Freshman Orientation on Capitol Hill

I like this, at NYT, "Rookies Prepare for Life at Bottom of Congress’s Food Chain."

My new representative, Republican Mimi Walters, was interviewed for the story.

Keri Russell at Glamour 2014 Women of the Year Awards in New York

At Egotastic!, "Keri Russell Looking Incredibly Hot In Leather."

Public Approval of Democrats Falls to Record Lows After the Midterm Elections!

It's hard out there for Che-wannabes and Trotskyite regressives.

At Gallup, "Democratic Party Favorable Rating Falls to Record Low":

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- After the midterm elections that saw the Democratic Party suffer significant losses in Congress, a record-low 36% of Americans say they have a favorable opinion of the party, down six percentage points from before the elections. The Republican Party's favorable rating, at 42%, is essentially unchanged from 40%. This marks the first time since September 2011 that the Republican Party has had a higher favorability rating than the Democratic Party.

Keep reading.

Even self-identified Democrats are dissing the party of our Marxist overlord Barack "The One" Obama.

Doh! Dems Kinda Screwed Up by Dissing Voters' Extreme Economic Anxieties in the Midterms

Yeah, you know, all the polls showed the economy as the Number One issue facing the voters, but the smarter-than-thou Democrats dissed voters concerns to push the stale "war on woman" narrative, not to mention the same warmed-over wage equality bullshit. You can't push for an increase in the minimum wage when people have no jobs in the first place.

From Charlie Cook, at National Journal, "Bad Decisions Came Back to Haunt Democrats in Midterms":

Seventy-eight percent of voters said they were either "very" or "somewhat" worried about the direction of the economy for the next year in the National Election Pool exit poll for ABC, AP, CBS, CNN, Fox, and NBC. Only 21 percent said they were "not too worried" or "not at all worried" about it. Only 29 percent of those polled said they thought the state of the economy was either "excellent" or "good," while 70 percent said either "not so good" or "poor." Just 32 percent felt that the economy is "getting better," the same percentage said it was "getting worse." Thirty-four percent of those polled said the economy was staying about the same. Only 28 percent of respondents said their family's financial situation is better now than it was two years ago; 25 percent said worse, and 45 percent said about the same. Just 32 percent said they thought the U.S economic system is fair to most Americans, compared to 63 percent who say it favors the wealthy. Finally, and most devastating, just 22 percent said that life for the next generation will be better than it is today. More than twice as many—48 percent—said it will be worse, while 27 percent said it will be about the same. As has been reported often, real median family income is no higher today than it was in 2000.

Obama, congressional Democrats, and members of the Democratic Party outside of Washington are paying dearly for having simply checked the box on an economic stimulus package in early 2009 and then quickly moving on to climate change. They passed a cap-and-trade bill through the House—making most Democratic House members walk that plank in favor of the bill—before it became painfully obvious, in about five minutes, that the bill had no chance in the Senate.

In mid-summer 2009, polls universally showed that Americans wanted the president, along with the overwhelmingly Democratic Congress, to focus on the economy and job creation. Instead, in its infinite wisdom, Congress chose to focus almost exclusively and obsessively on health care reform. Although this was a worthy objective, the effort would likely have been better spent in a time when people weren't so worried about their economic well-being. This horrific choice, to focus on the Affordable Care Act rather than the economy, besides costing Democrats their House majority—not to mention platoons of Democratic governors and state legislators who would have been handy in drawing the congressional redistricting maps the next year—created scar tissue that remains to this day.

Americans resent the policy choices that Obama and congressional Democrats made early on. Voters saw little action that would have turned the economy around and created jobs for many working- and middle-class Americans. Their struggle continues to this day, and it cost Democrats their Senate majority last week.

Choices have consequences, and elections have consequences. The decisions of 2009 and 2010 just keep on having consequences for Democrats...

Cook, a leftist, finishes off his piece with a cowardly jab at the Republicans, about how they're damaged goods, that voters still hate them, blah blah. Honestly, if they hated the GOP so much you might think it odd that a majority now says they want Republicans in Congress to lead the country forward in the coming year. But I'll give it up for Cook on his perceptive commentary on the idiot Democrat indifference to Americans' economic pain.

Stunning Goddess Jessica Alba at Baby2Baby Gala in Los Angeles

Baby2Baby's a Los Angeles non-profit that helps provide the bare necessities to babies from disadvantaged families.

And they're not kidding about a gala get-together. More charity for the disadvantaged please!

In any event, Ms. Alba is glorious.

At Popoholic, "Jessica Alba Busts Out Her Glorious Cleavage!"

History Might Not Be on the Democrats' Side

Well, it's sure not looking that way right now, but it's hard to make predictions, especially about the future (with apologies to Yogi Berra).

