Brian Montopoli was at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, and found that while there is a very vocal block who support the legalization of marijuana, there is also some…er…resistance: Another group looking to steer the GOP’s direction were the Ron Paul acolytes, who stood out for their youth and exuberance and hawked Paul’s book “End [...]

One aspect of the health care reform fight that was sometimes overlooked, but I think should get more attention in any political retrospective, is just how completely and totally Democrats lost the PR messaging war. Democrats spent a huge amount of time and political capital making sure the bill was scored by the CBO as [...]

This is some completely sickening news that simply can’t be interpreted as anything else but a massive betrayal of grassroots progressives. Politico is reporting that Congressional Democrats are thinking of not even producing a non-binding budget resolution this year. Why should the fate of a non-binding budget resolution be of paramount importance to activists hoping [...]

We recently polled both our online audience and our email list to determine if people thought t FDL should get involved in the marijuana legalization ballot initiatives in California, Washington and Oregon. The support was overwhelming — 97% online and 92% from our email list. Yes Percent No Percent Online 2,741 97% 99 3% Email [...]

Want to see into the future? Look at the ongoing fight over premium increases for policies on the Massachusetts Connector (exchange), and the effort by the state regulator to control prices, and you’ll get a glimpse–because the health care plan just put into law would effectively replicate the Massachusetts health care system in every state. [...]

Now that the new health care law is passed, Democrats are hoping to focus on jobs and the economy. Members of Congress and progressive organizations have begun talking more about the Local Jobs For America Act. It is a good bill that should actually help to create and save jobs while temporarily helping to ease [...]

In Massachusetts, which has previously implemented a health care system very similar to the one that will be created by the new health care law, their exchange is in a serious fight with the private health insurance companies over premium increases. The state division of insurance recently rejected the vast majority of rate increases proposed [...]

The Hill has an article on the Progressive Caucus strategy for dealing with cap & trade.  It leaves the reader to infer quite a bit, so I thought I would helpfully translate. Liberal House Democrats are shifting their political tactics on climate change after failing to secure a public option in the new healthcare reform [...]

Normally, by this point in the year, Congress would have already began the process of marking up the 2011 budget resolution. The process got pushed back due to the work on the new health care law, but that means Congress will begin working on it soon after they get back from recess next week. Potentially [...]

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy