'Nuff said
by Tom Sullivan
In a fit of conscience, Republicans in our state House Friday rebuffed a powerful state senator from their caucus. On his way to retirement he wanted to take a parting shot (my op-ed) at the pockets of lefties who keep beating his team at the polls. Cities here have been targets of punitive legislation from the capitol since the GOP took full control after 2012. Don't feel like Satan, but I am to them. This time, however, something snapped.
Maybe it was the fact that their colleague appeared to have lied to them about the bill. Perhaps the federal ruling Friday morning overturning the Wake County Commission districts (imposed by legislative fiat) did it. Whatever. The attempt to do the same thing again Friday night was all many Republican legislators could take. They had had enough of the state again and again paying and losing in court defending their leaders' attempts to exact retribution on political opponents. Twenty-four GOP House members defied their leaders and joined outnumbered Democrats to defeat the bill. If you fight back (even outnumbered), sometimes you get to win. Even in 'Murica.
Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates is advising citizens not to wear traditional dress when traveling abroad after police tackled, handcuffed and injured an Emirati businessman outside Cleveland. A hotel clerk thought he was connected with ISIS. Dressed in white robes, headscarf and headband, he had been trying to book a hotel room. The Christian Science Monitor reports Ahmed Almenhali was looking for a hotel "because his apartment was being used by the Republican National Committee for the upcoming Republican Convention." This is your country, 'Murica.
The photo above is at a business down the street. Maybe Stan Lee has a country cousin.