We're beginning this week warning you that the headlines and stories will be coming fast and furious this week - but likely the least important headline will be that of the partisan witch hunt surrounding the Justice Department, Attorney General Eric Holder, and the ridiculously named 'Fast and Furious' program.
Part of why the media will be flooded with news this week has nothing to do with the serious topics we'll be discussing. The fact is, since Independence Day falls in the middle of next week, nearly everyone who can afford to is trying to sneak in a five day weekend, one way or the other. For both politicians and the media, that means there really won't be much going on during the first week of July.
That means everything is getting packed into this week - so hang onto your backsides.
To start with, there are a large number of major decisions coming from our questionably just Supreme Court. The Court's decision on Arizona's SB1070
The fate of health care insurance will also be decided - temporarily - by the Court this week. Make no mistake; no one, on any side, will be happy with the result, as polls have already confirmed. Further, legal scholars have overwhelmingly agreed that if the Supreme Court follows its own legal precedent, the Affordable Care Act - including the individual mandate - will be upheld. These same scholars also fully expect that at least some of the law will be rejected by the Court - meaning the Court's decision will likely be more political, and less just.
No matter what the Court decides, the American people have made it clear, they DO like most of the provisions of the ACA. They just don't like them all grouped into the package known as "ObamaCare", thanks to the propaganda of the right wing.
There's more news this week than just what the Supreme Court is doing, however.
Politics in the Middle East are changing rapidly right now, especially on the heels of the presidential election results being released in Egypt. What's more, the civil war in Syria appears to be widening, as Syrian government forces shot down a Turkish fighter jet in international airspace. Turkey also has seen recent terrorist attacks from Kurds in Iraq - so the Turks retaliated by targeting Iraqi Kurdish sites with their jet fighters.
Meanwhile, the economy around the world is still fragile for most people, even while corporations are making their biggest profits ever. Wildfires are lighting up all over the Western United States, and the richest corporatists appear ready to buy the election for their Republican stooges. Student loan rates are also set to explode like a time bomb, and millions of Americans still need more and better jobs.
So what is our Congress doing to try and fix some of these disasters?
For its part, the Democratic-led Senate has been surprisingly busy passing some legislation, including bi-partisan efforts like the Farm Bill, which passed last Friday, 64-35.
The Republican-led House, however, has had the world's worst collective case of cranial-rectal inversion. Republican Darrell Issa has been on a partisan witch hunt of Attorney General Eric Holder in a desperate attempt to try and find ANYTHING he can use to impeach President Obama.
However, as Issa admitted to Fox over the weekend, there is no evidence of White House involvement in "Fast and Furious."
That's why President Obama's bold move to use 'Executive Privilege" on some parts of the DOJ's investigation of Fast & Furious isn't evidence of a cover-up by the White House. It's evidence of our nation's chief executive blowing past a GOP-controlled House of Representatives that have their heads up their backsides. Mr. Obama continues moving forward, doing his job, as he attempts to deal with some of the massive problems facing America - like immigration - without the help of Congress.
There's a hell of a lot going on in the world right now. That Republicans in the House are wasting time on this superfluous political stunt displays for everyone exactly where their priorities are. That would be right where Republican leader Mitch McConnell said they would be, all along - to take President Obama down at all costs.
