Left. They blow left. Hard left. With very, very few exceptions.

One of the best predictors that you might be a leftists? You graduated from a j-school.

Via Reason ^[1]:

Remember back in what was it -2006 or thereabouts ^[2] - when left-leaning critics of President Bush couldn’t stop talking about how nothing was more red, white, and blue than good old-fashioned American dissent? Why, our very country was founded by an act of dissent, didn’t you know! So back when Vice President Dick Cheney – routinely likened to Darth Vader and Voldemort – was running things, the very air was filled with cries of “not in our name” and all that, because it was so damned important that the United States not contravene its basic principles even in the name of self defense!

Those were good times, friends, and they stopped pretty much the minute that liberals and Democrats took control of the federal government. The antiwar movement disappeared ^[3] once it became clear that Barack Obama wasn’t going to shut down Gitmo or stop bombing places or give a rat’s ass about that constitutional stuff he used to teach in law school.

But cheer up, because things can always get worse, as the last few days have demonstrated.

There’s that report ^[4] from the Open Society Justice Initiative that despite Obama’s soothing intonations to the contrary, the U.S. is complicit in torture up the ying-yang. And of course there’s the leaked memo outlining what passes for Obama’s decision tree regarding killing suspected terrorists, including U.S. citizens. It’s a relief to that the president has put his top men – anonymous yet “informed, high-level” officials – on figuring just who should be pinged and when. No need to share information or evidence or anything ^[5] with either the legislative or judicial branches because that would just get in the way of getting the job done, right? Checking your math and making sure you’re not making a bone-headed unconstitutional mistake is for losers. We’re at war, don’t you see, a new and different sort of war in which the old rules don’t apply. And besides, doesn’t the authorization of war powers ^[6] signed three days after September 11, 2001 mean that whatever Obama does is A-OK? So even if we do need rules, Obama’s got that covered! Nothing to see here, move along please.

Go read the rest…