Since Sarah wants the government out of our kitchens, let’s keep ‘em out of our bedrooms too! And our living rooms! And our backyards!

The bond vigilantes have spoken at last!

In a move that he has used many times before, David Petraeus is putting out inflated claims on his “training” prowess in advance of a war strategy review. This time, Petraeus’ claim comes through an ISAF press release dated Monday, with the headline “Afghan Force Strength Growing Faster than Projected”. This looks like a direct repeat of September, 2004 when he burst onto the political scene by penning a Washington Post Op-Ed in which he falsely claimed great progress on troop training in Iraq and helped George W. Bush to re-election. Then, in September, 2007, while defending the surge in Iraq (and starting again from scratch on Iraqi troop training), Petraeus’ actions prompted John Arquilla, of the Naval Postgraduate School to note to Michael Hirsh “I think Colin Powell used dodgy information to get us into the war, and Petraeus is using dodgy information to keep us there.” Little wonder, then, that with another Afghanistan strategy review session looming, Petraeus should get ISAF to put out a claim that training is moving ahead of schedule.

Living Liberally (best known as the organizational home of Drinking Liberally, a national network of lefty social gatherings) is encouraging people to host screenings of It’s A Wonderful Life and take action against foreclosures. Or, have fun, share holiday cheer – and get the banks to leave your neighbor’s house alone.

Now that President Obama has reach a “compromise” with the Republicans on tax cuts for the rich — which are even more generous to the ultra-wealthy than any George W. Bush passed — it’s time for predictions.

Obama helps corporations cut wages and salaries over the long term, with his FICA tax cut.

The “This country was founded on compromise” line was kind of funny. Because he just got done saying that the Republicans view tax cuts as their Holy Grail and won’t budge on it, so… he moved to them. The Republicans, then, don’t get the brunt of that broadside about the essential importance of compromise, because THEY DIDN’T COMPROMISE TO GET THE MAIN THING THAT THEY WANTED. Democrats, however, are excoriated because they don’t look enough at the big picture. What the President doesn’t understand, or doesn’t want to understand, is that the Bush tax cuts are as foundational an issue for the left as he understands they are for the right. Or perhaps, he knows that he has leverage over the left that he doesn’t have over the right, and so he uses different standards for each.

President Obama is going to send this NAFTA-style Korea Free Trade deal to Congress soon. We need to put a stop to this new NAFTA immediately, so Congress needs to hear from you now.

Sign our petition to Congress at NoNewNAFTA.com.

New York Times editor Bill Keller, explains how his organization checked with the US government before publishing any of the Wikileaks State Department cables, redacted all sensitive names from publication at the recommendation of the government, and basically did everything they could in advance to clear the release with the Administration. Carne Ross, the British Ambassador, “found it extraordinary” that the NYT would clear their releases with the US government.

And now, for their trouble, the Times has put themselves in the crosshairs of Joe Lieberman, the head of the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

When health care reform was passed, we were told by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) it was only a “starter home” that would be improved later. We were also offered vague promises from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) that we would get a vote on a public option in the months following the passage of the new law. Obviously this hasn’t happened.

But there is no reason why Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid couldn’t bring up the public option for an up or down vote next week.