“It becomes increasingly clear that the pattern of American fiscal policy is being brought into consonance with the Karl Marx communist theory that through a division of the existing wealth, mankind will be brought to a universal standard of life – a degree of mediocrity to which the Communists and their fellow travelers seek to reduce the people of this great nation.  Whether it be by accident or design, such policy, formulated with reckless indifference to the preservation of constitutional liberty and our free enterprise economy, coupled with rapid centralization of power in the hands of a few, is leading us toward a communist state with as dreadful certainty as though the leaders of the Kremlin themselves were charting our course.”

General Douglas McArthur, 1952

          Today, the United States of America, a nation that once prospered beyond imagination, and stood as the final barrier between liberty loving societies and tyrannical regimes on a global scale, is in the Twilight Zone.  What was up is down, what was unjust is just, what once was recognized as tyranny is now called freedom and what was once the domain of the citizenry is now the realm of a ruling regime that chooses to force all of us to accept and participate in the national March to Mediocrity.

          WE, the people, are being enslaved as a result of our own machinations.  Under OUR watch was created a blind and deaf behemoth we now recognize as a central-planning collectivist federal government.  Blind, because it claims it fails to see how its policies are destroying the American character and is shredding the intent of OUR founders…The Republic.  Deaf, because it claims to not hear the high-decibel majority voice…crying out for the continuation and protection of individual Freedom.  What have WE created?

            The perverted, and yes, un-American, pieces of legislation oozing their way through the halls of Congress over the past few years have taken advantage of our “lack of duty” to govern ourselves.  We now find ourselves in a predicament that we have been warned of countless times, over decades, generations, and centuries…no longer are Americans a self-governed citizenry, we are virtually dictated to by that which we are supposed to control. 

            Now that we are captives of an entity of our own creation, we are expected to behave as such…to follow the directives of the Blind-Deaf Behemoth without examination of OUR founding intent and purpose.  We are being directed to forego beliefs in American Exceptionalism and Judeo-Christian founding principles.  We are directed to place the philosophical teachings and historical results of free-market capitalism onto the rubbish pile of history’s failures.  We are directed to accept the notion that the American Dream will now entail an attempt at forced equality based on forced redistribution of property and other resources rather than ingenuity, hard-work, and personal responsibility.  We are directed to accept the fact that every single man, woman, and child citizen of this proud and great one-time Republic is responsible for over US$38,000.00 of national indebtedness…a figure that grows with each passing second.  We are directed to believe OUR founding principles no longer serve a purpose in today’s globalized political and economic environment.

          Our newly emboldened “Creation” seeks to take us back to the not-so-distant past and lays claim, Nay, directs us to accept a system that history has already weighed and measured and found to be lacking relative to economic sustainment, much less expansion, and protection of individual freedoms and U.S. Constitutional adherence.  OUR Blind-Deaf Behemoth desires the brand of global social utopianism as outlined by Cabet, Marx, Engels, and others and takes steps daily to ensure that America becomes just another state…among many…nothing special.  Not the liberty standard by which all others were to be judged,  not the stronghold of free enterprise, not the world-wide leader in producing and advancing technological and medical innovations…just another state…among many.  Another state allowing OUR destiny, OUR once sovereign decisions, shaped and guided by non-citizens and non-American entities. 

          Regardless of the stamina and the strength of the machinery behind this Forced March to Mediocrity, it will fail.  It will fail because of, as Alexis de Tocqueville so aptly described, American Exceptionalism.  Americans are not “better”…we are inarguably “different”.  Our American uniqueness of character, as molded by our political beginnings and subsequent struggles to uphold that heritage, birthed a political culture that does not call for, nor allow, mediocrity. 

          We are repeatedly reminded of the design OUR “Creation” has in its sights for the “Changed” America, a future similar to the current systems of governance found in Europe.  How the political culture and societal beliefs of America differs with the political culture and societal beliefs of Europe provides insight into why this Forced March to Mediocrity will ultimately fail. 

          Sociologist Max Weber told us, almost a century ago, that along with modernization there will be a concurrent increase in secularization…history reveals he was mostly right about Europe but mostly wrong about the United States of America. Three-fourths of all Americans feel proud of their country. That is true of only one-third of all Frenchmen, one-third of all Italians, one-third of all Germans, and one-third of all Japanese. Over half of all Americans think that individual freedom is more important than having a government safety net, but that is only true of one-third of all Europeans.  Two-thirds of all Americans think success in life is the result of their own efforts, but only one-third of Europeans agree. They think success in their life is the result of forces over which they have no control.  Half of all Americans think belief in God is essential to morality; this is true of only one-third of all Europeans.  Half of all Americans think that economic competition is good for the country yet only one-third of all Frenchmen and Spaniards hold this belief.  Sixty percent of Americans believe our children should be taught the value of hard work but only twenty percent of Germans hold this same belief.[i]

          Sooner or later, and judging from last night’s post-election polling and focus groups it will be sooner rather than later, the great citizens of the this great country will recognize and soundly reject the central-planning collectivist designs OUR “Creation” has in store for us and simply refuse to participate, using our God-given Right of free will, in this attempted Forced March to Mediocrity.  Blindly following rather than leading and accepting less than what is conceivably achievable is not in our nature.  We are Americans!

Republican candidates have won the governor mansions in both New Jersey and Virginia, the former a surprising upset in a deep blue state, both of them in states that went for Barack Obama in 2008.

The Associated Press, NBC, CNN and Fox News have all called the New Jersey gubernatorial race for Chris Christie (R). Jon Corzine (D) had received the very vocal support of President Barack Obama and other prominent national party leaders.

Meanwhile, all major networks and news outlets have called the Virginia gubernatorial race for staunch conservative Bob McDonnell (R) by a very large margin. Sources like the Washington Post had blatantly been attacking McDonnell with timely stories for months.

This is pretty clearly a rejection of the liberal policies pushed forth by Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid. It’ll be even more difficult for conservative Democrats to sign on to socialized health care now.

Liberal “Republican” Dede Scozzafava, who supported many of Barack Obama’s disastrous leftist policies, has suspended her hopeless campaign for Congress in New York’s 23rd district. A recent poll showed her losing to both Bill Owens (Democrat) and Doug Hoffman (conservative).

