Nc Politics

Barbara Barrett and Martha Quillan wrote an excellent story in today's N&O about racial prejudice in North Carolina. It's a hard view of the sad reality in North Carolina.

Bill Clinton’s barnstorming tour of small-town North Carolina is finishing up its second round in the eastern part of the state as I write this; he was in four towns yesterday and did seven more today. But I was in the middle of last week’s traveling show, and I’ve been so busy catching up I’m finally making time to write before it’s all history. Actually it WAS, history, here in Asheboro, and the glow of it all is still burning pretty bright. But even now pundits are piling layer upon layer of speculation and analysis, and after next Tuesday it will all be academic, filed away in some history of the 2008 election. But all over North Carolina, generations of small town residents will remember when the circus came to town.

Bumped, this is a great diary. Thanks. - RP

I learned something new today.

Catfish Amendment: a seemingly friendly amendment designed to kill a bill by making it undesirable.

Write On!

No, no, no - I got it at the N&O

In 2003 a tuition grant clause was slipped into the state budget favoring certain students by granting free tuition at UNC campuses for graduates of the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics, the prestigious state boarding school in Durham. The provision was slipped in during budget planning by a Senator chairing the appropriations committee.

Sen. Kay Hagan, a Greensboro Democrat, is the driving force behind the tuition grant. She used her influence as chairwoman of an appropriations committee to insert the grant into the budget.

Much like the entertainer at a piano bar, I’m taking a request today.

James Protzman, who’s known as “Anglico” at the BlueNC site (for those of you not reading this at the BlueNC site) asked me to offer some ideas for NC Senate ’08.

What I’d like to do is bring some thoughts to the table, and see if the community might help flesh the thing out. So here we go…

Is Elizabeth Dole vulnerable in the ’08 Senate election?
I think she might be.

Here’s why:

Does everyone recall the infamous "Environmental Quality" hazardous waste fire in Apex (NC) last fall? Over 10,000 residents were evacuated, and for days no one knew precisely to what chemicals or health hazards they and their community were being exposed.

That disaster pointed out the gaping holes which remain in North Carolina's hazardous waste regulatory setup. As a direct result, Governor Easley appointed a task force to study ways to prevent or reduce the severity of such incidents in the future. In December, they reported a strong set of proposals to fill the gaps in our state's laws.

Last night, I moved—and my colleagues on the Winston-Salem City Council unanimously agreed—to endorse those recommendations. We're calling on our General Assembly to adopt legislation to prevent future debacles like the one suffered by Apex.

US Military Controls Diplomacy In Iraq As US State Department Stands On The Sidelines

January 18, 2007
By Marshall Adame

Go to just about any significant meeting between Iraqi Government and US government officials in Iraq and you will quickly understand who is running the Diplomatic efforts in Iraq. The US Military.

Ask any Iraqi government official in Baghdad, or in any of the 18 provinces, who they are primarily counseling and meeting with regarding civil development and governance capacity building and they will, in almost all cases, reply “the US Army”.

US Diplomats have, in effect, relinquished their Diplomatic “front seat” in Iraq to the US Military who, although well intentioned, come to the table with little or no idea of what is “diplomatically” required of those engaged in efforts geared to joint solutions, resolutions, plans and cooperative efforts which benefit all parties in substantive and acceptable operational environments. Diplomacy, in dealing with the Iraqis, is far removed from the Army mindset, as it should be. In the mind of an Army officer, the needs of the Army are paramount to any objective or requirement. Other, non-Army, priorities, requirements, objectives or desires come a very distant second in any action or negotiation. Diplomacy is not the forte of the US Military. Fighting wars is. Diplomacy is far removed from the dynamics and tactics of fighting a ground war. There is however a requirement for the execution of Diplomatic efforts and programs and administration in a War. That is why we have the US Department of State.

On December 11, Reps. David Price and Brad Miller circulated a letter addressed to President Bush, urging the president to expand efforts toward regional diplomacy “to promote stability in Iraq and prevent a broader regional conflict.”1

In this letter they urge the president to “to immediately name Secretary (James) Baker and Representative Hamilton as dual Special Envoys to the region”

Is James Baker III really at the top their list, of people best suited to promote diplomacy in the region? Aside from jumping on the bandwagon of media frenzy surrounding the recent Iraq Study Group report, (it’s easy to rally around anyone who criticizes the administration’s conduct in the war these days) Baker seems like an odd choice for these particular North Carolina Representatives.

Tonight, October 16, 2006, 7pm, on the second floor of the Thomasville Police Building (7 West Guilford Street - map), the Thomasville City Council will meet. On their agenda is a resolution urging the North Carolina General Assembly to send an amendment banning same-sex marriage to the voters (See our October 14th Press Release: Gay and lesbian PAC urges Thomasville City Council to vote "No").

Please join us at tonight's meeting of the Thomasville City Council meeting! Speak with us during the Council's Public Forum section of the agenda and tell the City Council why this resolution is both un-necessary and harmful for North Carolina.

It is difficult to find much that Charles Taylor has to say publicly about US energy policy. On the one hand this is odd for one who is or was a member of The NC Energy Policy Council, NC Transportation Council, Chair of The Task Force on Environmental Balance, Vice-Chair, Energy Task Force, Vice Chair, Western North Carolina Environmental Council, and Chair of The House Subcommittee on Interior and Environment and Related Agencies. On the other hand, it is probably a good thing beacuse on those occasions when our esteemed representative does speak, he shows, at the least, how little he comprehends the field, and at worst, how tricky he might be.