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BREAKING: Americans for Prosperity NC accuses NAACP of planning riots at Gen....
Jeanne Milliken Bonds, a blogger who covers state politics in North Carolina, has been accused by the NC chapter of Americans for Prosperity of colluding with the NC chapter of the NAACP to plan riots,...
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N.C. civil disobedience: Nearly 100 arrested so far for protesting...
More than 200 people gathered May 13 to support the 49 people arrested for peaceably protesting at the N.C General Assembly building in Raleigh, North Carolina. Garrison Keillor opens his monologues...
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N.C. Moral Monday #4: 57 arrests at N.C. General Assembly today; 153 arrests...
Members of the N.C. Legislative Black Caucus show their support for protesters and those arrested for walking into "The People's House" (N.C. General Assembly) and refusing to leave.First busload of...
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N.C. Moral Mondays: Happy birthday arrest, MsSpentyouth!
Hundreds of protesters witness the arrests fellow protesters engaged in acts of peaceful civil disobedience at the N.C. General Assembly. With the arrests of 151 people on "Mega Moral Monday" (June 3)...
View ArticleN.C. Sen. Thom Goolsby, you SERVE N.C.; you do not RULE its people
Quick update: I'm off to get arrested for asserting my constitutional right to assembly peaceably at the N.C. General Assembly and may not be back for quite a while. Y'all just carry on without me,...
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N.C. Moral Monday #6: 89 arrested; Charlotte Observer reporter detained
Hundreds of supporters crowded the third-story balcony above the 89 participants in civil disobedience plus media covering the prohibited peaceful gathering at the NCGA on June 10, 2013. The start to...
View ArticlePlease, read this diary on N.C. bill to eliminate gun permits
Take a moment to read Christian Dem in NC's diary on N.C. House Bill 937, "Proposed NC law would do away with handgun permits." Today in committee at the N.C. General Assembly, the bill was ... well...
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N.C. Moral Monday/Witness Wednesday #6.5: 8 arrests on first Witness Wednesday
You've probably heard about Moral Monday at the N.C. General Assembly. We're in our sixth wave of Moral Mondays and have added a Witness Wednesday to our calendar. Moral Monday and Witness Wednesday...
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N.C. Moral Monday Wave #7: est. 84 arrested tonight; total arrests now 485
Moral Monday at the N.C. General Assembly in Raleigh is gaining traction throughout North Carolina and in the national media. And last week, we added Witness Wednesday to our calendar of protests and...
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N.C. Moral Monday/Witness Wednesday: Join Witness Wednesday at NC Capitol...
Been keeping up with the Moral Monday movement in North Carolina? If you're in the area, join the movement today as a witness to the odious raft of ALEC-sponsored bills being ramrodded through the...
View ArticleN.C. Art Pope creates database of Moral Monday arrestees, including several...
Pardon the brief diary; I just got to my hotel room after a long day volunteering at Netroots Nation and learned that the John W. Pope Civitas Institute has created an online database and a "Pick the...
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N.C. - Moral Monday #9: 72 arrested; 682 so far
(My apologies for not writing about Moral Monday #8; I made it back home to Raleigh after NN13 and caught a bus from the airport directly to the N.C. General Assembly just in time for the Moral Monday...
View ArticleMy own private abortion
I will be leaving very soon to take part in the 10th wave of Moral Mondays here in North Carolina. I was arrested June 10 for taking part in civil disobedience at the N.C. General Assembly; I won't be...
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N.C. Moral Monday #10: at least 64 arrested, 746 unique arrests so far
Rev. Frederick Battle is all too familiar with civil disobedience and what spurs people to fight power with peaceful assembly. The mild-mannered minister was arrested 51 years ago in Greensboro, N.C.,...
View ArticleAsk me anything about a Kossack Moral Monday meetup at the N.C. General Assembly
Interested in taking part in one of the upcoming Moral Monday protests and rallies at the N.C. General Assembly? Want to participate in a Kossack meetup?We have many fine qualities in Raleigh, North...
View ArticleN.C. -- Tweeting the NC Tealiban for permission about ... anything and...
"“If you want to make decisions about my uterus and my reproductive life, you get to make all the decisions about my life. You don’t get to cherry pick.” -- Bethany Erickson That's how Texas mom...
