The Administration, hoping to counteract that graphic showing twice as many troops in Afghanistan by September 2012 as when President Obama was inaugurated in January 2009, offered a different graph in a White House blog post by Ben Rhodes. This one blends troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan and shows a consistent reduction in troop levels over time.

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley has released a new report that indicates Gov. Deval Patrick’s goal of controlling health care cost by moving the state towards a global payment method is unlikely to product real savings

Max Baucus, a participant in the now-stalled debt limit talks led by Joe Biden, told the Senate Finance Committee that the new “grand bargain” in the deal, what Eric Cantor balked at and left to John Boehner to authorize, is a swap of Medicare cuts for tax increases.

Preet Bharara’s explanation for his failure to prosecute banksters is unconvincing. The plain fact is that he doesn’t really think anyone did anything wrong. How could they? They are the Masters of the Universe!

While at Netroots Nation 2011, I had the privilege of speaking to Lieutenant Dan Choi, who served in the US Army infantry, went to war in Iraq and graduated from West Point with a degree in Arabic.

Choi was kicked out of the military under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) about one year ago. At Netroots Nation, Choi celebrated his one year “anniversary or birthday” as a civilian. He also noted that despite DADT being repealed there are still soldiers getting kicked out of the military for being gay.

In the age of advanced spy satellites, Predators and stealth helicopters that can deliver teams of lethal special forces anywhere on the planet, what exactly is a “safe haven”? Is there such a thing anymore?

[I]t looks like the Greek government will agree to crippling austerity measures as well as the selling off of state assets, just to get the cash to pay off the banks.

More proof that the Republican plan put forward by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) to privatize Medicare is a massive political liability. Another poll, this time from Bloomberg, finds that the American people think it would make seniors worse off.

Before Democrats trotted out their “Republicans are sinking the economy” strategy yesterday, about the only elites willing to tell the truth about the effect of near-term spending cuts were Bill Gross and Ben Bernanke. In his now-regular press conference following the two-day FOMC meetings, Bernanke reiterated himself:

If AARP is really opposed to cutting Social Security benefits as part of a “grand bargain” to reduce the deficit, you’d think they’d come right out and say it. Instead, they’re just recycling all of President Obama’s weasel-word tactics about “supporting” the public option (and we all know how well that worked out).