There was an editorial in yesterday's Times urging President Obama to consult Congress, as mandated by the War Powers Act, before going further with his campaign in Libya.

Apparently the Nobel Peace Prize President is dancing around the issue of whether the use of drones instead of manned planes constitutes "committing armed forces". 

Really?

We should be getting pretty used to perverse justifications for everything from extending tax cuts for the top 2% while slashing mental health, education, and vital infrastructure to continuing renditions, unlawful detainment and torture. 

But there is still a shocking disconnect among the old "where's the outrage???" crowd of yore.

Remember them?  The ones who were not only very rightly shocked at the direction of a country under a nakedly corrupt regime now living the legacy of starve-the-beast voodoo economics, at brazen redistribution of wealth and wars without end, but amazed at the seeming absence of outrage over it all.

Where are they now?

The president has re-branded the War in Iraq and re-purposed the one in Afghanistan, but there is still no end in sight for what has become a moveable beast — the never-ending war on terror (re-named "Overseas Contingency Operations" under Obama) that has cost taxpayers over a trillion dollars so far. 

Obviously, the Orwellian oratory designed to justify these outrages has had its intended effect.

The Obama administration has made the Bush Doctrine its own.  It has not reversed even the most egregious abuses of the Bush-Cheney regime (Gitmo anyone?) and has in fact in many cases, extended them. 

In 2010 his administration, using a provision in the Patriot Act he signed an extension for last month, seized records of the financial, telephone and online activity of a whopping 14,212 Americans, beating 2005's record of 9,475.

Hmm, on second thought, the "where's the outrage???" crowd is pretty smart.  They've got good reason to keep their mouths shut these days.