The fallout behind the election is still going on in America.
A man from Key West, Florida who told his partner that “if Barack gets re-elected, I’m not going to be around” was found dead on Nov. 8, with the words “F— Obama!” scrawled on his will and two empty prescription bottles nearby.
Henry Hamilton, 64, owner of Tropical Tan off Duval Street, was “very upset about the election results,” his partner Michael Cossey told Police Officer Anna Dykes.
Police spokeswoman Alyson Crean said a cause of death is awaiting autopsy results from the Monroe County Medical Examiner’s Office but said, “There’s absolutely no evidence of foul play.”
According to Dykes’ report, Cossey returned to the South Roosevelt Boulevard condo he shared with Hamilton after a late night of playing cards with friends and fell asleep on the couch around 6 a.m.
A friend of Hamilton had been worried about him and had a standing request to police to make welfare checks. Officer Pablo Rodriguez did just that and when he went to the condo, he woke up Cossey, prompting the discovery of Hamilton’s body in the bedroom.
Dykes reported finding two empty prescription bottles, one for Xanax and one for Seroquel, used to treat anxiety and schizophrenia, respectively.
Cossey told police Hamilton “has been very stressed about his business,” and the last time they had spoken was “when we watched the election results” on Nov. 6.
Wow…
This is absolutely unbelievable…
Try as I might, I could never find any other election that has sparked this type of response…
“Mr. President, please sign an executive order such that each American citizen who signed a petition from any state to secede from the USA shall have their citizenship stripped and be peacefully deported.”
“Now there’s a new petition: to deport every jerkazoid who signed a secession petition. If you wanna sign, it’s right here. It’s early days yet, so it has only about 2,000 signatories so far.”
Despite this, most comments on this piece were surprisingly polite, though one reader’s comment is thought-provoking.
“Why are people who want to secede “jerkazoids” if they’re doing what you want them to do?”
“I am completely aware that Election Day was a catalyzing moment, but I do not believe that the underpinnings of this are solely about Barack Obama. This cake has been baking for a long time — it’s the Obama administration that put the candles on the cake and lit it for us.”
Many critics and skeptics have pointed out that secession by these states would result in a variety of unintended consequences, including potential economic ruin for the affected citizens. One of the most populous states to file a secession petition, New York, received $3 billion in federal aid in 2010. Texas, in particular, has been cited by many as a state which can’t afford to secede. The state received just over $1.5 billion in federal aid in 2010, according to a report published by the U.S. Census Bureau. The Texas petition has received over 60,000 digital signatures, over the required threshold to receive official consideration from the White House.
Louisiana, the state whose petition movement started it all, received just under $3 billion in federal aid in 2010, while Florida received a little over $1.5 billion. Such federal aid is considered vital to the economic and governmental health of these states, and for that reason many critics believe the secession petitions amount to little more than online demonstrations.
It amazes me that this election has brought the ‘ugly’ out of soooo many people.
I remember when ex-President Bush was questioned about the lack of weapons of mass destruction that he kept warning Americans about. His response was, ‘Oops. I was wrong. But what can you do?’
Although America voted President Obama into office for a second term, the country is now more divided than ever.
many people took to the social networks to vent their frustrations and fears.
Many with racist undertones.
Although America carried President Obama confidently into a second term last Tuesday – not everyone is jumping for joy at the prospect of four more years.
Tens of thousands have put their names to secession petitions in 30 states, asking that they peacefully become independent from the rest of the country.
The documents have been lodged on a government website We The People – and Texas has almost enough people behind its petition to warrant an official White House response.
Bid for freedom: People from the states marked in red have lodged petitions asking to break away from the rest of the United States since Obama returned to the White House
Along with the Lone Star state, petitions were filed from Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, South Carolina and Tennessee. So keen are the folks in Georgia for a separation, that they filed their petition twice.
Unsurprisingly, the majority of these states voted for Republican nominee Mitt Romney although petitions were also lodged in Democrat strongholds such as New York and Oregon.
Texas has gained the most so far with 23,000 people backing the wish to form an independent government.
The right to petition the U.S. government is guaranteed by the First Amendment of the Constitution.
If there is enough support – 25,000 signatures are needed – then it is sent to policy experts within the administration.
Other petitions are currently filed on the website including ones to ‘Officially recognize American Sign Language as a community language and a language of instruction in schools’, another to ‘regulate internet pornography’ and ‘stop the drone strikes’.
It’s over: Mitt Romney announced that he conceded the race to President Obama and stood on stage with his wife Ann, Paul and Janna Ryan
Mitt Romney conceded defeat in the presidential election last Tuesday after the final count saw Obama with a total of 332 electoral college votes to Romney’s 206.
