Jarabe Tapatío, or the Mexican hat dance, is the best known of a variety of Mexican folk dance called the jarabe. Originally banned by colonial authorities in the 19th century due to its sexual nature and general challenge to Spanish rule, it has since become symbolic of Mexico both in the country and abroad. As such the dress worn by participants is also meant to symbolize Mexican women and men, with women dressed in a style called “China Poblana” and men dressed as charros.
Better known internationally as the “Mexican hat dance” the jarabe tapatío has come to symbolize Mexico both inside the country and outside.[1] The word jarabe is likely from the Arab word “xarab” which means “herb mixture.”[2] Tapatío is the nickname given the people of Guadalajara .[1] The jarabe tapatío shares its name with a number of dances from the center and south of Mexico, including the jarabe de Jalisco, the jarabe de atole and the jarabe moreliano, but the tapatío version is by far the best known.
From the Exotic to the Erotic, from a Ho Down, to a Slow Down, from Hip Hop to the Lindy Hop, Twisting the night away, Hula, Bollywood to Hollywood, Samba, to a Tango 3 Chics will have you moving that body…. Join us as we travel around the world and savor the music and dances of our fellow citizens of the universe.
Keep On Pushing
IOWA ROCKS! Thank you, for giving our President and his family your love and trust!
Love you POTUS & FLOTUS!
Thank you so much, Iowa! Thank you for giving Potus a chance! Thank you!
Latest from NATEY NATE
http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/author/nate-silver/
FIRED UP! READY TO GO!
FIRED UP! READY TO GO!
EDITH CHILD said she ain’t GOT time to be TALKIN ’bout it; I’ve got work to do. This is the lady that started Fired up; ready to go. this is what she told PBO when he invited her back to Des Moines tonight to rally the crowd with her cheer. Nope; Edith’s staying back in North Carolina and GETTING OUT THE VOTE!
Wow! This rally was so emotional. Potus becoming emotional, his voice cracking…everybody crying.
God bless Edith Childs!
POTUS teared up. Hey; my comment is highlighted. Wuz up with that.
LOL! I oin’t know!
http://youtu.be/xkimJDscLX8
Des Moines is fired up to #FinishWhereWeStarted this journey
Ametia,
I added something about Provisional Ballots to your Election Day Post.
KEEP ADDING! :-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6NzeDoPtgY&feature=player_embedded
Love Martin Bashir!
The Raw Story@RawStory
Gov. Christie turns down appearance at Romney rally http://goo.gl/Ic6mv
Where’s that snickering dog graphic? LOL
If folks don’t know their polling places, go to GottaVote, there is an online tool where you can type in your address and zip code and it will tell your polling place.
Heads up, 3 Chics!
Just a reminder if you’re in line to vote before the polls close, you will be allowed to vote. Don’t leave the line. Stay in line so you can vote.
Ben Jealous@BenJealous
The NAACP this year has registered three times as many people as in 2008, and we plan to turn out more than twice as many.
Last campaign day begins with a bang. Huge crowd at the Capitol in Madison greet POTUS and Bruce Springsteen!
WOW! Voters! for Barack Hussein Obama!
WATCH LIVE: http://www.barackobama.com/live 3PM ET
November 5, 2012, 8:50 AM233 Comments
Nov. 4: Did Hurricane Sandy Blow Romney Off Course?
By NATE SILVER
If President Obama wins re-election on Tuesday, the historical memory of the race might turn on the role played by Hurricane Sandy. But while the storm and the response to it may account for some of Mr. Obama’s gains, they do not reflect the whole story.
