"Conservative Values" FL State Legislator Linked to Prostitution Ring

Crossposted as an Election Diary Rescue on DKOS.

Every two years it seems to happen. A sactimonious a$$H... GOP legislator here in Florida gets caught with his or her pants down.

Of course you remember the infamous Mark Foley, whose penchant for male pages was largely ignored by his peers and made his chairmanship of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children seem somewhat ironic.

Or, you may not remember Bob Allen, who claimed he was offering the undercover officer money to give him a blowjob because he was fearful of "black guys".

And the lesbian affair/travel scandal from our complete fiasco of a Lt. Governor, Jennifer Carroll.

As of today, we have someone new. The man the Christian Coalition of Florida gave the aptly named "Faith and Families Award" to: right-wing state representative and teabagger darling, Mike Horny Horner of Kissimmee.

Orlando Sentinel:

State Rep. Mike Horner of Kissimmee, a leading Osceola County Republican and a rising star in state GOP circles, abruptly ended his re-election campaign Monday after he was named as a client in a prostitution and racketeering case... "I deeply regret decisions I made that are causing my family unjustifiable pain and embarrassment …," Horner said. "My family still deserves better from me, as do all my friends, supporters and constituents." He did not respond to requests for an interview.

Horner is no ordinary state representative. He was a fast-rising star.

He was named president of the powerful Kissimmee/Osceola Chamber of Commerce, funneled money to Disney (a requirement here), was a massive fundraiser for the state GOP, and thus had the backing of every big name Florida conservative, including JEB, Marco Rubio and NRA president Marian Hammer. They eve n made a video for him, along with other prominent Florida conservatives, extolling his virtues. Such "integrity"! So much "character" this guy has!

(Although I agree he was "in step with conservative values"--meaning he is a complete assh&*e. The guy has a wife and small child at home! The last frame may break your heart.)



And if you can stomach it, more crap:

Conservative values, my ass.

Thankfully, this was a gauranteed seat for the GOP that we can now definitely win.

The Democrat is Eileen Game for state House District 42, a Polk County business woman.



Even though it's a conservative district, with Horner out, a new republican will only have six weeks to put his or her campaign together, raise money, meet voters... and not even have his or her name on the ballot!! Horner's name has to remain because the deadline to change it has long past.

We need more Democrats DESPERATELY in these final two years of the Rick Scott regime.

1. First, Like her on facebook
2. Donate! Just a little bit... a couple bucks. She's raised several grand and matched that with her own contributions. Our money will go farther because all the funds for Horner have, as of today, been wasted!
3. If you are in District 42 (straddles Osceola and Polk) or live in St. Cloud, Lake Wales or Frostproof, please consider volunteering.
4. At the very least, if you are in the district, ask her for a sign!.

Let's take Florida back, one district at a time.

Want to know HOW FAR Florida's governor will go to STOP you from asking a question?

Crossposted on DKos as a Rec diary

A young mother wanted to speak to her governor during his recently completed "listening" tour of public education. This was the start of something bad:

To be considered for meeting the governor, each parent had to fill out a form with a driver's license, Social Security number and date of birth. Similar forms are routinely required from those who attend gatherings with a president of the United States, but contrary to the claims in Tallahassee, they have never been routinely required for a meeting with prior Florida governors.

As appalling as that is, what is happened after the check was even more appalling... .

For almost 20 years this young mother has held a sensitive job as a child care worker and Medicaid provider who screens young children. This type of work requires a flawless background with rigorous background checks. She always passes with flying colors.

This time, all she wanted to do was sit down in the school library at the school her own child attends while her governor "listens" to their concerns.

But she was denied. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement told her she failed her background check.

What's worse is that, to this day, they won't tell her why she was rejected! From the same article:

Gretl Plessinger, spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, refused to disclose why La'Tasha Reed Dullivan flunked its background test to attend a session of the governor's education "listening tour.'

Mrs. Dullivan was furious. So she ran a check on herself, forking over the $24 for access to the database.

What did find? Nothing. Nada. Zip.

No trace of criminal history.

Nothing evil--except her party registration. Democrat.

Outrageous! - says the governor's staff. They certaintly don't tell law enforcement to weed out Democrats! (Except when they do).

The FDLE won't say why she "failed" either, despite repeated requests from the press. (Nasty buggers they are. No wonder Scott hates them so.)

