The Science of Sound and Language

From Gavin Francis, at the New York Review of Books, "The Mysterious World of the Deaf":

The origins of our inner ear lie hundreds of millions of years back in evolution, when primitive fish began to develop hollows in the skin that were sensitive to waves of pressure from water around them, as well as to water’s movement as they pitched and rolled. With time the nerves became more refined, the hollows became tubes of seawater, and those tubes eventually closed off and buried themselves in the head. Further on in evolution, bones that were originally related to the jaw migrated and miniaturized, becoming the amplifying bones of the ear. The tubes dedicated to sensing rotational movement became our semicircular canals (balance), and it’s theorized that parts involved in sensing the pressure waves became our cochleas (hearing). In the composition of their salts, the fluids of our inner ear still carry the memory of that primordial ocean.

Within the human cochlea is a thin sensitive membrane, around thirty to thirty-five millimeters long, wound into a spiral and bathed in this salty fluid. This membrane resonates with sound, sensing from high to low frequency along its length, while associated nerve cells convey that resonance to the brain. To describe it simplistically, a cochlear implant is a series of very fine electrodes that lie along the length of the membrane. Sound is coded in a receiver behind the ear (often held on by magnets) and transmitted to electrodes, which then stimulate the nerve cells along the membrane in a way broadly analogous to sound. After William House’s first device in the early 1960s, during the next three decades groups in California, Melbourne, Vienna, and Utah worked almost independently on the research problem of how to optimize this ostensibly simple, but devilishly complicated, idea.

A wonderful essay.

Keep reading.

And at Amazon, I Can Hear You Whisper: An Intimate Journey Through the Science of Sound and Language.

How One Ad for Mitch 'Mitchy' McConnell Fueled His Victory

I never doubted McConnell's reelection. I think the leftist media was just overdosing on the prospects of his defeat.

In any case, at the Los Angeles Times.

And watch the video: "Home."

Oregon's Measure 88 Goes Down in Flames

From Michelle Malkin, "Make DC Listen: Voters Reject Illegal Alien Rewards":

Enough is enough. An important bloc of voters made their voices heard on Tuesday. Their message: Quit rewarding people who violate our immigration laws. They chose a sovereign nation over an illegal alien sanctuary nation, and they told politicians in both parties loud and clear:

Put Americans first.

Will D.C. listen?

These voters are tired of politicians creating magnets for illegal immigrants. They’re tired of preferential treatment for defiant border-crossers, visa overstayers and deportation fugitives. They’re tired of the heavy costs and consequences of the government’s systemic refusal to protect its borders and fully implement interior enforcement.

Pay attention, both parties in the Beltway: These aren’t voters in a red-state bastion. They’re fed-up voters in bright blue Oregon — a whopping 941,042 of them, to be exact — who overwhelmingly rejected a ballot measure to provide special driver’s licenses “without requiring proof of legal presence in the United States.”

When Democratic Gov. John Kitzhaber and radicals in the state legislature tried to push through illegal alien driver’s cards against the will of the people, the people struck back and forced a full public vote and electoral accountability.

“Citizens expect our lawmakers to uphold our laws, not work at finding ways to circumvent them,” said the group Protect Oregon Driver Licenses. “Oregon is the only state in the country that (gave citizens the) opportunity to vote on giving driver cards to those who cannot prove legal presence in the United States.” If only every state had the power of initiative and referendum. Ten states, including California, Connecticut, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Vermont and Washington, plus the District of Columbia, “have had the law forced upon them with little or no recourse available to them.”

Listen up, D.C.: The Oregon proposal went down in flames by more than a 2-to-1 margin. More voters weighed in on Measure 88 than any other single candidate or question on the ballot, including the campaigns for governor, U.S. senator and marijuana legalization.

Who supported Measure 88? Entitled ethnic lobbyists, immigration lawyers, American worker-betraying labor unions like the SEIU and UFCW, the ACLU, the militant Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, agricultural interests, NARAL, far-left church leaders, soft-on-illegal-immigration newspaper editorial boards, and some business-pandering Republicans.

Pro-amnesty actress and Barack Obama campaign finance bundler Eva Longoria’s “Latino Victory Project” forked over $50,000 to the pro-Measure 88 PAC. The open-borders campaign raised a whopping $500,000-plus from its deep-pocketed Big Government/Big Business/Hollywood patrons.

Who opposed the referendum? Grassroots citizens and a majority of common-sense sheriffs in Oregon who were outspent 10-to-1.

The police, sheriffs and border patrol agents who opposed Measure 88 forcefully connected the dots between immigration enforcement and homeland security. As I’ve reported repeatedly over the years, driver’s licenses are tickets into the American mainstream. They allow residents to establish an identity and foothold into their communities. They help you open bank accounts, enter secure facilities and, yes, board planes...

Keep reading.

Obama Built That: Democrat 'Majority Coalition' Shrinks After Midterm Debacle

From Michael Barone, at IBD, "After Republican Wave, Obama Majority Has Shrunk":

Some observations on the election:

1) This was a wave, folks. It will be a benchmark for judging waves, for either party, for years.

2) In seriously contested races, Republican candidates were generally younger, more vigorous, more sunny and optimistic than Democrats. The contrast was sharpest in Colorado and Iowa, which voted twice for President Obama. Cory Gardner and Joni Ernst seemed to be looking forward to the future. Their opponents grimly championed the stale causes of feminists and trial lawyers of the past.

Democrats see themselves as the party of the future. But their policies are antique. The federal minimum wage dates to 1938, equal pay for women to 1963, access to contraceptives to 1965. Raising these issues now is campaign gimmickry, not serious policymaking.

Democratic leading lights have been around a long time. The party’s two congressional leaders are in their 70s. The governors of the two largest Democratic states are sons of former governors who won their first statewide elections in 1950 and 1978.

This has implications for 2016. Hillary Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee, worked in her first campaign in 1970. She has been a national figure since 1991. The Clintons’ theme song, “Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow,” was released in 1977. That will be 39 years ago in 2016.

3) The combination of Obama’s low job approval and Harry Reid’s virtual shutdown of the Senate ensured a Republican Senate majority. Reid prevented amendments — Mark Begich of Alaska never got to introduce one — that could have helped them in campaigns.

Votes were blocked on issues with clear Senate majorities — such as the Keystone XL pipeline, medical-device tax repeal, and the bipartisan patent-reform bill backed by Judiciary chairman Patrick Leahy (D., Vt.0.

That left Democrats running for reelection stuck with 95-plus percent Obama voting records. It left them with no independent votes or initiatives to point to. Reid kept Democratic candidates well stocked with money. But not with winning issues.

4) Democratic territory has been reduced to the bastions of two core groups — black voters and gentry liberals. Democrats win New York City and the San Francisco Bay area by overwhelming margins but are outvoted in almost all the territory in between — including, this year, Obama’s Illinois. Governor Jerry Brown ran well behind in California’s Central Valley, and Governor Andrew Cuomo lost most of upstate New York.

Democratic margins have shrunk among Hispanics and, almost to the vanishing point, among young voters. Liberal Democrats raised money to “turn Texas blue.” But it voted Republican by wider-than-usual margins this year.

Under Obama, the Democratic base has shrunk numerically and demographically. With superior organization, he was able to stitch together a 51 percent majority in 2012. But like other Democratic majority coalitions — Woodrow Wilson’s, Lyndon Johnson’s, even Franklin Roosevelt’s — it has proved to be fragile and subject to fragmentation.

5) In many states — including many carried twice by Obama — Republicans have been governing successfully, at least in the estimation of their voters. Governor Scott Walker has won his third victory in four years in Wisconsin against the frantic efforts of public-employee unions.

Governor John Kasich won a landslide victory against a flawed opponent in Ohio, and Governor Rick Snyder won solidly in Michigan after signing a right-to-work law hated by private-sector unions. In Florida, Governor Rick Scott’s second consecutive one-point victory means that Republicans will be in control for 20 years in what is now the nation’s third-largest state.

Democratic governance, in contrast, was rebuked by the voters in Massachusetts, in Maryland (with the nation’s fourth-highest black population in percentage terms), and in Obama’s home state of Illinois.

