President Obama ordered his aides on Thursday “to get to work immediately with Congress” to develop “a forceful response” to the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission case. In a statement, the President denounced the decision, saying it “has given a green light to a new stampede of special interest money in our politics.” It was obvious, therefore, that he was interested in working with Congress to overturn the decision, or at least to narrow it significantly.

Unless he has in mind an amendment to the Constitution, however, it is most unclear at this point whether the lawmakers could do anything — or much of anything — to cut down on “special interest money” in American politics. This was a constitutional decision, laying down (essentially for the first time), a sweeping free-speech right in politics for “special interest” bodies of all types with the concept of “speech” clearly embracing spending money to influence election outcomes. If individuals have considerable freedom to express themselves politically, corporations, labor unions, and other “special interest” entities now do, too.

In Washington and today pretty much everywhere else, “Special interest” = “people who refuse to donate to me or my favored causes”. Naturally, the Court decided to leave a little bit of onion dip in the un-Constitutional bowl and not strike down McCain-Feingold in its entirety. rofl.

Which brings us to… a challenger for Feingold? One out of two ain’t bad. rofl.

State Attorney General begs judiciary not to order state to spend money it doesn’t have on things that won’t do any good. rofl.

Kansas governor’s race: You know what – all I need is a reason to like Tom Holland. His record’s a decent one in my book. I’m just in such a dark place in my heart right now that I don’t want to support anything “progressives” support. If anyone needs protection at just this moment in history, it’s from them. I’m sure that one speech by Sam Brownback will cause me to snap out of it, though. rofl.

Wake me up when — more likely, if — that happens.

You know, someone should probably write about this.

UPDATE: Another, just in case there’s anyone left who hasn’t made up their mind.

Nobody’s surprised, right? I mean, really?

… what?

Neat, huh?

UPDATE: Oh, and the whole being called a Nazi astroturfer thing.

But I’m a non-leftist in the blogosphere and the age of Obama, so I should be used to that…

Crisis of Confidence: America’s Government Losing Faith in Out-of-Touch Constituents

It wasn’t always like this. Certainly, legislators and government officials have always had to deal with the annoyance of obtrusive constituents. But there was always a belief that somehow, between election campaigns, we would muddle along despite the constant threat of voter interference. Those of us who survived the horrors of November 1994 worked hard to design important safety net protections, such as revolving doors, redistricting, earmarks, and franking privileges, in a bipartisan effort to insure “Never Again.” And with the inauguration of President Obama in January, there was an optimistic sense that the era of Big Voter was finally over.

Sadly, that brief shining Camelot in Washington has suddenly been replaced by a new Dark Ages, with hordes of placard- and plague-carrying voter vermin pouring up from the sewers of our home districts, threatening us and our very re-elections. Across Washington, hundreds of everyday legislators and consultants are paralyzed by fear, wondering where these these intrusive bubonic boobs will strike next.

1. Mostly because of a compliant Legislature, but the media too.

» Since I don’t have any original ideas of my own these days, I’m going to steal other people’s content — starting with Bill on the Fed:

In the progressive tradition of doing everything exactly wrong, Obama seems to be of the opinion that the Fed needs to be given even more to do and even more power to do it with, so much so that Congress itself is finally starting to balk. If that’s a double-secret Obama plan to destroy the Fed, I sure hope it works out.

They’ll roll. They always roll under a good PR system.

» Joel on Cronkite:

Cronkite was, in the end, the grandfather of everything that Jon Stewart makes fun of every night. There’s no other way to say it.

The truth is, there’s never been a golden age of journalism. Oh, maybe for about six months in 1974 when Woodward and Bernstein were on a hot streak. But that’s about it. And it never existed for TV journalism. TV is good at wowing us, after all — good at showing us the Reagan assassination attempt, or the Kennedy assassination, or the space shuttle blowing up. It’s not so great at explaining how or why those things occur. Walter Cronkite was ringmaster for many of those memorable moments — which is why we remember him — but for the most part, that’s all he was. Anybody who says different is peddling ideological malarkey to make their own points about what the media needs to be.

It includes a demolition of the world’s most intellectually dishonest blogger, Glenn Greenwald — which, frankly, isn’t that hard; but, like many simple pleasures, is immensely gratifying.

So a bunch of young, smart, technologically capable Iranians are protesting¹ a crooked election that re-installed the mullahs’ golden boy once again. While that’s a healthy response and all, wake me up when something new happens. You people realize that the other guy, Mousavi, doesn’t even get to the position he’s in unless he passes the mullahs’ muster at some point, right?

There is also no reason on Earth to believe that any government that the people of Iran would be materially different save for the corruption, especially vis-a-vis the United States.

So, count me among the people that aren’t getting too worked up over something that will ultimately amount to nothing.

1. 1979 called, and wants its story back.