BREAKING: Greg Brannon Challenges Sen. Dick Burr in Republican Senate Primary

Greg Brannon, the gynecologist who tried to take down Thom Tillis in the Republican Senatorial primary of 2014, has reportedly filed this morning to challenge Richard Burr.

Let's call this "the Donald Trump effect." Though Brannon has a way to go before he can play Trump on TV.

The "Franklin Graham Seat" in the NC General Assembly

Deanna Ballard

Sen. Dan Soucek was Franklin Graham's boy in the NC Senate. Soucek had a job with Samaritan's Purse and did Graham's bidding in Raleigh, including the introduction of the anti-gay marriage Amendment One (subsequently overturned in court).

Soucek pulled a fast one today, suddenly withdrawing from a reelection run. Within minutes of that announcement, Deanna Ballard, "Director of the Office of the President/CEO at Samaritan's Purse and Billy Graham Evangelistic Association," filed for the office. We know Franklin Graham will underwrite her campaign.

Why did Soucek file in the first place, when his replacement candidate was clearly lined up and ready for lift-off?

One good reason: To prevent Soucek's 2014 Republican primary opponent for the Senate seat, George Robinson of Caldwell County, from filing for the seat. Robinson had been appointed to a vacant seat in the NC House and had already filed to run for election. Now it's too late for him to mess up Franklin Graham's grand plan to keep a willing puppet in the NC Senate.

Too cute by half.

Soucek Decides Not To Run for Reelection After All

This is an earthquake.

Sen. Dan Soucek had already filed for reelection. Now he withdraws, joining a host of other Republican members of the General Assembly who are taking a powder.

Lot of this filing and then un-filing going on these days.

The Power of Christ Compels Them

Down in Macon County, Bob Scott, the newly reelected mayor of Franklin, NC, took the oath of office with his palm resting on a copy of the U.S. Constitution.

Always eager to show that they're founts of Christian love, some local religionists have erupted with the humility and charity preached by Jesus: "I was really upset about it," said Barbara Moyer, a Macon County resident. "As far as I'm concerned, if the Bible's not good enough to do your oath, then you're not good enough for the Bible, I'm sorry. I'm a Christian, and I'm proud of it. Anybody that refuses the Bible, I don't want nothing to do with them. As far as I'm concerned, he's out."

Another emailer, after obviously re-reading Matthew 5-7 and wishing to bestow blessings on the poor in spirit, wrote Mayor Scott:

Curious to know why you chose to deny Christ. This country was founded on Christian values. The constitution clearly states that. You made it to where you are by the grace of god and turn around and spit in his face. As a life long North Carolinian (unlike you), I'm sickened by you arrogance [sic]. I run a small shop down the road from you and not that it will matter, but I assure you this matter will not be forgotten. And I promise you will not be elected again unopposed. However I can hurt you politically, trust that I will. I will keep your insolence at the top of everyone's mind. You are a disgrace, and you should not be sucking the Government tit anymore. Take Nancy and your godlessness back to South Carolina where you belong a**hole.

Just one tiny footnote: Of course, the Constitution does not mention Christ (or even "God") in any context whatsoever. But it is true that South Carolina is a godless Gehenna not worthy of being redeemed in this world or the next.

For Pete's Sake, Just Stop It

We see this morning that a high school in Philadelphia will stop using "Huckleberry Finn" because a tiny fraction of its accurate-to-the-19th-Century language makes students uncomfortable. I'm uncomfortable with contemporary school systems that allow the students to determine the curriculum based on what makes them uncomfortable.

The statue of "Silent Sam," the Confederate soldier, on the campus of UNC-Chapel Hill gets repeatedly vandalized because he's a symbol of the Old South, slavery and all. That's right. An historical artifact inspires the emotional use of spray paint, and we're supposed to wink at that.

Controversy erupts at Yale University because a residence hall is named for John C. Calhoun, a big defender of slavery (not to even mention "nullification") before the Civil War. If we start abrading the names of former vice presidents for beliefs that offend us now, may we pulverize the marble busts of Spiro Agnew and Dick Cheney, who now occupy plinths in the U.S. Capitol? Or simply deal with the curiosity of their particular moments and ironies in our American political history?

The sand-blasting of history will not change history. The United States was an avid promoter and utilizer of slavery. We should remember that fact, not attempt to efface it from the built landscape and squelch its artifacts from the schoolroom.

When we start purifying the past by erasing its presence in the present, where do we stop? No public figure in American history, whose monument or likeness or mere name (fer Gawd's sake) might offend someone with its embedded memory of wrong-doing or wrong thought, would ever be sufficiently free of civic sin.

Christopher Columbus? How does removing his name from a national day for post-office closings cleanse his and the collective Conquistedores' genocide against the Indians? Making ourselves feel satisfied that we've somehow taken revenge for the past by erasing a memory in the present is a fool's game.

The Age of Exploration was full of greedy jerks. The U.S. presidency, let alone the vice presidency, attracted ambitious jerks. The history of religion is replete with pious jerks. Some of those jerks are actually famous now for occasionally rising above their jerkhood. Thomas Jefferson was a trainwreck of contradictions, yet we honor him for the light and not the darkness.

