November 7, 2012

FAUX has even called Michigan for Obama.

nt

November 7, 2012

Too close to call in Michigan, eh? Must be that new math.....

http://www.freep.com/article/20121106/NEWS15/121106071/Obama-beats-Romney-Michigan-poll-shows


President Barack Obama won the Michigan presidential raceTuesday night, beating native son Mitt Romney in a race that heavily featured Obama’s rescue of General Motors and Chrysler in 2009.

The last Michigan polls just closed but a survey of results from key precincts across the state supplied to the Free Press showed Obama winning 55% to 44%. Obama won by 16% four years ago.

November 7, 2012

Insecure little man: Bill O'Reilly says it's 'not a traditional America anymore'

Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly said tonight that if President Barack Obama wins re-election, it’s because the demographics of the country have changed and “it’s not a traditional America anymore.”

“The white establishment is now the minority,” O'Reilly said. “And the voters, many of them, feel that the economic system is stacked against them and they want stuff. You are going to see a tremendous Hispanic vote for President Obama. Overwhelming black vote for President Obama. And women will probably break President Obama's way. People feel that they are entitled to things and which candidate, between the two, is going to give them things?”

“The demographics are changing,” he said. “It’s not a traditional America anymore.”

O’Reilly said 50 percent of the voting public are people who “want stuff. They want things. And who is going to give them things? President Obama. He knows it, and he ran on it.” ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/11/bill-oreilly-the-white-establishment-is-now-the-minority-148705.html

November 7, 2012

Any Elizabeth Warren news yet?

November 7, 2012

Latino vote for Obama could be historic high, poll says

from the LA Times:



By Sandra Hernandez
November 5, 2012, 2:43 p.m.

For years, political analysts have predicted that Latino voters will determine who wins the White House, and this election is no different. So what should we expect Tuesday?

At least one poll suggests that President Obama will score big with Latinos, capturing a record percentage of that powerful voting bloc (Latinos make up about 10% of the electorate). A poll released Monday by Latino Decision and impreMedia found that 73% of likely Latino voters said they plan to cast their ballots for Obama, with 24% favoring former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and 3% undecided. If those numbers continue to track, Obama is looking at a historic showing, surpassing the 72% of Latino voters who went for President Clinton in 1996. The polling firm is a nonpartisan group that focuses on Latinos.

So what’s driving the numbers? Latino Decision’s Gary Segura and Matt Barreto suggest it’s Romney’s hard shift to the right on key issues, ranging from immigration to the economy, that has Latinos running from the GOP and toward the Democrats. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-poll-latinos-gop-obama-20121105,0,5994765.story

November 6, 2012

Bill McKibben’s Math: Climate Change Hits Home (in a 22-City Tour)

from YES! Magazine:



Bill McKibben’s Math: Climate Change Hits Home (in a 22-City Tour)
It shouldn't take a hurricane to blow open the debate about climate change. But Sandy might help 350.org prove what's at stake in a nationwide campaign to divest university endowments from the fossil fuel industry.

by Phil Aroneanu
posted Nov 05, 2012


For two hours last Monday night, New York City got pummeled by Hurricane Sandy, along with much of the New Jersey and Connecticut coast. The windows started bowing and rattling with every gust, and rain pelted the glass sideways. Nobody was on the streets.

Sitting in our third-floor apartment in Brooklyn, my wife and I pretended to read our books and traded nervous looks each time a gust shook the hatch that leads up to our roof. I'd been following the reports closely, so I knew we weren't in danger of getting flooded. But like many people around the world, I was glued to the white glow of my smartphone as my Twitter feed flooded with images of rising waters on the Jersey shore and in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

That night, I finally understood what many of my friends in Indonesia, the Philippines, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Maldives, and countless other places on the planet must feel each time a massive typhoon or record flooding hits. Climate change finally hit home for me: I was experiencing it in my own house and on my own skin.

For the first time since 2009, when the United States Senate voted down an ill-fated climate bill, politicians seem to be connecting the dots between extreme weather and climate change. New York's Governor Andrew Cuomo broke the election-year silence around the issue in a press conference just 36 hours after the storm passed, and Mayor Bloomberg trumpeted President Obama’s climate credentials in an endorsement the next day. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/bill-mckibbens-math-climate-change-hits-home

November 6, 2012

Hurricane Sandy Worsens N.Y. Rat Problem

Hurricane Sandy Worsens N.Y. Rat Problem
by Winston Ross Oct 31, 2012 4:45 AM EDT

If you thought Frankenstorm would rid Gotham of its vermin, think again. Rodents are as resilient as cockroaches. Winston Ross reports.