Petitions to strip citizenship of individuals signing onto petitions to secede and exile them have also been submitted.
A threshold of 25,000 signatures must be met within 30 days for petitions to be reviewed. The Obama administration explains, “If a petition meets the signature threshold, it will be reviewed by the Administration and we will issue a response.”
Micah H. (no last name provided) of Arlington, Texas filed a petition that had nearly 60,000 signatures as of Tuesday morning. It reads:
The US continues to suffer economic difficulties stemming from the federal government’s neglect to reform domestic and foreign spending. The citizens of the US suffer from blatant abuses of their rights such as the NDAA, the TSA, etc. Given that the state of Texas maintains a balanced budget and is the 15th largest economy in the world, it is practically feasible for Texas to withdraw from the union, and to do so would protect it’s citizens’ standard of living and re-secure their rights and liberties in accordance with the original ideas and beliefs of our founding fathers which are no longer being reflected by the federal government.
Unfortunately for Micah H. and Peter Morrison — a Texas GOP official who called for an “amicable divorce” from the United States last week — secession is not in the cards for the Lone Star State.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) sought to distance himself from the petition on Monday. The Dallas Morning Newsreported that the Republican governor’s press secretary wrote in an email, “Gov. Perry believes in the greatness of our Union and nothing should be done to change it. But he also shares the frustrations many Americans have with our federal government.”
In my opinion, I feel that all the people that sign the petition should all get together, pack up, and move to a private island…
Do not come back to America at all…
The reason that the United States hasn’t progressed as a country is mainly because of the racism here…
If we as a people were to respect each other, except each others differences, and work with one another, we would be able to conquer so much…
Though many people continue to believe that racism in the United States of America is a thing of the past, during Romney’s defeat on November 6th, racism revived and breathing on the social networks.
A great deal of Americans were justifiably upset when Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney lost the election.
But rather than using social media to express their frustration and disappointment in an elegant way, many Twitter users instead used the platform to post shockingly racist tweets, calling President Obama a ‘n*****’ and a ‘monkey.’
A map collected by Floating Sheep,a collective of geography academics, shows the shocking demographic of racist ‘hate tweets,’ many of them collected from states that were won by Romney.
The majority of the tweets, as Jezebel noted, were often from young white residents in southern states. MailOnline has chosen not to name these social media users.
One male user wrote on Election Day following Romney’s loss: ‘Ok we pick a worthless n***** over a full blooded American what the h*** has our world come its (sic) called the white house for a reason.’
Another wrote: ‘F*** you, Obama. Your (sic) a stupid n***** and you don’t do anything good for our country.’
Using geodata called DOLLY (Data On Local Life and You), Floating Sheep mapped out tweets beginning November 1. They then calculated the percentage of each state’s so-called hate tweets in relation to the gross number of tweets coming out of that state.
Their results showed that states like Arkansas and Mississippi were relatively inundated with racist tweets. However, they measured only the quantity of tweets, noting that a lone Twitter user could be sending out dozens of vitriolic tweets all on their own, thus adding to the location-inspired measure, or LQ.
The map also reveals other southern states like Tennessee, Georgia, and the Carolinas had their fair share of people tweeting bigoted things. Floating Sheep noted that both the East and West coast had a lower number of such tweets.
The site noted, too, that the phenomenon wasn’t only in the south – a series of racist tweets trickled up the Eastern Seaboard, and could also be found in Utah and Missouri.
While it was not openly addressed by the candidates on the campaign trail, political pundits have insisted that demographics and race played a huge role in helping Obama keep the White House.
On Election Day, a riot broke out at The University of Mississippi – known as Ole Miss – as more than 400 students yelled out racial slurs and burned Obama-Biden campaign posters after the Democratic incumbent was crowned the victor.
Vigil: A crowd participates in a candlelit vigil titled ‘We Are One Mississippi’ at Ole Miss Wednesday night in response to the Election Day protests Vigil: A crowd participates in a candlelit vigil titled ‘We Are One Mississippi’ at Ole Miss Wednesday night in response to the Election Day protests
Emotions ran high among the angered college conservatives in Oxford, Mississippi, with university police being called in shortly after midnight to diffuse the crowd.
Riots: Ole Miss students took to the streets, burning Obama campaign posters after his reelection was announced
The incident began as a small gathering of frustrated voters, meeting to share their misery at Obama getting another four years in office, shortly after midnight.
But word soon spread over social media and the crowd began to swell to hundreds of students, yelling out racial slurs, chanting anti-Obama rhetoric and some reportedly throwing rocks at cars.
Outrage: Students chronicled the demonstrations against Obama’s win on social media
Police were called and told the crowd to go home but their presence only attracted more attention and the mass began to multiply.
