Monday Blues - the war on terror

Your weekly dose of chuckles to start off your work week. Maybe it'll help you with that turkey you're still trying to digest.
This week's edition is all about the "war on terror".
(some folks who get my new posts delivered might have to go to the actual site to see these videos)

Whatever happened to that awesome color coded "threat level alert system" from the Department of Homeland Security? The next video shows at least one guy that's still keeping up with it.



Always funny and brutally honest: Chris Rock (not for sensitive ears!)



The war on terror strikes home! Did you know that Al Qaeda is setting California on Fire? You obviously haven't been watching Fox News...



Have a great week!

Read More......

Mark Ortiz fund raiser this Friday

As you might know from a previous post of mine, Mark Ortiz, a well known progressive in our area, got involved in a hit and run accident a few weeks ago.

First off, Mark is doing very well after his spine surgery and his condition is improving every day. You can check out getwellmark.org for the latest updates.

We are organizing our first fund raiser this Friday to help Mark pay his medical bills.
The Mark Ortiz 15 mile Bicycle ride starts this Friday November 23rd at 10 am in downtown Concord.
We hope to see you there, but even if you can't make it, you can still help Mark by sending a financial contribution.

You can find all the details about this Friday's event at getwellmark.org

Have a nice Thanksgiving and I hope to see you Friday!

Read More......

What a bunch of chickens!

They chickened out!
In an unbelievable example of "back room politics", the Cabarrus County Commissioners decided tonight to indefinitely table a resolution to censure their fellow Commissioner Coy Privette.It was clear to everyone attending that this was a deal that they arranged and talked about before tonight. Even some TV reporters were convinced this was premeditated and told me so.

Not even 2 minutes into discussing the resolution to censure Privette, which was drawn up by Commissioners Jay White and Grace Mynatt, Jay White himself made a motion to table the issue. All the other commissioners agreed within 10 seconds, without even blinking. It was an astounding spectacle to behold.

What made them change their minds???
How can you go from having the County Attorney look into ways of having Privette kicked of the board to not even want to talk about a resolution that basically would only tell Privette he's been a bad boy???
Why can't we tell a politician that hiring a prostitute 6 times is not exactly a kosher thing to do, especially not if your whole political career is built on supposedly being an example of "high morals"?

I strongly believe that the people of Cabarrus County deserve an explanation from the County Commission. Why did you do this? Why sweep this under the rug???

The only reason I can come up with is that the Executive Committee of the Cabarrus Republican Party got together with their Commissioners and asked them not to censure Privette in a desperate attempt to keep their Party together. If there's another explanation, I would love to hear it.

It is clear that a majority of the people of our County do not want Privette on the board any longer. Any sane person knows this and the County Commissioners surely know this too.

The County Commission wants this issue to disappear, never to be spoken of again. I can assure you the complete opposite of that will happen. Stay tuned.


P.S.: For anyone interested, this was the complete text of the proposed resolution:

On December 4 2006 Coy Clarence Privette took the oath of County Commissioner pursuant tothe laws of North Carolina to faithfully execute the Office of County Commissioner implicit inthat oath is the obligation that he set an example of high moral standards and conduct himself in a manner that fosters respect for the truth.

Whereas Mr Privette while county commissioner of Cabarrus County engaged in an
inappropriate relationship with a prostitute in a Salisbury hotel room on six occasions from May 4 through June 25 2007;

Whereas Mr Privette while County Commissioner of Cabarrus County was charged and
arrested on July 19 2007 with six counts of aiding and abetting in prostitution;

Whereas Mr Privette while County Commissioner of Cabarrus County plead guilty on August 22 2007 to six misdemeanor counts of aiding and abetting in prostitution;

Whereas Mr Privette's conduct in this matter is unacceptable for a County Commissioner of Cabarrus County, demeans the office of County Commissioner and disrespects the laws of the land which he swore to uphold;

Whereas Coy Clarence Privette through his conduct in this matter has violated the trust of thepeople of Cabarrus County;

