You need to know this. President Obama released his Afghanistan war strategy review this morning. In it – the President claims the timeline for troop withdrawal in July of next year is still on track – though the pace of withdrawal is still uncertain. A US military presence is expected to be in the region until at least 2014. Most of the news is good - we've taken more territory and knocked off most of Al Queda.&n

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You need to know this. Congress is feverishly working to finish up business before the end of the lame-duck session. The Senate is expected to pass President Obama’s tax cut deal in a vote today. And the House seems to be warming up as well – at least Blue Dog democrats are. Despite the package costing nearly $1 trillion – at least 27 members of the Blue Dog coalition sent a letter to Nancy Pelosi urging her to bring the bill to the floor for a vote. She needs 39 Democrats on board for the legislation to even have a chance at passing – there are 54 memb

You need to know this. President Obama’s tax cut deal leaped over its first hurdle in the Senate yesterday – setting up final passage of the package tomorrow. In the first procedural vote – 9 Democrats and 5 Republicans stood opposed to the deal including Senators Bernie Sanders – Sherrod Brown – and Russ Feingold. Now in the House – there is still strong opposition to the package as it stands. The two most controversial points of the bill are cuts in the estate tax and cuts in the Social Security payroll tax. A new poll by ABC and the Washington Post s