November 7, 2012

A Knock on my 88 year old Mom's door in a German old age home a little after 5 am this morning

(which is a little after 11pm last night our time)

Her 85 year old friend from across the hall stood there with tears in her eyes as she said to my Mom: "Wir haben gewonnen!" - WE WON.

This catholic old lady prayed on her knees every day asking for Obama to win, and she kept checking with me to ask how things are going.
Her message to me just now, and to us all was: " Congratulations and be grateful because God saved America"

I also had other calls from Germany congratulating us, my 11 year old nephew said his entire class voted for Obama except for one child.

I'm just tellin' so you have a personal testimony that the whole world was watching.

November 7, 2012

Poor photo of a rich moment - HITTING 270 at my house

November 6, 2012

There are few I love and respect more than I do Michael Moore. I stand firm on that for my lifetime.

this just came into my email inbox

SEND ME A NON-VOTER'S NUMBER AND I WILL PERSONALLY CALL OR TEXT THEM

Tuesday, November 6th, 2012

Friends,

There are only a few hours left until the polls close. Every minute is precious at this point. I know many/most of you have convinced your one non-voter to vote today. But I/we need a million of these, and I want no non-voter left behind.

Is there someone you know/love who is still on the fence and has not voted yet today? Would a personal call or text from me help? Send me their cell number and I will spend the next four hours calling or texting them to ask/plead that they go to the polls right now.

You can text me their number at 810-522-8398. Obviously I won't be able to get to them all, but I will do as many as I can.

Time is running out. I'm already on the phone...

Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@MichaelMoore.com

November 6, 2012

Tea Party Group Blocks Florida Voters, Stops Water Handouts at Polls

Voters stand in line during the fourth day of early voting in North Miami, Tuesday, October 30, 2012, as Floridians cast their ballot seven days before Election Day. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)

Update @5:45 pm pm ET: An independent analysis of the list of names challenged by Tampa Vote Fair’s Kimberly Kelley reveals the list is 40 percent black, which compares to 15 percent of registered voters who are black. Political scientists Daniel Smith of University of Florida and Michael Herron of Dartmouth College identified 73 people on the list using voter ID numbers in the Florida voter file. They also found just 16 percent of the voters on the list were registered as Republicans, compared to 33 percent of county voters. “We’re essentially seeing the privitzation of voter suppression,” says Smith, “and that should be highly disconcerting. Now we have private citizens through this organization Tampa Vote Fair doing their own data mining and matching and challenging potential citizens at the polls.”
Tea Party activists in Florida’s largely black and electorally significant Interstate 4 corridor have worked furiously to put a damper on what has been a record-setting turnout thus far. In one of the most striking examples of voter suppression to emerge, Voting Rights Watch obtained a list of several dozen Hillsborough County voters who will be surprised to learn they cannot vote regular ballots thanks to last-minute challenges filed against them.
I’ve requested similar information from Miami-Dade, Orange, Pinellas and Seminole counties, but officials have not responded. A spokesperson for the Secretary of State’s Office, Chris Cate, said the state does not track voter challenges, so there is no way of knowing how widespread these sorts of challenges may be.

snip

The Controversy Over Bottled Water
Kelley’s challenges aren’t the only ones Tampa voters needed to worry about during the early voting period. Last Friday and Saturday, the last two official days of early voting, black voters and NAACP members were upset when Republican poll watchers challenged NAACP members for passing out water and offering chairs to voters standing in long lines in the hot sun.
Black voters have been turning out in record numbers, not only in Tampa but throughout the state. There are reports of people standing in line up to seven hours, many of them elderly and disabled—and at one Orlando site there was a bomb scare.

much more at this link:

http://www.thenation.com/blog/171030/tea-party-group-blocks-florida-voters-stops-water-handouts-polls#

November 5, 2012

I JUST REALIZED: Remember Remember the fifth of November - It's Guy Fawkes day today

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/V_for_Vendetta_%28film%29

I think it would not hurt me a bit to see the movie late tonight.
I'm housing 3 volunteers for Obama - I think they may well join me in kicking back after a hard day.

November 5, 2012

Once more with feeling: Here's the real final Republican closing argument in 6 words and a picture

November 5, 2012

The Republican Closing Argument - as see by Andy Borowitz - is happening while

..............Mitt romney is air dropping 2 billion in small bills over Ohio.........................

November 5, 2012
The Republicans’ Closing Argument
Posted by Andy Borowitz

155545182-465.jpg
Photograph by Melina Mara/The Washington Post/Getty.


WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—With only one day until the election, the Republican Party today released its official closing argument to the American people.

In its entirety, the argument read as follows: “We’re strongly opposed to FEMA and health care, but basically O.K. with rape.”

Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, said that the Party’s message of “zero tolerance toward disaster relief combined with a more easygoing attitude about rape” would lead the Party to victory on Election Day.

