Politics
There are 1,050 posts filed in Politics (this is page 70 of 105).
I’ve never understood how some people who’ve made their living serving in the military can turn around and proclaim that government is bad. Especially when they continue to enjoy government-paid health care and other benefits.
It makes me glad that I made it out of the military with my ability to think intact.
The News and Observer ran my opinion piece on municipal broadband today:
Don’t block broadband
BY MARK TURNER
Published in: Other ViewsRALEIGH While farm life has never been easy, at one time it was significantly harder. In the mid-1930s, over 97 percent of North Carolina farms had no electricity, many because private electric companies couldn’t make enough money from them to justify running the lines.
Aware of the transformational effect of electrification and recognizing the need to do something, visionary North Carolina leaders created rural electric cooperatives, beating passage of FDR’s Rural Electrification Act by one month. Through the state’s granting local communities the power to provide for their own needs where others would not, over 98 percent of farms had electricity by 1963, and our state has prospered.
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I was quoted again in the N&O, this time during Thursday’s marathon Parks and Rec Board meeting. We were debating the Moore Square Master Plan and discussed a letter presented by the State Property Office [PDF] objecting to including restrooms and a kiosk on the square. I thought it was ridiculous not to add restrooms to a park anticipated to attract young families:
“I find it a little surprising that the state prefers a line of Porta-Johns,” said Mark Turner. “I don’t know if I could support this [plan] without the structures.”
I’m still mystified at how the state could object to this. The letter signed by Moses Carey, Jr. states that there are public restrooms at the Moore Square Transfer Station and at Marbles Kids Museum. That may be true for the bus station but if Marbles’s restrooms are public it is certainly news to them.
The state cites the historic nature of the square in their objection to structures, yet for over 70 years there were structures on the square: a school and a church. The facilities in the plan are minor by comparison and in the case of the restrooms, tucked underneath the proposed slope. What’s even more ironic is that the state itself obliterated the other two original public squares, building the State Capitol and the Executive Mansion on them.
I think the state should either go along with the proposed plan or put forth one of its own. Better yet, perhaps the city should outright purchase Moore Square from the state. For the last century, the City of Raleigh has been a faithful steward of the square for the state. The city has earned the right to have a greater say in its use!
Moore Square could be such a wonderful gathering place for the folks who visit downtown. It could be a delightful escape from the skyscrapers and asphalt. The Moore Square Master Plan respects the history of the square and adds to it, bringing it into the 21st century. It’s time the state got on board with this centerpiece component of Raleigh’s downtown revitalization.
At some point, legislators — Republicans and Democrats — might want to wake up to the fact that an ongoing battle over high-speed Internet has nothing to do with party, political ideology, or being pro- or anti-business.
It has everything to do with the urban-rural divide in North Carolina.
Any legislator from a rural community who favors a bill that would restrict municipal-owned Internet systems is voting against his or her constituents and against the ability of his or her community to recruit and retain business.
via The Daily Reflector.
Want to use a computer? Take a number
We took the kids to the Cameron Village library last Sunday and loaded up on the kids’ books. As I usually do (being the curious sort) I took note of the crowd making use of the library’s computers. I always like to see what kind of folks are depending on the library’s computers. Like many of my visits there, I found a crowd at the computers. There wasn’t even a single workstation available.
As my kids were checking out their books, I listened as a mom and her 10-year-old son pleaded with the librarian to get a computer. I guessed that he had a school assignment he needed to complete.
“What if they’re not doing anything important – playing games or something?” the mom asked. “Could they give it up then?”
The librarian shook her head. “As long as they’ve got time left on their reservation, they can use it however they like. Now, if they get up and walk away, leaving it unattended, then you could step up and use it.”
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A few weeks ago I was running an errand around town when I happened to spot graffiti on a telephone pole. As I’ve done perhaps a hundred times, I whipped out my phone and dialed Raleigh’s Graffiti Hotline. After giving my name and the graffiti location, we got into an impromptu conversation.
“Hi Mark, this is Elaine. It’s been a while since we’ve talked.” I’ve often said half-jokingly that I’m on a first-name basis with the Graffiti Hotline staff but it’s becoming less of a joke. “How are you doing?” she asked. “Everything all right? Your job going well?”
