Ohio’s GOP Secretary of State Already Has A Plan To Rig The 2016 Election For Republicans

As I posted earlier, a majority of voters voted for Democratic candidates for the U.S. House, but a majority of Republicans were elected because of gerrymandering by Republican state governments.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/11/09/1169761/ohios-gop-secretary-of-state-already-has-a-plan-to-rig-the-2016-election-for-republicans/

By Ian Millhiser and Josh Israel posted from ThinkProgress Justice on Nov 9, 2012

Last year, Pennsylvania’s Republican Gov. Tom Corbett proposed rigging the Electoral College vote in his state through a plan that would have given the majority of the state’s electors to Romney even after President Obama carried the state. Under Corbett’s plan, the winner of each congressional district within Pennsylvania would receive a single electoral vote, and the overall winner of the state would receive an additional two electoral votes. Had this plan been in place last Tuesday, Mitt Romney would likely have won 13 of the state’s 20 electoral votes, despite losing the state overall by more than five points.

Corbett’s election-rigging plan died, largely because Republican members of Congress in Pennsylvania feared that it would cause the Obama campaign to shift resources into their districts and endanger their own chances of being reelected. Now, however, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted (R)– who spent much of 2012 inventing ways to prevent pro-Obama votes from being cast or counted — wants to revive this election rigging scheme. According to the Ohio political blog Plunderbund,

Husted’s solution to this perceived problem of Democrats and the national media picking on him? He says we should make Ohio less important in the election by dividing up our electoral votes by Congressional district.

This is huge and should raise giant red flags. Under the current winner-take-all system, Obama won all 18 of Ohio’s electoral votes. Under Husted’s plan, 12 of those 18 electoral votes would be handed to Mitt Romney, the popular vote loser.

As in Pennsylvania, Republicans gerrymandered Ohio within an inch of its life. Even though Obama won Ohio, Republicans carried 12 of 16 seats in Ohio’s House delegation. This gerrymander would have all but ensured that Romney carried the overwhelming majority of Ohio’s electoral votes, regardless of how he performed in the state overall.

Indeed, if the Corbett/Husted plan to rig the Electoral College had been law in several key Republican-controlled states that President Obama won last Tuesday, America would now be looking at a very different future. Assuming that Mitt Romney won every congressional district that elected a Republican House candidate in these key states, the Corbett/Husted plan would have given Romney 17 electoral votes in Florida, 9 in Michigan, 12 in Ohio, 13 in Pennsylvania, 8 in Virginia, and 5 in Wisconsin — for a total of 64 additional electoral votes.

Add those 64 votes to the 206 votes Romney won legitimately, and it adds up to exactly 270 — the amount he needed to win the White House.

David Siegel, Billionaire Whose Letter Promised Mass Layoffs After Obama Win, Gives Workers Raises

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/11/09/1171301/fox-news-obama-layoffs/

linked to:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/08/david-siegel-westgate-letter-layoffs-firings-obama-win-victory-raises_n_2092582.html

By Cavan Sieczkowski
Posted: 11/08/2012 10:32 am EST Updated: 11/09/2012 12:07 pm EST

The private timeshare mogul and Mitt Romney supporter who swore mass employee layoffs if President Barack Obama won reelection has had a change of heart.

Earlier this year, David Siegel, the founder of Central Florida Investments and Westgate Resorts, emailed a letter to his employees warning them to vote for Romney or else. However, after Obama won the election on Tuesday, instead of firing some of his 65,000 employees, Siegel decided to give them raises.

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Siegel, whose 90,000-square-foot Florida "Versailles" mansion may be the biggest in America (once it's finished being built), insists he did not influence his employees to vote in any way.

"I didn’t do a thing," he told Businessweek. "I just wished employees luck. I didn’t do anything to encourage or discourage employees, to find out who their preference was. I had said enough. If they believed me, they knew what to do. If they didn’t believe me, they knew what to do."

Has your boss fired workers as a result of President Obama's reelection? Email Jillian.Berman@huffingtonpost.com and tell us about it.

In October, Siegel emailed a letter to his employees warning them that a vote for Obama could mean mass layoffs.

"The economy doesn't currently pose a threat to your job," he wrote in the letter, obtained by Gawker. "What does threaten your job however, is another 4 years of the same Presidential administration. Of course, as your employer, I can't tell you whom to vote for, and I certainly wouldn't interfere with your right to vote for whomever you choose." Later adding, "If any new taxes are levied on me, or my company, as our current President plans, I will have no choice but to reduce the size of this company."

Siegel contacted Gawker and confirmed that he wrote the layoff letter and that it was based on a popular chain letter circulated around the time of the 2008 election.

The moneyed real estate mogul previously denied strong-arming his employees. “I wanted to inform my employees of what their future would hold if they make the wrong decision,” he said on CNBC. “I wasn’t threatening any of the employees. If they vote for Obama they’re not going to lose their jobs.”

In 2007, Siegel's net worth was calculated at $1 billion, according to Forbes. But he's not the only billionaire who expressed his anti-Obama sentiments before the November election.

[$1 billion = 1,000,000,000 = 2,000 * $50,000]

Occupy Wall Street Launches ‘Rolling Jubilee’ To Buy Up And Forgive Debt

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/11/09/1172111/occupy-wall-street-debt-jubilee/

By Pat Garofalo on Nov 9, 2012

Members of Occupy Wall Street — various branches of which have recently been saving families from foreclosure and aiding victims of Hurricane Sandy — have launched a new initiative. Coined the “Rolling Jubilee,” Occupiers are raising money to buy distressed debt from financial firms.

But while purchasers of debt usually hound debtors in order to make a return on their investment, Occupy plans to simply abolish the debt for the lucky individuals whose accounts they grab. As explained on the Rolling Jubilee website:

We buy debt for pennies on the dollar, but instead of collecting it, we abolish it. We cannot buy specific individuals’ debt – instead, we help liberate debtors at random through a campaign of mutual support, good will, and collective refusal.

Organizer David Rees explained further:

OWS is going to start buying distressed debt (medical bills, student loans, etc.) in order to forgive it. As a test run, we spent $500, which bought $14,000 of distressed debt. We then ERASED THAT DEBT. (If you’re a debt broker, once you own someone’s debt you can do whatever you want with it — traditionally, you hound debtors to their grave trying to collect. We’re playing a different game. A MORE AWESOME GAME.)

This is a simple, powerful way to help folks in need — to free them from heavy debt loads so they can focus on being productive, happy and healthy.

Average student debt currently stands at more than $26,000. Nationally, nearly 25 percent of homeowners are underwater, meaning they owe more on their mortgage than their home is currently worth.

Cymothoa exigua ~ Tongue-eating parasites

See the link for a picture.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=379590952123603&set=a.119791638103537.28779.117905868292114&type=1&relevant_count=1&ref=nf

Milky way scientists

Cymothoa exigua ~ Tongue-eating parasites

Cymothoa exigua, or the tongue-eating louse, is a parasitic crustacean of the family Cymothoidae. This parasite enters fish through the gills, and then attaches itself at the base of the fish's tongue. The female attaches to the tongue and the male attaches on the gill arches beneath and behind the female. Females are 8–29 millimetres (0.3–1.1 in) long an
d 4–14 mm (0.16–0.55 in) in maximum width. Males are approximately 7.5–15 mm (0.3–0.6 in) long and 3–7 mm (0.12–0.28 in) wide. It extracts blood through the claws on its front, causing the tongue to atrophy from lack of blood. The parasite then replaces the fish's tongue by attaching its own body to the muscles of the tongue stub. The fish is able to use the parasite just like a normal tongue. It appears that the parasite does not cause any other damage to the host fish.[2] Once C. exigua replaces the tongue, some feed on the host's blood and many others feed on fish mucus. This is the only known case of a parasite functionally replacing a host organ. There are many species of Cymothoa, but only C. exigua is known to consume and replace its host's tongue.

Georgia ranked third among racist post-election tweets, study says

See the article for info on other states.

http://clatl.com/freshloaf/archives/2012/11/09/georgia-ranked-third-among-racist-post-election-tweets-study-says

Posted by Max Blau @maxblau on Fri, Nov 9, 2012

Throughout the 2012 election season, social media has helped people to engage in the political discourse surrounding election races more than ever before.

But there's also a downside to discussing politics through social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. As a recent Jezebel post documented, an abundance of hate messages followed the re-election of President Barack Obama.

Floatingsheep, which analyzes user-generated geocoded data, yesterday took a hard look at racist election tweets. After aggregating tweets surrounding the presidential race, the site's authors examined the data on a state-by-state basis, seeing how the racist posts compared to the overall number of messages during that same period.

What did they find? They saw that Southern states had a high amount of racist tweeters.

That includes Georgia, which ranked third just behind Alabama and Mississppi.

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http://www.floatingsheep.org/2012/11/mapping-racist-tweets-in-response-to.html

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Keep in mind we are measuring tweets rather than users and so one individual could be responsible for many tweets and in some cases (most notably in North Dakota, Utah and Minnesota) the number of hate tweets is small and the high LQ is driven by the relatively low number of overall tweets.

