Senate

Greetings all! Health Care for All NC has begun its short-session "Two Over Ten" push, but this time it is not focused on Verla Insko's "Health Care for All" bill. Instead, this session the push is for House Bill 1897, which creates a Healthcare Policy Council that would make recommendations to the General Assembly on how to integrate public and private healthcare services to form an effective, coordinated system of healthcare for North Carolina.

PAC Donations according to the FEC...

Kay Hagan... $146,000
Jim Neal.... ZERO

So which one is the people's candidate and which one is the special interest candidate?

Jim Neal and Kay Hagan on who they endorse for the NC primary. Obama or Clinton?

Jim Neal is a Democrat running for US Senate in North Carolina. He is running against Kay Hagan in North Carolina’s primary on May 6th. Many people have discounted Jim Neal because he is openly gay. Sure, he is openly gay. He is also openly white, openly male, openly down-to-earth, openly progressive, openly against the status-quo, and openly an AMAZING candidate.

I support Barack Obama and Jim Neal.

Both Barack Obama and Jim Neal are inspiring progressive Democrats. Both Obama and Jim Neal wish to change America for the better, and are willing to fight for those who are unable to fight for themselves. Both Obama and Jim Neal have had uphill battles to climb to fight the Washington establishment, and both have been discounted at some point.

If you are inspired by Obama, I think you will also be inspired by Jim Neal. If you support Obama, I urge you to support Jim Neal as well.

People across North Carolina are frustrated with their economic reality. Our nation’s economy lost 80,000 jobs last month. For those who do have jobs, take-home pay buys less. The cost of gas, housing and food are rising. And most feel that politicians are more interested in protecting campaign contributors than regular citizens.

On this day when we recall the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. we can also be inspired by the courage he showed in dark and dangerous times. His words continue to remind each of us to find our own words to speak out every day for a tolerant and just society.

"We have an opportunity to make America a better nation." These words, spoken by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on this day in 1968 shortly before his death, are just as true today. They still give courage to people of all nations who seek a more fair and just society. Dr. King lived without fear and his life reminds us how much can be accomplished by standing strong for what is right.

[crossposted on Daily Kos and my campaign blog]

It’s critical to understand the reasons for our skyrocketing oil prices if we want to lead our country away from protracted conflicts in the Middle East and towards energy independence.

The United States is the world’s largest consumer of oil, using about 20 million barrels per day. Petroleum is not traded in a free market. If the oil market were truly free, it’s unlikely we’d be paying over $100 a barrel. Oil prices are in fact highly manipulated by people who claim to be proponents of free market capitalism and cartels that are interested in anything but a free market. But our government has the power to manipulate oil prices as well. It could bring down the price of oil, if it so chooses, by opening the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Tapping this cache of over a half a billion barrels of oil would have a dramatic and immediate impact on oil prices.

This is a blog I never thought I would write. I'm an unpaid volunteer for the Jim Neal campaign - but after seeing a torrent of emails and press releases from State Sen. Kay Hagan’s campaign claiming she “won the debate” at Craven Community College, I just had to speak up. We CAN do better than this.

I’m not sure whoever wrote her press release was listening to the same debate I was. Listen and decide for yourself at http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/pre/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTIC...

Senator Hagan didn’t win the debate – but she proved she’s capable of repeating focus-group tested lines crafted by her Washington consultants – show stoppers like “Washington is broken.”

Well Senator Hagan, here’s the news: Raleigh is broken too.