05/24/2012 New data from an NBC-Wall Street Journal poll that show President Obama leading former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney by 34 points among Hispanics set off a new round of speculation about whether Republicans can win in November if they can’t narrow that margin. And rightfully so. But focusing just on 2012 actually underestimates the depth of the political problem for Republicans when it comes to the Hispanic community. In short: Republicans’ Hispanic problem didn’t happen overnight and they won’t be able to fix it overnight either. That means that regardless of what happens in 2012, Republicans need to find ways to begin growing their support among Hispanics, or they run the risk of struggling to build majority national coalitions in 2016, 2020 and beyond. The following two charts illustrate Republicans’ long-term Hispanic problem. Let’s break each of them down. The first chart details how the Hispanic vote has split between the two parties in the last 10 presidential contests. On average, the Democratic presidential nominee has received 64.1 percent of the Hispanic vote, while the Republican nominee has taken just 31.8 percent. Take out the 2004 result — where President George W. Bush won 44 percent in an exit polling finding that is heavily disputed by many Latino groups — and the Democratic presidential nominee averaged 65.3 percent among Latinos, while the GOP standard-bearer won just 30.4 percent of their votes. Here’s the full readout on how Hispanics have voted for president since 1972: (SEE CHART) The second chart details the growth of the Hispanic vote as a proportion of the overall electorate. While it remains true that Hispanics are neither registered to vote nor turn out to vote in anything close to commensurate with their size in the overall U.S. population, Latinos’ percentage of the entire electorate has increased in each of the past four elections and is now more than four times as high as it was in 1992. Here’s the chart detailing the rising percentage of Latinos as a portion of the overall electorate: (SEE CHART) Combine the two charts and you see the trouble for the GOP. Not only has the party demonstrated little to no ability to win anything even close to a majority of Hispanic voters in any presidential election dating back almost 40 years, but Latinos are also comprising an ever-larger slice of the electorate — with a considerable jump between 1992 (2 percent) and 2008 (9 percent). Given that reality, simply putting a Hispanic Republican — Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, perhaps? — on the national ticket this fall shouldn’t be considered a panacea (or anything close to it) for all that ails Republicans when it comes to Hispanic voters. But, if Republicans don’t start somewhere — and fast — they could be relegated to permanent minority status (or close to it) in 2016 and beyond. The short-term politics of the Hispanic vote are bad for Republicans. The long-term politics are downright disastrous.

Republicans’ Hispanic problem — in 2 charts

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In nearly six weeks, Romney has done four other national TV interviews -- CNN, CNBC, ABC and CBS--two of which were joint interviews with his wife, Ann Romney.

Mitt Romney Flocks To Fox News As General Election Season Ramps Up

I know there was an existing thread, but I can''t seem to pull it up so...\ \ which male celebrities, past and present, have taken advantage of the casting couch to get into Hollywood, get their first big break or to continue getting parts?

As more and more people wake up to the fact that everything they post on FB is the property of FB, I believe they will flee this web site. It's simply a data collection site and their "keeping people connected" theme is simply a delivery system for data. I believe the downside of FB will be proven to be devastating for many if not all members. I'd be interested in comments that may not agree with my opinion.

Add her to the list of people who need to go away.

Kate Gosselin can't believe networks won't give her a new show

Make the RHONJ look like graduates of Miss Porter''s.

"Mob Wives" on VH1

Teresa "Bitsy" Giudice

Like to hear it, here it go... Still haven't read any of the DCnU books yet. I've collected a few and am waiting til I get about 5 or 6 issues in before I decide to commit.

