Showing posts with label WNC Conservatives. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WNC Conservatives. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
The "2008 WNC Conservative of the Year"
and a Look Back at 2008
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.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Stomper TV
The Carolina Stompers are going to broadcasting news and opinion right from their website starting Februaury 27, 2009!
I can already hear the gnashing and wailing from the progressives in Asheville as another outlet for truth opens up in our area.
I would dearly love to see us finally have a "blogger row" at local political events where multiple conservative outlets are reporting and commenting.
Chad also announced the formation of Web Talk Radio, an interest formed by Richard Bernier, Randy Thomas and Don Yelton. Use the contact info to find out how much it will cost you to put a show on their network.
I can already hear the gnashing and wailing from the progressives in Asheville as another outlet for truth opens up in our area.
I would dearly love to see us finally have a "blogger row" at local political events where multiple conservative outlets are reporting and commenting.
Chad also announced the formation of Web Talk Radio, an interest formed by Richard Bernier, Randy Thomas and Don Yelton. Use the contact info to find out how much it will cost you to put a show on their network.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
NC General Assembly for Dec 16th
Just because the General Assembly of North Carolina is not in session doesn't mean that nothing is happening. Hearings are being held, reports are being given, and part of the agenda for the next legislative session is being formed by what transpires now.
It is my intention to more fully monitor, and report on, the NC General assembly during this next session beginning on January 28, 2009 using a new web platform that will allow people in every legislative district in North Carolina to learn about what is going on in Raleigh, and participate in that process. If you want to participate, get in touch with me, and we'll move forward from there. The initial framework is about half-completed now, and will be ready in time for the swearing in ceremonies on January 28, 2009.
Here is what is on the calender for today in the legislative building in Raleigh, NC: [**9.09am** I guess I won't be listening. The stream has been shutdown.
**9.19am** The stream started while the meeting was in progress.]
I will be monitoring the Joint Legislative Program Evaluation Oversight Committee today via the Internet audio.
It is my intention to more fully monitor, and report on, the NC General assembly during this next session beginning on January 28, 2009 using a new web platform that will allow people in every legislative district in North Carolina to learn about what is going on in Raleigh, and participate in that process. If you want to participate, get in touch with me, and we'll move forward from there. The initial framework is about half-completed now, and will be ready in time for the swearing in ceremonies on January 28, 2009.
Here is what is on the calender for today in the legislative building in Raleigh, NC: [**9.09am** I guess I won't be listening. The stream has been shutdown.
**9.19am** The stream started while the meeting was in progress.]
| 9:00 AM | Program Evaluation Oversight Committee, Joint Legislative [Listen Live] House Appt: J Crawford, Jr. (Cochair), D Saunders (Cochair), L Coleman, B Goforth, H Holliman, C Justice, D Lewis, P Luebke, J Langdon; Senate Appt: M Graham, M Nesbitt, D Clodfelter (Cochair), R Stevens, R Pittenger, C Albertson, F Hartsell, Jr. (Cochair), L Garrou, C Jenkins; Clerk Appt: Doris Gilbert     (919) 301-1402 ;Staff Appt: John Turcotte (919) 301-1402; | 643 LOB |
| 10:00 AM | Economic Development Incentives, Joint Select Committee on [Listen Live] House Appt: W Owens, Jr. (Cochair), J Weiss (Cochair), A Adams, N Cole, W Daughtridge, Jr., P Gibson, M Gillespie, H Holliman, P Luebke, J Tolson, W Wainwright; Senate Appt: T Foriest (Cochair), J Preston, F McKissick, D Hoyle (Cochair), P Brunstetter, D Clodfelter, J Cowell, K Hagan, F Hartsell, Jr., C Jenkins, J Kerr III, V Malone, R Soles, Jr.; Clerk Appt: DeAnne Mangum (919) 733-2405; | 544 LOB |
I will be monitoring the Joint Legislative Program Evaluation Oversight Committee today via the Internet audio.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Pre-Thanksgiving Local Conservative Blog Roundup
It has been a while since I've done a blog roundup, and I do not recall doing a conservative one before...so here goes!
Hillbilly White Trash is celebrating his third blogiversary today! Go show him some love in the comments.
The Hendersonville Post has compiled the Google Rankings of various media websites in West Carolina...and crows about Matt Mittan's website having 0 out of 10 while the Hendersonville Post has 4 out of 10 and the Asheville Citizen-Times shares the top spot with 6 out of 10 with the Hendersonville News website.