http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/05/nov-4-did-hurricane-sandy-blow-romney-off-course/
[A]s much as Republicans like to mock ‘community organizing,’ the fact is that following a community model has helped the Obama campaign put events right in people’s neighborhoods, in neighbors’ homes, in a way that’s accessible to supporters just about everywhere.” Blue Virginia breaks it down: http://bit.ly/Uu67H5
Compare the two campaigns’ events in the next 48 hours:
o President Obama: http://bit.ly/YKKhDj
o Mitt Romney: http://mi.tt/REdqgd
PRESIDENT OBAMA’S GOT THIS; WE NEED TO GET OUT THE VOTE
Jay Z joins the party in Columbus, Ohio at 2:30 p.m. ET. Tune in live: http://bit.ly/RBeuTM
Later on, President Obama will take the stage in Des Moines alongside the First Lady for the final rally of the campaign. Watch live at 10:50 p.m. ET: http://bit.ly/RBeuTM
“Yesterday, Barack Obama had 82 events in MN or just over the border in Wisconsin. The Romney campaign? Zero.” The MN Progressive Project takes note: http://bit.ly/U4qx8M
Curbing access to contraception, cutting off money for cancer screenings conducted by Planned Parenthood, and overturning Roe v. Wade. The New York Times’ Nicholas Kristoff says “it’s not just women who should be offended at the prospect of a major step backward. It’s all of us.” In case you missed it, his Sunday column, “How Romney would treat women,” is a must-read: http://nyti.ms/U4qqdn
JOIN VIDEO THE VOTE
In past elections, it took months for the full story of Election Day to emerge, and by that point it was too late. But now we can use smart phones and the internet to document problems and share using Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and UStream. Just make sure to tag your content #VideoTheVote so we can help push it out to the media.
Sign up below, and we will send you more resources, alert you to local incidents and connect you to other #VideoTheVote volunteers in your area. Thanks for doing what you do.
12 Ways You Can Safeguard Your Vote
By Doug Pibel and Fran Korten
Will it happen again? On November 6, we may see voters waiting in long lines, only to find they’re not on the voter rolls or because they now need to show ID to vote. In a new twist, some people may refrain from voting because they think they need ID, even when they actually don’t.
If you’re worried that we will wake up November 7 to find election procedures in question, read on.
The staff at YES! Magazine has researched the recommendations of voting integrity advocates and offers 12 ways you can protect your own vote—and the fairness of the system. Please forward this checklist to others to help make our election system work.
Before Election Day
1. Check your registration. Even if you think you’re registered, you might not be. Check online at http://www.CanIVote.org. Or call your local election officials (find their contact information at the Overseas Vote Foundation).
2. Find out where your polling place is and check the opening and closing times. Polling places can change. If you wait until the last minute, you can always track down your polling place by calling 1-866-OURVOTE or texting “vote” to 69866.
3. Mail with care. If you’re voting by mail, check carefully where you need to sign, how to seal the envelope, and how to mark the ballot. Note that some ballots weigh more than an ounce and require extra postage.
4. Vote early. If you encounter problems, you’ll have time to sort them out and may be able to help others.
5. Find out whether your state requires ID to vote, and what kind. You can find a state-by-state guide with details about your state’s requirements at http://www.866ourvote.org/state.
6. Find out who’s in charge. Make a phone list of your county and state election officials—it may save valuable time on Election Day if you need to get registration verification or other information.
On Election Day
7. Be sure to bring whatever ID your state may require. It’s always a good idea to take along some form of government-issued identification, such as your driver’s license. You may not need it, but it’s best to have it.
8. Bring your cell phone, if you have one. If you encounter or observe any problems, call a hotline immediately (see point #11).
9. Ask for a paper ballot. If you don’t want to use a machine, see if your polling place can provide a paper ballot. Some states, such as California, require polling places to have these available on request. If machines aren’t working or there are other problems, ask for an emergency ballot (although they may not be available everywhere).
10. Verify your vote. If you’re voting on an electronic voting machine, check the review screen to make sure it reflects your vote. If the machine produces a paper record (27 states require one), read it carefully to make sure it correctly reflects your vote. If it is incorrect, speak to a polling attendant. Don’t leave until you’re sure your vote has been properly recorded.
11. Document and report. If you encounter or observe difficulties such as excessive lines, voter harassment, or malfunctioning machines, be sure to take pictures and write down the details. Get all the facts you can—location, names, and specific problem.
We recommend two nationwide networks where you can report problems. One is 1-866-OUR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683), which will have volunteer lawyers in many locations standing by to provide assistance. The other is 1-866 MY VOTE-1 (1-866-698-6831), which will record your problem by voicemail, then forward your call to your local board of elections. Both will enter the information you provide into a database, then use that information to support challenges to problem elections, as well as demands for reform in the future.
