Open Thread

North Carolina has some of the richest members of Congress.

Republican Rep. Robin Hayes of Concord, an heir to the Cannon textile fortune, ranks sixth, with $59.7 million, according to Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper.

Rep. Charles Taylor, a Brevard Republican, is worth $56.1 million.

Sen. Elizabeth Dole, a Salisbury Republican, is worth $13.5 million.

Thanks to the News and Observer for bringing us this uplifting piece of news! Now I know why these @$$holes wonderful Congress folk do such a good job representing our interests!

How long does it take for 14 adults to fold, stuff, seal, label and stamp 2200 fundraiser invitations?

A friend sent this fun link to an Offical Seal Generator. Go have fun!

Take four minutes and find out.

Happy Sunday afternoon, everyone. The site looks so spiffy, I can barely take my eyes off of it. I've got a big writeup of yesterday's Immigration Town Hall Meeting to do, but there's also the competing pull of family, friends, festivals, chores, and football. How do you all balance your political activities with your other priorities? This weekend I gave up a number of opportunities to be with family in order to soak in venom from the sacs of the Republicans and to lampoon them in another, soon to be revealed, project.

How do you balance it all?

Bush lied. People died.
He'll lie again.
Innocents slaughtered.
American arrogance.
We abuse people who are mentally ill.
Black's sleaziness.
Robin Useless tool.
Football fan jerk.

We've been having some trouble with the front page, so I've demoted a few entries, which appears to have fixed the problem. I'll be examining each entry to see what can be reposted to the front without breaking things again.

Sorry for the confusion.

The Southern Dem's good work on behalf of Larry Kissell generated a bit of coverage in the Charlotte Observer for BlueNC yesterday. If you're a new reader, thanks for stopping by our online forum for progressives in North Carolina. You're welcome to register and join the conversation!

You can tell it's a slow news day when the top story in the New York Times is a whopping two full pages of non-news about the Duke Rape Case. No kidding. Two whole pages dedicated to reporting nothing new whatsoever in a Tobacco Town case that only voyeurs, lacrosse players and Duke alums care about.

Don't bother to read the whole article, because all you really need to know is what the headline says:

Files from Duke Rape Case Give Details but No Answers

Duh. If there was ever a golden age of print journalism, this ain't it.

Lasting political change of any sort, whether good or bad — from emancipation to woman’s suffrage to Social Security to the inevitable end of Social Security — starts on the radical fringe before it rules the center. A healthy intellectual discussion should not be restrained by toeing a middle line.

From a book review by Brian Doherty, a free market apologist whose his many personal biases thoroughly contaminate the review (along with far too many ads for the Cato Institute). But it's worth a look if you're interested in understanding how political change happens, and equally important, how it doesn't.

Got any interesting quotes?