated.

On healthcare, the Crats are wisely holding back on their more ambitious plans and looking to simply do a little tweaking--albeit in the ideological vein of single-payer--i.e. Soviet-style command economy that has failed everywhere its been tried. Ironically, the Democrats are looking to apply the Walmart model of market power to pharmaceutical purchases while of course condemning Walmart as the throne of Satan.

Walmart exerts tremendous market power to drive down the costs of goods it buys. While this is terrific for the consumer, it has one inarguable consequence--it drives businesses to China and other low-cost manufacturers.

The fact that injection-molding is done in China at lower cost doesn't really inhibit U.S. economic development--the future isn't in injection molding. In fact the liberation of capital for low-margin traditional industries means that highly-profitable new industries get more investment.

Pharmaceuticals are a very different story--new drugs have enormous development costs which are paid for by profits from existing patents. Pharmaceuticals will be faced with raising prices on everyone else, or simply divesting--which is what happened to Germany, the former world leader in Pharmaceuticals.

Democrats also promise to halve the interest rate on student loans, which seems like a big gift to struggling students, but will only accelerate out-of-control education costs. Its clear to me that the real problem with education costs are the costs themselves, not our ability to pay them.

Rolling back oil subsidies? I'd have to study their proposals in more detail, but words like "subsidies" are like "budget cuts", "tax credits" and other weasel words--exercises in equivocation. I'm all for energy independence, but let's face it, the Democrat view of energy independence means not using any.

It pretty obvious that I don't have much confidence in the Democrats--leopards don't change their spots. There are some opportunities here, but considering how much of the program is simply rape of the average American citizen by Democrat cronies and allies, I don't have much reason to be hopeful.

Nevertheless, I'll be paying close attention to the details and the devil in them. I'll also give him his due when appropriate.