Either outcome is now more palatable than a Scozzafava victory would’ve been. If Owens wins, it’ll be Democrats who take responsibility for their own disastrous policies. They won’t be able to claim more GOP support thanks to a squishy RINO. If Hoffman wins, the seat will be held by a conservative.

Win-Win.

More: Michelle Malkin.

Hey, why not? It’s not as if most of the MSM is any less biased anyway. In fact, Obama might be making a mistake if he think he’ll only receive positive coverage from the liberal blog. If you’re not far-left enough even with plenty of lib cred already, the nutroots tend to go nuclear.

While the Obama administration engages in an ongoing battle with Fox News over its conservative ideological leanings, self-described “progressive” media outlets are increasing their presence at the White House.

Which is a good point to note. This shows just how disingenuous the White House’s supposed war on partisan media has been. The Huffington Post was allowed to ask a question during a prime time presser for The One and now liberal blogs are allowed in the pool. The Obama Administration has nothing against partisan media, just the wrong type of partisan media.

The latest evidence was the announcement Friday that Talking Points Memo will become part of the White House press pool, taking its place with The Washington Post, New York Times and established newspaper companies like Scripps Howard and Tribune in ensuring a constant media presence whenever President Barack Obama goes somewhere.

Look at it this way: At least TPM admits its partisan leanings. The New York Times, meanwhile, continues to parade as anything other than what it really is: A newsletter for the DNC. So does the Washington Post, which did its best to destroy Republican Bob McDonnell in Virginia with anything and everything it could throw at him.

TPM just opened a Washington bureau this month, and its editor, Josh Marshall, told POLITICO that the decision to join the pool was “pretty straightforward.” The decision to include it in the pool was made not by the White House but by the White House Correspondents’ Association, the reporters’ group which runs the pools.

“We wanted to be one of the news organizations covering the White House,” Marshall said. “It just seemed like the appropriate thing to do to have access to the pool reports.”

Both Salon, another progressive website, based in San Francisco, and Ebony, the black-oriented magazine that endorsed a presidential candidate — Obama — for the first time in its 64-year history in 2008, joined the White House in-town press pool this year. The Huffington Post, which announced its presence in Washington when Obama twice called on its reporters at press conferences, also has plans to join the pool, according to a spokesperson for the website.

Let’s imagine for a second that Pajamas Media, RedState, Breitbart, and Hot Air suddenly were allowed to join the pool during a Republican administration. It wouldn’t happen, but let’s assume it did. Can you imagine the screeching we’d hear from the left? It’d be deafening. But the fact that left-wingers are hypocritical is nothing new.

Via Hot Air.

Really, what does Iran have to gain by accepting such an offer?

It’s not like the Doormat-in-Chief is prepared to back up his rhetoric with anything stronger than statement from the White House press office. It’d cost him too much political capital and he has socialized health care legislation to pass.

Israel could strike but it’d strategically difficult at the moment, especially with influential Democrats in the U.S. actually discussing shooting down Israeli bombers if they head over Iraq on their way to Qom.

Russia, with its veto power at the Security Council, isn’t about to permit further sanctions against its, let’s face it, ally.

We’re going to end up with a nuclear-armed Iran and, subsequently, other Middle Eastern nations pursuing the same end.

All while The One talks about the United States and Britain eliminating their nuclear stockpiles and his budgets continue to defund our national defense.

We’re basically in a tired routine of offering plans and threatening sanctions until Ahmadinejad declares his country is a nuclear power, at which point the international community — Obama definitely included –, will throw up their arms and say, “Hey, what can we do? We blame George Bush.”

Welcome to the era of Smart Power, courtesy of Hope’N'Change.

Libs will jump all over this but they shouldn’t. The two major factors for the projected growth? Increases in home sales and the cash-for-clunkers program.

Where are home sales as I write this? Unexpectedly down again last week.

Where are auto sales? Down severely as dealerships ran through several months worth of sales in just one month.

So the two major reasons for economic growth in the third quarter won’t be there in the fourth quarter. Then add to that the fact that even the left-wing Associated Press takes time to note that unemployment will reach about 10.5% next year, meaning families will have less money to spend and sales will plummet.

All of this for the low cost of trillions of dollars we had to borrow and can’t afford to pay back.

We’ve basically declared financial success by taking out a huge amount on credit cards in order to purchase a Porsche Cayenne. We’re rich! Except we’re not.

Result? Something that looks good for liberals right now but will come back to haunt them, oh, next week. Just like most of their programs.

Limbaugh has been dropped from the St. Louis Rams bid, so the left sees no harm in admitting its lies now. First up, the Huffington Post:

Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this post contained quotes attributed to Rush Limbaugh, which Limbaugh has since denied making. As is our policy when a fact in a blog post is called into question, we gave its author 24 hours to substantiate the quote. Since he has not been able to do so, the quotes have been deleted from the post.

And now Rick Sanchez of CNN, perhaps best known for accusing Hispanics on Fox News of selling out:

i’ve know rush. in person,i like him. his rhetoric,however is inexcusably divisive. he’s right tho. we didn’t confirm quote. our bad.

Oops. Now that we’ve lied sufficiently to destroy his NFL bid, we’ll quietly retract the lies we stated as fact. Our bad!

By the way, how bad were the lies the left-wing media — including CNN — spread? Keith Olbermann actually came to Limbaugh’s defense. As in Keith Olbermann of MSNBC. That bad.

Of course, don’t count on the media widely spreading these retractions now. They’ve perfected the art of lying loudly and retracting quietly. They allow the lie to stir out in the public long enough to do the damage they want done, then quietly retract it after it’s too late to fix the problem they caused.

Unbelievable. The story created road block news coverage on every 24-hour media outlet, was picked up by BBC News, spread across the blogosphere and Twittersphere like wildfire, and had many millions of people holding their breath for hours.

The search and rescue mission involved the National Guard, state authorities, multiple emergency management centers, fire rescue units, at least one sheriff’s department, local police, and news helicopters. People on the ground searched the skies for any sign of the boy in the balloon. The Colorado National Guard even considered using a helicopter to mount a rescue mission.

And where was the little brat? In the attic over his home’s garage. Apparently no one thought to look in the attic before mounting a rescue mission and sparking an international media event.

Someone better be getting the bill for this, and that someone better be one of his parents.

