American Citizens Can Now Be Killed Without Trial

I'm guessing if Bush had done this people would be a wee bit more up in arms:

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric Holder said Monday that the decision to kill a U.S. citizen living abroad who poses a terrorist threat "is among the gravest that government leaders can face," but justified lethal action as legal and sometimes necessary in the war on terror.

Holder's comments broke the administration's silence on the legal justifications for its decision to kill American-born al-Qaida operative Anwar al-Awlaki five months ago in Yemen. In a speech at Northwestern University law school in Chicago, he described al-Awlaki as concocting plans to kill Americans but he never explicitly acknowledged the administration responded by targeting the cleric for death.

Instead the attorney general outlined a three-part test for determining when a targeted killing against a U.S. citizen is legal. He said the government must determine after careful review that the citizen poses an imminent threat of violent attack against the U.S., capture is not feasible and the killing would be consistent with laws of war.

The Obama administration has refused to release the Justice Department legal opinion on al-Awlaki's killing under the Freedom of Information Act and is in court opposing efforts to have it made public.
Responding to criticism from civil libertarians, Holder flatly rejected the suggestion that the Constitution's due process protections require the president to get permission from a federal court before taking lethal action.

"The unfortunate reality is that our nation will likely continue to face terrorist threats that at times originate with our own citizens," Holder told a packed Thorne Auditorium, where all 700 seats were filled with law students, who were taking notes on their laptops, were joined by Chicago-based federal prosecutors and other observers.

But don't worry, this will only be used against terrorists. So what makes someone a terrorist? It's when the government declares you to be a terrorist? Oh.

Glenn Greenwald has an extensive post about this if you're so inclined.

You Know What Might Work? Austerity!

The same group of assholes that are constantly trying to cut our social safety net are at it again. David Dayen:

Intransigence from Republicans basically kept us out of a grand bargain last year. Plenty of Democrats were willing to do it, the White House was more than willing to do it, and even John Boehner was willing to do it, at least on a conceptual level. But House Republicans wouldn’t betray their tax pledge and so it didn’t happen.

There are some different dynamics to the next round of the grand bargain. There are still enough Democrats willing to deal, led by House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer. The White House has de-emphasized a deficit deal, but their budget still shows a blueprint for one, and if they get revenue in exchange, they’ve stated openly that they would make cuts to Medicare and other social programs. So is there a new willingness on the Republican side? According to The Hill, Republicans have joined a bipartisan working group that is preparing a document on deficit reduction.

A small, bipartisan group of lawmakers in both the House and Senate are secretly drafting deficit grand bargain legislation that cuts entitlements and raises new revenue.
Sources said that the task of actually writing the bills is well underway, but core participants in the regular meetings do not yet know when the bills can be unveiled.
The core House group of roughly 10 negotiators is derived from a larger Gang of 100 lawmakers led by Reps. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) and Health Shuler (D-N.C.), who urged the debt supercommittee to strike a grand bargain last year.
That larger group includes GOP centrists like Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-Ohio), who has said Republicans should abandon their no-new-tax-revenue pledge, as well as Tea Party-backed members like Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.).

The best part is that they are openly talking about bringing this up in the lame duck session where people will be a full 2 years from an election or already out the door. Democracy!

Assholes

This kind of says it all:

What a jackass.

Train of Thought Lounge: Miike Snow

Check this blog over the weekend for updated coverage of the Let's Bomb the Shit Out of Iran Now! AIPAC conference.

Fat Sexist Asshole Makes Fat Sexist Comment

I don't know exactly why this is that much more offensive than every other horrible thing Rush Limbaugh has ever said, but this is getting a lot of attention, so I'm not complaining:

A growing list of groups and individuals have denounced Rush Limbaugh in the wake of his vicious attack on Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown University Law School student who testified before Congress recently about the problems caused when women lack access to contraception. The popular right-wing radio host has unleashed a torrent of misogynistic comments directed at Fluke over the past few days, calling her a "slut" and a "prostitute," and demanding: "If we are going to pay for your contraceptives, and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something for it, and I'll tell you what it is. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch." 

If you want to help the campaign to make sponsors aware of his language, check out what media matters comes up with. They recently hired one of the main guys who used that tactic to get Glenn Beck off the air.

The Most Interesting Racist Judge in the World

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Good Riddance Andrew Breitbart

American politics just became a little bit less shitty. It would have been better if he had gone back to Australia or renounced being a terrible human being instead of dying, but it also would have been better if he had chosen anything other than en-crappening America as a career, so... Goodbye, and thanks for giving us James O'Keefe.