Memory Motel

It’s amazing how a 32-year old song you’ve never heard can strike you between the eyes.

Filed under: Music

Phil Berger Jr. getting the job done

Because of the tiny staffs of the three daily newspapers in the county, court news does not seem to get much coverage these days. As someone who spent two years covering state and federal courts in Virginia, I can’t imagine a daily not having a reporter assigned to the courthouse.

Anyway, Rockingham County DA Phil Berger Jr. sent out his monthly newsletter this week, in which he highlighted some of the major convictions his office secured recently:

STIFF SENTENCES IN SUPERIOR COURT

Over the last few months, many defendants have been sentenced to active terms of imprisonment in Rockingham County Superior Court. Some of the more notable sentences are listed below. The first number listed is the minimum sentence each defendant will serve.

Johnathan Walker, Sr. 12-15 years – Attempted Murder
Josh Kingston 96-125 mos – Habitual Felon
Joshua Dalton 90-117 mos – Sex Offenses
Willie Settle 84-119 mos – Robbery, AWDWISI
Charles Wimple 80-105 mos – Habitual Felon
Geno Ashe 79-114 mos – AWDWIK, Firearm by Felon, other offenses
Shawn Taylor 61-83 mos – Robbery
Alejandro Dominguez 60-81 mos – Sex Offenses
Michael Lowery 50-69 mos – Burglary
Dontae Cummings 46-65 mos – Burglary
Emmanuel Norman 46-65 mos – Robbery, Burglary, other offenses
Christopher Mitchell 42-60 mos – Robbery, Burglary, other offenses
James Mitchell, Jr. 42-60 mos – Robbery, Burglary, other offenses
Kenny Herbin 42-60 mos – Robbery, Burglary, other offenses
Alana Scott 32-40 mos – Burglary, Common Law Robbery, B&E
Jeffrey Caudle 30-37 mos – Habitual DWI and Habitual Misdemeanor Assault
Joseph Billingsley 20-33 mos – Child Abuse
Paul Wilson 20-33 mos – Sex Offenses

Filed under: Reidsville

David Wray deserves our help

Via Guarino comes news of a legal defense fund being set up for former GSO Police Chief David Wray.

Anyone who believes in justice and is an opponent of reverse discrimination should consider making a small donation to offset Wray’s legal costs.

I know I will.

Filed under: North Carolina , David Wray, Greensboro sold its soul to James Hinson, justice, Wray Fray

“Corporate Magazines Still Suck”

What Kurt said.

I read a lot of periodicals across a broad political spectrum. Well, I read some more than others, but still I check out The Nation and Mother Jones as much as The Atlantic and Foreign Affairs.

So I get emails from The Nation on a regular basis. Last week I began receiving an email asking me to make a donation to keep The Nation alive because of a sharp postage increase hitting smaller publications. The email stated that Time Warner lobbied for the increase.

I did just a little bit of scouring the net and found several articles about the issue.

This one is from The New York Review of Magazines:

At the receiving end of Time Warner’s proposal was the Postal Regulatory (formerly Rate) Commission, the independent board of overseers responsible for holding the rate hearings. The new suggested rate system changed from a flat rate per pound, like a stamp for a first-class letter that costs the same no matter how far the letter travels within the United States, to a new piece-by-piece rate, like determining how much the stamp should cost based on how difficult it would be to deliver the letter. The new formula was so complex that most publishers could not initially give Scott exact numbers for their anticipated rate increases, but they knew enough to fear for their continued existence. When the dust settled and the facts came out, the average increase for all of Time Warner’s 127 titles was 10 percent; rate increases for most small-circulation magazines were two or three times that, and in some cases, more than five times as much.

Journals of opinion, the idea-laden niche that has hewed closest to the Founding Fathers’ conception of the kind of periodicals whose availability would benefit our fledgling democracy, collected rate-increase data among themselves as soon as they had hard figures. American Conservative, a biweekly magazine with a circulation of 13,000, faced an increase of 58 percent. Eagle Publishing, producer of Human Events, paid the USPS an additional $211,000 in 2007. Jack Fowler, publisher of National Review, was so incensed that he co-authored an editorial in The Los Angeles Times with Teresa Stack, president of The Nation, denouncing the rate hikes. Like National Review, its strange bedfellow The Nation faced an additional $500,000 on its 2007 postal bill. The New Republic and The New York Review of Books each faced increases in excess of 15 percent. Recently Alan Chin, general manager of The New Republic, said the extra postage costs forced them to tighten belts across the budget and seriously consider switching to lighter paper stock.

