“Al-Aulaqi was a senior operational leader of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula” vs. the contention about the impact of his speeches – i.e. even if the worst case were true, it wouldn’t matter.

“fear he was able to inspire through his words” — from KG FDL piece up top.

So who is so “afraid” and “fearful” in Obama WH,Obama run CIA/Pentagon?

The “operational leader” tag is a red herring. It doesn’t matter. If they had evidence, they needed to present it in court, not make up their own “review process” and then kill him. It’s a high crime and it needs to be met with impeachment and removal from office.

“No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;” Fifth Amendment.

Today, it’s just some renegade Muslim preacher. Tomorrow it’s you or me. This is an impeachable offense. All of the advancement in gay rights is not worth giving the government under any leader the right to make up their own law and kill American citizens under these imaginary checks and balances. There is a reason the Founders wrote this. Breaking it is an impeachable offense.

Evidence several years after Awlaqi’s death, given in public by the AG, does not in the least matter. If they had evidence, according to the Constitution, they need to present it in court. As Kevin says, “Over two paragraphs describe the legal reviews of which Aulaqi’s targeted assassination was subjected, but it does not change the reality that the administration was acting as judge, jury and executioner.”

If Obama, who is much, much worse on this most important of issues than Bush Jr. was, wants the Federal government to kill someone, the means of doing so is spelled out in black letter law. If and Holder don’t like what the Constitution says, they can have an amendment passed repealing various other amendments and articles and send it to the states for ratification. This is an impeachable offense and he must not be allowed to get away with it.

That’s not really the point. Under a dictatorship, changes in policy direction can be made overnight on a whim. Under a democratic system, changes in policy direction can only take pace after an election or two.

Voters regretted reelecting Bush by 2006, and gave Democrats control of the Senate and the House. Then in 2008, voters gave the Democrats everything – the presidency and solid control of both houses. Obama promised change, and it was very reasonable to expect that he would steer away from what voters hated about Bush. That’s the way the system is supposed to work: it’s slow, but changes from elections are supposed to lead to changes in policy direction.

Instead, Obama has moved the pendulum about 2 degrees away from Bush, very reluctantly endorsing gay rights, having sense enough to keep us out of Syria (so far) and a few other things better than Bush; but hardly the massive swing away from Bush the country voted for three of the last four elections and had a perfect right to expect.

So put your tiny violin away. If you predicted that Obama would be awful, congratulations – want a cookie? This is a disaster for the nation and its political system – and you and me.

The IAFF briefly considered not endorsing Obama in 2012 and just working on local races. If there is ever going to be a viable left third or fourth party, it will show its viability fairly early on by attracting dissident labor unions.

Union leaders are in a tough place. The jobs their members work are disappearing after 35 years of all out war against them. Many locals and even regional councils (e.g. Philadelphia) still have race, uh, issues. Lots of members have Limbaugh and race issues. “Open shop” legislation is spreading.

The unions really jumped up in 2008 when Obama said he would make EFCA “a legislative priority.” Then he named Patrick Gaspard of New York SEIU his political guy and sent him straight to the unions a few weeks after the inauguration to tell them that EFCA wasn’t happening: an ugly double betrayal – Obama likes to make people betray their principles to demonstrate their subordination.

It appears one of the surprise losers during the implementation of the Affordable Care Act maybe some of the labor unions that most strongly supported the law.

Not s surprise to labor. They knew, they saw this specific point coming, they raised hell, they were promised it would be taken care of. There is not a single promise to labor that Obama has not broken.

Believe me, Woodward always serves the interests of the permanent government and always has.

Fortunately, Obama doesn’t know a thing about any of this.

