Last night, Barack Obama scored a sizeable victory in what his opponent had suggested could be a “game-changing” contest, one that would place the eyes of the “world” on North Carolina. Obama won by around 233,000 votes—or around 3,000 votes fewer than Hillary Clinton’s combined popular vote-margin in
In short, Obama is basically in the same position today as he was on March 12—before the first of Rev. Wright’s two emergences—but with only a handful of states left to vote. He is, as Tim Russert pointed out last night, the presumptive nominee.
While North Carolina Democrats embraced change in their presidential primary, Durham County Democrats resolutely and defiantly clung to the status quo. The last time Durham Democrats had a primary for district attorney, they marched to the polls to nominate a man who had indicted a demonstrably innocent person (the videotape of Reade Seligmann at the ATM machine was shown on newscasts the night before the primary); then, in the fall, Durham County voters elected a man who—thanks to the 60 Minutes broadcast—had become a national symbol for prosecutorial misconduct.
You’d think with such a record, the city’s leadership and voters would have insisted upon an ethically pristine chief prosecutor this time around. But, of course,
Cline still has never explained how she developed a reasonable suspicion—as required by state law to have recommended a non-testimonial order—that (to take the most extreme example) Brad Ross, who was 20 miles away the night of the lacrosse party, could have committed a crime. Yet she recommended an NTO against Ross, and 45 Duke students, anyway. During the campaign, Cline gave a version of events about her involvement in the case that was contradicted by contemporary documentary evidence. Yet none of her institutional supporters reconsidered their endorsements. And, as the office’s point person on sex crimes prosecutions, Cline has never publicly explained what precisely (if anything) she thought Mike Nifong did wrong in handling the lacrosse case.
Yet she’ll be
Then there’s the
I’ve seen a bit of Mangum’s writing (her police statement); I’d say she reads and writes at a ninth or tenth grade level. And everyone learned quite a bit about her schedule and lifestyle during at least part of the time she supposedly was taking classes at NCCU. She appeared to have both a drug and/or alcohol problem and a problem with emotional stability; and she appeared to organize her existence around not anything academic but instead her exotic dancing/prostitution schedule. NCCU doesn’t have the greatest academic reputation, but it’s embarrassing to see the university confer a degree on Mangum.
Imagine, moreover, if a student with the behavior described above (and, on top of that, had filed a police report the state AG had termed baseless) attended not NCCU but Duke. It’s hard to imagine that Larry Moneta and Dean Bryan would not (appropriately) have ensured that such a student would face disciplinary charges. If the student were white and male, doubtless most of the Group of 88 would have publicly demanded such a move. Yet Mangum never appears to have faced any disciplinary charges at NCCU, which speaks volumes about (to borrow a phrase frequently invoked by the Group) the institution’s campus culture.
56 comments:
Great update. It warms my heart to know that nothing ever changes in Wonderland. I can always count on the good people of Durham to do the wrong thing. Hope all is well in Israel with you.
Cline and Magnum have been given the good housekeeping seal of approval by the good people of Durham and North Carolina which validates the underlying charges make by the lacrosse athletes in their many lawsuits.
Attorneys for Duke and Durham don't need additional proof that their legal strategy is circling the bowl.
::
GP
I assume that now that she has her degree, Crystal will be joining the faculty of Duke's Trinity College.
talk about double-standards..
It is sad day in Durham, given its Duke Hoax/Gang88 history, that a candidate with racist hate-filled associations gets 98% support in AA/Gang88 communities. Just think if McCain had spent 20 years in the Church of anti-homosexual propagandist Fred Phelps (and named him his mentor and adviser) and refused to disown him 2 weeks ago (anymore than he can disown his black friends) and then be shocked to learn that he actually has sick comments.
As long as african-american community tolerates and supports this, the racial divide in this country remains deep. They should listen to Bill Cosby, Colin Powell and others, instead of these race-pimps.
The flabbergasting fact that Mangum received a degree from NCCU tells us just how far down in value a university degree has fallen. An undergraduate degree has become an absolutely useless indicator of a person's true education. Universities are more income producers for the teaching/leisure class than institutions of higher learning.
beckett
Such a lovely day!
In some ways it can be said that all is right with the world.
NC delivered.
Durham delivered the only way it ever has---electing corrupt, dishonest, and semi-incompetent people.
It's depressing if you think about it very long. I now understand so much better why people used to say they wish Durham would drop off the face of the earth---and out of the Triangle.
Oh, well........press on to the civil suits.
****************************************
Barack Obama might have the most well-organized campaign in history.
It's amazing how many times I was phoned---recorded messages as well as staff members calling, themselves.
Nine calls on election day, alone, to give details about voting and how to get there.
One was a recorded message from Stevie Wonder---whose tune is used after Obama ends every stump speech.
Obama, or his campaign coordinators, have chosen a wide range of musical styles which play at strategic times during his appearances....which is a nice touch.
Of course, Obama raised so much money it's easier to fund such an effective campaign.
I'm excited by what's to come. Both Obama and McCain were chosen by observers some time ago as the most civil of the candidates.
And a long time ago, the Diva said it would end up being a contest between those two. LIS!
McCain's record is unquestionably sound and he's a decent man.
Obama's going to be a formidable opponent.
I have to be grateful to KC in many ways. I began paying more attention to Obama because of him and discovered what a great human being he is.
Obama represents so much of what can be good in all of us as a country.
What an interesting election this is going to be!
H-S:
Durham likely taps first black, female DA
By John Stevenson : The Herald-Sun
May 7, 2008
DURHAM -- With several major endorsements filling her campaign sails, Tracey Cline was the top vote-getter in Tuesday's Democratic primary election for district attorney -- even though opponents had verbally tarred and feathered her for an alleged role in the Duke lacrosse scandal.
The result puts Cline squarely in line to become Durham's next chief prosecutor, winning her a place in history as the first black and first woman ever to hold the job.
Nothing but a surprise victory by an unforeseen write-in candidate during November's general election could change the outcome.
No Republicans are in the running.
Cline pulled an unofficial tally of 29,810 votes -- more than 46 percent of the total -- as citizens packed the polls not only for various local contests, but also to register their choices for governor and a Democratic presidential nominee.
Private practitioner Freda Black crossed the finish line second in the district attorney race, with 21,834 votes in her favor, roughly 34 percent of the ballots.
She was followed by lawyer Keith Bishop, with 8,095 votes, and Assistant District Attorney Mitchell Garrell, who garnered 4,504.
Those numbers remained unofficial late Tuesday and did not include absentee ballots.
"I thank my family, my friends and all my supporters," said an ebullient Cline. "They put their trust in me to make Durham a safer place. Now we can try to pull the community together and work on juvenile crime and other issues.
