Saturday, November 8, 2014

When the Berlin Wall came down



Tomorrow is the 25th anniversary of Berlin’s 'happy ending’. But, as Anne Applebaum reports, in those early days a dark and uncertain mood had enveloped the city - The Telegraph UK

On the evening of November 9 1989, East Germans began to walk through the Berlin Wall. Now, with hindsight, it seems inevitable that their story would end happily, that East and West Germany would reunite, that Berlin would become one city as it is so triumphantly today. But nothing seemed obvious at the time, and nobody was at all sure of that happy ending. On the contrary, the Berlin I remember was darker and stranger than any of the “vintage” footage you’ll see replayed this weekend. So many things could have gone wrong, and so many nearly did....

Dana Perino: Reid is ‘An Absolutely Poisonous Person’



“I think [Sen. Harry Reid (D.-Nev.)] is an absolutely poisonous person in the United States Senate in politics, and the entire country would be much better off, I think the Democrats would be better off, if he were to move on,” said Dana Perino, co-host of Fox’s “The Five,” when asked her opinion on Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) - MRC

Reid leaves a legacy of wreckage - Steve Huntley/Chicago Sun- Times

The first order of business for the U.S. Senate under Republican Mitch McConnell will be getting the Senate back in business. For most of the last four years, Democrat Harry Reid manipulated what was once the world’s greatest deliberative body for political purposes, not for the hard task of governing. The House passed more than 300 bills but they mostly died from neglect in the Senate. What little legislation that made it to the floor crashed as Reid manipulated Senate rules to ban amendments and debate. When Republicans refused to bow to his tin-pot dictatorial rule, he accused them of obstructionism...

Speaker John Boehner Delivers the Weekly Republican Address



Solutions To Get Our Economy Moving Again - speaker.gov

Gov. Walker: 'America Wants to Be for Something, Not Against Something'



Rush Limbaugh recently called Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker a “demonstrated star,” saying that every labor union, the rigged media, and the Democratic Party have “thrown everything they’ve got at Scott Walker, and he has beat them back without one syllable of complaint.” - Sean Hannity/FOX

Governor Scott Walker told Sean Hannity that there was a $3.6 billion deficit when he came into office. Now, Wisconsin has a $1 billion surplus, and he has been able to lower taxes three times this year.

Hannity said Walker’s economic model “should be duplicated on a national level.” Do you agree?

Congratulations to Mimi Walters, newly-elected to the U.S. Congress to represent California's 45th District.


National Federation of Republican Women

The leftist millionaire/billionaire group behind 1/3 of all super PAC spending! Groups backed by liberal donor club spent more than $250 million on midterms

Democracy Alliance Network Behind a Third of 2014 Super PAC Spending - Washington Free Beacon

...The groups’ extensive involvement in Democrats’ political efforts undercuts common media characterizations of the Democracy Alliance, which generally present the array of groups it supports as less involved in electioneering than those of similar collaborative donor networks on the right.

Such reports frequently downplay the scale of the Democracy Alliance network, commonly reported as consisting of fewer than two dozen organizations.

While DA’s 21 “aligned network” and “dynamic investment” groups form the core of its collaborative fundraising efforts, the Alliance in fact backs a far larger array of liberal political and policy groups.

As Democracy Alliance president Gara LaMarche told attendees of its April 2014 conference in Chicago, DA now encourages its donors to support groups on its “Progressive Infrastructure Map,” which, LaMarche said has “now grown to 180 organizations,” in addition to its 21 primary beneficiaries....

Some of the most prominent recipients of DA support—aligned network groups such as ProgressNow and progressive infrastructure map groups like the 350.org Action Fund—are 501(c)(4) nonprofits, which are not required to disclose their donors or most of their spending on political advocacy.

Some of those groups have been active in federal elections. Others, such as Organizing for Action, President Barack Obama’s revamped reelection campaign and a DA “dynamic investment,” spend millions promoting the Democratic positions on issues that were central to the campaigns of many federal candidates.

Politico reported in June that the Democracy Alliance’s 21 core organizations planned to spend $374 million this cycle....

Among those groups, Democracy Alliance spending dwarfs that of the Koch Network, which primarily finances nonprofits such as Americans for Prosperity that are not as explicitly partisan.

MORE YUMMY, HIGH-FAT ELECTION SCHADENFREUDE - Stephen Hayward/Powerline
The last two paragraphs of the New York Times story today on how Tom Steyer’s campaign spending was a bust are worth savoring with a nice glass of single-malt, or whatever is your favorite beverage to restore the tissues:
Just as liberal groups run ads linking candidates to Charles G. and David H. Koch, the billionaire brothers, and the their opposition to climate change policy, conservative groups have now started to run ads targeting candidates’ ties to Mr. Steyer and his money. By politicizing the issue of climate change, some strategists say, Mr. Steyer may have raised his own profile and also made it more difficult for lawmakers to reach bipartisan consensus on the issue.

“The most important thing is to normalize this issue with Republicans,” said Mark Mellman, a Democratic strategist. “Anything that makes it more partisan makes it less likely that there will be legislation, until such time as Democrats take over the world. Which according to my watch, will not be happening anytime soon.”
She Wore Pink Sneakers - Clarice Feldman/American Thinker

This is a great week for moving-van operators in D.C. Hundreds of Democrat solons and their considerable staffs are going to find out if you really can go home again as they desperately, and probably futilely, scramble to find slots in lobbying firms and in what is ridiculously dubbed “public interest” outfits to stay here.

The AFL-CIO and Dem moneybags Tom Steyer collectively blew almost 100 million dollars trying to retain power for their pals .One wonders how much more they will feed into the maw of these losers. The tills of the countless Democratic tax-exempt front groups must be running low....

As cruel and vicious as ISIS — and RIGHT ON OUR BORDER! Most recent? MEXICAN CORRUPT POLICE and gangs SLAUGHTER 43 students

Forty-three missing students abducted by corrupt police in southwest Mexico six weeks ago were apparently incinerated by drug gang henchmen and their remains tipped in a garbage dump and a river, the government said on Friday. - Gretawire

President Obama’s Cool Facade Peeled Away by ‘Anger Translator’ Who Tells Us What He Really Thinks



President Obama must surely be feeling a lot of pressure these days. His opponents have just scored a huge win in the midterm elections. The Democratic party is perceived to be abandoning the President. And even CNN reporters are taking pot shots at him for it. - IJ Review

Note: This video contains foul language.

