Winter Reading Project

It has been a tradition for me the past few years to undertake a reading project for the long cold months of winter, usually a series of history books or a long Science Fiction or series of Historical Fiction novels. 

This year, I am currently undecided which of two book series to tackle, Will and Ariel Durant's "The Story of Civilization" (pictured above) or the Encyclopedia "Great Book of the Western World". 
I already own The Story of Civilization, having purchased them over a period of years at yard sales, used book stores and discarded book sales from regional libraries. (For the life of me, I cannot comprehend why a library would get rid of these books).
I have read bits and pieces of both before, but to tackle the whole series of either at once seems like more than I can chew. 

Right now, I'm reading my way through the Honorverse series of Science Fiction books...so I'll have a couple of weeks to make up my mind.

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Replica of Vietnam Memorial Visits Dillsboro, NC

There are two half-scale replicas of the Vietnam Memorial Wall that travel the country, and one of them came to Dillsboro recently. Here is a video/slide show I made of my experience there on Saturday...

View on ExposureRoom

Posted via web from bobbycoggins's posterous

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How the National Football League Supports the Criminalization of Conservative Thought, Part 1 DeMaurice Smith

Unless you've been under a rock for the past few days, I am sure that you've heard something of the controversy started by race-baiters in the Democratic Party over the inclusion of Rush Limbaugh in a group that was bidding for the the purchase of part of the St Louis Rams, a franchise of the NFL. 
[Rush article in WSJ]


Here are a few excerpts from articles about the opposition to Rush Limbaugh, a conservative, as part of this group:


From ESPN:

NFL Players executive director DeMaurice Smith on Saturday made a move to solidify the union against a bid by conservative talk show radio host Rush Limbaugh as part of a group that aims to purchase the St. Louis Rams.

Source: ESPN


Who is DeMaurice Smith, and what part do politics play into his opposition to a nationally known conservative being part of a group seeking to be part owners of an NFL franchise?







DeMaurice Smith has been the NFL Players Executive Director since March of 2009. He was formerly an attorney with Patton Boggs. He was named one of “The Top Fifteen Black White-Collar Criminal Defense Attorneys” by Corporate Crime Reporter in 2007. He has also given a lot of money to Democratic candidates, including Barack Obama.


He gave $2,000 to John F Kerry in 2004 and $3,300 to Barack Obama in 2008.


He has also given $500 to the DC Representative to the House of Representatives, Eleanor Norton Holmes...a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. 


He has also given to the Democratic Party of Virginia and to Senator Evan Bayh.


Don't you think that politics had a little something to do with DeMaurice Smith's opposition to Limbaugh, a conservative, being part of a group that is seeking to be part owners of an NFL Franchise?


I certainly do. 




Tomorrow, I will look at another person who has gone on record opposing the inclusion of Rush Limbaugh as part of a group seeking to be part owners of an NFL Franchise.

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Serial Killer Caught by Father

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The Collector

View on ExposureRoom

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Waterrock Knob Time Lapse

I shot this from the top of Waterrock Knob [Peakbagger Info] on the Blue Ridge Parkway looking southeast. Original time frame is 47 minutes. Waterrock Knob is located in Jackson County, NC and is about half a mile from the Waterrock Knob Parking lot and Visitor Center. The hike is strenuous, with some rocks to climb up, and one ledge to skirt. Bring some water with you of you go to the top. There is also a good area for picnics at the top, but be sure to pack your trash out with you when you are done. 


I have about three more videos and a slide show to go before I work my way through the material I shot on Tuesday.

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Today Is Blog Action Day – Blog About Global Warming My Contribution

Today is the day in which multitudes of Lefty bloggers will be blogging their little hearts out about how mankind is destroying the earth and is changing the global weather patterns and causing the earth to heat up.


I here to tell you that human-caused Global Warming is a hoax. Just as Lefties were wrong and cried and screamed and warned us of the dangers of the coming Ice Age back in the 70's, they are wrong now. They are taking advantage of the way temperatures trend during warming and cooling cycles.


The earth has been warmer than it is now, and life thrived...even with more carbon dioxide in the air than we have now. As recently as the year AD 1000, Greenland was warm enough to produce grapes for making wine. When the next cooling cycle came, the Vikings had to abandon their vineyards and flee.


The earth has also been colder than it is now, with Ice Ages galore, including the Little Ice of the 17th Century and a smaller cold cycle from the 1940's to the 1970's. We are even in one now...global temperatures have been in decline since 1998 [source 1] [source 2], and will likely continue declining for the next two or three decades....so don't sell off your cold weather gear just yet, you might be needing them sooner than you think!


You can find out more about the lies that Lefties and Enviros have been telling us by visiting the following websites:


Watt's Up With That?  