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N.C. Moral Monday #11: 101 unique arrests, things heat up
Hundreds of observers crowded onto the third-floor balcony of the N.C. General Assembly to peacefully support the 101 civil-disobedience volunteers being arrested one floor below. Amid sweltering July...
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BREAKING: N.C. Moral Monday #12: Spontaneous sit-in shuts down Gen. Assembly...
When NAACP-NC President Rev. William Barber suggested from the N.C. General Assembly building's second floor (where civil-disobedience arrests were beginning to take place) that people sit down if they...
View ArticleTakeover of NC Speaker Thom Tillis' office
Moments ago, a group of students and other North Carolinians moved into the office of N.C. Speaker of the House Thom Tillis and initiated a sit-in a la Wisconsin and Florida.Those of us not at the NC...
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UPDATED: North Carolina Gen. Assembly takes back 100 years of voters' rights
Democratic members of the N.C. House of Representatives joined hands and bowed their heads in an emotional show of unity as votes on HB 589 were counted in a late-night session on July 25. It is done....
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N.C. Moral Monday #13: What happens now?
As many as 10,000 protesters took to the streets of downtown Raleigh to protest the repressive bills that made their way through the NC General Assembly this legislative session. Protesters wore red to...
View ArticleN.C.'s new voter-suppression and guns-evrawhere laws take a dark turn
With the July 26 passage of HB937 ("gun omnibus" bill) and passage of HB589 ("VIVA/election reform" bill), the election circumstances in North Carolina have changed from omnibus to ominous.HB937...
View ArticleN.C.: You can help voters prove eligibility under our new voter-suppression law
One week ago, the Republican/Tea Party supermajority in North Carolina's General Assembly passed the most repressive, restrictive voter-suppression law in the United States. HB589, the Voter...
View ArticleRevolutionize war-making by peacekeeping
What has brought us to the point of yet again waging war without any goals for peace? The US stance of becoming a "conquering hero" has not produced success in many decades, and it's a stance that has...
View ArticleKitchen Table Kibitzing: Revolutionize war-making by waging peace
What has brought us to the point of yet again waging war without any goals for peace? The US stance of becoming a "conquering hero" has not produced success in many decades, and it's a stance that has...
View ArticleKitchen Table Kibitzing 09/21/2014: The snobby wobbly of Hobby Lobby
Greetings, felicitations, salaam aleikum, selamlar, shalom, zdravo, and welcome to Kitchen Table Kibitzing.It's been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon -- but things haven't been quite as quiet in North...
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That Call. The One in the Middle of the Night #BlackLivesMatter
A demonstrator stands in front of a truck and stops traffic during the evening rush hour on the streets of Washington, D.C., shutting down 14th & K streets in the heart of the city. (Photo: Paul J....
View ArticleWhat the Senate report carefully doesn't say about torture of Khalid Sheikh...
So the U.S. Senate Select Intelligence Committee has released a summary of its study of the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program. It's a hefty read, yet even at more than 500 pages, the summary is...
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Nurturing and nourishing Cedwyn's family
Jotter shared the sad news on Saturday night that we lost our beloved Cedwyn to disseminated cancer.I just got this note from Jack Thompson, Cedwyn's father: "Cedwyn passed away tonight, quietly,...
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Citizen lobbying on a snow day at the NC General Assembly
Well, it's that time again: The N.C. General Assembly (NCGA) meets for a "long session" every other year, when it deals with the majority of bills that have budgetary implications. Our last long...
View ArticleTwo NC lawmakers draft guns-for-teachers bill for one Christian school, not...
Well, this is a headscratcher. While doing some citizen lobbying today at the N.C. General Assembly with Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense, we spoke with legislators about a bill filed earlier this...
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UPDATE: GOAL REACHED! My pootie Cecile needs a little help
Cecile keeps the Internet safeUPDATE UPDATE UPDATEAs of 11 p.m., Cecile's vet bill is taken care of!! Thank you a million bajillion times, Great Orange Satanmates! She's going to start treatment on...
View ArticleClimate change in the food deserts: Yes, we can!
Are you someone who wants to make live better for people who live in “food deserts”? Do you shop at farmers’ markets? Do you ever talk with the produce manager at your local grocery store? Do you have...
