November 4, 2012

Red Cross issues annoyed statement about Romney “relief” donations

Agency officials told The Enquirer they are grateful for help, but don’t want people – including political candidates – sending supplies. They would rather have donations of money and blood.

“We are not asking for material donations,” said Laura Steinmetz, spokeswoman for the South Jersey Region of the organization. “Financial donations allow us to quickly and efficiently meet the needs of the people in a disaster. It’s far more expensive for us to receive the donated goods, sort them, warehouse them and transport them. So our financial donations are much more cost effective.”

http://americablog.com/2012/11/red-cross-upset-romney-relief-donations.html

November 4, 2012

Winners.

November 4, 2012

I know this man.

I know this man.

We’ve played together in a community college jazz band for a little over a year. He plays piano. He’s clever. He makes hilarious facial expressions when something goes wrong in the music. We’ve never really talked much, but I’ve always known him to be a good guy.

And after seeing this, I’m reminded that every person has a story. I don’t know what made him cry like that. I don’t know his story. But it matters. All of us have stories that matter.

Even if my fellow jazz musician and I have stories that differ and hardly talk, we have common ground in that we choose to believe in the president. It makes me feel connected. Not only to this pianist I barely know, but to everyone who was touched at the rally. And it doesn’t stop in Mentor, Ohio.

http://the-wretched-harmony.tumblr.com/post/34945075106/i-went-to-the-obama-rally-in-mentor-today-instead

November 4, 2012

FL Legislature Erases Key Item in History of Bush v. Gore

FL Legislature Erases Key Item in History of Bush v. Gore
By: Quasit Saturday November 3, 2012 9:50 am


....................... In 2000, Florida state law required that EVERY ballot which made the intent of the voter clear must be counted: Title IX, Ch. 101.5614.

Ah, but wait! If you clicked on that link, you may be puzzled. “The statute you have selected cannot be found”? What sort of law is that?!? Even the internet archive can’t dig up that page. The (Republican) Florida state legislature has most thoroughly erased any record of that statute.

But of course it’s hard to completely erase anything from the internet. And luckily a reporter captured at least some of the text of that statute:

A number of the disputed votes in the Florida election were “overvotes”, in which a (confused) voter both marked the box next to the name of their candidate and wrote that candidate’s name in. In such a case, the intent of the voter was clearly to vote for that candidate. We must therefore eliminate all scenarios which exclude those valid votes. The result:

This is quite a reversal of fortune! George W. Bush has gone from a 17-7 advantage to a 5-7 disadvantage. Very illuminating. But perhaps an additional look at the data would be appropriate. Is there any other case in which the intent of the voter is clear?

Well yes, there is. Remember those annoying fill-in-the-box standardized tests from school? If you haven’t run across them, optical ballots are basically the same thing. You need to fill in the box completely or else the scanner can’t read them. Unfortunately a number of voters only put a checkmark or a line in the box next to their candidate’s name, but their intent is nonetheless quite clear, and thanks to that darned Title IX, Ch. 101.5614, we must eliminate those choices which do not count those valid votes.




And so:

In all the scenarios in which Florida voting law is obeyed, then, George W. Bush ONLY wins if dimpled chads are counted and the decision of the three judges is unanimous. Since the Bush team itself mocked the very idea of dimpled chads, this at the least places the legitimacy of the election in serious doubt.

http://my.firedoglake.com/quasit/2012/11/03/analysis-of-bush-v-gore-florida-2000/

November 4, 2012

America’s Leftward Tilt?

America’s Leftward Tilt?
By DREW WESTEN

..........................

The reality is that our government hasn’t become this dysfunctional because the parties are so “polarized.” It’s because there is only one pole in American politics today, and its magnetic field is so powerful that it has drawn both parties in the same direction — rightward. And it is in that same direction that the magnetic field of contemporary American politics is likely to pull the stories the two parties tell after the election — and the policies the winner pursues.

