Good day and welcome to DKos Asheville. This is the weekly DKos Asheville open thread when're we get together every weekend to share with everyone what we're all up to in Western North Carolina and beyond. We hope this group serves to invigorate us locally and regionally here on Daily Kos, building on the sense of community that's grown through our online engagement. DKos Asheville can give us all a better sense of connection, a better understanding of who we stand with, work with, and share with. We hope this community can help leverage our orange passion for progressive politics to elect more and better Democrats.
Asheville and all of Western North Carolina are wonderful places to visit. We have a powerful progressive presence, both cultural and political, and for the most part everyone is really nice. And the views are breathtaking. If you've never been here, we promise you'll love it.
As regular readers know, our next meet-up is scheduled for October 4th. Jump over the Squiggle of Local Power for more.
DKos Asheville Meet-up
Where: The Bywater in Asheville.
796 Riverside Dr, Asheville, NC.
When: Saturday, October 4th at 1:00 pm
What: A Kossack meet-up with food, fun and discussion. We will be thirty one days away from the election on Tuesday, November 4th. Please bring your ideas on how we can motivate voters and do our parts to help win these elections.
What to bring: Pot luck style food items, outside appropriate clothing, smiles, stories and ideas for GOTV excersises. And furry friends.
RSVPs:
1. randallt
2. davehouck
3. Joieau
4. Lamont Cranston
5. DawnN
6. SteelerGrrl
7. SteelerGuy
8. swhelden
9. Ottery Scribe
10. Burns Lass
11. Family guest
12. Smiley7
13. people power granny
MAYBEES:
1. Munchkn
Please kosmail me to be added to the list and drop by today's Connect! Unite! Act! for stories about other meet-ups across the nation. Get inspired, let's win these elections!
Here are a couple of local items I thought you might enjoy.
About 75 people gathered together in downtown Asheville last Sunday to protest police brutality and militarization. Organizers used the occasion to make signs on the spot and there were dozens of great ones. This link takes you to a page with all the signs. Very cool.
Hands up
A plea for less violence
I found this news and the story below on
Jeff Messer's blog. Jeff is the radio host for
880 The Revolution, our local progressive AM station. In the coming weeks, we will be doing a radio interview with him highlighting our meet up, the Daily Kos community and GOTV efforts. He has been a great supporter of DKos Asheville.
North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory made an appearance at Jeff's radio station's right wing counterpart on Friday. It is a rare Clear Channel radio operation with both progressive and conservative stations. Jeff had the opportunity during a break from his show to step into the studio next door and spend a few minutes with the Governor. Here are some recollections. Great job Jeff, see you soon!
It's no secret that the Governor, Puppet Pat McCrory, came calling on his ole buddy Pete Kaliner yesterday. Aside from some photos that were essentially reverse photobombs from the 880 studios, and shot by Seth, I got invited over to meet the Guv during a break. All in all, he was a nice enough guy. Misguided, certainly, but nice.
One of his entourage pointed out my shirt, and the old Revolutionary War era "Join or Die" logo on the back, commenting that I was wearing a Tea Party shirt. I was able to quickly say to him, "1775. Original. No imitations." McCrory asked if I was "Progressive or Liberal?" To which I mentioned that I preferred pragmatic and common sense. Then McCrory ragged on Pete a bit for the whole "Libertarian" tag that Pete uses. In fact, he gave Pete a pretty hard time the entire time.
I was able to joke a bit with him about his lack of socks with his shoes (see photo), as well as getting a few nice chuckles with him concerning my upcoming book. Pete was actually the one who mentioned it first, to which McCrory replied: "Am I in it?" I told him that he is, but he gets off a little easier than his pal, Timmy Moffitt. I joked that McCrory won't have to worry too much about Tim hanging around after November, which was met with surprise, and a query about how that race is going. When I mentioned that Tim was down by 11 points, Pete tried to deflect, citing that the polling was way off.
Have a great weekend, hope to see familiar and new faces in Asheville on October 4th!