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Nevada caucuses are currently taking place, and we're liveblogging the results.

Results: CNN | Google | Politico

5:59 PM PT: Rick Santorum on CNN: "This race is a long, long way from being over."

You promise?

6:02 PM PT:
Senior Gingrich official: "Boston.. will be disappointed. This is going on to Tampa or until they drop out whichever comes first."

— @jimrutenberg via TweetDeck
You promise?
6:10 PM PT:
In 2008, Hispanics made up 15% of the NV electorate, Obama won 76% of them. Accounted for 63% of Obama's NV margin of victory.

— @chucktodd via Twitter for BlackBerry®

6:12 PM PT: Nevada is trending blue. The fact that the state's GOP is too incompetent to take out an unpopular Harry Reid in 2010, too incompetent to stage rational caucuses this year, and too incompetent to report results in a timely fashion, suggests that their November chances are looking pretty darn crappy.

6:14 PM PT: Mitt Romney's son on TV tells me that his dad "cares deeply about the poor." I heard different. You know from who?

Mitt Romney.

6:17 PM PT: Michelle Bachmann on Fox: "I thought I was the best candidate to take on Barack Obama."

She's so adorable.

6:22 PM PT: Woah, Gingrich won a county -- Mineral County. He got 39 votes to Romney's 37. Clearly, quite the metropolis.

6:30 PM PT: BREAKING: #NVcaucus Results 1) Joseph Smith's Favorite Poor Hater 2) Cult Leading Racist 3) Angry Attack Muffin 4) Google Him. #gop2012
— @KarlFrisch via Twitter for iPhone

6:33 PM PT: In 2008, Obama lost the popular vote in the Nevada caucuses, yet won the delegate count. His organization was far more effective in organizing for maximum delegate acquisition than the Clinton people.

Apparently, the GOP's system will apportion delegates based on the statewide popular vote.

6:33 PM PT: 90 minutes, and 7 percent counted. Sheesh, can Republicans do anything right?

6:37 PM PT: Enthusiasm gap? Second straight contest in which turnout is way off 2008.
— @davidaxelrod via Twitter for iPhone 6:39 PM PT: Sheesh, Nevada, let's just call it a night and say Obama won.
— @KailiJoy via web

Nevada caucuses are currently taking place, and we're liveblogging the results.

Results: CNN | Google | Politico

Romney is going to win big, there's no drama on that front. There is some suspense about whether Ron Paul or Newt Gingrich come in second, though I'm not sure it really matters too much. The bigger question is whether they can add at least a handful of delegates to their count.

But in case you're wondering what the Beltway CW is, here's the latest from this morning's Politico morning newsletter:

CAN MITT BREAK 50? Romney could take a step toward proving he can win over conservatives by rolling up a big winning margin...Forty percent of Nevada caucus-goers described themselves as 'very conservative' according to 2008 entrance polls.

DOES NEWT FINISH SECOND? If he remained at about 25 percent [as in the recent polls], his trajectory would be unmistakable: 40 percent in South Carolina, 32 percent in Florida, even less in Nevada. BUT if he wins close to, or more than, a third of the vote it would suggest that even at a low point he maintains a reservoir of support among tea party activists and the very conservative - and that there continues to be a determined resistance to Romney.

WILL PAUL BEAT EXPECTATIONS? A strong second place would validate Paul's strategy, which is to focus on caucus states in the hopes of amassing delegates in a long slog to the GOP convention. But falling short would be his biggest blow to date.

5:14 PM PT:

Current #NVCaucus results with 0.5% of precincts reporting: Gingrich: 27%, Paul: 15.5%, Romney: 41.7%, Santorum 15.9%, No Vote: 0%

— @nvgop via Tweet Button
5:23 PM PT:
Romney at 46% w/those small counties. Rurals are his worst area -- most conservative. Better in Washoe and much better in Clark. #nvcaucus

— @RalstonFlash via TweetDeck

5:30 PM PT: Despite having a nominally competitive primary, Nevada Republicans don't appear to be too enthused.

Turnout comparison #2: 197 votes cast in Pershing Co. in 2008, 153 today. #fitw

— @mollyesque via TweetDeck
To be fair, would YOU be enthused if your presidential field looked like this?

5:31 PM PT: Wolf Blitzer says he's about to "go one-on-one with Rick Santorum."

5:37 PM PT: Unrelated to tonight's caucuses, but related to the GOP being freakin' insane, Ron Paul: "If it’s an honest rape,” go to the emergency room, get “a shot of estrogen.”

5:38 PM PT: I can't wait to see Sharrrrrrrrrrrrrron Angle on TV. I miss her.

