Politics
There are 1,056 posts filed in Politics (this is page 72 of 106).
Happy to be doing my part!
When former state GOP chairman Tom Fetzer gave his farewell speech over the weekend, he did more than just talk about all the Republican victories last year.
“If I could give you one piece of advice, please ignore the idiot bloggers,” Fetzer said. “I don’t know those these people are and why they have time to do this stuff. But they need to get a life.”
via Fetzer on idiot bloggers and mean politics | newsobserver.com projects.
Yates Mill
The family and I were thinking of checking out Historic Yates Mill Park today: a fully-restored mill and park which Wake County Parks and Recreation leased from N.C. State University in 2001. While looking through the park information, I was drawn to the list of prohibited items (emphasis mine):
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My family and I spent Christmas Eve at my parents’ house. After dinner was over, we got out our instruments and played some music, starting with Christmas songs and then moving on to others, like the bluegrass classic Keep On The Sunnyside, as seen on YouTube. It had been a long time since I’d played with my brothers (and dad) and we all had a great time. It reminded me of something I’ve been considering for a while (actually, ever since my daughter Hallie began violin lessons): hosting a regular jam session at the house for anyone who wanted to come over and play.
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The year 2010 was one full of more political stuff for me, and by that I mean the stuff outside of my Parks board and East CAC activities. With these two Raleigh civic activities I do my best not to lobby or persuade for one decision or another. I simply try my best to represent my “constituents.” There were a few notable legislative issues where I was an active proponent or opponent last year: all of them above the city level.
First up was a trip to Washington, DC to the Clean Energy, Jobs, and Security Forum as part of the Operation Free group of veterans who are pushing for changes in America’s energy policy. In January I flew into DC with other vets for a day of media training. I spent the following day in the Dirksen Senate building, starting off with speeches by Sen. John Kerry, Sen. Lindsay Graham, and other leading clean-energy advocates.
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There were rumors over the past few weeks that Linux pioneer Red Hat was shopping around for new office space, including digs in Massachusetts, Austin, and Atlanta, among others. Today, Governor Purdue announced that Red Hat would be staying in Wake County (though she didn’t say Raleigh, specifically).
A month ago when rumors started swirling I predicted Red Hat would stay, posting this on the WRAL story about the office search:
Red Hat would have a hard time finding anyplace with a better quality of life than it has right here. The company’s executives are savvy enough to know that.”
Sure enough, the first thing out of CEO Jim Whitehurst’s mouth when explaining Red Hat’s choosing to stay was this area’s quality of life. Now, Red Hat just needs to vacate the overpriced Centennial Campus space and hang their hat in downtown Raleigh and then they’ll be in business!
It was a productive year for helping out in the community.
The biggest and most rewarding thing I did as the CAC chair was help organize the first East Raleigh Community Day event along with Ronneil Robinson, Raleigh Police, Raleigh Parks, WakeMed, and others. It was so much fun seeing everyone out and having a good time. I had a silly grin on my face all day long.
Part of the Community Day celebrations included the grand opening of the Police Department Field Office in the Raleigh Boulevard Food Lion shopping center. This was the result of an initiative I took two years ago to work with the city and the property owner to get it done. Now the shopping center is thriving, new businesses moving in, and the neighborhood has a nice local place to shop.
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I was reading the Twitter feed of the fearless, assassinated governor of the Punjab province, Salman Taseer. He seemed like quite the technically-savvy politician.
Just three days ago, Taseer retweeted a status update from my brother in law, David Swanson, sent on New Years Day:
@SalmaanTaseer Salmaan Taseer
And not iin 2011 either RT @marvisirmed: Sweet na! RT @davidcnswanson: The United States has not launched any new wars all year
Pakistan’s increasing instability worries me greatly, and the U.S. military has lost whatever clout it used to have there. I fear Pakistan’s troubles will boil over in the next few years. Time to try a different approach, and fast.
As I mentioned yesterday, I did two interviews for the Smoking in Parks (in addition to the News and Observer’s).
The News 14 interview with Jessica Cervantez was posted yesterday afternoon and came out nice with the exception that my name was not mentioned during the interview.
The WPTF interview came out well, too. The interviewer took perhaps 3 minutes of my time to discuss the issue and didn’t ask any biased questions. I spoke calmly and with authority, which I think conveyed that this issue is no big deal. I was even impressed that our Voice over IP phone connection sounded fantastic. The clip aired during their next top-of-the-hour news update, where their newscaster repeated nearly everything I had said verbatim before playing the clip of the rest of what I said.
I laughed when the newscaster twice referred to me as “Councilman Turner” on the air. I admit I liked how it sounded, though!
Lions Park Playground Dedication
This year marked the start of my second term on Raleigh’s Parks, Recreation, and Greenways Advisory Board (a.k.a. PRGAB). Service on this board has led to an amazing set of friendships and a greater understanding for all our Parks department does.
It has been challenging but rewarding work. The board meets every month, and each member is also expected to serve on one or more committees. My committee of choice is to act as liason to Mordecai Historic Park, which is a mile away from our home.
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The Raleigh City Council is considering a recommendation from the Parks board to ban smoking in city parks. Ray Martin of the News and Observer wrote a story about it that ran today.
My quote:
Mark Turner, vice chairman of the board who presided over that meeting, said littering was the board’s chief concern.
“We don’t have the resources to clean up all the cigarettes,” Turner said. “If people can’t be responsible, this has to take effect.
“I think there’s also a big health benefit of the ban, but I’m the kind of guy who does not like making health decisions for other people.”
Considering the circumstances I’m pleased with the interview. Ray caught me literally minutes before we walked out of the house for our New Year’s trip. I was racing around to find last minute items as I talked with him. I’m surprised I sounded somewhat coherent.
One thing I would like to point out is that for this issue it was about litter for me. Other board members might have different concerns but for me it was litter. Ray writes that “littering is the board’s chief concern,” but I don’t know that to be the case. I was only speaking for myself and I tried to make that clear.
Since the story ran today I’ve spoken with News14 Carolina and WPTF. We’ll see how those turn out.
