WP -- Most American’s best days are behind them -- (See map)
The Republicans will have to win Ohio and Florida to have any chance of winning.
The Democrats best chance of winning would be to secure and win Virginia.
Best demographic Republican ticket Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio / John Kasich.
Best demographic Democratic ticket Hillary Clinton / Tim Kaine or Mark Warner.
Map of red states and blue states in the U.S. based on presidential elections since 2000. Red: The Republican candidate carried the state in all four most recent presidential elections (2000, 2004, 2008, 2012). Pink: The Republican candidate carried the state in three of the four most recent elections. Purple=The Republican candidate and the Democratic candidate each carried the state in two of the four most recent elections. Light blue: The Democratic candidate carried the state in three of the four most recent elections. Dark blue=The Democratic candidate carried the state in all four most recent elections.
If the Republicans are able to hold all of the states that Mitt Romney won in 2010 they would need another 64 votes in the electoral college to win the next presidential election. It would be very difficult for them to do this without winning and adding Florida (29) and Ohio (18) which have a combined 47 electoral votes. This would still only amount to 253 and another 17 would be needed to reach the 270 electoral votes for election. This would require winning 17 votes from three swing states which are Virginia (13), Colorado (9), and Nevada (6) or possibly winning votes from states that have voted just somewhat more Democratic than Republican since 2000, which are New Mexico (5), Iowa(6), and New Hampshire (3). Do the math.
Even if the Republicans were to win Florida and Ohio, the Democrats would still have a very slight demographic advantage if they could win Virginia. Since the election is likely to depend upon these swing states the demographics would give either a center-right or center-left candidate a better chance of winning. Ohio has voted for the victor in every presidential election since 1960.
War on the Rocks Blog -- The Islamic States Stalled Offensive in Anbar Province
NY Times -- Taliban attacks increase in Afghanistan
New Republic -- A book Review of Henry Kissinger’s book World Order by Anne-Marie Slaughter
Some lengthy articles are of such value that they are worth the time and effort to read. This book review by Anne-Marie Slaughter is a article of such significance. Anne-Marie Slaughter is a professor emerita of politics and international affairs at Princeton University, who also served as director of policy planning at the State Department from 2009 to 2011. She is president and CEO of New America.
As a junior at Harvard in 1963, I took a course from Henry Kissinger on Foreign Affairs. It was all about the balance of power and the essay that I chose to write to counterbalance this was “The Role of Ideas vs. Power in Foreign Policy.” I thus have a bias toward the important points and historical perspectives which are eloquently presented in this book review concerning American foreign policy. Click here for the review.
One in Eleven Death Row Inmates since 1973 have been Exonerated.
Our legal system doesn’t always get it right.
Reuters 11/19/2014 -- Ohio man exonerated after 39 years in prison, to be released Friday
The week ended with the exonerations of three men. Brothers Wiley Bridgeman and Ronnie Bridgeman (who now goes by Kwame Ajamu), and Ricky Jackson became Ohio’s 7th, 8th and 9th death row exonerees. The three were wrongfully convicted in Cuyahoga County in 1975. Wiley and Ricky were freed yesterday after 39 years of imprisonment. Kwame was released in 2003 but not officially cleared of wrongdoing until now.
These men spent more than 103 years in prison for crimes they did not commit. In one day, the number of death row exonerations from our state rose from six to nine, and took the national total over 150. This is a somber reminder why our work in 2015 and beyond is so important.
Could they not even do this incrementally in a timely fashion?
Quotes from my own congressman, Pat Tiberi (R-OHIO).
Obama knows that this is a trap for Republicans. Their response should be to be to just move forward in a positive timely manner with an immigration bill.
New Republic -- Erwin Chemerinsky and San KleinerObama has the law - and Reagan - on his side on immigration
The president has the constitutional authority to decide to not proceed with deportations. It has always been within the president’s discretion to decide whether to have the Department of Justice enforce a particular law. As the Supreme Court declared in United States v. Nixon, “the Executive Branch has exclusive authority and absolute discretion to decide whether to prosecute a case.”
WSJ Opinion - Rep. Goodlatte (R) , Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee -- Congress will fight Obama’s Power Grab
The president’s amnesty plan for millions of unlawful immigrants clearly violates the Constitution.
This is what the death penalty comes to:
Proposed Ohio House Bill 663 does the following:
This would become a defining issue for the legislatures and Gov. Kasich who has presidential ambitions in 2016. Never underestimate the Republican's ability to shoot themselves in the foot.