Anita Dunn being the White House Communications Director for the Obama Administration. And yes, she openly admits that one of her two favorite political philosophers is Chairman Mao.

The video was revealed on Fox News, during the Glenn Beck program. Sounds like someone shouldn’t have gone to war with Fox News.

More: Hot Air, Michelle Malkin, Gay Patriot.

Fox says the balloon was intended to track storms and was never built to carry humans. The compartment the six year-old is sitting in has a thin plywood bottom that’s reportedly not attached well to the craft.

Apparently this thing was sitting in his backyard and the child climbed in, releasing the rope holding it down. The balloon, built by his father, quite simply floated away.

He’s now being jerked back and forth across Colorado’s skies at an unconfirmed elevation of several thousand feet. He seems to be coming down, but that’s not exactly safe at the speed and angle he’s coming in.

More: Hot Air, Michelle Malkin.

Update: Unbelievable. The balloon got close enough in a rural area and some pedestrians had followed it out into the field, grabbing the wires when it got close enough. Some regular guy literally drove his truck out there and ran after the tether, grabbing it when he got close enough. Rescue teams on the scene.

No Child On Board: Uh oh. There’s no child on board the balloon. Did he fall out? Was he never there to begin with? Hopefully it’s the latter.

Box is missing: Okay, the family says there was a box attached to the bottom of the balloon. The child would’ve sat in that box. It’s missing from the bottom of the craft. Not good news.

A pathetically transparent attempt to (politically) cushion the blow seniors will feel by the news that there will be no cost of living increase for their Social Security. It will help seniors very little over the next year, but it will cost taxpayers quite a bit and Barack Obama hopes it’ll reduce some of the political damage he’ll suffer.

There will be no cost of living increase for more than 50 million Social Security recipients next year, the first year without a raise since automatic adjustments were adopted in 1975.

Blame falling consumer prices. By law, cost of living adjustments are pegged to inflation, which is negative this year, the government said Thursday, because of lower energy costs. Social Security payments do not go down, even when prices drop.

The Obama administration, meanwhile, is pursuing a different way to boost recipients’ income. On Wednesday, President Barack Obama called for a second round of $250 stimulus payments for seniors, veterans, retired railroad workers and people with disabilities.

The payments would match the ones issued to seniors earlier this year as part of the government’s economic recovery package. The payments would be equal to about a 2 percent increase for the average Social Security recipient.

By the way, $250 to each senior, veteran, retired rail worker, and disabled person amounts to about $13 billion. Which would be fine, except our national deficit is already $1.6 trillion, our national debt is approaching $12 billion, and Candidate Obama blasted President Bush for out-of-control spending.

How will all of this be financed? The White House doesn’t know or care.

The White House put the cost of the payments at $13 billion. Obama didn’t say how the payments should be financed, leaving that up to Congress. The president is open to borrowing the money, increasing the federal budget deficit, just like Congress did with the first round of stimulus payments.

So let’s add another $13 billion to the $12 trillion in debt, never mind $1.6 trillion annual deficit, we already have. All to finance one-time payments of a couple hundred dollars that will do little to either stimulate the economy or help seniors long-term.

All of this ties into ObamaCare as well. Seniors oppose rationing of care, the loss of Medicare Advantage, and everything else that comes with the disastrous proposals. Obama hopes to buy them off with this $250 payment. Like I said, pathetically transparent.

The Washington Times reports that pork-loving members of the U.S. Senate diverted about $2.6 billion in funding for our troops in harms way, money intended to purchase ammunition and fuel, in order to fund their pet projects.

Yes, they shifted funding from our troops to building an institute named after Ted Kennedy.

Senators diverted $2.6 billion in funds in a defense spending bill to pet projects largely at the expense of accounts that pay for fuel, ammunition and training for U.S. troops, including those fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to an analysis.

Among the 778 such projects, known as earmarks, packed into the bill: $25 million for a new World War II museum at the University of New Orleans and $20 million to launch an educational institute named after the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat.

While earmarks are hardly new in Washington, “in 30 years on Capitol Hill, I never saw Congress mangle the defense budget as badly as this year,” said Winslow Wheeler, a former Senate staffer who worked on defense funding and oversight for both Republicans and Democrats. He is now a senior fellow at the Center for Defense Information, an independent research organization.

Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican, called the transfer of funds from Pentagon operations and maintenance “a disgrace.”

“The Senate is putting favorable headlines back home above our men and women fighting on the front lines,” he said in a statement.

Congress has done many disgraceful things in its time, but this just might be the worst. We’re in the middle of fighting two wars and are dealing with increasing global hostilities every day. Yet Congress is busy diverting funds from defense appropriations to pay for their porky pet projects. It goes beyond disgraceful; it’s just plain vile.

Members of Congress responsible for this should return the money, or if it’s too late to do that, they should resign. I don’t care which side of the aisle they come from, they don’t belong in the halls of Congress.

Via Hot Air.

Just the latest dividend from Barack Obama’s foreign policy based on appeasement and weakness, or “smart power” as he calls it.

Fully aware of their connections to Al Qaeda but fearing no retaliation for its move, the Libyan government decided to release 88 terrorist detainees on a whim.

Libya on Thursday freed 88 Islamists with Al-Qaeda links from Abu Slim prison in Tripoli, an AFP correspondent at the scene reported.

“45 members of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) and 43 members of other jihadist groups were freed thanks to the efforts of the Islamic Foundation,” lawyers’ groups said in a joint statement with the Foundation, headed by Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi’s son Seif al-Islam.

Lest you think the Libyan authorities simply don’t buy the charges that the terrorists have ties to Al Qaeda, there’s this:

“Apart from the LIFG members, the other people freed were former Al-Qaeda members who were active in Afghanistan or Iraq,” Saleh Saleh Abdessalem, an aide to Seif al-Islam, told AFP.

So Libya fully understands the terrorist detainees that were freed had ties to international terror groups, including the one responsible for murdering 3,000 American citizens on September 11th. It just doesn’t care, you see.

Because what’s the worst that’ll happen? A strongly-worded statement from the White House? Or maybe Barack Obama will just head back to the United Nations to apologize for something else America did that Islamists see as evil. Welcome to the era of Hope’N'Change.

