Latest News

Benevolent merchant cited in drug sweep

2009-06-08T21:01:29Z

SHIRLEY, N.Y. — A New York convenience store owner who made headlines after showing mercy on a would-be robber has been accused of selling drug paraphernalia.

Shirley Express owner Mohammad Sohail's (so-HAYL) store on Long Island was one of seven businesses cited Tuesday. He's accused of violating state business laws.

Prosecutors say undercover officers bought bongs and pipe screens at the store three times in recent weeks.

Sohail said Thursday he did not know the items were not permitted to be sold.

It's not a criminal charge and is punishable by a fine of up to $30,000.

The merchant got attention this week when it was revealed that he gave an intended robber $40 and a loaf of bread if the man agreed never to steal again.

Obama Protested In Beverly Hills: Lt. Choi Gives Speech On Gay Rights (SLIDESHOW/VIDEO)

2009-05-28T13:58:43Z

Nearly a hundred protesters assembled Wednesday outside the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, CA where President Obama hosted a Democratic Party fundraiser.

Protest organizers called for Obama to repeal the government's "don't ask, don't tell" policy that exempts openly gay men and women from serving in the military.

Lt. Dan Choi, a West Point graduate and an Arabic translator, was discharged from the Army when he declared he was gay on national television. His conviction that the military's policy is "a deadly poison" inspired him to lead the protest on Wednesday.

"There is a message that I want to give to Obama," said Choi. "Stop forcing our soldiers to hide. Let them be free to serve."

Undeterred by Tuesday's decision by the California Supreme Court to uphold the ban on gay marriage passed by voters in November, Choi said to the crowd, "We can't wait for somebody else to give us rights.... if we want rights, we have to fight for it. We have to earn it." Choi ended his speech the same way it began, chanting, "Love is worth it."

Pro-peace and anti-torture protesters took part in the demonstration as well.

Obama, Biden May Do Community Service Inauguration Weekend

2008-12-09T14:41:03Z

The New York Times reports on efforts to make inauguration special without seeming insensitive to the current economic crisis. Buried in the article is one interesting idea:

Among the options to have this year's events reflect the mood of the nation, Democratic officials said, are having Mr. Obama and Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. take part in some form of community service in Washington. If they did so, they would most likely call upon people around the country to do the same in their own towns, which could help mitigate any criticism of inaugural celebrations.

Election Results 2008: Exit Polls, Vote Returns, Electoral College Count (Widgets, Video)

2008-10-30T20:44:21Z

With wins in Ohio and Pennsylvania, Barack Obama has likely won the presidency by a decisive margin, with the potential of carrying almost all the battleground states. He will be the nation's first black chief executive.

Exit polls showed fears about the economy eclipsing all other issues, a development working decisively to the advantage of Democrats up and down the ticket. Polls in the continental U.S. are to close at 11 when the networks will formally call the race.

To see more coverage of the incoming numbers... look below:

HuffPost has gathered widgets and live video feeds to give you a one stop shop for election night. Below you'll find a) poll closing times, b) the latest polls and betting odds, c) several election widgets, and d) live video streams. Keep this page open tonight and you'll be covered.

MSNBC's Election Map

HuffPost Reporters Live Blog The Results

ELECTION RESULTS

CNN's Electoral Map

Daily Kos Map

Google Map: Follow Presidential, Senate House Races

CBS News Election Widget

LIVE VIDEO STREAMS

MSNBC Live

CNN Live

Stream videos at Ustream

EXIT POLLS

***Update 11/4, 6:20 pm***

The First Exit Polls Have Been Released. Click Here To Read Them

The head to head exit polls just were sent to the Huffington Post by a Democratic source. These are traditionally unreliable and should be taken with a grain of salt (see: Kerry's winning margins in 2004). For what it's worth, they project a big night for Obama in several of the key swing states.

