newsobserver.com projects - Hugh Shelton - Comments

Target markets

scharrison — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 11:38:30 -0400

As long as nobody in the General Assembly tries to legislate against Blackwater, I don't think we'll see much (lobbying) money spent there. Whatever markets they do have (or aspire to) in North Carolina, such as training local law enforcement, I'm pretty sure there's no State laws "impeding" them. The real market is up in D.C.

I'd be interested to know how much revenue North Carolina receives from Blackwater's billion-plus State Department contracts and all the others. Since they don't pay taxes on all their "subcontractors" (employees), I have a hunch they're not as much of a "boost" to the state's economy as other businesses of the same size.

Re: The N.C. Military Foundation's consultants

ryanteaguebeckwith — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 10:23:00 -0400

You guys sure are interested in this stuff.

Their state lobbying expenses are here and federal lobbying expenses are here.

— RTB

Re: The N.C. Military Foundation's consultants

Cdickson — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 09:41:43 -0400

What did these people do and how much were they paid?

Re: (:

karegi — Sat, 03 May 2008 15:33:26 -0400

Obama voted funding for the war in Iraq. He did not get legislation passed to stop the war. His "anti-war" speech conveniently coincided with the liberal constituency that had elected the THEN STATE senator. He later took it off his website when it was not so "convenient".

Re: Boos for Easley, or his endorsement?

karegi — Sat, 03 May 2008 15:27:14 -0400

Grade school tone typical of Obama supporter.

You might be an idiot

MLFN — Sat, 03 May 2008 12:51:36 -0400

You might use more sophisticated language and arguments and I might change my mind. But ranting never has and never will.

A woman with as much self confessed baggage as Hillary and with a husband and a political machine that destroys anything in its path is not more attractive to me than a man with intellect and vision who has not been in the basement with God knows who for the last 20 years, never paying rent and never having a normal life and only engaging in the wisdom of winning rather than serving.

(:

MLFN — Sat, 03 May 2008 12:49:19 -0400

Born in Hawaii on August 4th, 1961.
His name Barack means "one who is blessed" in Swahili.
Married to Michelle Obama, a graduate of Princeton and Harvard Law School
Two daughters, Malia, 9, and Sasha, 6
Lives on Chicago's South Side
Attends Trinity United Church of Christ.

Family:
Father: Barack Obama, Sr., born and raised in village in Kenya, PhD, Harvard, died in a car accident in Kenya in 1982,
Mother: Ann Dunham, born in Kansas, raised in Washington state and Hawaii, PhD anthropology, University of Hawaii, died at 53 years old of ovarian cancer in 1995. Her father was in Patton’s army in WWII and mother worked on bomber assembly line.

Childhood and Education:

Barack Obama lived in Indonesia with his mother and stepfather for part of his childhood, returning to Hawaii to finish high school. After high school, he moved to Los Angeles to study at Occidental College and, after two years, transferred to Columbia University - majored in political science/international relations, followed by Harvard Law School from where he graduated magna cum laude (1991), and served as the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review.

Career after college:

1985-1993: community organizer with a church-based group - Director of the Developing Communities Project,

1993-1996: associate attorney with Miner, Barnhill & Galland - represented community organizers, discrimination claims, and voting rights cases.

1993-2004 - lecturer of constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School

1996-2004 – served in the Illinois State Senate where he worked on program on Earned Income Tax Credit, which provided over $100 million in tax cuts to families across the state. He pushed through expansion of early childhood education, and worked with law enforcement officials to require the videotaping of interrogations and confessions in all capital cases.

2004 – elected to the US Senate
 passed his first law with Republican Tom Coburn - measure to rebuild trust in government, making it possible for Americans to go online and see how and where their tax dollars are spent
 championed ethics reform
 member of the Veterans' Affairs Committee - fought to help Illinois veterans get the disability pay and worked to prepare the VA for the return of the thousands of veterans who would need care after Iraq and Afghanistan
 traveled to Russia with Republican Dick Lugar to begin a new generation of non-proliferation efforts designed to find and secure deadly weapons around the world
 now working to bring auto companies, unions, farmers, businesses and politicians of both parties together to promote the greater use of alternative fuels and higher fuel standards in our cars.

Why is Barack Obama the best candidate for President of the United States of America?

“The day I am inaugurated, this country will look at itself differently….”
(Feb 10 2008, Alexandria, Virginia)

Whether it's the poverty exposed by Katrina, the genocide in Darfur, or the role of faith in our politics, Barack Obama continues to speak out on the issues that will define America in the 21st century.

#1 Barack Obama has a clear and hopeful vision for our country. Evidence of his good judgment is his opposition to the invasion of Iraq from the beginning.

#2 Barack Obama is the candidate with the broadest life experience, having lived in many different cultures and holding a degree in international relations – these form a firm foundation for diplomatic relations and leadership in the world.

#3 Barack Obama is a candidate of principled leadership, the ability to listen and negotiate with multiple players of diverse opinion and background. He has a gift to facilitate a new kind of politics that rejects a bunker mentality and partisan gridlock and paves the way to provide effective governance and policy reform.

Re: Boos for Easley, or his endorsement?

MLFN — Sat, 03 May 2008 12:48:26 -0400

Full of substance - are you going to elaborate on a disaster that could be worse that full-of-baggage Hillary?

