Congratulation Mr. President Obama!

Congratulation Mr. President Obama!

Winning a second term gives the U.S. a new opportunity but at the same time President Obama the responsibility to really move the country forward.

Besides dealing with the looming Fiscal Cliff, President Obama need to attempt to change our voting system.
 The United States needs to finally move into the 20th century and adopted a popular voting system where every votes counts and where smaller parties have a chance to shape the political landscape.
Holding on to an old system where the Electoral College elects the president benefits only the two major parties and with that the strong dictatorial influence of corporations and lobbyists. It does, however,  not represents a true Democracy in which all eligible citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives.

Moreover, Mr. President Obama you need to instruct the justice department to at once to investigate all poll problems that have been reported during this past election. It is, in my opinion, appalling that the image of the United States of America has been tarnished through these kind of unfair tactics and possible vote rigging.

This past election has cost more than $6 billion!

We could have used this money more wisely to assist the ever growing number of poor people around the country. Or build new schools in under served districts. Or hired new teachers to educate new voter in a way that they are able to make a real informed decision during an election, and not just follow false and deceiving adds.

Furthermore, I call on the GOP lead congress to stop blocking all attempts of the governing party to decrease the 16 trillion dollar  deficit, only to benefit its own ideology and to cater to the richest of the county.

It’s time for our representatives to grow up and get to work.
You are not paid handsomely with our taxes to continue to block any sensible progress.

If you can’t do your job, you need to be fired!

President Obama Speaks at FEMA Headquarters

President Barack Obama Weekly AddressNevember 3, 2012 (Video/Transcript)

Remarks of President Barack Obama
Weekly Address
The White House
November 3, 2012

This weekend, millions of our fellow Americans are still picking up the pieces from one of the worst storms in our history.

I toured New Jersey on Wednesday with Governor Christie, and witnessed some of the terrible devastation firsthand.  It’s heartbreaking.  Families have lost loved ones.  Entire communities have been wiped away.  Even some of the first responders who repeatedly put themselves in harm’s way to bravely save the lives of others have suffered losses of their own.

Today, I ask everyone to keep them in your prayers.  And as President, I promise them this: your country will be there for you for as long as it takes to recover and rebuild.

Throughout the week, I’ve been in constant contact with governors and mayors in the affected areas, who are doing an excellent job in extraordinarily difficult circumstances.  And we owe the first responders and National Guardsmen who have been working around the clock our deepest gratitude.

Our number one concern has been making sure that affected states and communities have everything they need to respond to and recover from this storm.

From the earliest hours, I ordered that resources be made available to states in the path of the storm as soon as they needed them.  And I instructed my team not to let red tape and bureaucracy get in the way of solving problems – especially when it came to making sure local utilities could restore power as quickly as possible.

Before the storm hit, FEMA pre-staged emergency response teams from North Carolina to Maine, and deployed resources like food, water, and generators up and down the coast.  As the storm passed, thousands of FEMA personnel were on the ground responding to those in need.  And by midweek, the Department of Defense was ready to fly in cargo planes that could be loaded with trucks and equipment to help local power companies get up and running faster.

But recovery will be a long, hard road for many communities.  There’s a lot of work ahead.

If you’ve been directly impacted by this storm and need temporary assistance getting back on your feet, you can call 1-800-621-FEMA, or apply at Disaster Assistance.gov.  If you know folks who are still without power, please spread the word and let them know.

And if you don’t live in an affected area and want to help, supporting the Red Cross is the best and fastest way.

This week, we have been humbled by nature’s destructive power.  But we’ve been inspired as well.  For when the storm was darkest, the heroism of our fellow citizens shone brightest. 

The nurses and doctors at NYU Medical Center who evacuated fragile newborns, carrying some down several flights of stairs.

The firefighters in Queens who battled an inferno from flooded streets, and rescued people from an apartment building by boat.

The Coast Guard crews from North Carolina who saved a sinking ship in stormy seas – and their rescue swimmer who, when he reached those in need, said, “I’m Dan, and I hear you guys need a ride.”

That’s who we are.  We’re Americans.  When times are tough, we’re tougher.  We put others first.  We go that extra mile.  We open our hearts and our homes to one another, as one American family.  We recover, we rebuild, we come back stronger – and together we will do that once more.  Thanks, God bless you, and God bless America.