A new era in California criminal justice dawned this week, as hundreds of inmates walked out of county jails.

Prop. 47: Bay Area counties begin releasing inmates - San Jose Mercury News
A new era in California criminal justice dawned this week, as hundreds of inmates walked out of county jails and more than 4,000 held in state prison readied for possible release with reduced sentences for theft or drug crimes, following voter approval of Proposition 47.

Around the Bay Area, judges did not even wait for election results to be certified before resentencing inmates and reducing charges. And attorneys geared up to ensure the law's mandates are implemented as swiftly as possible.
Multiple Humboldt Correctional Facility Inmates Released Into a Shiny, New Post-Prop 47 World - Andrew Goff/Lost Coast Outpost
On Tuesday, Californians passed Proposition 47 — AKA the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act — which reclassifies drug and theft crimes that involve less than $950 from felonies to misdemeanors.

Less than three days later, the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office announced this morning that it has already freed eight qualifying inmates. There’s certainly more to come.
Thanks to Prop 47, Humboldt will be the new location for Walking Dead - John Chiv/Words Worth
Thanks to California lawmakers, legislators and all those who voted in favor of Prop 47, more incentive for criminals and no consequences.
I'm Wondering About Prop 47 - Fred's Humboldt Blog

‘Elephant in the room'



‘Elephant in the room': The New Yorker’s post-election cover isn’t too subtle [photos] - Twitchy

Draft:





Other covers:





George W. Bush stopped by Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas







‘GOOD MAN': George W. Bush visits Dallas hospital, meets ‘sweet woman’ Amber Vinson [photos, video] - Twitchy

Friday, November 7, 2014

"Interstellar" wants to make you FEEL and THINK, and believe that mankind is more than just a biological anomaly or, yes, a blight on Gaia.


'INTERSTELLAR' REVIEW: EPIC RUMINATION ON FAITH, SCIENCE, HUMANITY - John Nolte/Breitbart

There is no question director Christopher Nolan is a gifted storyteller and that this fact has a lot to do with his deserved success. What really sets the director apart, though, is his love for humanity. Unlike so many of his counterparts, Nolan doesn't see mankind as a disease or doomed by an inevitable apocalypse brought on by man's greed and ignorance. Nolan thinks we're pretty special, and in his achingly ambitious "Interstellar" this belief once again manifests itself in more than just theme.

Nolan believes so much in us he doesn't patronize or pander with only the "feel-good." Although he creates hugely expensive tentpole blockbusters, his canon isn't watered down for mass appeal. As we saw in the last two chapters of his "Dark Knight" trilogy and 2010's "Inception," Nolan gambles big on this faith with hugely complicated (in a good way) stories that that have Big Things to say about the human condition, our place in the universe, and our unlimited potential for decency and to make better or save humanity.

Voter Fraud and Voter I.D.

One of the biggest voter frauds may be the idea promoted by Attorney General Eric Holder and others that there is no voter fraud, that laws requiring voters to have a photo identification are just attempts to suppress black voting. - Thomas Sowell/Townhall

Reporter John Fund has written three books on voter fraud and a recent survey by Old Dominion University indicates that there are more than a million registered voters who are not citizens, and who therefore are not legally entitled to vote.

The most devastating account of voter fraud may be in the book "Injustice" by J. Christian Adams. He was a Justice Department attorney, who detailed with inside knowledge the voter frauds known to the Justice Department, and ignored by Attorney General Holder and Company.

One of these frauds involved sending out absentee ballots to people who had never asked for them. Then a political operator would show up -- uninvited -- the day the ballots arrived and "help" the voter to fill them out. Sometimes the intruders simply took the ballots, filled them out and forged the signatures of the voters.

These were illegal votes for Democrats, which may well be why Eric Holder sees no evil, hears no evil and speaks no evil.... KEEP READING

The Fifth Phase This will be the point at which an Islamic state, or caliphate, can be declared. The plan is that by this time, between 2013 and 2016, Western influence in the Islamic world will be so reduced and Israel weakened so much, that resistance will not be feared. Al-Qaida hopes that by then the Islamic state will be able to bring about a new world order.

What al-Qaida Really Wants - Yassin Musharbash/Spiegel Online 08/12/2005

If there is anyone who might possibly have an inkling as to what al-Qaida are up to, it is the Jordanian journalist Fouad Hussein. He has not only spent time in prison with al-Zarqawi, but has also managed make contact with many of the network's leaders. Based on correspondence with these sources, he has now brought out a book detailing the organization's master plan. KEEP READING

Obama Flashback: ‘If you don’t like my policies, go out there and win an election.’



The following clip is from October 17, 2013. The government shutdown, during which Obama’s government had locked veterans out of their own memorials and shut down self-sufficient businesses in national parks, had just ended.

President Obama reacted by challenging his opponents to win elections.

And we responded: Challenge accepted!

On October 17, 2013, President Obama said: “You don’t like a particular policy or a particular president? Then argue for your position. Go out there and win an election. Push to change it. But don’t break it. Don’t break what our predecessors spent over two centuries building. That’s not being faithful to what this country’s about.”

Obama’s threat to carry out a unilateral amnesty for millions of illegal aliens threatens the system that he claimed to defend just over a year ago. And he is well aware of that.

Here's the relevant portion:





CFRW Capitol Update Friday, November 07, 2014


President's Message

In a few days we will be honoring a very special group of Americans, our veterans. We would not be living in the greatest country the world has ever known, nor would we have the opportunity to elect our leaders as we did this week without the many sacrifices our veterans had endured for our freedom. Veterans Day, formerly known as Armistice Day, was originally set as a U.S. legal holiday to honor the end of World War I, which officially took place on November 11, 1918. It represented the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month, the official end of fighting in 1918. In 1954 Congress passed legislation to change the name to Veterans Day,the day set aside to honor, thank and support our veterans.

We owe all of our veterans more than just a thank you. American Exceptionalism is a Legacy of our Founding Fathers and The American Veteran! That was so passionately presented to us by Joseph Brocoto at our Bakersfield CFRW Fall Conference. So many have sacrificed so much so we can live in freedom. Republicans, especially Republican women, are most passionate about our patriotism, our love of country and our support of our military and our veterans.

