RICK MORAN: Why Did the IRS Give the FBI 1.1 Million Pages of Taxpayer Info from Non-Profits? Well, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t in the interest of promoting free expression.

JAMES TARANTO: Cantor Defeats Truman: The political surprise of the year.

“Eric Cantor’s margin of victory Tuesday could have national GOP repercussions,” according to the subject line of a self-promotional email we received from a political writer last night. It was an update of an earlier analysis, and the text correctly noted that the House majority leader had lost. Half an hour later, the writer, whom we won’t name because we’re a nice guy, sent out a new email with a “corrected subject line,” referring to Cantor’s “primary loss.”

The error was consistent with much of the pre-election analysis. “Challenger David Brat looks almost certain to lose, but the margin may say something about the potency of the issue,” blogged The Wall Street Journal’s Laura Meckler an hour before polls closed.

“The issue” is immigration, on which Cantor had staked out a middle-of-the-road position; Brat accused him of backing “amnesty.” National Review’s Joel Gehrke reports that Obama aide Dan Pfeiffer “rushed to assure House Republicans” that “Cantor didn’t actually lose because of his gestures toward Democrats on immigration reform.”

Tweeted Pfeiffer: “Cantor’s problem wasn’t his position on immigration reform, it was his lack of a position. [South Carolina’s Sen. Lindsey] Graham wrote and passed a bill and is winning big.” Graham avoided a runoff by taking 59% of the vote in a crowded field.

National Journal’s Josh Kraushaar offers a different explanation for Graham’s victory: a combination of “assiduous attention to constituent service, paying favors to his South Carolina Republican colleagues, an early and relentless focus on fundraising, and a hawkish record on foreign policy that conservatives in the military-rich state rallied behind.” Whatever the merits of the argument, one suspects Republicans will be wary of taking advice from Pfeiffer.

In a postelection report, the Journal’s Kristina Peterson and Janet Hook described Cantor’s defeat as “overturning the building narrative that Republican Party leaders and allied business groups had trampled the GOP’s tea-party wing.” A variation of that narrative, which this column put forth last month, was that the GOP had assimilated the Tea Party.

One might say this is the exception that proves the rule, but it’s actually the second exception. A week earlier, challenger Chris McDaniel narrowly outpolled Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi in that state’s Republican primary.

Read the whole thing.

V.A. SCANDAL UPDATE: Veterans Affairs issued ‘gag order’ and engaged in criminal cover-ups, lawmakers say.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Billboard With University’s Fight Song Covered Up After Words Called Sexist.

The University of Missouri recently covered up a large sports advertisement that paid homage to its fight song after a progressive female Democrat politician complained it was sexist and condoned a culture of violence against women.

Earlier this month, the school displayed a large trailer with the message “Every True Son Goes to Mizzou” plastered on its side, along with its tiger mascot and the message: “For Tickets Call 1-800-Cat-Paws.”

Some on the Columbia campus didn’t think twice about it, others were offended.

But the loudest protestation came from Missouri State Rep. Stacey Newman (D-St. Louis County), a feminist politician who founded Progress Women to highlight the “war on women.”

Newman told the university and the local press that the billboard was sexist, especially given the number of female athletes currently enrolled at the school, and also suggested it condoned a culture of violence, citing the recent killing spree near UC Santa Barbara.

Good grief.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Obama’s New Student Debt Plan Will Exacerbate America’s Widening Skills Gap. “President Barack Obama’s new plan to decrease student debt will only make the problem worse since there is a deficit of workers in skilled trades, but a surplus of people with college degrees. Neal McCluskey of the Cato Institute reported last week that a third of graduates with a bachelor’s degree are in jobs that don’t require the credential. Underemployment is even worse for people with graduate degrees.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Obama Derides Humanities (again).

ROLL CALL: Sad, Shocked, Oblivious: The Capitol Reacts to Cantor Defeat.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: “A presumption of guilt in sexual assault cases.”

OH NO: Reformers fear death of immigration bill.

ROGER SIMON: Barack Obama’s Foreign Policy Of The Absurd.

