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.

Obama said it wouldn’t be easy, and it wasn’t – a lot of American and Afghan blood was spilled in order to “break the momentum” and get a seat at the table. And it certainly wasn’t quick, these talks have been in the works for well over a year now. So, how did it go?

Mullah Omar, leader of the Taliban, isn’t having any of it…Damn, what’s the problem?

After weeks of news dumps from anonymous sources that Afghan-Taliban talks were proceeding at high levels, facilitated by NATO forces providing escorts for Taliban leaders into Kabul, Landay and Strobel talk to some other sources for McClatchy, and find that the whole thing is just a bunch of PR.

There is great concern that the Republicans will take control of the House of Representatives and even possibly the Senate in the 2010 elections. While most prognosticators are predicting huge wins for the Republican Party, their current seat deficit is so great that if they do win back the majority in the House, it will likely be by less than a dozen seats. If Democrats do manage to hold on to the House, it will likely also be with a very narrow majority. While I’ve been told with much hand waving to be very scared about the prospect of Speaker John Boehner, what no one in the Democratic party has legitimately explained to me–or the rest of America–is why we should care. . . be it Republicans or Democrats with narrow control of the House.

I’m going to advance a theory that the political leadership in Washington has a plan to declare victory and get out of Afghanistan as surely as the Administration is doing in Iraq. Call it a hunch.

Now is the time to rethink your position on the war in Afghanistan.

Several left-leaning writers like Greg Sargent have all noted the basic game theory 101 involved. Voters will blame Democrats, and vote for Republicans, if the economy stays bad. So, Republicans have a huge incentive to block Democrats from passing legislation that would improve the economy, and Senate Republicans have the tool to do that with the filibuster.

My question is: If Democratic Senators like Stabenow actually believe Republicans are trying to destroy the lives of millions of Americans and our economy, why on Earth are Senate Democrats letting Republicans do it?

The real endgame Karzai is working toward is that of a nominal, Pashtun-nationalist government in Kabul overlaying a Taliban-dominated countryside. Together they function not only as a crime family capable of exploiting Afghanistan’s resources but also as a highly effective proxy for Pakistan’s interminable battle against Indian influence.

If the Democrats want to pass anything in the Senate with 50 votes over the course of the next year, they have to decide now what they want to use reconciliation for and include that in next year’s budget resolution.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has a new article on Huffington Post ripping the private insurance companies and again calling for her new Health Insurance Rate Authority. While I appreciate the sentiment, the Senator’s promises ring hollow to anyone that has followed the health care debate.