Couldn’t say it better, myself:

President Obama’s decision is extremely difficult. Today, less than 50% of Americans support the war. No doubt even fewer Americans would be on the side of doing what Gen. Stanley McChrystal wants to do: temporarily increase the number of troops and dramatically change our strategy.

The way we have provided development assistance to the government in Afghanistan hasn’t improved the lives of the Afghan people. A cloud of illegitimacy hangs over President Hamid Karzai because of the recent election. Even friends of the Karzai administration have reported cronyism and corruption.

Yet despite these setbacks, our leaders must remain focused on the fact that success in Afghanistan bolsters our national security and yes, our moral reputation. This war is not Vietnam. The Taliban are not popular and have very little support other than what they secure through terror.

Afghanistan is also not Iraq. No serious leader in Kabul is asking us to leave. Instead we are being asked to withdraw by American leaders who begin their analysis with the presumption that victory is not possible. They seem to want to ensure defeat by leaving at the very moment when our military leader on the ground has laid out a coherent and compelling strategy for victory.

When it comes to foreign policy, almost nothing matters more then your friends and your enemies knowing you will keep your word and follow through on your commitments. This is the real test of presidential leadership. I hope that President Obama—soon to be a Nobel laureate—passes with flying colors. – Bob Kerrey

That is my hope, too – and what I’ll be praying for. I don’t envy Obama’s position. It is a difficult task. No matter what course he chooses, men will die. No matter what course he chooses, some people will dissent from it. No matter what course he chooses, friends and enemies will have negative things to say about it. But, also, if he chooses correctly then the men will die fighting for a better future. The dissidents will be proven wrong. Friends and enemies will, once again, know that America stands by her commitments.

I hope Obama chooses well.

The most mind-bogglingly stupid Administration, ever:

The Department of the Interior has frozen oil and gas development on 60 of 77 contested drilling sites in Utah, saying the process of leasing the land was rushed and badly flawed.

The 77 government-owned parcels, covering some 100,000 acres in eastern and southern Utah, were leased in the last weeks of the Bush administration. But the leases were immediately challenged by conservation groups…

“Rushed and badly flawed” means “Bush did it, and so we’re going to stop it, no matter what.” Even if they were rushed and badly flawed (something I very much doubt), we still need the dratted oil and natural gas and we can’t sit there waiting until all environmentalist groups are satisfied before we drill…because they never will be satisfied.

Want to know why you’re paying nearly $3 a gallon for gas during the worst recession since the 1930s? Because of idiot actions like this – actions which prevent drilling, transporting and refining oil and natural gas. Because of a few kooks who have the ear of the Administration, every single American – especially poor Americans – will pay a price.

Just disgusting.

The lesson from California:

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will know within a month whether a $1.1 billion drop in revenue collections is part of a growing budget shortfall or an isolated event, his budget spokesman said.

Revenue in the three months ended Sept. 30 was 5.3 percent less than assumed in the $85 billion annual budget, state controller John Chiang reported yesterday. Income tax receipts led the gap, as unemployment reached 12.2 percent in August.

“The culprit here appears to be estimated quarterly personal income tax statements,” H.D. Palmer, the governor’s budget spokesman, said yesterday. “The numbers are cause for concern, but the issue now for us is to determine if this is a one-time event or whether it has more long-term implications.”

To translate from the governmentese: “oh, shoot: this is falling apart faster than we expected!”.

The way a government should budget is this:

1. What were the actual revenues from two years ago?

2. Next year’s budget should spend 10% less than that.

3. If there’s a surplus – whoopee! You can spend it or rebate it.

4. If there’s a deficit – too bad, but at least you won’t have to borrow as much to cover it as you would have with a budget which presumes increased revenues.

Repeat each year.

Government is a lot simpler than we make it out to be – of course, those who run government make it as complex as possible? Why? Well…

1. A large portion of the people manning government simply don’t know enough to realize when they’re being rolled by professional bureaucrats and lobbyists.

2. Another large portion of such people know that the screwier they make it, the less likely they are to get caught in their grafting.