"I am honored to be the first woman and first African-American district attorney in Durham County," she added. "Hopefully, a lot of young ladies and young African-Americans can look at me as a role model."
Black accepted her defeat gracefully Tuesday night, saying the time wasn't right to heap further lacrosse-related vitriol on Cline.
"We had a hard-fought campaign, a campaign that was controversial at times," she said. "We knew the outcome would be unpredictable. But whoever Durham supports, I support."
Election observers said Cline's campaign undoubtedly was boosted by a heavy turnout of voters for presidential candidate Barack Obama, and also by a coveted endorsement from the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People.
A network television report indicated that some 91 percent of North Carolina's black voters opted for Obama, presumably smoothing Cline's ride to victory in the Bull City.
In addition, the People's Alliance political action committee and the Triangle Association of Professionals weighed in for Cline, along with The Herald-Sun and Independent newspapers.
On the negative side, Cline was lambasted by all three opponents for allegedly helping former District Attorney Mike Nifong get a trio of Duke lacrosse players indicted on false sex-offense charges in 2006 -- something she has consistently denied.
Nifong lost his job and law license over the debacle, necessitating this year's election for the chief prosecutor's chair.
Had Nifong not been ousted, he would have remained on the job until 2010.
As the clock ticked down to Tuesday's primary, candidate Black was in the forefront of the lacrosse-inspired attack on Cline's credentials. In fact, her supporters distributed literature urging voters not to let themselves be "nifonged" by putting Cline in office.
The way many election observers see it, Black's campaign -- although she came in second -- was jet-propelled by a high level of name recognition, which started rolling her way five years ago as she helped secure a nationally televised first-degree murder conviction against novelist Michael Peterson.
Black was an assistant prosecutor then. Peterson was sentenced to life in prison without parole for fatally beating his wife, Nortel Networks executive Kathleen Peterson.
Meanwhile, Garrell raised eyebrows among many election watchers by declaring a decades-long opposition to the death penalty, a position critics contended was not appropriate for a district attorney.
He countered that, except for his anti-capital punishment stance, he took a back seat to no one in his toughness as a prosecutor.
Bishop campaigned largely on a Durham-needs-change platform, saying no one connected with the District Attorney's Office during the lacrosse debacle -- a reference to Cline and Garrell --should be chief prosecutor.
Moneta? Disciplinary action? I think not. He would have made sure she received the William J. Griffith University Service Award like Chauncey Nartey and Shadee Malaklou.
Take a look at some of the comments on the Cline article:
Tarred and Feathered?
Submitted by alexadrianna on 05/07/2008 @ 01:50 AM
I TAKE GRAVE OFFENSE TO THE TERM "TARRED AND FEATHERED" As a young black African AMerican woman I AM OUTRAGED at your word choice. I dare you use that terminology. You may as well have used the term "lynched" I dare you!
"TARRED AND FEATHERED"
Submitted by tryton77 on 05/07/2008 @ 03:38 AM
Well It is obvious that you are one on the 29.5k retards that voted for Cline and also know nothing about history being you haven't a clue where the term "TARRED AND FEATHERED" came from. Here is a little FYI. It had nothing, NOTHING to do with black America. JFGI <-- maybe do this before going off on a rant.
Just blanking google it.
I know the Criminals in Durham are breathing a little easier today knowing Clines is still going to be around in the DA's office cutting deals.
Just because it's a cliche...
Submitted by pacfandave on 05/07/2008 @ 07:04 AM
...doesn't make it any less true: You get what you pay for. Live in Durham? Ha! I don't even want to drive through Durham! If I want to hear banjos playing the theme from Deliverance, I'll buy the CD, thank you very much. And don't even come crying the next time your DA Nifongs some innocent college jock who's just trying to unwind over a couple or three beers while watching a little show and tell. Better replenish your soon to be empty city coffers and get ready for the inevitable next lawsuit. Sigh. What a price to pay for political correctness.
Who's the retard?
Submitted by skinnytail on 05/07/2008 @ 07:16 AM
Tryton, just because you are capable of "googling" a term like "tar and feather" doesn't lift you out of "retard" status! I agree that the history of tarring and feathering began in colonial times for reasons not entirely racial. So did the process of compromising criminal cases by plea deals when considerations like length of probable trials, cost of trial, availability and credibility of witnesses and other evidence, and the infinite variety of possible jury combinations make tough cases risky to try, and a substantial partial loaf appeared more digestible than the risk of not even a crumb. I don't care who your candidate was, they would have made plea deals if elected, and you would be glad, because without them the system would be hoplessly deadlocked, and you would be screaming about the fact that so few criminals were being tried at all. One would have to be retarded not to know this. And to say that any of the folks in the DA's office are disqualified because they worked for the former DA would be like saying all employees are guilty if the boss robs a bank. While opinions are everyone's right, ridiculous ones more often than not just reveal the opinion giver's intellectual limitations, and he, like his opinion soon gets ignored completely. If you are capable, wise up!
Unbelievable
Submitted by Inonehand on 05/07/2008 @ 07:24 AM
Tracey Cline will be caught up giving depositions soon in the lax cases, and finally having to tell the truth. Joe Bowser and Brenda Howerton will be dumbing down the county comission. Way to go Durham Committee!!! As Durham slowly takes a couple of steps forward, you' ve managed to put us back in reverse. Joe Bowser...wow.
Submitted by seahappy on 05/07/2008 @ 07:25 AM
I am a White American and have never understood why Black Americans want to be referred to as African American unless you are very new to the United States ?????? Can someone Explain ??
. . and to pacfandave . .
Submitted by skinnytail on 05/07/2008 @ 07:30 AM
Who would you have elected DA? And are you responsible for, and likely to make the same mistake, if someone you work with makes a serious mistake? Durham certainly has its problems, and two of them are the image the outside world has of us from not only the attention focused on the lacrosse case, but from our own citizenry painting us with such broad brush strokes that just to tell someone we are from Durham indicts us as individuals because of it. If you don't live here, talk about your own community. If you do, stop complaining about who gets elected, and run for office yourself, do something positive to make it a better place, or move away and start complaining about your new community.
You're right about one thing, Inonehand.
Submitted by skinnytail on 05/07/2008 @ 07:41 AM
My first thought when I read your comment about the new DA having to tell the truth (which I suspect will not be nearly as damning as you hope) is that you know very little of the truth, but I had to second guess myself when I read the rest of your comment. It does seem clear that the county commission is taking a big step backward, but it re-emphasizes my comment to pacfandave: Stop complaining and run for office yourself. Lead the change rather than griping about the lack of it. You remind me of school yard arguments where the cowards encourage the bully, but don't want to fight him themselves. Stand up. or quietly go back to playing with your marbles!
