Politics

Politics

There are 1,056 posts filed in Politics (this is page 62 of 106).

NCSU Chancellor’s home

N.C. State recently built an updated home for its chancellor. The home, with 5,000sf of entertaining space and a cost of $3.5 million, immediately drew the ire of local conservatives who held it up as an example of the misplaced priorities of academia. Or a waste of taxpayer dollars, or … something. The protests are a little unclear.

I know many of these conservatives simply can’t live without having something to be angry about but before they go blowing a gasket they should note that their ire is misguided. Private donations paid for the home in its entirety.

Let me say that again: private donations paid for the home in its entirety. The cost to taxpayers (and students)? Nothing. Zip. Zilch.
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Raleigh issues press release on my RCAC election

The City of Raleigh issued a press release Wednesday morning on my election as Chair to the Raleigh Citizens Advisory Council. It’s nice to get some recognition, and I’m looking forward to working with my fellow CAC chairs to improve our effectiveness.

Mark Turner, outgoing chair of the East Citizens Advisory Council, has been elected to lead the Raleigh Citizens Advisory Council (RCAC) in the coming year.

The RCAC is made up of the chairs and other leaders of each of the 18 geographically based Citizens Advisory Councils in Raleigh. It provides a forum for these leaders to discuss citywide issues.

“The dialogue between the City and the community is the most valuable thing the RCAC provides,” Mr. Turner said. “It’s been the traditional role for the RCAC.”
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Vaclav Havel

Vaclav Havel, former president of the Czech Republic who helped steer that country through it’s Velvet Revolution, has died at the age of 75. I will always remember the historic revolutions that swept the world in 1989, including the one that created the Czech Republic.

I learned last week that Havel was a huge Frank Zappa fan, too, and appointed Zappa to be a cultural consultant in 1990.

Dec. 18 (Bloomberg) — Czechs mourned the death of Vaclav Havel as world leaders lionized the former president and dissident who endured years of jail to become the first leader of post-Communist Czechoslovakia.

Black flags fluttered under gray skies at Prague’s Hradcany Castle, the seat of the president’s offices overlooking the capital, as government officials began planning the country’s biggest state funeral in decades.

via Czechs Mourn ‘Symbol’ Havel as Leaders Gather to Plan Funeral – Businessweek.

Dear Congress, It’s No Longer OK To Not Know How The Internet Works

The House tried to pass the “Stop Online Internet Piracy” bill out of committee today, only to run out of time. It wasn’t due to the lack of trying on the part of Rep. Mel Watt (D-NC). Rep. Watt acknowledges that he doesn’t understand the ramifications of the bill he is sponsoring, yet feels the need to press on, regardless.

It’s quite embarrassing, especially as a North Carolinian. As one commenter put it, Congress trying to regulate the Internet is like trying to build a bridge without an engineer. This misguided attack on America’s First Amendment must be stopped.

It’s of course perfectly standard for members of Congress to not be exceptionally proficient in technological matters. But for some committee members, the issue did not stop at mere ignorance. Rather, it seemed there was in many cases an outright refusal to understand what is undoubtedly a complex issue dealing with highly-sensitive technologies.

When the security issue was brought up, Rep. Mel Watt of North Carolina seemed particularly comfortable about his own lack of understanding. Grinningly admitting “I’m not a nerd” before the committee, he nevertheless went on to dismiss without facts or justification the very evidence he didn’t understand and then downplay the need for a panel of experts. Rep. Maxine Waters of California followed up by saying that any discussion of security concerns is “wasting time” and that the bill should move forward without question, busted internets be damned.

via Dear Congress, It’s No Longer OK To Not Know How The Internet Works | Motherboard.

Proof that good things come back to you

That looks familiar . . .


At tonight’s meeting of Raleigh’s Parks board, we were given nice Tervis plastic mugs as a token of the city’s gratitude for our service. As I was leaving tonight’s holiday meeting, I burst out laughing to discover that the picture adorning the mug is my public domain picture of Raleigh!

Out of all the unexpected places to see my photo, this one really cracked me up! I never expected to be handed my own photograph as a gift!

The mug has the North Carolina League of Municipalities’s name on it. I’m guessing the League asked cities to submit photographs of their city for their respective mugs, because the photo on the mug is apparently the one that Raleigh’s public affairs department has retouched to remove a street lamp and a crane.

It gave me a good laugh!