Does anyone happen to know if there’s a “Reset” button for this situation? Granted, it didn’t work with Russia where threats of pre-emptive nuking are now openly made, but since when have failed foreign policies stopped liberals from continuing to utilize them?

This situation absolutely calls for an apology from the United States and maybe a visit from Hillary Clinton to promise a new era of better relations. It’s the “smart power” thing to do.

Because after all, why shouldn’t people who are in the country illegally and don’t pay taxes get representation in Congress? Why, illegal aliens should have representatives willing to vote for even more entitlements paid for with tax dollars from legal American citizens. You know, if you’re living in Harry Reid’s world.

If you live in reality, people whose presence here is illegal shouldn’t have representation in a legislature able to commit the rest of us to paying for benefits for people who leech off of the system and ignore American laws.

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), who is sponsoring an amendment to an appropriations bill that would require illegal immigrants list their status on next year’s Census, said late Wednesday that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) wants them counted amongst the general population instead.

The senator claimed that Reid wants illegals to be counted in the 2010 Census so that left-leaning states with high illegal immigrant populations could increase the size of their congressional delegations. The Census is a major factor in determining the each state’s share of the 435 seats in the House of Representatives.

“I think it’s pretty clear that Harry Reid and the Democratic side…wants illegals counted in the Census, wants illegals in the reapportionment of the House,” Vitter said on a conservative talk radio show late yesterday.

Vitter, who is co-sponsoring the measure with Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah), claimed that illegals counted in the 2000 Census allowed California to maintain up to five additional seats in Congress they should not have.

It’s quite simple: If illegal aliens are granted representation in Congress, Democrats are likely to gain more seats. Heck, liberals are already working to allow illegal aliens to vote in elections by trashing the requirement to show proof of residency before casting a ballot. It’s a cynical ploy to gain more power for the Democratic Party and increase entitlements, all at the expense of American taxpayers and legal citizens.

The census should only count people who are in the country legally, paying taxes and fulfilling their civic obligations. People who ignore our laws, remain in the country illegally, and don’t pay taxes shouldn’t be receiving representation in the legislature for a country they’re not citizens of.

You don’t want the Census Bureau acting as an enforcement agency for immigration? Fine. Don’t report the illegal aliens you find. But then don’t count them as American citizens, either.

It’s like reality and parody have switched places.

Najibullah Zazi was arrested earlier this year on charges of plotting to bomb the New York City transit system on the anniversary of September 11th. Now it would seem that the terror suspect wasn’t acting on his own, but rather in co-ordination with the highest levels of the Al Qaeda terror group.

U.S. intelligence officials have told the Associated Press that Zazi, a native of Afghanistan, had been in contact with Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, a close ally of Osama Bin Laden’s and one of the men who helped build Bin Laden’s terror network. al-Yazid has said before that he would use nuclear weapons against the United States if he can get his hands on them.

Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, an Egyptian reputed to be one of the founders of the terrorist network, used a middleman to contact Afghan immigrant Najibullah Zazi as the 24-year-old man hatched a plot to use homemade backpack bombs, perhaps on the city’s mass transit system, the two intelligence officials said.

Intelligence officials declined to discuss the nature of the contact or whether al-Yazid contacted Zazi to offer simple encouragement or help with the bombing plot prosecutors say Zazi was pursuing.

Al-Yazid’s contact with Zazi indicates that al-Qaida leadership took an intense interest in what U.S. officials have called one of the most serious terrorism threats crafted on U.S. soil since the 9/11 attacks.

Fun fact via Ed Morrissey: al-Yazid runs the Al Qaeda operation in Afghanistan, from which liberals want to withdraw American troops and Obama National Security Advisor Jim Jones claims poses no major threat.

Jones also said that “the al Qaeda presence is very diminished” in Afghanistan. “The maximum estimate is less than 100 operating in the country,” he said, adding that al Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan have no bases or real ability to launch effective attacks.

Yeah, well, surprise! Apparently you don’t need that many people to co-ordinate major terror attacks against the United States. Just the right people at the right time.

This once again underlines the threat posed to the United States by jihadist groups operating from the countries in which we’re currently fighting. We must strengthen our commitment to defeating these people — not cut-and-run from that fight. We’ve already been shown that our national security depends on winning.

I’m not buying it, but I’d love to be wrong. Some say he’s in a coma, others say he’s quite simply dead.

Michael Leeden is hearing that there’s an increase in security in the streets and some bazaars will be closed tomorrow and Friday. He also reports that the general rumor is that the religious leader and ultimate authority in Iran is dead.

Anti-Mullah is hearing that Khamenei has died and the announcement will be made tomorrow. There are even reports that the official news agency and other government buildings are being draped in black.

His condition had already seriously deteriorated over the last months, aggravated by his nervous condition due to [1] his inability to solve the problems created by his manipulation of the election results and the refusal of [a large part of] the population to accept this, plus [2] his loss of religious authority by means of the repeated condemnations of events by senior clerics.

Reportedly the principal aims of Khamenei of the last couple of weeks, if not months, were to ensure [1] a positive reputation as his legacy and [2] the physical survival of his family members and their wealth, reportedly now largely in Syria and in Turkey (remember the truck convoy of $8.5 billion in cash and gold that was seized by the Turks?).

Outlook is uncertain but speculation is – considering that he is in coma since more than 24 hours – that he may not come out of his coma and/or that he may die very soon…

According to a bulletin from the Greens (Moussavi/Karroubi et al), there are widespread rumors in the Tehran Bazaar that Khamenei has died. The Greens say they cannot confirm it, but that there is an “abnormal atmosphere” in the streets, which almost certainly means there are more security people than usual.

The bazaar will apparently be closed tomorrow, and perhaps Friday as well, pending developments.

Like I said, I’m not buying it. It sounds like wishful thinking that’s turned into rumors and now into reports from the opposition within or outside Iran. I’m pretty sure we’ll get a firm denial or even video of Khamenei doing something contemporary in the near future. Perhaps even an AP report citing unnamed American officials denying any knowledge of such a development. It’s the Middle Eastern version of Castro death rumors.

Hey, this must be part of the new “smart power” agenda that was started when Hillary Clinton and her Russian counter-part pushed the now-infamous “Reset” button. It would appear that “smart power” consists of the United States unilaterally disarming and allowing Russians to inspect our nuclear sites, while Russia reserves the right to pre-emptively nuke anyone it wishes.

