OMFG. The jokes are just writing themselves. Will Gov. Mark Sanford’s best bud Lindsey Graham stick up for the Palmetto State Playboy now? (The State):
A reporter called a Sanford staffer, saying the paper had e-mails that outlined an affair between the governor and Maria. Unless Sanford would address the issue privately, The State would have no choice but to ask him - with TV crews filming - if he knew Maria at his press conference that afternoon.
The names of two other women tumbled into the newsroom.
Fearful Sanford’s staffers did not get it - that the paper would ask publicly what Sanford’s relationship was with Maria - a State editor called Davis, Sanford’s former chief of staff.
...The editor told Davis why he thought the e-mails were genuine. They mentioned Coosaw, the Sanford plantation, and Sanford’s love of digging holes; they quoted Bible verses and contained details about Sanford’s known schedule.
And more names of women were coming in over the transom. The total was at three and counting.
“Women?!” Davis responded, sounding incredulous. “Women?!”
South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford says he “crossed lines” with a handful of women other than his mistress - but never had sex with them.
The governor says he “never crossed the ultimate line” with anyone but Maria Belen Chapur, the Argentine at the center of a scandal that has derailed Sanford’s once-promising political career.
During an emotional interview at his Statehouse office with The Associated Press on Tuesday, Sanford said Chapur is his soul mate but he’s trying to fall back in love with his wife.
He says that during the other encounters he “let his guard down” with some physical contact but “didn’t cross the sex line.” He wouldn’t go into detail.
This is ripe for jokes folks. Is this about making it to 1st, 2nd, or 3rd base? What is he talking about, as a man of faith who believes in the sanctity of marriage + one concubine? Was sacred seed spilled? It seems that should be his standard - sexual acts must be for procreation only.
And his wife and staff aren’t giving any details. (The State):
The whereabouts of Gov. Mark Sanford have been unknown to state officials since Thursday, and some state leaders are questioning who is in charge of the executive office.
Neither the governor’s office nor the State Law Enforcement Division, which provides security for governors, has been able to reach Sanford after he left the mansion in a black SLED Suburban SUV, said Sen. Jake Knotts and three others familiar with the situation but who declined to be identified.
Sanford’s last known whereabouts were near Atlanta, where a mobile telephone tower picked up a signal from his phone, authorities said.
Hmmm…and then this statement:
Jenny Sanford said she was not concerned. She said the governor said he needed time away from their children to write something.
...“I was recently made aware that Governor Sanford has frequently been eluding SLED agents and disappearing at odd times,” [Sen. Jake] Knotts said.
O-kay. So is it a live girl/dead boy kind of thing? De-tox? Or is he just having a little time away for R&R? Seems like this kind of extended time away from work would require the Lieutenant Gov. to step in to take care of state business if Sanford turned off his cell and isn’t accepting any texts.
UPDATE: At least the Gov’s Twitter account is still active, lol. Guess some low level drone with account access figured out to stop posting while he’s AWOL or the Governor himself just likes leaving obscure clues:
The Republicans have out-and-out bigots peppered in leadership who find safe harbor in the party, and every once in a while these numbskull racists get the wild hair and cut loose when they think no one is watching. (FitsNews):
SC: Republican activist calls escaped gorilla an “ancestor” to Michelle Obama on Facebook
A prominent S.C. Republican Party activist is in hot water after describing an escaped gorilla at a South Carolina zoo as an “ancestor” of First Lady Michelle Obama.
The exchange occurred after Trey Walker, an advisor to S.C. Attorney General Henry McMaster, posted an innocuous Facebook update about this morning’s escape of a Western Lowlands Gorilla from Columbia’s Riverbanks Zoo.
Walker’s harmless update, however was followed by a highly-questionable comment from longtime SCGOP activist and former State Senate candidate, Rusty DePass.
“I’m sure it’s just one of Michelle’s ancestors — probably harmless,” DePass wrote.