“Our argument couldn’t be simpler: when God wants to create a hurricane or make a woman pregnant, big government should get out of the way,” he said.

The Party chairman said that the closing argument was part of its “expand the map” strategy: “We’re contesting every state, from Pennsylvania to Colorado to Iowa, where we believe there are voters who are in sync with our more advanced view of hurricanes and rape.”

Mr. Priebus also had this message for the American voter: “Your vote is important. We’ve spent billions trying to buy it.”




Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2012/11/the-republicans-closing-argument.html#ixzz2BMsH471x

November 5, 2012

My inbox just dinged with a letter from Michael Moore about people who don't vote

Letter to a Non-Voter ...from Michael Moore

Sunday, November 4th, 2012

To my friend who is not voting on Tuesday:



I get it – and I don't blame you. You're fed up and you could care less whether Tweedledee or Tweedledumber wins on Tuesday – because on Wednesday, your life will be the same, unchanged, regardless who is president. Your mortgage will still be underwater. You will still owe $50,000 on your student loan. Your son will still be in Afghanistan. Your daughter will still be working two jobs to make ends meet. And gas will still be at $4.



Four years ago you gave in and voted – and you voted for Obama. You wanted to believe he would go after the Wall Street crooks who crashed the economy – but instead the banks that were "too big to fail" four years ago are now even bigger and more dangerous. You thought there'd be universal health care – but the new law only went so far (with most of it not taking effect until 2014). You were tired of war and homeland security measures that violated our civil liberties – but we're still in Afghanistan, we're sending in drones to Pakistan and basic constitutional rights to privacy and a fair trial have been ignored. And you thought you'd have a middle-class, good-paying job like your dad had – but you didn't know that Goldman Sachs was Obama's #1 private campaign donor in 2008, and well, he was beholden to corporate America in more ways we cared to think about. 



So, I get it why you've had it with all these politicians and elections. In the end, it doesn't really seem to be our country any more. It's run by those who can buy the most politicians to do their bidding. Our schools are made a low priority and women are still having to fight for just the basic human rights we thought they already had.



So, it's hard for me to ask you for this very personal favor. It's OK if you say "no," but I'm hoping you don't.



I cannot believe it is possible that, after a group of rich plutocrats wrecked the economy, threw people out of work and stole our future, we may actually hand the keys to our country over to...a rich Republican plutocrat who made millions by throwing people out of work! This is insane, and despite all the legitimate criticisms of Obama, he is nothing like the tsunami of hate and corporate thievery that will take place if Mitt Romney is president. As bad as it feels now, it will only get worse. I need your help to stop this.



I can't promise you that your life will get better, easier under Barack Obama. I do think he cares and I know for sure that if the other guy is sitting in the Oval Office, I can guarantee you that not only will your life not get better, it will get much, much worse. Don't take my word for it. Just ask your parents what life was like before a 30-year pillage by the Republicans of the middle class. Your parents bought a house and eventually owned it outright. They weren't in debt. College was free. They bought a new car every 3 or 4 years. They took vacations and were home for dinner by 5 or 6 PM. They had a savings account in the bank. They didn't live in fear of not knowing if they'd even have a job next year. 



That's all gone. I don't know if we can get it back, but I do know that Mr. Romney would love the chance to complete the final elimination of the middle class and the American Dream. 



He must be stopped. Take 20 minutes on Tuesday and go vote. If you don't want to do it for your country, then do it for me! It's the only favor I'll ever ask of you.



Thanks for taking the time to read this. I know that you care, and care deeply, about your future and your kids' future. You have every right to be cynical about all this. And you hold the power to stop the bastards who plan on squeezing every last dime out of you that they can. Take a stand. And make a statement to those who are hoping against hope that you'll stay home on Tuesday. Your presence at the polls is what they fear most.



Go scare the s**t out of them! For me.

Yours,
Michael Moore

November 5, 2012

I know you don't totally think "all politics is local" let me prove it in a small way

Like my photographer buddies know well my Mom is 88, I talk to her briefly every day. Tel 3 - is very cheap for international calls.

I know in a limited way of course, like we all do, that our election is observed world wide for reasons huge/large/small.
I have for you a tiny trickle down speck of proof:

Mom lives in an old age home in Germany, it's a great place, run by Protestant Nuns, I have visited and love it there.
Across the hall from her lives her best friend of the house, an 85 year old Serbian woman whom I also adore. And today Mom told me that this deeply religious catholic woman gets on her knees every day and prays that Obama gets re-elected.

So there!
We are all one, and connected for reasons we don't understand.
And that includes our other thinking ones in our own country.
A win is ahead, and so is more hard work.

November 5, 2012

So I had a call from my grandson who goes to college three blocks from my house

He's in an art school where his major of theater design and production demands evening classes from 6 pm to 11pm frequently, and this coming week he is scheduled to be there Tuesday, on election night.