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Aside from ignoring Shuler's lead in four polls, CQPolitics.com published a well-written article for your Saturday reading pleasure:

"Shuler — a native of North Carolina’s mountainous west who was a football star at the University of Tennessee before a less-successful pro career — is staging a serious bid to unseat eight-term Republican Rep. Charles H. Taylor. Now a real estate executive, Shuler also is one of a very few strong Democratic takeover candidates in the South, a one-time party stronghold that has shifted strongly to the Republicans since the 1960s.

  

There's an old saying in the world of political journalism: Never start a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel. I don't know if that advice still applies in the Internet world, but for better or for worse, it's long past time to start a fight with the Raleigh News and Observer.

Why? Because the paper simply isn't doing its job properly. Along with almost every other property in the main stream media, the N&O has gotten lazy and sloppy in ways that cannot be ignored. In particular, the N&O has been entranced by the self-promotional magic of the John Locke Foundation. So instead of critical analysis and healthy skepticism, the N&O regurgitates JLF talking points and "reports" as though they actually say something worth knowing. And while that's an abomination on its face, the problem is even worse. The N&O swallows JLF content like a ten-year-old eating Sweet Tarts, while largely ignoring counter-balancing voices like the Common Sense Foundation and NC Policy Watch. (Click on the image to enlarge.)

By now you recognize that the Republican Party in North Carolina has fallen into the stranglehold of Art Pope. As you move forward and think through whether to appeal the SBOE ruling, I invite you to consider another question as well:

What the hell are you still doing in the Republican Party?

You are a member of a party that has been taken over by extremists. You are a member of a party whose leaders remained silent on illegal electioneering, or in some cases, condoned it. You are a member of a party that believes planning for the future is part of a communist plot.

Cross-posted at DailyKos

I've been getting more and more into this citizen journalism thing all summer at OAC blog. I think this is more than just a new kind of blogging for me. I think the next presidential election cycle will witness a whole new kind of emerging media. We're seeing glimpses of it now, but in 2008 this new YouTube people-powered journalism could take off. The new media will be the kind that uses websites like this and sites like YouTube to deliver Citizen Generated Content, stuff that we make and not the campaigns.

2006: The Return of the Racist Republican
With Republicans having proved their complete incompetence at governing the United States and with no record left to run on but fear, the 2006 mid-term elections are already making this the year of the racist Republican. Several of Republican’s favored candidates nationwide, including Virginia, Florida, Tennessee, Utah, Montana, and North Carolina are running openly racist campaigns.
Our own Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (NC-5) is the closest example of a conservative Republican relying on nothing but her unashamed racism in order to appeal to a conservative population.

listen to the ad here

Congressman Charles Taylor is in the pocket of Big Oil, and an independent group is spending $500,000 to tell the voters. Via MyDD comes a radio ad from the Association of Trial Lawyers of America highlighting Taylor's oil money addiction. The ad makes explicit Taylor's support for oil industry subsidies using a southern fried 'Harry and Louise' format.

Last night at Pontiac Pointe in Albamarle, NC, Larry Kissell and his supporters met for a “Gathering of the Green”. Surprisingly, the first person there to greet the guests and fill out the name badges was a 16 year old by the name of Frankie Pickler. (Kelly is his 3rd or 4th cousin). I later found out that young Pickler has been working on Larry’s campaign since he was 14 years old.

One week later and no word from the DCCC. We have to really rally for this next 68 days. If everyone were to give $15 per week for the next 10 weekit would really help.

Larry has been coonsistently ignored in polls. Chris Bowers left himoff his list agaign. Isn't there going to be a big suprise in November?

Commie-pinko Chris Fitzsimon at NC Policy Watch has a problem with the recent finding that ONE OUT OF EVERY FIVE North Carolina children lives in poverty? There he goes go again ... worrying about a bunch of poor, hungry kids who were dumb enough to be born to no-good welfare moms and crackheads.

Why don't you just get with the program, boy? Over at the Puppetshow, Stagemanager Hood thinks poor kids really like being poor and playing in the streets in a Barbara Bush sort of way. But noooooo, you have to go and bring up a bunch of mean ol' facts:

Never mind that almost one in five children in North Carolina lives in poverty. Politicians love the children, including poor ones, especially when they get to school and have to take standardized tests, but helping their poor families at home is a different matter.

Helping their mothers isn’t very popular either, even though it was one of the promises of the 1996 welfare reform initiative, that single mothers would get help with child care so they could enter the workforce in a low-paying job or go back to school to learn a skill to be able to find work.

As we mark the ten year anniversary of welfare reform, it is time to admit that the promise has been broken, as more than 30,000 children in North Carolina languish on the waiting list for a child care subsidy. Their mothers cannot go back to school or take a low-wage job. They are stuck in poverty because they cannot afford care for their child.

Why do I hate this man? No, it's not what you think. I don't hate him for any of the things he has done. I hate him for the things he won't do over the next three years that ONLY he could accomplish.