The FDLE put out a statement that these background checks are common. This is complete and utter crap. No other governor has ever subjected their citizens to a background check just to talk with them. The Tampa Times investigated and found that not Crist, Chiles, Graham, or even JEB did such a thing. Bush's former Chief of Staff said Bush never asked for a backround check just to meet with her boss; and Charlie Crist was downright disgusted when he was asked, saying "I never did that!''

Scott's people, growing tired of a new scandal every week, are throwing the FDLE under the bus. They are saying they must be going rogue and doing this without their knowledge. Once again, COMPLETE AND UTTER CRAP! You can't pull a stunt like this without the Chief Law Enforcement Officer in the state knowing about it--and in this backwards state, that person is the same freaking guy who gets elected governor. (BTW, Dick Rott used this position as an excuse to order the Sumter Co. Sheriff to remove anyone wearing an anti-Scott T-shirt in a public square last year.)

Running these types of background checks on EVERYONE who is selected to be in an audience with the guber is expensive, offensive and wasteful. FDLE is underfunded and overwhelmed. The limited resources need to go to serious crimes, including dealing with the uptick in murders under the badly-written Stand Your Ground law you may have heard about. Just like public education, which was cut by $1.3 billion in 2011, FDLE succumbed to the Tallahassee Teabag budget ax along with those other government "parasites" in mental health and child protective services.

(And, before I conclude, allow me to quickly remind everyone what a total asshole Rick Scott is: he appointed a monster to head the Department of Children and Families who justified Rick Scott gutting his own agency by $179 million, even though we have an epidemic of child deaths, by saying "I believe in the protective power of prayer and hope".

Seriously dude, F&*K YOU!! And to cap it off, Scott requested a 116% increase for his own office. Ass......hole. OK, I'm done.)

I'm sure the woman didn't miss much. Scott mostly talked during his "listening" tour and the complaints fell on deaf ears. But he could have at least a shred of decency and allowed someone to ask why they are being screwed over before ignoring them.

What I find most ironic is that this squeaky-clean woman couldn't get an audience with a governor with an actual criminal history.

But then again, this is Florida....

Updated Romney Sticker

Great Week for Rick Scott: Got to Screw Over Teachers AND Unemployed

From the My Stupid State series. Crossposted on DKos

TEACHERS:

From the moment on that God-awful day Rick Scott took office, he has been on an unholy crusade to ruin public education.

Despite Florida already ranking near the bottom in education, the bald-headed bastard proposed completely gutting k-12 education by $1.75 billion. But it was MUCH worse than even that: Although he justified the cut by saying we have a huge state deficit, he planned to use that money not to pay down the debt, but to give it all away through massive corporate tax breaks. It was so bad that Rachael Maddow devised the "Rick Scott test" as a metric to measure how bad the other governors were. Thankfully, Rick Scott's GOP legislators bravely rolled over pushed back... and only allowed a $1.3 billion cut, which is still a freaking state record.

With our schools in free-fall, programs cut, teacher take-home pay decimated, and children suffering, even this pathetic and apathetic state gave the legislators an outcry. The shell-shocked legislature restored about 75% of the funding (but not before the requisite bashing of non-political state employees).

Unfortunately for Scott, trying to make teachers destitute, give them unfair higher standards than charter schools, and attempt to drug-test them like criminals, for some reason, had a negative impact on his polls (among other things). After almost two years of refusing to set foot into a public school, he suddenly realized that our children's teachers were much more popular than he was. (Actually, I think he's only slightly ahead of toxic mold, which at least has a reason to screw over people.)

Hence, this week, Gov. BatBoy announced, with much fanfare, a "listening" tour of some of our public schools, closed to the public, of course.

From what I hear in these closed sessions, he brings a giant banner that says "Promise Kept-One Billion for Education". Apparently thinking we are all f-ing idiots that he gutted education by $300 million more than that last year.

The sessions are primarily Rick Scott giving out his talking points, ("listening" means listen to me, dammit), and questions afterwards. Although these sessions are invite-only, his handlers couldn't find hardly any teacher in favor of his asshattery, so he has been getting a mouthful. Rick Scott heard horror stories of trying to teach starving, neglected, and homeless children with few resources... and then condescendingly told them that eveyone asks him for more money. (If the hungry 3-year old was a big corporation, then we'd talk.)

The teachers he has talked with point out he didn't say he would do anything different. Condescending, unhelpful, and an asshat. Mission accomplished.



