I'm Back

For various reasons been low posting lately - mostly work related but not entirely. I intend to get back on the horse over the next couple of days and return to my normal posting schedule.

I do want to point to two items over at Salon. The first is from the invaluable Glenn Greenwald, in which he points out that Obama should definitely walk back some of the powers that George W. Bush has seized for the executive branch. And that he should respect the authority of the Congress, even if Congress does stuff he's not keen on.

. . . we have strayed indescribably far from the system of Government we were supposed to have. That we trust a particular President and believe he'll do good things, achieve good outcomes, with excessive power is no reason to be happy with that state of affairs. As is often the case, Democratic Congressional leaders seem far more content to submit to power than to exercise it. But we shouldn't treat the framework created by the Constitution as optional or waivable when it seems there are good things to be gained by doing so.

He's not wrong.

Also check out this bit of joy from Joe Conason over the death of Conservative/Republican triumphalism. Although triumphalism is likely to make a, well, triumphant return down the road.