"What's on Tap" is a weekly round-up of stories and links that may be interesting to Drinking Liberally patrons. This week, it is coming to you from rainy Amelia Island, Florida.

Join us every Tuesday evening from 5:30 p.m. onward at Tobacco Road Sports Cafe, 222 Glenwood Avenue in Raleigh. Happy hour specials end at 6 p.m. You can find more information about us on Facebook or our home site, and follow us on Twitter - @RaleighDL.

This week: fixing a pothole with your iPhone; Raleigh home brewers show off; taxing flamboyant church pastors; and a revolution in pizza delivery. Come on inside!

[Ed. note: The opinions and suggestions for action are those of the author. Living Liberally does not endorse specific candidates, policies, or courses of action.]

ACTION

• The election is only five weeks away. What are you doing to help?
  

  Volunteer. Donate. Phone bank. Follow.

• Really cool: using smart phone technology to report potholes, downed power lines, and other municipal problems. Check it out - it starts with Raleigh District E (Wade Ave, Glenwood Ave, and northwest Raleigh) and will soon expand to the entire city.
• This Week in Congress was not available at press time. Please visit Congress Matters.

Local & State

• See how the Citizens United decision has impacted North Carolina elections.
• Can nurse anesthetists safely administer anesthesia without the supervision of a doctor, providing high quality care while simultaneously lowering health care costs? Surprisingly, doctors say no.
• As state "education" lottery sales skyrocket, the share sent to schools has not kept pace. Bev's Boondoggle may be coming back to bite her.
• "Best Football Team in the Triangle" may be a low bar, but the NC State Wolfpack are ranked in the AP poll for the first time since the Rivers era in 2003.
• Homebrewed Raleigh, a small beer fest featuring top-notch local home bewers, is back on Saturday, October 23. Act fast; tickets sold out quickly last time.
• Southwest Airlines is acquiring AirTran, giving Southwest a quarter of traffic at RDU, and opening up new routes for the carrier.
• Sean takes on Old State wingnut Renee Elmers.

National

• Barack Obama is claiming the executive authority to decide when to kill an American citizen without due process, and that his power to do so is a state secret, not subject to any intervention by the judicial branch. Who is this man, and where is the guy who was asking for my vote in 2008?
• Why does marriage equality matter? One commenter shows how covering his spouse under company domestic partnership benefits costs him $3,500 more than an opposite-sex married couple.
• WI-Sen: GOP candidate Ron Johnson feels that organizations like the Catholic Church should be limited in their liability when their employees sexually abuse children.
• Also in Wisconsin, President Obama told young voters, "You can't sit out." Tell me exactly, Mr. President, why they should bother to sit in. What have you done for your base, for young voters, for progressives?
• More than half of the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is still there; "much of it is now buried in marine and coastal settlements."
• Given the flamboyant lifestyle led by "raging homophobe" megachurch pastor Eddie Long, why are these churches tax-exempt? mistermix:
  

  Taxing the non-charitable part of megachurch operations isn’t even on the political radar, and I’m sure it’s just my heathen nature causing me to bring it up, but why the hell should the Haggards and Longs of the world get hundreds of thousands of dollars of tax-free perks from their “charities” just because they’re in the Jesus biz?

• The latest reapportionment study confirms the long march of representatives from Rust Belt to Sun Belt states. Texas is expected to gain four seats in the House, Florida two, and Georgia and South Carolina one each. New York and Ohio may lose two seats each, with New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts expected to lost one each, along with post-Katrina Louisiana.
• George Blanda, one of the greatest professional football players in history, has died at age 83. You will never see career stats like this again: 2,002 points; nine rushing and 236 passing touchdowns; 335 field goals; 26,920 passing yards.

Global

• Why is Sharia law the latest evil in the United States, but Halakhah (Jewish law) is accepted and integrated into many parts of the country?
• Remember the Chilean miners. What if everything you needed to survive had to fit through this hole?
  
• Spain rejected the cease-fire offered earlier this month by violent Basque separatist group Eta. Now Eta is back, offering a more permanent end to violence, and hinting at independent destruction of their stockpile of weapons.
• China is still demanding an apology and compensation from Japan for arresting a Chinese trawler captain after a collision in disputed waters.
• A "masterful" redesign of the pizza delivery box. The box breaks down into four plates plus a smaller leftovers box. Brilliant.
  

If you have a story you think would be good for What’s on Tap, please add it as a comment or email it to frankthomas at gmail.com.