Meanwhile, the few who know what they are doing and are honest are left to issue repeated warnings, which are then calmly ignored. Think of it like this – in response to the various rip-offs by banks via credit cards and payday loans, Obama has proposed to add another layer of government bureaucrats to the mix. Much simpler to merely pass a law saying that no APR may be higher than 20% and that no APR may be increased by more than 1 percentage point per year – banks will stop loaning to the people they charge 29% to because people who have that sort of lousy credit won’t qualify for an APR less than 20% and, meanwhile, people who get in a bind won’t find their APRs jumping from 9.99% to 18.99% for being late, once. And we don’t need a single new bureaucrat to enforce such a thing – the current law enforcement agencies are sufficient to easily monitor this, and banks are highly unlikely to attempt to break such a law. The demerit in this, for government, is that it would be easy for everyone to understand – it’d also be fair to both banks and consumers and that right there would kill the deal.

New people are needed – new people with new ideas.

From Krauthammer:

…When the world’s expert on this type of counterterrorism warfare recommends precisely the opposite strategy — “counterinsurgency,” meaning a heavy-footprint, population-protecting troop surge — you have the most convincing of cases against counterterrorism by the man who most knows its potential and its limits. And McChrystal was emphatic in his recommendation: To go any other way than counterinsurgency would lose the war.

Yet his commander in chief, young Hamlet, frets, demurs, agonizes. His domestic advisers, led by Rahm Emanuel, tell him if he goes for victory, he’ll become LBJ, the domestic visionary destroyed by a foreign war. His vice president holds out the chimera of painless counterterrorism success…

There is a great deal of truth in that, especially as it relates to the sort of political advice Obama is getting. Given that Obama’s military knowledge is nil and his knowledge of Vietnam colored by the tenured radicals who educated him, Obama may find that the leftist advice he’s getting makes sense. To Obama, the story that LBJ was undone by war makes sense – but while LBJ was undone by Vietnam, he wasn’t undone for the reasons liberal think. To liberals – and thus to Obama – it was war, in and of itself, which doomed LBJ. The truth of the matter is quite different – it was failure to win the war which doomed LBJ.

For all the talk of the anti-war movement’s effect on the 1968 election, the fact of the matter is that all three major candidates (Nixon, Humphry, Wallace) were pledged to victory in Vietnam, by one means or another. The overtly anti-war candidates (Romney for the GOP, McCarthy for the Democrats) were trounced by their respective party nominees – neither of them ever really had a chance of being nominated. While it was anti-war McCarthy’s strong showing in New Hampshire which convinced Johnson to back out, the fact that Johnson’s pro-victory Vice President won the nomination indicates that the vote was more anti-Johnson than anti-war. Had Johnson secured victory – or at least seemed to be fighting for victory – then he probably would have been easily re-nominated, and almost certainly re-elected. Obama is drawing the wrong lesson – he needs to learn that he should fight to win, but what he’s getting is “don’t fight/don’t lose” – the very same advice which lost us Vietnam, and lost Johnson the Presidency.

Again and again I go back to the refrain – MacArthur’s “in war, there is no substitute for victory.” I keep saying it because it is absolutely true. A hard war doesn’t cause trouble; a long war doesn’t cause trouble – a war which is being lost causes trouble…and in a democracy, anything short of “clearly winning” translates in the public mind as “lost”. More than ever, what Obama needs is advice to keep fighting – to send the requested troops, to often visit the troops (here and in Afghanistan), to repeatedly state that victory is the goal. To nutshell it, Obama needs to become exactly like President Bush…clear, convincing and unflagging. If Obama does that, he’ll have a victorious war to his credit in 2012 – if Obama takes the advice he’s currently getting, he’ll have a lost war or a long, drawn out blood bath to his discredit in 2012. Fight and win, or wimp out and lose – and not just for himself, but for America and the world.

Be careful of what you say and do:

Brothers and sisters:

Indeed the word of God is living and effective,

sharper than any two-edged sword,

penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow,

and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart.

No creature is concealed from him,

but everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of him

to whom we must render an account. – Hebrews 4:12-13

Everything has to be accounted for – remember that.

