After North Carolina, Georgia was the closest red state that almost went blue. This 2014 Senate election will be interesting, if the Democratic nominee is competitive there then Georgia could be a swing state in 2016.
Oregon Dems trying to make cigarettes a controlled substance I almost put that in derp. Even if it passes it'll just create a smoking smuggling problem. I do find it funny that slow death is ok but fast acting poison is bad. I used to smoke, hell I miss smoking. But I do not think this sort of thing can win.
Smoking isn't nearly as popular as it used to be anyway. I suspect it will die out on its own in a couple of generations. I agree, I can't really see how making something a "controlled substance" has ever solved a problem.
Bill Clinton did very well in the south, I think Hillary would too. I believe Bill carried Georgia, Louisiana, and Kentucky (twice) over the course of 92 and 96. Biden would struggle a good bit more I think, especially if the GOP frames him as a northeastern "elitist," as they did with Kerry and Dukakis- although his personality may make that pursuit difficult. Keep an eye on South Carolina, too- we have a very unpopular tea party governor in Haley who is polling very low, and if the more urban areas (we do have some) like Charleston and Columbia could begin to balance out the bible belt in the northwest corner of the state, we could flip too- generally, the GOP gets about 53-54% in Presidential races. Haley up for re-election in 2014, that race could be a good predictor.
Didn't Oregon have legalized marijuana on the ballot this past election? Obviously it didn't pass like in Washington and Colorado but there must be some support for it to wind up on the ballot. So in the minds of Oregonians, tobacco smoking = bad, marijuana smoking = good?
Hillary 2016 SuperPAC is ready to launch... http://theweek.com/article/index/239346/hillary-superpac-readies-launch
Bill to repeal ban on 'shacking up' advances in Virginia Senate. I knew this ordinance was on the books, but I really did think it had been repealed ages ago.
Might have been back when it was first enacted way back when in 1877, I have no clue if anybody actually enforces it now.
Every once in a while you see someone trying to enforce an old law like that... either because they're super-conservative and find out that technically the law still exists so they try to take advantage out of it to make a "moral example" of somebody, or they're liberal and want to make news so the law can be abolished. It's even worse in the military, where a lot of outdates rules are actually still enforced.
I think that law is still on the books in North Carolina but I'm not completely sure. (And my brother and I both violated it.) I have heard of landlords trying to use it to deny housing to unmarried couples.
Fox News ratings dropping, MSNBC, especially Maddow, doing well I think that counts as political news since that is all each channel talks about unless there is a train crash, school shooting, or car chase.
John Kerry's farewell to congress (ATM there's only two minutes of the nearly 45 minute speech): He'll be sworn in as Sect. of State on Friday.
He's a little ragey and a little paranoid and a little conspiracy, and his invocation of Orwell is *yawn* but on the other hand that provision of the NDAA is absolutely insane.
Yeah...unless we somehow get Citizens United overturned in the next few years...good luck with that Kerry.
Well, maybe that could be like, a first step to work on in order to achieve the aim Kerry proposes in his speech?