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Hunter Biden, VP Biden's son, to be commissioned in Navy Reserves

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/09/15052776-hunter-biden-vp-bidens-son-to-be-commissioned-in-navy-reserves?lite

Nov. 9, 2012
By Courtney Kube, NBC News

Hunter Biden, the 42-year-old son of Vice President Joe Biden, has been selected to be commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Navy.

Biden will be commissioned early next year if he passes his medical tests and completes his administrative paperwork.

Currently a civilian, Biden will be commissioned as an ensign in the Navy Reserves and will be assigned to the Navy's public affairs department.

Biden was one of seven applicants chosen to become a Reserve public affairs officer, Navy spokesperson Lt. Cmdr. Chris Servello said. Biden applied for and was granted a waiver to join the program -- the age limit is 42.

.....

Discretionary funding headed down

http://www.offthechartsblog.org/where-discretionary-funding-is-headed/

November 9, 2012

We’ve updated the chart below, which originally appeared in this report, to reflect adjustments that we’ve made to the Office of Management and Budget’s historical data to eliminate the effects of timing shifts and other budget anomalies.

[see link above to see chart]

But the basic picture remains the same. Cuts enacted last year (most notably under the Budget Control Act) will shrink non-defense discretionary funding — domestic programs ranging from education to law enforcement, food safety, and environmental protection, as well as international programs — to its lowest level on record as a share of gross domestic product (GDP), with data going back to 1976.

Turning off Facebook "liked" ads

To turn off "liked" ads in Facebook, which are appearing on your friends news feed:

At top right, click on down arrow to the right of "Home" button
Click on "Privacy Settings"

Page down to "Ads, Apps and Websites"
Click on "Edit Settings", on the right

Scroll down to "Ads Manage settings for third-party and social ads"
Click on "Edit settings"

Under "Ads shown by third parties"
Click on "Edit third party ad settings"
To the right of "If we allow this in the future, show my information to",
In the drop down box to the right,
click on the arrow,
click on "No one"
Click the "Save Changes" button

Under "Ads and friends"
Click on "Edit social ads setting"
Scroll down near the bottom to "Pair my social actions with ads for"
In the drop down box, choose "No one"
Click the "Save Changes" button

Starchy, high carbohydrate diet associated with recurrence of colon cancer

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-11/dci-shc110612.php

Public release date: 7-Nov-2012
Contact: Anne Doerr
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

BOSTON--Colon cancer survivors whose diet is heavy in complex sugars and carbohydrate-rich foods are far more likely to have a recurrence of the disease than are patients who eat a better balance of foods, a new study by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers indicates.

The connection is especially strong in patients who are overweight or obese, the authors write. More than 1,000 patients with advanced (stage III) colon cancer participated in the study, one of the first to examine how diet can affect the chances that the disease will recur. The findings are being published online by the Journal of the National Cancer Institute and will appear later in the journal's print edition.

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They found that participants with the highest dietary levels of glycemic load and carbohydrate intake had an 80 percent increased risk of colon cancer recurrence or death compared with those who had the lowest levels. Among patients who were overweight or obese (had a body mass index above 25 kg/m2), the increase was even greater.

Future warming likely to be on high side of climate projections, analysis finds

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-11/ncfa-fwl110512.php

Public release date: 8-Nov-2012
Contact: David Hosansky
Zhenya Gallon, NCAR/UCAR Media Relations
John Fasullo, NCAR Scientist
Kevin Trenberth, NCAR Scientist
National Center for Atmospheric Research/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

BOULDER—Climate model projections showing a greater rise in global temperature are likely to prove more accurate than those showing a lesser rise, according to a new analysis by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). The findings, published in this week's issue of Science, could provide a breakthrough in the longstanding quest to narrow the range of global warming expected in coming decades and beyond.

NCAR scientists John Fasullo and Kevin Trenberth, who co-authored the study, reached their conclusions by analyzing how well sophisticated climate models reproduce observed relative humidity in the tropics and subtropics.

The climate models that most accurately captured these complex moisture processes and associated clouds, which have a major influence on global climate, were also the ones that showed the greatest amounts of warming as society emits more greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.

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The world's major global climate models, numbering more than two dozen, are all based on long-established physical laws known to guide the atmosphere. However, because these relationships are challenging to translate into software, each model differs slightly in its portrayal of global climate. In particular, some processes, such as those associated with clouds, are too small to be represented properly.

The most common benchmark for comparing model projections is equilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS), or the amount of warming that eventually occurs in a model when carbon dioxide is doubled over preindustrial values. At current rates of global emission, that doubling will occur well before 2100.

For more than 30 years, ECS in the leading models has averaged around 5 degrees Fahrenheit (3 degrees Celsius). This provides the best estimate of global temperature increase expected by the late 21st century compared to late 19th century values, assuming that society continues to emit significant amounts of carbon dioxide. However, the ECS within individual models is as low as 3 degrees F and as high as 8 degrees F, leaving a wide range of uncertainty that has proven difficult to narrow over the past three decades.

The difference is important to reconcile, as a higher temperature rise would produce greater impacts on society in terms of sea level rise, heat waves, droughts, and other threats.

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Pavements Designed to Fight Climate Change Could Increase Energy Consumption in Surrounding Buildings

Maybe this would be beneficial in places that have a lot of cold weather.

http://www.jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/news/news_releases/release.sfe?id=1281

Nov. 6, 2012 -- A push to replace old, heat-trapping paving materials with new, cooler materials could actually lead to higher electricity bills for surrounding buildings, engineers at the University of California, San Diego, have found. Researchers published their findings Oct. 29 in the new Journal of Urban Climate.

The new paving materials are designed to lower the overall temperature of the areas where they are used—something that the study, which was focused on local solar radiation and energy consumption, was not designed to measure.

The study sounds a note of caution at a time when both federal and state legislatures have been pushing for increased use of the new highly reflective pavement materials. Assembly Bill 296, which became law in California this year, is designed to advance cool pavement practices in the state and requires the compilation of a Cool Pavement Handbook. The federal Heat Island and Smog Reduction Act of 2011, currently under consideration in Congress, would specifically require paving materials with higher solar reflectivity.

“Our findings suggested that some benefits associated with reflective pavements are tied to the environment where they’re used,” said Jan Kleissl, a professor of environmental engineering at the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego. “More studies are needed to determine where these new materials would be most beneficial.”

The new materials could have a positive effect in areas where buildings can automatically respond to additional sunlight because they are equipped with smart lighting solutions, such as dimmers run by photo-sensitive cells.

However, buildings without these features do not fare as well. The increases in consumption of cooling energy due to the new pavements ranged anywhere from 4.5 to 9.5 percent for typical newer, and better insulated, buildings; and from 5 to 11 percent for older structures. That’s because the new paving materials stay cool by reflecting significantly more of the sun’s rays than traditional pavements. Many rays are reflected back into space, helping to cool surrounding areas—and the planet. However, a portion of these rays gets reflected onto the windows of nearby buildings. In the researchers’ study, windows facing the reflective pavements got 40 percent more daily sunshine in summer as windows facing more traditional paving surfaces (in winter the difference was only 12 percent). That in turn increases temperatures inside the building, especially if the windows do not have solar-control coating. So the buildings’ occupants turn up the air conditioning. Meanwhile, office buildings that have smart lighting or energy-conscious occupants may actually benefit from the additional sunlight by being able to reduce energy use due to artificial lighting.

The worst-case scenario is when these new cooler pavements are used in office park settings with many mid-rise buildings with large window areas. The best-case scenario would be to use the new paving materials near buildings without windows; on roads or large parking lots that are not surrounded by buildings; or in warehouse districts where structures don’t have air conditioning, Kleissl said.

Alcoholic men can't feel your pain. Here's why

http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/08/15029060-alcoholic-men-cant-feel-your-pain-heres-why?lite

By Linda Carroll
Nov. 8, 2012

Too much alcohol can ruin a man’s appreciation of irony and block feelings of empathy. And that’s true even when he’s sober, a new study suggests.

Scientists suspect that chronic heavy drinking damages parts of the brain that are crucial to decoding others’ emotions and to processing humor, especially irony.

“Chronic alcohol abuse seems to have effects on the perception and decoding of emotional expressions,” says Simona Amenta, a post-doctoral researcher at Italy’s University of Milano-Bicocca and a lecturer at the Catholic University of Milan. “It has been associated with … deficits in emotion recognition and verbalization, leading to difficulties in distinguishing and comprehending people’s emotional states.”
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Some studies, in fact, have shown that alcoholics tend to misidentify the emotions of people they are interacting with, Amenta notes. So sadness can be mistaken for anger, while happiness might come across as a negative emotion.

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Lara Ray, an assistant professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles, isn’t surprised to see differences in how alcoholic and non-alcoholic brains work. Chronic alcohol abuse changes the brain, she says.

The kinds of misinterpretations alcoholics make might predispose them to getting into the fights that seem all too common in bars.

That, plus the fact that alcohol is a disinhibitor. “So those who are higher in aggression become more aggressive,” Ray adds.

Buddhist, Hindu Make History With Elections To Congress

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/07/buddhist-hindu-congress-mazie-hirono-tulsi-gabbard_n_2088939.html

Jaweed.Kaleem@huffingtonpost.com

Posted: 11/07/2012

Tuesday's elections brought two historic firsts for religion in American politics: A Buddhist senator and a Hindu representative -- both from Hawaii -- will join Congress.