5:40 PM PT:
Good news for Paul: He wins big in Nye County. Bad news for Paul: Nye turnout declined from 2008, from 1226 to 991 total voters. #fitw

— @mollyesque via TweetDeck

5:42 PM PT: Sue Lowden on TV. Remember her? Her solution to expanding access to health care was to pay doctors with chickens.

No surprise, she's a Gingrich surrogate.

5:46 PM PT: Nate Silver:

The five mostly rural Nevada counties to have completely reported all their results so far - Churchill, Eurkea, Mineral, Nye and Pershing - reported that a total of 2,111 votes were cast in this year's caucuses. That meant that turnout was by about 20 percent from 2008, when a total of 2,600 votes were reported in the same five counties.

5:50 PM PT: Only Romney and Paul advertised in Nevada. Santorum has none (remember, he was excited he had raised 200 Gs last week). And Gingrich is marshaling resources for Super Tuesday.

5:52 PM PT:
Newt's new "strategy" in a nutshell: I can't win, I have no money, but I'm still not dropping out.

— @ZekeJMiller via TweetDeck

5:56 PM PT (Laura Clawson):Tonight, I hate how slowly the Nevada Republican party is counting these votes. If it says anything about their level of organization, though, I like it for November.

5:56 PM PT: Gingrich is going to pretend to have a strategy beyond, "play spoiler":

Business Insider has learned that Gingrich plans to lay out a delegate-based strategy that will allow him to make good on his promise to stay in the race until the Republican National Convention this summer.

The former Speaker is also expected to announce a return to a positive campaign message, in what is likely an attempt to end the bloody interparty battle between him and Mitt Romney, the presumptive nominee.

Newt's going positive? That is REALLY the end of the race.

5:57 PM PT: Dear CNN, your interview with Rick Santorum isn't "exclusive". There isn't a person with a microphone that he won't talk to.

5:59 PM PT (Kaili Joy Gray): The liveblogging continues in the next thread.

The recent passing of the artist, musician and LA art hero has given a simple photo shoot a grave and life-changing significance.
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Unless you were living under a rock this week, you're probably aware of the clusterfuck the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation created for itself when it decided to stop funding Planned Parenthood's cancer screening and prevention programs.

What followed was nothing short of spectacular. The foundation's leadership seemed completely unprepared for the national outrage at the blatantly obvious politicization of breast cancer and women's health. Karen Handel, the foundation's senior vice president of public policy and failed Republican candidate for governor of Georgia (endorsed by Sarah Palin), echoed the "cry me a river" response from fervent anti-choicers on Twitter—a tweet that was deleted, but not before an image was taken and spread far and wide across the Internet.

Komen founder and CEO Nancy Brinker then took to the airwaves to offer a whole new excuse for cutting the funding, insisting that the decision was not political, and tsk-tsking critics, whom she insisted didn't know what they were talking about and needed to "pause" and "slow down." Translation: Stop criticizing us for siding with an anti-woman agenda instead of with women. And keep buying our pink crap!

That did not go over too well either.

Next, the Komen Foundation released an apology for its decision, which the traditional media (and, sadly, even many alternative media sources, including feminist writers) inaccurately reported as a reversal of the foundation's new policy. Additional conversations with members of the foundation's board confirmed that it had not reversed its policy; rather, the apology was a further attempt to salvage its all-but-destroyed brand, chastise critics, and make the whole PR disaster go away.

What we've learned this week is that even if Komen were to continue funding Planned Parenthood's breast cancer exams and education programs, it's most likely too late for the foundation to undo the damage it has done to its reputation and credibility as an organization that cares about women's health. With its new policy, its anti-choice extremist leadership, and its long history of questionable practices, including suing the hell out of smaller charities that dare to use the word "cure," not to mention the number of articles, new and old, exposing how little of the money the foundation raises actually goes toward cancer research, Komen deserves no second chances. Those who care about fighting cancer have promised to send their money elsewhere, and forced to choose between the pink ribbon and Planned Parenthood, Americans—even self-identified "pro-life" Americans—are standing with Planned Parenthood. I am one of them.

In this weekly series, we usually document and discuss any number of stories that demonstrate the many fronts of the War on Women, and how extremist activists work with extremist lawmakers to roll back legal protections for women and to further enforce anti-woman ideology that impacts women's lives and livelihood.

So this week, let's connect the dots to see how a relentless push by activists to destroy the nation's largest provider of women's health care led to congressional action, which led to the political decision of a private, supposedly non-political, organization joining in that battle—on the wrong side, against women.

There's more below the fold.