From David Harsanyi, at the Federalist, "Democrats: History Is On Our Side. History: Good Luck With That":

Just because you’ve chosen a self-satisfying term to describe your ideology and it happens to contain the word “progress,” [it] doesn’t necessarily mean you’re ideas are more enlightened or destined to move forward.

Ouch!

In the Mail: John Nagl, Knife Fights

Available at Amazon, Knife Fights: A Memoir of Modern War in Theory and Practice.

More, Shop Amazon Fashion - Men's Holiday Wish List

Liberals Leftists Are Killing the Liberal Arts

Christ, we're doomed.

From Harvey Silverglate, at WSJ, "Hypersensitivity to the trauma allegedly inflicted by listening to controversial ideas approaches a strange form of derangement — a disorder whose lethal spread in academia grows by the day."

A Smith College alumna is labeled a racist for defending free speech. http://t.co/SkWVoK7Qu4
— WSJ Editorial Page (@WSJopinion) November 10, 2014

You're All I've Got Tonight

From yesterday, during daddy chauffeur hour. (I was off yesterday for Veterans Day, but my boys weren't. November 11th is Armistice Day, and Irvine schools observe the holiday today.)

At the Sound L.A.

The Logical Song
Supertramp
9:56 AM

Dixie/Sweet Home Alabama
Lynyrd Skynyrd
9:42 AM

American Pie
Don McLean
9:33 AM

Back In Black
AC/DC
9:30 AM

Free Ride
The Edgar Winter Group
9:19 AM

You're All I've Got Tonight
The Cars
9:15 AM

Tumbling Dice
The Rolling Stones
9:12 AM

American Woman
The Guess Who
9:08 AM

Beautiful Girls
Van Halen
9:04 AM

Somebody's Baby
Jackson Browne
9:00 AM

Tell Women Not to Rape!

At CNN, the growing list of female sex offenders.

The New Era of Communication Among Americans

Somehow I don't think this is all good.

At Gallup:

Somehow frustrating the older gen RT @GallupNews: The Trend Line: Younger Americans Text More, Speak Less. WATCH: http://t.co/sSDDEX6N2H!

— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) November 10, 2014

PRINCETON, N.J. -- Texting, using a cellphone and sending and reading email messages are the most frequently used forms of nonpersonal communication for adult Americans. Between 37% and 39% of all Americans said they used each of these "a lot" on the day prior to being interviewed. That compares with less than 10% of the population who said they used a home landline phone or Twitter "a lot."

Keep reading.

Brianne Howey for Maxim

"A behind the scenes look at the blonde bombshell of Horrible Bosses 2."

Nice:

Jihadists in Egypt Pledge Loyalty to #ISIS

Lovely.

At the New York Times, "Militant Group in Egypt Vows Loyalty to ISIS."

Narcissistic Obama 'Willing to Blow His Party and the Country Up'

I love Pat Caddell, heh.

Via Nice Deb:

Terror Decentral

From Caroline Glick:

In the postmortems of the terrorist car attacks in Jerusalem, it is easy to see the writing on the wall.

Ibrahim al-Akary, the terrorist who on Wednesday ran over crowds of people waiting to cross the street and catch the Jerusalem Light Rail, was the brother of one of the terrorist murderers freed in exchange for IDF hostage Gilad Schalit. He had placed the photograph on his Facebook page of Moataz Hejazi, the terrorist killed by police after shooting Yehuda Glick outside the Begin Heritage Center last Wednesday.

A few days before Abdur Rahman Slodi got into his car and mowed down three-month-old Chaya Zissel Braun and a dozen other pedestrians two weeks ago, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas exhorted the Palestinians to prevent Jews from visiting the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site, by all means possible.

Slodi had served time in prison for terrorist offenses and was active on social media where he expressed murderous hatred for Jews and a desire to kill them.

So yes, the writing was on the wall. But unfortunately, the writing is on all the walls, or Facebook walls. It is not at all clear how Israeli security services could have known to distinguish these men from the thousands of other Palestinians and Jerusalem Arabs who hate Israel, support the murder of Jews and identify with various terrorist organizations.

On Thursday security forces arrested several people in villages around Hebron with suspected ties to Akary. So he may not have been acting on his own. But all the same, neither he nor Slodi seem to have been directed to carry out their attacks by a cell commander who himself was directed by a higher level terrorist operative. Rather, in all likelihood, something triggered both men to carry out attacks in a wholly independent or semi-independent manner.

The question is, what was the trigger and how was it pulled?

Uh, Palestinian Jew-hatred?

Nah. Can't be that.

But continue reading, just in case.

Countdown to Black Friday

At Amazon, Shop Amazon - Countdown to Black Friday Deals in Camera, Photo and Video.

Can You Hear Our Marines?

Via Theo Spark:

Palestinians Murder Israelis in Stabbing Attacks

At NYT, "Two Israelis Die in Separate Stabbings by Palestinians."

