Politics

Politics

There are 1,050 posts filed in Politics (this is page 74 of 105).

Political musical chairs in Southeast Raleigh

Political goings-on in my area of town just got more interesting. Long-time Southeast Raleigh activist and Wake County Commissioner Harold Webb has tendered his resignation, citing his health. Raleigh’s District C City Council representative James West is being considered to replace him. Should West get appointed, this will leave a vacancy on the City Council that the Council will fill by making its own appointment. The leading candidate for that is Eugene Weeks, a Democratic Party activist, co-chair of the South CAC, and my colleague on Raleigh’s Parks board.

I have worked with Eugene on parks issues for the last two years and fully support his nomination to the Council, should West be tapped for County Commissioner. Eugene has worked hard to improve Raleigh’s parks as well as his Southeast Raleigh neighborhood. I have no doubt he will work just as hard for the citizens of Southeast Raleigh.

Raleigh’s website woes

The City of Raleigh’s new website was in the news again today. City Councilor Russ Stephenson picked it apart in an email to City Manager Russell Allen. Russ’s experience is the same as most folks’: he tried using the search engine to find something and failed utterly. When I critiqued it myself, I faulted it for simply relying on the search engine as heavily as it does. That wasn’t even considering that the search engine seems so completely broken.

My buddy Scott has built many a website in his many years of geekdom. He’s a professional. He tells me that he had seen many $500,000 websites, and what Raleigh got is not one of them.
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Did the SBI set up Floyd Brown?

The story of the SBI’s treatment of Floyd Brown, convicted by a dubious murder confession, should make everyone shudder.

Some of the shine has come off former golden boy Attorney General Roy Cooper. It’s a shame, since I once thought Cooper could do no wrong.

Here’s Floyd telling his story, brought to you by Travis Long, Shawn Rocco, and Mandy Locke of the News and Observer.

Agents’ Secrets: A confession doesn’t add up from Travis Long on Vimeo.

The Libya Investment Firm and the release of the Lockerbie bomber

The Telegraph has more dirt on the Libya-BP terrorist-for-oil deal. There’s certainly lots of smoke here. Could fire be far behind?

The name reads Dalia Advisory Limited, a company established by Libyan businessmen just a week after the country’s officials were told the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was being considered for release on compassionate grounds.

Dalia Advisory is in fact a “front” for the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA), a sovereign wealth fund with £80 billion, to invest in Britain and beyond. The Georgian town house, bought for £6 million, is, ironically, only a few yards from the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square.

Senior business sources have told The Sunday Telegraph that had Megrahi died in a British jail, the LIA would have taken its vast sums elsewhere. “If Megrahi had perished in Scotland, we would have become a pariah state as far as the Libyans were concerned,” said one source.

via Special report: the Libya investment firm and the release of the Lockerbie bomber – Telegraph.

Shirley Sherrod, Thrown to the Wolves

Bob Herbert of the New York Times sums up the Shirley Sherrod episode. The Obama Administration is far too focused on perception and playing it safe. Where’s the bold leadership, Mr. Obama?

Why didn’t President Obama or Vice President Joe Biden or Rahm call me Rahmbo Emanuel, or somebody somewhere in the upper echelon say, “Hey, what the heck are you doing? You can’t fire a person without hearing her side of the story. This is not the Kremlin. Are you nuts?”

via Op-Ed Columnist – Shirley Sherrod, Thrown to the Wolves – NYTimes.com.

Highway patrol not getting ‘er done?

Photo by Ildar Sagdejev

After seeing this white utility van sitting the shoulder of NC540 near the Highway 55 exit for a week, I finally decided to call it in. Wednesday morning I made the call to the North Carolina State Highway Patrol (*47), tangling a bit with the dispatcher in an effort to make sure she knew where the van was. Now it’s true that earlier that morning there was an accident on I-40W near Wade that tied up traffic considerably, but that accident was almost cleared when I called and the van wasn’t going anywhere. And let’s face it: all the HP needs to do with an abandoned car is look it over and put a sticker on it for it to be towed. Takes 10 minutes at most, right?

This morning I rode by the van and it was still there, only now I noticed the driver’s side window was gone. It’s been two days and no one has taken the 10 minutes it takes to tag it and move on.

I called again this morning and spoke with a dispatcher who didn’t know NC540 had a mile marker 66.8. “What county is it in?” she asked me. While it’s true this is close to the Wake/Durham border, that information really shouldn’t have been necessary.

The patrol needs to get its act together. The leadership vacuum at the top is clearly affecting the whole organization and the cracks are beginning to show. Governor Perdue needs to show some leadership and step up efforts to stabilize this once-vaunted organization.

Dealing in blood and oil

A Pan Am Boeing 747

There has been speculation in the British press that last year’s release of the convicted bomber of Pan Am Flight 103 (the “Lockerbie Bombing”), Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, was done so to allow BP to sign an oil contract worth billions with Libya. The UK prime minister, David Cameron, got grilled today at the White House by the press (or should I say the British press. What passes for the American press was too busy mindlessly covering the two leaders’ favorite beer. I wish I was joking.)

According to the Times of London:
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Anti-competition broadband bill killed again

Enjoy retirement, Sen. Hoyle!

Good news: Senator Hoyle’s anti-competition broadband bill is dead!

Let me see if I can summarize what took place early this morning. S.1209 and H.1840 both languished in the Broadband Connectivity House committee and never made it back to the floor. That’s all good. Then last night the House added a broadband study provision to the S900 studies bill, a provision which did not require a moratorium or study report be issued. The senate approved this and all seemed good.

Then an hour later Sen. Clodfelter gutted H.455, which was a “Kidney Awareness” bill, and inserted the “study” portion of S.1209, among other things. Clodfelter’s changes differed from the S.900 changes by requiring a report or suggested legislation by March 2011. The House did not concur. Though a committee report, a provision in H.455 favorable to municipal broadband was salvaged and that’s what was passed in H.455. End result: no moratorium and no report or new legislation required!

A big thanks to Reps Hackney, Holliman, Luebke, Weiss, Faison and Bryant in the House and Senators Snow, Atwater, Vaughn, and Queen (among many others) in the Senate. Now there’s a little time to put some law around municipal Internet and better hold off these challenges.