Democrat Mazie Hirono beat former Gov. Linda Lingle (R), making Hirono the first Buddhist in the Senate. In Hawaii's 2nd Congressional District, Democrat Tulsi Gabbard defeated Republican opponent Kawika Crowley, making Gabbard the first Hindu in Congress.

Both elections were cheered by Hindu and Buddhist Americans, members of two faiths that share a common history that traces back to ancient India.

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Buddhism, which includes a widely diverse set of spiritual practices, is one of the largest religions in the U.S., but statistics vary on how many Buddhists live in the nation. Surveys have estimated the population between 1.5 and 3 million.

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Like Buddhists, estimates of the Hindu-American community in the U.S. also vary. Largely made up of Indian-Americans, the Hindu population is between 600,000 to 2.3 million. Unlike most Hindus, Gabbard is not of Indian heritage. Her father is Samoan and her mother is a convert to Hinduism.

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Hirono and Gabbard will join an increasingly diverse Congress. The first Muslim to join the House or Senate, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), was first elected in 2006 and reelected for a fourth term on Tuesday. In 2008, Rep. Andre Carson (D-Ind.) was the second Muslim elected to Congress. In 2008, Rep. Hark Johnson (D-Ga.), another Buddhist, also joined Congress, making history with him and Hirono the first Buddhists to be elected to Congress.

Mitt Romney's Campaign Cancels Staffers Credit Cards In The Middle Of The Night

http://www.forbes.com/sites/helaineolen/2012/11/08/mitt-romneys-campaign-cancels-staffers-credit-cards-in-the-middle-of-the-night/

Helaine Olen
Nov. 8, 2012

The next time you have the misfortune of hearing a Wall Street titan or other one-percenter whine about how their trickle-down contributions are not appreciated by the masses remember this tidbit, courtesy of Garrett Haake at NBC:

From the moment Mitt Romney stepped off stage Tuesday night, having just delivered a brief concession speech he wrote only that evening, the massive infrastructure surrounding his campaign quickly began to disassemble itself.

Aides taking cabs home late that night got rude awakenings when they found the credit cards linked to the campaign no longer worked.

Hurricane Sandy may have cost Obama 800,000 votes

Like many people, I had been thinking that we should abolish the electoral college and elect the president by direct vote. Probably with the ability to vote for several people, ranking them in order of preference, so that we could vote for a 3rd party candidate w/o helping someone we very much did not want to win, and ensure the winner got the majority vote w/o a runoff.

However, hurricane Sandy has made me re-think this. Many people were not able to vote because of effects of the storm. To be fair, we would have had extend the voting longer in those areas. But because of the electoral college, they had their normal influence, at least to the extent that those who were able to vote were representative of those who could not.

If we do keep the electoral college, I would want changes to make it fairer - do away with winner-take-all, and the disproportionate counting of smaller states. Go strictly to counting precincts. But then there would still be the problem of gerrymandering. Even though more votes went to elect Democrats to the U.S. House, more Republicans were elected because of states jiggering their districts.

So this article was very timely.

http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/08/15025845-hurricane-sandy-may-have-cost-obama-800000-votes?lite

By NBC’s Domenico Montanaro
Nov. 8, 2012

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour asserted this morning on NBC’s TODAY that “Hurricane Sandy saved Barack Obama’s presidency.”
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But did the president’s perceived leadership during the immediate aftermath of the storm really move 2.9 million votes? That’s highly unlikely.

In fact, Sandy may have actually cost the president 800,000 votes.

It’s difficult to quantify the tangible impact of the good scores the president received during the storm. But public polls before the storm largely proved to be similar to the actual results on Election Day.

In the days after the storm, First Read projected that in the counties most affected by the storm in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, the president could lose a net of 340,000 votes.

It wound up being about half that across the states, with a net-reduction of about 160,000 votes -- 200,000 in New York, 10,000 in Connecticut, 10,000 in Rhode Island. The president gained about 60,000 net votes in New Jersey, but it could have been higher, given the margin increase.

Obama held his margins in all those states, but with turnout down across all of them, the president got about 802,000 fewer votes than 2008 – 500,000 less in New York, 161,000 in New Jersey, 123,000 in Connecticut, and 18,000 in Rhode Island.

Republicans Censor What They Can’t Refute

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/06/republicans-censor-what-they-cant-refute/

November 6, 2012
By BRUCE BARTLETT

Bruce Bartlett held senior policy roles in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations and served on the staffs of Representatives Jack Kemp and Ron Paul. He is the author of “The Benefit and the Burden: Tax Reform – Why We Need It and What It Will Take.”

On Sept. 14, the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service published a report, one of hundreds it puts out every year, titled “Taxes and the Economy: An Economic Analysis of Top Tax Rates Since 1945.” Although the C.R.S. reports are not released directly to the public, they tend to leak out within days. The New York Times posted this one on the Economix blog on Sept. 15 because of its provocative conclusions.

In essence, the report, written by the economist Thomas L. Hungerford, who has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Michigan, concluded that changes in the top statutory tax rate and the rate on capital gains had no discernible effect on economic growth in the period since 1945. It noted that the top rate was over 90 percent in the 1940s and 1950s, 70 percent in the 1960s and 1970s, 50 percent during most of the 1980s and has been below 40 percent ever since.

These changes were correlated with various measures of saving, investment, productivity and gross domestic product growth. No relationship could be found.

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Tax cuts for the rich and for corporations are the core Republican idea for how to jump-start growth. That is why Mr. Romney proposes to keep the 15 percent tax rates on dividends and capital gains permanently and drop the top statutory rate to 28 percent, as well as to reduce the corporate tax rate to 25 percent from 35 percent.

Therefore, the Congressional Research Service report was a political threat that Republicans had to quash – and fast, with the election looming. According to an article in The New York Times on Nov. 2, a number of Senate Republican offices complained to the head of the C.R.S. about the report and succeeded in having it taken down from its internal Web site, accessible only by those within Congress.

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Getting the report withdrawn smacks of censorship. Andrew Rosenthal, editor of The New York Times’s editorial page, commented, “Congressional Republicans seem to think that the C.R.S. should function like Pravda.” Pravda was, of course, the official organ of the Soviet Communist Party.

The irony is that the Republican effort to quash the report has led to it getting vastly more attention than if they had simply ignored it. Censorship has a funny way of doing that.

Staying warm w/o power

If I were rich, I would donate a bunch of space blankets to organizations helping the people who are w/o power due to the storms in NE. They do not use electricity. They reflect your body heat. I have two on my bed, one I sleep on top of, one over my blankets. I wouldn't deliver the blankets myself, I would let the agencies get them an distribute them. Buying a bunch should enable a discount. I would also like to donate them to poor and homeless people.

I get mine at REI. I get the sturdy ones, which cost more, but last for years. I also use them on my windows. In the summer I use them during the day to out the warmth from the sun. In the winter I use them at night to keep the warmth from escaping.

We Need More Sensible Republican Voices

http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2012/10/we-need-more-sensible-republican-voices.html

by Mark Thoma
Professor of Economics
University of Oregon
Nov. 5, 2012

A few thoughts:

I started this blog a few months after George Bush was reelected (March 6, 2005). There was more than one motivation behind the choice to start a blog, but a key factor was the way in which liberal/progressive ideas were presented in the media prior to the election, particularly on television. The presentation of economic issues was abysmal, and the people the news shows chose to invite onto their programs were far to the left of what I thought of as the typical Democrat. More importantly, the people representing Democrats on news and talk shows were unable to articulate the economic reasoning behind many of the Democrat’s proposals and ideas. When Social Security was targeted as a socialist redistribution scheme, for example, and George Bush pushed privatization, the people speaking for Democrats were unable to explain Social Security’s role as social insurance rather than a purely redistributive scheme, and they were unable to articulate the market failures that underlie the need for the government to take an active role in these markets.

For one, as an economist, I wanted people to know that Democrats are not opposed to markets. The vast majority of us are not a bunch of socialists waiting for our chance to overthrow the system. In fact, at least from my perspective, we wanted to fix the market failures so that markets actually work in the best interests of society as a whole, not just the privileged few. We were trying to make the system work better through institutional and regulatory reform that improves markets, to come as close as we can to the ideal markets in our textbooks, not overthrow the capitalist system.

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hope they do, and that they are successful. We have a mixed economy and that is not going to change. Some parts are left to the private sector, at least for the most part, and in other areas there is a strong government presence. We need a healthy, robust debate about where the lines ought to be drawn between the public and private sectors, and how best to regulate the economy when the government does intervene. We also need debates on how to conduct countercyclical fiscal policy, something Republicans have always supported in the past in one form or another, we need more sensible Republican voices when it comes to monetary policy, and we need a discussion of social insurance that doesn't have one-side calling for its annihilation. There are all sorts of questions that call for a debate at the margins rather than posturing at polar extremes, and I would welcome a healthier discussion of these issues.

Why Americans Actually Voted For A Democratic House

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/11/07/1159631/americans-voted-for-a-democratic-house-gerrymandering-the-supreme-court-gave-them-speaker-boehner/

By Ian Millhiser posted from ThinkProgress Justice on Nov 7, 2012
ThinkProgress intern Nate Niemann contributed to this report.

