Politics
There are 1,050 posts filed in Politics (this is page 80 of 105).
Yesterday was the one year anniversary of Obama’s election. Obama was selling change and the people were willing to buy it. So how do I grade Obama for his first quarter performance? Let’s take a look:
The economy: still eeking along. It hasn’t cratered as feared and it may even be on the upswing again but things don’t bounce back as quickly as they crash. He’s probably doing as best as can be expected: B-
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I know the News and Observer has had some kind of obsession with former Governor Mike Easley but today’s front-page story is really a stretch.
Easley was a member of the Old Chatham Golf Club in Chatham County, apparently getting his membership fees waived. While that’s nice to know and may have been worthy of a story, the latest story about the club getting water for irrigation during the drought of 2002 is a non-story as far as I’m concerned. The crux of the issue is right here:
Frantz, who did not return numerous phone messages, routed the request to the Chatham County commissioners, who unanimously agreed June 3 to let the club pump as much as 450,000 gallons a day for irrigation for up to three months. The water would be counted against the county’s daily allocation from Jordan Lake. State law considers pumping more than 100,000 gallons a day to be a major withdrawal.
The county was not drawing all the 4 million gallons per day it was allowed; there was no debate among commissioners about the request, according to minutes of the commisers’ [sic] meeting County Manager Charlie Horne.
See that? Chatham County wasn’t using its 4 million gallon allocation and the the Chatham County Commissioners unanimously agreed to let the club pump the water. It was Chatham County’s water and the state didn’t have a problem with Chatham spending it as it saw fit. The state’s “getting involved,” as the N&O alleges, amounted to the state shrugging its shoulders, and rightfully so.
The Governor can order state agencies to reduce water use but he or she does not have the power to order private businesses or individuals to conserve. It’s ludicrous for the N&O to suggest otherwise.
I’ll be happy when the N&O catches up to 2009 and starts covering the issues we face today. Then again, my faith in the so-called “Old Reliable” has pretty much run out.
Yesterday we drove home from T’s soccer game to see signs for an auction at a neighborhood house. We stopped by to see what was going on and found the auction was at a home near ours that belonged to the late Rebecca Weatherford, who used to own the property our house was built on. The house’s items were being auctioned.
I was looking through the home when I recognized Dan Blue, who is handling the estate affairs. He told me some history of the place: that it used to be a dairy farm from the 1920s to the 1960s that encompassed about 70 acres. There was a plantation-style home that dated from the late 1800s but burned down long ago. My neighbor once told me he used to play on the majestic porch of the now long-gone home. I was fascinated to learn that such an old home was once nearby, and saddened that it no longer exists.
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It was a long, long day on Tuesday when I volunteered to be a poll greeter for the campaigns of Rodger Koopman and Russ Stephenson. My feet hit the floor at 5 AM and I basically wasn’t off my feet until midnight that night.
After showering that morning, I threw my umbrella, a folding chair, and a bunch of campaign signs into the car and headed out to nearby polling places to make sure signs were out. Then I picked up more from Rodger’s house and headed north.
I arrived at my assigned polling place at 6:35 to find the parking lot full already. My Odom counterpart, Collin, was already there greeting voters. I set up my chair closer to the “no campaigning past this sign” limit, held up my sign and smiled in the drizzle at the disinterested voters who walked past.
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My friend Rodger Koopman lost his Raleigh City Council District B race to John Odom. I spent the day outside a polling place meeting voters and asking them to support Rodger. My sense around midday was that Rodger was getting one out of three votes – a prediction that was eerily accurate when my precinct’s numbers came in.
Though it might seem otherwise at first glance, elections are not won or lost on election day: by then it’s too late. If you haven’t done your homework in the weeks leading up to the election there’s little you can do to turn it around at the last hour. I’m still analyzing what went wrong but it’s a shame that a fine candidate like Rodger Koopman won’t get another term.
Tuesday is Election Day, where Raleigh will be voting for candidates for mayor and city council. I’m taking the day off to work the polls for Rodger Koopman and Russ Stephenson. Then afterward I hope to celebrate some victories at some downtown establishments.
You won’t get much blogging from me for the next 24 hours. Hopefully the next post will be a positive one!
Auto-Tune The News, which edits news clips through with Apple’s Auto-Tune to create music videos, has released it’s latest episode, this time featuring T-Pain himself. Check it out!
Bonus! Evan Gregory, who is part of the Gregory Brothers who created Auto-Tune the News, once delivered a commencement address partially in pirate. Saturday is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Arrrrrrr!
You know, I’m sure there’s more to this story than is being told about White House “green jobs” official Van Jones “resigning” supposedly due to a petition he signed and because he called Republicans a bad name.
So Jones doubts the official story of what happened during the attacks of September 11th. Big deal! There are so many holes in the official 9/11 story that it’s not even funny. Jones is not alone in his doubt and that’s certainly no reason to can him.
As for the Republican remark, wasn’t it Dick Cheney who, while on that bastion of civility and decorum – the Senate Floor, told Vermont Democratic Senator Patrick Lehey to go f*ck himself? I didn’t see ol’ Darth Cheney turning in his walking papers after that.
Either there’s more to Jones’s forced resignation than we’re being told or Obama threw him under the bus as a gift to the rabid right-wing talk show hosts. Neither scenario sits well with me.
My brother-in-law David Swanson’s new book Daybreak is the sixth best selling book on Amazon today. Take that, Glenn Beck!
Congratulations, David!
On my way to work this morning I saw a guy on a street corner waving a sign that said “Free Small Coffee!” I have to admit that my first thought was “who is this Small Coffee guy and why is he locked up?”
Too much politics on the brain.
