SOME NEWS: * New report on nation-building in Afghanistan has some bad signs. * Clearing up misconceptions about military drones . * "The liars and lunatics serve as a smoke screen for the conservative war on the poor and the middle class." * "The new orthodoxy is fundamentalist Americanism ." * Confirmation that China is building an aircraft carrier . Kevin Drum has a couple good reads on that. * On Medicare and mandates . * Looking back at the Bush tax cuts ten years later. * The angle that the Democrats should be pushing. * A new future for the New Carrolton station.