My Google Ranking here is 5 out of 10, tied with WLOS and Mtn X.
Google Rank is not linear...it is logarithmic, with each increase in rank being by a factor of ten at how important Google Rates each page.
I would caution the author of the Hendersonville Post not to equate Google Ranking with traffic if he had open comments. He does not, so I do it here [link to source for below excerpt]:
Google describes PageRank:[1]
In other words, a PageRank results from a "ballot" among all the other pages on the World Wide Web about how important a page is. A hyperlink to a page counts as a vote of support. The PageRank of a page is defined recursively and depends on the number and PageRank metric of all pages that link to it ("incoming links"). A page that is linked to by many pages with high PageRank receives a high rank itself. If there are no links to a web page there is no support for that page.
Google assigns a numeric weighting from 0-10 for each webpage on the Internet; this PageRank denotes a site’s importance in the eyes of Google. The PageRank is derived from a theoretical probability value on a logarithmic scale like the Richter Scale. The PageRank of a particular page is roughly based upon the quantity of inbound links as well as the PageRank of the pages providing the links. It is known that other factors, e.g. relevance of search words on the page and actual visits to the page reported by the Google toolbar also influence the PageRank. In order to prevent manipulation, spoofing and spamdexing, Google provides no specific details about how other factors influence PageRank.
Numerous academic papers concerning PageRank have been published since Page and Brin's original paper.[2] In practice, the PageRank concept has proven to be vulnerable to manipulation, and extensive research has been devoted to identifying falsely inflated PageRank and ways to ignore links from documents with falsely inflated PageRank.
Other link-based ranking algorithms for Web pages include the HITS algorithm invented by Jon Kleinberg (used by Teoma and now Ask.com), the IBM CLEVER project, and the TrustRank algorithm.
The Wild West has a report on the Luddite Asheville City Council's useless discussions on whether or not to pass a resolution banning the transport of nuclear waste through Asheville. From her apt description...it appears that there were many anti-nuke activists at the meeting. I will see if I can swipe some video from the City Council Website to show the kooks in action since seeing is believing for most people.
The Carolina Stompers are looking to hire two reporters for their website. I wish them luck in finding intelligent go-getter's.
As for me, I've been marveling at the Blue Dunes on Mars, posting pics on WNC Citizens Blog, and putting the final touches on my GIANT tracking project for the NC General Assembly due to launch in January 2009.
Hillbilly White Trash is celebrating his third blogiversary today! Go show him some love in the comments.
The Hendersonville Post has compiled the Google Rankings of various media websites in West Carolina...and crows about Matt Mittan's website having 0 out of 10 while the Hendersonville Post has 4 out of 10 and the Asheville Citizen-Times shares the top spot with 6 out of 10 with the Hendersonville News website.
My Google Ranking here is 5 out of 10, tied with WLOS and Mtn X.
Google Rank is not linear...it is logarithmic, with each increase in rank being by a factor of ten at how important Google Rates each page.
I would caution the author of the Hendersonville Post not to equate Google Ranking with traffic if he had open comments. He does not, so I do it here [link to source for below excerpt]:
Google describes PageRank:[1]
PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important".
In other words, a PageRank results from a "ballot" among all the other pages on the World Wide Web about how important a page is. A hyperlink to a page counts as a vote of support. The PageRank of a page is defined recursively and depends on the number and PageRank metric of all pages that link to it ("incoming links"). A page that is linked to by many pages with high PageRank receives a high rank itself. If there are no links to a web page there is no support for that page.
Google assigns a numeric weighting from 0-10 for each webpage on the Internet; this PageRank denotes a site’s importance in the eyes of Google. The PageRank is derived from a theoretical probability value on a logarithmic scale like the Richter Scale. The PageRank of a particular page is roughly based upon the quantity of inbound links as well as the PageRank of the pages providing the links. It is known that other factors, e.g. relevance of search words on the page and actual visits to the page reported by the Google toolbar also influence the PageRank. In order to prevent manipulation, spoofing and spamdexing, Google provides no specific details about how other factors influence PageRank.
Numerous academic papers concerning PageRank have been published since Page and Brin's original paper.[2] In practice, the PageRank concept has proven to be vulnerable to manipulation, and extensive research has been devoted to identifying falsely inflated PageRank and ways to ignore links from documents with falsely inflated PageRank.
