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Democratic National Convention 2012
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Democratic National Convention 2012 Video: Searching for healthy food during the DNC
Posted By Kimberly Lawson on Tue, Sep 4, 2012 at 8:00 AM
Or, our editor in chief Mark Kemp goofing off during yesterday's CarolinaFest in downtown Charlotte.
Monday, September 3, 2012
News / Democratic National Convention 2012 Ronnie Seegars, an accidental 99 Percenter
Posted By George Brady on Mon, Sep 3, 2012 at 8:08 PM
Ronnie Seegars was in the shade behind the stage, a position that allowed him to hear the tenor of each speech but not the words. Plus, the protesters’ messages were playing second fiddle to R. Kelly, whose music Seegars was listening to on headphones.
- George Brady
- Seegars
Eventually the 48-year-old Charlotte resident was approached by a one-armed man from Minnesota, who, among other bits of conversation, asked Seegars if he ever gets depressed. Seegars said no, but the man kept asking. “Finally, I was like, '95 percent of the time I got a positive mind. If that only leaves 5 percent of the time, I can live with that.’”
Twenty-eight years ago, Seegars was involved in a car accident that damaged his C5 and C6 vertebrae, leaving him unable to use his legs and confining him to a motorized wheelchair. He worked at Sam’s Club until about four years ago, when he was let go, he says, because he was too expensive.
In other words, he’s a part of the 99 Percent.
News / Democratic National Convention 2012 Hip Hop Caucus town hall targets voter-ID laws
Posted By Erin Tracy-Blackwood on Mon, Sep 3, 2012 at 5:43 PM
As long as states try to push discriminatory laws that prohibit anyone without an ID from voting, groups like the Hip Hop Caucus will push back.
On Sunday, the “Respect My Vote!” Town Hall, presented by Hip Hop Caucus, BET and the Election Protection Coalition, aimed to inform its audience at Charlotte School of Law and thousands watching online about voter-suppression tactics and how to organize voter turnout in November.
Local Grammy-winning poet Bluz set a solemn tone for the assembly, opening with a spoken word piece about the historic struggle in the black community for voting rights. He included a vignette about the pride his grandfather felt the first time he voted.
News / Democratic National Convention 2012 Jesse Jackson appears only "distracted" by police incident
Posted By Joanne Spataro on Mon, Sep 3, 2012 at 3:46 PM
On Sunday evening, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, dressed in a gray suit with a purple tie and flanked by an entourage, was inadvertently witness to a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police action that once would likely have had him marching in the streets with a bullhorn.
Jackson and his entourage were on South Tryon Street, near Mimosa Grill, when a cry stopped them in their tracks. Police officers nearby had dog-piled atop a dreadlocked black man who was threatening to kill himself. The man's howls were nearly unbearable, but Jackson never changed his stately expression.
The man writhed in the grips of the CMPD officers until they brought him to his feet. His forehead was sweaty. An officer asked the man not to spit on them as they lowered his head into the backseat of a cruiser. The man looked up at Jackson and mouthed the words, “I love you, man!”
News / Democratic National Convention 2012 Keep calm and march on
Posted By George Brady on Mon, Sep 3, 2012 at 1:00 PM
Before the Coalition to March on Wall Street South began marching Sunday, its De-Escalation Team convened on the steps at the edge of Frazier Park. What is the De-Escalation Team?
“If you’re not part of the De-Escalation Team, you don’t really need to know,” a team member with a megaphone told me.
- George Brady
- Evan Kolosna (mohawk) and other members of the De-Escalation team.
News / Democratic National Convention 2012 Photos: Unity Through Community Party, 9/2/12
Posted By Kimberly Lawson on Mon, Sep 3, 2012 at 12:51 PM
Unity Through Community, an LGBT welcome party for the DNC, took place last night at the NC Dance Theatre. The message the organizers wanted to send? "Loving acceptance is the norm and there is no place for hate in our state." Oh, and that the LGBT community and its supporters know how to have a good time. (Photos by Jeaumane McIntosh)
Democratic National Convention 2012 The who and what at the DNC
Posted By Mike Cooper on Mon, Sep 3, 2012 at 12:03 PM
Besides President Obama accepting the nomination Thursday night in Bank of America Stadium, here is what to watch for from the rest of the speakers during the three days of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte. Some will - or should - come out swinging, and others will cement their places as potential Democratic presidential candidates in 2016.