Into the future
12. Work for fair, transparent elections. Voice your questions about voting machines, voter suppression, and election problems promptly. Keep the issue in front of your election officials. If we want clean, trustworthy elections in 2014, we have to start working on it now.
Want more information? Here are three websites from the leading edge on voting issues.
http://www.nationofchange.org/print/31356
ALL YOU MINNESOTANS:
Click here to find your polling place. (And then go to said polling place tomorrow and VOTE.)
http://vote.barackobama.com/en/MN/vote/
Has Mitt Romney Abandoned Southern Ohio?
by Joseph on November 4, 201
We’re not sure if Romney’s website just sucks, or if the campaign has simply abandoned Southern Ohio, but a quick search for events within 50 miles of Hamilton county (specifically postal code 45202) in the next two days shows just two events. Both are rallies tomorrow after early voting has ended and both, surprisingly, involve John Boehner.
I say surprisingly because a PPP poll from a few weeks ago shows Boehner’s approval rating under water.
http://www.plunderbund.com/2012/11/04/has-mitt-romney-abandoned-southern-ohio/
PlunderBund (http://s.tt/1rZP0)
Obama to shoot some hoops tomorrow http://huff.to/VO5EAo
Love it! Where dat pic of him shooting hoops?
SUN NOV 04, 2012 AT 07:45 AM PST
500 reasons to vote against Mitt Romney and for Barack Obama
byGeorgia LogothetisFollowforDaily Kos
Check it out here: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/04/1154799/-500-reasons-to-vote-against-Mitt-Romney-and-for-Barack-Obama
PBO: 333 ELECTORAL VOTES
MCSHAME: 156 ELECTORAL VOTES
ALL.OF.THIS
November 5, 2012
THE REPUBLICANS’ CLOSING ARGUMENT
Posted by Andy Borowitz
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—With only one day until the election, the Republican Party today released its official closing argument to the American people.
In its entirety, the argument read as follows: “We’re strongly opposed to FEMA and health care, but basically O.K. with rape.”
Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, said that the Party’s message of “zero tolerance toward disaster relief combined with a more easygoing attitude about rape” would lead the Party to victory on Election Day.
“Our argument couldn’t be simpler: when God wants to create a hurricane or make a woman pregnant, big government should get out of the way,” he said.
The Party chairman said that the closing argument was part of its “expand the map” strategy: “We’re contesting every state, from Pennsylvania to Colorado to Iowa, where we believe there are voters who are in sync with our more advanced view of hurricanes and rape.”
Mr. Priebus also had this message for the American voter: “Your vote is important. We’ve spent billions trying to buy it.”
Get the Borowitz Report delivered to your inbox.
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2012/11/the-republicans-closing-argument.html#ixzz2BMppORz8
Wanted to share that last night event at St. Cloud U in MN was poorly planned. The Atwood Ballroom had a 1,400 capacity and 4 thousand folks showed up, standing in line for hours, and could not get in. Clinton came out and delivered a 5 minute speech for the folks who stayed and waited until he finished inside the building. I drove 1 hr and 20 minutes to get to the event, and fotunately did get in by the skin of my ass.
Wow! Glad you got in.
Totally digging the dance series already, SG2. Looking forward to this week! :-)
Thank you! I am totally diverse in my choice of music and I enjoy watching different cultures and learning new things. The Mexican hat dance has always fascinated me. I love to watch these beautiful people dance. I hope 3 Chics enjoy and savor the music and dances of our fellow citizens.
Research Firm Says Historic Showing Among Latino Voters Will Carry Obama To Re-Election
Tom Kludt – 8:34 AM EST, Monday November 5, 2012
With President Obama in a position to claim a record high share of Latino voters, a leading research firm said Monday that the incumbent’s performance among America’s fastest growing voting bloc should put him over the top in swing states and help him secure a second term.
Acording to a report by Latino Decisions, Obama is “poised to win a record high share of the Latino vote, and in turn likely to win key swing states and enough electoral college votes to retain the presidency.”
Latino Decisions shows Obama earning the support of 73 percent of Latino voters with “consistent vote history or have already voted” — creating big separation from Mitt Romney, who picks up only 24 percent. If Obama reaches such a high-level of support, he would exceed former President Bill Clinton’s 72 percent share of the Latino vote in 1996. Matt Barreto, principal investigator for Latino Decisions, said that could augur well for Obama in a handful of key battlegrounds.