An early South Carolina supporter of former President George W. Bush, DePass has been active in Republican politics in South Carolina for decades.
The comment has been removed; it’s not clear if FB did it or DePass. BTW, the runner-up to head the RNC, Katon Dawson (who belonged to a whites-only country club), is also the former SC state GOP chair, said this:
“Even if it was taken out of context - its not something that should have ever been said. It’s sad, disappointing, and unfortunate,”
Wow, what gusto. Sounds like he had to squeak that out knowing his bud got caught with his pants down on the Internets.”
And so came the “apology.”
“I am as sorry as I can be if I offended anyone. The comment was clearly in jest.”
“You know, I don’t think there’s anything funny about that comment,” says Coble. “That is the First Lady of the United States. We’ve had a long tradition of wonderful first ladies, and I don’t think any of them deserve that type of comment.”
And while his trousers were at his ankles, DePass made the situation worse by claiming that
the First Lady brought up the subject first
in the media.
“The comment was hers. Not mine,” saying the first lady made statements in the media recently saying we are all descendents of apes.
She never said it—no stories can be found.
So we have the usual non-apology from these bigots, added to the utter ignorance that when you put something up on Facebook, it’s up for public grabs. Unless you have your account/profile in lockdown and have only friends you know you can trust, anything you put up there can and will be used against you. I don’t know where people get the idea that there is some zone of privacy on a social networking site you have open for all to see. The account holder selects the level of public access, so Mr. DePass clearly thought that cutting loose with this badass racist self was not a problem. We are fortunate to have gotten a peek inside a GOP operative’s mind—it only confirms why its voter base is populated with bigots, know-nothings and extremists and shrinking every day.
Is this Michael Steele’s party? I receive press releases all the time from the GOP and I’ve seen nothing out of the RNC condemning the remarks. DePass is a symptom of the party’s larger problem.
Frank Rich’s column today discusses the extremist fringe of the party that is stirred up, and he notes that leaders in the GOP and in the conservative movement aren’t stepping up to turn the volume down on the crazies among them.
A sizable minority of Americans is irrationally fearful of the fast-moving generational, cultural and racial turnover Obama embodies — indeed, of the 21st century itself. That minority is now getting angrier in inverse relationship to his popularity with the vast majority of the country.
...What’s startling is the spillover of this poison into the conservative political establishment. Saul Anuzis, a former Michigan G.O.P. chairman who ran for the party’s national chairmanship this year, seriously suggested in April that Republicans should stop calling Obama a socialist because “it no longer has the negative connotation it had 20 years ago, or even 10 years ago.” Anuzis pushed “fascism” instead, because “everybody still thinks that’s a bad thing.” He didn’t seem to grasp that “fascism” is nonsensical as a description of the Obama administration or that there might be a risk in slurring a president with a word that most find “bad” because it evokes a mass-murderer like Hitler.
...Obama’s Cairo address, meanwhile, prompted over-the-top accusations reminiscent of those campaign rally cries of “Treason!” It was a prominent former Reagan defense official, Frank Gaffney, not some fringe crackpot, who accused Obama in The Washington Times of engaging “in the most consequential bait-and-switch since Adolf Hitler duped Neville Chamberlain.” He claimed that the president — a lifelong Christian — “may still be” a Muslim and is aligned with “the dangerous global movement known as the Muslim Brotherhood.” Gaffney linked Obama by innuendo with Islamic “charities” that “have been convicted of providing material support for terrorism.” If this isn’t a handy rationalization for another lone nutjob to take the law into his own hands against a supposed terrorism supporter, what is?
...Hard-core haters resolutely dismiss any “mainstream media” debunking of their conspiracy theories. The only voices that might penetrate their alternative reality — I emphasize might — belong to conservative leaders with the guts and clout to step up as McCain did last fall. Where are they? The genteel public debate in right-leaning intellectual circles about the conservative movement’s future will be buried by history if these insistent alarms are met with silence.
