LOUISIANA

“Take the following radio ad airing on African-American stations, approved by Landrieu and paid for by the Democratic State Committee of Louisiana:” – John Fund/National Review

“If Mary Landrieu, a Democratic senator from Louisiana, loses re-election in Saturday’s runoff election, as expected, the Republicans will have vanquished the last vestige of Democratic strength in the once solidly Democratic Deep South. In a region stretching from the high plains of Texas to the Atlantic coast of the Carolinas, Republicans would control not only every Senate seat, but every governor’s mansion and every state legislative body.” – NY Times

“I live in New Orleans, a city not especially noted for sobriety. We have no legal closing time for bars, so last call changes depending upon demand. You can carry your drink out of a bar and on to the street as long as it’s in a plastic cup. The state has drive-through daiquiri stands, for pete’s sake.” – Wayne Curtis/POLITICO

“Democrats are irked that Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) didn’t get any financial help from their Senate campaign arm in her runoff election.” – The Hill

“She has been rebuffed by her liberal colleagues in Washington and pilloried at home for voting with the president, and has watched helplessly while her Democratic base has eroded like a cheap levee.” – NY Times

“It’s a scenario any Hollywood screenwriter could whip up: As the clock ticks down toward the big election, the candidates busily crisscross the state, delivering speeches, shaking hands, hurling attacks at the opposition and tirelessly stumping for every last vote.” – Baton Rouge Advocate

“Baton Rouge Mayor Kip Holden is proposing a new tax to fund public safety-related infrastructure improvements. And unlike the much broader tax proposals that Holden has tried, and failed, to pass before, council members say this one might have more appeal.” – NOLA.com

“Former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards’s long-shot House bid will likely end in defeat on Saturday, but the longtime politician appears to be savoring the experience of going down as an unapologetic, old-school Southern Democrat.” – The Hill

“A former state Department of Health and Hospitals accountant was sentenced to five years in prison Friday for stealing more than $1 million from Louisiana’s Medicaid program over several years and gambling it away at Baton Rouge casinos.” – Baton Rouge Advocate

“U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany, R-Lafayette, will serve as the chairman of the House Ways and Means Human Resources Subcommittee next year, a position he will use to target welfare reform.” – NOLA.com

“Les Miles made an in-home visit with his prized five-star cornerback commit Kevin Toliver II on Thursday and one topic in particular came up. The Toliver’s are well aware of the talk surrounding Miles and the possibility that his alma mater, Michigan, could come calling for its head coaching opening.” – Geaux 247

NATIONAL

“The ADP jobs report for November may have been a slight miss, but the official BLS report hit a bullseye — finally. The US economy added 321,000 jobs last month, the highest figure in years, as job creation belatedly linked up with two solid quarters of growth. The BLS also revised the previous two months upward by 44,000:” – Hot Air

“Next week the House will pass the FY 15 Continuing Resolution to fund the government for the rest of the fiscal year which runs through September 30th of 2015. The question is…will this CR include funding for the Department of Homeland Security (which is responsible for administering the amnesty program) for the whole year or a shorter period of time (mid-March is the time being thrown around)?” – DrewM/Ace Of Spades

“Not only has China not passed the U.S., but it’s quite possible it never will. China’s population growth is heading for a dramatic Japan-style collapse, which will slash economic growth dramatically in coming years. Growth has already slowed from 10% a year in the 1990s and 2000s to 7% — and it’s likely to fall further from there.” – Investor’s Business Daily

“This isn’t how Harry Reid wanted to go out. After losing his majority and seeing his top aide engage in a strangely public war of words with the White House, Reid suffered another humiliation: Last week, the Obama administration cut his legs out from under him on a tax deal he was trying to negotiate with the GOP, issuing a public veto threat from the White House before a deal was even struck. Reid threw in the towel—walking away from the negotiations and leaving the mess for another Democrat to sort out with Republicans, who are enjoying the fractious show across the aisle.” – National Journal

“In Phoenix on Tuesday evening, a white police officer who was feeling threatened used lethal force on an unarmed black man. The incident left the officer unharmed and Brisbon, 34, dead with two bullet wounds in his torso at a north Phoenix apartment complex.” – USA Today

“A key issue with the protest was from St. Louis officers who called it disrespectful and demanded the team apologize, or at least the players be disciplined. The latter didn’t happen and there’s some confusion about the former, but Cook wanted to make it clear they weren’t trying to bash the police.” – Mediaite

“The Marlboro Man didn’t lasso Eric Garner for undercutting him. Bill de Blasio did. The state’s greed killed Garner, whose actions—cutting out the middleman, in this case the state, on a peaceful transaction demanded by the market—can only be construed as criminal by laws themselves criminal. Like the mafia, the state pummeled a citizen who dared challenge its cartel and hubristically denied it its protection money.” – The American Spectator

“There is a lesson here for Republicans. Being the party of making the Big Government trains run on time is a loser. We need to become the party associated with dismantling the regulatory structure of Big Government that stifles freedom, creativity, and economic growth.” – RedState

“Most people have not even begun to understand the coldness and depravity of those who are dismantling our society and the legal and cultural foundations that have sustained it until now. Justice has nothing whatsoever to do with their actions, since none of those actions are calculated to achieve true justice. They are calculated to inflict chaos, uncertainty, fear and danger for the gain of some at the expense of others, all of which is antithetical to justice. Justice actually occurred in Ferguson, and the programmers and their trained surrogates reacted as if they had been branded like cattle.” – American Thinker

“The administration is trying to preempt Obamacare sticker shock in 2015 by pleading with Americans to shop around in the marketplaces instead of automatically re-enrolling in the health plans they chose last year.” – Washington Times