Hope’N'Change, baby!

In an interview published today in Izvestia, Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of the Kremlin’s security council, said the new doctrine offers “different options to allow the use of nuclear weapons, depending on a certain situation and intentions of a would-be enemy. In critical national security situations, one should also not exclude a preventive nuclear strike against the aggressor.”

What’s more, Patrushev said, Russia is revising the rules for the employment of nukes to repel conventionally armed attackers, “not only in large-scale, but also in a regional and even a local war.”

Gulp. If I were in Georgia — or in any other country Russia considers part of its sphere of influence — that formulation would make me pretty anxious…

In the interview, he takes a swipe at the United States and NATO, saying that the alliance “continues to press for the admission of new members to NATO, the military activities of the bloc are intensifying, and U.S. strategic forces are conducting intensive exercises to improve the management of strategic nuclear weapons.”

Boy, this foreign policy based on weakness sure is turning out well! Now we’ve got the Russians telling us that they’ll utilize nuclear weapons in a small, local conflicts whenever they want. Oh, and these same people will be able to inspect our nuclear sites as they wish:

Russia and the United States have tentatively agreed to a weapons inspection program that would allow Russians to visit nuclear sites in America to count missiles and warheads.

The plan, which Fox News has learned was agreed to in principle during negotiations, would constitute the most intrusive weapons inspection program the U.S. has ever accepted.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who met with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said publicly Tuesday that the two nations have made “considerable” progress toward reaching agreement on a new strategic arms treaty.

The 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, expires in December and negotiators have been racing to reach agreement on a successor.

Clinton said the U.S. would be as transparent as possible.

“We want to ensure that every question that the Russian military or Russian government asks is answered,” she said, calling missile defense “another area for deep cooperation between our countries.”

Because really, what’s more important than showing Russia we’re sincere when we say we’re making ourselves weaker and bowing to its demands? The only thing that’s truly important in this era of Hope’N'Change is making sure our enemies are happy and don’t have to worry about the U.S. lying about its capability to defend itself.

The Doormat-in-Chief makes me sick. He’s willing to tear down our defenses, unilaterally disarm, and allow the international community to stomp all over the United States. All while he apologizes for our apparently grave misdeeds and promises we’ll stop being the people we are in the future. Anything to make the world like Barack Obama and fawn over his hopiness. It’s all about him being liked in Geneva and Moscow and Palestine, even if America is overrun in the process.

Via Hot Air, Jim Geraghty notes a disturbing trend in New Jersey. Early reports on job figures continuously show a positive outcome, whereupon Governor Jon Corzine (D) claims his leadership and policies are working. Which would be fine if that were the case. But the numbers are then more quietly revised to show job losses.

This same pattern has been going on now for five months. Five. Months.

In August, the state department declared that “employment in New Jersey grew in July, led by a gain of 13,000 jobs at private sector companies.” The state’s numbers showed a decline of only 7,100 public-sector jobs, meaning that as a whole, 5,900 more New Jersey residents were going to work than had gone the previous month. It was great news for the state, and for Corzine, coming in a month when the nation had lost 247,000 jobs overall. …

But September’s release offered some below-the-fold revisions. New Jersey’s private-sector job gain in July was 5,600 jobs, far short of the initial 13,000 claim; the net result was that 500 fewer New Jerseyans were going to work than the previous month. And while the governor had claimed to be holding a tough line on spending, the total number of jobs in the public sector was revised upward — from 643,300 to 644,300.

There were other oddities in that August release. The state claimed that 6,200 jobs had been created in leisure and hospitality fields in July. One could easily imagine hiring in Jersey shore communities, or at amusement parks, picking up during the summer, but this dramatic growth came as the nation as a whole lost 64,000 jobs in this field, according to the federal Department of Labor. The revised number, released in September, reflected 1,100 fewer new jobs than initially claimed. …

However, there is a strange consistency to recent revisions. The state’s estimates of how many residents were employed in the private sector were revised down in the months of July, June, May, and April. (May’s initial private-sector employment number was revised downward by 600 jobs, while April’s number was revised down by 4,300.) The state’s private-sector number was last revised upward in March, long before campaign season began.

One might suspect that some larger, unforeseen trend is throwing off the department’s calculations, but the numbers from neighboring New York and Pennsylvania aren’t consistent with this theory.

What does this mean? It’s quite possible that the government of New Jersey is intentionally releasing false numbers early on so Corzine can claim credit, then quietly revising them to show the real, downward change. It’s cooking the books for political purposes.

Something is definitely fish here and it seems that the stench is coming from the governor’s mansion.

A conclusion that should be common sense to most people, but Democrats have spent months arguing that basic economic principles will magically disappear in this particular case.

Anyway, Joint Congressional Committee on Taxation confirms that Baucus’ health care overhaul proposal will both lower wages and increase premiums on the average American family.

Many employers share the cost of the insurance they provide with their employees; that is, the employer pays some portion of the insurance premium, and the employee pays for some portion. To the extent that the increased cost of the insurance policy is paid by the employer, we would expect that to exert downward pressure on wages paid by the employer. To the extent that the increased premium cost is paid through the employee share, the added cost of the excise tax can be expected to reduce consumer demand for high cost insurance products. Over time, the downward pressure on wages attributable to the employer share of the increased cost would also reduce consumer demand for high-cost insurance products.

But here’s the big problem, as Ed Morrissey notes:

The problem with that is the definition of “high cost insurance products”. The JCT is not talking about the upper 5% of health-care plans, not even in the initial year. In the first year of the tax, the JCT predicts that 11% of all plans will be subject to the excise tax. By 2019, the JCT predicts that a third of all policies will carry that tax, increasing costs and depressing wages in one form or another.

So the net effect of the Baucus plan? You’ll be receiving less money in your paycheck every week yet paying a higher cost for your health insurance. You’ll be paying more while receiving less money. It’s an economic disaster for the American family.

Something doesn’t smell right here. Representative Robert Wexler (D-FL) is a powerful member of the House of Representatives, representing a liberal and influential area. He’s a darling of the far-left. Wexler chairs a Foreign Affairs subcomittee and sits on four others. He was elected in 1997 and was recently re-elected by a margin of 3:1.