CFRW decided to try something different in 2014 & 2015 and support the Independence Fund and their All Terrain Track Chair Initiative. This special project is important in two ways. CFRW has the opportunity to help our veterans by raising money within CFRW and providing a veteran with an all terrain powered wheelchair that will help veterans regain their independence. This project is also important because it enables all of our clubs and members to work together as CFRW on a project that gives us the opportunity to prove that women working together for a common purpose can make a difference.

With Veterans Day right around the corner we are so happy to announce that we have reached our goal for our first track chair and we are already at 25 % of the funds needed to purchase a second chair. We would like to thank all of our wonderful clubs and members who have made donations. We thank you for your caring and your support of this important project. We are helping veterans return to an autonomous life. We want to thank our Project Chair, Florene Boyar, for her vision and commitment to this project as well as Carol Stein and Linda Vaughn for all their hard work. We will continue supporting this project throughout 2015. We invite all of our clubs to help us reach our goal in 2015. We can never do too much to help those who sacrificed so much for our freedom and liberty.
"A veteran - whether active duty, retired, national guard, or reserve - is someone who, at one point in his or her life, wrote a blank check made payable to The 'United States of America',for an amount of up to and including their life.’"

2014 Election:

November 4 was a very satisfying night for Republicans across the country. Some of you may be a little disappointed with some of the results in California, especially the fact that not one of our outstanding candidates for State office was elected. We will have to just work harder in 2018. The good news is ….. we did it, we accomplished our major goals! We increased our Republican majority in the US House,and we will be sending more Republicans to Washington DC, including a California Republican Woman, Congresswoman Mimi Walters! Republicans took back the Senate with an increase of 7 Republican Senators,and possibly one or two more! We eliminated the Democrat’s super majority in the State Legislature! Some of our candidates ever beat incumbents! Our Republican legislators will be back in business and working hard for California in 2015. We still have a lot to do to help educate the voters in our communities, and ladies that is what we do best!

God Bless America
Thank you for all you do,
Roseann
Working Together To Make A Difference

Ballot Proposition Election Results

The results are in and it's a mixed bag. Californians overwhelmingly supported Props 1 and 2, the Water Bond and the Rainy Day Fund. Voters also rejected two props concerncing healthcare changes, Props 45 and 46. In an unfortunate turn of events, Californians voted for Prop 47, the criminal resentencing of felonies to misdemeanor penalties. Voters were duped by the clever messaging of Prop 47 proponents, calling it the "Safe Neighborhood and Schools Act." There is nothing safe about convicted felons with reduced sentences or even early releases. Fortunately there is already a movement to overturn Prop 47. We will have more information on that soon. Finally, Prop 48 also failed, with California voters telling the Government to uphold the original gaming compact with our state's indian tribes and to not allow tribes to build casinos off their tribal land. For more information on the propositions and their passage or fail percentages, please visit www.sos.ca.gov.

Republicans Still Need Your Help!

There are several races across the state that are still too close to call! The Republicans in those races can use your help! If it is a race in your district, contact the candidate's campaign office and volunteer as a ballot count watcher at your county's elections office or help feed the volunteers in the campaign office with pizza! If these candidates aren't in your district, consider donating to these campaigns. It takes a lot of money to continue a campaign after election day, and even more money if a recount is necessary. Here are the races we are still watching:

State Assembly:

Assembly District 44 (Oxnard)

Jacqui Irwin (D) - 41,977
Rob McCoy (R) - 40,121

Assembly District 57 (Whittier)

Ian Calderon (D) incumbent - 25,216
Rita Topalian (R) - 23,833

Assembly District 66 (Torrance)

David Hadley (R) - 41,807
Al Muratsuchi (D) incumbent - 39,478

U.S. House of Representatives:

Congressional District 7 (Sacramento)

Doug Ose (R) - 64,615
Ami Bera (D) incumbent - 62,432

Congressional District 9 (San Joaquin Delta)

Jerry McNerney (D) incumbent - 40,290
Tony Amador (R) - 37,930

Congressional District 16 (Merced, Fresno)

Johnny Tacherra (R) - 35,207
Jim Costa (D) incumbent - 34,471

Congressional District 26 (Gold Coast, Ventura)

Julia Brownley (D) incumbent - 63,811
Jeff Gorell (R) - 63,281

Congressional District 31 (Inland Empire)

Pete Aguilar (D) - 46,699
Paul Chabot (R) - 44,408

Congressional District 52 (San Diego)

Scott Peters (D) incumbent - 78,837
Carl DeMaio (R) - 77,976



link

The Hackers, The Congressman, and Sharyl Attkisson´s Book Party

Conservatives and journalists celebrate the release of the former CBS News reporter's Obama administration indictment. - Bloomberg

Attkisson, the Emmy-winning investigative reporter who left CBS News this year, spent Thursday evening at a Georgetown mansion, celebrating the release of her reporting memoir, "Stonewalled." Her hosts, defense analyst Michael Pillsbury and arts patron Susan Pillsbury, had hosted Donald Rumsfeld in the same grand rooms and zen garden when the former defense secretary published a compilation of learned wisdoms. Attkisson's book was even more important, alleging that the federal government established "a backdoor link" to access her computers after her reporting on the Fast and Furious and Benghazi scandals. The connected had come out: Howard Kurtz, Grover Norquist, Juan Williams, Kurt Bardella, Carl Cannon, Byron York, and the outgoing House Oversight chairman, Representative Darrell Issa.

Attkisson thanked the guests, as well as her colleagues at CBS who'd lived through her hell of reporting great stories and seeing them spiked for political reasons. The reception to her book, said Attkisson, had been positive "even from some of my colleagues that I wasn't quite sure about." It had been negative from the people who were not really interested in journalism.... A great read, KEEP READING
__________________

◼ Order: Stonewalled: My Fight for Truth Against the Forces of Obstruction, Intimidation, and Harassment in Obama's Washington. Came Out November 4, 2014

Three scandals GOP Senate must tackle: IRS, Benghazi, Fast & Furious

As President Obama sits down on Friday with Republicans who will soon control the Senate and the House, there’s no shortage of issues lawmakers want to tackle when the new Congress convenes in January. - Jay Sekulow/FOX

The economy. Health care. ISIS. Energy. These are all critical issues that must be addressed. Time will tell if there will be any substantive action on these issues, or just more political posturing by the president.

