I think Karzai's right.

The folks behind Obama want us to stay.

Enrollment in the Affordable Care Act through Colorado's health insurance exchange is barely half the state's worst-case projection, prompting demands from exchange board members for better stewardship of public money.

The shortfall could compromise the exchange's "ability to deliver on promises made to Colorado citizens" and threatens the funding stream for the exchange itself, according to board e-mails obtained by The Denver Post in an open records request.

The exchange, meant for individuals and small groups buying insurance, had projected a lowest-level mid-November enrollment of 11,108, in a presentation to a board finance committee. The exchange announced Nov. 18 that it had signed up 6,001 Coloradans so far.

The midlevel scenario for November was 20,186 members, and the highest projection 30,944 members.

As federal startup grants taper off under Obamacare funding, the exchange is meant to pay for itself with per-member charges on the private insurance companies offering policies. It needs 136,300 enrollees in 2014 to raise $6.5 million of its $51.4 million expenses.

The ACA does have a necessary redistributive component ... a move toward an equalizer via subsidies and broad inclusion at the core. A large move toward universality.

His condemnation of trickle down economics is mind blowing.

Charlie Pierce:

"Trickle-down." The SOB actually used the phrase? In an official document? Classic. Faith in markets has "never been confirmed by facts"? Okay, right off the top, any time this guy wants space on the blog, it's his. I keep waiting for him to give me the Latin for "zombie-eyed granny starver."

If that means the Afghan soldiers shoot their trainers now and again and the majority our $8b per year goes into the bank accounts of corrupt officials, it remains a small price to pay for the best foreign policy decision evah.

Your link is broken. And your quote left out three paragraphs.

Here. Let me help you...

The cloak-and-dagger was necessary, the officials said, because it allowed the United States and Iran to discuss the outlines of a nuclear deal without fear that details would leak out.

But the disclosure that the United States and Iran had been talking privately angered France, which registered its displeasure two weeks ago by warning that the proposal then being discussed was too lenient and that it would not accept a "sucker's deal."

For all of Mr. Obama's emphasis on diplomacy, analysts noted that [he] often depends on others to take the initiative. In the case of Iran, it was the election of Hassan Rouhani as president, with his mandate to seek a relaxation of punishing sanctions.

In the case of Syria, it was a Russian proposal for President Bashar al-Assad to turn over and destroy his chemical weapons stockpiles, an option the White House seized on as a way of averting a military strike that Mr. Obama first threatened and then backed off from.

WASHINGTON -- Two long-range American bombers have conducted what Pentagon officials described Tuesday as a routine training mission through international air space recently claimed by China as its "air defense identification zone."

The Chinese government said Saturday that it has the right to identify, monitor and possibly take military action against aircraft that enter the area, which includes sea and islands also claimed by Japan. The claim threatens to escalate an already tense dispute over some of the maritime territory.

WASHINGTON -- Two long-range American bombers have conducted what Pentagon officials described Tuesday as a routine training mission through international air space recently claimed by China as its "air defense identification zone."

The Chinese government said Saturday that it has the right to identify, monitor and possibly take military action against aircraft that enter the area, which includes sea and islands also claimed by Japan. The claim threatens to escalate an already tense dispute over some of the maritime territory.

Does your employer get to follow you into the grocery store and tell you on what you can and can't spend your paycheck?

Unions want those low paid workers (who, incidentally, are all too often also on food stamps) to fund their pensions.