I AM the Liberal OC…

…at least until Chris and Dan get their site back up. So let’s see, what have we been missing?

ITEM. It looks like since Barack Obama made a couple statements on the order of he was “going to continue to refine” his Iraq policy, and “consult with commanders on the ground” (an unfortunate echo of a disingenuous Bush dodge) he’s being accused of flip-flopping on his promise to get our troops out of that disastrous occupation in 16 months. He stands accused of this by the king of flip-flops, John McCain, and McCain’s communications team, i.e. the bulk of the mass media. In truth, Obama has not backed off his 16 months plan, but of course he will consult with his commanders on specific “tactics” to achieve that “strategy”. (In contrast with Bush, who all along had the strategery of staying indefinitely, and pretended that it was all at his commanders’ insistence, while removing any of them who disagreed with him.)

But like I was telling my friend, the blogless Andrew Davey, last night, people wouldn’t be so quick to believe charges of flip-flopping against Obama if he hadn’t REALLY flip-flopped on FISA. Apart from that he hasn’t done much flip-flopping.  All those other things that looked like him moving to the right were either positions he had already had all along (like encouraging faith-based groups) or misunderstood (like his clever distancing himself from Wesley Clark’s comments on McCain’s qualifications as commander-in-chief without actually disagreeing with them.)

ITEM. John McCain says he’s going to balance the budget within his first term (four years.) He has offered no actual numbers, but insists that he will do this while cutting taxes even further than Bush did (tax cuts to which he used to object.) And how? By “winning in Iraq and Afghanistan!” According to the Politico, “The McCain administration would reserve all savings from victory in the Iraq and Afghanistan operations in the fight against Islamic extremists for reducing the deficit. Since all their costs were financed with deficit spending, all their savings must go to deficit reduction.” Even though he’s famously said at other times that we should stay in Iraq indefinitely, possibly even “a hundred years.”

Update. His economic advisor now says that they meant he would balance the budget by the SECOND term (eight years.) Confusion is understandable, gentle reader, as this has happened before. In February he also said he’d balance the budget in one term, then changed it to two terms in April.

ITEM. Glennzilla this morning:

The votes in the Senate on various amendments to the FISA “compromise” bill and to the underlying bill itself were originally scheduled for today, but have been postponed until tomorrow (Wednesday, July 9) to enable Senators to attend the funeral of Jesse Helms. Rejection of the amendments — including the Dodd-Feingold-Leahy amendment to strip telecom immunity from the bill — is all but certain, and final passage of the bill (with the support of both presidential candidates) is guaranteed.

Once passed by the Senate, the FISA bill will then immediately be sent by the Democratic Congress to an eagerly awaiting and immensely pleased President Bush, who will sign it into law, thereby putting a permanent and happy end to the scandal that began when — in December, 2005 — he was caught spying on the communications of American citizens in violation of the law. The only real remaining questions are (a) whether Bush will host Steny Hoyer and Jay Rockefeller at a festive, bipartisan White House signing ceremony to celebrate the evisceration of the Fourth Amendment and the rule of law, and (b) whether Bush, when he signs the bill into law, will append a signing statement decreeing that even its minimal restraints on presidential spying are invalid…

Read more about the ongoing struggle to protect our Constitution and hold the worst Bush-enabling Democrats responsible for this travesty…

ITEM. Finally, on a lighter note, our own Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), last seen falling on his butt trying to get into an armored humvee for his big July 4 Parade appearance, is taking a break from joking about torture and trying to debunk manmade climate change, and is focusing his attention on weightier matters – protecting our planet from asteroids! This week marks the 100 year anniversary of the Tunguska explosion, the largest asteroid event on Earth in recent history. “Because of the magnitude of what would happen if one of these objects would hit the earth, it’s important to pay attention to the issue,” said Cong. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach. Keep up the good work, Congressman, and stay out of trouble – re-inforcements are on the way!!