Election Day by the #s (2 of 4)_ Mitt Romney Wins Yanceyville, NC, but....

One of the great ironies of the election cycle is that two swing states, Colorado and North Carolina, were able to send an openly gay member of the House in Cong. Jared Polis (D-Colo., pictured top) and a member who declared that gay college student Matthew Shepard's murder in Wyoming was a hoax in Cong. Virginia Foxx (R-NC, pictured bottom).

I happen to follow both members of Congress on Twitter, for what that's worth. Polis got 56-percent of the vote over Kevin Lundberg (R). The Colorado congressman has also been an advocate of legalizing marijuana. His state passed a bill to actually legalize pot, but it is expected to meet many legal hurdles since marijuana is still outlawed at the federal level in America.

Foxx, who has been supportive of the Turkish side of the Rashomon Nightmare with the Armenian lobby, which means I may have been the only Turkish-American to have voted for her opponent Elisabeth Motsinger as I consider social issues to be even more important than ethnic politics. But, even though I reside in North Carolina, I was fortunate not to be in Foxx's district.

As it is, my vote may not have mattered too much as Foxx won by a 58-42 percentage margin, which was enough to make "The High County Press," newspaper in Boone, NC, declare that Foxx had 'obliterated' her opponent, as Eric Alterman of "The Nation" has declared 'what liberal media/", though "The Advocate," a gay politics magazine criticized Foxx's reelection as a sing that American tolerance for gays and lesbians still needs to evolve.

Somehow, I don't foresee Polis and Foxx having lunch at Ray's Hell Burger (pictured center) in Arlington, Va., where President Barack Obama has dined with a camera crew following him.

As for the presidential election, Mitt Romney did reclaim tiny Caswell County (Yanceyville), North Carolina, which is not in Fox''s district. Romney won back the Tarheel State, but only by the thinnest of margins.

Here are the numbers:

69.6 %- The percentage of votes Obama got in Boulder County, Colorado,Polis' home district.

23.2%- The percentage Romney got in Boulder County

51.2%- The percentage Obama got in Colorado

50. 6%- The percentage Romney got in North Carolina

254- The number of votes that Romney won by in Caswell County, NC.

91,606- The number of votes that Obama got in Forsyth County (Winston-Salem), NC

79,177- The number of votes that Romney got in Forsyth County

75.9%- The percentage of votes Obama got in Durham County, NC, the state's most progressive jurisdiction.

23.3%- The percentage Romney got in Durham County.

70.8 %- The percentage Romney got in rural Stokes County, the most conservative county in NC

27.9 %- The percentage Obama got in Stokes County

70.4 %- The percentage of vote Obama got in Orange County (Chapel Hill, Hillsborough), NC

28.2 %- The percentage of vote Romney got in Orange County

60.8 %- The percentage Obama got in Mecklenberg County (Charlotte), NC, where the Democratic National Convention was held

38.3 %- The percentage Romney got in Mecklenberg County.

51.7 %-The percentage Romney got in New Hanover (Wilmington), NC.

47.1 %- The percentage Obama got in New Hanover County

http://www.hcpress.com

http://advocate.com

http://www.yesweekly.com

http://www.boulderweekly.com

http://www.thehill.com

http://www.rayshellburger.com

Quote of the Day/Week-Richard Nixon

Today, we conclude our quotes of the last eight presidents, four of whom are quoted on our sister blog "The Daily Vampire," with a quip from Richard Nixon (1913-1994) who died at age 81 during Bill Clinton's presidency.

Among the iconic images of Nixon are the photo of him bowling, a poster of which can be seen in the Coen Brothers' cult classic "The Big Lebowski" and the photo of him meeting Elvis Presley, who was rumored to be high on marijuana when the picture was taken.

A portrait painting by Norman Rockwell of the president can presently be seen at The National Portraits Gallery in Washington, DC.

Nixon has been played many times on film, in fact, two actors Anthony Hopkins ("Nixon") and Frank Langella ("Frost/Nixon") have been nominated for playing him. The Richard Nixon Library is in Yorba Linda, Calif.

Here is his quote, which seems appropriate given that this is both a presidential election and an Olympic year:

"Finishing second in the Olympics gets you a silver. Finishing second in politics gets you oblivion."http://www.nixonlibrary.gov

50 Beers from Around the World- Red Stripe (Jamaica)

"Hooray, beer!"

