Politics

Politics

There are 1,058 posts filed in Politics (this is page 69 of 106).

Carter: Call Off the Global Drug War

Former President Jimmy Carter rightfully calls for the end of the failed “War on Drugs.”

IN an extraordinary new initiative announced earlier this month, the Global Commission on Drug Policy has made some courageous and profoundly important recommendations in a report on how to bring more effective control over the illicit drug trade.

The report describes the total failure of the present global antidrug effort, and in particular America’s “war on drugs,” which was declared 40 years ago today. It notes that the global consumption of opiates has increased 34.5 percent, cocaine 27 percent and cannabis 8.5 percent from 1998 to 2008. Its primary recommendations are to substitute treatment for imprisonment for people who use drugs but do no harm to others, and to concentrate more coordinated international effort on combating violent criminal organizations rather than nonviolent, low-level offenders.

via Call Off the Global Drug War – NYTimes.com.

CACs and the Open Meetings Law

A question came up during last month’s RCAC meeting, regarding the legal standing of CACs with regard to the city. RCAC Chair Will Allen got an opinion from Raleigh City Attorney Tom McCormick. Will says:

Tom advises that the CAC is an organization created by the Raleigh City Council and is therefore a public body and subject to the Open Meetings law. Email is a type of communication that is covered by that law, and so any of the types of email communication involving CAC and/or city matters would be public record.

But the CACs aren’t advisory boards in the spirit of North Carolina’s Open Meetings Law. From the City’s own page on CACs (emphasis mine):

CACs are nonpartisan. They also are independent of the City Council. In fact, CACs are the only advisory boards to the City Council that are not appointed by the Council. Instead, residents of each CAC region elect the chairperson and other officers of their CAC.

Membership in a CAC isn’t by appointment like other city boards: one becomes a member of a CAC based on where one lives. That means every city resident is now subject to the Open Meetings Law. And since there are over 10,000 residents in the East CAC (for instance) and therefore 10,000 members in the East CAC, does that mean a quorum of this “advisory board” is 5,001 citizens?
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N.C. House Speaker Tillis gives his staff fat raises

It sure is good to be king.

House Speaker Thom Tillis in the last few months handed out raises as high as 27 percent to half his staff after vowing in January to set an example for others in state government by cutting his office payroll.

Tillis’ general counsel Jason Kay got a 27 percent raise, from $110,000 a year to $140,000.

Chief of staff Charles Thomas got a 25 percent, $30,000-a-year increase, from $120,000 to $150,000.

Policy advisers Christopher Hayes and Amy Hobbs received $12,000 raises, both going from salaries of $70,000 to $82,000 a year. Kay, Hayes and Hobbs are all new hires who joined the state payroll for the first time in January. Thomas is a former state House member from Asheville.

In all, Tillis gave raises to seven members of the 14-person staff he had before April. He hired an additional employee in May, paying him $70,000 annually.

via N.C. House Speaker Tillis gives his staff fat raises – Politics – NewsObserver.com.

Skating on Thin Ice

Seems I’m not the only one who has grown tired of John Edwards’s publicity-hound ways. Carter Wrenn of Talking About Politics quotes Will Patton, who nails it.

… but then old Will Patton raised an even tougher question, saying, If I was prosecuting this case I’d only ask John Edwards one question: If you wanted was to keep your affair a secret from your wife why on earth did you run for President?

Richard thought that over and said: He might not testify.

Mr. Patton snorted, You couldn’t keep that fellow off the witness stand with a shotgun.

Sad but true.

via Skating on Thin Ice > Talking About Politics.

John Edwards

John Edwards in 2004

The federal prosecutors who are pursuing campaign finance charges against John Edwards better do whatever they can to make sure I’m not selected as a juror. I would tear them apart. It’s not that I’m a fan of Edwards: far from it, actually. I would be hopping mad at being forced to defend him.

