Republicans More Insulated Against Backlash

From Ronald Brownstein, at National Journal:

Resolving the serial showdowns over the federal budget and debt ceiling may be more difficult now than during the last shutdown under Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich because so many more House Republicans today represent safely GOP districts, a National Journal analysis has found.

This suggests that even if a public backlash develops against a shutdown or potential government default, Republican members may be far more insulated against those gales than their counterparts were during the two shutdowns in the winter of 1995 and 1996. Today's GOP legislators, for the same reason, also may be less sensitive to shifts in public attitudes that could threaten their party's national image or standing in more closely contested parts of the country.

Comparing today's 232-seat Republican majority with the 236 seats Republicans ultimately held after special elections and party switches from 1995-96 underscores the extent to which GOP legislators have succeeded in fortifying themselves into homogeneously conservative districts. On every measure, Republicans today represent constituencies that lean more lopsidedly toward their party.

On average, Clinton in 1992 won 46.6 percent of the two-party presidential vote in the districts held by congressional Republicans during the 104th Congress from 1995-96. (That two-party calculation excludes the share carried by Ross Perot in his independent bid that year.) President Obama last year carried only an average of 40.4 percent of the two-party presidential vote in the districts held by the current Republican majority.

Back in 1995, 79 House Republicans represented districts that backed Clinton in the previous presidential election; just 17 House Republicans now represent districts that Obama won. Fewer Republicans now hold districts that fall into an even broader definition of competitiveness:  In 1992, Republican President George H.W. Bush won 55 percent or less of the two-party presidential vote in 141 of the 236 House Republican districts. Now, only 71 House Republicans, roughly half as many, represent districts where 2012 nominee Mitt Romney won only 55 percent or less.

All of this means that the personal electoral incentives for most House Republicans would encourage more—not less—confrontation as the standoffs proceed, notes Gary C. Jacobson, an expert on Congress at the University of California (San Diego). "The electoral threat of them angering anybody outside of their base is pretty low," he says.

Republicans should stay firm, although I'm inclined to agree with Laura Ingraham.

Countdown to Cave-In

It's only a matter of time 'till Republicans cave, argues Laura Ingraham, on yesterday morning's Fox & Friends:

'Glitches' Mar #ObamaCare Rollout

At Time, "Obamacare Exchanges Riddled With Glitches."

And at Politico, "President Obama: Expect months of 'glitches'."



IMAGE CREDIT: CLASH DAILY, "PRESIDENT GLITCH: Obama Says “Expect months of ‘glitches’ with Obamacare”."

The President's Shutdown

From Fred Barnes, at WSJ:

President Obama is sitting out one of the most important policy struggles since he entered the White House. With the government shutdown, it has reached the crisis stage. His statement about the shutdown on Tuesday from the White House Rose Garden was more a case of kibitzing than leading. He still refuses to take charge. He won't negotiate with Republicans, though the fate of ObamaCare, funding of the government and the future of the economic recovery are at stake. He insists on staying on the sidelines—well, almost.

Mr. Obama has rejected conciliation and compromise with Republicans. Instead, he attacks them in sharp, partisan language in speech after speech. His approach—dealing with a deadlock by not dealing with it—is unprecedented. He has gone where no president has gone before.

Can anyone imagine an American president—from Lyndon Johnson to Ronald Reagan, from Harry Truman to Bill Clinton—doing this? Of course not. They didn't see presidential leadership as optional. For them and nearly every other president, it was mandatory. It was part of the job, the biggest part.

LBJ kept in touch daily with Everett Dirksen, the Republican leader in the Senate, and never missed an opportunity to engage him in reaching agreement on civil rights, taxes, school construction and other contentious issues. Mr. Obama didn't meet one-on-one with Mitch McConnell, the Senate GOP leader, until 18 months into his presidency and doesn't call on him now to collaborate.

Presidents have two roles. In the current impasse, Mr. Obama emphasizes his partisan role as leader of the Democratic Party. It's a legitimate role. But as president, he's the only national leader elected by the entire nation. He alone represents all the people. And this second, nonpartisan role takes precedence in times of trouble, division or dangerous stalemate. A president is expected to take command. Mr. Obama hasn't done that.