The states looking good for Obama:

Florida: 52 percent to 44 percent
Iowa: 52 percent to 48 percent
Missouri: 52 percent to 48 percent
North Carolina: 52 percent to 48 percent
New Hampshire: 57 percent to 43 percent
Nevada: 55 percent to 45 percent
Pennsylvania: 57 percent to 42 percent
Ohio: 54 percent to 45 percent
Wisconsin: 58 percent to 42 percent
Indiana: 52 percent to 48 percent
New Mexico: 56 percent to 43 percent
Minnesota: 60 percent to 39 percent
Michigan: 60 percent to 39 percent

The states where McCain is leading in exit polls:

Georgia: 51 percent to 47 percent
West Virginia: 45 percent to 55 percent

Click here to read more!

***

We Asked, You Answered: How HuffPost Readers Are Handling Their Election Anxiety

2008-10-30T15:38:29Z

Election anxiety is in full swing as the coundown to November 4th begins, and some readers are suffering from full-blown obsession:

I am glued to cable news channels, casual conversations with friends always touch on the election topic as we share our excitement about the possible outcome if Obama wins. I feel not only hopeful but assured that our country can change. - Mo Ellis, Fairfield, Iowa.

My name is Susan, and I am a poll-aholic. I mainline polls morning, noon and night. I channel-surf to find and follow them on TV. I clip them out of newspapers. I click onto them online. I'm a whack job when Obama's numbers go down. I get high when Obama surges ahead. I feel so much better when he is scoring higher with young, African-American and older voters. I wish I lived next door to Chuck Todd, the numbers guy at MSNBC. If I lived next door to Chuckie T, I would volunteer to be his sidekick and I would never go home again. - Susan Lapinski, New York, New York.

Totally stressed out about the election and have been for months and months...like 22...ever since the primaries began. I'm doing what I always do - what Midwesterners tend to do - stoic to the end - working harder and getting less sleep. In fact, I'm not sure I have been sleeping. I haven't slept in my bed in weeks. I sleep on the sofa in my office where I can take catnaps, wake up in the middle of the night and turn on the DVR and scan thru all the political shows, late night talk shows, etc. to see what's happening or happened a few hours ago...then check the computer for fast-breaking news. - Bev Davis, Hurley, New York.

I've thrown my early morning chanting/exercise routine out the window to write a daily countdown called "Reasons to Elect Barack Obama." I began on day 50 with "Reason Number 50..." and just published Number 7 today. These are circulated via email, and I also put them up on MySpace as mini-blogs, status messages and bulletins. It's been a minor hit. Still, I'll be glad to get back to my usual morning routine. - Vittoria Conn, Larchmont, New York.

Let's face it, I'm obsessed. I've had to take drastic measures to scale back the amount of time I'm following the race and well, my facebook page is full of links to election stories, jokes, videos, etc. - Melissa Clymer, Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Even as a Canadian, I don't stop thinking about the election from the moment I get up till the moment I actually fall asleep sometime in the wee hours of the morning. I finally decided, one week prior to the election, to watch a lot of comedy. Yet I find myself hitting the remote every two seconds to check on CNN and MSNBC. I'm so glad I don't have FOX News or I'd throw the remote through the TV. I'm turning off the talking heads because their hot air is actually steaming up my eyeglasses. Today I've made up my mind to finally do some grocery shopping and head out to see a movie. However, this is still an untested coping mechanism because, as is evidenced by this email, I'm still sitting here dishevelled and unshowered in my housecoat and slippers writing to you guys south of the border. - Hindy Abelson, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

That said, their obsession has had one positive effect -- it's brought out the inner activist in many!

It is the first time my wife and I (we are both in our 60s) have gotten involved in a political campaign. When we got our so-called economic stimulus check, we put the same amount in a check for Obama. My wife was so torqued at Palin encouraging racial hatred at her rallies that my wife volunteered to do phone calls from our local Obama HQ and has been doing so every day for a few weeks now and will continue until the election. - gwpriester, Placitas, New Mexico.

My family and I have been very politically active this year, hosting many house parties (for GOTV in the primaries, convention watch party, etc), and attending rallies and other events. I've marched in 3 parades, and I've helped distribute yard signs. I've taken part in the local college Democrats "Storm the Dorm" GOTV effort, and my family and I attended watch parties for each debate. As a result, we've made many new friends and acquaintances! - Karl Keene, Moorhead, Minnesota.

