You'd think the wingers would figure out that James O'Keefe makes them look like fools every time he posts another one of his "videos." You'd think they might consider not pimping those videos like they're real when they're so easy to debunk. You'd think.

This time, it's North Carolina under fire, but O'Keefe ridiculously claims voter fraud when the only fraud is O'Keefe and his bogus claims. This time around, O'Keefe features a "dead voter" and a voter who he claims is illegally registered to vote because he was not a citizen at the time he was called for jury duty. Unfortunately for O'Keefe, he became a citizen in the 80s, a fact that was easily verifiable before publishing the video.

As for O'Keefe's dead guy, it turns out James forgot that "Jr." at the end of a guy's name means he's the son of the dead guy and also happens to be a very much alive registered voter.

Via Media Matters:

Yes, as multiple obituaries for Bolton note, he was survived by, among others, his son Michael Gordon Bolton, Jr. Public records searches using the Nexis database confirm that Bolton Jr. was registered to vote at the same address given to the poll worker by the O'Keefe operative.

This isn't the only error of this sort O'Keefe made. As ThinkProgress noted, the "non-citizen" voter supposedly exposed by the video is actually a naturalized citizen.

The best screw-up of all is the one where O'Keefe punks the Daily Caller, Breitbart.com and Michelle Malkin. I love it when one of their own hangs them out to dry so thoroughly. In the opener of his ten-minute long video, O'Keefe's minions are walking up a driveway to "prove" that a non-citizen has voted in the North Carolina primary.

Via ThinkProgress Justice:

Now, it turns out that the second “non-citizen,” William Romero, is actually a citizen as well, according to his family.

The video opens with O’Keefe’s cameraman walking up Romero’s driveway and confronting a member of his family about whether he is a citizen. O’Keefe points to court records from 2010 where Romero was excused from jury duty because he was not a citizen at the time. Therefore, as O’Keefe argues, Romero’s voter registration dated December 5, 2011 is fraudulent because Romero “is not a United States citizen.”

Oops! That calendar can be a pesky thing. It turns out Romero became a citizen in early 2011, and registered to vote because that's what good citizens in this country do: they vote.

In fact, Romero’s family told ThinkProgress he became a naturalized citizen in early 2011.

What’s more, Romero’s family told ThinkProgress that they had began receiving harassing telephone calls two weeks before the incident in the video asking if Romero was a citizen. They confirmed to the caller — it’s unclear whether they were speaking with O’Keefe himself or another individual — that Romero is indeed a citizen. Nevertheless, O’Keefe proceeded to ambush the family at their home and publish this video claiming he’s not a citizen.

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Republican legislators in North Carolina succeeded in putting Amendment 1 on the ballot for the May 8 election. The law is written so broadly that it would not only ban gay marriage, but civil unions and domestic partnerships not only for LGBT couples, but for straight couples as well. A broad coalition of more than 100 groups is vigorously fighting against the Amendment, and they went on television Monday with their first ads.

The first two ads highlight the unintended consequences of passing such a law. One features a woman who had been violently abused by a man she wasn't married to, expressing fear that Amendment 1 would invalidate the protection order that keeps her and her daughter safe. The second ad features a mother who is fearful that Amendment 1 will take away her daughter's health insurance because she isn't married. Both ads are powerful reminders that the people behind laws like Amendment 1 don't really care about the people who are harmed by their policies.

Adam Bink makes the case that the Amendment can be defeated:

If you follow conventional wisdom, you probably took one quick look at: (a) a map, (b) a poll, (c) a date on the calendar, (d) the issue, and concluded by thinking, Oh, North Carolina is a conservative southern state, May 8 (Election Day) is primary day for Republican presidential candidates, more than 50% of North Carolina voters say they'd vote for Amendment One, marriage is an icky gay issue. This is a sure loser.

But smart politics isn't about a glance at whatever the media tell us matters most. Some of the biggest upsets have come unexpectedly because underlying dynamics go ignored.

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In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina members of the media noticed there was widespread devastation in the South. Watching it on television, as a person of Southern heritage, to me it was clear: “Some of that was like that before the storm.” And it was. And it still is years later. Now since the Southern states have primaries for the next few weeks – combined with Mitt Romney doing his best Rand McNally material at campaign stops – the South is in the spotlight once again.

However, in this election cycle there are no real Southern candidates. Newt Gingrich represented Georgia but was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (and retains that accent). To contrast that, both the Democratic National Convention and the Republican National Convention events are being held in southern states (North Carolina and Florida).

