Daily Kos

Having now won the Florida primary and Nevada caucuses, and been honored with the coveted endorsement of Donald Trump, Mitt Romney appears to be sitting firmly in the driver's seat.

That being said, however, he's not exactly running away with this thing.

Before Romney can even begin to map out a path to the White House, he must first overcome a few bumps in the road.

Chief among them are the improving economy, and his tendency to choose his words poorly.

Reposted from Daily Kos Elections by Kaili Joy Gray

Nevada caucuses are currently taking place, and we're liveblogging the results.

Results: CNN | Google | Politico

8:33 PM PT:

8:35 PM PT: Rumors about Newt going positive are unfounded. He's just confirmed he's not going to "unilaterally disarm."

8:37 PM PT: Whoever thought having Newt stage a press conference to whine about how mean everyone has been to him should never work in politics again. Just a painful cap to a painful night.

8:38 PM PT:

8:41 PM PT: Newt's press conference was the Dean Scream of 2012.

8:42 PM PT: Alright, guys. I'm going to call it a night. Thanks for suffering along with me!

Reposted from Daily Kos Elections by Kaili Joy Gray

Nevada caucuses are currently taking place, and we're liveblogging the results.

Results: CNN | Google | Politico

7:55 PM PT: Will Romney stay under 40% Hard to see, when Clark comes in. But anything less than 50 percent, even with this anemic, low-turnout affair, would show that Mitt can't motivate half of Republicans to support him.

8:07 PM PT (Kaili Joy Gray): In not-unbelievably-boring news, we've now raised more than $42,000 for Planned Parenthood to show that this community stands with real pro-woman organizations. Take that, Komen Foundation! Click to donate.

8:18 PM PT: Gingrich now up. We get to hear how he's changing his strategy. He starts by reiterating that he is, in fact, staying in the race. That's never a good way to start any candidate event.

8:19 PM PT: Newt: Unlike Romney, I care deeply about the poor. Which is why I want poor kids to clean school toilets.

8:23 PM PT: Team Gingrich promised a new strategy tonight. Nothing yet on that front.

8:27 PM PT: Again, Gingrich pretends that he'll compete in every single primary in the country, even though he's not on the ballot in Virginia and Missouri.

8:30 PM PT: Gingrich: Obama has declared war on religion in this country. What's he talking about? It's a new policy that says that churches can't get federal money if they discriminate.

They can still discriminate, they just can't get our tax dollars to do so.

8:33 PM PT (Kaili Joy Gray): The liveblogging continues in the next thread.

Reposted from Daily Kos Elections by Kaili Joy Gray

Nevada caucuses are currently taking place, and we're liveblogging the results.

Results: CNN | Google | Politico

7:15 PM PT: Latino turnout in the GOP Nevada caucuses in 2008, per entrance polls, was 8 percent. Tonight, it's 5%

And in case you're wondering, the Latino population in Nevada continues to grow at a rapid clip.

On the other hand, Republicans cling to the fiction that they're picking up Jewish support. Jewish turnout in GOP caucuses in 2008? 2 percent. Tonight? 2 percent.

7:18 PM PT:

7:21 PM PT: More fun with entrance polls: in 2008, 11 percent of GOP caucus goers were 17-29. Today, it's 8 percent. Losing Latinos, losing the youth.

7:26 PM PT: Yeah. His message sure is resonating ... with all of 10 percent of Nevada registered Republicans.

7:28 PM PT: 88 percent of 2008 GOP primary voters were white. That number was 90 percent today as GOP loses key growth demographics.

7:35 PM PT: Reminder, because it's such an amazing statistic -- 116,000 Democrats caucused in Nevada in 2008. Republicans, supposedly so fired up, won't muster up 35,000 tonight.

7:36 PM PT:

7:41 PM PT: Romney talking blah blah blah. And OMG he's using a teleprompter!

7:51 PM PT (Kaili Joy Gray): The liveblogging continues in the next thread.

Reposted from Daily Kos Elections by Kaili Joy Gray

Nevada caucuses are currently taking place, and we're liveblogging the results.

Results: CNN | Google | Politico

6:42 PM PT: Sheldon Adelson flirting with Mitt Romney. Gingrich is about to get Gingrich'd.

6:45 PM PT: Rick Santorum says he's the only guy in the GOP presidential primary race that can beat Obama.

This, from the guy who lost Pennsylvania by over 17 points the last time he was on the ballot.

6:49 PM PT:

6:51 PM PT: This night is so boring, that CNN is giving extended play to REALLY boring Santorum speech.

6:59 PM PT: In 2008, 116,000 Democrats caucused in Nevada, while a measly 44,000 turned out for Republicans.

Tonight, Republicans will be lucky to get to 35,000.

6:59 PM PT:

7:00 PM PT: You can get off your pins and needles. It's Romney for the victory.