Don’t break out the champagne, yet, but things are looking good:

Republican Robert F. McDonnell has taken a commanding lead over R. Creigh Deeds in the race for governor of Virginia as momentum the Democrat had built with an attack on his opponent’s conservative social views has dissipated, according to a new Washington Post poll…

…The poll indicates that the GOP is well-positioned to emphatically end a recent Democratic winning streak, with Republicans Bill Bolling and Ken Cuccinelli each holding identical 49 to 40 percent leads over Democrats Jody Wagner and Steve Shannon for lieutenant governor and attorney general.

On the other hand, the race for NJ governor is very tight. In the end, I expect we’ll win – but New Jersey has shown itself again and again to be a State which will vote Democrat no matter what. In a year of high unemployment and a very unpopular, incompetent Democrat governor, this might prove enough to convince even New Jersey that the GOP might be the better option.

Be that as it may, the fact that we’re surging so strongly in Virginia shows, I believe, that the effects of our 2006-08 losses have faded…we’re getting back on track. Of course, we’re being fabulously helped by the Democrats being more incompetent and corrupt than even we figured they’d be – but even taking in to consideration that help, its clear that the messages of low taxes and balanced budgets are once again winners for the GOP.

Here is someone else who was nominated for the Nobel this year:

An attorney who is one of several human rights activists in China working with Chen Guangcheng against forced abortions is one of the nominees who lost the Nobel Peace Prize award to pro-abortion President Barack Obama. The committee awarded the prize to Obama after his serving just 11 days in office.

Hu Jia, an activist on other issues, is an attorney for Chen and an outspoken critic of the Chinese government in part because of the forced abortions and sterilizations that occur in its one-child family planning campaign.

But the Nobel Committee was smart enough to pass over this nobody who’s done nothing and give the prize to the really deserving.

Wonder if they’ll pay attention?

House Democrats had better start taking the ethics allegations against Rep. Charlie Rangel seriously. I know it’s difficult for those steeped in Capitol Hill’s hermetic culture to understand, but a verdict of “mistakes were made” — which a lot of Democrats would like to reach — doesn’t cut it in the real world. Strange as it seems. Seriously…

…But just because Republicans are posturing for political gain doesn’t mean that Democrats can do the same without paying a price. If you win big majorities in both the House and Senate by railing against a “culture of corruption” in Washington, as the Democratic Party did, voters tend to get the wacky notion that you actually mean what you say.

The violations that Rangel is alleged to have committed are, inconveniently for him, easy for anyone to understand. The most serious, perhaps, is the allegation that he failed to pay taxes on about $75,000 in income from renting out a beach house that he owns in the Dominican Republic. For the chairman of the House committee that writes tax legislation not to pay his fair share in taxes would be as bad as, say, for the secretary of the Treasury not to pay his fair share in taxes. Hold it, maybe that’s a bad example…

…The real problem, though, is the overall portrait of a wealthy and privileged congressional pasha to whom ordinary rules don’t apply. It’s a picture that obscures Rangel’s long and tireless work in the House on behalf of the needy and dispossessed. It pains me to see his record tarnished, because I like and admire the guy. But he’s the one who did the tarnishing.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi may owe Rangel her job, but she needs to press the ethics committee to do its work without fear or favor. And she needs to contemplate the prospect of explaining to voters, come next fall, why the affluent man who sets their taxes didn’t pay his.

And that is it, in a nutshell. Even if one wishes to believe that the economy will be significantly better by November of 2010, the fact remains that it won’t be great and a lot of people will still be out of work. When you add to frustration over the economy the fact that the political class is corrupt, you can easily get a tidal wave of political change. Keep in mind that the GOP lost its Congressional majority in the relatively prosperous year of 2006. 8%+ unemployment coupled with Culture of Corruption could swing an election from the expected 25-seat Democrat loss to 50 or more (and I think unemployment will be 10%+ at that time…).

The message from the people is very loud and clear – stop the corruption, stop the back room deals, stop tax, spending and borrowing up in to oblivion. Democrats have preferred to concentrate on un-needed and un-wanted reforms to health care and energy along with preparing to scuttle Afghanistan and various oddities about extended “hate crimes” laws to homosexuals and allowing women to serve on submarines. In addition to this, Democrats have, if anything, become more arrogantly corrupt since they won the whole ball of wax last November – they seem to think they’ve won another 40 year term as majority.