I knew it...... I knew it......
Submitted by choudhryk on 05/07/2008 @ 08:18 AM
All of you people need to stop hating . I think that was a good thing that happen to durham. Go tracey Go...
A Hint for the above "White American"
Submitted by tad7 on 05/07/2008 @ 08:22 AM
Dear Seahappy
Everyone in America is a "hyphenated" American because none of us, save Native Americans (and even they use a modifier) are indigenous. But, you say, we call ourselves Irish American and Italian American and Pakistani American, while Black people call themselves African American. Well, that's true. But we also have the benefit of knowing where our ancestors came from. The reason I can call myself Irish American is that I know both my parents came from Ireland. But if my ancestors had been kidnapped from a continent without recognized borders, shackled, and shipped to the new world, well, I hope you'd excuse my not knowing precisely where I came from.
As for "tarred and feathered" it's just laughably poor taste. This paper is completely incompetent and has been for as long as I've lived here. It's not Tracy Cline who ought to be offended but those survivors and witnesses of actual incidents of tar-and-feathering who have to see some petty political insults compared to that indignity.
So much for history being made
Submitted by blueheel on 05/07/2008 @ 08:36 AM
If you read the book, "Until Proven Innocent", you'll get a full view of the role Tracey Cline played in the lacrosse case. I wondered why she was so adamant about convicting innocent college kids, other than being a female. Now it all makes sense, considering the history she's making. Durham can now go ahead and open the flood gates for all thugs to come in, and people wonder why I left Durham 29 years ago.
The Great City Of Durham.
Submitted by church1 on 05/07/2008 @ 09:51 AM
If you are not pleased with the way the elections turned out then next time get out and vote, If you don't like the way the Durham is being administered by our elected officials then get out and vote, If you vote and your choice is not chosen then shut your pie hole or leave the GREAT CITY OF DURHAM; and as for as the Liarcross Boys go they were not just bleching off a few beers at a show and tell, they were underage drinkers there at an illegal stripper party within an beautiful historic neighborhood where they were constantly upsetting the life of people who live and work there, and lets not every forget that Ms. Freda Black also work with Mike Nifong during Jim Hardings reign and left the office because she could not get along with her new boss Mike Nifong after he was elected. So if guilty by association is the new law then she is guilty as charge.
Go Durham Go
Submitted by teyona on 05/07/2008 @ 10:27 AM
I am tired of people talking about how bad Durham is? Please pack up your families and go elsewhere. Durham is home to some of the best educated,hardworking families in America. The choice was made on election day. Next time get out and vote or run for your office yourself. But do all us a favor and leave Durham. We residents that live here love it here and are here to make it better than has ever been.
To SeaHappy . . . and the rest of you guys too.
Submitted by Chuckde424 on 05/07/2008 @ 11:19 AM
With all due respect, being white dosen't make you some authority figure who needs to validate, or frankly even understand, the choices of colored folk in America to choose to be called Black or African-American, etc.
Much of the disgruntlement expresed in comments to this story seems to come from this same place essentially making the point that when the black vote in Durham is invigorated and organized and, therefore, wins political contests that somehow Durham has taken a step back. Durham is unique in America largely because it is a city without a racial majority. That means that between black and white there is a mandate for power sharing. What a beautiful thing. Neither group is locked into a permanent minority status like black folks in, for example, Raleigh or, for another example, white folks in Detroit, DC or Atlanta. So it is not a step back but and expression of what makes Durham special and a better place to live for many of us.
Now, lets take another look at these politics without the race lense turned all the way up. There are black and white candidates who get elected no matter which group gets its act together for a particular election. The county commission race resulted in the top most experienced candidates winning. Is it about race or experience. Our mayor seems to be doing a good job in his third term. Mr. Alston, who is leading Ms. Bordley into a run off election, is more experienced at municipal elections than is she. So maybe, just maybe, its not just about race. Maybe you aught to switch your race lense for an experience lense to evaluate candidates. That is unless you only have one such lense . . . a racists perspective?
Durham is a punchline.
Submitted by gmundenat on 05/07/2008 @ 11:20 AM
The true mark of an uneducated mind is the inability to learn. An array of world class legal scholars is lined up against Durham, and the idiot voters elect junior Nifong. These same voters will squeal the loudest when the verdicts start coming in. Cline is a small timer in way over her head.
Correct
Submitted by blueheel on 05/07/2008 @ 11:31 AM
"An uneducated mind is the inability to learn." Appears there is a problem with the great City of Durham's school system. Too many postings on here that can't even spell correctly. I thoroughly enjoyed the "tarring and feathering" remarks. Also appears that history has fallen off the charts in the education of the kids in Durham.
Cline to be First Female DA
Submitted by LamarcoMorrison on 05/07/2008 @ 11:36 AM
Hurray for Tracey Cline. You know man white Americans just can't accept the fact that fact that the black vote counts and that we as black voters have the power to tip the scale. You ought to see the frowns on white faces here at work because of the spanking Hillary got in NC, and the primary victory by Tracey Cline. Get used to it yall! And on a side note, Jerimiah Wright is my heroe because he's voiced what every black american that I know have said in private.
Illegal
Submitted by blueheel on 05/07/2008 @ 11:37 AM
BTW, there is nothing illegal about hiring a stripper. The only thing illegal that occurred were the trumped up charges by a consistent law breaker, period. Oops, then Nifong, Cline, and the City of Durham decided they could manipulate their powers to their advantage. Too bad some are too lazy to learn the true story of the whole fiasco. The City of Durham will be paying dearly with their tax base, and deservedly so. They elected her, let them live with her.
Submitted by vyscott on 05/07/2008 @ 11:47 AM
It's all sad sad sad all the comments, If you don't like Durham. Move else where. The same things happen in Raleigh and Cary and Fayettville. What's the point in all the arguing it's just a waste of negative energy.
People are always looking at the faults of other's . How about examining ourselves ,our personal motives for everything we do. This includes every comment that is posted . No one is perfect ,no city is perfect, no government is perfect, but we can all work together to make positive changes.
I Voted for Tracy Cline:
Submitted by church1 on 05/07/2008 @ 11:59 AM
I'm glad about what has happened, Tracy is not over her head, she's over your head, and she has also watched over the court room in Durham I've been in the court room and watch her do her thing and she is awsome at what she do'es and a force to be reckoned with as the FIRST BLACK FEMALE DA OF THE GREAT CITY OF DURHAM.
(now how you doing)
another thought wrt Crystal. Now she has a degree (paid by Al Sharpton), and probably some well-paying welfare job lined up (head of NC NAACP sub-committee on racism?), would it be possible to go after her ?
