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    Midterms Open Thread

    By Michael Maiello on Tue, 11/04/2014 - 11:57am | Politics

    Have you all noticed that over the last two days, whoever is picking op-eds for The New York Times has decided that we shouldn't even have midterm elections?

    Well, we do have them.  And you can discuss them and how they are all Obama's fault (or not) right here!

    Topics: 
    Politics

    Comments

    In Minnesota our polls close at 8 PM (CST)

    Al Franken

    Al first ran for office in 2008, attempting to take back Senator Welstone's seat from the  repubs.

    Al had to wait six months to take his  seat in the  Senate because of recounts and 4,000 ballots found in  the back of some idiot's car.

    This year, Al will have to wait about six minutes following the  close of polls in  Minnesota.

    Rick Nolan

    During the red wave (or is  it  red scare of 2010) a repub became an Arrowhead Congressman.

    This hasn't happened in ....ever.

    Rick Nolan, a previous Congressman decades ago, decided enough was  enough and won back this Seat in 2012.

    It should take about six minutes following the close of the polls in Minnesota to confirm his re-election.

    Mark Dayton

    Mark Dayton is one of the finest Governors we have ever had in this State.

    Mark Dayton had to deal with a repub legislature for his  first two years in office and kept our State from the types of legislation we have seen in our Sister State, Wisconsin.

    Then, Minnesota shaped up and with a dem legislature, magic happened.

    We have less debt, more citizens who are insured, better education, better....than Wisconsin under the menace of its governor with the vacant stare.

    Mark should be confirmed as our Governor approximately six minutes following the  close of polls tonight.

    I have not been this proud of my state since the days of Hubert Humphrey and Gene McCarthy and Frazier and a host of other fine Democrats.

    If I can  just focus on Minnesota tonight, I shall have the  opportunity to keep myself from falling into a great depression.

    And, of course, President Obama will most probably be able to keep this country from falling into a great depression..

    the end


    by Richard Day on Tue, 11/04/2014 - 4:03pm

    I'm in Japan, and it's already Wednesday here. Why aren't they reporting the results? wink


    by Verified Atheist on Tue, 11/04/2014 - 5:48pm

    I think this all has to do with Daylite Savings Time.

    the end

    hahahahah

    What the hell are you doing there anyway? Exporting American Jobs?


    by Richard Day on Tue, 11/04/2014 - 6:53pm

    Hey, I'm (eventually) bringing Japanese money back to the states. I'm doing formal methods contract work for an automotive company, with the goal of making sure that their automotive software can be rigorously proven to have specific safety properties.


    by Verified Atheist on Wed, 11/05/2014 - 5:09am

    We just got back from voting in the West Village.  Very empty.  We were in and out.  Did lots of voting for Democrats under the Working Families Party, spread some love to Greens that are not Cuomo.  Wrote myself in for a spot on the State Supreme Court.


    by Michael Maiello on Tue, 11/04/2014 - 6:32pm

    Like other minor parties in the state, the WFP benefits from New York's electoral fusion laws that allow the party to support another party's candidate when they feel it aligns with their platform. This allows sympathetic voters to support a minor party without feeling like they are "wasting" their vote.

    From Wiki. When was the last time Working Families supported a non-Democratic candidate? Just sayin'.

    At least you had the balls to "waste" your vote on the Greens. I indulged Cuomo. Not that it makes a difference.

    PS Had I known you were running for State Supreme Court, I would have written you in too.


    by Michael Wolraich on Tue, 11/04/2014 - 8:33pm

    Yeah, Working Families not only never runs its own candidates but it never supports more progressive options to the Dems either.  So far as Cuomo and the Greens go... this was not a consequential or close election.  Ah well.  Still showed up!


    by Michael Maiello on Tue, 11/04/2014 - 8:36pm

    Hey, look...

    Green's rise up the NY state ballot for the next four years.

    http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/albany/2014/11/8556093/green-party...


    by Michael Maiello on Wed, 11/05/2014 - 3:39pm

    Gary Peters will win Carl Levin's senatorial seat handily in Michigan, but it's a nail-biter over the gubernatorial (that word is hilarious) race between Snyder and Schauer.  I'll be shocked if Schauer wins, even though it's insane that he won't.

    Our polls close at 8 PM, but I see that in Ky and Indiana the polls are already closed.  Way to keep the voters from voting.

    I'm so disgusted with the media coverage of the midterms.  Lots of bloviating, not much fairness.  Even MSNBC has taken to ignoring the Dems to cover only the Republicans.  They're being much too kind.  I hate that.


    by Ramona on Tue, 11/04/2014 - 6:39pm

    Kill me right now... Umm tonights drink.. adult chocolate milk, which I discovered in the vodka section of the store.. It's going to make this night feel just a bit better.


    by tmccarthy0 on Tue, 11/04/2014 - 7:48pm

    Hi.  Working on a power point presentation with the little genius.  He sprung this on me at the last minute.  My router is in and out because of brown outs this weekend.  Verizon is gong to have to come out.  I had to learn how to use open office power point, good thing my grand daughter in law was here to teach an old lady.  She copied it on to a flash drive in a format for Microsoft so it will work at school.  He is in the shower and then he has to use the computer for web quest on line project.  