But just in case you think his contempt is limited to teachers, wait until they get unemployed.

UNEMPLOYED:

Florida is now DEAD LAST in the nation of unemployed workers receiving benefits.

Why?

Early this year a new policy was enacted that requires all new claims to be filed using a convoluted online service:

This might explain why in the first quarter of 2012 more than 60,000 workers were denied benefits for procedural reasons, an increase of more than 200 percent from the year before.

No live person, no phone calls, no letters. Plus, only online documentation of job searches. Next session the legislature is planning on eliminating all notices through the mail as well, so you had better get your email! One lawyer in that article said the process has turned into a game of "gotcha". Make it hard to do, easy to make mistakes, then deny.

The U.S. Department of Labor is currently investigating. (Wait your turn, Labor!)

Florida is the ONLY state in the union that is requiring online only. Every other state has at least a telephone application option for those unable to do it online.

So you are an older, low-wage worker with a family and got thrown out with no notice... very common now in this GOP hellhole.

Naturally, the first thing you are going to want to do is buy a computer and get cable internet service.

Can't afford it? GET A JOB! (Oh right...) You say you worked construction and aren't tech savvy? Well, maybe you shouldn've taken a few courses. It's not like tuition suddenly skyrocketed under this regime.

Online forms not clear? Yeah, no kidding. They are notoriously and (problaby purposefully) confusing. But that just means you have to WANT it baby! We can't afford to pay for people to answer your questions. Learn how to talk to the paperclip guy!

And God help you if you do it wrong. (Seriously, you better pray if you made a mistake.)

Naturally, this is something Rick Scott is very proud of. NOT KIDDING. Check out the new verbiage that just went up this week on the main claims page for the FL Dept. of Econ. Opportunity:



Yes, thanks to our illustrious governor, claims are down!! But not because people are back to work--it's because Gov. Dick Rott is purposefully being an ass to people simply trying to apply for their benefits!

It's called kicking someone when they're down. No wonder Mitt Romney loves the guy!

FL GOP Spends YOUR Money to Fight Latino Resident Citizens from Claiming In-State Tuition!

Crossposted as a Rec'd diary on Dkos

Maybe your state fights for their citizens. Mine fights against our people... and then bills us for it. That is what happens when your state is completely run by the GOP.

The party that is currently screaming fiscal restraint is spending mad taxpayer money defending its hateful ideology. Millions have so far been spent fighting (and losing) to stop healthcare reform, the privatization of prisons, drug testing of welfare recipients, drug testing of all state workers (except legislators and Rick Scott), voter suppression laws, radical gun laws (Docs vs. Glocks), redistricting, and the shifting of pension costs onto state workers.

And this latest expensive failure just happened: Our tax dollars went to defend what the judge correctly described as a "blatantly unconstitutional" policy to deny American citizens the right to in-state tuition unless their parents could prove legal residency.

Naturally, we were the ONLY state that had this ridiculous requirement.

The US District Judge wasted no time shredding this idiotic policy:

The plaintiffs included four high school grads born and raised in Miami, one born in Los Angeles but raised in Palm Beach County. All had been denied in-state tuition. The effect, as Judge Moore noted, was that these young Florida citizens who happened to be children of undocumented immigrants were charged a state college tuition rate triple that paid by fellow state citizens. Judge Moore tossed the policy, telling the state what their lawyers already knew. That the Supreme Court applies “a form of heightened scrutiny when evaluating alleged violations of the Equal Protection Clause that arise from a state’s denial of a benefit to a child or creation of an additional obstacle to a child solely by virtue of the parent’s unlawful or immoral behavior.”

Keep in mind that was a GOP policy that had widespread, legislative GOP support. Nevermind that is was illegal and UNCONSTITUTIONAL. It was brown people we were talking about, so they didn't care. Hispanic Floridians should pay for the sins of thier parents. In this case, the sin being wanting a better life for your family and being exploited by an employer that brought you here. Regardless of that, these children were US CITIZENS and FLORIDA RESIDENTS.

But to the GOP, it's all about the parents.

Sort of like having me go to jail if my Dad was caught bribing a legislator.

Oh wait, that's not illegal in florida anymore. (Seriously, last year legislator bribery was FREAKING LEGALIZED!)

Couple of things before I get off my soapbox:

1. It is telling that the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil-rights organization that normally takes on hate groups like the Klan, is now taking on Rick Scott's GOP regime in Florida.

