Christian Dem in NC's blog

cross-posted at dKos

This past weekend, I shot off an email to Dr. Ada Fisher, the Republican national committeewoman for North Carolina, asking her to speak out against RNC chairman Reince Priebus' disgusting comparison of President Obama to Costa Concordia coward Francesco Schettino. I did this hoping that Fisher had at least some semblance of decency.

Well, this afternoon I was out walking when my Yahoo! Mail Android app beeped. Turned out Fisher had replied. I thought I was getting a response. What I got instead was a mass email on what was up with Republicans and the presidency. This email was also sent to several black media outlets (Fisher is one of three African-American members of the RNC) and right-wing email lists.

Many of you know that RNC chairman Reince Priebus had the gall to compare President Obama to Francesco Schettino, the coward who ran the Costa Concordia aground. Priebus has had long enough to apologize, and it's time for him to resign.

You would think that at least some Republican national committee(wo)men at least have some semblance of decency. I'm hoping that one of North Carolina's two representatives on the RNC, Dr. Ada Fisher, is one of them. Drop her a line at fisheram at msn dot com.

cross-posted at dKos

As many of you know, Patrick Wooden, a black pastor in Raleigh who is helping lead the push to write a gay-marriage ban into North Carolina's constitution, jumped into the spotlight a few weeks ago with remarks that are disgusting and hateful, even by fundie standards. In two separate radio appearances with Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth about Homosexuality that gays have to wear diapers or butt plugs and stick objects up their rears to keep from losing their bowels.

Regardless of where you stand on gay rights, this kind of hate has no place in civilized discourse. Period. Let's tell Wooden's buddies at the Christian Action League and Vote for Marriage NC--the people driving this amendment--to put their money where their mouth is and tell Wooden his comments are unacceptable.

WLOS in Asheville reports that Heath Shuler is taking a very long look at the governor's race, and is apparently leaning pretty strongly toward getting in.

Good news: he'd probably clear the field if he ran. Bad news--unless the congressional map gets thrown out, this makes NC-11 a very, very tough hold. For those who don't know, under the Ruchomander NC-11 is the most Republican district in the entire state.

Not surprisingly, Public Policy Polling's phone has been ringing off the hook today. However, based on their October polling, Erskine Bowles would likely be the strongest candidate against all-but-certain Repub nominee Pat McCrory. And the numbers for Democrats nationally have gotten a lot friendlier since October.

Shameless plug--if you think the same way, help draft Bowles

One of the major leaders of the Amendment One push is Patrick Wooden, pastor of Upper Room Church of God in Christ in Raleigh. Lately, PFAW's Right Wing Watch has tracked down some of Wooden's recent comments in the media. Some of them are downright cringe-worthy, even by wingnut standards. Among other things, he thinks that gays stick objects up their rear ends, and claims to have seen a gay man die from losing his bowels.

Am I the only one who thinks this guy is a black Fred Phelps?

Ken Aden, a former Staff Sergeant in the 82nd Airborne, is running for Congress in Arkansas' insanely red 3rd District. Last weekend, his campaign manager came home to find his cat brutally hacked to death, with the word "LIBERAL" scrawled across the remains.

The lies just keep piling up for State Senate Deputy President Pro Tem James Forrester. We already knew his claims to be a fellow of the American College of Preventive Medicine and an associate fellow of the Aerospace Medical Association were false. If those weren't enough reason to demand Forrester's resignation, WRAL's Laura Leslie dug up something today that practically screams for him to go.

Forrester's campaign website also says he is a member of the American Medical Association. An AMA spokesperson says Forrester is not currently a member of the group.

Forrester claims the errors were inadvertent. I'd find that a little easier to believe if the claims weren't STILL on his campaign Website as of now (10:32 pm Eastern).

Late yesterday, Elizabeth Warren formed an exploratory committee for a Senate run in 2012. Suffice to say that one of the fastest ways to get voters to the polls would be to show video of Patrick McHenry's disgraceful treatment of her back in May.

Hope you're proud of yourself, Congressman. You just might be responsible for keeping the Senate in Democratic hands.

As many of you know, the state legislature took it upon itself to ram through its own map for Mecklenburg County commission districts. The reason? Republicans on a citizens' commission were upset that one of the maps under consideration would have split the towns in the southeastern part of the county into two districts.

Whatever you may think about what the citizen board was considering, this strongarm act by the legislature is yet more proof North Carolina needs to bring local government into the 21st century. Specifically, we need local home rule.