After the Bird

++Darren Wilson has resigned from the Ferguson police department, ending his career in law enforcement. That didn't stop protests from continuing around the country.

++George Will had a bizarre op-ed in the Washington Post on President Obama's Caesarism even though he has only signed one-half the executive orders of President Reagan and an amazing 1/5th of Silent Cal Coolidge,the conservative's favorite president.

++The Washington Post tried to debunk the myths about a lame duck president not accomplishing much.

++The New York Times does point out that President Obama may be the most consequential environmental President in modern history because of his "adroit" use of the Clean Air Act. This past week the EPA released new guidelines on ozone which had been postponed the last three years.

++A customer at Politics and Prose yelled to President Obama "Close Guantanamo" to which the President responded "we're doing just that". In the past week, more prisoners have been released bring the total left to 167. While off the radar, these moves have started a backlash in the rightwing blogs. Now we hear that these people have been released without any consideration of the national security threat to the United States. No mention is made that all have been released with multiple approvals by various agencies.

++More problematic these coming weeks is the lame duck Congress. The Post is urging the President to go to the Center and not to pander to his base with the tax reform bill that Dave Camp and Harry Reid have cooked up. This would mean $550 billion in corporate tax breaks over 10 years and mean cutting out the Earned Income Tax credit for the lower middle class. This reminds me of President Clinton's welfare reform gambit.

++Congress still has to release the torture report. Dozens of judges and ambassadors are still not confirmed. If they are not,forget about it during the next two years.

++Under the radar has been the GOP's effort to get the head of the Congressional Budget Office removed. This bipartisan group is the main  obstacle to Paul Ryan's budget because they would be compelled to show how he increases the national debt to around $30 trillion. Ryan is advocating a return to Reagan era's "dynamic scoring" to avoid any catastrophic conclusion. This is the fight in the next two years. 

++The GOP wants to show they are constructive so they want Congress to pass a full budget for the next fiscal year before they present the double whammy of the Ryan Budget. Watch this space because the GOP will want to trigger a recession before the next election.

++Rand Paul's move to declare war on ISIS has a little trick clause. I want a real declaration of war but he limits the extent of the war and then calls for armed troops to be sent to fight ISIS. I'll take the limit until the end of President Obama's term but let's leave troops for another day.

++The GOP is turning itself into a pretzel over the immigration executive orders. Naturally 90% of Hispanic voters approve of President Obama's acts. But the GOP has to serve its xenophobic base and so wants to restrict any expenditure on enforcing these orders. The problem is how to structure a year-long budget with this small item in it. 

++With the Iranian nuclear talks postponed until June of next year, expect more Senate mischief on tightening sanctions on Iran. 

++SCOTUS should be nuts this year with their attempt to gut Obamacare like they did the Voting Rights Act. I fear for same sex marriage despite recent moves to declare its prohibition unconstitutional in both Arkansas and Mississippi.

++The 2016 Presidential race is off and running. Rick Perry, Chris Christie,Scott Walker are already geared up. Rand Paul claims he can run for Senate and the President but Kentucky law is doubtful.

++My Senator Mark Warner is been appointed to a Democratic Senate Post to counter Elizabeth Warren. This ought to be good.