SOTU Tweets Blogathon: Good Morning Dubai....

Good morning, Dubai! Where it is now 10:00 a.m. Kudos to Aston Villa, the last place team in the English Premiere League for their 1-0 triumph over Crystal Palace.

Here is our final list of tweets, which does NOT involve any commentary from the likes of George F. Will and Fozzie the Bear.(pict. center).......

1) Taz Ahmed (American Muslim female comedian, activist): Can you PLAY INTO THE MODEL MINORITY STEREOTYPE any harder, Nikki Haley ?!?!?!

2) Catholic Democrats: So Nikki Haley is just repeating GOP talking points w/a clenched jaw and a southern accent? Cool, it's not like we expected anything else.

3) Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va., pict. top): As POTUS noted the scourge of opioid addiction  cuts across party lines. Let's come together to lift up communities hurt by this epidemic.

4) Andrea Mitchell (NBC, she is mentioning Sen. Ted Cruz R-Tex.,pict. bottom; he was campaigning for president in New Hampshire today instead of being at the SOTU): Ted Cruz rejects POTUS criticism of his threat to carpetbomb ISIS, says Obama and Hillary Clinton are putting their head in the sand regarding terrorism.

5) Jonathan Scott (Huffington Post): Wolf Blitzer also thought Jesus was born in Jerusalem on Celebrity Jeopardy.

6) Maryland Dem Party: Nikki Haley literally said nothing. Nothing of substance, and no answers.

7) Chuck Todd (NBC): If it's possible for Haley to actually rise up on the VP short list, she accomplished that as well tonight. Strong showing for SCGOV.

8) Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY): POTUS is right, vote. Speak out. Stand up for others, esp the vulnerable, knowing each of us is only here 'cause somebody stood up for us.

9) Josh Kraushaar (National Journal): Donald Trump is providing a rare moment of bipartisanship tonight.

10) Liz Mair (conservative new media adviser): "Judging by Twitter, it appears that continuing to watch 'Making a Murderer' (a Netflix doc series) was the right call."

11) 9NewsDenver: "SC Gov. Nikki Haley sounds optimistic tone in GOP SOTU response."

http://www.lizmair.com

http://www.goodmuslimbadmuslim.com/tazandzahra/

http://www.catholicdemocrats.org/

http://www.9news.com/

Democrats Who May Run for President in 2014: Hillary Plus Nine

There was a great cover for the center-left magazine "The New Republic" which showed Hillary Clinton is a room with 100 women who were wearing Elizabeth Warren masks. The presumed point the illustrator was making is that Hillary Clinton has two challenges, besides separating herself from husband Bill Clinton, that is: 1) rallying younger and more progressive voters to her political bid for the highest office and 2) maintaining the support of centrist or even conservative Democrats who could help Democrats maintain Virginia and Florida and possibly gain North Carolina and Georgia in 2016.

Here is our look at ten Democrats we feel may very well choose to run for president in the 2016 cycle; we should point out to folks that we are NOT Gwen Ifill, the veteran PBS politics reporter:

1) Hillary Clinton (New York,pictured top)

2) Sen. Mark Warner (Virginia, pictured middle)

3) Sen. Tim Kaine (Virginia)

4)  Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass., pictured bottom)

5) Gov. Martin O'Malley (Maryland)

6) Gov. Andrew Cuomo (New York)

7) Gov. Deval Patrick (Mass.)

8) Sen. Cory Booker (New Jersey)

9) Sen. Kristen Gillibrand (New York; she replaced Clinton in the Senate)

10) Vice President Joe Biden (Delaware)

http://www.pbs.org/weta/washingtonweek/

http://www.newrepublic.com/

http://www.rollcall.com/

Election Day by the #s (3 of 4)_ All the Votes are Finally In

Here is a look at Election Day numbers in Virginia as well as other parts of the country. Luray Caverns in Luray, Va., which is in the Shenandoah Valley, is pictured above.

Today, President Barack Obama was declared the official winner in Florida, which propels him to 332 electoral college votes.

