"My Constituents Care Way More About Political Gamesmanship Than Jobs, Health Care, And The Economy"

This is a great article on torture. It is a review of a book that defends the use of torture in protecting national security. The review makes the following points: 1) much valuable intelligence (including the locations of Saddam Hussein and Zarqawi) was gained through interrogation that did not involve torture. 2) Waterboarding KSM did not provide any useful information. 3) Captured American soldiers are instructed to resist interrogation as much as they can, so we should not be surprised that those people we have captured also resist. 4) Our use of torture makes it more likely that torture will be used on captured Americans. 5) The waterboarding inflicted on some American soldiers in training is entirely voluntary and can be stopped by them at any moment. 6) American law enforcement officers have been convicted and sentenced to prison for waterboarding prisoners. 7) Military regulations and international agreements to which the US is a party explicitly forbid torture FOR ANY REASON (including the pretext that it could save lives).
http://www.slate.com/id/2246692/

Also, I am tired of the disparaging attitude toward "Cadillac" insurance plans. Everyone wants such a plan. In other developed countries, "Cadillac" insurance plans are just called health care. Here, Medicare is a perfect example of "Cadillac" insurance. Why are even the Democrats vilifying what everyone not so secretly wants? Furthermore, just because an insurance policy is expensive, it is not necessarily good. People, especially old people, who buy individual coverage must pay tremendous fees for often inadequate coverage. If we need to finance health care reform (and we do), we should do it buy raising income tax levels to what they were before the Bush cuts of 2001 and 2003 that affected only the richest people. There is absolutely no correlation between the highest income tax level and GDP growth. Some of the fastest development in this country occurred when the highest level was 91%. Taxes were never lower than they have been during this past decade (supposed wartime), and yet this has been a lost decade, with a decline in median household income from $52,000 to $50,000 and no job growth at all.