daily kos

From Daily Kos via Think Progress with a minor addition or two.

There's this not-quite-so-laughable proposal from North Carolina Republican Rep. Larry Pittman, a freshman House member from Cabarrus county and a pastor to boot, in an email to every member of the state's General Assembly.

"We need to make the death penalty a real deterrent again by actually carrying it out. [...] If murderers (and I would include abortionists, rapists, and kidnappers, as well) are actually executed, it will at least have the deterrent effect upon them. For my money, we should go back to public hangings, which would be more of a deterrent to others, as well."

Yeah! Let's string up doctors and hang them in the public square to deter them from practicing medicine. That'll learn 'em! Could this be the start of a successful career in NC politics for Pittman?

An especially well-reasoned post, definitely worth your time.

Have you ever wondered why it (our income tax code) is labyrinthine in its complexity? Don't you find it strange that payroll taxes, which are designed to tax the poor and middle classes, are starkly simple, while the income tax, designed to preferentially tax the rich, is stupefyingly complex? Do you get the impression that the loopholes were designed with your welfare in mind? How many middle class folks can hire an expert to structure their financial affairs to best take advantage of the complexity? Are you so naive as to believe the tax code was designed to insure fairness for all?

If you know Thom Tillis and Phil Berger, send them this link. It's a sad day in America, sadder still here in North Carolina.

This should be required reading for every man in America. A most excellent diary up today at Daily Kos: Please stop touching me.

Just be sure to touch me before you go. Touch my shoulder, my hair. Try and touch my face. Stink of booze while you do it. Try and hug me. Give me a high five. Touch my back. "Accidentally" touch my chest or buttocks. Take my asking you to stop as a joke. Smile when you apologize because if I tell you go to go hell, you'll write me a bad review and say I was bitchy.

From a North Carolina diary on the recommended list at Daily Kos.

Mr. President you are everything that frightens them, everything that threatens their order, and everything they hate. You cannot win them over. They will always hate you. They hate you because your father was black, your mother was a white intellectual woman, because you are educated and because you are successful. Your very existence threatens their world.

I've been impressed with a new initiative recently launched by the team at Daily Kos. Simply put, they're working to take the reins of the Internet using a disciplined, community-based effort for search engine optimization. It's good stuff all around.

If you're looking to get more mileage from your online efforts, the Daily Kos post on tips related to search engine optimization is well worth reading.

The entire state of North Carolina is on evacuation alert today, with nearly nine million people expected to flee a perfect storm of free market fanaticism. Observers trace the pending catastrophe to the corporate takeover of government predicted by Republicans following the elections of 2010.

With nothing to lose but democracy, that takeover appears to have been engineered by Variety Wholesalers' Art Pope, who was joined by PPD, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Duke Energy, Blackwater USA, and Titan Cement in pouring more than ten million dollars into North Carolina elections. That will be enough to buy one US Senator, six judges, seven Congressmen, 50 school boards, and two-thirds of the North Carolina General Assembly.

Wish I'd written this.

Hi everyone, Elaine was over at Daily Kos this morning to talk about her campaign, and I thought folks might be interested in what she had to say. You can read the whole exchange by clicking here. Thanks!

How does your jobs plan differ from Burr's?

The difference is that we have a plan, and he doesn't.

-- Elaine

What is your view of trade policy?

We need to rebuild our manufacturing sector, and strengthen our middle class.

I'm in favor of tougher enforcement of labor and environmental clauses, but I also think that trade policies should be crafted where our trading partners must operate under similar labor and environmental standards that U.S. companies do.

-- Elaine