Refusing to concede, Handkerchief Head Allen West heads to court

By David Nir

• FL-18: So even though GOP Rep. Allen West trails Patrick Murphy by 0.8%—more than the half-a-percent margin which would enable him to seek a recount—and even though the remaining absentee ballots look very unlikely to change that picture, this is what he's doing:

West has filed an injunction against Palm Beach and St. Lucie counties supervisor of elections to impound their voting machines and paper ballots. West also is demanding a hand recount in St. Lucie County.

Allen West doing something crazy and contrary to the law? Unheard of! Anyhow, a court hearing was set to take place in Palm Beach late Thursday afternoon but was rescheduled for Friday; a hearing in St. Lucie may also happen Friday. While their position looks solid, Murphy's campaign has issued a fundraising appeal to help defray the legal bills they've suddenly started running up. (I don't know if it's happening in this case, but Republican law firms are notorious for deploying their associates pro bono to help candidates in need. More like faux bono, amirite?) We will of course keep following all developments here closely, so stay tuned.

The Loss Of "Traditional America"

Bill O'Reilly announces the end of "Traditional America" and instead of re-examining their policies, conservatives are lashing out at women and minorities. Ed Schultz talks with MSNBC political analyst Eugene Robinson.

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Rachel Maddow Has the Last Word

Rachel Maddow absolutely unloaded on Republicans and conservatives last night.
 

Romney shellshocked, because he believed his own bullshit

By kos

 

Shellshocked.

The GOP's reality-distortion field went all the way to the top.

"We went into the evening confident we had a good path to victory," said one senior [Romney] adviser. "I don't think there was one person who saw this coming."

Thus, it was crushing when reality intruded their fantasy world.

Romney was stoic as he talked the president, an aide said, but his wife Ann cried. Running mate Paul Ryan seemed genuinely shocked, the adviser said. Ryan's wife Janna also was shaken and cried softly.

"There's nothing worse than when you think you're going to win, and you don't," said another adviser. "It was like a sucker punch."

Their emotion was visible on their faces when they walked on stage after Romney finished his remarks, which Romney had hastily composed, knowing he had to say something.

Both wives looked stricken, and Ryan himself seemed grim. They all were thrust on that stage without understanding what had just happened.

"He was shellshocked," one adviser said of Romney.

Why were they so certain of victory? Because they unskewed their own polls.

[T]hey believed the public/media polls were skewed - they thought those polls oversampled Democrats and didn't reflect Republican enthusiasm. They based their own internal polls on turnout levels more favorable to Romney.

And why did they think the public polls were skewed?

The huge and enthusiastic crowds in swing state after swing state in recent weeks - not only for Romney but also for Paul Ryan - bolstered what they believed intellectually: that Obama would not get the kind of turnout he had in 2008.

So let's recap their logic:
1. They got big crowds, therefore,
2. people won't turn out for Obama.
3. If people don't turn out for Obama,
4. then the public polls are skewed.
5. If public polls are skewed,
6. then Romney is winning.

Of course, the size of Romney's crowds had absolutely no bearing on whatever turnout Obama would get. But apparently, that idiotic and fact-free assumption is what made them so confident.

And hilariously wrong.

Rush rewrites Rush's election prediction

On Monday, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh told his listeners that Mitt Romney would win "300-plus" electoral votes. The day after the election, he had a different story. But since Rush can never admit to being wrong, that story is complicated. MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell explains.

 

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How the GOP spent millions building their own coffin

Cenk Uygur breaks down how much money Republicans like Karl Rove and Sheldon Adelson donated to losing the election.

Despite spending millions in anti-Obama advertising, a TV analytics company rated a Democratic ad which charges Mitt Romney with making factory workers “build their own coffin” as most effective spot of the entire campaign season.

Cenk says, “If you see the metrics behind it — it scored through the roof in Ohio. You know why? ‘Cause it’s true.”

Do not... DO NOT Defend Libertarians to me

By lalalu

Libertarians and new progressives are both charlatan groups.