“With 11 weeks of tracking, we are headed towards a record level of Latino votes for a Democratic presidential candidate,” Barreto said. “If Latinos turnout at the high rates we are expecting, they could deliver Nevada, Colorado, Florida and Virginia to Obama
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/research-firm-says-historic-showing-among-latino-voters
Hence the attempts to stiffle and suppress the BROWN & BLACK VOTER’S efforts.
THEY.WILL.FAIL
The New Jim Crow….down in Florida…Rick “Jim Crow Governor” Scott trying to disenfranchise voters in broadlight with the country watching.
[wpvideo u42Kh15I]
U.S. Election: International Polls Indicate World Would Vote For Obama
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/04/us-election-international-poll_n_2066972.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003&ir=Politics
If the world could vote for a U.S. president this week, the outcome would be less than a thriller. Several polls indicate the overwhelming majority of people outside of the U.S. would vote for Barack Obama if they had the chance.
According to a 21-nation poll conducted by GlobeScan/PIPA for the BBC World Service, an average of 50 percent of people surveyed abroad favor Obama. Only 9 percent of those polled prefer Romney, and in 20 out of 21 countries voters would chose Obama.
Still Trying to Steal the Election
by BooMan
Sun Nov 4th, 2012 at 11:45:58 PM EST
As I go to bed tonight, Nate Silver gives the president a better than 85% chance of being reelected even though he isn’t giving him Florida’s electoral votes. That’s a good thing because Florida Gov. Rick Scott is acting like a Jim Crow governor and I am absolutely disgusted and embarrassed for our country. The outright theft of Florida is being attempted in broad daylight, right in front of our eyes. And what is going on in Ohio isn’t much better.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2012/11/4/234558/410
Momentum in the Tarheel State?
by BooMan
Mon Nov 5th, 2012 at 09:14:26 AM EST
I never really got comfortable reading MattTX’s charts of the projected North Carolina early vote, but I note that his final conclusion is that he has no idea whether Obama will win the state. We can see that a lot of white Democrats have changed their registration to unaffiliated over the last four years, and we can also see a substantial reduction in turnout among whites who have remained Democrats. Turnout among white Republicans is up 9.3 percent. Combined, this paints a bleak picture for Obama in a state he won in 2008 by a mere 14,000 votes. On the other hand, the white share of the vote is down almost 3% and African-American turnout is up 6.4% among registered Democrats and down 6.3% among registered Republicans. Most of the recent polling out of North Carolina shows the race tied or Romney ahead by a point or two. Michelle Obama is appearing in the state today, which would indicate some belief on the campaign’s part that it is still in play. Most people I talk to seem to feel that OFA-North Carolina is the best turnout organization in the country right now, and organizers on the ground are exuding confidence. And this might be the most heartwarming story I’ve read from the field in this whole election cycle.
I think the state is too close to call, but there are no signs that the campaign has given up there. Forward!
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2012/11/5/91426/5364
Posted at 09:11 AM ET, 11/05/2012
The Morning Plum: Can a ‘post-truth’ candidate be elected president?
By Greg Sargent
Not long ago, Jay Rosen memorably dubbed Mitt Romney’s bid for the presidency a “post truth” campaign. In less than 48 hours, we may find out whether a “post truth” candidate can be elected president.
If there is one constant to this campaign, it’s that Romney has startled many observers by operating from the basic premise that there is literally no set of boundaries he needs to follow when it comes to the veracity of his assertions, the transparency he provides about his fundraising and finances, and the specificity of his plans for the country. On the dishonesty front, this has grown more pronounced in recent days, with Romney’s embrace of the Jeep-to-China lie as a closing argument in Ohio and his absurd attacks on Obama for urging people to vote.
But the key to this is how elemental it has long been to his campaign. Romney’s entire bid for the presidency rests on a foundation of evasions and lies. David Corn explains:
The Republican presidential candidate built much of his campaign on basic untruths about the president. Romney blasted Obama for breaking a “promise” to keep unemployment below 8 percent. He claimed the president was “apologizing for America abroad.” He accused Obama of adding “nearly as much debt as all the previous presidents combined” and of cutting $500 million from Medicare. None of this was true. (See here, here, here, and here.)