(6) The Obama Democrats labor under the illusion that a beleaguered people hunger for an ever-bigger government. The polls and the election results suggest, not so gently, otherwise.

The fiasco of HealthCare.gov, the misdeeds of the IRS, the improvisatory warnings of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — all undermine confidence in the capacity of big government. Looking back over the last half-century, we can see that the highest levels of trust in government came, interestingly, during the administration of Ronald Reagan.

7) This election was a repudiation of the big-government policies of the Obama Democrats. It was not so much an endorsement of Republicans as it was an invitation to them to come up with better alternative policies...

Hillary Clinton Is Biggest Loser of 2014 Midterms

From Matthew Continetti, at Free Beacon, "The Biggest Loser: It was Hillary Clinton":

The Clintons aren’t gods. They are human beings—extremely, terribly, irredeemably flawed human beings.

Their specialty: Mitigating Democratic losses among whites without college degrees. In 2014, the Clintons couldn’t stop the bleeding. Republicans won the white working class by 30 points. And it will be difficult for Hillary Clinton to reduce this deficit over the next two years.

That is because of her problematic position as heir apparent to an unpopular incumbent. Her recent talk of businesses and corporations not creating jobs illustrates the dilemma: She has to identify herself with her husband’s legacy in Elizabeth Warren’s left-wing Democratic Party, while dissociating herself with the repudiated policies of the president she served as secretary of State. Has Clinton ever demonstrated the political skill necessary to pull off such a trick?

A failed president weighs heavily on his party. He not only drags it down in midterm elections such as 2006, 2010, and 2014. He kills its chances in presidential years. Think Hubert Humphrey. Think John McCain.

The McCain-Clinton comparison is worth considering. Both would be among the oldest presidents in American history. Both are slightly at odds with their party: McCain on campaign finance and immigration, Clinton on corporatism and foreign policy. Both lost the nomination to the presidents they sought to replace. Both campaigned for rare third consecutive presidential terms for their parties in the cycle after those parties lost Congress.

The environment was so hostile to Republicans by the time Election Day 2008 arrived, and the Democrats had so successfully defined themselves in complete opposition to the incumbent, that McCain didn’t have a chance. But who in 2006 had predicted that a financial crisis would be the most important issue of 2008? Who in 2012 had the slightest idea that the Islamic State and Ebola and illegal migration would be factors in 2014? Who in 2014 knows with even the faintest degree of certainty what will loom over the electorate on Election Day 2016?

That's a brutal, and extremely perceptive analysis. More at the link.

I still think she's gonna run, though. She wants nothing more than being the first woman elected president of the United States --- and she'll sell her soul to do it.

Democrats Throw Mary Landrieu Under the Bus

At Politico, "Democrats bail on Mary Landrieu," and "Sen. Mary Landrieu faces runoff alone."

Watch it Mofo! Republicans Warn Obama Against Unilateral, Unconstitutional Executive Amnesty (VIDEO)

At the Wall Street Journal, "Boehner Warns Obama Against Unilateral Action on Immigration: The House Speaker and the President Held a Year of Confidential Talks on Immigration That Ended in Failure This Summer":

Two days after his party’s midterm romp, House Speaker John Boehner became the second leading Republican to warn that unilateral action by President Barack Obama on immigration would “poison the well” for any cooperation with the new GOP Congress.

Among the causes of the standoff: a year of previously unreported talks between Messrs. Boehner and Obama over a legislative compromise to fix the balky immigration system.

The two men started talking after the 2012 election, according to detailed accounts provided by several aides on both sides. The discussions ended this summer with the two sitting stony-faced around a white wrought-iron table outside the Oval Office.

“When you play with matches, you take the risk of burning yourself,” Mr. Boehner said Thursday of possible unilateral immigration action by the president. “And he’s going to burn himself if he continues to go down this path.”

Sen. Mitch McConnell , the Kentucky Republican who is expected to lead the GOP’s new Senate majority, made similar admonitions a day earlier, setting the Republican legislative and Democratic executive agendas on a collision course. The immigration issue stands to imperil what had looked like a rare opportunity offered to find common ground on trade and business taxes, among other matters.

Mr. Obama vowed in his Wednesday postelection news conference to move ahead on immigration by himself, making changes that people close to the process say could give safe harbor to perhaps a few million people in the U.S. illegally.

At the White House, the question isn’t whether Mr. Obama will act but how sweeping his order will be. He is under intense pressure from immigration activists, who worry he will back down because of the election results or to avoid antagonizing the GOP.

The White House isn’t ruling out an immigration deal with Congress before the next president takes office in 2017, and one remains possible. But in the eyes of many of those involved in the talks, the Obama-Boehner discussions were the last, best chance to reach an agreement.

Mr. Obama promised on Wednesday to rescind any executive action if Congress later passes legislation. Few think it is likely to. In outlining their plans for the year, neither Mr. Boehner nor Mr. McConnell put immigration on the agenda. In fact, if Mr. Obama goes through with an executive action, there will likely be a congressional effort to undo it...

More.

U.S. to Send Additional 'Military Advisors' to Iraq

No doubt The One held off on adding additional contingents until after the election. The White House wouldn't want to lose even more of its core constituencies in the midterms.

At CNN:

U.S. sending up to 1,500 more military advisers to Iraq, bring total to about 2,900. http://t.co/YnClGMhUGg

— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) November 7, 2014

More:

Here’s the full Pentagon statement on the 1500 more US troops to Iraq. pic.twitter.com/s83CrEhVxZ

— Paul Danahar (@pdanahar) November 7, 2014

News that COULD wait until after the election: White House: Up to 1,500 more troops headed to Iraq http://t.co/juFge10EqW

— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) November 7, 2014

Defeated Democrats Have a Cultural Problem

More on the Democrats' unelectability problem, this time from one of the Obama-Democrats' biggest MSM cheerleaders, Greg Sargent at WaPo, "The Democratic Party has a cultural problem."

Noah Rothman linked this piece earlier, but it's worth an independent link here. You're not going to get much honesty or introspection from the LWNJs, so might as well highlight leftist lucidity when we see it.

Yup, It Was a Wave

From Larry Sabato, et al., at Politico:

The Democrats’ road to a future House majority is steep, because their last redoubts in the Deep South and Appalachia are now gone, and they failed to make inroads in the suburban and exurban seats that are now so crucial to them to build a House majority. Previous Democratic House majorities featured a fair number of seats from conservative districts, but those kinds of Democrats are all but extinct now.

It may take an unpopular GOP president running in a midterm—a 2006-style scenario—for the Democrats to have their next real chance to take the House, although Democrats hope a different presidential candidate (Hillary Clinton?) will improve their chances in Appalachia and the South. Spoiler alert: She probably won’t. Those culturally conservative areas have been trending away from Democrats and seem unlikely to snap back.

Ain't it the truth?

Sometimes Freedom Needs a Friend

From Matthew Continetti, it's the Free Beacon Branding Video.

More at Twitchy, "‘No words for the awesomeness’: Free Beacon’s ‘freedom loving’ promo wins raves [video]."

The Rise of the John Birch Left

Heh, a great piece from Ed Driscoll, at Pajamas Media:

The modern left is built around a trio of laudable principles: protecting the environment is good, racism is bad, and so is demonizing a person over his or her sexual preferences. (In the chapter of his book Intellectuals titled “The Flight from Reason,” Paul Johnson wrote that “At the end of the Second World War, there was a significant change in the predominant aim of secular intellectuals, a shift of emphasis from utopianism to hedonism.” ) But just as the Bircher right began to see communists everywhere, the new Bircher left sees racism, sexism, homophobia, and Koch Brothers everywhere.

They’re lurking around more corners than Gen. Ripper imagined there were commies lurking inside Burpelson Air Force Base. They’re inside your video games! They own NFL teams! They’ll steal your condoms! Disagree with President Obama? Racist! (That goes for you too, Bill, Hillary, and your Democratic supporters.) Not onboard for gender-neutral bathrooms? Not too thrilled with abortion-obsessed candidates like Wendy Davis and “Mark Uterus”? Sexist! Disagree with using global warming as a cudgel to usher in the brave new world of bankrupt coal companies and $10 a gallon gasoline? Climate denier!

And as with the original Birchers, don’t get ‘em started on fluoride.

