Carolina Politics Online

…but has been very busy. 

Never fear though, fair readers. For I have heard your cries, and I will proceed as promised with a candidate questionnaire. I’ve also got a few other projects up my sleeve. More about those this weekend.

Also, St. Patrick’s Day is almost here, so I need to clear next week schedule for a full seven days of drinking. So if you don’t hear from me all next week… well, you know.

I finally succeeded at installing a new widget on the Web site that will allow us to create polls which is something I’ve been wanting to try out for some time now.  I’ve played around with it a bit and it seems to work so I’ll probably try it out in the coming days.

Last summer I sent a questionnaire to all the NCGOP state chair candidates so y’all would know where they stood. Looks like some of our guests would like me to do the same thing for the Republican candidates in N.C.’s 8th Congressional district race.

Well why stop there? I’ll also send one out to the Republican candidates seeking the nomination for Heath Shuler’s seat and Brad Miller’s seat. I’ll also send it to Patrick McHenry and his two challengers, as well as anyone else that pops up on my radar screen.

Only question is… what should my questions be? Is there a squirm-inducing query that you’d just love to ask a congressional candidate? Is there a particular something you must know about someone before you can vote for them? Well, post your question suggestions below and if I like it, I’ll include it in my questionnaire. Remember that these are federal, not state, candidates. Please submit your questions by Sat., Feb. 6th.

I received this in an email from one of our readers who sent this letter to the editor to several of the local newspapers.  I told him I would post it here since I wrote about a similar incident that I disapproved of involving the City of Charlotte city manager about a month ago.

With reference to The Herald’s Dec 15 article “Rock Hill City Manager gets new agreement” as the city deals with a tight budget in a down economy, the city manager with a $171,683 annual salary, the highest paid public County official, get’s a $4,200 bonus. In 2002 the starting salary was $128,000.

Now the concern with reference to the Herald’s Dec 27 article “Probing the causes of Rock Hill’s job crisis” of 23.3% unemployment, basically one in four are out in the unemployment line.

When everyone else has been forced to hunker down, lay off or get laid off, cutback, or go out of business, where does this money come from to give public officials these kinds of raises and perks?

PLEASE HELP ME UNDERSTAND!

Jim Harper
Fort Mill,SC

2009 has been a tough year for a lot of us. Having jackasses in powerful and influential places didn’t make things easier, did it? But here is your revenge; your chance to tell those jackasses that they’re… well, jackasses. That they aren’t as awesome as they seem to think they are. That the world would be a lot better and brighter if they just went the hell away.

After gathering your nominations, I asked you to vote for who you considered to be the biggest jackasses of 2009. And boy, did you ever. I’ve collected your emails and your comments, counted the votes, and am pleased to give you the results. It was real tense towards the end, with a surprisingly close vote between #1 and #2.  There’s also a holdover from last year’s Jackass contest. Unlike last year, when the top 5 jackasses were from N.C., this year we have a good mix between the two states. And of  course, jackassery knows no party- there is a good mix of Democrat and Republican.

As always, thanks for voting. Have a great 2010 and keep watching out for those jackasses trying to make your new year miserable. 2010 Jackass nominations are just 11 months away!

Today: Your Jackass also-rans. In no particular order, the jackasses who didn’t make the top 5, but who can rightly claim the mantle of “jackass”:

-”Gosh” (aka: “Giggles”) and other Trolls
-Hugh Holliman
-Tony Rand
-The Wake County Schools Status Quo Crowd
-Cal Cunningham
-Lindsey Graham

Tomorrow: Your choice for the 5th Biggest Jackass of 2009.

I am relaxing the rest of the week in Florida.  Like most of you, I’m sure, I won’t be thinking about this Web site for the next few days.  Have a good Thanksgiving.

Press 7 for Celtic here... I too wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving, and remind you that turkeys should have a reason to celebrate too. Tomorrow, eat some TOFURKY instead!

Mmmm...Mmmm...Good!

I’ll be live blogging tonight’s election returns so check in for information.

Sheriff Chipp Bailey had until today to sign the new agreement. He had said some of the originally proposed changes to the federal program, known as 287(g), were too restrictive, but he and his lawyers were able work out an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security.

“I really don’t see many things changing,” he says.

Since joining the program in 2006, Mecklenburg deputies have placed more than 7,700 illegal immigrants into removal proceedings.

A congressional report released during March criticized the $40 million federal immigration program, saying it is being used to round up minor offenders instead of the serious criminals it was designed to nab.

Charlotte Observer

So what if it catches minor criminals?  What difference does it make?  Either way, they aren’t supposed to be here.  This is how you know the Federal government isn’t serious about getting control over the flow of illegals coming into this country.  They create programs like the 287(g) as a bone to throw to the people, but then they criticize the program when it is actually effective.

Our president has become the third sitting American president to win the Nobel Peace Prize.  Discuss amongst yourselves.

I am looking for writers to help keep up with all the news going on in our two states.  If you live in North Carolina or South Carolina and are interested in contributing to the site please email me at admin@carolinapoliticsonline.com.  I work full time and am also a graduate student so it is becoming increasingly difficult for me to keep up with this Web site the way it should be.

Thanks!

I have been informed by my Web site host that they will be migrating the site to a new server, so if you experience issues while coming to the site over the next week that is likely the reason why.

Thanks.

Some of us do anyway.  Don’t count me among them.  I don’t normally get into politics outside our two states down here, but the Kennedy’s were perennial figures throughout the country and the closest thing to royalty we’ve probably ever had.

I am not going to shower Teddy with any feigned sympathy or praise just because he died today.  I am not going pay him any respects because he did not earn mine.  I’ve never liked Ted Kennedy and I’m not going to say anything nice about him now just because he passed on.  In fact, I think America got just a little bit better today.

Here is my very short eulogy for Mr. Kennedy.  Ted Kennedy was a self-serving, spoiled, silver spoon fed bastard that never did a day of real work in his life and skated by on his good brother’s name and his father’s money.  What else needs to be said?