US POLITICS SPRING 2011: Let's just call off this country.

that kind of beats around the bush tbh

Obama: smarter than his lawyers.

― The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, June 18, 2011 7:40 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this article is nuts

i mean, not the article, but the events described within

100% not trying to be smart-ass or anything but that's just post-Bush "redefine the terms & proceed as you wish" strategizing, isn't it?

I can't really articulate this point without looking like I agree with Obama's decision, which I don't, but why is it inherently risible for Obama, who has a law degree, to disagree with his counsel on interpretation of the law?

because it happens so rarely, and since it pertains to war it gives a kind of sense of hopelessness wrt constitutional balance of powers - that there's basically nothing that can be done to stop a president whose heart is set on engaging in combat

to be fair to obama, congress seems and has seemed generally uninterested in exercising its powers in this regard

I can't really articulate this point without looking like I agree with Obama's decision, which I don't, but why is it inherently risible for Obama, who has a law degree, to disagree with his counsel on interpretation of the law?

Unlike Lincoln, whom I cite as a wartime president and a good to very good practicing lawyer until inauguration, Obama's response to the Office of Legal Counsel's interpretation of the law isn't particularly novel and in fact sounds a lot like what Jay Bybee, John Woo, and David Addington concluded just seven years ago.

read takeover obv

I love Charlie Savage.

me too

btw I'm reading Harold Koh's National Security Constitution, published after the Iran-Contra hearings farrago. Reading his nuanced ideas to averting the next constitutional crisis between the executive and legislative branches and what he's doing now is a case study in how the ironies of history unfurl.

A sticking point for some skeptics was whether any mission that included firing missiles from drone aircraft could be portrayed as not amounting to hostilities.

But, you see, it is the drones which are engaged in those hostile acts, and not US military personnel, who are merely innocent bystanders. It's as plain as the nose on your face.

ICBMs don't have pilots either.

I guess the main administration argument is more about the SIZE of the hostilities and less about the drone aircraft? Cuz if the drone thing is the core of the argument we're in Orwell territory.

"Honestly, I don't see how a few dozen payloads of high explosives directed at military targets within another sovereign nation could be considered as hostilities. These are what any reasonable person would call friendly hints."

I guess we're long past the point where this would be called Morbius Bait, so I'll just call it Everybody Bait:

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/obama-taking-more-active-role-twitter-account-heading-180511257.html

http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/THIYbgqWVUDSkvWJNBC.MQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Y2g9NTU1O2NyPTE7Y3c9NDE1O2R4PTA7ZHk9MDtmaT11bGNyb3A7aD0yNTU7cT04NTt3PTE5MA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_ca/News/Capress/WHCD111-618_2011_101837_high.jpg

Obama has more than 8.69 million followers on Twitter, making him the third most-followed account among Twitter users, according to Twitter statistics website twittercounter.com. Obama trails only entertainers Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber in followers.

Have at it--it made me cringe too.

According to an Obama campaign flak, the prez on Twitter will "connect to the millions of supporters who will be driving this campaign." They hope. (See what I did there?)

our position is now that cyber attacks on security computers is a hostile act of war justifying use of any and all military force, but us bombing the fuck out of another country by remote control is not sufficiently hands on to engage war powers requirements.

sooooo fucked up

So I'm going on local talk radio tomorrow to kinda debate economics with some right-wing economics professor. I don't really have a lot to say except "rising inequality," "raise taxes" and "single-payer-healthcare." And then the professor and however many callers they can squeeze into the hour will call me a communist. Good times.

big ups!!!

I'd you say "increase revenue, end tax break giveaways" instead of "raise taxes" and "expand Medicare" instead of "single payer", you might fool a few of them.

Godspeed, man.

If, not I'd, despite what my autocorrect thinks

Here's how I'd phrase it instead: "take away guns" instead of "increase revenue, end tax break giveaways," "universal gay marriage" instead of "expand Medicare," and "Al Franken and Rachel Maddow are great Americans" instead of "rising inequality." Good luck!

I'd say "starvation diets are even worse for nations than they are for people."

And how amazing it is that all the people telling us to starve ourselves are PIGS.

Yes!

Be sure to mention Marxism and your fallen comrades at least once in every sentence.

Maybe you could trick the econ prof into letting his professorial side bloom into full-on lecture mode, and try to get him bogged down in long-winded, technical, jargon-filled minutiae. Encourage him by looking fascinated and nodding a lot. The moderator will be working against this, tho.

To expand: minorly misuse a technical term and bait him into correcting you, at great length.

listening to sunday show replays on cspan radio. in between shows they have excerpts of the morning call-in

question is, who's your candidate and what's your level of enthusiasm?

guy calls in from utah and is like "mitt romney's my candidate." "what's your level of enthusiasm?" "rippin and roarin! he's going to turn things around and lead this country in the right direction.. what with the mayan prophecy of the world ending in 2012 and so on"

^^ clowning the radio host

yeah i'm gonna guess he wasn't being serious

"and so on

I'm opening myself up to ridicule, but whatever; a reminder that he is human, and there are things to admire.

http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/video/obama-fathers-day-lessons-13878525

Actually, I'll save you the trouble: "He's even ready to unleash the military on his daughters."

what

don't mind him

lol

"His daughters are willing to fight his extra-constitutional acts in Yemen and Libya."

As the deadline for raising the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling approaches, House Republicans are discussing a temporary extension of the cap

Oh great, lets let Republicans and the mainstream media keep talking about the deficit and debt way into the fall, while no one talks about addressing unemployment because that would require liberal steps or tax cuts Republicans don't want because such cuts would hurt their campaign stance that Obama singlehandedly made the economy worse

well unemployment could be fixed by tax cuts / it was caused by the deficit in the first place qed we lose again

thought it was cute that McCain called GOP dwarfs expressing a wish to rein in one or two military adventures as "running to Obama's left," like there's anything partisan about maintenance of our permanent war economy.

Cranky old man McCain was also blaming illegal immigrants coming across the border for starting fires in Arizona even though the National Park Service said that was not true

the Mexicans are making it difficult to provide bottled water to dehydrated babies

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43UFiboINQc

I know, I know, I know. It's not funny. But of course, none of this is