And now he’s leaving his office for an obscure position at the (I swear I’ve never heard of it) Center for Middle East Peace and Economic Cooperation? Randomly on a Wednesday morning in October? In a such a rush that even fellow liberals are left with their mouths wide open? Quoth:

“I’m still a little bit in shock over all this,” said state Sen. Jeremy Ring, D-Parkland, though he added he was “for sure” considering a run for the seat.

That makes two of us. Someone in Wexler’s position doesn’t just suddenly resign from his influential job in the U.S. House of Representatives — a position in which he can secure pork for liberal causes and significantly influence policy — to become director for the “Center for Middle East Peace and Economic Cooperation”. Finishing your term and then deciding to rejoin the private sector is one thing; suddenly jumping to an obscure job is quite another.

Like I said, something smells fishy.

I doubt anyone still believes ACORN is anything other than a far-left organization dedicated to propping up liberal causes and politicians through dirty tactics. But just in case anyone hasn’t been paying attention to ACORN-related news over the past, oh, year or so, this should push them over the fence.

Beth Butler, the longtime executive director of Lousiana ACORN, was terminated by the organization’s national leadership Monday amid a power struggle at the embattled advocacy group.

Butler’s sacking came two days after local ACORN leaders criticized President Barack Obama’s planned itinerary for a trip to New Orleans this week — comments that drew an immediate rebuke from ACORN’s national leaders.

On Sunday, ACORN Chief Executive Bertha Lewis said the remarks, which were not uttered by Butler, were “without authority and do not reflect the position of the national leadership.” Lewis said she would “be personally going to New Orleans to deal with the individual involved.”

Less than 24 hours later, Butler was fired. An angry Butler said Monday that the real reason for her firing was not the flap over Obama’s visit, but a simmering tussle over assets that ACORN’s Louisiana affiliate controls and that the national group covets.

In particular, Butler said headquarters has its eye on a land trust set up by the Louisiana branch. The trust owns five relatively modest houses, she said, and has a bank account of perhaps $60,000 intended for rehabilitation work — nothing to sneeze at, she said, “in the nonprofit world.”

As it happens, ACORN officials agree with Butler that her termination was not carried out only as retribution for the Obama critique. Rather, according to an ACORN official who would speak only on background, the episode was “reflective of a lack of accountability to process” on Butler’s part.

Butler had repeatedly breached ACORN protocol, and this was the most recent instance, he said.

“Normally, the theory is that locals can speak for themselves, ” said the official. “But this is in a time of severe challenge for us, and they were criticizing the president of the United States. If they had criticized Ray Nagin, we’d have nothing to say about it.”

The “severe challenge” he described is an effort to recover from a series of scandals that have rocked the organization and threaten its survival. The most devastating was a series of videos in which two guerrilla journalists posed as a prostitute and a pimp, and received counseling from ACORN employees on how to avoid paying taxes on brothel income…

Butler, who has worked for ACORN for 37 years, said her real sin in the eyes of the national organization’s leaders was a failure to concede to their demands. In particular, she said, she had led resistance to a demand to turn over the land trust, called the ACORN Community Land Association of Louisiana, to the national group.

“We were told by national ACORN that we had to give it up to them,” she said. “We got e-mails threatening our jobs because we didn’t push the land trust people to hand over property and money to the New York people who took over ACORN.”

Butler passed along an e-mail message from Lewis calling Butler’s behavior regarding the land trust “unacceptable.”

The national entity is also making a play for roughly $90,000 in hurricane relief money controlled by the local group, Butler said.

“It’s hardball here,” she said. “Our local resources are being spirited to New York. ACORN Louisiana is the most lucrative chapter in the country, and we knew they were aiming to take us over. There’s a major meltdown in ACORN. They’re trying to scramble all of us who would fight them.”

Apparently ACORN is a bit more tied to Obama than we’re lead to believe. Criticize liberalism or liberals, especially Obama, and lose your job. That’s the ACORN culture.

Via HAH.

To the surprise of absolutely no one who has ever followed the political history of Olympia Snowe. She’s an idiot only interested in winning the approval liberals and she couldn’t stand bucking them any longer. So she, predictably, caved.

Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe says she will vote for a Democratic health care bill, breaking with her party on President Barack Obama’s top legislative priority.

The Maine senator kept virtually all of Washington guessing how she would vote until she announced it late in the Senate Finance Committee debate Tuesday. Until then, she told reporters, she had not even let Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., in on her secret. She told her colleagues: “When history calls, history calls,” even though she had some criticism of the bill.

So it’s all about making history. You know what else made history? The Holocaust. Just because something will make history doesn’t make it the right thing to do. She’s a moron whose goal in life is to have the editorial page of the New York Times approve of her actions. She thinks it’s all about getting a pat on the back from George Soros and a thank you from Michael Moore. Snowe simply can’t stand to have liberals despise her for opposing their agenda. So she buckled.

Anyway, this isn’t the end. Hardly. Now the Baucus bill will have to be reconciled with the significantly more liberal version from the Senate before moving on the House, where the majority of Democrats won’t support legislation that doesn’t entirely socialize the health care system. As the saying goes, we have not yet begun to fight.

Liberals have been desperately spinning Barack Obama’s idiotic decision to kill the missile defense shield in Europe as a move that would earn us support from countries like Russia in stopping Iran’s nuclear program. That despite the fact that Russia is largely helping Iran build up its nuclear program and could stop anytime if it wished.

Anyway, Russia has been blocking sanctions up until now and it looks like Moscow has no intention of changing that position.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday that the threat of sanctions against Iran would be counterproductive, resisting U.S. efforts to win agreement for measures if Iran fails to prove its nuclear program is peaceful.

Lavrov spoke following talks with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is trying to gauge Moscow’s willingness to join the U.S. in imposing sanctions if Iran fails to come clean on its nuclear activities.

Lavrov said Russia’s position is that under current conditions even the threat of sanctions against Iran would be counterproductive.

In other words, no new sanctions against Iran. Liberals had been spinning that we gave up the missile shield in order to win Russia’s support for new sanctions.

What does that mean now? We gave up a crucial aspect of national security, we broke promises made to staunch allies, in order to please Russia but get nothing of value in return. We gave up a missile defense shield just to see Putin smile. Fantastic.

Via HAH.

