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People who know me best know I have a VERY low threshold for tolerating B.S.. So when the boss (and several others) here at C&L started complaining two days after the election that "President Obama needs to change if Democrats are going to win again in 2016", even though it is probably never a good idea to argue with the boss, I took umbrage.

After being told for six months how close the race was, turns out, No. No it wasn't. How big of a win was it? In the end, it wasn't even close. President Obama won BOTH the Electoral College AND the Popular Vote... and not just by a little, but by A LOT... 126 Electoral votes and nearly 3 Million in the Popular Vote (though I'm of the opinion that "just because we won doesn't mean millions weren't disenfranchised." Expect to hear more from me on that in the coming days.)

Republicans think if they keep telling us "this is a Center-Right nation", eventually it'll be true. But 2006, 2008 & 2012 clearly show just the opposite. America is FAR more Progressive than you'd ever know watching the MSM.

Here is just a partial rundown of Progressive victories Tuesday night:

• Obama re-elected, winning every swing state (Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Ohio, Nevada, Wisconsin, New Hampshire and Virgina.)
• Democrats gain seats in both the House (preliminary: +6) & Senate (+2 from 51+2 to 53+2 Inde.), retaining control of the Senate. We had 23 incumbent Senate seats to defend while Republicans only had to defend 10. Not only did we (nearly) SWEEP all but one of 23 Democratic races (Bob Kerrey did not hold Bill Nelson's NE seat), but we picked up two more (UPDATE: The AZ race is back in play).
• Maryland, Maine, and Washington all voted FOR Marriage Equality. Minnesota upheld their existing law.
• Iowa judge David Wiggins who upheld Marriage Equality in his state won reelection despite a concentrated effort to unseat him.
• Sherrod Brown retained his Senate seat despite being the most heavily targeted Democratic Senator in the country by the Right Wing SuperPAC's.
• Wisconsin elected the nations' first openly gay Senator, Tammy Baldwin.
• Tammy Duckworth took out "deadbeat dad" and all-around super-douchbag Joe Walsh.
• Washington State & Colorado decriminalized recreational Marijuana. Massachusetts passes a law allowing medical Marijuana.
• Democrats win Senate seats in deep red North Dakota & West Virginia (Heidi Heitkamp & Joe Manchin.)
• Swing state New Hampshire elects women to EVERY seat (Both Senate and both House seats).
• The "Redefine Rape" guys, Todd Akin, Roscoe Bartlett & Richard Mourdock all lost... BIG. (side note: Akin & Bartlet were also both on the House Science Committee. No joke.)
• Allen West is out (but not gracefully).
• Alan Grayson is back in.
• Most women in Senate EVER (18 20).
• Missouri, Montana, West Virginia elected Democratic governors.
• Obama becomes first Democrat since FDR to win two elections with more than 50% of the popular vote.
• Obama won 70% of the Jewish vote despite all the fear-mongering over Israel.
• Obama won 73% of the Asian vote.
• Obama won 71% of the Latino vote.
• Democrats have won the popular vote in 5 of the past 6 presidential elections (2004 being the outlier.)

(Arguably, I think Michele Bachmann's reelection helps too, if for no other reason but to keep an active reminder of just how Looney Tunes the Far Right is. Basically, a backup wingnut. Had they of ALL lost, it would be much easier for voters to forget by 2016 just how crazy they are.)

Republicans just didn't see it coming. Never straying outside the comfortable confines of their Bubble, when the final result in Ohio came down, Republicans were quite literally in total disbelief. "How could it be? How could this country re-elect a Kenyan Muslim Socialist Atheist that goes around apologizing for America to a second term?" Fox News questioned the Ohio result when first announced and refused to concede the race, which is the likely reason behind Governor Romney's own delay before finally conceding two hours later. Let us all hope that a significant number of Republicans will question everything the Right Wing Media tells them next time around.

Things we WON'T have to worry about now? Rachel had an excellent rundown the next night (more video below the fold):

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If you're like me, you couldn't help but notice all the Right-Wing wound-licking while jubilant Liberals like myself dance in the aisles.

