tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22040291.post8019133881143008398..comments2024-01-09T17:38:35.707-05:00Comments on This Old State: Listening to the legislatureUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22040291.post-54593991409317815702008-11-03T02:16:00.000-05:002008-11-03T02:16:00.000-05:00cheap wow goldffxi gilbuy wow goldwow gold for sal...<A HREF="http://www.inwowgold.com/" REL="nofollow">cheap wow gold</A><BR/><A HREF="http://www.inwowgold.com/Final-Fantasy-XI-Gil/" REL="nofollow">ffxi gil</A><BR/><A HREF="http://www.inwowgold.com/" REL="nofollow">buy wow gold</A><BR/><A HREF="http://www.inwowgold.com/sell-wow-gold/" REL="nofollow">wow gold for sale</A><BR/><A HREF="http://www.inwowgold.com/power-leveling/" REL="nofollow">wow power level</A><BR/><A HREF="http://www.inwowgold.com/power-leveling/" REL="nofollow">wow power leveling</A><BR/><A HREF="http://www.inwowgold.com/sell-wow-gold/" REL="nofollow">sell wow gold</A><BR/><A HREF="http://www.inwowgold.com/" REL="nofollow">world of warcraft gold</A><BR/><A HREF="http://www.inwowgold.com/" REL="nofollow">wow gold</A><BR/><A HREF="http://www.inwowgold.com/power-leveling/" REL="nofollow">world of warcraft power leveling</A><BR/><A HREF="http://www.inwowgold.com/power-leveling/" REL="nofollow">power leveling</A>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22040291.post-70366729828348649162008-07-01T00:58:00.000-04:002008-07-01T00:58:00.000-04:00This will be a good exercise for civic-minded Char...This will be a good exercise for civic-minded Charlotteans wishing to learn more about the nuances and vicissitudes of statewide politics in North Carolina. By listening to the Legislature during its various committee hearings and floor deliberations, you will be able to appreciate just what it takes to put together winning political coalitions for important causes involving elected state representatives and senators from the mountains to the coast.<BR/><BR/>Then you can decide for yourself whether it sounds better to say:<BR/><BR/>"From Manteo to Murphy"<BR/>or:<BR/>"From Murphy to Manteo."<BR/><BR/>Growing up in Charlotte and spending several summers in Western N.C., the way I first learned one preferred version of this hallowed expression growing up in Charlotte was: "From Murphy to Manteo." It had such a sweet poetic ring to it when spoken thusly. <BR/><BR/>Plus in Charlotte, in those days at least, we were considered to be closer to the West than the East in political geography. But then, spending two and a half years at that gosh-darned "newspaper of record" in Raleigh known then and now as The News & Observer, I began to hear folks phrase it, almost every time: "From Manteo to Murphy."<BR/><BR/>And that was before Marc Basnight of Manteo got to be such a VIP in the N.C. Senate.<BR/><BR/>So "Listen to the Legislature" (sounds like a song, doesn't it) because even under the same corporate ownership by McClatchy Newspapers of Sacramento, it may well be quite some time before either The Charlotte Observer or The News & Observer becomes completely comfortable with letting "that other newspaper" share in some of the responsibilities of staff reporting on various topics.<BR/><BR/>Already, I am dreading the arrival of my worst newspaper fears ever: that somehow The News & Observer's Raleigh offices would gain control over state government reporting for readers of The Charlotte Observer. For quick as a wink, the N.C. Democratic Party has decided to try to wrap Charlotte in knots that even Houdini would be hard pressed to unravel by issuing the audacious and unreasonable demand that Charlotte corporations dig out more than a decade's worth of company communications records at Mayor Pat McCrory's various employment stations along the way. The N&O seems to find no problem at all in all of this, giving observant Charlotteans a pretty reliable advance notice that The N&O views hamstringing folks from Charlotte with needless bureaucratic meddling as the most progressive course the Old North State can follow in statewide politics.<BR/><BR/>That's not a fair way for either major state party organization to treat the business community of any city in this state no matter what your preferred political affiliation happens to be.<BR/><BR/>For half of the state's Democratic Party's strategies seem to emanate from out-of-state party groups which have little appreciation for what it takes to run effective campaigns in the ticket-splitting Piedmont. Some "liberal" Democrats in Raleigh and Durham love nothing more than to team up with party stalwarts from New England and the Northeast to Texas and the Southwest to make life miserable for Democratic-leaning citizens from Charlotte and the Western Piedmont. So The N&O's state government desk is not likely to give much weight to the way Democrats and Republicans in Hickory and Salisbury see state government priorities in Raleigh.<BR/><BR/>Thus the intrastate deliberations of the N.C. Legislature can help our state regain its constitutional balance lost previously in out-of-state political deal-making. Therefore, the work of the Legislature ought to be studied and respected by even the most globally minded business people in Uptown Charlotte. <BR/><BR/>So in this case, as occasionally happens in other subject areas, the Legislature can perhaps help you to better understand the press instead of the other way around. For we do expect the press to help us to better understand our own region's politics and government, but it is not always able to do so. Don't forget, the Honorables in Raleigh are people too just like you and me, and a great number of them come from smaller cities and towns across the state so they're not biased against one particular metropolitan area or another.<BR/><BR/>At the very least, when it comes to learning about the Legislature, to paraphrase Lawrence (Yogi) Berra: you can hear a lot just by listening.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com