A few factoids for you to use and be amused by.

• 15th: Where liberals claim the US ranks in life expectancy.
• 1st: Actual life expectancy rank if you control for deaths due to traffic accidents and homicides. That’s right, the US ranks number one among OECD countries with a mean life expectancy of 76.9 years.
• $12,680: Annual family health care insurance premium in 2008, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. If employer-based, a 70/30 employer/employee cost split is typical.
• $9,827: The annual hidden tax imposed by defensive medicine on a typical family of 4 in the US.
• $43 Million: Total contributions by attorneys to the 2008 Obama for president campaign.
• 1300%: Increase in TV ad spending by Malpractice attorneys from 2004 to 2008.

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But is she really putting her speakership at risk, as Redstate’s post Speaker Pelosi Stands Firm on the Public Option, Essentially Tells the White House to Go Pound Sand asserts?

That moment in The Great Obamacare War arrived yesterday, when the Speaker of the House stood firm on the public option, essentially telling the White House to go pound sand.

In effect, Speaker Pelosi just called in an air-strike on her own position.

This is not going to be pretty.

It will likely cost her the Speakership. After the 2010 elections.

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The nonsurprising factoid in the latest Rassmussen poll is that 57% Would Like to Replace Entire Congress. In addition to the headline two interesting trends are highlighted in the release.

First trend- Increasingly partisan approval ratings.

…the number of Democrats who would vote to keep the entire Congress has grown from 25% last fall to 43% today. In fact, a modest plurality of Democrats would now vote to keep the legislators. Last fall, a plurality of Democrats were ready to throw them all out…While Democrats have become more supportive of the legislators, voters not affiliated with either major party have moved in the opposite direction. Today, 70% of those not affiliated with either major party would vote to replace all of the elected politicians in the House and Senate.

According to Rassmussen Republican voters are disenchanted with congresspeople from their party, but this situation remains unchanged.

Second trend – An increasing mistrust of Congresspeople’s motivations and their true concern for constituents.

Just 14% give Congress good or excellent review for their overall performance, while only 16% believe it’s Very Likely that Congress will address the most important problems facing our nation. Seventy-five percent (75%) say members of Congress are more interested in their own careers than they are in helping people.

Ballooning deficit projections, the intransigence of Speaker Pelosi and others about health care reform’s public option, and the Democrats’ (such as Carol Shea-Porter) handling of the so-called town hall meetings have cost House members dearly:

…most voters say they understand the health care legislation better than Congress. Just 22% think the legislature has a good understanding of the issue. Three-out-of-four (74%) trust their own economic judgment more than Congress’.

For a democratic congressperson, increased partisanship combined with broad-based “throw the bums out” discontent has to be a nightmare. On the one hand, there’s the pressure to conform to the party line; on the other, there’s the risk of losing re-election. The few who represent “safe” seats can afford to back the President, but the remainder who support the public option will – at the least – have to prove to independent constituents that they understand the legislation and have solid reasons for backing it. Best guess is that most of them have a lot of work to do to convince voters to return them to Washington, and the ones who rode the anti-Bush wave (like Rep Shea-Porter) will be the most vulnerable.

By claiming she can feel global warming when she flies, Debbie Stabenow, Democrat from Michigan, has stepped up to the plate to challenge Babs Boxer as one of the Senate’s dimmest bulbs. As Michelle Malkin points out, let’s see which SNL comedian will play Debbie Stabenow. Of course I am sure none of us will hold our breath waiting for the program to puncture one of the left’s sacred cows. Better odds waiting for them to create a skit with Tina Fey as Sarah Palin before a “Death Panel”.

Speaking of odds, here are the latest probability-laden statements on the current hurricane and tornado seasons. Dr William Gray has revised his 2009 hurricane forecast down to a below-average season, with only 85% of the activity of the long range seasonal average. Also, as NOAA’s US Severe Weather Blog points out in The “shape” of the 2009 tornado season, this year is shaping up to be about average in terms of tornado frequency.

So there you have it Debbie. Things are no worse than normal. We don’t expect you to be a weather or climate expert, but we do expect you’ll know when you’re making an idiot out of yourself.

The on-going health care reform debate has revealed what many of us suspected: that some members of the party in power obviously believe that they alone, in their infinite wisdom, know what is best for the people. This “trust us” attitude, used in combination with the classic technique of blaming any opposition on “outside agitators” (in this case infiltrating lobbyists from insurance companies), is a classic strategy employed by totalitarian governments to achieve their domestic goals. In What your representatives think of you *UPDATED*, Bookworm Room nails it:

Bottom line: We have a representative democracy in which our elected representatives want us to keep our mouths shut. They think we’re stupid, shrill and easily led.

Sadly, it would seem they really do think this, and it makes me wonder whether some elected representatives will wake up and realize they’re risking their own political suicide?

Think Progress’ report on Health Care Town Halls opens with this sparkling lede:

ThinkProgress reported today on the growing number of angry right-wing activists viciously harassing Democratic, as well as moderate Republican, members of Congress on health care reform. Jonathan Cohn wrote that these tactics represent “classic astroturf organizing, in some cases bankrolled by the health care industry.”

Like many of you I’ve watched the videos and yes, the average Americans that are present sure look like right-wing extremist activists to me. After all, surely the lumpenproletariat accept that the left-wing elites in power know what is best for them, and thus stand in unison with the President and desire health care rationing! It must be the work of an outside agitation group. How dare they raise their voices in unison against HHS Secretary Sibelius and Senator Specter! They were vicious! Sit down and be quiet while your betters tell you what is best for you!

A startling expose, titled Gateway Pundit: PROOF OF LOBBYIST INFILTRATION at Health Care Town Hall Events! gets to the bottom of the astroturf infiltration. Wait – what’s this? Far-left greenies advocating higher gas prices? At a health-care event? And those are the only infiltrators? Oh – well, never mind. Let’s make sure this doesn’t get reported.