In a post today at Under the Dome (a service of the Raleigh News and Observer) Ryan Teague Beckwith pointed out what he thought was the political overstatement of the day:

He quoted BlueNC and NC Politico writer (and friend of mine) Betsy Muse:

“If you live in North Carolina and your home isn’t under a rock, you know that Dan Besse is a Democratic candidate for Lt. Governor.

And then attempted to hit her with the N&O’s “big stick”:

Dome believes that rock is known as the sun.

Unfortunately, Beckwith pointed out his failure (as a writer and representative of the N&O). Along the way, though, he pointed out a failure by our own Jacksonville Daily News.

If Dan Besse isn’t publicly known as a candidate for Lieutenant Governor, whose failing is it? The news organizations, of course. A candidate can only do so much. He (or she) can only buy so much ad space. It is the newspapers, television news agencies, and political parties job duty to report on candidates for election.

The Jacksonville Daily News website has one mention of Dan Besse and it’s an opinion piece from the Freedom Communications, Inc. flak in Raleigh, Barry Smith. The same opinion piece is also the only mention of State Senator Walter Dalton, Canton-Mayor Pat Smathers, and former Easley-administration official Hampton Dellinger.

Come on, Daily Newsers. Can’t you do better than that? You’ve finally realized there’s a Congressional race brewing, how about covering the other ballot items?

And, hey, since we’re on the topic of covering politics, why don’t you have a politics web-log?  I know a guy that’d be interested in writing it.

The Jacksonville Daily News has finally recognized that the Third Congressional District (NC-03) race is going to be interesting to watch in an article that describes some of the differences between current Congressman Walter B. Jones, Jr. and his rivals (Republican [and Onslow County Commissioner] Joe McLaughlin and Democrat Marshall Adame). Craig Weber wasn’t mentioned in the article, but since his email “announcement” in November, he hasn’t been heard from and hasn’t updated his website, my guess is he flamed out.

The article, written by Jennifer Hlad, focuses on the key differences between McLaughlin, Adame, and Jones, Jr.

For McLaughlin, it’s a matter of Jones, Jr. not supporting President Bush and not being conservative enough, especially on the support for the continuing occupation of Iraq.

“On virtually every major national security vote on the War on Terror in the last year, he’s voted with the liberals,” McLaughlin said. “The man we sent to Washington in (1995) is no longer the conservative member (he was).”

Several issues separate Adame from Jones, Jr. and McLaughlin.

On Iraq, Adame is quoted:

“There is chaos in Iraq today, and there will be chaos when we leave. But until we leave, the beginning of the end of the chaos cannot start,”

“But I believe our combat troops need to come out,” he said. “We do owe something to the Iraqis, but we owe more to our own people. The best way to support the combat troops is to bring them home.”

Proving he’s no one-trick phony, he said:

“To get elected on one issue like Iraq, or any other issue, would be a little bit dishonest,”

And Adame has the right stances on the other issues. McLaughlin only claims to be an “authentic conservative” with no real policy positions (except to support President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and the Republican Party).

The article is quite good, and you should give it a read. And the reader-posted comments are quite entertaining.

Apparently the anti-McLaughlin group is more outspoken the supporters. And, just for a bonus, there’s a fellow that claims several of the separate anti-McLaughlin posters are the same person using separate names. I wonder if the Jacksonville Daily News crack tech-team can trace the IP addresses from those comments?

Tonight marks LitterButt #3 for me (here are LitterButts #1 and 2).

A red Chevrolet pick-up truck tossed a lit cigarette on Henderson Avenue heading towards Gum Branch from Western Blvd Extension at approximately 6:14PM on December 15th.

I don’t understand why people fail to realize that cigarette butts are a form of litter. Even if they were biodegradable (which they aren’t), they are still unsightly and pose a tremendous danger to wildlife and even our own water supply.

Are people really that stupid that they don’t understand the greater impact of their waste on the world?

Driving into Jacksonville on Western Blvd Extension today I had one of the most interesting experiences. There was a muffler (like an automobile’s muffler) in the road. It obviously wasn’t new and clearly posed a danger to other vehicles.

Unfortunately, because of traffic, I wasn’t able to pull over to get it out of the way of traffic and properly disposed. A Jacksonville Police Department officer (in a marked Supervisor-mobile, even) was able to pull over to retrieve the wayward auto part, though. I was amazed to watch the officer grab the muffler and toss it into the grass at the side of the road, re-enter his cruiser, and drive off.

It’s possible that the supervising Jacksonville Police Department officer was clearing the roadway of an obstruction and a City of Jacksonville road-crew will come by to remove the muffler from it’s wet and grassy home. It may not be likely, but I suppose it is possible.