Rush Limbaugh about Chris Christie

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Obama and Romney fight to claim mantle of 'change'

Published on BBC on 2 November 2012

 

US President Barack Obama has returned to the campaign trail and to his 2008 theme of change, with five days to go until the US election.

The Democratic incumbent is campaigning in three key election states, while his Republican rival Mitt Romney held rallies in Virginia.

Mr Obama told voters not to be fooled by his challenger, who has been trying to seize the mantle of change.

The election is neck and neck, both nationally and in key state contests.

Both candidates await the latest unemployment figures on Friday. Last month's report showed the US jobless rate falling below 8% for the first time in several years.

Mr Obama held off campaigning for three days this week as he directed the federal response to the super-storm Sandy. Mr Romney had also amended his schedule and toned down his attack on the president.

On Thursday, Mr Obama gained the endorsement of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who argued the president was a better choice on climate change issues given Sandy's impact.
'More bureaucracy'
 
The cyclone has left serious flooding and massive power outages along the US East Coast.

Mr Obama began his day at an airport tarmac in Wisconsin, telling a crowd that he knows "what change looks like because I've fought for it".

He warned the former Massachusetts governor would reduce regulations for banks and cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans.

"Governor Romney has been using all his talents as a salesman to dress up these very same policies that failed our country so badly - the very same policies we've been cleaning up after for the past four years - and he is offering them up as change," Mr Obama said.
The Romney campaign has released a new ad attacking the president for proposing the creation of a secretary of business post to co-ordinate the response to the nation's economic woes.

The TV ad, released on Thursday, argued that Mr Obama's solution simply amounted to more bureaucracy.

"We've said all along this election is a choice between the status quo and real change - change that offers promise that the future will be better than the past," campaign spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg said in a statement.

In Roanoke, Virginia, Mr Romney reiterated his argument that he was the candidate of change.

"We've seen what his [President Obama's] policies have produced - the only way to get this economy going is the kind of bold change I've described, real change from day one," he told supporters at a window company.

"That'll get this economy going, create jobs, rising take-home pay. We'll have a very different future when I get elected."

The former Massachusetts governor has also resumed attacks on Mr Obama's signature healthcare reform law.

Bloomberg's endorsement Mr Obama is continuing on to campaign stops in Colorado and Nevada before flying to Ohio, where he will spend the day on Friday. Mr Romney will campaign throughout Wisconsin and Ohio on Friday.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a former Republican and now independent, endorsed the president on Thursday.

He cited the president's policies related to climate change, especially in the wake of heavy flooding in his city from Sandy.

Mayor Bloomberg also argued that Mr Romney had "reversed course" on "sensible positions on immigration, illegal guns, abortion rights and health care".

In response, Mr Obama released a statement: "While we may not agree on every issue, Mayor Bloomberg and I agree on the most important issues of our time."

In the wake of the storm, state election officials are ordering generators, moving voting locations and figuring out how to transport poll workers.

But the outcome of the contest is not expected to be affected by Sandy, as the states with the most damage are all but decided for Mr Obama.

On Thursday, Mr Romney announced he would make a stop in Pennsylvania on Sunday, a state he had not previously campaigned in as the Republican nominee.

Polls suggest the Republican is still behind in the north-eastern state, but Mr Obama's lead has shrunk there.

A senior campaign aide told Reuters news agency that Ann Romney believed conditions were more favourable for her husband in Pennsylvania, as she campaigned there recently on his behalf.

Mrs Romney made several stops in Ohio on Thursday, while Mr Romney's running mate, Paul Ryan, campaigned in Nevada.

Vice-President Joe Biden visited Iowa, while Michelle Obama campaigned in Florida and former President Bill Clinton made stops in both Wisconsin and Ohio.

The BBC will be providing full online live results of the US presidential election on 6 November. More details here

US Election: Michael Bloomberg endorses Barack Obama's re-election

Michael Bloomberg, the fiercely independent Mayor of New York, has endorsed President Barack Obama's re-election, saying he is the best candidate to lead the fight against climate change.