All of these apocryphal statements have been essential parts of Romney’s fundamental case against Obama: He’s failed to revive the economy and he’s placed the nation at risk. Rather than stick to a discourse premised on actual differences (he believes in government investments and would raise taxes on the wealthy to fund them; I want to shrink government and cut taxes) — and bend the truth within acceptable boundaries to bolster the argument — Romney has repeatedly relied on elemental falsehoods.
But this goes well beyond Romney’s claims about Obama. It also concerns what he would do as president. Romney’s own campaign has proven unable to back up the promises in his 12 million jobs plan, even though it is the centerpiece of his governing agenda and his response to the most pressing problem facing the nation. And that’s only the beginning. Jonathan Cohn:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line
A RIGHT TO VOTE! Once upon a time….Someone paid a PRICE!
Charles Pierce: It appears that, while I was watching the president this afternoon, I missed another big moment in the ongoing mess that is the early voting being conducted here in the World’s Greatest Democracy, when all hell broke loose down in Miami-Dade county. The nonpartisan, but very conservative, mayor of Miami jumped in with both feet, with entirely predictable results….
Elections officials, overwhelmed with voters, locked the doors to their Doral headquarters and temporarily shut down the operation, angering nearly 200 voters standing in line outside — only to resume the proceedings an hour later….
…. Nearly all the voters stayed in line until a campaign worker reported her car had been towed from a private parking lot across the street. Scores of people ducked out of the line to check on their own cars. A second car had been towed.
My head may explode
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/doral-florida-early-voting-confusion-14449029
found this in the comments at Balloon Juice:
danielx Says:
The sense of wingnut desperation in Indiana is almost palpable. Oh, they’ll probably win the governorship – John Gregg is a nice guy, but there’s no gainsaying the fact that Mike Pence is a lot more telegenic and has a lot more money behind him (surprise!), even if Pence is dumber than a post and a serious wingnut to boot. If you like living in a state with some of the worst environmental standards outside Texas, you’re going to love the next four years.
But Mourdock is a lost cause. Every time one of these guys opens his mouth and lets slip what he really thinks, a lot of other Republicans can’t create enough distance between them and the speaker quickly enough. They have a shrinking constituency, relative to the country at large, and every time the mask slips it shrinks a little more.
I am beginning to think that the key word in assessing Republicans at this point is…desperation. This is the last election that they can possibly win without pursuing one of two alternatives: either broadening the appeal of the party to make it more inclusive, to Hispanics in particular, or wholesale disenfranchisement of various voter groups – blacks, Hispanics and anyone else with whom they disagree over how the national pie is to be split up. Strategic disenfranchisement, you might say. Oh, they’re already trying it on a tactical, piecemeal basis, as witness their efforts in Ohio, Florida and wherever else they think they can get away with it. But barring repeal of the 14th Amendment, elimination of voting rights for everyone who the Republican base detests whole classes of voters is not in the cards.
Republicans are caught in a trap of their own making. They’ve spent forty years winning elections with the Southern Strategy, but that strategy has just about reached its sell-by date. Either they broaden the party’s appeal – which will split the party – or they start losing elections by bigger and bigger margins. The former has already started happening, as lot of commentators here and elsewhere have noted. Bigotry, denial of reality and America fuck yeah! will only carry you so far when, as Lindsey Graham let slip in a moment of amazing honesty, “We’re not generating enough angry white guys to stay in business for the long term.” Without getting into Obama’s virtues or flaws, a half decent Republican candidate this year – say, Jon Huntsman – would have run over Obama like a lawnmower, because there have been few incumbents (if any) more beset by troubles not of his own making than Obama. He hasn’t committed any gross and egregious blunders, but he hasn’t gotten one iota of assistance either and that’s after pissing off his own base in his efforts to compromise with the opposition.
