Election Today, Winter Storm Tomorrow... My thoughts on voting... and weather

Good timing for the election that this early winter storm could have added a cold wrench to had it come in to the Mid-Atlantic one day earlier.

Look at that loop up above and imagine had this storm spread it's strong weather up across the "swing states" of North Carolina and Virginia as well as creating havoc in areas that storm refugees are trying to get to the polls today and vote. If it was  hovering late in the day over New Jersey and New York... it would create a problem we would hear about for generations to come. If one day we go to some voting system of a National Credit Card or E-Ballot it would come out of this sort of scenario.

That said the storm is spreading into Wisconsin that many feel is hard to call though they are used to this sort of weather in November.

I'm going to do a bit of an editorial here for the right to vote and how important that privilege is and how important it is to go out and vote if you have not done so.

This election is closer than many think. If you watch CNN this morning you will be told that Obama has it in the bag and they will break it down for you with maps and graphs and explain why Romney will lose. If you go to FOX you will see the three of them sitting around in their chairs talking and talking about how Obama lost this election and explain to you how Romney is winning. If you go to my coffee of choice in the morning "Morning Joe" they will explain that while Romney is coming close, he is going to lose because of the auto industry and the odd demographics of Florida and Virginia.

Everyone is trying to tell you how this election is not that close... and why their candidate will win.

I have never seen so much optimism in people on Facebook.  I know democrats who disliked Gore but voted for him because they disliked and distrusted Bush. I know people who campaigned for Kerry, because they didn't think he had a chance in hell but it was a silent vote against Bush. I know people who actually LOVED Bush.. I  have a varied set of friends who though most lean conservative, the ones who lean liberal are so liberal they balance it out. No one deep down is really "sure" who is going to win.

I see it in their eyes... People who wanted Santorum and Gingrich have fallen in love with Romney, and surprising adore this man as a good choice to lead America forward. I've looked in the eyes of Obamites as they call themselves and there seems to be a empty, hollow look of either partial disgust and annoyance with Obama's lack of energy or a fear he could win a race that they thought a year ago he could not lose. I know the look in my son in Miami's eyes is one of confidence tempered with some concern over Romney running a better race than he thought, but he is solidly Democrat...so democrat that he walked throughout North Florida with college kids doing some Michael Moore register more voters campaign. By the way.. I have a signed copy of one of his books... a present from my liberal son. My conservative first born is in New York relieved he was able to get enough gas to get to his polling place to vote for Romney. But, except for the two extremes of my son's eyes.. I have seen doubt in many eyes this last week...both republican and democrat; it's a very close race and closer than the cheerleading news channels will let you believe.



I've switched channels. As much as I adore Mika I will not listen to Al Sharfton speak so I switched the channel. Not because of his politics, but because I cannot forgive his role in inciting people to riot in Crown Heights years back... I remember his ranting on TV to gain a national platform and the buses that were brought in from far outside Crown Heights that helped escalate the tension that ended in the death of a Holocaust scholar who was living in Crown Heights.  And, he indeed became a national name with his own show on MSNBC. I watch Morning Joe (unless he is on) and switch the channel and go back to Fox where Gretchen is wearing a beautiful purple dress, but I prefer Mika who I feel is both classy and real. Annoyed I put on CNN who has more commercials this morning than TWC had back in the day...




http://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/08/22/3089056/al-sharpton-writes-he-made-mistakes-during-crown-heights-riots

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-08-14/local/29902797_1_station-wagon-young-black-men-ambulance

I know he says (looking back after it made his career) he made a mistake, but I do not wish to watch him. I have a remote control as I sit here typing, my remote control is my "vote" and I switched the channels. I don't listen to what people say after they try to maintain a popularity in the media, I look who they were most their life and what they have said with passion and pride when they were on their way up.