One thing is clear, though. With Republicans controlling both chambers of Congress, there will be a real opportunity to pass key legislation addressing these and other critical issues.

It is also clear that the Senate, which has been blocked from investigating numerous scandals over the past six years by outgoing Majority Leader Harry Reid, will now be able to fully engage these troubling and important cases by conducting investigations of its own.

For years the Republican-controlled House has carried the congressional load in probing the scandals. Now it is time for the Senate to join forces.

Obama Paid Money to Al Qaeda for Bergdahl Release

In a letter to the Pentagon released Wednesday, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R., Calif.) said a payment was made to an Afghan intermediary early this year to help secure the May 31 release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was held for nearly five years by the Haqqani Network in Pakistan, which is classified as a terrorist organization. - Daniel Greenfield/Front Page

Pentagon officials have denied paying cash to secure the release of Sgt. Bergdahl, who was captured in Afghanistan in 2009. A senior defense official reiterated that denial when asked about Mr. Hunter’s letter.

According to Mr. Hunter, the intermediary took the money but disappeared and failed to secure Sgt. Bergdahl’s release. Mr. Hunter didn’t specify how much money was paid to the Afghan intermediary, and didn’t identify the sources of his information....

Obama has been on his high horse about the Europeans paying ransoms to ISIS and other Al Qaeda groups. He has a point. That money helped it become a major threat. But his position is going to be significantly undermined if it turns out that the US was paying ransoms.

California: State GOP astounds with multiple wins

There’s a fresh bounce in the step of many California Republicans after this week’s election, and a fresh cause for optimism after decades of declining influence. - OC Register

...In the Senate District 34 race, Nguyen, an Orange County supervisor and former Garden Grove Councilwoman, was beating Democratic former Assemblyman Jose Solorio 60 percent to 40 percent, as of Wednesday’s tallies.

Kim, a longtime aide to Rep. Ed Royce, was beating incumbent Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva, D-Fullerton, 56 percent to 44 percent, in Wednesday’s tallies. Both races were predicted to be key to whether Republicans blocked Democrats’ supermajority.

Other Republican Asian women winning in Orange County include Ling Ling Chang in tri-county Assembly District 55, and two candidates for county supervisor, Korean American Michelle Steel and Japanese American Lisa Bartlett.

“Republicans had some good candidates and they targeted vulnerable candidates – and they made the most of those vulnerabilities,” said Raphael Sonenshein, executive director of CSU Los Angeles’ Pat Brown Institute of Public Affairs.

Republicans were also helped by the GOP wave of popular sentiment nationwide and by record-low turnout. In Orange County, Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley estimated turnout would be 42.3 percent when the remaining mail, provision and paper polling place ballots were tallied.

That would be the lowest in the county for a general election since at least 1944. Kelley said similar trends were being seen the state.

DEMOCRATS ABANDON AD BUYS FOR MARY LANDRIEU AHEAD OF LOUISIANA RUNOFF

With the U.S. Senate now firmly in Republican control, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) has canceled advertising for embattled Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu before her December runoff against Republican Rep. Bill Cassidy. - Breitbart
DSCC Declares DOOM… for Mary Landrieu. - Moe Lane/Red State
Democrats bail on Mary Landrieu - Politico
National Dems nix ad buys for Landrieu - The Hill

Obama: 'The Most Important Organization on Earth--The U.S. Government'



'I'm going to squeeze every last little bit of opportunity ... over these last two years' - Daniel Halper/Weekly Standard

"Here is what I tell my team," said Obama. "I told them this last week, and i told them that this morning. We have this incredible privilege of being in charge of the most important organization on earth--the U.S. government, and our military, and everything that we do for good around the world.

"And there is a lot of work to be done to make government work better, to make Americans safer, to make opportunity available to more people, for us to be able to have a positive influence in every corner of the globe the way we're doing right now in West Africa.

"And I'm going to squeeze every last little bit of opportunity to help make this world a better place over these last two years. And some of that is going to be what we can do administratively."

A HANDY POST-ELECTION SPIN GUIDE FOR DEJECTED DEMOCRATS

Sure, it was a rough night for Democrats. All of your “thought leaders” were dead wrong about what would happen, and why. But rest assured, the same idiots who told you Wendy Davis was the face of the future in Texas are working furiously to spin the results of the midterm elections away. Here are some life preservers liberal bloggers and mainstream-media analysts will be tossing out, to help dejected Democrats make it through the GOP tsunami: - John Hayward/Human Events @Doc_o

Republicans didn’t do as well as they could have...

Winning = losing.... ’d say the big problem with the “winning = losing” spin for Democrats is that President Obama is still toxic, his “pen-and-phone” imperial presidency bluster is going to be swept off the table by panicked Party leaders worried about 2016, Obama himself would rather spend the next two years golfing and finding teenage audiences still willing (or forced by their teachers) to sit all the way through one of his speeches, and there are some sharp Republicans out there who understand the importance of bleeding political capital away from the Democrats by forcing them to oppose legislation popular with the American people.

Democrats lost because they ran away from Obama...
The election was just an anti-Obama temper tantrum...
Republicans only won because of “dark money”...
Republicans won because white racists and cranky old people support them

This election was just a bout of anti-incumbent fever: In which not a single Republican incumbent in the Senate lost? This one’s dead already, but I can still hear its death rattle on Twitter. It should be rolling through the crematorium by lunchtime.

This election proves democracy is broken, so we should get rid of it: Popular in the egghead community, but a non-starter with everyone else. Let me break this gently to the furrowed-brow set on the Left: we’re not going to abolish midterm elections, or abolish Congress in favor of a dictatorial presidency. KEEP READING

So if the GOP wins, it really loses. On what planet does that make sense? - MRC

Appearing on MSNBC's Morning Joe Tuesday morning, Politico's Jim VandeHei absurdly claimed that Republicans would be in big trouble if they took control of the Senate in the midterm election: "...even if Republicans win, I think they're going to be in a hell of a jam. In that they're not going to be able to get anything done."