A few great pictures this morning:

...and my favorite:

Quotes worthy of note:

"Romney will win. 321 to 217 Electoral Votes." - George Will on last Sundays' "ThisWeek" on ABC

"Goodluk America u just voted for economic & spiritual suicide. Soulless fools" - Ted Nugent on Twitter this morning.

"Morning comrades! Have the gun confiscations and death panels commenced yet? Check w your local Black Panthers 4 further instructions." - MSNBC's Krystal Ball.

And I myself tweeted: "To all the losers that told me how g8 it will be "when Romney kicks Barry's ass in Nov": Bite me!"

Allen West is out, Chris Murphy & Alan Grayson are in. Scott Brown and deadbeat-dad Joe Walsh are out, Elizabeth Warren and Tammy Duckworth are in. You know things are bad for Republicans when their one bright spot is a narrow victory for Michele Bachmann. Democrats increase their numbers in the Senate from 51 to 54, win the Electoral College by over 100 votes (once Florida and others continue to come in), and the Popular vote by (currently) more than 2.5 Million votes (remember Bush called his 20,000 vote win in 2004 a "mandate".)

I'm sure you've all seen some great thoughts, quotes, pictures, and jokes today. Share them below!

New York’s Hottest Club is CONCESSION. It has everything: Failed Randites, angry trust-fund babies, bitter Mormon housewives. Careful of the bouncer, it’s Nate Silver with a chart full of women! Also, don’t get caught in the car elevator bathroom, because it’s occupied by a guy named Adelson who flushed millions of dollars and now wants to dance with Karl Rove and the Supreme Court in the Dead Sea.

Original photo here. Open thread below....

Going viral fast on YouTube, a couple voting early this morning posted cellphone video of their touch-screen voting machine registering a vote for "Romney" when they select "Obama".

My wife and I went to the voting booths this morning before work. There were 4 older ladies running the show and 3 voting booths that are similar to a science fair project in how they fold up. They had an oval VOTE logo on top center and a cartridge slot on the left that the volunteers used to start your ballot.

I initially selected Obama but Romney was highlighted. I assumed it was being picky so I deselected Romney and tried Obama again, this time more carefully, and still got Romney. Being a software developer, I immediately went into troubleshoot mode. I first thought the calibration was off and tried selecting Jill Stein to actually highlight Obama. Nope. Jill Stein was selected just fine. Next I deselected her and started at the top of Romney's name and started tapping very closely together to find the 'active areas'. From the top of Romney's button down to the bottom of the black checkbox beside Obama's name was all active for Romney. From the bottom of that same checkbox to the bottom of the Obama button (basically a small white sliver) is what let me choose Obama. Stein's button was fine. All other buttons worked fine.

I asked the voters on either side of me if they had any problems and they reported they did not. I then called over a volunteer to have a look at it. She him hawed for a bit then calmly said "It's nothing to worry about, everything will be OK." and went back to what she was doing. I then recorded this video.

There is a lot of speculation that the footage is edited. I'm not a video guy, but if it's possible to prove whether a video has been altered or not, I will GLADLY provide the raw footage to anyone who is willing to do so. The jumping frames are a result of the shitty camera app on my Android phone, nothing more.

Responding to Right-Wing cries over "screen calibration", the author of the video points to the fact he also tried selecting other candidates and encountered no such problem. The actual cause is from the "hot" region for "Romney" being overly large and the "Obama" hot-spot being "only a sliver" according to the author of the video.

Stay vigilant folks. It's going to be a long night.

Cheney implies he declassified Plame's identity.

My thoughts this Election Day. Comment if you remember too!

I REMEMBER wars of aggression based on lies.

I REMEMBER The Patriot Act.

I REMEMBER "Free Speech Zones".

I REMEMBER the color-coded "traffic light of fear" the Bush Administration ratcheted up every time they felt themselves sinking in the polls.

I REMEMBER fake news reports being produced by the government using actors pretending to be reporters, using fake names, distributed to as if it were real news.

I REMEMBER the outing of an undercover CIA agent by our own Vice President, and the enormous cover-up to follow.

