Jackson Free Press

Attend a free event to help distressed homeowners at risk of foreclosure.

For our Question o' the Week this week, we asked a simple question in social media. We got an amazing line-up of answers in 24 hours. Please feel free to log in and post your answers below as well.

Lindsey Lee My kids. So cheesy, but true...

Jason Stanfield Great music.

Stephanie Fondren Bracey My beautiful 8-year-old daughter who has the happiest most innocent spirit and a heart of gold!

Iam ScrapDirty Perfection.

Charles Walter Jett Other people's artwork. Makes me step up my game when I see really good work.

H Charles Johnson Failure.

Marc Rolph H Charles Johnson.

Narada Thijs Snyder Not being told to hurry.

John Agwazim The way ants live.

Shuntina Johnson Sunsets, right before the rain.

Nicki Findley Nichols The feeling of freedom, whether its being silly with my 4-year-old or country road riding with the windows down and the music cranked.

Jarrod Parker Conquistadors.

Jessica Erin Eubanks The positive energy of others expressing themselves!

Terena Watkins Bell Being able to be an awesome single mom to my girls & showing them how to be strong, independent Christians.

Micah Smith Posters with animals that say motivational statements. Thank you, tiny cocker spaniel. I will "go for it."

Lisa Parenteau My mother. The strongest person I know.

Yasmeen Banu Sincere kindness.

Pam Greer What inspires me? I'm inspired each day that I am allowed to wake up in good health and right mind by God to tackle life. Most people do not live to see another day; however, I did today.

Gregory Smith Frank Zappa.

Tony Davenport People who celebrate unity.

Brandon Ainsworth Life, and the endless possibilities that it has to offer. So much to do, so little time.

Brittany Hammons Simmons Nature's beauty! I breathe it in and it is so serene.

Tom Head Finding human dignity in unexpected places.

Laurel Isbister Irby People who rescue animals and help them live new lives.

Andrew Forbes ·The cancer patients I work with at Batson Children's hospital.

Jarrod Parker · Curious people.

Jill Conner Browne People doing good for goodness' sake—for people (and/or animals!) who can't "repay" the kindness.

Kass Welchlin When my elders live a life full of conviction, follow their dreams and not give up on life.

Nola Kay Pearson Gibson All of the above and lifelong learning.

Karole Sessums The Courage of Others.

Melissa Kelly Deadlines.

Ginger Williams-Cook Teachers.

Sabir Abdul-Haqq Dedication

Olga Lynette Henderson Hanson Seeing, listening, existing--all inspire me to continue trying, caring, doing.

Edward Peter Cole II To witness ... random acts of kindness!

Jehrod Alain What inspires me is the spiritual, that which is beyond our physical limitations. My dreams inspire me. Love inspires me.

Rachel Jarman Myers The Sonic Boom!

Don Allan Mitchell Mississippi.

Jan Michaels · My almost 83-year-old father who still runs his own business and is caretaker of his wife …

Make an appointment to audition for the February/March musical.

Is the threat in Jackson a hoax?

Siemens helped to bring a little ray of sunshine to the children of Stewpot’s Flowers House.

6:00 p.m. Final polls in Indiana/Kentucky. Polls close in Virginia. (They also close in Georgia, South Carolina and Vermont.)

Bernie Sanders has won re-election in Vermont; Virginia Senate race too close to call.

NBC calls Indiana for Romney; Democrat Joe Donnelly has slight lead with 7% reporting.

6:42 p.m. West Virginia and South Carolina both called for Romney.

6:47 p.m. Polls still open in Florida although there's some counting going on, with Obama in the lead, but close.

North Carolina polls are closed, and Obama is leading with 9% of the vote in. Exit polls seem to give Obama a shot in North Carolina.

7:00 p.m. NBC calls Georgia for Romney. 7:00 p.m.

Poll closings... Pennsylvania, Michigan, Missouri, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maine, North Dakota, Florida and New Hampshire. (Also non-leaners Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Texas.)

7:04 p.m. Interesting Senate races in this round, including Warren/Brown in Massachusetts; NBC calles Maine Senate race for independent Angus King.

7:06 p.m. New Hampshire, Florida and Pennsylvania are too close to call according to NBC.

7:08 p.m. AP: reports: Obama carried Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont and Romney's home state of Massachusetts. Also as expected, he won Delaware and Maryland as well as the District of Columbia and Illinois. Romney had South Carolina, Oklahoma, Kentucky and West Virginia in his column. He also won Indiana, a state Obama carried in 2008 but did not contest this year.