I have no idea whether long-time GOP consultant and the former mayor of our capital city, Tom Fetzer, is gay. Honestly, I don’t care if he is or not, but I do care that he thinks there is something wrong/bad/evil about being gay.
Fetzer, who wants to head up the flailing NC Republican Party (oh, that explains a LOT), has just filed a libel lawsuit against Wilmington radio show host Curtis Wright for forwarding an anonymous letter to NC GOP operatives that asserts Fetzer is a Friend of Dorothy. He also names WLTT (Wright’s employer), and its corporate owner, Sea-Comm Media. Ryan Teague Beckwith at the N&O’s Under the Dome received Fetzer’s homo denial letter (all emphasis mine):
Dear Republican Friend:
I apologize in advance for the content of this message, but as you can see, I had no other choice.
Tuesday, Curtis Wright, a radio and television talk show host in Wilmington, forwarded an anonymous letter alleging that I am gay to Republican leaders throughout North Carolina. The letter is a lie, written by a lying coward. I can’t sue the lying coward, but I have authorized my attorneys to sue Curtis Wright and the media outlets he works for.
You can click here to view a copy of the letter my attorney sent to Mr. Wright, WLTT, and Sea-Comm Media.
There are two things you need to know:
1) I am not gay - never have been - never will be. There is absolutely no evidence whatsoever to support any of the scurrilous allegations made in the anonymous attack on me.
2) I will spare no cost or hardship in defending my good name. I intend to vigorously pursue legal action against any and all who spread these lies. The fact that I’m 54 and single does not mean I have to put up with vicious rumors that I’m gay. The fact that I am heterosexual is a matter of public record. The News & Observer once even reported (erroneously) that I had eloped.
OK. This letter is beyond strange—how does one’s heterosexuality become a matter of public record? I’m serious. Did he have sex with a woman in public? Are there photos of him with a female sex worker? Just declaring you are straight (or gay, for that matter) doesn’t mean that’s the case. Just because a person marries someone of the opposite sex doesn’t make it so either.
I mean look at all the closet cases out there we’ve seen on the Blend who are married and then get busted at a rest stop or…an airport bathroom? The fact of the matter is Larry Craig, for instance, said quite forcefully that he wasn’t gay—perhaps in his mind he just had sex with men. He’s completely heterosexual from his POV, as former pastor Ted Haggard famously declared after his “spiritual restoration” quick fix.
I have no idea what Fetzer’s private life is or isn’t, but he seems quite determined to outline and share his heterosexual future in this letter. Check it out after the jump.
The state’s top liquor regulator, Doug Fox, is now the former top liquor regulator, as Governor Beverly Perdue demanded and received Fox’s resignation after newspapers sent her a copy of the racist illustration Fox was shooting around on email.
The e-mail included an altered photo of the White House that turned the South Lawn into an enormous watermelon patch. The phrase, “There goes the neighborhood ...” was printed above the photo.
The e-mail was sent from Fox’s law firm address Nov. 14—10 days after Barack Obama was elected president. The message, which had been forwarded multiple times by others before reaching Fox, contained no text other than the subject line, “how true.”
...“I have accepted Doug Fox’s letter of resignation,” Perdue said. “E-mails and images of this nature are offensive and unacceptable.”
Fox, who was paid $110,000 last year, offered to stay on and help his successor settle in. Perdue, who will appoint a new chairman, declined. “The resignation will be effective immediately,” said David Kochman, Perdue’s communications director.
Of course the obvious question is why do some public officials think that sending out stuff like this is not going to blow up in their faces? As I’ve said before, never, ever send “humor” around like this unless you are 100% certain that the all of the recipients of your missive share your rancid, bigoted sense of humor. In his case the recipient of the email was a lobbyist Bill Hester (who represents Southern Wine & Spirits, a major liquor distributor). He declined to speak to the media.