Although a small number of ballots remain to be counted, as of this writing, votes for a Democratic candidate for the House of Representatives outweigh votes for Republican candidates. Based on ThinkProgress’ review of all ballots counted so far, 53,952,240 votes were cast for a Democratic candidate for the House and only 53,402,643 were cast for a Republican — meaning that Democratic votes exceed Republican votes by more than half a million.

Two caveats are necessary in considering these numbers. The first is that all ballots have not been counted, so these numbers will change somewhat as more returns trickle in. (Because the remaining ballots are more likely to be from Democratic-leaning west coast states, it is likely that the Democrats’ margin will increase somewhat over time.) The second caveat is that these numbers include several California districts where two members of the same party ran against each other, and they do not include districts where a single candidate ran unopposed. Nevertheless, the fact remains that the nation is very closely divided over which party should control the House, with Democrats appearing to enjoy a slight edge.

The actual partisan breakdown of the 113th Congress will be very different, however. Currently, Republicans enjoy a 233-192 advantage over Democrats, with 10 seats remaining undecided. That means that, in a year when Republicans earned less than half the popular vote, they will control a little under 54 percent of the House even if Democrats run the table on the undecided seats.

There is a simple explanation for how this happened: Republicans won several key state legislatures and governors’ mansions in the election cycle before redistricting, and they gerrymandered those states within an inch of their lives. President Obama won Pennsylvania by more than 5 points, but Democrats carried only 5 of the state’s 18 congressional seats:

.....

Americans voted for a Democratic president, a Democratic Senate, and, barring significant shifts in the vote tally, a Democratic House. Instead, they will get a House majority similar to the one that held the entire nation hostage during last year’s debt ceiling hostage crisis. If the American people wanted this to happen, they would have said so at the polls on Tuesday. Instead, Republican state lawmakers took away their right to democratically legitimate leadership — with a big assist from the conservatives on the Supreme Court.

Poll watcher vs poll worker

I was a poll watcher yesterday (Tues., Nov. 6, 2012).

I had a badge that said "Official Poll Watcher". I was sitting around most of the time with nothing to do. Some lady said she wished she could get a job as a poll watcher. I told her poll watchers don't get paid. I mentioned it a couple of other times in response to voter comments, then I was nicely told I wasn't supposed to talk directly to the voters. (A rule designed to keep poll watchers from trying to influence how people vote.)

A lot of people don't know what a poll watcher is.

Poll workers or poll officers are hired and paid by the elections board to run the elections. They set up the election area, sign you in, check that you are registered, give you your ballot, return the machines to the board of registrars, etc.

A poll watcher is an unpaid volunteer from a political party who watches to make sure voters are not being unlawfully denied the opportunity to vote. In Georgia, each political party can designate up to 2 poll watchers per precinct. Independent candidates can designate up to 1 poll watcher per precinct. Several times a day, I got the total number of votes cast on all the machines & texted it to headquarters. It was pretty boring, esp. because the poll manager at my precinct was very professional and fair.

Murdoch's NY Post To Gov. Christie: Politicize Hurricane Sandy. Or Else

According to Murdoch, "true bipartisanship" means lying for the sake of your party, even if you think it would be bad for the people you represent.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2012/11/04/murdochs-ny-post-to-gov-christie-politicize-hur/191124

ERIC BOEHLERT Nov. 4, 2012

In a remarkable lead editorial in Rupert Murdoch's New York Post today, the newspaper demands that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie inject presidential politics into the cleanup effort under way in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. The Post insists he do so immediately or run the risk of being a labeled a traitor within the Republican Party.

Murdoch's Post, at this very late state of the election run, demands Christie politicize the hurricane relief effort by basically campaigning for Mitt Romney in the context of the killer storm. (Christie hosted President Obama on Wednesday to survey the state's historic damage.) And if Christie does not, the Post warns, "the Republican Party will never forgive him."

From the Post's "Politicking matters" editorial (emphasis added):

But Christie does need to go one step further and reassure his party -- and not just his party -- that he hasn't turned coat.

[...]

Yes, Christie has forcefully avoided politicking post-Sandy -- as he noted when asked about his praise for Obama.

And he was right to do so.

But true bipartisanship includes the need to make clear his belief that the incumbent's vigorous response to the disaster would have been more than matched by Mitt Romney had he been president.

South Florida County Extends Early Voting — But Only In One GOP Stronghold

http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/11/04/1136371/south-florida-county-extends-early-voting-but-only-in-one-gop-stronghold/

By Judd Legum on Nov 4, 2012

Last night, voters in Miami-Dade County were forced to wait in line up to six hours to vote. In some precincts voters who arrived at 7PM were not able to cast their ballots until 1AM.

In response, Republican-affiliated election officials in Miami-Dade have effectively extended early voting from 1PM to 5PM today by allowing “in-person” absentee voting. But this accommodation will only be available in a single location in the most Republican area of the county.

Nearly every city within 5 to 10 miles of this location — including Hialeah, Miami Springs, Sweetwater and Miami Lakes — has a substantial Republican voter registration advantage.

The most populous city among those is Hialeah where Republicans, powered by a large Cuban community, have an overwhelming registration advantage of nearly 20,000 voters. There will not be an opportunity for in-person absentee voting in downtown Miami or South Dade, where there are heavy concentrations of Democratic voters.

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according to Jim DeFede, an investigative reporter for CBS News in Miami, the decision to have in-person absentee balloting was made last night but not announced publicly until 9:30AM this morning.

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Update: The Miami Herald reports that Miami-Dade abruptly closed the single voting location after less than 2 hours

Personal bankruptcy and the sin of getting too sick

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/09/22/169002/commentary-personal-bankruptcy.html#storylink=omni_popular

Posted on Saturday, September 22, 2012
Issac J. Bailey

This weekend, a friend was mixing it up at a wedding shower, helping ease another woman’s path into that bedrock institution.

The next day she was lying in a hospital bed at the Medical University of South Carolina, having suffered a brain aneurysm.

It’s one of those unexpected events that happen across the globe every day, if not every minute or every second.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/09/22/169002/commentary-personal-bankruptcy.html#storylink=omni_popular#storylink=cpy

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I know that she and her husband are kind and compassionate.

I know that they are responsible people who loved their children through the ups-and-downs of parenting.

I know they adore each other and respect each other and try to protect each other and work to help others when they can and stand firm when they must and give in situations in which others would be guided by egos.

They are productive.

They work hard.

They make the world a better place.

No matter any of that, though, their lives were up-ended because an undetected, weak blood vessel decided it was time to explode.

It seems unfair.

It is unfair.

My initial concern about how they would face the aftermath of brain surgery and adjust their broader lives and private their relationship quickly drifted to something else.

No matter the talk about 47 percent of Americans supposedly being slackers or government-dependent or irresponsible, the top cause of personal bankruptcy is the sin of getting too sick, too quickly, the sin of an unexpected major medical emergency.

I’ve seen it crush and almost crush many people over the past several years, from a woman who was paralyzed while helping a stranger during a purse snatching, to a college student who had to drop out of school and worry about how her mother would pay the mortgage and the thousands of dollars of expenses that resulted from treating an incurable, rare cancer.

I’ve seen people hold their heads high and their faith strong through layoffs caused by nameless, faceless people making dollars-and-cents decisions states away.

I’ve watched people lose homes because of a real estate bubble they had no way of knowing was about to burst like a blood vessel in the brain, without knowing that such a bubble even existed.

I’ve watched people pick themselves off the floor after the unexpected slapped them down.

I’ve seen them act as though they were not victims – smiling any way, helping others any way – even though their circumstances screamed otherwise.

Most of the millions of Americans who need help, some private, some public, aren’t standing on a sidewalk holding a tin cup asking a stranger if he could spare a dime, a sandwich.

They are like my friends, living lives worthy of the breath God has granted them, come what may

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/09/22/169002/commentary-personal-bankruptcy.html#storylink=omni_popular#storylink=cpy

Sandy Swamps Eastern U.S. But Drought Persists Almost Everywhere Else

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/11/04/1135471/hell-and-high-water-sandy-swamps-eastern-us-but-drought-persists-almost-everywhere-else/

Hell And High Water: Sandy Swamps Eastern U.S. But Drought Persists Almost Everywhere Else
By Joe Romm on Nov 4, 2012

The mark of man-made climate change is weather extremes. And that’s what we’re seeing in America this week.

On the one hand, we had Frankenstorm Sandy inundating the East, with 12.55 inches of rain in Easton, Maryland, 11.91 inches in Wildwood, NJ — and a “crippling amount of heavy, wet snow”:

34.0 in. – Gatlinburg, Tenn.
33.0 in. – Clayton, W. Va.
29.0 in. – Redhouse, Md.
24.0 in. – Norton, Va.

On the other hand, the overwhelming majority of the rest of the country is in drought, especially the Great Plains. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports the drought is still slamming farmers and ranchers:

Hay in drought dipped to 62 percent, down two percentage points from a week ago and down seven points from the Sept. 25 peak.
Cattle in drought also fell two percentage points to 69 percent, and is down seven points from Sept. 25.
Winter wheat in drought decreased for the sixth consecutive week, although drought still covers nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of the production area.

This is what climate change looks like.