Nobody knows anything about ACA/Obamacare right now. About third think it was repealed. Nobody knew what was in the bill when it passed except a few lobbyists and legislative aides – covering policy debates is beneath the dignity of our Worst Press In The World – and the Administration has not yet bothered to inform us in any concerted fashion. Its implementation was staggered over years, so little bits and pieces dribble out now and then. And, of course, the Administration is struggling to get it implemented, writing and rewriting front-end questionnaires six months before full implementation; and bending over backward to blue states, so no one really knows right now what Obamacare is or will be, and the eventual answer may depend very much on where you live. I think the Republicans have played this about right. But then I’m so cynical, I think ACA was nothing more than an attempt to ruin real healthcare reform.

By early November 2014, Obamacare will have been declared a mess and a disaster. The incompetent Obama Administration will have done a poor job of making it work bureaucratically and, as marym in IL pointed out the other day, everything that Americans hate about their healthcare – and there sure is a lot to hate – will have been ascribed to Obamacare. This was bad legislation, badly planned, being half-assedly implemented. I think it will serve the Republicans very well, maybe even control of the Senate well.

Of course, A.P. reaction could be faux outrage while they continue to suck up.

I don’t know. A lot of journalists and even the pseudo-journalists who are crowding them out believe that they are heirs to Murrow, Sheehan, and Cronkite. Sure, their stories on government and corporate malfeasance seem to get the axe a little too frequently before press or air time, but they heard all of the hero stories in J-School and money isn’t everyone’s prime motivator all of the time. They still have to look themselves in the mirror, and that’s getting harder every day for the honest ones trying to respect themselves as journalists. They aren’t doing their jobs at all, but they like to think that they are and get in very, very high dudgeon when told that they aren’t.

Voluntarily, editors and publishers will stay away from 99% of the stories Our Betters don’t want told. But they want to choose what those stories are. These people travel in herds. If one or two at the head of the herd suddenly turn, it could be very surprising how quickly the American press will turn in a new direction.

Our Worst Press In The World pretends that Christianity consists entirely of the Roman Catholic Church and Protestant fundamentalists: right wing nuts, hypocrites and perverts. This, of course, omits the largest group of Christians in the country, the mainstream, old line Protestants, the Episcopalians, Presbyterians, United Methodists, Baptists, Lutherans etc.

As the main goal of our press is to prepare the way for the coming – and mostly arrived – corporate state by the kabuki of isolating “left” dissidents from “right” dissidents, so is keeping decent people unaware of how many allies they have in the religious community a part of that. Everywhere George Bush the Lesser went, people with even dissenting t-shirts were removed from events he attended so that a discouraging word never reached his ears. But since he liked the cover of claiming to be a United Methodist, when he went to church in Dallas he couldn’t have the minister arrested for a sermon denouncing aggressive wars and he had to sit there and listen to whole damned thing – probably the only time.

We have allies – good, solid allies – among Christians, but our press likes to pretend Christians are all child molesters, TV preachers and fat corrupt old men. Not so.

“And nothing was cleaned up. As you know, the companies that were too big to fail then are even bigger now.”

And the right way to do this – let them all fail, nationalize a few we need, and go back to a directly regulated financial industry effectively broken into more discreet sectors and many more centers – gets more painful and difficult with each walkover of regulation. Failing to get any handle on derivatives means that no one will know anything about who possible counter partners might be and the amounts involved until after dies irae.

These evil, soulless people have enormous amounts of money and power (same thing these days) and putting them back in their boxes would be a challenge even for smart, competent politicians who wanted to do so. That ain’t these guys.

I think NY40′s lesson was about what needs to be done, whereas yours is about what will be done Sadly, my guess is that yours is the one we will see next.

they won’t have suggested a single addition to the “starter house” – only things to make it worse

That is a great point, marym in IL. I had forgotten all of the hoopla when pwogwessives voted in lockstep for this dog’s breakfast about how awesome it was all going to be real soon with the great changes.

The Democratic Party has been effective purged of anyone who opposes the law from the right.

Maybe in the House for now. But where would that put Democratic Senators like Klobuchar who are trying to carve out exceptions – costly exceptions – to Obamacare for their corporate daddies? I wouldn’t let the whole Democratic Party off the hook just because Hoyer and Clyburn worked hard this week.