Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

The GOP is a fucking disgrace.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Let there be snark.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

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We are all Vulcans now

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John Harris, in a list of ways to attack Obama that Republicans may find helpful:

Too much Leonard Nimoy

[…..]

But his intellectuality has contributed to a growing critique that decisions are detached from rock-bottom principles.

Both Maureen Dowd in The New York Times and Joel Achenbach of The Washington Post have likened him to Star Trek’s Mr. Spock.

The Spock imagery has been especially strong during the extended review Obama has undertaken of Afghanistan policy. He’ll announce the results on Tuesday. The speech’s success will be judged not only on the logic of the presentation but on whether Obama communicates in a more visceral way what progress looks like and why it is worth achieving. No soldier wants to take a bullet in the name of nuance.

Are there other first-world countries where the media spends a lot of time worrying that its leaders are too rational?

The next two criticisms are, by the way, in order “The rap is that his West Wing is dominated by brass-knuckled pols” and “But some of the same insider circles that are starting to view Obama as a bully are also starting to whisper that he’s a patsy.”

The Village attacks on Obama are just as inconsistent as the winger attacks.

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Another Letdown from Team Obama

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I’m tired of keeping track of what hasn’t changed:

The Obama administration will largely preserve Bush-era procedures allowing the government to search — without suspicion of wrongdoing — the contents of a traveler’s laptop computer, cellphone or other electronic device, although officials said new policies would expand oversight of such inspections.

The policy, disclosed Thursday in a pair of Department of Homeland Security directives, describes more fully than did the Bush administration the procedures by which travelers’ laptops, iPods, cameras and other digital devices can be searched and seized when they cross a U.S. border. And it sets time limits for completing searches.

But representatives of civil liberties and travelers groups say they see little substantive difference between the Bush-era policy, which prompted controversy, and this one.

I’m not sure how anyone can defend a policy that your personal electronic equipment can be seized and searched for no reason whatsoever. “Shut up, that’s why” might work for right-wing blogs, but as a policy for the government, it is inexcusable.

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Bring On the Brawndo

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Another victory for stupid:

There is nothing in any of the legislative proposals that would call for the creation of death panels or any other governmental body that would cut off care for the critically ill as a cost-cutting measure. But over the course of the past few months, early, stated fears from anti-abortion conservatives that Mr. Obama would pursue a pro-abortion, pro-euthanasia agenda, combined with twisted accounts of actual legislative proposals that would provide financing for optional consultations with doctors about hospice care and other “end of life” services, fed the rumor to the point where it overcame the debate.

On Thursday, Mr. Grassley said in a statement that he and others in the small group of senators that was trying to negotiate a health care plan had dropped any “end of life” proposals from consideration.

A pending House bill has language authorizing Medicare to finance beneficiaries’ consultations with professionals on whether to authorize aggressive and potentially life-saving interventions later in life. Though the consultations would be voluntary, and a similar provision passed in Congress last year without such a furor, Mr. Grassley said it was being dropped in the Senate “because of the way they could be misinterpreted and implemented incorrectly.”

I still contend health care reform is over. The GOP and the fringe right will just move on to something else they find “objectionable” like this absurd accusation that voluntary counselling amounted to a panel of experts determining who should and should not live, the senior citizens seem overwhelmingly content to suckle at the public teat in regards to medicare while giving everyone else the bird, the insurance industry is playing both sides, half the Democrats are spooked by their own shadows, and the other half are in bed with the FIRE sector.

It is just over. And the Democrats have no one to blame but themselves. If the Republicans had majorities like the Democrats have right now, they would have abolished the IRS and the Department of Education, Bernie Madoff would be running social security, there would be an oil well in every backyard and off every inch of coast, we’d have mandatory prayer in schools, and the defense department budget would be doubled so we could have excellent adventures in Iran while we liberate Georgia from oppressive Russian rule. And we’d be doing it all with a top marginal rate of 3%.

Get ready for three more years of debating school uniforms.

Also, they killed off the climate bill was no one was looking. Thank the usual suspects- Nelson, Dorgan, Baucus, and Lincoln. Any of you think the Democrats have the nerve to deal with immigration in an election year. HAHAHAHAHA! And forget about regulating Wall Street.

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Why Even Bother With the Show Trial?

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This, if true, is indefensible:

The Obama administration said Tuesday it could continue to imprison non-U.S. citizens indefinitely even if they have been acquitted of terrorism charges by a U.S. military commission.

Jeh Johnson, the Defense Department’s chief lawyer, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that releasing a detainee who has been tried and found not guilty was a policy decision that officials would make based on their estimate of whether the prisoner posed a future threat.

Like the Bush administration, the Obama administration argues that the legal basis for indefinite detention of aliens it considers dangerous is separate from war-crimes prosecutions. Officials say that the laws of war allow indefinite detention to prevent aliens from committing warlike acts in future, while prosecution by military commission aims to punish them for war crimes committed in the past.

Mr. Johnson said such prisoners held without trial would receive “some form of periodic review” that could lead to their release.

Team Obama should get ripped to shreds for even floating this.

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Prepare for an anti-Obama Shit Fit

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This will get ugly:

The Obama administration, fearing a battle with Congress that could stall plans to close Guantanamo, has drafted an executive order that would reassert presidential authority to incarcerate terrorism suspects indefinitely, according to three senior government officials with knowledge of White House deliberations.

Such an order would embrace claims by former president George W. Bush that certain people can be detained without trial for long periods under the laws of war. Obama advisers are concerned that bypassing Congress could place the president on weaker footing before the courts and anger key supporters, the officials said.

***

One administration official suggested the White House was already trying to build support for an executive order.

“Civil liberties groups have encouraged the administration, that if a prolonged detention system were to be sought, to do it through executive order,” the official said. Such an order could be rescinded and would not block later efforts to write legislation, but civil liberties groups generally oppose long-term detention, arguing that detainees should either be prosecuted or released.

The Justice Department has declined to comment on the prospects for a long-term detention system while internal reviews of Guantanamo detainees are underway. The reviews are expected to be completed by July 21.

Not only will this infuriate a certain portion of Obama’s base, but using an executive order for this also completely undercuts any defense regarding his inaction on DADT. I’m not sure what will be funnier- the hysterics of the PUMA crowd or the idiots on the right wing who will crow that Bush has been vindicated, completely missing that the executive order will be issued in order to help Obama repudiate Bush’s handling of Gitmo.

Either way, this will be a long week.

*** Update ***

More from Marcy Wheeler, and a “WH official” deflates the trial balloon here.

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Obama and the IG Firing

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Haven’t paid attention to this because there are only about 10,000 other things going on, but good catch from Tapper:

After being briefed today on President Obama’s firing last week of Gerald Walpin, Inspector General of the Corporation for National and Community Service, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said the president did not abide by the same law that he co-sponsored – and she wrote – about firing Inspectors General.

“The White House has failed to follow the proper procedure in notifying Congress as to the removal of the Inspector General for the Corporation for National and Community Service,” McCaskill said. “The legislation which was passed last year requires that the president give a reason for the removal.”

Anyone have a good link to the backstory on this (other than the ABC links in the story)? And by a good link, I mean a link to a writeup from someone who hasn’t spent the last year wondering out loud about Obama’s Muslim heritage or birth certificate, so of course the NRO is out of the question.

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