She should face both criminal prosecution ("she deserves her day in court") and civil trial (for damages).
At least, add her name into the current list of defendants.
KC plugging Obama again...what a surprise. It's disappointing to see you have such respect for such an extraordinary intellectual and political coward.
KC --
I agree with you that Obama's talk around the Duke Case has been far better than that of any other candidate.
However, being right on one issue does not make a great Prewsident. In particular, Obama has repeatedly spoken against free trade, which is the main driving force behind every successful modern economy. And his proposed solution for Iraq -- US withdrawal -- is exactly the same as Osama bin Laden's proposed solution. Yet he ignore's al Qaeda's repeated statements that after the US is out of Iraq, its next targets will be the Arab regimes and Israel.
In short, Obama's message of "change" is in fact an agglomeration of the two worst ideas from the period between the two World Wars. Those being trade protectionism and appeasement.
Now, I realize that many will deny that giving Osama bin Laden what he wants (immediate US withdrawal from Iraq) is defeat or appeasement. Then again, back in 1938, Neville Chamberlain called Munich "peace with honour". We have come full circle.
Withdrawal from Iraq would confirm bin Laden's view that the US is weak, easily scared, and easily made to retreat, as it did in Lebanon and Vietnam. Just as Munich confirmed Hitler's view that the West was weak and unwilling to fight.
Can we learn from history?
Read more here.
The worst is yet to come. The worst is
1- Brilliant young minds chose not to attend DUKE.
2. Alumni stop donating.
3. Top Professors chose to teach elsewhere. (Any info on Professors (non 88s) moving elsewhere- DUKE LAW- Chemirensky- to UCI comes to mind. others???)
I will not give money to DUKE. No child of mine will attend DUKE. Durham will soon figure out DUKE was not the problem.
As long as there are more than 2 candidates, there will be split votes. Maybe there will be a write in campaign in Nov and by some miracle, someone qualified, not associated with the lacrosse case the way Tracy was, will win.
One can always hope for miracles, although in politics - rare.
The same old same old seems to prevail these days in Durham.
Scary place to live these days!
I think those who are so harsh about the Cline win and what it says about Durham are lacking a few bits of key info. First of all, I did not vote for Cline, but she won for several CLEAR reasons.
1)The vote was split between Cline and everyone else. Add the totals and you can see this.
2) Her opponents:
Bishop: Never a serious candidate
Garrell: Against the death penalty and as such would not try a death penalty case. (first time in NC hx that there would be a DA in office with this stand)
Freda Black: Strongest opponent but with LOTS of her own baggage.
It was a toss-up with NO GOOD CHOICE. This was NOT a affirmation of anything other than that fact.
Re Crystal's degree: are any of the "historically black" universities any more rigorous than NCCU? They remain black and academically slothful by choice.No diversity at these places. Segregation lives.
Kipling had a line for Durham, in the wake of Cline's victory:
The burnt fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the fire.
CGM is now qualified for a tenured position on Duke's faculty. Crystal Gail Magnum, Professor of Angry Studies and Hoaxology.
Which presidential candidate do you think the Tracey Cline voters supported? Which presidential candidate do you think the Gang of 88 supported? Think about why.
Those comments are priceless! Liarcross...points for creativity at the very least. And to those incredibly eloquent posters I say I will gladly never, EVER step foot in Durham, much less live there. To blindly elect someone to office simply to make history or stick it to the (white) man is absurd. The woman inarguably had a hand in the hoax, which will end up costing the tax payers, yet they elect her anyway. Way to go Durham!
People get the government they deserve. Anon
Corrupt and incompetent people get the corrupt and incompetent government they deserve. f1guyus
anonymous @ 2:35
Thanks, I was trying to figure out what his point was. A pretext to plug the "O" make sense. Can you figure out what his blog wife has her panties in a knot about?
JimB
If I were a university administrator at NCCU, I wouldn't have disciplined Mangum for her off-campus crimes.
Jim Lindgren
Northwestern Univ.
...falsely cried rape = 5 years in prison - God Bless Texas
"After deliberating for nearly two days a jury has found a Tarrant County, Texas woman guilty of involuntary manslaughter in her lover's death.
Prosecutors claimed Tracy Roberson, 37, falsely cried rape to cover up an extramarital affair, resulting in the shooting of her lover...
The jury decided that it was her reckless behavior...
...Roberson was sentenced to five years in prison"
All of that sums up why it is so morally justified to sue Durham. They still refuse to take any moral account for their '06-'07 actions.
What else would one expect in Durham?
Primaries won by race lines for many
BY RAY GRONBERG : The Herald-Sun
May 8, 2008
DURHAM -- Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama assembled a biracial coalition in Tuesday's party primary, but for most people on the local ballot here, that was an almost impossible task.
The only ones to clearly pull it off were a pair of County Commissioner candidates, incumbent Michael Page and challenger Brenda Howerton. Not coincidentally, both wound up among the winners of a Democratic Party nomination that this year is almost certainly tantamount to election.
The other candidates in the commissioners race -- incumbents Ellen Reckhow and Becky Heron, and challenger Joe Bowser -- each benefited from racially polarized voting and had a lot of trouble finding support from voters in ethnic groups other than their own.
That was equally true for the survivors in the race for an at-large seat on the Durham school board, Jonathan Alston and Leigh Bordley.
Alston carried all but one of the county's majority-black precincts, losing the exception to Bordley, unofficial returns from the county Board of Elections show. Bordley secured pluralities in all but 12 majority-white precincts. She lost four of those majority-white precincts to Alston and the rest to also-ran Nancy Cox, who showed strength in rural and suburban areas.
The numbers also indicate that the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People was far more successful Tuesday in keeping its partisans in line than the county's other leading political groups, the People's Alliance and the Friends of Durham.
Returns from six precincts show that most voters cast "triple-shot" ballots only for the committee's preferred slate of commissioners, Page, Bowser and also-ran challenger Fred Foster.
The precincts in question -- Weaver Street Community Center, Burton Elementary School, White Rock Baptist Church, Shepherd Magnet School, the I.R. Holmes Sr. Recreation Center and N.C. Central University -- cover an area that stretches from the Durham Freeway south to the Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway and from South Roxboro Street east to Alston Avenue.
One can observe the triple-shot effort by totaling the vote for all commissioners candidates in a given precinct and dividing by five. You then divide the result into each candidate's total.
In the six precincts, the calculation shows that Page, Bowser and Foster each would have gotten support from more than 100 percent of the people who cast ballots, an impossible result unless most voters selected fewer than the permitted five candidates.
