Yesterday’s elections were a mixed bag for Democrats. There were positive results for liberals on three key ballot initiatives they cared most about. While the night was generally good for progressive policies at the ballot box, it was not as good a night for Democrats running for office.

Dayen gives his assessment of yesterday’s election results. Election Day 2011 is over, and the victories for Democrats – and more accurately, for liberal values – across the country largely shared a characteristic – they were successful defensive actions to stave off extremely draconian conservative objectives.

Mississippi has two measures on its ballot attacking women’s rights. Ballot Measure 26 would define personhood a beginning the moment of conception, a direct threat both to abortion rights and the the right to forms of birth control Measure 27 would create new ID barriers to voting — historically used to prevent African Americans and others from voting. Both should be defeated.

If this ballot initiative in Mississippi passes, it will make a woman a criminal in the eyes of the law if she exercises her right to control whether she becomes pregnant — not just whether she will have access to abortion services.

One distinctive thing about Zimmerman’s personal story is the fact that he chose to live his life as a full time ‘troublemaker’ (committed leftwing activist), abandoning his extremely promising career as a creative and recognized scientist. He got his PhD in psychology at the University of Chicago in 1967, based on path breaking research on brain function in sleep, and gave up his academic career even though he had every expectation of continuing achievement. Why and how he made this life change reveals a lot about the society of that time—and now—so I hope we can delve into this dimension of his experience.

Given the incredible structural similarity between the Massachusetts health care reform law signed by Mitt Romney and the new national Affordable Care Act signed by President Obama, the release of the annual physician workforce survey from the Massachusetts Medical Society has generated a lot of attention. But I would caution everyone involved that on issues like the impact ACA will have on ER use or physician availability, what has happened in Massachusetts might be a very poor guide to predict what will happen nationally.

It’s a slow news day, so I might as well join the chorus in talking about Haley Barbour’s revisionist history. He claims that Yazoo City, Mississippi, his hometown, was an island of indifference amid a sea of racial intolerance in the Deep South.

In spite of Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour’s initial happy talk (Oil? What Oil? Press Should Stop Scaring Tourists), BP Oil finally and inevitably hits his state’s coastline. Now guess who’s crying for help?

Primary runoffs feature today in North Carolina, South Carolina and Mississippi. Utah also hosts a primary, but it is similar to a runoff, thanks to a dual convention/primary system that eliminates many candidates at the convention. Here’s a run-down of the races and expected outcomes.

Unless you’ve spent some time down here on the Gulf Coast, you’re unlikely to really understand the people that live down here. Hard scrabble is a way of life. Historically, we’ve had systemic attacks on our people, our culture and our environment. The hostility runs pretty deep down here because the history of maltreatment runs pretty deep. There are several historical events that you really need to understand to understand the people of Southeastern Louisiana and the surrounding areas