NC General Assembly Calendar for 01-05-2012

The North Carolina General Assembly convened today in accordance with the Adjournment Resolution. There are also a some committees meeting today, and sessions of the NC Senate and the NC House were scheduled for shortly after midnight. Read more about that at WRAL or the News-Record. In short, after the NC Senate overturned the governor's veto of SB-9 by a vote of 31-19, the legislature recessed and reconvened after midnight in order to overturn another gubernatorial veto. The governor vetoed SB 727 and the NC House overrode the veto by a vote of 69-45.

If you cannot listen to these meetings live, check back later to see if I have. If I do, I'll post the audio (and a download link) for the meeting at the top of this page. You can also follow what is happening in the NC General Assembly by keeping an eye on the hashtag #ncga on Twitter.

If I haven't been able to listen, please check with Voter Radio. You should already be subscribing to their podcasts anyway. I do.

Link for audio webcasts by room. The old linking system no longer works.

Here is the legislative calendar with more details:

12:01 AM	Session Convenes (House)	House
12:15 AM	Session Convenes (Senate)	Senate
9:00 AM	Economic Development & Global Engagement Oversight Committee, Joint Legislative Committee Website	544 LOB
9:00 AM	House Select Committee on Early Childhood Education Development Committee Website	643 LOB
1:00 PM	Information Technology, Jt Leg Oversight Comm. Committee Website	1027/1128 LB
1:00 PM	Marine Fisheries Committee (LRC)(2011) Committee Website	643 LOB

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Help Make Obama a One Term President

Candidate Obama had these words to say when running for the office of President of the United States of America.

If you think that President Obama has done a good job and should be re-elected, do nothing.

If you think that President Obama has not done a good job and should be replaced, then you should get off your behind (and away from the keyboard) and get involved in replacing him.

If you have a favorite candidate for President in the Republican party, you should donate money and time to help that campaign win the nomination. If your candidate does not win the nomination, you can either join the winning campaign or (if your ego prevents that) get involved with the local Republican party efforts to Get Out The Votes during the early election period and on election day.

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NC General Assembly Calendar for 01-04-2012

UPDATE: NC Gov. Bev Perdue still has not approved the appointment of Trudi Walend as state Rep. David Guice's replacement. The House Speaker says if she is not approved by 2:15pm today, he will dismiss the House and there will be no veto override session.

The North Carolina General Assembly will convene today in accordance with the Adjournment Resolution here is the schedule for today. There are also a couple of committees meeting today, and sessions of the NC Senate and the NC House are currently scheduled for 2pm today.

If you cannot listen to these meetings live, check back later to see if I have. If I do, I'll post the audio (and a download link) for the meeting at the top of this page. You can also follow what is happening in the NC General Assembly by keeping an eye on the hashtag #ncga on Twitter.


If I haven't been able to listen, please check with Voter Radio. You should already be subscribing to their podcasts anyway. I do. ???

Link for audio webcasts by room. The old linking system no longer works.

Here is the legislative calendar with more details:

CANCELLED	Appropriations Subcommittee on General Government -- CANCELLED (House)	1425 LB
9:30 AM	Revenue Laws Study Committee	544 LOB
11:00 AM	Press Conference/Rep. Faison	Press Room LB
2:00 PM	Session Convenes (House)	House
2:00 PM	Session Convenes (Senate)	Senate
2:15 PM	Speaker Tillis/Press Conference	Press Room LB

xxxx

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Romney and Santorum Finish Iowa in a Dead Heat

I don't remember a close finish in the Republican Presidential Primaries.

According to the latest figures available, Mitt Romney has 30,015 to Rick Santorum's 30,007...a mere 8 votes currently separate them! Romney and Santorum are both headed to New Hampshire to be sparring partners for one another. The Ap projects that Romney will have 13 delegates and Santorum will have 12 delegates from this contest, which is non-binding. The real selection will be made in June at the state convention of the Republican Party of Iowa.


While Romney and Santorum split 50% of the vote between them, 22% went to Ron Paul. He was neck and neck with the other two during the night until the college towns had reported in, then he began to slide back in relation to the leaders. Ron Paul declared victory and announced that he is going to take the fight to New Hampshire, where Romney has a 2 to 1 lead over the next contender.


The second tier of candidates were Newt Gingrich, who finished fourth with 16,251 votes (14%) and Rick Perry, who gathered 12,604 votes (11%). Both men kept this proprtion of the vote throughout the night. Gingrich promises a bloodbath for Romney in South Carolina while Perry is returning to Texas to write his exit strategy.


The third tier of finshers were Michele Bachmann, Jon Huntsman and a tiny core of hangers on for Herman Cain. 


Michele Bachmann managed to attract a mere 6,073 votes (5%) as she fell from the heady heights that winning the Ames Straw Poll gave her this past summer. In her speech, she sounded defiant, ready to carry on the fight to another state. Jon Huntsman finished last among the active candidates, with 745 votes (less than 1%). He has reaped what he has sown with his service as Ambassador to China for the Obama Administration. He believed it to be a path to the White House. Instead he found himself in oblivion.


What Does It Mean?
Iowa is the first stop in the Republican Party nomination process that weeds out the incompetent candidates. For the first tier of finishers (Romney, Santorum and Paul), it is validation that they can manage a campaign and have the infrastructure to manage the logistics of getting out to many small communities to get their message out to the voters. These candidates all have proven that they deserve to be heard and that their message has some amount of traction with Republican voters.

For the second tier (Gingrich and Perry), it serves as notice that they must step up their game or forever find themselves in the "also ran" category.