There was evidence of triple-shot voting for the committee slate in eight other majority-black precincts, and at the one-stop early voting site the Board of Elections established at N.C. Central.
On the other hand, there was little evidence of such concentrated support for the People's Alliance slate, which included the incumbents, Howerton and surprise also-ran Don Moffitt.
Reckhow and Heron essentially won as a ticket, their totals from 52 precincts, absentee voters and all three early-voting sites running within a few percentage points of each other.
But Moffitt -- a former Durham Planning Commission chairman who raised more money than any other candidate -- essentially duplicated the totals of Reckhow and Heron in only four precincts. As a group the three won a pair of precincts covering the Watts Hospital-Hillandale neighborhood, the Ninth Street area and part of Trinity Park. And as a group they lost a pair of majority-black Durham Committee strongholds.
Howerton carved out a fifth-place finish, edging out Foster in the process, by picking up votes most everywhere, if not necessarily in large chunks in any given precinct. Page benefited heavily from the Durham Committee's support, but he was also usually among the leaders in non-Committee precincts.
The full People's Alliance slate scored a one-sided, Durham Committee-scale win in only one precinct, 85-percent white E.K. Powe Elementary School. Even there, around Ninth Street, there was an appreciable gap in support between white candidates Reckhow, Heron and Moffitt and black candidates Howerton and Page.
Tuesday's result is the second strong showing in a row for a Durham Committee-backed slate, and the second problematic one in a row for a People's Alliance slate. Last fall, Committee support helped push Farad Ali to a City Council seat past an Alliance-backed candidate, David Harris.
Durham's 50-percent primary turnout was also clearly a factor. Elections Director Mike Ashe said about 81,000 people voted, more than double the 30,612 who voted in 2004.
"It just broke every record ever" for a primary, Ashe said.
The popularity of One-Stop Early Voting - 20,231 people cast ballots at one of the three sites - made it difficult to assess whether blacks turned out in proportionally greater numbers than whites.
H-S editorial:
Historic vote in state
May 8, 2008
It was one of the most historic and memorable primary elections in North Carolina history.
The 1.54 million voters who cast ballots statewide far outdistanced the next highest Democratic primary total of 960,857 votes cast in 1984, when Walter Mondale was challenged by Gary Hart and Jesse Jackson. Mondale won with 36 percent; Hart had 30.17 percent; Jackson garnered 25 percent.
Jackson's 1988 run 20 years ago was the last time a credible black candidate was on the ballot in a state presidential primary.
Until Tuesday, that is.
Illinois Sen. Barack Obama blew the doors off the record books and North Carolina's primary by defeating rival Hillary Clinton 879,166 to 654,115, a 14 percentage-point win. Sen. Clinton's race was history-making as well. She was the first major female candidate on the Democratic presidential primary ballot since Shirley Chisholm won 7 percent of the vote in 1972.
But Obama's big victory, coupled with Clinton's narrow win in Indiana, adds to the mathematical inevitability of Obama's drive to the nomination. We imagine that more of the crucial "superdelegates" will begin committing to Obama, and more voices will begin calling for Clinton to withdraw for the good of the party, as former Sen. George McGovern of South Dakota, a former Clinton supporter, did on Wednesday.
And while North Carolina voters may have ended Hillary Clinton's hopes, they also demolished any chance for a real estate transfer tax to pass anytime soon. In all four counties where it appeared -- and was vigorously opposed by Realtors and home builders -- voters solidly rejected the tax on the sale of property. Even in Orange County, one of the traditionally more tax-tolerant counties in the state, it was rejected by a two-to-one margin.
Voters were nearly as opposed to the sales tax, which failed in 18 of the 20 counties where it was on the ballot.
Counties may feel pinched to find new sources of revenue, but it appears that, in the current difficult economic climate, sales taxes and real estate taxes are a dry well.
With the nomination of Cline, Durham continues to moon the civilized world.
Obama in many ways is like the G88. The ability to speak eloquently and endlessly without saying anything at all. His wife has the anger of the G88. He has the accomplishments of a G88er, which is to say really none at all. In all of his discernible tenure in state and national levels he's voted like a G88er. And he's milked the taxpayers of millions being exceptionally marginal and delivering nothing (forthcoming).
So...he denounced the Duke rape case...MONTHS after all of us had called it a hoax and was safe for him to render his opinion. I guess that's a resume padder.
Quite honestly,it sounds like KC wants a G88er White House but not at Duke. Odd.
The Diva sent this email to N&O editor John Drescher this morning........with copies sent to publisher Orage Quarles and reporter Blythe.
****************************************************
John,
What's next?
Does anyone believe that this kind of reporting mitigates what Crystal Mangum did and for what she is responsible? Does this serve the public in light of the upcoming civil suits in Durham? Is coddling criminals with long rap sheets going to provide a balm for the way a place like Durham operates?
Blythe proves that not all of those with questionable mental judgment are housed inside institutions with this one:
"A FAMOUS GRAD: Crystal Gail Mangum, the woman at the root of the Duke lacrosse case and the phony gang-rape allegations dismissed by the state attorney general, was among the graduates Saturday. Mangum, in a cap and gown, flashed a smile to a friend after posing for an official graduation photo with her degree."
Famous?
For what?
Walking the streets, drug abuse, running over cops with stolen cars, serial rape accuser---(accusations against three other men from a decade ago, as well), thief, random birthing of babies which taxpayers have to support, perpetrator of the Duke Rape Hoax and the reason for the millions upon millions of dollars her city will have to pay.
Famous?
Dear G/d.
**************************************************************************
KC Johnson gets it done as usual here:
(http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/)
and explains why, clearly, this kind of reporting borders on the absurd. Can Blythe do nothing more than pander and provide cover for a known prostitute whose degree comes from a school with such low standards? Is anyone ever at home over there in the newsroom? Who signed off on such a farce this time?
Hmmmm, I seem to remember Blythe leaving very early back in November when Stuart Taylor came to give a talk at Duke on what happened. Perhaps she just missed some very key details.
Perhaps Blythe should read this excerpt from KC, who actually did some real investigating on the matter:
"Then there’s the Durham academic world. In Sunday’s N&O, Anne Blythe reported on NCCU’s graduation, where 'Crystal Gail Mangum, the woman at the root of the Duke lacrosse case and the phony gang-rape allegations dismissed by the state attorney general, was among the graduates Saturday. Mangum, in a cap and gown, flashed a smile to a friend after posing for an official graduation photo with her degree.'