View ArticleOur Eye Is on the Sparrow .... A Grieving Mother Becomes Collateral Damage to...
Nora (not her real name) was a vibrant, funny, brilliant, sassy, resilient woman about my age. She was talented and hilarious and had a heart as big as Texas.But Nora is gone now. We met last year...
View ArticleRight now: force Congress to address gun violence
He purchased his primary gun legally. Another gun he purchased perhaps less legally, but it was 1991 and the term “mass murder” wasn’t in the news every other day and it didn’t seem strange that a...
View ArticleAction: Spread the word about the upcoming PootiePaddalooza (with POLL!)
Can you take a few minutes to tweet, Instagram, Facebook, or email this press release about the PootiePaddalooza? Our beloved Pootie Padders SaraR and winglion have launched an amazing Kickstarter...
View Article"What are you?" My granddaughter dives into the convoluted politics of racial...
My granddaughter Leyla was four weeks old when her mother was deployed overseas; her father had been deployed to Afghanistan before Leyla was born. So there I was, a mother who hadn’t cared for an...
View ArticlePass the word: NC voters in long lines need bottled water
The lines are looooooong at polling sites in North Carolina, despite record early voting numbers. If you live near a campaign headquarters or GOTV staging location, would you consider dropping off...
View ArticleSanta, a Breastfeeding Mother, and a Crying Grandmother Among Those Arrested...
It sounds like the start of a bad joke, right? “So a breastfeeding mother, Santa Claus, and a grandmother walk into the N.C General Assembly … “It’s bad, alright: an odious and audacious power grab by...
View ArticleA heart, a brain, a home, and the cowardly lyin's in Congress
I spent Monday and Tuesday this week calling U.S. Senators (again) about health care in the United States. (Or, as is likely to happen to millions of us, the lack of health care to come.)Here is my...
View Article"Until they came for Mika" -- there's more to Joe's Republican repudiation...
Though I appreciate Callum Borchers’ Washington Post opinion piece about the significance of "Morning Joe"'s exit from the Republican Party, something else bugs me about Joe Scarborough's public...
View Article"Well, you *could* go to France for treatment ...." Your US healthcare options
So. Yeah. I’m in the hospital with a brain thing. That’s #1; #2 is that I’m one of those effing poor people we all keep reading about.First, apologies for the old photo above and lack of HTMLs and...
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Not ready to give up. Will you help fight a truculent tumor?
A few days ago, I posted this story about a healthcare crisis that’s giving me a couple options: 1) move to a country with universal healthcare and a Center for Excellence for a specific type of...
View ArticleDear Mr. Elected Official: We need to talk about these allegations
Dear Mr. Elected Official Representing My State House District:We need to talk about our relationship. We first met when you were first running for that N.C. House District seat in 2012, and we’ve...
View ArticleTorture as a "moral issue" and a 2004 secret US Command report mistakenly...
Warning dear readers that I’ve been sick and I’m plumb wore out, so this diary will be briefer and more lightly sourced than it should be; I just want to put a placemark in my 16-year research into our...
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Phonebank Soup for the Soul
Oh, the dreaded phonebank. Before I tell you another long, rambling story, I’ll skip to the end: Last night I phonebanked in support of the upcoming North Carolina teacher walkout and rally, and I had...
View ArticleUPDATED: CIA destroyed video recordings but kept written transcripts of...
A couple days ago, I posted a diary about a 2004 “for eyes only” USCENTCOM report that was mistakenly mailed to me by a young aide at then-Sen. Elizabeth Dole’s office. The report came as the result of...
View ArticleIt Takes More Than a Bake Sale and GoFundMe to Fix a Broken Brain
First of all, I’m not asking y’all for money again. Thanks to many friends on DKos and in Netroots Nation and with Moral Monday and a whole gigantically glorious community of friends, I have what I...
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The Time Since Yasemin Took Her Life
There was a time before my daughter Yasemin took her life, and a time after. Today marks the start of Week Eight without her.Yasemin Deborah “YaYa” Yaman died at her home in Kingston, Jamaica, on...
View ArticleIt's time for The Talk about military suicides
Sometimes an issue can’t be put off any longer. We have to address it. Our families have to have The Talk. You know the ones; President Biden mentioned one of them in his 2023 State of the Union...
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