7:01 PM PT (Laura Clawson): Lander County has been at 44 percent reporting—four of nine precincts—for an hour or more. They've counted 39 votes there.

7:02 PM PT: What would we do without cable news? Wolf Blitzer just said that tonight was "a dramatic night".

7:07 PM PT:
Really? "BREAKING!" Is it also exclusive? ABC must have some real geniuses working their math!

7:07 PM PT:

7:12 PM PT (Kaili Joy Gray): The liveblogging continues in the next thread.

Reposted from Daily Kos Elections by Kaili Joy Gray

Nevada caucuses are currently taking place, and we're liveblogging the results.

Results: CNN | Google | Politico

5:59 PM PT: Rick Santorum on CNN: "This race is a long, long way from being over."

You promise?

6:02 PM PT:
You promise?
6:10 PM PT:

6:12 PM PT: Nevada is trending blue. The fact that the state's GOP is too incompetent to take out an unpopular Harry Reid in 2010, too incompetent to stage rational caucuses this year, and too incompetent to report results in a timely fashion, suggests that their November chances are looking pretty darn crappy.

6:14 PM PT: Mitt Romney's son on TV tells me that his dad "cares deeply about the poor." I heard different. You know from who?

Mitt Romney.

6:17 PM PT: Michelle Bachmann on Fox: "I thought I was the best candidate to take on Barack Obama."

She's so adorable.

6:22 PM PT: Woah, Gingrich won a county -- Mineral County. He got 39 votes to Romney's 37. Clearly, quite the metropolis.

6:30 PM PT:

6:33 PM PT: In 2008, Obama lost the popular vote in the Nevada caucuses, yet won the delegate count. His organization was far more effective in organizing for maximum delegate acquisition than the Clinton people.

Apparently, the GOP's system will apportion delegates based on the statewide popular vote.

6:33 PM PT: 90 minutes, and 7 percent counted. Sheesh, can Republicans do anything right?

6:37 PM PT: 6:39 PM PT:

6:41 PM PT (Kaili Joy Gray): The liveblogging continues in the next thread.

Reposted from Daily Kos Elections by Kaili Joy Gray

Nevada caucuses are currently taking place, and we're liveblogging the results.

Results: CNN | Google | Politico

Romney is going to win big, there's no drama on that front. There is some suspense about whether Ron Paul or Newt Gingrich come in second, though I'm not sure it really matters too much. The bigger question is whether they can add at least a handful of delegates to their count.

But in case you're wondering what the Beltway CW is, here's the latest from this morning's Politico morning newsletter:

CAN MITT BREAK 50? Romney could take a step toward proving he can win over conservatives by rolling up a big winning margin...Forty percent of Nevada caucus-goers described themselves as 'very conservative' according to 2008 entrance polls.

DOES NEWT FINISH SECOND? If he remained at about 25 percent [as in the recent polls], his trajectory would be unmistakable: 40 percent in South Carolina, 32 percent in Florida, even less in Nevada. BUT if he wins close to, or more than, a third of the vote it would suggest that even at a low point he maintains a reservoir of support among tea party activists and the very conservative - and that there continues to be a determined resistance to Romney.

WILL PAUL BEAT EXPECTATIONS? A strong second place would validate Paul's strategy, which is to focus on caucus states in the hopes of amassing delegates in a long slog to the GOP convention. But falling short would be his biggest blow to date.

5:14 PM PT:

5:23 PM PT:

5:30 PM PT: Despite having a nominally competitive primary, Nevada Republicans don't appear to be too enthused.

To be fair, would YOU be enthused if your presidential field looked like this?

5:31 PM PT: Wolf Blitzer says he's about to "go one-on-one with Rick Santorum."

5:37 PM PT: Unrelated to tonight's caucuses, but related to the GOP being freakin' insane, Ron Paul: "If it’s an honest rape,” go to the emergency room, get “a shot of estrogen.”

5:38 PM PT: I can't wait to see Sharrrrrrrrrrrrrron Angle on TV. I miss her.

5:40 PM PT:

5:42 PM PT: Sue Lowden on TV. Remember her? Her solution to expanding access to health care was to pay doctors with chickens.

No surprise, she's a Gingrich surrogate.

5:46 PM PT: Nate Silver:

The five mostly rural Nevada counties to have completely reported all their results so far - Churchill, Eurkea, Mineral, Nye and Pershing - reported that a total of 2,111 votes were cast in this year's caucuses. That meant that turnout was by about 20 percent from 2008, when a total of 2,600 votes were reported in the same five counties.

5:50 PM PT: Only Romney and Paul advertised in Nevada. Santorum has none (remember, he was excited he had raised 200 Gs last week). And Gingrich is marshaling resources for Super Tuesday.

