WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: The Constitution, the Sour Spot, and the Great Syria Train Wreck. “During his time in the White House, President Obama has repeatedly demonstrated a style of decision making that gets him in trouble. Especially when the stakes are high and the issue is complex, the President overthinks himself and tries to split the difference between tough policy choices. He comes up with stratagems that work beautifully on paper and offer well reasoned, moderate alternatives to stark choices. Unfortunately, they usually don’t work all that well in the real world, with the President repeatedly ending up in the ‘sour spot’ where his careful approaches don’t get him where he needs to go. This style of strategy is what’s boxed him in and tied him in knots over Syria.”

CHARLIE MARTIN: Does Buddhism Require You to be a Liberal?

AT AMAZON, 50% off on Men’s Fashion Watches. Also Women’s.

Plus, Back-to-School Deals on Printers.

Also, today only: Up to 55% Off Toshiba Hard Drives and Flash Memory.

NORMAN PODHORETZ: Is Obama Wrecking Our Foreign Policy On Purpose? “The president may look incompetent on Syria. But his behavior fits his strategy to weaken America abroad.” Well, we’re certainly seeing fundamental transformation.

THIS WILL END WELL: Congress May Be Headed For A Split Verdict On Syria.

Would a Senate endorsement alone give President Barack Obama sufficient political backing to launch a missile strike on Syria?

With flimsy support in the House, the Senate may be the best chance Obama has to get the thumbs-up from Congress that he’s looking for — though by no means is a favorable result in the Senate a slam dunk.

The president himself refused to say what he would do if Congress split or refused to authorize the use of force against Syria.

Possible strategy — favorable vote in the Senate, followed by “urgent need to act immediately” before House can vote.

OBAMA’S SYRIA LOBBYING CAMPAIGN NOT GOING SO WELL: How Not to Win Over Congress: Sending Susan Rice, on the Benghazi anniversary, to argue for Syria is one of many missteps.

THE HILL: At ‘family reunion,’ Sen. Elizabeth Warren rallies union troops.

Lotsa brave anti-corporate talk, from a woman who defended huge asbestos maker Manville against the claims of dying workers. Then there’s the bit about not actually being licensed to practice law.

IRS SCANDAL UPDATE: Investor’s Business Daily: IRS Gave Black Nonprofits Preferential Treatment.

At the same time the IRS harassed Republican nonprofit groups during the 2012 political campaign, it selectively advised black churches and other Democrat nonprofits on how far they can go in campaigning for President Obama and other Democrats.

This raw exercise in political favoritism has not been reported in the context of the still-smoldering IRS scandal, in which the agency in 2012 audited big GOP donors and blocked Tea Party groups trying to obtain tax-exempt status as part of what House investigators suspect was an effort to re-elect the president.

But that same year, top officials with both the IRS and Justice Department — including the IRS commissioner and attorney general — met in Washington with several dozen prominent black church ministers representing millions of voters to brief them on how to get their flocks out to vote without breaking federal tax laws.

The “summit” on energizing the black vote in houses of worship was hosted by the Democrat-controlled Congressional Black Caucus inside the U.S. Capitol on May 30, 2012.

It’s pretty obvious that the IRS has been taking sides. (Bumped).

DISCUSSION: Should The Third Year Of Law School Be Cut?

ROGER SIMON NO LONGER FAVORS AN ATTACK ON SYRIA: “I overlooked — or more exactly chose to ignore — the obvious. We would be going to war with a blind man as our commander-in-chief. And I don’t mean a physically blind man like the Japanese samurai Zatoichi, whose heroic exploits were magnificent despite his infirmity, if you remember the film series. I mean a morally, psychologically and ideologically blind man incapable of coherent policy, action or even much logical thought on any matter of significance, let alone on such a crucial one with life and death at stake.”

QUIN HILLYER IS RUNNING FOR CONGRESS. You can donate here, if you’re so inclined.

FOR THIS TO WORK, IT’LL NEED STATUTORY DAMAGES AND A WAIVER OF OFFICIAL IMMUNITY: Legislation Seeks to Bar N.S.A. Tactic in Encryption. “After disclosures about the National Security Agency’s stealth campaign to counter Internet privacy protections, a congressman has proposed legislation that would prohibit the agency from installing ‘back doors’ into encryption, the electronic scrambling that protects e-mail, online transactions and other communications. Representative Rush D. Holt, a New Jersey Democrat who is also a physicist, said Friday that he believed the N.S.A. was overreaching and could hurt American interests, including the reputations of American companies whose products the agency may have altered or influenced.”

HOPE AND CHANGE: Poll: Defining The American Dream Down.

THIS IS WHAT YOU GET FOR STAYING HOME ON ELECTION DAY: Joe Biden Wants Janet Napolitano For The Supreme Court.

JOSH BLACKMAN: The Question No One Asked at Justice Kagan’s Confirmation Hearing: Why did she wall herself off from the Obamacare Litigation.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: ‘Robin Thicke hate is heavy here’ at #SlutWalk 2013.

ROGER KIMBALL: Fundamentally Transforming The United States of America. “Remember when candidate Barack Obama promised his acolytes that they were only ‘five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America’? That was back in October 2008, when the hectic flush of Obamamania was at its peak. To be fair, it’s took a bit longer than five days, but here we are, five years into the most destructive presidency in the country’s history and we can see that fundamental transformation at work just about everywhere.”

SALENA ZITO: Our Isolated Military.

MOE LANE ENDORSES MY SUGGESTION: Attention, Republican legislators: let the Democrats vote FIRST. Yep. Not one Republican in the House or Senate should cast a vote until all the Democrats have voted.

WAR AND DOMESTIC POLITICS: The Hill: Fears of wounding Obama weigh heavily on Dems ahead of vote.

NOBODY TELL NOTORIOUS ROBOPHOBE MATT YGLESIAS ABOUT THIS: To Succeed, Obey The Robots.

#NARRATIVEFAIL: “The news comes several years after it was predicted that the arctic would be ice-free by 2013.”

GOOD THING WE GOT RID OF DICK CHENEY AND HIS PARANOID NATIONAL-SECURITY STATE: Obama administration had restrictions on NSA reversed in 2011.

UPDATE: A reader notes this passage, which does deserve breaking out:

What had not been previously acknowledged is that the court in 2008 imposed an explicit ban — at the government’s request — on those kinds of searches, that officials in 2011 got the court to lift the bar and that the search authority has been used.

So to be clear, the Obama Administration removed a ban on spying placed there at the Bush Administration’s urging. And, it’s worth noting, did it the year before the elections.

MOST TRANSPARENT ADMINISTRATION IN HISTORY: Benghazi Whistleblower: I’ve Been ‘Punished’ for Speaking Out.

HIGHER EDUCATION UPDATE: Berkeley student government considers ‘no confidence’ vote on Janet Napolitano. “The student government of the University of California at Berkeley is kicking off the academic year by considering a ‘no confidence’ vote for Janet Napolitano as the incoming president of the UC system.”

I share the sentiment, though perhaps for different reasons.