Also at the Times of Israel, "Young woman killed in West Bank stabbing attack," and "IDF soldier stabbed in Tel Aviv attack dies of wounds."

Plus, video via Reuters, "One dead, three wounded in Palestinian stabbing attacks: Israeli Police."

Khamenei's Genocidal Ideology

A rather startling piece, from Michael Rubin, at Commentary.

Binky Felstead

She's got an interesting name, and then some.

At London's Daily Mail, "Binky Felstead poses in lingerie for a sexy calendar shoot":

The 24-year-old reality star has posed for a 2015 calendar. Binky says: 'They are the most sensual pictures I have ever shot.'

Debbie Wasserman Schultz Issues the Democrat Party Autopsy!

Well, it's a preliminary Democrat Party autopsy.

The DNC chairwoman announces that she's initiating a "top-to-bottom" review of what went wrong last Tuesday.

But you'll have to watch it at the link. She's just too damned butt-ugly to embed this clip, heh: "A Message from Chair Wasserman Schultz."

OMG! Breitbart Loretta Lynch 'Correction' is the Biggest News Since Forever to Infinity!!

It's been a terrible week for leftists.

The voters delivered the worst midterm shellacking in history. President Obama was hammered with a "wall-to-wall" repudiation the likes of which we'll never see again. The left's "War on Women" lays splattered on the floor and abandoned like a botched late-term abortion, and the Democrat Party establishment is being mercilessly ridiculed as an old white people's party that been's hollowed out like a rotten vegetable.

Heh, good times, I know.

But not so great for the far-left fever swamp losers, a coalition of dirtbags now cheering a rather routine correction to a Breitbart article by Warner Todd Huston. Oh sure, the Breitbart team might have done a wee bit more fact-checking before posting the hit piece, but I'm going out on a limb here to suggest that this isn't the most important story of the day. It's pretty pathetic, indeed. The idiot Democrat losers are still crushed from the midterms, so by the looks of Memeorandum I guess a journalistic flop at the hated Breitbart is cause for celebration.

Oh, how low the once mighty "majority of the ascendant" has fallen. I almost feel sorry for the bastards, except, well, not. Heh.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi Killed in Iraq Airstrikes?

Well, numerous reports indicate that al-Baghdadi has been hit.

If he's dead that would finally be something for which Obama could claim credit --- and boy, does he need something, anything!

Here's CNN:

Pot's Not Cool — It Shrinks Your Brain!

Perfect for leftist Democrat potheads.

At WaPo, "Marijuana is no longer illegal in D.C. — but it’s still lame everywhere."

And here's the chaser, at LAT, "Regular pot smokers have shrunken brains, study says."

Smaller brains, heh. I'm sure that helps explain why Barack "Choom" Obama is such a terrible president.




IMAGE HAT TIP: Moonbatty, "The Choom-Head in Chief."

Multicultural Explosion Brings Growing Pains Across the U.S.

Look, I'm for pulling back on immigration.

We need to assimilate those who're already here. But hey, mention that to the depraved leftist open-borders progs and RAAAAACIST!!

At USA Today, "Growing Pains: Multicultural explosion rattles residents."

RELATED: The late political scientist Samuel Huntington, more relevant than ever, Who Are We?: The Challenges to America's National Identity.

Taylor Swift Held 'Secret' Listening Sessions to Promote '1989'

She's taking full advantage of social media to stay ahead of the changing market environment. Seems like it's working out pretty well.

At LAT, "Taylor Swift connects with fans via 'secret sessions,' media blitz":

One of the brilliant aspects of Taylor Swift's rise to pop stardom is the way she's managed to convince millions of fans, the majority of whom are women her age or younger, that she's one of them.

It's central to the message of her new album's first single, "Shake It Off." The song's Mark Romanek-directed video paints Swift as out of her element in various clichéd, pop video settings: as a dysfunctional Lady Gaga-esque performance artist; trapped in a Miley Cyrus-like twerk-off; flailing as a ballerina — only to find her mojo working as part of a group of ordinary people — non-professional actors that Swift again helped select through social media. The video has racked up almost 200 million views in the matter of a few weeks.

"Shake It Off" echoes previous hits including "You Belong With Me" and "Mean": At heart Swift identifies as a nerd — and a proud one at that — a stance that works in her favor as she strives to give voice in many of her songs to the unhip and socially awkward.

Never mind that Swift is a multimillion-selling recording artist who writes, performs and often produces monstrously successful hit singles and albums. She's also one of the few pop culture figures who can score the cover of Elle, People and Rolling Stone magazines while presiding over a multimillion-dollar music empire.


"Taylor's got many, many good things going for her," said Tony Pace, chief marketing officer for Subway restaurants, one of several major corporate alliances Swift is exploiting to promote the new album. "She's astute about social media and she's a very serious and committed artist."