I’ve seen a bit of Mangum’s writing (her police statement); I’d say she reads and writes at a ninth or tenth grade level. And everyone learned quite a bit about her schedule and lifestyle during at least part of the time she supposedly was taking classes at NCCU. She appeared to have both a drug and/or alcohol problem and a problem with emotional stability; and she appeared to organize her existence around not anything academic but instead her exotic dancing/prostitution schedule. NCCU doesn’t have the greatest academic reputation, but it’s embarrassing to see the university confer a degree on Mangum."
************************************************************************************
I know it's going to be difficult for those for whom pandering is like breathing, but please stop making fools of yourselves by trying to put expensive perfume on a deliberately destructive and diabolical bovine.
Debrah
_______________________________________________
Here is John's reply just minutes ago:
Debrah,
"Yes, I believe it does serve the public interest to report Mangum's graduation from Central. Readers can draw their own conclusions about Mangum and her receiving a degree from NCCU. I was glad Anne Blythe included that tidbit. As for what's next, before long I hope we can give a fuller account of what Mangum is doing these days."
-John
This had better not happen.
I cannot, and will not, vote for Hillary Clinton under any circumstances.
Obama must not be coaxed to do this.
HILLARY WON'T ADOPT THE HUCKABEE OPTION
By DICK MORRIS
Published on TheHill.com on May 7, 2008.
OK, so Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) is staying in the presidential race despite losing among elected delegates, facing a slimming lead among superdelegates, losing the popular vote and behind by 2-to-1 in the number of states carried. She slogs on, hoping against hope for a sudden turnaround in the race.
Apart from the psychological reasons for her stubbornness, is there a more subtle political calculation going on?
Is she continuing her race so as to have a platform from which to continue to bash Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) in the hopes of so damaging him that he can’t win the general election? Is she doing this to keep her options alive for the 2012 presidential race?
Hillary is obviously entitled to keep running until Obama has secured the votes necessary for the nomination, and it is certainly understandable that she would want to run until the last popular vote is counted. But must she run a negative, slash-and-burn campaign? Must she use her time on the platform and on television to belittle, mock, deride and try to destroy the man who will eventually be the candidate of her own party?
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) felt similarly justified in staying in the race for the Republican nomination until Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) reached the majority threshold required for nomination. He contested the Texas primary vigorously, even though his earlier losses in South Carolina and Florida made it most unlikely that he could win the nomination. But he chose to run a positive campaign. He didn’t knock McCain. He just articulated the case for his own candidacy.
But Hillary won’t avail herself of that option because it does not serve her long-term fallback position: a shot at the nomination in 2012. If Obama is elected this year, he will seek reelection in 2012 and Hillary would have to face taking on an incumbent in a primary in her own party if she wanted to run, a daunting task. But if McCain wins, the nomination in 2012 will be open. And it might be worth having. McCain will be 76 years old and the Republican Party will have been in power for 12 years. Not since FDR and Truman has a party lasted that long in power. When the Republicans tried to do so, in 1992, they fell flat on their face.
Hillary is using white, blue-collar fears of Barack Obama to try to stop him from getting nominated or elected.
She is playing on his “elitism” by hammering him on blue-collar issues and is mincing no words in painting him as a stranger to blue-collar white America.
Hillary is attracting the votes of cops, firefighters, construction workers, union members. Are they in love with Hillary? They can’t stand her. But they are terrified of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, William Ayers and the various influences to which Obama seems to be subject. By playing on those fears, Hillary is undermining Obama’s ability to get elected.
This is not a byproduct of her continued candidacy — it is the goal. She, the consummate realist, must know that she has no practical shot at the nomination herself after her numbing loss in North Carolina and her paper-thin margin in Indiana. But she welcomes the opportunity an ongoing candidacy offers to bash Obama and to drive a wedge between him and the voters he must have to beat McCain.
The question is how long Democratic primary voters and the party leadership let her go on hitting their ultimate nominee. Will they bring Hillary up short and speak out about the harm she is doing to their party’s prospects by way of her refusal to recognize reality?
Hillary doesn’t have to pull out. She is entitled to run in the remaining states. But she should curtail her negative campaign and adopt the Huckabee strategy: Maximize your own vote share, but don’t beat up the party’s nominee. Unless, of course, that is her goal all along.
The Diva's final reply to Drescher:
John,
Thanks for the reply and the riveting heads-up.
By "what Mangum is doing these days"........do you mean as opposed to being in jail for her crimes?
Any woman who accuses a man/or men of the crime of rape.......as she uttered such gutter phrases as "get some money from some white boys".....and as she implored Kim Roberts--her stripping partner that night--to put some bruises on her to aid in the Hoax.....all the while sporting under garments with the week-old dried semen of at least five strange men........as her small children waited somewhere while their mother made some easy money---children whose "Baby Daddies" do nothing to support them......etc......should be in jail. No questions asked.
Talk about condescension and the "soft bigotry of low expectations".
Listen, John. You're not having an exchange with a little white-bread white girl who doesn't know the "neighborhood". Places like Durham, Atlanta, Detroit, DC, etc.....are all run the same way.
Low expectations. Almost non-existent accountability. And when caught with your hand or your posterior in the proverbial cookie jar, yell "racism" or even more nauseating---fall back on being "poor".
Understand that being "poor" for poor white people and others is just that--you're poor! There are no excuses and there are no "government programs" that are designed to convey some type of "status" to take the place of genuine effort.
I hope you guys do tell the Mangum story. The real story of a grifter and a sleazy individual who, rather than building on the largesse thrown her way, just used it like a common bum and kept surfacing for more.
Only to further utilize all the other "cards" available to her for yet another free ride.
Personally, I find it enormously offensive that just because she is a black women everyone is supposed to "dress her up".
You should know that many times I have had to go to Orage Quarles---concerning other topics---in order to get fair treatment on the editorial page. Just for mere letters!
So I am keenly aware how scared many N&O employees are and how they tap dance in order not to offend Mr. Quarles; however, I have never found him to be anything but professional. Not preoccupied with changing stories and pandering to race hustlers.
(I only wish I could have his job for one day. I'd clean out the place and bring some people in whose sole purpose is telling the real story so that this "disease" doesn't have to be perpetuated on and on to future generations.
I am intensely gratified, however, that when the black community discovered that Obama's wife is quite Afro-centric, all of a sudden he was "OK". At first, the race hustlers didn't think he was "black enough".
It's amazing to me how people function in life with such a debilitating, self-serving, and destructive mindset.)
Thanks again, John.
Debrah
So she earned a college degree...an effort requiring a significant amount of dedication, discipline, desire, and ambition...regardless of the institution's academic reputation or her GPA…and despite her problems with drugs and/or alcohol (who hasn’t had this experience in college?)…I commend her achievement and submit a small sample of the qualities she must possess to accomplish this, but ultimately I am left with a single question…
That piece of paper from an institution of higher learning attests to critical thinking, reasoning, and mental dexterity. It required one to regularly attend many class (ranging from mathematics to history to geology), earn satisfactory marks, read, write copiously, focus, and establish trusting relationships with colleagues and instructors.