Here’s what the nation ignores unless there’s a disaster (or an election which could also qualify as a disaster): Of the bottom 10 poorest states in the union – nine of them are Southern states east of Texas. Mississippi is the poorest state of all. Child poverty. Unemployment. Under-employment. Lack of education. Lack of resources. The nation’s highest obesity rates are found south of the Mason-Dixon line.

Despite the conservative bona fides, the South isn’t pulling herself up by her bootstraps … mainly because she can’t see her toes she’s about to lose to diabetes. These are deeply and consistently Republican voters – but being poor and Republican is like being a cow and pro-leather. The South is a parable as to why that is: Their prejudices are being exploited to prod them into being against their own best interests.

In the South there’s been a long (and storied) resentment of outsiders coming in and telling them how to run their lives. But without fail, when the economy is bad anywhere – historically the first group to be blamed are the noobs. Hence why a new wave of anti-immigrant legislation has been pouring out of the southern region of the U.S.

Last year, Alabama passed HB 56 or Hammon-Beason Alabama Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act which led to a mass exodus of labor in the state. There were reports of crops rotting in the fields and an estimated cost to the state in the billions. Now the governor of Mississippi has endorsed a similar plan. Capitalizing politicians will say these heavy-handed laws are to keep out illegal immigrants but in practice it’s anyone who looks vaguely foreign being forced to show their paperwork.

Not exactly the land of the free. And sure not Southern hospitality.

Are immigrants, as these laws imply, parasites on the system? It’s actually the poorest (and yes, Southern) states that are the ones not carrying their own weight. For every dollar Alabamans pay in federal taxes, they receive $1.66 in federal money. In Louisiana it’s $1.78 per dollar. Mississippi gets $2.02 per dollar they give the dreaded federal gubmint.

There’s a way to help this region get off the federal dole: Welcome immigrants.

California has a huge immigrant population (both legal and illegal) and while certainly not void of any problems, the state still boasts of having the 8th largest economy in the world. And grumble as you will about Californians, for every dollar they pay in federal taxes – the rest of the country receives nearly a quarter of it.

Southern conservatives can bemoan “paying for someone else’s birth control” but in this way the New England states are paying for “someone else’s” (namely the South’s) Lipitor.

Welcome immigrants. When you welcome immigrants - you welcome tourists, you welcome tax revenue and then, counter-intuitively, the South can be more self-reliant. That’s a conservative principle in a “severely” right-leaning culture.

The best thing the South can do to save herself is welcome the world. Be a place immigrants move to. Let smart people from other countries call themselves Alabamians. Let hard working people everywhere call Mississippi home. Welcome the world to the South.

Basically enact the opposite of HB 56.

This Tuesday Blue America will move to a new day. We're staying at 11am (PT) but our weekly guest will drop by on Tuesdays instead of Saturdays. And this week we're starting the new schedule with an iconic progressive figure from western North Carolina, Cecil Bothwell. No doubt you saw the news at the end of the week that Cecil's opponent, Blue Dog leader Heath Shuler, has decided to turn in his cleats and go become a lobbyist or a gym teacher. Since his voting record showed him siding with Boehner and Cantor more than 60% of the time and since he worked tirelessly inside the Democratic House caucus making bills less progressive and more palatable to his friends in Big Business, his retirement announcement is worth celebrating.

Now, of course, the DCCC and local conservatives are casting around for their idea of a Heath Shuler replacement. It isn't someone progressive. It isn't someone grassroots. It isn't someone independent-minded. In other words... it isn't Cecil Bothwell. Cecil was elected to the Asheville City Council and managed to get the most votes city wide-- although pundits insisted an atheist and unabashed liberal could never win. But he won and he won so big because he stands up for working families, not special interests. Even Tea Party members have recognized him as a friend of working people. He's straightforward and very clear about who he is, why he's running and what he plans to do in Congress. Please come by and meet him Tuesday at 2pm (ET). And the fascinating video above shows Cecil last week at a Tea Party candidates session. He's serious about appealing to all the people in the 11th district.

If you're a Facebook denizen, please join and share this event with your friends. It's never been more important to get real progressives into Congress.

And if you can, please consider making a contribution to Cecil's all grassroots campaign at the Blue America ActBlue page. The three coolest contributions before the end of the Super Bowl will get signed books. Which books? Surprise!

If you're a Facebook denizen, please join and share this event with your friends. It's never been more important to get real progressives into Congress.

Bad, bad news for the farmers -- and probably bad news for smokers, too:

Reporting from Craven County, N.C.— Before Hurricane Irene smacked his tender tobacco plants sideways, David Parker was headed for a terrific crop, maybe his best in 32 years of farming.

Now, as Parker rushes to save a few acres of shredded leaves before they rot on the dying stalks, the math looks different.

