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Thanks for reading and contributing over the past four years.

No More Cheap Seats For You - Thunder Pig

Special Thanks to Thunder Pig for the image and the kind send-off.

You are reading my last post on the Cheap Seats.  There are three reasons why.

1) I’ve changed - When I started this blog in 2005, I was not a parent, a deacon, or really much a political activist.  Now, I’m a dad of two, a deacon coordinator for our children’s ministry, and I’m now the Vice-Chair of the Cabarrus County GOP.  This is not including changes in my job and my selection in the 2009 Class of the E.A. Morris Leadership Fellowship.  It goes without saying that I’ve got a lot of higher-priority items pinging on my life that is diminishing the amount of time I can spend keeping the lights on around here and the mechanics of the blog itself are not the well-oiled machine that I would want as something with my name all over it.

2) Mission Accomplished - The original mission of this blog - countering Coy and his allies - was completed a year ago.  The unequivoical evidence of this were the results of the Cabarrus County GOP convention a few weeks ago.  I asked old party faithfuls and they don’t remember a time where all of the officers ran unopposed and the entire Executive Board slate got in.  Usually, someone from the alternate slate - aka Coy’s buddies - would edge into some positions.

Not this time.

As a matter of fact, they only nominated one person for the Executive Board who was soundly defeated.  The fact of the matter is that the Party is not divided and those who continue to cultivate allegences to Privette and his brand of Conservatism have no bearing on the community anymore.  Not to say that it couldn’t reemerge; but dealing with that is someone else’s issue.

The second mission, about a year old, is to provide “Spirited discussion of life in Cabarrus County from its residents.”  Well, I’m not going to say that it’s a failure; but I am going to say that it’s not sustainable.  For a while, there was a growing number of visitors and a variety of posts; but it sputtered out over the holidays and never picked back up.   The funny part is that the visit rate is about twice what it was when I was causing the most trouble; but I think we can be honest with ourselves - it’s fading.  Which brings me to the next reason…

3) Circumstances have changed - When this blog was started - there were very few on-line communities centered around public policy and all of them were focused on national issues.  Shortly after this blog started - BlueNC emerged on the scene on the Left and RedState has a NC section for the right.   Now, there’s Facebook and Twitter to service the technorati among activists.   ConservativeNC is emerging as the BlueNC of the Right in North Carolina.

So, there are plenty of other places to cultivate a community and there are other places that - if you participate there - you will get a greater return on your investment of time and resources.  Here are four places I’ll be:

• Twitter - Yes, Twitter.  I’m tbojustin.  I plan on dropping something there daily or so…I’m not going to be a SuperTwit; but I love passing stuff along.
• Facebook - Here’s a tip.  If you want a blog post you wrote to get read - post the link to your Facebook wall and put it in your status.  Facebook is one of the largest referrers to this blog.  The point is that you only read stuff from your friends and therefore - you’re more credible than a stranger.
• ConservativeNC - I plan to do political blogging here and contributing anyway they let me with adminstiration, design, etc.  I would suggest that the conservative writers here give ConservativeNC a chance and contribute with blog posts and comments.
• BlueNC - While often exasperating, it’s good to understand how others think.  However, I’m still considered a troll - so my participation there is very limited; but I stick around until they kick me out.

So, here’s the plan.  Authoring capabilities will cease for everyone the end of this month.  Over the course of April, I will archive and get people’s blog posts to them.   Comments will disappear.  At the end of April, cabarruscheapseats.com will redirect to ConservativeNC.   I’m going to keep the domain name for the foreseeable future.

I will keep an archive of the complete blog - all 679 posts and 3,200 comments - in a safe place in case someone’s interested in getting this small piece of civic history.

I appreicate everyone’s time and input to this blog.  I’m happy that I set out years ago to type into the ether and got more than I imagined in return.  Y’all know where to find me and I encourage all of you to keep it up!

The Cabarrus County Republican Men’s Club will have its monthly meeting on Thursday, March 26th at 7:00 pm.  The meeting will be held at Troutman’s Barbecue on Warren Coleman Blvd (near the intersection of Hwy 49 and Hwy 601 in Concord).

Our guest speaker will be Lenny McAllister.  Lenny is an African-American conservative with a mission to make positive changes to the status quo within politics, social issues and other issues that hamper our American way of life. A nationally syndicated writer, he is often a guest host on Fox 18’s Fox News Rising in Charlotte, NC. Moreover, Lenny is the voice of conservatives in traditional African American forums.

We are very fortunate to have Mr. McAllister at our meeting this Thursday. To read more about him, please visit www.lennymcallister.com

A buffet will be available for $7 and will be served at 6:30. Men and women are welcomed to attend.

So, please come out this Thursday meeting for some great Republican fellowship and hear a nationally known speaker.

For more information, please contact me, Mark Smith.

See you Thursday!

The First Annual Harrisburg Fire Department Pig Pickin’ benefiting the American Cancer Society ‘RELAY FOR LIFE’ is to be held at the Harrisburg United Methodist Church, 4560 Hiway 49 S, Harrisburg, North Carolina, Saturday April 18th 2009 from 12:00 Noon till 2:00 PM. Tickets are $8.00 and will be sold at Fire Station #1 and at Harrisburg Town Hall.

what happened. Why, why, why?

It’s informative to see what happens to people who put their faith in their elected officials - read the rest here.

I decided to roll over to Obamicon.Me and thank my youngest.  Enjoy.

Former Labor Secretary Reich confirms what Joe The Plumber warned us about - “It’s about time a presidential budget uneqivocally redistributed income”.

Note to business majors, it’s not enough just to use the math - it’s a good idea to know where it comes from.  Thanks for the economic distaster, BTW.

Roland Burris - there’s more.  Alternate title: Dog bites man.

So, who finally came through for Bruton Smith?  Was it Jay White? No.  Was it Scott Padgett?  No. Try Barack Obama.

Over 30,000 Americans suffer from CF and doctors working to find a cure believe they are getting close.  However, research is expensive and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation receives no federal funding.  All financial support is through the generous giving of friends and families of CF. 

To help raise money and awareness, I have decided to literally “take a step” and have made a commitment to GREAT STRIDES, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s annual, nationwide walk to raise money to help find a cure for CF.  I am creating a team in memory of Garret and in honor of his family.  My goal is to recruit at least twenty walkers to join our team.  Each walker is encouraged to raise $100.  I am asking you, fellow contributors to Cabarruscheapseats,  to walk along side of me in this life-giving journey. 

As a team member, I would appreciate your help asking friends and family to contribute to a worthy cause.  Your help and donations will be well spent as more than 90 cents of every dollar raised by the CF Foundation is invested in vital CF programs to support research, care and education. 

To join our team, sign up online at www.cff.org/great_strides and enter my name (Kenneth McClamrock).  Once you are on my homepage, click on the box marked “Join My Team”.  It’s that simple!  Now you will be able to set up your own fund-raising page.  Or, if you can simply afford a small donation, click on the box marked “Click to Donate” and do so securely online. 

