CNN, fair and balanced

The creepy site of school kids singing the praises of The Great Obama in their school assemblies is one thing. Everyone knows public schools are captive of lefty tie-dies who couldn’t get a job anywhere else in the ’70s and ’80s. But now a major cable network has joined the Obama Chorus by allowing yet another group of choreographed Stepford Kids to push the Obama health care agenda, treating it as a news item.

Waters: Don’t pick on Rangel, we’re ALL corrupt

California’s Maxine Waters says critics should lay off ethically-challenged Charlie Rangel because, well, he’s not alone in “misreporting” his taxes:

“I want to tell you, there are many members who, if you go back over all of their records, over all of the years, you’re going to find that there were disclosures that were not made,” Waters said during an appearance on MSNBC Wednesday morning.

Cathy Truitt Files for Runoff in Wake School Board Race

From the News & Observer:

School board candidate Cathy Truitt filed paperwork today with the Wake County Board of Elections requesting a runoff in the District 2 race.

Truitt, an education consultant and retired educator, finished second in District 2 to John Tedesco, a Big Brothers Big Sisters official, Pending certification of the election results next week, Truitt and Tedesco would oppose each other in a Nov. 3 runoff.

Three candidates who oppose the diversity policy easily won on Tuesday. Tedesco also opposes the diversity policy and backs neighborhood schools.

The school board has nine seats. As of right now, the eight members that are firmly in their seats are evenly split — with four members supporting the current policy of busing kids to balance the economic diversity, and four members opposed.

Stay tuned. The Tedesco-Truitt runoff will decide the future of the policy.

More food-scare stories

On Sunday The News & Observer carried a story that will probably lower the consumption of hamburger, at least for a while. But today we learn that hamburger isn’t even on the list of the top ten risky foods. The irony is that some of the items on the list are the very things experts tell us are the healthiest things for us to eat:

• Leafy greens: 363 outbreaks involving 13,568 reported cases of illness.
• Eggs: 352 outbreaks with 11,163 reported cases of illness.
• Tuna: 268 outbreaks with 2,341 reported cases of illness.
• Oysters: 132 outbreaks with 3,409 reported cases of illness.
• Potatoes: 108 outbreaks with 3,659 reported cases of illness.
• Cheese: 83 outbreaks with 2,761 reported cases of illness.
• Ice Cream: 74 outbreaks with 2,594 reported cases of illness.
• Tomatoes: 31 outbreaks with 3,292 reported cases of illness.
• Sprouts: 31 outbreaks with 2,022 reported cases of illness.
• Berries: 25 outbreaks with 3,397 reported cases of illness.

Libertarian Will Compete for Durham Council Seat on Nov. 3

You read it right — Libertarian Matt Drew scored a second place finish last night in Durham’s Ward II council race. Incumbent Howard Clement garnered 60 percent of the vote. Drew received 12 percent or so. That means Drew will face off against Clement in the Nov. 3 general election. From the Herald-Sun:

The Ward 2 balloting produced the night’s big surprise in the form of its second-place finisher. Matt Drew, a registered Libertarian, polled 725 votes, close to 12½ percent.

That was enough to carry him past fellow challenger Sylvester Williams, who got 634 votes, nearly 11 percent. Darius Little finished fourth with 630 votes, also around 11 percent, and Sandra Howell trailed the field with 332 votes, not quite 6 percent.

Drew credited his showing to his being the only Ward 2 challenger who voiced a small-government philosophy. The others, he said, had relatively similar platforms and split their potential support.

“I had a very focused constituency,” Drew said. “The three candidates eliminated in the primary got far more votes than I did. There clearly was a divide [among] people interested in the other platform.”

IndyWeek: Raleigh Mayor’s Progressive Majority is Gone

Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker sailed to a fifth term last night, but Bob Geary of the Independent Weekly writes that the defeat of incumbent council member Rodger Koopman means Meeker no longer has a progressive majority on the council. It’s this progressive majority that Geary says ushered in things like higher impact fees. Here’s hoping Geary is correct.

ACORN throws out GOP voter registrations

Why is this not surprising? With what we’ve learned over the past five or so years, it’s a crime in itself to allow any ACORN organization or member to register people to vote.

Let’s get back to the way it’s supposed to work: Anyone who wants to register should have to go down to the board of elections and register. Simple as that. No muss, no fuss. No skeezy activists playing middle man for filthy lucre and political agendas.

“We’re a billion dollars in debt, and no one knows where the money went”

That quote comes from John Odom, the businessman who unseated incumbent Raleigh city councilman Rodger Koopman last night. Odom will be the only Republican on the city council not that Philip Isley is calling it quits. Perhaps Mr. Odom’s quote, as reported by the News and Observer, is just rhetoric. Or, perhaps he plans to ask a lot of questions of Mayor Meeker, the council, and city staffers. We’ll see.