2. It is also telling that the Courts consistently smack Rick Scott's GOP bullies down (which is why he is hellbent on going after our impartial Courts.)

3. It it telling the lengths the FL GOP will go to in order to hurt minorities. I am willing to bet any amount of money that they would have no trouble with these children if they were working back-breaking labor in our farms and orange groves.

4. It is not just telling, but appalling, that none of the handful of GOP Hispanic legislators supported repeal. Rubio? He was FL House Speaker when this nonsensical bigotry took effect in 2005. One guess as to where he stood on this.

5. Florida doesn't even have an immigration problem that needs solving. Our biggest problem with "illegals" are Europeans who overstay their visa.

6. If you think this legislative bigotry is isolated, think again. Rick Scott and the GOP wanted LEGAL IMMIGRANTS to carry their papers at all times to be checked... and get fined and jailed if they didn't have their papers with them!

7. Still not convinced? That bill I just mentioned for #6? There was an even more radical bill that Rick Scott promised to sign. It was similar to the Arizona law, but included a racial exemption for white people.

The GOP is going to begin a massive "Hispanic outreach" in the weeks prior to this election. Please, keep this in mind when they tout their diversity. Nice rhetoric doesn't make up for being attacked by actual legislation.

Justice Department: Florida dumping disabled kids in nursing homes for adults

Article by Christian Dem in NC. Crossposted to DKos.

Earlier this year, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division got word that Florida officials have been sending sick and disabled children to adult nursing homes. It found the goings-on so egregious that on Tuesday, it sent a "what the hell is going on here?" letter to Tallahassee.

Hundreds of Florida children are spending their formative years in hospital-like institutions, sometimes growing up in the equivalent of hospital rooms with virtually no education or socialization, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division wrote in a 22-page letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi. Bondi’s office is defending the state against a previously filed lawsuit that claims the institutionalization of children violates federal law.

The letter, written by Assistant U.S. Attorney General Thomas E. Perez, is the federal government’s first attempt to weigh in on the controversy. At the end of his letter, Perez outlined a series of steps the state could take to reduce its reliance on nursing home beds for frail children. If state leaders fail to “correct” the practice, Perez wrote, “the Attorney General may initiate a lawsuit” of his own.

Some youngsters remain in nursing homes for much of their lives: “a number” of kids, the report said, have spent a decade or longer institutionalized, including some children who entered the facilities as infants and toddlers.

Read the full letter here. It alleges that disabled children often spend years in nursing homes--at least 50 haven't been home in five years. According to several advocates for disabled children, state officials have sent children to nursing homes even when they are more than capable of living at home with their parents. Perez accuses the state of cutting millions of dollars from programs that support disabled children and turning down federal money that would allow them to stay at home. The state even went as far as to repeal state rules that restrict the number of children that nursing homes can take in, and increased their per diems in order to encourage them to take children in. According to Perez, this is not only a flagrant violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, but also does serious damage to children.

The letter makes for horrifying reading. Civil Rights Division investigators visited nursing homes in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Tampa and St. Pete. In one facility, the kids living there never leave their floor except for medical appointments or community outings. At another, the entrance to an outdoor area is in the smoking section for adult residents.

Some of the stories are absolutely gut-wrenching. For example, one mother wants to bring her five-year-old daughter home from a facility where she's spent three years after being rendered a quadriplegic in a car accident. But she can't because state officials told her she may have to wait as long as 10 years to get home-based care. Another family had to fight for years to bring their son home after he nearly drowned. The doctor prescribed home-health care to deal with his breathing problems, but had to sue the state to get it to provide the necessary care.

State officials claim that Justice ambushed them with the letter, and didn't provide them with an opportunity to comment before it was released. But this seems hard to believe, given how far back this appears to date. This, friends, appears to be "compassionate conservatism" at work.

Romney to "CARPETBOMB" Obama with $100M in Ads Starting Sat.; but why U should feel good

Crossposted as recommended diary on DKos



First the bad news:

Our gleeful friends at RedState and Fox:

Aides said more than a dozen new ads, each tailored to different regions and segments of the electorate, will begin airing Friday, aimed at dramatically shifting the dynamics of a contest that Romney-Ryan aides acknowledge, in terms of the hard realities of the electoral map, have until now favored the Obama-Biden ticket.