The death of the little boy Gavin Cato basically was a  horrible accident. The death of Yankel Rosenbaum was not an accident, he was stabbed to death four times as a gang of more than a dozen who men attacked him over and over. He was a student, a scholar who specialized in the history of the holocaust ironically... here studying from Australia. There were rumors as to what happened and rage over mistaken information that was spread and passed around by rabble rousers such as Al Sharfton. I'm sorry he admits he made a mistake, I would rather not watch him speak... I have a choice and I change the channel. Easy choice. There were no easy choices when Yankel Rosenbaum got caught on the street, his hasidic garb a symbol that made him a target vs just a man on the street. In retrospect, those men who were rioting were mostly men bused in from other areas using the tension in Crown Heights to make a point. Though there had always been some tension between the mostly Caribbean Blacks and the black and white wearing Hasidim in Crown Heights it was never prone to violence, more prone to not being able to understand each other. Most of the rioters arrested turned out to be from areas far away given rides down to Crown Heights to make a point, to make a riot... to hear their voices and their voices became inflamed and a horrible riot ensued, much like a fire out of control.. much like the way the sparks flew from one roof to another in the strong wind on Breezy Point during Sandy. Riots spread like hot embers flying in the wind spread a forest fire.

"During the unrest, Sharpton led a march of hundreds shouting "No justice, no peace" through the streets of Crown Heights to the Lubavitcher movement's world headquarters."

America's Choice 2012 is has a map that shows the majority of the country wants Romney to be President. However, the sliver of color along the NE Coast, Florida Coast and the Coast of California is a different color ...with lakes of red in the populated cities of the Great Lakes region aka as Chicago, Detroit and Buffalo.



All of these cities with large populations form a region all to their own. They are not the South, they are not the North and they are not the Ecotopia of the West.. a unique region that spreads across many states and has it's own regional issues.

Cleveland is different from Columbus.

Chicago is different from Peoria.
Milwaukee votes differently than Eau Claire.

I could go on and on...



Soledad says it all comes down to Ohio. I disagree.. I say it all comes down to you... and your vote. She is right, it is a bellwether of sorts ... but it's a close race and your electoral votes will be calculated not online by journalists but by your going to the poll and voting.

Ohio is a bellwether, it is true. So is North Carolina and Virginia these days as they now have a ethnically and economically diverse base of ... relocated Floridians and New Yorkers who have moved to these states for technological jobs.

But, it's being repeated over and over it's all about Ohio... don't believe them.. go vote.

Regional differences are true and the same goes for other parts of the country beyond the Great Lakes where the cities vote differently than the rural areas vote. That also happens in Georgia where Atlanta often votes differently than the small towns that litter the rural highways to the south..Atlanta votes more Northern.

Just as it has been repeated often that the further North you go in the Florida, the further South you get.

I grew up in Miami... my great-great Uncle had tobacco plantations at the turn of the century in Quincy, Florida. No slaves by the way, just a lot of people happy to have work any way they could get it and trust me picking tobacco leaves is a lot nicer and easier a job than picking cotton. My Grandma Mary was as Southern as it gets, though she had no love loss for the KKK who once burned down the family tobacco as it was almost finished being harvested. They also lived in Tampa when Tampa was as Southern as you can get.. Southern with Cuban flavor before they ended up down in Miami where my Uncle was the head of the Democratic party.. head of the steering committee. I was raised on politics. When he died of a heart attack a few days after being in the hospital watching Senator Bobby Kennedy being assassinated ... a part of me believed he died of a broken heart. Yes, he was very overweight and had a myriad of heart related problems but a week after watching RJK's funeral I sat in a black hearse next to my Aunt and my cousin staring back at the line of cars filled with friends, fellow lawyers and politicians driving north on I-95 to my uncle's final resting place. It was a sea of cars.. a sea of people.. a sea of tears. The mind knew he died of a final heart attack, the heart thought maybe.. just maybe watching RJK's assassination pushed him over the edge. We were as dyed in the wool democrats as you could get back then..

RJK's Funeral and his funeral train across America broke a lot of hearts, impassioned a lot of future voters and is a moment in history eclipsed often by JFK's more remembered funeral.



http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/06/rfk_excerpt200806
A great article called the Last Great Campaign..



In happier times... not on the train home to being buried...


Back then I was a big RFK supporter, even though I was way too young to vote. I did work at McGovern's campaign offices...answering phones and writing down who wanted signs and buttons.

Now...  I vote Republican more than Democrat, though I did some personal research the other day and realized I have voted pretty much 50/50 in each election in the last 20 years of my life... and worked on both Clinton's first campaign (sign on the lawn and everything) and spent hours at Kerry's Election Offices in Miami. And, this year it's no secret that I think Romney can better create jobs, pull the country together and lead with executive power better than Obama. It's my choice, if you disagree .. I'm sorry ... then go vote. And, if you liked Gingrich better than Romney and have not warmed up to Romney... but you do believe he is the better candidate... go vote for him.