It takes an incredible amount of time, typically 2 years for an Associates degree and 4 years for a Bachelors degree at a full-time pace, and approximately double that on a part-time schedule. Within the constraints of time, a student has often both failed and subsequently succeeded with time-management skills and emerged with a modicum of maturity to prioritize goals and balance work, life’s responsibilities, and play-time.
The money to pay for an education, no matter the source, requires applying for loans, or listing your credentials for a scholarship, or lobbying an organization to defray the cost, or simply saving hard-earned money working at the local deli. It involves additional research into available funding sources and the determination to receive those resources to fund a desired outcome that will payback many times over the costs of earning it. It takes a very resourceful and patient person to find the funds necessary to complete a degree with today’s educational costs.
Earning a degree (any college degree) shows you have thought forward and taken control of your life. It often screams of your passionate interests, career-mindedness, or personal fulfillment goals. The sum of which is a dedication to a profession, craft, hobby or sport and the infant stages of a lifetime of learning and involvement.
A college degree depicts a positive choice that a rational person makes, made many years prior to graduation, that they as a citizen of the world made to contribute back to the world in some form of beneficial enterprise or lifetime body of work. Granted, it doesn’t always work out for the best, but who plans to achieve otherwise?
Not only does she (CGM) have these qualities, she accomplished this as a single mother working the nightshift in a physically demanding profession (dancing). I would think she enlisted the assistance of her friends and family as she endured the inevitable and unbearable exhaustion of burning the candle from both ends to achieve her collegiate goal. Nonetheless, I would bet there were times she wanted to give up but she persevered.
So, I ask, is she really so severely impaired or challenged, mentally or emotionally, that she cannot be charged with her crimes associated with telling her lie?
So the term "tarred and feathered" is racist? I've heard everything now.
Who cares about winning North Carolina. It is Indiana that counts. North Carolina will not be in the Democratic Column, come election day.
seriously KC. Post the comments.
This result came about because the
other three candidates split the
not-Cline vote -- shades of Nofing
being elected...
If there were a credible write-in candidate in the general election,
there is a fair chance Cline would
lose. On the other hand, it would
be really fitting if Cline wound
up being disbarred somewhere along
the way and lost the job in the
same fashon as her mentor!
What never ceases to amaze me is that KC, whose scholarship and investigative journalism regarding the Lacrosse case set a new benchmark for pursuit of truth, can so blindly and willingly succumb to the Obama propaganda.
KC has persistently dogged and held accountable those whose words and actions sought to send innocent young men to prison.
Yet he appears to have been deluded by Obama, and totally ignores the connections to Farakhan ( an avowed Jew-hater, for crying out loud, KC!!!) and the scandels swirling around his connections for financial favors in and around his home constituent.
Such connections have been revealed, examined, commented on, and condemned where the Duke/ Durham issues are concerned.
Yet similar, or worse, issues are getting the gloss over by the Obama supporters like KC and Deborah.
Double standards, in the name of political expediency, are still intellectual dishonesty.
Barak Obama may, or may not, be a "decent human being". He has so carefully avoided doing anything noteworthy at all that we cannot tell from his actions. Mostly he is all about words. And I fear that he is about a new kind of class/ race war. One into which he will seduce well-meaning people from both sides of the political aisles who yearn for change. But so far, Obama's rhetoric causes me much concern. Exchanging bigotry toward the blacks for bigotry toward the whites is change all right. But is it constructive, and healing, and redeeming, and foundational to freedome for ALL?
Nope. Obama is the poster child for the angry. Charming, articulate, disarming, and able to stir a crowd to amazing emotional response. But KC should see through it with the same kind of keen perceptive honesty that he showed toward the Duke Hoax.
I am not surprised by Obama. But I am so very surprised at KC.
It is somehow reassuring to know that the people of Durham are so severely judgment-impaired. It's just a crying shame that we cannot send ALL our judgment-impaired citizens to that one locale and thus reduce the stress on the rest of us.
FIRE saves the day again.
University's janitor was reading a public library's (anti KKK) book about the history of KKK. The result: Local "Affirmative Action" G88 officer found out about that and the janitor was found guilty of racial harassment. Only in G88 land..
thanks to instapundit and nypost
Bad form, KC
Durham and her "citizens" have once again demonstrated their absolute complicity in the Rape Hoax and attempted racist lynching of white boys -- and deserve to lose every damned dollar and dime the lawyers for the families can extract from their sorry asses..
The city should be drained of all the resources needed to sustain or nourish the racist morons who live there.
KC says...
While North Carolina Democrats embraced change in their presidential primary, Durham County Democrats resolutely and defiantly clung to the status quo.
What KC and Divah have to get their heads around is this: Durham was Obama's best county of the night -- in North Carolina or Indiana. He beat Clinton there, 75% to 23%. And I bet pretty much every one of the 46% who voted for Cline in Durham County also voted for Obama.
RRH
Please keep in mind that Michelle Obama majored in Hate Studies at Princeton. Yes, the same kind of university "studies" from which so many of our adored Group of 88 hailed. Her masters thesis is dripping with the same kind "analysis" toward white Americans found in the writings of the Group, laced with resentment and hatred. Michelle has let her resentments be known through her statements and they are chilling.
It is clear Obama is the stealth candidate. He is doing his best to hide his true beliefs but his wife and his chosen associates betray them. If Bill Ayers is mainstream in Chicago, then perhaps Obama should be reconsidered and placed in the category with other so called main stream Chicagoans-Jesse Jackson and son, Carol Moseley Braun, Jeremiah Wright, Ayers wife Bernadine and Hillary Clinton. Ayers is not just a friend. He hosted Obama's introductory get together for his first run for office. And yes, it is beyond belief that KC continues to support this candidate given what he has exposed at Duke.
I think it is unfortunate that you have expanded the important and historic nature of this blog into a soapbox for the manchurian candidate. I have often wondered why the most educated among us are the most naive.
This has been a tough weekend.
The precious and lovely Kitty Diva who has been a Wonderland devotee all along is now on Rainbow Bridge.
At 18 and after having spent the last 9 years of her life with the Diva, she became far too ill by Saturday morning.
Her very caring doctor was there to make sure that Kitty Diva had a calm and loving trip to "Rainbow Bridge" where she will have no more bad days.
She was in the Diva's arms.
I love you forever, Kitty Diva!
Is "tarred and feathered" a communist phrase?
Wasn't aware that NCCU had implemented a major in Pole Dancing with a minor in Storytelling. That is probably the only thing Precious could have majored in and could get in enough HOURS to graduate.
