Conservatives say the damndest things: "Just Tax"

After two weeks I bet you didn't think I was going to bring this little gem of a series back, did ya? Well I am. I just had to do a little more digging this time to find something that was post-worthy.

This second installment is something I found on Meghan McCain's column on The Daily Beast. I usually stop by her site just to keep up with what the "young and hip" journalists are doing these days. To be perfectly honest, the stuff she has to say is usually pretty moderate and I don't disagree with all of it.

But this video she posted of some dorky guy changing the lyrics of Lady Gaga's "Just Dance" was too much.



Not only do I respectfully disagree with this guys position, but this song is pretty terrible. Apparently even Auto-Tune can't fix everyone's voice. I'll agree with Ms. McCain that the Republican party needs a lot more stuff like this to reach out to the younger folks, but this is definitely not "cute" or "catchy."

Get back to work, GOPers.

ADDENDUM: I completely forgot about this little gem that Bill Kristol said on The Daily Show earlier this week. Jon Stewart backed him into a corner that he was helpless to get out of and it's beautiful.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Bill Kristol Extended Interview
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Joke of the Day

Stewart didn't have to do anything but repeat exactly what Kristol said: the military deserves better health care, which it gets from the government. Oops!

Conservatives say the damndest things: Heritage vs. EPA

After the stunning success of my first weekly post series, "Tuesday Guilty Pleasure," I've decided to start a new one: "Conservatives say the damndest things." This may not be quite weekly like TGP, but I'll do my best to put one of these up every Friday. And for the conservatives in the crowd (if there are any), I'm working on doing the same thing with liberals. We say some crazy stuff as well. 

The inaugural post in this series hearkens back to a controversial post I wrote a couple weeks ago about the Waxman-Markley cap and trade bill. I got this gem of an e-mail from the Heritage Foundation and though I should share it with you. 

Inhofe produced an EPA chart generated last year during the Senate’s debate of the Lieberman-Warner cap and trade legislation. The chart showed that the carbon reductions under that bill would not materially effect global carbon concentrations in the atmosphere. Inhofe then asked Jackson if she agreed with the chart’s conclusions. Jackson replied: “I believe that essential parts of the chart are that the U.S. action alone will not impact CO2 levels.”

[...]

For example, a recent study of cap and trade by MIT concluded: “The different U.S. policies have relatively small effects on the CO2 concentration if other regions do not follow the U.S. lead. … The Developed Only scenario cuts only about 0.5 °C of the warming from the reference, again illustrating the importance of developing country participation.”

Well duh! First, let's go ahead and throw it out there that part of the reason the bill is so weak is that it would have had absolutely no chance to pass the House if it actually had any teeth because the Republicans and Democrats with no backbone would have never voted for it. God forbid we sacrifice a little bit to, you know, save the world. 

But why are they acting like this is such a big "Got ya!" moment against the EPA. Of course this legislation isn't going to mean much if other countries don't follow along. Despite what many may think, there are other people on this Earth and they're polluting too. At the G8 summit this week, world leaders are working to curb worldwide emissions of CO2, even agreeing today to not let the world temperature go more than two degrees Celsius higher and to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050. 

Of course, China and India are not going to sign on too quickly. But do you really think they would consider it if the U.S. wasn't working to cut back their emissions? If nothing else, this is a symbolic gesture to show that we're taking this seriously. 

The e-mail goes on to say: 

So if other countries will not sacrifice their own economic growth to meet carbon cutting goals, then what is the economic hit Americans are taking? The left is touting a recent Congressional Budget Office study which they say shows Waxman-Markey would only cost Americans $175 a year. However, the left is seriously misrepresenting what the CBO study is. Footnote three on page four of the CBO study explicitly admits: “The resource cost does not indicate the potential decrease in gross domestic product (GDP) that could result from the cap."

First, it's nice to see that Heritage is finally listening to the Congressional Budget Office about how much this is really going to cost. But this logic just baffles me. "But -- but China isn't doing it so why should we?? It's so not fair!" What are we, bratty five-year-old kids? Grow up. Yes, this is going to cost us a little bit. We've established that. But I'm willing to pay a little price if it means there's some slim chance that we can reduce our effect on climate change. 

They're partying in the streets of Alaska!

Or at least they should be with the latest news that Governer Sarah Palin is stepping down! (*cheersapplausescreamsshootingmoosethrowingbabies*)

Our favorite hockey mom is throwing in the towel up in Juneau with very little explanation other than that she doesn't feel like she is doing a good enough job for Alaska. Well duh! In typical Palin fashion, no one knew that this was coming. According to the NPR article, many members of the media missed the announcement because it was scheduled so late and even Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell didn't know that he was going to be stepping up until Wednesday. 

From NPR: 

"Once I decided not to run for re-election, I also felt that to embrace the conventional Lame Duck status in this particular climate would just be another dose of politics as usual, something I campaigned against and will always oppose," Palin said in a statement released by her office.