Go vote. It's that simple.

Don't beat up your friend on Facebook. Don't fight with your neighbor about his yard sign. And, do not keep a grudge against your brother-in-law. We are a big country with many different voices.

In Raleigh they have pages and pages of ads in October and November for rifles.. guns.. rifles and various assorted things you use with rifles... because here in Raleigh they have a "hunting season" whereas down in Miami we have a "tourist season" and I know many a kid there who would love to use a BB gun and try and chase the tourists away.. especially the ones from Europe and the ones from New York that drive the locals crazy.

This election is close... maybe closer than you think. And, as my friend the astrologer.. a conservative astrologer which is a rarity... as she reminds me... this Mercury is going Retrograde today.

The links are all over the Internet.. it's not just funky me.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-francis/mercury-retrograde-ohio_b_2024944.html

"You're probably getting sick of hearing about Ohio as being one of these. There are scenarios wherein a candidate can lose Ohio and win the electoral vote, but Ohio does seem key (especially for modern Republicans, who always win Ohio when they win the presidency), and I want to start this week by offering three reasons to pay extra attention to what happens there."

The quote above is from the article in the Huffington Post.

Soledad says it's all about Ohio. She has, by the way, aged beautifully.. always liked watching her back when ... Cable News first began...

Another article explains the mess during the last big Mercury Retrograde election.. Gore/Bush.
http://astrology.richardbrown.com/mercrx.shtml

A really good educational and fun article to read is from the Daily News who knows how to put "fun" into delivering the hard news.

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/horoscopes/mercury-retrograde-election-day-article-1.1196884

Hey you can believe astrology or you can believe the Redskin's winning or losing makes a difference or the numerology that some say points to Romney winning because all elections held on the 6th were won by Republicans.

Or... you can get up and go out and vote for your candidate of choice.

If you live in Georgia today, you may want to take something to protect you from the rain.

In Raleigh it's cold... so cold my husband said jokingly when he came home from morning prayers at the nearby temple.. "it smells like snow" and he laughed knowing it wouldn't snow but he did admit it smells like snow. He grew up in Upstate New York and is a barometer of sorts if it's later in the Winter as he is almost always right on that "smelling snow" thing... though he went to college in Florida and has lived in North Carolina more than half his life .. he still is a little boy back in the woods of upstate New York trying to "smell snow" in early winter. Much the way I guess I go to the ocean and "feel" the hurricane and then I know inside how bad it is going to be...or not.

Greg Fishel did say it might snow up in the mountains of Georgia at high elevations today and another weather forecaster said it could even snow in the mountains of South Carolina.

I love snow. I love weather. And, I love politics.

http://www.weatherbell.com/ Map courtesy of Weatherbell.

It's a big beautiful world.. and from space there are no democrats or republicans...

It's a blue and green planet punctuated with white clouds and storm systems.

Down here on ground level there is an election today. Remember, we are all in this together... 

In New York people are still trying to get gas so that life can go on..and they can vote.. small trivia note you won't learn anywhere but here... New Yorkers often rent... and they move around often and they don't always change their voting district as usually it's a short car ride or train ride away to go vote. Buying a home in New York City is not easy.. not even the rich and famous own as much as they rent. Some voters worry on finding gas just be able to drive across down to their previous neighborhood where they are still registered to vote.

My daughter and son-in-law drove to New Jersey last night in the middle of the night and got gas.. a long drive for gas but doable and they found a gas station that just had gotten gas but did not have long lines yet.

Exit 8 and 9 Northbound had gas... not Southbound. It was all a matter of them realizing that people driving into New York would have gas and they were able to get gas...



Yup :) Gotta love them..they are smart, tough kids...

I vote with the pen... with the remote control ..I vote with my yard sign and any way I can, but the most important way to vote is to get up from what you are doing ..if you have not voted early or by absentee and go vote.. the weather is not a factor unless you live in Georgia or possibly Wisconsin and go vote.

In Dixville Notch, New Hampshire the town that historically votes FIRST at midnight on Election Day..  it was a tie for the first time in history.



It's a close election... do not believe CNN or FOX or MSNBC... do not believe your neighbor or your friend on Facebook...

Go Vote!

http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2012/11/06/n-h-s-dixville-notch-tied-vote.html

Besos Bobbi