Rural Nelson County, Va., near Charlottesville, was perhaps the closest jurisdiction, and it was one of the few rural areas won by the president, but Obama did win substantially in major metro areas.

Here are the numbers:

50.7- Percentage that went to Obama in Nelson County

48- Percentage that went to Romney in Nelson County

51.6- Percentage that Obama got in Loudoun County, which had been a Republican stronghold

47.1- Percentage that Romney got in Loudoun County

4,274- Votes for Romney in Dickenson County, in far southwest Virginia, a coal-mining district

2,472- Votes Obama got in Dickenson County, the president did substantially better here in 2008

51.1- Percentage Romney got in King and Queen County in northeast Virginia

16,685- Votes Romney got in Franklin County

9,082- Votes Obama got in Franklin County

688-Votes that Constitution Party candidate Virgil Goode got in Franklin County, his home area

20,036- Votes Romney got in Montgomery County, one of the most politically divided areas in the country

19,903- Votes Obama got in Montgomery County, which includes Blacksburg, the home of Virginia Tech

20,075- Votes that Senate-elect candidate Tim Kaine (D) got in Montgomery County

19,335- Votes that George Allen (R), Kaine's opponent, got in Montgomery County

64.9- Percentage Romney got in Shenandoah County

90.1- Percentage Obama got in Prince George's County, Maryland, a DC-suburban area

9.2- Percentage Romney got in Prince George's County

Election Day #s (1 of 4)_Virgil Goode Ironically Helps Obama Win

The Election Day chess game is over and besides President Barack Obama, other winners include Tim Kaine (D, pictured top) over George Allen (R, pictured bottom) for an open U.S. Senate seat, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) over controversial Republican Todd Akin, and Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) over Republican challenger Denny Rehberg.

Amazingly enough, no incumbents lost seats in the U.S. Senate and only five seats switched sides, which helps broader the lead for Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the majority leader in the Senate.

In Congress, only 20 incumbents lost. Among them was Cong. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) to Cong. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) in one of the most surreal house races in a long time. In other races that we've mentioned on this blog, Cong. Jim Matheson (D-Utah) narrowly beat out African-American Mormon Mia Love (R), and Cong. Mogan Grifith (R-Va.) got just over 60 percent of the vote from his Democratic challenger Anthony Flaccavento, who fared well for a first-time Democrat in the very socially conservative southwest Virginia.

One of the great ironies of this election was that far-right Constitution Party candidate Virgil Goode from Rocky Mount, Va, who was a Democrat, Republican and independent during his years in Congress, actually helped Obama defeat Mitt Romney and allow the president to gain the vital 13 electoral college votes in Virginia by proclaiming close to one percent.

Here are some Election Day numbers of interest:

34, 220, 984- Number of votes John F. Kennedy got in 1960

34, 108,157- Number of votes Richard Nixon got in 1960

21,427,123- Number of votes Herbert Hoover got in 1928

15, 015,464- Number of votes Al Smith got in 1928

35,726- Number of votes John Adams got in 1796

31,115- Number of votes Thomas Jefferson got in 1796

2,916,811- Number of votes Obama got in his home state Illinois

1,900,575- Number of votes Obama got in Romney's home state Massachusetts.

1,777,379- Number of votes Romney got in Massachusetts.

19,663- Number of votes Green Party candidate Jill Stein got in Massachusetts (also her home state)

37.6%- The percentage of votes Romney got in his home state

1,888,954- The number of votes Obama got in Virginia

1,773,982- Number of votes Romney got in Virginia

13,587- Number of votes Virgil Goode got in Virginia

688-Number of votes Goode got in Franklin County, his home jurisdiction

49%- Percentage of votes Tim Kaine got in his Senate victory.

47%-Percentage of votes George Allen got

671, 747- Number of votes Romney got in Utah

72.8%-Percentage of vote Romney got in Utah

4,725- Number of votes Justice Party candidate Rocky Anderson, a former Salt Lake City, Utah, mayor, got in Utah.

2,096- Distance in miles between Boston and Salt Lake City.