The Concord walk will take place Saturday, May 2^nd at Frank Liske Park.  It starts with a 5K (3.1 mile) walk and is followed by a celebration party including appearances from local sports mascots, live music, great food and lots of other fun activities for the entire family! 

I hope you can join us for the GREAT STRIDES walk.  Together, we can help make “CF” stand for “Cure Found”!

Please email me with any questions at Kenneth.McClamrock@cms.k12.nc.us

or visit our team’s webpage at http://www.cff.org/Great_Strides/KennethMcClamrock

Sincerely,

Kenneth McClamrock

That sounds like a bunch-o-money but for those of us outside the beltway, who don’t have PAC money or under the table lobbiest contributions that’s not a huge sum of anything.

So, for those of us who live paycheck to paycheck (the average Obama voter) How will you spend your $13.00 per week?

Personally, I’m subscribing to pirate non-regulated talk radio. (They’re having a pre-fairness doctrine special)

“ I been diggin’ holes for almost 20 years” says Mitch McGurt, the senior digger at IBHD Local 367 in Manassas Indiana. “Sure, the works always been steady but we always have room to expand.” “ I think that there Obama Stimulus could be just the shot in the arm we need to expand our industry by leaps and bounds.”

National IBHD Union President, Danny Albacoro is also positive about the proposals that Administration Officials say could bring as many as 4 million much needed jobs to an ailing economy. “It’s a tough job, but a rewarding one.” “At the end of the day, when you toss that last shovel of dirt out of that hole, you feel like you’ve really accomplished something.” “When you come back in after a nice rest and start the next day, that feeling stays with you all day while you fill that hole back in.”

Some newer union members feel that more help is badly needed. “ It’s getting ridiculous” said 5 year digger David Allen Coby. “We’re pulling 20 to 30 hours of overtime a week just to keep up with the huge backlog of holes that need digging and filled in.” More workers are the only thing that will solve the problem.” “I mean, I like the $130 dollars an hour I make on Overtime but seriously, I’ve got a family I need to spend time with!”

Stan McCallister, Mid-West Operations Manager of the Federal Department of Hole Digging and Filling said that the stimulus package is a Godsend. “Our work is a time honored tradition. It has long been the policy of the federal government to pay employees for doing nothing of any value. At least in our small corner of the Omnibus Budget, our non value added work is actual labor and not just playing paper football between cubicles like those jackasses over at the Labor Department or the SEC!” “If we can get 4 million more hole diggers on the payroll it will ease tensions come contract time and bolster the federal economy.”

When asked if this stimulus plan is just a giveaway to increase the pocketbooks of unions, IBHD Chief Communications Officer Jane Horman had this to say: “That is simply ludicrous!” The very idea that this is designed to benefit us is utterly absurd.” It benefits the workers who work tirelessly to dig and re-fill the holes that keep America running.” “The additional funds will not only employ more people at Americas hole fields, it will also provide for better training and safety standards.” “Why, just last week one of our workers was buried almost to the knees in a cave in.” “The OSHA investigation cost Americans almost $10,000.00″ ($5million adjusted for 2012 inflation rates). “This 1.5 trillion dollars could’ve easily saved all that money spend for a preventable incident!”

Back out at the hole fields, Workers anticipate many improvements and have already begun making wish lists when the Stimulus plan inevitably passes later this month.

“ I tell ya whats at the top of my list”, said McGurt: “A new padded shovel handle and a 160% retirement pension!”

According to the site Concord will be receiving $50,234,050 for thirty one projects. Most are water/sewer projects, with the largest project being improvements to the Weddington Rd and Speedway Blvd intersection (they just finished building it… sigh). You can leave comments about each project as well as vote for or against them. Your vote probably won’t make any difference as far as how the money is spent but it might make you feel better (and might let the politicians know that you’re paying attention).

If my math is correct then the residents of Concord will be paying roughly $150,000,000 (~ $2,500 per resident). In return we’re getting back about a third of that to create a little more than 400 jobs. That doesn’t seem like such a great deal to me, but I’m not surprised since it’s clear the folks in Washington have been playing a great shell game on us throughout this crisis. We were told repeatedly that the bailouts were to fix problems in the banking and mortgage industry, but if you add up all of the money we’ve spent on bailouts and stimulus packages ($9.7 Trillion) it would pay off more than 90% of all home mortgages in the US. Where did the money go?

Gordon Brown was caught in the crossfire as John Bruton, the EU Ambassador to Washington, said that “history has shown us” where the closing of markets leads — a clear reference to the Depression of the 1930s, triggered by US protectionist laws.

Last night Mr Obama gave a strong signal that he would remove the most provocative passages from the Bill.

[More from the Times Online]

I recall a certain someone saying that these types of provisions were a sign of our new Congressman’s effectiveness.  I guess Kissell wasn’t effective enough to turn the President into a reactive protectionist.

Our last Congressman got the boot for vacillating on trade.  I guess we’ll have to look to the White House for informed leadership on this matter and not from our local Congressman.

“We will be in consultation with our attorney about our options,” said Fred Wally, the lead plaintiff in the case. “We’ll have a citizens’ meeting about this.”

This is another development in a three-year fight over 75 acres at the corner of N.C. 3 and Odell School Road owned by Keith Wayne, CEO of Wayne Bros., Inc., and a family trust.

Beale heard arguments midday from T.C. Morphis, a Chapel Hill attorney representing the Odell residents, and Rebecca Cheney of Charlotte, representing the City of Kannapolis. After hearing arguments, Beale took nearly two hours to hand-write his findings on the bench before announcing his findings.

[More from the Trib Here]

If my math is correct it will add roughly $9,000 of additional debt for every single taxpayer.

ALL of the Republicans and 11 Democrats in Congress voted against it. Maybe they listened to the 200 economists who have said the stimulus package is a bad idea?

Have you called your Senators lately?

You can view a video of this bump-n-grind masterpiece here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZjHPHsrs54.  I will warn you that it should be deeply offensive to anyone with an iota of taste or shame.

I dropped the article after it was posted.  Unfortunately, the RSS feed didn’t get updated and an e-mail went out to subscribers.  I got a number of messages by people who were deeply offended by the lyrics and I subsequently “coached” the author that he needs to put the lyrics into context in order to help ease people into this era of Hope and Change in the Arts.

All that being said.  As of Tuesday, Barack Obama is my President and I support him.  So, as a newly-minted Obama supporter let me offer my apologies to those who were offended.  That being said, I wondered if my fellow supporters could have produced something so banal and common as to make Toby Keith sound like Pavaratti.  

The answer: Yes, They Can!!!

The alternate title to this article is “Dog Bites Man”

North Carolina Democrats have delivered another criminal to Raleigh.  When will they just cut to the chase and nominate the best behaved inmate at Central Prision?  Here are the details:

Nick Mackey, who was elected in November to the N.C. General Assembly, has been charged criminally with failing to turn over business documents in connection with a civil lawsuit and a judgment against him for nearly $100,000.

