The Thunder Pig
2008 WNC CONSERVATIVE OF THE YEAR
THE CAROLINA STOMPERS & CHAD NESBITT
The Carolina Stompers , and their head honcho, Chad Nesbitt have done an excellent job of bringing the corruption in Buncombe County and the Democratic Party of North Carolina to light. While I can offer no substantial prize, I can offer a hearty "Well Done!" to Chad and his Carolina Stompers for their willingness to tread where other Republicans fear.
Chad has earned the ill will of NCDP Chairman Jerry Meeks, progressive bloggers, part-time Republicans, scores of Mtn X denziens and Coven Oldenwilde.
Chad, I salute you and your band of hearty warriors!
I look forward to watching you expand your franchise in 2009 and wish you nothing but success and the sound of liberals wailing and gnashing their teeth to sing you to sleep at night!!!
2008 IN REVIEW
If I don't get to post any more this year, I would like to thank everyone who visited my blog, emailed me with words of support, sent money to me, clicked on my advertising...and hit my Tip Jar. You have made it possible for me to do this full-time for over a year now.
This has allowed me to post at a prodigious rate (3,041 posts to date, 96 took place in 2005, 469 in 2006, 753 in 2007 and a whopping 1579 posts to date in 2008!!!), which I doubt I will be able to increase upon for next year because of several projects which will come to fruition, including a social networking site, a video show and a radio show I have been making cryptic allusions to over the past six months. My time be be spent wearing many hats in 2009.
Others in the conservative community have been making strides online also, and I wish to recognize some of them:
The Carolina Stompers
What can I say about this lovable bunch except they make me smile, give them awards, and have hope for Buncombe County, the land that has been dominated by progressives for so long. I am glad that Chad has avoided joining the circular firing squads this year. Chad has been overwhelmingly positive in our conversations and emails. And as a bonus, he hasn't threatened to sic his lawyer on me (inside joke).
The NC-11 GOP Primary
We had a good field of candidates.
One thing that I hope all Republicans took from this race is that it does take money to run a campaign. The Number One thing that money will get you is a paid staff of people who know what they are doing, who know how to build networks, and who know how to go and get more money with which to present the candidate's message to the public, which is the Second thing that money will get you. This Poverty Mentality must not be tolerated in our party any longer.
Kathy Rhodarmer
Kathy has been a Conservative Warrior for quite a while, and made her first videos this past year. I think that she will be a rising star in the Citizen Journalist Corps that will be coming to the fore in 2009 in our area.
Richard Bernier
He has produced a lot of video this year, most of it available on his youtube channels called Sound Off Buncombe, Captricrude1 and his Exposure room channel.
He and Randy Thomas started a website called Draft Sarah Palin for President 2012 as Palinmania swept through some quarters of the GOP.
These two have also teamed up with Don Yelton to form an Internet Talk Radio concern, which will officially launch in 2009. I wish them luck in their endeavour.
Don Yelton
Don Yelton has been a mentor to me, and a perennial gadfly to the power structure in both the Democratic and Republican Parties. He ran for Buncombe County Commissioner this year, and maintains a steady stream of emails pointing people to news they might have otherwise missed. Visit his website to keep up with his activities.
GOP State Level Candidates
I would like to recognize Susan Pons, and RL Clark, who ran for the NC Senate in their districts and also Dodie Allen and Paul Perdue, who ran for NC House seats. Although these people did not win, I would encourage to run again and to stay active in politics.
The Race for the Governor saw 4 qualified candidates run in the Republican primary. The problem here was that too many conservatives running split the primary vote and allowed the least conservative to win that race, as in the Presidential campaign. McCrory would have made a better Governor than the Democrat candidate, though.
OTHER LOCAL GOP NEWS
The Buncombe County Republican Party finally built a modern website, complete with a video gallery. Now, we need to see if Republicans in Buncombe County will utilize it properly and develop a corps of videographers.
Jimmy Goodman ran a good positive campaign for Macon County commissioner this year. He defeated the sitting Chairman, Charles Leatherman, and ran on making positive changes, including putting the County Commission meetings on the Internet, which the old guard have refused to do. I hope that Jimmy will run again, and that this time, he will win.
It is in his honor that I will begin my long-threatened coverage of the Macon County Commission meetings in 2009. That is one project that I have been putting off for far too long, and I will be posting video excerpts of the meetings and taking notes to create a record that is search able, and will hopefully lead to more accountability in the coming year. The Macon County Commission has thwarted the will of Maconians for far too long.
LOOKING FORWARD
In case you haven't noticed...this list of people to recognize has been far too short. There needs to be more republicans involved in the online political arena, and it will be one of my major goals to get more people involved on their own websites producing written, oral and visual content.
And if i can convince them all that we are not competitors, but allies...then we will begin winning elections instead of trying to stab each other in the back.
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