49.3%- Percent that Cong. Jim Matheson got in Utah house race

48.1%- Percent that Mia Love got in same Utah house race

30.8 %- Percent that former Washington Redskins Congressional candidate Jimmy Farris (D) got against Cong. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho); Farris was profiled in the "Washington Post Magazine" recently.

303,090- Number of votes Obama got in his birth state of Hawaii

36,975- Number of votes sitcom star Roseanne Barr got as a third party candidate in California (Yes, that is more than Jefferson got in 1796!)

27,337- Number of votes Libertarian Party Gary Anderson got in his home state of New Mexico

697- Number of votes Peta Lindsay of the Socialist Party got in Vermont.

7- Number of Dukakis 8 states won by Obama (both in 2008 and in 2012)

1- Number of Dukakis 8 states won by Romney (West Virginia)

4- Number of states in which Obama won every county (Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Hawaii)

3-Number of states in which Romney won every county (West Virginia, Utah and Oklahoma)

PS: We should point out that the guy playing chess in the middle is Gary Kasparov.

Entry Based on Trending Topics_ DNC vs. NFL

Tonight sports and politics collided over American airwaves as a landmark speech by former president Bill Clinton may have gone unseen due to the fact that the New York Giants were hosting the Dallas Cowboys in a game aired on NBC; the Cowboys won 24-17 (but, we watched the Democratic National Convention where Clinton spoke from).

So, here is composition made up with trending topics and other recent social media network phenoms as well as other speakers and politicians who were in Charlotte, NC, for the DNC: Lady Gaga tour, Scarlett Johansson. Natalie Portman, Burger King, Andy Roddick, McKayla Maroney (pictured center), Tim Kaine (pictured top), Julian Castro, Sandra Fluke and Sen. Al Franken_

"It was announced today that the Lady Gaga North American tour would begin in Vancouver, Canada, on Jan.11 when the American presidential election will presumably be over with. Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman will be speaking at the Democratic National Convention tomorrow night. Yesterday, both Virginia U.S. Senate candidate Tim Kaine and San Antonio mayor Julian Castro spoke to the same crowd, which included Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn). Today, pro-choice activist Sandra Fluke, who was called a slut by fringe right-wing radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, gave a rousing speech about the need to protect women's reproductive rights.

There may have been Internet rumors that Bill Clinton was going to have Whopper at the lone Burger King in Fort Mill, South Carolina, which is 15 miles south of Charlotte, but those were not proven and neither was a net rumor that Olympic gold medalist gymnast was going to endorse Dunkin Donuts.

Andy Roddick, 30,  played his last pro tennis game at the U.S. Open where he fell to Argentinian tennis player Juan de Portro, but he should have made enough wages to purchase a very expensive dog like Big Splash, a dog that is worth $1.5 million (we are not making this up)."

http://www.alfranken.com

http://www.kaineforva.com/home

SIDEBAR: Kudos to South African swimmer Achmet Hasseim, 30, who won bronze for his country at the 2012 London Paralympics in men's swimming (100-meter butterfly relay). Hasseim had lost one of his legs after a shark attack of the coast of South Africa in 2006. Interestingly enough, his nickname is Shark Boy.

And, in the world of Turkish Super League soccer, our two favorite teams GalataSaray (Istanbul) and BursaSpor squared off. GS won the game 3-2 with goals from the likes of Umut Bulut and Burak Yilmaz For BursaSpor, Omer Erdogan scored a late goal for the Crocodiles.

The Last Tweets from Charlotte- Maryland Congresswoman Comes Home to Carolina

Though none of these tweets pertain to former New York governor Mario Cuomo (pictured top; his son Andrew is now in charge in Albany) or to dinosaur skeletons, we thought we would use them because several speakers at the Democratic National Convention, including Virginia U.S. Senate candidate Tim Kaine, will try to reach the barometer set by Cuomo when he gave a dynamic speech at the 1984 Democratic National Convention in San Francisco.

And, the dino-skeleton is because Charlotte boasts a very popular natural science museum called The Discovery Place, located in the heart of downtown in the Queen City.

Here are tweets from about an hour ago (4:00 p.m./16:00 eastern time, or 20:00 GMT) with explanations:

1) @PoliticalTicker (CNN Political Ticker): "Obama expecting to get 'misty' during first lady's speech (tonight)."