Whereas future generations must know that such behavior is not only unacceptable but also impinges on the integrity trust and respect of the Board of County Commissioners;

Therefore be it resolved that:

The Cabarrus County Board of Commissioners does hereby censure Coy Clarence Privette
County Commissioner of Cabarrus County and does condemn his wrongful conduct in the
strongest terms;

The Cabarrus County Board of Commissioners recognizes the historic gravity of this resolution and trusts and urges that future Cabarrus County Boards of Commissioners will recognize the importance of allowing this statement of censure and condemnation to remain intact for all time;and

Be it further resolved that:

The Cabarrus County Board of Commissioners now moves on to other matters of significance to the people of Cabarrus County for the benefit of the people of Cabarrus County.

Nice resolution! Unfortunately it has now landed in the waste basket.

Read More......

Tomorrow the gloves are coming off.

This Monday evening our County Commissioners are having their, usually very entertaining, public get together again. It promises to be a doozy.

One thing the Commissioners will consider is a resolution to "censure" their fellow Commissioner Coy Privette.

I'm sure I don't need to repeat the whole Coy Privette saga, which started with him hiring a prostitute 6 times. There are plenty of posts on here that will tell you the whole story in detail.

"Censuring" Privette is basically the same as publicly reprimanding him. It's like giving him a slap on the hand, without any legal effect.
It is pretty much the only action Commissioners can take since there is no legal way to remove another Commissioner from the board for being convicted of a misdemeanor, which "aiding and abetting prostitution" 6 times is considered to be.
Some highlights of the proposed censure resolution are:

Mr Privette's conduct in this matter is unacceptable for a County Commissioner of Cabarrus County, demeans the office of County Commissioner, and disrespects the laws of the land which he swore to uphold.

...violated the trust of the people of Cabarrus County.

Future generations must know that such behavior is not only unacceptable but also impinges on the integrity trust and respect of the Board of County Commissioners.

The Cabarrus County Board of Commissioners does hereby censure Coy Clarence Privette County Commissioner of Cabarrus County and does condemn his wrongful conduct in the strongest terms.

The Cabarrus County Board of Commissioners recognizes the historic gravity of this resolution and trusts and urges that future Cabarrus County Boards of Commissioners will recognize the importance of allowing this statement of censure and condemnation to remain intact for all time.

Ouch!
Mr. Privette has already announced that if his fellow Commissioners censure him, he "will have a lot to say", so this meeting promises to be very entertaining.
Keep also in mind that Privette announced 2 months ago that he was resigning, if he got to handpick his successor and if his house got sold. Problem is, until today, there has never been a "for sale" sign posted on His lawn and the Cabarrus GOP refuses to look for a successor until Privette leaves his post.
Trust me folks, Coy isn't going anywhere for quite some time and until he does these Commissioner meetings are some of the best entertainment you can watch on TV.

Read More......

Veterans day

Between the events of this week and remembering our veterans today, there is not much to laugh about. So no "Monday Blues" feature today, but instead the following video:



In October, President Bush called on Congress to approve nearly $200 billion in additional funds to continue the occupation of Iraq and the war in Afghanistan. Iraq war costs have skyrocketed to roughly $2.5 billion a week. Maybe we can ask Congressman Hayes to stop rubber stamping the Bush war budget and invest some money instead in getting our homeless veterans off the streets?

Robin Hayes
Concord, NC Office:
137 Union Street South
Concord, NC 28025
(704) 786-1612

Read More......

Left to die by the side of the road.

Every now and then you run into a story that makes you lose faith in humanity. This is one of those stories.

A friend of mine was badly hurt in a hit-and-run accident last Tuesday and left for dead by the side of the road.

That friend of mine is Mark Ortiz.

Mark lives in Kannapolis and is well known to a lot of people who are active on the left side of the political spectrum. He was a candidate in the Democratic primary in 2006 for the 8th congressional race and he's the local head of "drinking liberally", a chapter of a national organization that holds regular social gatherings in The Sweet Pea cafe in downtown Concord.(Drinking liberally is not a group of alcoholics by the way, it's just a funny name for a progressive group.)

