He should fist fight Lavrov in Paris today

3/5/2014 12:02:50 PM

Kerry's statements should be noncommittal, his position is all about leaving doors open and bridges intact. Threats and ultimatums should come from other people.

3/5/2014 12:10:37 PM

I don't mean threats or ultimatums. I mean setting clear intentions. This is an aspect of his personality that he was criticized for during his presidential run, he's carried it with him to sec state position, and he's not being very successful.

3/5/2014 12:19:10 PM

If you are saying that his speech is too plodding or pedantic, I definitely agree with that

3/5/2014 12:21:18 PM

Another delay on another part of ACA done by unconstitutional presidential fiat. What a complete hunk of shit this law is.

3/6/2014 9:48:44 PM

Lol you joking...?

3/6/2014 11:44:36 PM

No, they really are delaying implementation of the plan requirements to allow people to keep plans past the 2016 election. It's clearly a political move to help Democrats up for re election and it's definitely being done in a manner that is legally questionable at best.

3/7/2014 12:00:23 AM

No I meant about thinking that's unconstitutional... It's not.

3/7/2014 1:00:32 AM

Its weird that conservatives are so eager to implement ACA, its almost like they are just parroting any criticism they hear

3/7/2014 6:10:10 AM

if the law is so bad that they keep delaying it (past key elections) because of the economic fallout it will cause, it should be scrapped.

[Edited on March 7, 2014 at 7:48 AM. Reason : ]

3/7/2014 7:48:38 AM

rj was right, obama is so stupid that he can't even spell!!

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/03/07/obama-tries-to-shows-some-r-e-s-p-e-c-t/?hpt=hp_t2

3/7/2014 1:29:07 PM

^^ or maybe there are practical reasons for delaying certain aspects, because laws aren't political games, they are real things that affect real peoples' lives, and it's dumb to ignore lives and livelihoods for the sake of political principle or just to play into Fox News' us vs. them mentality about these things.

3/7/2014 1:45:15 PM

^They are real things that affect real elections. He didn't care about all those people that lost their plans. You know, those people that you and Harry Reid say don't really exist.

Republicans hate the new law. But they dislike picking and choosing from it even worse.

This is a serious question, no sarcasm this time. You said the president deciding not to implement the law, or change the law, or deciding to implement only parts was not unconstitutional. This is a teachable moment to tell me how it isn't unconstitutional. "Congress" passed the law, so shouldn't it be implemented in full?

And I don't know where you folks are getting that I think the president is stupid. I don't think he is stupid at all. On the contrary, I think he's very intelligent. I just don't think he's fit to lead this country.

[Edited on March 7, 2014 at 2:44 PM. Reason : Obama isn't stupid.]

3/7/2014 2:42:37 PM

Quote :

"This is a serious question, no sarcasm this time. You said the president deciding not to implement the law, or change the law, or deciding to implement only parts was not unconstitutional. This is a teachable moment to tell me how it isn't unconstitutional. "Congress" passed the law, so shouldn't it be implemented in full?"

done, I already posted an explanation in another thread:

http://blog.constitutioncenter.org/2013/07/constitution-check-can-the-government-legally-delay-the-health-care-mandates/

Quote :

"Given the complexity of modern government operations, very few of the laws that Congress passes are completely self-executing; most if not all of them require regulations to put them into actual effect. And writing regulations is the business of the federal agencies. An array of government agencies have been working for more than three years, for example, to write the rules for the new Affordable Care Act – the vast new law regulating the entire health care financing system. The Supreme Court just last month went a long way toward requiring federal courts to trust the government agencies that execute the laws to interpret for themselves just what authority Congress has given them in their areas of official activity. What an agency decides is the range of its power, that ruling said, should be given considerable deference by the courts."

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/07/delaying-parts-of-obamacare-blatantly-illegal-or-routine-adjustment/277873/

Quote :

"In fact, applicable judicial precedent places such timing adjustments well within the Executive Branch's lawful discretion. To be sure, the federal Administrative Procedure Act authorizes federal courts to compel agencies to initiate statutorily required actions that have been "unreasonably delayed." But courts have found delays to be unreasonable only in rare cases where, unlike this one, inaction had lasted for several years, and the recalcitrant agency could offer neither a persuasive excuse nor a credible end to its dithering. In deciding whether a given agency delay is reasonable, current law tells courts to consider whether expedited action could adversely affect "higher or competing" agency priorities, and whether other interests could be "prejudiced by the delay." Even in cases where an agency outright refuses to enforce a policy in specified types of cases -- not the case here -- the Supreme Court has declined to intervene. As held by former Chief Justice William Rehnquist in a leading case on this subject, Heckler v. Chaney, courts must respect an agency's presumptively superior grasp of "the many variables involved in the proper ordering of its priorities." Chief Justice Rehnquist suggested that courts could lose their deference to Executive Branch judgment if an "agency has consciously and expressly adopted a general policy that is so extreme as to amount to an abdication of its statutory responsibilities." The Obama Administration has not and is not about to abdicate its responsibility to implement the statute on whose success his historical legacy will most centrally depend."