7:29 Roger Wicker wins re-election in Mississippi.

7:56 A lot still undecided; NC and FL being tough to call bodes better for Obama than Romney. McCaskill, Warren leading; CNN calls Pennsylvania for Casey, all Democrats leading/winning.

8:00 Polls close in swing states Colorado and Wisconsin, and in close-ish Arizona, Minnesota and New Mexico. (Plus: Louisiana, Nebraska, New York and Wyoming.)

8:02 Wisconsin and Colorado too soon to call; Wisconsin said to be lead by Obama. Romney gets 4 of 5 votes in Nebraska. Michigan projected quickly for Obama. Arizona too early to call and Romney leading; Minnesota too early and Obama leading.

8:04 NBC says the House will stay with the GOP. No surprise.

8:06 I just realized Orrin Hatch is still in the Senate. Good lord.

8:15 NBC calls Pennsylvania for Obama -- rust belt firewall continues to hold.

8:35 Wisconsin called for Obama; arguably first legit swing state. He's one medium-sized state away from the win.

8:37 CBS calls New Hampshire for Obama. Another swing state.

8:42 NBC calls Elizabeth Warren the winner in Massachusetts.

9:00 Polls close in Iowa and Nevada. (Also Montana and Utah.)

Again, these are two swing states (Nevada less so) both leaning toward Obama. If Obama has won New Hampshire, Colorado and Wisconsin by now and has held in the leaners (Minnesota, Michigan, Maine, Pennsylvania, New Mexico and Nevada) then Iowa's swing votes (and Nevada's leaning votes) make him president of the United States. Again.

9:24 CBS says that Democrat Tim Kaine has won the Senate race in Virginia.

9:55 North …

Bill Chandler, the director of the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance, is reporting that the Scott County Circuit Clerk's office may have mishandled the voter registration forms of approximately 200 people, mostly Latinos and African Americans.

Chandler said MIRA, a which advocates from immigrants in Mississippi, registered 320 new voters in Scott County, where 9.7 percent of the population is Hispanic. More than 38 percent of Scott County's citizens are African American.

Roughly half the individuals MIRA signed up did not have working telephone numbers, Chandler said. Of the people who did have working phones, Chandler said not one received voter information cards from Circuit Clerk Joe Rigby's office. Chandler believes the voters without phones also likely did not receive the information cards.

"The effect of that is preventing people from knowing where their polling place is. To me, that is very, very serious," Chandler told the Jackson Free Press this evening.

Back-to-back calls placed to Rigby's office resulted in a busy signal.

CORRECTION: The above blog post has been edited to reflect that the circuit clerk's name is Joe Rigby. We apologize for originally misstating his name.

Don't trust everything you hear. Make sure "reliable sources" are actually reliable.

Nate Silver at Five Thirty Eight gives Obama a 91% chance of winning tonight; PPP, a left-leaning pollster, predicts over 300 electoral votes for Obama.

But others show the race closer, and the Electoral College race could be nail-biter, based on all sorts of factor such as weather, long lines, voter ID, GOTV efforts and some election officials in swing states who seem to be hell-bent on confusing folks on their way to the polls.

So here's a quick guide to watching the results tonight and getting a sense of how things are going for either side.

First, a summary: You've got to get 270 electoral votes to win the Electoral College; 269-269 is a tie (which would be decided in the U.S. House of Representatives, probably in Romney's favor).

The New York Times' Electoral Map suggests that Obama has 243 electoral votes that are totally safe or lean toward him; Romney has 206. That means Obama needs to hold those states and get just 27 more electoral votes to win; Romney needs to hold his and win 64 more electoral votes.

The Swing States in this math are New Hampshire, Ohio, Virginia, Florida, Wisconsin, Iowa and Colorado. (Others that lean Obama that Romney might pick off are Pennsylvania, Michigan, Minnesota and New Mexico. States that Obama could pick up from leaning Romney are North Carolina and Arizona.)

Now, the timeline... all times are Central.

5:00 p.m. Some polls close in Indiana and Kentucky. Obama won Indiana in 2008, but it's polling strongly for Romney this cycle. Interesting to watch, though, is the race between Tea Party GOP favorite Richard Mourdock (rape pregnancy is a gift from God) and Congressman Joe Donnelly, the Democrat. Mourdock knocked off Richard Lugar in the primary, but may now lose the seat for the GOP thanks to his national renown -- and Tea Party-vs.-normal-people schisms in the Indiana state GOP.