Up until now the private insurance industry has been largely on board with Democratic efforts to reform the health care system. But that gravy train of publicity seems to have reached its final stop.

The industry has released a new report from independent accounting firm PriceWaterhouse Coopers that shows the average premium for American families rising by about $4,000 per year under the Baucus bill. That version of the bill, crafted by the Senate Finance Committee, is the least expensive of all left-wing proposals and is often perceived as having the best chance of passing.

After months of collaboration on President Obama’s attempt to overhaul the nation’s health-care system, the insurance industry plans to strike out against the effort on Monday with a report warning that the typical family premium in 2019 could cost $4,000 more than projected.

The critique, coming one day before a critical Senate committee vote on the legislation, sparked a sharp response from the Obama administration. It also signaled an end to the fragile detente between two central players in this year’s health-care reform drama.

Industry officials said they intend to circulate the report prepared by PricewaterhouseCoopers on Capitol Hill and promote it in new advertisements. That could complicate Democratic hopes for action on the legislation this week.

Democrats have been touting the insurance industry’s support and praising their new partner in reform efforts. Will they actually stoop so low as to now dismiss the insurance industry as a special interest group opposed to change? Don’t be surprised.

Here’s the response from the White House:

“Those guys specialize in tax shelters,” said Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office of Health Reform. “Clearly this is not their area of expertise.”

That must be a joke. The White House is now claiming that health insurance premiums aren’t the area of expertise for health insurance companies? And that accounting and finance isn’t the area of expertise for accounting firms? Perhaps the White House could explain how it has more expertise on insurance premiums than either of these former two groups. It doesn’t.

An individual working on the infamous Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Europe has been arrested on suspicion of ties to terrorism.

The good news is that CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, says that none of its work could be utilized for military purposes. The bad news is that someone with links to terrorism was able to infiltrate a terribly expensive project that helps represent western scientific discovery.

So there’s that.

“He was not a CERN employee and performed his research under a contract with an outside institute. His work did not bring him into contact with anything that could be used for terrorism: CERN is a particle physics research laboratory whose research addresses fundamental questions about the universe,” a statement from the organization said.

CERN is currently preparing the Large Hadron Collider for a restart later in 2009 after it was forced to shut down last year due to technical problems. It is also known as the Big Bang Experiment as it seeks to simulate the Big Bang. Some people fear that such an experiment could potentially destroy Earth, but scientists have assured the project is safe.

“None of our research has potential for military application, and all our results are published openly in the public domain. CERN is providing the support requested by the French police in this enquiry,” the organization concluded.

My concern would be less with the research he’d conducting then with the fact he has access to facilities that could possibly be targets for terrorists he sympathizes or works with. But I’m no military professional, so…

Update: TimesOnline says the terror group in question is Al Qaeda.

Fears that al-Qaeda could be targeting Europe’s nuclear industry were fuelled today after French secret services arrested a nuclear researcher on suspicion of providing a list of terrorist targets to North African Islamic radicals.

The 32-year-old man, who was detained along with his brother, works for the prestigious European Organisation for Nuclear Research (Cern) in Geneva, Switzerland, according to French police sources…

The suspect, who is reported to be highly educated, is believed to have been in contact with members of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), an Algerian-based terrorist organisation which joined Osama bin Laden’s network in 2007.

A source said French intelligence officers had intercepted messages in which the man had suggested targets in France.

Also siding with the terrorists by that logic? Multiple White House aides, several prominent liberal bloggers, members of the White House Press Corps, writers for Slate, and I’m sure SNL by Monday. And yet here we are:

“The Republican Party has thrown in its lot with the terrorists – the Taliban and Hamas this morning – in criticizing the President for receiving the Nobel Peace prize,” DNC communications director Brad Woodhouse told POLITICO. “Republicans cheered when America failed to land the Olympics and now they are criticizing the President of the United States for receiving the Nobel Peace prize – an award he did not seek but that is nonetheless an honor in which every American can take great pride – unless of course you are the Republican Party.

“The 2009 version of the Republican Party has no boundaries, has no shame and has proved that they will put politics above patriotism at every turn. It’s no wonder only 20 percent of Americans admit to being Republicans anymore – it’s an embarrassing label to claim,” Woodhouse said.

Got that? Patriotism is now defined as mindlessly supporting the president in everything he does on every issue. Which would be in stark contrast to the claims Democrats have made for the past eight years, which included dissent being the highest form of patriotism.

How we go from not wanting costly Olympics and laughing at absurd awards to siding with people trying to kill American citizens is beyond me. Especially considering that it’s conservatives who want to thoroughly defeat the Taliban while Obama wants to make friends with them. But that’s liberal logic for you.

Incidentally, the DNC is — unsurprisingly — wrong in its claim about Americans associating with Republicans. 42% identify themselves as either Republicans or independents who associate with the Republican Party. Just six percent more identify themselves as Democrats or independents associating with Democrats. That’s the smallest gap in party affiliation since 2005.

Liberals ignoring basic facts and being hypocritical. What else is new.

Via HAH.

Perfect news to follow our post on The One inexplicably, to the shock of even liberal supporters, won the Nobel Peace Prize. His Highness has seen fit to have in his administration an advisor who supports the brutal sharia law. Because that’s all peace-like ‘n stuff.

His advisor on Muslim affairs, Dalia Mogahed, decided to give an interview on British television in which she extolled the “gender justice” that is apparently sharia law. Countries with sharia law are best known for using its precedents to stone women for such outrageous crimes as not wearing the proper clothing expected of them.

Gender justice!

President Barack Obama’s adviser on Muslim affairs, Dalia Mogahed, has provoked controversy by appearing on a British television show hosted by a member of an extremist group to talk about Sharia Law.

Miss Mogahed, appointed to the President’s Council on Faith-Based and Neighbourhood Partnerships, said the Western view of Sharia was “oversimplified” and the majority of women around the world associate it with “gender justice”.

The White House adviser made the remarks on a London-based TV discussion programme hosted by Ibtihal Bsis, a member of the extremist Hizb ut Tahrir party. …

During the 45-minute discussion, on the Islam Channel programme Muslimah Dilemma earlier this week, the two members of the group made repeated attacks on secular “man-made law” and the West’s “lethal cocktail of liberty and capitalism”.

