NYT’s Severson: ‘Some’ Say ID Stripe on Illegals’ Drivers Licenses Are ‘Modern-Day Scarlet Letter’
No good deed goes unpunished? In a compromise move, North Carolina officials will issue drivers licenses to young illegal immigrants who have won deferrals from deportation, but with a distinguishing colored marking on the licenses – a pink stripe. New York Times Atlanta bureau chief Kim Severson likened the stripe to "a modern-day scarlet letter" in "North Carolina to Give Some Immigrants Driver's Licenses, With a Pink Stripe."
Severson insisted in her Wednesday story from Raleigh that "some are calling" it that, though she doesn't quote anyone using that memorable term. (A web search suggests the "some" people calling NC's move "a modern-day scarlet letter" are solely Severson's fellow aggrieved liberal journalists.)
Blueprint NC: How A Shadowy Left-Wing Hydra Plans A Targeted Attack On NC Republicans
Musician James Taylor: ‘I Really Suffered’ Under 8 Years of ‘Cheney/Bush’
Musician James Taylor may not be at the peak of his career anymore, but he's still doing quite well for himself. Taylor's estimated net worth is around $60 million. Nevertheless, as a featured speaker at a National Press Club luncheon on Friday, the liberal musician used the platform to bash George W. Bush, who's been out of office for nearly four years now.
While the subject was supposed to be on election reform, the veteran singer-songwriter held forth on how he amped up his political activism because he was "really suffering" during the "Cheney/Bush" years, Liz Harrington of our sister site CNSNews.com reported on Friday.
More Abrasive Than Usual, MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell Challenges Tagg Romney to Fight Him
In response to an innocuous joke Tagg Romney made on a radio show in North Carolina, Lawrence O'Donnell used the platform that is his late night talk show on MSNBC to taunt and threaten the oldest son of a presidential hopeful.
Seemingly as serious as a heart attack, the nearly 57 year-old O'Donnell challenged the 42 year-old to a fist fight "any time, any where". [ video and transcript below ]
More Abrasive Than Usual, MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell Challenges Tagg Romney to Fight Him
In response to an innocuous joke Tagg Romney made on a radio show in North Carolina, Lawrence O'Donnell used the platform that is his late night talk show on MSNBC to taunt and threaten the oldest son of a presidential hopeful.
Seemingly as serious as a heart attack, the nearly 57 year-old O'Donnell challenged the 42 year-old to a fist fight "any time, any where". [ video and transcript below ]
Talk is Cheap: DNC Funded by Corporations
While this will almost certainly remain unreported on the broadcast news networks, the Associated Press is reporting that the Democratic National Convention Committee accepted at least $5 million in corporate donations and borrowed another $8 million in order to reach its $36.7 million budgetary goal, according to the financial disclosure reports that were filed with the Federal Election Commission on Oct. 17.
In doing so however, the Democratic Party failed to uphold its pledge to run its convention solely from money raised by individual donors and not corporate cash. "This convention will be different," DNC chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-Fla.) promised last year.
NYT’s Severson Finds ‘Radicals’ and ‘Conservative Christian’ Protesters in Charlotte, But Occupy Movement Isn’t Even Liberal
New York Times Atlanta bureau chief Kim Severson on Friday committed her usual labeling bias describing prep work by the host city for the Democratic National Convention in "Charlotte Girds for Party And Array of Protesters."
Severson found "radical evangelical groups" composed of "conservative Christians" as well as a "conservative country music concert," but the left-wing Occupy Movement failed to draw even a "liberal" label, much less a "radical" one.
Outrageous: Raleigh, N.C. CBS Affiliate Station WRAL Publishes Searchable Database of Concealed Carry Licensees
*Corrected from earlier | WRAL, the CBS affiliate in Raleigh, N.C., recently published a searchable database of concealed carry licensees within the "WRAL viewing area, including Chatham, Cumberland, Durham, Edgecombe, Franklin, Granville, Halifax, Harnett, Hoke, Johnston, Lee, Moore, Orange, Nash, Northampton, Person, Sampson, Vance, Warren, Wayne, Wilson and Wake counties." Searches do not turn up names or street numbers, but they do give a number of permits issued to residents on that street.