2,000-year-old computer recreated

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZrfMFhrgOFc

Secondhand smoke laws may cut heart attacks, study finds

Also, anything that impairs breathing is hard on the heart, because it has to pump faster to try to get enough oxygen to cells in the body.

http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/29/14785251-secondhand-smoke-laws-may-cut-heart-attacks-study-finds?lite

by Genevra Pittm, vitals.nbcnews.com
November 30, 2012

Heart attacks dropped by one-third in one county in Minnesota after two smoke-free workplace ordinances went into place, a new study shows.

The lead researcher on the work said that decline was likely due to less secondhand smoke exposure in restaurants and bars, as smoke can trigger heart problems due to its effects on arteries and blood clotting.

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Researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota found that in the 18 months before the first ordinance was enacted, the rate of heart attacks in Olmsted County was 151 for every 100,000 people. By the 18 months following the second ordinance, that fell to 101 per 100,000 people.

Dr. Richard Hurt said a few other studies, including one from Montana, have also suggested smoke-free workplace laws could impact heart attack rates.

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Hurt, who led the research, said other predictors of heart attacks - including cholesterol levels, blood pressure and diabetes and obesity rates - all held steady or increased in Olmsted County over the study period.

"The only thing that really changed here was the smoke-free workplace laws," he said.

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According to Hurt, the findings also make sense biologically. Exposure to secondhand smoke can cause immediate changes in the lining of the aorta, and can make blood platelets stickier - so they're more likely to form a dangerous clot.

The study is in line with the Institute of Medicine, which advises the U.S. government and said in a 2009 statement that, "data consistently demonstrates that secondhand-smoke exposure increases the risk of coronary heart disease and heart attacks and that smoking bans reduce this risk."

Hurt's results are published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

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He and his colleagues tried to account for general changes in heart attack rates that might have happened regardless of smoke-free laws. They found heart attacks had been declining even in the years before the ordinances - but fell much faster once they were put in place.

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Siegel said there is more-convincing evidence that smoke-free workplace laws can help protect against asthma attacks and other lung problems.

"We don't need to prove that they actually decrease heart attacks over a short period of time," he said. "There's lots of reasons to support (these laws)."

Flu vaccine may protect you from a heart attack

http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/28/14726938-flu-vaccine-may-protect-you-from-a-heart-attack?lite

by Jennifer Nelso, vitals.nbcnews.com
November 30, 2012

Getting a flu shot this season may not only greatly lower your risk of influenza this year, it may also lower your risk of heart disease, a new review from Canada suggests.

Results show that people who received the flu vaccine were 50 percent less likely to experience a heart attack or stroke, and 40 percent less likely to die from one, compared with people in the unvaccinated control group.

The flu vaccine could be an important way to maintain heart health and ward off strokes and heart attacks, the researchers said. They presented their findings at a cardiovascular disease research meeting today (Oct. 28) in Toronto.

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Regardless of whether study participants had a history of heart disease, those who got the flu vaccine were less likely to have cardiovascular events, or die them from.

While the reason for the link is not exactly clear, Udell said it may be that when people develop heart disease, some factor "tips them over the edge," such as plaque clogging arteries, or lower levels of oxygen as a result of the flu.

The flu vaccine may stop this "tipping" by preventing flu, or by actually breaking up plaque in the arteries. “Either one is very provocative, and it's important to drill down and get the answer,” Udell said.

Dr. Sarah Samaan, a cardiologist and director of the Women’s Cardiovascular Institute at Baylor Heart Hospital in Plano, Texas, said the key to the link may be in reducing inflammation.

When someone gets the flu, blood levels of inflammatory substances rise, and inflammation of the blood vessels can trigger heart attacks.

“This happens because inflammation can make cholesterol plaques in the blood vessels unstable," Samaan explained. Unstable plaques are more likely to develop tiny cracks, which can cause blood clots to form. Such clots can block blood flow within arteries, causing a heart attack (if the blood vessel supplies the heart) or a stroke (if the artery feeds the brain), she said.

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Slavery for all

Slavery was never abolished, it was only extended to include all the colours. - Charles Bukowski

Hot showers are not a neccesity

Americans can be such whiny wimps. I was listening to the news about conditions in places devastated by hurricane Sandy, and people were complaining because they couldn't take hot showers! For almost all of human history, there were no such things as hot showers or baths. In some places of the world, women still have to spend large amounts of time every day carrying home water from distant wells or rivers to have water for drinking and cooking.

Why Harvard MBAs Favor Obama Over One Of Their Own

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20121031184343-17970806-why-harvard-mbas-favor-obama-over-one-of-their-own

John A. Byrne
October 31, 2012

Mitt Romney graduated from Harvard Business School in 1975 as a Baker Scholar, a distinction awarded to only the top students in every business class. By all accounts, he was the quintessential student, organizing an all-star study group of MBAs to prepare for Harvard’s case study classes.

Former classmates have described him as precise, convincing and charismatic. Not surprisingly, Romney has had a distinguished career in business with one of the most loyal recruiters of Harvard talent over the years.

But if you ask today's Harvard Business School students who they would vote for next week, Romney would lose in a landslide. Two surveys by The Harbus, the MBA student newspaper at Harvard, showed yesterday (Oct. 30), that Obama had the support of 65% of the students versus 32% for HBA alumnus Romney.

The lopsided result may seem surprising, especially because Romney used his MBA (he also graduated with a Harvard law degree as a dual-degree student) to carve out a highly successful career at Bain Capital, one of the most prestigious MBA employers on the planet. It's a path that many current Harvard MBAs would love to follow. The Harbus said the two latest surveys were completed by 668 students, more than a third of the MBA candidates on campus.

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Peterson, a second-year student himself who had been a legislative aide to conservative Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), believes that “Barack Obama is just a damn likable fellow, particularly to younger voters like HBS students. He seems to get it. He seems to speak the same language. There’s a cultural and generational affinity.”

Then, there is the Republican brand, as Peterson put it. “The Republican brand is badly damaged among many voters whose preferences resemble our HBS sample: independent-minded, younger, upper-middle-class swing voters. To many of these voters, the GOP really puts the Old in Grand Old Party. It’s likely that this Party doesn’t like to party. And boy, the Republican Party is super white. There’s a cultural and generational gap.”

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Don't blame the scientists!

It's a safe bet that the people who denigrate people who chose not to evacuate for hurricane Sandy, because they didn't think it would be as bad as scientists predicted, will be largely those who deny, at best down-play, the danger of global warming, and vote for those who block action on this problem. Same for the victims who ignored the warnings. And those who have been propagandizing against scientists for the sake of their short-term profits have partial responsibility for this. Not all of it. Some people are simply not rational, in various ways; eg., contrarians, thrill-seekers, not very bright. Note that it was because of warnings from scientists that we knew the hurricane far enough ahead of time time to evacuate people from areas of risk. Even though this area has far more people know, there were many fewer deaths than there used to be, when people had no warnings. This is of course ignored by those nutballs who claim such events are punishments from God for something.

What is best for the country?

Romney says he was able to work with Democratic politicians in Massacusetts when he was governor, while President Obama has not been able to get cooperation from Republicans in Congress to work for the good of the country. That Democrats are willing to cooperate for the common good and Republicans are not is hardly a good reason to vote for Republicans.

I am bemused by those who argue that it would be a good idea to elect Romney because there might be more cooperation from Congress. So we would have a president who is desperate for power, is a constant liar, has no feeling of connection to those who are not in the power elite. And a congress filled with traitors who block economic relief from recession for the sake of making the president look bad enough so they hope he won't be re-elected, because he is in a different party. That might make for getting things done, but not things that would be good for the country!

A moderate-strength Nor'easter on Wednesday looking increasingly likely

And if this storm does hit after the election, and Obama is re-elected, for sure some nutball will say it is God's punishment for electing Obama, even though scientists predicted it days ahead of time.

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=2286

Posted by: Dr. Jeff Masters, 7:38 PM GMT on November 03, 2012

Storm-weary U.S. residents pounded by Superstorm Sandy may have a new storm to contend with on Wednesday: an early-season Nor'easter is expected to impact the mid-Atlantic and New England with strong winds and heavy rain. Our two top models, the European (ECMWF) and GFS (run by the U.S. National Weather Service), are now in agreement on both the track and intensity of the storm. The storm will move off the coast of South Carolina/Georgia on Tuesday evening. Once over the warm waters off the coast, the low will intensify, spreading heavy rains of 2 - 3" over coastal North Carolina on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. The storm will accelerate to the north-northeast on Wednesday and pull in cold air from Canada, intensifying into a medium-strength Nor'easter with a central pressure of 984 mb by Wednesday evening. The European model, which did an exemplary job forecasting Hurricane Sandy, is slower, predicting the Nor'easter's highest winds will begin affecting New Jersey on Wednesday night. The GFS model is about 12 hours faster, predicting the strongest winds will arrive on Wednesday morning. A 12-hour period of strong winds of 40 - 45 mph will likely affect the coast from Maryland to Massachusetts, accompanied by a swath of 2 - 3" of rain. The heaviest rains will likely fall over Eastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The storm also has the potential to bring more than a foot of snow to mountain areas of New England. The storm is still four days away, and four-day forecasts of the path and intensity of Nor'easters usually have large errors. Nevertheless, residents and relief workers in the region hit by Sandy should anticipate the possibility of the arrival on Wednesday of a moderate-strength Nor'easter with heavy rain, accompanied by high winds capable of driving a 1 - 2 foot storm surge with battering waves. The surge and waves will potentially cause moderate to severe erosion on New Jersey coast, where Hurricane Sandy pulverized the protective beach dunes.