I have become much more politically involved and I never thought of myself as a political person except to cast my vote in every election. I've donated for the first time. I've talked to people, perfect strangers, bus stop moms and coffee shop regulars. I've read blogs and internet articles and browsed the circulars. I've read two of a candidates books and have been a news-addict of sorts. I've volunteered at the local office running voter registrations to the county commission. I've prepared meals for the regular office staff and volunteers, I've coordinated meals for them. It seems as if I eat, sleep, breathe, and drink a vanilla latte all for the Obama campaign. The election has given me hope to tell my children that we stand on the brink of real possibility. I am excited. - Taye' Foster Bradshaw, Kirkwood, Missouri.

This is the first election I have ever donated money. I started with Hillary, and slowly came around to Obama after the spiteful speeches at the Republican Convention turned me off to the message they were talking about, and what they were actually saying. Since then, my opinion of Sarah Palin has dropped even further, and John McCain has become a parody of the former McCain, the honorable one. You can almost see the pain in his eyes as he recites what he knows are lies. - Susan Gessford, Midland, Michigan.

The election has brought out the poet in me. Actually, what I do has a technical name: prosimetric mytho-poetic expression. - Dave "knowbuddhau" Parker, Oak Harbor, Washington.

But for some people, the side effects have been more eerie than inspiring:

I have weird dreams that I'm at home or in my community and George Bush wants to be my friend. I don't want to be rude, but I'm at a loss about what to do. I wake up in a sweat. I think this is because "W"'s ranch is about 30 minutes as the crow flies and I'm terrified he's gonna move back here!! - Melissa Balsam, Cedar Park, Texas.

It's even affecting some people's relationships:

I'm driving my family insane. And they agree with me (my husband has already voted early for Obama)-- they just want me to shut up about it already. - Jeanne Randall, Bodman, Portland, Oregon.

And while the Living page has been doing its darndest to give you as many Election Anxiety resources as can be found, some people just can't be helped. Perhaps you readers have some kind words of reassurance for Joe of State College, Pennsylvania, whose lengthy screed both broke and won our palpitating hearts...

It's 2:30 a.m. and here I am writing this. Just kill me now. The extreme level of anxiety that many of us are experiencing over this election is serious enough that medical journals, in the near future, will almost certainly give it a name like "Obama Syndrome" or Barack Obsesssive Disorder."

I am heartened that there has been so much discussion of the malady on HuffPost. That's got to be therapeutic for a great many of you. Not me, however. Some great recommendations have been made. Double your meds. Get involved with the campaign so you feel less helpless. Turn off the TV, radio, and political websites. Get back to nature by activities like camping. Your kidding me right? I tried antidepressants and they made me worse. I went from low functionality to comotose. So that's out. I can't get "involved" because I'm lazy. Where are the cures for lazy people? That comment may offend some of you. Sorry, but lazy is a real condition as debilitating as any other mental condition. You can't do anything to stop being lazy because you're too lazy to try anything. It's like the old "just say no" campaign. You might as well ask me to just stop breathing. How about camping? Right, I'll just change my entire personality. That's fine advice for campers. I'm not a camper and never will be. How about turning off the political shows and web sites? This is not even remotely possible. I'm obsessed with this election. It has been political heroin!

It is possible that a disproportionate number of HuffPost bloggers suffer from Obama Syndrome. We flitter around obsessively until we're drawn here as to a bug-light. But I have a feeling this condition is more widespread. The only people not possibly affected are those without a brain. God knows there are plenty of those, but there are plenty of thinkers too, people who pay attention. And those are the people who tend to actually get things done in this society. We're seeing a virtual armageddon of social and economic distress in the world. I wouldn't be surprised if some of it is the direct result of the stress caused by the last two years of this intense, all consuming, uber-election, on the thinkers, the doers, the people like I used to be.

Four years ago, my wife and I swore we would move to Mexico if Bush was re-elected. We were absolutely serious. We could no longer live in a country that would elect him twice. But we chickened out. It just seemed too hard and complicated. I swear, though, if Obama loses there will be only two choices for me, suicide or moving to Mexico. I don't really fancy moving on to "the other world" so I would move, to a better world. Can you imagine, Mexico, a better world? That's what it's come to.