The misdemeanor charge is related to a July judgment against Mackey’s law firm for unpaid rent, attorneys fees, interest and other costs that now total $101,402, according to court records.

[More at the Charlotte 'O]

I’m sure if he’s found guilty that the same standard will be held by his Party as was held by ours in the Privette misdemeanor.

Given the frequenency that Democrats are in trouble with the law, I propose that the North Carolina Democratic Party consider this classic for their theme song:

Did your New Year’s Resolutions include “getting more organized”? If you’re going back to work for a single day today (like I am) - let me share a very simple system I set up earlier this year that proved invaluable for clearing out the Inbox when I got done.

This will underwhelm the geeks and Microsoft Office power users; and it’ll be quickly dated as it’s using Outlook 2003.  That being said - for this week’s Friday Five: Five Steps to Clearing Out Your Inbox

This will use “Search Folders” to categorize your e-mails.  If you get fewer than 20 e-mails/day - this might be overkill and if you get more than 100 e-mails/day you might want to consider taking this further than I do.

Let’s start with Step 1: Accepting you have a problem and deciding you’re not going to take it anymore

The picture to the left shows what my Inbox would look like if I didn’t respond to any e-mails over a light week.  Keep in mind that my employer has a pretty good spam filter.  At any rate, 160 e-mails is a little cumbersome to go through one-by-one and knowing me - I’d hit a pretty important one by #8 that requires a phone call, long reply, or a full-blown clergy-led intervention.  I’d get to #10 and have another intervention; but one that required a taxidermist and herbal specialist.  By the end of the day, I’d have 150 stale unread e-mails with 30 more new ones to look at tomorrow along with a bonus 17 e-mails starting with the line “I thought you were back - this is really important!”.  

The picture below shows what you need to do to take that first step.  Hitting File -> New -> Search Folder is the first actionable step towards e-mail freedom.  

If you’ve used Outlook - you’ll note that there are already some Search Folders set up: Unread Email, Large Email, and Followup.  These only tell you how deep the hole is - we’re going to figure out how to get from under it.

Step 2 - Set up your first search folder

After you take your first step by clicking on “File -> New -> Search Folder” - you’ll see the dialog box to the picture to the left.  There are a number of useful default searches you can run; but I’m going to cover how to setup a more advanced one for no other reason besides showing you some of the more powerful settings without getting too crazy about it.

So, we’ll scroll down to the bottom and select the option “Create a custom Search Folder” and then click “Choose” to choose your criteria.

Step 3 - Choose Criteria 

While there are endless opportunities, one of the more useful methods is breaking up e-mails by how you’re addressed in them.  In this case, I’m interested in only looking at the e-mails that are addressed to me alone.  Because of the way that some mass e-mail programs work - you’ll pick up some e-mails from lists; but these are e-mails where people want to tell something to YOU or they want to get something from YOU; and that’s what we’re looking for when we roll in after some time away.

So, I’m going to call this one “Only Person In The To Line” and click on “Criteria” to bring up the Search Folder Criteria screen.  You can go one of 7X10^8 ways here; but for this example we’re going to select the checkbox next to “Where I am” and select “the only person in the To line”, and then select OK.  After you that, Outlook will do some churning and then show you the results of your search.

Step 4 - Repeat

You can look for any number of criteria and build search folders.  Here are some useful ideas:

• Urgent E-mails - While some people still abuse the red exclamation mark to get you to read their mail, decent human beings only use it when they need to get your attention.
• You are part of an ensamble - While these aren’t addressed directly to you, finding out what everyone is getting CCed on is helpful
• Messages from the certain someone - You can create search folders for your boss, admin, direct reports, that guy who always forwards you the better Cheap Seats articles - what ever.  

The image to the left shows my search folders.  I use this to keep up with 20-50 non-spam e-mails/workday and usually leave for home with all e-mails dispostioned.  You might need more to pull off that same trick.

Step 5 - Read, then Reply

Probably the biggest mistake people make when the come back from being gone for a while is that they start Replying or - worse - Replying to All as they go through e-mail one-by-one.  The best thing to do is cycle through your brand-new folders filtering out unread items and reacting appropriately.  Here’s what I do:

1. Mark as “Read” without actually reading - Bacn e-mails, updates from on-line journals, automated stuff, etc.  The best way to do this is sort by the “From” field and execute this by running through each folder.
2. Read the “Important” e-mails - These might be ones that are flagged as “Important” or come from your boss - search out whatever you think is “important”; but resist reacting over e-mail.  Flag it for follow-up, print it out, or just leave it completely alone.   Just don’t reply unless it’s time-sensitive and already late.
3. Read what everyone else already knows - If you’ve been gone long enough some issues have run through the arc without you.  As with #2, resist the urge to reply.  Chances are when you hit “Reply-to-All” on the message with 20 people CCed and 13 people in the “To:” line that some wise soul called for a conference call to work everything out whose invite you didn’t get prompting a situation similar to this for you.
4. Follow-up for Information - Usually the phone is good, because people will tell you more over the phone than in an e-mail.  Single replies and forwards are good, too; but get as much information as you can before you…
5. React - Most people want to come here first, but have you ever dealt with someone who’s in a rush without enough information.  Yeah, you don’t want to be that guy.  But you won’t feel rushed if you’re dealing with 16 e-mails that you know the skinny on and not 160 that you have no idea what lurks around the corner.

Normally, I’d say “See y’all Monday”; but it’ll probably be February until *I* am writing regularly on here due to a thing called “Selah” at my church (e-mail me if you care to know what that is).

Please use this post to let me know if you have any issues.  Oh, and those with author accounts should really checkout the new interface on the editor.

WAKE UP!!! HARRISBURG TOWN COUNCIL BEFORE ITS TOO LATE!!!!

However, in an effort to slowly catch-up - I ran across this wildly interesting article in the Tribune. Go ahead and read it. Don’t worry, I’ll still be here.

Now that you’re back…what was wrong with this article?

Enjoy.

These men were the consumate professionals.  You would never know just meeting them in a social setting of what they were made of, but this link tells the story about as well as it could be told.  Their courage, honor, loyalty, and sacrifice far outweigh the political “wars” that some of our commissioners play at, as well as the shrill rantings of a self-described cloth merchant who is totally obsessed with the destruction of the reputation of another human being. 

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,466404,00.html

God bless these heroes.  God help us if we ever forget their sacrifice.

Has anyone here looked into Twitter? There is a Twitter Channel, called “Top Conservatives on Twitter” (#TCOT) that seems to be getting a lot of traffic lately, and might be a good tool for coordinating things among like-minded conservatives.

Anyway, if you do feel sign up for Twitter, feel free to follow me, and any of the other TCOT members.

My Twitter Link is here.

Also, if you really aren’t sure what Twitter is, there is a free Twitter 101 guide here.

A Cabarrus County commissioner, the county manager and a school architect bought land in the Virginia mountains together before the commissioner voted twice to raise the county manager’s salary, according to an investigation by Observer news partner WCNC-TV.