- Wikipedia
- The dark horse herself, Elizabeth Warren
News / Democratic National Convention 2012 March on Wall Street South a success
Posted By Ana McKenzie and Ryan Pitkin on Mon, Sep 3, 2012 at 10:09 AM
After spending nearly five hours under an unforgiving sun, protesters hardly looked exhausted. Cops shook each others’ hands. No bombs, bullets or flying bottles of poop. All in all, just two arrests.
The March on Wall Street South, the largest planned protest for the Democratic National Convention, was by most accounts a rousing success.
- Grant Baldwin
- March on Wall Street South. By our estimation, a shitload of people showed up.
“I’m incredibly happy with how things turned out,” said local organizer and occupier Michael Zytkow toward the end of the march, as the group approached Frazier Park, where the day had begun with a festival.
Not but fives minutes later, Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department Major Jeff Estes turned around to a group of journalists walking ahead of the group, threw up his right thumb and said, “Peaceful, eh?”
Film / Democratic National Convention 2012 10 great political quotes in movies
Posted By Matt Brunson on Mon, Sep 3, 2012 at 9:33 AM
- Columbia
- Peter Sellers as President Merkin Muffley in Dr. Strangelove
(Listed alphabetically by title)
1. “Forget the myths the media’s created about the White House. The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.” — Deep Throat (Hal Holbrook) in All the President’s Men (1976)
- Columbia
- Michael Douglas as President Andrew Shepherd in The American President
2. “Let me see if I got this. The third story on the news tonight was that someone I didn’t know 13 years ago when I wasn’t president participated in a demonstration where no laws were being broken in protest of something that so many people were against, it doesn’t exist anymore. Just out of curiosity, what was the fourth story?” — President Andrew Shepherd (Michael Douglas) in The American President (1995)
3. “Lyndon Johnson is a politician. You know the ethics those guys have? It’s like a notch underneath child molester.” — Alvy Singer (Woody Allen) in Annie Hall (1977)
4. “Governor, what do you think of the crisis in the Middle East?” “I was saying just this morning at the weekly prayer breakfast that it behooves both the Jews and the Arabs to settle their differences in a Christian manner!” — A reporter and the governor (Charles Durning) in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982)
5. “In those days, we poured God over everything like ketchup.” — President Art Hockstader (Lee Tracy) in The Best Man (1964)
6. “We got kids with submachine guns/ We got militias throwing bombs/ We got Bill just getting all weepy/ We got Newt blaming teenage moms.” — A rapping Senator Jay Billington Bulworth (Warren Beatty) in Bulworth (1998)
7. “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the War Room!” — President Merkin Muffley (Peter Sellers) in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
8. “Fellow members of the Roman Senate, hear me. Shall we continue to build palace after palace for the rich? Or shall we aspire to a more noble purpose and build decent housing for the poor? How does the senate vote?” “Fuck the poor!” — The leader of the Senate (John Myhers) and the Senate’s unified response in History of the World: Part I (1981)
9. “I wouldn’t give you two cents for all your fancy rules if, behind them, they didn’t have a little bit of plain, ordinary, everyday kindness and a little looking out for the other fella, too.” — Senator Jefferson Smith (James Stewart) in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
10. “You politicians have stayed professionals only because the voters have remained amateurs.” — Mary Matthews (Katharine Hepburn) in State of the Union (1948)
News / Democratic National Convention 2012 Budding entrepreneurs profit (sort of) from the 99 Percent
Posted By George Brady on Mon, Sep 3, 2012 at 8:56 AM
At least two capitalists profited from the sweat of the 99 Percent on Sunday. Thirteen-year-old Otto Thornburg and his younger brother, Emmett, hauled a cooler to Fourth Street near Frazier Park, where they sold bottled water and Gatorade as protestors, roasting in 90-degree heat, began their trek toward Uptown.
- George Brady
- Mikey Stewart, left, and Thomas Watts of the band The Dollar Menu Boys.
What gave Otto the idea? The market demanded it.
"It seems like common sense. A lot of people were walking by our house. We should sell them water.”
He said business was good but — like the 1 percent - isn’t a big fan of transparency.
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Q&A with comedian Bobby Collins
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