I used to drink heavily. About for years ago, for health reasons, I cut back to two or three small glasses of red wine in the evenings. Since this election started I have become a full-fledged alcoholic. No, I don't wake up in the gutter wondering how I got there. I locked my wine in a padlocked trunk and gave my wife the keys. She hides them and then doles me out four glasses of wine every evening. This worked for about a week. Now I, a formerly productive person, spend much of my day searching for the key, or nagging my wife for an extra portion. No, I cannot buy a secret bottle. That's cheating. And I don't cheat on my wife. If I ever find the key, though, I will drink the entire box o' wine. That is not cheating. That is my wife's fault for not hiding the key more effectively. So, aside from obsessing about this election, I simultaneously obsess about alcohol all day long. It's probably for the better. Because there is no amount of alcohol that can dull the pain of a potential McCain presidency.

I swear I've never lived through an election like this one. It provides enough infuriating news, on a daily basis, to stress out a Buddhist monk. Like many of you, I sit at my desk but I can't focus on my work. The stress is exhausting, so I fall asleep on the couch every evening, which leaves me wide awake after midnight to watch streams of Olberman, Rachel, and surf the news sites for more things to stress about. After a few hours of sleep I wake up and begin clicking from Morning Joe, to CNN, to CSPAN. And it all starts over again.

There are only a few days remaining in this election. My greatest fear is that Obama will lose. My second greatest fear is that Obama will win, but the obsession will not go away. And I don't know what I'll do about that. There is only one thing that brings me peace. And that's Michelle Obama. I eat up any video clip or slideshow of her. She's comforting. Soothing. She makes me smile. She makes me realize this world, and this country, could be a beautiful place. Several times I've wondered how Barack is maintaining such composure under the enormous stresses of this horrific election process and then I realize the answer. It's obvious to anyone who has seen the way he and Michelle look at each other, hold hands, or embrace. Their love, and strength, actually spills over to the rest of us and, boy, am I looking forward to four years of that.

I'm not a religious man, but god don't screw this up. A year from now I do not want to be reading about president McCain from my Mexican apartment. And if that happens, I guarantee my wife will no longer have the key to that padlock. Thanks for the opportunity to share. There's so much more to say. But you already know that. Good luck everybody.

Cheer up, Joe! We do have one thing to offer, and that's plenty of Obama PDA.

And finally, we still want to hear from you! If you're suffering from Election Anxiety, let us know! How has the election impacted your life? Tell HuffPost, and we may just quote you! Tell us your stories using this Survey Monkey form.

For more posts on Election Anxiety, click here.

Would Republicans Accuse Joe The Plumber Of Voter Fraud?

2008-10-17T19:30:56Z

Under the GOP's vote suppression strategy in Ohio, McCain's now famous icon could have had a hard time casting a ballot.

In a case that has now gone to the Supreme Court for review, Republicans in Ohio are challenging the registrations of all new voters whose names and other information do not exactly match those in government databases. It turns out that one of the present Ohio voters who could have fallen into this category is Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher -- or is it Worzelbacher? -- otherwise known as Joe the Plumber.

Read the post at The Guardian.

"Demand The Debate" Petition Posted Online

2008-09-25T15:03:50Z

A voter petition demanding Friday's presidential debate go on as scheduled was posted online yesterday, just hours after the McCain campaign announced its unilateral plan to postpone the debate with Barack Obama in order to focus on "addressing our nation's financial crisis."

The "Demand the Debate 2008" petition site asks visitors to

Demand that Senators Obama and McCain both show up in Mississippi on Friday night and debate for the American people. In this time of crisis, we need to hear from our leaders, not let them hide in Washington. Now more than ever, we need an open dialogue with our leaders.

Obama also quickly rejected the debate suspension proposal:

I believe we should continue to have the debate. I believe it makes sense for us to present ourselves to the American people... Obviously if it turns out that we need to be in Washington, we've both got big planes, we've painted our slogan on the side of them. They can get us from Washington to Mississippi [for the debate] pretty quickly.

The Presidential Debate Commission has reported it agrees with Obama:

We believe the public will be well served by having all of the debates go forward as scheduled.

