"In retrospect,I should not have been surprised," he writes. "President Obama had voiced strong support for the effort in Afghanistan during his campaign,pledging to add two brigades,which he did. But since the inauguration ... the administration had signaled that the U.S. commitment needed careful assessment,and we needed to recalibrate the strategy and objectives." Those signals included leaks of proposed strategies for Afghanistan and candid conversations with Obama-administration officials like then?national security adviser James Jones. Nonetheless,McChrystal never threatened to resign command,as some reports suggested,if he did not get the resources he thought he needed to execute the president's strategy. In other words,Sabato's success in dating is less determined by technique than by wealth,celebrity,and good genes. Indeed,when I ask him how shlubby guys trolling AnastasiaDate will benefit from advice from someone whose biceps are the size of my head,he answers: "I'm not training them physically,I'm training them about how to be themselves."In the world of serious dating coaches?not the kind indulged by former soap stars?the potential instructor can expect to navigate a labyrinth of certifications and federations. A 2008 article in the Wisconsin State Journal on the "booming" dating-coach industry charted one potential instructor's path to becoming a guru: personal experience was secondary to "becoming a Certified Professional Coach from the International Coach Academy,a program that is an accredited program with the International Coaching Federation. But Kroft and his network were actually in touch here with the pulse of the country,which wants Obama to succeed and Hillary to go have a nice long rest (and,kate spade outlet,maybe,get ready for 2016). Meanwhile,even Roger Ailes has gotten sick of Sarah Palin. Get the picture?Culture Warriors Gearing Up for New Battle Against Immigration Reform Seen this movie before? Thousands of marchers demand immigration reform at an organized May Day rally in downtown Los Angeles,May 1,2012. (Damian Dovarganes/AP)A reelected president,looking to cement his legacy,tries to reform the country's broken immigration system,cheered on by a bipartisan group of senators. The last time this particular reel unspooled was in 2007,when George W. Rep. Jerrold Nadler,Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer,and Karen Mills,the administrator of the Small Business Association (SBA),were also there,as were reporters and local small-business owners. As the group made its way through the South Street Seaport,which sits on the bank of the East River,they stopped at yet another destroyed business,its walls gutted and its electrical wires exposed."We're applying for every loan that there is,but we don't have any money," Delamarter said. "We only had $10,www.cnnhkids.com,000 in the bank when Sandy hit." The day after the superstorm made landfall,Delamarter said,her staff walked from their homes in Manhattan and Brooklyn to report to work and help begin the cleanup. By what right should the federal government intrude on a mourning family and force liquidation of their most esteemed assets for the sole purpose of paying a tax bill and avoiding imprisonment? What higher good does it serve to break up an art collection,or a family business,or a hundred-year-old farm or estate,merely to satisfy the demands of an ever-rising IRS burden? And even more outrageously,how could the government dare to squeeze out $41 million as its share of an unsellable stuffed-eagle collage that its own rules render worthless? The deranged dysfunction of the federal bureaucracy makes it virtually impossible for the family to retain its heirloom out of love for either the dead bird,or the dead mother who cherished it. "The group,he says,has "shown a willingness and desire to advertise the martyrdom,to use the words of the fighters they've recruited. They have shown [that] they want to notify the public."Can Ted Cruz Win by Losing? How much do the caucus voters of Iowa care about legislative maneuvering?If the answer is,"Every bit as much as David Gregory," then Ted Cruz has well and truly put his foot in it. His handling of the "defund Obamacare" interplay between House and Senate is now almost universally derided,by Republicans perhaps even more than by Democrats. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) makes his way to a policy luncheon at the Capitol in Washington,June 11,2013. (Christopher Gregory/The New York Times,via Redux)But suppose?it's incredible,but suppose?the answer turns out to be,"Not in the slightest. For guarantees of single-family mortgages,the core of the business of the two government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs),60 percent of Freddie's portfolio was originated in 2009 or later,26 percent of the loan were made between 2005 and 2008,and the remaining 14 percent dates from 2004 and before. Of the loans purchased between 2005 and 2008,8 percent had been made with down payments of 10 percent or less; in 2011-vintage mortgages,only 4 percent came with less than 10 percent down.The average credit score for those loans has gone up 36 points from the 2005 to 2008 period to 2011. The delinquency rate for the mortgages made since 2009 is a tiny .73 percent. For mortgages originated between 2005 and 2008,by contrast,the delinquency rate is 9. In her conference speech she said: "Unlike most families and businesses, the Welsh government has the luxury of spending money handed out by others. Like the wayward teenager, left school,www.ytcgzx.net, still living at home. Frittering money away, but complaining that the regular handouts are too stingy. That is Labour's devolution. The lack of ability to raise money breeds an irresponsibility about how that money is spent."? Tim Farron has said that, if he were invited to join the government as a minister, he would refuse because he would want to carry on as Lib Dem president instead. (See 9.20am.)2.03pm: My colleague Paul Owen has just been to an Ipsos Mori event on the Lib Dems' poll ratings.The crowd of Lib Dem activists in the Hyatt hotel were in a giddy mood, perhaps looking forward to Nick Clegg's speech this afternoon, but Ipsos Mori soon burst their bubble.