The extent to which he has abdicated this role shows up in his speeches. On the eve of the shutdown, he warned that a government closure "will have a very real economic impact on real people, right away." Defunding or delaying his health-care program—the goal of Republicans—would have even worse consequences, he suggested. "Tens of thousands of Americans die every single year because they don't have access to affordable health care," Mr. Obama said.

In an appearance in the White House pressroom, he said that "military personnel—including those risking their lives overseas for us right now—will not get paid on time" should Republicans force a shutdown. At an appearance in Largo, Md., the president accused Republicans of "threatening steps that would actually badly hurt our economy . . . Even if you believe that ObamaCare somehow was going to hurt the economy, it won't hurt the economy as bad as a government shutdown."

Yet as he was predicting widespread suffering, Mr. Obama steadfastly refused to negotiate with Republicans. He told House Speaker John Boehner in a phone call that he wouldn't be talking to him anymore. With the shutdown hours away, he called Mr. Boehner again. He still didn't negotiate and said he wouldn't on the debt limit either.

Mr. Obama has made Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid his surrogate in the conflict with Republicans. Mr. Reid has also declined to negotiate. In fact, Politico reported that when the president considered meeting with Mr. Boehner and Mr. McConnell, along with the two Democratic congressional leaders, Mr. Reid said he wouldn't attend and urged Mr. Obama to abandon the idea. The president did just that....

Continue reading.

Complete abdication --- of basic decency, much less presidential leadership.

Barack Hussein Obama: Worst. President. Ever.

Veterans Visit World War II Memorial Despite Shutdown

At WaPo, "Visiting veterans storm closed war memorials."

And at Twitchy, "World War II veterans knock down police barriers to attend memorial on the National Mall; Update: Did a congressman lead the vets through the barricade?; Update: Congressman says Obama administration knew about veterans’ request and rejected it."



More, at Legal Insurrection, "Obama and Dems declare political war on Veterans."

And from AoSHQ, "Obama Adminstration Specifically Denied Exception to Permit Veterans to Attend WWII Memorial."

Just 17 Percent Say #ObamaCare Will Help Them Personally

According to a new poll, "CNN Poll: Will Obamacare help you?"

Naturally CNN tries to spin the positives in this survey, but the fact remains that only 37 percent of respondents say ObamaCare will help them, and 52 percent say that "the health insurance system created by Obamacare is a disaster waiting to happen..."

Yep, it's a majority clusterf-k alright.



IMAGE CREDIT: Heritage.

Climate of Uncertainty

A fabulous editorial just eviscerating the IPCC, at the Wall Street Journal.

Just read it all at the link.

Fast Approaching the Stage of Rule by Brute Force

Via Zion's Trumpet, "Brute. Force. Rule. O’Hellno. Now. From D.C."

And see Ayn Rand, "The Nature of Government":

The proper functions of a government fall into three broad categories, all of them involving the issues of physical force and the protection of men’s rights: the police, to protect men from criminals—the armed services, to protect men from foreign invaders—the law courts, to settle disputes among men according to objective laws.

These three categories involve many corollary and derivative issues—and their implementation in practice, in the form of specific legislation, is enormously complex. It belongs to the field of a special science: the philosophy of law. Many errors and many disagreements are possible in the field of implementation, but what is essential here is the principle to be implemented: the principle that the purpose of law and of government is the protection of individual rights.

Today, this principle is forgotten, ignored and evaded. The result is the present state of the world, with mankind’s retrogression to the lawlessness of absolutist tyranny, to the primitive savagery of rule by brute force.

Unmanned U.S. Commercial Cargo Ship Flies to International Space Station

At Reuters, "Commercial cargo ship reaches International Space Station."

And CSM, "Are we entering the age of private spaceflight?":

Two private American companies – SpaceX and Orbital Sciences – are now responsible for restocking the International Space Station.

Candice Swanepoel Close Up

From Victoria's Secret.



And a little late with this announcement, but it's good, "2013 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show to Air on December 10!"

It's a major cultural event these days. I'll have lots more...

The Pro-Democracy Case for Shutdowns

From James Poulos, at Forbes, "More Shutdowns, Please":

Elected representatives from both parties ought to break the shackles of fear-soaked propriety more often. So what if, most of the time, their push to defund will be dead on arrival? Establishment types will realize that shutdowns aren’t the horrorshows they dread. And Members of Congress will begin to understand that slavish devotion to party and budget orthodoxy serves neither their conscience nor their constituents.