Libertarians are racists who refuse to face their racism and hide behind supposedly free will policies. They are a bunch of phonies. They believe in laws and government intervention for their rightwing views only. To hell with everyone else. Ron Paul has been getting government handouts and living on government benefits for decades and the same with his son. Hypocrites.

New members of the progressive movement are Reagan democrats. They can't own up to the fact they helped Reagan destroy many progressive reforms and the country. Think Arianna Huffington who now behaves like she was the queen of the progressive movement and never knew Reagan.

Both groups are big mouth charlatans pretending to be something they aren't.

Republican Heads Are Exploding

Dumbass George W. Bush accidentally voted for Barack Obama

Former U.S. president George W. Bush accidentally voted for Barack Obama today at a polling place near his Crawford, TX home.

According to local reports, the two-term Republican was confused by the instructions on his electronic voting machine and mistakenly cast a ballot he intended to discard.

Witnesses say Bush argued with poll workers for several minutes afterwards in a effort to redo his vote, but in accordance with state law they ultimately denied his request.

The embarrassing incident may have gone unnoticed if it weren't for a local newspaper reporter who happened to be voting in the next booth. Suzanna Everett, a politics correspondent for the Waco Times witnessed the entire ordeal and crafted a cunning scheme to make it public.

Left On Red


Barred by ethics rules from using knowledge gained within a polling station, Everett waited for Bush to leave the facility and ambushed him with a trick question designed to fool him into revealing the news himself:

"Mr. President Fox News is reporting that you've accidentally voted for Barack Obama. Would you care to comment?"

Thinking that his mistake had already been found out, Bush sought to minimize the damage:

"Yes unfortunately because of the incompetence of the folks who designed the ballot, my vote counted for the other guy," Bush responded. He then attempted to explain exactly how the mishap occurred:

"First of all, everything was very mismaladjusted on the screen. You shouldn't put the senators and the congresspeople and the presidents all jumbled together like that. It's too crowded. Just confuses folks."

Bush then explained that after marking the wrong candidate, he sought to correct his error by clicking the red "Cast Ballot" button, thinking that it was designed to 'cast away' the ballot and bring up a fresh one:

"Usually red means stop and green means go. I thought I was stopping"

A New Legacy

Bush is no stranger to election day controversy, having been pushed into office himself by the Florida fiasco of 2000. In that election hundreds of votes intended for Democratic rival Al Gore went to protest candidate Pat Buchanan instead due to poor ballot design.

In an official statement released shortly after the event, former President Bush said his experiences today have inspired him to make electoral reform the signature cause of his post-presidency:

"Laura and I will be dedicating the next few years to fixing our electoral system. Every American deserves a clear, simple ballot when they go to the polling place."

However, the system Bush used has been deployed successfully around the country with little incident. A spokesperson for the company that manufactures the machines says they stand by their product:

"Until today we have never had a single instance of someone confusing the "cast ballot" button for a "cast away ballot" button. This is a problem unique to Mr. Bush, and we have no plans to change our machines."

The Biggest Comeback in the History of the House

By Alan Grayson

We won. And our victory last night was the biggest comeback in the history of the U.S. House of Representatives.

In 2010, we lost by 18 points. In 2012, last night, we won by 25 points, 62.5% to 37.5%. That’s a 43-point swing, back to victory.

No one has ever done that before. We made history.

Our polling shows that we won every county, every municipality, every race, every age group, every language group and each gender. We won it all.

So to every voter, thank you.

To the 100,000 supporters who contributed this campaign, whether it was a dollar or $5,000, thank you.

To the volunteers who made more than a quarter of a million live phone calls to get out our vote, thank you.

To our brilliant canvassing staff of fifty, who have knocked on doors every single day since March, thank you.

To the thousands of people who wrote to us to give your advice or express your support, or forwarded our e-mails to your friends, or followed our campaign on Facebook, thank you.

To everyone who marches behind the standards of justice, equality and peace, thank you.

If you helped in any way, large or small, then you can savor this sweet moment. You made it happen.

Congratulations to Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Tammy Baldwin, Sherrod Brown and Tammy Duckworth. Goodbye, Allen West.

I have a feeling that this won’t be the only time that we make history. In fact, if we all work together this way, you can count on it.