VandeHei predicted Senators like Ted Cruz would be "breathing fire" and that "ultraconservatives" would control the party: "... and it's what's gonna make governing almost impossible over the next two years. This happy talk that things can get done is nonsense if you look at the history of the last four years in terms of how these House Republicans want to vote and what the base of the Republican Party responds to."...

The liberal media is in full pout mode....The 10 most delicious liberal election disaster headlines - Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion
Why the media, seduced by the polls, were stunned by huge Democratic defeat - Howard Kurtz/FOX
...as one Republican after another declared victory, there was another aspect to the coverage that struck me: The focus remained solidly on the Democrats and why they had so badly blown the election.

In 2006, the story, in a nutshell, was DEMOCRATS WIN. In 2014, despite the headlines about the GOP seizing control of the Senate, the story was, in essence, DEMOCRATS LOSE....
Could it have been the GOP simply had better ideas?, Be kind. Dealing with that takes times. - Discussion at Lucianne

I know. You're all stunned to learn that the NAACP is made up of hypocrites who aren't interested in Mia Love and Tim Scott.



NAACP releases post-election statement - curiously forgets about Mia Love and Tim Scott - Herman Cain
At this point, most of us are aware that the NAACP is little more than a well-organized race-baiting organization. They yell "racism" in order to keep black voters loyal to the Democrats and collect gobs of cash to support the effort. That's basically all they're about.

Still, it seems that there are some poor, unfortunate, souls who've convinced themselves that the organization is interested in the actual "advancement" of "colored people." Since there were two historic races that were won by African-American Republicans on Tuesday night, these poor saps thought that maybe, just maybe, the NAACP would take a second to notice.
NAACP Releases Statement On 2014 Elections, But No Mention Of Mia Love Or Tim Scott's Historic Wins - Townhall
There is no mention of Tim Scott or Mia Love’s historic wins this election cycle in the statement. As you can see, it’s mostly about the Voting Rights Act.

Townhall has reached out again via email to see if the NAACP will like to specifically comment on Love and Scott’s wins last Tuesday, which made history.

Michelle Nealy, who works in the organization's communications office, said in an email:
The NAACP is a nonpartisan organization that looks forward to working with the new Congress.

Election Day Document Dump: DOJ Turned Over 64,000 Fast and Furious Documents Held Under Obama's Executive Privilege


After years of legal battles between the House Oversight Committee and Attorney General Eric Holder, 64,280 redacted Operation Fast and Furious documents held under President Obama's assertion of executive privilege since 2012, have been turned over by the Department of Justice after an order from U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson. - Katie Pavlich/Townhall (image source)

The Justice Department was originally ordered to turn over a list of documents, better known as a Vaughn Index, with explanations as to why documents fall under executive privilege claims by November 1.

“When Eric Holder wants to know why he was the first Attorney General held in criminal contempt of Congress, he can read the judge’s order that compelled the production of 64,280 pages that he and President Obama illegitimately and illegally withheld from Congress. Since these pages still do not represent the entire universe of the documents the House of Representatives is seeking related to the Justice Department’s cover-up of the botched gun-walking scandal that contributed to the death of a Border Patrol agent, our court case will continue," Chairman Darrell Issa said in a statement. "I am deeply concerned that some redactions to these documents may still be inappropriate and contrary to the judge’s order in the case. This production is nonetheless a victory for the legislative branch, a victory for transparency, and a victory for efforts to check Executive Branch power. As the production is extensive and may contain sensitive information, our investigative staff will be carefully examining the documents turned over last night.”

...The legal battle between DOJ and the House Oversight Committee is ongoing. Attorney General Holder announced his resignation in September, but will not leave office until a replacement is confirmed after the midterm elections.

SUSAN B. ANTHONY LIST: 'WAR ON WOMEN' STRATEGY IS DEAD

At an address at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Wednesday, Susan B. Anthony List and Women Speak Out PAC President Marjorie Dannenfelser said, “To the extent that abortion was used as an issue by pro-abortion candidates, those candidates suffered a backlash.” - Dr. Susan Berry/Breitbart

...The pro-life leader also observed that liberal candidates such as Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC), Michelle Nunn (D-GA), and Alison Lundergan Grimes (D-KY), who had historically been committed to abortion on demand, were forced to hide or disguise their support for abortion. Meanwhile, pro-life candidates responded with strength and fearlessness to questions about abortion.

“Clarity on abortion for them was the enemy,” Dannenfelser said. “But as we have always said, hiding from this issue is impossible. Our candidates stood strong while these three women were resoundingly defeated.”

Dannenfelser added that Kansas independent Senate candidate Greg Orman, who lost to Sen. Pat Roberts (R) on Tuesday, “literally ran away from a voter who attempted to ascertain his position on late-term abortion.”

On its website, however, Planned Parenthood, referring to abortion as "women's health," said regarding the midterm elections, “In some of the most competitive races, candidates who were historically hostile on women's health won by significantly moderating their views and disavowing their own records. They won as moderates, and the American people expect them to govern as moderates....”

Republican Janet Nguyen wins O.C. Senate seat, AP says


Republican Janet Nguyen was elected Tuesday to a state Senate seat in Orange County that had been targeted by both major parties. - LA Times

The seat, in the 34th Senate District, was open because Democratic incumbent Lou Correa of Santa Ana was prevented by term limits from running for reelection. Democrats have a five-percentage-point advantage in voter registration.

Nguyen defeated Jose Solorio, 44, president of the Rancho Santiago Community College District Board, who previously served for six years in the state Assembly.

He was seen as a key to Democrats regaining a supermajority in the state Senate, which would make it easier to put a measure before voters seeking a revision of Proposition 13, California’s landmark tax-limitation law.

State GOP astounds with multiple wins - OC Register

Wayne Winegarden: Prop. 30 tax hikes should be repealed

Pacific Research Institute senior fellow says California doesn't need an extension of the Prop. 30 tax increases - we need lower taxes to stop jobs and productive citizens from leaving the state. - Orange County Register

...California’s problem was never about revenues – it was, and continues to be, about a lack of effective budgeting. Overly restrictive budget rules and lack of spending control in other budget areas (especially health care) are driving California’s budget problems and crowding out spending on everything else – including education. Just like a pay raise cannot save a shopaholic from bankruptcy, tax increases cannot solve California’s budget rigidity problems.

The consequences from Prop. 30 have been a further slowdown in California’s employment growth, greater pressure for businesses and people to migrate to other states and increased difficulty managing the state budget in the long run.

