Reader Questions (As In "Can You Help Answer...")

Synchronicity! Two different readers have used BlueNC's feedback form in the past 24 hours to say that someone moving to NC is looking for advice as to how to get involved. See whether you can offer any helpful advice regarding these two questions:

How the Conservatives Feel About Virginia Foxx

I know that people around here do not particularly like Virginia Foxx, but now it looks like the conservatives are turning on the Republican Congresswoman from NC-5 also. The ultra-conservative Conservative Voice had this to say:

Representative Virginia Fox (R-NC) received bad marks on her performance by Congress.Org, a congressional watchdog group.

Out of 232 Republicans sitting in the House of Representatives, Rep. Foxx received a ranking of only 217 in their Power Ranking.

Richard Moore Using Shareholder Activism to Fight Executive Compensation at Exxon

State Treasurer Richard Moore is using his position as head of the state's treasury to withhold voting North Carolina's shares in Exxon in favor of the current directors, apparently over concerns of excessive executive compensation (article here). The directors will probably win anyway given the fact that the job is typically more secure than an incumbent Congressman's, but shareholder protests like this often do register with public companies. So it is nice that Moore is doing something in his power to fight the world's most profitable corporation when he sees that they are doing something that he does not think is in the best interest of the state. Now if we can only get Roy Cooper to use his powers as Attorney General to uncover some price gouging.

website exposes voting record of Robin Hayes

A new website launched today: www.robynhayes.com
You'll see that it looks remarkably similar to Mr. Hayes official campaign website, which is www.robinhayes.com

Our site aims to teach voters the truth about Robin's voting record instead of blowing smoke up people's butt, which is what His official site does. We appreciate any input in how to improve the site, especially when it comes to facts about Hayes' voting record.

Have a nice day and let's all work for change this November!

Open Thread: Wingers and Wackos

Vermin Robinson gets treated like a serious candidate by the N&O, which shows more respect than this black Jesse Helms will ever deserve. Ken Hughes, Sustaining Member Republican National Committee # 181059357 writes an unintelligible letter to Elizabeth Dull. And New Bern hosts 700 greedy, government-hating @$$holes this weekend in the state's annual GOP convention. Look for Art "The Puppetmaster" Pope to be running all the concessions. And I've even heard that Vermin Robinson will be paying real white people to get their pictures taken with him.

Forsyth County / Winston-Salem Flirting with Electoral Failure

I don't have much to add to the problems reported in the Forsyth County elections office. (Important vacancies long unfilled, test votes very nearly recorded as real, general bumbling....) I just hope that the people of Forsyth realize how important this is. If the County-level apparatus can't count votes, the problem is at best a national embarrassment and at worst a failure of Democracy. Either way, great reporting by the W-S Journal's James Romoser.

House Republican Delegation Proves Loyalty to Oil Companies This Past Week

The listing of important votes in the House of Representatives by the Winston-Salem Journal says it all. The two major votes in the House this past week:
1) A vote to remove an amendment earmarking a $50 million subsidy to the oil industry; and
2) A vote on whether to allow oil drilling in the Artic National Refuge.

Predictably, all Republican representatives voted to allow the subsidy and the drilling (the subsidy lost and the drilling won). However, all of the Democratic representatives voted against the subsidy and drilling.

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