Ah, yes. Liddy's gone...can't wait to bounce this tool out of office. From the N&O's Under the Dome:
U.S. Sen. Richard Burr wouldn't mind watching basketball with Barack Obama. The Winston-Salem Republican was recently on the Charlotte sports talk show "Primetime with the Packman." Repeating a question from the Democratic primary last year, host Mark Packer asked whether Burr would rather have dinner with Hillary Clinton or Obama.
"Hillary Clinton in a heartbeat," Burr said. "I've had an opportunity in the last week to have dinner with Barack Obama. I passed on that one."
I love it -- this video captures the fun all of us who work in the Brightleaf Square buildings in downtown Durham get to hear at least once a month -- trucks that are too tall careening down Gregson Street and slamming into the railroad overpass. Someone in the building actually set up a camera to capture the insanity and compiled a "best of" tape.
I think this is kind of big news...I haven't been able to confirm this, but I might be the first out lesbian columnist for the News & Observer. I might be the first out lesbian columnist for a major newspaper in NC; I have no idea. Anyway, my column will appear in The Durham News, its Bull City community edition. It's a monthly column (I rotate with other local folks), a gig for six months.
Mark Schultz, the editor of TDN and The Chapel Hill News (as well as one of the Western Triangle editors for The News & Observer) just asked me out of the blue to do this. I was recommended by one of my old pals and former neighbor in Old West Durham, John Schelp, since I'm a Durham native. It's a small world.
There was religion-based bigotry in action yesterday as two of the state's Catholic bishops participated in a dog-and-pony show for the cameras to declare their support for a marriage amendment. (N&O):
Equality NC has learned that Sen. Jim Forrester, Rep. Paul Stam and others plan to file a marriage amendment bill AGAIN. These are the same good old boy fossils who do this every year, and for the last five years we've successfully killed the bill. They have failed to get this bill out of committee, and this year, the right wing and professional "Christian" set are stepping up their efforts. Stam and Forrester have until mid-day tomorrow to get other legislators to sign on as co-sponsors.
My partner Kate and I went to the polls Friday afternoon; we voted at Southwest Elementary School. There are 366 one-stop early-voting sites in the state, and the State Board of Elections voted to extend hours on Saturday to 5PM to accommodate the flood of people turning out to cast their ballots before Tuesday.
The whole matter took about an hour; I was voter 16,510. The officials were gave clear instructions on the ballot. Kate saw one assisting a man who was confused about the ballot (some voters don't realize that voting straight party does not select president or judicial races).
I shot some video, took my pic with a cardboard Barack, and interviewed a poll greeter and one of the greeters about giving ballot instructions. (see below the fold).
Dole is going to go down hard here, but I laughed at this because as you might recall, I was dissed by the Hagan campaign for simply asking how she'd vote on pending legislation re: LGBT issues. There was no need to worry about hiding from the questions because I knew the GOP was going to eventually bring it up anyway -- you might as well be on the right side of the issues -- and the community you will eventually ask for $upport from. Sen. Hagan's liveblog response back in April:
Pam - I'm close to John Edwards on this - I believe marriage is between a man and a woman and that it's fundamentally a state issue the federal government has no business getting involved in. But I take a back seat to no one when it comes to equal opportunity and fairness. I oppose ANY form of discrimination and I believe that partnerships should be protected when it comes to financial issues, hospital visits, employment, and housing issues.
We don't have an amendment because our General Assembly is Dem-controlled, not because Kay Hagan supports marriage equality. But facts, even if they are disappointing for us, don't matter to the North Carolina GOP - they have a lousy candidate with a crap record who's doing poorly in the polls, so it's time to drag out the homostrawman.
Liddy Dole is dropping like a stone in the polls and so the best that the National Republican Senatorial Committee can do at this point is to go after the one group probably more reviled than teh gayz in the mind of the wingnuts - atheists.
Atheists are people that North Carolinian's would not want to have over for dinner? They don't share North Carolina's values? Atheists are the most vile, radical liberals in America? The most vile? Really? The most VILE? That is complete insanity.
When that mailer didn't work -- Hagan's poll numbers kept going up -- the NRSC decided to try this ad, "Godless: Kay Hagan and the Godless Americans PAC":
Liberal Kay Hagan flew to Boston to pocket campaign cash from leaders of the Godless Americans PAC. What is Godless Americans PAC? Godless Americans Political Action Committee is a left-wing organization based in Washington, DC -- dedicated to 'Mobilizing America's nonbelievers for political activism.'
Kay Hagan's friends actively support political candidates who who support their liberal agenda to remove 'under God' from the Pledge of Allegiance, remove any reference to God in the public arena and eliminating the Christmas Holiday.
Let's hope so; we already expect the Republicans to try to steal the election, so holding one's breath is a given, even with a campaignimplodingas deliciously as McCain's. This winner comes to us via Shakesville, created by reader Schmiss:
Now someone has to come up with a creative animated GIF of McCain/Palin and crew on Nov. 5.
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