Mark is an avid bicyclist who rode his bike almost 10,000 miles just this year and he was riding his bicycle back home at about 10 pm on Tuesday November 7th, on his way back from attending a meeting at UNC Charlotte. Mark's bike is very well lit and Mark always wears a helmet.

A driver hit him from behind somewhere on Roberta Rd. in Harrisburg. The driver just drove on and left Mark laying by the side of the road in freezing temperatures.
Apparently Mark laid there unconscious for about an hour and a half before EMT personnel, that just happened to drive by, found him. He was immediately brought to our local hospital in Concord, where they decided that his condition was too serious for them to handle. He was then transported to the trauma unit of Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte. I was told by a doctor and nurse that they didn't think he was going to make it when they brought him in.
Mark is still there today.

The good news is that Mark's life doesn't seem to be in danger anymore and that he's in stable condition. The bad news is that he has a lot of fractures. We know of at least 4 broken ribs, several broken vertebrae and a broken pelvis. The road to recovery will be long. The surgeon at CMC assured us that they "will pull him through". I've so far visited Mark twice in the hospital and he looks better every time I see him. Today he was moved out of the Intensive Care Unit into a "regular room". He is scheduled for some major back surgery next week.

State Highway Patrol has possession of Mark's bike right now. They're holding on to it for evidence purposes. The silly thing is that Mark was very concerned about the fate of his bike :-)
Judging by where Marks major injuries are, it seems likely that who ever drove into him was driving a big vehicle, probably an SUV or pick-up truck.

We are also trying to get some major press attention for this accident in an effort to find who ever is responsible for Mark's condition.
You might have seen a little article in the Charlotte Observer today and I know there is a bigger article on the way.
Our local weekly newspaper, the Concord Standard and Times, will publish an article in next weeks edition and The Independent Tribune is also interested in covering the accident.

Finding out about whoever was the driver responsible for this is of course also very important because of the huge medical bills Mark is facing.
Mark will have big bills to pay, that's why we're planning on doing a benefit to raise some money for him. Mark was apparently aiming to ride 10,000 miles (!) on his bike this year and we know he was only 15 miles away from reaching that goal when he got run over this past Tuesday. Because Mark can't ride those last 15 miles anymore this year we will. There's a group of cyclists in Concord who are willing to do a 15 mile charity ride where each rider will get sponsored per mile he/she rides. We don't have an exact date yet on when we will have this charity ride, but I will let you know when we have more precise plans.

In the meantime I have set up an e-mail account that people can use to send wishes to Mark: Get Well Mark
I urge anyone send him a little note and I will make sure he gets all the emails in the hospital.
If you have any tips or leads on who ever could have been the driver that drove into Mark, please send them to the same e-mail address.

Finally, if you drive your car, please remember that cyclists have the exact same rights on the road as cars do. There are more and more cyclists showing up in our area and there will be more and more of them as gas prices keep rising.
So watch out and share the road!

UPDATE 11/15: You can now check all the latest updates on Mark's condition on www.getwellmark.com

Read More......

Election 2007, the results in Cabarrus County.

Will I have to sell My crystal ball with which I made my election predictions yesterday?
Let's look at todays election results.

From what I can tell now (10 pm), it looks like I was right on the ball in Kannapolis and Mt. Pleasant, I made 1 mistake in Midland and Concord and made a few mistakes in Harrisburg.

In Kannapolis I was correct in predicting all the incumbents would get re-elected easily. So we'll have Richard Anderson, Kenneth B. Geathers and Roger Haas on the City Council for another 4 years.

In Mt. Pleasant it seems that my predictions were right on the ball. I'm happy to report that Mike Metcalf, a Democrat, is the top vote getter there. He'll be on the town council with W. Del Eudy. Maura Eberhardt, a Republican incumbent, got sent home.
The Mayor, Troy Barnhardt, was running unopposed and is of course also re-elected.