To be sure, Swift has no shortage of haters. Her relatively thin voice is technically no match for powerhouses like Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood, and anonymous Internet commenters toss out barbs for the perceived trail of A-list broken hearts she's left behind (and perhaps tapped for songwriting inspiration), including musician John Mayer, actors Jake Gyllenhaal and Taylor Lautner, and One Direction heartthrob Harry Styles.

One of the new album's sassiest tracks, "Blank Space," was sparked by what was being written about her in the tabloids.

In the song, she brags that "I've got a long list of ex-lovers / They'll all tell you I'm insane / Looking at that face / You look like my next mistake."

"I pride myself on being self-aware," she told her living-room audience. "But I've also noticed there's this drastic fictionalization of my personal life in the press.

"They'll write that I'm needy, that I push people away then pull them back," she said. "I found all this fascinating. So I thought, 'What if I were this girl — this damaged starlet thing? I'm going to write a song as if I were her.'

"I started writing [it] as a joke," she said, "but it ended up being everyone's favorite."

More, "Taylor Swift loses mind, smashes, slashes in new 'Blank Space' clip."

The APEC Happy Campers

Uh, not.

At Foreign Policy:

Shinzo Abe and Xi Jinping’s painfully awkward meeting and handshake in Beijing. http://t.co/BHPUdX4vPZ pic.twitter.com/8UPOHnTXCv
— Foreign Policy (@ForeignPolicy) November 10, 2014

Also at WSJ, "Frosty Handshake Between Japan, China Leaders Hardly Heralds Long-Awaited Détente."

Obama Gets Back to His Indonesian-Muslim Roots with Purple Silk Shirt for APEC

Obama protests the shirts, apparently. But you know secretly he's all down home when he dons these silky fashion items. It brings back all the memories of his Muslim upbringing in Indonesia.

At the Hill:

Obama dons purple silk shirt for APEC family photo http://t.co/qDtfisaQeP pic.twitter.com/wI0tfUmNKX

— The Hill (@thehill) November 10, 2014

Wearing black and purple silk robes, Presidents Xi and Obama take seats for fireworks display for APEC leaders. pic.twitter.com/hVAOgWMsYh

— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) November 10, 2014

Added, heh:

@AmPowerBlog @BigFurHat @Blazingcatfur @kshaidle No, you mean his Mao-Commie roots.

— Bill Quick (@DailyPundit) November 10, 2014

Well, I see Muslim roots all over this pic. But hey, when you're buddying up with the Communist dictator of China you're open to all kinds of totalitarian interpretations.

Whether it's an Indo-Muslim silk robe, or a Communist Mao Jacket, it's for certain that hate-troll Walter James Casper's fully down with it!

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) November 10, 2014

Remembrance Day 2014: Tower of London Poppies

At the Independent UK, "Remembrance Day 2014: Tower of London Poppy installation captured by drone camera."

Also, at the Toronto Sun, "Tower of London poppy display takes on life of its own."

And CBS Evening News had a wonderful feature the other night:

Obama Lies About Voter Desires in Midterms

Heh, at Jammie Wearing Fools, "Deranged Obama Lies About Voter Desires in Midterms: “They’d like to see more cooperation”":

Um, no. They want to see the end of your insanity.

Lolz.

Obama Needs to Learn How to Lose Graciously

Well, you think?

Zogby Report Card: Obama needs to learn how to lose graciously http://t.co/fivGmwfnpM pic.twitter.com/MzpAD1DFDV

— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) November 10, 2014

Progressive Postmortem: Democrat-Uterus Party May Have Lost White Working-Class Men Once and For All

When the New York Times starts playing Taps for your party, you know your ideological program is truly circling the crapper.

And it's not just the idiotic focus on reproductive rights issues and the faux "war on women." When the foundation of your political agenda is to demonize traditional white people as racist flyover rubes, it's no surprise when those same people run from your candidates like a boatload of West African Ebola patients.

See, "Democrats Say Economic Message Was Lacking":

WASHINGTON — For all the finger-pointing among Democrats over Tuesday’s election calamity, the White House, Congress and party establishment all share responsibility for weaknesses that the defeats laid bare, critics say, and should confront them as the 2016 contest takes shape.

The problems are fundamental, involving questions of where Democrats focus their party-building efforts, what voters they talk to, and most crucial, what they say to those voters. Missing this year, many Democrats say, was a broad economic message to enthuse supporters and convert some independents.

While the Democrats’ loss of their Senate majority owed much to the fact that they were defending so many seats in the Republican-friendly South and West, that dynamic only underscored the lost promise of Barack Obama’s famed 2004 declaration that there is no red and blue America, only a United States of America — a belief he reiterated, “for all the cynics who say otherwise,” on Wednesday.