Other link-based ranking algorithms for Web pages include the HITS algorithm invented by Jon Kleinberg (used by Teoma and now Ask.com), the IBM CLEVER project, and the TrustRank algorithm.
The Wild West has a report on the Luddite Asheville City Council's useless discussions on whether or not to pass a resolution banning the transport of nuclear waste through Asheville. From her apt description...it appears that there were many anti-nuke activists at the meeting. I will see if I can swipe some video from the City Council Website to show the kooks in action since seeing is believing for most people.
The Carolina Stompers are looking to hire two reporters for their website. I wish them luck in finding intelligent go-getter's.
As for me, I've been marveling at the Blue Dunes on Mars, posting pics on WNC Citizens Blog, and putting the final touches on my GIANT tracking project for the NC General Assembly due to launch in January 2009.
Monday, November 17, 2008
New Project To Track North Carolina Legislators
One of the projects that I have been hinting at for several months is coming to fruition, and I am looking for volunteers to help track NC House and NC Senate Members and Legislation.
I have coverage of the western part of North Carolina nearly sewn up (still have a few openings, though), and would like to take this project state-wide. Use the contact info on the left-hand column to get ahold of me if you don't already know my personal email address, and we'll work to include you in the project.
This is the first (to my knowledge) grass roots effort to comprehensively track both the activities of state legislators and legislation on a platform where nearly anyone will have access to the raw material...as well as the finished products.
We mean to make what happens in Raleigh accessible to the general public in a way never before seen, on a scale never before seen, and in a way that we hope changes how people perceive Raleigh to give them information that will help them make more intelligent voting decisions in the future.
Also, if you live in the Raleigh area, and would like to participate, we have need for people willing to take still photos and video so that we can use them on our website and as file footage on our Internet video show. And if you feel up to being an on-the-scene reporter...that will be very much appreciated.
If you have a blog of your own...don't feel like we are your competitors...we can provide reams of copy material for you to run, and you can have a badge for your blog or website to let everyone know that you are part of the network!
Monday, November 10, 2008
Join the Resistance!
New forums for conservatives have been started, and if you are a conservative, you are invited to join up and learn how you may contribute to the coming conservative revolution...
A national forum is to be found called The Republican Underground, and I have started a social networking site called WNC Conservatives for those willing to grow beyond mailing lists and take our party back from the moderate and liberal Republicans.
Now, a word about conservatism from a real conservative, Wyatt McIntyre:
Friday, September 19, 2008
Video of Mumpower "Shulerman Press Conference"
Mumpower To Press On with 'Missing Man' Debate Series By KATHY RHODARMER
View in HD Download 480p Version Visit KATHY RHODARMER's ExposureRoom Videos Page
View in HD Download 480p Version Visit KATHY RHODARMER's ExposureRoom Videos Page
Here is the video of the recent Mumpower Press Confrence I wrote about earlier. The videographer was Kathy Rhodarmer. To view a larger video visit WNC Conservatives.
Previously: Mumpower To Take Shuler Cut-Out On The Road
Monday, September 15, 2008
Thundercast: Carl Mumpower at WCU
Find more videos like this on WNC Conservatives
The Political Science Club at Western Carolina University will be hosting Dr. Carl Mumpower this Wednesday (Sept 17th) from 12.30 PM to 1.30 PM at the UC Theater and I will webcast it live on Thunder Pig from about 12.15 PM (or earlier) until the end of the program.
Dr. Cal Mumpower is challenging Congressman Heath Shuler in the 2008 Election Cycle for a seat in Congress.
Shuler U.S. House Website
**Update** 8.46 PM It looks like I'll have something extra to ask Mumpower about if I can get an interview with him...hopefully part of it live if he has time, and doesn't run away like Congressman Shuler. Why Shuler has run from me, I'll never fully understand.
The Mumpower for Congress Committee has announced a formal press conference to be held on the steps of the Asheville City Hall building on Tuesday, September 16, from 12:15 - 12:30. The focus of the press conference will be on candidate debates for the 11th district seat. Heath Shuler has actively avoided all debate requests by area groups, political entities, and the Republican nominee, Carl Mumpower. On Tuesday, Mumpower plans a creative challenge to Representative Shuler's 'play it safe' campaign. Mumpower believes that his opponent is trying to limit exposures that reveal his liberal voting record. "There is a difference in 'Blue Dog' talk at home and 'Lap Dog' action in Washington," said Mumpower.
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