Look, Edwards is a phony. He’s always been a phony. Though it’s true he could work a crowd like a rock star, I wasn’t impressed with him when I met him in 2004 (I misjudged his being “tired” for being bored). He became a “champion of the poor” while chilling in his posh mansion in Chapel Hill. He cheated on his dying wife and lied about it. Did the money he got from a donor friend and used to cover up his cheating rise to the level of cheating campaign finance laws? Hardly. Edwards may be a self-centered scumbag but I can easily see him doing the very same thing, finding a rich friend like Bunny Melon to paper over his infidelity, whether or not he was campaigning. It’s not like he was buying votes with the money.
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Raleigh CityCamp

This weekend brings Raleigh’s first CityCamp. Raleigh CityCamp is an “unconference” where the agenda is decided on the participants: and everyone is a participant. It’s a giant brainstorming session about how government can be made more efficient using technology.

In an unconference, everyone is expected to contribute ideas and perspectives. There is no “audience” per se. What you as a participant get out of it is exactly what you put into it. It’s one of the few events where you never go home disappointed: because you help set the agenda.

I was involved in some of the initial planning for Raleigh CityCamp but soon had to dial back my time. Many of the planning meetings took place when I was away at other meetings. Also, my daughter’s birthday is Saturday, taking me out of the running for most of that day’s discussions.

I did volunteer to sit on a panel regarding the “government” view, joining Raleigh’s CIO, North Carolina’s CIO, and other experts. I’ll be bringing the layman’s point of view, obviously!

Watch Lent Carr tell whoppers

I’ve been watching the raw video of Carr’s interview and my bullshit detectors have flat out exploded. Watch about 8:38 into the interview when he discusses his current job as a “Business Development Specialist” at Allstate Insurance and spends the next few seconds mumbling phrases about policies. Carr tap-danced around that question like Miss Teen South Carolina Caitlin Upton did. Nowhere on his LinkedIn profile (which is mostly fiction, granted) does he mention working for Allstate. Nor do any Google searches turn up any hits linking him with Allstate.

The guy isn’t simply a liar, he’s a pathological liar. It makes me feel sorry for him.

Lent Carr and District C

Lundsford Lane’s once-in-a-blue-moon blogging at Below the Beltline has apparently attracted the press’s attention to Lent Carr, the District C candidate for Raleigh City Council. About the same time Lane got wise to Carr I had done the same, though I chose not to post about Carr because frankly I was embarrassed by the guy.

Carr seems to me to be a con man. A harmless one, perhaps, but a con man all the same. His so-called credentials are completely bogus. Anyone can find that out with a few targeted Google searches. Like Lane, I’ve done my homework and can back Lane up on what he says.

Lane also reports that Carr no longer lives in District C, which is going to make it tough for folks who do live in District C to support him. If he has any supporters, that is: the folks I know around here know better than to fall for this guy’s tricks.

On the other hand, I am happy to see that Eugene Weeks is running to keep his District C seat. Eugene is a hard worker and a dedicated public servant. He doesn’t play the games that some folks in Southeast Raleigh play. He is his own man and has served District C very well in the time since he was appointed to replace James West. Things are looking up for my side of town.

Now if only Lane could find the time to post something more than once a quarter. Come on, Lane! Surely there is more dirt out there to be had!

Update 9:20 PM: WRAL ran their story on Carr on this evening’s newscast. The web version has more details.

Level that playing field

I read with concern today that the U.S. Post Office is closing a local mail station because of to the shrinking volume of mail being sent. Cited for this decline was the rise of email, online bill payment, and the growing use of commercial shippers like FedEx and UPS.

It’s a shame that private enterprise is allowed to compete with the government. These companies are using their commercial nature to unfairly compete with the public entities. If only there was a law that reigned in the predatory nature of private enterprise … you know, level the playing field, so to speak. Wouldn’t that be great?

Pakistan knew

There is no way that Osama Bin Laden lived in a compound that secure in the neighborhood of a Pakistani military academy without the Pakistan government knowing about it.

I think it’s becoming more clear that Pakistan’s interests and America’s interests are often in conflict.