The best way to shake up our calcified government and two-party system is for individual Members to band together ad hoc — or alone, if need be — to try applying the power of the purse to legislation they truly, madly, and deeply cannot abide.

And yes: if our reps can’t tell the difference between budgetary resistance born of expediency and scheming instead of a sense of prudence and principle, there’s a strong pro-democracy case for throwing them out of office at the first available chance.

RTWT.

Wave of Car Bombings Across Iraq

Terrorists are emboldened by this administration's cowardly retreat from global leadership and resolve.

At CSM, "Bombings across Iraq now touch on formerly safe havens":

A rash of car bombs killed dozens across Baghdad on Monday, the latest in a series of deadly bombings that have racked Iraq over the past several days. The violence has brought the country's civilian death toll to its worst level since 2008.

Al Jazeera reports that nine car bombs killed at least 24 people and wounded scores more, largely in the Iraqi capital's Shiite neighborhoods.

The bombs hit eight different areas on Monday, the deadliest blast tore through a small vegetable market and its car park, killing seven people including two soldiers and wounding sixteen others, a police officer said.

That was followed by four parked car bombs, which went off in quick succession in the neighbourhoods of New Baghdad, Habibiya, Sabaa al-Bour and Kazimiyah - all striking outdoor markets or car parks.

Media reports put the casualty figures at a minimum of 24 dead and 75 wounded to at least 40 killed and more than 170 injured.

Monday's bombings follow several attacks over the weekend in Baghdad. On Sunday, a suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque in the city of Musayyib, about 50 miles south of Baghdad, left 47 dead. And the Kurdish city of Erbil, which had largely been devoid of the violence affecting the rest of the country, saw a series of bombings on Sunday that killed six security officers, according to Kurd news outlet Rudaw.

Although no one has claimed responsibility for the attacks in Baghdad, BBC News reports that "Sunni Muslim insurgents have been blamed for much of the most recent violence."

More at WaPo, "Wave of bombings mainly in Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad kills at least 55."

Harry Reid Rejects 11th Hour Compromise With Republicans – #BlameHarryReid

At the Hill, "Reid rejects House GOP offer to appoint funding conferees":

Senate Democratic leaders shortly before midnight rejected a House Republican request to appoint conferees to negotiate a short-term government-funding bill.

The move makes it all but certain there will be a government shutdown after midnight.

And the GOP press conference earlier:



Also, at Legal Insurrection, "The culmination of Democratic dysfunction – #BlameHarryReid."

Added: The latest at the New York Times, "Senate Rejects House Demands to Curb Health Care Law."

British 'White Widow' Drenched Her Face in Blood to Elude Security in #Westgate Massacre

Witnesses reported seeing a "white woman" firing on shoppers during the attack.

And considering this woman's background as a terror widow and jihad mastermind, smearing herself in blood may have been planned all along.

At the Belfast Telegraph, "White Widow Samantha Lewthwaite 'smeared face in blood to flee Nairobi terror mall'":

Samantha Lewthwaite, the Northern Ireland-born woman dubbed the 'White Widow', slipped out of the Kenyan shopping mall after smearing blood over her face, security sources in the country have said.

They also revealed how Lewthwaite, who was born in Co Down, rented a unit at the Westgate Shopping mall months ago in preparation for last week's terror killing spree.

She hung up newspapers around the shop unit to conceal what was going on inside, pretending to be stocking up on goods.

Staff have told police in Nairobi they helped a woman fitting the description of Samantha Lewthwaite lift boxes into the shop unit.

Witness accounts reveal a woman closely resembling the 29-year-old mother of three was seen being led away among panicked survivors, her face and upper clothes splashed with blood.

Interpol has issued a "red flag" international arrest warrant for Lewthwaite, based on intelligence that she led the attack and escaped.

Shocking stories about the brutalities inflicted by the terror gang are beginning to emerge. Children were among those deliberately killed and there are reports that an infant was decapitated and the head thrown at Kenyan soldiers during the four-day siege.

It is now believed Lewthwaite was the leader of the 13 to 17 terrorists who carried out the attack, but slipped away while the others were cornered by Kenyan soldiers.

