Florida Democrats suggest Jeb Bush lawyer up after it was revealed he identified himself as Hispanic on voter registration form.

Hey @JebBush, did you know it's a 3rd degree felony to submit false information on your voter registration form? pic.twitter.com/6xCafz1ydB
— FL Democratic Party (@FlaDems) April 6, 2015

It was from a 2009 registration form.

My mistake! Don’t think I’ve fooled anyone! RT @JebBushJr LOL - come on dad, think you checked the wrong box #HonoraryLatino
— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) April 6, 2015

Currently Jebbie is trying to laugh it off, but in fact it might not be something that can simply be dismissed with a shrug of the shoulders and an insincere mea culpa.

Some legal experts are saying that without evidence that Bush was trying to deceive it is unlikely he will face legal repercussions.

Political repercussions however.........

Indianapolis Star runs racially insensitive comic, responds to criticism by removing character's mustache, before finally pulling the entire comic and apologizing for it.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

Responding to criticism that a cartoon depicting undocumented immigrants coming through a window to share Thanksgiving dinner with a white family was racist, an Indiana newspaper edited out the stereotyped housebreaker’s mustache, ostensibly to make the cartoon seem less racist. 

The Indianapolis Star ran the cartoon by editorial cartoonist Gary Varvel showing a family coming in through the window to share in the holiday meal, with the house owner announcing to his family and guests, “Thanks to the president’s immigration order we’ll be having extra guests this Thanksgiving.”

In the original version up above the male character has a ball cap over his eyes and a rather prominent mustache, which suggest to many a Hispanic stereotype. After being mocked on Twitter the newspaper decided the best course was to remove the offending mustache.

See? All better.

Yeah, except it WASN'T all better and the outrage continued until the executive editor responded with this: 

On Friday, we posted a Gary Varvel cartoon at indystar.com that offended a wide group of readers. 

Many of them labeled it as racist. Gary did not intend to be racially insensitive in his attempt to express his strong views about President Barack Obama's decision to temporarily prevent the deportation of millions of immigrants living and working illegally in the United States. 

But we erred in publishing it.

Gee, ya think?

My favorite part of this story is that they really believed that the mustache was the problem, and not the showing of dark haired, clearly Hispanic, people invading the home of white people uninvited.

Which of course is exactly the kind of thing that fans the flames of racial hatred in this country.

New census data shows that the demographic shifts may soon make the Republicans obsolete as a national party.

Courtesy of the New Republic:  

Today, the Census released the November 2012 Current Population Survey (CPS) Voting and Registration Supplement, which is based on interviews with hundreds of thousands of residents. The CPS asks Americans whether they participated in the last election. The CPS is imperfect like any survey, but it is considered the gold standard for analyzing turnout. It demonstrates that, in the debate about the GOP’s future in an increasingly diverse America, both sides are right, to a certain extent. On the one hand, Obama’s historic candidacy led to historic black turnout. On the other hand, the Obama coalition is the product of irreversible demographic changes. If Republicans hope to win presidential elections, they will need to broaden their appeal—not just count on lower minority turnout in the post-Obama era. 

Unsurprisingly, the CPS found that the 2012 electorate was more diverse than any in history. Whites represented just 73.7 percent of the electorate, down from 76.3 in 2008 and 79.2 percent in 2004. In comparison, the exit polls found that whites represented 72 percent of the electorate in 2012, compared to 74 percent in 2008 and 77 percent in 2004. For the first time, the CPS found that black turnout rates exceed white turnout rates, with 66.2 percent of voting age blacks turning out, compared to 64.1 percent of whites. Many expected that black turnout would decline in 2012, but the CPS actually found that black turnout was even higher in 2012 than it was in 2008, increasing from 64.7 to 66.2 percent. 

But the problem for Republicans is that the white share of the voting eligible population is likely to decline even further over the next four years. What’s causing the decline? Today’s 15-18 year olds are only about 58 percent white. As they enter the electorate and older whites depart, the non-white share of the voting eligible population rises. This prediction is not subject to great uncertainty. These 15-18 year olds are alive, they’re counted in the Census, and, unless they die, they’re going to be eligible to vote in 2016. If the non-white share of the voting eligible population declines by another 2 points, as expected, then the 2016 electorate will about as diverse as it was in 2012, even if turnout rates return to 2004 levels. The Obama coalition is not going away, even if elevated minority turnout rates are gone for good. 