More.

RELATED: "Far-Left Democrat Ideology Brutally Rejected in Midterms (VIDEO)," and "Crushed Democrats Now Grappling with Unelectability Problem."

Crushed Democrats Now Grappling with Unelectability Problem

A great write-up from Noah Rothman, at Hot Air, "The Democratic autopsy."

The Dems' midterm problem, and their problem with whites --- and not just older whites, but blue-collar whites across the board --- is so bad that the party's presidential electability is seriously in question. Ignore the "circle-the-wagons" leftists at the New York Times, warns Rothman. Folks like Charles Blow and Paul Krugman are exactly the kind of far-left whackjobs the Democrats need to consign to the far margins of politics.

RTWT.

Far-Left Democrat Ideology Brutally Rejected in Midterms (VIDEO)

Megyn Kelly offers the brutal rundown of the sweeping repudiation of far-left ideology in the midterms. And then Dana Perino provides the chaser of an insider's perspective on the significance of the Republican victories.

Wall-to-wall evisceration of the despicable Democrats, man.

California Scrambles to Deal with Effects of Proposition 47

Hey, get ready for convicted armed robbers, crack dealers, meth heads and drug addicts, fencers and forgers, and "petty" thieves to be released onto the streets!

Yes, by all means give these people another chance and save the taxpayers money. And make progressives feel good about themselves!

Meanwhile, load up on ammunition and barricade the entryways. Shit's gonna get real mofo.

At LAT, "Prop. 47 jolts landscape of California justice system."

Obama Wrote Secret Letter to Iran's Khamenei on Fighting #ISIS

Because the White House is all about cooperating with the congressional Republican majority.

At the Wall Street Journal, "Obama Wrote Secret Letter to Iran’s Khamenei About Fighting Islamic State":

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama secretly wrote to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the middle of last month and described a shared interest in fighting Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, according to people briefed on the correspondence.

The letter appeared aimed both at buttressing the campaign against Islamic State and nudging Iran’s religious leader closer to a nuclear deal.

Mr. Obama stressed to Mr. Khamenei that any cooperation on Islamic State was largely contingent on Iran reaching a comprehensive agreement with global powers on the future of Tehran’s nuclear program by a Nov. 24 diplomatic deadline, the same people say.

The October letter marked at least the fourth time Mr. Obama has written Iran’s most powerful political and religious leader since taking office in 2009 and pledging to engage with Tehran’s Islamist government.

The correspondence underscores that Mr. Obama views Iran as important—whether in a potentially constructive or negative role—to his emerging military and diplomatic campaign to push Islamic State from the territories it has gained over the past six months.

Mr. Obama’s letter also sought to assuage Iran’s concerns about the future of its close ally, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, according to another person briefed on the letter. It states that the U.S.’s military operations inside Syria aren’t targeted at Mr. Assad or his security forces.

Mr. Obama and senior administration officials in recent days have placed the chances for a deal with Iran at only 50-50. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is set to begin intensive direct negotiations on the nuclear issue with his Iranian counterpart, Javad Zarif, on Sunday in the Persian Gulf country of Oman.

“There’s a sizable portion of the political elite that cut their teeth on anti-Americanism,” Mr. Obama said at a White House news conference on Wednesday about Iran’s leadership, without commenting on his personal overture. “Whether they can manage to say ‘Yes’…is an open question.”

For the first time this week, a senior administration official said negotiations could be extended beyond the Nov. 24 deadline, adding that the White House will know after Mr. Kerry’s trip to Oman whether a deal with Iran is possible by late November.

“We’ll know a lot more after that meeting as to whether or not we have a shot at an agreement by the deadline,” the senior official said. “If there’s an extension, there’re questions like: What are the terms?”

Mr. Obama’s push for a deal faces renewed resistance after Tuesday’s elections gave Republicans control of the Senate and added power to thwart an agreement and to impose new sanctions on Iran. Sens. Mark Kirk (R., Ill.) and Robert Menendez (D., N.J.) have introduced legislation to intensify sanctions.

“The best way to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon is to quickly pass the bipartisan Menendez-Kirk legislation—not to give the Iranians more time to build a bomb,” Mr. Kirk said Wednesday.

House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) expressed concern when asked about the letter sent by Mr. Obama.

“I don’t trust the Iranians, I don’t think we need to bring them into this,” Mr. Boehner said. Referring to the continuing nuclear talks between Iran and world powers, Mr. Boehner said he “would hope that the negotiations that are under way are serious negotiations, but I have my doubts.”

More at that top link.

Robin Raphel, Longtime Pakistan Expert, Has Security Clearances Withdrawn

Known as "Lady Taliban," she's a big-time Democrat.

At WaPo, "U.S. diplomat and longtime Pakistan expert is under federal investigation."

'Republicans Hate That Nigger Obama’

Well, that's one way to warn against "Republican overreach," heh.

At Memeorandum, "C-SPAN Caller on Air: ‘Republicans Hate That N***er Obama’ (VIDEO)."

Here's Your Classic 'Republicans Have Uphill Climb in 2016' Piece in the Obama-Enabling Media

At LAT, "GOP triumph tempered by hard problems, now and in 2016."

Every party has problems. The GOP looks like they've made serious strides toward addressing theirs.

And like I said, the Dems have no cakewalk in 2016, in any case. Indeed, it's the Obamunists who've got the uphill climb. The leftist press just won't report honestly about it.

Madcap Martin Longman, a.k.a. @BooMan23, Provides Epic Election Projection Lulz — FTW!

Our good old friend Martin Longman is almost as narcissistic as The One, and just like president loser, it all came off the rails Tuesday night at the Booman Tribune.

Here's Martin's midterm projections, "2014 Senate Forecast." The dude's a rank and useless hack. He had Democrats winning Senate races in Kansas, North Carolina, and Alaska --- and he expected Georgia to go to a runoff with Michelle Nunn picking up the seat.

Well, let's just say, er, major fail brother. Republicans flipped all those seats (although the dirtbag Begich in Alaska has so far refused to concede).

But wait! There's added lulz in that our crack election-projection master's calls for the governors' races around the country. Well, they're not actually "calls," but Madcap Martin thought the Republicans were going down hard among the following:

1. Paul LePage of Maine
2. Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania
3. Rick Snyder of Michigan
4. Scott Walker of Wisconsin
5. Sam Brownback of Kansas
6. Rick Scott of Florida.
7. Sean Parnell of Alaska

With the exception of Tom Corbett in Pennsylvania and Sean Parnell in Alaska (where they're still counting ballots), the GOP took all the remaining states Booman expected to go to the Dems. And Rick Scott in Florida and Scott Walker in Wisconsin are especially demoralizing wins for the GOP. Indeed, Walker was automatically propelled to the front ranks of the 2016 GOP presidential field. And Florida will remain one of the biggest of battlegrounds heading into the next election, to the epic consternation of the dumbshit Democraps.

.@BooMan23 I'm drinking your tears, Martin. You're one of the very bastards I wanted to see crushed. Congratulations.

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) November 5, 2014

.@BooMan23 You suck, Martin.

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) November 5, 2014

By that time, perhaps Madcap Martin will have honed his projection methods a bit more. Priceless, either way. Behold the wallowing Booman here: "I Lost the Argument With Myself."

More later...

A Referendum on the President

From Sean Trende, at RCP.

I like his analyses, as they're deeply grounded in political science. He's conservative too, so that helps, lol.

Obama Unrepentant After Losing Senate (VIDEO)

At the Hill, "President Obama unrepentant after losing control of Senate."

The full press conference at the clip. He's such an asshole.

Mia Love: 'This has nothing to do with race...'

OMG this woman is smokin'!

Representative-elect Mia Love pushes back against the left's "racial milestone" meme.

Ain't it always about race for the despicably depraved progs?

Vindication in the States

At WSJ, "The GOP reformers won big, while tax increasers often lost":

As the dimensions of Tuesday’s political wave emerge, this election wasn’t merely a rebuke to President Obama. It was also a referendum on the blue and red state models of state governance, and the Republican reformers won a resounding vindication.

