It’s election day! If you haven’t done so yet, drop off your ballot. Then join us for an evening of electoral politics under the influence at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking liberally.
We meet at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00 pm, but a few folks show up earlier for dinner.
Can’t make it to Seattle? Tonight there are also meetings of the Tri-Cities chapter, the Vancouver, WA chapter and Drinking Liberally Bellingham. Tomorrow night, Drinking Liberally Bremerton meets.
With 227 chapters of Living Liberally, including twelve in Washington state and six more in Oregon, chances are excellent there’s one near you.
I see that Ron Paul has called Elizabeth Warren a “socialist”. Hmm, Michelle Bachmann thinks some of her fellow GOP candidates are “frugal socialists”.
Odd, but when you call a right-wing extremist a damned fascist, they start whining and crying like little babies. It’s so fucking unfair!
Goddamned fascist assholes, all of them. They can all go to hell.
Well the astroid missed us and I don’t see any zombies shuffling though my neighborhood, guess I can unload the lever-action and put it back in the safe.
@1
If Elizabeth Warren’s a socialist, then sign me up.
Warren’s one of the elite of the elite. The difference between her and many of her peers being that she grew up working class and has a conscious.
The right hates Elizabeth Warren because she’s able to articulate in very forceful and populist terms a very attractive progressive agenda. The right’s puppeteers do not want her to get a platform in the Senate. They’ll pull out all the stops.
Please raise a glass to the continuing campaign of Herman Cain.
Congressional Republicans can attempt to sabotage the economy with inaction and filibusters, but a continuing Cain campaign will single handedly put the popcorn business through the roof.
@5 That reminds me, I need to call my broker and take a position in popcorn futures.
Ohio polls closed 38 minutes ago and initial returns are very sketchy, but at this moment GOP Gov. Kasich’s union-stripping bill (Issue 2, Senate Bill 5) is going down by a 2-to-1 margin, as polls had predicted:
Against – 125,406
For – 60,891
You can follow the Ohio results here (updated every 5 minutes):
http://www.fox8.com/news/election/
Vegas is done.
@7
Yay!
When will we hear the first WA returns? Are there batches already counted that King County et al release at 8?
At the moment, Ohio Issue 2 is losing 395K to 231K with 7% of precincts reporting. That’s a pretty small sample, but the trend seems clear.
“In Kentucky, Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear … has won a second term, defeating Republican state Senate President David Williams.”
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com.....y-governor
In Mississippi, a contentious anti-abortion initiative (which also would criminalize certain types of birth control) is on the ballot, but returns are still too sketchy to mean anything. You can follow the Mississippi results here:
http://politisite.com/2011/11/.....er-8-2011/
Ohio numbers are now 513K against and 292K for the GOP anti-union bill.
Other elections to watch tonight:
In Virginia, Republicans are trying to take over the state senate.
In Iowa, a special election could give Republicans control of the state senate, which might lead to a GOP effort to overturn that state’s same-sex marriage law.
In Arizona, an anti-immigrant GOP legislator is facing recall.
Man Bites Voter
News reports indicate a poll worker bit a voter in Cleveland. The poll worker fled and has not been quarantined; so, if you happen to be in Cleveland tonight, don’t pet stray poll workers or you may have to get rabies shots.
http://www.fox8.com/news/wjw-c.....1679.story
So Ohio overturned Issue 2 by a solid, “Go Fuck Yourself Governor and GOP” margin. AP called it. Ohio might have been a harder pick up in 2012 but anyone see any scenario where Ohio isn’t blue?
Mississippi’s anti-abortion initiative is trailing, 56% – 44%, with 7% of precincts reporting.
Are D.L. posts open threads?
I spent a lot of the day in the car going to Yakima and back, relative in hospice, on her way out likely.
Anyhoo, I caught my weekly dose of “What is the Drug Addict bloviating about today?” He was trying to make a connection between Paterno’s forced exit and it being the fault of Democratic attitudes. (words to the effect) “This is the result of the Democratic attitude. Anyone who is successful and honorable must be destroyed. If you are successful, they must take it away from you.” blah, blah, blah.
With all due respect, go fuck yourself. Paterno did the right thing initially. Credible reports that a staffer was molesting pre-teen boys on campus were brought to him and he reported them up the chain. Nothing was done. Being one of the most respected and tenured people at his institution, when the guy was still on the job much much later he did nothing.
Paterno was one of a handful of people who could have gone to the police or at least made sure that if no one did alert authorities then he would talk to the press. He didn’t.
He needs to be fired along with everyone who knew. A few of those who knew are being rightly prosecuted.
There is no political component here and it’s truly disgusting that El Drug Induced Deaf-bo tried to insert one.