The biggest mistake that Republicans made in 2012 was assuming that 2008 was a special, one-time product of a historic candidate. That was superficially appealing and maybe even “felt” right, but the CPS said that the 2008 turnout wasn’t as unique as the huge crowds and palpable enthusiasm made it seem. The GOP should not delude itself into believing that taking Obama off of the ballot will return them to the White House, even if black turnout rates should be expected to decline in 2016. Demographic change, not turnout, is the primary force driving the declining white share of the electorate, and the GOP will need to adapt.

Nothing that the GOP is currently doing indicates that they have learned ANYTHING from their recent defeats in the last two presidential elections. So I think that the White House may be out of their reach for the foreseeable future, barring any huge scandal for the Democrats that is.

However on the local level the GOP still has a very strong machine in place, not to mention control over those damn voting machines, which means that unless the Democrats find a way to outlaw voting machines that leave no paper trail, or increase their turnout to such a degree that elections cannot be stolen, they will have to wait until the people finally get completely fed up with the Republican party or until the demographics change to such a degree that even in smaller elections the minority becomes the majority.

Personally I don't think our country can survive waiting for the latter.

“Even if I am being conservative, I don’t see how Obama can lose.” Says Professor with never fail formula for predicting the winners of Presidential elections.

Picture courtesy of the Obama Diary.

Courtesy of US News:

Allan Lichtman, the American University professor whose election formula has correctly called every president since Ronald Reagan’s 1984 re-election, has a belated birthday present for Barack Obama: Rest easy, your re-election is in the bag. 

“Even if I am being conservative, I don’t see how Obama can lose,” says Lichtman. 

Working for the president are several of Lichtman’s keys, tops among them incumbency and the scandal-free nature of his administration.Undermining his re-election is a lack of charisma and leadership on key issues, says Lichtman, even including healthcare, Obama’s crowning achievement. 

Lichtman developed his 13 Keys in 1981. They test the performance of the party that holds the presidency. If six or more of the 13 keys go against the party in power, then the opposing party wins.“The keys have figured into popular politics a bit,” Lichtman says. “They’ve never missed. They’ve been right seven elections in a row. A number that goes way beyond statistical significance in a record no other system even comes close to.” 

Below are each of the keys and how it falls for Obama. 

1. Party mandate: After the midterm elections, the incumbent party holds more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives than it did after the previous midterm elections. Says Lichtman, “Even back in January 2010 when I first released my predictions, I was already counting on a significant loss.” Obama loses this key. 
2. Contest: There is no serious contest for the incumbent party nomination. Says Lichtman on Obama’s unchallenged status, “I never thought there would be any serious contest against Barack Obama in the Democratic primary.” Obama wins this key. 
3. Incumbency: The incumbent party candidate is the sitting president. Easy win here for Obama. 
4. Third Party: There is no significant third party challenge. Obama wins this point. 
5. Short term economy: The economy is not in recession during the election campaign. Here Lichtman declares an “undecided.” 
6. Long-term economy: Real per capita economic growth during the term equals or exceeds mean growth during the previous two terms. Says Lichtman, “I discounted long term economy against Obama. Clearly we are in a recession.” Obama loses this key.
7. Policy change: The incumbent administration effects major changes in national policy. “There have been major policy changes in this administration. We’ve seen the biggest stimulus in history and an complete overhaul of the healthcare system so I gave him policy change,” says the scholar. Another win for Obama. 
8. Social unrest: There is no sustained social unrest during the term. Says Lichtman, “There wasn’t any social unrest when I made my predictions for 2012 and there still isn’t.” Obama wins a fifth key here. 
9. Scandal: The incumbent administration is untainted by major scandal. “This administration has been squeaky clean. There’s nothing on scandal,” says Lichtman. Another Obama win. 
10. Foreign/military failure: The incumbent administration suffers no major failure in foreign or military affairs. Says Lichtman, “We haven’t seen any major failure that resembles something like the Bay of Pigs and don’t foresee anything.” Obama wins again. 
11. Foreign/military success: The incumbent administration achieves a major success in foreign or military affairs. “Since Osama bin Laden was found and killed, I think Obama has achieved military success.” Obama wins his eighth key. 
12. Incumbent charisma: The incumbent party candidate is charismatic or a national hero. Explains Lichtman, “I did not give President Obama the incumbent charisma key. I counted it against him. He’s really led from behind. He didn’t really take the lead in the healthcare debate, he didn’t use his speaking ability to move the American people during the recession. He’s lost his ability to connect since the 2008 election.” Obama loses this key. 
13. Challenger charisma: The challenging party candidate is not charismatic or a national hero. Says Lichtman, “We haven’t seen any candidate in the GOP who meets this criteria and probably won’t.” Obama wins, bringing his total to nine keys, three more than needed to win reelection. 