That sounds nice and all, but there's got to be more behind this. Maybe she is taking the time to prepare for that 2012 presidential election. Man I hope so. There's no way the American public will let her win and it was so much fun to make fun of her last year that I would love to get another chance. 

Interestingly enough, this happened just two days after Chris posted a great Vanity Fair article about the Alaskan. Be sure to check that out. 

La la la, I can't hear you! -- UPDATED

My girlfriend's roommate in Washington D.C. is an intern for a certain congressman here on Capitol Hill. Part of her job involves answering the phones, which means she gets to deal with the people that call and (usually) complain about whatever the congressman is getting ready to vote on. That means that over the past few days she has gotten an ear full about the cap and trade bill that just squeaked by the House this week. 

Here's the thing: only really crazy people call their congressman. By really crazy I don't mean legitimately insane (although I believe some are), I mean that they are obsessed with some little issue that they are blind and can't see the big picture or they are ignorant and watch too much Fox News. 

She got numerous calls last week from people making crazy claims about what the bill would do to their utility prices ("This is going to make my gas bill go up $10,000!"), saying that Obama is a Marxist (that's a new one) and even completely denying that climate change is going to happen. Whenever the intern tries to give them the real numbers of how much the bill would cost (numbers that she is getting from official budget projections), many of these callers immediately dismiss them. Where do they get their information? Why, the Heritage Foundation, of course. 

Conservative think tanks, like the Heritage Foundation, are jokes. End of story. Their sole objective in life is to do "research" that confirms or supports their crazy right-wing politics. Their findings aren't peer reviewed like studies by real scientists in journals and, because of this, are usually false or drastically skewed. The problem is that most people don't know that. People will swallow up whatever the Heritage Foundation is feeding them and then spit it back out at poor interns. 

These are the same people that say that there is no such thing as global warming when every other scientist on the planet not only disagrees but says the situation is getting worse every day. This leads me -- finally -- to the point of this post: a column in today's New York Times by Paul Krugman entitled "Betraying the Planet." It's a scary look into how many of our own elected officials still don't believe that climate change is real and that this whole cap and trade thing is just a joke. Seriously people?

We can't ignore this any longer. Something needs to happen. But what can we do when almost half of our Congress thinks that global warming is fake and that we're just overreacting? There is way to much focus on the now and not enough focus on the future. I wouldn't mind paying a little more for utilities if it meant that there's a chance it could keep Kansas from turning into a desert.

ADDENDUM: So apparently my post caused a ruckus over on Facebook, so I decided that I needed to respond to it. I put my response originally there, but I will repost everything I said here.

First, I want to correct something I said that I really hate when other journalists say and that Steven called me out on: my generic "government experts." I simply couldn't remember exactly who the intern said it was and decided to generalize. According to her, the budget people in Washington have said over and over that it will not cost more than a postage stamp a day for each consumer. Take that as you will, but that's where I was coming from.

As far as the cap and trade bill, I have to agree with Marion's stance. I don't think it's a great bill. It's not going to drastically help emissions and it's actually a weak bill in terms of how it will help the environment. But it's huge that Washington is taking a step to confront this problem and could lead to more strict regulation later. But this argument is probably moot because I don't think it's going to pass the Senate.

But it is definitely not as expensive as people want to think. It's definitely not going to lead to the doomsday scenario that Steven laid out. So what if things are a little bit more expensive? That's a price I'm willing to pay if it means that we can try to do something about climate change.

That brings me to the point that Steven made in his last post. Global warming is linked to carbon emissions. You can talk to any slew of scientists (I'm not going to try to link them all, but if you haven't already, read the Krugman article. He mentions a few). But, if nothing else, take a look at the graph of global temperatures over time that he uses in the article. The majority of the increase actually happened after around 1970 and has gone up exponentially since then.

Also, the prices of energy is not going to go up so much because the bill gives out tons of free permits, which means some of the bigger energy companies (gas, electric companies, and cement, steel and glass) won't even have to pay anything. It's really a weak bill on the surface and is not as drastic as people would like to think.

Finally, I just want to point out that none of this was the point of my original post. All I was trying to say was that it's scary to me that so many people -- including our politicians -- don't believe that global warming is real or that our actions and emissions don't affect it. Any slew of scientists will say otherwise. Just look around for it (and avoid think tanks). What do they have to gain by lying?

Finally, I just wanted to point out that none of this was the actual point of the post. The point was the fact that many people -- including our politicians -- don't believe that global warming is real or don't believe that our actions have anything to do with it and that disagrees with everything nearly every scientist around the world has said. What would they gain from lying about that?

"When it all, yeah, all falls down..." UPDATED

I haven't been totally into what's going on around the world for the last few days because of a much needed visit up north, but I just can't help but think that all the crap that has happened this week is a definite sign of the apocalypse.