Now it strikes me as strange that the largest publisher of magazines in the world would lobby for a new postage rate structure that impacts smaller magazines harder than large ones. I’m very much from the conservative tradition, but one thing I dislike above all else is corporatism.

It’s bad enough that corporate media has destroyed the traditional newspaper industry. The move toward consolidation has weakened journalism in print and broadcast alike. Radio is a shell of its former self and teevee news is as bad as ever.

I can’t really say much more that hasn’t already been said. I do think something must be done to keep independent voices alive in the publishing world. Allowing large corporations to stifle whatever profitability small magazines may have had is wrong on any level.

Filed under: Concepts, National , corporate hacks, free speech, magazines, The Nation, Time Warner

Drill here, drill now, pay later?

Sometimes I wish my GOP would put a lot more effort into innovation and less into status quo lip service. Then again, I guess that is the essence of “conservatism” in a corporate sense.

Friedman:

Anyone who looks at the growth of middle classes around the world and their rising demands for natural resources, plus the dangers of climate change driven by our addiction to fossil fuels, can see that clean renewable energy — wind, solar, nuclear and stuff we haven’t yet invented — is going to be the next great global industry. It has to be if we are going to grow in a stable way.

Therefore, the country that most owns the clean power industry is going to most own the next great technology breakthrough — the E.T. revolution, the energy technology revolution — and create millions of jobs and thousands of new businesses, just like the I.T. revolution did.

Filed under: Concepts, National

T for Tibet

While we celebrate sport next month, let’s not forget about more important things going on in the Chinese sphere of influence:

“On 8 August the 2008 Olympics will begin in Beijing.

China promised to improve human rights if it hosted the Olympics, but the brutal crackdown on protests in Tibet clearly broke this promise.

Athletes competing at the Olympics have been told they must not mention human rights or Tibet, but no one can stop them making a simple signal that they care.

The T for Tibet hand signal is a quick, easy way to send a clear message:

It’s time to free Tibet!”

Filed under: Concepts , China, Olympics, Tibet

Beating a dead horse with a fresh whip

“It is critical our community be an integral and active part of the debate because African-Americans are disproportionately impacted by the effects of climate change economically, socially and through our health and well-being.”

James E. Clyburn of South Carolina Majority Whip for the 110th Congress.

Video here. (Note: Audio is poor.)

Filed under: National

Opposites

Sprained trapezius neck muscle bad. Flexeril good.

Really good.

Filed under: Concepts

Hugh Webster challenges Brad Miller to series of debates in NC 13th

From the campaign of former state Sen. Hugh Webster, the GOP’s challenger in the district Brad Miller drew for himself:

Representative Brad Miller,

I write to you today, 100 days from Election Day, to invite you to join me in a series of debates so that the citizens of North Carolina’s 13^th Congressional District have a clear understanding of where their candidates stand on the important issues facing them and our country. I would like for you to join me in forums in each county of the district. This would be a great opportunity for the both of us to meet with the voters in person, express our thoughts and address their concerns.

The locations and style of debate are up for discussion. I am willing to have the questions come from a moderator or in a “town hall” style in which a moderator would field questions from the voters in attendance. The debates must be open to the public and to the press. I would like for the forums to be broadcast live on radio or television or both.

In the spirit of democracy, I hope that you will accept my invitation to debate in front of the voters. You can contact me directly at (336) 514-0549 or have your staff contact my campaign manager, Eric Nielsen, at (336) 514-1664.

Yours Very Truly,

Hugh Webster

Filed under: North Carolina

A world of challenges await Team USA under Coach K

With the Olympics almost here, I figure it’s time to start talking about the USA Basketball men’s team. I watched them play Canada this weekend. They looked ok in blowing out a no name team, although I was troubled to see Dwight Howard, Carlos Boozer and Chris Bosch have a hard time dominating the paint. With swing man Carmello Anthony the only other big on the team, I can see us having trouble on the glass.

Sound familiar? It should, since Coach K has brought his dubious small ball strategy to the world stage.

