Politics

Politics

There are 1,058 posts filed in Politics (this is page 64 of 106).

The family’s back together

It had been a challenging week for me, with the uncertainty of being unemployed and having Kelly gone all week for her work. I was feeling pretty lonely. I was happy to see Kelly again Thursday night, though, and by Friday we were our usual happy selves (with the exception of Travis, who left school early with a mild fever).

Saturday morning, Kelly took Travis to his piano lesson while I got ready for the Strickland Road Park Dedication at noon. Kelly took the kids to Hallie’s haircut while I was at the park. Afterward we went to Conn’s fall carnival.
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Drama-filled day

What a day filled with many events! On my dog walk this morning, I found a neighbor’s wallet where it was lying in the street and reunited it with its owner. I found out later that it fortunately had only been lost, not stolen.

Then at 11 I went over to an elderly neighbor’s home to discuss ways of making her home safer from some trespassing teenagers who have been harassing her lately. Together with her sons, other concerned neighbors, and our community officer, we brainstormed ways to keep this from happening again. She is a very sweet woman and expressed tremendous gratitude for my offering to help. To me it’s nothing. That’s what neighbors are for.
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Sample in a jar

Wikimedia Commons pic by TurboTorque


I went to a job interview recently which went fantastically. The work was right up my alley, faces lit up when I described what I do, and one interviewer even exclaimed “he’s just the guy we need!”

Then I got handed off to the corporate HR staff, which sent me a 16-page job application to fill out. That wasn’t so bad, but on the porch today was a overnighted package with forms in it for a drug test.
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Obama’s conspiracy, revealed

The N&O’s Jim Jenkins skewered Wake GOP’s Susan Bryant today. This had me laughing out loud!

“Susan Bryant clearly is a genius,” said the insider. “I expect Rick Perry will have her on as chief strategist. And I wouldn’t be surprised if the president simply decided not to run for re-election. He said to me just last night, ‘Look, maybe we should get out. If Susan Bryant in North Carolina can read our minds and follow our every move like this, what’s the point in trying to fight her?'”

via Obama’s conspiracy, revealed – Jenkins – NewsObserver.com.

Raleigh’s startup opportunity

The Atlantic Monthly takes a peek at Durham’s startup efforts:

Durham is a fascinating example of what happens when a community bands together to try to attract entrepreneurs. They’ve set up all the mechanisms and institutions to foster innovation and now they’re waiting to see if startup culture can take root. The city itself has “great bones,” as they say, with a dense downtown core filled with beautiful old-timey architecture. They even have some inspiring local business history to draw on. Durham was once known as “The Black Wall Street” because of the preponderance of successful African American-owned businesses on Parrish Street.

As I said before, Raleigh needs to get into the startup game pronto or face being forever branded as LawyerTown.

Cemetery cleanup

The deadly tornadic storm (seen right) retreats after laying waste to Raleigh's City Cemetery on April 16, 2011.


The tornadoes of April 16th not only tore through several neighborhoods like the one near mine, it also tore up three of the city’s historic cemeteries. Some folks in the press have complained about the snail’s pace in which the clean-up is progressing.

The truth is that the city’s parks staff would like nothing better than to have these cemeteries cleaned up. It’s just that it’s a monumental task, if you’re pardon the pun.

If you’ve lived around Raleigh for any length of time, chances are you’ve been through one of our occasional natural disasters. The first thing the city and state does after a disaster is to seek federal assistance in cleaning up. This money from FEMA comes with requirements that the city and state must meet if they expect their work to be reimbursed. Throw in a historic designation and you add yet another layer of bureaucracy that must first be satisfied.
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GOP blames Obama for school board shellacking

This is too funny. The Wake County GOP got its clock thoroughly cleaned in the latest municipal elections. Now its hapless chair, Susan Bryant, is laying the blame on Obama and his legions of “paid volunteers”

Actually, the only paid volunteers I know of was on the GOP side. A few days before the election, I spotted a small sign at the intersection of Louisburg Road and Perry Creek Road, seeking paid political volunteers. The sign emphasized that the volunteers needed to be conservative.

Wake County Republican Party Chairwoman Susan Bryant blames “President Obama’s national organization” for last week’s election results that could lead to Democrats regaining control of the county school board.

“Make no mistake!” Bryant writes in a GOP newsletter this week. “President Obama’s national organization was very much involved in the recent elections, with particular emphasis on Ron Margiotta’s and Heather Losurdo’s campaigns. They hired ‘volunteers’ and spent tens of thousands on mailers cleverly disguised as coming from non-related groups.”

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via GOP boss blames school election on Obama – Local – NewsObserver.com.

Update 4:20 PM: Looks like I’m not the only one who thinks this way. Sez one commenter on the N&O article:
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Ron Margiotta’s attack ads

A few folks are raising a stink about Wake County School Board chairman Ron Margiotta’s recent use of school board video in his political ads. Some on the left are pointing to Margiotta’s use of the video as proof he enlisted county employees to help him in his campaign. WTVD’s Jon Camp did a story about it.

Now, I’m no fan of Ron Margiotta. He’s arrogant, grating, blunt, and I find a lot of what he says and does to be embarrassing. Still, you gotta hand it to him for thinking to use this video. Sure, it’s video of Susan Evans, his opponent in the school board race, and sure, it was taken with the county-owned video system. But that’s the point: it’s video taken by the public, for the public at an open, public meeting. The video is thus a public record and therefore available to anyone who requests it.
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Occupy (insert place name here)

I don’t know what to make of the Occupy Wall Street protests and the other protests that have spawned from these. I mean, I too am shocked at the wealth disparity between the very rich and the rest of us and am sick like everybody else of corporations shirking their tax obligations. Still, I don’t see how staying put in some place can be considered a “movement.”

This quote crystallized it for me. A protester at Occupy Chapel Hill was asked how long she intended to stay camped out:

“Till things are better,” Stephanie Daugherty said when asked how long she plans to sleep outside the Franklin Street post office. The 30-year-old unemployed IT worker was among the first 31 people to pitch tents and lay mats Saturday night after an Occupy Chapel Hill rally.

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Datacenters in North Carolina


Earlier this month much hoopla was made by the Governor’s office when Gov. Bev Perdue visited Facebook’s datacenter in Forest City in Rutherford County. Facebook announced it was adding another building to the site, doubling its capacity.

In a press release, Perdue touted the jobs it would bring:

“Creating jobs is my top priority. Facebook’s additional expansion into North Carolina means more high-tech jobs and investment in Rutherford County,” said Gov. Perdue. “Facebook continues to be a ‘friend’ to North Carolina.”

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