Scott Walker (Wisconsin), Rick Scott (Florida), Rick Snyder (Michigan), Brian Sandoval (Nevada) and others entered office confronting economic decline and a seemingly intractable status quo. Against raucous liberal opposition, they disciplined government; deregulated to boost competitiveness, investment and job creation; and reduced the tax burden—even, in the case of Sam Brownback of Kansas and John Kasich of Ohio, cutting income-tax rates.

They also defied entrenched government union power that is the greatest obstacle to reform. The alliance between Democrats and public workers has increasingly tapped out taxpayers, creating liabilities like union pensions that are too large to afford but too politically privileged to reform. The Republicans tried to break this cycle of decline.

The leading drama was Wisconsin, where unions spent millions in a bid to show that limiting collective bargaining, mandatory dues collection and health and retirement benefits will end a political career. Mr. Obama campaigned for Democrat Mary Burke, and the liberal revanchism included occupying the legislature, multiple recall elections, and an abusive John Doe investigation against Mr. Walker’s allies.

Mr. Walker nonetheless won his third victory in four years by a larger margin than the recall. State unemployment has fallen to its lowest level since 2008, even if the 111,000 jobs created in his first term are short of his promise of 250,000. He overhauled the budget to improve the business climate and collapsed tax brackets, while the flexibility for local school districts to renegotiate labor contracts has provided property tax relief and avoided teacher layoffs...

Walker has prevailed to the bitter, bitter consternation of the radical left.

But keep reading.

Democrat Midterm Disaster Casts Shadow on Nancy Pelosi

Naturally.

Tuesday was a repudiation of the Minority Leader as much as it was the president.

At San Francisco Chronicle:

Democratic disaster casts a shadow on Nancy Pelosi: http://t.co/eu9OKnrEtL pic.twitter.com/ysJvVK3wHR

— SFGate (@SFGate) November 5, 2014

Just Smokin' on Election Day

This lovely lady was lighting up Twitter timelines on Tuesday, heh.

It was a Beautiful Day... so far it's turning into a spectacular night... #Election2014 small government is winning! pic.twitter.com/30iREmKy5y

— Missy (@SaysMissy) November 5, 2014

Whoa! Brace for Further Ideological Polarization!

Heh, the next two years will be gridlock to the nth power!

Listen to Susan Page discuss the pull of the hard-line party partisans, lol.

Victoria's Secret Fantasy Bras for 2014

Heh, I love these fantasies!

Harvard Now Offers Workshops on Anal Sex

Heh, looking for classrooms filled exclusively with progressives and homosexuals.

Look no further.

At London's Daily Mail:

Harvard now offers a class on anal sex http://t.co/uTbt81G88Q

— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) November 6, 2014

The 8 Biggest Losers of the War on Women

From Ashe Schow, at the Washington Examiner.

Cosmo, Wendy Davis, Sandra Fluke, MSNBC, Lena Dunham all make the list of war on women losers --> http://t.co/lQYCP6wCSu

— Ashe Schow (@AsheSchow) November 6, 2014

Charles Krauthammer: Midterm Elections 'A Nuclear Explosion', 'The Worst Wall-to-Wall Shellacking You Will Ever See...'

Heh, I was watching this segment, from yesterday's All-Star Panel with Bret Baier.

Video at the Daily Caller.

Bwahaha!! Leftist Billionaire Tom Steyer Sees Little Payoff for Millions He Spent for Climate Change!

Man, this has just gotta hurt if you're a lefty.

At LAT, "Tom Steyer sees little payoff for millions spent on green issues."

$74 million later, the most hostile Congress environmentalists have faced in years. Was it worth it for Tom Steyer? http://t.co/NP6erJi9D6

— Mark Z. Barabak (@markzbarabak) November 6, 2014

House Republicans Looking at '100-Year Majority'

I don't know about 100 years, but the way the GOP controls the statehouses, the 2020 redistricting cycle is virtually assured to lock in even further congressional advantages for the party. Frankly, the number of competitive House seats might dwindle to no more than a couple of dozen out of 435 --- and a look at the map indicates just how dreadful the Democrats have it in the years ahead.

That said, let's not get ahead of ourselves here. One hundred years is a long time. I'd be satisfied to hold onto the House for a decade while the GOP continues to build a majority coalition which consigns the Democrats to long-term minority status.

Yes, Barack Obama has damaged the brand that bad.

At the Hill, "House Republicans eye ‘100-year majority’."

Holy Meltdown Batman! Obama Just Goes Ballistic on CBS News Correspondent Major Garrett!

Remember, Major Garrett was previously with Fox News and the Obamunist's animosity clearly got the best of him.

Man, this is something else, via Gateway Pundit, "WOW! Wounded Obama LOSES IT! Lashes Out at White House Reporter (Video)."

Why the Democrats Got Crushed — Totally Freakin' Crushed! — And Why They Have No 2016 Lock

From John Judis, at the New Republic, "Here's Why the Democrats Got Crushed—and Why 2016 Won't Be a Cakewalk."

Beautiful RT @BlakeSeitz: Zero to 100, real quick. pic.twitter.com/tgetbB22LR
— Kemberlee Kaye (@KemberleeKaye) November 5, 2014

It's a good piece, although I'm again going to disagree on the "silver lining" of the Democrats "most excellent" chances in 2016. Two years from now President Barack "Clusterf-k" Obama will still be sitting at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. He will continue to be the ultimate drag on his party's fortunes. As I said earlier, ignore all the leftist blather about Republicans looking at a blowout in two years. It's going to come down to presidential coattails, and if the GOP runs a good candidate with a good campaign --- running especially on bread and butter issues like the economy and flatlined wages --- then the Dems are going to have their work cut out for them.

The comparison is to the 2006 and 2008 elections, where in the former the Democrats picked up 31 seats in the House and 6 seats in the Senate --- elevating Nancy Pelosi to the House Speaker's chair and Harry "Pederast" Reid to Senate Majority Leader. Two years later, the year The One was elected, Dems picked up 21 seats in the House and 8 in the Senate. President Cluster had long coattails, and there's no reason to think the Republican candidate won't do as well in 2016. Democrats lost ground with their core constituencies on Tuesday, and with candidates tacking to the center the GOP neutralized the Democrats on hot-button social issues. Republicans learned the lessons from 2010 and 1012, especially the disaster of nominating undisciplined and inexperienced candidates. Don't expect such major own-goals to become routine. If the Democrats want it they're going to have to earn it. The "emerging Democrat majority" is a punchline nowadays. Tuesday's election was perhaps the most devastating midterm defeat for the president's party since 1913 and the passage of 17th Amendment, which ushered in direct popular voting for the Senate.

Stay tuned, because if leftists and their corrupt enablers in the Obama-media continue as they have since Tuesday, all the talk will be about how the GOP "brand" is still broken and how by losing the Democrats really won.

I know. You'd have to be clinical to push such a line, but it's happening. So, after all the obligatory touchdown dances this week it's back to the drawing board. Some analysts have indicated that the House will be out of Democrat Party reach until the early 2020s and congressional redistricting. And the governors' mansions and statehouses have gone red all around the country, even in Maryland and Massachusetts with governors' pickups in deep-blue territory. It's going to take a few election cycles to reverse the crushing blow the Obamunists suffered this week.

Stay tuned. I'll have all your top-level political analysis going forward. We crushed the bastards!

Mark Begich Won't Concede Alaska Senate Race

The Democrat dirtbag won't concede despite trailing Republican Dan Sullivan by more than 8,000 votes. No doubt the f-ker was looking to pull some Al Franken baloney, but it's not near close enough for that.

At the Anchorage Daily News, "Sullivan lead holds in Alaska U.S. Senate race; Begich won't concede," and "Begich faces daunting math to beat Sullivan in Alaska U.S. Senate race."

The MSNBC Meltdown

I flipped over a few times last night to MSNBC, mostly because folks were already razzing this shit out of this comedy of progressive hacks on the failing network.

So, obviously it's most excellent that folks recorded some of the lulz for the record.

At Twitchy, "Wow, Chris Matthews just ‘SNAPPED': Don’t miss this ‘super plus’ epic meltdown; Update: Video added."

Also at Hot Air, "Watch the evolution of an MSNBC meltdown."