These adverse incentives will persist until the tax rate increases and additional budget rigidity Prop. 30 created are repealed.
Which brings us back to Prop. 30’s anniversary. The best way to celebrate is to make Prop. 30’s second anniversary its last.

Morning Jolt: Our Vacation from Paying Attention to Ukraine & Russia Just Ended

So it turns out Putin thinks he has more flexibility after the election, too - BBC via Jim Geraghty/NRO
An armoured column including 32 tanks and 30 trucks has crossed into eastern Ukraine from Russia, Kiev says.

The trucks were carrying ammunition and fighters, said a military spokesman, but the BBC cannot confirm his report.

A fragile ceasefire has been in place since 5 September, although hundreds of people have been killed since then.

More than 4,000 people have died since fighting erupted in April after pro-Russian separatists seized control in the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Thursday, November 6, 2014

It's like watching a trainwreck. You just can't stop.

Watch the evolution of an MSNBC meltdown - Noah Rothman/HotAir
As a rule, the most interesting coverage of an election night is always the losing side’s coverage... MSNBC’s anchors, most of whom would concede they are more ideologically friendly toward Democrats than Republicans, lost and lost big.

While there was some stellar analysis and measured commentary on that network from the likes of Chuck Todd and Steve Kornacki, there was also a fair bit of infighting, punchy recrimination, and general despair from the left-leaning network’s flagship personalities.






This might be the moment the bottom fell out of the night for MSNBC. The Senate had not yet been called for the GOP, but the writing was clearly on the wall. In quick succession, Matthews called the gubernatorial races in Georgia and Illinois for the Republican candidates. “Unbelievable,” he muttered. “This is amazing.”





A TOUGH NIGHT AT MSNBC - Ann Coulter/Human Events

In the nightmare scenario for MSNBC, by midnight Tuesday night, Republicans won 52 senate seats – 53 with their probable win in the Louisiana runoff in December, 54 if they win Alaska and 55 if they win Virginia. And I’m not even counting Democratic flips.

Don’t you wish all these new Republicans were joining Republican senators Richard Lugar, Mike Castle and whatever Republican was running against Todd Akin? How about Rob Simmons in Connecticut, who would be the senator from Connecticut if self-serving GOP consultants hadn’t gone for the money-bags, unelectable candidate instead?

Without tea party challenges and greedy Republican consultants, Republicans would be looking at 59 senate seats in the next Congress. Maybe 61 with Democrat flips.

One more wave election and it wouldn’t matter who the president is.

California

Campaign 2014: Final Thoughts - Allan Hoffenblum/Fox&Hounds

Exit polls show all demographics shifted to GOP after 2012

Before and during the election, plenty of speculation arose as to the composition of the turnout and which demographics may have contributed more to Republican success. - HotAir
The 2014 electorate wasn’t just older and whiter than 2012. It also voted more Republican. - Washington Post
Elections come down to turnout, yes, and Tuesday night was great turnout for the Republicans. But when every demographic group votes more heavily in one direction than two years prior, that effect is multiplied significantly.

Number of People Under 'Active Monitoring' for Ebola in NYC Triples...Media agrees not to report any more suspected cases...

The number of people under "active monitoring" for Ebola symptoms has increased from 117 on Monday to 357 people Wednesday, health officials said. - NBC NY
The vast majority of those being monitored arrived in New York City within the past 21 days from the three Ebola-affected countries, the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation said in a statement.

Others being monitored are the staff caring for Dr. Craig Spencer, the physician being treated for Ebola at Bellevue Hospital, the lab workers who conducted his blood tests and the FDNY EMTs who transported the doctor.
All of those being monitored showed no symptoms but are being checked on out of "an abundance of caution," the statement said.
Report: Obama Administration Pressured News Outlets to Not Report Suspected Ebola Cases - Jim Hoft/Gateway Pundit
At the urging of the Obama Administration, the Associated Press and other news outlets have agreed not to report on suspected cases of Ebola in the United States until a positive viral RNA test is completed.

The administration and liberal activists were upset with coverage in the run-up to the midterm elections.
Obama Regime Puts Lipstick on a Pig: Election Day Scrubbed of Ebola - Downtrend
There is a reason why Obama didn’t pick an Ebola Czar with any actual medical experience when he tabbed longtime Democrat party hack Ron Klain who is a lobbyist. The real danger was never that the foolish policies of Barry and the boys were exposing Americans to Ebola but rather the political implications of it all. So the sudden departure of Ebola stories from the state-corporate media doesn’t pass the smell test. Interestingly the website of ◼ Forbes has a story that reports:
The Associated Press and other press outlets have agreed not to report on suspected cases of Ebola in the United States until a positive viral RNA test is completed.

The circular firing squad is assembling, and the Democratic civil war is coming.

Let the Democratic Civil War begin! - Noah Rothman/HotAir

Ahead of Tuesday’s absolute rout of Democratic candidates on virtually every level, Peggy Noonan wrote a compelling and high-minded piece in which she advised both the president and Republicans to accept the results of the 2014 midterm elections graciously. That’s good and noble advice, but she didn’t say anything about pundits. Please allow a bit of reveling in the conundrum facing Democrats.

You cannot lead a party which suffers the losses the Democrats suffered last night and not endure a round of recriminations from your allies. Republicans gained a Senate majority which is large enough to possibly withstand the challenges it will face in 2016. The GOP actually gained governorships when they were favored to lose, by some cautious measurements, no fewer than four. As of this writing, the Republicans have 242 seats in the House – a lead which NBC News expects to grow to 250 when all the votes are counted. It is the largest majority the Republicans have enjoyed since 1929, an era when Democratic progressivism did not yet even exist. The GOP’s victories even extended to takeovers of state-level legislative chambers, where another generation of promising Democratic recruits saw their careers cut short.

Barack Obama, for his part, is doing an unconvincing job of insisting that he does not recognize the scale of the repudiation the voters have delivered him and his party. When few were acknowledging the magnitude of the coming wave earlier this week, Obama’s aides issued a hollow threat to mount a progressive counterattack in his final two years; issuing executive orders and promoting far-left legislation in order to back Republicans into a corner. Yesterday, the president reportedly insisted that he does not feel repudiated. This outcome, White House sources told The New York Times, was a stroke of fate – virtually inevitable – and it does not require much of a course correction on the president’s part.