I might disagree with the professor on his assertion that Obama lacks charisma, but other than that I think the formula makes good sense.

Now while this is very good news for us in 2012, I by NO means believe we should rest on our laurels and just expect this to all play out in our favor.

In fact I believe that the Republican are well aware that they are in trouble in 2012 and are turning to dirty tricks in order to sabotage Obama's chances for reelection.

Case in point:  

The newest political strategy is to turn the African-American community against the first black president. The idea is to get black folks to scream at the President and to threaten to withhold our support come November 2012. Due to the very high unemployment rate in the black community, this could be an easy sell. The well-paid professional propagandists don’t ask African-Americans to lay the blame for the lack of employment at the feet of the business world (which is hoarding up a couple of trillions in their rainy-day fund), or to consider the fact that governors everywhere are cutting down on the public sector workforce (comprised of large numbers of black Americans per capita), or to holler at the Republican-dominated House, which has blocked most of the job-creating programs introduced by Democrats. Instead, they want us to aim our fire solely at our President and to blame him for 30 years of white men’s policies.

And the black community is not the ONLY voting block that the GOP is working to convince to stay home in 2012, we have also seen other groups like Environmentalists, Hispanics, LGBT members, and Union members targeted for disenfranchising by the Republicans.

The problem is that Obama is not a complainer.  He actually embraces the concept first put forward by President Truman that "The buck stops here." He simply accepts that he will receive the blame for problems left unsolved, the failure of policies aggressively blocked by the Republicans, and the fact that Americans are still dying on foreign soil.

If he were Sarah Palin he would go around blaming everybody else for every problem that came along, even those that WERE his fault.  But he is President Barack Obama, and he is somebody who buckles down and does the job to the best of his ability, hoping that the voters can peer through the fog of obfuscation and see the truth of what he has accomplished.

He has far more faith in the American people than I do. I think they are going to need somebody to grab them by the lapels and slap some sense into them before sending them off to the voting booth.

We are already seeing past supporters throwing up their hands in disgust "Hey, I thought he could walk on water. He can't? Fuck it I am not going vote then!"

To those people I would say that by staying home you are not just costing the President one more vote, you are handing your vote to the Republicans. That just means they need even fewer votes to grab hold of the nation's steering wheel and again start driving us off that cliff that the President worked so hard to steer us away from.

So yes the Professor's formula should give us all confidence that President Obama has a better than even chance of staying in the White House, but we still need to get active and do our part to get out the vote and educate our friends and family on the truth of what a Republican victory would mean for this country.

You know what I'm doing. What are you doing?

Update: I thought you all might like to see a few more pictures (Courtesy of the Obama Diary) of President Obama with his most loyal constituents.

Greg Palast has uncovered what is REALLY going on in Arizona. And no surprise at all that Sarah Palin is right in the middle of it.

From Greg Palast:

Don't be fooled. The way the media plays the story, it was a wave of racist, anti-immigrant hysteria that moved Arizona Republicans to pass a sick little law, signed last week, requiring every person in the state to carry papers proving they are US citizens.

I don't buy it. Anti-Hispanic hysteria has always been as much a part of Arizona as the Saguaro cactus and excessive air-conditioning.

What's new here is not the politicians' fear of a xenophobic "Teabag" uprising.

What moved GOP Governor Jan Brewer to sign the Soviet-style show-me-your-papers law is the exploding number of legal Hispanics, US citizens all, who are daring to vote -- and daring to vote Democratic by more than two-to-one. Unless this demographic locomotive is halted, Arizona Republicans know their party will soon be electoral toast. Or, if you like, tortillas.

The Republicans have demonstrated to the world that they are cowards who will now engage in literally any dirty trick available to regain power.

At this point I cannot imagine what kind of reasonable person would still want to be associated with this broken, corrupt excuse for a political party.  And yet supposedly the citizens of this country are poised to elect a whole slew of new uber-conservative Republicans.

I keep hearing these people yelling that they want to take their country back, but they seem not to understand that the people who are really taking it from them are the same people who buy advertising on Fox News, and spend millions upon millions of dollars purchasing Republican political candidates.