Lambs to the slaughter.

Obama's planned slaughter of the Left is nearly complete.

Bush bad. Obama good. Beat chest. Sip latte. Repeat.

It's lonely on the outskirts. Being on the outskirts of the outskirts is even lonelier still. Yet there is satisfaction here on the blogs that are outside the mainstream. Months ago, just after the election, I wrote that there was no loss to be had in questioning Obama. If he turned out to be all he and Axelrod promised he was - the country would be better for it and we - liberals, moderates, and conservatives -did our duty in questioning him without shame. In a free country everyone must question leadership. We are not 'consumers', we are citizens. If our most strident criticisms were proven wrong - well - so be it. I've eaten worse meals than crow pot pie.

On the other hand if, as indicated by the actual facts available on Obama during the entire election season, he turned out to be a duplicitous, arrogant, narcissistic, speechifying light weight who was lying overtly and covertly all along, then those who stood their ground would transform from "deadenders' into prophets before everyone's eyes. Becoming a prophet in this instance was a low risk bet. Obama made it an easy call. There was never any chance he would be the President he promised he'd be.

Eleven months in the road to prophethood is cleared of all brush and looks to be wide open from here to the horizon. None of those who refused the siren call of Obamamania will be dining on crow anytime soon. We probably never will. To mash up the metaphor a bit - it's safe to say that the crow dinner reservation has been handed off to the Kos family. Even so, the BHO victory restaurant is emptying and will close up shop soon enough.

The real deadenders now are the likes of Andrew Sullivan and Matt Yglesias - men who loved blindly and nearly unconditionally. Misguided children at places like the Dailykos and Huffpo are on a dead end road too. They chose hope over truth. Hallucination over reality. The bender that will surely prove the naysayers wrong - over sobriety.

In one year many of these mega children have passed quickly through the stages of ego deflation. Mindless glee (post election), fighting back (mockery and slander), denial, (those tea parties are just crazy racists. They mean nothing.) and most recently - excuses.

Excuses are the last stage before they turn completely (Many will have an abrupt cognitive break here- insisting they always knew Obama was not the man advertised.) or they will disappear - hunkering down in some hole, insisting that Obama is a great man and sometime soon the rest of us will come around. This will make the circle complete. Magical thinking started the journey and will be its end. Along the way there will be plenty of "Well, he's better than McCain would have been." A declamation similar to "jobs created or saved." As these remarks are desperate speculation, I consider them preparation for the final descent into an all encompassing magical world.

Via Riverdaughter and Glenn Greenwald we see a fine deconstruction of some recent excuses. Sure Obama has backtracked and ignored the ideas that animated his campaign - but hey who needs principles when a Democrat is in the White House? Taking principled stances only applies when Republicans are in power.

Bush bad.
Obama good.
Beat chest.
Sip latte.
Repeat.

It would be swell if I found the disintegration of the Obama apologists heart wrenching. It would speak to a personal magnanimity. But I ain't there. Watching Sullivan try to re-auction his soul in public satisfies mine. Nor do I put much into worrying about the direction of the country. I gave up on that last year. Hillary Clinton really was my last hope on that front. A country blessed by landing the right person at the right time for 230 years - ran out of grace. In 2008 we needed diligent, hardworking, competent leadership to rise to the top. We got Obama. I've come to the depressing conclusion that I am a pre-iceberg passenger on the Titanic fully aware of how this voyage ends. The best choice now is to watch closely and know where the nearest lifeboat hangs.

Either we are a civilized nation of laws or we are not.

Once again, Obama has apparently done something right while negating any possibility of a right outcome resulting. Thursday the Obama Administration released the Bush/Cheney torture documentation. Simultaneously they stated that no one would be prosecuted. What is the point of this? The release of the documents is only relevant if followed by a commitment to follow the law to its logical conclusion, that means to pursue prosecutions if warranted. Otherwise, the rule of law itself becomes pointless. Glenn Greenwald is spot on here: I vehemently disagree with anyone - including Obama - who believes that prosecutions are unwarranted. These memos describe grotesque war crimes...

More that even that - releasing the documents while giving any possible law breakers a pass makes it nothing more than a self defeating, lame gesture. It does not even have moral value. Obama removed any moral value by flinching on following the law. Why have prosecutions at all - for any crime? We can just announce who committed the crimes and skip all the rest of the hub bub.

The signal this gives to those who do mean us harm is worse that wrong, worse than just weak - it signals that we are both weak and amoral. Nice trick, Barry.

Either we are a civilized nation of laws or we are not. Either we follow our laws or not.

Barack Obama remains utterly unwilling to take a principled stand on anything.