The third tier finishers (Bachmann and Huntsmann) should quietly exit stage left unless they have a large war chest of donations, got into the race very late, or for some odd reason, chose to make the nearly always fatal mistake of ignoring the Iowa contest.

Candidate Videos

Here are videos of the candidates (where available) reacting to their finish last night.



Mitt Romney







Rick Santorum







Ron Paul







Newt Gingrich







Rick Perry







Michele Bachmann







There was no video uploaded of a Jon Huntsman speech on the Iowa results, so I'll let this interview stand for Jon Huntsman...who is toast any way you slice it in the 2012 presidential race.



The Next Race


The next primary is New Hampshire, where Mitt Romney is the favorite to win on January 10th. It will be interesting to see how  things play out, especially if Newt Gingrich has decided to go negative and attempt to bleed the Mitt Romney campaign in a self-destructive orgy of negative campaigning.

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An Epic Music Monday Sunday: Carmina Burana

I hope that 2012 will be an interesting, happy and a productive year for everyone who reads this blog. I hope that this first piece of music that I have selected will help you get off on the right foot in the new year.


Since 2012 is supposed to an epic year, I thought it appropriate to begin this year's first installment of my Music Monday series with a presentation of the epic Carmina Burana by Carl Orff. The particular performance I have chosen is from the 50th anniversary celebration of the Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira in Spain. 

Carmina Burana is a scenic cantata composed by Carl Orff in 1935 and 1936. It is based on 24 of the poems found in the medieval collection Carmina Burana. Its full Latin title is Carmina Burana: Cantiones profanæ cantoribus et choris cantandæ comitantibus instrumentis atque imaginibus magicis ("Songs of Beuern: Secular songs for singers and choruses to be sung together with instruments and magic images.") Carmina Burana is part of Trionfi, the musical triptych that also includes the cantata Catulli Carmina and Trionfo di Afrodite. The best-known movement is "Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi" ("O Fortuna") that opens and closes the piece.

Source: Wikipedia


You might want to check out this article from NPR on why the piece has remained so popular since it's introduction.






If you want to see the lyrics, Classical.net and Teach Yourself Latin are good sources. 


What follows is also from Wikipedia, a listing of the structure of the piece so you can follow along with the performance:

Carmina Burana is structured into five major sections, containing 25 movements total. Orff indicates attacca markings between all the movements within each scene.

Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi		Fortune, Empress of the World
1. O Fortuna	Latin	O Fortune	choir
2. Fortune plango vulnera	Latin	I lament the wounds that Fortune deals	choir
I – Primo vere		In Spring
3. Veris leta facies	Latin	The joyous face of Spring	small choir
4. Omnia sol temperat	Latin	All things are tempered by the Sun	baritone
5. Ecce gratum	Latin	Behold the welcome	choir
Uf dem Anger		In the Meadow
6. Tanz		Dance	instrumental
7. Floret silva	Latin/Middle High German	The forest flowers	choir
8. Chramer, gip die varwe mir	Middle High German	Monger, give me coloured paint	choir (small and large)
9. a) Reie		round dance	instrumental
b) Swaz hie gat umbe	Middle High German	They who here go dancing around	choir
c) Chume, chum, geselle min	Middle High German	Come, come, my dear companion	small choir
d) Swaz hie gat umbe (reprise)	Middle High German	They who here go dancing around	choir
10. Were diu werlt alle min	Middle High German	If the whole world were but mine	choir
II – In Taberna		In the Tavern
11. Estuans interius	Latin	Seething inside	baritone
12. Olim lacus colueram	Latin	Once I swam in lakes	tenor, choir (male)
13. Ego sum abbas	Latin	I am the abbot of Cockaigne	baritone, choir (male)
14. In taberna quando sumus	Latin	When we are in the tavern	choir (male)
III – Cour d'amours		Court of Love
15. Amor volat undique	Latin	Love flies everywhere	soprano, boys' choir
16. Dies, nox et omnia	Latin/Provençal	Day, night and everything	baritone
17. Stetit puella	Latin	There stood a girl	soprano
18. Circa mea pectora	Latin/Middle High German	In my breast	baritone, choir
19. Si puer cum puellula	Latin	If a boy with a girl	3 tenors, baritone, 2 basses
20. Veni, veni, venias	Latin	Come, come, pray come	double choir
21. In trutina	Latin	On the scales	soprano
22. Tempus est iocundum	Latin	Time to jest	soprano, baritone, boys' choir
23. Dulcissime	Latin	Sweetest boy	soprano
Blanziflor et Helena		Blancheflour and Helen
24. Ave formosissima	Latin	Hail to the most lovely	choir
Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi		Fortune, Empress of the World
25. O Fortuna (reprise)	Latin	O Fortune	choir

Here are other sources where you can find out more regarding this wonderful piece of music, including purchase options:




Classical Net has an excellent discussion that will help you understand the music better, including a lot of information on the background of it and a guide to available recordings of the work. 


Amazon listings (pay attention to the reviews for recommendations)


Classics Online (you'll have manually enter Carmina Burana)


Arkiv Music (at the time I searched, 81 separate recordings were available)

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Public Calendar

This is a calendar of public events in Macon or Jackson Counties that I think may be of interest and plan on filming. If I am able to do so, I will try to post a link in the calendar to where you can watch the event. If you have an event that you are interested in having me film and post online, please send me a message via my Facebook Page ( http://facebook.com/thunder.pig ) or on Twitter (http://twitter.com/ThunderPig ). I can't promise that I will be able to make all the meetings that I want to, especially with the cost of diesel being so high, but I will try my best.

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