It's not clear who posted the Demand The Debate online petition.

Watch: The Beauty Queen And The Bush Doctrine

2008-09-12T23:08:11Z

YouTuber MinorDemon was inspired by vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's performance with Charles Gibson on ABC this week to mashup the flounderings of the former Alaska beauty queen with the flounderings of the onetime South Carolina beauty queen who baffled and entertained audiences across the planet by pushing onward through a contest question that stumped her to mouth now-famous time-killing phrases and odd jumbles of semi-related word-abstractions on "education" and "South Africa" and "maps" and "American people." The performance was an incredible, even if unwitting, commentary on our mediated-era communications. As MinorDemon points out, camera-friendly vice-presidential nominee Palin looks like an advanced version of the confused teenage beauty.

Keep at it South Carolina, your future as an architect of American foreign policy awaits you!

McCain's Great Pains: Another Talking Points Squirm Fest

2008-07-29T17:59:17Z

Mention Viagra and birth control and the Republican candidate for president goes semi-blank and squeamish. Mention gay adoption and he goes all flip-floppy and worse. If you missed him this weekend with George Stephanopoulos on ABC's "This Week," you missed an iconic sampling of what adult human beings sound like when they (1) want to avoid saying something but (2) aren't good at not saying what they want to say and (3) have been mind-muddled by talking point sessions with exasperated consultants. If, for example, you're John McCain, and you're asked a question you don't want to answer and your mind has been muddled by talking points, you end up saying: "[I want] to be president of the United States because I want to help with family values. And I think that family values are important, when we have two-parent -- families that are of parents that are the traditional family."

This is what it looks like and it ain't pretty:

Thanks to PrezVid again for this.

Participate in HuffPost's Democratic Convention Coverage

2008-07-24T22:52:06Z

HuffPost's OffTheBus In The New York Times

2008-07-24T01:47:53Z

OffTheBus.net, the online citizen-journalist arm of the Huffington Post, celebrates its one-year anniversary this month.

Of all the new political, non-candidate sites to spring up during the last year, OTB is now probably the biggest, with 7,500 citizen correspondents. Through its growing pains, it continues to develop the technological and organizational know-how to become a force in journalism even as it challenges the standard notions of traditional journalism.

We have been charting the site's progress throughout the campaign, with a report in October about its start-up and an interview in April with Mayhill Fowler, the correspondent who gained notoriety after reporting Senator Barack Obama's "bitter" comments from a closed fund-raiser.

The site has evolved in several different ways. Perhaps most strikingly, OTB's total of 7,500 citizen correspondents is up from 300 a year ago. Arianna Huffington, who helped found OTB, attributes the dramatic rise to the buzz created by Ms. Fowler's two big scoops, first the Obama comments, then in early June when Bill Clinton lashed out at a Vanity Fair writer.

The scoops created news and also prompted intense self-reflection among traditional journalists (it's all about us!). Had Ms. Fowler successfully pushed the envelope for campaign reporting? Or had she so fractured the rules that she set journalism back? Either way, she has become a rainmaker for OTB, the modern-day equivalent of Woodward and Bernstein inspiring hundreds of young cubs to become investigative journalists.

Dear Sen. Obama, I Had a Late-Term Abortion

2008-07-09T21:17:37Z

Candidate Obama has been drawing heat from supporters recently for remarks he has made about late-term abortions that seem to be a retreat from his previous strong stance in favor of and record of voting for a woman's right to choose the best course of action in each case. The following is excerpted from "Open Letter to Obama: A Personal Perspective on Late-Term Abortion" from EssentialEstrogen.com:

You recently spoke with Cameron Strang, publisher of Relevant magazine. During that interview, Strang asked if you could clarify your position on "third-trimester and partial-birth abortion," and you replied:

"...I have repeatedly said that I think it's entirely appropriate for states to restrict or even prohibit late-term abortions as long as there is a strict, well-defined exception for the health of the mother. Now, I don't think that "mental distress" qualifies as the health of the mother. I think it has to be a serious physical issue that arises in pregnancy, where there are real, significant problems to the mother carrying that child to term. Otherwise, as long as there is such a medical exception in place, I think we can prohibit late-term abortions."