Fox also earns bonus points for *ssclown stupidity—how could he not have seen or heard about the story about how this very same knee-slapping racist image was emailed around by Los Alamitos, California Mayor Dean Grose—and how it cost him his job? I mean it wasn’t as if it didn’t make national news at the time…
A poor choice of words? Too late for you, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC5). You know you meant what you said when you spewed that hate on the floor of the House of Representative. You shamed yourself, your district and your state with that filth. And this backtracking is only because you must have had no clue how out of step you are with basic decency. The NC GOP was laughing at the anger over your remarks. I doubt they are laughing now as they have to explain to the media why the party of Jesse Helms and Elizabeth Dole refuse to enter the 21st century. (WXII12-Winston-Salem):
Foxx released this comment stating that she used a poor choice of words:
“It has come to my attention that some people have been led to believe that I think the terrible crimes that led to Matthew Shepard’s death in 1998 were a hoax,” she said. “The term “hoax” was a poor choice of words used in the discussion of the hate crimes bill. Mr. Shepard’s death was nothing less than a tragedy and those responsible for his death certainly deserved the punishment they received.
“The larger context of my remarks is important. I was referring to a 2004 ABC 20/20 report on Mr. Shepard’s death. The 20/20 report questioned the motivation of those responsible for Mr. Shepard’s death. Referencing this media account may have been a mistake, but if so it was a mistake based on what I believed were reliable accounts.”
Let’s go back to the videotape…
“The bill was named after a very unfortunate incident that happened, where a young man was killed, but we know that that young man was killed in the commitment of robbery. It wasn’t because he was gay. The bill was named for him, the hate crimes bill was named for him, but it’s, it’s really a hoax, that that continues to be used as an excuse for passing these bills.”
She sounds mighty confident about her choice of words, doesn’t she?
And she said it with Matthew Shepard’s mother sitting there in the House gallery.
Foxx office addresses and phone numbers:
WASHINGTON, D.C.
1230 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-2071
Fax: (202) 225-2995
I heard from one of my readers that her Clemmons voicemail box is full. Gee, I wonder why? Also, Foxx made Keith Olbermann’s Worst Person in the World.
I largely agree with Frank Rich’s POV in his NYT op-ed, “The Bigots’ Last Hurrah.” The professional homophobes are on the retreat, licking their wounds after a series of court decisions (IA), legislative successes (VT), and meltdowns (Rick Warren, National Org. for Marriage).
Far from terrifying anyone, “Gathering Storm” has become, unsurprisingly, an Internet camp classic. On YouTube the original video must compete with countless homemade parodies it has inspired since first turning up some 10 days ago. None may top Stephen Colbert’s on Thursday night, in which lightning from “the homo storm” strikes an Arkansas teacher, turning him gay. A “New Jersey pastor” whose church has been “turned into an Abercrombie & Fitch” declares that he likes gay people, “but only as hilarious best friends in TV and movies.”
Yet easy to mock as “Gathering Storm” may be, it nonetheless bookmarks a historic turning point in the demise of America’s anti-gay movement.
What gives the ad its symbolic significance is not just that it’s idiotic but that its release was the only loud protest anywhere in America to the news that same-sex marriage had been legalized in Iowa and Vermont. If it advances any message, it’s mainly that homophobic activism is ever more depopulated and isolated as well as brain-dead.
It is, but if you’re living in a state where the political climate is less hospitable, like the deep South, it’s a very different picture than the one Rich is painting. It’s a common problem that I see with those writing from more progressive enclaves—the mistake that the progress has some sort of magic trickle-down effect everywhere. It isn’t the bigot’s last hurrah, it is the spiraling downfall of the professional anti-gays, but they aren’t going down without a fight where the territory is still fertile.
