theCLog

Today is the last day to register to vote on Election Day. Mailed applications must be postmarked Oct. 10, and the Board of Elections will accept on-site registration until 5 p.m. Here’s a
map to the Mecklenburg Board of Elections office on Kenilworth.

If you forget to register, you can still register and cast a ballot at one-stop early voting, which begins Thursday. Here’s how, courtesy the state Board of Elections:

The process is sometimes referred to as “In-Person Registration,” but it is important to recognize that it not permitted on Election Day itself.

To use this process, a citizen must (1) go to a One-Stop Voting Site in the county of residence during the One Stop Absentee Voting period, (2) fill out a voter registration application, and (3) provide proof of residency by showing the elections official an appropriate form of identification with the citizen’s current name and current address. The new registrant may vote ONLY at a One-Stop Absentee Voting Site in the county of registration during One-Stop Absentee Voting period and not on Election Day.
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Two former military intercept operators have made allegations that NSA linguists routinely eavesdropped on troops’ phone calls home from abroad.

Adrienne Kinne, a former U.S. Army Reserves Arab linguist, told ABC News the NSA was listening to the phone calls of U.S. military officers, journalists and aid workers overseas who were talking about “personal, private things with Americans who are not in any way, shape or form associated with anything to do with terrorism.”

David Murfee Faulk, a former U.S. Navy Arab linguist, said in the news report that he and his colleagues were listening to the conversations of military officers in Iraq who were talking with their spouses or girlfriends in the United States.

According to Faulk, they would often share the contents of some of the more salacious calls stored on their computers, listening to what he called “phone sex” and “pillow talk.”

I don’t disagree that this story is disturbing. To think that all of the phone conversations I shared with my friend while he was deployed in Iraq were being recorded is incredibly creepy. Now that I think about it, I do remember an odd clicking sound on the phone sometimes.

But it probably should be taken into consideration that calls made home from the Middle East by troops, aid workers or whomever were most likely made on military or Department of Defense phones, and these people knew they were subject to being monitored. (Remember that little thing called the terrorist surveillance program implemented by the Bush administration?)

In fact, my friend was so paranoid about our calls being listened to that once, when he needed to give me a number, he wrote it down on a piece of paper and showed it to me quickly over the web cam.

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Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today, Oct. 10, 2008 — as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing.

• Ventriloquist/comedian Terry Fator at Belk Theater

• Fresh Fest: Old School Reunion 2008 goes down at Cricket Arena

• Charity beer tasting at Morton’s Steakhouse

• Tim Reynolds & TR3 at Neighborhood Theatre

• Get lost in the Flashlight Maze at Historic Rural Hill Farm

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Photo by Richard Faverty

Ventriloquist Terry Fator really knows how to “throw” his voice. He made that clear on NBC’s America’s Got Talent - and he even won $1 million. His act features a variety of puppets that he uses to impersonate music stars like Garth Brooks, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Tony Bennett, Elvis, Nat King Cole and plenty more. And, he’s not even moving his lips. You can see him in action when he visits Charlotte for a performance at Belk Theater on Fri., Oct. 10. Read Creative Loafing’s interview with Terry Fator below.

Creative Loafing: You became interested in ventriloquism at an early age. Can you tell me a little about it and exactly how old you were when your interest began?
Terry Fator: Certainly. I was 10 years old, but a ventriloquist had come to my church when I was 8 years old and I hated him. He was terrible. Even at 8 years old I thought, ‘This guy is really bad at this.’ But it didn’t make me want to be a ventriloquist. When I was 10 years old I was browsing through the library and stumbled on a book about how to do ventriloquism and I thought, ‘Well, this looks like fun.’ I’d also never forgotten that bad ventriloquist when I was 8 years old, because I said ‘I never want to be like that. I always want to be really good if I’m going to do it.’ It only took me a couple of days to kind of get it down and I started saving up for a little puppet. I knew when I was 10 or 11 years old that I was going to do this as a career. There was never really anything else that I wanted to do. (more…)

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Does John McCain have anger management issues? This film contends that he does:

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A story on McClatchyDC.com addresses the issue of unemployment in Iraq. U.S. officials estimate that well over half of Iraqis who want to work can’t find jobs. In fact, the situation is so dire that even insurgents — called the Sons of Iraq — have agreed to turn against violence in exchange for paying jobs.

But many more Iraqis still can’t find work. According to the story, they say “getting hired to most jobs — especially government jobs — usually involves sizable bribes, family connections and months of waiting.” And as one member of the Iraqi parliament puts it, “When people have no income to live on, they become desperate and can quickly turn to violence.”

