It's GOTV weekend, so find your local canvass or phonebank!
- Give me a break:
On The O’Reilly Factor on Nov. 1, John Stossel, former correspondent for ABC’s 20/20 and current host of the Fox Business Network show Stossel, said that “the government should stop insuring areas” prone to disaster.
“What if nobody wants to insure you?” O’Reilly asked.
“Then you take your own risk. Then the private insurance market is saying, you live in a risky place, don’t build there.”
Stossel himself once received $250,000 in FEMA money, but said during the program he would not do so again.
Shorter John Stossel: I got my FEMA money already, but the rest of you can ** off.
- Some interesting numbers on the Asian-American vote:
Asian-Americans are following a similar trajectory, only a few decades behind. Every state saw its Asian and Pacific Islander population jump by at least 30 percent between 2000 and 2010 (except Hawaii, which was already majority Asian-American). The Asian population surged by 71 percent in Virginia, 95 percent in Arizona, 85 percent in North Carolina, and 116 percent in Nevada, according to census figures.
Thank an influx of Asian immigrants. Despite the nation’s focus on Latino immigration, Asians actually outnumbered Hispanics in 2010, according to the most recent data available from the Pew Research Center—a reversal of past trends. Nearly two-thirds of Asian-Americans are foreign-born.
Because there were so few Asians to begin with, the rapid growth rate can be misleading in some places. But not everywhere: In Nevada, for instance, Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders now make up about 9 percent of the population—more than the state’s much-discussed Mormon community.
- Ralston Reports has been doing yeoman's work keeping track of the early voting numbers in Nevada. Here's the latest from the last day of early voting:
Official Clark numbers: Dems gained 9,638 voters. Turnout was by far biggest of two weeks -- 48K. With mail tally, lead is just over 70K.
— @RalstonReports via TweetDeck
A subsequent tweet goes on to say that Republicans are claiming that Dems needed a lead of 80,000 in the early vote to win the state. However, that's roughly what they had in 2008 when Obama won by double digits and Republicans weren't shifting any of their voters to vote early. It's not in the bag by any means, but the Nevada numbers look good.
- Many years ago, I used to write a series called Spider Fridays here, so this makes me happy and sad at the same time:
Nine new species of colorful, arboreal tarantulas have been discovered in central and eastern Brazil, an area where only seven tarantula species had previously been known. All nine of the newly described species are threatened by habitat loss and potentially by overzealous spider collectors.
- Ever wanted to know what happens under water during a hurricane? Now you know.
- I just couldn't make myself watch the whole thing, but if you can, more power to you: eight full minutes of interviews with Romney supporters at his Ohio rally.