First, this whole crazy thing in Iran. Not only was the election controversial, but then you have the killing of Neda that was caught on video (which wasn't the Basij's fault, but apparently a master plot by the CIA according to the Iranian ambassador to Mexico).

Then you have the deaths of Ed McMahon and Farrah Fawcett, which, while sad, were not entirely unexpected. But then we see two beloved fifty-year-olds leave us: Billy Mays and Michael Jackson. You may think it's weird for me to put those two on the same level, but let's be honest, over the last few years, who would you rather see on TV? I love me some Jackson 5 and "Billie Jean" era MJ, but anything after he turned into a white woman child molester kind of turns me off. And who doesn't love OxiClean? 

Anyway, I guess I'll give the latter two a tiny tribute by posting some of their best work right here on my prestigious Web site. I know they would want it that way. 

ADDENDUM: Last night, I forgot about a couple of other things that have happened recently that have really make me wonder "What the hell is going on??" 

The Varsity Theatre, a Franklin Street and UNC-Chapel Hill staple, went dark this weekend. I was in D.C. so I wasn't even able to catch a last minute movie during it's last weekend. Owner Bruce Stone cited various reasons for closing the movie house, but the bottom line was that it was no longer making money and with this economy it didn't look like things were going to get better. If there is a silver lining it's that the Chelsea, also owned by Stone, will remain open as of now. But, as Jordan Lawrence over at the Daily Tar Heel Blog said, "the Chelsea is an ugly little runt of a theater in a shopping center far off campus and it doesn’t have anything like the history of the deceased Varsity. But it’s got free parking, and that’s enough to bring in the kind of business needed to stay alive."

Finally, in world news, what the hell is going on down in Honduras?? Maybe it's my naivete of international politics, but this came out of nowhere! 

Journalists: put away the worksheet

In my first journalism class at UNC-Chapel Hill -- News Writing with Barbara Friedman -- we would practice writing an article at the end of every class. But since we were just beginners, the professor did all the leg work for us. The students were handed work sheets with all the important information about the story: what happened, where, who was involved, why it mattered, background information and even a few quotes to spice up the story. Not original journalism by any stretch of the imagination. Obviously, almost all of the articles written by the students were pretty much the same: lede, nut graf, snappy quote and on with the inverted pyramid style. 

I assumed that that would be the last time that I would see such banal journalism. I seem to be mistaken.

This class is exactly what I thought of when I read this article about political journalism by Kerry Howley, where he cites a story about journalists following the Michael Dukakis campaign in 1988. Long story short, the Dukakis campaign planned to have a "ball tossing" session with the candidate on the Phoenix airport tarmac. Literally, the candidate and one of his aides threw the baseball. It was a set up event for all the press people that were hanging around. But all the journalists reported it like they had some kind of inside information or caught a personal moment with the candidate. 

In reality, they just stood there and let the campaign force feed them a story and complied by writing exactly what they wanted. That seems to be a big problem with journalism now: the reprinting of press releases as news and a lack of real in depth reporting. As Howley said on his blog:

I don’t know that any of this has much to do with the death of newspapers. But it does say something about the redundancy of most political reporting; we can all just as easily read the press releases online.

This is also why I think community journalism has such a large advantage over the big media outlets. They have more time and more ability to really cover all their stories in depth with original reporting. With a smaller reporting area, the reporters can really focus on their area and the people in it instead of just pasting in press releases.

It's time to put away the worksheets.

The Campaign for Hallie Lipsey: EXPOSED

After a long week of waiting, I finally received an e-mail from the Hallie Lipsey for Student Body President campaign. In this e-mail, I learned how a simple joke turned into a campus-wide phenomenon, garnering more votes for Hallie Lipsey than any other write-in candidate. The conspirators kept their identities under wraps so that even Lipsey wasn't sure about who was behind the sign, flyers and Facebook group. Until now.



In a CoreyInscoe.com exclusive (haha, I always wanted to say that), I present you with the full story behind the Hallie Lipsey for SBP campaign as told by one of the masterminds, Nick.
(I omitted last names to keep the conspirators shrouded in just a bit of mystery. I don't want to spoil all the fun.)

My name is Nick. My co-conspirators are Jon, Manu, Johnna, Elizabeth, and Lionel. We are the Committee to Re-Elect Hallie Lipsey. I promised you I'd tell you the story of this prank, but I'm worried that it's not nearly as interesting as it might seem.

About a month ago, Jon and I were standing in the Pit, being barraged by campaign slogans, when inspiration struck. For weeks, we'd braved the slings and arrows of campaign season, annoyed by promises of Alpine Bagel in Davis and flat rate taxi services.

At the same time, I'd been searching for a good way to prank our dear friend Hallie. One of our running jokes was to mock Hallie's uncanny resemblance to J.J. Raynor by calling her "J.J." in public places. (Mind you, this wasn't just us, either. People have had 2-minute conversations with J.J. thinking she was Hallie, and vice-versa.)