That is the famous catch logo for Red Stripe beer, the most famous export from Jamaica after the late Bob Marley.

The beer is named after its red stripe logo (did we really need to wiki that?), and it was first brewed in the capital Kingston on July 31, 1918.

Red Stripe was first imported to the United States in 1985, but it wasn't as popular as initially anticipated. That all changed when the brew began sponsoring reggae events and by the mid-1990s one could even find the beer in grocery stores in places like Mount Airy, NC.

There is also some interesting trivia associated with the beer. Reportedly, it was temporarily banned in America in 1989 because drug smugglers were putting cannibis in several of the brand's brown bottles.

In 2009 during the Beer Summit with Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., Cambridge, Mass., police officer Jim Crowley, President Barack Obama and Veep Joe Biden, Gates initially wanted to have a Red Stripe. But, word spread out and Boston beer lovers and perhaps right-wing hotheads like Rush Limbuagh made an issue of it, so Gates ordered a Sam Adams Light instead. Limbaugh, who is a cigar fan, has probably smoked a Cuban himself!

SIDEBAR: Shocking news out of Turkey as a company in the southeast city of Gaziantep has developed 'instant Turkish coffee' according to Yigal Schieifer with the blog Kebabistan. According to the post/news story, Semesttin Yilmaz developed the new 'Shazili' brand of instant Turkish coffee with both sweet and non-sweet versions to find a unique niche on the market. But, according to Kebabistan, the real thing should be enjoyed at the Mandabatmaz Restaurant in Istanbul. Closer to home, one can drink Turkish coffee at Tallulah's*, a Turkish joint, in Chapel Hill, NC.

*-Alas, it is not spelled correctly on our links!

Top 10 Riskiest Neckties to Wear to Work...

The "Tom and Jerry" necktie pictured above probably would NOT cause problems at work unless you had a very uptight boss, however even in hip, liberal places like Berkeley, Calif., or Boulder, Colo., many of these neckties would not be cool. Conversely, rebel flag and Stop Abortion neckties would not work well in an office environment in Lynchburg, Va., (actually we're not certain about that!).

Incidentally, all of these listed ties are available from zazzle.com or other Internet outlets!

Here is our list:

1. Che Guevara necktie (pictured)
2. Marijuana leaf necktie (pictured)
3. Old Soviet Union flag necktie
4. Chairman Mao neckties
5. Stop Abortion neckties
6. Koranic scripture neckties (definitely not a good idea on the Liberty University campus!)
7. Confederate Flag necktie
8. Playboy emblem necktie
9. Two Grooms with Brown Hair necktie (or any other overt gay neckties, not in the fashion sense)
10. Nude Woman Drinking Beer necktie

Other ties that were considered:

Palestinian Flag neckties (really bad idea if you're going to meet with Sen. Joe Lieberman on The Hill).
Rush Limbuagh neckties
Josef Stalin neckties
No Condom neckties
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk neckties (bad idea if you're in Glendale, Calif., which is home to America's largest Armenian population!)

Thing We Learned on Twitter Today- Pot Plants Found in NC

Today, WXII (News 12) in Winston-Salem, NC, tweeted that police in rural Stokes County, NC, due north of Winston-Salem near the Virginia border, found a substantial number of pot plants just over the county line.

Stokes County Sheriff Mike Joyce told the news outlet that the plants were as tall as 12-feet high, and the estimated street value of the marijuana seized is $600,000.

"Drug dealers don't stop at county lines or city limits and this is an example of everyone working together," Jouyce told WXII.

Stokes County made national news some three years ago when two boys from the jurisdiction drowned in a river. There was a substantial manhunt for several days which lead to the eventual bodies' discoveries.

SIDEBAR: Our unofficial 'High School of the Week' for this week is Washington High School all the way out in Sioux Falls, S.Dak., where the principal is James Nold and the school nickname is The Warriors.

The school has won 35 state championships in athletics, which is more than any other school in the United States.

We could find any famous alumni from the school on the Internet, but famous people from South Dakota include former news anchor Tom Brokaw and former "Charlie's Angels" (the original '70s tv sereis) star Cheryl Ladd.

Of course, we sincerely hope that young people in South Dakota and elsewhere avoid illegal drugs. You can, after all, drink Red Bull now!