The two county officials and the architect said the deal was not a conflict of interest.

READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE

Read the article and you’ll find that no laws were broken and no ethical rules were either.  However, there are a few people saying that John Day should resign.  While I do think the action is politically tone deaf and it doesn’t help Day’s popularity as he is already seen as being aloof, I don’t see that this alone is enough to get someone to walk.

You will - however - hear a few people calling for John Day’s job over this in the name of Good Government.  Here’s the challenge: ask those people if their fevor for high-minded civics gave them similar motivation to call for Coy’s resignation when he actually did break laws.    The result will be interesting.

Obama was elected and will soon ascend to the highest office in the land (no, not at the right hand of the father like some of these morons would like) In the past few weeks he’s held a bunch of press conferences that are little more than post election stump speeches. The good thing is that it looks as though he’ll be well prepared when he takes office. It’s nice that he’s making his appointments early so all the breathless Neo-Con’s can get over the shock and awe and move on with real life. He’s already scrapped his “Windfall Profits Tax” on “Big Oil” because all the fear and smear against them doesn’t seem to hold water when the price has fallen almost 70 percent in just a few months. At this point, “Big Oil’s” approval rating is probably higher than Bush and is definitely higher than Congress. That’s probably due in large to the fact that “Big Oil” is the only industry left in America that hasn’t either received or begged for government bailout money (yet.)

All these things, along with the resuming of the network sitcom lineup sans the myriad of political campaign ad’s has put a damper on the “hope and change” mantra. The hopers and the changers won this time. Most of them don’t know what they won or why they won but hey, they won and that’s gotta count for something.

I was under the impression that once Barak Obama won the election that all the terror and fear would dissipate and we’d enter a new golden age of peace. My Obama voting family told me this and now that Mumbai is on fire and Iran is talking smack, I’m being told that it will take time for our new leader to fix all the worlds ills. That’s what I thought too but again, that’s not what I was told by the electorate who voted for this fellow.

Sure, I’m concerned about terrorist attacks around the globe. There’s still plenty of reasons to hate us here in the good ol’ US of A even with our historical appointment. First, we don’t have Sharia law. Second, we have terrible sins like women working at jobs, Televisions, Radio and Computers, Clothing not made from sheeps wool, bare legs and closed toed shoes. All these things are surely a reason enough to kill another three thousand or so of our citizens.

But then again, maybe I’m over reacting.

By now, those hoi palloi blue blood republicans who voted for Obama have realized they just helped elect the most socialist president in American history. The fact that most of them are old money rich folk means they remember Carter so that’s saying something. But while they struggle to off shore their millions of dollars, your’s truly has realized something else:

The US has just elected the most anti-Israel president in recent history. Given the fact that I remember how much Clinton loved to have long, fireside chats with Yassir Arafat, that’s saying something too. Now, I’ve gone in depth about how I feel about Israel and our support of them. It doesn’t take a Harvard or Princeton graduate to figure out that you’ll piss off 90% of muslims by joining hands with the great satan of Israel. I’m a strict non interventionist and now that we’ve helped Israel gain prominence, power and the best matza ball soup in the world, I’d say that we could easily back out slowly and move on to more pressing issues. But there’s a reason we’re still around in Tel Aviv.

Israel has proven to be very idealistic. They don’t like it when folks blow up their shopping centers, schools or places of worship. Any such attack usually ends with Israel driving tanks into some slum full of Hamas “freedom fighters” and bulldozing mud huts. Amnesty International, the UN and a bunch of other idealistic do nothing organizations feign shock and issue strong letters of condemnation and then move on to the next climate change conference in Cannes or the Bahamas. I too hope and pray for an Israel that is more tolerant of the terrorist death of their citizens but thus far, my prayers continue… unanswered…

We’ve been there since all the other members of the league of nations left. We’ve basically been left to build their defenses and their economy. We’re kind of the “father” and Israel is the 16 year old boy. Sure, they get a little rambunctious at times but they know better than to screw up too bad lest their allowance get taken away and dad take the keys to the M1A1 Abrams Tank.

Now that Obama has been elected, Israel is starting to feel a little like their parents are getting divorced and dad doesn’t want to pay the child support. They’re growing up fast and realizing that real life can be hard but also very rewarding. This new found freedom means no curfews and they can stay up as late as they want.

With all this new found freedom comes responsibility for their own safety. Without dad around to give them support, they’ve got no reason to restrain those impulses that they’ve had for so many years. So while Obama tackles important things like socialized medicine, climate change and the price of carbon, Israel is planning for life as an adult.

All those UN condemnation letters that will follow over the next four years might have a Barak Obama designees signature on them but there’s always another Climate Change conference to go to and another UNICEF gala on the agenda.

When Israel realizes that all Obama will do to Iran is IM and E-mail Amedinijad, there’s a good chance that Israel will use some of that stored up testosterone to launch a massive attack against those uranium facilities. The ensuing chaos will illicit massive response from Iran and their crazy, fun loving friends like Libia and Syria. This will cut off what internet service remains and Obama wont be able to send Myspace comments to Makmoud so he’ll be left to send diplomats in under UN blue helmets to negotiate a treaty. The problem is that the newly bastardized son of the US won’t really care if dad gives them permission to stay up late to watch Rob and Big on MTV. By then, our son will have his own TV with Cinemax. All the talk will be lost on Israel and their airforce will turn Iran into rubble and possibly spark retributions that could have nuclear and chemical weapons implications.

By the time the dust settles, a bunch of folks on both sides will be dead. We will have lost our only true middle eastern friend and every world leader will be looking to Obama to take this trouble child back into our house for a hot meal and some conversation. The only question is, will our child even want our help by then?

Oh, and Bob, too. Congrats, Bob.

However, I’d like to reprise a post I made earlier this year and say a final word about Joni Juba’s tenure. As a parent of two kids who will be entering the Cabarrus County Schools in a few short years, I have Joni Juba to thank for running in 2004 and defeating the opponents of quality public education. She joined Bob Carruth, Carolyn Carpenter, and - later - Jay White in moving this County towards a more secure financial footing and truly supporting working families like mine.

Here’s your retread:

In May 2004, 6,247 Cabarrus Republicans went to the polls and 3,358 of them casted their vote for a challenger: Joni Juba. The next runner up was incumbent Bob Carruth with 2416 votes. Incumbent Commissioner Richard Suggs got 1,690 votes: a little more than half of Juba’s.

While many would see that as a crushing defeat for an incumbent Commissioner, it’s 500 more votes than he received in each of the 2 primaries held in 2000 that got him in office.

However, Juba’s election was stunning. No Commissioner before or since has received as many votes.