Sure, the team is loaded at forward (LeBron, Carmello) and guard (Kobe, D-Wade, Chris Paul, Darren Williams, Jason Kidd) but as most NCAA observers can attest, the Duke small strategy has bricked hard in recent memory.

The international game is about drive and dish and fast break, so if the plan goes off without a hitch, expect USA Basketball to dominate. But if smart international teams slow us down into a half court game as in recent FIBA and Olympic tournaments, expect hi-powered teams like Spain to capture the gold.

Time Magazine called them the Redeem Team. I think that’s appropriate for this group of American basketball players.

Team USA warms up in the next week with four pre-Olympic games in China, including Russia and Australia, defending champions of their respective regions. We open Olympic play with host China.

Talk about drama. The Aug. 10 game against Yao and the host team will be a good test of this team’s resilience.

Filed under: Sport

NC Senate Democrats fail to protect homeowners from annexation

PROTECTING PRIVATE PROPERTY FROM INVOLUNTARY ANNEXATION

By Rep. Nelson Dollar, District 36

North Carolina is one of only four states which allow property to be involuntary annexed by a city without meaningful consultation with property owners. Tremendous growth in recent decades has caused the issue to become more and more contentious.  In many instances cities have involuntarily annexed high-value neighborhoods in order to boost municipal revenues. Research shows tax increases ranging from 60 percent to more than 100 percent for properties brought into municipalities through involuntary annexation.  Current law provides citizens with very limited recourse when their land and homes are about to be involuntarily annexed.  Homeowners are relegated to speaking before a city or town council made up of members not answerable to them.

Tens of thousands of homeowners have been speaking out demanding a real voice in the process and seeking reform of involuntary annexation.

The House Select Committee on Municipal Annexation proposed a temporary one-year moratorium on involuntary annexation to allow time for further study with a goal of enacting reforms in 2009.  The Moratorium, HB 2367, passed with a large margin in the Finance Committee, but was weakened in the Judiciary II Committee.  After a hard fought and successful effort to restore teeth to the bill, the Moratorium passed overwhelmingly in the House.  When it arrived in the Senate, Senator Tony Rand, Democrat Majority Leader, assigned the bill to his Rules Committee and declared it dead.

Republicans are committed to reform of North Carolina’s involuntary annexation laws.  Cities need to be able to plan for orderly growth, close doughnut holes and extend city services to serve urban areas of development on their borders; nevertheless, homeowners must have a real voice in the process when a city reaches out to take them in by force.  North Carolina law totally ignores the rights of these citizens.  We need to reform and modernize the law to allow for a proper balance between allowing cities to grow and protecting the rights of our citizens.

Republicans in the General Assembly are determined to fight to protect private property rights including reform of North Carolina’s annexation laws and enacting protections when local governments seek to take private property through the use of Eminent Domain.  Annexation is a taxing issue and Eminent Domain is a takings issue.  Both need reform to protect the property rights of our fellow citizens.

Filed under: North Carolina

Triangle residents slammed with hefty revaluation

N&O:

Christina Manring, a stay-at-home mother raising her family on the same Raleigh land her physician husband’s parents bought decades ago, got hit this week with a Wake County property tax bill totaling $11,514, up from $7,200 last year.

Rockingham County residents best be on the lookout for similar trends in our local revaluation. It seems to me like a real bad time to crush the disposable income of families in this state by slamming them with hefty property tax increases.

I believe the RockCo reval is slated for the next year or so and county budget writers are already plugging in significant spending increases in the coming years budgets.

Another thing that needs to be mentioned:

Do most county residents realize that local landlords with well placed political and family connections are able to appeal the tax valuation of their rental property, and thus decrease their annual tax bill by hundreds of dollars. I’ve got at least two in my neighborhood in Reidsville that I have researched. After they traded hands in the recent past, the new landlord appealed the values and they were adjusted downward by double digit percentages.

Now I am no economist, but it seems to me that, not only does that allow the landlord to cheat taxpayers by shirking his true tax responsibility, but it also stifles the resale value of nearby owner-occupied housing.

Filed under: North Carolina, Reidsville

“These now are the walls we must tear down”

Dude’s a liberal, but he can give a speech. Look at his face. He is dialed in.

I think he could represent me anytime.

