theCLog

This morning ESPN was talking about former NFL quarterback on SportsCenter.

And that’s how my morning started.

Then I saw this:

Georgia, Handsome Dan, Curly and other pit bulls rescued from Michael Vick’s dogfighting operation are getting a shot at fame as stars of a line of boutique red wines.

The Vicktory Dogs Wine Collection features colorful portraits of 22 dogs confiscated from Vick’s Bad Newz Kennels that now live at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in southern Utah.

Does Vick get a cut of the profit? He is bankrupt, you know.

Yes, dogfighting is wrong, and like Michael Vick, I reject it. (I found Jesus too, he was hiding behind my sofa)

I have yet to understand America’s obsession with dogs. Vick’s punishment was overboard when you have men in the NFL (and currently in the White House–George W. Bush) who have killed PEOPLE.

In some states, you get more time in prison for killing a dog than killing a woman or a baby. That shit is crazy.

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It would be hard to watch the fall of the Republicans if it weren’t so damned funny.

Since the election, the GOP has been nipping at itself. Want proof?

Here’s a sample of an e-mail that I received from a decidedly right-wing group:

War In The GOP & John McCain’s Blame Game

November 12, 2008

by William Gheen
President of Americans for Legal Immigration PAC
www.alipac.us

The top brass in the Republican Party that the public blames the most for perpetual wars, the next Great Depression, and trying to give Amnesty to millions of illegal aliens that they let into the country in the first place are circling the wheel of the GOP ship with their rapiers out!

Blue collar and middle class Republicans are advancing on the once proud captains of the GOP hoping to see Bush, McCain, and their most ardent supporters walk the political plank, in an effort to save the party from decades of fallout. Let’s face the truth. Bush, McCain, Senators Graham and Martinez have not only led the GOP to destruction, they have run the great ship called America upon the rocks, with their brand of ‘leadership’ in the US Senate and the White House.

The GOP lost any real chance of retaining the White House the day John McCain won the primary. Due to election dynamics, a Ted Kennedy loving, Amnesty pushing, Free Trade pushing, Globalist, Democrat in Republican clothing named John McCain won. On election day, the resounding message and historical example became “You can’t screw over the conservative base and still win as President!”

The turnout level for the 2008 elections was no where near the created media hype massive turnout forecast by the pro-Obama media. In fact, according to the American University‚s Center for the Study of the American Electorate, Democratic turnout was only up a few percent points. The problem for McCain was that less Republicans showed up than in 2004’s Presidential race and many of those Republicans either voted for Obama, voted third party, or left his race blank.

Take heart, dear Republicans, there is always Sarah Palin to bail you out. Just make sure you dress her up real nice.

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I had a conversation with a comic book geek the other day and he said He-Man sucked.

I was appalled because I thought all comic book geeks loved He-Man. Then I started thinking about 1980s cartoons. I’ll admit it, I loved He-Man and the Masters of the Universe as well as She-Ra: Princess of Power.

Watch this mini-sode and tell me it doesn’t bring back memories:

But this has to be the best cartoon of the 1980s:

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It’s Tuesday night and the Denver Nuggets are in town, but the seats in Time Warner Cable Arena are pretty empty.
The economic news isn’t good and it’s spilling over into how people are spending their discretionary income. Maybe the money that they’d spend on a ticket to see Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups has to be put aside for a rainy day.

Or maybe people still aren’t sold the 2-5 Charlotte Bobcats.
Eddie Henson was one of the fans who came out to the game on Tuesday. He said he was there because he’d gotten free tickets. Normally, he said he’d come to one or two games a year.

“We’d come out depending on who was playing. I like to come see LeBron [James] play and Carmello,” he said. But now that many people are tightening their belts, Henson said he’s going to do the same — even if he hadn’t been doing a good job of it right now.
“I’m trying not to eat out as much,” he said, but then he motioned to his companion, “but that’s pretty hard.”