Even though she’s recently announced that she’s leaving us - it’s important to reflect on the work that the County Commission has done since her election:

• A much needed Jail is finally getting built - in spite of past county commissions dragging their feet and not doing much more than listen to the Sheriff give reports.
• School construction funding is now keeping pace with County needs
• Developers are being assessed realistic fees for new residential construction to shift the burden away from taxpayers. Richard Suggs joined other Cabarrus Taxpayers’ Association candidates in keeping their contributors happy by maintaining the fee at a paltry $500 per lot - it’s in the thousands now.
• Residential Growth in the County is still strong; but not unchecked and rampant as in the past.
• The County is now giving relief to needy seniors through a homestead exemption. Previous Commissions have given them only lip-service.
• The County’s fiscal situation has turned around completely. Before Joni Juba was elected, there was talk of a bond downgrade. Now, the reports from rating agencies are praising the County administration for their fiscal discipline.

I could go on and on. For all of her four years in office - I can say that I’m proud to have supported Joni Juba. The people of this County are blessed to have had such a dedicated and intelligent elected official.

The Onion explains the logic used for the bailout, taxpayer-financed campaigns, road projects in the Democrat-controlled districts in NC, and most of the public money spent near Downtown Concord all in one video.

Enjoy.

Over the last few weeks I again heard that things are going great in Cabarrus county. I even heard from a financial adviser that we’re a resilient economy and for proof of it go to a restaurant on Speedway Blvd for lunch one day and you’ll see that it’s packed. Even though other parts of the country are in trouble and our 401Ks are in trouble we’re still going out and spending money. I’ve been having trouble getting to the new (giant) Lowe’s on Speedway Blvd because of all the traffic around Concord Mills. So the economy is doing great here. ?

Well, then a few nights ago I sat and watched this short clip of the 137 pages of foreclosure listings in the Detroit paper (and this is before the automakers go under..)..

That made me wonder how things are going in Cabarrus county.

A quick search showed that there are currently 256 pieces of property in Concord in foreclosure. So that’s not as bad as what’s going on in Detroit so things are ok, right? Right? .. I changed a few settings on that search and found that there were only 24 “new” homes and about 1,400 existing homes listed. Ouch.

Friday it was announced that the unemployment rate in North Carolina had hit 7%, up from 4.7% a year ago.

I’m seeing commercial/retail developments that were built in the area a year or more ago that still haven’t filled all of their spaces, and even worse I’m seeing quite a few that had tenants and now have signs for lease or sale.

I’m hearing from friends in the construction industry that there are major layoffs happening for the builders and for the companies that support them. Up until mid September they were still going wide open… times have changed.

If there was no time to share this letter with his fellow commissioners and, most especially, the County Attorney prior to this meeting, he should have waited. That it was politically expedient to bring it up during the commissioners’ most public forum is obvious. It does nothing to further this citizen’s case and could actually hurt it.

It’s not smart to blindside your attorney. If any sort of litigation is even possible on behalf of the county, it’s not a good idea to put the County Attorney in the position of making public comments before he’s had the chance to research the law and develop a strategy.

Between NCGS Chapter 40A and the US Supreme Court’s decision in Kelo v. City of New London it may be that there is absolutely no legal recourse to Midland’s claim of eminent domain. If that does prove to be the case, will Commissioner Privette issue such a public apology for the board’s not having the power to intervene? Or, will he more likely follow his MO and accuse this board of inaction when the timing suits him.

I’ll be watching…

The project tab for bailing everyone out - $5 Trillion

Seeing that each and every American is going to be on the hook for about $16,500 each - what’s another $15,000 (nearly $5 Trillion)?  

Get while the gettin’ is good, folks.  So, it’s time to confess - what stupid thing did you or someone close to you do that entitles you to a bailout.  Hurry now - the money is going fast!

5. I’m so busy at work I’m not going to observe this weekend.

4. Most analysis of the last election is so vapid, people are just fast-forwarding to 2012.  In that spirit, with 1453 days left until the polls close in 2012 - I’ve made my choice.  The video explains my reasoning.

3. Because I’m still dealing with the lead item from last week’s Five…even though that was the one least influenced by the election.

2. Because I’d love to see what would happen if I only gave 4 items for the Five

See y’all Monday

While the Democrats scored the White House and scored serious gains in the House, Senate, and State Houses around the country – Conservatives scored a major victory: the beginning of the end of public financing.

In a story you may have missed, President-elect, then candidate, Obama opted not to take public financing after promising he would.  While an adequate description of federal public financing would fill several editions of this paper, the basic concept is pretty easy: candidates agree to spending limits in order to have access to federal money for their campaigns.  If both campaigns take public financing, a share of your taxes go to a campaign that you wouldn’t vote for.

Obama figured he could raise more money from individual donors than from the government.  McCain, long a proponent of campaign finance reform, accepted the public financing with its limits.  The result: Obama outspent McCain more than 10-to-1 in the first half of October alone.  

As of November 5th, someone who supported Obama who continues to preach the virtues of public financing has just as much credibility as someone who claims to be a fiscal conservative and voted for Ted Stevens. 

Public officials with any intellectual honesty will take the tired, 20th Century idea of taxpayer-funded campaigns and kill it as soon as possible.  We must reappropriate funds towards core government services like roads and public safety.  While it used to be unlikely that politicians would kill programs that were designed to take hard-earned money from you and me coercively to promote them without them having to work for it – the election of Barack Obama offers all taxpayers hope.

I will be shocked – completely shocked if the Democrat-controlled General Assembly does not work to cut out the wasteful public funding scheme and restrictions on freedom of speech for Judges and Council of State.  I would implore out local representatives to listen to the voice of the people who voted against welfare for politicians and for hope and change.  As a fellow Republican, I call on Representatives Linda Johnson and Jeff Barnhart, and Senator Fletcher Hartsell to reach across the aisle and offer their enthusiastic support to lifting the restrictions on free speech within the General Statues that were brought by the introduction of this program in the earlier part of this decade.  I’m sure that the Democratic leadership in the North Carolina General Assembly will consider the example of our President-elect who they all supported and make legislation to abolish taxpayer-funded campaigns.

Can we bring back free expression and end public assistance for politicians?  

Yes, We Can.

Townhall Article

Thank you again.  I look forward to serving you for another four years!

At Gettysburg, Lincoln referred to those who died there as giving “the last full measure of devotion” to the cause of liberty.  While we have an obligation to remember those who sacrificed their life, we have an equal obligation to remember those who have sacrificed the best years of their life for us.

Most reading this just casted a vote in an open, free, and fair election.  You’re reading this column alongside another – of a differing opinion – written by private citizens without compensation and delivered to you without censorship.  Many attend a range of houses of worship where the message is received without boundaries, without the presence of coercive enforcement, and in plain sight.  Citizens’ and volunteer organizations have the option to peacefully assemble should they choose.  At City and Town Council and county Board of Commissioners meetings, you have the right to address your elected officials and be as critical as you’d like without fear of reprisal.

Most people in the world do not live with many of these freedoms, let alone all of them simultaneously.  It is those who serve and those who have served that have kept those who would take any of those freedoms away outside of our borders for our entire history.