Re: Boos for Easley, or his endorsement?

maxlynda — Sat, 03 May 2008 10:16:27 -0400

AD NAUSEUM ...

Saleanna: "I could go on and on..."

Alas, you did. Zzzzzzzzzz.

Re: Boos for Easley, or his endorsement?

avwrobel — Sat, 03 May 2008 01:34:26 -0400

Wake up North Carolina! Google Obama and Sinclair. Its not too late to stop a disastrous Obama candidacy.

Re: Boos for Easley, or his endorsement?

saleanna — Fri, 02 May 2008 23:45:34 -0400

Date: May 1, 2008 10:01 AM
Subject: My Fellow, Bitter, Stupid, Working Class People...
Body: MY FELLOW "BITTER", STUPID, WORKING CLASS PEOPLE :-)

If you think like Barack Obama, that WORKING CLASS PEOPLE are just a bunch of "BITTER"!, STUPID, PEASANTS, Cash COWS!, and CANNON FODDER.

:-(

You Might Be An Idiot! :-)

If you think Barack Obama with little or no experience would be better than Hillary Clinton with 35 years experience.

You Might Be An Idiot! :-)

If you think that Obama with no experience can fix an economy on the verge of collapse better than Hillary Clinton. Whose ;-) husband (Bill Clinton) led the greatest economic expansion, and prosperity in American history.

You Might Be An Idiot! :-)

If you think that Obama with no experience fighting for universal health care can get it for you better than Hillary Clinton. Who anticipated this current health care crisis back in 1993, and fought a pitched battle against overwhelming odds to get universal health care for all the American people.

You Might Be An Idiot! :-)

If you think that Obama with no experience can manage, and get us out of two wars better than Hillary Clinton. Whose ;-) husband (Bill Clinton) went to war only when he was convinced that he absolutely had to. Then completed the mission in record time against a nuclear power. AND DID NOT LOSE THE LIFE OF A SINGLE AMERICAN SOLDIER.

NOT ONE!

You Might Be An Idiot! :-)

If you think that Obama with no experience saving the environment is better than Hillary Clinton. Whose ;-) husband (Bill Clinton) left office with the greatest amount of environmental cleanup, and protections in American history.

You Might Be An Idiot! :-)

If you think that Obama with little or no education experience is better than Hillary Clinton. Whose ;-) husband (Bill Clinton) made higher education affordable for every American. And created higher job demand and starting salary's than they had ever been before or since.

You Might Be An Idiot! :-)

If you think that Obama with no experience will be better than Hillary Clinton who spent 8 years at the right hand of President Bill Clinton. Who is already on record as one of the greatest Presidents in American history.

You Might Be An Idiot! :-)

If you think that you can change the way Washington works with pretty speeches from Obama, rather than with the experience, and political expertise of two master politicians ON YOUR SIDE like Hillary and Bill Clinton..

You Might Be An Idiot! :-)

If you think all those Republicans voting for Obama in the Democratic primaries, and caucuses are doing so because they think he is a stronger Democratic candidate than Hillary Clinton.

:-)

Best regards

Working Class :-)

p.s.

You Might Be An Idiot! :-)

If you don't know that the huge amounts of money funding the Obama campaign to try and defeat Hillary Clinton is coming in from the insurance, and medical industry, that has been ripping you off, and killing you and your children. And denying you, and your loved ones the life saving medical care you needed. All just so they can make more huge immoral profits for them-selves off of your suffering...

You see, back in 1993 Hillary Clinton had the audacity, and nerve to try and get quality, affordable universal health care for everyone to prevent the suffering and needless deaths of hundreds of thousands of you each year.

:-)

Approx. 100,000 of you die each year from medical accidents from a rush to profit by the insurance, and medical industry. Another 120,000 of you die each year from treatable illness that people in other developed countries don't die from. And I could go on, and on...

Re: H. Clinton hits Indiana

UNChockeygirl — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:42:30 -0400

Not that NC would go democratic anyway, but wouldn't it be interesting if the voters turned out for Clinton just to let Obama know they don't like his comments about rural people "clinging" to religion?

Obama had the chance to show that he really believes, and to apologize for his comment, but he didn't. Obama didn't talk about his faith. Instead he talked about talking about faith, about politicians needing to "go to church" so they could connect with people whose faith is important in how they vote.

What a fake.

Hit-and-Run Artists

jjsmith2 — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 12:39:42 -0400

These spammers of late are nothing more than hit-and-run artists. I have yet to see anyone who posts items such as the one below actually stick around and respond to other posters. That should be telling enough.

Can we at least get a germaneness rule?

How should we handle spam?

ryanteaguebeckwith — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 11:46:21 -0400

The rule that I have been following is no spam. I usually grab a sentence and paste it in Google. If it shows up on another blog verbatim, I delete it. Otherwise, I let it stand, even if it's tiresome, redundant or whatever.

I really don't want to spend all my time deleting comments, although I would prefer that people link to stuff rather than repost it. I'm open to suggestions on how I could set a rule that separates the wheat from the chaff without putting me in the position of making judgment calls all day long.

— RTB

Re: H. Clinton hits Indiana

liam — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 11:39:09 -0400

Is it too arbitrary for Dome to delete these random spammings?

Can we have a rule that if the comment doesn't pertain to the content of the post and is a blatant plea for support, it will be subject to deletion?