    My son said they had to hold the polls open in I think Miami because of a glitch for an extra hour. Crist is ahead right now at 50%.  This is all I know for now.  

    I will be back later.  


    by trkingmomoe on Tue, 11/04/2014 - 8:30pm

    Voted in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Cuyahoga County represent!

     

    So here's what happened: our state Democratic Party PTB decided that having a competitive primary for governor would be too divisive. Why ding up your own candidate before the general? So they picked a front-runner and anointed him, and he became our guy: Ed Fitzgerald, from right here in Cuyahoga County. 

    Then the scandal broke. Which led to the other scandal. And then to the RIDICULOUS scandal. And our candidate for governor has been toast for weeks. We can't get momentum on anything else, because we've got no one carrying the flag. Our local Democratic congresswoman in safe. The local state dems are safe. But statewide, we lost this a couple of months ago when Ed more or less set his candidacy on fire, (Also, if Ohio's Republican governor, Kasich, turns up in the GOP primaries for president, blame Ed Fitzgerald and the Ohio Democratic Party leadership. We gave Kasich a complete free pass.)

    I've been holding back the "Wreck of the Edward Fitzgerald" jokes until the polls closed, because you've got to play the whole game through. But now I'm singing like the meanest Gordon Lightfoot you've ever met.


    by Doctor Cleveland on Tue, 11/04/2014 - 10:58pm

    I guess we get to see the Fascist flying monkeys Impeach the President.  They will try to do as much damage as they can in the next 2 years.  This will be a real civics lesson.  I just got done visiting on line with some people in a science blog most of them are from out side the US.  They think the people of this country is very stupid and racists.  They see it as more of a attempt to remove the President because they couldn't remove him with the ballot box.  

    I want to add that they were watching our election close because they feel we are going to muck up their attempts to do something about global warming. 


    by trkingmomoe on Tue, 11/04/2014 - 11:44pm

    The campaign for 2016 begins today. Much to the delight of 24/7 News channels and the punditry.

    The American people have spoken. Freedumb reigns.

    Senate hearings on Benghazi beginning this spring. Hillary under oath. For days. Weeks.

    Defunding of anything they can defund on Obamacare, EPA, Consumer Rights Bureau. Closing the government to do so.

    Concluding with House impeachment hearings beginning sometime next summer, trial in the Senate ending just before the GOP 2016 convention. Actual charges biggest sticking point, in the end they throw in everything Issa and Cruz can dream up.

    2016 - Jeb Bush nominated, promises return to Reagan values. Jeb ("Vote for a Strong America") to finish the job started by Dubya, who appears at the convention and receives huge standing ovation.


    by NCD on Wed, 11/05/2014 - 9:57am

    Freedumb is what the American working class has proven to be.

    Even the thought, that some in the working class are already pinning their hopes that a corporatist Democrat (Hillary) will serve the needs of the working class.

    it is appalling to see, how dumb can the members of the working class be? 

    How many more years must the working class be duped into believing Democrats really care about the working class? 

    The republican and democratic parties, or, to be more exact, the republican-democratic party, represents the capitalist class in the class struggle. They are the political wings of the capitalist system and such differences as arise between them relate to spoils and not to principles.

    With either of these parties in power one thing is always certain and that is that the capitalist class are in the saddle and the working class under the saddle.

    Hellraisers Journal: Debs, "Differences as arise between ...


    by Resistance on Wed, 11/05/2014 - 11:03am

    The Democrats have to be "corporatist" because millions or billions are needed to buy stupid ads to get stupid Americans out to vote for them. They are less "corporatist" than Republicans who make no bones about doing nothing but serving the rich, while running on hot button ideological issues their Base is too dumb to realize is a fraud.


    by NCD on Wed, 11/05/2014 - 12:33pm

    Europe was a no-show this year ... no one had the slightest interest in what was happening in the US.

    If the republicans lets this go to their heads, I'm quite sure there will be a fundamental change of heart in 2016 who is elected President and who controls Congress from a European point of view.

    What was interesting this time around I didn't hear a peep out of anyone in uniform promoting republicans in any way shape or form. Might be because the military has been the republicans beat-up-toy of preference for practicing their budget cutting techniques.

     


    by Beetlejuice on Fri, 11/07/2014 - 3:35pm

    I was surprised at the interest that the climate scientist had in this.  They want some action from the US on this issue. This election threw a wet blanket on that because of climate deniers.  


    by trkingmomoe on Fri, 11/07/2014 - 4:29pm

    Well face it, this was pretty much the worse case scenario. Everywhere we expected to lose we lost, no surprises. In every toss up except for Brown in New Hampshire we lost. We lost every place we hoped we might get a pick up like Georgia or Kansas.

