Anglico

This was one crazy and exciting day. Jane, my usual partner in partying, was stuck in Miami, so I had to be Mr. Sociable all by my lonesome at our fundraiser for Jim Neal. But I'll tell you what, it was a good one.

Here's a quick report:

I got the chance to finally meet Marshall Adame, and I already owe him a big apology. I forgot to introduce him as an honored guest when I was welcoming everyone to the event. I'm sorry Marshall. But just so everyone doesn't think I'm a total schmuck, I suspect Marshall met everyone anyway. He definitely knows how work the crowd.

Jim Neal gave a rousing speech and won over a number of folks who came to size him up. This guy is great at retail politics. Good solid answers to good questions on energy, immigration, and Bush's War, in particular.

A big highlight for me was the significant blogger turn-out, not just BlueNC regulars. Brian, Brunette, Chun Yang (thanks for the banana nut bread!), Graig, Lanya, Lee, Molly, MojoMom, Ruby , Steve, and Will.

UPDATE:

Please be sure to read Gordon Smith's write-up from Jim's visit to Asheville. Gordon did a much better job than I in covering comments Jim made.

This is an open invitation to regulars, readers and lurkers alike to come out to support my favorite candidate for the United States Senate, Jim Neal.

When: Sunday, December 9th, 2 - 4 pm

Where: 451 Lakeshore Lane, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514

Who: Jim Neal is a breath of fresh air. Anyone and everyone interested in honesty and leadership in the US Senate should come.

We have a great list of sponsors, including folks like Paul Hardin, Tim Toben, Pam Spaulding, Barry Katz and more. The suggested donation is $50, but this is my personal invitation for YOU to come whether you can contribute or not. I'm in the mood for a party, so I'll figure out how to make it work either way! We're happy for you to come early to help set up, too.

Things aren't quite so lush this time of the year, but it promises to be a beautiful day. Hope you can join us. Email me with questions: anglico at bluenc dot com

Ten years ago my family and I had the privilege of touring Kenya with a guide named Alex, who was a most knowledgeable birder and all around wonderful man. After we left the country, I kept in touch with Alex and his daughter, Lucky. The tourism business in Kenya is a roller-coaster, and they depend on us for help in tough times.

I communicate with Alex by email regularly, and I am always curious about politics on the ground there. It's hard to get a good picture of things from reading Kenyan news online. In response to my recent questions, Alex had this to say:

Thanks once again, we appreciate your assistance, all of us in the family. Our election comes after every five years for President and other members of parliament, expectations are always high as people yearn for change, many of us expected to see the changes after the last 2002 but many were dissatisfied as the trend was the same since independence back in 1960.

Tribal politics plays major as the distribution of recourses leaves many not fully happy as mostly the bigger portion goes to the incumbent's choice, but probably as time goes we will have some leader with all the people and country at heart.

We have EU observers to be sure it is a free and fair process, they have no powers but to observe.

Probably I have a different thought but we still need leaders who are bound by the people not the opposite, that is why my prayers are for a free and fair election.

We still need leaders who are bound by the people, not the opposite. Amen.

You would think that a guy like me, at the ripe old age of 57, would have thought long and hard about the electoral process in the United States of America, especially around primary elections. But the truth is, this is the first cycle during which I've had to come to grips with what primaries really mean and how they fit into the overall political calculus. In doing so, I've had to confront my own biases and motivations, the role of personal relationships, my sense of what's "fair," and the tricky question of electability.

Veterans Day arrives every year like a hand grenade that has been rolling around the floorboard of my life for months. My earliest memories of the day go back to my father’s military service, back when he wore the uniform of a US Navy hospital corpsman.

My father, I suspect, was a victim of post-traumatic stress syndrome. If not that, he was a least clinically depressed. Not because he was shot in the leg during the Korean War, but because of the hundreds of Marines he watched die on the battlefield. As a corpsman, he spent more time than anyone should spend in blood up to his elbows, working against hope in one of our many wars without end.

Not sure why I'm all disclosing today, but what the heck. Here's some of the art I make in my very rare spare time. They're gourds.

I'm passing through a crowded coffee shop on the way to the library. No power at home. A freezer and refrigerator full of wasted food. Minor inconveniences. A short temper.

The events of the world are helping to keep things in perspective. A few powerless days for me . . . big deal.

The people in New Orleans. The people in Blacksburg. The people in Iraq. The people in need all across this country and around the world.

I have no idea what "powerless" actually means. I have not stood in their shoes.

NOTE TO BLUENC VETERANS: April 19th is BlueNC Veterans Day. Many of you said you'd write posts about your perspectives and experiences, and I'm counting on having five or six entries to front-page on Thursday. Please let me know if you're in.

Hi everyone.

I'm heading to Virginia this afternoon to visit colleges with my daughter. I'm not even taking my laptop, which will be the first time I've traveled unaccompanied by a computer in more than a year.

Yikes!

Thanks for holding down the fort.

James

Back at Annapolis, where I graduated a long, long time ago, we called the daze between Christmas and spring break 'the dark ages.' Pouring through the single-paned windows of Bancroft Hall, chilling your bones on the banks of the Severn River, the cold hard winds of February carried nothing but gloom and despair. Larry, a goofy kid who lived across the hall from me, tried to kill himself the first winter I was there. Vic actually succeeded the following year, giving in to the misery of too much discipline, too much testosterone, and too little sunlight.

Twenty-five years later, my own father killed himself during the dreariness of the Dark Ages. Left alone in their little brick house after my mother's quiet passing, he must have found too little to live for in the skeleton trees and brown grass that surrounded his tidy home. Depression runs deep in my DNA.

What do a Greek politician, a Hindu god and a heel have in common? Do you need a hint? I'm waiting.......... Man! You people are slow.

It's their IP address silly.

Allow me to introduce BlueNC users demosthenes, shiva and heel_dem. They also have a few other things in common. All three have posted only one diary at BlueNC and all three of those solo posts have been attacks on Lt. Governor Beverly Perdue and one on our very own Anglico.

Follow below the fold for the shocking story....