As the case against equal rights for gay families gets harder and harder to argue on any nonreligious or legal grounds, no wonder so many conservatives are dropping the cause. And if Fox News and Rick Warren won’t lead the charge on same-sex marriage, who on the national stage will take their place? The only enthusiastic contenders seem to be Republicans contemplating presidential runs in 2012. As Rich Tafel, the former president of the gay Log Cabin Republicans, pointed out to me last week, what Iowa giveth to the Democrats, Iowa taketh away from his own party. As the first stop in the primary process, the Iowa caucuses provided a crucial boost to Barack Obama’s victorious and inclusive Democratic campaign in 2008. But on the G.O.P. side, the caucuses tilt toward the exclusionary hard right.
In 2008, 60 percent of Iowa’s Republican caucus voters were evangelical Christians. Mike Huckabee won. That’s the hurdle facing the party’s contenders in 2012, which is why Romney, Palin and Gingrich are now all more vehement anti-same-sex-marriage activists than Rick Warren. Palin even broke with John McCain on the issue during their campaign, supporting the federal marriage amendment that he rejects. This month, even as the father of Palin’s out-of-wedlock grandson challenged her own family values and veracity, she nominated as Alaskan attorney general a man who has called gay people “degenerates.” Such homophobia didn’t even play in Alaska — the State Legislature voted the nominee down — and will doom Republicans like Palin in national elections.
This is a long-term win, don’t get me wrong, but it’s pretty clear that we cannot cheer the Republicans’ inability to find a winning formula for the future as long as Democrats tolerate the homophobes inside its party.
Even in Blue New York we see State Senator Rubén Díaz brazenly holding up marriage equality (”As long as you need me, there will be no gay marriage”) with the same tired fundie theocracy bigotry we see spewing from the Republican fringe. As I blogged earlier, he goes unchallenged by his peers because they fear the race card being thrown down. I don’t know what’s worse—open bigotry on the Right, or the enabling of homophobia within a party that should know better.
And in what is excellent timing on this matter, Andrés Duque of Blabbeando has posted about the National Organization for Marriage’s efforts to make inroads in the Latino community in New York with its bigotry. More below the fold, including video.
NOTE: I don’t usually blog about North Carolina issues on Pandagon, but this post represents a good illustration of the gulf between black elected officials and those fighting for LGBT rights, particularly those of us who are black and gay. The fact is, most of them don’t know many, if any out black LGBTs, and it’s pretty clear that they don’t like dealing with the issue—even though some may vote the right way on some of our issues.The encounters I had when visiting my state’s legislators provided a reality check on just how wide that gulf is.
It was a wonderful sunny and crisp day in Raleigh on Tuesday, and there was a great turnout for the Equality NC Day of Action. It drew 250 people from across the state—that more than doubled the attendance at prior lobby days. We had people come from as far away as Duck (that’s on the Outer Banks) and to the mountain town of Hendersonville to meet with the legislators to discuss pro-LGBT legislation in the queue and to urge them to oppose the marriage amendment. (ENC):
“We are thrilled to see so many North Carolinians, both LGBT and allies, who took time off of work to travel to Raleigh and make do the hard work of building support for fair and equal treatment of everyone, regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity,” said Ian Palmquist, Executive Director. “We know that face-to-face conversations are the single most effective tool we have to get more legislators to support our issues.”
It was my first time participating in the Day of Action, and it was also the first opportunity for longtime activist Mandy Carter. We got together with other black LGBTs and allies in attendance to meet with members of the legislative black caucus. Things got very interesting during those meetings. More on that later.
Ah, yes. Liddy Dole’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.”
Obama held a bipartisan “timeout dinner” at the White House with about 180 guests from Congress and his Cabinet, as well as staffers and spouses. Burr said the president is a “straight-up guy,” a “tremendous athlete” and “a very disciplined individual,” but he disagrees with him on the issues.
the black athlete is “bred to be the better athlete because, this goes all the way to the Civil War when ... the slave owner would breed his big woman so that he would have a big black kid.”
Or this fun statement by Snyder about black coaches taking away jobs from the white man:
Perhaps I should just be kind and assume he wasn’t being racist, and just stupidly partisan. Ahem. As one reader noted:
You have an opportunity to dine with the President of the United States, and you pass on it?