With our own current economy crisis, it’s not unlikely that the same could happen here. What about the Los Angeles man who killed his family and committed suicide because of his “dire economic situation”?

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Every once in awhile, I check out Charlotte-Mecklenburg Animal Care & Control’s Web site to see the latest euthanasia numbers. I volunteer there occasionally, so I see all the good work the shelter does. These numbers, however, drive home what a woeful job our community (read: those among us who are irresponsible pet owners) does in controlling the pet population.

In August, about 68 percent of dogs and cats brought to shelter were euthanized. More than 83 percent of cats were killed; about 55 percent of dogs were. And that’s not an atypical month. Most of these animals are unwanted — the product of someone’s failure to spay or neuter a pet.

Free and reduced-cost spay/neuter services are available through animal control and the Humane Society of Charlotte

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Girls, if you are in search of a hot, slinky Halloween costume, consider this: http://view.break.com/457715

For some reason, the video is totally mesmerizing.

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I’m starting to believe there’s a serious surplus of pissed-off folks in Charlotte, and it’s not all due to gas lines or WalkOverYa tanking — at least some of the anger is the result of people being treated like idiots by people who are paid to help them. Yes, I’m talking about lousy customer service again. This week’s issue hit the street yesterday evening, and five readers have already responded to my second column about bad service with their own tales of being ignored, insulted or blown off by the city’s wondrous service sector.

Let’s see, we’ve got a “mile-long line at a movie theater but only one ticket seller, which made me late for the movie,” “a manicurist [who was] so incompetent, my freaking cuticles started bleeding — but hey, she did manage to verbalize a mild ‘oops’, so I guess I should be satisfied,” and “a waiter had the nerve to argue with me about how I had ordered my steak cooked (I ordered it medium-rare and was given a well-done), until finally a manager had to come over and tell the waiter, in so many words, to shut up and bring me what I wanted,” plus a couple of tempers flaring behind the counter at convenience stores.

Not to be outdone, I went to the Apple Store today to buy an iPod accessory. I walked directly to an employee (a manager, it turns out, not a salesperson) to ask a question, and the guy looked right at me and walked right on by as if I was invisible. Considering that Apple prides itself — hell, markets itself relentlessly — as supremely customer-friendly, I was stunned. To all those who wrote in, or will write in, about complaints, do what I did - get the jerk’s name and let his/her superiors know about it. It may or may not help, but you’ll feel better, believe me.

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That one. Those two words have gotten a lot of attention since John McCain muttered them during last night’s debate about Barack Obama.

Some African Americans, (read Warren Ballentine) say this was a racist affront, akin to a white man saying “you people” when referring to blacks. He’s urging his listeners to call the McCain headquarters and is demanding an apology from McCain in the next 72 hours.

Don’t see that happening.
Some other people aren’t talking about it at all. I’m sure McCain thought he was being “folksy” like his running mate Sarah Palin during her debate.
But if the charge of racism sticks, the McCain campaign has themselves to blame.
After the nomination of Palin, if you sneezed in her direction you were sexist. If you mentioned lipstick, you were making fun of the Alaska governor.
It’s all bullshit, if you ask me.
According to the Associated Press, Obama’s camp had this to say about McCain’s comment:

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said after the debate, “John McCain was all over the map on the issues, and he is so angry about the state of his campaign that he referred to Barack Obama as ‘that one’ — last time he couldn’t look at Senator Obama; this time he couldn’t say his name.”

This campaign is supposed to be about the issues, but that’s getting lost in the mudslinging and negativity. Some Americans are going to look past that, research where the candidates stand on things like health care, the economy, securing our borders and abortion and make an informed decision on Nov. 4th. Others will just remember the last television or Internet ad they saw and vote for that person.
Obama tried to make the election about the issues. McCain went negative. Then Obama followed suit because you can’t get punched and not fight back.
“That one” could be the nail in McCain’s coffin. Look at what happened to Ross Perot when he actually said, “you people.”
Then again, it may not be the end for McCain. Because if the Obama camp brings up race, McCain’s people will fuss and yell and go on Fox News to say “we’re not racist, we have black friends. But Barack Obama is not ready to lead.”
The role of race in this election has been swept under the rug and pulled out when deemed necessary.
It was a historic moment when Obama delivered his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention and the media pulled out every living Civil Rights icon to talk about their feelings.
Race wasn’t even discussed when Geraldine Ferraro went all redneck and said Obama made it to where he is because he’s a black man. Like that has worked for so many in this country.
But if this election hasn’t done anything else, it should jumpstart a serious conversation on sexism and racism in this country and maybe this time come up with some solutions.

See McCain’s remarks.

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