Obama Elected 2012: President Clinches Electoral Vote Win

President Barack Obama was projected the winner of the presidential race over Mitt Romney on Tuesday night.

The president scored critical wins in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. While Obama was favored in the swing states going into Election Day, the popular vote between the pair of contenders had remained close for much of the race.

We’ll be following all of the action on Obama’s victory, as well as the latest news to unfold as it relates to congressional and gubernatorial contests.

Click here to launch our interactive results maps. Below, a live blog of the latest developments to unfold.

USA Presidential Election Results 2012

As the election results for 2012 roll in, this is your spot for live updates on the outcome of the presidential race, congressional contests and news from across the country as it happens.

Click here to check out our interactive election maps and to drill down on the data as the votes are counted.

LIVE ELECTION RESULTS

	Obama	Romney
ELECTORAL VOTES (270 TO WIN)	303	206

Battleground States

	OBAMA	ROMNEY
VIRGINIA99% RPT.	50.7%	47.8%
FLORIDA99% RPT.	49.8%	49.3%
N. CAROLINA100% RPT.	48.4%	50.6%
OHIO99% RPT.	50.1%	48.2%
NEW HAMPSHIRE90% RPT.	52.0%	46.7%
COLORADO70% RPT.	50.4%	47.4%
WISCONSIN97% RPT.	52.1%	46.8%
IOWA99% RPT.	52.1%	46.5%
NEVADA98% RPT.	52.3%	45.7%

Popular Vote

	OBAMA	ROMNEY
TOTAL	56,925,922	55,247,163
PERCENT	50.0%	48.5%

SENATE

Immigration Debate: The Problem With the Word “Illegal”

It’s inflammatory, imprecise, and most of all, inaccurate. So why does everyone — from Chuck Schumer to Mitt Romney — use it?

By JOSE ANTONIO VARGAS

What part of ‘illegal’ don’t you understand?”

Add that to the list of questions I am repeatedly asked since publicly disclosing my undocumented immigrant status in the summer of 2011. Calling undocumented people “illegal immigrants” — or worse, “illegal aliens,” asMitt Romney did in front of a largely Latino audience last week — has become such standard practice for politicians and the media, from Bill O’Reilly to the New York Times, that people of all political persuasions do not think twice about doing it, too.

(MORE: For Romney, Fundraising Comes First)

But describing an immigrant as “illegal” is legally inaccurate. Being in the country without proper documents is a civil offense, not a criminal one. (Underscoring this reality, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority opinion on SB 1070, Arizona’s controversial immigration law: “As a general rule, it is not a crime for a movable alien to remain in the United States.”) In a country that believes in due process of the law, calling an immigrant “illegal” is akin to calling a defendant awaiting trial a “criminal.”  The term “illegal” is also imprecise. For many undocumented people — there are 11 million in the U.S. and most have immediate family members who are American citizens, either by birth or naturalization — their immigration status is fluid and, depending on individual circumstances, can be adjusted.

Must-Reads from Around the World: March 20, 2012

By TIME.COM

SYRIAN PRESIDENT BASHAR ASSAD SPEAKING DURING A RAMADAN IFTAR BANQUET IN HONOR OF MUSLIM CLERGYMEN, IN DAMASCUS, SYRIA, 24 AUGUST 2011. (PHOTO: SANA / EPA)

More Syria Leaks – Al Jazeera reveals details from confidential Syrian intelligence and security documents handed over by one of the government’s most trusted officials who recently fled to Turkey. The trove shows President Bashar Assad’s strategy to suppress anti-government protests, including orders to stop protesters from getting into Damascus and detailed security plans for crushing protests in the cities of Aleppo and Idlib, as well as warnings about countries trying to influence Syrian diplomats to defect and indications the government spied on last year’s Arab League monitoring mission in Syria.

Sarkozy Unexpectedly Calls Earlier French Troop Exit From Afghanistan

By BRUCE CRUMLEY

JOEL SAGET / AFP / GETTY IMAGES French soldiers from the 1st Infantry Regiment return to the Nijrab FOB (Forward Operating Base) military base in Tora, in the Surobi province in Afghanistan, on Dec. 31, 2011.

So it turns out France is indeed leaving Afghanistan earlier than planned, and will seek to bring the last of its current 3,900 troops home by the end of 2013. Despite signs earlier in the week from French government officials indicating no premature pullout was in the works (and stories like mine explaining why that was the case), French President Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday announced he’d draw French troops down a year ahead of the current 2014 NATO departure date—and will moreover urge Alliance partners to replicate France’s stepped-up hand-over of security duties to Afghan forces.

