Durham

This is our first get-together and will serve as an organizational meeting. We will meet, greet and eat as we discuss creative ways to support our candidate, Hillary Clinton. Local legislators have been invited to attend. Hillary Clinton Meetups are the place to connect and organize with Hillary supporters in your area. Together we can make things happen for Hillary in 2008. So, let's get out there and show everyone that Hillary really is "our girl!" To join this NC meetup group got to http://hrclinton.meetup.com/114/ and join up. It's fast, free and simple. Hope to see you there!

Hi Guys!!!, Wow, I was not expecting to see so many RSVP'S for this event, it's great though!! I have gotten a couple of voicemails/emails which I will be returning today, as well as trying to reach all of you who have RSVP'D. I've been out stumping for Hillary, and haven't had a chance to check the status of this even very frequently, and given the great turnout we're looking at here, I'm doing my best to find a bigger, better, but still close location. If you don't hear from me today soon enough for your logistical reasons feel free to call me and I will do my best to keep everyone updated!!

Tonight my wife Kate and I -- and a lot of folks in the Bull City --  will head downtown to take in a free screening of Durham: A Self-Portrait at the Carolina Theatre. The first show at 7:30 is sold out.

The documentary chronicles the people and neighborhoods of my hometown, as well as the history of race and class here.  It's the work of Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Dr. Steven Channing and Durham-based VideoDialog.

The city has a rich heritage as a textile center and of course, tobacco production (Liggett-Myers, which vacated long ago); my father's side of the family has long been a part of the city's history as well, in business, public service and civil rights. It will be interesting to see how civil rights era history will be covered in the doc.

When surfing by the excellent local blog Bull City Rising, I found a short video tribute to the city center by Luther Blissett. It's below the fold.

fp'd by Betsy

Meet Durham mayoral candidate Thomas $tith, extreme right-wing Republican, as he waxes nostalgic for the Reagan years. Of course, this is a non-partisan election, so we don't want to talk about that partisan stuff, right?

In the middle of a perfectly predictable warning that North Carolina communities should avoid the evils of planning ahead, Stagemanager John Hood today sneaks a little pro-Puppetshow propaganda into his otherwise forgettable column.

For the most part, city and even school-board elections this year won’t be decisive (though spirited mayoral contests in Cary, Wilmington, and Durham will be worth watching). Instead, much of the political energy and resources will go into high-stakes public referenda in communities across the state.

If you haven't read about Thomas Stith, you should. He has long been the token black guy a star in Jack Hawke's Civitas Circus, which itself is an appendage to the Art Pope Puppetshow. He's running for mayor of Durham. Since I live only a mile from the Bull City, I was inspired to read more about Mr. Stith by this post from Barry Ragan. When I got to Stith's website, I found this welcoming letter:

I also realize that we can do better. Durham is a city that continues to struggle with the horror of violent crime and gang activity. We are literally losing our children.

Military families at heavily deployed bases like Fort Bragg and Camp Lejeune are communities at war without their country. Never in our history have so few been asked to sacrifice so much while so many are asked to do nothing at all. Too many Americans hear about the war in Iraq on the evening news, switch off their TV's and sleep well at night confident that the yellow ribbon magnet they bought for their car last week is a sufficient sacrifice. My two military children have sacrificed more before age 10 than the grown men in Washington four times their age who beat the loudest drums to send their Daddy off to war...

If the referendum on the transfer tax here in Durham County had been held among speakers at the Commissioners meeting, it would have been a rout. The Realtors showed up, but transfer tax supporters were here in much, much bigger numbers.

Senator Jeanne Lucas, who so ably represented the 20th district and Durham County in the State Senate for nearly 14 years, passed away last month.

It falls upon members of the Executive Committee of the Durham County Democratic Party to nominate a replacement to finish her term of office. (I love sentences with so many capital letters. They exude importance.)

On Saturday 3/31, candidates for the seat met in a forum sponsored by Young Democrats of Durham County, and Durham Democratic Women, to answer questions about why they were seeking the seat, and what agenda they would carry out should they earn the nomination.

Also mentioned at DKos

Most of you know that when I was at Carolina, I was suckered into joining a hypercharismatic church that was once part of Maranatha Campus Ministries, a notorious campus cult from the 1980s. This church, King's Park International Church in Durham, is now one of the leading churches in Every Nation, which by all indications is a lineal descendant, if not an outright revival, of Maranatha. KPIC's founding pastor, Ron Lewis, is also the pastor of Morning Star New York, a church plant in Manhattan.

Well, a few days ago, one of my fellow EN refuseniks came upon a financial disclosure statement for Sam Brownback's PAC, Restore America. It seems that a mere nine days after Sam Brownback travelled to Manhattan, Lewis and two of his Every Nation colleagues donated a total of $2,200 to this PAC. At the very least, you have a presidential candiate taking donations from a guy with DOCUMENTED ties to a recognized cult. At most, it's potentially a violation of campaign finance laws.