But a party that presents a slate of candidates like those of the 2012 Republican primaries is a party that has little to offer except sheer meanness, especially when those candidates seemed to be competing to see who could be first to shove the throttle of the crazy train to the last stop. The number of candidates alone was an indication of a party in crisis (by American political standards) – one thing at which the Republicans have excelled over the past four decades in presidential election years was unity. None of the Democratic-style inter-party circular firing squads for them, no sir – until now.
St. Ronald of Reagan, to name their first champion, was a policy idiot – but he was a great candidate. People liked him, because he made them feel good about themselves and optimistic about the future, and therefore they didn’t listen too closely as to how he proposed to reach that future. Contrariwise, a party in which people like Rick Santorum and Michelle Bachmann are taken seriously is a party that’s headed off a cliff.
So this is it for the Republican Party as it currently exists – the last stand. If they win they have the opportunity to carry out, for a time, their programs and philosophy, for better or for worse. To – in effect – be given yet another chance to fuck things up by the numbers after the repeated disasters of the Cheney Regency. (Remember “deficits don’t matter”?) And, not incidentally, to raise further barriers to voting by those negatively affected by their policies, which will include just about everybody with a net worth of less than seven figures.
If they lose, they’re basically screwed – to use a historical analogy, they’re in the position of the German Army after Stalingrad. They might achieve some tactical successes but the long term numbers are against them, a fact of which at least some Republicans, like Karl Rove, are well aware. (Yes, he’s a detestable, odious, mendacious little shit. Nobody ever said he was stupid.) If they can’t win this year with the ocean of money that’s been unleashed by the Citizen’s United decision, they’re toast.
So let’s kick ass tomorrow. At this time on Wednesday morning I hope to be suffering from a serious victory hangover, and it’s the first time I’ve ever looked forward to one.
From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
The Choice
If you still have any friends or family members who are undecided about how to vote, consider sending them these handy closing appeals:
Dear Voter,
Me.
Mine.
Me Me Me Me Me Me Me!
Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine!
In conclusion: Backward.
Sincerely,
The Republicans
P.S. Fear everything!
or….
Dear Voter,
We.
Us. Together. E pluribus unum.
Hope freedom equality inclusiveness competence compassion.
Brains common sense community respect hard work accountability.
Action change responsibility solutions fairness.
In conclusion: Forward.
Sincerely,
The Democrats
P.S. Fear nothing but fear itself
http://www.dailykos.com/
Michael Tomasky:
Whatever the result tomorrow, voter suppression is one of the big stories of this campaign and its enduring scandal. The Republican Party before 2012 was a party that certainly did not want black and brown and poor Americans voting, so it’s long been officially racist and classist in this particular sense.
But up to now its measures were local and somewhat haphazard … now, though, in these past couple of years, the GOP strategy has been institutionalized …. For example, read here about what the secretary of state in Ohio is trying to do right now. It’s rather incredible.
…. Republicans: Are you really proud to be in a party that tries to rig the rules so that people who vote for the other side have a harder time voting? …. This is really a disgrace. The new Jim Crow, enforced not with burning crosses but with fountain pens, to paraphrase Woody Guthrie
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/11/05/the-new-jim-crow.html
Early Morning Open Thread: Storm-Wracked
By Anne Laurie November 5th, 2012
Professor Krugman, perceptive as always:
As Sandy barreled toward New Jersey, there were hopeful mutters on the right to the effect that it might become President Obama’s Katrina, with voters blaming him for the damage, and that this might matter on Tuesday. Sorry, guys: polls show overwhelming approval for Mr. Obama’s handling of the storm, and a significant rise in his overall favorability ratings.
And he deserves the bump. For the response to Sandy, like the success of the auto bailout, is a demonstration that Mr. Obama’s philosophy of government — which holds that the government can and should provide crucial aid in times of crisis — works. And conversely, the contrast between Sandy and Katrina demonstrates that leaders who hold government in contempt cannot provide that aid when it is needed…
Like Mr. Clinton, President Obama restored FEMA’s professionalism, effectiveness, and reputation. But would Mitt Romney destroy the agency again? Yes, he would. As everyone now knows — despite the Romney campaign’s efforts to Etch A Sketch the issue away — during the primary Mr. Romney used language almost identical to Mr. Allbaugh’s, declaring that disaster relief should be turned back to the states and to the private sector.