Whither the Rattus norvegicus?

It’s a natural question, to wonder if Frankenstorm that swamped New York City on Monday night might depart with some silver-lined clouds—namely, that Hurricane Sandy either drowned the city’s inestimable millions of hearty Norway rats or washed them off the island altogether.


[font size="1"]Robert Mecea / AP Photo[/font]

Even Brooklyn’s own Bob Sullivan, author of the widely renowned book Rats, who has spent as much time thinking about rats as anyone who doesn’t pick up trash could possibly be expected to; even he had to stop and ponder it for a second:

“Well, the streets do seem a lot cleaner, in some places,” he told The Daily Beast on Tuesday. ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/10/31/hurricane-sandy-worsens-n-y-rat-problem.html

November 6, 2012

Shutting the Gates Over Fears of Election Unrest

from the NYT:



November 5, 2012, 2:15 pm

Shutting the Gates Over Fears of Election Unrest
By MANNY FERNANDEZ


A gated community near Atlanta has decided to step up security this week. The reason is not burglaries, but another issue entirely: the presidential election.

In Woodstock, Ga., about 30 miles north of Atlanta, the president of a homeowners’ association sent an e-mail on Sunday informing residents that the entrance gates would be closed 24 hours a day beginning at 6 p.m. Tuesday, out of concern over possible civil unrest after the election.

“I feel it is better to take a position of caution to enhance controlled access to the community until we see what (if any) negative repercussions may occur because of the results of the election,” wrote Bill Stanley, the president of the homeowners’ association at the Cottages of Woodstock, a residential community for people 55 and over.

.....(snip).....

Last week, a leader of the American Family Association, a conservative evangelical group, predicted widespread looting and mayhem if Mr. Obama lost. “People out there are going to be saying that ‘Governor Romney is going to take all this away from us,’” Bryan Fischer, the group’s director of issue analysis, said on his radio program. He added: “I think there’s going to be unrest. I think there will be blood.” ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/05/shutting-the-gates-over-fears-of-election-unrest/

November 6, 2012

Midday (at least in the EST zone) Poll: Who's voted?

November 6, 2012

NORML: Six States To Decide On Marijuana Measures

.........(snip).........

A summary of this year’s more prominent statewide and local ballot measures appears below.

ARKANSAS: Voters will decide on Measure 5, The Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act of 2012, which allows authorized patients to possess up to two and one-half ounces of cannabis for various qualifying medical conditions, including cancer, Crohn’s disease, fibromyalgia, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The measure also allows state regulators to establish not-for-profit facilities to produce and dispense cannabis to approved patients. Individual patients will also be permitted to privately cultivate limited amounts of cannabis (up to six flowering plants) if they reside further than five miles from a state-authorized dispensary.

COLORADO: Voters will decide on Amendment 64, which allows for the legal possession of up to one ounce of marijuana and/or the cultivation of up to six cannabis plants by those persons age 21 and over. Longer-term, the measure seeks to establish regulations governing the commercial production and distribution of marijuana by licensed retailers. Voters in the state approve of the measure by a margin of 50 percent to 44 percent, according to the latest Denver Post survey.

MASSACHUSETTS: Voters will decide on Question 3, which eliminates statewide criminal and civil penalties related to the possession and use of up to a 60-day supply of cannabis by qualified patients. It would also require the state to create and regulate up to 35 facilities to produce and dispense cannabis to approved patients. Individual patients will also be permitted to privately cultivate limited amounts of cannabis if they are unable to access a state-authorized dispensary. Voters in the state approve the measure by a margin of 55 percent to 36 percent, according to the latest Suffolk University poll.

MICHIGAN: Voters in four cities – totaling over a million people – will also decide on Tuesday whether to legalize or depenalize the adult use of cannabis. Voters in Detroit will decide on Proposal M, which removes criminal penalties pertaining to the possession on private property of up to one ounce of marijuana by adults over age 21. In Flint, voters will decide on a citizens’ initiative to amend the city code so that the possession on private property of up to one ounce of marijuana or cannabis paraphernalia by those age 19 or older is no longer a criminal offense. Grand Rapids voters will act on Proposal 2, which seeks to allow local law enforcement the discretion to ticket first-time marijuana offenders with a civil citation, punishable by a $25 fine and no criminal record. In Ypsilanti, voters will decide on a proposal to make the local enforcement of marijuana possession offenses the city’s lowest law enforcement priority. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://blog.norml.org/2012/11/05/six-states-to-decide-tomorrow-on-marijuana-measures/