I REMEMBER that prior to the last Administration, gasoline had NEVER sold for more than $1.75/gallon, and was up over $4 before they were through.

I REMEMBER the collapse of Wall Street, mass foreclosures, and the bailout of thousands of banks across the U.S. in the greatest economic crisis since The Great Depression.

...and there's no way in hell I'm going back.
 

Bush White House admits Iraq nuclear claims were bogus two months after invasion (July, 2003).

Prior to Iraq invasion, Economist is ridiculed for predicting $2Trillion dollar war and $75 oil.

Using NBC Political Director Chuck Todd's latest map of "safe" states (above) for each candidate showing only seven swing states remaining... Florida, Ohio, Wisconsin, Colorado, New Hampshire, Iowa, and Virginia... I stayed up late last night compiling this simple "Victory Matrix", a brief table showing the swing states each candidate needs to reach the minimum 270 Electoral Votes necessary to win.

Assuming a starting point of 243 bankable EV's for Obama and 206 EV's for Romney, here are the fewest swing states each candidate needs to reach the 270 vote threshold:

As you can see, if President Obama wins Florida, it's game over for Romney. The President can lose every other swing state and still break 270. So Florida is a "must win" for Romney.

Obama also has many more paths to victory. If he loses Florida, he still has EIGHT more paths to victory. In fact, he can lose both Florida AND Ohio and still has FOUR paths to victory. There is no absolute "must win" state for President Obama.

Governor Romney on the other hand has a much steeper hill to climb, with far fewer paths to victory with (as noted) Florida being a "must win" for him or it is all over. Mitt has just five paths to victory (sans an upset in a "safely blue" state not listed here), all of which require winning at least four swing states, with "Iowa" and NH being the states he least needs to still win. So if President Obama is the first to win four, likewise the race should technically be over.

Three of Romney's five paths require winning Ohio, while four require winning Virgina. So if he loses one, he MUST win the other to stay alive. Based on the latest polls, Romney has a much better chance of winning Virgina than Ohio (though he trails in both), so while everyone else will be watching Ohio, I will be watching Virgina. Romney has but one path to victory if he loses Virgina, so if Obama wins that, I predict the race to be over rather early.

You can use this table like a scorecard. Let's just hope the race isn't close enough to steal, with no surprises, and we're all in bed by a decent hour.

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Houston based "True the Vote", a fake "anti-voter fraud" group run by Catherine Engelbrecht, the head of a Texas-based Tea Party Organization that has publicly declared its opposition to President Obama, and has taken it upon themselves to "protect" the country from the nonexistent scourge of "voter fraud", was caught sending letters to minority voters in Ohio challenging their right to vote.

ABC News' Dan Harris investigated recent claims of "voter harassment" among poor blacks in Ohio by the Tea Party-backed group, speaking to Teressa Sharp, a low-income African-American grandmother that says she has voted in every election since she was 18, yet received a letter in the mail from TTV saying her "right to vote has been challenged by a qualified electorate" (FYI: an "electorate" is a population, not a person). The justification for this challenge? The report never says.

When Harris tells Engelbrecht that cases of "Voter Fraud" are more rare than prosecutions of "migratory bird violations" and "virtually nonexistent", Engelbrecht responds that that means "there's room for improvement."

Actual cases of "in-person voter fraud" in Ohio is 0.00004% [ibid]. That means that for every four people that these groups might actually stop from voting illegally, TEN MILLION "legal" voters are potentially disenfranchised. The very idea that stopping ONE person from fraudulently voting... which would have NO discernible effect on the outcome of an election, justifies potentially disenfranchising 2,500,000 legitimate voters... which WOULD unquestionably have a catastrophic impact on our elections... is an absolute farce, and should be prosecuted proportionately.

Racist far-right partisan Republicans think they have found a cloak of respectability in challenging the rights of the poor and minorities, who typically vote Democratic, on the grounds of "protecting our elections from voter fraud". What justification is there to believe the poor and minorities are any more likely to commit "voter fraud" than rich white suburbanites that typically vote Republican? None. Yet for some odd coinky-dink, those just always seems to be groups they focus on.

