MTBinDurham's blog

From the Durham County Democratic Party (the best smelling one in the state! or something...), the winning hand for democracy in North Carolina...

I confess, I don't watch many political speeches these days on YouTube. It means sitting, staring at my computer screen for an extra 20 minutes more than I already have to, and while I appreciate the art of good rhetoric, unless it's someone I haven't heard before, I'm not inclined to tune in.

This one, though, is a different kind of speech, and one I found more compelling.

Stop. Everyone, just stop, and take a deep breath. We all want a progressive lieutenant governor. And, believe it or not, there is no reason whatsoever we need to consolidate on a candidate right now. The reason we don't need to is the magic number: 40.

Promoted by Betsy

This is a duplicate from a post I made in yesterday's open thread. I was replying to this comment from Blue South, and it got long. The short version: I'm starting to think the divide between Obama's supporters and Edwards's supporters is actually an indicator of a much deeper divide in how we see the future of progressivism.

Posting it here because I thought it was important enough to pull out separately.

Frontpaged for the same reasons. A.

The outbreak of huffing and puffing about economic stimulus in the face of recession should surprise no one, and of course the President's plan is nothing but tax breaks. (Can we take a guess who they'll benefit?) Depressingly, Democrats are chirping in with "me too!" when there's very sound alternative means of providing stimulus that could, you know, improve the country in addition to just getting out the economic defibrillator.

Lots of things to chose from here, but I want to focus on one. It's an option that could help people move about the country better, shore up the collapsing manufacturing sector, and decrease our carbon emissions all in one swoop.

I'm talking about our union's rail infrastructure.

All politics aside for a second, here, which may seem odd on the eve of the Nevada caucuses.

If the referendum on the transfer tax here in Durham County had been held among speakers at the Commissioners meeting, it would have been a rout. The Realtors showed up, but transfer tax supporters were here in much, much bigger numbers.

A fundraising plug, and a request for some DKos help.

Note: This is a cross-post from my personal blog, The Bull in Full.

I linked without comment to a YouTube video, which was a fake drug ad for a compound called Incarcerex.  The ad promotes haphazard incarceration of drug users as a means to fix political ills, and is a brilliant piece of satire—I can't recommend it highly enough.

After posting that video, I was leafing through my print edition of the Herald-Sun, and came across the latest from Malcolm Berko in the business section.  I like reading Berko—he's certainly not handing out tips for socially responsible investing, but his irreverence for the icons of the financial world, like brokerage firms and Alan Greenspan, make him fun to read.  This week's column (linked from a paper with a more reasonable archiving system), though, was a tad disturbing.  A read wrote in asking about his shares in GEO, which used to be called Wackenhut, which Berko had recommended a few years ago.  As Berko notes, the company's revenues have gone up 450% in the past decade.  Why?  Because they run prisons. 

I'm running a bit late on this, because the committee meeting is tomorrow (Thursday) at 1 PM, but please take a look to see if you've got a representative on the committe, and if so, please contact them.