However naïve his pronouncement — both then and now — as a candidate in 2008 Mr. Obama built up organizations and hopes among Democrats even in conservative places like Alaska, North Dakota and Idaho. In February 2008, more than 14,000 people jammed a Boise State University hall to hear him speak. “They told me there weren’t any Democrats in Idaho,” Mr. Obama exclaimed. “But I didn’t believe them.”

Yet during his presidency, the national party has set aside that build-it-and-they-will-come approach and allowed the 50-state strategy that Howard Dean, the former chairman, oversaw to wane, focusing instead on Democratic strongholds and battlegrounds. And rarely has Mr. Obama visited states that are not Democratic blue or swing-vote purple.

“We’ve suffered from the neglect of the campaign committees out here,” said Larry LaRocco, a former Idaho congressman. He and other state Democrats had sought help from the national party for local Democrats, given hopes kindled by Idaho Republicans’ infighting and flawed candidates. Despite Tuesday’s Republican wave, Idaho Democrats did gain a state legislative seat and came close in other contests. “With some resources in here we could have a field day,” Mr. LaRocco insisted.

But even he does not argue that conservative Idaho should be a party priority, only that to forfeit states and regions ensures Democrats cannot compete.

More broadly, Democrats across the country are increasingly debating how or even whether they should be doing more to win voters largely lost since the 1960s civil rights era — men, and especially working-class white men.

Some Democrats are resigned, if not content, to all but give up since white men are a shrinking share of the electorate, while the expanding ranks of single women and Latino, African-American and young voters strongly favor Democrats.

But while that gives Democrats the edge in picking presidents, it hurts them in midterm elections because so many of their supporters skip voting in nonpresidential years, leaving a whiter, older and less female electorate that favors Republicans.

The midterm drop-off of Democrats’ core supporters “has reached historic levels,” Ruy Teixeira and John Halpin, analysts at the left-leaning Center for American Progress, wrote after the election.

When combined with white men’s overwhelming support for Republicans, the outcome, as on Tuesday, is Democrats’ defeat. In North Carolina, Colorado and Iowa — states where Democrats lost Senate seats after campaigns that emphasized abortion rights, birth control coverage and pay equity for women — support from female voters was disappointing, and swamped by men’s margins for the Republicans.

In North Carolina, where more than a third of voters were white men, Senator Kay Hagan lost their votes by 42 points, 27 percent to 69 percent, exit polls showed. Senator Mary L. Landrieu got support from just 15 percent of white men who voted in Louisiana’s multicandidate contest, a result that helps explain why she is considered likely to lose a Dec. 6 runoff election against the Republican Bill Cassidy.

Yeah, well, I guess all that emerging Democrat majority palaver was just a bunch of crap all along. Brain-dead leftists have been marinating in the hope-and-change myths for so long now that the reality is coming as really quite a shock. Whites are still 75 percent of the midterm voting population. It's going to be quite a few more election cycles until all the so-called "old, racist white people" die off. Meanwhile, the Democrat-uterus losers can't even hold onto their numbers among Latinos, women, and Millennials.

But keep reading, in any case.

It's been a great week. A freakin' great week.

Women in Academia Angered by Sexy Ph.D. Costume

What aren't they angry about?

Academic feminists are the world's biggest harpies and they won't stop harping until they've made the other 99.9 percent of the world's population miserable as well.

At College Insurrection, "Sexy Ph.D. Halloween Costume? No one seems to have a sense of humor anymore."

Democrat Midterm Autopsy

Actually, the DNC hasn't offered an autopsy yet, and I doubt they will until they complete the stages of grief. (And I have no idea how long the denial stage lasts.)

But some folks are trying to get a head start, realizing (grudgingly) that a narrow focus on so-called "women's issues" like "equal pay" isn't doing the trick.

See NYT's Room for Debate (FWIW, heh), "Can the Red Tide Be Turned Back?"

I don't see anything particulary "bold" at the link, nor does what you'll see amount to any "grand vision" other than repackaging most of the progressive complaints about race, immigration, and "inequality" we've heard throughout the Obama years. The only surprise is that Thomas Piketty's not a contributor, lol!

Scott Walker All but Declares That He's Seeking the Presidency

According to Ann Althouse.



Well, he's a proven winner. What can you say?

Er, Democrats Having Hard Time on Messaging After the 'Great Shellacking' of 2014

Heh, a great clip from Fox & Friends Weekend.

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."




Also at Randy's Rountable, "Friday Nite Funnies," and Reaganite Republican, "Reaganite's SUNDAY FUNNIES."

Still more at Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – Tears of the Clowns," and Theo Spark's, "Cartoon Round Up..."

CARTOON CREDIT: William Warren.