If the Democrats don’t heed the voices of wisdom on their own side, they will head towards catastrophe next year.

Here it is in PDF – a quote:

Dear Attorney General Holder,

As you are aware, the Commission on Civil Rights investigates, among other things, complaints alleging that citizens are being deprived of their right to vote by reason of their race, color, religion, sex, age, disability and national origin, or by reason of fraudulent practices. Referred to as the “conscience of the nation,” the Commission and its individual members have historically stood against systemic efforts to corrupt the electoral process and disfranchise qualified voters…

…In November 2008, several commissioners wrote to your predecessor, Attorney General Michael Mukasey, urging him to launch a nationwide investigation into ACORN’s practices in the face of widespread evidence that it has engaged in filing possibly hundreds of thousands of fraudulent voter registration applications in some fourteen states – in invidious invitation for corruption in our electoral process…

…We respectfully urge the Department of Justice to undertake such a full-fledged, nationwide investigation of ACORN, including an assessment of whether ACORN’s conduct violates various applicable federal statutes, and to conduct its work with all deliberate speed. The integrity of our electoral system demands no less.

Ok, liberals; commence explaining this away. Also, we wonder how long before Obama manages to get a new Commission appointed? Certainly can’t have a Commission which asks for this sort of thing – next thing you know, people might start demanding that only citizens vote…and they only vote once! What would Democrats do if that came to pass?

This just sorta slipped out in the New York Times:

Slipped ever so casually into a New York Times profile on Dr. Francis Collins, the new director of the National Institutes of Health, is this stunning and not-so-objective example of reporting:

“First, there is the God issue. Dr. Collins believes in him. Passionately. And he preaches about his belief in churches and a best-selling book. For some presidential appointees, that might not be a problem, but many scientists view such outspoken religious commitment as a sign of mild dementia.”

Excuse me. Rewind the tape, please. Did the New York Times just say that people who believe in God and talk about it have dementia?

In an otherwise unremarkable profile, this offhand remark, which is never backed up by anything that could even remotely be considered “evidence,” is included as part of a discussion on whether Dr. Collins, who happens to be Christian, could possibly handle the reins of NIH and believe in God at the same time. Quoted in the article is another doctor who says that Dr. Collins’ two-year search for God after being questioned by a patient about his beliefs and his conclusion that yes, there is a God, is “enough to cause concern.”

One of the many things which amazes me is how monumentally stupid some people will be as regards religion. The knots some people twist themselves in to over their insistence on non-belief is amazing. Its plain as a pikestaff that God exists (one of a hundred examples: if the universe is expanding, it must be expanding in to something…meaning there is something before, and thus outside, the universe; try and work that in to Darwinism, suckers), but here come the non-believers who simply will not admit that there might be something smarter than they are. Its really rather sad – and sterile, too.

While some do hold to “special creation” – that God created everything as is at some relatively recent time – most people are ok with a universe billions of years old. Most are also ok with evolution – I mean, if we’re talking about a creature which, via slow stages, changed from ape to man, who really wants to argue against it? Especially since so many men can be ape-like in their day to day affairs? But what is stupid is to say that it happened by accident – that some self-creating microbe billions of years ago by accident changed in to a man…and also in to a whale…and a fruit fly…and a lizard…it just can’t happen. It defies common sense to believe such an idiotic notion…but it is believed. And so stout is the belief that, per the above article, these people are coming to view belief in God as a mental disorder (which, even if they are right, it can’t be – if we really did evolve by accident to have the best means of survival, then belief in God is proven to be part of our vital survival evolution…those who are denying God are denying evolution, and essentially trying to kill us all…if we take their views at face value; such is the topsy-turvydom of the non-believers).

I also wonder why they bother – it takes a lot of work to be a non-believer. You have to continually reinforce your non-belief – can’t for a moment allow even a sliver of the supernatural, or the jig is up. Meanwhile, believers are free to believe in God and evolution – both of which tend to make sense of the world as we know it.