While he doesn’t want opinions of his Mormon faith to negatively affect his campaign, Mitt Romney needs to respect other religions first, an opponent says.

Newt Gingrich’s latest jab at his competitor reflects back to a 2003 incident.  While governor of Massachusetts that year, Romney vetoed $600,000 in spending on kosher meals for Jewish nursing home residents.

State legislature later restored that funding by bill amendment.

Gingrich told of the veto yesterday at a Pensacola campaign event. “(Romney) has no understanding of the importance of conscience and importance of religious liberty in this country,” he said.

Romney also “imposed on Catholic hospitals provisions against their religious strictures,” Gingrich said.

What remains to be seen is how much influence this latest flashback will have on today’s Florida primary.

Florida sits third highest of the 50 states and Dist. of Columbia in Jewish population (638,635), according to the Jewish Virtual Library, and ranks sixth in percentage of total state population (3.4).

Local Jewish voters indicate this revelation substantially affects their perception of Romney, who Summerville resident Susen Shapiro called “a putz” after learning of the 2003 incident.

“While Romney is in Florida sucking up to nice old Jewish grandmothers, his record shows that his real feelings are ‘let them eat ham,’" Shapiro said.

“How would he feel if Mormons in a nursing home had to wear Fruit of the Loom instead of magic Mormon underwear?” she added, stabbing at that faith’s temple garment tradition.

Romney’s religious identification has already been a burden on his campaign.

A Pew survey from last November found that 33 percent of all Republican voters do not regard the Mormon faith to be Christian.  Those self-identifying as “evangelical” reject the Church of Latter Day Saints even more; 53 percent say it’s not Christian.

This perception may have had effect on South Carolina’s Jan. 21 primary.  A CNN exit poll of participating voters found 65 percent to self-identify as “born again” or “evangelical.”  Only 22 percent of that group selected Romney in the contest.  Sixty percent of all voters participating in South Carolina’s Republican primary said religious beliefs of the candidates had some influence on their vote.

Romney finished a distant second in that race.

The latest polls, all completed before Gingrich’s statement last night, predict Romney to win today’s Florida primary with projections ranging from 36 to 47 percent of the vote.

In 2008, 40 percent of Floridians voting in the GOP primary identified themselves as “evangelical.”

In response to Miss Piggy's blunt description of the so-called news network, Kermit gave a rather accurate prediction: "That's gonna be all over the Internet."

He was right.

(from Think Progress)

Of course, this could be just revenge on the part of the piggy. Last month on its "Follow the Money" show, commentators of the Fox Business network were quick to toss out accusations regarding the true intentions of their new The Muppet Movie. 

Criticizing the movie while the network ran a caption that read "Are liberals trying to brainwash your kids against capitalism?" host Eric Bolling called the new muppet movie "communist," declaring it only wanted to teach kids to "hat(e) corporate America." 

Other muppet flicks and similar movies are responsible for Occupy Wall Street and public environmental concerns, too, according to Dan Gainor, who joined Bolling in criticism.  

(from Media Matters)

It's a (dodo) bird! It's a (crashing) plane! It's .... Mitt Romney! Who not only continues his flip-flopping like a fish out of water, but who even tries to deny and disassociate himself from his own campaign ads.

(posted on youtube by DemRapidResponse)

Courtesy of Charleston's own Bob Aubin, who created this image

(This originates from the facebook page of the Americans Against the Tea Party group, and is now being circulated by MoveOn.)

I've often see these images - ones that include words from a site or document, and feature them laid out in size based on their frequency of appearance on that site/document - and finally found the avenue to do it myself, too.

And as evidence, here's the "Wordle" of my blog so far though the month of January:

(If you'd like to see a larger version of this, just hit the CTRL and the +/= keys on your board at the same time.) 

You can play around with the shape, colors and font, and even remove words, if you like.  Try it here: www.wordle.net.

Last May, South Carolina enacted new law requiring registered voters to provide a state-issued photo ID in order to cast their ballots.

A review by the U.S. Dept. of Justice, required by the Voting Rights Act, overturned that law in December, however, on basis the law would unfairly affect rural, disabled, elderly and minority voters.

The state quickly began its challenge to that overturn, though, claiming the restrictions this Voter ID law imposed were necessary. And as proof, State Atty. Gen. Alan Wilson stated records were found that indicate 900 deceased voters had their votes counted in recent elections.

Today, however, those claims by Wilson and his state Dept. of Motor Vehicles source were found to be rather dead themselves.

At a hearing before the House Election Laws Subcommittee, the State Election Committee revealed only six incidents of dead voter claims provided by the Atty. Gen.’s office. Sinking the argument further, not one of the incidents supported Wilson’s claims, according to data provided by SEC Exec. Director Marci Anderson.

