General interest readers in America, apparently, can’t be expected to face the fact that our Congress is not only ruining our own country, it is ruining the globe.

The FDA says the reimportation of drugs into this country from Canada and other developed nations would be “difficult to implement” and “resource-intensive,” and would involve “significant safety concerns.” Republicans have already cost Americans $20 billion or so just in the past couple years obstructing reimportation, which should be the law of the land already. You’d think the president would find an FDA commissioner who’d fix this.

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Ben Bradlee weeps.

Last night, Harry Reid announced that there would be tentative deal (or deals) on the public option. The deal has not been scored by the CBO and, in fact, the deal may only be a deal on what ideas they will have the CBO score, so that they then can than use that information to make the actual deal. Nor does it sound like the deal included the whole Democratic caucus, so this deal might not even have the 60 votes needed, thereby making it not really a “deal” at all.

Roman Polanski was arrested in Switzerland on a 31-year-old statutory rape charge earlier this year, and many Hollywood stars immediately rallied to his defense. Earlier this summer, Michael Jackson died and the world mourned despite the shadow cast by multiple charges of child molestation. As Polanski remains under house arrest, we ask Trish Kinney, Michael [...]

So despite the fact that the country wants a public option, the President campaigned on one and Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid both promised there would be one in the final bill, the woman who took $763,000 from health care interests for her upcoming Senate race is allowed to dictate what happens. And Obama gives his seal of approval, desperate for anything he can call a “win” in time for the State of the Union address.

What a hideous, rudderless mess.

The one bright spot in yesterday’s firestorm of health care reform news was that Barbara Boxer drove a stake through the heart of Ben Nelson’s version of the anti-choice Stupak amendment. Her motion to permanently table it easily passed with 54 votes.

If anything, yesterday’s events puts a bright, shining spotlight to how this process really works. The cold, hard truth is Obama won’t lift a finger if it means losing even a few votes in the House for the final bill. And so far, One Voice For Choice is the only campaign going on out there that’s targeting the Stupak coalition of conservadems that says you can’t pass a final bill without gutting women’s reproductive rights.

John Conyers is like the rest of progressives who fell in love with Obama the person and not Obama the moderate.

Merry Christmas, liberals! Under the compromise developed by a group of conservative and liberal Democrats, the Senate legislation would no longer include a new government-run insurance program, or “public option,” for Americans who do not get coverage through their employers. Instead, the government would essentially contract with a nonprofit insurer to provide a nationwide plan [...]