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2012/11/05/early-morning-open-thread-storm-wracked/
What ‘going well’ looks like
By Steve Benen
Mon Nov 5, 2012 8:42 AM EST.
As part of his efforts to help Mitt Romney, Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), the former Bush/Cheney budget director, as a habit of making claims with no meaningful connection to reality. We saw this a couple of weeks ago, and were reminded of the problem again yesterday.
Talking to CNN’s Candy Crowley, Portman insisted, “Ohio’s economy is not doing well…. [T]hings aren’t going well.” The Republican added that the unemployment rate in the state is “almost 10 percent” if you twist the numbers a certain way.
Let’s give the GOP senator a hand. I even made it easy for Portman by creating a chart.
Portman’s own home-state ally, Republican Gov. John Kasich, has spent much of the year boasting about how much Ohio’s economy has improved in recent years. To be sure, Kasich doesn’t want President Obama to get credit for Ohio’s recovery, but he nevertheless concedes that the state’s economy is vastly better off than it was a few years ago.
Either Portman isn’t aware of the economic reality in his own state — usually, sitting senators make more of an effort to keep up on these basic details — or he’s hoping voters won’t know the difference. Either way, to suggest economic conditions in Ohio aren’t improving is deeply silly.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/11/05/14941692-what-going-well-looks-like?lite
A feature, not a bug
By Steve Benen
Mon Nov 5, 2012 8:00 AM EST.
The voting fiasco in Florida reached truly farcical levels yesterday, with Dan Smith, a political science professor at the University of Florida, explaining, “We’re looking at an election meltdown that is eerily similar to 2000, minus the hanging chads.”
I think that’s exactly right, but there’s something Rachel explained last night on the show that warrants repeating: “This is a man-made phenomenon…. Those lines are long on purpose.”
Given Florida’s tragic reputation and history, I saw quite a bit of commentary yesterday questioning why the oft-ridiculed state “can’t get its act together.” There’s been ample talk about “gross incompetence” and Florida’s “inability to run a simple election.”
These reactions are understandable, but they’re mistaken. The early-voting debacle in the Sunshine State is deliberate. To treat this as the unfortunate result of ineptitude is to miss the point — Florida Republicans designed the system to work this way.
For Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) and GOP policymakers in the state, this is a feature, not a bug. Republicans cut the number of early-voting days in half, on purpose. They prevented early voting on the Sunday before the election, on purpose. Scott, unlike the previous two Republican governors, ignored calls to expand voting hours, on purpose.
GOP policymakers want long lines; they want to make it very difficult for voters to participate in their own democracy; they want Americans to get discouraged and walk away. As one Republican state lawmaker argued after the 2010 election, “I want the people in the State of Florida to want to vote as bad as that person in Africa who is willing to walk 200 miles for that opportunity he’s never had before in his life. This should not be easy.”
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/11/05/14940915-a-feature-not-a-bug?lite
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUCbSlqhlks&feature=player_embedded
Maddow was on fire last night and on point.
In ‘Flight,’ Denzel Washington, white women and turbulence
By Courtland Milloy,
Nov 04, 2012 11:47 PM EST
The Washington Post Published: November 4
As Denzel Washington puckered up to kiss Kelly Reilly, his redheaded co-star in the movie “Flight,” you half expect the camera to cut away. Surely, Washington doing “love scenes” with a white woman in a movie billed as an airplane thriller would be too much baggage for the movie to fly.
And as the camera zoomed in on those locked lips, that proved to be the case.
I was watching a sold-out Saturday matinee at the Magic Johnson theaters in Largo — the place to go if you want to hear the audience interacting with what’s happening on screen.
Whenever the alcoholic pilot played by Washington would reach for a bottle after swearing off booze, for instance, someone in the audience would have to warn him. “No, Denzel, don’t do it!” And when he’d take a drink anyway, someone had to give voice to the communal disappointment. “Oh, Jesus, no he didn’t.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/in-flight-denzel-washington-white-women-and-turbulence/2012/11/04/74c50b12-26c6-11e2-9972-71bf64ea091c_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines
Hola; 3 Chicas & Everyone! Happy MUN-dane. :-)
Good Morning, Ametia, SG2 and Everyone :)
Morning, everyone!