A Repudiation of Obama and Democrat Party Obamunism

Ignore all the stupid leftist moaning about how the Democrats are going to sweep back into power in 2016. Seriously, Obama's still got two more years to wreak epic damage to leftism and the far-left Obamunist brand.

Republicans are positioned to expand their victories two years from now. What we're witnessing here is a complete repudiation of the last six years, which for a long time I've identified as the Obama interregnum.

It's all crashing down. I'll have more on this later.

Meanwhile, from Fred Barnes, at the Weekly Standard, "A Rejection of Liberal Democratic Governance."

Obama-Democrats Crushed as Republicans Take Control of Senate, Pad Majority in House!

This is so beautiful.

A Republican wave is literally sweeping the country, from Congress to the statehouses, and the Obama-Democrats are suffering one of the most decisive midterm repudiations in history.

We still don't know what's up with Alaska and Louisiana, but as of now the GOP has picked up at least 6 seats in the Senate.

Here's WSJ, "Republicans Take Control of Senate: Victory in North Carolina Is 6th Seat Needed to Take Majority in Chamber." Also at AP, "GOP holds imposing lead in House races."

And at the Los Angeles Times, "Republican Party seizes control of U.S. Senate."

Voters express a distinctly anti-government mood at the midterm ballot box, repudiate Obama-Democrats! http://t.co/HYaOVfyuB5 @Instapundit

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) November 5, 2014

I'll have more, lots more.

Halloween Hit-and-Run Suspect Violated Probation Seven Times

A follow-up on the Santa Ana hit-and-run killings.

These deaths are on the hands of the radical left and its depraved lenient prison sentencing movement.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Suspect in Halloween hit-and-run deaths had violated probation 7 times":

31-year-old man arrested on suspicion of felony hit-and-run driving in the Halloween collision in Santa Ana that left three girls dead has a years-long criminal history and was driving on a suspended license, court records show.

Jaquinn Bell, a resident of Orange, was arrested Sunday outside a Motel 6 in Stanton, Santa Ana police said at a Monday news conference. He is being held in lieu of $500,000 bail.

Court records in Orange County Superior Court show that Bell was convicted of hit-and-run driving and driving under the influence in August.

He was sentenced to 10 days in jail, ordered to serve three years of probation and enroll in both an alcohol abuse and child abuse treatment program, court records show.

In the deadly crash on Halloween night, police said that Bell was driving with his two children, a 17-year-old boy and 14-year-old daughter.

Police said they are attempting to determine whether Bell was driving under the influence at the time of the Friday night incident.

Police said they initially detained Bell's mother and half-sister as well as his two children in connection with the incident but subsequently released everyone but Bell.

Bell’s criminal record dates back until at least 2009 when he pleaded guilty to corporal injury on a spouse or co-habitant and was given probation, which court records show has been revoked seven times since then.

The probation violations included a 2009 case in which he was charged with driving under the influence and driving on a suspended license. He was again given probation after he pleaded guilty the following year, court records show.

In 2010, he pleaded guilty to violating a protective order and was sentenced to 30 days in jail and probation and was ordered to complete a treatment program for batterers, court documents show.

His probation was revoked and then reinstated several additional times in the subsequent years, including for his August arrest for hit-and-run driving and driving under the influence.

His driver’s license was suspended in early October – 17 days before the crashed that killed the three trick-or-treaters in Santa Ana.

Twin sisters Lexia and Lexandra Perez and their friend, Andrea Gonzales, were struck crossing the road at Old Grand Street and Fairhaven Avenue on Friday at about 6:45 p.m. ...

I can hardly breathe as I write this post.

Why isn't this man behind bars? Because the radical left has destroyed the criminal justice system in California, and they aren't done yet. Proposition 47, which is ahead in the polls, is slated to release more criminal offenders back out to the streets. Inevitably, more innocent children will die.

Still more at the link.

Day of Reckoning for Democrats

Today's the day. Crush the bastards!

At WaPo, "Math is forbidding for Democrats in struggle for Senate":

Long ago, the party had given up hope of winning back the House in Tuesday’s midterm elections. By Monday, it had skipped ahead to winning the post-election blame game. “House Democrats have succeeded on every measure within our control,” the party’s House campaign committee announced preemptively in the early afternoon.

And at the end of a bitter and massively expensive campaign, it appeared the Senate might be slipping from Democrats’ grasp as well.

In all, there are 13 states where Senate seats might change from one party to the other. Republicans need to win nine of them to attain a 51-seat majority in the Senate for the first time since 2007. On Monday, Republicans seem to be leading, by a lot or by a little, in eight of those races.

If the GOP wins all those eight, they will need just one more win — one of the toss-up races in Alaska and Kansas, or perhaps the runoff race that’s expected in Louisiana.

“Victory is in the air,” declared Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the Senate minority leader who is set to become majority leader if the Republicans take over. McConnell was beginning the last swing of his own reelection campaign against Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes.

Like other contests around the country, that race seemed to be tilting toward Republicans in the last days. “Let’s go out there and sock it to them!” the usually subdued McConnell said in closing, as a loudspeaker started blasting out “Eye of the Tiger.”

There also will be gubernatorial elections Tuesday in 36 states, including Florida, Massachusetts, Kansas, Maine and Wisconsin, where potential presidential candidate Scott Walker (R) is in a close race to keep his position. Republicans, who already control a majority of the country’s state legislative chambers, seem likely to win several more...

More.

Democrats Threatening Voters

It's all they have. Threats and intimidation. Well, that, and lies too.

At Nice Deb, "'A Criminal Organization Masquerading as a Political Party'."

I think the Democrats just threatened me: pic.twitter.com/wGvYInosk5

— Jonathan Coulton (@jonathancoulton) October 30, 2014

Sullen Voters Set to Deliver Another Demand for Change

At WSJ, "If Republicans Win Control of Senate, It Would Be Fourth Such Control Switch in Less Than a Decade":

Odds are good that the U.S. midterm elections will mark the fourth time in less than a decade that voters oust a party from control of Congress or the White House, a remarkable period of instability that has left neither party with a firm grip on power.

If, as polls suggest, Republicans win a majority in the Senate, they will face anew the question: What can they do to address the voter dissatisfaction that keeps washing through the electorate and producing “change elections,’’ as in 2006, 2008 and 2010?

“Traditionally in American history, politics is like a seesaw: When one side is up the other side is down,” said Peter Wehner, a former aide to President George W. Bush . “Now it’s as if the seesaw is broken: the public is distrustful of both parties.”

As voters head to the polls on Tuesday, the most important test of this mood lay in about a dozen closely contested Senate races. Republicans need a net gain of six seats to win control of the Senate.

Across the country, candidates and party leaders made their final appeal to voters. Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who stands to become Senate Majority Leader if Republicans win the majority, flew around his home state campaigning with Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.)

“We’re going to send a message to President Obama,” Mr. Paul said at a joint rally. “This will be a repudiation of President Obama’s policies.”

Former President Bill Clinton, who has maintained a punishing campaign schedule this year, traveled to Florida to appear Monday night at a rally with Charlie Crist , who is running for governor in Florida. Former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney , also widely traveled during the campaign, appeared in Alaska with GOP Senate candidate Dan Sullivan.

At the White House, officials insisted that there remained a chance that Democrats could retain a Senate majority. “I don’t agree with the oddsmakers,” Vice President Joe Biden said on CNN. “I predict we’re going to keep the Senate.”

Going into Election Day, the electorate appeared exceptionally dissatisfied with the political system, and almost $4 billion spent on the campaign appeared to do little to change that.

For Republicans, the risk is that, unless they find a way to address that underlying dissatisfaction, a 2014 victory could prove transitional, not durable. The parties will fight over the Senate once again in two years, on terrain more hostile to the GOP.

More broadly, the drive to address mounting voter dissatisfaction also figures to weigh heavily on both parties as they prepare for the 2016 campaign to succeed Mr. Obama.

“This is what I call a short-term election,” said Democratic pollster Peter Hart. “I don’t think it’s a tidal wave because there is no agenda or message that comes out of this election.”

Although officials from both parties—and the well-funded outside groups supporting the parties—have tried to rally voters by arguing that the stakes are enormous in the 2014 fight for control of Congress, the campaign has had little of the passion, grandeur or sweep of other recent “change” elections.