Far-Left Salon Soils Itself with Infinitely Disgusting Essay Attacking America's Military

Salon posted an essay this morning, by self-proclaimed "social critic" David Masciotra, that pretty encapsulates all that is irreversibly repulsive about contemporary progressivism, "You don’t protect my freedom: Our childish insistence on calling soldiers heroes deadens real democracy":

It's been 70 years since we fought a war about freedom. Forced troop worship and compulsory patriotism must end.

The response, and not just among conservatives, has been furious.

Jonn Lilyea, at the mil-blog This Ain't Hell, writes, "David Masciotra: you don’t protect me":

David Masciotra, you know, one of those stank-ass hipster doofuses who thinks he has something worthwhile to say about veterans and actively serving troops, vomits on to the pages of Salon to lecture the American people on how much he is ungrateful that American troops are responsible for the environment in which he lives, you know, an environment that allows him to criticize those defenders of his freedoms – not just troops, but he’s not grateful for the cops, either...

Read more here.

Additional responses on Twitter:

Unbelievable. This is the moment when Salon is done. Done. MT @Salon: Stop worshiping men in uniform

— Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter) November 9, 2014

How disgusting is Salon? THIS disgusting (Spoiler: Now with more military hate) [photos] http://t.co/V1vDpe59F4

— TwitchyTeam (@TwitchyTeam) November 9, 2014

Salon sneers in disdain at veterans, but look who it called a hero http://t.co/yMEUDNHkAM

— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) November 9, 2014

Don't look now vets-sneering Salon, but you are being schooled by Montel Williams (and it's awesome) http://t.co/JimmHgarri

— TwitchyTeam (@TwitchyTeam) November 9, 2014

Never forget "@Salon: Stop worshiping men in uniform: "It's been 70 years since we fought a war about freedom." pic.twitter.com/NGNKYMH2yc

— schlute, M.D. (@coolhandschlute) November 9, 2014

Never forget. Salon's views on military are shared by Democrat loco district voters.

— Brad Cundiff (@bradcundiff) November 9, 2014

Walter James Casper is virtually ideologically identical to Salon's David Masciotra. He should also be shunned forever.

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) November 9, 2014

David Masciotra is basically a spokesperson for the mainstream Democrat Party left. Shun these America-hating reprobates.

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) November 9, 2014

Rule 5 Sunday — Republican Women Edition

Let's lead this roundup with Katie Pavlich, at Town Hall, "Liberal Women Have a Terrible Election Night, Conservative Women Victorious."

And from Ms. EBL, "Rule 5 Republican Women: Election 2014."

Plus, from Linkmaster Smith, at the Other McCain, "GOP #WarOnWomen Results In 100 Female Representatives: We Blame Rule 5." Plus, from last Sunday, "Rule 5 Sunday: Absolutely 100% Lena Dunham Free."

Also at First Street Journal, "Rule 5 Blogging: Joni Ernst."

From John Hawkins, at RWN, "GOP Leaders Shouldn’t Forget That They Won Because Obama Sucks, Not Because They’re Great."

Now, from Drunken Stepfather, "STEPLINKS OF THE DAY."

And from Proof Positive, "4-4 SF 49'ers vs. 4-4 NO Saints," and "*Best of the Web*."

From Doug Hagin, "DALEYGATOR DALEYBABE."

At Maggie's Farm, "Saturday morning links."

And from Blackmailers Don't Shoot, "Post-Election Day Rule 5."

At 90 Miles From Tyranny, "Morning Mistress."

Also from Director Blue, "'If I were Ted Cruz...'"

More at Classy Bro, "Hot Fit Girls to Save The Day (15 Pics)."

And Egotastic!, "Candice Swanepoel Lingerie Sextastic for the Scandalous Collection."

Goodstuff's, "GOODSTUFFs BLOGGING MAGAZINE (163rd Issue): Lets check out some sexy Chinese car models."

Still more from William Teach, "Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup," and "If All You See……are super awesome trees being cut down for carbon heavy power and heating for Other People, and you don’t like it, you might just be a Warmist."

At Soylent Siberia, "CockTail Hour Bath Night Baubles."

In a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World has the "Friday Pinup."

The Hostages, "Big Boob Friday Saturday."

Odie's, "Fastest Car ~OR~ Rule 5 Woodsterman Style."

At Knuckledraggin', "Your Good Morning Girl!"

And at Randy's Roundtable, "Thursday Nite Tart: Jennifer England."

Obama Takes Blame for Midterm Rout — Wait, What? Obama! Take Blame? Now That's Change!

Even the biggest narcissist sometimes admits they've screwed up, in this case The One.

At the Wall Street Journal, "Obama Takes Blame for Party’s Midterm Rout: President Says Administration Has Sometimes Struggled to Sell Its Ideas."

Democrat Party America

Heh.