"Time is short," said one campaign aide. "We have $100 million we've just raised. If you look at our burn rate to date and our cash on hand, there's not much more we can spend on infrastructure. So we've got to start spending our general election funds in a big way, because you know what the value of that money is on the day after the election? Zero."

Yes, Romney is getting 9-figure donations (no, that is not a typo). He is going to saturate the TV, radio, websites, etc., with expensively researched ads hitting Obama hard. It is nothing to sneeze at. Whereas Obama gets most of his money from small donors, Romney has almost all of his coming from 32 billionaires donating to his campaign and the myriad of SuperPACs.

BUT now the good news:

Sure, I think it will have an effect, but I'm not worried. Here's why.

1. Money means less in a presidential race than other races. People know who Barack Obama is; and by now they know who Mitt Romney is. (My God, they've had how many "re-introductions" of this guy? If they don't like him now, they aren't going to.) The media coverage of the presidential race is unrelenting and saturating. It leads every news story... and Obama seems to know how to set a narrative a lot better than his opponent.

2. There isn't that many swing voters. The margin is a percentage point or so in the swing states. Most people have already made up their minds and according to the polls, aren't likely to change them. Romney will be spending a few thousand on each swing voter to try to swing them back to his camp. But what is going to swing the election isn't the handful of undecideds who decide to vote, it's the get out the vote operation of each camp's base. This is where Obama has the advantage. Besides, undecideds are like everyone else, they ask their friends and colleagues their opinion. This carries a LOT more weight than an ad. (I am always happy to dispel any misinformation by friends on facebook... and the lies they tell are easily disputed.)

3. Their ads have really, really sucked so far. They run welfare ads featuring Clinton (which is telling--Romney NEVER mentions W. But I digress.). The ads are lies, which becomes the story. Then they have to defend them in interviews and come across as liars. (Wait till the debates.) The Crossroads Ads that Karl has spend tens of millions of dollars on so far have all flopped. Even Erick Erickson thinks they suck:

In the meantime, the GOP Super PAC ads continue to be mostly forgettable while the Super PAC’s themselves continue to raid the pockets of GOP multi-millionaires.

So they love to run ads (countering the claims made by GOP guvs) that the economy is in ruins. Yes, that's the narrative, but they never NEVER NEVER mention what they will do differently from Bush, which is why they aren't trusted.

4. Their candidate sucks. Romney. He is really bad. You can spend 10 million propping him up and all it takes is for him to say "I like to fire people", "My wife owns a couple of Cadillacs", or make a 10,000 bet, or go to London, or talk about his wealthy friends, try to joke about layoffs or peasant raincoats and cookies... the list goes on and on... He has made more gaffes in one year than Obama has his entire career. He relates to people as a man who has lived in sheltered priveledge his entire life, and that awkwardness cannot be media-handled. ALSO, the GOP itself sux. You can't hate immigrants, Muslims, gays, brown people, women, etc. and think that a few ads will change that. Todd Akin told the truth about the GOP/Paul Ryan platform, and millions of women became Democrats. Millions and millions of dollars spent reaching out to women... undone in one interview.

5. There are fewer swing states. There are 8-9 swing states: NV, OH, FL, IA, CO, VA, NH and NC. MI and PA are written off Dem. MO is written off red. WI has been pretty solid blue but you can throw that on for #9. THere are only SO MANY ads you can buy. Now if there were 30+ swing states, Romney would defintely have the advantage. But there are only 8-9 this round. Obama can afford to compete in a handful of states. Here's an analogy... let's say you are selling 10 slices of pizza. Obama can only afford 5 slices, and you can afford 100 slices. But there are ONLY 10 slices! Obama will be outspent in the swing states, but he will be able to hit back. Even if its 1-3 ratio or 1-5, it should be enough. (Romney is still not running ads in Pennsylvania, Michigan or Wisconsin, BTW.)

Still need your help:

If someone brings up politics, or if you are on Social Media, don't be afraid to engage. My friend was appalled by Todd Akin, but loved Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney. I had to let her know that it was Paul Ryan who tried to alter the language in the House by inserting the word "forcible"; and supports rapists getting visitation rights. That is the man he is. She is no longer a Romney supporter, and no ad is going to change that.

Historically, the candidate who projects optimism wins the election. After the convention of doom and gloom; America was treated to a convention that lifted spirits and fired up the base. I am hoping those of you inspired will devote a small bit of time, even one lousy weekend, to either canvass or get out the vote. (PS, here in Florida we need pollwatchers. contact your local dem party.) A small effort by you is worth more than a 2 million dollar ad on the TV.