The reports strongly contradict some of the impressions given last week that Lewthwaite was merely a book-keeper or finance raiser for the al-Qaeda-affiliated Somali group, Al Shabaab.

Kenyan police have been searching for Lewthwaite since it emerged she took up residence there in 2011 after spending three years living under false identities in South Africa. They believe she had already established links with the Somali terror group Al Shabaab and married one of its senior figures. Her second husband was shot dead in a police raid in Mombasa last October, according to sources.

The Kenyan police believe Lewthwaite, who was born in Banbridge, but was brought up in Buckinghamshire where she converted to Islam in her teens, was the prime mover behind the Westgate Shopping Mall attack, a key target for the Islamist terrorists because it is Israeli-owned.

The police named Lewthwaite as an Al-Shabaab member last June after arresting another British-born member of the group, Germaine Grant. They believe Grant was the terror group's financier working under Lewthwaite. The police believe Lewthwaite was behind an attempt to spring Grant from prison in Mombasa where he is currently on trial for terrorist offences.

The Kenyan police believe Lewthwaite may have married another Londoner, Habib Ghani, who also joined the terror group in Somalia.

Ghani and an another US-born member of the group, Omar Hammami, were both shot dead during internal feuding at the start of the month.

In June this year Lewthwaite was named by Kenyan police in connection with a grenade and gun attack on the Jericho Beer Garden in Mombas, while customers were watching a Euro 2012 quarter-final match, killing three and injuring 30.

More at that top link.

Hat Tip: Blazing Cat Fur.

Shutdown Looms as Lawmakers Dig In

President Obumbler parrots DNC talking points to attack "ransom note" politics (at 9:30 minutes). He sounds like a bleedin' idiot.

At WSJ, "Congress Struggles to Avoid Shutdown as Conservatives Target Health Law: Obama Decries 'Ransom'; House Advances Last-Ditch Proposal":

WASHINGTON—Congress struggled to resolve bitter divisions over spending and the health-care law late Monday as the U.S. government teetered on the brink of the first partial government shutdown in 17 years.

House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) on Monday afternoon advanced a last-ditch proposal—the third of its kind in less than a week—to curb the 2010 health-care law as a condition of funding the government.

Mr. Boehner's move resulted from pressure applied by his party's most-combative conservatives and made it harder than ever to see how Congress could come to agreement on a plan to fund federal agencies before a deadline of midnight Monday. Senate Democrats have rejected every effort by the House GOP to link new funding for federal agencies with efforts to limit the health law.

A House proposal headed for a vote Monday night would delay for one year the Affordable Care Act requirement that most individuals carry health insurance or pay a penalty. It also would limit government subsidies for lawmakers' own health-care premiums and those of their staffs.

President Barack Obama urged Republicans to back away from their plan, asking them to meet with him at another time to negotiate budget differences. "We should avoid this constant brinkmanship,'' Mr. Obama said at the White House.

Mr. Obama said it was a basic function of Congress to fund the government each year. "You don't extract a ransom for doing your job,'' he said.

A White House official said that Mr. Obama placed separate calls Monday evening to Mr. Boehner, as well as to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi.

The showdown has laid bare the elements of the political system that have done much to alienate voters, highlighting the continual air of crisis that has come to surround the most routine tasks of governing. The convoluted jockeying on Capitol Hill has been over a seemingly simple budget measure—a short extension of money for agencies at their current funding levels.

Republican lawmakers decided to pursue their new funding proposal in a 90-minute meeting of the House GOP on Monday afternoon. Afterward, Mr. Boehner began moving toward a vote Monday night, just a few hours before the government was to run out of money at 12:01 a.m. EDT, the start of the new fiscal year.

But many GOP lawmakers emerged from the meeting saying it was unclear that the measure would pass the House. Some Republicans said it didn't do enough to curb the health law; others were concerned about the provision limiting government contributions to health-care costs for lawmakers, aides and some White House officials.

Some also had reservations about the strategy of risking a government shutdown to demand changes in the health-care law that Mr. Obama and fellow Democrats were sure to reject.

More at that top link, and at Memeorandum.

#Feminism and the Dilemma of Pubic Hair Humiliation

Robert Stacy McCain blogged about this recently, "The Vagina as Commodity: What Does the Pubic Depilation Phenomenon Mean?"

