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Today, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pledged to stonewall any attempt by Mitt Romney to pass his agenda if elected. “Mitt Romney’s fantasy that Senate Democrats will work with him to pass his ‘severely conservative’ agenda is laughable,” spat Reid.

While there had been speculation that the BLS may delay the release of its October nonfarm payroll number until after the election, it turned out there was no reason to worry. Perhaps this is because the number, while at stall speed, was not quite as horrible as some had expected (even if the change in average hourly earnings did tumble to new all time lows) and so boosted Obama's reelection chances. There was, however, another closely tracked number which perhaps is far more indicative of the economic "growth" in the past 4 years, which certainly had a delayed release. The...

Full title of petition: "Peacefully grant the State of Louisiana to withdraw from the United States of America and create its own NEW government." Posted on Drudge. As the founding fathers of the United States of America made clear in the Declaration of Independence in 1776: "When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to...

Even by the standards of the friday afternoon news dump tradition, yesterday's news that Gen. David Petraeus had resigned from the CIA was a stunner. The most heralded military officer of his generation fell from grace after it was revealed he'd had an affair with his biographer. The affair was discovered earlier this year soon after the FBI began monitoring his email. This raises a very serious question. Who authorized the FBI to monitor the e-mail of the Director of the CIA?

It’s true love between the Democratic president and the Republican governor of New Jersey. More than a week after President Obama and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie toured sections of the Jersey Shore ravaged by Superstorm Sandy, the White House remains “stunned” at how helpful Christie and his team have been and how easy it is to work with them... “The Christie people are so much easier to deal with than the Cuomo people,” a senior administration official said, referring to Gov. Cuomo. “New York wants to do everything alone, but we’re working with Christie really well. It’s weird.” Obama...

The key to understanding the 2012 election is simple: A huge slice of the electorate stayed home. The punditocracy — which is more of the ruling class than an eye on the ruling class — has naturally decided that this is because Republicans are not enough like Democrats: They need to play more identity politics (in particular, adopt the Left’s embrace of illegal immigration) in order to be viable. But the story is not about who voted; it is about who didn’t vote. In truth, millions of Americans have decided that Republicans are not a viable alternative because they are...

My post of this morning was published with a couple of Senate races not finally decided. But the Republican candidates (Rep. Denny Rehberg in Montana and Rep. Rick Berg of North Dakota) have now conceded to the victorious Dems. (incumbent Sen. Jon Tester in Montana and Sen.-elect Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota). This nets out at a two-seat pickup for the Dems and a 55-45 majority heading into 2013 (assuming that, as expected, the Senate's two independents, Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Sen.-elect Angus King of Maine will caucus with the Dems). The net gain is especially impressive since the...

Various supporters of President Obama — the ones who pulled out their wallets and turned out their constituencies for his reelection — will soon be coming to call at the White House. Knock, knock... Hey, it’s the Human Rights Campaign, which wants to see a second Obama administration make gay rights an even bigger priority than it did in the last four years. HRC president Chad Griffin told our colleague Ned Martel the day after the election that his organization would love to see an openly gay Cabinet secretary and an openly gay ambassador to a G-20 nation. Both would...

Everyone saw this coming. Dianne Feinstein, the Democratic Senator from California and co-sponsor of the USA PATRIOT Act extension, has been rumored to be meeting with ATF officials in the past few days and trying to come up with an outline for her next attempt at passing a new assault weapons ban. It seems like she does this once a year anyway, but in the wake of the Obama re-election people are on high alert for anything gun control related. And this time, it seems like all that practice of introducing failed legislation is leading to a more disturbing version...

Lt. Gen. Mark P. Hertling, the now-former commander of U.S. Army Europe, quietly departed Germany last week and retired days later at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. “Lt. Gen. Hertling’s decision to retire was a matter of personal choice... "The command didn’t alert the press to, nor issue a news release on its website, where Hertling’s official biography now says he “was” USAREUR commander from March 25, 2011, through Sunday.

