B.S.

I am so sick of this take on the election. The Democrats who won were not conservatives - period. They were toe-stepping Progressives. Sure, maybe ONE is a social moderate, but that is more of a libertarian moderate and not a "What are you doing in your bedroom?" conservative.

Read. My. Lips. The new Congress is dominated by Progressives thanks to the election of Progressives.

truer words....

The great thing about Dobson

The great thing about the Town of Dobson is how stormbear gives you some background on the cartoon below. Most of us know the specifics already, but if you want to keep up with what is going on in politics, and you are short on time, this and Doonesbury should be must reads. For today's cartoon you get:

What is up with James Carville?

First we find out from Woodward’s book that Carville told the White House about Kerry’s plans to contest the Ohio election. Now he is wanting Howard Dean to apologize for not winning big enough in this past mid-term election.

Democratic strategist James Carville yesterday said Howard Dean should be replaced as chairman of the Democratic National Committee for failing to pursue a greater margin of victory in last week’s midterm elections.

“I would describe his leadership as Rumsfeldian in its competence,” Mr. Carville said during a meeting with reporters, a reference to outgoing Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who has been reviled by Democrats.

Both Mr. Carville and Democratic strategist Stan Greenberg said the DNC should have invested more money in congressional races.

Now Carville wants to replace winning Howard Dean with right of center, election losing Rep. Harold Ford Jr.

Boggles the mind.

Jerry Meek asks for your help.

If you are interested in Senator Elizabeth Dole and getting her out of office, if you are sick of Senator Elizabeth Dole and want to see her out of office, then go visit this thread at BlueNC and offer your suggestions. NCDP Chair Jerry Meek is asking for your help.

A Town Called Dobson

if you aren't bookmarking it, you should be.

Liveblogging from NCDP Headquarters

I will be at the NCDP headquarters tonight to live-blog the results of state legislative races on BlueNC. I am now making calls to Dems who have not voted yet. Join in, do your part. Win elections.

Hard Core

It was a cold and early Saturday in early November. The streets were empty, but the parking lot of the Planetarium was filling up at 8:55am. Why? Because Saturday early voting was about to begin. Yep, there was a line out around the statue of James Polk waiting to vote early. Which raises only one question, why?

There really aren't any races left to decide in Orange County and the state-wide judicial races usually aren't that big of a draw. But, there they all were, and the line continued to grow after 9am when the kids and I came out from voting. I saw a few people I knew, including Zabouti and John Gilmore, Dogwood Acres Chair.

As we waited in line the fella behind me muttered, "I wonder how you find out about these non-partisan races?" To which I responded with a flourish of my OCDP voter guide, "With one of these!" He was very thankful and especially when I showed him the cheat sheet on the back cover.

All in all it was a great experience, the kids sat on my lap and helped me fill out the bubbles, to feed the ballot into the machine and they received their "I voted" sticker for the umpteenth time. Voting is a family tradition, take your kids to vote and make it an exciting family adventure.

Oh, as to the title, to those who showed up at 9am in the cold weather to vote on a pretty unexciting ballot - you are hardcore and a good friend of mine.

Orange County/School Buses

I spoke with Al Terry yesterday about the bus situation with the Orange Public School Buses. Wouldn't you know that this man is already on the job. One problem with school bus drivers is that the hours are limited, the pay is lower than other driving jobs, and there is no summer employment.

Al is working with the school bus scheduler to create positions for drivers to work with the schools and with OPT. They would either:

1. Drive school buses in the morning, then for OPT the rest of the day. Or,
2. drive for OPT in the morning and then school buses in the afternoon.

I believe the total so far is around 8 part-time and full-time positions that will be scheduled to allow for this change-over. A large enough group of folks doing this would solve the crisis that Orange Schools faced this year. Of course, hiring a year-round recruiter to make sure they have enough drivers would work as well.

One problem with this that Al mentioned, is that school bus and OPT drivers are required to have different types of licenses. The cost of those two is almost $200 if I remember correctly. That is not insignificant to someone from a low-income family looking for a new job.

How Google Bombing Worked

Let's say you go online to look into politics. Statistics say that most likely you are looking for information on a candidate. Who these people are that have internet access but don't know about the candidates, I can't imagine. Either way. You type in Robin Hayes because you keep getting flyers saying to vote for him, but you aren't so sure. You use Google because...well, everyone does. What do you get?

Hayes, Robin
Official web site for Representative Robin Hayes (R - NC, 98th District).
BORING old official web page. If you have insomnia, read an official web page.

Contact Cong. Hayes
Contact Congressman Hayes. As a member of Congress, I appreciate your input as a constituent of North ... Hayes statement on terrorist attacks - click here. ...
I have NO interest in contacting him, so skip this one.

Congressman Robin Hayes
Welcome to the Online Campaign Headquarters for Robin Hayes Congressman, 8th District of North Carolina. Welcome to my online campaign headquarters! ...
BORING old campaign web site.

newsobserver.com | Hayes is CAFTA foe no longer - 11:25am
"Robin Hayes ought to be ashamed," said state Democratic Chairman Jerry Meek. "Despite the fact he vowed to oppose CAFTA, Hayes caved in to Republican ...

WAIT A MINUTE! What's this? Robin Hayes vowed to vote against CAFTA then changed his vote, let me go read that story. The story is extremely unflattering of Robin Hayes and his flip-flop that cost NC soooooooo many jobs. Not only that, but it isn't an attack from the Democrat party web site, it is an attack from the News & Observer. Why did this article come up? Because of the google bombing brought to you by MyDD.

Thank you guys.