New Details Discredit Fox News Reports On Benghazi Attacks

http://thinkprogress.org/security/2012/11/02/1128831/new-details-discredit-fox-news-benghazi/

By Hayes Brown on Nov 2, 2012

A slew of new reporting this morning debunks Fox News reports claiming that the Obama administration withheld assistance during the Sept. 11 attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya. With these revelations, the combined conservative narrative as led by Fox News — that the Obama administration failed to respond adequately during the attack and that mainstream media has not covered Benghazi enough — is in further disarray.

The Los Angeles Times’ version of the CIA’s role focuses the most heavily on pushing back on Fox’s spin:

“At every level in the chain of command, from the senior officers in Libya to the most senior officials in Washington, everyone was fully engaged in trying to provide whatever help they could,” a senior intelligence official said in a statement. “There were no orders to anybody to stand down in providing support.”

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[A] senior official also sought to rebut reports that C.I.A. requests for support from the Pentagon that night had gone unheeded.

In fact, the official said, the military diverted a Predator drone from a reconnaissance mission in Darnah, 90 miles away, in time to oversee the mission’s evacuation. The two commandos, based at the embassy in Tripoli, joined the reinforcements. And a military transport plane flew the wounded Americans and Mr. Stevens’s body out of Libya.

The new reports also contain previously unreported details about the CIA’s role in Benghazi. President Obama and Secretary of Defense Panetta did order U.S. forces into the region, but the CIA was the first to respond to the attack, arriving on the scene in under half an hour.

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The new reports also contain previously unreported details about the CIA’s role in Benghazi. President Obama and Secretary of Defense Panetta did order U.S. forces into the region, but the CIA was the first to respond to the attack, arriving on the scene in under half an hour.

The lack of security at the outpost in Benghazi, far removed from the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, has been the subject of inquiry by both Fox News and Congressional Republicans. The Wall Street Journal sheds new light onto why that was the case. The CIA and State Department had entered into a series of secret deals in which the Agency would provide emergency security to the diplomats operating within Libya.

While the State Department primarily relied upon local Libyan militias for day-to-day protection, as well as contracted British private security, the arrangement between it and the CIA explains why the outpost seemed under-protected.

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Red Cross Faces Blood Shortfall After Hurricane Sandy

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/11/01/1121501/red-cross-faces-blood-shortfall-in-hurricane-sandys-wake/

By Sy Mukherjee on Nov 1, 2012

The Suffolk News-Herald reports that Hurricane Sandy forced the cancellation of over 300 blood drives on the east coast, leaving the American Red Cross short of about 9,000 units of essential blood and platelets. Red Cross is now asking for blood donors all throughout the region to make up for the gap and ensure that those most affected by the storm have access to the medical resources they need. In a statement, American Red Cross Mid-Atlantic Blood Services Region CEO Page Gambill said, “As our community recovers from the storm, we need to help the blood supply recover, too. It was the blood on the shelves that helped save patients’ lives when the hurricane hit, and it will be the blood on the shelves when the next disaster — large or small — strikes.”

Indie Rapper Uses Online Crowd Sourcing To Raise Money For Transplant Operation

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/11/02/1131181/indie-rapper-crowd-sourcing/

By Sy Mukherjee on Nov 2, 2012

In a striking demonstration of the power of social media and the inadequacies of the American health care system, indie rapper P.O.S., whose real name is Stefon Alexander, has taken to the Internet to raise funds for a desperately needed kidney transplant operation and his subsequent recovery.

As Time reports, Alexander — who suffers from a chronic kidney disease — was successful in finding a kidney donor, but still lacked the money necessary to self-finance his operation and the long post-op recovery period it entails.

Lacking comprehensive health coverage, Alexander and his musical crew, Doomstree, turned to his fan base for help, creating a fundraising page on the social outreach website YouCaring.com. In the face of crushing medical costs and an unsteady income source, independent artists such as Alexander are no strangers to using crowd-based appeals to fill in the coverage gaps left by private insurance, according to Time:

Even though [Alexander] is insured, his insurance only offers minimal coverage designed for those with pre-existing conditions; his dialysis makes him eligible for Medicare too, which should cover the operation, but will leave him worrying about his care and living expenses. That worry is because ticketholders weren’t the only ones dealing with the fallout of the cancelled concerts: Alexander says that, because he doesn’t sell a huge number of records (his 2009 album Never Better hit No. 106 on the Billboard 200), he depends on live concerts to make a living. With the tour canceled, he has no way to pay for the care needed around the operation or for living expenses until he is able to tour again.

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Although Alexander’s story serves as a reminder of the possibilities of technology and social networking sites, it is also reflective of a disconcerting trend in which some Americans are resorting to online crowd sourcing to pay off their medical bills due to a lack of affordable health insurance. And while the generosity of Internet strangers in such cases is touching, it is certainly not a consistent, sustainable, or defensible approach to covering Americans’ health care costs. It’s one thing to raise awareness of a musical tour or sponsor an album through the power of online communities — it’s another entirely to use them to pay for essential medical services.

Fortunately, Obamacare’s consumer protections that help extend access to health insurance to millions of additional Americans will go a long way towards making such desperate tactics unnecessary for self-employed and uninsured people. But until health costs for life-saving and chronic procedures come down to an affordable level, many Americans may still have to rely upon the kindness of strangers — and unfortunately, the vast majority of them won’t have automatic access to a loyal fan base like Alexander’s.

Oregon County Elections Official Under Investigation For Ballot Tampering

http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/11/02/1132771/oregon-county-elections-official-under-investigation-for-ballot-tampering/

By Aviva Shen posted from ThinkProgress Election on Nov 2, 2012

The Clackamas County Elections Office is under investigation by the Oregon Department of Justice for possible ballot tampering, reports the Oregonian. A temporary election worker allegedly filled in a straight Republican ticket where voters had left blank preferences. It is unclear how many ballots were affected, but, as Blue Oregon notes, this is not the first time Clackamas County has come under scrutiny for foul play.

The state elections office has twice had to monitor the county elections office. In 2011, an elections director had to step in when county clerk Sherry Hall accepted invalid signatures for a Tea Party-backed urban renewal petition.

Utility Companies Deny Right-Wing Media Claims Of Union Discrimination

Same old same old. As a Facebook friend commented:
Breitbart was a right wing political mouthpiece with the Washington Times who had a history of making up stories out of whole cloth. He died in March, and I suspect that his "media empire" is now essentially just another propaganda outlet for the Wash Times, itself a very right leaning newsrag.
To put it in other terms, I'd give the National Enquirer higher marks for journalistic integrity and accuracy here.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2012/11/02/utility-companies-deny-right-wing-media-claims/191101

November 2, 2012 3:18 PM EDT ››› ANDY NEWBOLD

The right-wing media falsely reported that Alabama-based utility companies were turned away in New Jersey for hurricane disaster relief because they use non-union labor. However, multiple Alabama utility companies mentioned in these media reports say the claims are "rumors" and simply "not true," and New Jersey utility companies have also denied that non-union working crews have been turned away.

Matt Romney Goes To Russia, Secretly Tells Putin To Ignore Dad’s Campaign Rhetoric

http://thinkprogress.org/security/2012/11/02/1131011/matt-romney-russia/

By Hamed Aleaziz posted from ThinkProgress Security on Nov 2, 2012

This week Mitt Romney’s son Matt traveled to Moscow for business and, reports say, allayed any concerns the Russian government had about his father’s harsh stance on Russia. When it comes to Russia, Mitt Romney has been brash, at one point labeling Russia “without question our number one geopolitical foe” and “a geopolitical adversary.” He’s also repeatedly lashed out at President Obama for allegedly being weak on Russia. But according to a New York Times report, Matt Romney is trying to convince Russia that the tough talk is just talk:

“But while in Moscow, Mr. Romney told a Russian known to be able to deliver messages to Mr. Putin that despite the campaign rhetoric, his father wants good relations if he becomes president, according to a person informed about the conversation.”

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Job Growth Continuing under Obama

See the link below for a graph of all job growth/decline. It shows a trend of increasing jobs, but somewhat lower because of loss of government jobs. Of course, the conservatives say we should have fewer government jobs, so that should make them happy.

http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/11/02/14879550-us-job-growth-accelerates-exceeds-expectations?lite

By Steve Benen
Fri Nov 2, 2012

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The U.S. economy created 171,000 jobs in October, far more than expected, while American businesses created 184,000 jobs -- the best month for the private sector since February.

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For context, I'd note that so far in 2012 (which still has two months to go), the economy has created over 1.56 million jobs, which is already better than five of the eight years of the Bush/Cheney era.

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Here's another chart, this one showing monthly job losses/gains in just the private sector since the start of the Great Recession.

