Uncategorized: Citizen, Indy Week

[Updated] Losing Jamie Hahn: Raleigh and the power of passionate people

Bob Geary — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 15:53:00 -0400

[Update, Friday, 11 a.m.: Visitation tonight at Pullen Baptist has been extended to accommodate an expected large turnout. The time is now 5-8 p.m.…

5 p.m. at Pullen Church: Vigil for the Newtown victims and for an end to gun violence

Bob Geary — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 11:54:54 -0500

Pullen Memorial Baptist Church and Martin Street Baptist Church will co-host the service at Pullen. It will be brief, about 30 minutes, and give us a chance to grieve together.…

9-11 ceremonies on Sunday in Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill

Bob Geary — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 11:09:22 -0400

Sunday will mark 10 years since the deadly events of 9-11, Sept. 11, 2001. How many days in American history have had a greater impact on our sense of what America is, or should be, than 9-11?…

Reports: Elizabeth Edwards is gravely ill

Bob Geary — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 18:04:15 -0500

Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former Sen. John Edwards, is gravely ill, according to the Associated Press and other reports. She may have just weeks to live.…

Sad news: Hon. Officer Will Bunn, 8, died today

Bob Geary — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 11:14:48 -0400

Will Bunn's cancer ended his life three weeks after the Raleigh P.D. made him an honorary officer. From a WRAL report:

"I like all the handcuffs and how they go check out the jail and stuff," he said at the time.…
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Health care reform: What a lousy bill ... but it's a great day nonetheless.

Bob Geary — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 12:29:25 -0400

Health care reform? I can't do better than Dickens.…

Elon Poll: N.C. voters are pro-public option; half like single-payer idea

Bob Geary — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:10:26 -0400

(Update: But the Ghost of Public Option still inhabits the land.)

Even in a swing/conservative state currently under bombardment by anti-health care reform ads from the Americans for Prosperity bunch, the Elon Poll finds broad support among North Carolinians for 1) reform of some kind; 2) reform that goes farther than what's on the table in Washington; 3) a public option insurance plan as part of the current reform package, and 4) a single-payer system of health care, i.e., one run by or at least paid for by the federal government. You mean, the Tea Party crowd isn't a vast majority?

Weirdly, at least to me, the results of this poll were sent to the media by the Democratic National Committee (as well as by Elon).…

Don't miss this story --

Bob Geary — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 13:20:15 -0500

What goes around ...

(Update: The link I put up first doesn't work. This one should: click on the "Woman Donates Secret Millions" story).…

Live, from New York, it's -- well, see for yourself ...

Bob Geary — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 14:18:03 -0500

You can rely on the wisdom of Elizabeth Warren, I suppose, when it comes to the subject of banking reforms. Or you listen to Slick Willie, W. and ol' 41 himself: "We gotta regulate that thing or we're gonna get more bubbles, then pop -- money goes to the weasels."

It's reform presented by all your favorite current and ex- presidents from Saturday Night Live, with a cameo by the late, great Gipper himself.…

Passing health care reform by majority rule -- here's how

Bob Geary — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:53:52 -0500

h/t: Talking Points Memo.

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Obama's choice: Lincoln? Or Carter?

Bob Geary — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 13:20:14 -0500

Consensus of the Washington talking heads: Obama will "move to the center" following the debacle in Massachusetts.

If he does, Obama will go down in history as another Jimmy Carter, a very intelligent and well-intentioned fellow who just didn't get it in his one term as president.…

The way forward in health care

Bob Geary — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 14:54:07 -0500

So Scott Brown wins in Massachusetts, and all of a sudden the Democrats don't have a filibuster-proof 60-vote supermajority in the U.S. Senate to pass health care legislation. Nooze flash: They didn't have one before.…

On the Supreme Court's dicta: Campaign financing needs a public option too

Bob Geary — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:43:55 -0500

The U.S. Supreme Court decision today green-lighting unlimited corporate spending on political campaigns (and labor, too, to the extent that America still has any) does one of two things, or maybe both. It (1) shreds the distinctions made in the law between free speech -- the First Amendment idea that we can say what we think without fear from the government -- and buying airtime so you can bombard the public with your message.…

John Edwards: I'm the dad.

Bob Geary — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 12:02:08 -0500

It's in The New York Times.

Anyone have something they need to say about it?…

Tired of the health care reform debate? (The industry thanks you.)

