Now, seven years later, with the American military finally gone, the same ruling alliance (which is still in power, despite some internal shifts) is clamping down to cement its rule? You don’t say. But please don’t try to tell me it’s any kind of sudden development.

There are “three national pastimes” in Washington D.C., Brooks informed us: baseball, apple pie, and Congress raiding the Social Security Trust Fund. And the GOP just didn’t want to let that happen.

Their slogan is “Never Stop Improving,” but lately, “Never Stop Denying” seems more fitting. Lowe’s has rebuffed a 200,000-signature petition to reinstate ads on the new reality television series All-American Muslim on The Learning Channel.

Factions within Occupy LA are calling for the removal of “property” from the Occupy Statement of Principles of Non-Violence or to have the statement non-violence be modified to precisely define and codify what property damage is allowable. The matter is due to be voted on tonight, 12/23 in the General Assembly, the Friday night before a major holiday when many people are unable to attend.

Republicans came in wanting to cut spending to 2008 levels. They accomplished that.

The key is the PATRIOT Act’s extension of “material support for terrorism” to include associational and speech crimes, even where the defendants had no intention of supporting violence. In Humanitarian Law Project v. Holder (2010), the Supreme Court denied a First Amendment defense to the terror prosecution of a charity whose offence entailed funding workshops encouraging non-violence in Turkey (in the same Term that the Supreme Court held that corporations do enjoy a First Amendment right to buy elections).

The dynamic is clear. Once SOPA (and its Senate counterpart Protecting IP Act, or PIPA) became high-profile among the Internet community, the lazy endorsements from companies and various hangers-on became toxic. And now those supporters are scrambling, hollowing out the actual support for the bill. Suddenly, a bill with “widespread” corporate support doesn’t have much support at all. And remember, the corporate support was the only thing propping up SOPA; it’s not like there’s a grassroots army urging Internet censorship.

The health care policy moves by the Obama administration since the 2010 election all seem to be about trying to minimize as much as possible health care reform as a political issue in the 2012 election.

The New York Times sued the Justice Department over their reticence to turn over a memo from the Office of Legal Counsel detailing the argument for how the US government can legally assassinate an American citizen.

In their pro forma session, the Senate passed by unanimous consent the latest – and final – version of a two-month stopgap bill to extend the payroll tax cut, unemployment insurance and the doctor’s fix. They actually deemed this version passed pending approval from the House, which must originate any tax bills. The House followed suit, without objection, so now the bill has passed, and I would expect the President to sign it expeditiously.