Filed under: Concepts, National

Vulgarity, handguns and landlords: Life in Reidsville

Today I had a brief conversation with a prominent landlord in Reidsville who shall remain nameless for the moment.

This landlord owns rental property in close proximity to my home. The home where my wife and three-year-old child live and play. Being that it is summer, my family likes to spend a lot of time outside. We’ve worked on the yard, planted some trees and flowers, installed a nice privacy fence along one side and generally tried to keep the house looking decent.

I mostly want to give my son a nice place to play outside in his yard. I grew up on a nice dead end street in the suburbs of Winston-Salem in the 70s and 80s. I worry sometimes about how I can provide my son the same opportunities to explore his neighborhood and be outside in a safe environment as I had.

Generally it’s a nice neighborhood, except mainly for the cut-through traffic and two rental properties right near my home.

Alcohol, litter, noise and yes, drugs, are all prevalent in these two properties.

The landlord whom I spoke with today owns a multi-unit property that tends to rent to young men in their early 20s who have a tendency to drink outside and make all types of noise with their cars and their music at any given hour of the day or night. In the four years I’ve owned my home, the process plays out like this:

The landlord shows up and meets a nice looking young person. They tour the apartment and come back later with a gang of people moving their stuff in. That night they have a party. For the next six months they make merry and make our neighborhood less than family friendly. After about six months they move out. Process repeats.

I usually end up having to go over and speak with the new tenants about my son and my home and how it’s one in the morning and we are trying to sleep so we can go to church in the morning.

Normally it works out well and I try to cut them some slack or pull out the earplugs.

But this weekend it was a little different. We were on the complete other side of the house using our grill when all of a sudden we hear a woman screaming at a man “I don’t care about that, get your fucking shit and get the fuck out of here” as clear as a bell as if I were standing next to you and said that phrase.

Two days later I see a man leaving the apartment carrying a handgun and talking on the cell phone. This is in broad daylight at 5pm in a residential neighborhood. I watched the man enter his vehicle, drop the gun on the ground, reach down to pick it up and drive away.

Now I am a big supporter of the Second Amendment, but the man’s careless brandishing and poor handling of the weapon, added to his slovenly appearance, caused me concern. Usually where young white men who are sloppy in their handling of weapons can be found, so can drugs and drug activity be found.

So back to my phone call.

I was quite concerned to see this just outside of where my son plays in his kiddie pool. As any parent would be.

So I called the landlord, whom I know loosely, to express my concern about the tenants in his property degrading the environment of my neighborhood. As he has in the past, he became defensive and angry, asked me if I was “calling him out” and gave his usual, “they pay their rent”, “it’s not my responsibility” and “just call the police” lines.

Since I’ve gone over this with him before, I explained to him that I was concerned about the safety and well being of my wife and child and I felt it was his responsibility to show some concern for the well being of our neighborhood in which he owns property by being a little more discriminating in his tenant selection.

I then asked him how he would like it if I bought a house near his home and rented it to people who didn’t care about their neighbors.

Of course, he did not like that and said “I haven’t got time to deal with you buddy” and hung up on me.

I think Reidsville is an ok place to live, but a huge problem in this town is second and third generation trust funders, and people whose parents have handed them a business or a slew of rental properties for income, who spend way too much of their time at the beach and the pool and the golf course, while the rest of us who struggle to make ends meet and keep our families afloat have to deal with the residue of landlords who don’t have any idea how frustrating it is to hear them say “they pay their rent” in reference to tenants who put our families in danger and negatively impact the quality of life in our neighborhoods.

Filed under: Reidsville

Defending my position against the sales tax

Educator Brett Hart of Eden takes me to task on the sales tax by ranting about criminals, chrome wheels and flat screen tv’s. Below is my response.

Brett:

I agree with you about the bickering and confusion among the current board members. However, I must disagree with you that the “country club set” blocked the sales tax increase.

I actively campaigned against the tax on election day and found most working class folks were adamantly against the tax. That is proved by the 70 percent of voters who voted “NO” to the sales tax increase.

The country club set is actually the group pushing the tax. Names like Elton Trent, Craig Cardwell, Kathy Hale, Homer Wright and Tilda Balsley are among the ones who gave money to promote the tax. The country club set raised a few thousand dollars to push the tax.

I raised about $300 and spent $100 of my own money to give voice to opposition to the tax.

