The N&O today profiles The Man Who Would Be King, a sad story dripping with more irony than god should ever allow in print. Here's the bottom line. In order to save North Carolina from corrupt Democrats, Art Pope is staging a hostile takeover of state government, thereby making the Legislature a wholly owned subsidiary of Variety Wholesalers.

Go read Mark Binker's puff piece on Richard Burr. The headline alone (Senate candidates proud of records) is worth the trip. In the case of Burr, it begs a very big question: Exactly what record is he proud of? Even the Senator himself can't point to one thing he's done that was good for this country. Not one damn thing.

Q&A with yours truly featured today on The Editor's Desk.

I don't know Andy Bechtel very well, but I have found him to be a Tweeting machine.

North Carolina corporate a$$holes get a slap on the wrist instead of going to jail for selling contaminated products and snake oil. Maybe they'll still get the chance to rot in hell.

GlaxoSmithKline, the British drug giant, has agreed to pay $750 million to settle criminal and civil complaints that the company for years knowingly sold contaminated baby ointment and an ineffective antidepressant — the latest in a growing number of whistle-blower lawsuits that drug makers have settled with multimillion dollar fines.

There's broad agreement among scientists nowadays that global warming is real and caused in large part by human activities like burning fossil fuels and cutting down forests.

For example, a survey by university researchers published last year in EOS, the journal of the American Geophysical Union, found that 90 percent of earth scientists agree that mean global temperatures have generally risen since the 1800s, and 82 percent think human activity contributes significantly. As respondents' level of specialization in climate science increased, so did their confidence in human-caused global warming, with climatologists who actively work on climate change agreeing most strongly. That broad agreement is why prestigious scientific organizations including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Meteorological Society and the National Academy of Sciences all refer to a climate science "consensus."

I wouldn't want to play Monopoly against this guy:

Pope and his family gave $16,000 to GOP Commissioner Joe Bryan and an identical amount to fellow Republican Commissioner Tony Gurley. Pope said he also gave $4,000 to Republican Commissioner Paul Coble, whose report wasn't available Monday.

"I don't think it's shocking for Republicans to support Republican candidates," Pope said.

"Whatever someone contributes doesn't have an impact on my beliefs," Gurley said. "They know what my beliefs are. A contribution is a recognition of what I've shown in the past."

Riiight. Hold on a second while I slip on my Wellies; the shit is getting very deep.

The Institute has a long track record of investigating and exposing threats to democracy and voting rights: Our series on North Carolina's 2008 primary elections led to the largest penalties to date for illegal robo-calling.

This year, we have already reported on the control exercised over many campaigns by funding from individuals, including Art Pope in North Carolina, and corporations, such as these heavy polluters. We are also dedicated to uncovering instances of voter intimidation and voter suppression such as this story in Texas, where comments by the local Tea Party are scaring both registered and unregistered voters, making them less likely to come out on election day. However, we cannot provide these kind of hard-hitting stories without your support. Please donate to ISS to enable us to continue our reporting on election scandal.

Not only do the free-market extremists have it wrong when it comes to the practicalities of day-to-day life, they also have it wrong when it comes to the Very Big Picture. When we operate as though the only thing that matters in the world is money, we get a world where that is sadly the case.

The incestuous connection that exists today between business interests, politics, and law is reasonably apparent to most observers. These include outright bribery, to the more subtle sorts of buying access, friendship, and influence through campaign contributions and lobbying efforts. In addition, a culture develops among political leaders based on the precept that what is good for capitalist business is good for the country.

Hence, political leaders increasingly see themselves as political entrepreneurs, or the counterparts of economic entrepreneurs, and regularly convince themselves that what they do for corporations to obtain the funds that will help them get reelected is actually in the public interest. Within the legal system, the interests of capitalists and their businesses are given almost every benefit.

Joining the growing list of media outlets who wouldn't know an expert if he sat in their laps:

Chris Hayes, a legislative analyst for Civitas, said Parfitt's low name recognition because of having never run before could be one of the reasons for the difference - as could Dawkins' familiarity among voters from his time on the City Council and the fact that his father was mayor for six terms.

But there could be other factors that come into play, too, Hayes said. "Unaffiliated voters, who are currently divided in their choice of candidate," he said, "may play a crucial role in this race."

In one little blurb, Hayes has cast the Democrat as having no experience, and the Republican as having both experience and well-loved father/mayor.

We're turning up the heat on our GOTV here at Democracy North Carolina and we need your help with our virtual phone bank! We have phone lists of targeted voters (African-American senior citizens, college voters, etc.) who need a nudge to return to the polls in 2010 and we need your help phoning them with Early Voting and other information. Sign up on-line, we'll send you a list of about 40 names plus suggested scripts, and you can work from home or your office. And please help us spread the word by sending this opportunity to people you think might want to help! Thanks -- and Happy Voting in 2010.

Sign up on-line here: http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/6601/signup_page/phonebankingvolunteer

From a telephone Interview with Michele Miller Houck, President of the North Carolina Women’s Political Caucus:

With Election Day coming in just over a week, Michele Miller Houck of Charlotte and I talked on Sunday. Houck has been working to rebuild the North Carolina Women’s Political Caucus (NCWPC ) as a state-wide bi-partisan group that supports pro-choice women for political office.

The Caucus has been focused on only a few Legislative races this year, but it also endorsed Secretary of State Elaine Marshall for the U. S. Senate. Marshall is challenging the Republican incumbent Senator Richard Burr of Winston-Salem. Marshall is also endorsed by the National Women’s Political Caucus.

And the NAACP is not happy with their choices:

A proposal by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools to close eight urban schools, where less than 10 percent of the total enrollment is white, has sparked bitter debate and action by state and local NAACP leaders accusing CMS of racism.

But to some, it's the latest twist in a cycle of discrimination that dates back to Jim Crow schools, continued with urban renewal projects that razed black neighborhoods, and gathered new force when courts dismantled CMS' desegregation plan about 10 years ago.

I've spent the last few hours trying to work this thing backwards, so follow me if you're interested:

Wise words from our Secretary of State:

“Prosperity belongs to all if we work for it,” Marshall said to the crowd. “We do not believe the budget should be balanced on the backs of the middle class. The millionaires need to pay their fair share.”

Women are entitled to equal pay for equal work, she said. “This is not a women’s issue; it’s a family issue,” Marshall said.

That's exactly right. Inequality in pay doesn't just impact the (female) earner, it puts her children at a disadvantage as well, if she's also a mom. And there's about 10 million single moms out there, with some 15 million kids they're raising. And only about 1 in 4 receive any type of government assistance.