“Oh, sure,” I answered. “I work from home now and love my job.”
“Oh, that’s good,” Elaine said. “I remember you had lost your job and I wondered how you were doing.”
I laughed, thanked her for her concern, and said goodbye. Afterward, though, I marveled at how Elaine had remembered that I’d lost my job. It was over two years ago but I obviously had mentioned it to her and it obviously had made an impression. It blew me away that someone I’ve never even met would care about that – about me and my welfare.
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I actually did something rare for me last week: I finished a book! The one is At The Abyss: An Insider’s History of the Cold War by Thomas C. Reed and published in 2004. It’s a book filled with Cold War incidents, many of which brought little attention when they occurred but looking back on them seem rather frightening. One of the incidents Reed recalled was the brilliant sabotage of a Soviet gas pipeline in the early 80s that I’d read about before (see: The Farewell Dossier).
Reed helped design nuclear weapons earlier in his career and a narrative runs through his book about the dangers of nuclear weapons. The most frightening parts detail the shocking lack of security that surrounded these ominous weapons during some of mankind’s biggest crises. We are all very, very, lucky to be here now.
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I got an unexpected shout-out from N&O executive editor John Drescher today about my work with the East CAC, quoted by Fiona Morgan in her New America report. We had actually all gotten together back in October after Fiona’s report was released.
I had no idea I would be the subject of Drescher’s column today, but I appreciate the shout-out. I hope other groups will be inspired to spread the word through technology!
The question to Mayor Charles Meeker came from a woman who lives in East Raleigh’s Lockwood neighborhood with her husband and two young children.
She wanted to know about the future of Powell Elementary, the school closest to her home.
Meeker harshly criticized the majority of the Wake school board. He said they were outsiders who didn’t share our values and were trying to isolate the affluent from others in separate schools.
Meeker’s comments last summer, which prompted weeks of community debate, were reported on the front page of The News & Observer. But they likely would not have received news coverage if it had not been for Mark Turner, president of the East Citizens Advisory Council, one of 18 such groups across Raleigh.
Turner, a tech professional and blogger, uses streaming video to broadcast his meetings online, where they are archived for anyone to see, including reporters.
Turner’s efforts show how citizens can help inform a community. His story was told by Fiona Morgan in a report on the availability of information in the Triangle.
via Drescher: How a blogger helped us tell a story – Drescher – NewsObserver.com.
A follow-up about Stuxnet. The AP, citing an intelligence report from an unknown country, says Stuxnet threatens the plant’s (and the public’s) safety.
VIENNA – The control systems of Iran’s Bushehr nuclear plant have been penetrated by a computer worm unleashed last year, according to a foreign intelligence report that warns of a possible Chernobyl-like disaster once the site becomes fully operational.
Russia’s envoy to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, also has raised the specter of the 1986 reactor explosion in Ukraine, but suggested last week that the danger had passed.
The report, drawn up by a nation closely monitoring Iran’s nuclear program and obtained by The Associated Press, said such conclusions were premature and based on the “casual assessment” of Russian and Iranian scientists at Bushehr.
With control systems disabled by the virus, the reactor would have the force of a “small nuclear bomb” it said.
via AP Exclusive: Report warns of Iran nuke disaster – Yahoo! News.
And these are the financial geniuses who are supposedly going to rescue America from its fiscal crisis?
Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.) caught lots of flak earlier this year for hosting a swank, rock ‘n’ roll fundraiser months after his freshman class was swept to Washington after promising a renewed commitment to frugality and economic restraint.
And all that ire was before the nearly $80,000 in expenses was disclosed.
It was a particularly bizarre event, even by Washington standards. Denham invited the media to the W Hotel before the event, where he vowed that “we’re conservatives but that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun.”
The money that the PAC raised hardly covered the cost of the event — it took in $85,000. The San Manuel Band of Mission Indians donated $50,000 to the committee, and the Morongo Band of Mission Indians Native donated $25,000. Blue Shield of California’s PAC chipped in $5,000 and the American Association of Clinical Urologists and a Tennessee-based donor gave $2,500 each.
via GOP rookies’ LeAnn Rimes fundraiser cost nearly $80K – Jake Sherman – POLITICO.com.