How can we expect you to best represent NC when you won’t even sit down to break bread with our President (a President for whom the majority of your constituents voted.)
This seriously defies belief. I don’t care if it was racism or partisanship that led Dickie Burr to this decision; it was stupid. He had a chance to meet with the President, and possibly advocate for issues affecting North Carolina, and he passed on it?
Would you want this man ministering to your child? Another “Christian” pervert on the loose. On March 6, Benjamin Douglas Caldwell, a youth pastor and athletic director at High Point, NC’s Hayworth Christian School was busted for statutory rape and indecent liberties with a minor after a 911 call came in reporting a sexual assault. And it wasn’t only one incident. (Greensboro N&R):
An investigation discovered assaults had been taking place over the past three months, police said in a press release.
When interviewed by detectives, Caldwell admitted to multiple counts of statutory rape, statutory sex offense and taking indecent liberties with a minor, according to police.
Caldwell was charged with 6 counts of statutory rape of a 14-year-old, three counts of statutory sex offense of a 14-year-old and eight counts of taking indecent liberties with a minor.
LindsayFnWhite wrote:
Well it’s like this. He may be a YOUTH pastor, but he’s NOT GOD! He IS HUMAN, just like the rest of us. We all make mistakes, but it’s not our option to judge him, discriminate him, or anything else. God will do that for us. What’s done is done, and no he’s not right, but what bout them little girls, they know how to say NO! Why are they messing with a married man with a wife and kids? You have to look at both sides of the story, yes he’s older and knows better, but them little teenagers these days, psh their parents don’t care letting them wear whatever, do whatever with friends, watch whatever on TV, and so forth. If these kids were true Christians they would have said no. Like I said he’s the older one and the youth pastor, but still it’s takes two!! And the next time you think oh well he should have this and that done to him, next time you lie, cheat, steal, cuss, dishonor your parents, lust, gossip, whatever it may be, just remember you committing a sin just as big as he is.
Galatians 6:1 Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly, should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation. 6:3 IF YOU THINK YOU ARE TOO IMPORTANT TO HELP SOMEONE, YOU ARE ONLY FOOLING YOURSELF. YOU ARE NOT THAT IMPORTANT.
You have to read this devastating piece by A.C. Thompson in The Nation about a rag-tag band of white vigilantes on a race-based rampage in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, formed to protect one of the neighborhoods not flooded when the levees broke. It sounds like a nightmare out of another era, but as we found out during this election cycle, the Base of the GOP is clearly capable of this sort of thing.
Facing an influx of refugees, the residents of Algiers Point could have pulled together food, water and medical supplies for the flood victims. Instead, a group of white residents, convinced that crime would arrive with the human exodus, sought to seal off the area, blocking the roads in and out of the neighborhood by dragging lumber and downed trees into the streets. They stockpiled handguns, assault rifles, shotguns and at least one Uzi and began patrolling the streets in pickup trucks and SUVs. The newly formed militia, a loose band of about fifteen to thirty residents, most of them men, all of them white, was looking for thieves, outlaws or, as one member put it, anyone who simply “didn’t belong.”
...Fellow militia member Wayne Janak, 60, a carpenter and contractor, is more forthcoming with me. “Three people got shot in just one day!” he tells me, laughing. We’re sitting in his home, a boxy beige-and-pink structure on a corner about five blocks from Daigle’s Grocery. “Three of them got hit right here in this intersection with a riot gun,” he says, motioning toward the streets outside his home. Janak tells me he assumed the shooting victims, who were African-American, were looters because they were carrying sneakers and baseball caps with them. He guessed that the property had been stolen from a nearby shopping mall. According to Janak, a neighbor “unloaded a riot gun”—a shotgun—“on them. We chased them down.”