In 2010, intense tea-party anger about the economy and the new health-care law propelled Republicans into a House majority. In 2008, voters’ hunger for changing Washington’s partisan ways carried Mr. Obama to the White House. In 2006, matters of war and peace helped bring Democrats back to power in the House and Senate.

By contrast, the 2014 election campaign has been mostly tactical, negative and narrowly framed. Republicans ran against an unpopular lame-duck president; Democrats ran away from him. Voters overwhelmingly feel the country is on the wrong track, polls found, and seemed to be losing hope that either party has a plan to fix it.

“Do I think there’s going to be any change? No, I don’t,” said Mike Foohey, 70 years old, of Maggie Valley, N.C., who participated in the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll. “I just don’t see anybody cooperating in order to get anything done.”

That poll, conducted in the final week of the midterm campaign, is shot through with evidence of voters’ unquenched thirst for change—and of the nation’s divisions about what kind of change they want.

Among people who say they want Congress controlled by Republicans, 44% say that is because they want to express opposition to Mr. Obama rather than positive support for the GOP.

The poll found that two thirds of all voters want significant change in the direction in which Mr. Obama has been leading the country. That includes 47% of Democrats, suggesting the midterms may mark the beginning of the post-Obama era for Democrats.

More.

Democrats Don't Have a Turnout Problem. They Have a Complete Repudiation of Radical Leftism Problem

One of the things that always cracks me up is the political cluelessness of hate-troll Walter James Casper III.

Get a load of this tweet the idiot posted last night:

Ignore the hype, confound the pollsters. We #vote, we win. #VotingMatters #VoteBlue #UniteBIue
— W. James Casper (@repsac3) November 4, 2014

The problem, of course, is that the Democrats aren't just facing a turnout or enthusiasm problem. The fact is the entire edifice of Obamaism has been found wanting and voters are saying take this far-left Democrat Party and shove it.

The repudiation of the Democrats today will be the repudiation of all that Walter James Casper stands for. He is reviled. Crush the bastard. Crush him and his degenerate party of race-baiting, women-hating, economic stagnation, and social decay.

Charles Krauthammer on midterms: "This is liberalism on trial."
— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) November 4, 2014

Should we tell #VoteBlue why @TheDemocrats are spectacularly flaming out tomorrow? #BHO ☑ pic.twitter.com/Spvai07ZpS @rolliby @Roy__Rogers #tcot

— Serr8d (@serr8d) November 4, 2014

Vote — Against the Corruption of American Journalism and the Democrat Party Media Elite!

This is amazing!

Via Warner Todd Huston, at Wizbang, "New Anti-Media Campaign Debuts in North Carolina to Defeat Kay Hagan."

Most Shocking and Dishonest Campaign Ads of 2014

From the Democrats, of course.

GOP Poised for Big Gains in Final Stretch

At CSM, "Will Republican wave hit Senate on Election Day? History offers clues."

Seems like a lot of outlets are stressing how the momentum's really shifted over these last few days.

Whatever. Just crush the bastards!

Election Handicapping

At CBS Evening News. Bob Schieffer's on the panel. I just love that guy.



And at the New York Times, "On Election’s Eve, G.O.P. Is Confident, but Voters Are Sour."

Angie Harmon and Jason Sehorn Separating After 13 Years of Marriage

Hmm, I always thought she was joyously happy.

I guess not.

At People, "Angie Harmon and Jason Sehorn Split."

Kate Upton Photoshoot in Miami

This young lady's still something of the rage.

At Egotastic!, "Kate Upton During a Blustery Photoshoot in Miami."

Why Do White Feminists Hate, Fear Minority Men?

From Glenn Reynolds, at USA Today, "Catcalling a two-way street":

Stop frigid white liberal feminists from criminalizing minority men. From @Instapundit. http://t.co/bNwXFZQWRo

— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) November 3, 2014

Last week there was a bit of a kerfuffle over a video of a woman walking the streets of New York and being catcalled by guys. Most of the catcalls were comparatively tame, though not all were, and the result was a predictable storm of attention on the Internet via Twitter and other social media, exactly as the video's producers — an outfit called ihollaback.org — intended. But then some things departed from the script.

First, Slate's Hanna Rosin noted that pretty much all of the guys pictured were lower-class blacks and Latinos. Where were the white guys? The video's producers said they just weren't able to get much good footage of them, for a variety of reasons. Whether, in the 10 hours of filming it took to produce their two-minute video, there just weren't enough white guys saying offensive stuff, or whether the producers just had bad luck or whether they edited out the white guys, the result was that they released a video about "street harassment" that was also, quite plainly, a video of minority men harassing a white woman. And whether or not it deserves the charges of outright racism and classism, or even comparisons to The Birth of a Nation, that it got from some minority critics, that's indisputably what it is.

This raises two questions in 21st-century America. One involves diversity and multiculturalism: Different cultures and ethnicities have different ideas of what constitutes appropriate intersexual behavioral, and there's no particular reason why the standards of upper-middle-class white feminist women should set the norm for everyone. In the old melting-pot days, it might have been appropriate to say that minorities needed to be assimilated to traditional WASP standards of decorum — "civilized" or "elevated" in the idiom of the day. But we've long since moved past the notion that there is only one legitimate way to behave as an American. (WASPs, in fact, are now often portrayed as unpleasantly frigid, sexless, and over-controlled). And, that being so, it would be astonishing if the only place where WASP standards still continued to rule was in this particular area. Should it be a crime to say hello to a stranger? Are women so delicate that they need patriarchal protection simply to go out and about? And if so, what does that say about women's ability to function independently in the larger world?

Keep reading.

Republicans Showing Serious Swagger Ahead of Election Day

Heh. You gotta love it.

At National Journal, "Republicans aren’t playing the expectation game. They are boldly optimistic with two days to go."

You Can Bet on a Republican Majority

This is from Larry Sabato, et al., guys who've been extremely cautious in their predictions.

A Republican Senate majority is pretty much a done deal now, according to the authors' report at Politico. It's just a matter of how badly the Democrats will be demolished tomorrow.

See, "Bet on a GOP Senate Majority."

Iowa Democrats 'Regret Voting' for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012

Oh boy, a devastating first person report on voter sentiments in Iowa. WSJ's Carol Lee spoke to Democrats at a Bruce Braley rally last week and they said they regretted voting for Obama in 2008 and 2012.

Ernst has the momentum: "She's kind of a natural on the campaign trail."

Watch:



PREVIOUSLY: "'Continuing unease about the economy and disappointment in the president remain the strongest head winds for Democrats across the country in Tuesday's election...'"

'Continuing unease about the economy and disappointment in the president remain the strongest head winds for Democrats across the country in Tuesday's election...'

It's an article on Iowa, but this is how it is all over the place.

At LAT, "Unease over economy, Obama may turn Iowans redder — if they vote at all":

Hillary Rodham Clinton had been to town the night before to energize voters, and just that morning another good report on the economy had been released in Washington. But as Jay Johnson emptied cardboard boxes into a trash bin outside Ace Hardware — he's the guy you see about tools — he had little to say about either one.

He'll vote Tuesday. Probably. But if he does, this two-time Obama voter, a Democrat, says he's leaning toward Republican Senate candidate Joni Ernst, not her Democratic opponent, Bruce Braley, because "being from here, you can kind of relate to Joni." Beyond that, he doesn't think that anything that occurs Tuesday in the national midterm elections will affect what still matters most to him, six years after the crash: the economy.

"They say it's good — that it has turned around," Johnson said, as he shifted one flattened box after another from a shopping cart into the bin. "I guess most people just don't feel it."

Johnson, 37, recently lost his second job as a carpenter at a nonprofit that helps rehabilitate houses for first-time buyers. Things were good for a while; they were doing 10 to 15 houses a month, but then the group's money dried up. His wife, a foreclosure counselor, is swamped: "She has a lot of job security."

Continuing unease about the economy and disappointment in the president remain the strongest head winds for Democrats across the country in Tuesday's election. Sentiments like Johnson's are why Republicans are within reach of taking over the Senate, possibly even picking up a seat here in the state with an increasingly blue tinge that launched Barack Obama on his path to the White House in 2008, and voted to elect him twice.