In a moment of clarity, it struck. "Jon," I said. "Re-elect Hallie Lipsey for SBP." The wheels had been set in motion. We drafted four friends into the conspiracy, and began our work.

I spent the next weekend working on the flyers, while deep in the heart of Raleigh, my co-conspirators had begun work on the sign. They purchased two pieces of plywood, the largest available at Lowe's, and began devising the campaign promises that would become the centerpiece of our project.

We drove the sign back to Chapel Hill, and stored it in Jon's house, waiting for the moment to strike. That moment came on the night of Wednesday, February 4th. Our operation took place in two phases. First, at about 10:30 p.m., two of our members printed about fifty of our flyers, and distributed them throughout campus. Meanwhile, two others put the finishing touches on the sign. Finally, at just before one in the morning, we set out to bring the sign to campus.



It was here that we struck a serious problem. We no longer had access to the mini-van in which we had transported the sign to Chapel Hill and it was far too large to fit into any of the cars to which we had access. We quickly decided that the only way to get the sign where we needed it to go was to carry it to campus.

According to Google Maps, our trek was 1.7 miles. It seemed longer.

We began walking, giant sign in tow, down MLK Avenue. It wasn't fifteen minutes before we saw the familiar blue and white lights of a police cruiser. "What are you folks up to this evening?" he inquired. "We're working on a project, officer," replied Manu. The officer evidently thought that we had stolen the sign from somewhere. Upon realizing that our sign was not really something that anyone would want to steal, he let us go.

The officer's was only the first of several sidelong glances that we received as we carried the sign through downtown Chapel Hill. About two hours later, we arrived in the Pit, propped up the sign, and ran.



You probably know the rest of the story. Hallie saw the sign, and rushed to us with wild accusations. She knew we'd done it, but had no proof. We relied on this uncertainty over the ensuing days.

That Friday, we saw your blog post. We'd been planning another phase of the plan, but it was the tangible excitement over the campaign that truly convinced us to kick the campaign up a notch. That's when Heels for Hallie, the Facebook group was started.

At the moment we sent out the first invitations, the campaign was out of our control. The enthusiasm for the Lipsey campaign was shared by people who had never even heard of Hallie. It took on a life of its own, and that life was fleshed out on election day, when Hallie received 75 votes, including the vote of one Ms. Hallie Sarah Lipsey.

And that's the story. I told you it wasn't that interesting.

I have to disagree: that story is amazing. I can just imagine them lugging that massive sign all the way down Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

So there you have it. I guess we can officially close the books on the Hallie Lipsey saga. I have to say, I'm going to miss it. The campaign brought this site more hits than it has ever seen and it got my photo published in the Daily Tar Heel. It was great to have so many people tell me that they had found the blog, or, even better, that they had read my post and voted for Hallie.

I would like to thank Nick and the gang one last time for the amazing prank that created such a stir at UNC. I raise my glass to you.

Photos courtesy of Campaign for Hallie Lipsey

Hallie Lipsey for SBP Part III: The Results

When I walked through the Pit on Wednesday, Hallie Lipsey's sign was on its side propped up against a tree. I thought about setting it back up, but decided against it. For one, I was already 10 minutes late for my 10 a.m. English class. But I also realized that there was no point. It was over. For five of the seven candidates (yes, I counted right) Wednesday meant the end of weeks of long and hard work. Maybe not so long and hard in Lipsey's case, but it was tough nonetheless.

Despite the valiant effort that the Hallie Lipsey for SBP group and I put forth over the last few days, our beloved candidate didn't make it to the run-off. In a record turnout election, Thomas Edwards and Jasmine Jones recieved the most votes and will run in a run-off election next Tuesday.

Despite my harsh words and general loathing of Edwards, he managed to garner a whopping 41% of the vote, a good 20% more than Jones.

So what happened with out beloved Lipsey? That's what I've been working to find out. I've asked people at the Daily Tar Heel and scoured the UNC Board of Elections website looking for clues about the results for the write-in candidate. I'm not even sure if they count write-in votes, but I sure hope they do. With some of the candidates recieving just over 400 votes, Lipsey couldn't have been far behind.

Several people talked to me about the blog on Wednesday and many more told me that they voted for Lipsey. The Facebook group had about 130 members last time I checked. Of course that doesn't really mean anything. There's no telling how many people in the group actually voted for her.If you have any inside information about the actual results for Hallie, I would love to have it.

I've been e-mailing back and forth with the "campaign manager" for Lipsey and he or she or they are working to find some exact numbers. As of now, the geniuses behind this campaign are keeping their identity hidden, but I have been promised a revelation sometime next week. I'll post the story as soon as I find out something.