5:52 PM PT:

5:56 PM PT (Laura Clawson):Tonight, I hate how slowly the Nevada Republican party is counting these votes. If it says anything about their level of organization, though, I like it for November.

5:56 PM PT: Gingrich is going to pretend to have a strategy beyond, "play spoiler":

Business Insider has learned that Gingrich plans to lay out a delegate-based strategy that will allow him to make good on his promise to stay in the race until the Republican National Convention this summer.

The former Speaker is also expected to announce a return to a positive campaign message, in what is likely an attempt to end the bloody interparty battle between him and Mitt Romney, the presumptive nominee.

Newt's going positive? That is REALLY the end of the race.

5:57 PM PT: Dear CNN, your interview with Rick Santorum isn't "exclusive". There isn't a person with a microphone that he won't talk to.

5:59 PM PT (Kaili Joy Gray): The liveblogging continues in the next thread.

Unless you were living under a rock this week, you're probably aware of the clusterfuck the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation created for itself when it decided to stop funding Planned Parenthood's cancer screening and prevention programs.

What followed was nothing short of spectacular. The foundation's leadership seemed completely unprepared for the national outrage at the blatantly obvious politicization of breast cancer and women's health. Karen Handel, the foundation's senior vice president of public policy and failed Republican candidate for governor of Georgia (endorsed by Sarah Palin), echoed the "cry me a river" response from fervent anti-choicers on Twitter—a tweet that was deleted, but not before an image was taken and spread far and wide across the Internet.

Komen founder and CEO Nancy Brinker then took to the airwaves to offer a whole new excuse for cutting the funding, insisting that the decision was not political, and tsk-tsking critics, whom she insisted didn't know what they were talking about and needed to "pause" and "slow down." Translation: Stop criticizing us for siding with an anti-woman agenda instead of with women. And keep buying our pink crap!

That did not go over too well either.

Next, the Komen Foundation released an apology for its decision, which the traditional media (and, sadly, even many alternative media sources, including feminist writers) inaccurately reported as a reversal of the foundation's new policy. Additional conversations with members of the foundation's board confirmed that it had not reversed its policy; rather, the apology was a further attempt to salvage its all-but-destroyed brand, chastise critics, and make the whole PR disaster go away.

What we've learned this week is that even if Komen were to continue funding Planned Parenthood's breast cancer exams and education programs, it's most likely too late for the foundation to undo the damage it has done to its reputation and credibility as an organization that cares about women's health. With its new policy, its anti-choice extremist leadership, and its long history of questionable practices, including suing the hell out of smaller charities that dare to use the word "cure," not to mention the number of articles, new and old, exposing how little of the money the foundation raises actually goes toward cancer research, Komen deserves no second chances. Those who care about fighting cancer have promised to send their money elsewhere, and forced to choose between the pink ribbon and Planned Parenthood, Americans—even self-identified "pro-life" Americans—are standing with Planned Parenthood. I am one of them.

In this weekly series, we usually document and discuss any number of stories that demonstrate the many fronts of the War on Women, and how extremist activists work with extremist lawmakers to roll back legal protections for women and to further enforce anti-woman ideology that impacts women's lives and livelihood.

So this week, let's connect the dots to see how a relentless push by activists to destroy the nation's largest provider of women's health care led to congressional action, which led to the political decision of a private, supposedly non-political, organization joining in that battle—on the wrong side, against women.

There's more below the fold.

One seriously kick-ass breast cancer survivor—and former supporter of the Susan G. Komen Foundation—shows what breast cancer is and is not.

[Warning: She bares her lack-of-breasts in this graphic video.]

Want to tell the Komen Foundation to kiss your ass? Stand up for real women's health care. Click to donate to Planned Parenthood.

Reposted from Daily Kos Labor by Laura Clawson

The war on workers is waged at all levels, from seemingly individual intimidation in the workplace to corporations stiffing pensions and laying off thousands of workers to Republicans writing anti-union legislation at the federal and state levels. Most of the time, by contrast, the ways workers have to fight back are relatively low-profile. But fight they do, from small individual acts of defiance to informal organizing to solid victories that few people outside the immediate workplace notice to the occasional action that cracks into the public eye.

The press isn't reporting it, but the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports says that truck drivers at the Port of Seattle parked their trucks and stopped work this week to protest unsafe working conditions. Late last week, meanwhile, Los Angeles port truck drivers working for the Toll Group, an Australian company, filed for a union representation election. The Toll Group's Australian workforce is unionized, but in the United States the company has taken advantage of lax labor laws to keep down wages and working conditions and try to stifle organizing attempts.

A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction against retaliatory firings of California warehouse workers who had sued Schneider Logistics for wage and hour violations.

At a Kansas City plant, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers had the first union win at GE in 10 years.