Veterans will tell you they were just doing a job, their jobs were much different from ours.  It’s easy to think of the intense physical training and the wounds they have to endure and the horrors of combat, but we often overlook other sacrifices they make.  Like that of my friend who held his firstborn for the first time only to have to leave him and not see him again until he was nearly walking.  There are reservists who leave their families whose children can only comprehend the danger faced by their mothers and fathers and receive intermittent communication from a world away.

At Arlington National Cemetery, I saw a quote that will stay with me forever: “For those who served, freedom has a flavor the protected will never know”.  When I thought of that quote I thought of my Dad who was stuck in a submarine for months on end and what his first breaths of fresh air must have tasted like.  I thought of feel of the heavy stock of a homebound boarding pass in the hands of my friends who were leaving situations where they may not have come back in one piece.  I thought of what their loved ones must look like through tear-filled eyes.  All of that eclipses the sound of a general “Thanks” from the protected; but, to those who’ve served and who are serving: Thank You and have a great Veterans’ Day.

In a single night, the residents of Cabarrus County went from being represented - at the federal level - by people that most of them voted for (Bush, Hayes, and Dole) to seeing the other guys win the day.

Here are Five Ways I’m Dealing With It.

5.  I’m buying a gun.  No, not an AK-47 or a Howitzer.  Something simple and small like a Glock or Ruger…basically, my brother-in-law will pick it out.  As a Mechanical Engineer, I’m smart enough to know that I don’t know enough about this purchase to make an informed decision.

No, it’s not because Obama will take away all of our guns.  Well, not just because Obama wants to take away all of our guns.  I don’t think that public safety will be any more of a priority in the Perdue administration than it is with Gov. What’s-His-Name and I work in Mecklenburg where the County Commission is now controlled by people for whom ex-cons are an important voting block.

Anyhow, I’m buying a gun.  Before January 20th.

4. I’m not moving back into stocks.  I locked my losses in after the worst of the crash, because - even as an aggressive investor - I couldn’t handle the volatility.  Given the two days after Obama’s election - that doesn’t seem like a bad idea.

By the way, Caleb…you were right and I was wrong.  Flat wrong.

3. I’m joining the Media Bloggers Association.  Republicans liked to bypass major media outlets and go to local and non-traditional media.  

Democrats just simply want to control it.  

Examples include taxpayer-funded National Public Radio and the Fairness Doctrine.  During the campaign, Democrats intimidated media outlets in ways that could be a harbinger of things to come.  I think that $25/year is a small price to pay to keep my First Amendment rights intact.

2. I’m listening to - gulp - AM Radio.  For the entire Bush Administration, I’d consumed a steady diet of NPR and the Daily Show.  Well, Rush and others will be cutting into that.  Usually, the best work in media is done by the opposition.  Rush’s show was popular before the 1994 Revolution.  There will be something that will pop up on TV that’s critical of the Obama Administration…it’s just a matter of finding quality production that will counter the mass media’s Lord and Savior.

I took a steady diet of the opposition media during the Bush years - I’ll take a healthy portion during the Obama years.  I’m still listening to NPR also…you might as well, we have to pay for it.

1. Starting here and now, I’m a member of the Loyal Opposition.  There are times where I’m pretty sure that I was born too late.  I believe in things like civility, honor, and grace.  You won’t see me sporting a “Not My President” bumper sticker on my car or an “Impeach Obama” graphic on my blog (until he does something impeachable).  I found people who participated in that crap as shrill, stupid, and childish during the Bush years and it would be offensive to my character to delve into the mire with them.  If that makes me a lousy partisan or uninteresting as a blogger - so be it.

Barack Obama is my President-Elect.  Furthermore, Bev Perdue is my Governor-Elect, Kay Hagan is my Senator-Elect, Larry Kissel is my Congressman-Elect and Mike Helms & Tim Furr are the new School Board members of the schools my kids will be going to in a few short years.   As duly elected officials in the country that I’m a citizen of, they are entitled to my support, prayers, and service just as much as the other folks were.  As a matter of fact - given that I didn’t vote for them - they will probably get more of the benefit of the doubt from me as they can’t betray my vote.

I accept the returns of the 2008 election.  That means that you won’t see me delving into the cesspool talking about their past associations, citizenship, religion, etc.; because my fellow Americans already factored that into their decision.  I do predict that I’ll be very critical of their policies and conduct in office given my convictions - they’ll get my criticisms, but not my hate.

We each have a choice in how we deal with Tuesday - I’ve made mine.

See y’all Monday.

Humor is the spice of life or something to that effect. Whatever it is, there’s plenty of it here:

Every post is just as funny as this one.

It’s official: I have a new second favorite website. (Sorry, soonersports.com)

I cannot think of a more appropriate occasion to show this video.

County Trends - The County went hard for McCain/Palin, Local GOP, Hayes, and Dole…pretty much in that order; but the gap between straight Republican and Democrat Straight Ticket was narrower than in the past.  The real test to see if this is a solid trend will be the midterms.  

It’s easy to see where this came from: Mail-in Absentee went hard for the Republican candidates while early voting when for the Obama list.  I guess in a situation were you have to sign things, have witnesses, and there’s a stamp involved - we win.  Where you have to show up with a letter from Publishers Clearhouse the other side wins the day.

Soil & Water Conservation - Congrats Jonathan Johnson.  By the way, did anyone find it funny that the Party that preaches the most about the environment could produce a candidate for this position? 

School Board - Only one person I backed (Holly Blackwelder) returned.  Given the results and the comments on Steve’s latest post, it looks like my ballot simplification idea could be a little more popular.

County Commission - Congrats to Liz and Bob - both Cheap Seaters. What I found interesting is that if you go to the results, Archie rocked the Early Vote…but it wasn’t enough.

State House and Senate - Fletcher, Linda, and Jeff all made it back in - which is good for the community.  What I found amazing was that even though this state may go for Obama, it was Republicans that made gains in the State Legslature: one Senate seat and even in the House.

Council of State - We lost the Auditor; but kept Labor and Agriculture.  Should we expect more scandals with the Party of Jim Black hold the Auditor position or better coverups?

Governor - This was unfortunate.  In any other year, McCrory would have mopped up the floor with Perdue; but since Perdue’s national candidate seriously outspent McCrory’s it was an uphill battle.  However, it was close and - given our performance in other areas - I’m optimistic about 2012.

US House of Representatives - I’m seriously disappointed here; but we fought the good fight.  Ladies and Gentlemen, you are not represented by Nancy Pelosi.  Larry Kissell is not Heath Schuler - he will do the bidding of his masters.  

Three years ago, I made a commitment:  everytime Harold Smith posted something, I would post something.  So, in fairness to Larry Kissell - I’ll make this commitment: Everytime Kissell breaks with his Party for the good of the district, I’ll post something.

Don’t expect too much from that thread.

However, in the theme of this post, given that we now have a far-left Congressman who took advantage of tax loopholes to win and came up through the Party of Jim Black - I see some serious blog fodder between now and 2010.

Senate - Ugh.  At least Burr is still around.

