UPDATE(s) – As predicted earlier today: Harry Reid has cancelled Senate vote authorizing President Obama to take military action.   AND President Obama backs off Red Line and says he’s open to “diplomatic tack”.
The reasons WHY are evidenced as they were previously outlined below:

After 10 straight days of pressure from President Obama’s team, the request for congressional authorization is failing miserably.    All intellectually honest DC operatives, pundits et al, are all in agreement any vote in House of Representatives would fail horridly, and passage in the Senate is doubtful at best.
President Obama will not allow a vote call upon either chamber that he knows would fail.  [Unless, of course, the vote failure was to his benefit – that’s not the case on this Syrian authorization].  Harry Reid will not call a vote in the Senate which would embarrass or humiliate President Obama.
That said, now the issue becomes how to get President Obama out from his self inflicted plunge under his own bus.   This phrase, which will eventually come from the mouth of Obama, is what all political efforts are working toward:

“I was never for militarily attacking Syria, I always wanted a peaceful solution”.

Obama needs to position himself as being reluctantly dragged toward conflict now.  He needs to make the case that *HE* did not want to attack Syria, the global demands of humanity were forcing him to threaten Assad.
President Obama needs a soft landing to save face – to find a soft landing you need to receive a ‘soft message’ from your adversary.   Russia knows this.
Russia and Syria know there is no popular support for Obama.  Russia knows from decades of experience inside the U.S. exactly what the internal public opinion does to any administration;  and most importantly Russia knows what is described above as to what POTUS protectors are doing to safety net President Obama.   Hence….   (more…)

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — Rebels including al-Qaida-linked fighters gained control of a Christian village northeast of the capital Damascus, Syrian activists said Sunday. Government media provided a dramatically different account of the battle suggesting regime forces were winning.

It was impossible to independently verify the reports from Maaloula, a scenic mountain community known for being one of the few places in the world where residents still speak the ancient Middle Eastern language of Aramaic. The village is on a UNESCO list of tentative world heritage sites.
The rebel advance into the area this week was spearheaded by Jabhat al-Nusra, or the Nusra Front, exacerbating fears among Syrians and religious minorities about the role played by Islamic extremists within the rebel ranks. (more…)

Or as John McCain would say “Allahu Akbar” !!

In return Pope Francis rebukes President Obama !!

With all my strength, I ask each party in the conflict not to close themselves in solely on their own interests. #prayforpeace

— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) September 5, 2013

Toward the end of this brief video Secretary Kerry says:

…. “I guarantee you if we turn our backs today, the picture we all saw in the paper today and the media of those people shot, that will take place more because more extremists will be attracted to this, because they will be funded as the only alternative in order to take on Assad”….

Accurately Rush Limbaugh opines.   Rush Limbaugh makes a great point regarding John Kerry’s insistence that these Syrian rebels are moderates — yet he referred to American military as murderers who terrorize women and children. (more…)

No longer willing to be a codependent enabler to stupid leadership decisions espoused on my behalf, and despite the structure around the pretext that failing to support them makes me unpatriotic, I’m furious with our President on this Syrian fiasco.
This is not a zero sum game, and I do not accept the presentation as such.   I also hold a principle that history holds value.
A failure to support President Obama’s personal opinion is not equivalent to supporting Assad or Iran.   The missing context is the application of freedom principles and history.  It is not unpatriotic to support freedom – It WAS unpatriotic of President Obama to draw a “red line” in our national sand without seeking permission of forethought. (more…)

The vote from the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee to put Obama’s Syrian resolution before the full Senate is essentially meaningless.    The subsequent vote amid the full Senate to support such a resolution is more politically valuable, but not terribly much.
The vote that counts, to authorize President Obama to use our military and attack Syria, will only come from the House of Representatives – The ‘People’s House’.

With that in mind a couple of recent tracking polls, ABC and Think Progress, are in alignment: (more…)

Leading Are Hard…..

*Check out the look on Chuck Hagle’s face in the picture above* – (Politico) House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi sent a letter to fellow House Democrats appealing for their support for military action in Syria in response to alleged chemical weapons use.
“At this critical juncture, it is essential that we make all Americans — the men and women we represent — fully aware of what the intelligence clearly and unequivocally demonstrates: that the Assad regime was responsible for chemical weapons attacks against innocent Syrians, resulting in the deaths of more than 1,400 people, including hundreds of children,” Pelosi wrote to Democrats. […] (more…)

Via Shadi Hamid, is the Director of Research at the Brookings Institute’s Doha Center:

Newspaper also claims that son of MB leader threatened Obama w- release of "papers" revealing his MB membership: https://t.co/x4lV2JdS91

— Shadi Hamid (@shadihamid) September 1, 2013

If you missed it, "liberal" Egyptian newspaper has front page headline claiming Obama as full-on member of Muslim Brotherhood international.

— Shadi Hamid (@shadihamid) September 1, 2013

In related news – the Eyptian interim government is reconsidering going back to the ban on the Muslim Brotherhood due to their entrenched terrorism.    It should not be forgotten the Brotherhood killed former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat which was the final straw the last time they were an allowed political entity.

I think it is prudent to go back to June 2011 and remind everyone that President Obama took us to war in Libya without congress.   He even stayed in the conflict after his own Office Of Legal Counsel advised him he was violating constitutional law:

(June 2011 – New York Times)  President Obama rejected the views of top lawyers at the Pentagon and the Justice Department when he decided that he had the legal authority to continue American military participation in the air war in Libya without Congressional authorization, according to officials familiar with internal administration deliberations.  (link)

(Via Politico)  Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday said if the Assad regime in Syria “were to be foolish enough to attack yet again and to do something in the meantime,” President Barack Obama “knows he has the power” to attack unilaterally and would likely “move very, very rapidly” — but “he feels we are stronger” moving with congressional authorization. (more…)

Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with President Obama, and his decision to attack Syria as punishment for chemical weapon use, it is prudent, and we are personally requesting, for all of us, regardless of disposition, to pause and pray for the safety of our nation’s soldiers who will be tasked to carry out the command.

Like many, perhaps most, I do not support the approach – Nor do I think it is in our nations best interests. However, regardless of my disposition I am certain that our military will execute their objectives with unparalleled professionalism and respect for duty.

We should not be quiet; yet we should not bitch and moan without purpose.

We should fight like hell to have OUR voices heard by our representatives; and we should demand those who we have elected to hold the Executive Branch to account…..

…. and then, in the final analysis, if our voice is overruled – regardless of our frustration or angst, we should present ourselves on bended knee and pray for those who ultimately are charged with carrying out the decisions of our national leadership.

It is from the diligence of our brave military we are able to rail, protest, and demand voice.