Look, you know, God closes a door so that he can open up greater doors. I will continue to, you know, stand up and fight for this country. That’s my goal. And always remember, Abraham Lincoln only served one term in Congress, too.

Rep. Allen West, (R-Fla.) in a recent interview with NPR. He’s also compared himself to Harriet Tubman in the past, saying, “I’m here as the modern day Harriet Tubman to kind of lead people on the Underground Railroad away from that plantation into a sense of sensibility.”

Just. no.

No.

You are not Abraham Lincoln or Harriet Tubman. 

Stop.

And God did not open the door. The voters of Florida did. It’s labeled “Exit”

(via cognitivedissonance)

thenoobyorker:

Check out the ImpreMedia/Latino Decisions 2012 Latino Election Eve Poll

Just some breakdowns (note: the data may change as the results are polished),

  • 75% of all Latin@s voted for Obama
  • 81% age 18-30 voted for Obama
  • 78% of Central American origin voted for Obama
  • 79% of Mexican origin voted for Obama
  • 96% of Dominican@s voted for Obama [sheeeesh]
  • 83% of Puerto Ricans voted for Obama
  • 77% of all Latin@ women voted for Obama
  • 80% of naturalized Latin@s voted for Obama

And according to this NBC Latin@ article,

Latino voters were key in delivering battleground states.In Colorado,  87 percent of Latinos voted for Obama. In Ohio, it was 82 percent, and in Virginia, it was 66 percent. Strong Latino Democratic support also played a big factor in key Senate races. In Massachusetts, Obama got 89 percent of the Latino vote, and Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren received 86 percent of the Latino vote, “one of the decisive factors in putting her over the top,” according to Barreto.

From the same article,

At 23 percent, Governor Romney’s Latino support is dramatically lower than Bush’s support in 2004,  and John McCain’s 31 percent Latino support.” ”Republicans have to evaluate what policy platforms they will be endorsing, and how they communicate with Latino voters,” says Barreto.

Analysts were throwing out 40% as the magical percentage that Mitt Romney needed from the Latin@ vote and to say the very least, he failed big time. The preliminary data make the Republican platform seem unsustainable moving forward but only if Democrats keep enthusiasm high amongst Latin@s (especially 2nd, 3rd, 4th generation Latin@s) moving forward and with the assumption that Republicans don’t alter their party platform to accommodate the growing Latin@ vote. Obviously it has been all talk and there will be studies that claim that the impact maybe wasn’t as big as the election night talk but there are at least some some preliminary figures that indicate that at least some of the speculation surrounding Latin@s finally “came to fruition”, as political scientist Matt Barreto of the University of Washington notes, where President Obama and Democrats needed them.

I also want to highlight that of the naturalized Latin@ voters, 80% voted for President and 81% voted for Democratic candidates in the House of Reps. That’s huge (even if the total number may be small) so Democrats (hint hint) in office and those of you reading this who identify as Democrats, y’all should pay attention or apply pressure or do something to sustain or increase those numbers moving forward and you know, not deport 1,000,000 and counting.

Now if you’ve made it this far, I salute you and listen to Mexican legend Vicente Fernandez performing the superb Dean Martin song Return to Me (Regresa A Mí) alongside the great Tony Bennett. It was meant to be.

(via mohandasgandhi)

Source: thenoobyorker

An estimated 2% of Florida absentee ballots are rejected.

2012swingstates:

The number of Floridians submitting absentee ballots has risen since the last general election in 2010. Unfortunately, voting errors and fraudulent votes have also increased. 

“The more people you force to vote by mail, the more invalid ballots you will generate” Ian Sancho, the Leon County Supervisor of Elections told reporter Adam Liptak of the New York Times.

Read the rest of the article here to read more on how you can make sure your absentee ballot will count this year.


Well, that’s a little disconcerting since I have to vote via mail….But not in Florida.  They should change their state motto to “The Fuck Up State”…

(via sarahlee310)

Source: The New York Times

Solid Jobs Report Spawns Crackpot ‘Job Truthers’ Movement

tpmmedia:

The economy added 114,000 jobs in September and unemployment declined to 7.8 percent. Not great numbers, but paired with major upward revisions to previous monthly reports and taken in the context of a slowly recovering economy, the report was viewed as good news for America.

Unless, of course, you were hoping for bad news. And apparently quite a few of President Obama’s critics were — so much so that they suggested the Bureau of Labor Statistics was part of a vast conspiracy. 

The economy is doing better. It’s a conspiracy!

Conservatives warily ponder prospect of an 'Obama court' - NBC Politics

Both on the Supreme Court – where “swing vote” Justice Anthony Kennedy and conservative Justice Antonin Scalia are age 76 – and on the courts of appeal, where there are now 14 vacancies, Obama would be able to nudge the courts in a progressive direction if he wins a second term.

[…]

Curt Levey, president of the Committee for Justice, a conservative group that tracks judicial nominations, said Chief Justice John Roberts’ decision to join the four liberal-leaning justices in upholding Obama’s Affordable Care Act “has made conservatives think somewhat differently” about judicial nominees. “There’s a lot of sober thinking among conservatives that it is not just enough to appoint somebody who we know to have the right philosophy – you have to appoint somebody who has shown, either as a judge or perhaps in some other setting, that they will stick with that philosophy even when there’s political pressure to do otherwise.”

Of course, it’s not just those on the right who are warily watching the election outcome and its impact on the judiciary. Doug Kendall, president of the Constitutional Accountability Center, a progressive think tank and advocacy group, said, “I think a Romney presidency has a far greater potential to shift the court to the right than a second Obama term would have the potential to shift it to the left.”

Kendall said the most likely high court retiree is Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 79, appointed to the court by President Bill Clinton in 1993. “If President Romney nominates her successor, it will have a huge impact on the ideological balance of the court. If President Obama appoints Justice Ginsburg’s successor it will simply continue the current ideological balance and will not move the court to the left at all.”