They called for Sharia Law to be “the source of legislation” and said that women should not be “permitted to hold a position of leadership in government”.

Miss Mogahed made no challenge to these demands and said that “promiscuity” and the “breakdown of traditional values” were what Muslims admired least about the West.

Ed points out just how ridiculous this is:

Gender justice? Under shari’a, a woman’s testimony in court only counts for half of that of a man. If a woman is raped, she needs four male witnesses to prove her case. If she makes the accusation and doesn’t find four witnesses, the victim gets charged with fornication or adultery and faces death.

Like I said: Gender justice! Woohoo!

Does anyone really believe that the Obama Administration has been ignorant of her beliefs until this point? No, it’s more likely that she’s in his administration for a “diversity of ideas”. Which would be like having Nazis in FDR’s administration just to get another perspective on the world. Nazis? Yes. Sharia is a brutal system that puts women to death for being raped. The victim gets killed for the crime. And it’s facilitated such outrages for far too long. The comparison is just dandy, thank you.

How does a guy who’s been in office nine months with no notable achievements win a Nobel Peace Prize? How does a guy who even gets mocked by liberals for having accomplished “jack squat” get bestowed with such an honor?

They figure he deserved one because he promised to do good. I shit you not.

The stunning choice made Obama the third sitting U.S. president to win the Nobel Peace Prize and shocked Nobel observers because Obama took office less than two weeks before the Feb. 1 nomination deadline. Obama’s name had been mentioned in speculation before the award but many Nobel watchers believed it was too early to award the president…

The Nobel committee praised Obama’s creation of “a new climate in international politics” and said he had returned multilateral diplomacy and institutions like the U.N. to the center of the world stage. The plaudit appeared to be a slap at President George W. Bush from a committee that harshly criticized Obama’s predecessor for resorting to largely unilateral military action in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

Rather than recognizing concrete achievement, the 2009 prize appeared intended to support initiatives that have yet to bear fruit: reducing the world stock of nuclear arms, easing American conflicts with Muslim nations and strengthening the U.S. role in combating climate change.

“Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future,” Thorbjoern Jagland, chairman of the Nobel Committee said.

Not a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize? FDR. Also not a recipient? Ronald Reagan. But Obama wins won for…promising to change things. Promising.

The cult of personality keeps on-a-chugging. Now the left (in a global sense) can point to their Dear Leader having won a Nobel Peace Prize as if he actually accomplished something to deserve it.

How unworthy is he? There were audible gasps when the Obama groupees in Oslo announced this stupidity. The White House initially refused to comment,  perhaps thinking it was an elaborate prank. Foreign papers are actually calling this a mockery of the prize.

But I’m sure we’ll hear from CNN and the rest of the left-wing media how he totally deserved this. You know, for being, like, awesome ‘n stuff.

It would seem that the world can no longer make a distinction between hopes  or promises and actual achievement. If Obama has any shame, he’ll turn down the prize awarded to Mother Theresa and Nelson Mandela. Even he knows he doesn’t deserve it.

They must be joking. Are they aware that April Fool’s Day is actually, as its name suggests, in April? There’s no possible way you can objectively look at the Obama Administration and give it an A-, as I’m sure even his strongest supporters would tell you.

He promised to close Gitmo. Done? Nope.

He promised to pull out of Iraq. Done? Nope.

He promised to create or save millions of jobs. Done? Nope.

He promised to overhaul the health care system. Done? Hell no.

He promised to implement a strategy to fix the situation in Afghanistan. Done? Heeeeeellllll nooooo.

He promised to keep lobbyists out of areas of the government they lobbied for. Done? Nope.

He promised to bring about a new era of transparency, including posting bill before signing them. Done? Nope.

He promised to cut federal spending and reduce the deficit. Done? He’s tripled the deficit.

And the list goes on and on. Even Saturday Night Live now jokes about him having accomplished jack. It’s becoming more and more common for Jon Stewart to mock Obama’s many failures. We get a story on a regular basis about liberals who say he’s doing almost nothing to fight strongly for their causes. He’s been a disaster, even for liberal activists.

Then we get to independents who supported the moderate policies he preached but didn’t live up to. And the human rights activists who were betrayed on issues such as Gitmo and Tibet. Never mind the few Republicans who crossed over and held their noses.

And yet here’s Time magazine insisting that he’d one a heckuva job. Unemployment reaching double digits, the deficit tripled, the situation in Afghanistan getting worse, the health care system in the same shape it was before, lobbyists all over the administration, and promise after promised broken. Mark Halperin must be living under a rock in Guam.

Instantly comfortable and highly skilled at the hardest job in the world — proving his supporters’ contention that all the traits that made him a great candidate would serve him well in the White House.

Even his own supporters don’t believe that anymore. We can pull up clips of Air America hosts calling him a damn liar and fascist. Highly skilled? The man can’t even deliver the Olympic games for Chicago after personally showing up on the IOC’s doorstep. Highly-skilled my ass.

A handful of public missteps (particularly on his international trips and on torture issues) and a failure to ameliorate the partisan divide are the only true blemishes so far.

Now Halperin’s just trying to screw with us. A few public missteps? Like driving the economy further into the ground, utterly failing to live up to his promises in Afghanistan, doing nothing he promised liberals he would do, doing nothing he promised independents and conservatives he would do, and tripling the deficit he promised to cut? Those are a few public missteps?

Thank God he didn’t have many public missteps, then. And thank God he didn’t do a B- job. We’d all be living in caves, fighting each other for the last scraps of food and drops of water on earth.

More: Hot Air, Ace of Spades HQ.

A rather juicy flashback considering today’s news that he intends to surrender territory to the same Taliban, declare them friends, and then claim victory because “friends” are in control of Afghanistan.

It seems that Candidate Obama would’ve blasted President Obama over the issue of dealing with the Taliban. But then again, Candidate Obama was attempting to win by promising to be the real-life incarnation of Rambo, while President Obama is unwilling to take a stance out of fear of pissing off his far-left, anti-war base.

These clips will come in handy next year as Obama and his Congressional allies have to deal with having shown no leadership on Afghanistan. While Americans aren’t exactly thrilled at the prospect of more troops in the war, they’re really not going to like surrendering or ignoring the advice of the generals. Especially when Obama’s actions will have directly conflicted with his promises.