Courage,

Alan Grayson

House Negro Allen West Defeated

West hasn't conceded the race yet

By: Jonathan Mattise, Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers

 

 

 

 

 

In a district that leans Republican by 2 percentage points, Jupiter Democrat Patrick Murphy should thank St. Lucie and Palm Beach counties' voters for helping him knock off U.S. Rep. Allen West .

Only consistently red Martin County performed up to its billing for West.

By 6 a.m., with 100 percent of precincts reporting according to Politico.com, a winner still had not been officially declared. Murphy garnered 160,328 votes to West's 157,872. That's a difference of 2,456. Percentage-wise, that's 50.4 percent to 49.6 percent.

West, who stormed into Congress on the 2010 Tea Party wave, hasn't conceded the race yet.

If a race is decided by 0.5 points or fewer, it automatically triggers a recount. But the final spread fell just outside that margin.

"I am humbled by the outpouring of support from the voters of the Treasure Coast and Palm Beaches," Murphy said in a news release. "I pledge to be a representative who will work across the aisle, listen to all points of views, and work to end the divisiveness in Congress. Our country faces many challenges, and by working together we will continue to move our country forward."

In one of Congress's tightest races — and biggest upsets — St. Lucie County picked Murphy over West by an 11-percent margin, matching Democrats' 43-to-32-percent registration edge in the county.

Palm Beach split its votes for West almost 50-50, even though Republicans outnumbered Democrats 37- to 35-percent over Democrats there.

Only Martin proved a stronghold for West, R-Palm Beach Gardens. The ousted congressman drummed up a 14-point win over Murphy in Martin, where registered Republicans trounce Democrats by 13 points and 78 percent of voters cast ballots this time around.

It was not until early Wednesday morning that NBC and Democrat Patrick Murphy declared that the Jupiter accountant had defeated West in one of the most-watched congressional races in the country.

"I think we won because the voters spoke, they are tired of the extremism and the divisiveness, and they want someone willing to put the country first," Murphy said. "That's what we represent, that's what this campaign is all about and that's who I am."

West's party shut down shortly after midnight, before additional results came in giving Murphy the lead.

West never left a separate room at the Hutchinson Island Marriott Beach Resort & Marina in Stuart, where he watched the results with his family. The 500 supporters who funneled in and out didn't get a glimpse of the congressman. Nor has his campaign commented on the race.

State Sen. Joe Negron and state Rep. William Snyder, both Stuart Republicans, played surrogate for West all night. Each gave sparse updates on the results, explaining why West hadn't appeared at the party and then assuring he'd be down shortly.

The West group called it quits just before midnight on their get-together, which started at 7 p.m. The latest update Negron gave had West up by a slim margin, with a few St. Lucie precincts and Palm Beach absentee ballots uncounted.

At his Double Tree Palm Beach Gardens party, Murphy took the stage grinning at about 12:15 a.m., claiming a slight lead. At 1:30 a.m., he declared himself the winner, per MSNBC's call.

"The entire political landscape posed challenges for Republicans, especially ones running statewide," Negron said at about midnight, when West still led slightly. "You look at Connie Mack (in the U.S. Senate race), state Senate races and congressional races."

Cheer Up, Republicans

By William Saletan

Dear Republicans,

Sorry about the election. I know how much it hurts when your presidential candidate loses. I’ve been there many times. You’re crestfallen. You can’t believe the public voted for that idiot. You fear for your country.

Cheer up. The guy we just re-elected is a moderate Republican.

I know how stupid that sounds. Barack Obama is the head of the Democratic Party. For five years, conservative politicians and media told you he was a raving socialist. In the heat of the campaign, when you’re trying to beat the guy, it’s hard to let go of that image of him, just as it’s hard for Democrats to see past the caricatures of Mitt Romney. But now that the campaign is over and you’re staring at a second Obama term, the falsity of the propaganda may come as a relief. By and large, Obama’s instincts are the instincts of a moderate Republican. His policies are the policies of a moderate Republican. He stands where the GOP used to stand and will someday stand again.