Your response leads me to believe that you've either never had a one-on-one discussion with a woman who has had a late-term abortion, or that you've been too uncomfortable to ask such a woman difficult questions concerning not only the procedure but what led her to make that choice. Because a president needs to be given as much first-hand knowledge as possible as he develops policy, I'd like to help remedy this deficiency.

Thirteen years ago I had a late-term abortion.

That's the concise sentence I use when I don't want to talk about what really happened. It takes all the emotion, all the family turmoil, all the medical terminology and all the grief, and packages it nice and neat.

Read the entire post at EssentialEstrogen.com

McCain On Immigration Watchdogged By AZ Blogger

2008-07-03T16:24:00Z

The conservative Arizona blog "Seeing Red AZ" ran a post this week referencing a Washington Times piece on, depending how you view it, either McCain's "confusion" or "conversion" on immigration. The Times compared McCain's recent statements on immigration with those he made in a 1986 senate campaign against opponent Richard Kimball. The Times draws on archived editions of the Arizona Republic. McCain back then was opposed to legislation requiring stricter rules guiding employer verification of worker legal status and he supported illegal immigrant amnesty programs. McCain opposed a 1986 amnesty bill, he said, not because of the amnesty provisions, but because its verification provisions he thought would foster racist hiring practices.

The blogger at Seeing Red AZ calls McCain on the carpet:

...Speaking recently to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials [McCain] brought up that bill: "In 1986, we passed a law that said we would secure the borders and gave amnesty to a couple, three million people. I supported that legislation way back then."

Far from supporting it, McCain didn't only vote against the bill, he used charged language to criticize it. The Arizona Republic quoted him as saying the bill's requirements for employers to verify workers "would institutionalize discrimination."

McCain told the Hispanic group NALEO that passing an immigration bill to legalize illegal immigrants is "my top priority, yesterday, today and tomorrow."

Seeing Red also bemoans McCain's "late-night, closed door meeting with Hispanic leaders in Chicago assuring them he would push through congressional legislation to liberalize federal immigration laws if elected" and notes that

McCain is scheduled to speak to the ethnic separatist group, La Raza July 14, 2008. Colin McNickle director of the editorial pages at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review writes about the lapse of judgment in addressing such a radical group.

Read more here.

YouTube-Generation Superdelegates: Help Lauren And Awais Choose A Presidential Candidate

2008-04-28T22:34:44Z

The roster of Democratic Party superdelegates is, of course, a list of Very Serious People with years and years of political experience. Also on the list are Lauren and Awais. They're superdelegates who are still in college and majorly procrastinating during finals week by making and posting a YouTube that asks you-- registered Democrats and YouTube watchers-- who they should vote for at the national convention in August to head the Democratic presidential ticket in the general election. YouTube voting is not the most scientific method of deciding on a candidate, perhaps, but it does make as genuine and laudable an effort at transparency as any other method and is likewise as good as any at capturing the will of the constituency they, as college Democratic Party leaders, are meant to represent.

For more information about other superdelegates, check out OffTheBus's Superdelegate Investigation.

Watch the YouTube and tell Lauren and Awais what you think!

For more on Democratic Party superdelegates, including profiles, interviews and analysis, visit the Huffington Post OffTheBus superdelegate project.

Pelosi Wants Fewer Superdelegates

2008-04-09T19:26:06Z

WASHINGTON -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday she favors a reduction in the number of superdelegates -- and their oversized influence -- in choosing the Democratic Party's nominee.

Superdelegates such as Pelosi have bemoaned the protracted fight between Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama for the nomination. Neither candidate can win the nod based solely on pledged delegates. Rather, the nearly 800 superdelegates -- members of Congress, election officials and party elders who aren't bound by state results -- will decide the nomination.

Asked how she would make the process more democratic, Pelosi recommended cutting the number of superdelegates.

"I think you diminish the number of them, you make sure everybody knows in advance what their role is, you make sure everybody knows how you can get to be one and you'll have a more open process," she said while taping the mtvU "Editorial Board" show at George Washington University.

To continue reading, go to the Seattle Times.