Senate

Jim Neal is a Democrat running for US Senate in North Carolina. He is running against Kay Hagan in North Carolina’s primary on May 6th. Many people have discounted Jim Neal because he is openly gay. Sure, he is openly gay. He is also openly white, openly male, openly down-to-earth, openly progressive, openly against the status-quo, and openly an AMAZING candidate.

I support Barack Obama and Jim Neal.

Both Barack Obama and Jim Neal are inspiring progressive Democrats. Both Obama and Jim Neal wish to change America for the better, and are willing to fight for those who are unable to fight for themselves. Both Obama and Jim Neal have had uphill battles to climb to fight the Washington establishment, and both have been discounted at some point.

If you are inspired by Obama, I think you will also be inspired by Jim Neal. If you support Obama, I urge you to support Jim Neal as well.

[crossposted on Daily Kos and my campaign blog]

It’s critical to understand the reasons for our skyrocketing oil prices if we want to lead our country away from protracted conflicts in the Middle East and towards energy independence.

The United States is the world’s largest consumer of oil, using about 20 million barrels per day. Petroleum is not traded in a free market. If the oil market were truly free, it’s unlikely we’d be paying over $100 a barrel. Oil prices are in fact highly manipulated by people who claim to be proponents of free market capitalism and cartels that are interested in anything but a free market. But our government has the power to manipulate oil prices as well. It could bring down the price of oil, if it so chooses, by opening the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Tapping this cache of over a half a billion barrels of oil would have a dramatic and immediate impact on oil prices.

I've just received this request via email from the NC-AEYC (North Carolina Association for the Education of Young Children)

U.S. Senators Dodd (D-CT) and Snowe (R-ME) have written a "Dear Colleague" letter requesting $1.072 billion in Head Start funding and $874 million in Child Care Development Block Grant funding (attached). We need to get as many Senators as possible to sign the letter by April 4th. Please contact Senators Dole and Burr and urge them to sign on to the Dodd-Snow Dear Colleague letter. Here are their phone numbers: Senator Dole 202-224-6342 and Senator Burr 202-224-3154. Share this information with your friends and colleagues and urge them to call, as well. As always, the more people the Senators hear from, the more likely they are to act.

[cross-posted on dailykos at and on my campaign blog]

We’ve been talking a lot about our US Senate campaign being a choice between politics as usual and speaking truth to power.

I was surprised and frankly shocked while reading Greensboro’s Yes Weekly article about State Senator Kay Hagan.

Kay points to Senate Bill 3 (SB 3) as an example of how “we do things right in Raleigh.” The legislation adopted by the state senate last year gives away the store to Duke Energy, one of the top contributors to Kay’s state senate campaigns .

You may not know about SB 3. And the problem is I don’t think you’re supposed to. The Raleigh News-Observer says SB 3 was “an insiders' deal from the get-go,” passed with “virtually nonexistent” public debate and no “serious financial analysis of its total impact on consumers.” http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/martinez/story/626147.html

CHAPEL HILL, N.C./InterstateQ.com -- On Tuesday, March 11, tens of thousands of North Carolinians will head to their local precinct meetings to elect delegates to county conventions. The meetings are the beginning of the long trek to the state convention, the national convention and for choosing delegates to represent Democrats at both.

For Senate candidate Jim Neal, the meetings also represent a chance to reach out to more than 20,000 highly involved and attuned Democratic Party activists and likely primary voters. He has sent campaign materials for every meeting - bumper stickers and buttons - to distribute to local activists, along with a letter thanking attendees for their civic involvement.Neal’s campaign has also called and talked personally with 1,200 precinct chairs across the state.