John Conyers, Jerry Nadler, and Bobby Scott just introduced bills that will provide needed reforms to PATRIOT and FISA while reauthorizing most of the sunsetting authorities this year.   From the Committee press release, the PATRIOT bill does the following. Title I: Patriot Act Related Amendments Roving Wiretaps • Clarifies roving wiretap laws in [...]

  The campaign arm of the DNC, Organizing For America, has delivered over 150,000 phone calls, at last count, in favor of health care reform. The President himself will deliver remarks at a “Time To Deliver” call party tonight.   Less clear is what these callers are actually asking for in the health care reform [...]

There’s one more detail in that NYT article that deserves attention: Christie was apparently charging you and I for his personal trips to Mets games.

  The divisions among the business community over climate change have burst into view this year, particularly with respect to the US Chamber of Commerce, which several high-profile companies have left because of their lobbying against a climate bill and their general denial of climate science. Now, several progressive groups are exploiting this rift by [...]

  Senator Ron Wyden’s annoying insistence that Democrats not lie to the American people about health care reform is causing trouble for the party leadership again. His office was not happy with a new talking point sent out by the leadership, falsely claiming that if you don’t like your current health insurance you would be [...]

If elements of the military community dislike the fact that it’s taking weeks for Obama to refine his Afghanistan strategy now, they’ll really dislike what will happen if he hastily orders a politically unsustainable escalation and the reins get pulled back by a dissatisfied Congress in a year or so.

Less than a week after George Will predicted a Republican tidal wave in 2010, his own paper comes out with a poll that shows that pretty much everyone hates Republicans.

The Washington Post makes incorrect and unprovable jumps of logic based on their new poll about the public option: If a public plan were run by the states and available only to those who lack affordable private options, support for it jumps to 76 percent. Under those circumstances, even a majority of Republicans, 56 percent, [...]

  Blanche Lincoln is working hard to become the most stalwart defender of the for-profit health insurance industry among Senate Democrats (that is an impressive accomplishment because Ben Nelson and Joe Lieberman are giving her a real run for her money).   Last week, Blanche Lincoln said she was maybe open to a delayed trigger [...]

  The Afghan election commission today bowed to international pressure and ordered a runoff, complying with the United Nations recount that pushed President Hamid Karzai below 50% of the vote. Karzai will face former Prime Minister Abdullah Abdullah in the runoff, to be held on November 7. The quick runoff date was necessary to get [...]