2) @wamu885news (WAMU 88.5 News; the Washington DC-based NPR station): "We spoke to Maryland Rep. Donna Edwards this morning  about what she expects from #DNC2012." (Cong. Edwards was born in Yanceyville, NC, which borders Danville, Va., her fourth district includes many DC suburbs in Maryland).

3) @HuffingtonPost (Huffington Post): "Watch Chuck Norris' stern warning about the 1,000 years of darkness' that Obama will bring if re-elected."

4) @ABC11WTVD (WTVD is the ABC-affiliate in Raleigh, NC): "Gov. Bev Perdue seems fired up heading to the #DNC_ telling a fellow Dem: 'Let's kick some asses.'"

5) @UtahDemocrats (Utah Democratic Party): "@VoteScottHowell now speaking with Senator (Harry) Reid at the @LBSDems event." (Scott Howell is a conservative Utah Democrat of the Mormon faith who is challenging long-term incumbent Sen. Orrin Hatch).

6) @TheNation (The Nation, a liberal magazine): "Activists call for the immigration reform Obama promised when he ran for office."

7) @DavidShuster (David Shuster, a tv-journalist with the liberal Current-TV who ironically worked for the conservative network Fox News): "Biggest demonstration today in Charlotte: 3 people urging sinners to 'repent or burn in hell.' Police amused."

http://www.wamu.org

http://www.chucknorris.com

http://www.wfae.org (Charlotte's NPR station)

http://www.wunc.org (Raleigh-Chapel Hill's NPR station)

http://www.utahdemocrats.org

http://www.thenation.com

http://www.nc-politics.com

http://www.discoveryplace.org

Tweets from DNC in Charlotte_ An Empty Chair for bin Laden

Today, we continue logging tweets from the Democratic National Convention (DNC) which officially gets underway tomorrow in Charlotte, NC, but many meet and greet events, including delegation breakfast talks, have started up.

"The Washington Post" is focusing on Gov. Martin O'Malley of Maryland (pictured top) as he is one of the most -coveted speakers at the convention. Former Virginia governor Tim Kaine, who is running for an open U.S. senate seat, will also speak in Charlotte. Just so there is no confusion, O"Malley is not the governor of North Carolina, that distinction belongs to Gov. Beverly Perdue, also a Democrat, who is stepping down this year at the end of her term.

We are also using a coffee cup from the Turkish coffee Kahve Dunyasi (Coffee World) since many progressives have started the Coffee Party in opposition to the far right Tea Party movement, which has actually propelled fringe candidates, such as Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), into congressional representatives!

Here is a look at some of the tweets from last night, from the right, the left and the center:

1) @theobserver (Charlotte Observer): Was that George Clooney jogging down Tryon Street?

2) @DavidCornDC (David Corn, a liberal journalist with "Mother Jones"): Even Clint Eastwood said we were halfway through a comeback! That is, before he began his career as a performance activist.

3) @reason ("Reason" is a libertarian magazine): Charlotte protests already bigger than in Tampa.

4) @KyDems (Kentucky Democratic Party): Ky Democrats starting to arrive in Charlotte. KDP is finishing convention walk through.

5) @ChrisRockoz (We thought this was the real Chris Rock, but it appears to be an impersonator. Nevertheless, it is very amusing): Democrats should have an empty chair for the entire DNC and when someone asks who it belongs to, they can say Osama bin Laden.

6) @StephenFHayes (Stephen F. Hayes, a columnist for the conservative publication "The Weekly Standard"): Advice to all in #Charlotte. Avoid the Orange Cab company. An hour late for pickup. Told four times cab was 'five minutes' away.

7) @BarryHouse (Barry House is a liberal activist in Illinois): I wish just once #Democrats would be as vicious at their convention as #Republicans always are at theirs.


http://www.motherjones.com

http://www.kydemocrat.com

http://www.reason.com

http://www.weeklystandard.com

http://www.ncdp.org

http://www.mddems.org

http://www.charlotteobserver.com