By Raf Sanchez, Washington
published in  The Telegraph 
 

Mr Bloomberg, whose city is still in partial darkness after the being hit Hurricane Sandy, said Mr Obama had "taken major steps to reduce our carbon consumption" while Mitt Romney had "reversed course" on his previous environmental stances.

The billionaire mayor, who has previously been both a Democrat and a Republican but is now an independent, said he also supported Mr Obama's positions on gay marriage and abortion rights.

"If he listens to people on both sides of the aisle, and builds the trust of moderates, he can fulfill the hope he inspired four years ago and lead our country toward a better future for my children and yours," Mr Bloomberg wrote in an article for Bloomberg, the media company he owns.

The endorsement is a welcome lift for the President, who is trailing his Republican opponent among independent voters by double-digit margins. Mr Bloomberg did not endorse a candidate in 2008 but after indicating that he was prepared to pick a side this year both campaigns assiduously courted his vote.

Mr Romney met with the outspoken mayor, whose share of the national spotlight is larger than most governors or members of Congress, for breakfast in New York in the spring while both Mr Obama and Vice-President Biden have invited him to play golf.

His endorsement of Mr Obama was not without criticism and he said the President had failed to build "a coalition of coalition of centrists, which doomed hope for any real progress on illegal guns, immigration, tax reform, job creation and deficit reduction".

However, he said Mr Romney had abandoned his previous "sensible positions" as he tacked to the Right in order to win the Republican party's presidential nomination.
Mr Bloomberg also urged both men to give more specifics about how they would revive the economy without adding to America's federal deficit.

Rupert Murdoch, a close friend and supporter of Mr Bloomberg's, claimed in 2010 that the mayor had described Mr Obama as the most "arrogant man" he had ever met. The Mayor did not deny making the comment.

10 Dirty Ways to Swing an Election

Politicians and their henchmen have lots of ways of messing with voters. Here are their favorites. 
By Adam Serwer

America has come a long way from the days of Jim Crow segregation, but our voting system is far from perfect, and even today there are organizations committed to preventing legitimate voters from excercising the franchise. Here are 10 of the most common legal and illegal paths to keeping Americans from the ballot box:

Voter Caging
Voter caging is the process of sending mail to the addresses of registered voters with the intent of challenging their votes if the mail goes undelivered and the voter still shows up at the polls. It still happens, but the most famous instance occurred in 1981, when Republicans sent thousands of letters to black and Latino voters in New Jersey, hoping to block as many as possible of these likely Democratic voters from voting. As a result of that stunt, the Republican National Committee entered into a consent decree with the Democratic National Committee agreeing not to engage in voter caging unless a court says it's okay. They leave it to third-party conservative groups now.

Lying Flyers
Dropping flyers with erroneous or deceptive information about voting may not be effective, according to voting law expert Rick Hasen, but it certainly happens a lot. Flyers in Virginia in 2008 told Democrats to vote on the wrong day, while flyers distributed in black neighborhoods in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 2004 told residents they couldn't vote if anyone in their family had been convicted of a crime. Dirty tricksters are getting with the times, however—the 2008 election saw erreoneous election information distributed through emails to students at George Mason University. "Those things are very hard to investigate," says Penda D. Hair, co-director of the voting rights group the Advancement Project. "They're usually anonymous, so we don't have good data on what the impact is on people."

Reprehensible Robocalls
When a lying flyer just isn't good enough, there's always the deceptive robocall to Democratic-leaning districts giving people false election information or urging them to stay home. Last year Paul Schurick, the former campaign manager of the ex-Republican governor of Maryland, Bob Ehrlich, was convicted of ordering 2010 robocalls aimed at black voters implying they could stay home and "relax" because the Democratic candidate, Martin O'Malley, had already won.

Felon Disenfranchisement
Many laws barring those convicted of crimes even after release emerged during Reconstruction as a way to disenfranchise newly freed blacks. Though defenders of such laws now justify them on race-neutral grounds, an estimated 2.2 million of the nearly 6 million Americans barred from voting because of prior felony convictions are black. Those are the kind of disenfranchisement numbers misleading flyers or robocalls can't buy, which is exactly why newly elected Republican governors in Florida, Virginia and Iowa moved quickly to reinstate voting restrictions on the formerly incarcerated after taking office in 2010.