6:00 p.m. Final polls in Indiana/Kentucky. Polls close in Virginia. (They also close in Georgia, South Carolina and Vermont.) It may not be called all that quickly but Virginia is the first toss-up state to watch closely. If Obama wins it, he's probably having a good night -- he would only need one other swing state (other than New Hampshire) to get to 270 if he holds his "leaners." If Romney wins Virginia, his path to victory could tack "Southern" and he could still win without Ohio.

6:30 p.m. Polls close in Ohio and North Carolina (and West Virginia). Ohio may still have long lines and provisional ballots to count, but it'll be one of the most important states to watch.

One particular House race to watch while the results are coming in, according to PolicyMic, is Ohio District 16, which pits "business" against "labor" in an expensive House showdown between GOP Rep. Jim Renacci and Dem. Rep. Betty Sutton. If Sutton wins, that's one sign that Obama will, too; if Renacci wins, then Ohio may be trending …

One could assume that given the GOP's fervor in pursuing voter ID laws across the nation, the party would trumpet "substantiated" cases from the rooftops. But, alas, no one can seem to find them.

Monday night football, tonight, will end the debate of who has been more underachieving in the NFC this season. New Orleans (2-5) faces Philadelphia (3-4) in a game many would have thought before the season was a playoff preview. That was before the Saints stumbled out of the gate losing their first four games and the Eagles lost four of their last five games. Now both of these teams come into this game knowing that loss could damage their their playoff hopes beyond repair.

Members of Voting Rights for All MS and the state chapter of the ACLU gathered on the second-floor rotunda inside the Capitol today at 1 p.m. to demand Gov. Phil Bryant retract recent comments about voter ID that the group believes could mislead voters.

A petition at Signon.org has received more than 1,000 signatures demanding that Gov. Bryant retract statements he made about voters presenting ID at the polls.

The state's voter ID law has not received approval from the U.S. Department of Justice, and therefore is not in effect for tomorrow's election. Voters will be able to vote without any form of photo ID.

The petition came in response to Bryant's comments Oct. 31 after the Mississippi Economic Council's Hobnob.

"If you have to show a ID to buy a pack of cigarettes or to buy alcohol, which you should, then certainly you ought to have to present an ID to vote, so that we are certain that you're not stealing someone else's liberty and their chance to vote," Bryant said.

"We are calling on Gov. Bryant to immediately retract his statements asking for voters to show ID at the polls, and to clarify that there is no voter ID law in effect for the election tomorrow," David Denney of Voting Rights for All MS said at the Capitol. "As the highest elected official in the state, Gov. Bryant should know better than to make such statements, knowing that people listen to what he has to say."

Mississippi ACLU Director of Programs Nancy Kohsin-Kintigh encouraged any voters who are victims of or witness any discrimination, unfair or illegal practices at the polls tomorrow to call the ACLU at 888-354-ACLU (2258).

The petition reads: "Governor Bryant, the people of Mississippi call on you to immediately issue a retraction of your misleading statement to the Mississippi Economic Council calling on voters to present ID at their polling places this election. Furthermore, we call on you to clarify, unequivocally that photo ID is not required at the polls and the Voter ID law will not be in effect for this election on Tues., Nov. 6th. You are elected to represent ALL Mississippians and your actions are plain wrong, bordering on dereliction of your constitutional duty."

http://jacksonfreepress.com/users/photos/2012/nov/05/9151/

If Mississippians read the Sunday edition of the state's allegedly largest newspaper two days before the presidential election, you get nothing of substance about how the election affects our state.

The quest for six wins for 70 teams continues this week. Currently there are 42 teams that are bowl eligible and five of those teams are undefeated and still in play for the national championship. Ohio State is also undefeated but unable to play for the title due to NCAA sanctions. Speaking of teams not able to play in a bowl game, there are 25 teams unable to play in a bowl game currently due to seven losses, NCAA sanctions or moving from FCS to FBS transition.

Last week was a tough week for the college football teams in Mississippi. Nearly every team lost but Ole Miss and Belhaven. It was the type of week you just want to forget about but if you missed any of last week's action you can pick up the current issue of the JFP and read the round up or [follow this link][1]. Things don't get any easier this week for college football teams in Mississippi. Southern Miss is still searching for win one, Mississippi State faces a tough test in Texas A&M and Ole Miss will look to avoid a blowout against Georgia.