RT @_FreeMarketeer: Lol. RT @Kerryepp: Another map.. This one shows the Democrat Party's America. #tcot pic.twitter.com/PqODDUFe9B

— Melissa Clouthier (@MelissaTweets) November 8, 2014

Cindy Crawford Takes $120 Thousand Mercedes for Test Drive in Santa Monica

Must be nice.

At London's Daily Mail, "Cindy Crawford is effortlessly stylish while car shopping as she takes new $120K Mercedes for a test drive."

Time Magazine Cover Mocks Barack Obama 'Hope' Poster with Mitch McConnell's 'Change'

God this is beautiful.

At NewsMax, "Time Magazine Cover: McConnell's 'Change' Replaces Obama's 'Hope'."

And here's the magazine's cover story, "How Mitch McConnell Won the Day."

Now that's change we can believe in!

Camp Pendleton Marks 10th Anniversary of Fierce Battle for Fallujah

At LAT, "Marines mark 10th anniversary of fight for Fallouja":

PICTURES: On 10th anniversary of #Fallujah, @USMC #veterans remember: http://t.co/UQAcZap0Xp #Iraq via @jhlad pic.twitter.com/SC9VvKMk9e

— Stars and Stripes (@starsandstripes) November 8, 2014

Jim Simpson's son, Marine Lance Cpl. Abraham Simpson, was killed on the third day of the 46-day fight for control of Fallouja, Iraq, in 2004.

"My son was a devout Christian," Simpson said after an emotional ceremony Friday attended by hundreds of Marines, former Marines and family members on the 10th anniversary of the beginning of the second battle of Fallouja.

"He believed God would take care of him and if he died he would be going to a better place," Simpson said. "We know he's in that better place now."

Simpson's wife, Maria, said she is untroubled by the fact that Fallouja is now controlled by Islamic State militants.

The Iraqi army has been unable to hold Fallouja and other areas of Anbar province since the U.S. left in 2011. The U.S. is rushing military trainers to Iraq in hopes of improving the Iraqi security forces.

"Our son wasn't doing this for politics," Maria Simpson said. "We know he was doing the right thing at the right place at the right time."

By late December 2004, when the battle was over, 82 Marines and U.S. soldiers had been killed and more than 560 wounded. Eight Marines were awarded the Navy Cross for bravery, second only to the Medal of Honor.

A heavily armed insurgent force in Fallouja had been routed and the path cleared for an election in January, the first since Saddam Hussein had been toppled.

When recruits arrive for boot camp in San Diego or Parris Island, S.C., they are quickly tutored on Marine battles of the past: Belleau Wood, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Chosin Reservoir, Khe Sanh, and, now, Fallouja.

For Marines, Fallouja was the bloodiest, most prolonged fight since Hue City in Vietnam. Marines fought street to street, attacking buildings where heavily armed insurgents were barricaded.

Although historians will have the final say, odds are strong that, of all the battles fought by Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan, the fight in Fallouja will be the most remembered.

About 6,500 Marines and 1,500 soldiers fought in Fallouja, backed by British and Iraqi forces and 2,500 U.S. sailors in support roles. Insurgent casualties are estimated at 1,200 to 1,500, with an additional 1,500 taken prisoner.

"We did our job and we did it damn well," said Maj. Gen. Lawrence Nicholson, commander of the 1st Marine Division. "We took that city away from the enemy."

How Joni Ernst Went from Republican Unknown to First Woman Elected to Congress from Iowa

Well, her breakout "make 'em squeal" ad sure didn't hurt.

But see Maeve Reston, at LAT, "In Iowa, GOP's Joni Ernst broke a gender barrier on her own terms."

Hundreds Mourn 3 Girls Killed on Halloween

Very sad.

At LAT, "Hundreds of mourners attend services for 3 girls who were killed while trick-or-treating in Santa Ana."

Democrats Play Ostrich After Electoral Meltdown

At Red State.

Raising Eyebrows: Busty Models Firing Weapons on Utah Military Base

Posted on this previously, "'Hot Shots' Calendar Under Fire for Photo Shoot on U.S. Military Base."

And LAT is just now reporting, "Pinup video on military base raises eyebrows in Utah."

Alyssa Arce

At Egotastic!, "Alyssa Arce Is Black and White and Almost Nekkid but Definitely Hot All Over."

No Deep Bench: Democrat Party Hollowed Out — No, Eviscerated! — After 6 Years of Epic Obama Failure

Basically, at the national level after Obama, the Democrats are the party of old white people. Obama's eviscerated the party — left it without a deep bench of talent — and the political greed of Hillary Clinton guarantees to keep it that way.

Oh poor progs! It wasn't supposed to be like this.

The old hag Debbie Wasserman Schultz is even packing her bags, lol!

Amazing piece from the far-left correspondent Dan Balz, at the Washington Post, "Two midterm elections have hollowed out the Democratic Party":

When President Obama was elected in 2008, his victory signaled a generational change and the prospect of renewal for the Democratic Party. Instead, the opposite has occurred. Over the past six years, the party has been hollowed out.