But Obama’s biggest rebuke has not come from Republican voters but his Democratic allies. “The president’s approval rating is barely 40 percent,” insisted Reid’s chief of staff when asked for a reason for this stunning defenestration of Democratic officeholders. “What else is there to say?”

Liberal Civil War Begins: Harry Reid Slams Obama, HuffPo Headline Destroys - Katie P{avlich/Townhall

Tuesday was a dark day for Democrats. - Jim Hoft/Gateway Pundit

Project Veritas' effect on Voter Fraud - Saves the election?

The past few weeks have been exhausting and I'm just now putting together the overall impact of our work.

We started in Kentucky, traveled to Arkansas, then Colorado and then finally North Carolina.

In every state where Project Veritas Action investigated, the Senate candidate lost their election.

In all of these states, the "before and after" impact of our investigations was astounding:

Pryor polled behind by seven points. After our investigation in Arkansas, the candidate lost by 17 points.

Grimes went from a four-point lead to a 16-point loss!

Udall polled behind before our investigation by two points but lost by four points.

And in North Carolina, Hagan went from a 2 point lead to a 2 point loss.

As a reporter wrote on Bloomberg.com today, "[Project Veritas Action] had decisively helped Republicans win the election."

Now of course, our intent in these investigations was not to produce these results – our goal was to expose the possibility of fraud and the distance between a candidate's words and their true intent.

The public made their own decision while being informed by our investigations.

And I firmly believe you had the greatest impact on educating the public with what we uncovered.

Without your participation, Project Veritas Action would not have . . .

- received over 800,000 views on YouTube
- been covered in hundreds of print and radio articles and broadcasts
- received repeat coverage on Fox News
- had Rush Limbaugh talk about our investigations

I can easily say that I have not been part of this much result-producing exposure since my investigation into ACORN.

Thank you for that.

Know that we're STILL not done with our 2014 Election Investigation.

As always, there is more to follow.

Best Regards,

James O'Keefe
Project Veritas Action Fund

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

WHAT LANDSLIDE? Obama threatens vetoes and executive orders – including immigration reform THIS YEAR – after Americans reject him by giving Republicans historic gains in Congress



WOW! Wounded Obama LOSES IT! Lashes Out at White House Reporter (Video) - Jim Hoft/Gateway Pundit

Never articulated a single policy where he would shift his position to align with GOP majorities in both houses of Congress - DAVID MARTOSKO/MAILONLINE
Obama pledged to 'do everything I can in my executive authority' to take 'whatever lawful actions that I can take that I believe will improve our immigration system.'

And he dared the GOP to see things his way.

Executive orders, he said, 'will be replaced and supplanted by a bill from Congress.'

'You send me a bill that I can sign and those executive actions go away.

But he cautioned: 'What I'm not gonna do is just wait.'
Obama Isn't Listening to Voters He Claims to Hear - RON FOURNIER/National Journal via ◼ Instapundit
"I hear you," the president says. But he doesn't.

Shellacked and thumped by an angry electorate, President Obama declared to every American who voted in Tuesday's elections—and to those who've checked out of the political process—"I hear you."

And then he ignored them.

The Big Red Flood: Take A Look At The Maps To See Just How the Country Changed Yesterday

The New York Times published these excellent visual representations of yesterday’s election results, including analyses based upon before and after polling. - IJ Review

Senate:

House:

Governors:

http://elections.nytimes.com/2014/liveblog?utm_source=top_nav&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=election-2014 - NY Times

Take a look at these maps and tell us which party is the "regional party" in the United States. - T. Becket Adams/Washington Examiner

Mia Love Wins in Utah - First Female African-American Republican in Congress


You gotta Love this… - Jim Hoft/Gateway Pundit

Lovely, young, pleasant and smart. Her parents
are Haitian and she is first rate.
- Discussion at Lucianne

Mia Love Argues with CNN Hosts: ‘I Wasn’t Elected’ Because of My Race or Gender - Mediaite

The Biggest Winners and Losers of 2014

The 2014 midterms turned out to be the wave election that Republicans dreamed of and Democrats dreaded. But amid the debris of what turned out to be a stunning repudiation of the administration, there are some people who must be judged to be the big winners and losers on both sides. - Jonathan S. Tobin/Commentary Magazine
What a night! - Discussion at Lucianne
Bloodbath - Bryan Preston/PJ Media
Maybe not morning in American quite yet but it sure is just before dawn - Discussion at Lucianne
Hollywood Reeling From Bitter Election Defeats - Hollywood Reporter
The race for the White House starts here: Hillary mocked by Rand Paul after almost every Democrat she campaigned with LOST in midterms - as GOP takes control and makes Obama a lame duck - Michael Zennie/Daily Mail [UK]
Obama´s reverse Midas touch: ´Everything he touched turned to crap´ - Brian Hughes/Washington Examiner @BrianHughesDC
Obama has lost nearly 70 House seats since taking office - The Hill
(Tonight’s) Big 2016 Winner: Scott Walker? - National Review Online
GOP Wave Election Leaves Obama Friendless in D.C - Fiscal Times

LOCAL RACES:

LoCO Election Day Coverage 2014 (RESULTS/PHOTOS/VIDEO) - Lost Coast Outpost
LoCO Election Night post! Follow here for the real-time results and reports from the field! Some big races and big issues are at play in this election, and we'll be reporting and contextualizing to the best of our ability til the wee hours.
Arroyo Cruising to Easy Victory; Bergel Tightens Gap; GMO Ban Winning; Fair Wage Tanks (RESULTS/PHOTOS/VIDEO) - Lost Coast Outpost
THIRD REPORT IN: Arroyo cruising; Newman/Bergel tight; Measure R going down in flames.
Tax Measures - North Coast Journal BLOGTHING
Measure P, the GMO-growing Ban, Wobbly - North Coast Journal BLOGTHING
The Council Races - North Coast Journal BLOGTHING
Measure R - North Coast Journal BLOGTHING
Measure R is doomed. - North Coast Journal BLOGTHING
Kim Bergel's Slim, Slim Chance - North Coast Journal BLOGTHING
With the dust still settling from Election Night, Eureka Ward 3 challenger Kim Bergel sits 104 votes behind incumbent Mike Newman in a race that has already seen 5,309 ballots counted. It’s a slim margin, but does Bergel really have a shot at pulling the upset?
OFFICIAL LOCAL ELECTION RESULTS:
UPDATES - humboldtgov.org
First Report 8:03
Second Report 9:44
Third Report 10:43
Fourth Report 11:24
FINAL Report 11:42