As we reflect on the great milestones the black community has reached, we cannot forget the drug war that continues to hold many back.

A man charged in the brutal rape and strangling of a woman in Chicago's Bucktown neighborhood walked out of Cook County Jail Wednesday after his required $75,000 bond was posted, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

Michael Giffin, 25, allegedly raped the 26-year-old woman last Saturday after meeting her in a bar, Fox Chicago reports. Giffin allegedly went to the woman's apartment for a drink, and when she attempted to get him to leave, the attack occurred.

The Sun-Times reports:

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WASHINGTON — Conservatives accounted for around 4 in 5 voters Saturday as Nevada Republicans chose their presidential candidates, a poll of people entering the caucuses showed, tying Iowa as the most conservative group of GOP voters so far this year.

Around 3 in 4 Nevada voters said they were tea party supporters, according to preliminary results of the survey. That was the highest proportion of the five states that have now held their GOP presidential contests.

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INDIANAPOLIS — Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton has won the 2011 Associated Press NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year award.

Newton is the second straight No. 1 overall draft pick to take the honor in voting by a nationwide panel of 50 media members who regularly cover the league. Rams QB Sam Bradford won it last year.

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The advertising agencies who create the commercials that air during the Super Bowl get plenty of publicity, and in the weeks leading up to Sunday's game, companies released several advance ads to a flurry of attention. But what about the people who make the music used in the ads?

Yessian Music was founded in 1970 in a converted bait shop in Farmington, Mich., a Detroit suburb. The company, which now has offices in L.A., New York and Germany and has upwards of 25 full-time employees, is run by original founder Dan Yessian and his two sons, Michael and Brian Yessian. This year, they've put their tunes to five Super Bowl commercials.

Yessian is responsible for the soundtrack to national ads promoting Budweiser, a Hyundai TV/web project, NBC's "The Voice" and RAM. An ad for Cleveland Clinic Hospitals, which will air in the Midwest market, also uses Yessian's musical offerings.

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INDIANAPOLIS -- Running back Curtis Martin and four linemen were elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday, along with one senior committee choice.

Martin is the fourth-leading rusher in NFL history. He is joined by Chris Doleman, Cortez Kennedy, Willie Roaf, Dermontti Dawson, and senior selection Jack Butler.

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There is a place for "mature content" in comics and it may even be in some of the more mainstream titles. And DC Comics certainly has the right to play around in the Watchmen universe if they so choose.
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The Rhodes Trust confirmed that it had put on hold the candidacy of the quarterback, Patrick J. Witt, upon learning that a fellow student had filed a complaint against him.

At the University of Washington, 18 percent of the freshmen are foreigners, and each pays about three times as much as students from Washington State.

LOS ANGELES -- Mr. Berndt's third-grade classroom was up on the second floor, tucked away at the rear of Miramonte Elementary School, its windows looking out onto a playground.

When he locked the door, the classroom became a private sanctum where authorities allege that the 61-year-old teacher spoon-fed his semen to blindfolded children in a bizarre sexual game he documented in photographs.

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Green River Community College, south of Seattle, has enrolled 1,400 international students this year, most of them recruited by agents who get 15 percent of the $9,732 first-year tuition.

CAIRO — Their kidnappers gave them tea and dried fruit, and talked about religion and tribal rights. The California women were allowed to bring their Egyptian tour guide with them. One even put out his cigarette in the car when a hostage said the smoke was bothering her.

The women abducted for several hours Friday by armed Bedouin tribesmen in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula hesitated to call the men "captors," saying that the kidnappers were kind, polite and hospitable.

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WINONA, Minn. -- A Catholic school in Minnesota has suspended a 9-year-old boy for performing a crotch-grabbing Michael Jackson dance move during a fundraiser.

She says principal Pat Bowlin was particularly unhappy with the handful of times the boy, Lenny, reached for his groin area to imitate Jackson's dancing Thursday night.

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INDIANAPOLIS -- A football jersey that New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady wore in an NFL game has sold for $46,000 at an auction in Indianapolis.

Hunt Auctions says an anonymous bidder bought the 2011 game jersey at The Super Bowl XLVI Live Auction in Indianapolis on Saturday, tripling the item's presale estimated value.

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One seriously kick-ass breast cancer survivor—and former supporter of the Susan G. Komen Foundation—shows what breast cancer is and is not.

[Warning: She bears her lack-of-breasts in this graphic video.]

Want to tell the Komen Foundation to kiss your ass? Stand up for real women's health care. Click to donate to Planned Parenthood.

As a retired veteran, such pro-military rhetoric in the president's state of the union address resonates with me, but as a student of history it makes me more than uncomfortable.
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