Out of the mouths of babes.

The conservation notice should be lifted by mid-day Friday.

Sure it is November but that doesn't mean I won't dole out some late treats to you guys a day after Halloween. Before you settle in to see the Loser Gets Fired Bowl tonight night between the San Diego Chargers and the Kansas City Chiefs, I have two great stats I found this week for you.

OK, we all know that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have taken presidential campaign dishonesty to a place we've seldom, if ever, seen. They don't just twist the truth as is common in politics, but they just make bald-faced statements over and over again, including in TV ads, that are easy to factcheck as outright lies.

For example: Both of them saying repeatedly before their convention that President Obama had weakened the welfare work rules; wasn't true. Ryan swearing up and down that he did not vote for the sequester when his signature is on the bill. Romney telling the nation in the first debate that his health-care plan covers pre-existing conditions, forcing his adviser to tell media right afterward that it doesn't. Or in the same debate, telling the nation that his plan did not include cutting everyone's taxes 20 percent (including the wealthy) even though he has said it for months in primary debates and TV interviews.

But this week, both media and car industry executives are in near shock that his Ohios ads keep claiming that Jeep is moving production to China (and blaming Obama for it). It is as bald-faced of a lie as one can tell and is causing panic among Chrysler employees and residents of states where jobs would be lost. And it's a lie that touches, and scares, real hard-working people.

Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne wrote an email to employees assuring them the accusation is "inaccurate." He wrote:

“I feel obliged to unambiguously restate our position: Jeep production will not be moved from the United States to China. It is inaccurate to suggest anything different.”

He added that Jeep is growing in the U.S.:

North American production is critical to achieving our goal of selling 800,000 Jeep vehicles by 2014. In fact, U.S. production of our Jeep models has nearly tripled (it is expected to be up 185%) since 2009 in order to keep up with global demand. [...]

Jeep is one of our truly global brands with uniquely American roots. This will never change. So much so that we committed that the iconic Wrangler nameplate, currently produced in our Toledo, Ohio plant, will never see full production outside the United States.

Jeep assembly lines will remain in operation in the United States and will constitute the backbone of the brand.

It is inaccurate to suggest anything different.

Read whole email reprinted here. Great stuff

Now, GM is refuting the lie as well:

We've clearly entered some parallel universe during these last few days,” GM spokesman Greg Martin said. “No amount of campaign politics at its cynical worst will diminish our record of creating jobs in the U.S. and repatriating profits back to this country.”

But even under this intense scrutiny about the Jeep lie, Romney keeps telling it. Here's a radio ad his campaign released this afternoon:

What is going on here? Is he a pathological …

http://jacksonfreepress.com/users/photos/2012/oct/29/9091/

Spirit Halloween, owned by ACON Investments, is running ads for costumes the company labels for teens and tweens with sexual references and innuendo.

The Mississippi State Chapter of the National Organization for Women, a liberal feminist group, and Concerned Women for America, a conservative group, are two organizations that rarely see eye-to-eye. Spirit Halloween's advertisements, which blatantly market sex to underage girls, have given the groups a common enemy to fight.

One advertisement for a "Rag Doll Teen Costume" finished with the lines: "you are all grown up now, so why not find out if big boys like to play with dolls!"

Spirit Halloween responded to a campaign on Twitter and Change.org by removing most of the sexual references in their teen and preteen costume descriptions. Many parents are still boycotting the company, though, because they still sell many costumes for minors which feature short skirts, low-cut tops and long stockings, which the women at NOW think are too sexual for young girls.

“Although Spirit changed the shocking sexual content in many of their kids’ costume ads in response to a Twitter campaign by outraged parents and consumers, the issue still remains that Spirit Halloween and its owner, ACON Investments have refused to pull their totally inappropriate sexualized children’s costumes off the market. They are marketing extremely revealing, short, tight-fitting dresses and skirts to our children – many of their kids costumes look like adult fantasy sex costumes. This is not about adult women's choices to wear sexy costumes, this is about Spirit Halloween and ACON marketing sexualized costumes to girls as young as 9 and 13 years old – they are offering sickening and horrible costume choices for children that parents don’t want,” Miss. Now president Laurie Roberts stated in a press release.

You can see the advertisements with the sexual innuendo here: Spirit Halloween

You can also sign the petition to boycott Spirit Halloween here: Change.org