He Called It, And Now Silver's A Pop-Culture Star By JOCELYN NOVECK NEW YORK (AP) — The other night, Nate Silver got a little taste of what things are going to be like for him, post-Election 2012. The 34-year-old statistician, unabashed numbers geek, author and creator of the much-read FiveThirtyEight blog at The New York Times had gone out for a drink with friends on Manhattan's Lower East Side. But he couldn't stay incognito; immediately, he says, people sitting at the bar recognized him. He was surprised, but probably shouldn't have been. After all, for 24 hours, ever since his...

West’s re-election fight suffered both mathematical and symbolic setbacks on Friday, as provisional ballots from St. Lucie County added to Democrat Patrick Murphy’s narrow lead and a judge denied West’s motion to impound ballots and voting machines in Palm Beach County.

If you spend your time watching politics and haven’t been hiding in a deep depression since Tuesday, you’ve probably been hearing a lot about “ORCA.” According to the Washington Post, ORCA “was designed as a first-of-its-kind tool to employ smartphones to mobilize voters, allowing them to microtarget which of their supporters had gone to the polls.” There is now widespread condemnation of the program as being sloppy and poorly deployed.

Obama: Americans voted for tax hikes on rich By Olivier Knox, Yahoo! News | The Ticket – 5 hrs ago Claiming a mandate from his election romp over Mitt Romney, President Barack Obama announced on Friday that he had invited congressional leaders to the White House next week for talks on how to steer the battered economy away from a "fiscal cliff." Obama said he was open to compromise with Republicans—but that any final deal needed to raise taxes on the richest Americans. "This was a central question during the election," the president said in brief remarks in the East...

The race for Florida’s 18th Congressional district has taken an ugly turn, with charges of incompetence, illegal activity and possible fraud on the part of local election officials. Democratic challenger Patrick Murphy has declared victory with an apparent 160,328 votes to West's 157,872. However, serious questions arose immediately about the integrity of the vote count, especially in St. Lucie County. On election night incumbent Republican Allen West had maintained a district-wide lead of nearly 2000 votes until the St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections inexplicably “recounted” thousands of early ballots, resulting in 4,400 vote shift -snip- A physical barrier had...

Yayoflautas give out refreshments while participating in a general strike in Barcelona on March 29, 2012. (Oscar Martinez/Special to The Washington Times) BARCELONA — They occupy banks, stage sit-ins at government buildings and roar their rage at their own government and at German Chancellor Angela Merkel. They also use canes and crutches to get to these so-called “actions” — because their average age is 70. These Spanish grannies and grandpas, part of a protest movement for seniors called the “yayoflautas,” say you are never too old for a revolution. The change they want is for Spain to slow down...

Breaking now.

BENGHAZI, Libya -- Even before the deadly Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, diplomats from other nations and Libyan security officials had questioned the wisdom of a U.S. decision to rely primarily on members of a local militia to protect its compound here. Diplomats here told McClatchy that while it’s customary to depend on local forces to protect diplomatic missions, only the United States of the 10 or so foreign missions here allowed the local militia to be the first line of defense. The others said they instead depended on...

In an exclusive interview with RT, President Bashar Assad said that the conflict in Syria is not a civil war, but proxy terrorism by Syrians and foreign fighters. He also accused the Turkish PM of eyeing Syria with imperial ambitions. Assad told RT that the West creates scapegoats as enemies – from communism, to Islam, to Saddam Hussein. He accused Western countries of aiming to turn him into their next enemy. While mainstream media outlets generally report on the crisis as a battle between Assad and Syrian opposition groups, the president claims that his country has been infiltrated by numerous...

In the agenda, he predicted the total destruction of the coal industry by as early as 2030. He said conditions for his business would deteriorate because of more regulation and taxes, weaker economic activity and reduced energy pricing. In the prayer, Murray wrote, in part: “The American people have made their choice. They have decided that America must change its course, away from the principals of our Founders. And, away from the idea of individual freedom and individual responsibility. Away from capitalism, economic responsibility, and personal acceptance.” He concluded by asking God for forgiveness for the layoff decisions. “Lord, please...