Two students were arrested in the fracas, one for public intoxication and one for failure to comply with police orders, the university confirmed.
Donald Trump said that the world is laughing at us…
But I believe that if they are laughing at us, it’s because of incidents like this…
The are many countries that would kill a person that spoke ill about the country’s leader…
Here in the good ole USA, people are allowed to disrespect the President, threaten his life, and so many other things without fear of reprimand…
That’s what the world is laughing at Mr Trump!
Voting is a right…
And black is only a color…
This election made me remember things my great-grandma told me about her days of voting…
Republican vice president nominee Paul Ryan gave an interview to Chris
Matthews of Fox/Faux News on Sunday where he again promised that the
Romney tax plan would lower taxes. When asked how much would the cost be to the tax payers, Ryan continually responded that the cost is revenue neutral.
The Obama campaign has blasted the Romney-Ryan ticket for not providing details on how it would give Americans such large tax breaks without growing the deficit. Ryan reiterated in an interview on “Fox News Sunday” that the plan would drop taxpayers’ bills by 20 percent without costing a dime, due to closed tax loopholes, but he was short on specifics when pressed by host Chris Wallace.
(Am I the only one bothered by Ryan’s constant sniffing during the interview?)
Though Paul Ryan is very good at bashing President Obama on his policies, when explaining the policies of the Romney/Ryan campaign he’s short on details.
“You haven’t given me the math,” Wallace said in one exchange.
“I don’t have the … It would take me too long to go through all of the math,” Ryan responded.
“But let me say it this way,” he went on. “You can lower tax rates 20 percent across the board by closing loopholes and still have preferences for the middle class for things like charitable deductions, home purchases, for health care. What we’re saying is people are going to get lower tax rates and therefore they will not send as much money to Washington.”
Wallace played a clip of President Barack Obama mocking the Romney campaign’s lack of details on the loopholes while on the campaign trail. “No matter how many times they tell you they’re gonna start talking specifics really soon, they don’t do it,” Obama said. “And the reason is because the math doesn’t work.”
I was quite bothered by Ryan’s refusal to explain the numbers. I guess it was the snicker that accompanied the ‘I don’t have time to explain the numbers right now’. Almost as if he felt that the average American mind was too feeble to understand him.
Though Mitt Romney does not support abortion unless in cases of incest and/or rape, his son, Tagg, obviously does not share the same view…
TMZ is reporting:
Mitt Romney’s son Tagg — who had twins this year through a surrogate — signed an agreement that gave the surrogate, as well as Tagg and his wife, the right to abort the fetuses in non-life threatening situations … and Mitt Romney covered some of the expenses connected with the arrangement … and it may boil down to an incredibly stupid mistake.
The twin boys –– David Mitt and William Ryder — were born on May 4, 2012. We’ve learned Tagg and his wife Jen, along with the surrogate and her husband, signed a Gestational Carrier Agreement dated July 28, 2011. Paragraph 13 of the agreement reads as follows:
“If in the opinion of the treating physician or her independent obstetrician there is potential physical harm to the surrogate, the decision to abort or not abort is to be made by the surrogate.”
Translation: Tagg and Jen gave the surrogate the right to abort the fetuses even if her life wasn’t in danger. All the surrogate has to show is “potential physical harm,” which could be something like preeclampsia — a type of high blood pressure that could damage the mother’s liver, kidney or brain, but is not necessarily life-threatening.
Paragraph 13 goes on:
“In the event the child is determined to be physiologically, genetically or chromosomally abnormal, the decision to abort or not to abort is to be made by the intended parents. In such a case the surrogate agrees to abort, or not to abort, in accordance with the intended parents’ decision.”
And there’s another relevant provision in Paragraph 13:
“Any decision to abort because of potential harm to the child, or to reduce the number of fetuses, is to be made by the intended parents.”Translation: Tagg and his wife, Jen, had the right to abort the fetuses if they felt they would not be healthy.
Sources connected with Mitt Romney tell TMZ, Mitt was involved in the surrogate arrangement because he paid some of the expenses connected with the agreement. We do not know if Mitt Romney read the contract or knew the terms.
Mitt has said, “I’m in favor of abortion being legal in the case of rape and incest and the health and life of the mother.” Otherwise, Romney is against abortion.
Now for the stupid mistake. We’ve learned Tagg chose the same surrogate in 2009, who gave birth to a boy. Attorney Bill Handel — a nationally-known expert in surrogacy law who put the deal together between Tagg and the surrogate — tells TMZ when the 2009 contract was drafted there was no Paragraph 13 providing for abortion because Tagg and his wife didn’t want it.
Handel says in 2011, when the second contract was being drafted, everyone involved “just forgot” to remove Paragraph 13. Handel says, “No one noticed. What can I say?”