The county government and school budgets are in the hundreds of millions of dollars. If they were to trim spending one percent each, they would raise more than the sales tax ever could. But special interests claim that is not possible and other special interests want to hurry and build a new school in Reidsville so they can get some of the construction contracts.

Lastly, I’m not sure what your rant about criminals says about your view of the community, but I hope your bitterness is not passed on to the students in your classroom.

Jeff

Filed under: Reidsville

Songs I wrote and recorded – Grounded by the Bomb

This track is an attempt to harness several aspects of tension to create a semblance of harmony. The song was inspired by an episode of the Twilight Zone, “The Shelter” and I wrote it as a cry for what the world might have been if we hadn’t evolved over time toward militarism.

In this mix there are two acoustic gtrs somewhere on the bottom, then a distorted rhythm gtr I think through an Ibanez Tubescreamer (a newer version). Next there is that same setup added through a delay pedal.

I had a sound in my head for about a year and I tried to find a way to express it. Being a gtr player I struggled to find it. Finally, I put my gtr through an Electro Harmonix Microsynth and that into the delay pedal to get the wispy spacey sound. I’m not completely happy with it, but I had to put it down at some point.

I don’t know if this works, and I’m sure there is plenty of room for improvement on the idea and the mix.

Your thoughts are appreciated.

Filed under: Music

State Democrats continue to stifle debate, shirk responsibilities

From Rep. Paul Stam, (R-Wake):

Full release.

After the General Assembly passed its 2008 Budget, Democratic leaders announced they
had discovered a quarter billion dollar deficiency in the State Health Plan for teachers,
state employees and retirees.
This involved reserves and operating expenses, turning a projected $50 million surplus
into a possible $200 million deficit during the fiscal year that began July 1, 2008.
At first these leaders planned to do little about it now. They then proposed to take any
shortfall from the Rainy Day Fund. The goal for the Rainy Day Fund is 8 percent of last
year’s operating budget, or $1.704 Billion. Instead, it is now only funded at $787 million.
In the Appropriations Committee, Chairman Mickey Michaux violated the Rules by
refusing a Republican Alternative, offered by Rep. Leo Daughtry, to be discussed. On
the floor Rep. Paul Stam made a motion to suspend the Rules so the Republican
Alternative could be debated. Everyone understood that this vote was on the merits of the
Republican alterative. Nevertheless, it failed 48 to 62. Every Democrat voted against the
Stam Motion.
The Republican Alternative would have required the Governor to begin now to find a 1
percent savings in the State’s Budget so the coming State Health Plan crisis, which is
surely coming this fall or winter, could be averted.
For Background: For these two years the Budget has increased by 13 percent, or
approximately twice the rate of inflation plus population growth. In previous years
Governor Easley has imposed unilateral cuts on his departments of almost 5 percent. Of
course he can effect a 1 percent savings, and if he starts now it won’t be as painful as it
will be if he waits until fall or winter. Senate Democrats refused to do anything about the
problem.
We will discover who knew what and when, and by how much. But to refuse to adjust the
Budget after a known $200 – $250 million problem was identified was irresponsible.
Below are the texts of the House Bill with the Stam/Daughtry Amendment and the voting
record on the motion to suspend the rules in order to consider the amendment.

Filed under: North Carolina

Public works thieves highlight economic stagnation

*Thieves can get $5 or $10 for wrought-iron inlet covers, which weigh about 40 pounds and cover curbside drains. The larger manhole covers in the center of the streets weigh about double and triple that and are worth commensurately more.

The problem is playing out elsewhere too.*

This NYT story highlights the problem of thieves stealing public works items in Philadelphia. The problem was of concern in GSO recently as well.

I’m working with some guys who are into recycling metals that come through the warehouse. A strange man came by the other day offering us about 40 percent more per pound than the local recycling operation.

I got to wondering how bad the economy must be when not only are guys spending their time hunting scrap metal to recycle for 60 cents a pound, but folks will drive around scouting out places to haggle over what gets recycled where.

As to the thieves, I think it is definitely a serious public health hazard for them to target manhole covers and storm drains. About the time a mother or a child dies because they wrecked their car by driving over a missing man hole cover, or a toddler falls into a storm drain, some petty thief is going to be looking at a felony murder charge.

I also was thinking that with all the petty crime in society, a New Deal era public works program might be needed to put these people to work picking up trash or moving dirt from point a to point b.

