And this relates to “giving all Americans a meaningful choice” how, exactly? Okay, not at all, it’s just a shot at Howard Dean.

While most of the media’s attention has been elsewhere, the Pentagon has stated what anyone with a brain should know by now — that global climate change is a clear and present danger which needs to be included in any threat reckonings.

It is at this time of the year that I reflect on everything that has happened over the course of the year…good and bad, and how I could/should have handled things and what I would do if I ever had the opportunity again. I really don’t make resolutions…I used to, but I never seemed to be able to stick to them. So now, I just reflect on how my life is better this year…my accomplishments, successes and victories as well as my defeats.

Featuring music of Garotas Suecas and BLK JKS.

I call bullshit on Dan Pfeiffer.

No one that I know of in the Democratic party ever dreamed of passing health care reform “like this.” That’s a GOP dream if ever I’ve heard one.

Five years ago, Thomas Frank wrote “What’s The Matter With Kansas?”, about how the GOP uses cultural populism to dupe rural working-class Americans into supporting pro-corporate policies that hasten their own economic demise. Today’s Obama/Rahm/Reid Democrats have turned that dynamic on its head, in more ways than one.

One reason that health care supporters have given for not wanting to go the route of reconciliation is that you would lose all of the insurance reforms and regulations that will end the practice of rescissions, the denial of coverage due to pre-existing conditions, and the price discrimination against the sick. But the bill might not be as good as people claim at policing this kind of regulation.

I have long maintained that progressives should accept an individual mandate only as part of a broad social contract with the government. The government must promise to ensure that every American has access to at least one quality, affordable, cost-effective health insurance plan, and only then can it demand Americans buy health insurance. The Senate bill completely fails to hold up its end of this social contract, and that is made clear by its inclusion of “hardship” waivers.

Nice going, Rahm.

Ezra Klein has done the discussion on health reform a big disservice by making false claims about what could, in fact, start a race to the bottom in the insurance market.