Fox News or the Fayetteville Observer???

June 11, 2018 By in Fayetteville Politics, NC Politics Tags: Leave a comment

Where do you get your political news?

FiveThirtyEight has an interesting article up about the nationalization of our news sources and the increasing partisanship and polarization of our politics.  In short, even the smallest of local issues is now examined through a national, partisan lens.

The article even gives a shout-out to the Fayetteville Observer:

Americans today are far more engaged with and knowledgeable about national politics than state or local politics, a gap that has been growing in recent decades. And it turns out that the changing media environment is a key engine of today’s nationalization. More and more, Americans are turning away from the media outlets that are most likely to provide a modicum of state or local coverage. They are substituting Fox News (or maybe FiveThirtyEight) for the Fayetteville Observer, and The New York Times’ website for the Nevada Appeal.

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Setting Fire to the Big-Tent

June 7, 2018 By in Fayetteville Politics, NC Politics Tags: 1 Comment

By: Andrew Porter 

orange tent

Last week, I went to a town hall with U.S. Senator Thom Tillis and Rep. Richard Hudson at the Greater Fayetteville Chamber. The topics ranged from as broad as taxes and tariffs to as specific as Dodd – Frank. However, it wasn’t the content that struck me; it was Tillis’s demeanor and candor. Tillis had a fairly conservative, wealthy, and friendly audience in front of him, yet he spoke as a centrist. While Hudson was towing the party line, Tillis was challenging the folks in the room to discard extreme ideologies and to think of your fellow man when making business decisions; cautioning some of the wealthiest people in Fayetteville about the dangers of greed. I was stunned and dismayed. Dismayed because he’s going to be Senator for life if he wants it.

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Washed-Out Dams, Parking Decks, and Double Standards (Fay. City Council)

June 5, 2018 By in Fayetteville Politics 6 Comments

Hurricane Matthew wiped out dozens of dams in Cumberland County and Eastern North Carolina.  Many Fayetteville residents with empty community lakes have called on the City of Fayetteville to assist with repairs.  After all, the city is spending thousands on storm-water maintenance and collecting fees from taxpayers to address flooding issues.

The city has declined direct assistance to the affected residents, stating repeatedly through its leadership that it can’t use public money to repair their private dams:

City staff emphasized that its hands were tied as far as how much the city could do.

Deputy City Manager Kristoff Bauer emphasized that the city could not spend public money on private dams.

Councilman Jim Arp, who represents Loch Lomond, said he wants to find a solution to restore the lake. But he and Crisp said they are concerned about spending city money on private dams.

“It has to benefit all the taxpayers of Fayetteville,” Arp said.

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“Say they’ll clear it up another day”

May 31, 2018 By in Fayetteville Politics, NC Politics Tags: , Leave a comment

The legislature has delayed, yet again, the cleanup of Jordan Lake.  The lake has become tainted with algae blooms due to runoff and development in the Triad and Triangle.   If you live in Cumberland County, this matters to you.  Jordan Lake is fed by the Haw River.  The Haw River joins with the Deep River below the Jordan dam, and this junction marks the start of the Cape Fear River (and a great cat-fishing spot).  The Cape Fear River flows through Fayetteville where it is used for your drinking water.

I grew up fishing and camping at Jordan, and I like clean drinking water (as all human beings should), so I’ve been frustrated to see the overall decline of the lake.  With increasing development upstream, the problem is getting worse.

Cape-Fear-Map1

In 2009, rules were put in place by our legislature to attempt to curtail pollution in the lake.  These rules were costly for developers in the surrounding metropolitan areas of Greensboro, Durham, Cary, etc.  They required stream buffers, retention ponds, and other ways to limit runoff into the watershed.

Developers didn’t like the rules, so they gave money to powerful Republican candidates who took control of the legislature in 2010.  The legislature has delayed the implementation of the rules four times over the past decade.  This week makes five.  Developers are happy.

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Trickle-Down Hatred

May 28, 2018 By in Fayetteville Politics, NC Politics Leave a comment

We’ll start this post at the top, with our president and his way of communicating with the American people.  His supporters call him “unfiltered,” his critics, “untethered.” Regardless of which side you’re on, it should be obvious to you that things are being said in public that weren’t said before.  Lines are being crossed and in some respects, obliterated all together.  Nothing’s off the table anymore.

In my opinion, Trump’s particular “brand” of leadership has lowered the nation’s discourse in a rather significant way.  Trashing other people is now acceptable and even appreciated.  Social media and the ability to hide behind a keyboard add fuel to the fire.  It’s now o.k. to broadcast hate as long as you can rationalize that the object of your disdain is somehow worse or different from you.

Here’s an example:  it’s Memorial Day, 2018, and we have a story in the Fayetteville Observer where a candidate for Cumberland County commissioner is posting charts on his Facebook page that compare Democrats to Nazis.  “It says both the Democrats and Nazis hate Jews, and adds that Democrats also hate white people. It says they both favor socialism, censorship and media mind control, and that both worship the government.”  The candidate defended the post as tit-for-tat.  “That comes out of Democrats all the time,” he said.

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