But now here's this, from Dina Rickman, at Telegraph UK, "Like it or not, we need to break the pubic hair taboo" (via Instapundit):

The personal is political. And there are few things more personal than your pubic hair. Whether you shave, trim, wax (ouch), epilate (while breathing deeply and after two glasses of wine) or go au naturel, it's a decision. And for young women like me in our twenties, it is one which provokes gut-wrenching anxiety, writes Dina Rickman.

It’s no wonder - we’re living in an era when leaving your pubic hair untamed is so unusual that ‘hairy’ has become a form of niche pornography. One male friend of mine recently boasted that he had never seen a woman with a full bush. Another, 24-year-old Adam, finds pubes so alien that he was unable to perform sexually the last time he was confronted with a hairy woman. “We just ended up cuddling,” he explains.

For him, part of the problem is porn. Adam believes it has “heightened expectations” of how a woman should look. “One of my friends once said 'I 100 per cent need to sleep with a girl before I go out with her. What if she's got a hairy bush?’ It's incredibly off putting. It doesn't take much effort to tame it. I manage to, so I don't think it's a lot to ask."

Sophie Bennett, campaigns officer at the women’s rights group, Object, also believes pornography has changed the landscape - and not for the better. “Because young men often learn about sex and women’s bodies in this way, many feel uncomfortable with women’s bodies as they naturally are”, she says. The result? Low self-esteem, anxiety, and confusion.

Sporting a full bush is considered so subversive that few raised an eyebrow last year when Cameron Diaz told the BBC's Graham Norton Show how she and two accomplices had pinned an anonymous friend to the ground and removed her pubic hair.

But there are the refuseniks, like Rachel, 26. It took her 12 years, two vajazzles and more waxes than it’s polite to mention before she decided she’d had enough. For her, it was about avoiding the hassle of hair removal as well as feminism. “Now, my pubes stick out of the sides of my swimming costume in the leisure centre, but I'd rather look like that than anything else.” As for how men react? “I think most guys are so delighted that they're about to get laid they wouldn't notice if you had a full-on Zach Galifianakis-style beard down there. But there are some men who are probably a little bit more picky and prefer the bald look.”...

Oh brother.

More at the link.

But then again, don't miss Robert's commentary. It's hard out there for a refusenik.

Boehner Attacks Senate 'Arrogance' as Deadline Approaches — #MakeDCListen

At WSJ:

WASHINGTON–House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) issued a statement blasting Democrats for not reconvening the Senate sooner, in the latest round of recriminations over a rapidly approaching government shutdown.

If the Senate reconvenes as planned Monday afternoon, Democrats will be engaging in an act of “breathtaking arrogance,” Mr. Boehner said in a written statement early Sunday afternoon.

Keep reading.

Also, "Shutdown Nears After House Vote."

Norah O'Donnell Interview with Bill O'Reilly

At CBS News, "Bill O'Reilly talks about 'Killing Jesus' on '60 Minutes'."

Ima try and watch it. We're on Pacific time, so it's still not for a few hours.

Jason Morgan, Ph.D. Student at University of Wisconsin, Rejects Diversity Indoctrination After Being Attacked as 'Racist'

Actually, he's rejecting further diversity indoctrination. All grad students are subjected to diversity training as part of the student-teacher orientation.

At the College Fix, "AFTER TOLD HE’S RACIST, UW-M STUDENT REJECTS FURTHER DIVERSITY ‘TRAINING’."

Morgan has responded with a letter to Professor Stephen Kantrowitz (I think), which is published at the piece:

Dear Graduate Director Prof. Kantrowitz,

Please forgive this sudden e-mail. I am writing to you today about the “diversity” training that new teaching assistants (TAs) are required to undergo. In keeping with the spirit of the Wisconsin Idea, I am also blind-copying on this e-mail several journalistic outlets and state government officials, because the taxpayers who support this university deserve to know how their money is being spent.

Continue reading.

Hat Tip: Althouse.

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."



More at Randy's Roundtable, "Friday Night Funnies." And from Reaganite Republican, "Reaganite's SUNDAY FUNNIES."

Also at Theo Spark's.

Cartoon Credit: Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – Got Your Back, Ted."