Bob Geary — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:05:44 -0500

(An update from Faulkner Fox, who's helping to raise money following Rhonda's seizure yesterday:

TO DONATE TO A FUND FOR RHONDA'S MEDICAL EXPENSES: please send a check made out to "Southern Coalition for Social Justice" with "Rhonda Robinson fund" written in the note line on the check to:

SCSJ

Suite 470

115 Market Street

Durham, NC 27701

IF ANYONE HAS IDEAS ABOUT HOW TO HELP RHONDA GET HEALTH INSURANCE,

please contact Faulkner, faulkner@durhamforobama.org

TO SEND A NOTE OF SUPPORT TO RHONDA,

please write to: Rhonda@durhamforobama.org)

I can't help you on the subject of what they're doing with health care reform in Washington. I recommend Talking Points Memo and Firedog Lake as reasonably up-to-date sources (as up-to-date as they can be when nobody knows wtf to do about Joe Lieberman).…

A reader asks, What exactly is in the House health care reform bill?

Bob Geary — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:21:00 -0500

Perhaps that reader was you? In any event, the complete text of the bill, H.R. 3962 is available for your perusal on Congressman David Price's website (h/t Lenice Williams), should you care to attempt it.…

Public option -- opt-out variety -- will be in Senate health care reform bill: Reid

Bob Geary — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:58:22 -0400

The American political system is resistant to change, and it undertakes reform -- progressive reforms, I mean -- incrementally if at all. So no one should be foolish enough to think that the health care reform legislation coming out of Congress this year, or perhaps early next year, will produce immediate improvements to health care delivery, either in terms of coverage, quality or cost.…

Wipeout: 4 school board seats to diversity foes, Koopman loses; but Crowder wins easily

Bob Geary — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 20:03:41 -0400

Results are coming in -- and they're not close. In Raleigh, Meeker, Baldwin, Stephenson, McFarlane, Crowder, West re-elected; Bonner Gaylord in, John Odom back, Rodger Koopman out.…

ACORN's eight N.C. staffers still working, but without pay, McCoy says

Bob Geary — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:08:22 -0400

Our story this week about ACORN's work in North Carolina contrasted its tiny budget (in this state, between $400,000 and $450,000 a year, according to state director Pat McCoy) with the "crime of the century" treatment ACORN's national operations have been getting from Fox News, other media and the Republican Party. Today we learned that ACORN's eight N.C. employees -- that's right, this dangerous organization employs all of eight people in a state of 8 million -- have been working sans paychecks for about three weeks.

McCoy told us this afternoon that the cutoff began because private fundraising had fallen fallen short, with foundations and other givers continuing to hold back expected contributions while ACORN worked to strengthen internal accounting controls in the wake of the discovery last fall that a fiscal officer embezzled $950,000 from the national office a decade ago.…

Save us from a strong public option (or else we could lose our top-37 ranking)

Bob Geary — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:01:37 -0400

From Funny or Die (Will Ferrell et al) and MoveOn.org, a plea on behalf of your friends in the health insurance industry:

Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell

And in case you missed it, here's that toe-tapping tune that toured the internets last week called "We're Number 37" -- something every American can enjoy:

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Carolina Rollergirls bounce back to take 5th place in Eastern regional

Bob Geary — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:34:27 -0400

(Cross-posted from Triangle Offense.)

Your (our) Carolina Rollergirls put on a great show this weekend, playing host to the Women's Flat Track Derby Association's Eastern Regional tournament at Dorton Arena in Raleigh. The home team, unfortunately, was upset in the opening round Friday night by Boston, which cost them any chance to advance to the nationals in November.…

Obama on the public option: We'll trigger it in four years unless ...

Bob Geary — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 22:51:27 -0400

One of the little-noted details of all the health care reform bills floating out of congressional committees everywhere is they don't take full effect until 2013. The state-level insurance exchanges -- basically, a list of the private insurance products available to small businesses and individuals, plus (perhaps) a public insurance "option" something like Medicare -- aren't slated to go into effect for four years.…

Van Dyk won't say if he pushed the anti-Crowder poll in District D race

Bob Geary — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 08:52:20 -0400

After the fifth or sixth person asked me if I knew who was behind the push poll in District D (Southwest Raleigh) last week, I started calling it "the push poll" myself. But since push poll is such a dirty term in politics, let's not jump ahead of ourselves.…

Council's 5-3 vote chops the head off the comp plan's FLUM monster

Bob Geary — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 07:42:57 -0400

Opponents termed it a monster's head, a dragon's head, a clenched fist aimed at their Pullen Park/West Morgan neighborhoods. It was the western-reaching appendage of the new comprehensive plan's FLUM (Future Land Use Map) that sought to extend the Central Business District -- as shown in red in the graphic -- to an assemblage of property at the intersection of West Morgan and Hillsborough Streets known to the community as the Bolton tract.…

Universal health care was Ted Kennedy's greatest wish.

Bob Geary — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 13:39:59 -0400

Ted Kennedy thought that every American deserved health care coverage as good as what our members of Congress provide for themselves. He didn't live long enough to see it happen.…