Chevron Earns $19 Billion Profit So Far This Year, Spending Millions To Elect House GOP

The oil companies are also making big payments to organizations that try to convince people that global warming is not happening; or if it it, humans are not the cause; or if humans are the cause we shouldn't let the government take action because we want to be free; etc.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/11/02/1129671/chevron-earns-19-billion-profit-so-far-this-year-spending-millions-to-elect-house-gop/

By Rebecca Leber on Nov 2, 2012
By Jackie Weidman and Rebecca Leber

Chevron, the second largest oil company in the United States and eighth largest in the world, earned $5.3 billion in profits in the third-quarter of 2012. This brings their total profits for the first nine months of this year to $19 billion.

Last month, Chevron made the single-largest corporate donation since Citizens United. The company dropped $2.5 million with the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC for House Republicans, after congressional GOP voted at least twice to protect Chevron’s $700 million tax breaks.

Below is a glimpse at what Chevron is spending its billions in profits:

– Chevron paid a 19 percent effective federal tax rate in 2011, after making $26.9 billion profit.

– Since 2011, Chevron has spent $16.6 million lobbying Congress to block pollution controls and safeguards for public health.

– Chevron spent $3.7 million on campaign contributions this election, with 85 percent of contributions going to Republicans. Chevron gave more than any of the other Big Five Companies.

–Meanwhile, Chevron’s production has decreased by over 6 percent since this time last year, from 1.7 billion barrels of net liquids (oil + natural gas liquids) to a current rate of 1.68 billion barrels per day.

– Chevron is sitting on cash reserves totaling $21.3 billion, up from $15.8 billion in January.

– Chevron spent 24 percent of its Q3 profits buying back stocks ($1.25 billion), which enriches the largest shareholders.

– Chevron paid a 19 percent effective federal tax rate in 2011, well below the statutory corporate rate of 35 percent.

– Chevron CEO John Watson received over $17 million in compensation last year.

The Big Five companies are on track to make over $100 billion in profits this year, while they collect $2.4 billion in annual tax breaks. Meanwhile, they are producing 5 percent less oil than the third quarter last year. The Big Five has spent more than $100 million lobbying Congress since 2011, and millions on campaign contributions.

“Glitch” wipes out 1,000 early votes in black FL neighborhood

Such things do happen by accident, but we have to be suspicious when they seem to consistently happen in the same direction of reducing votes for the opposition.

http://americablog.com/2012/11/computer-glitch-votes-black-florida-county-election-fraud.html

11/1/2012 12:54pm by John Aravosis

There was a story over at NBC’s The Grio http://thegrio.com/2012/10/29/florida-early-vote-totals-revised-raising-questions/?fb_ref=http%3A%2F%2Fthegrio.com%2F three days ago noting that at one Florida polling location, in a heavily black neighborhood, the number of people who voted early was suddenly “revised” from 2,945 to 1,942 – that’s a 34% decrease.

At first, polling officials blamed it on a “computer glitch.” Uh huh. And what glitch would that be?

The local supervisor of elections (SOE) didn’t inspire a lot of hope when speaking about another, smaller, change to the early voting numbers at another polling location:

Broward SOE spokesperson Mary Cooney acknowledged that the Sunday totals were revised, and said she would look into why.

“I can’t tell you definitively now,” Cooney said, “but I queried the person who posts those numbers and the most significant number he told me he changed was an instance where 1050 should have been 1150 — the numbers were transposed.”

He transposed the numbers by hand? And this is how Florida tallies votes?

The Grio followed up on the story the next day, Tuesday of this week, and got a different answer about the 1,000 vote discrepancy: now they’re saying “human error.”

Acceptable Georgia Photo ID

A friend asked me about a rumor someone had told her about acceptable Georgia voter ID for voting. It was false.

http://www.sos.georgia.gov/gaphotoid/default.htm

What IDs are acceptable?

Any valid state or federal government issued photo ID, including a FREE Voter ID Card issued by your county registrar's office or the Georgia Department of Driver Services (DDS)
A Georgia Driver's License, even if expired
Valid employee photo ID from any branch, department, agency, or entity of the U.S. Government, Georgia, or any county, municipality, board, authority or other entity of this state
Valid U.S. passport ID
Valid U.S. military photo ID
Valid tribal photo ID

Georgia's Voter Identification Card

If you do not have one of the six acceptable forms of photo ID, the State of Georgia offers a FREE Voter Identification Card. An identification card can be issued at any county registrar's office or Department of Driver Services Office free of charge.
To Receive a voter identification card, the voter must provide:
A photo identity document or approved non-photo identity document that includes full legal name and date of birth
Documentation showing the voter's date of birth
Evidence that the applicant is a registered voter
Documentation showing the applicant's name and residential address

High blood pressure damages the brain in early middle age

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-10/uoc--hbp103012.php

Public release date: 31-Oct-2012
Contact: Phyllis Brown
University of California - Davis Health System

Research is the first to demonstrate structural damage to the brain from high blood pressure among people as young as 40

Uncontrolled high blood pressure damages the brain's structure and function as early as young middle-age, and even the brains of middle-aged people who clinically would not be considered to have hypertension have evidence of silent structural brain damage, a study led by researchers at UC Davis has found.

The investigation found accelerated brain aging among hypertensive and prehypertensive individuals in their 40s, including damage to the structural integrity of the brain's white matter and the volume of its gray matter, suggesting that vascular brain injury "develops insidiously over the lifetime with discernible effects."

The study is the first to demonstrate that there is structural damage to the brains of adults in young middle age as a result of high blood pressure, the authors said. Structural damage to the brain's white matter caused by high blood pressure previously has been associated with cognitive decline in older individuals.

Published online today in the medical journal The Lancet Neurology, the study will appear in print in the December 2012 issue. It emphasizes the need for lifelong attention to vascular risk factors for brain aging, said study senior author Charles DeCarli, professor of neurology and director of the UC Davis Alzheimer's Disease Center.

"The message here is really clear: People can influence their late-life brain health by knowing and treating their blood pressure at a young age, when you wouldn't necessarily be thinking about it," DeCarli said. "The people in our study were cognitively normal, so a lack of symptoms doesn't mean anything."

Normal blood pressure is considered a systolic blood pressure -- the top number -- below 120 and a diastolic pressure -- the bottom number -- below 80. Prehypertensive blood pressure range is a top number between 120 and 139 and a bottom number between 80 and 89. Blood pressures above 140 over 90 are considered high.

New Multiple Sclerosis Drug Proves Effective Where Others Have Failed

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121031214144.htm

ScienceDaily (Oct. 31, 2012) — Alemtuzumab, a drug previously used to treat a type of leukemia, shown to help people with early multiple sclerosis who relapsed on previous drugs as well as patients who had not yet been treated.

A drug which 'reboots' a person's immune system has been shown to be an effective treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS) patients who have already failed to respond to the first drug with which they were treated (a 'first-line' therapy), as well as affected individuals who were previously untreated. The results of these two phase III clinical trials were published November 1 in the journal The Lancet.

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In the CARE MSII trial, confined to patients who had recently relapsed on a licenced therapy, new episodes were reduced by 49 per cent more than that achieved by the current standard treatment for MS, interferon beta-1a. Over a two year period, 65 per cent of patients on alemtuzumab compared to 47 per cent of patients on interferon remained relapse free. Additionally, alemtuzumab reduced the risk of acquiring disability by 42 per cent compared to interferon: disability worsened in 20% of interferon patients and 13% of alemtuzumab patients. Moreover, at the end of the study, on average, patients taking alemtuzumab had less disability than when they started the trial whereas those on interferon had experienced worsening disability.

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The results of a second phase III clinical trial (CARE MS I) also examined the effectiveness of alemtuzumab against the drug interferon beta-1a but in 581 drug-naïve patients.

It found that alemtuzumab reduced the number of attacks experienced by people with relapsing-remitting MS by 55 per cent over and above that achieved by interferon beta-1a. Over a two year period, 78 per cent of patients on alemtuzumab compared to 59 per cent of patients on interferon remained relapse free. The proportion of patients experiencing worsening of disability on this trial was slightly lower after alemtuzumab than interferon beta-1a, but this result was not statistically significant.

For both studies, the principal side-effect of treatment with alemtuzumab was the development of other autoimmune diseases. During the trials, roughly 20 per cent of patients developed thyroid autoimmunity and 1 per cent developed an immune thrombocytopenia. Previous work has shown that up to 30 per cent of patients may develop autoimmune thyroid disease over time.

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Neuroscience Reveals Brain Differences Between Republicans and Democrats

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121101105003.htm

ScienceDaily (Nov. 1, 2012) — New research from the University of South Carolina provides fresh evidence that choosing a candidate may depend largely on our biological make-up. That's because the brains of self-identified Democrats and Republicans are hard-wired differently and may be naturally inclined to hold varying, if not opposing, perceptions and values. This study showed a strong link with broad social connectedness with Democrats, and a strong link with tight social connectedness with Republicans.

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The results found more neural activity in areas believed to be linked with broad social connectedness in Democrats (friends, the world at-large) and more activity in areas linked with tight social connectedness in the Republicans (family, country). In some ways the study confirms a stereotype about members of the two parties -- Democrats tend to be more global and Republicans more America-centric -- but it actually runs counter to other recent research indicating Democrats enjoyed a virtual biological lock on caring for others.

"The results were a little surprising," Newman-Norlund said. "This shows the picture is more complicated. One possible explanation for our results is that Democrats and Republicans process social connectedness in a fundamentally different way."