He’s equally blunt in Welcome to New Orleans, an hourlong documentary produced by the Danish video team, who captured Janak, beer in hand, gloating about hunting humans. Surrounded by a crowd of sunburned white Algiers Point locals at a barbeque held not long after the hurricane, he smiles and tells the camera, “It was great! It was like pheasant season in South Dakota. If it moved, you shot it.” A native of Chicago, Janak also boasts of becoming a true Southerner, saying, “I am no longer a Yankee. I earned my wings.” A white woman standing next to him adds, “He understands the N-word now.” In this neighborhood, she continues, “we take care of our own.”
It would perhaps be easier for Barack Obama to appoint Southerners to his cabinet if, when he appointed Southerners, they didn’t stop counting as Southerners because they said “soda” once.
There’s an interesting piece in the NYT by Adam Nossiter that makes some apt observations about what the results of the election mean for Republicans and the South.
By voting so emphatically for Senator John McCain over Mr. Obama - supporting him in some areas in even greater numbers than they did President Bush - voters from Texas to South Carolina and Kentucky may have marginalized their region for some time to come, political experts say.
The region’s absence from Mr. Obama’s winning formula means it “is becoming distinctly less important,” said Wayne Parent, a political scientist at Louisiana State University. “The South has moved from being the center of the political universe to being an outside player in presidential politics.”
One reason for that is that the South is no longer a solid voting bloc. Along the Atlantic Coast, parts of the “suburban South,” notably Virginia and North Carolina, made history last week in breaking from their Confederate past and supporting Mr. Obama. Those states have experienced an influx of better educated and more prosperous voters in recent years, pointing them in a different political direction than states farther west, like Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi, and Appalachian sections of Kentucky and Tennessee.
The fact of the matter is that Barack Obama received less of the white vote in the South than either John Kerry or Al Gore. And while the black turnout was record breaking in the deep South, it couldn’t overcome the white votes for McCain in those states.
It’s telling that a third of the Southern white vote in 2008 went to John McCain, and Obama only won 44 out of 410 counties in the Appalachian belt—people are stubbornly hanging on to their racial biases in these areas, so much so that they would vote against their interests no matter what, and the GOP has now become a regional party, dependent on the under-educated, low-information voter who have little exposure to diversity. After all, look at some of these statements:
One white woman said she feared that blacks would now become more “aggressive,” while another volunteered that she was bothered by the idea of a black man “over me” in the White House.
...“I am concerned,” Gail McDaniel, who owns a cosmetics business, said in the parking lot of the Shop and Save. “The abortion thing bothers me. Same-sex marriage.”
“I think there are going to be outbreaks from blacks,” she added. “From where I’m from, this is going to give them the right to be more aggressive.”
“I mean, when you see 700 shambling dead zombies walking toward the Civic Center up the bridge, it would probably get the Secret Service’s attention. So we gave them a heads up on it to make sure they know we’re not doing any kind of protest or (are a) threat in anyway.” —Dan Burrello, organizer of the Asheville Zombie Walk that drew 700 of the undead to Flint Street and past the Civic Center where Bible Spice rallied up the nutter troops
The Asheville Citizen-Times covered a Palin rally on Sunday, where there were about 300 protestors—and a bunch of zombie fans.
The walk has been in the works for a year, and is organized for people who love zombies, horror films and to celebrate Halloween, Burrello said. Some of it also is a statement on consumerism and society, though the fact the Zombie Walk is taking place during Sarah Palin’s visit is pure coincidence.
“It’s fascinating because regardless of the party, so much of politics is mindlessly following,” Burrello said.
You have to read the CoverItLive blog as well, it’s a hoot. Some snippets:
Lisa Loper, her daughter Cassidy Maney, from Sevierville, Tenn., drove about an hour and 45 minutes to get here. “I wanted my daughter to see this,” Lisa said. “We just think this is a very important election,” because of the moral issues at stake and the economic crisis.
3:03 Carla Lovelace, of Clyde, came out to see Palin because “she’s got kind of a bad rap.” She wanted to see Palin unfiltered and unedited.
“His economic issues kill the American dream,” she said. “His defense policies kill the American spirit. His moral and ethical policies kill what America was built on.”
