KURT SCHLICHTER: “Liberal” Is Just A Synonym For “Smug.”

OTHER THAN RAISING MONEY AND WEAPONIZING THE BUREAUCRACY, WHAT HAS HE BEEN READY FOR? Stephen L. Carter: Obama Isn’t Ready for Another Cold War.

GANGSTER GOVERNMENT: Inspectors general say Obama aides obstruct investigations. “Billions of tax dollars are being lost every day to waste, fraud and corruption in the federal government, but President Obama’s administration is blocking inspectors general — the officials who are most likely to find and expose such wrongdoing — from doing their jobs. That’s the disturbing message given to Congress and the American people this week from a majority of the federal government’s 78 IGs.”

MY USA TODAY COLUMN FOR TOMORROW: Carrying A Gun Worse Than Beating Your Wife? That’s The Loopy View Of One NJ Judge & Prosecutor. Plus, my suggestion for a new civil rights law.

SPYING: Visit the Wrong Website, and the FBI Could End Up in Your Computer. “What’s changed is the way the FBI uses its malware capability, deploying it as a driftnet instead of a fishing line. And the shift is a direct response to Tor, the powerful anonymity system endorsed by Edward Snowden and the State Department alike.”

Alternatively, this story is just a cover, and they really have a Tor backdoor.

THE REPUBLICANS’ PLAN to take both houses of Congress.

EUROPE: The Future That Doesn’t Work.

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OH, GOOD, THAT’LL HELP: ‘Something’s going down in Baghdad’: Reports of possible coup.

DAVE BARRY: Thanks, New York Times!

HOW’S THAT “SMART DIPLOMACY” WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Obama’s plan to stop ISIS panned by both sides of aisle. Hillary’s first to plunge in the knife:

“Great nations need organizing principles, and ‘Don’t do stupid stuff’ is not an organizing principle,” said Clinton, who served as Obama’s first secretary of state.

She made the comment to The Atlantic in response to a question about one of the administration’s blunt mantras to observe caution – an approach critics say has led to disengagement as events exploded in the Middle East.

Clinton, in a new interview with Jeffrey Goldberg in the magazine, blasted the administration’s failure to arm Syrian rebels in the early phase of their uprising against President Bashar al Assad – a policy she tried to change.

“The failure to help build up a credible fighting force of the people who were the originators of the protests against Assad—there were Islamists, there were secularists, there was everything in the middle—the failure to do that left a big vacuum, which the jihadists have now filled,” Clinton said.

Her strategy appears to be to run against Obama the way Obama ran against Bush. Maybe a bit awkward that she was in charge of his foreign policy for most of the time.

UM: Yahoo News account hacked; tweets Ebola outbreak in Atlanta.

JIM TREACHER: If Benghazi Was No Big Deal, Why Is The White House Worried About Another One? “So, does this headline mean ISIS was inspired by a YouTube video? Or does it mean that this time the White House doesn’t want to lie to us? Or perhaps it means that they care less about the consequences of their words and actions than about being embarrassed by their critics. Governance by spite. It’s probably none of those things. I blame the Republicans, because I don’t like them.”

THE MASK IS OFF: Hungary’s Viktor Orbán has openly renounced Western-style democracy for the nationalist authoritarianism of Putin’s Russia. “His speech confirms what his domestic and foreign critics have said for years about his managed democracy and what until now his propagandists and loyal followers have heatedly denied. For he has now publicly, and proudly, declared his preference for an ‘illiberal state.'”

When liberal democracies look weak and confused, tyrants flourish.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Princeton and Wellesley May Re-Inflate Grades.

POLITICS: I Spy Campaign 2014: ‘Gotcha’ Politics or Business as Usual?

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INTRODUCING The Hairy Leg Movement.

EDWARD LUTTWAK: The Cycles—or Stages—of Chinese History.

CLAYTON CRAMER IS DOING BETTER. But he advises readers to pay attention to blood pressure.

HAPPY MEMORIES on the 20th Anniversary of Knoxville’s first Brewpub. It’s now the Downtown Grill & Brewery, and I love it.

HISTORY: 6 Times Obama Was Against Military Action in Iraq. “MSNBC, which is today wondering if Obama doing enough to take on ISIS, applauded the president in 2011 for ‘keeping a major campaign promise’ by getting America out of Iraq. . . . To be fair, in 2013 the president was bogged down by Syria – which some were saying would be his Iraq. He insisted it wouldn’t, because all he wanted to do was some tactical airstrikes on Syria… which is totally different than him announcing tactical airstrikes on Iraq.”

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 458.

DESPITE? Hawaii Governor Loses Democratic Primary Despite Obama Endorsement. “President Barack Obama endorsed him, but incumbent Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie lost his Democratic primary to a challenger Saturday. Abercrombie, a longtime Democratic officeholder in the state, was ousted by state Sen. David Ige. That makes Abercrombie the first incumbent governor in Hawaii history to lose his primary. Ige handily defeated the sitting governor, winning 67 percent to Abercrombie’s 32 percent of the vote.”