Sarkozy’s decision came after a meeting with visiting Afghan President Hamid Karzai. It also occurred one week after Sarkozy threatened to pull French forces from Afghanistan after four unarmed French troopers were gunned down in a fortified base by an allied Afghan army soldier. Infuriated at those killings—which came less than a month after two other French soldiers were killed by presumably friendly Afghan forces—Sarkozy suspended training of and joint patrols with Afghan units. He also said he’d consider withdrawing France’s entire contingent rapidly if the risk from  Afghan allies couldn’t be diminished. In making their comments in Paris Friday, Karzai and Sarkozy sought to allay fears that moves were afoot to bring the NATO operation to an end before its current 2014 deadline. But they also said the ability and numbers of Afghan forces had increased to the point where they could now assume responsibility for the country’s security ahead of the current NATO time table.

‘For fair elections’: Tens of thousands at Moscow biggest protest (VIDEO, PHOTOS)

Just two weeks after the Russian capital saw its biggest opposition rally in nearly twenty years, Russians unhappy with the results of the December 4 parliamentary elections have gathered once again.

But this time, it’s in even bigger numbers, with the hopes that their collective voice will be heard. Protest organizers claim up to 120,000 people have gathered for the rally. Police, however, put the number of demonstrators at about 29,000. They are coming together to protest against vote fraud – and to demand a new ballot.

This time around, the rally is being held on Akademika Sakharova Boulevard, with nearby streets closed off to traffic. Police have refrained from calling in reinforcements from the Defense Ministry, but are maintaining a presence at the rally; metal detectors and barriers have been set in advance.

RT’s crew at the scene say the police on duty are friendly and polite, a fact which has also been stressed by human right activists at the rally.

Thirty people are scheduled to speak, including actors, journalists, musicians, politicians and businessmen. But recent polls show that most of the people who attend the rally aren’t interested in being addressed by the politicos and opposition party leaders – they are coming to hear public figures and social activists like TV anchor Leonid Parfenov and blogger Aleksey Navalny, who have already taken the floor.

Egypt: Thousands Take To The Polls Despite Protesters’ Demand That Military Rulers Step Down

Yes people is the main driving force:

Egyptians have taken to the polls for the country’s first elections since the fall of Mubarak’s regime in February.

Reports suggest that queues formed early outside polling stations, with delays at a number of major stations causing lines to stretch several blocks long, and in some cases entirely encircling the schoolhouses where voting was taking place.‬

‪”They’re trying to make it delayed so that we get angry and go home,” a man cried outside a still-closed polling center in the poor, mixed neighborhood of Shoubra, an hour after it was meant to open. “But we’ll show them. We will stay here and we will vote.”‬

The vote has gone ahead despite nine days of mass demonstrations, with protesters calling for an end to military rule before elections take place.

“We reject any resolution taken by the military council – except for the handover of power to an authority that we approve. Then we will be making the decisions in Egyptian politics,” said a Tahrir demonstrator on Sunday.

More than 40 protesters have been killed and around 2,000 injured in the past nine days.

In a statement on Sunday, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the leader of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), said that Egypt was “at a crossroads”.

“Either we succeed – politically, economically and socially – or the consequences will be extremely grave and we will not allow that,” he said.

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Putin officially named as candidate for 2012 presidential vote

At a pompous event at Moscow’s Luzhniki Arena on Sunday, the pro-Kremlin United Russia party officially named its leader Vladimir Putin, Russia’s powerful prime minister, as its candidate for the March 2012 presidential elections.

All 614 delegates from United Russia and Putin’s All-Russia People’s Front movement who took part in the vote during a party congress at Luzhniki unanimously backed Putin’s candidacy.

Some 11,000 Putin supporters gathered at the congress, held a week before December 4 parliamentary elections, to witness the official start of what is likely to become their leader’s triumphant return to the Kremlin after four years as prime minister.

A storm of standing ovation welcomed the announcement of the vote result as Putin made his way to the dais to thank his supporters.

“My all life, without exaggeration, was devoted to serving our Fatherland,” he said in his speech, broadcast live by Russian state television channels.

“Our motto is ‘Never look back!’ Thank you… We will win together,” he added as President Dmitry Medvedev joined him on stage.

Tricolor national flags and dark-blue banners with a picture of a white bear, United Russia’s symbol, waved over Luzhniki Arena’s crowded grandstands as the prime minister’s supporters chanted “Putin” and “Russia” in an outburst of patriotic sentiment.

Sara May Bikini PHOTOS: Polish Pop Singer Katarzyna Szczolek Uses Hot Shots For Warsaw Election Campaign

One of the ways to win people’s heart especially in the West in the election.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost