North Carolina

In 2013 right-wing lunatic Robert Pittenger and a less extreme, business-friendly Republican calling himself a New Dem, Patrick Murphy, sent out a letter to House leadership from a motley crew of conservative freshmen-- from crackpot sociopaths like domestic terror supporter Steve Stockman (R-TX), congressional coke dealer Trey Radel (R-FL), whack job teabaggers like Kerry Bentivolio (R-MI), Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) and Ted Yoho to the usual aisle-crossing Blue Dogs and New Dems from the Republican wing o

They all look the same to me; which one is Mark Walker?After the North Carolina Republican primary runoff last month, many people were stunned by what happened in NC-06 (think Mayberry), where a heavy Establishment favorite, Phil Berger's son, Phil, Jr., was defeated by fringe right-wing extremist, Baptist Choral Pastor/gun nut Mark Walker.

One of the most overlooked races in the country, NC-06, had their Republican primary runoff last Tuesday.

NC-12, which snakes through the state looking for African-Americans, has a D+26 PVILast week, the whole country got a chance to look in behind the walls of the political sausage-making machine known as gerrymandering-- at least for Florida.

WBT, Charlotte's News Talk 1110, broadcasts mostly local talk (plus Rush Limbaugh) and is the ratings leader in the market. Their signal is so big they can be picked up anywhere on the East Coast of the United States. Last week they announced they were firing popular comic hosts, Brad Krantz and Britt Whitmire.

In the segment above, Rachel Maddow put into context Richard Burr's deranged attack on American veterans groups. A politicized lawnmower salesman who avoided military service himself, Burr claims to be a distant relative of Aaron Burr, who killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel. This Burr is also the ranking Republican on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, not the Senate Lawnmower And Small Appliances Committee.

Speaker Boehner beats French teacher WintereggLast night there were primaries in Indiana, Ohio and North Carolina. Unless you're related to one of the candidates, there was nothing to write home about in Indiana but there was a lot of action in Ohio and North Carolina. Well, a lot in North Carolina and a bit in Ohio.

The Republican Establishment is trying to make a come back after badly losing two presidential cycles in a row with feeble and extremely unpopular establishment candidates, John McCain and Mitt Romney. Today's primary in North Carolina is their shot to nominate the Speaker of North Carolina's widely hated state House of Representatives.

Rev. Geoffrey A. Black, general minister and president of the United Church of ChristPerhaps you saw the article by Nick AConfessore and Jeremy Peters in this morning's NY Times, Gay Rights Push Shifts Its Focus South And West.

Yesterday, consistent with his principles of non-interference in other countries, embattled North Carolina Republican Walter Jones was one of only 34 congressmen-- 32 Republicans + Alan Grayson of Orlando and Beto O'Rourke of El Paso-- to vote against the rush by the Establishment to spend a BILLION dollars in taxpayer money to prop up a Ukrainian government of dubious legitimacy.