Supreme Court rules in favor of Obamacare. Tax subsidies to remain.

Courtesy of the New York Times: 

The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that President Obama’s health care law may provide nationwide tax subsidies to help poor and middle-class people buy health insurance. 

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote the majority opinion in the 6-to-3 decision. The court’s three most conservative members — Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. — dissented. 

The case concerned a central part of the Affordable Care Act, Mr. Obama’s signature legislative achievement. The law created marketplaces, known as exchanges, to allow people who lack insurance to shop for individual health plans.

Those sounds you here are a whole lot of Americans breathing a sigh of relief and more than a few Right Wing heads exploding in frustration.

This is, of course, great news.

Ronald Reagan's Benghazi was the equivalent of sixty Benghazis.

Courtesy of Pensito Review: 

Jon Ponder | Jun 1, 2015 Left: The U.S. peacekeepers' command center and barracks before the explosion; right: Service members pick through the rubble following the Beirut bombing Oct. 23, 1983. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the bombing that resulted in 220 Marine deaths. (U.S. Marine Corps photo courtesy of the United States Marine Corps History Division) Left: The U.S. peacekeepers’ command center and barracks before the explosion; right: Service members pick through the rubble following the Beirut bombing Oct. 23, 1983. (Photo from the United States Marine Corps History Division) In 1982, seven years into the Lebanese Civil War, Pres. Ronald Reagan ordered 2,400 Marines into Beirut as part of an international peacekeeping mission. As peacekeepers, the Marines operated under rules of engagement that prohibited them from firing their weapons unless they’d been fired upon first — and even then they could only respond with the same type of weapon that had been fired at them. 

There were other restrictions. Violence in the city was so bad that they were confined to their base at the Beirut airport. Eventually, the entire American force, which also included Army and Navy personnel, moved into a large, modern office building that had been repurposed to house their command center as well as living quarters. (The building is referred to in many accounts as the “Marine barracks.”) And yet the gates to the facility were ordered to remain open at all times, and the sentries who manned the gates were to be unarmed. 

In Washington, Reagan ignored warnings from his senior advisers that he’d put American troops in harm’s way. 

“They had no mission but to sit at the airport,” Reagan Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger recalled years later, according to a Fox News report, “which is just like sitting in a bull’s-eye. I begged the president at least to pull them back and put them back on their transports as a more defensible position.” 

On Oct. 23, 1983, at 6:20 a.m., the inevitable happened. A suicide bomber drove a truck into the compound through the open gate, plowed through a scrim of concertina wire, pulled up into the building and detonated his bomb. The blast was the equivalent of 12,000 pounds of dynamite. It ignited the largest non-nuclear explosion since World War II, flattening the building and killing 220 Marines, 18 Navy personnel and three Army soldiers.

220 Marines, 18 Navy personnel, and three Army soldiers. Compared to four dead in the Benghazi attack. 

And as for ignoring warnings, well the Obama administration had been asked for more security which Congress had voted against, while Reagan's own Defense Secretary was begging him to protect the troops and he did nothing.

I am posting this as a public service for all of you to use the next time that some conservative asshole suggests that President Obama, or Hillary Clinton, are culpable in the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi.

You can certainly argue with them on the facts, or instead simply say "Maybe, but at least they did not stand by and watch 241 servicemen die in giant fireball."

President Obama made his decision to seek Congressional authorization on Syria at the last minute, completely surprising his closest advisers.

Courtesy of The Wall Street Journal: 

After a 45-minute walk Friday night, President Barack Obama made a fateful decision that none of his top national security advisers saw coming: To seek congressional authorization before taking military action in Syria. 

The stunning about-face after a week of U.S. saber rattling risked not only igniting a protracted congressional fight, which could end with a vote against strikes, but a backlash from allies in the Middle East who had warned the White House that inaction would embolden not only Syrian President Bashar al-Assad but his closest allies, Iran and Hezbollah. 

Aides said the decision was made by Mr. Obama and Mr. Obama alone. It shows the primacy the president places on protecting his hoped-for legacy as a commander in chief who did everything in his power to disentangle the U.S. from overseas wars. Until Friday night, Mr. Obama's national-security team didn't even have an option on the table to seek a congressional authorization.

Personally I don't think the President had muhc of a choice but to involve Congress, not considering many of his statements concerning the build up to go into Iraq. 

In many ways this was a brilliant way to get the Congress to put up or shut up. Considering the fact that many of the Republicans are up for reelection, with the possibility of Teabaggers challenging them in  primary, the President has just put them between the proverbial rock and a hard place.

However I think that this illustrates how carefully the President considers his options before making a choice. And it also illustrates just how alone he must feel when it comes time to make those choices.