But sitting through a Bobcats game is kind of lame. The team isn’t that great and if you’re not a fan of who they’re playing, there is really no reason for you to be in the Time Warner Cable Arena.

The pre-game activities focus as much on head coach Larry Brown as it does on the players. I realized as I watched the Bobcats, this team doesn’t have one star that people would spend their hard earned money to see. Gerald Wallace? Okafor? Raymond Felton?
The biggest star for the Bobcats is Michael Jordan and I didn’t see him last night.

But the Bobcats are finally starting to give people their money’s worth. The first half of the game looked as if the Bobcats would win and when they only lost by eight points, it pretty much showed that they’re not the losers they used to be.
Still, a good seat at Time Warner Cable Arena costs about $75.

They’re going to have to win a lot more games if they want to sell out in this economy.

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Crazy in molestation?

So we all know that Jay-Z, aka Shawn Carter, and Beyonce Knowles, aka Sasha Fierce, are married now.
But do we really know how young Beyonce was when she started dating the rapper? Jay-Z is old as hell. If you remember Hawaiian Sophie then you know.

Big Jaz is probably somewhere crying. But he shouldn’t be — because Jay-Z is practically a child molester. Sure, Beyonce says that she was 18 when they started dating, but what do an 18 year old and a 32 year old have in common?
Wait for it …
Wait for it …
Wait for it …
I give up, because I don’t have a clue.
The last time Jay-Z was young was in 1989. But he still calls himself “Young Hova.” I guess Beyonce fell for it. But how could her parents? If Jay-Z was that lecherous old man from down the street, would Matthew and Tina had allowed this relationship to continue?

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Since President-Elect Barack Obama began his run to be President of the United States, threats against him have trickled in like drops of rain. From Jerry Blanchard, a Charlotte accountant who got his head examined after allegedly making threats against Obama and his family to four N.C. State students who wrote racist graffiti on a wall at the school.

As early as May, security for then Senator Obama had to be ramped up. If a “mainstream” Georgia paper printed this image of Obama …

… what’s going on in cyberspace, where hate can go unchecked until there is a serious threat? How have hate groups reacted to the election of the first black president?

There is the Obama sucks Web site, which also has a link to an online petition to impeach Obama. Here’s a sample of what’s on the site:

Well fellow Americans, it is a sad time in American politics. We will have a President with no experience and questionable policies. It’s time to stand up for your rights. Contact your local rep and urge them to begin the Impeachment process. This man cannot be allowed to run our beloved Country.

The Anti-Defamation League collected these thoughts from hate groups after Obama’s election:

On a radio show on the white supremacist Internet forum Stormfront soon after Barack Obama’s win, anti-Semite and racist David Duke announced, “I really believe tonight is a night of tragedy and sadness for our people in many ways…[we've lost] the fundamental values of the United States of America…the country is not recognizable any more.”

Hal Turner, a New Jersey-based white supremacist, wrote on his blog that “America committed national suicide tonight because we turned control of this nation over to inferior people who, in the history of the world, have never created or maintained the kind of advanced nation that we White people created here.”

On the neo-Nazi Vanguard News Network forum, “Wild_Bill_Hyde” declared that America was now “OFFICIALLY DEAD!”

The Occidental Observer, an online magazine connected to the racist journal The Occidental Quarterly, posted an editorial on the election, calling it “the worst of all possible results.” It said that white people who attended Obama’s victory rally in Chicago were “pathetic” and argued that Obama will likely institute “quota-style affirmative action and transfer payments that will alienate whites in droves.”

Racists posting to the white supremacist Internet forum Ni–ermania appeared somewhat more resigned. A person using the screen-name “KOS” declared, “America will become another third-world sh-thole like Africa if it is run by people like Barack Hussein Obama and other minorities.” Another extremist, posting as “Himmler SS,” wrote, “America [sic] flags should be flown upside down as the international symbol of distress.” “Anti-Nigram added, “It’s a nightmare I can’t shake myself out of…We may not be perfect for being a bit ‘racist’ but God forgive us our flaws and help us survive these dark times to come …

But as hate groups hope Obama’s election will swell their membership roles, groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center say:

It may be that the hatemongers are wrong, that Americans’ better angels will prevail and the changes that are sweeping America will not result in a growing rage on the right. But experience tells us that while we hope for the best, we also must prepare for what could be a dangerous, racially motivated backlash of hate.