Prospect.org - Red State, Blue State: Polarization and the American Situation
Two ideologically based societies have developed within the United States, and the differences between them are growing.
Map of red states and blue states in the U.S. based on presidential elections since 2000. Red: The Republican candidate carried the state in all four most recent presidential elections (2000, 2004, 2008, 2012). Pink: The Republican candidate carried the state in three of the four most recent elections. Purple=The Republican candidate and the Democratic candidate each carried the state in two of the four most recent elections. Light blue: The Democratic candidate carried the state in three of the four most recent elections. Dark blue=The Democratic candidate carried the state in all four most recent elections.
Washington Examiner - The Political map of the future?
It’s a map of the United States showing the congressional districts won by Republicans in red and those won by Democrats in blue. (Map courtesy: Kurykh/Wikipedia)
“In early 2012, The Wall Street Journal published an editorial, “The Heartland Tax Rebellion,” which brought to national attention the movement in many Midwestern states to replace their state income taxes with revenue sources that are less damaging to economic growth. The opinion piece compared the nine states with the highest personal income tax rates to the nine states without earned income taxes. In each category of growth (population, gross state product and employment) no-income tax states come out ahead, while high tax states lag behind.”
WP - United Nations asks United States to clarify its position on torture
"It has been nearly six years since President Obama, on his third day in office, signed an executive order banning torture or cruel treatment of U.S. detainees."
CBS News - Abuse at Abu Ghraib
"When 60 Minutes II reported the first details of the Army investigation into Abu Ghraib, we didn't reveal that it was written by Gen. Antonio Taguba. His report is a scathing indictmentof the prison's lack of manpower, training and adherence to international standards."
Equality as an Affirmation of Our Common Humanity
We are missing a defining opportunity in the history of the moral and political philosophy of the liberal tradition; first, by not defining our primary moral value as equality, understood as a respect for the dignity and worth of our common humanity; and second, by not defining our government as a constitutional democracy, which is the only way to convey both the substantive and the procedural concepts of equality that it incorporates.
Online WSJ - Phil Gramm - How to Distort Income Inequality
"The Piketty-Saez data ignore changes in tax law and fail to count noncash compensation and Social Security benefits. A new study in the Southern Economic Journal, we know what the picture looks like when the missing data are filled in."
Slate - Yes, the Middle Class Really Is Sinking
"How badly is health care eating into paychecks? According to Reeves’ Brookings colleague Gary Burtless, health insurance and noncash benefits from the government made up 17 percent of after-tax income for the middle fifth of American households in 2010. In 1980, it was just 6 percent."
The Guardian - Fed chair Janet Yellen says income inequality is un-American
"The lower half of U.S. households ranked by wealth held just 1% of total wealth last year, down from 3% in 1989"
Republicans pick up governorships from Democrats in liberal strongholds like Massachusetts, Maryland and Illinois.
What Senate Republicans can learn from the GOP-led states
"Republican leaders in the states have been successful while the national party has struggled because GOP governors are focused on reforms that are relevant to the daily lives of their citizens."
How Larry Hogan used tax data to turn Maryland red
"New taxes were costing Marylanders $3.1 billion a year — on top of the levies they already were paying. Maryland joins high-tax states in the Northeast, Midwest and California among those with the largest exodus between 2007 and 2010 The bottom line was stunning. Maryland lost $1.7 billion in taxable income to other states in just three years under O’Malley and Brown."
"Stories of Walker’s reforms helping schools and lowering property taxes proliferated in the press. Walker’s Democratic opponent, Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett,couldn’t name a single school that had been hurt by the law."
WP -- George Will -- The first steps Republicans should take
John Boehner and Mitch McConnell Lay Out GOP Goals
Sen. Rob Portman -- Jobs for America
WP -- Charles Krauthammer -- Seize the Day, Control the Agenda
The Republicans now have an opportunity to address the primary concern of the electorate which remains the economy and jobs. There is also, however, a great concern about our national debt and the burden we are placing on the next generation. In 2010 Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen even stated that, "The most significant threat to our national security is our debt." The key to addressing the issues such as jobs and the national debt is to create greater economic growth.
At least a major part of the Republican agenda, now that they control Congress, should be to spend the first 100 days passing legislation to improve the economy. This is also an agenda where there might be areas of bipartisan support. Promoting the economy would involve energy legislation, which would also help create jobs and make America more energy independent. There is a well recognized need to fix a broken tax code with reform. The Congress could work with President Obama on free-trade deals. Passing a budget rather than fractured resolutions would be a step toward responsible financial oversight.