But then again, people who will spend their time stealing 40-pound storm drains to get five bucks don’t really seem to understand the value of efficient labor.

Filed under: Concepts

A lack of opposition

Carter Wrenn calls out state GOP legislators for failure to build a workable political machine to counter the Democrats centry-long control of the state assembly:

Governor Easley just spent $50,000 to rent a Mercedes limousine for a week in Italy. Mrs. Easley just got an $80,000 pay raise at N.C.S.U. And Democrats in the legislature haven’t done a thing about either. What would happen if the House or Senate Republican Caucus put an ad on TV saying, A week after Governor Easley spent $50,000 on a limousine in Italy – the Democrats voted to borrow a billion dollars to pay the state’s bills. What kind of sense does that make?

Filed under: North Carolina

Sorting ourselves together

Via Tom Keene’s radio show comes the idea of “The Big Sort“, a book from Bill Bishop about the neighborhood clustering of like minded peoples in America. In short, he says that we are devolving into red and blue neighborhoods and counties, not merely red and blue states.

It’s a very interesting discussion of the importance of lifestyle choices over demographics in terms of political and consumer marketing.

Of interest is that Bishop, a former newspaper publisher in a small Texas town, notes that newspapers are declining in part because people want diversity and self-expression and the newspaper, a mass produced commodity, is unable to provide that.

That seems to contradict our clustering pattern, at least in terms of diversity.

But on reflection, perhaps we really just want diversity at arms length, where we can pontificate about how important it is and how self-righteous we are because we embrace it, not right outside the back door where we can see, hear and smell it.

Filed under: Concepts

The Democrats who control the state legislature

Seems like family values pandering isn’t just for Republicans anymore.

*Ms. Boseman is currently airing a thirty second tv spot where she implies much of the impetus for her recent bad PR stems from her fighting for what’s right for her son, just as you or I would.  In addition, the commercial has the unique feel of slick production values only attainable with financial resources from outside the Cape Fear area.  Mere words can’t express the depth of my disappointment for her lack of class, culpability, or even sense of what is really happening.*

Related.

Filed under: North Carolina

Photo essay on migrant worker living conditions

Make Art Like You Care had a post about a photo essay on migrant workers. Turns out the student attends Randolph CC’s photography program.

The photo essay is a good student project and I thought I would give a nod to the program’s ability to turn out good students.

I worked with an RCC photo grad, Robert Ross, at the Reidsville Review. Robert has a great eye and is adept at turning out great expressive photos.

The Randolph CC program is doing a great job of building a strong alumni group.

Filed under: North Carolina

Rockingham County School Board: The good, the bad and the downright ugly

The former Reidsville Review website publishes my letter to the editor about Rockingham County School Board member Tim Scales, the circus that is the school board and the looming threat of a new sales tax referendum this fall:

*Mr. Scales proved by his comments at the July 14 board meeting that he is one of the few elected representatives in the area who is truly in tune with the needs of the public. Scales was quoted as reminding school board members that the public “shot (the sales tax) dead” at the ballot in May and that school officials need to move forward with the money they have. That shows a wisdom rare in this county, where for too long elected officials and power elites have had their way despite the will of the public.*

Related:

*“It is only keeping the gym,” McCollum said.

“No,” DePriest said. “That was not what his…”

“That’s not the motion we’re doing,” McCollum said. “Which is only to keep the gym. It is not saying what else…”

“No. Earth to Elaine. That’s not what I’m saying,” DePriest said.

“Well, earth to Celeste, that’s what it sounds like to me,” McCollum said.

“No. Mr. Scales is asking. He thought it was going to be one way, that was not what he thought Mr. Kirkman’s motion was,” DePriest said, pointing to a silent Tim Scales.
“Excuse me, but could Mr. Scales tell us what he thought he voted for?” Drum asked.

“I would respectfully ask that we move on,” Scales said. *

Filed under: Reidsville , etc., political circus, Rockingham County sales tax increase, Rockingham County School Board, spinning wheels, Tim Scales, wasting time

… and never hear surf music again.”

Hell. This one’s good too.

Filed under: Music

Long Hot Summer Night

I get to thinking about this song right about this time of year.

Filed under: Music , electric ladyland, Jimi, long hot summer night