Have you visited the Jacksonville Daily News website in the last day or two? They’ve got their logo all decked out with xmas lights.

Check it out below:

I bet the baby Jesus would be so proud!

More than a month since the inquiry was complete and nearly two weeks since I sent a letter to the editor and blogged the news, the Jacksonville Daily News has reported on Onslow County Commissioner (and failed 2006 candidate for Clerk of Superior Court) Delma Collins‘ campaign finance FUBAR.

The article doesn’t cover any new ground except for having great quotes from Commissioner Collins.

An example from the article:

“I made a mistake,” Collins said. “But you have to be a bookkeeper to understand election finance laws.”

Mr. Collins, indeed, you do not need to be a bookkeeper to understand the election finance laws. You simply have to read the regulations, attend training by the local or state Boards of Election, and ask questions if you’re that confused. It’s clear that by reaching the threshold limit of $3,000 in June (months prior to Election Day) you either acted intentionally to avoid reporting your campaign finance or you are incapable of managing your campaign funds. Neither is acceptable.

When questioned about motives regarding the inquiry, Collins had an interesting answer:

“This is nothing more than old enemies taking potshots at me,” Collins said.

As a response to the statement, I made this comment on the online article:

It’s nice to see the Jacksonville Daily News doing some investigative reporting. Too bad it’s been almost a month and a half since the report was released and it’s been reported on the ENC Forums and other websites.

As for Mr. Collins’ comment, since the SBOE found several instances of violations of campaign finance regulations, it’s not “Enemies taking potshots.”

The article did have one new and intriguing iota of news:

Collins said if he runs for office again, he will file differently.

“I have learned a valuable lesson,” Collins said. “If I do decide to run for a higher office in the future, I will not file under the $3,000 threshold.”

Mr. Collins, you promised your family, your friends, and, most importantly, your constituency that, should you lose the race for Clerk of Superior Court, you would leave politics at the end of your term as County Commissioner.

Perhaps you’ve forgotten, so I will quote the letter your campaign sent to teachers in Onslow County Schools:

I have promised my family that I will leave the political arena if I am unsuccessful in this endeavor.

Keep that promise, Mr. Collins. For the good of your family, for the good of your friends, and for the good of your constituency, keep your promise. Leave politics.

Tonight the Onslow County Board of Commissioners elected Lionell Midgett as their Chairman for 2008. Commissioner Paul Buchanan will remain the Vice Chairman.

Correction: According to the Jacksonville Daily News, Commissioner (and challenger to Republican Congressman Walter B. Jones, Jr.) Joe McLaughlin was elected as the Vice Chairman.

In other Board of Commissioner news, the Jacksonville Daily News still has not reported anything on the North Carolina State Board of Elections’ inquiry on Commissioner Delma Collins’ inability to manage his campaign finance records from his failed bid for Clerk of Superior Court. They also haven’t published the letter to the editor I sent.

It’s been almost a month since the report was released and the “paper of record” for Onslow County has failed to print anything. It’s a darned shame that the Jacksonville Daily News is withholding this pretty darned important information from the voters of Onslow County.

What do you think?

Saturday I went photo-walking in the Old Burying Grounds in Beaufort and at Fort Macon (the links are to the photo-walking albums). Take a stroll with me, won’t you?

NaPhotoPoMo seems to really be getting legs. Erin blogged it and Ontario Emperor linked to her. There’s also 9 members of the group on Ning.

Just to be clear, though, participants don’t have to register for Ning and join the group to participate in NaPhotoPoMo. I would appreciate a link or email or something to be able to keep track of how many folks participate, but even that’s not really necessary.

Maybe if we all use a Technorati tag in NaPhotoPoMo posts it’d be easier to track. Any advice?

Interestingly enough, it’s been almost a full month and the Jacksonville Daily News hasn’t reported on Onslow County Commissioner Delma Collins’ NC State Board of Elections inquiry or fines.

I even sent them a letter to the editor to tip them off and nothing.

I guess the old adage is true: “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.”

Good night and good luck.

Tags:

Has anyone noticed something different about the iTunes podcast store? When perusing the podcast section by category, I end up in a very unsexy list-like interface. Completely not cool. There’s no extra information on the podcasts, just the basic information (title, artist, genre, etc.).

It’s making it quite complicated to shop for new and exciting podcasts, that’s for certain.

Somebody at the local nutjob message board has been sending offensive private messages to the female users.

Remember the controversy surrounding Onslow County Commissioner Delma Collins’ 2006 failed campaign for Clerk of Superior Court?