Raleigh CAC chair

Oh, by the way, I won another election last night when I was elected chair of the Raleigh Citizens Advisory Council. As far as I know, it’s the first time a soon-to-be-former CAC chair will lead the council since it’s inception in 1974.

One thing that is up for discussion is the fact that the bylaws have no provision for an ex-CAC chair to vote. Thus I will preside over the meetings but have no vote. The group could amend the bylaws to change this, of course, and it might be helpful to do so. With 18 CACs, getting a tie vote on a matter is a possibility, remote as the chance may be. Getting the opportunity to vote in a tie might be useful at the very least.

Anyhow, I’m looking forward to serving in this new role and making Raleigh’s neighborhoods stronger!

Congress about to undermine our basic constitutional rights

I’ve said again and again, if people like Jose Padilla, a U.S. Citizen accused of terrorism, are truly as evil as the government says they are, then put them on trial and prove it. Padilla did finally get a trial, by the way, but not until he spent years without trial in solitary confinement in a sensory-depravation situation – destroying his personality, according to psychologists.

Apparently Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC) and other senators believe the government can ignore the U.S. Constitution and detain U.S. citizens indefinitely without trial – for life!

So much for liberty, folks.

Should the U.S. military be given the power to arrest U.S. citizens, here on U.S. soil, and to detain those citizens indefinitely in military prisons, without access to legal counsel or due process, and without trial in civilian court?

The U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights say hell no. Holding U.S. citizens in military prisons without right to trial or counsel? Really?

Centuries of American liberty also say hell no. The CIA, FBI and the entire U.S. intelligence system say no, as does the military. They do not want the power to arrest and detain U.S. citizens on U.S. soil, and any legitimate reading of our nation’s traditions, beliefs and founding documents says they should never have it. It is antithetical to a free people.

Yet a majority of the U.S. House and Senate says otherwise. Despite a stern veto threat by President Obama, Congress is about to pass such language into federal law as part of the National Defense Authorization Act. I hope and pray that Obama has the guts to carry out his veto threat, and I hope freedom-loving Americans of all ideologies rally to support him in that cause.

via Congress about to undermine our basic constitutional rights | Jay Bookman.

It must be Obama’s fault

Political strategist Chris Sinclair whines in the New York Times about why his candidate lost the election for mayor of Raleigh. Apparently, it was the secret army of zombie Obama supporters that made the difference in Nancy McFarlane being elected mayor, not that Ms. McFarlane was the better candidate.

Having worked a bit with McFarlane’s campaign, I can say that if there were thousands of Obama supporters helping to get her elected, I sure never saw ’em. All I saw was the typical municipal campaign’s half-dozen volunteers out canvassing on any given Saturday. Even so, if Republicans want to believe that a ragtag group of campaign volunteers performed like an army, … well, who am I to dissuade them?

I’m surprised the Gray Lady would reprint Wake GOP Chair Susan Bryant’s crazy ramblings without checking the facts.

“It was very scary,” said Chris Sinclair, a strategist for Billie Redmond, the Republican candidate for mayor in Raleigh. “You don’t know what’s going on until you wake up after Election Day and go, ‘Oh my gosh, what happened?’ ”

What happened was that candidates supported by Democrats trounced Republicans in the Raleigh and Charlotte mayoral races this fall, and even wrested control of the Wake County school board from Republicans associated with the Tea Party.

It was only after the damage was done that local party leaders learned of the hidden hand of thousands of Obama for America volunteers and staff members. Never publicizing their work, they went door-to-door across the state, successfully getting their voters out to the polls in a highly effective dry run for 2012.

via Team Obama Gears Up for 2012 – NYTimes.com.

Leaders need to tap into creative thinkers

Terry Sanford

I disagree. What we need to ask ourselves is, where are our own Terry Sanfords? Where are the leaders who are willing to take risks?

It was a pattern that [Terry] Sanford repeated for the rest of his career: surround himself with people who thought differently than he did, make time to listen to their ideas and line up the resources to follow through when their suggestions seemed worth the gamble. It all sounds pretty straightforward. And yet, too many leaders and organizations today do exactly the opposite, preferring the security of familiar notions, little ambiguity and minimal risk.

Now is not the time for status-quo thinking.

As we look to infuse fresh perspective into our state, communities and organizations, we should be asking ourselves this: Where are our own John Ehles?

via Leaders need to tap into creative thinkers – Doing Better at Doing Good – NewsObserver.com.