Yes, we need strong leaders—but those leaders also need loyal followers on the payroll. That’s a lesson Cory Booker and Richard Grenell need to learn. by Michael Tomasky | May 24, 2012 Watching Cory Booker and Richard Grenell try to salvage their reputations took me back. When I was young I debated: do I want to go into politics or journalism? I actually did work in politics, for a year or so, for a long-gone member of Congress. I was in charge for a time of constituent correspondence. At one point, someone up the food chain noticed that the letter the congressman was sending out concerning events in Nicaragua was a shade or two left of what would likely be judged sensible in the hollows of West Virginia (the boss did oppose aid to the contras, but not quite for the reasons I elucidated). No one had previously told me what I should or should not write, but I learned that day: work for a politician, and you have no views of your own. Off to journalism I sauntered. I would never be a good follower. To this day I can’t for the life me understand how those spokespeople or spokespersons—or mere “spox” as they are called, now that we’re all in the business of typing as few characters as possible—can do it. On both sides—yes, this is definitely one arena in which both sides are guilty. How they can sit there and spin the things they spin with a straight face is beyond me. There is no way I could ever have done it. I’d have broken out laughing at some point, or immediately apologized for spooning such manifest garbage out on television. And so over the years, even as I rolled my eyes at Howard Wolfson (one of the better ones) whenever he explained that Hillary (this was 2000) really did just feel an immediate and deep connection to the people of New York, I thought: You know, I have to admire that in a way. It’s got to be damn hard to do every day. Grenell is the Romney aide and foreign-policy spokesman who was fired three weeks ago either because he was gay, which displeased some right-wingers, or because of his impertinent tweets, which ... also displeased some right-wingers (“Do you think Calista’s hair snaps on?”). On Wednesday he took to The Wall Street Journal op-ed page and to Fox News to announce that it’s possible to be gay, be “proud of” Barack Obama’s support for gay marriage, but still be conservative: “Like many voters, I rarely agree with a candidate’s every position.” Yes, pal, but unlike many voters, you were on the inside. You had access to the highest levels of power. For that access, you cash in your own views. Them’s the rules. I don’t know which offense he was fired for, but he sure deserved to be fired for the second one. Booker has now eaten more crow than Jed Clampett could shoot in a year, so he’s probably set things right. And in a way, it will be in Obama’s interest to have him speak at the Democratic convention, provided Booker agrees that he’ll really ram it to Romney in every imaginable way. But if I were Axelrod, I’d nonperson the guy. That was just an unbelievable performance. Have you been watching Hardball this week? Chris Matthews has been popping out of his shirt. I have to say I’m with him. Booker disgraced himself. And no, he is not entitled to his own views. He was there to speak for Obama and he is entitled only to Obama’s views, exactly as Grenell was entitled only to Romney’s views. That’s what they signed up for. If there was a problem on Meet the Press, the problem was that Booker was there in the first place. In the olden days, the roundtable segment on which he appeared was limited strictly to journalists: People who were entitled to, indeed paid to, express their own opinions. They came on after the pols and spin doctors. The differences were very clear to viewers—first segment, party positions; second segment, analysis of same.

Shame on You, Cory Booker and Richard Grenell

Bedford-Stuyvesant Preparatory High School in Brooklyn, N.Y. will make 500 condoms available at the school’s June 7 prom. Satan is all around us!

School plans condom giveaway for prom

employment insurance recipients may be forced to take jobs that would otherwise be filled by temporary foreign workers. The federal government wants to reduce disincentives to work and create a "greater connection" between the EI program and the temporary foreign worker program, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney told the National Post editorial board this week. "If you don't take available work, you don't get EI," he said. "That's always been a legal principle of that program." Under the proposed reforms, unemployed Canadians who are receiving EI would be required to accept local jobs that are currently being filled by temporary foreign workers. "What we will be doing is making people aware there's hiring going on and reminding them that they have an obligation to apply for available work and to take it if they're going to qualify for EI," Kenney said. "It makes no sense to bring in people from abroad when there are Canadians just across the street willing to do the work," Kenney's spokeswoman Alexis Pavlich told Postmedia News Thursday. So if you are a secretary, a teacher, a hairdresser or a actor and you are collecting unemployment insurance. To get it you might have to work for it by cleaning toilets.

Norma Maine Bates informed Getrude Snoddy that: "That's a picture of me, but strangely I don't remember the girl. Just as well. She'd probably grow up to be SLUT and WHORE anyway. Dirty girls, all of them!"

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I was watching online and came across this. Even though the guys aren't my type, the fact that the guy getting fucked stayed hard through the whole thing turned me on. Also, the end where they kiss really got me hot. What in porn is a turn on?

What turns you on in porn? (Or should I say "pron")

All the stars of Magic Mike are promoting the film but him. Did he burn his last bridge in Hollywood?