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The research also suggests that maintaining an open mind about political issues may be easier said than done. In fact, bridging partisan divides and acting contrary to ideological preferences likely requires going against deeply ingrained biological tendencies. And while there is evidence that mirror neuron connections can change over time, it's not something that happens overnight, Newman-Norlund said.

"The (brain) differences could be a result of genetics, experiences, or a combination of both," he said. "It takes a lot of effort to see the other side and we're not going to wake up one day and all start getting along."

Understanding the differences and their origins, however, is a step in the right direction, he said.

Why Seas Are Rising Ahead of Predictions

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121101153549.htm

ScienceDaily (Nov. 1, 2012) — Sea levels are rising faster than expected from global warming, and University of Colorado geologist Bill Hay has a good idea why. The last official IPCC report in 2007 projected a global sea level rise between 0.2 and 0.5 meters by the year 2100. But current sea-level rise measurements meet or exceed the high end of that range and suggest a rise of one meter or more by the end of the century.

"What's missing from the models used to forecast sea-level rise are critical feedbacks that speed everything up," says Hay. He will be presenting some of these feedbacks in a talk on Nov. 4, at the meeting of The Geological Society of America in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA.

One of those feedbacks involves Arctic sea ice, another the Greenland ice cap, and another soil moisture and groundwater mining.

"There is an Arctic sea ice connection," says Hay, despite the fact that melting sea ice -- which is already in the ocean -- does not itself raise sea level. Instead, it plays a role in the overall warming of the Arctic, which leads to ice losses in nearby Greenland and northern Canada. When sea ice melts, Hay explains, there is an oceanographic effect of releasing more fresh water from the Arctic, which is then replaced by inflows of brinier, warmer water from the south.

"So it's a big heat pump that brings heat to the Arctic," says Hay. "That's not in any of the models." That warmer water pushes the Arctic toward more ice-free waters, which absorb sunlight rather than reflect it back into space like sea ice does. The more open water there is, the more heat is trapped in the Arctic waters, and the warmer things can get.

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Superstorm Sandy a ‘wake-up call,’ says former climate change skeptic James Balog

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/article/1281278--superstorm-sandy-a-wake-up-call-says-former-climate-change-skeptic-james-balog

Published on Thursday November 01, 2012
By Linda Barnard

“Nature isn’t natural anymore,” says photographer James Balog, whose dramatic work chronicling the devastating impact of climate change on the world’s glaciers is profiled in director Jeff Orlowski’s award-winning documentary Chasing Ice.

The film, which won the audience award at Hot Docs in May, opens in theatres (including Toronto at the TIFF Bell Lightbox) Nov. 8. But the New York premiere is in doubt.

The theatre is south of the blackout line in lower Manhattan, one of the areas slammed by super-storm Sandy earlier this week, a weather event directly related to climate change according to scientists, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and, of course, Balog.

“I was pleased to see distinguished political figures acknowledge what the information has been saying all along,” said Balog from his Colorado office. “Things that should have been talked about and dealt with . . . Sandy is a wake-up call.”

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Chasing Ice shows the result of several years’ work by Balog, initially an avowed climate change skeptic. He and his team later expanded their work into an ongoing international monitoring project called the Extreme Ice Survey.

Cameras were placed in remote spots, often with great difficulty, in order to gather time-lapse photographs of glaciers in Iceland, Greenland, Alaska and Montana. The resulting images, gathered over periods as short as months and as long as several years, becomes shocking as glaciers melt and retreat before the audience’s eyes.

“Nobody had ever photographed what this process looks like over the short term,” said Balog. “I expected to see marginal changes, but the volume of change, the rate of change and the sheer dynamics of these changes was an absolute shock. It remains an absolute shock.”

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Romney’s ‘Plan’ To Help The Auto Industry: Massive Corporate Tax Breaks

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/10/31/1115891/romney-auto-plan-massive-tax-breaks/

By Travis Waldron posted from ThinkProgress Economy on Oct 31, 2012

Mitt Romney’s misleading auto bailout ads that hit Ohio this week touted his plan to help the auto industry, even though no specific plan was mentioned, no plan exists on his web site, and his presidential campaign did not respond to requests from reporters when asked about the plan.

Writing on Romney’s campaign web site, ex-Chrysler chairman and Romney endorser Lee Iacocca has now laid out Romney’s plan to help the auto industry: it’s a massive corporate tax break that will make it easier for businesses to offshore their profits.

When Mitt Romney is president, he will reduce our nation’s corporate tax rate to 25 percent from 35 percent – currently the highest combined tax rate in the industrial world – so that American car companies can compete on a level playing field at home and abroad. He will also stop the extra tax automakers are forced to pay when they want to bring home their profits to reinvest in the United States. President Obama could have done this the day he took office since his party controlled both houses of Congress, but he chose not to. [my emphasis]

Steven Rattner, Treasury’s lead adviser during the auto rescue, said on a conference call today that he would “take issue” with the idea that auto companies need tax breaks. “I’m not sure what Lee Iacocca is talking about,” Rattner said. “The least of the industry’s problems has been taxes. When you lose as much money as they lost, you don’t pay taxes and you often don’t pay them for a very long time. That’s not the industry’s problem.”

Romney’s plan, at a cost of more than $1 trillion, wouldn’t help the American economy or auto workers if history is any guide. The amount the U.S. actually collects from corporations is among the lowest in the developed world. And if the U.S. is failing to remain competitive with the rest of the world, its auto companies haven’t noticed: American auto companies are thriving at home.

The plan to eliminate the tax on repatriated profits — those earned overseas and returned to the U.S. — surely won’t help auto workers. George W. Bush’s repatriation tax failed to spark economic and job growth, and many of the companies that lobbied for it ended up cutting jobs and stashing even more money overseas in its wake.

While Romney is falsely attacking Chrysler and General Motors for moving auto jobs to China, his plan for the corporate tax system would make it even easier for them to do so. Romney’s shift to a territorial tax system would add incentives for corporations to outsource jobs and offshore profits, and one study estimates that it would lead to the creation of 800,000 overseas jobs at the expense of American workers.

Fox News’ John Stossel Blasts Federal Flood Insurance Program, Plans To Collect His Money Anyway

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/11/01/1121831/stossel-flood-insurance-hypocrisy/

By Igor Volsky posted from ThinkProgress Economy on Nov 1, 2012

Fox News’ John Stossel railed against the National Flood Insurance Program during an appearance on Fox & Friends on Thursday, blaming the government for encouraging people to build homes in high-risk areas and arguing that private companies should take over the practice.

During the segment, Stossel showed pictures of his own beach front property and explained that while he supported repealing program, he did purchase its coverage and planned to collect its benefits. The contradictory position stumped conservative guest host Peter Johnson Jr,. who couldn’t understand why the longtime libertarian would voluntarily benefit from a governemnt program he opposes:

PETER JOHNSON JR: Wait a second. That are not on the beach that, are not on river fronts that are blocks in that never anticipated that the ocean would come, that the bay would come. They paid their premiums. They’re not rich people like you were. If you’re so rich, why don’t you give the money back? [...]

STOSSEL: Why was the federal government selling it? I blame the politicians. We don’t have special car insurance for Lindsay Lohan. … I paid the premium. I’m going to take the money. Of course you’re going to take the money. [...]

STEVE DOOCY (HOST): You know John, I know you collected three times from the federal government, it was an absolutely great deal…

The federal government established the National Flood Insurance Program in 1968, after private insurers deemed the peril of flood “uninsurable.” The NFIP provides direct coverage for properties and contracts with some 90 private insurers, who mostly service insured properties but bear no insurance risk.

Private insurers were always reluctant to cover floods, noting that they couldn’t possibly “earn excess premiums to cover their cost of capital (they have to pre-fund losses), whereas the U.S. government can easily borrow money to cover catastrophic flood events after they occur.” Unlike private companies, the government can also require homeowners in flood hazard areas to purchase insurance, thus mitigating the problem of adverse selection, wherein only high-risk homeowners buy coverage.

The program has failed to discourage construction in storm-vulnerable areas — it had required county and local governments “to enact zoning and building rules to reduce construction in flood-prone areas” — and in some cases even “paid to have some homes rebuilt multiple times.” Stossel’s beach front house has been rebuilt at least three times– much of it using the federal dollars that he is paid to oppose on television.

Business Abandons Romney as Bloomberg and The Economist Endorse Obama

http://www.politicususa.com/business-community-abandons-romney-bloomberg-economist-endorse-obama.html

By: Sarah JonesNovember 1st, 2012

Days before the election, the business community is abandoning Republican “businessman” Mitt Romney in order to endorse the Democratic incumbent President Obama. These are not ringing endorsements, but rather concern over Romney’s failure to make the math work and his hard turn to the right. In other words, Mitt Romney has finally managed to lose the faith and confidence of the one constituency that he was supposed to have locked up.

The Mayor of New York and the founder/majority owner of Bloomberg News endorsed Obama today. Bloomberg said if the old Mitt Romney were running, he might have voted for him. But given Romney’s tack to the right, Bloomberg is endorsing the President for a second term. He concluded, “If he (Obama) listens to people on both sides of the aisle, and builds the trust of moderates, he can fulfill the hope he inspired four years ago and lead our country toward a better future for my children and yours. And that’s why I will be voting for him.”

Don't be a freeloader!