"I've never had a year I didn't make money farming, but I think this will be the one that gets us there," he said last week, driving up a dirt road between a beaten-down cotton field and a 17-acre patch of dejected-looking tobacco.

The green-gold tobacco leaves — which normally this time of year would be spread wide, waiting to be plucked, dried at a careful pace and taken to market — were hanging straight down, shriveled, with the stalks leaning the way that the wind had pushed them.

That's what this agricultural disaster looks like: wilted leaves, angled stalks, a tangle of cotton plants with fat bolls that had looked unusually promising but now might not open. Subtle stuff to everyone but the hundreds of farmers who, like Brown, now face what may be their worst losses ever.

"That's not vacation cottages. It's these people's whole way of making a living, and the impact will spread throughout all the people and businesses that rely on farmers," said Graham Boyd, executive vice president of the Tobacco Growers Assn. of North Carolina. "It's a tragedy, just terrible, terrible stuff."

State and federal officials say it will be weeks before the full extent of the farm losses are known, but the effect on tobacco, which is grown in much of the area where the storm punched hardest, is extensive.

Voter ID victory! At least, in North Carolina. Governor Beverly Purdue vetoed the Republican legislature's effort to suppress voting in North Carolina.

Via WRAL:

Gov. Beverly Perdue on Thursday vetoed a controversial proposal to require voters to present photo identification before casting their ballots.

"The right to choose our leaders is among the most precious freedoms we have – both as Americans and North Carolinians," Perdue said in a statement. "North Carolinians who are eligible to vote have a constitutionally guaranteed right to cast their ballots, and no one should put up obstacles to citizens exercising that right."

House Bill 351 would require a person arriving at a voting precinct to show one of eight forms of photo ID, including a new voter card available for free from county election boards. Without the ID, people could still cast provisional ballots but would have to prove their identity later.

Ironic, isn't it? The Tea Party Republicans are so sanctimonious about the Constitution and Bill of Rights, but when it comes to actually abiding by it when they don't like it, not so much. It took a Democrat to speak for the basic freedoms we all enjoy. Which, of course, has the TeaPublicans in a frenzy.

“We shouldn’t be surprised by how far the governor will go to score political points with the liberal wing of her party," Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger said in a statement. "A measure that ensures voters are who they say they are is a no-brainer, and most North Carolinians agree. It’s a shame Gov. Perdue is playing politics with the integrity of elections.”

Yeah, because it's only the liberals who care about voting rights?

Despite the North Carolina victory, other states are busily implementing new voter ID laws, including Florida, Ohio, Kansas, Wisconsin and Alabama. The Kansas version is the most draconian of the bunch on the voter suppression end of things. Kris Kobach, author of Arizona's AB1070 train wreck, is the man in charge of implementing a law that requires new voter registrants to show a birth certificate or passport at the time of registration.

I'm sure this won't go away until the Republicans are firmly in the minority again. Let's hope that happens in 2012.

Remember how, during this long-running controversy over the so-called "Ground Zero mosque" all the right-wing talking heads have insisted that heavens, no, they didn't have anything against Muslims generally -- and they certainly had no intention of violating their rights? They just think the location of the mosque is a bad idea. Riiiiiight.

But then they'd keep letting people like Pam Geller be their spokesperson.

What's especially interesting is the way Republicans out in the hinterlands, far away from New York, have picked up on the brouhaha as a way of waging the old culture wars against Democrats. And when they do, there's no pretense -- it's just outright Islamophobia.

Take, for instance, this ad from Renee Ellmers, the Republican running against Bob Etheridge in North Carolina's 2nd District:

After the Muslims conquered Jerusalem and Cordoba and Constantinople ... they built victory mosques,

And now, they want to build a mosque by Ground Zero. Where does Bob Etheridge stand? He won't say. Won't speak out. Won't take a stand.

The terrorists haven't won and we should tell them in plain English, No. There will never be a mosque at Ground Zero.

I'm Renee Ellmers and I'm running for Congress. I need your help.

Yes, Renee, you do need help.

And so do we -- just figuring out where to start in the sea of ignorance you managed to unleash in just a few short sentences.

Perhaps it would help if you could answer some questions first:

-- Did the entire Muslim faith attack the United States on 9/11? Or was it just a tiny faction of violent radicals?

-- Did they conquer New York City, as Muslim armies did in Jerusalem et. al.? If not, then how could they claim this as a "victory mosque"?

-- Does this mean that all Muslims -- including our current allies like Turkey, Pakistan and Uzbekistan -- are now our enemies?

-- Finally, just how exactly do you intend to say "No, there will never be a mosque at Ground Zero"? Will you assume super-dictatorial powers once you've become a member of Congress, powers that let you abrogate due government process and citizens' constitutional rights?