Voter ID Laws
The impact of voter ID laws is still unclear, but the intent is not. Republicans pushing voter ID laws sometimes write them so as to exclude forms of ID carried by Democratic-leaning constituencies (like student ID) while allowing those more likely to be carried by Republican voters (gun licenses). The Brennan Center, a left-leaning legal advocacy group, estimates that as many as 11 percent of Americans lack government-issued photo ID. There's no mystery among Republicans as to whom these individuals are more likely to vote for: A Pennsylvania state legislator openly bragged that the state's voter ID law (since halted by the courts) would deliver the state to Mitt Romney. Though many of these laws have been delayed or struck down, some poll workers are still demanding government issued photo ID anyway.

Voter Purges
States are supposed to keep the voter rolls current, but sometimes removals of dead or no longer valid voter registrations is undertaken in a reckless or partisan manner that can end up disenfranchising eligible voters. Just this year Florida tried to purge its rolls of alleged "noncitizens" on the rolls, only it turned out that many of them were perfectly eligible to vote. Colorado tried to do the same thing, with similar results. Coincidentally, flawed voter purges frequently seem to end up disenfranchising voters of color.

The Menacing Billboard 
Republicans, convinced that Democrats only win elections through voter fraud, have taken to setting up billboards warning that "voter fraud is a felony" in swing states this year. Naturally, these billboards only seem to pop up in minority neighborhoods. It's unclear how effective the billboards are at intimidating people out of voting, but there's no mistaking who they're aimed at. "They use a lot of threatening language to associate voting with a crime, that may just make people want to stay away," says the Brennan Center's Larry Norden. Norden says the billboards leave the impression that "if you go to the polls there might be somebody there to take you to jail or fine you."

Poll Watchers
Republicans have developed an extensive network of poll watchers who think of themselves as protecting the integrity of the ballot box, but they're really there to prevent people they think are Democrats from engaging in "voter fraud." As Brentin Mock noted in his report on the conservative group True the Vote, the group's national elections coordinator said that he wanted voters to feel like they are "driving and seeing the police following you." These poll watchers can be misinformed about what's required to be able to cast a ballot, which means eligible voters can be prevented from voting. "When these folks show up at the polling places," Hair says, "our view is that it's to scare people away just by being there."

Messing With Early Voting
Early voting can cut down on long lines on Election Day and allow Americans who might not be able to get to the polls—maybe because they have jobs—cast a ballot. That sounds like a good thing, right? Well, not to the governments of Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Tennessee, and West Virginia, all of which cut down on early voting for 2012. Except for West Virginia, all of these states have GOP governors, and as Ari Berman noted in a piece for Rolling Stone, Ohio and Florida specifically "banned voting on the Sunday before the election—a day when black churches historically mobilize their constituents."

Making Voter Registration More Difficult 
After Republicans chalked up Barack Obama's 2008 win to voter fraud engineered by the now-defunct community organizing group ACORN, GOP governors in Texas and Florida sought to cut down on registration drives by third-party groups. Florida's restrictions were ultimately struck down in court, but the law had done its job: According to the Florida Times-Union, "the number of new Democrats registering in Florida has all but disappeared." The irony? Last month, Florida announced it was investigating a longtime GOP activist for voter registration fraud. And if you can't ban third-party voter registration groups, you can always destroy the voter registration forms of the opposite party, as one GOP activist is suspected of doing in Virginia.

In-Person Voter Fraud
Just kidding! As my colleague Kevin Drum has written, in-person voter fraud is so rare that eight years of the Bush administration ended in only a handful of prosecutions* and no evidence of an organized conspiracy to steal elections through in-person voter fraud, despite the fact that such conspiracies comprise the beginning and end of Republicans' interest in voting rights matters. Absentee ballot fraud is more common, but voter ID laws wouldn't stop it. Also, many Republicans vote absentee, and they're not really interested in disenfranchising their own.

The good news? Many of the mostly GOP-supported laws seeking to restrict voting have been hard to defend in court. "A lot of the most restrictive laws we were worried about have been overturned through the referendum process or weakened by the courts," Norden says. "The worst of those laws will not be in effect this November."

*Clarification: None of the Bush voter fraud prosecutions were for voter impersonation—the kind that might be stopped by photo ID—but instead involved people who didn't know they were ineligible, people who voted twice, or people who sold their votes. 

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