3:05 Karon McPeeters, from Marion, says she came out because, “I like what she stands for.
“I have a niece that lives in Alaska and she says she’s doing great things for Alaska,” she said. “She has come up through the ranks like the rest of us.”
3:10 Seen at the scene:
Nathan Ramsey is handing out McCain stickers to everyone passing by.
“No socialism. No class Warfare, No Obama, no way!”
A significant anti-abortion contingent is present, with signs reading:
“Unborn for Palin”
“Pro-life for Palin”
“We vote pro-life”
“Palin power”
T-shirts:
A homemade one says, “You betcha!”
“Another small town religion-clinging, gun-toting American voting for McCain and Palin.”
3:15 Tim Pack is wearing a small name tag that simply says, “Joe.” Although he is a Libertarian, Pack says he is coming to see Palin because he is a feminist. “I support Palin I hope she is successful in everything she strives for,” he says.
Uh, delusional. Video of Palin and more of the AC-T’s live blog is below the fold, including some zombie action.
Rep. Robin Hayes (R-NC08), after his campaign was caught in a flat-out lie over his comments at a rally that “liberals hate real Americans that work and achieve and believe in God” that happened to be recorded, finally decided to issue a “clarification”, saying his comments “came out wrong.”
And lo and behold, the homo-hate came spilling out as well. Matt Comer at QNotes:
He said he was trying to draw a distinction on the differences between liberals and conservatives but admitted his comments were not the right way to do it. In addressing his statements at the rally, Hayes attacked LGBT families.
“As a conservative, I fight for lower taxes and policies that strengthen our values,” Hayes said in the written statement. “Liberals are advocating higher taxes, which I believe punish success — and they are advocating policies like gay marriage that I feel undermine strong families.”
It’s time to put this fossil, who is a member of the House Prayer Caucus, out of his misery and elect Larry Kissell, who was narrowly defeated (329 votes) last election cycle. Larry:
The hard working families of the 8th District and our nation deserve a commitment to education, economic opportunity, civil rights, personal freedoms and the safe, clean environment that we all want for our families.
We’ve had enough of the nonsense from the incumbent aristocracy in DC that has proven they’d rather wedge us apart than bring us together. It’s time for an honest debate on Real Family Values.
OMFG. The jokes are just writing themselves. Will Gov. Mark Sanford’s best bud Lindsey Graham stick up for the Palmetto State Playboy now? (The State):
I have no idea whether long-time GOP consultant and the former mayor of our capital city, Tom Fetzer, is gay. Honestly, I don’t care if he is or not, but I do care that he thinks there is something wrong/bad/evil about being gay.
The state’s top liquor regulator, Doug Fox, is now the 
A poor choice of words? Too late for you, Rep. 
It was a wonderful sunny and crisp day in Raleigh on Tuesday, and there was a great turnout for the Equality NC Day of Action. It drew 250 people from across the state—that more than doubled the attendance at prior lobby days. We had people come from as far away as Duck (that’s on the Outer Banks) and to the mountain town of Hendersonville to meet with the legislators to discuss pro-LGBT legislation in the queue and to urge them to oppose the marriage amendment. (
Would you want this man ministering to your child? Another “Christian” pervert on the loose. On March 6, Benjamin Douglas Caldwell, a youth pastor and athletic director at High Point, NC’s Hayworth Christian School was busted for statutory rape and indecent liberties with a minor after a 911 call came in reporting a sexual assault. And it wasn’t only one incident. (
Lisa Loper, her daughter Cassidy Maney, from Sevierville, Tenn., drove about an hour and 45 minutes to get here. “I wanted my daughter to see this,” Lisa said. “We just think this is a very important election,” because of the moral issues at stake and the economic crisis.
He said he was trying to draw a distinction on the differences between liberals and conservatives but admitted his comments were not the right way to do it. In addressing his statements at the rally, Hayes attacked LGBT families.