Obama's Incredible Sulk

Finally I have discovered a principle in which Barack Obama truly, sincerely believes: he really supports the harsh prosecution of whistleblowers, no? Our esteemed president has cancelled a planned meeting with Russia's Vladimir Putin, in retaliation for Russia's granting temporary political asylum to Edward Snowden. Of all the quotes in the Wall Street Journal's coverage, I found this one most facepalm-worthy (the italics are mine):

White House spokesman Jay Carney in a statement said [....] "Given our lack of progress on issues such as missile defense and arms control, trade and commercial relations, global security issues, and human rights and civil society in the last 12 months, we have informed the Russian government that we believe it would be more constructive to postpone the summit until we have more results from our shared agenda."

Yes, the Obama administration, especially regarding Edward Snowden and his revelations, is extremely concerned with making progress on issues regarding "human rights and civil society," much the same way the Ku Klux Klan seeks progress on the issue of racial equality and the Taliban on the issue of women's rights.

I genuinely don't know if I should find such irony amusing or terrifying. Probably the latter. Open, outright nastiness disturbs me far less than delusional or self-contradictory nastiness, and a president who outright admitted "To hell with old-school American ideals like human rights and constitutional limits on government power" would bother me less than one who uses the constitution for toilet paper after shitting on human rights whilst simultaneously (and hypocritically) pretending he still runs this country as a beacon of freedom and liberty. Just knock it off with the gaslighting crap and admit you're dimming the lights, okay?