I appreciate everyone who took the time to vote for Lipsey on Tuesday. I hope that you know your vote wasn't a waste. In my four years here I have never seen a write-in candidate that caused such a stir as Hallie did. That's something to be proud of.

But I ask you now to do your civic duty and vote for one of the run-off candidates on Tuesday and make your voice heard. And don't just vote based on a DTH endorsement or large multi-colored signs and obnoxious chants. Check out the platforms and don't get caught up in empty promises. Think about what the candidates can realistically accomplish.

Hallie Lipsey for SBP Part II: The Follow-up

I didn't realize exactly what I would be getting into when I typed my post on Friday. To me, it was just an interesting sign in the Pit: a refreshing break from the obnoxious student body president campaigning that has been going on the past few weeks. Fourteen comments, several "tweets," a couple of Facebook messages and a Facebook group later, I think we've started a revolution.

Soon after my post was published, comments started trickling in giving me more information about the mysterious Hallie. Yes, she was a real person. No, she had nothing to do with the sign. So I wanted to dig a little deeper. What else do people know about her? That's when the fun comments started flooding in:

"Hallie Lipsey can do the moonwalk!"
"Manu, you're crazy insane, lol. Hallie, I loves you!!"
"I'm writing in Hallie Lipsey, even though her sign keeps falling over. If you see it fall, do the right thing. Either right it, or knock over all the other signs. Seriously."

And my personal favorite:

"Her environmental platform promises an orange monkey habitat in the arboretum and her safety platform has a plan for a velociraptor awareness day. they sound like great ideas to me! plus, hallie is very sweet, smart, and hardworking."

The next thing I know, there is a Facebook group, Heels for Hallie, which claims that she was featured on a "nationally recognized weblog." Yeah, they meant me. I'll take it. On the group's page they listed even more and better platform points than those that were on the sign in the Pit.

Hallie promises to:

- Allow jousting in the quad
- Promote Velociraptor Awareness Day
- Enforce mandatory 5-second rule
- Help the Greeks defeat the Trojans
- Create P3P (even better than P2P)
- Put an Alpine Bagel in every building
- Annex Carrboro
- Fine the Board of Elections 12 dollars
- Create a flat-rate rickshaw service
- Fix the uneven bricks on campus
- Look remarkably like J.J. Raynor
- Not be obnoxious

On Sunday, there was a quick blurb about her on the Daily Tar Heel blog by our esteemed university editor, Andrew Dunn. Of course, it had nothing on my in-depth coverage.

My pictures of the signs started popping up as Facebook profile pictures and the Heels for Hallie group encouraged members to invite all their friends and make the movement 1,000,000 strong for the write-in candidate.

At this point, I felt it was necessary to get in touch with the center of this perfect storm. After just enough Facebook stalking to get the information I needed but not enough to be like that guy you met at the frat party who keeps sending you creepy bumper stickers, I found Hallie and sent her a short message asking what she knew about the signs.

Her response:

"Haha. Wow. I cannot believe this has gotten this huge. Unfortunately, I had nothing to do with the sign or the fantastic platform. I have a couple of suspicions about who is actually responsible but no hard proof. Until then, though, I'm just enjoying the laughs, especially in the last few days of an overhyped debate for SBP. At least it gives life a little perspective.

"Thank you so much for sending me a message! I hope I have satisfied at least a bit of your curiosity! ;)"

So the identity of the sign maker is still a mystery. But I'm glad that Hallie is rolling with it and having as much fun as I am.

Tomorrow is election day. Make the right choice. Not Michael Betts, the young'n that thinks Alpine Bagel in Davis Library is a good idea. Not Ashley Klein, the one whose signs have crazy triangles hell-bent on cutting your legs when you walk by. Not Ron Bilbao, the one that looks like a creep in his mugshot-esque picture that is in the DTH. Not Jazmine Jones, who already knows she can't do what she promised. Not Matt Wohlford, whose platform is full of things that UNC has already done. And definitely not Thomas Edwards, who is unashamedly frat-tastic in his douche baggery (thanks Betsy and Courtney). Successfully spelling your name is not enough to make you SBP.

Do the right thing on election day and write in Hallie Lipsey. Sure, she can't actually win, but it will send a great message to our candidates and all candidates in the future: stop being obnoxoius, no one cares.

Hallie Lipsey for SBP

It's February in Chapel Hill: Basketball is getting into full-swing, seniors are really starting to stress about jobs and the temperature is fluctuating from beautiful spring day to holy $@#! it's cold! It's also that wonderful time of year when 20 million a-frame signs litter the Pit and obnoxious students hold signs and hand out fliers full of empty promises and unattainable goals. Yep, it's campus elections time!!!

This year, six clowns candidates are vying for the prestigious position of Student Body President. To the victor goes the spoils of a way too overloaded senior year, going to countless meetings, being constantly critiqued by the Daily Tar Heel, and one seat on the Board of Trustees!!