WOW, what a pox upon the state of North Carolina. Maybe Duhmb will secede from the state.
One can only hope!
TO RRH--
I will respond to your post and try to touch on a few issues that others have raised as well.
What you say is true with regard to the voting habits of Durham.
However, you draw far too many conclusions by using lots of faulty associations.
I'm sure you recall when Barack Obama's candidacy was new many in the black community didn't think he was "black enough"......no doubt because he doesn't exude many of the sensibilities and the attitude of lots of other black candidates we see in American politics.
With his easy elegance and his smooth eloquence, he could have chosen to identify with any community he wanted.
I didn't pay close attention to any of the candidates in the beginning. Who could have predicted that the Dems would have such an interesting race?
KC was an Obama supporter right from the beginning.....long before he had attracted such a following.
You cannot equate the support of Obama by Durham's psychotic Afro-centric vote whose mantra is "always vote black or nothing regardless of qualifications" and the loony Gang of 88 with KC or the Diva.
KC supported Obama long before he became a political phenomenon.
When the race got going and I checked out Obama more closely, I liked what I saw and heard. IMO, he's a good man and I have no fear that he would be a "loony lefty" in the White House.
This country would not permit it.
In order to govern successfully he has to appeal to a broad constituency......something he has stated many times.
In a recent interview he stated unequivocally that the U.S. will always be a strong supporter of Israel and then went into depth about the Middle East.
As for Michelle Obama, I have stated my opinion many times. She would not be my first choice for a first lady, but there have been many other wives of presidential candidates about whom I could say the same thing.
Michelle Obama is not running for president. Her husband is.
Like all married couples there are qualities each has that attracts one to the other. Obama needed to feel a closer bond to the black community which he never had growing up.
Can anyone not understand that?
I'm sure Michelle's abrasiveness has served him well over the years because he simply does not have that kind of personality and therefore he's able to stay above the fray.
If he had asked for my opinion before choosing her as a wife, I would have told him "NO!" But he didn't ask my advice.
Like most of us, his childhood experiences inform decisions he makes as an adult. I'm certain that his mother's emphasis on education---(she used to get him up at 4 AM as a child so that he could prepare his school lessons)---is the most significant reason he is the person he is today.
Barack Obama is not a black man. He is a man who is both black and white. People seem to forget that.
RRH, let me offer a little analogy for the dilemma you and others have concocted.
So what if Duke's Gang of 88 and most of Durham's openly racist constituency also support Obama now?
I guarantee that a few of these same people purchase the same brands of products and go to the same places where you go and even pig out on some of the same foods that you love to eat.
Should we draw some conclusion about you because of that?
Over the years, I have seen a lot of creepy people with whom I have nothing in common walking around with Louis Vuitton bags.
They might purchase such a product for very different reasons that I do, but nonetheless, because this product has long been viewed as luxurious and upscale chic, it's attractive to many.
Should I or anyone else be grouped with all those other people?
Of course not.
They just recognize a great product so well-made that it almost never wears out.....or goes out of style.
Like Obama!
Maybe NONE OF THE ABOVE will be the best choice for President in November. McCain, touted as Bush III by Obama, is old. Hillary has enough baggage to start her own airline. Obama, who has a problem silencing people--like his foul-mouthed wife and even more foul-mouthed screecher preacher--needs to tell us what changes he plans to make. Change for changes sake is an abomination.
Heaven help the US.
To Debrah at 10:26 PM:
You read too much into what I said. I was not trying to make any point about Obama -- positive or negative. As I've said before, I'm resolutely neutral in this race among the three remaining candidates.
My purposes were (1)to simply to needle KC for his remark that, "While North Carolina Democrats embraced change in their presidential primary, Durham County Democrats resolutely and defiantly clung to the status quo" by showing that the "change voters" and "status quo voters" voted for the same candidate, and (2) to show by implication what a "Frankenstein Coalition" it is that supports Obama. (I've called it the "Coalition of the Young and the Dumb"; one Clinton supporter called it a coalition of "eggheads and African-Americans" -- fortunately he wasn't an Italian-American or he could've been more alliterative and parried the "garlic noses" comment of Obama's supporter, Rev. Wright.)
In fairness, in this election, all are likely to be supported by strange bedfellows of voters.
RRH
You know, I just came back to my computer.....next to the ottoman...which is next to the elaborate multi-leveled jungle gym from where Kitty Diva always gazed at me while I was working away on the keyboard.
BTW, she was one in a million felines who actually talked, audibly.
Just a simple human gesture would elicit an emotional response from Kitty Diva.
Needless to say, as difficult as her health problems became over the last two years, I will never regret the huge investment of time.
There will never be another Kitty Diva.
OK, to my original point.........
What some of you Obama detractors fail to understand is that even many Republicans are supporting him.
Far from the radical goofy leftist fringe with which some want to taint him---as if that's his base---I wish to report that I just had a discussion with two acquaintances who are 20 years my senior and consider themselves, "conservative".
They have decided to support Obama!
I will elaborate on this topic later....which I had intended; however, at this very moment I am just too weak and too sleepy.
The Diva definitely needs some rest and some good sleep.
Later.......
"In fairness, in this election, all are likely to be supported by strange bedfellows of voters."
I certainly can agree with that.
As I said in an earlier H-S letter in response to a lefty who questioned the veracity of the support of Obama by people like George Will, John Hood, and the Diva, I have to hold my nose while under the same candidate umbrella with some of these people.
Obama is a "big tent".
It will be most difficult for me if he is coaxed into putting either Hillary Clinton or John-Boy Edwards on the ticket with him.
Also, I am both troubled and repulsed that some very radical people in the black community are trying to all of a sudden dig into the Obama campaign with their vile and polarizing tactics......using him as a way to push their own destructive agendas.
He will have to fight this.
It's going to be an interesting election season.
Just published in the Duke Chronicle, another article by the award winning "former" columnist Kristin Butler: Summa Cum Loony.
Since there has been little publicity about NCCU awarding a degree to Crystal Mangum, columns like Kristin's should be widely disseminated.
On one of the N&O blogs, a reader sent in this information from the WSJ:
A comparison of tax bills between three college towns in the Wall Street Journal.
The article looked at roughly $400,000 homes in Cambridge, Mass.; Boulder, Co., and Chapel Hill and compared the tax bills.
The Cambridge property, at $419,000, had a tax bill of $1,094 (plus $175/month in maintenance fees).
The Boulder home, at $415,000, had a tax bill of $2,078.
The Chapel Hill home, at $399,900, had a tax bill of $5,026.
Taxes in the Triangle are going through the roof.
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