Live Updates- Kansas GOP Caucus- Santorum Wins

By Susan Duclos

Kansas is holding their caucuses today, March 10, 2012, with 40 delegates (proportional) at stake according to Green Papers. CNN shows 73 percent of the vote tallied (at the time of posting this) and Rick Santorum is leading at this time with 53 percent of the vote. Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich are battling for second place with Romney showing a one percentage point lead with 17 percent and Gingrich coming in at 16 percent. Ron Paul in last place at this time with 13 percent.

[Update] CNN has projected the winner now as Santorum. Romney still leading Gingrich by 1% and Paul still at 13%.

[Update] With 99 percent of the vote tallied, Santorum won with 51 percent, Romney in second with 21 percent, Gingrich 14 percent and Paul 13 percent.

Santorum and Paul have been actively campaigning in Kansas, Gingrich cancelled his stop there earlier in the week and is focusing on Mississippi and Alabama more and Romney hasn't put much effort into campaigning in Kansas.

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At Least 9 Dead, 30+ Injured As Tornadoes Roll Through Midwest- 2012- Photo Link

By Susan Duclos

Towns in Illinois, Kansas and Branson, Missouri were destroyed as tornadoes rolled through leaving dozens injured and nine dead as of the last reports.

Via CSMonitor:

A powerful storm system that produced multiple reports of tornadoes lashed the Midwest early Wednesday, roughing up the entertainment resort town of Branson and laying waste to small towns in Illinois and Kansas. At least nine people were killed.

An apparent twister rolled through Branson just before 1 a.m. and seemed to hopscotch up the city's main roadway, ripping roofs off hotels and damaging some of the city's famed music theaters dangerously close to the start of the heavy tourism season. At least 37 people were reported hurt, mostly with cuts and bruises.

"We were blessed with several things — the time of year and certainly the time of day, when people were not in their vehicles or outdoors," said Mayor Raeanne Presley, noting that during Branson's peak season, up to 60,000 visitors would have been in the city on any given day and staying in many of the hotels that were damaged.

CJOnline reports the death toll is at 10.

Gallery: Aerial photos of tornado damage in the Midwest

Track Map found HERE.

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I sure hope that you Muslims don't need a can of paint.

I have a confession to make: I am not very handy around the house. I am embarrassed to say that Mrs. Field is probably handier with tools than I am.
My philosophy is simple: No matter how small the job, if it calls for a person who is trained to do it, I am giving them a call. I will call the plumber if I have to put on a new shower head.

Folks, I say all of this for a reason: If I do happen to ever need something for my home; you will never see my black ass in Lowe's home improvement stores ever again. Strictly Home Depot from here on out, and here is why:

"Pressure from a conservative evangelical group led Lowe's home improvement store chain to pull its ads from the TLC reality show "All-American Muslim," but now the company is facing calls from celebrities and politicians to boycott Lowe's.

Mia Farrow and Russell Simmons have called for a boycott of Lowe's on Twitter, with Simmons promising to "sic every civil rights agency on (Lowe's) until they straighten this out." He is also urging his Twitter followers to sign a petition -- which, as of 3:25 ET Monday, had 9,660 of the 10,000 signatures the creators of the petition are hoping for -- to urge other companies to advertise during "All-American Muslim."

Meanwhile, California state Sen. Ted Lieu called the Lowe's ad pull "stunning bigotry."

Read more: Taco Bell Pulls MTV 'Skins' Ads Under Boycott Threat (Video)
Lieu posted on his website a copy of a letter he wrote to Lowe's CEO Robert Niblock, calling for the company to apologize for its ad pull or face possible "legislative remedies."

"Lowe's action is bigoted, shameful, and un-American," Lieu wrote. "I call on Lowe's to rescind its action and apologize to Americans who are Muslim. If Lowe's continues its religious bigotry, I will encourage boycotts of Lowe's and look into legislative remedies."

Lowe's, which yanked its advertisements from the TLC series after pressure from the Florida Family Association, didn't respond to a request from TheWrap for comment, but did issue an apology of sorts. The company seems to be expressing contrition that pulling ads made people angry, and not necessarily for actually pulling the ads." [Source]

I agree with Sen. Ted Lieu; it is "stunning bigotry" on Lowe's part. But hey, it probably won't affect their bottom line. I suspect that most of the folks who shop at Lowe's absolutely loved their bigoted stance on this issue. Besides, Corporate bigotry is nothing new to A-merry-ca. (They are people, right?)

Finally, speaking of bigotry; the Big R is trying to throw me off my game again by sending me off on a "wild goose chase":
 
"The Patriot Freedom Alliance, based in Hutchinson, Kansas, posted a photo of a skunk, stating it had replaced the eagle as a symbol of the president because "it is half black, half white and almost everything it does stinks."
The depiction was on the group's home web page on Saturday but gone on Sunday, said Darrell Pope, president of the Hutchinson chapter of the NAACP. It was also not on the site Monday, the day after an article about it appeared in the Hutchinson News-Leader newspaper.

"They tried to pass it off as satire, but it was hurtful and malicious," Pope said Monday. He said the depiction was racist in reference to Obama, who was born to a white mother and black father.

Pope said he did not contact the tea party group about removing the skunk reference but that it never should have been posted in the first place.
A representative of the Patriot Freedom Alliance who maintains its web site did not immediately return phone calls on Monday. Another member declined to comment.

Hutchinson is a city of about 42,000 in central Kansas, northwest of Wichita." [Source] 

Hmmm, the old racist skunk......nope, don't see it. Sorry folks, I have to take a racism chase pass on this one.

Believe me, I am pretty sure that my tea party friends from Hutchinson, Kansas won't be inviting the field over for Sunday dinner anytime soon, but this particular political ad. does not strike me as racist. Maybe I am missing some kind of historical connection with how racists view the the skunk in connection with us black folks, but I just don't see the Big R with this one.

Stay away from the skunk, folks. They won't start stinking you up unless you mess with them.

How to hunt illegals.

Today I was reading my local paper, and I had a WTF? moment after reading this:

"Here in Washington, the immigration debate is in a stalemate. But in Kansas, there has been a breakthrough.

This striking achievement came about last week during a meeting of the Kansas House Appropriations Committee on efforts to shoot feral swine from helicopters. Republican State Rep. Virgil Peck suddenly had an idea.

"Looks like to me if shooting these immigrating feral hogs works," he commented, according to a recording posted by the Lawrence Journal-World, "maybe we have found a [solution] to our illegal-immigration problem."

Brilliant! Shooting immigrants from helicopter gunships! Why didn't they think of that in Congress?

There are a few logistical problems with Peck's idea, including the fact that Kansas isn't a border state. But maybe Oklahoma and Texas will grant overflight rights for immigrant-hunting sorties.

Peck, the Republican caucus chairman for the state House, later suggested his brainstorm was a joke, although he also defended himself: 'I was just speaking like a southeast Kansas person.' [Yeah, right!]

Kansans may be surprised to learn that the immigrant-shooting idea was offered in their names. But they wouldn't be the only Americans getting unwelcome news from their state legislators now that many tea party types have come to power..." [Article]

Folks, in the future, -and for the sake of the Republic- please be careful who you vote for when selecting our lawmakers. For starters, you might want to right off anyone with the name, Virgil.

Finally, it looks like it's not only those evil Muslims who believe in stoning people to death. Apparently "good" suburban kids do as well.