Candidates platforms, which are plastered online and on ugly signs, offer promises such as: wireless in every dorm! cap on tuition increases! Alpine Bagel in Davis Library! Wait...what? Oh jeez.

So how are our callow candidates going to deliver on these promises? Uh, well, they can't. Let's be honest, they have all the real power of an organ grinder monkey. They have one seat on the Board of Trustees. One seat out of 12. Do you really think the big-wigs take them seriously?

That's why I've decided to vote for Hallie Lipsey:






















Now there are some changes that I can believe in. So here's my pitch: if you don't care about who wins SBP, don't just pick some name from the list or pick the one that annoys you least. Vote for Hallie Lipsey. I don't even know if this is a real person, but either way it will send a message to the candidates. Maybe then they'll stop annoying me on the way to Lenoir and stop promising me things that I know they can't do.

On second thought, it probably won't help. But it would be funny as hell.

Hallie Lipsey for SBP!!

UPDATE: I've heard from multiple sources and just enough Facebook stalking to find out that Hallie is a real person. Whether she or a friend is behind it, I'm not sure. Either way, this person is still my hero.

UPDATE 2: So I keep getting comments about this post, and here's the latest. From an anonymous commenter: "I'm a friend of hers, and I'm pretty sure she didn't know about it until someone showed her (IE she was walking through the pit and her jaw dropped when she saw the board). Which makes it hilarious."

This story might be worth digging a little more into. Anyone have any more information? Hit me up in the comments.

Remember this day

Yesterday I spent the hours from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. doing something that I've never done before: celebrating the birthday of one of the most influential leaders in American history. I had to be there for a class, but that doesn't matter. What matters is that it made me realize how historic today -- January 20 -- really is.

Countless speakers talked spoke about Martin Luther King Jr. and his dream. How much he did in his short 39 years. How he changed the face of America and gave hope to millions of people. We've all heard about his dream in history classes or on TV. Over the years since King's death, we've seen this dream start to materialize. Sure, there is much more to be done, but on Monday I heard speaker after speaker say one thing: when Barack Obama takes the oath, King's dream will be realized.

It was hard not to get a little emotional as I watched the oath and the speech that followed on a small screen in the middle of the bookstore I work at. This is a historic day. Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, Independents, everyone has to realize how importance of this event. Whether you like his politics or not, how amazing is it that America has elected an African-American president just 40 years after the death of King?

I sat there hoping -- like my friend Chris -- that the bullets wouldn't come. That fear will never go away. We've come far, but we obviously have much farther to go if we have to constantly worry about our president going out in public.

My friend was at the inauguration, standing on the mall just behind the pool in front of the Capital. He said he got choked up during the speech. There were shots of people in Manhattan and Harlem just standing out in the streets -- stopping whatever they were doing -- and watching Obama speak. There is excitement in the air. There is hope. There is love.

I'm so proud to be an American today. I never thought I would see this so early in my life. Here's to the next eight years.

Political Blogging Communities

I've last night and most of today working on a blog for my presentation in Professor Jones' class and I'm finally done!! At least I hope I am. Anyway, with all the hard work I put into it, I figured I would share it. It's a "study" of three different progressive political blogging sites and how they work as knowledge communities. I took a local blog (Orange Politics) a state-wide blog (BlueNC) and a national blog (Daily Kos) and compared them and looked at how the community functions. Check it out here if you're interested or really, really bored.

On a sidenote, after working with Wordpress to create that blog, I think I've decided to move this blog over to Wordpress. It's not happening now, or probably any time soon, but I have decided to start the process. It will still be at www.coreyinscoe.com, but it will just be hosted elsewhere, so if you have this blog bookmarked at noisebazaar.blogspot.com, you'll have to change it.

I like blogger, but there's so much more you can do with Wordpress as far as layout, creating pages and posting. I want to make CoreyInscoe.com more than just a simple blog and this is the easiest way to do it. I'll let you know when I get this thing moved over.

But until then, I'll keep posting on good ole blogger, and I hope to post more regularly now that school is finally winding down.

Change.gov

It looks like President-Elect Barack Obama prepared for this week a while back, and with good reason. A mere two days after his landslide victory over John McCain, Obama has already chosen his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel and has set up his new website fittingly named Change.gov.


The website is dedicated to the transition process and includes a blog, an agenda for the new president, press information and even a place to share your story about the campaign and what it meant to you. There is even a place where you can turn in an application to get a job in the new government.

Part of the reason that Obama led such a successful campaign was his able to foster grassroots support and fundraising using the internet. This idea was pioneered by Howard Dean in 2004, but was really perfected by Obama this year. BarackObama.com allowed volunteers to mobilize from their own home and without the help of a community organizer. Phone number lists were posted online for people to use to canvass their community. There were also links to local Obama groups that organized around the country.