Yes, Obama began his presidency with bailouts, stimulus, and borrowing. You know who started the bailouts? George W. Bush. Bush knew that under these exceptionally dire circumstances, bailouts had to be done. Stimulus had to be done, too, since the economy had frozen up. A third of the stimulus was tax cuts. Once the economy began to revive, Obama offered a $4-trillion debt reduction framework that would have cut $3 to $6 of spending for every $1 in tax hikes. That’s a higher ratio of cuts to hikes than Republican voters, in a Gallup poll, said they preferred. It’s way more conservative than the ratio George H. W. Bush accepted in 1990. In last year’s debt-ceiling talks, Obama offered cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid in exchange for revenue that didn’t even come from higher tax rates. Now he’s proposing to lower corporate tax rates, and Republicans are whining that he hacked $716 billion out of Medicare. Some socialist.

Yes, Obama imposed an individual mandate to buy health insurance. You know who else did that? Romney. You know where the idea came from? The Heritage Foundation. Personal responsibility—insisting that people carry private insurance so we don’t have to bail them out in emergency rooms and hospitals—was a Republican idea. Same with Wall Street reform: There’s nothing conservative about letting financial institutions gamble with other people’s money in ways that would force us to bail them out again. Even Obama’s cap-and-trade proposal echoed the market-based emissions-control policies of the 1990 Bush administration and the 2008 McCain campaign. And last year, when the EPA proposed a new air-pollution limit, Obama ticked off environmentalists by killing it on the grounds that it might jeopardize the recovery.

Remember how Democrats ridiculed George W. Bush’s troop surge in Iraq? Obama copied it in Afghanistan. He escalated the drone program, killing off al-Qaida’s leaders. He sent SEAL Team 6 into Pakistan to get Osama Bin Laden. He teamed up with NATO to take down Muammar Qaddafi. He reneged on his pledge to close Guantanamo Bay. He put together a globally enforced regime of sanctions that is bringing Iran’s economy to its knees. That’s why Romney had nothing to say in last month’s foreign policy debate. No sensible Republican president would have done things differently.

Obama’s no right-winger. You might have serious issues with his Supreme Court justices or his moves on immigration or the Bush tax cuts. But you probably would have had similar issues with Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, or Gerald Ford. Obama’s in the same mold as those guys.

So don’t despair. Your country didn’t vote for a socialist tonight. It voted for the candidate of traditional Republican moderation.

What should gall you, haunt you, and goad you to think about the future of your party is that that candidate wasn’t yours.

Mitt Romney, now you can STFU

8:13 PM PT: NBC calls Ohio - and the PRESIDENCY - for Barack Obama.

Mitt Romney, now you can STFU.

Pray it Doesn't Come Down to Ohio

By Andrew Cohen

With just a few dozen hours left before polls open on Election Day, here is a candidate for the most important election-law story of the weekend -- a story likely to cross over into the general political debate Sunday through Monday. This early copy from the Associated Press offered a hint:

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Voter advocates are criticizing an order by Ohio's elections chief dealing with the casting of provisional ballots. Advocates are saying on Saturday that the order by Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted late Friday wrongly puts the burden of recording the form of ID used on a provisional ballot on voters, not pollworkers ....

Here's what happened. On Thursday, voting-rights advocates filed an "emergency motion" with a federal trial judge seeking his reassurance that provisional ballots in Ohio will be judged by the standard he endorsed (and Ohio reportedly agreed to) in a recent consent decree. That standard, the plaintiffs say, is "that a provisional-ballot form that has incomplete or improperly completed information regarding the type of identification proffered by a voter should be counted pursuant" to Ohio law, which, they say, makes the poll worker responsible for taking down the information. Here's a link to that motion.

Ohio has not yet responded to it with a filing in court -- the state's deadline is Monday. But it was a full day after this motion was filed that the secretary of state, at 6 p.m. on the Friday before the election, issued his contrary directive, the text of which you can read in this timely piece by Judd Legum. The issuance of the directive in turn prompted lawyers for the plaintiffs in the case to go back to U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley with an even more urgent request, filed late Friday evening:

This new Directive makes an affirmative change to the previous provisional ballot counting standard, beyond what was required to comply with this Court's and the Sixth Circuit's recent orders. Instead, contrary to this Court's October 26, 2012 decision, the Secretary's representations to this Court on October 24, 2012, and the Constitution, the Secretary is now ordering that county boards of election must reject provisional ballots when the identification information contained in Step 2 of the ballot affirmation form 12-B is incomplete.