The past two midterm elections have been cruel to Democrats, costing them control of the House and now the Senate, and producing a cumulative wipeout in the states. The 2010 and 2014 elections saw the defeat of younger politicians — some in office, others seeking it — who might have become national leaders.

As the post-Obama era nears, the Democrats’ best-known leaders in Washington are almost entirely from an older generation, from the vice presidency to most of the major leadership offices in the House and Senate. The generation-in-waiting will have to wait longer.

Presidential campaigns and open nomination contests help bring new leaders to national prominence. That appears unlikely in 2016. For all her positive attributes, former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton is a suffocating presence when it comes to intraparty presidential competition. Her command of the Democratic machinery, from fundraising to grass-roots organizing, is so extensive that almost everyone else is understandably intimidated about even testing their talents against her.

Think of it this way: If Clinton were to win the presidency and serve two terms, the next opportunity for a new generation of Democrats to compete nationally would not come until 2024. The Democrats could go 16 years between competitive presidential nomination contests, wiping out opportunities for today’s younger generation to define or redefine the party apart from either the Obama or Clinton eras.

But don’t blame Clinton for these problems. The party’s national bench is so thin that Democrats count themselves lucky to have her available in 2016. If she were to decide not to run, the Democrats would have trouble identifying a field of candidates as extensive as Republicans are likely to put up in the coming presidential race.

The last competitive nomination campaign, in 2008, included — in addition to Obama and Clinton — an experienced field: then-senators Joe Biden, Christopher Dodd and John Edwards, and then-governor Bill Richardson. Clinton has been on the national stage for two decades. Biden, who might run if Clinton does not, was elected to the Senate four decades ago. Dodd and Richardson are out of office. Edwards is in disgrace. With the obvious exceptions, that field has disappeared.

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley has been moving toward a presidential candidacy. But he suffered a significant setback in Tuesday’s midterms when his state turned to Republican Larry Hogan to replace him. Sen. Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.) has a populist message for Democrats, but he is not going to be the party’s future. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts is a favorite of progressives and capable of stirring passions, but she shows no serious signs of running as long as Clinton is in the race, and perhaps even if Clinton isn’t.

The more serious problem for Democrats is the drubbing they’ve taken in the states, the breeding ground for future national talent and for policy experimentation. Republicans have unified control — the governorship and the legislature — in 23 states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Democrats control just seven. Democrats hold 18 governorships, but only a handful are in the most populous states.

In California, Gov. Jerry Brown won again at age 76, his fourth, non-consecutive term in the governor’s office. His victory means that younger Democrats will have to wait until 2018 to compete for one of the nation’s most high-profile political jobs. In New York, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo won a second term, but can’t get out of Clinton’s shadow. The only other state among the top 10 in population held by the Democrats is Pennsylvania, newly won by Tom Wolf.

Meanwhile, Republicans control governorships in Florida, Texas, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Georgia and Massachusetts. Democrats were hoping to knock off Republicans Scott Walker in Wisconsin, Rick Scott in Florida and Rick Snyder in Michigan. All survived. In Ohio, John Kasich won by the second-largest margin in state history, thanks in part to the implosion of his Democratic opponent.

Ohio is an interesting case study of the fortunes of the two parties. It has been ground zero in presidential campaigns for years. Obama won it twice — but at the state level, Republicans are firmly in control. GOP candidates have won all the statewide elected offices there in five of the past six elections.

Without prominent statewide elected leaders, Democrats are in danger of seeing their state party structures atrophy. This has happened in Texas over the past two decades, ever since Republicans seized control of the politics of the state...

Ah, yes.

Texas, where some Democrat Party Einstein thought Abortion Barbie would turn the state blue. Wrong, she turned the state even more blood red.

But continue reading. But beware, it ain't pretty for this dirtbag party of epic losers.

IMAGE CREDIT: The People's Cube.

The Republicans' Mandate for Moderation

I don't know if I would put it quite this way. Certainly there's no mandate for huge compromises on the Democrat Party far-left wish list, on executive amnesty, for example. But it's true that Republicans need to keep on the ultra-disciplined track, so as not to upset the outstanding path to 2016 that their midterm victories have opened for them.

See the Economist's report, in any case, "America after the mid-terms: Welcome back to Washington."

BONUS: Don't miss Charles Krauthammer's warning as well, "Seize the day, control the agenda."

'In my first draft, I had the elephant sitting on Obama's head...'

Well, like I said, the Obamunists got crushed, and in this case, literally.

At American Digest, "'Sitting on Obama's Head' Is a Diplomatic Way of Putting It."

Click through for the artist's rendering of Obama's head getting crushed on the "resolute desk" in the Oval Office.

And see Jelani Cobb, "An Unpresidential Election."

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?