On top of all this, you could sign up to the Obama e-mail list, get text messages from the campaign, or even get the Barack Obama application for your fancy-shmancy iPhone. The future of politics is the internet and the Obama campaign wholeheartedly embraced it. There were Obama Facebook groups and even a way to sign up as a supporter of the Democrat on Facebook in order to get all of his updates.

Using social media in this way, Obama made each person that supported him feel like they were individually important and involved with the campaign. They would get personalized e-mails or texts and could easily log in and pick up the phone to volunteer. Or give a campaign contribution online.

Fortunately this has not stopped since the end of the election, as seen by Change.gov. This website adds transparency to an important part of the presidency and allows people to interact with the new administration. I really hope to see this continue after the inauguration.

If nothing else, we'll be seeing this a lot more over in the next elections.

It's All Over -- It's Only Just Begun

On January 3 of this year I was in some little apartment in New Rochelle, NY fresh off a hearty celebration of the new year. That night we cut on the TV to CNN to check out the results of the first Democratic primary in Iowa. At this point I couldn't tell you anything about the candidates: there was a black guy, a woman and the local guy. I was supporting John Edwards simply because he lived in Chapel Hill (and we see how that ended up).

As the returns come in, it becomes clear that Barack Obama, some senator from Illinois, had won Iowa. "Wow," I thought, "that's awesome that he won that primary. I never would have guessed."

But I didn't put any more weight on it than that. I still figured Hilary Clinton and Edwards were the real players. My thoughts were confirmed when Clinton won the next primary in New Hampshire.

Fast forward to April 28: Obama holds a rally at the Dean E. Smith Center in Chapel Hill. By this point Obama and Clinton were for all intents and purposes alone in this race. I was swept into the sea of change and was giddy at the thought of seeing him speak. I got there two hours early, settled into my seat and enjoyed the Liquid Pleasure band that provided entertainment before he spoke. His speech was electrifying as always. I was hooked.

But realism tugged at my brain: there is no way that the country is going to pick a black man over a white woman for the Democratic party. Why risk alienating moderate or more conservative voters with that pick? Then the country proved me wrong.

Wily old veteran John McCain stepped up on the Republican side and seemed to be a formidible opponent to the young Obama. Then after a series of mishaps and self-destructive moves from the right, it suddenly seemed like Obama was the favored candidate.

Until this point I believed in Obama's message of change and hope and love, but I just knew that it was too good to be true. I didn't think that Democrats would pick him as their candidate, why would conservatives and moderates lean toward a black man over a veteran and prisoner of war with more experience? Fortunately, the rest of the country was swept up in Obama's hopeful message. They realized that a change is exactly what we needed, and it was time to get a fresh perspective in Washington.

Even with most of the pundits predicting an Obama victory (landslide victory, according to some), I couldn't help but be nervous on Tuesday. Polls could be wrong or minds could change suddenly.

As the results started pouring in and CNN talked to holograms, I got goosebumps. Pennsylvania goes to Obama. Ohio goes to Obama. While these were not total surprises, they were two key wins that almost cemented Obama's victory. Then it got even more exciting. Traditional Republican states started to fall: Virginia, Iowa, Indiana, Florida. Even blood-red North Carolina is still split with Obama leading by less than one percentage point.

The nation spoke. Actually, it yelled. The world celebrated with us. It's a new day in America and the excitement is electric. Sure, it won't be easy. The economy is in the tank and we have to deal with Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran. But I'm excited about where Obama will take this country, and I hope that we will unite behind him. McCain impressed and moved me with a beautiful concession speech about coming together as Americans.

It was a historic night with Obama being the first ever African-American to be elected to the presidency. It's something I never thought I would see in my lifetime, much less in my first 25 years on this Earth. I've never been more proud to be an American.

Unfortunately, there was a dark side to the election last night. Proposition 8 in California, a proposition banning gay marriage, was passed. For a state that was so one-sided for Obama it's unsettling to see them set homosexuals back in such a fashion.

But in the end, we have taken a large step forward in this country and this is an event that I will always remember.

As Obama said, "Change has come to America." I think it's about time.

"The Great Schlep"

Comedian Sarah Silverman has always been known for her raunchy and over-the-top comedy -- just watch one episode of her show and you'll see what I mean -- but at least she's got her head on her shoulders politically...kinda.

In what she calls "The Great Schlep" she asks young Jewish people to go down to Florida and get their grandparents to vote for Barack Obama so they don't screw the Democrats over like they did in 2000 (she uses a slightly different wording, but I'm trying to keep this sorta PC). She takes the time to show how a black man and an old Jewish woman are the same and says that she will "blame the Jews" if Barack Obama doesn't win the next election.

This video is by no means suitable for work, unless you work at Chapel Hill Magazine where we had this video playing in the conference room last week.


The Great Schlep from The Great Schlep on Vimeo.