Just wondering.

At the end of July, Blue America and our pals at the Americans For America PAC launched the first in a series of videos that highlights what kind of people now lead the Republican Party. We featured Sarah Palin, Rand Paul and John Boehner. And we asked the readers here at C&L, at DWT and at Digby's Hullabaloo to tell us who to do the next ad for. Lots of votes for Ken Calvert and Michele Bachmann but it was that reactionary harridan from North Carolina, Virginia Foxx, who got the most votes.

As you can see in the ad above, there are a lot of things that the voters in western North Carolina need to think about when they consider returning Virginia Foxx for another term in Congress. But there's also an outstanding alternative. Populist champion Billy Kennedy would make a far better Representative for ordinary working families, a part of the population Foxx is dismissive of. Foxx already has $1,270,733 on hand. Her biggest donors are the sugar lobby, banks, the Medical Industrial Compex, alcoholic beverage companies, gambling interests and foreign powers with their own agendas. Meanwhile, Billy Kennedy has $70,406 on hand. He addressed the problem on the cascade of corrupt corporate cash flooding into congressional campaigns:

"The case of Citizens United v FEC was heard by the Supreme Court back in January. When all was said and done, the Court ended up changing the law so that corporations can now spend as much as they like on political campaigns without even identifying themselves. That’s right-- average working people get the short end of the stick. Again.

So the US House has now just passed the “Disclose Act,” a law which will at least require that these corporations tell us who they are when they put their fancy, high-dollar commercials on TV that attack anyone who would dare come up against them. The “Disclose Act” could most certainly be better than it is. If we didn’t have so many politicians in Washington beholden to corporate interests, we’d surely have gotten a better bill in the end, but the bill is at least a start.

Even so, I wasn’t surprised to hear Rep. Virginia Foxx rail against the “Disclose Act” on WPTF radio Thursday. I wasn’t surprised because Rep. Foxx’s record is pretty clear on this kind of thing. Her take is that working people need to get in line and work longer hours for less money and be thankful they’ve got any job at all. Corporations and rich people, on the other hand, deserve better because they’re the ones providing jobs for longer hours and less money. It sounds like code for "we can't do it because it's too complicated."

It’s worth noting that Rep. Foxx never said a word on any radio stations when the Supreme Court made sure individual Americans’ rights came up short against corporate rights. She wasn’t on talk radio, outraged, when Americans woke up one morning to find out they’d been sold out by corporate interests again. Not at all. The only thing on this whole issue that got Rep. Foxx in a tizzy and made her want to “sit down and cry” (as she said on the radio) was that someone in Washington was actually trying to do something about it. Rep. Foxx didn’t show up at any radio stations the morning after corporations stole the peoples’ power in the dead of night. But she showed up pretty quick to be outraged when some brave folks in Washington tried to reclaim it.

Rep. Foxx has been in Washington too long. She’s forgotten what she’s supposed to be doing up there, and she will say anything to be re-elected. It’s time to send her home."

If you'd like to help us put the ad on TV in the Piedmont and the suburbs of Winston-Salem, just click on Foxx's face-- and no, that photo is not photoshopped.

Wake County, North Carolina is an example of a situation where policy that sounds great in theory has, in reality, worked to re-segregate one of the most desegregated school districts in the nation.

Under the guise of creating "neighborhood schools", the Wake County school board ended its diversity policy at the end of the last school year, and with it, the desegregation of schools in the Wake County area.

Wake County school board member John Tedesco made a presentation Friday about his vision for the community assignment plan and why he says it works. Tedesco has stressed it will allow parents more choice and will take about nine to 15 months before the final makeup for the new schools zones will be finalized.

For now it's just a vision that John Tedesco hopes will be crafted into a plan for neighborhood schools.

But that vision looked like this to other school board members:

School Board member Ann McLaurin said she is happy to have a starting point, but is not seeing Tedesco's vision clearly.

"What I saw was a map that had zones with real poverty in them, with real economic and racial segregation, and there wasn't an explanation about how we're going to do that differently," McLaurin said.

Their action precipitated the resignation of the superintendent, sparked protests by students, and has opened a deep, wide rift in the community.

In the end, one of the contributing factors has to be what has been called "the age of forgetting".

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For Want of a Nail: Making sure one is on the right team

Reader Supported News: Right Wing Thought Police: An Analysis

R&D Mag: Alaska says to hell with polar bears. They cut into oil profits

Hullabaloo: Blasting right wing lies right out of the oil-soaked water

Counter Punch: Confronting rendition to torture in North Carolina

Bob Broughton: Hard to believe there's still a need to oppose this: International Day Against Stoning