Thousands of workers waged a one-day strike at Kaiser Permanente in California over contract negotiations between Kaiser and mental health and optical workers represented by the National Union of Healthcare Workers. And in New York, inspired by last week's union victory for Cablevision technicians, 120 more technicians at a Cablevision contractor engaged in a wildcat strike that won them a raise. They hope to follow up by unionizing.

Taking another approach, a former unpaid intern at Harper's Bazaar is suing Hearst Corporation for violating labor laws by essentially treating her as a full-time employee though she wasn't paid. She and her lawyers are trying to make the case a class action suit.

And more:

• How to throw a worker-friendly Super Bowl party.
• Here's a great way to keep your workers desperate and your workforce young: A new Atlantic City casino is going to hire workers for set terms of four to six years, then make them reapply for their jobs—no matter how good their performance has been.
• Project Labor Agreements (explanation of what a PLA is) that the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority recently signed will require that 40 percent of work hours on the projects will go to people from economically disadvantaged communities, while 10 percent of work hours will go to homeless or chronically unemployed people, among other challenges.
• Yet another reason more workers need unions:

  ...government workers who were not represented by unions were about four times as likely to lose their jobs last year as unionized public sector workers were. (The trends are similar even if you strip out workers who were represented by unions but were not members themselves.)

Ari Berman has another must-read article on the systematic effort of the GOP to disenfranchise millions, focusing in this installment on redistricing—and resegregation—in the South.

In virtually every state in the South, at the Congressional and state level, Republicans—to protect and expand their gains in 2010—have increased the number of minority voters in majority-minority districts represented overwhelmingly by black Democrats while diluting the minority vote in swing or crossover districts held by white Democrats. “What’s uniform across the South is that Republicans are using race as a central basis in drawing districts for partisan advantage,” says Anita Earls, a prominent civil rights lawyer and executive director of the Durham-based Southern Coalition for Social Justice. “The bigger picture is to ultimately make the Democratic Party in the South be represented only by people of color.” The GOP’s long-term goal is to enshrine a system of racially polarized voting that will make it harder for Democrats to win races on local, state, federal and presidential levels. Four years after the election of Barack Obama, which offered the promise of a new day of postracial politics in states like North Carolina, Republicans are once again employing a Southern Strategy that would make Richard Nixon and Lee Atwater proud.

If there ever was a strong argument for a 50-state strategy for Democrats, in which strong parties are fostered and competitive in every single state, this is it. The GOP is hell-bent on cheating its way to a permanent majority, whether by voter suppression or a return to segregation. And it's largely happening because of the concerted effort by Republicans in the last 30 years to begin working at the local level, dominating local politics and creating a strong infrastructure to take over first state legislatures, then governorships, secretaries of state, and federal offices.

The fight is in the courts, too, with no fewer than five suits currently pending against Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. Section 5 is the provision that requires states covered by the act to receive pre-clearance from the Justice Department or a three-judge District Court in Washington for any election law changes that affect minority voters. One of these challenges could well make it to the Supreme Court, where its fate is at best uncertain.

For more of the week's news, make the jump below the fold.

Reposted from Daily Kos Labor by Laura Clawson A question: Which of these bills do you think the Republican-controlled House of Representatives is more likely to pass? The Outsourcing Accountability Act, which would require "large U.S. companies to disclose how many of their jobs are based on U.S. soil and how many are based abroad"? Or the version of the surface transportation bill increasing the weight limit for tractor-trailers from 80,000 pounds to 97,000 pounds and maybe even more, and allowing "the largest rigs, which comprise two and sometimes three trailers, to be as much as 10 feet longer—a total length of more than 100 feet"?

On the one hand, you have a bill introduced and sponsored by Democrats that would require companies with revenues over $1 billion, exempting ones that had been public for less than five years, to let us know how many employees they have working in the United States, how many employees they have working overseas and in which countries, and how the percentages changed from year to year. It's data you know corporations already have; most of them just don't want to tell us. Giving the public the right to this information would create informed consumers—and maybe give corporations a moment's pause when they thought about moving another set of jobs overseas.

On the other hand, you have the Republican transportation bill that would put heavier trucks with longer stopping distances onto the same roads as families in compact cars, after 2010 saw a 9 percent increase in truck crash fatalities. The trucking industry tells us that these heavier trucks would be made so they stopped as quickly as the ones on the roads now. Do you believe them on that? And how will they address the effects of putting tens of thousands of pounds of extra weight on our nation's 70,000 structurally deficient bridges? Oh, and wouldn't this just be a way for companies to pay fewer truck drivers to move the same quantity of goods?

Your House, ladies and gentlemen. Where the party in control wants to put massive killer trucks on the roads but has thus far blocked every effort to discourage jobs offshoring. Here's hoping the Outsourcing Accountability Act is the bill that breaks through that resistance. But it's a dim hope.

(Via DougJarvus Green-Ellis and Atrios)