Prez - That’s for tomorrow

Rap artist NAS released an album entitled “Hip-Hop is Dead” as a response to what he thought was the destruction of the overall idea of hip hop music. He thought the main stream rap genre had lost it’s way and was too far gone to ever come back. One could find it ironic that most of his beats and structures on the album mirrored that of any other album of the genre but his overall contention was that the soul of the music lay in the lyrics and not the beats.

Yep, the above paragraph does show that I have far too much time on my hands!

I thought I’d get things started on 11/5 by sharing some other things that are “dead.”

First and foremost:
Publicly financed campaigns are dead
Dead as a doornail is the idea that you and your opponent can challenge each other on the issues alone. I don’t know how this bundling thing works but you can guarantee that every candidate from this day forward will be hiring marketing managers from the cable company to figure it out. The next presidential campaigns slogan will likely be “Bundle and Save with Candidate X.”

Second:
White Guilt is Dead.
It’s funny to see much more well off than me folks with such a strong desire to elect a black candidate. It’s gotten to the point where I think most of these folks would elect Al Sharpton if he’d run just so they could “feel better.” Now that Obama has been elected, they don’t have to worry anymore. They’ve done their civic duty and William Ayers must be so proud that after all these years, his teaching of the “Social Justice Doctrine” has gotten some of these evil white crackers to get the message. It’ll take 4 years to figure out whether all these guilty white bread’s were just placating their own sense of self remorse or whether they thought Obama was indeed the better candidates.

Third,
Neo-Conservatism is Dead
And not a minute too soon. It seems that with this latest election, the idea of trying to beat liberals by being as much like them as possible has become obsolete and proven to be unsound policy. Can anyone remember way back in ‘94? I smell another “contract with America” on the horizon. (and it stinks as much as the first one!)

Fourth,
The Republican Trademark on “Conservative” is dead
See #3 above. For someone who’s taken more that his fair share of crap over the past 3 weeks for voting for Bob Barrs inept behind, It feels kind of nice to know that at least I’ll have a clear conscience in spite of everything else that will go wrong in the next four years. During the primaries, some of my friends and family were buying into the Limbaugh philosophy of “it’s better to vote democrat than to vote McCain.” Well, in the end, they all took the bitter pill and redacted those ramblings and voted for the guy. None of them were happy about it and when I mentioned Third Party or Stay Home ideas, I was looked at like the idiot. Well, it’s November 5th and I’m still smilin’. Not so, for those family members who were calling last night and proclaiming it’s the end of the world. Well, to finish quoting REM. ” and I feel fine.”

Fifth:
Fake Glass Ceilings are Dead:
I’d suggest that every one with a job and a mortgage carry a picture of Obama in their pocket. When they hear someone whining about how things are unfair and they can’t get ahead because the “man” is keeping them down, they can remove said picture from said pocket and just hold it up for said whiner to see. It works on 2 levels because 1, they can’t blame the “man” because they voted for said “man” and 2, if said whiner is a minority that pretty much destroys anything they can say. If a black man can be president, they shouldn’t have any trouble working the fryers and McDonalds…

And finally:

The Modern Day Civil Rights Movement is Dead.
Hey, what can Jesse, Louis, Al and the Rev Wright say now??? Nothing, ZERO, ZILCH and ZIP.

If there’s anything else that’s dead that I missed, please add it.

What will be alive for the next four years you ask?

Well, The Fairness Doctrine, Higher Taxes, Higher Fuel Prices, Higher Energy Prices, Lower Quality HealthCare and a Decreased ability to protect us from threats at home and abroad.
Also alive are,
A second bill of rights, Social Justice Doctrine, Diminished First and Second Ammendment Rights, No Conditions talks with our enemies, Keynesian Economic Principles in full display and Franklin Raines career.

Welcome to a new world!

Obviously, there’s a certain amount of expense for the county involved in opening an early polling place,  but this is one of the most important functions of local government, and the biggest way that most people interact and have a say in what goes on in the government.

Other than the cost, are there any state/federal regulations involved in expanding early voting? Either more facilities or increasing the number of voting booths per facility… Whatever lets us handle more voters faster with less of a wait.

This is something that I’d like to see the county look into for the next election. Would this be the responsibility of the Board of Elections, the County Commissioners or who? I’m clueless about who all has input into this sort of thing… Which is why I’m blogging about it instead of emailing someone who can actually change things.

Depending on crowds/waits on Tuesday, there might be a similar complaint about waits on election day itself.

I’ve updated the Election 2008 post and the School Board post with some external information.

Also, I thought y’all might enjoy this video.

Anywho,

It’s no secret that I’ve spent an inordinant number of hours pissing, moaning, bitching and bloviating about public safety in Cabarrus County.

“Blah Blah Blah, high crime Blah Blah,

“Harumph Harumph Harumph”

It’s almost like I’m one of those idealists I described here:

It’s a combination of a lot of things.

First, there’s my time spent as an officer in Cabarrus County.

Second, was the loss of a good friend to what amounts to a crime of desperation brought on by those low salaries.

And finally, there’s some actual research I did (gasp) that shows how upside down our local salaries are for our public safety employees.

Whatever it is, it’s been a main focus of mine for years now. I still keep tabs on the insanity but don’t write about it that often because I’ve beat the horse to death and spent hours pounding it into french “hamburger” meat.

So when I saw THIS, I was quite shocked.

I guess you can say this is what happens when a good idea gets into the hands of not so intelligent people.

Yes, this post does infact have a point.

Given the stark contrast between the two situations here and in California, how could we keep ourselves from having either the super high turnover we have now and the budget slashing situation they have in California?

That’s a question that doesn’t involve a current candidate!

Enjoy!

Early Voting Sites - Open Until 11:00AM Saturday

Find Your Voting Location on Election Day

All Election 2008 Posts

Guide to Cabarrus County School Board Candidates

GOP Voter Guide

Justin’s Endorsements - General and Lew Davidson

Independent Tribune Endorsements

Candidate Articles:

Bob Carruth

Robert Tizon

Liz Poole

In Obama’s case, it’s all about the 4 laws of Attraction:

First, Obama attracts the “young-erns”

If you’re older than thirty or younger than thirty and have children, a mortgage, a middle class lifestyle and job (like me) you’ve seen first hand exactly what is wrong with government. If you’ve been outsourced, pinkslipped, downgraded or just plain fired and haven’t let it affect your soul or who you are as a person, chances are you’re one of the select few who doesn’t think that it was the governments fault OR that it was their responsibility to “fix” it.

Sadly, the young folks who are following Obama over the cliff in larger and larger droves haven’t experienced this much if at all. It’s easy to believe in redistributionist policies when you’re only on the good end. When a guy tells you he’ll cover your student loans, room, board and healthcare and all you have to do is push a touch screen, pull a lever or punch out a circle, chances are, you’re either naïve enough to believe him or arrogant enough to think yourself deserving of it. Add to all of this a full dose of socialism taught in many major universities and high schools and it’s a full on slam dunk. Is it any wonder Obama supports spending more money on exactly the same public education?