The data, however, suggest just the opposite — that both candidates have benefited in the general election every time they have taken a left turn. President Obama was in deep political trouble 15 months ago when he cut the closest thing he could to a “grand bargain” with House Speaker John A. Boehner to slash the federal budget by trillions, and he did nothing for his popularity nine months earlier when he extended the Bush tax cuts to the wealthy. Not until he began talking like a populist did he begin picking up steam in the polls. Indeed, one of the most powerful messages the Democrats chose not to use in the 2010 midterm elections — which would have supported a policy that was extremely popular then and remains as popular now — was a simple message on taxes I tested nationally, which won in every region and with every demographic, including Tea Partyers: “In tough times like these, millionaires ought to be giving to charity, not getting it.” Once that position (and other populist appeals) became central to Mr. Obama’s presidential campaign, the election looked like it would be a rout.

BUT then in the first debate, Mr. Romney moved to the center, taking back his promise of tax cuts for the rich and proposing instead to let people choose which tax deductions they wanted to take (for their home mortgages, for example) but limiting the amount that can be deducted. Perhaps understandably, the president didn’t know what to do with a Republican challenger who was outflanking him half the time on his left, and suddenly the race was competitive again. For both men, a pragmatic left-hand turn helped them steer their way toward a middle class desperate for hope.

This should have come as no surprise. A majority of Americans still holds Bush accountable for the Great Recession, and with good reason. We are still breathing the fumes of his toxic brew of deregulation, massive transfers of wealth to the rich and a doubling of the national debt. His policies, and those of a Republican Congress that had its way with the economy for six years, were in fact the culmination of a right-wing ideological revolution led by Ronald Reagan, which changed the way Americans view their government. Mr. Reagan’s shadow continues to loom large, because Democrats have yet to make the case for a compelling alternative and have too often accepted the premises of the right.


................

In other words, if the candidate who wins takes a left turn like the one that won him the presidency, the Reagan era would finally be over. We can only hope.


MORE:
http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/03/americas-leftward-tilt/?hp

November 4, 2012

AND REPUBLICAN HOUSE WHIP ERIC CANTOR THROWS MITT ROMNEY UNDER THE BUS!

AND REPUBLICAN HOUSE WHIP ERIC CANTOR THROWS MITT ROMNEY UNDER THE BUS!

http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2012/11/and-republican-house-whip-eric-cantor-throws-mitt-romney-under-the-bus.html

November 4, 2012

Shock, shock: Rasmussen 49-49

We could have all predicted this weeks ago. When the tracking poll was at it’s end, it was going to be tied. 49/49 or 48/48. They will refuse to show Obama up. They can’t afford to have Romney ahead and then get beat by 2 points. So, in an incredibly coincidence, the poll which has given Romney some of it’s best tracking numbers this side of Gallup, is now tied:

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/04/1155287/-Shock-shock-Rasmussen-49-49

November 4, 2012

MITT's Storm Tips

November 4, 2012

Charlotte Observer: Extremism will be what costs Romney this election

It’s proud ignorance and joyful ugliness, and all of it has been embraced and feared – but rarely criticized – by Republican leaders.

That’s infuriating to moderate conservatives who believe that legitimate criticisms of the president get diluted because they share the same house with the crazies and the uglies. How, some wonder, can voters choose a president who presides over a stagnant economy, an astounding debt, with no new ideas about how to change either? For some, it’s because the alternative means voting with the birthers and the racists. It means being on the same team as the debate crowd that booed a gay soldier, or the crowd that cheered the idea of letting a sick man with no health insurance die.

Yes, Democrats also have their extremists. And certainly, Romney has come under withering criticism from the left, some of it unfair and inaccurate. Every election suffers from a bit of over-the-topness.

But we have yet to see Romney hanging from a noose.

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/11/02/3640637/the-self-inflicted-republican.html#storylink=cpy

November 4, 2012

Need to know more than this? - Ryan Plans "An Activist Vice Presidency That Would Look Like Cheney's

Need to know more than this?

Representative Paul D. Ryan may have largely disappeared from the national spotlight down the campaign homestretch, ceding attention to Mitt Romney. But if the Republican ticket prevails, Mr. Ryan plans to come back roaring, establishing an activist vice presidency that he said would look like Dick Cheney’s under President George W. Bush. ...NYT

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/04/us/politics/paul-ryan-is-said-to-be-planning-an-active-role.html?hp&_r=0