The North Carolina State Board of Elections has released its findings regarding Commissioner Collins. In a letter dated November 5th, the Board noted that Collins accepted business contributions (in-kind contributions from Donald Keith Branch of Allstate Insurance and Michael Lazzara (Yes, the City Councilman)), paid cash for advertisement purchases, and submitted campaign finance reports late. All of which are violations of campaign finance regulations.

The letter also suggets that Collins submitted information that could not be corroborated:

You stated that the Onslow County Board of Elections instructed you to file a final report after the elections in the event that you exceeded the threshold. You also stated that Ed Brown, candidate for sheriff, received the same instructions. Neither Mr. Brown nor the Onslow County Board of Elections corroborated your statements.

The letter also directs Collins to re-open his campaign committee, pay a fee of $1,288.72, file an amended report to include all receipts and expenses, and providing a sworn statement describing the source of funds used to purchase advertising from the Jacksonville Daily News.

They’re well-earned, but not excessive, punishments.

I wonder, though, if the letter was signed November 5th, when the Jacksonville Daily News is going to get around to reporting the news?

It’s the Monday after Thanksgiving and there’s all kinds of interesting stuff going on in the world…

Senator Trent Lott (R-MS) is expected to resign before the end of the year.

It’s a 4-year-too-soon exit for Lott and it makes him the 6th Republican Senator to announce a resignation or retirement.

The Jacksonville Daily News wants local government to stay out of the opinion-generating business. In today’s editorial, the paper says:

It is understandably tempting to use such a pervasive, one-sided forum to push government initiatives as an unqualified good thing for the people, but that’s not government’s purpose nor should it be G-10’s.

The editorial board of the Jacksonville Daily News opines that the City of Jacksonville and Onslow County governments are using the local government network to push an agenda and “put the best possible face on government spending, tax increases and political lapses of judgment.”

Clearly, the Jacksonville Daily News feels that they have the monopoly on opinion-generating in Onslow County and don’t want the local governments infringing on their market.

My response to the Daily News is this: Why are you afraid of the government putting their own “embroidery” on their programs? Why shouldn’t the government use their resources to advertise programs? Why shouldn’t the government balance your reporting? If they left it to your paper and staff, the public’s opinion would be misinformed, poorly developed, and one-sided.

Don’t be afraid, Jacksonville Daily News, a little competition is good for the soul.

Shadow, resident of the local nutjob message board, has noticed my blog post detailing ENC’s competition.

He says:

Someone is calling this “the local nutjob message board with heavy handed & uneven moderating! It’s not the Doc!
He also refers to Doc’s board “The Best of ENC,” another nutjob site!
He is happy to monitor all this nutjobby whackiness!
He mentions a third site, but not worth mentioning.
Glad he hasn’t found Jactionville.com
It’s the guy with his own blog and not your Shadow using these naughty words!

Oh, worry not, Shadow, I know of the Jactionville.com forums. They’re quite dead, I think, and not worth mentioning.

By the way, I didn’t think my words were “naughty.” I think they’re quite appropriate.

Animal adds:

I am a local nut job and proud of it!

Indeed. Indeed.

It’s being reported that Emeril “BAM!” Lagasse is out at the Food Network. December 11th will be the final taping of Emeril Live.

The GOP is low on cash (mostly as a result of Senator Elizabeth Dole’s 2006 failure as NRSC chairperson) and are seeking out independently wealthy candidates.

That sort of tactic makes you wonder if these Republican candidates would serve the poorer Americans best…Or, instead, look out for their wallets and the bank accounts of their friends.

So, how’re you?

It’s the day after the day after Thanksgiving and you know what that means: The Jacksonville Daily News‘ annual article on the line of customers outside Jacksonville’s Best Buy. Yes, friends and neighbors, folks come from miles and miles around to get in line and wait for the Black Friday sales and the Daily News feeds our need to mock these people. In public. Ain’t it great?

From the article:

Brett Rooney and his wife Janet of Jacksonville were first in line to get in the door, waiting since 11 a.m. Thursday. They didn’t mind camping out to purchase laptop computers for their children’s Christmas gifts, even if that meant having Thanksgiving dinner a little early.

Dude. How crazy is that? It’s stupid crazy for sure. There’s no way I’d wait in line for 17ish hours to buy something. That, friends and neighbors is a sign of mental illness. Especially when it gets in the way of standard Turkey Day stuffin’ the face and tryptophan-induced comas.

But, fear not. Apparently, the Rooney’s weren’t first in line at 11am. Oh no. They were third in line at 11am. The first folks arrived at 9:30am. The Daily News screwed that pooch, eh? Fortunately, Tim Harvey, the real first-in-line fool, corrected the article in a comment (which is posted below because comments critical of the Jacksonville Daily News often…uh…disappear from their site).