Obama attracts the Intellectually Lazy.

It’s one thing to be too young to remember anything about the history of politics (in spite of having been “taught” it in school)

It’s entirely another to be too plain old lazy to “use the google” and figure it all out.

Obama attracts the blindly faithful by talking down to their extremely narrow view of the world.

“Of course it’s the government (Bush’s) fault that gas prices are so high, the economy is faltering and their house payment went up. I mean, who elses fault would it be??????”

When you’ve been outsourced or pink-slipped and you actually believe that NAFTA or CAFTA caused it then it’s easy to believe Obama’s isolationist policies and punitive taxes will fix it all. Basic economic principles that disprove this nonsense are easily located but it’s easier just to believe a guy pre-election than it is to actually research any of it.

Obama has done a superb job of telling these folks exactly what they want to hear.

The media has done an even more superb job of sweeping any contradictory evidence under the rug. Your average voter who uses the 6 o’clock news to decide who to vote for has been told for almost 2 years that McCain will destroy the economy, keep us in a “perpetual war” and weaken our “international stature” while Obama will fix it all in his first six months in office.
The word “free” still has meaning to these voters.

From my own experience, these folks fall prey to identity theft and phone scams a lot more often than any of the three other groups.

The word “free” is still a noun to them.

Obama attracts Elitists.

This is no surprise considering that Elitists always vote Democrat.

Hollywood leans so far left that it will soon break along the San Andreas fault line and fall into the ocean. Regular liberals like Brad Pitt, George Clooney and the rest of the “Oceans 11-13” cast all the way to uuber socialists like Sean Penn have 2 things in common.

First, they know SOOOOOO much more than you or I about what’s really important and what we should do

And second,

They are SOOOO much better than you or I that they should be the “deciders”

Elitists from Jessica Alba all the way to Henry Zucker are throwing their support, their air time and their gobs and gobs of money to Obama. (no, I don’t know if Ms Alba or Mr. Zucker are actually supporting Obama but they are the only A-Z celebrities that I could think of, Just transpose your own rather than splitting hairs)

No one has been able to tell me what Matt Damon or Sarah Jessica Parker know that I don’t know but their blind (or blonde) ambition to have Obama in power seems to be matched only by their desire to make 25 million per movie.

It’s easy for folks like Damon and Clooney to support a guy who’ll raise their taxes by 40%. First, they are so rich that it doesn’t matter. Second, they have great accountants who can hide most of their assets and of course the fact that actors, singers and other “artsy” folk work in an entirely subjective field.
It costs 9 bucks to see a movie and 15 dollars to buy a CD because that’s what it costs. When you don’t produce anything tangible, it’s easy to support a guy who’ll make everything that is tangible cost more. This is especially true when you have more than enough money to buy anything tangible you could ever want.

Obama Attracts Idealists.

Yup,

Tree Huggers, Eco-Nuts, Vegans, ALF’s, PETA’s, Zero-Pops’ Goracle Followers, Social Darwinists, Zealots, Godless Heathens, Black Empowerers, Women’s Libbers, Abortion Lovers and Fairness Doctrine Fairness Lovers everywhere are absolutely, positively in love with Obama.

Sure, almost all of the above 3 categories have their own idealists that line up somewhere. “Brangelina” and “Cloon-tang” are big into the zero-pop/Africa thing, A lot of students are all about the animals or the abortions, or the social Darwinist club or any of the litany of other brightly colored flyers found on the billboards of UNCC. It’s even possible to find the Intellectually Lazy purporting the sky is falling attitude of the Goracle by saving all their money to buy carbon credits.

Idealists by their nature are one note songs. If you ask any Inconvenient Truth “frame by framer” you’ll get all the nifty “facts” he offers. When you talk cost, they’re clueless, or worse, they start with the “it costs what it costs” nonsense. When you talk the opposing view they call you stupid or a heretic or whatever else and just walk away.

Idealists are passionate about their cause, no matter how stupid, unethical or impossible it is. They care so much about this or that, that it’s impossible for them to see the bigger picture. They live in an all or nothing world. Kind of like your average Ron Paul voter.

Obama talks a good game to them as well. He’s really concerned about their cause because it’s all he has to be concerned about at that particular meeting. He’s not fielding questions about healthcare at Trinity Church. He’s not off script at the NOW meetings. When abortion lovers crowd the building, they’re not concerned about taxes.

In this modern age, a president, whoever he is will have his fingers in many pies. How much will Obama care about “women’s rights” when he’s meeting with Amedinijad without conditions or disassembling our defensive nuclear weapons?

These four groups support him regardless of their color, sex, religion and… any convincing evidence to the contrary. What’s worse is that all 4 of these groups will spend as much as they can possibly afford to get the Joe Average out to vote for their candidate. Those that don’t spend it will sign up to help him get elected either by campaigning for him or by registering fraudulent voters who’ll vote for him for a cheeseburger or whatever the going rate is.

IF, and I say that honestly, in spite of the overall demeaning nature of this post: IF Obama is elected, the above 4 groups will be most to thank for it. What’s worse is that they’ll be the ones he kowtows too while in office and worse than that, they’ll be the one’s running the country…

I’m “that guy” for about two dozen people.

I’m the guy a number of people call to get guidance on whom to vote for towards the back end of the ballot in a general election or anywhere on a ballot in a primary election. Admittedly, being “that guy” is difficult, because even though I might like someone for an office – I find that some of my friends have priorities that might differ from mine. So, it takes a different approach based on the individual and the candidate.

So, here’s my advice – consult a great voter guide. Both the State of North Carolina and the Federal Government have been making comprehensive voter guides available for centuries – they call them “Constitutions”.

In our country, when someone serves in the military or takes elected or many appointed offices – they do not swear allegiance to an official nor do they even swear to serve a people or a land. The common phrase is “to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States”. Each official – from County Commissioner to the President – takes an oath to a document. In the document is a set of job descriptions for each individual and a set of ideas on which our laws our based.

Voters’ willful ignorance of that State and Federal Constitutions allow our rhetoric to devolve into a glorified popularity contest based on who promises cut our taxes, give us a bigger share of someone else’s hard-earned money, or would be most fun at your Super Bowl party.

What would happen if each of us asked the question: “Who are the best people for each of these jobs as described in the Constitution?” That one question helps boil out most of the fat of the marketing elements from the campaigns and brings you back to the core issues of the role of government in any office in our Republic.

But what does all this have to do with being “that guy”? Well, this isn’t the first election that I’ve been an activist and it isn’t the first one that someone has asked guidance about people on their ballot. For those decisions where I factored in some inter-party dispute, some personal relationship, or matter of style – I’ve lived to regret it. For those where I’ve asked the Constitutional question – I’ve been at peace with it.

So, when you’re in the voting booth you shouldn’t parse which claims and promises those looking for your vote will actually fulfill – just look at their record and character and ask if they’ll be able to carry out the one promise that they swear to on a Bible.