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Mayor Pat McCrory:

The Charlotte Observer proclaimed that losing is new for Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory.

While that may be true, he isn’t the first Charlotte mayor to lose statewide. It happened to Richard Vinroot when he ran for governor, it happened to Harvey Gantt when he faced off against Jesse Helms, back when North Carolina wasn’t so blue.

Now that the mayor is unemployed — he gave up his Duke Energy job to seek higher office — and back to being the head of Charlotte full time, though it is a part-time job, what’s next for McCrory?

“My wife told me eight months ago what my future would be here in Charlotte and I’ll announce that later,” the mayor told WCNC-News Channel 36.

A call to McCrory’s press secretary wasn’t returned to Creative Loafing Friday afternoon to discuss what was in McCrory’s future.

One thing is certain — he’s still the mayor. For now at least — in 2009, if he decides to run for reelection again, he’s facing a challenge from At-Large City Councilman Anthony Foxx.

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Commissioner Dan Ramirez:

Ramirez was elected to the Board of County Commissioners twice in an at-large seat, but in this election he lost.

He says that his future plans include making up for the money he lost while he was in office.

“I’m going to work like crazy,” he said in a phone interview today. Ramirez owns a small engineering firm, which he said he’s going to focus 100 percent of his attention on right now.

“It sounds funny, but it is the truth. Fortunately, I have a life and I have a job and I have to make a living and I’ll be putting my time into my company,” he said.

As far as running for office in the future, he said it’s too early to talk about.

“You can never say never, but for the time being I just want to go ahead and take a respite and work in my office and we’ll see what happens.”

And though Ramirez doesn’t think the newly elected commissioners will take his advice, he does hope the board will delay the property reevaluation.

He says this community just can’t afford it right now.

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Creative Loafing is reaching out to election losers.

In a Time Magazine article released today, Sen. John McCain’s aide Mark Salter reflects on Tuesday’s loss.

The morning after John McCain’s defeat, Mark Salter, McCain’s closest aide and biographer, sipped coffee in the courtyard of the Biltmore Resort and Spa while explaining why the national political press had assisted Barack Obama. “On top of everything, we had a thumb on the scale,” he said, referring to the media’s role in refereeing the campaign. “It wasn’t right, but it was what it was.” (See pictures of John McCain’s campaign farewell.)

Salter argued, as he has for weeks in private conversations, that the press was skewed for several reasons. “McCain was the story they had covered. He was a 2000 news story,” Salter said, while Obama was the new guy. He said the press was also swayed by the possibility of America electing its first black President, who could get the country “past the old racial baggage we have lugged around for so many years.” “I understand that appeal,” Salter continued, sounding neither bitter nor upset. “I think McCain probably, as you can tell from his speech last night, felt part of that a little himself. And I think that required the press, then, to start rationalizing McCain into something he wasn’t.” (more…)

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Mecklenburg County Democrats benefited from the excitement surrounding the election of President-Elect Barack Obama.

The Board of County Commissioners now has six Democrats in seats and three Republicans.

Charlotte Nayor Pat McCrory lost his bid for governor, even losing in Mecklenburg County, something that has never happened to the seven-term mayor.

So what do the losers of Election 2008 plan to do next?

Sen. Elizabeth Dole:

Dole lost her bid to return to Washington to State Sen. Kay Hagan. In one of the country’s nastiest campaigns — there were allegations of godlessness, a ruby red slipper campaign — Hagan came out on top.

Dole, who is from Salisbury, told the Associated Press that she had no plans to retire from public service.
Calls to Dole’s campaign headquarters were not returned this morning.

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