Voters in Iowa and other closely contested states like Colorado and Louisiana say trauma from the nation's economic decline is foremost in mind as the election nears. Prosperity has returned for some, but not all, and many live in fear that any gains they achieve will vanish. Undergirding their uncertainty is the discomfiting sense that no one — not the president nor members of Congress — has much control over events around the world.

Each week leading up to the election seemed to bring a new crisis: Islamic militants beheading Americans, a dreaded virus finding its way to American shores, a troubled man scrambling into the White House before being stopped. And there is a palpable distrust of government's ability to handle those situations and keep Americans secure.

But that unease is playing out differently among different groups of voters. Some plan to sit out the election despite the get-out-the-vote armies from the two parties and outside groups deploying across the swing states to coax sporadic voters to the polls.

Crush the bastards!

If Scott Brown Wins It Will Demoralize Them as Hell

It will indeed, at Da Tech Guy's blog.

Also, at the New Hampshire Journal, "Republicans hear strong anti-Obama, anti-Dem rhetoric at Manchester rally."

Added: At National Journal, "How Brown Could Win NH's Nationalized Election."

God, it's going to be a nail-biter tomorrow!

By 2-to-1, Voters Less Likely to Vote for Candidate Who Supports Obama

It makes sense.

Barack Obola's the nation's worst infectious disease.

At IBD, "O-No: Voters More Apt to Oppose Obama Backers by 2-1":

The poll also found that 40% of likely voters say they are less inclined to vote for a candidate who supports Obama, while only 22% are more inclined — nearly a 2-to-1 ratio. Among independents, the ratio is 3-to-1 (37% to 12%).

Many Democrats running for re-election have been shunning Obama or trying to distance themselves from his policies.

It always sucks to be a Democrat, although right now it sucks particularly hard.

Indeed, if you're an Obama backer, you suck Democrat donkey dildos.

But keep reading.

Midterm Calculus: The Economy Elects Presidents. Presidents Elect Congress

A neat little essay, from UCLA political scientist Lynn Vavreck, at the New York Times:

Instead of rewarding or punishing the incumbent president for his handling of the nation’s economy, in midterm years voters address the president more directly — by penalizing his party members, on average, but also by calibrating that punishment based on how the president is doing his job. Average approval ratings of the way the president is “handling the job” explain more of the variation in seat loss than the economic indicators.

And it appears as if the approval rating is made up of more things than just the economy. Where voters jump on the winning bandwagon in the presidential election years, they put a finger in the wind to measure the political atmosphere in the midterms. The happier people are with how things are going generally, the less likely they are to punish members of the president’s party.

Punish the Treasonous Democrats for Enabling Obama — Crush the Bastards!

Punish the bastards!

Destroy them! Crush their spirits!

Render them outside the realm of acceptable discourse. Obliterate them. Pull the ground from under their feet. Make them beg for mercy, the useless socialist scumbags.

It's going to be epic!

From Michael Goodwin, at the New York Post, "Obama always pointing the finger of blame at someone else":

We are witnessing the total collapse of a bad idea. Obamaism, a quasi-socialist commitment to a more powerful government at home and an abdication of American leadership around the world, is being exposed as a historic calamity. It is fueling domestic fear and global disorder and may well lead to a world war.

If there is a smidgen of a silver lining, it is that the unraveling, complete with Obama’s shameless attempts to duck responsibility, is playing out on the eve of the midterm elections. Fortunately, voters seem ready to respond by giving Republicans control of both houses of congress.

I second that emotion, and not just because Obama is a failure. For all his narcissism, he didn’t make this mess alone.

He was aided and abetted by every Democrat in Congress. They marched in lockstep with his cockamamie policies, from ObamaCare to open borders. They protected corrupt leaders in numerous federal agencies, from the IRS to the Genera Services Administration. They stymied efforts to find the truth about Benghazi and the Fast and Furious gunrunning debacle.

They ceded their constitutional obligations and allowed Obama to crash the system of checks and balances. The vast majority stood silent while he gutted the military and abandoned our allies, including Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and courted Iran, the most menacing nation on earth.

With painfully few exceptions, Democrats put their loyalty to him above their duty to America.

And now they must be punished. All of them.

Punish the treasonous bastards!

Continue reading.

Don't Forget to Change Your Senator on Tuesday!

Heh, I love this.

Shortest Letter to Editor in history @EdWGillespie @JohnWhitbeck @VA_GOP pic.twitter.com/oGS32JBpRO

— ClarkeGOP (@ClarkeGOP) November 1, 2014

'Hope Remains' for Democrat Senate Chances — Keep Hope Alive!

As we close in on election day, the media storm is honing in on a Republican tidal wave — and increasing Democrat desperation!

Sweep the Democrat f-kers out to sea. Make them castaways for a generation. Let them rot on a remote political island of desolation and decay. Lord knows they have it coming.

At the Washington Post, "Republicans appear set to take control of Senate, but hope remains for Democrats."

Yes, "hope remains." Keep hope alive!

Republicans Have Good Candidates Who Relate to People — And That Just Burns Leftists Like the Fire of a Thousand Suns!

My goodness, the depraved progs tuning into the the psycho MSNBC dunghole must be blowing chunks the seams out of their undergarments!

At the clip, Michael Tomasky's long face --- and I mean it's like his momma just died! --- is da bomb! You can't buy that kind of schadenfreued, I'm telling you lol!!

Joni Ernst Interview with Neil Cavuto (VIDEO)

I just love this lady. She's driving progressives absolutely nuts!

At Fox News Insider, "GOP Candidate Ernst on Key Iowa Race: Momentum, Issues on Our Side."

PREVIOUSLY: "Joni Ernst Takes 7-Point Lead in Des Moines Register's Final Poll Before Tuesday's Election."

Libtard Fear!

I love it!

Discovered, beautifully, on Twitter.

Prince Performs Eight-Minute Jam on Saturday Night Live as Chris Rock Triumphantly Returns as Host

First time I've stayed up to watch SNL in quite some time --- and damn if Lorne Michaels hasn't gone all downtown on us!

At London's Daily Mail:

With Chris Rock returning as host and Prince as the musical guest Saturday Night Live was set to have an attention-grabbing show.

And neither star disappointed, with Prince performing four new songs in an incredible eight-minute jam - and Rock refusing to pull punches as he joked about ISIS, the Boston Marathon bombing and even the Freedom Tower and the 9/11 attacks.

Prince's star-turn had been one of the most eagerly-awaited SNL musical performances in years, and some online fans were soon praising the Purple One for having delivered one of the best musical moments in the show's history.

@BeccaJLower Seems like they're aiming hard for the black demographic, lol. Worse than the Democrats! #SNL

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) November 2, 2014

@BeccaJLower Heh. I'm just tripping on SNL now, how it's like the Soul Train of Saturday Night!

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) November 2, 2014

'Cisneros thought they were dummies and it was a fake scene, but when she walked up to one of the bodies, pushing the hair back to see the face, she realized the girl was real...'

This story makes me sad.

At LAT, "Eyewitnesses to Halloween hit-and-run describe violent collision":

Clarissa Cisneros, 17, who lives on Fairhaven Avenue, was putting up Halloween decorations when she heard a man screaming and then a bang. Bodies flew in the air as a black SUV sped away.

Cisneros thought they were dummies and it was a fake scene, but when she walked up to one of the bodies, pushing the hair back to see the face, she realized the girl was real.

“I knew she was dead. Her eyes were closed. She looked peaceful,” Cisneros said.

Cisneros found some glow sticks and started directing cars away from the bodies. Meanwhile, her brother tended to the victims.

By early afternoon Saturday, about 70 people were gathered at a curbside memorial, leaving candles, bouquets and stuffed toys.

More at CBS News Los Angeles, "Santa Ana Community Grieving Loss of 3 Teens Killed While Trick-or-Treating."

Islamic State Executes Scores of Fellow Sunni Muslims

As I said numerous times over the summer, ISIS just kills everybody. Their program is about death and power. That's it.

At the Los Angeles Times:

Islamic State forces have carried out another mass killing of civilians in western Iraq, officials said Saturday – the systematic executions of at least 50 fellow Sunni Muslim men and women belonging to a tribe that has defied the extremist militants.

