It's easy to imagine, without even considering various comments and post-election moves, what kind of political fights we're likely to see next year. There will be disputes over health care, government spending, taxes, consumer and worker protections, Wall Street safeguards, etc.

Last night, Bill Maher went off on Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's Rally for Sanity, and the resulting monologue was predictably funny and utterly brilliant. He's not completely discounting the impact of the rally–he's psyched that it had twice the attendance of Glenn Beck's.

The GOP is drawing up its economic plan as the party gears to fill up a majority house, but even before any legislation is introduced, the budget proposal's profound flaws are already on the table. In their so-called “Pledge to America,” Republicans detail their wishes to cut health care, keep tax cuts, gut environmental regulations and cease the government spending that many economists say is tantamount to job growth.

Olbermann's suspensionfrom MSNBC yesterday, for donating $7,200 to Democratic candidates from his personal account, drew ire from fans and fellow pundits.

Ah, the fallout from the 2010 midterm elections -- it just keeps on getting more depressing, at least from a climate and clean energy perspective. Yes, the folks over at Think Progress did some background research on the incoming Congressmen, and they reveal a disheartening stat: 50% of them outright deny that climate change is real. Nice.

Last month, Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ), a frequent critic of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (i.e. the stimulus), announced that he was going to take advantage of a stimulus program to get suspended infrastructure projects in his state back on line.

Today an LA county judge handed down the sentence for Bay Area BART officer Johannes Mehserle who shot and killed the unarmed Oscar Grant on New Years day 2009. The judge gave Mehserle the minimum possible sentence of 2 years (of which he's already served 146 days).

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

MSNBC has suspended Keith Olbermann, host of the network's highest-rated show, following revelations that he donated to three Democratic candidates in the midterm election. In a brief statement Phil Griffin, President of MSNBC, said: "I became aware of Keith’s political contributions late last night. Mindful of NBC News policy and standards, I have suspended him indefinitely without pay."

Nancy Pelosi has just announced via tweet that she's running for Democratic minority leader. "Driven by the urgency of creating jobs & protecting #hcr, #wsr, Social Security & Medicare, I am running for Dem Leader," Pelosi said.

The new Congress hasn't even convened, but the epic clash between the GOP and incoming Tea Party has already begun to gel–and instead of a winner, they'll most likely end up in governmental deadlock. Questions have already arisen whether the two factions will be able to work together, with the Tea Party's hardline stance against compromise abutting the Republicans' need to get something, anything done in the next two years.