Congressional Democrats seem extremely pleased with themselves over how they fiddled with the design of an excise tax on employer-provided insurance that will not kick in for eight years (and then grow faster after another two years) to make it look like it will bring in a huge amount of money in the years 2020 through 2029. Given the incredibly stupid design of the excise tax to begin with, no one who understands politics should doubt for a second that this tax will ever go into effect as planned, or bring in this huge amount of revenue.

Gays get thrown under the bus with women, Hispanics, public option and single-payer supporters, community colleges, and student loan borrowers. I thought it might be possible to enact health care reform without LGBTs having to take one for the team, but no.

Is the end nigh?

Bart Stupak, awful person, or the most awful person?

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers with Stevie Nicks — I Need To Know, live from Gatorville, 2006.

The man who was the Bush administration’s viceroy in Iraq, the guy who was handpicked to wield complete dictatorial control over one of the largest Muslim countries in the world after the United States bombed, invaded and conquered it, the man who then promptly made a shit-the-bed mess of things — turns out to be a Tom Buchnanesque asshole who frets publicly about the Great Brown Hordes irrevocably staining the lily-white tapestry of Europe.

Rest in peace, Alex. Good work, Rep. Cohen.

Without rate regulation, without anti-trust enforcement, without a viable public option as escape hatch, without a credible theory of competition, and with virtually no constraints on the industry’s ability to control the Congress and the White House, there is no way consumers can win in the new health insurance markets. We can only wonder about how the next crisis will unfold.

Jack Goldsmith and Ben Wittes have an op-ed up in which, claiming that the PR value to military commissions is minimal, Obama should just not give KSM a trial of any sort. They make a clever move in which they first cursorily dismiss the value of civilian trials. Even Eric Holder, who genuinely wants civilian trials, has conceded the possible efficacy of military commissions and indefinite detention. And once you’ve done that, rather than defend the principle and efficacy of civilian trials, you’re on the slippery slope where our entire rule of law is just a big PR ploy. One that can be discarded for arbitrary indefinite detention when it becomes convenient.

The Change to Win labor federation has unsurprisingly backed the health care bill, even with the increased excise tax on middle class health care plans. Later, the AFL-CIO’s Executive Committee also decided to endorse the bill.