I caught rush for a bit the other day. This was his logic for the fragment I listened to…
Peanut prices are up dramatically. You know who eats peanut butter? Black People. Government regulation caused the peanut shortage so Obama caused the peanut butter tax on black people. Since black people vote for Obama, this proves they are brain washed. And you know who grows peanuts? That socialist Carter. See! Connect the dots my friends.
How do you counter logic like that?
Ohio — 1.36 million against, 852K for, with 58% of precincts reporting
Virginia — Whether the GOP wrests the state senate from Democrats is very close and still undecided; the outcome will hinge on 3 tied races. Going into the election, Democrats held 22 seats, GOPs 18. So far, GOPs have won 16 and lead 2, for a total of 18; Democrats have won 13 and lead 6, for a total of 19. In the 3 tied races, GOPs have slight leads in 2. Thus, the current breakdown is Democrats 20, GOP 20. If the lead changes in even one of those tied races, the party winning that seat will win senate control.
Mississippi — The anti-abortion amendment to the state constitution is trailing 40% (yes) to 60% (no) with 39% of precincts reporting.
@18 What logic? That’s nothing but racist ranting by a drug-addled fool.
In Arizona, GOP Sen. Russell Pearce, the state senate president, is losing a recall election by 52% to 47%. The seat will not change party hands; the challenger is also a Republican. Pearce was the guy behind Arizona’s anti-immigrant law, and he appears to be on his way out of public office.
In Michigan, GOP State Rep. Paul Scott, who is facing recall, has 9,909 votes in his favor vs. 9,672 votes for removing him from office, with 26 of 35 precincts reporting.
Goodbye, state liquor stores.
We have a final in Arizona recall — GOP Senate President Russell Pearce is out on his ass.
Aaron Reardon is easily defeating GOP Flake Mike Hopeless in Snohomish County.
The Seattle car tab fee is toast.
Seattle Port District — Gael Tarleton 55.61%, Richard Pope 43.96%; Bill Bryant 62.51%, Dean Willard 36.98%
King County Elections Director — Sheryl Huff 76%, Mark Greene 23.4%
King County Council Dist. 4 — Jane Hague 53.8%, Richard Mitchell 45.9%
Senate Joint Resolutions 8205 and 8206 are passing easily statewide
25. Typical. I demand government services, but I don’t want to pay for them.
I-1125 (tolls): 51.5% No
I-1163 (long-term care workers): 66.4% Yes
I-1183 (liquor): 59.9% Yes
(Statewide results fromn SoS)
Daily Kos says:
“8:42 PM: In Michigan, local media is saying that GOP Rep. Paul Scott has been very narrowly recalled.”
Roger Rabbit Commentary: If so, both of the Republican state legislators facing recall elections today have lost, but that doesn’t mean Democrats will fill those seats. In Arizona, State Sen. Pearce is being replaced by another Republican. In Michigan, a special election will be held to replace State Rep. Scott (if he loses).
Returning to Washington, in LD-4, Mike Padden (R) (55.5%) leads Jeff Baxter (R) (44.4%) for a senate seat; and in LD-19, Sharon Wylie (D) (56.5%) leads Craig Riley (R) (43.4%).
Here is MSNBC’s latest on Virginia:
“In Virginia it was not clear whether Republicans could pull off a major victory — gaining control of the state Senate. As Election Day started, the Democrats controlled the 40-member Senate with 22 members. It appeared as of 10:30 PM ET that Republican might fall just one member short of 20, which would have given them effective control since Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling would have the power to break a 20-20 tie.”
Republicans already control Virginia’s statehouse and lower house, so if they win control of the senate, they’ll have “absolute” control of state government.
It wasn’t that hard. The GOPs needed to flip only 2 seats. Nine GOPs ran unopposed compared to 3 Democrats; only 4 GOPs had opponents compared to 17 Democrats. So the Dems were very exposed. But if the GOP pulled it off, the most they got was a 20-20 tie, instead of outright control — but that’s good enough for them because then the GOP Lt. Gov. would have the tie-breaking vote.
We don’t know the outcome. The Washington Post says it’ll be determined by a recount. For a full analysis of what the Virginia elections mean for the parties, see:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....story.html
Gee Roger — looks like I am more popular than state liquor stores this years. Also, more popular than $60 increase in car tabs. Not bad for doing absolutely nothing this time around.
More popular than Mike Hope(less) too. At least the name rhymes, so maybe his advertising helped me some …
Sorry Pope. My girlfriend didn’t vote for ya (said something about “dingbats”…I dunno), but I did.
BTW…I appreciate you on these threads, I may not agree, but you are fun to read.