The Wall Street Journal recently reported the AARP will support benefit cuts to Social Security. The AARP responded by saying that “our position has not changed on Social Security.” That’s actually true. For years, the AARP has been open to cutting Social Security benefits. Below is the proof of AARP’s clear willingness cut Social Security.

• As usual, the President prefers the “center.”
• We need better Galtian Overlords.
• Uh-oh.
• Must-read Taibbi.
• Heh.

Al Gore’s indictment of politics and the media fiddling (and lying) while the world’s environment falls apart.

The Imperial Rooster — I Like The Way (She Says Fuck). Kohrn Syirup of The Imperial Rooster had a blast the last time we featured The Rooster’s music. He said he would be back and would bring more bandmates and tonight’s the night. Please join me in giving The Imperial Rooster a warm Firedoglake welcome back.

So my beloved home state, New York, looks poised to become the 6th state to allow gays to marry. Which is perfectly shocking. I mean, whoever would have thought we’d be less gay than frickin’ Iowa? But anyhow, hey, it’s a win! To be sure, it’s not a done deal yet, and the legislation will [...]

In other words, the goal in Afghanistan is to attack safe havens in Pakistan. And that’s backed up by Spencer Ackerman’s reporting. There will be no movement of troops east, where the Taliban is dug in. Instead, the strategy will be “drones, drones, training Afghans, commando raids, and drones,” to quote Spencer. The mission has shifted to counter-terrorism, only with far more troops that you need for that mission (Sen. Coons didn’t see such a shift, but the refusal to go into the east is the tell). And the special ops forces, the JSOC guys, are being used to selectively take out Taliban to keep them at the negotiating table.

This is why the permanent bases are so important.

Six members of the the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) Board of Directors have resigned, furthering the leadership crisis at that organization which began with letters from the now-fired ‘president,’ Jarrett Barrios, to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on behalf of corporate patron AT&T’s interests before that body. AT&T handmaiden and GLAAD board member Troup Coronado was not among those who resigned.

Today eight Bahraini Shia protesters were sentenced to, wait for it, life in prison, on trumped up charges related to the island kingdom’s peaceful protest movement. Specifically, the Bahraini government royal family accuses them of conspiracy to commit a coup. In response, Shia protestors have defied the security forces and gone back to the streets.

For the past week, the eyes of the gay rights community have been on Albany, where lawmakers in New York State have been close to finalizing a marriage equality bill. This would make New York the 6th, and easily the largest, state to allow same-sex couples to marry.

We know the top line news coming out of this speech – the President will remove 10,000 troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year, and another 23,000 by next September, meaning that all of the surge troops from December 2009′s escalation will be out by September 2012. This still means that twice as many troops will be in Afghanistan, around 68,000, by that time, compared to the 32,800 in the country at the time of Obama’s inauguration.