The contours of the legal dispute aren't narrowing, as some legal disputes do at this stage of an election contest, but instead are growing. They are growing because the secretary of state has just doubled down on his position about incomplete provisional ballots. If he was wrong on Thursday, you could say, he was even more wrong on Friday. And that will likely mean a Monday ruling* from Judge Marbley which will then be appealed into Tuesday (and beyond) to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Folks, the legal fight for Ohio's votes is already here and here to stay. Here from The Columbus Dispatch are the money quotes:

"The bottom line is that (Secretary of State Jon Husted) designed a form that violates Ohio law by improperly shifting to voters the poll workers' information-recording responsibilities regarding ID to voters, and then he wants to trash votes where there is a problem with the form on the section he misassigned to voters," said Cleveland attorney Subodh Chandra, who filed the motion ....
Husted spokesman Matt McClellan said the Friday directive actually was designed to concur with the Oct. 26 order of U.S. District Court Judge Algenon Marbley in a legal dispute over provisional ballots. "We wanted to make sure we complied with those directions," McClellan said. Voters will complete the same form they did in the March primary and August special elections. We're not doing anything new," he said. "Voters have to provide ID when they vote provisionally."

This dispute is important for many reasons. First, it's probably the most direct evidence yet that Ohio will be counting its provisional ballots for days or even weeks past Tuesday. The blossoming argument above assumes as it must that there will be a great deal of anxious vote counting after Election Day. This scenario hasn't exactly been a secret. But here's an actual live dispute for us all to watch. It's also a reminder that anyone rooting for a resolution Tuesday night (or early Wednesday) ought to hope that it doesn't all come down to Ohio. If it does, it will be weeks -- and one judicial hearing after another -- before we have an answer.

The motion also is important for what it says these days about Husted and the way he is running the state's elections. Leaving aside the provisional ballot court fight for a moment, Saturday's early voting period was hectic, largely because Husted and his fellow Republicans succeeded this cycle in reducing the number of early-voting weekends from five to one. Indeed, they tried to eliminate all such early voting, which traditionally helps wage earners who can't vote during regular business hours on weekdays, but were rejected in this effort by the federal courts.

What does it mean on the ground and to the exercise of a registered voter's right to vote? From The Washington Post late Saturday: "In Cuyahoga, 36,578 had voted as of Friday; in 2008, that number was 54,340. In 2008, there were nine additional early voting days here, and 9,933 people voted on those days." And Husted? While I was searching for the above copy I found another Associated Press story, also dated Saturday, which noted: "Husted says in a statement that voting has gone smoothly in Ohio and he expects absentee voting this year to surpass 2008."

*We are now being told the deadline for the State's submission is late Tuesday, with reply briefs due from the plaintiffs on November 8 and a written order from the judge to follow. Even more reason to realize that if the election comes down to Ohio it will be a while before we know who has won.

Bishop Willard (R): a tax dodger and a draft dodger

Romney Paid Zero Taxes From 1996 To 2009

Source: Daily Kos

Using a tax shelter called a CRUT (charitable remainder unitrust) that was held by the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormons), Mitt Romney was able to pay zero taxes (legally) every single year from 1996 to 2009. Why did he stop in 2009? Because he would make public his 2010 tax return, that is why.

This tax loophole was killed by Congress in 1997. However those including Romney that were already using it were allowed to continue it. The way it works, is that Romney makes a "charitable" contribution to the Church of Latter Day Saints and it goes into a trust. Since the trust is held by the church, the money is tax deferred. Any capital gains, are non taxed because of the charities status. Like an annuity, the donor gets a charitable tax deduction and an stream of cash payments. When Romney dies, the church accepts full ownership..

Bloomsberg's attorneys estimate as the Romneys have received these payments, the money that will potentially be left for charity has declined from at least $750,000 in 2001 to $421,203 at the end of 2011.....