There will be the more complicated and partisan issues, such as ObamaCare and immigration reform, which will need to be addressed. The Republicans, however, will need to demonstrate their ability to govern effectively to maintain their majority in the Senate. The Republicans, will be defending 24 of the 34 Senate seats at issue in 2016. Addressing the economy in the first 100 days of the new Congress, is an achievable agenda which is both needed and which would resonate with the concerns of the voters.
During Clinton's second term, when both houses were held by the GOP, a great deal was able to be accomplished by bi-partisan legislation. The Republicans now need to be able to demonstrate they can be pragmatic and capable of governing going into the 2016 presidential elections. On the other hand, President Obama will be concerned about his legacy. Therefore, significant progress may be able to be made, with compromise, on immigration reform, the federal budget, energy policy and modifications of both the Affordable Care Act and Dodd Frank financial regulations.
Senator Mitch McConnell has indicated that he didn't expect to be able to repeal the healthcare law, stating "It would take sixty votes in the Senate" and "nobody thinks we are going to have 60 votes". Obama will still maintain significant control with the presidential veto. On the other hand, he will have little incentive for any compromises with a Democratic Senate that continues to be lead by Harry Reid.
Jonah Goldberg (L.A. Times) - A D.C. cure: Take the hard votes
"That said, in the spirit of compromise so lacking in Washington, I would like to offer a suggestion for how to fix the alleged problems of partisanship and gridlock: more partisanship about ideas and less about process."
Western Journalism - Harry Reid Just Got His Legs Cut Out From Underneath Him…By A Fellow Dem
"South Dakota Democratic Senate candidate Rick Weiland started a national petition Friday for Reid to be removed as Senate Majority Leader, replacing him with either Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, or Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, according to The Hill."
Harry Reid's Plot to Keep the Senate (Far Center Blog Post on that Politico article)
The New York Review of Books - Afghanistan: ‘A Shocking Indictment’ - review of No Good Men Among the Living by Anand Gopal
“The level of craftsmanship in this book is often awe-inspiring. . . . Provides unique insights into America’s intervention in Afghanistan and makes important contributions to our understanding of the conflict there.”
—Foreign Policy
“Haunting . . . Presents a stirring critique of American forces who commanded overwhelming firepower, but lacked the situational knowledge to achieve their objectives . . . Gopal reveals the fragility of the tenuous connection between intention and destiny in a war-torn land.”
—Publishers Weekly
The United States usually ranks in the top five nations using the death penalty. This is the company that we keep...
WSJ -- The UN Trumps Silicon Valley
"By lobbying for ‘net neutrality’ regulations, big technology companies pave the way for authoritarian governments to censor the Internet."
Circleid.com -- Secretary Pritzker’s address to ICANN 51
"The themes of the growing importance of Internet Governance and the U.S. government's steadfast commitment to defense of the multistakeholder model, as well as the connection between maintenance of an open Internet and fostering free speech and economic growth, were key elements of Secretary Pritzker's address..."
BBC -- Saudi Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr 'sentenced to death'
A Death Penalty in Saudi Arabia Reflects on larger Middle East Conflict
BBC --Libya turmoil: Benghazi hit by air strikes and clashes
A power vacuum and struggle in Libya
BBC -- Iraq crisis: MPs complete anti-IS government
Iraqi MPs have approved new defence and interior ministers, completing a unity government that is battling the spread of Islamic State militants.
BBC -- Islamic State Conflict
The struggle in maps
Thomas Freidman -- International New York Times
I.S. = Invasive Species
"Today, ISIS — the foreigners and locals together — is putting pressure on all of Iraq’s and Syria’s native species with the avowed goal of reducing the diversity of these once polycultural societies and turning them into bleak, dark, jihadist, Sunni fundamentalist monocultures."
Charles Krathammar -- National Review
Erdogan’s Double Game -
Our “ally” Turkey supports jihadists while joining the U.S.-led coalition against them.
"No one can match Stalin for merciless cynicism, but President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey is offering a determined echo by ordering Turkish tanks massed on the Syrian border, within sight of the besieged Syrian town of Kobani, to sit and do nothing."
Medsacape -- Dr Emanuel's Death Wish Harms Rather Than Helps
“Dr Emanuel, of all people, should understand its power. When he writes that having "an [age 75] deadline forces each of us to ask whether our consumption is worth our contribution," Dr Emanuel creates fear.”
The Atlantic -- Ezeliel Emanuel -- Why I hope to die at 75
An argument that society and families—and you—will be better off if nature takes its course swiftly and promptly.
Medscape -- Physician-Assisted Death Gets a Second Look