Amid a months-long onslaught by the Islamic State, Iraq is growing ever more violent. The United Nations mission in Baghdad reported Saturday that at least 1,273 Iraqis had been killed in October, about two-thirds of them civilians.

In the latest grisly episode, members of the Albu Nimr tribe were lined up by the militants and shot dead late Friday in the village of Ras al-Maaa, in Anbar province, according to Naim Al-Kaood, an Albu Nimr tribal leader. He spoke to the Iraqi broadcaster Al-Sumariyah.

Social media websites were flooded with pictures of the dead, their blood seeping out onto the pavement from apparent close-range shots to the head...

RELATED: At Human Rights Watch, "ISIS Executed Hundreds of Prison Inmates in Iraq."

WHAT DOES IT MEAN WHEN EZRA KLEIN COMPLAINS ABOUT THE POLITIZATION OF EVERYTHING?

"It means he's losing," says Glenn Reynolds.

Yeah, things aren't going too well for the Vox people, or leftists generally. Tuesday's going to come crashing down. It ain't going to be pretty for the acolytes of The One.

Joni Ernst Takes 7-Point Lead in Des Moines Register's Final Poll Before Tuesday's Election

This is major, for if Ernst takes Iowa, Republicans are practically guaranteed the six seats necessary to take control of the Senate.

At the Des Moines Register, "Iowa Poll: Ernst takes 7-point lead":

Joni Ernst has charged to achieve a 7-point lead over Democrat Bruce Braley in a new Iowa Poll, which buoys the GOP's hope that an Iowa victory will be the tipping point to a Republican takeover of the U.S. Senate.

Ernst, a state senator and military leader, enjoys 51 percent support among likely voters. That's a majority, and it's her biggest lead in the three Iowa Polls conducted this fall. Braley, a congressman and trial lawyer, gets 44 percent, according to The Des Moines Register's final Iowa Poll before Tuesday's election.

"This race looks like it's decided," said J. Ann Selzer, who conducted the poll for the Register. "That said, there are enormous resources being applied to change all that."

The news will thrill Republican activists nationwide, who are counting on Iowa as an anchor for regaining the majority in the U.S. Senate. On Saturday, a progressive group organized a conference call with Majority Leader Harry Reid to urge Iowa Democrats "to double down and save the Senate."

"If we win Iowa, we're going to do just fine," he said. "Iowa is critical, there's no other way to say it."

If Republicans control the Senate, Reid said, "think of what that would mean for our country."

Here's what has shaped Ernst's lead, according to the poll results:

• Although a small plurality of likely voters thinks Braley has more depth on the issues, they like Ernst better than Braley on several character descriptions. They think she better reflects Iowa values, she cares more about people like them, and she's more of a regular, down-to-earth person.

• Voters find Ernst, who has led Iowa troops in war, to be a reassuring presence on security issues, the poll shows. In the wake of news developments on the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, increasing aggressiveness of Russia and the rise of the Islamic State in the Middle East, more likely voters see Ernst as better equipped than Braley to show leadership and judgment, by at least 9 points on each issue.

• Independent voters are going Ernst's way, 51 percent to 39 percent.

• The negativity in the race has hurt Braley more than Ernst. Forty-four percent say he has been more negative in campaign ads, compared with 32 percent for Ernst.

• Among several potential mistakes the two candidates have made, the one that stands out is Braley's seemingly condescending remark about Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley. In March, GOP operatives released caught-on-tape remarks Braley made at a private fundraiser in Texas that seemed to question the qualifications of "a farmer from Iowa without a law degree" to become the next chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

That inflicted a lingering hurt, as did emergence of the news that Braley had missed the majority of his Veterans Affairs Committee hearings, the poll shows.

Negative TV advertising by GOP outside groups relentlessly pushed those two pieces of damage.

Oh my! Ernst holds a 12-point lead among independents?!! The Democrats are going to be castrated like an Iowa hog!!

BONUS: At Legal Insurrection, "Iowa and Colorado – Signs of the Democratic Apocalypse."

Both Parties See Election Tilting to GOP

At the New York Times, "Both Parties See Campaign Tilting to Republicans":

WASHINGTON — Republicans entered the final weekend before the midterm elections clearly holding the better hand to control the Senate and poised to add to their House majority. But a decidedly sour electorate and a sizable number of undecided voters added a measure of suspense.

The final drama surrounded the Senate, which has been a Democratic bulwark for President Obama since his party lost its House majority in 2010. Republicans need to gain six seats to seize the Senate, and officials in both parties believe there is a path for them to win at least that many.

Yet the races for a number of seats that will decide the majority remained close, polls showed, prompting Republicans to pour additional money into get-out-the-vote efforts in Alaska, Georgia and Iowa. Democrats were doing the same in Colorado, where they were concerned because groups that tend to favor Republicans voted early in large numbers, and in Iowa.

While an air of mystery hung over no fewer than nine Senate races, the only question surrounding the House was how many seats Republicans would add. If they gain a dozen seats, it will give them an advantage not seen since 1948 and potentially consign the Democrats to minority status until congressional redistricting in the 2020s...

That's what I'm talking about! Crush the bastards!

Keep reading.

#Election2014: A Referendum on Competence

Well, if it's all about competence then the Dems are in for an even bigger rout than expected.

It's just going to be a bloodbath on Tuesday.

Here's Charles Krauthammer, at WaPo, "Election Day looking like a referendum on competence."

Obama's Ebola Stimulus Package

Lolz.

Via the People's Cube.

State Announces New Stimulus Package: Ebola Treatment http://t.co/T2SgmxxywK #TCOT pic.twitter.com/L1a9YCAX6P

— The People's Cube (@ThePeoplesCube) October 29, 2014

Tahmooressi

This is really good news, no thanks to the Democrats.

At Fox News, "Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi freed from Mexican jail, returns to US." And at the Washington Times, "Rohrabacher: Obama was ‘AWOL’ in efforts to free Tahmooressi."

Douchebag Democrats Fear Iowa Senate Race Slipping Away

Joni Ernst has the momentum.

At Politico:

DES MOINES, Iowa —Democrats’ hopes of keeping the Senate may well rest on the outcome of the race in this state on Tuesday. But party faithful here are increasingly anxious that victory is slipping away, with some Democrats openly saying that Republican Joni Ernst has the momentum as the campaign barrels to a close.

In conversations with more than a dozen voters and activists in seven cities across Iowa, Republicans appeared confident, even giddy, while Democrats acknowledged they were worried that Ernst would win an open-seat race that many in their party initially thought would be an easy victory for their candidate, Bruce Braley.

“I kind of think she has the momentum,” sighed Linda Osborn, 65, a staunch Democrat who was at a canvassing kick-off with Braley in Democratic Jasper County on his birthday this week.

No one on either side is saying it’s over for Braley, a congressman. Ernst has held a tiny lead in most recent public polls, some within the margin of error. A Des Moines Register analysis indicated Friday that Democrats may be slightly ahead in early voting, but that the outcome of the race is anybody’s guess.

And Democrats have brought in big guns like Hillary Clinton to give Braley a last-minute boost. Energy on the ground, as Mitt Romney learned in 2012, doesn’t always predict the final outcome.

But the pro-Ernst sentiment, for whatever it counts, is hard to miss.

Asked why the Republican state senator may be pulling ahead, voters and activists said that polls showing her ahead generate buzz about her viability; that the nation’s renewed focus on foreign policy could help Ernst, an Iraq war veteran and member of the National Guard; and that President Barack Obama’s sinking polls numbers could weigh down Braley.

Democrats also acknowledge that Ernst is simply running a solid campaign.

In the final week before Election Day, both Ernst and Braley kept up frenetic schedules, hitting the road with high-profile surrogates. Ernst, who was wrapping up her 99-county tour, appeared with Republican Sens. Marco Rubio and John McCain. Braley, who earlier this week finished his part of the Democrats’ 99-county tour, was joined by Vice President Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton. Former President Bill Clinton is expected Saturday...

Braley's toast. He's an asshole too, a typical Democrat douchebag, just the kind of guy Walter James Casper can get behind (IYKWIMAITYD).

More.

And at RCP, "Iowa Senate - Ernst vs. Braley."