Election 2008

The road to the White House went through Charlotte...repeatedly. My girls and I caught up with then Senator Obama. It might not have been up close and personal, but it was special all the same. Some pictures from the day are below.

Triggered by a debate I've been engaged in over at Ed Cone's place about the current Russia/Georgia conflict, I decided to go ahead and publish some thoughts I've been processing on Elizabeth Dole's relationship to the Military Industrial Complex and the rule-the-world Neocon chickenhawks.

Fads trump election transparency.(electronic voting?). Since North Carolina passed its paper ballot law, its been harder to mess up the vote. So here comes Instant Runoff Voting, which is hardly transparent. NC tested IRV in 2007, and found a "creative" 100 plus steps method to count IRV on touchscreens.This may get a test again in 2009, 2010 and 2011. Why bother working for verified voting when it gets undone so easily?

While there have been substantial reductions in our nuclear arsenal over the last few decades, we still maintain a massive stockpile of nuclear weapons, ranging from the little SADM's up to the monster ICBM's. And even though the threat of world-destroying exchange of hundreds (if not thousands) of missiles between us and Russia is of little concern to any but the most paranoid of tacticians, this arsenal is still considered a key to our defense. (hat tip to my son Steven for bringing this to my attention)

I have very recently felt compelled to throw water on the raging fire of criticism that has been directed at our Governor over at The Dome, as it seems that virtually any story about him lately inspires a feeding frenzy of contempt and vitriol.

The mad rush to experiment with Instant runoff voting in North Carolina has created some very bad news for the supporters of NC's paper ballot law.

Anything goes in North Carolina, or Welcome back Diebold and gang.

Thursday the House Election Law Committee passed the bill SB 1263 which extended the IRV pilot program for 3 years. It goes to the House Judiciary I committee next Tuesday.

See NCVoter's website on HOW YOU CAN HELP . PLEASE TAKE ACTION BEFORE THIS TUESDAY JULY 8TH. SEE OUR WEBSITE ACTION ALERT, SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS.

There is a catastrophe taking place in North Carolina right now. It's not as visible or frightening as a tornado or a flood, but the end result of this catastrophe will be very similar: thousands of our fellow North Carolinians steeped in despair and struggling to find a place for their families to live.

This is not just a case of voter supression. This is a political hot potato that some media and even some voting activists won't talk about or report on because it offends some of their base. But wrong is wrong! SIX days ahead of the North Carolina primary a "Jim Crow" effort was aimed at supressing the African American vote. A group called Women's Voices Women's Vote (WVWV) has been placing robocalls to voters across North Carolina that leads voters to think that they are not registered to vote. The North Carolina NAACP has filed a complaint and also alerted the Department of Justice.