And to keep with the theme of hilarious political videos on the next to last day that I'm allowing myself to be sucked into the political machine, here is a great clip of John McCain on Saturday Night Live.



This is why I really can't hate him. I can hate Karl Rove, I can think Sarah Palin is an idiot and I can hate all the "God-loving Americans" that scream "Terrorist!" and racial slurs at Republican rallies, but I just can't hate McCain. Deep down he's a good guy and would make a good president if it wasn't for the hundreds of incompetent people around him.

Anyway -- stepping down from my soapbox -- I love that he can make fun of his campaign at this point in the election. Everyone should be able to. The political game is such a joke and anyone that takes it too seriously will end up in a mental hospital before the age of 40.

Two more days and it will all be over....

Is it Tuesday yet?

If you asked me two years ago about politics, I couldn't have told you anything except that Bush is a terrible president, and that opinion would have come largely from what other people have told me. But for some reason this election season, politics has taken over my brain and my life and, sometimes, my dreams.

I'm not really sure exactly what started it. Actually, that's not true. I can blame it on two people: Barack Obama and Chris.


Obama, with his message of change and hope and love, has excited a whole generation of young people. The voter age group that is known for being apathetic and looked over is now energized and excited about politics. Obama represents the ideals and dreams of many young people around the country and I was not immune to his charm. I was already excited about getting to vote for the first time, but having a candidate who represented exactly what I thought the country needed made me even more passionate about filling out my first ballot.

Obama laid the seed, but Chris nurtured it. Before last year, I didn't even know that political blogs were that popular. The only blogs that I ever read were music blogs just to get free MP3s of new songs that were coming out. It was Chris who turned me on to DailyKos, and from there I found BlueNC, OrangePolitics, the CNN Political Ticker, Real Clear Politics and countless other political sites. Now I find myself checking each of these at least five times a day. I gobble up their polls and predictions and spit them back out at anyone that will listen. Wanna know how Obama is polling in N.C.?? I can tell you, don't worry.

I even got to the point where I stopped lurking and posted on BlueNC. I ended up getting front paged and put into the header of their website for a few days. I feel like almost every conversation I have ends up in the realm of politics somehow. Lucky for me, most of my friends are into it also so they're not quite ready to kill me yet. If you look at the list of tags on the right side of this page, you'll see how much I have politics on the brain. I even had my mom watching the last presidential debate and talking bad about McCain.

It was fun for a while, but I don't know if I can take it anymore. But I don't have to wait long. In two short days, all the speculation will be put aside and we will know who the next president will be. I remember watching the election specials four years ago and not really caring about who one. It won't be that way this year. I'm emotionally committed now and it's too late to go back. I just have to hope that things will go my way.

But I do know one thing, I'll have a lot more free time after Tuesday. Maybe I'll get back into reading my music blogs more often, or read some news that doesn't involve Republicans or Democrats. I can't just cut off politics cold turkey, but I can lower the dosage to a safer amount. I'm also going to have to find some other stuff to write about on this blog, but I don't think that will be as big of a problem.

"You Can Vote However you Like"

The awesome students at Ron Clark Academy, a middle school in Atlanta for low-income students that is run by Ron Clark, laid out the choices in the upcoming election in a slightly different way: by changing the words to T.I.'s "Whatever You Like" to create "You Can Vote However You Like."



Maybe the candidates should start having rap battles like this instead of debates. It would at least be more interesting.

Not only is this song amazing, but these kids are really intelligent and know what is going on in this election. I'm willing to be that they're more aware of the issues than a large part of the voting population. This school, those teachers and those parents are definitely doing something right down in Atlanta.

Here is an interview from CNN with some of the kids, and you can see just what I mean.



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In totally unrelated news, the Athens Drive High School womens golf team, coached by my step-dad, Tony Alcon, won the North Carolina 4-A Championship yesterday!! Congrats to him! I am kind of scared to see him without a beard and mustache though...

Opie, Andy, Richie and the Fonz endorse Obama

I usually don't pay much attention to celebrity endorsements because, frankly, I don't trust them. Like they know what is good for regular Americans living in their Beverly Hills mansions or massive Manhattan studio apartments. But child actor/director Ron Howard puts a little old-school flavor into his endorsement.



As a born and raised North Carolinian, I grew up on The Andy Griffith Show and all the guys in Mayberry. It's kind of scary how much an old Howard looks like an 8-year-old boy when he shaves and puts on a wig. And I'm glad Andy is still going strong. I love that man...

And the Fonz!! This is the best thing he's done since the music video with Say Anything.

Maybe this is just what NC needs to turn blue on November 4...I can only hope.

GO VOTE!

Look at the Pretty Colors!

Enough said.

From DailyKos

UPDATE: I just realized that you can play around with this way too optimistic electoral map. Click on the states to change them from blue to red or somewhere in the middle.

This is why he has to win

Because any person who gets support from people that hateful and ignorant should be nowhere near Washington.