The American university is now sometimes terrorized by pious anti-historians. I'm actually proud of them for learning that there's a dark side to almost every era, every "advancement," every public figure. Hell, Margaret Sanger, who brought us women's liberation via birth control, has been outed as a racist. But to join the wrecking crew that thinks pulling down statues changes hearts and minds puts young people in the same league with the dudes that "purified" their world by blowing up an ancient giant statue of Buddha.

McCrory Gives Us a New "Brand"

To which, a graphics designer responded in The Independent:

"If we are to seriously consider this video, it must be critiqued as the propaganda it plainly is. The video communicates that if you are reasonably wealthy, you can claim '[the view] from the windows of an executive suite,' the pleasures of water sports, and the beautiful pottery from Seagrove. This is a political vehicle meant to broadcast a political agenda: 'Come on in, the water's fine!' whitewashing the fact that for so many North Carolinians, the water is swarming with sharks aggressively and systematically tearing limbs from our education system, social services, environmental and public programs. The depictions of African-Americans are: a man reviewing paperwork, a street busker and an African-American man and child looking at a caged African animal. ... The 'Nothing Compares' tagline is likewise sourced from a bin of stock phrases generic enough to apply to any state, town or dry cleaning establishment. It has, in fact, previously been used by a ski resort in Australia, a tourism campaign for Egypt and a Cuban rum...."

At some considerable public expense, The Guv gifted every state worker with a "Nothing Compares" lapel pin.

This Bud's For You, Sen. Berger!

The MillerCoors announcement that it would be closing its brewery in Eden, NC, by next September has caused some acid reflux for NC Senate Bossman Phil Berger, in whose district there will be 520 additional unemployed voters.

Pundits are wondering what those voters will think of Sen. Berger when it finally dawns on them that he's responsible for knocking the sides out of the state's unemployment safety net.

Berger's all upset. He spearheaded a call to the U.S. Congress to investigate MillerCoors and stop the plant closure. He signed a letter in which he emotes like a Broadway star: “This decision could have a devastating impact on our community and raises troubling questions that we hope you ... will investigate and demand answers to. While these giant beer conglomerates are looking out for their own interests, the hardworking people of Rockingham County are legitimately concerned.”

This sudden, public worriment on the part of Phil Berger, Man of the People, caught the attention of Tim White of the Fayetteville Observer:

...where did this new Berger come from? Where was his deep concern when he was chasing the film industry out of Wilmington and the rest of the state? Where was his concern when we exported thousands of television and motion picture jobs to surrounding states, most notably Georgia, which boosted its film tax incentives just as Berger was killing ours? Just two years ago, North Carolina was Hollywood East. Now, Atlanta owns that title.

The hypocrisy gets worse, and Tim White is on the case:

Berger and his colleagues slashed all of those [unemployment] benefits, suggesting they only inspired laziness. Sorry, folks, but it was the right thing to do for the state. So get out there and hustle for those jobs — which, unfortunately, may not even exist.

And if they want to sign up for Medicaid, so they can continue to provide health care for their families while they’re jobhunting, or making do with something that barely pays minimum wage? Well, that might not work out either.

Thanks in large part to Phil Berger, this state hasn’t expanded its Medicaid program to cover low-wage workers — which is what many of his constituents will become when their unemployment benefits run out. The feds would pick up almost all of the cost of Medicaid expansion, but Berger, ever the ideologue, refused to cooperate with the evil Obamacare program....

Those chickens are coming home to roost, Senator Berger.

Thom Tillis Signs on to the Donald Trump/Franklin Graham Brand of Racist Poison

Yesterday afternoon in the U.S. Senate, Senator Patrick Leahy offered a "sense of the Senate" amendment to a nuclear terrorism bill being considered in the Judiciary Committee: “It is the sense of the Senate that the United States must not bar individuals from entering into the United States based on their religion, as such action would be contrary to the fundamental principles on which this nation was founded.”

All the Democrats and seven of the Republicans on the committee voted for the amendment, which after all just reasserts a founding principle of "no religious tests" in Article VI of the U.S. Constitution.

Sen. Ted Cruz voted against it, even though he wasn't present. Also voting against the amendment -- Thom Tillis, that towering monument of statesmanship which is crumbling like chalk under the pressure of un-American "Trumpism."

Tillis reads the polls, and although he has another five years before he faces the voters in North Carolina again, he evidently decided that he'd just go ahead and proclaim his far right credentials now to all those extreme elements in his own party who are currently gung-ho for Trump's brand of racism.

It was an easy call, probably. What North Carolina politician has ever gone wrong parroting the latest in racial fear?

Franklin Graham Sez: "Donald Trump Is Good, But I Was FIRST!"

Franklin Graham has been polishing his Golden Rule -- "Do unto others before they have a chance to do it unto you!" -- and apparently can't abide letting Donald Trump get all the credit for Muslim hate. Graham has reminded everyone via Facebook that back in June he called for banning all Muslims from coming into this country while Donald Trump was just an unsubstantiated rumor.

Speaking for God is a Franklin Graham speciality, though some high-ranked Christians aren't buying it. Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, wrote Monday on his blog that “anyone who cares an iota about religious liberty should denounce this reckless, demagogic rhetoric."

Graham makes the "good Samaritan" a kind of mascot for his corporate identity. What that Samaritan evidently carried in his purse was a semi-automatic.

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/living/religion/article48805250.html#storylink=cpy