In a press release, SEC offered the following review of those six incidents discussed in testimony this morning:

• "One was an absentee ballot cast by a voter who then died before election day; 
• Another was the result of an error by a poll worker who mistakenly marked the voter as Samuel Ferguson, Jr. when the voter was in fact Samuel Ferguson, III; 
• Two were the result of stray marks on the voter registration list detected by the scanner – again, a clerical error;
• The final two were the result of poll managers incorrectly marking the name of the voter in question instead of the voter listed either above or below on the list."

As a result, not one of these six incidents – which were the only ones provided after Wilson claimed record of over 900 – indicates voter fraudulence.

The particular elections in which these votes were cast weren’t specified.

The SEC also searched for votes cast by dead voters in the recent presidential primary, Andino stated. From a list of 37,000 names the DMV said are deceased voters, only 10 were found to have participated in that January 21 election.

In immediate follow-up by the SEC, “each of these 10 voters (was) confirmed to be alive,” the state office’s press release reads.  Their signatures from the voting registry that day were confirmed to be valid, too.

Had South Carolina’s Voter ID law remained in effect, over 239,000 registered voters would be denied their right to vote in this year’s elections. 

Ah, the American dream. You can clear billions of dollars in profit, and not only can you skip out on taxes, but you can leave your hand held out for even more, too.

Wow - if only I could be a U.S. corporation.

(This originated as a press release from Sen. Sanders' office; MoveOn created this image after picking up the info from Buzzflash.) 

Also see:
6 executive bonuses equal 2.86 million jobs
1 CEO bonus = 100 years of 1 middle-class income

Surveys are supposed to provide fact-based predictions. 

It’s hard to do that, though, when the surveys get hacked, which I confirmed while conducting a poll on Saturday’s presidential primary.

Very, very many of the online responses came from Ron Paul supporters who don’t live in the state, and a link to the survey was found on a Reddit.com page dedicated to fans of the Texas congressman.  That left me short of a minimum needed to produce an acceptable confidence level and margin of error.

I still compiled some findings from that survey, however, and have made my own predictions based on a compilation of its valid responses and other surveys.  Remember these are not scientific findings, however.

My final predictions for Saturday’s primary election are:

The remaining three percent would go to other candidates whose names still remain on the ballot even though their campaigns for the Republican nomination have ended, such as now-Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson.

About 1.5 to two percent from that remaining three, though, will go to Stephen Colbert, even if indirectly.

The Charleston-native television star’s been campaigning for about a week, using the name of former candidate Herman Cain. The two even held a rally Friday afternoon at the College of Charleston.

Colbert/Cain will take about 8,000. His count will include votes from some who otherwise would not have participated in the election, and who only came out in response to his sarcastic ads.  The rest of his/their votes, though, will be from Republicans who find they have no viable candidate on the ballot. 

Colbert’s Super PAC produced four video advertisements, two of which directly ask voters to select Cain. Another asks anyone but Mitt Romney be supported.

Gingrich’s very recent return to the top in favor from South Carolina Republicans brings an interesting twist to the race, and provides an additional stifle to Mitt Romney’s campaign, too.

Supporting my predictions for a Gingrich victory are the results of four other surveys conducted in the last three days. In an average of those polls of South Carolina voters, the former Speaker of the House leads Romney 32.4 to 30.4 percent.

The results of the Iowa caucus, the very first conducted, were recently changed, too. Romney’s slight victory over Rick Santorum by a count of eight votes was reversed yesterday.  Santorum officially won by 32 votes, Iowa election officials stated yesterday.

Here are other statements and projections I feel comfortable to issue:

• Slightly over 90 percent of very likely voters are committed; almost six percent said they could still change their minds, and only four percent were still undecided. 
• Total turnout for the January 21 contest should be near 490,000, they predict – almost 10 percent higher than turnout for the GOP presidential primary race in 2008. This notable increase is the result of greater interest from Tea Party supporters, who formerly skipped many primaries, and Ron Paul supporters, many of whom are normally irregular in election participation and/or who are recent voter registrants. 
• About 55 percent of Saturday’s voters will be male – a notable increase from 2008 when only 50.5 percent of the participants in the state’s Republican presidential primary were men.  That percentage is dependent on how many men show up to vote; men polled were less committed to voting that were female voters. These male voters are also more likely to be party faithful and vote for any Republican candidate in a General Election than female voters are.  
• Approximately one-quarter of the voters definite to participate in the Jan. 21 primary self-identify as “evangelist,” inferring that faith and relevant values would influence their candidate selection.  This minimum anticipated presence was part of the influence behind my credit of higher vote percentage to Santorum than other poll predict. The very recent correction of Iowa caucus results, which now say he defeated Romney, will also aid Santorum in the South Carolina primary, I believe.