    So now our only hope imo is that the republicans are so rigid and uncompromising that not even our spineless president can capitulate to them to get his wished for endlessly sought after Grand Bargain. Saved by the idiot right wing tea party morons because I don't think we have a president we can trust.


    by ocean-kat on Wed, 11/05/2014 - 2:22am

    a


    by Richard Day on Wed, 11/05/2014 - 2:39am

    Yeah but Ocean, I discovered how to cook pulled pork with six bucks of pork loin today!

    and I only used half of that cache.

    I used a slow cooker that Momoe made me purchase a couple years ago and now I really think I have the hang of it. By the way, throw in some pickle juice and canned sweet potatoes (just the juice) and some whole peppers and whatever spices are available and 8 hours later....you will have Nirvana.

    You know, we have to take the good with the bad.

    But damn, I cooked perfect pulled pork.

    And in Minnesota, we are still sane.

    I mean we have a Dem Gov and Al Franken and a lot of lakes.

    Brown losted. That is good news.

    And....

    Well not much.

    the end

    Think of the American voter as a woman who eschews you.

     

     

     

     

     


    by Richard Day on Wed, 11/05/2014 - 2:35am

    I hear you Richard and believe me I do understand. Umm pork. But here's the thing. For the past three days I've been carrying a rifle on my evening hike hoping to get a deer. And for the last three days I've seen a deer. But they all were too far away for me to take a shot. Five minutes earlier or five minutes later I would likely have venison in my freezer. Just unlucky timing.

    Now if I had shot a deer at sundown today I'd probably still be skinning, debone-ing, butchering, bagging and freezing venison. Then I'd be cutting up and grilling the backstrap. When I finally got around to checking the election results a few hours from now I wouldn't be thinking. "Shit we totally fucking lost almost every where." I'd be sitting in front of the computer with a plate of grilled steaks  thinking, ummm fresh venison steaks.

    So you see, its been a really bad three days. And I'm really worried it will be a bad two years. Excepting only that in the next few weeks I will have venison in my freezer.


    by ocean-kat on Wed, 11/05/2014 - 3:20am

    Pork is good in the slow cooker.  I am glad you tried it.  

    I learn how to navigate power point during the blood bath. 2 weeks ago I had to help him do a brochure on Germany using the 6 themes of geography. That 100% grade cost me $50 in new ink that night. This time it cost me a bunch of Malware in my computer to fight with until I figure out how to get rid of two of them.  The others I was able to delete.  These 2 gives you a small window that tells you to put in a number code then after 20 minutes they still haven't deleted. I have to restart the machine. Maybe I will just ignore the window and see if it will just delete. I guess I better learn how to make a video because that is probably on one of his teacher's bucket lists.  I am getting re-educated for the 4 th time in my life.  LOL.  I told the little fellow to start giving me a heads up on these projects because grandma has to prepare for it because she is clueless. 

    I am proud of all the ladies that ran in this election against the Fascist GOP.  They may not of won but they did contribute to democracy. It takes courage to put yourself out on the line like that.

    The big kids asked where they should look for teaching jobs I told them Minnesota.  

     


    by trkingmomoe on Wed, 11/05/2014 - 2:02pm

    Yes, Obama's laissez faire approach to governing has been a great disappoint to many, coupled with a feckless Senate majority that couldn't or wouldn't go toe-to-toe with republicans over legislative issues they could have easily won with active public participation backing them.

    Now that they are a minority, will they use the same lesson plan the republicans used to stymie the legislative processes so the public can see republican's are just as ineffective as were Democrats?

    Since Democrats have just about lost everything, it wouldn't hurt them to go on the offensive and rattle republicans every step of the way and use the press to point out where republicans are floundering.

    In other words, air out the dirty laundry in the public square so the public can really see the bang they bought for a buck.


    by Beetlejuice on Fri, 11/07/2014 - 3:47pm

    No, I just don't see it happening. Back in the Bush years when the republicans were talking eliminating the filibuster on judicial nominees I was cheering them on. Excepting a few rare occasions dems have never used the filibuster as a political tactic. While for republicans it's a go to strategy. Let the republicans own any minor backlash from the public for ending the filibuster with democrats being the greater beneficiary. But seven conservative dems and seven somewhat moderate republicans scuttled the effort. I'm surprised Reid finally had the guts to eventually end it.

    Democrats just never play hardball politics especially when in the minority. I wish they would and I wish that would convince McConnell to end the filibuster on legislation. In the long run it would help the democrats more often then it hurts them. Instead I expect to see enough moderate and conservative dems splitting off to help the republicans pass legislation and Obama to sign off on most of it.


    by ocean-kat on Fri, 11/07/2014 - 4:46pm

    Interesting map of the election

     A thousand points of light — and more.


    by Resistance on Wed, 11/05/2014 - 11:37am