The recent decision of the UK High Court to release a seven paragraph summary of the torture perpetrated by U.S. agents upon Binyam Mohammed in April and early May 2002 is welcome news. The summary, written by a British court, was derived from 42 classified CIA documents delivered to the British legal authorities as part of an investigation into the actions of MI5 in the torture and interrogation of Binyam Mohamed and other prisoners held by Pakistan. These documents purportedly describe the torture of Mohamed, and indicate the collusion of U.S., British, and Pakistani authorities in the torture.

There’s a lot more that’s frozen in D.C. this week than the usual fallout from a blizzard. The brains of many Senate Republicans are on ice as well. The House passed a jobs bill in December, but the Senate is dawdling, and worse—threatening to pass bits and pieces, taking apart what should be a comprehensive approach to jobs and turning it into minced cabbage.

Today, hundreds of thousands of Iranians appeared at rallies and counter-protests marking the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. The Basiji militia intimidated and oppressed reformist protesters today in a brutal crackdown. In a speech to ralliers, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed that Iran had successfully upped their uranium enrichment, while insisting that the country was not building [...]

In an interview with Roll Call, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made the case for reforming the Senate rules and using reconciliation. “A constitutional majority is 51 votes,” Pelosi said in an interview Tuesday with Roll Call. “If in fact the Republicans are going to say nothing can be done except by 60 percent, then maybe [...]

That Harry Reid really runs a tight ship, doesn’t he?

The White House went into major pushback mode on President Obama’s comments about bonuses and banking CEOs Lloyd Blankfein and Jamie Dimon yesterday. They offered the full context of the remarks and said that his line about “I, like most of the American people, don’t begrudge people success or wealth” was something he’s said many [...]

So, Gregg’s plan would use state-based exchanges, and has an individual mandate requiring every American to buy private insurance. The private insurance would be based on actuarial value, required to cover preventive care, and must not have any annual limits of lifetime limits. To help people afford the insurance, there would be a sliding scale of subsidies for people below a set income level, and a new tax deduction/credit for insurance on the individual market.

I fail to see how this is really different from the Senate bill, which requires people to buy effectively low actuarial value catastrophic insurance, that covers preventive care, from private companies on state-based exchanges, and would provide people with a sliding scale of subsidies to help them afford insurance.

Sure is a good thing that the military budget has an exemption from the spending freeze.

Military officials say that civilian casualties in Marjah, Afghanistan are “inevitable” as U.S. and allied forces launch Operation Moshtarak, the largest military action since the U.S-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

General George McClellan had built a huge army during the Civil War. It was known as the Army of the Potomac. The problem was he built it and built it. And almost never used it. It seemed as if his objective was simply to make his army larger rather than actually using it to win the war. Eventually Lincoln had to fire him.

The parallels are striking. Rahm Emanuel seems to think his job is to grow the Democratic Party larger and larger, but he’s forgotten that his real objective is to win the war. We’re supposed to be aiming for real policy changes in the end. If we don’t get those policies, then Rahm’s Army of the Potomac will be useless.