The billionaires have the money, but we have the truth and the passion. So let's make it happen. An Obama victory will be SOOOOOOOO SWEET when the billionaires realize Nov. 7 that Karl Rove pissed away all that money.

Powerful Video at DNC: Ted Kennedy, Romney, Obama

Polls are in: NO CONVENTION BOUNCE! (w/ funny GOP reaction)

Crossposted as a Recommended diary on DailyKos.

Couldn't have happened to a more awful person:

A modest bump in popularity for U.S. presidential hopeful Mitt Romney from this week's Republican Party convention looks to be short-lived, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.

Democratic President Barack Obama regained a narrow lead on Saturday by 44 percent to 43 percent over his Republican challenger, former Massachusetts Governor Romney, in the latest daily installment of the four-day rolling poll....

"This wasn't a lightning bolt convention," Ipsos pollster Julia Clark said. "Comparatively speaking, this was a more muted convention in general ... So it doesn't surprise me that (the bump in polls) wasn't a great deal bigger."

Gallup Poll showed no bounce at all.

Analysis on the Gallup Poll from Mr. Nate Silver:

The most sluggish of the tracking polls is from Gallup, which reports its results over a lengthy seven-day window. That means that only about half its interviews occurred after the start of the convention, and a smaller fraction than that will represent people surveyed after Mr. Romney’s acceptance address.

However, the trend so far in the Gallup poll is a bit disappointing for Mr. Romney; the survey still shows Mr. Obama one point ahead. By comparison, the Gallup poll has had a 46-46 tie on average over the past 60 days.

Here is what you need to take away from this.

THIS IS THE PEAK FOR MITT ROMNEY!

After a disastrous summer, August was to be the month of Mitt. First with his veep announcement, and then the convention. The convention has just ended.... which means we had an entire week of unfiltered Mitt Romney propoganda covered by the news media. The Dem convention hasn't started yet, so THIS LABOR WEEKEND should be Mitt at his absolute highest.

And he is still losing....

Hundreds of millions spent by a few billionaires, voter suppression, scare tactics, racism, and nonstop lies. Even with a sluggish economy, the American people know they don't want to go back to the trickle-down, Romney-Hood policies of what made this economy sluggish in the first place.

People do not like or trust Mitt.

He made his extreme fortune forcing companies to take on extreme debt, and having OTHERS try to pay it off... but only after he and his vulture buddies got paid their management "fees". Sort of like his economic plan.... increase the deficit and have the middle class pay a lot more so he and his buddies can pay A LOT less.

And THIS is the man the GOP picked. The man to "solve" our deficit?

What makes this very sweet for me is the fact that conservatives are in extreme denial. Several, like this clown and this one, are not only projecting a RMoney win, but a BIG RMONEY LANDSLIDE! They saw something at the convention no one else saw (like an invisible Obama), but also are bolstered by this University of Colorado "analysis":

A University of Colorado analysis of state-by-state factors leading to the Electoral College selection of every U.S. president since 1980 forecasts that the 2012 winner will be Mitt Romney.

The key is the economy, say political science professors Kenneth Bickers of CU-Boulder and Michael Berry of CU Denver. Their prediction model stresses economic data from the 50 states and the District of Columbia, including both state and national unemployment figures as well as changes in real per capita income, among other factors.

“Based on our forecasting model, it becomes clear that the president is in electoral trouble,” said Bickers, also director of the CU in DC Internship Program.

Using ONLY historical data is a problem, professors. Mitt hasn't led in the electoral college at ANY point in this election. Even McCain led Obama ONE WEEk after the GOP convention. No historical data will match the suck factor that is Romney. Historically, there was never such a disparity in likability, trust and competence.

BUt please, PLEASE, keep believing in your alternate reality fantasy that somehow Mitt will sweep all the states. That would be keeping within your beliefs that the president is an alien, Kenyan, Socialist, Aethist-Muslim who owns a time machine to plant fake birth announcements. Your strong beliefs in the face of facts are what gives snake oil salesmen like Rove the ability to piss billionaire's money down the drain.

Thank you.

One last thing, professors. If you want historical data, I have a better one. The worst pundit in America, the troll who is Dick Morris, (who recently said that Akin was a boon for RMoney), and has made every wrong prediction for every election......(wait for it).... just predicted a landslide for Romney.

Now that's data you can use.