Romney has refused to answer any thing on this topic. His campaign puts out that it was all legal....

Read more: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/04/1155381/-Breaking-Romney-Paid-Zero-Taxes-From-1996-To-2009

Romney doesn’t think rising oceans is funny, any more

MSNBC host Krystal Ball, The Hill’s Karen Finney and Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart have fun at Mitt Romney’s expense for saying he doesn’t think rising oceans is funny – despite using that as a punchline during the RNC – and then examine the GOP strategy of explaining away a Romney loss.

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Romney vs. Sandy

Published on Oct 31, 2012 by ForecastTheFacts

If this video makes you mad, take action at: http://climatesilence.org/romneyjoke

Much of the nation is still reeling from Hurricane Sandy. Our thoughts are with those who have been impacted. When Mitt Romney made climate change a punchline at the Republican National Convention, he mocked a real threat to the lives of Americans. We've turned this video into a television ad that is running in Ohio and Virginia right now! 

If you want to donate to expand the ad buy go to http://www.youtube.com/redirect?q=https%3A%2F%2Floudsauce.com%2Fcampaigns%2F416-share-romney-s-climate-joke-with-victims-of-the-frankenstorm

 

1 Not-So-Simple Pretty Funny Question for the 73% of White Evangelicals

By Frank Schaeffer

A question that deserves an answer before election day.

 

According to polls 73 percent of WHITE evangelicals will be voting for Mitt Romney.

If the polls are correct here’s the question I'd like to ask evangelicals using their own style of language/concerns/theological thinking as applied to their choice:

What’s the explanation for the fact that white American Evangelicals made the allegedly philandering lying ignorant braggart lapsed Roman Catholic Dinesh D'Souza their anti-Obama hero, embrace a pro-choice Mormon bishop who promoted abortion and Planned Parenthood in MA, are working to elect a job-destroying tax-avoiding lying flip-flopping-tell-anyone-anything-they-want-to-hear Swiss bank account collecting draft dodger running with a disciple of the God-hating, Jesus-mocking hater-of-the-poor Ayn Rand, for their presidential candidate and look the other way as a crazed ultra-Zionist many Israeli Jews fear billionaire casino owner who is being investigated for allegedly making billions off the dirtiest Chinese gambling Communist Party-controlled outfit in the world funds the enterprise, at the very same time as Franklin Graham sold his ailing father Billy’s soul and denied core evangelical theology by taking Mormonism off the Billy Graham organization’s list of cults in order to help the Mormon pagan-ritual-performing, Trinity-denying, casino-money-grubbing billionaire-coddling, earth-destroying global-warming denying Mormon bishop win respectability for his dead-Jews-baptizing-polygamy-rooted-reality-denying-interplanetary Masonic lodge-embracing faith in an election against an exemplary modest faithful husband good father compassionate smart black evangelical Christian President whose major accomplishments include saving the economy, ending a war, killing our greatest enemy, giving health care to children and the poor and the "least of these" and who has tried to reduce the number of abortions by helping women escape poverty in a reenactment of the lesson of the parable of the Good Samaritan?

Go figure.

Frank Schaeffer is a writer and author of Crazy for God: How I Grew Up As One Of The Elect, Helped Found The Religious Right, And Lived To Take All (Or Almost All) Of It Back.

Who do you trust to work with the other side?

As millions of people try to bounce back after Sandy, the two presidential campaigns get back into full gear. Democratic strategist Karen Finney joins Ed Schultz to examine the closing messages of President Obama and Mitt Romney.

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4 ways Democrats can combat Republican voter fraud and scare tactics

Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich reveals how Democratic campaigns fight back against Republican attempts to disenfranchise voters without resorting to cheating. “Person-to-person contact will win the day here,” Kucinich says. “All this gamesmanship that’s going on, all the dirty tricks that are going on — look, an organized campaign can get past those things and can move on to victory.”

Romney silent with reporters for last 3 weeks

It's been 3 weeks since Mitt Romney's answered a question from reporters and Hurricane Sandy is bringing his transparency issues front and center. DNC Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) joins Ed Schultz with reaction over Mitt Romney's silent campaign.

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