In Concord I thought that everyone would get re-elected except Jim Ramseur, who I had predicted would get narrowly beaten by Alex Porter. Seems that the citizens of Concord don't like change much because all the incumbents got re-elected.
Even the Ramseur-Porter race wasn't close, Ramseur got 57% of the vote. If yard signs could vote Alex Porter would have won this one.

In Midland I correctly predicted that Mike Tallent would get elected, but I was wrong about the 2nd elected official. Don Fleener won over the incumbent Darrell Page by a mere 36 votes.

Finally, In Harrisburg I made most of my mistakes. I knew Rhonda Poppen and Bob Scaggs would get elected, but had predicted that Joe Hallatschek and Leigh Thomas Brown would also get elected. In fact it seems now that next to Scaggs and Poppen the citizens of Harrisburg will have Jeffrey Redfern and Bill Williams on their town council.

Final score: Out of 13 predictions I have 9 right and 4 wrong. Not too bad actually.

Turnout for this election was, as expected, unfortunately low at almost 12%.
You can read all of the results on our Board of Elections website.

I'll post more commentary on the election results soon. Good night.

Read More......

Voting day 2007: My crystal ball

Just for fun I thought I'd see if I can predict election results. If My predictions are close I want any political campaign to know they can hire me as a consultant, for the right price :-)
Mind you, my predictions are in no way to be considered an endorsement for any candidate. That being said, here goes:

Concord

There are only 2 competitive races in Concord, one between Jim Ramseur and Alex Porter, the other one between David Phillips and Tom Small.
My prediction: David Phillips will easily get re-elected and Alex Porter will win by the narrowest margin.

Kannapolis

I predict all incumbents in Kannapolis (Anderson, Geathers and Haas) will get re-elected.

Mount Pleasant

The only competitive race here is for 2 seats on the Town council.
My prediction: Del Eudy will get re-elected and Mike Metcalf will kick out incumbent Maura Eberhardt.

Harrisburg

There are 8 candidates for 4 seats on the town council.
I predict the following 4 candidates will get elected:
Bob Scaggs, Rhonda Poppen, Joe Hallatschek and Leigh Brown.

Midland

There are 3 candidates for 2 positions on the town council.
I predict these 2 candidates will get elected: Darrell page and Mike Tallent.

We''ll see how I did late tomorrow night!

Read More......

Go vote already!

Do you know there is an election tomorrow? This Tuesday we vote for our local Mayors and/our Councilmen.
Local politicians can have a big impact on your daily life, so it is very important to make your voice heard. Turn out for these elections is traditionally very low, so your one vote can make a huge difference!

Your local polling place will be open on November 6th from 6.30 am - 7.30 pm .
You can only vote if you live within the city/town limits of Concord, Kannapolis, Harrisburg, Mt Pleasant or Midland.
You can view sample ballots from your city/town on the Cabarrus County Board of Elections website.
If you don't know where you have to go vote, you can check your voter registration on the State Board of Elections website.

Know your municipal election candidates

No idea on who to vote for?
You can check out my "interactive Google map", which will tell you who all the candidates are in every town or city in Cabarrus County and it will also show you the candidates' party affiliation and his/her website if they have one.
Since all these elections are "non-partisan", you won't see any of these candidates' Party affiliation on your ballot on election day. So check out the Google map if you want to know who to vote for.

Use your right to express yourself!

Read More......

Monday blues: the L word

Your weekly dose of chuckles to start off your work week.
This week's edition is all about the L word: Liberal.



If you subscribe to my posts by e-mail or RSS reader, you might have to actually go to the website to see the video's.

Watch a dad explain to his son what a liberal is:



How to turn a liberal into a conservative? Watch "Conservative eye for the Liberal guy":



Finally, from the dictionary:

lib·er·al (lĭb'ər-əl, lĭb'rəl):
1. Not limited to or by established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian attitudes, views, or dogmas; free from bigotry.
2. Favoring proposals for reform, open to new ideas for progress, and tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others; broad-minded.