Harvey said:

Inaccurate information on who was first in line at Best Buy. The Rooneys were third in line. Tim Harvey was first customer in line who arrived at nine thirty and Uriel was second there. If your going to write an article please be accurate. Thank you for your time, GOD Bless!

Good on Tim for correcting the record. Shame on Tim for being in a parking lot line at 9:30am. Do people really have nothing better to do with their time?

Then again, if Eastern NC is full of folks that can accidentally buy a notebook computer they don’t need, maybe it’s better they do spend their time in line. It may well be safer for us all.

Speaking of Freedom ENC Communications…

It seems that some folks at the local nutjob message boards have grown tiresome of the heavy-handed and uneven moderating there and have created the “Best of ENC” forums.

Put those two with the Triangle Free Forum (a not-so-local nutjob message board) and there’s plenty of nutjobby whackiness for me to monitor.

It’s good to be in Eastern NC…

Courtesy your local neighborhood Wikipedia:

• Twenty-one is a Fibonacci number, a Harshad number, a Motzkin number, a triangular number and an octagonal number, as well as a composite number, its proper divisors being 1, 3 and 7.
• 21 is the fifth discrete bi-prime and the second in the (3.q) family. With 22 it forms the second discrete bi-prime pair. 21 has an aliquot sum of 11 though it is the second composite number found in the 11-aliquot tree with. 18 is the first such member as well having as 21 as its aliquot sum 21 is the first number to be the aliquot sum of three numbers 18,51,91
• 21 appears in the Padovan sequence, preceded by the terms 9, 12, 16 (it is the sum of the first two of these).
• The sum of divisors for the integers 1 through 5 is 21.
• 21 is a repdigit in base 4 (111).
• 21 is the smallest number of differently sized squares needed to square the square.

My letter was printed in today’s Jacksonville Daily News. Unfortunately, their website hasn’t been updated, so I can’t provide linkage.

Unfortunately, it’s too late. The Jones County Board of Commissioners has voted to table a resolution to oppose the site located near the Jones-Onslow Border.

While the Onslow Board of Commissioners hold court with eyes and ears covered, the battle is raging against an OLF. Their absence, and lack of leadership, will allow the U.S. Navy to steamroll Jones County. With a population of less than 11,000 people and a median income just barely above the poverty line, who will stand up for those people?

Certainly not Congressman Walter B. Jones, Jr. Certainly not Senators Elizabeth Dole or Richard Burr. And most certainly not the Onslow County Board of Commissioners.

Even a 6-year old boy has done more than the Onslow County Board of Commissioners to fight the U.S. Navy’s plan. Joseph Dickerson wrote a letter to the Elizabeth City Daily Advance.

My name is Joseph Cole Dickerson, and I am 6 years old. I like all the animals and stuff here. I don’t want the Navy outlying landing field. The animals will not like an OLF. Some of my teachers would have to move. I would not like that. I hope people will help keep it from coming.

The Onslow County Board of Commissioners could take a lesson from young Mr. Dickerson. Unfortunately, and pathetically, they won’t.

There is some grumbling on the local nutjob message board about healthcare in Jacksonville. The writer specifically had bad things to say about Med Care facility on Hwy 17/Marine Blvd.

Says joaniecol:

What I want to know is how when a patient, who is already not feeling well, ask how long they anticipate a wait to be and be told about 45-1 hour wait - - - ask to pay for their copay up front - - only then to be stuck waiting for 2 hrs and 40 minutes before even being brought into a room. Then, another 40 minutes before a “doctor” comes in to see you - spends no more then 8 minutes with you - and then it takes another 20 minutes for “documentation” for discharge to be given.

Four hours is a really long time to be waiting for treatment…I’d guess that even the Onslow Memorial Hospital’s Emergency Room would be able to provide services in that period.

Unfortunately, Jacksonville does not have very many (if any) good general practitioner doctors. The problem is that very few private practice doctors can accept Tricare (the payer for military dependents) and stay in business. This creates a vacuum for the franchise medical offices, such as Med Care to swoop in and prey on the citizens.

It’s a sad state of affairs, but as long as there are free-market fundamentalists (such as the John Locke Foundation and the Club for Growth) out there, it’s the way it’ll be.

It’s a shame and a sham that will continue until the U.S. moves to a single-payer health-care system.

Did you realize I’ve pass 2,500 posts on this blog? Me either. Holy crap. It’s no wonder I’m running out of material…

Enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday!