Political forum planned for October – Source: The Wilson Times

The debate over the debate continues.

Yes, there are solutions to the problem. One, I will explain.

Wilson Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. is known for the political forums we present each election year. At these forums, local candidates for office on any level are invited. (Source: The Wilson Times)

See related:

Calvin Woodard Sheriff Elect

Millicent Graves wins Dem chair position – Source: The Wilson Times

Wilson County Democrats nearly filled the second floor courtroom Saturday afternoon as they voted for a new party officers.

Wilson attorney Millicent G. Graves, who has served as the first vice-chair for the Democratic Party, is the new party chair. (Source: The Wilson Times)

See related:

Calvin Woodard Sheriff Elect

Debate plan step in right direction – Source: The Wilson Times

Local Tea Party members deserve credit for trying to pull off something Wilson County very much needs: a public debate where voters can watch the two candidates for sheriff under fire and objectively judge their capabilities and demeanor. (Source: The Wilson Times)

See related:

Calvin Woodard For Sheriff

Wilsonian Voices

 

Leaders unite to help community – Source: The Rocky Mount Telegram

A united front is what area clergy, law enforcement personnel and business leaders are hoping for with a new group, appropriately entitled, Bibles, Badges & Businesses. (Source: The Rocky Mount Telegram)

Tea Party changes debate plans, Woodard still concerned about venue size, format – Source: The Wilson Times

After receiving many phone calls and reading a lot of blog comments, Bobbie Pittman said the Wilson Tea Party has decided to make the debate between candidates for Wilson County Sheriff free to the public. (Source: The Wilson Times)

See related:

Calvin Woodard For Sheriff

AP: It’s Not a ‘Ground Zero Mosque,’ People – Source: Time

"Ground zero mosque" — the term is so simple! So evocative! So … inaccurate and misleading?

True wisdom is to call each thing by its proper name, but some things take a while for us to figure out what to call them. (Is it the ‘BP oil spill,’ the ‘Deepwater Horizon spill’ or the ‘Gulf of Mexico oil spill?’) Other things find their names right away, even when those names are not, technically speaking, correct. (Source: Time)

Note: I am so glad that someone took it upon themselves to set the record straight. I get so sick and tire of folks misleading folks and the sad part they know they are telling a lie. C. Dancy II – DCN Publisher

See related:

Ground Zero

Religious intolerance has no place in America – Source: The Rocky Mount Telegram

Plans to build an Islamic cultural center and mosque a few blocks away from ground zero in New York have ignited a firestorm of indignation that borders on pure religious bigotry. (Source: The Rocky Mount Telegram)

Note: I totally agree with this. Some folks talk out of both sides of their mouths when it comes to what they want and what they don’t want others to have. I understand what happened in 1999 but how do you single out those folks who had nothing to do with it. I get so sick and tired of folks putting folks in certain categories just because. All black folks are not the same, nor white and other folks so we must judge folks as individuals. C. Dancy II – DCN Publisher

See related:

Obama supports ‘the right’ for ground zero mosque – Source: The Daily Southerner

Plant to add 30 jobs – Source: The Rocky Mount Telegram

A metal fabrication company in Rocky Mount will be hiring 30 people over the next couple of years as part of a planned expansion.

New Standard Corp., a metal stamping, fabrication, welding and assembly manufacturer with a facility at 3883 Church St., plans to hire 30 new permanent full-time workers by June 30, 2013. (Source: The Rocky Mount Telegram)

NCSBoE sets up Cnty BoEs to take the fall on IRV

R/ e today’s State Board of Elections Meeting in Asheville, and IRV
decision.

I hear that the NC SBoE is going to let counties decide how to
administer instant runoff voting aka IRV.
Some counties may use touchscreens and uncertified software or
spreadsheets to tally the vote.

That way, if the count blows up, if there is an election fiasco, or an
election trainwreck, then it will be the County Election Director who
will be blamed. This sets the county Board of Elections up for a fall.

Perhaps the NC SBoE doesn’t know how to to administer IRV legally.

"There are no provisions on ES&S equipment to tabulate IRV." ~ Keith
Long , Voting System Project Manager for the North Carolina State Board
of Elections Jan 7, 2008
http://www.ncvoter.net/downloads/Keith_Long_Machines_Not_IRV_Compatible.pdf

"We can use November 2007 as a pilot and not use IRV in May 2008 because
it poses too much of a risk. May request change in legislation for
retesting IRV with certified upgrades in 2009." ~ NC State Board of
Elections March 6, 2007
http://www.ncvoter.net/downloads/NCSBOE_3_6_07_IRV_Limitations_No_2008.doc

Regards;

Joyce McCloy

About us: The North Carolina Coalition for Verified Voting is a
grassroots non-partisan organization fighting for clean and verified
elections. We study and research the issue of voting to ensure the
dignity and integrity of the intention of each voting citizen. The NC
Voter Verified Coalition has consistently fought for increasing access,
participation and ensuring the voter franchise. Contact Joyce McCloy,
Director, N.C. Coalition for Verifiable Voting – phone 336-794-1240 –
website www.ncvoter.net

See related:

Instant Run Off Voting

Elections Board fines Perdue campaign $30,000 – Source: News & Observer

The State Board of Elections fined the campaign of Gov. Bev Perdue $30,000 today for its failure to report 42 campaign flights on private aircraft as donations during her 2008 run for governor.

The board, which has three Democrats and two Republicans appointed by the Perdue, voted down party lines to kill a push by the GOP to hold public hearings where the governor’s staffers would be questioned about the flights under oath. (Source: News & Observer)

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Governor Beverly Perdue

Flak Butterfield challenger dishes is misguided – Source: The Rocky Mount Telegram

Blasting a member of Congress for accepting a campaign donation from a political action committee led by U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel is like suggesting that anyone who receives support from the petroleum industry is somehow responsible for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. (Source: The Rocky Mount Telegram)

Note: Why give the money back? So when criminals are found guilty of stealing/embezzling monies do the businesses give the money back? The problem I have with this whole thing is, is the money funny? Did Rep. Rangel steal/embezzle the money? I could understand this thing better if someone could prove the money that Rep. Rangel gave him was funny at the time it was given. What does the money have to do with the trip? Maybe I am missing something. C. Dancy II – DCN Publisher

See related:

Congressman G.K. Butterfield

Sunday early voting approved for Pitt – Source: The Daily Reflector

The State Board of Elections on Tuesday approved an early voting plan that will allow Pitt County to operate a polling place on Sunday.

Voting 4-1 in favor of the Sunday plan, the elections board made its decision during a meeting in Asheville. It’s the second time in two years that the state elections board authorized Pitt County to hold Sunday voting during the One-Stop, Early Voting period before a November general election. (Source: The Daily Reflector)

Note: I guess Edgecombe County will not seek to do Sunday voting. Edgecombe County plays a major role in statewide elections. Oh well. C. Dancy II – DCN Publisher

Judge: Smith not guilty of trespassing, resisting arrest – Source: The Daily Reflector (Note: Smith is a Greenville Councilwoman)

City Councilwoman Kandie Smith was acquitted in Pitt County District court of a charge that she trespassed at a downtown convenience store on June 6 and resisted arrest by a Greenville police officer. (Source: The Daily Reflector)

Note: I know this verdict shocked a lot of folks who wanted to see the councilwoman charged. But you see this is what a real council person ought to do get out and visit areas that they receive complaints about. So many councilpersons only collect a check and do not take complaints serious or better yet do not do their jobs. So glad this verdict was reached. C. Dancy II – DCN Publisher

See related:

Kandie Smith Not Guilty on All Charges – WNCT TV

Greenville City Councilwoman Kandie Smith Arrested

“BLACK POWER”: NOT YET – by William Reed Columnist

“Politics without economics is symbol without substance” – Minister Louis Farrakhan

August 6, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act. The landmark legislation outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans in the U.S.  But, 45 years after the legislation Blacks nor their vote have attained   “Black Power”.

The 111th United States Congress consists of 541 elected officials from 50 states, five territories, and the District of Columbia.  The Senate has 100 members and the House of Representatives has 435 members and six non-voting delegates.  African Americans are at their peak in the national politics and total 42 Members – 9.5 percent of the House.  Historically underrepresented in Congress, at 13 percent of the US population Blacks still remain unrepresented.  Blacks proudly claim and defend Blacks who hold the four House Committee Chairmanships.  But, compare that with the 45 seats Jewish Americans occupy in the House and Senate – 13 in the Senate and 32 in the House.  Jews chair scores of the Senate and House committees and sub-committees that oversee every aspect of American affairs.  Jewish Americans’ proportional representation in national representation dwarfs that of Blacks.  The Senate has 13 Jewish Americans, one Hispanic (Bob Menendez, D-NJ) one Japanese American (Daniel Inouye, D-HI), one Native Hawaiian (Daniel Akaka, D-HI) and one African American, Roland Burris (D-IL).

About 2 percent of Americans identify themselves as Jewish, but their Congressional influence is four times that.  The Jewish community wields vastly more power than any other ethnic or religious group.  Most Jewish money goes to Democrats and most vote Democratic.  But the Republican Party strongly supports Jewish interests.  The House has one Jewish Republican, Virginia’s Eric Cantor.  The Senate has two Republican Jews, 2 that are Independents and 9 Democrats.   All of the Blacks currently in Congress are Democrats.

Can it be that the concept of “Power” is a state of mind Jews have that Blacks don’t?  Collectives and unity of purpose are alien notions among Blacks.  While Black American debate the merits and utility of Black institutions such as the NAACP; there is a conglomeration of Jewish efforts at work in the U.S., such as the B’nai B’rith community service organization, devoted to supporting the needs and interests of their communities.  Jews have power in America Blacks don’t have because they have cohesion and a higher dedication to their people and purpose.  Jews don’t as a rule go “mainstream” and leave their kind behind as assimilated Blacks have done.   Jews have demonstratively more wealth than Blacks.  They comprise eleven percent of  the nation’s elite and are 20 percent of the leaders of important voluntary and public interest organizations, and more than 15 percent of the top-ranking civil servants.  Jews definitely network and cooperate in ways Blacks don’t seem to comprehend.

The substance in Jews’ political power is economics.  Close to half America’s billionaires are Jews. The chief executive officers of the three major television networks and the four largest film studios are Jews, as are the owners of the nation’s largest newspaper chain and the most influential single newspaper.  Jewish Americans are more than 25 percent of journalists and publishers.  By far the most uncompromising pro-Israel newspaper in the country is the chronicle of American business, the Wall Street Journal. Throughout history, Jews have played important roles in reforming or overthrowing regimes in which they have been unable to obtain their goals.  In contemporary America, Jews have far more power in molding public and foreign policy than Blacks.  When race-based issues come to the fore, not only Obama, but many American policy-makers run and hide.  Isn’t it time Blacks took a page from the Jewish American Power playbook?  Though Blacks are the most disenfranchised ethnic group in America, we still find no value in joining groups such as the Urban League and NAACP.  Blacks have to rethink our reliance on partisan  politics as a strategy to reach higher levels of clout.  One way is to learn to work together like our Jewish friends do.

(William Reed is available for speaking engagements via BaileyGroup.org)

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William Reed

Matthew Ward joins school board in Pitt County replacing Michael Dixon – Source: The Daily Reflector

Greenville native and pastor Matthew Ward has been appointed to fill District 1 Seat A on the Pitt County Board of Education.

The board held a special open session Monday night to choose one of four applicants to fill the seat left open by the death of longtime District 1 representative Michael Dixon at the end of July. (Source: The Daily Reflector)

See related:

Pitt County School Board