The search form for the database appears within a story filed July 12 (updated July 20 -- the day of the Aurora, Colo., shooting), entitled "Rural areas lead in concealed weapons permit rates." Numerous conservative blogs have been taking WRAL to task for the decision, including native North Carolinian Sister Toldjah (emphasis hers):
Malkin Column: The Coming DNC Disaster
There aren't Greek columns tall or wide enough to camouflage Barack Obama's impending North Carolina catastrophe. In September, the campaigner-in-chief will travel to Charlotte for his party's presidential nominating convention. For once, the incurable jetsetter may wish he had stayed home.
Obama's stage managers envision a triumphant, unifying coronation reminiscent of their 2008 DNC production in Denver. But the southern swing state is turning into a Democratic disaster zone.
Start with the North Carolina Democratic Party. At the state party convention last week, Obama for America was AWOL. The glaring absence of high-level national Obama surrogates was noted "as odd," according to the Charlotte News and Observer. There's good reason to steer clear. The party is embroiled in a sordid sex scandal that won't go away.
Earlier this year, former party communications staffer Adriadn Ortega, 26, accused former NCDP executive director Jay Parmley of repeated sexual harassment and physical groping. Documents leaked to the conservative Daily Caller news site revealed a hush-hush financial settlement involving the two men. Ortega was fired; Parmley resigned; state Democrats went into panic mode.
"If this hits the media, the Democratic Party, our candidates and our credibility are doomed in this election," a local candidate complained to NCDP chairman David Parker. A defiant Parker resisted statewide calls (including a desperate request from outgoing Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue) to resign. Ortega filed a defamation suit against Parker and the NCDP last week. The White House, which has trumpeted its stand against workplace harassment, has been mute on the story.
Other Democrats are boycotting North Carolina to avoid an entirely different taint: the scandal-plagued president himself. By TheDaily.com's count, at least seven Democratic officials will skip Obama-palooza: New York Democratic Reps. Bill Owens and Kathy Hochul; Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Mark Critz; three endangered Democratic politicians from West Virginia, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, Sen. Joe Manchin, and Rep. Nick Rahall; and Utah Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson.
The Democratic boycotters have dinged Obama on everything from his election-year illegal alien amnesty power grab to his failed jobs programs to his destructive war on coal. While "Forward!" may be the official Obama campaign slogan, "Back Away!" is quickly becoming the dissenting Democrats' rallying cry.
Moderate Democrats aren't the only ones refusing to put on the party hats and sing "Kumbaya." North Carolina is riling Obama's left flank, too. And national media outlets are noticing. In a piece on the DNC "going awry," Bloomberg News reported:
"Voters just approved a state constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, which conflicts with Obama's view on the issue. Convention fundraising has been slow, and labor unions tapped to fill the financial gap are angry the convention will be in a city — Charlotte — with no unionized hotels and in a state where compulsory union membership or the payment of dues is prohibited as an employment condition."
Thousands of anarchists, socialists and professional agitators also plan on protesting in Charlotte. After giving Mr. Hollow Hope and Change a first-term pass, self-declared progressives can't ignore Team Obama's in-your-face decision to deliver his presidential nomination acceptance speech at bailed-out Bank of America Stadium. As I've reported previously:
—The financially troubled bank snagged a middle-of-the-night, taxpayer-funded $45 billion banking bailout in 2008 and an estimated $931 billion in secret federal emergency loans.
—In 2008, B of A's political action committee gave its biggest contributions to Obama totaling $421,000.
—After purchasing junk mortgage company Countrywide, BofA agreed to pay $50 million in restitution payments for Countrywide subprime loan fraudster and Democratic fat cat Angelo Mozilo and one of his underlings.
Disgruntled leftists. Disgruntled centrists. Disgruntled unions. Disgruntled corporate donors. Sexual harassment scandal. Fundraising woes. And to top it all off: unrepentant class-warfare hypocrisy packaged as "The People's Convention" and brought to you by Bank of America. The DNC promises to be a public relations nightmare for Obama's optics geniuses. Too bad he can't send his autopen instead.
Michelle Malkin is the author of "Culture of Corruption: Obama and his Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks & Cronies" (Regnery 2010). Her e-mail address is malkinblog@gmail.com.