WHAT COULD GO WRONG? American scientists controversially recreate deadly Spanish Flu virus. “Professor Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin-Madison dismissed the criticisms of his research saying that it is necessary for the development of influenza vaccines and other countermeasures designed to minimise the risks of a future flu pandemic.”

I’m not persuaded that the benefits justify the risks here.

NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT, MOVE ALONG: Solar Flares Disrupt Communications on Earth, Could Send Shockwave on Friday the 13th.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS, LITERARY EDITION: “The hook of this not-so-typical bildungsroman is that he has fallen in love with a lesbian girl who believes he is a transitioning female-to-male transgender.”

ELIANA JOHNSON: Ingraham’s Insurrection: An immigration backlash — and a huge win for the grassroots. Mark Levin deserves credit, too. And Mickey Kaus!

OBAMA DIDN’T LOSE IRAQ, HE GAVE IT AWAY: White House worried as militants take Iraqi cities.

The White House on Wednesday expressed concerns that Islamic militants had regained a foothold in Iraq after an al Qaeda-affiliated group seized control of a second major city.

Islamist militants seized the northern city of Tikrit on Wednesday, an action that sparked alarm in Washington and Baghdad, just days after rebel forces also captured Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city.

“The situation in Iraq is grave,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest conceded to reporters traveling with the president Wednesday to Massachusetts.

“There is no doubt that the situation has deteriorated over the last 24 hours,” he added.

Earnest said the U.S. was “deeply concerned” the instability could create a humanitarian crisis, with reports saying Iraqi security forces had fled both cities and thousands of refugees were seeking shelter.

Rebel groups have allegedly seized control of government buildings and released prisoners, adding to the chaos.

Earnest called on Iraqi leaders to organize a response to turn back the rebel forces, and said Washington was offering its support to Baghdad.

Obama gave up on the status of forces negotiations because he was in a hurry to skedaddle. Now there’s a good chance that Iraq — which was stable and doing comparatively well in 2008 — will be taken over by Islamists. Then, of course, there are the debacles in Syria, Libya, and Afghanistan. . . .

UPDATE: Iraqi Insurgents Capture Northern Cities, Move Toward Baghdad.

ANOTHER UPDATE: US and UK speak of deep concern as al-Qaeda take swathes of northern Iraq, sparking a mass exodus of civilians.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: Northwestern Dean Rodriguez: Never Let a Good Crisis go to Waste.

HOW TO COOK lobster tails.

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TAM: “If you want to really get your civil war on, you gotta Other the opposition, and Team Open-Minded Non-Judgmental seems to be keepin’ up with the Bob Joneses here.”

Plus: “I know their side of the story because I hear it all the time on NPR and NBC, in the editorial commentary disguised as neutral journalism. They, on the other hand, only know that ‘Those Gun People’ come from ‘The Right,’ which is some kind of amorphous blob, an undifferentiated mix of Nazis and National Review, Ron Paul and Ronald Reagan, Jonah Goldberg and compound-dwelling Jew-haters, the Klan and Palin and Vanderboegh.”

I DON’T THINK I LIKE THIS APPROACH: Why Apple Headphones Could Soon Only Work With Apple Devices.

THE WISCONSIN JUDICIAL SYSTEM HASN’T EXACTLY COVERED ITSELF WITH GLORY LATELY: Wisconsin Court Broadens FOI Exception, Allowing Government Agencies To Deny Requests Based On Perceived Motive. Call me overly suspicious, but I suspect there’s a lot of stuff the Deep State in Wisconsin, fresh from its shady assault on Republican donors, wants to keep buttoned up, and this is just an excuse to start on that.

IS A “BIT” MORE THAN A “SMIDGEN?” Medicare Can Afford A Bit of Fraud.

MOVING ON FROM RETAIL TO SERVICES: Amazon to wrangle babysitting, home repair startups into a marketplace. “The service would connect customers to people and companies that provide services like home repair and baby sitting that will be hirable and guaranteed through Amazon.”

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INSECT SUPER POWERS: Butterflies near salted roads grow larger eyes and muscles.