Tag: right-wing

The “libertarian” divide

September 21, 2012 at 1:23 pmCategory:Uncategorized

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If only the local “libertarian-free market” think tanks had the courage to embrace the entire libertarian agenda rather than simply using the label as a convenient cover for what almost always ends up being a defense of far right conservatism.

For instance, national Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson was in Durham yesterday and had this to say according to the Durham Herald-Sun:

“I am the only candidate who does not want to bomb Iran,” he said. “I am the only candidate who would get out of Afghanistan tomorrow. I am the only candidate who believes that marriage equality is a guaranteed Constitutional right. I am the only candidate who wants to end our drug wars now and legalize marijuana now.”

For some reason, however, neither the Lockers or the Civitasers or Americans for the Prosperous has yet to offer up any glowing reports on this comment or the general Libertarian support of keeping government at bay when it comes to private, personal behavior (much less some sort of effort to favorably contrast President Obama and Governor Romney on these issues).  

Meanwhile the partisan propaganda from the these folks just keeps on coming and coming and coming and coming and coming.

LaRoque replacement likely to offer quite a style contrast

September 4, 2012 at 2:41 pmCategory:Uncategorized

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A temporary replacement for former state lawmaker Stephen LaRoque was appointed last week and according to this story in the Kinston Free Press, she seems likely to offer quite a change in style, if not political ideology.  

“Kozel is the board chair for Eastern North Carolina Home Schoolers and is the director and co-founder of the Eastern N.C. Tea Party. She is a mother of 13 children and is married to Dr. William L. Kozel of Kinston.”

A hint of good news on a dark morning

August 29, 2012 at 8:09 amCategory:Uncategorized

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Hurricane Isaac is raking the Gulf Coast this morning on the seventh anniversary of Katrina and will undoubtedly leave a trail of destruction and woe behind. Elsewhere, however — for better or worse — the world moves on. Here’s one small bright spot worth celebrating: The good people at the Center for Media and Democracy report that the front group for right-wing economic and social causes known as the American Legislative Exchange Council (or ALEC) continues to lose more and more members.

According to this encouraging report:

“Six more companies have indicated that they are cutting, or have cut, ties to ALEC: General Electric (GE), Western Union, Sprint Nextel, Symantec (maker of Norton antivirus software), Reckitt Benckiser Group (a British consumer goods company that makes such brands as French’s mustard, Woolite, Lysol, Clearasil, Durex, and D-Con), and Entergy (a power plant company headquartered in New Orleans)…. Read More…

The real terrorist threat

August 16, 2012 at 9:30 amCategory:Uncategorized

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Leonard Pitts of the Miami Herald tells it like it is in this column that was reprinted in the Charlotte Observer this morning:

Can we finally say the thing we have not said so far?

Last week, a white supremacist shot up a Sikh temple near Milwaukee, killing six people and wounding three. It is considered likely that the shooter mistook the Sikhs, whose men wear beards and turbans, for Muslims. The massacre came a few weeks after a characteristically baseless charge by Michele Bachmann and several other conservative legislators that a Muslim aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has ties to Islamic extremism.

The juxtaposition of those two events is emphatically not meant to suggest Bachmann somehow “caused” the Wisconsin rampage. No, the point is that we are looking for terror in all the wrong places. Or, perhaps more accurately, that we are not looking for it in all the right places. Read More…

Local conservative group should apologize for staffer’s attempt at “humor”

July 31, 2012 at 2:08 pmCategory:Uncategorized

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In keeping with the theme in today’s Weekly Briefing and the call therein for less know-it-all commentary, this post will not pontificate at any length about how offensive and troubling the “Random Thought” published today in the “Education Update” newsletter of the John Locke Foundation was. We all make dumb mistakes and have told “jokes” we’d like to have back.   

Let’s just say that the “thought” (which is reproduced below) was and is NOT funny, displays a remarkable level of insensitivity and lack of class and ought to be retracted ASAP.

“Random Thought

The most “American” Olympic sport is Modern Pentathlon.  I mean, it sounds like your average summer day in Detroit – swimming, running, riding, shooting pistols, and trying to stab a complete stranger with a sharp object.”