In this week's episode:

• Romney's potential presidency is already causing suffering.
• NBC glorifies war and death with the addition of boobs. (And we are not just talking about Todd Palin and Nick Lachey).
• Paul Ryan, Paul Ryan, Paul Ryan, and more on Absurdity Today, your weekly political satire hosted by satirist, professor, and social critic and Final Cut Pro lover/hater, Julianna Forlano

The most critical battle in this election year is the battle over Wall Street. Candidates all over the place, from the high profile candidates like Elizabeth Warren to a slew of others all over the country, are battling over who is on Wall Street’s side, who wants to keep bailing them out, and who is pushing them to go to jail. But nowhere is this battle being played out more prominently than in the race for the White House.

The Obama campaign is doing a major push in the coming weeks on Mitt Romney’s sordid history at the helm of Bain Capital. His fellow Republicans called it vulture capitalism, and they were right. Mitt bought companies (many of them doing just fine at the time he bought them), loaded them up with massive amounts of debt that Bain could write off on their taxes, in many cases destroyed and outsourced jobs and cut pay and benefits, and then frequently carved them up and sold off the pieces to maximize short-term profits. A few of these companies ended up surviving this brutal process and becoming more profitable, and we will hear a lot from Mitt about those examples. But way too many times, Mitt and Bain left these companies, and especially their workers, far worse for the wear, leaving behind a lot of shattered lives in the process, while Mitt and his fun-loving pals stuffed money in their pockets and walked away. High School wasn’t the only place Mitt brutalized those weaker than him, and he enjoyed doing it.

Bain Capital was Wall Street at its worst. But the cutthroat, anything-goes-in-the-pursuit-of-one-more-dollar culture at Bain has infected our entire banking system. The Obama campaign is right to attack on Bain and on the culture of Wall Street; it is in my view their single most powerful attack line. However, that attack will be undercut unless they buttress their own credibility on taking on Wall Street. Republicans aren’t going to hesitate coming after Obama hard on his ties to Wall Street (ironically with a lot of Wall Street money) in order to weaken the campaign’s credibility when they attack Bain, and we are seeing signs of that right now.

Look at how the issue has played out in recent days. Over the course of the last week, we have seen Jamie Dimon twisting himself into a pretzel trying to explain why his bank’s dangerous and irresponsible trades don’t merit any regulation, stories on how the Obama campaign is being hurt by not being tougher on Wall Street, like this one from Politico, a major new ad campaign by a Republican group attacking Obama for his ties to Wall Street, and new polling paid for by an anti-Wall Street coalition showing Obama’s numbers on housing/banking issues in swing states being pretty bad. These issues are clearly going to be huge in this campaign, and the Republicans will do everything in their power to exploit any Obama weakness in this area.

The Obama team, in the White House and in the campaign, in order to win on the Bain attack, needs to face—and turn around —the perception that the administration has been weak on Wall Street. They need to be willing to shed past caution and take Wall Street titans head on.

One of the toughest problems they have to work through is that the most visible vehicle for action on holding Wall Street accountable is the financial fraud task force announced with great fanfare at the State of the Union. This task force raised hopes that an aggressive investigation was forthcoming, that perhaps some of the big bankers who intentionally pumped up the housing market and then dumped the securities, would be brought to justice. But the best case scenario (and that is only if things really start moving) is that indictments won’t start rolling out until September, and that is a very long time to wait given the narrative being written as we speak on the Wall Street issue. And even in terms of that best case scenario, unfortunately questions continue to be raised by sources I am talking to about whether the DOJ is slow-walking this investigation, whether enough resources are being given to the task force, and whether key staff at the White House are paying enough attention. Those questions ultimately won’t be answered until the task force starts to produce something tangible, and if we have to wait until the fall, these questions are going to keep building. The administration should act right now to give the DOJ much more in the way of staff resources to the task force, and the President and White House senior staff need to send signals that they care about what is going on and that this is a high priority for them. If, for example, the DOJ is slow-walking, the White House needs to lean hard on the DOJ to make sure they aren’t. It seems like politics 101 to me to make sure the task force has the person-power to be successful in its work, but they are failing the test.

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