Doesn't sound so bad now, does it?

Have a great work week!

Read More......

Another evening with Barack Obama

Yesterday, my favorite presidential candidate visited the campus of NCCU in Durham, NC.
The Obama campaign arranged press credentials for me so I could do a live blogging session on BlueNC.
Barack Obama spoke to an energized crowd of 4000 in the O'Kelly Riddick Stadium in the middle of the NCCU campus. The stage was decorated with a big banner that said "CHANGE we can believe in".

As usual, the crowd went nuts when Barack walked on stage.
He started by saying that not only the number of folks that his rallies attract is inspiring but also the make up of the crowd. Just like at another Obama rally I had attended the crowd was very diverse, all ages and races.

He then went on as follows:

The main reason you're here is that you're sick and tired of George W Bush.
We're tired of an administration that treats our constitution as a nuisance.
Tired of tax cuts for the rich and bad economic policies.
Tired of different standards of justice, e.g. Jena 6 against Blackwater or Scooter Libby.
Tired of a lack of progress on health care and education and energy policies.
And most of all tired of a war that costs us thousands of lives and a trillion dollars.

But changing parties in the White House isn't enough, we need big and fundamental change.
We need major change in health care and energy policies, but we can only do that with a fundamental change in the way politics are done.

Obama then talked about his cousin Dick Cheney, saying he's "been hiding this for a long time, everyone has a crazy uncle in the attic and a black sheep in the family". He said he "doesn't want to go on that family hunting trip anytime soon".

Obama spoke about the "culture" in Washington DC, saying he wants to "clean the place out" and make fundamental change in Washington.
He doesn't think anyone in Washington is really listening. He's running because he wants the people's voice to be heard in Washington.

Folks in Washington think I'm naive when I'm "talking about hope again".
Folks say I haven't been in Washington long enough, but being in Washington for too long might boil all the hope out of Me.
Some of the people with a very long resume are Cheney and Bush, as they've proven, a long resume doesn't guarantee good policies.

Obama says he has experience in standing up against special interests and has experience standing up even when its not popular. He references to an anti-war speech he gave when he was running for Senate, when Bush's popularity was 65%.
He said that is something you need to expect from the next president, someone who is willing to stand up, that doesn't flip-flop.

Obama then promised health care for everyone by the end of his first term.
He wants to invest in early childhood education and takes aim at No child left behind, that "leaves the money behind".
He wants to work with our teachers instead of against them. He will get banks out of student loans and make college affordable for everyone.

Obama believes there is no contradiction between our security and our moral standing n the world. He says he'll restore habeas corpus and close down Guantanamo Bay because "that's not who we are". "we're going to lead the world by deed and by example."

The first thing I will do after getting sworn in is calling together the joint chiefs of staff to end this war.

Barack then went on to blame Hillary Clinton for voting for the Iran/revolutionary guard resolution and says we shouldn't be beating the war drums twice. Clinton is telling him he's naive for wanting to talk to "our enemies".
But Obama believes we should never fear to negotiate but shouldn't negotiate out of fear.

Finally Barack Obama feels confident that he can lead this country in a new direction.

I won't be a perfect president, but I'll always be honest and upfront. It's going to be tough, hard and difficult to repair the damage of the last years.
I want to open up the doors of government to the people.
Government by the people and for the people, especially for young people.

Obama then closed off with the familiar "fired up, ready to go" chant and a sentence he ends a lot of rallies with:

Let's go change the world

Here's some pictures I took. You can click on any of them to see a much bigger version.

Some pictures of the big crowd:









Pictures taken during Obama's speech:





After the speech the "press corps" got some private time with the candidate, but I didn't interview him. We all gave that honor to a much younger colleague who also had press credentials :-)





There's a great video on the News & Observer website, which gives a good impression of the Barack Obama rally in Durham yesterday.

Have a good weekend!

Read More......