STATE RESULTS - SOS.CA.GOV
Statewide Contests
Governor BROWN (D) 58.1%
Lieutenant Governor NEWSOM (D) 55.2%
Secretary of State PADILLA (D) 51.7%
Controller - YEE (D) 52.1%
Treasurer - CHIANG (D) 57.0%
Attorney General - HARRIS (D) 55.4%
Insurance Commissioner JONES (D) 55.5%
Superintendent of Public Instruction TORLAKSON (D) 52.2%
State Supreme Court
State Ballot Measures

Return of the Zombie Congress (and Senate)

Dozens of politicians were replaced with fresh faces yesterday, but the losers don’t have to vacate their offices for two months. We must be more vigilant than ever right now. - Jim DeMint/Daily Signal

While “Lame Duck” is the standard parlance in D.C., I prefer the more colorful term “Zombie Congress,” popularized in recent years by George Will and others. It more aptly conveys the peril of the situation. Zombie legislators are those unhappy senators and representatives who have been voted out of office, yet still stagger dutifully back to Washington for a month or so before Christmas break. ‘Tis the season when they are most dangerous.

Unlike their B-movie counterparts, these zombies don’t seek brains, though they could probably use some. With no electorate to appease, the newly politically “deceased” members have no incentive to restrain their baser urges to feast upon the hard-earned tax dollars of the living.

Thanks, from Matt Heath


I would like to thank the people of the 2nd Assembly District and all the amazing volunteers and friends who worked on the campaign.

We may not have done as well as we wanted, but we increased our vote from June and continued to have the highest Republican vote in any of the 5 counties in the district.

I am very proud of our campaign and especially our message of returning good governance and local representation to Sacramento! We hold our heads high today as we continue to fight to Legalize Freedom!

Matt Heath

As much as they could, last night the American people fired Barack Obama.

America to Obama: Step aside, bro - Herman Cain
The American public realized not long after the 2012 election that they had blown it. Given the opportunity to fire Barack Obama and turn the federal government back in a wise direction, they should have seized the moment and done just that. Instead, they got caught up nonsense like Big Bird and "binders full of women", and in not liking rich, CEO-ish Republicans, and as a result they dropped the ball and stuck the nation with four more years of an unserious, unqualified, inept president.

Oops. Sadly, the Constitution doesn't offer a mechanism for correcting that mistake. Just don't do it again, boneheads.

But what the electorate could do, it did last night. In essence, America told Obama to step aside. By giving Republicans at least a 52-seat majority in the U.S. Senate, and probably its biggest House majority since Franklin Delano Roosevelt was president, the nation sent Obama to the sidelines. Not a single piece of legislation will reach his desk for the remainder of his presidency without massive Republican backing. Obama can veto bills, of course, and he surely will. But what he can't do is shove insane, left-wing nonsense down the nation's collective throat. That's over.

‘Says it all!’ Obama won’t like these blistering NY Post, Daily News covers... - Twitchy







A Rejection of Liberal Democratic Governance - Fred Barnes/Weekly Standard

Republicans won 7 Democratic seats (so far!), lost none, and took control of the Senate. Harry Reid is history. Democrats thought for sure they’d add some governorships. Nope. They won one but lost 4, including the governor’s race in the reddest of red states, Maryland. In the House, they lost at least 8 seats, probably more when the final results are in. Now there are more House Republicans on Capitol Hill than we’ve seen in many decades....

There’s no reason to haggle over whether it was a “wave.” I’d simply call it a defeat worse than Democrats suffered in 2010. And it wasn’t just a rejection of President Obama and his policies. It was a rejection of liberal Democratic governance and all its excesses from Washington to the hinterlands.

ISIS: What happened, how it happened, who is who, what is what, and what is likely to happen.

IS and the Incoherence of Western Policy - Jonathan Spyer

...There are two main problems for Western policy-makers; the first tactical, the second strategic. The first problem is that the West has no ground assets in Syria capable of destroying the IS, but the West also hopes to avoid committing its own forces on the ground.

The second is the related, but broader, problem that the West has failed to properly identify the dynamic governing the conflict in Iraq, Syria and increasingly also Lebanon. Swept along by humanitarian sentiment, the West first wanted to target the Assad regime, and has now designated the Islamic State as the ‘bad guy’ of choice. But fury regarding the undoubted atrocities committed by a number of different players in Syria and Iraq does not constitute a coherent and effective policy.... KEEP READING

Claim: Berkeley Lab scientists identify a new driver behind Arctic warming

Scientists have identified a mechanism that could turn out to be a big contributor to warming in the Arctic region and melting sea ice. - WATTS UP WITH THAT?

The research was led by scientists from the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). They studied a long-wavelength region of the electromagnetic spectrum called far infrared. It’s invisible to our eyes but accounts for about half the energy emitted by the Earth’s surface. This process balances out incoming solar energy.

Despite its importance in the planet’s energy budget, it’s difficult to measure a surface’s effectiveness in emitting far-infrared energy. In addition, its influence on the planet’s climate is not well represented in climate models. The models assume that all surfaces are 100 percent efficient in emitting far-infrared energy.

That’s not the case. The scientists found that open oceans are much less efficient than sea ice when it comes to emitting in the far-infrared region of the spectrum. This means that the Arctic Ocean traps much of the energy in far-infrared radiation, a previously unknown phenomenon that is likely contributing to the warming of the polar climate.

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

America speaks! Empire State Building now glowing red for the Republican party



Awesome. - Twitchy

Obama was no political master, after all

There's only one thing Obama was ever good at -- getting himself elected: - Timothy P. Carney/Washington Examiner @TPCarney
Obama will leave the Democrats in shambles - Michael Barone/Washington Examiner @michaelbarone
Kay Hagan's Loss Is a Devastating Blow to Democrats - National Journal
Running a "near perfect" campaign wasn't enough to offset the national mood against President Obama and his party.




WINNERS: (Updating)