President Obama has plenty ammo for a dirty fight…
But he is too classy to bend to the Romney/Ryan level…
It seems that Mitt Romney is enjoying the taste of his foot.
In a recent hidden video, Romney is caught speaking in a negative manner about the validity of Obama supporters saying that those who back President Obama—are “victims” who are “dependent upon government” and “pay no income tax.” He noted: “My job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”
He even went on to say such things about the “Palestinian problem,” Romney said peace in the Middle East is not possible and a Palestinian state is not feasible, telling donors that Palestinians have “no interest whatsoever in establishing peace and that the pathway to peace is almost unthinkable to accomplish.”
Romney’s remarks, denigrating nearly half of the electorate, sent the Romney campaign iinto panic mode. The campaign hastily convened a late-night press conference to address his controversial statements, and Romney stood by his “off the cuff” comments, while conceding that they were “not elegantly stated.” He claimed his comments where merely a “snippet” and not the “full response.” That was not true; his comments were shown in full. He added, “I hope the person who has the video would put out the full material.”
Luckily for us, the nice people at MotherJones.com were happy to oblige.
This election seems to have awakened the mean spirit in many people.
Who could’ve ever guessed that Obama love would create Big Apple Pizza hate?
Well that’s what happened to one pizza shop owner in Florida.
Come in for a slice, leave with a bear hug — along with a heated political debate playing out in the comments of Yelp.
The Wild West nature of the internet kicked up for a Republican business owner who showed support for President Obama — in the form of a bear hug.
Scott Van Nuzer, owner of Big Apple Pizza in Fort Pierce, Fla., sped away from the golf course when he heard the president was at his pizza shop. Van Nuzer, who crossed party lines in 2008 to vote for Obama, wanted to show his support with a Secret Service-approved bear hug.
Shortly thereafter, the pizza shop’s Yelp ratings took a beating, with comments coming from thousands of miles away.
And shortly after the dip, the ratings started to improve, with counter-posters taking on the negative reviewers. At press time, the number of five-star ratings vastly outweigh the negative ratings, with Yelp possibly having the foul-mouthed and vitriolic ones removed as content violations to its terms of service.
It’s red-state vs blue-state in a very important swing state in a very 21st-century way.It’s also a free speech issue, in a way, as just because comments may be untoward, but not profane, it’s a wonder if they are removed. Basically, what’s hate speech and what’s a contrary opinion?
It’s also reminiscent of the Joe the Plumber phenomenon from 2008, if Van Nuzzer gets much more attention.
An early negative post from Colorado:
To all of you libtards criticizing the conservatives for posting negative reviews for essentially the same reason you’re posting positive reviews is kind of silly isn’t it? You’re equally guilty of doing the exact same thing!
And a recent rebutal from California:
I just drove 40 straight hours, 2563 miles to try their pizza on my lunch break. Holy Gadzookas Batman, it was worth the drive. This is without a doubt the best pizza in all of Florida. Now to drive back to California. Boooo…
This will not soon go away.
I can’t for November though. I’m voting for the best candidate. Not the popular candidate.
Now he’s making sure his feelings are known in his new song called, To The World.
And with lyrics like this, he’ll surely stir up controversy or have Uncle Sam tapping at his door:
Like, “These niggas tryna hold me back
These niggas tryna hold me back”, I’m just trying to protect my stacks
Mitt Romney don’t pay no tax, Mitt Romney don’t pay no tax
Chi-Town ’til I’m on my back, Chi-Town ’til I’m on my back
Kanye West has unleashed the latest cut off Cruel Summer. The G.O.O.D. Music compilation leaked online earlier this week, and “To The World,” ‘Ye’s track with R. Kelly, is a refreshing blend of brag-rap and soulful R&B (even if Kelly’s singing about flipping the bird).
But on a broader level, it’s interesting that R. Kelly appears anywhere on the album. West is known for his close relationship with Jay-Z; Hova made the young Chicago beatmaker a national name when tapped West for production on his 2001 album, The Blueprint. Since then, Jay’s played the wise, smoother operator to Kanye’s energetic, sometimes erratic artiste. The two also collaborated on last year’s Watch the Throne.
So why is it problematic that Kelly appears on the disc? Jay-Z and R. Kelly were also once collaborators. The duo teamed up for the Best of Both Worlds Tour in 2004. But as the tour progressed, their relationship was strained. Things reached a breaking point at a concert in Madison Square Garden, where Kelly panicked and suddenly fled from the venue. He later said he thought he saw someone waving a gun at him from the crowds and admitted he shouldn’t have left. A visibly infuriated Jay-Z stayed and finished the show, calling in favors from all of his big name friends, who came and performed.
Da Lethal Tongue 