3/7/2014 2:51:20 PM

http://washington.cbslocal.com/2014/03/07/obama-misspells-respect-while-praising-franklin-before-white-house-concert/

more and more like Bush every day

3/7/2014 3:35:25 PM

Someone embroider a pillow for him

3/7/2014 3:45:34 PM

they can paint animals together in retirement

3/7/2014 4:18:24 PM

One of the duties delegated to the executive branch in the Constitution is to execute laws, the implementation is entirely up to the executive branch. Congress create the framework in whatever level of detail they wish, and the executive determines how to execute that framework.

http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-does-executive-branch-do-98139

3/7/2014 8:21:55 PM

but something something fiat

3/7/2014 9:56:57 PM

3/8/2014 2:50:04 PM

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-05/washington-shows-highest-minimum-wage-state-beats-u-s-with-jobs.html

Washington state outpacing us in jobs, despite it's catastrophically high min wage...

3/10/2014 2:11:49 AM

It's just all those new jobs created by the weed industry.

3/11/2014 9:16:03 PM

http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/07/politics/house-contempt-irs/

It's definitely a lil sketchy to me she's pleading the 5th. I know it's a witch hunt, but I'm not sure how she thinks this will help the situation.

5/7/2014 10:45:42 PM

What the fuck are they doing up there?
http://time.com/115882/white-house-cia-chief-afghanistan/

5/27/2014 12:38:14 AM

Aren't you too busy jerking off to the 5th iteration of the Benghazi hearings to pay attention to that story?

5/27/2014 1:05:45 AM

chief of station isn't a secret position in spy fictions that I read, is it a secret position in reality?

5/27/2014 8:11:32 AM

4 headlines, 4 different meanings.

5/27/2014 12:31:56 PM

5/27/2014 1:12:24 PM

Shinseki OUT

Seems like most of Obama's appointees suck at their job.

5/30/2014 5:34:03 PM

Carney's gone too

5/30/2014 7:14:04 PM

^^ He wasn't terrible.

5/30/2014 7:55:11 PM

Shinseki was a good appointee.

I wish that Arne Duncan had burst into the press conference, yelling "I VOLUNTEER AS TRIBUTE!"

5/30/2014 10:32:43 PM

^dear god you truly are brainwashed.

5/30/2014 11:32:29 PM

Shinseki was a good pick, he's a decorated general and should have a personal interest in making the va better. He's presided over a substantial decrease in backlogs, and needed reforms, but it seems like he was waiting for public outrage before he could make those changes.

Of course, it's easy to armchair quarterback the organization, but the public has been hearing about va problems for decades, and it's pulling teeth to get congress to do anything.

Republicans see no problem spending 2trillion on a war, but won't really go out of their way to get the va fixed up.

5/31/2014 12:47:00 AM

^ maybe if the needed changes and funding weren't packed into poison pill bills by Harry Reid, you'd see the 'pubs get on board with pushing change.

5/31/2014 4:30:28 PM

They weren't

5/31/2014 5:15:41 PM

Looks like he bypassed Congress again.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/02/us/politics/bowe-bergdahl.html?_r=0

Giving up 5 terrorists for 1 deserter.

Quote :

"Republican lawmakers also questioned the failure of the administration to give Congress the required notice of releases from Guantánamo. Ms. Rice said the administration had felt compelled to move swiftly because Sergeant Bergdahl’s health seemed at risk and the opportunity to retrieve him possibly fleeting. "

6/2/2014 10:59:49 AM

They trojan horsed those dudes with gps trackers.

6/2/2014 11:37:07 AM

^^ what makes them terrorists?

6/2/2014 11:52:22 AM

They're members of the Taliban, who practice an extreme, fundamental interpretation of Islam and enforce a strict form of Sharia Law?

6/2/2014 12:20:39 PM

either these guys are POWs and need to be released, or they are criminals and should be charged with a crime and given a court date

6/2/2014 12:53:40 PM

yep

6/2/2014 12:56:37 PM

I won't argue that, but I don't thik it's a stretch to call any member of the Taliban or any extremists like them "terrorists".

6/2/2014 12:56:44 PM

I agree. Or to treat them as currency.

6/2/2014 2:02:30 PM

Gotta be honest, I have no clue what he was thinking. There is no good way this ends for Obama... whether this guy was a hero or a deserter..

6/2/2014 4:14:22 PM

Yeah, this is a headscratcher

6/2/2014 4:20:53 PM

As I said in chitchat (I think)... he's DIA, CIA, NSA, or OGA.

6/2/2014 5:10:46 PM

I admittedly have been out of the loop since Thursday (sisters wedding), so I haven't read too much on it, but I don't really see how this is a lose-lose for him

we got what we wanted without having to put boots on the ground, and I'm willing to bet that we didn't give them 5 of Gitmo's best and brightest

if we find out that he legitimately deserted, he'll have his day in court and it'll be dealt with legally

6/2/2014 7:03:16 PM

just watched the nightly news and heard for the first time that they are considered 5 of Al Qaeda's best guys

I'd love to know what that entails

6/2/2014 8:02:34 PM

We negotiated with terrorists. Sure they went through a third party, but we still negotiated with terrorists. They didn't inform Congress like they were supposed to, and I've heard reports that they didn't even tell Karzhai (spelling?) and he's pissed about it.

That's enough to be a lose-lose situation.

And lol at Carney for having the balls to lie and tell the public these guys they just released don't pose a threat to Americans. Once they are out of Qatar in a year, they are back causing trouble.

6/2/2014 8:05:58 PM