Al Fin (climate cycles keyword search)


Tom Nelson has an excellent blog where he links to zillions of articles


Global Warming Hoax News


WHNO News Feed


I've uploaded a few videos mocking the concept of human-caused Global Warming over the past couple of years, and here are a couple, complete with green borders to show you that I, too, care about the earth:











An Earth Day Celebration











July 18, 2007

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To Waterrock Knob on the Blue Ridge Parkway

This is the view looking southeast from the parking lot.

I took yesterday off from the world of politics, and went on a short day trip from Franklin to a spot on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Jackson County. It is only about 36 miles from my home by road (20 miles by air) but, like many locals, I've never been. I've never even driven on the Parkway.

Below is a video I shot of the drive from Highway 23/74 to the Waterrock Knob Overlook parking lot. Actual drive time was about 12 or 15 minutes, and I sped it up a bit to make it fit in a 10 minute video.

I took tons of photos and videos and will be working my way through them today and tomorrow, including a time lapse at the top of Waterrock Knob.

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Agenda: Macon County Board of Commissioners October 12, 2009

The meeting will take place in the Board Room in the Macon County Courthouse at 5W Main Street.

MACON COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
OCTOBER 12, 2009 - 6 P.M.
AGENDA

1. Call to order and welcome by Chairman Beale
   
   
2. Announcements
   
   
   
   1. Joint Meeting with Towns at Highlands Country Club October 22 at 6 p.m.
   2. Second regular meeting changed from October 26th at 2 p.m. to October 28th at 9 a.m.
   
   
   
   
3. Invocation
   
   
4. Pledge of Allegiance
   
   
5. Public Hearing - None
   
   
6. Public Comment Period
   
   
7. Adjustments to and approval of the agenda
   
   
8. Reports/Presentations:
   
   
   
   1. Smoky Mountain Center (See enclosures)
   
   
   
   
9. Old Business:
   
   
   
   1. Carenet’s request for $5,000 appropriation
   
   
   
   
10. New Business:
    
    
    
    1. DOT - Offer to purchase/Right of way
    2. Lease with Town of Franklin/Pump Station
    
    
    
    
11. Consent Agenda
    All items below are considered routine and will be enacted by one motion. No separate discussion will be held except on request of a member of the Board of Commissioners.
    
    
    1. Minutes
    2. Budget revisions
    
    
    
    
12. Appointments
    
    
13. Closed session - If necessary
    
    
14. Adjournment/Recess 

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Hispanic Heritage Month in Franklin, NC

The local Latino community held a celebration in the town square in Franklin, NC on Saturday, October 10, 2009 that was a combination Hispanic Heritage Celebration and Health Fair. I was there and took some photos and videos...










I had fun at this celebration, and wished that I could have stayed for the whole thing. Everyone was friendly, and the food was very tasty. This is one festival that I will return to next year!




This was the first festival I ever uploaded video to the Internet from, way back in the stone age that was 2005, before I had a video editor, so I had to choose my cuts using my camera...and I was afraid for a long time to record anything over two minutes at a time. So, here is that video...




I wasn't aware of youtube at the time, so I used Photobucket.

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Fall Colors As Seen From Space

As you can see above, fall colors are visible even from space!


You can download the original 7 MB photo, taken one year ago today, from NASA's Earth Observatory.

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Columbus Day Has Many Names, Many Parades

Many countries in the New World and elsewhere celebrate the anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas, which occurred on October 12, 1492 in the Julian calendar and October 21, 1492 in the modern Gregorian calendar, as an official holiday. The day is celebrated as Columbus Day in the United States, as Día de la Raza (Day of the Hispanic People) in many countries in America, as Día de las Culturas (Day of the Cultures) in Costa Rica, as Discovery Day in The Bahamas, as Día de la Hispanidad and Fiesta Nacional inSpain, as Día de las Américas (Day of the Americas) in Uruguay and as Día de la Resistencia Indígena (Day of Indigenous Resistance) in Venezuela. These holidays have been celebrated unofficially since the late 18th century, and officially in various countries since the early 20th century.


That is from Wikipedia, and the article goes into detail about the holiday and the recent controversy from the Left regarding the holiday.





This is a video from a Columbus Day Parade in Brooklyn, New York.


You can also watch a parade from Westerly, RI that has been uploaded in short segments to YouTube, and you can also visit a website set up for the annual event. 

Here is a short video from the History Channel on Columbus Day:




In recent years, there has been an attempt by Cultural Marxists (who hide their agenda under the umbrella of 'multiculturalism') to demonize the holiday that means so much to the Italian community in America, and has been celebrated for generations as part of the heritage of Western Civilization. It was a big deal when I was in school, but not any more. A big chunk of our history and culture is being washed away. 

Travis Rowley has an article at Intellectual Diversity about the successful attempt by Progressive students to change the name of the holiday on Brown University's calender that is a good encapsulation of what is
happening to the holiday today.

It will be interesting to see whether or not President Obama will recognize the holiday, and if he does, what spin he will put on it. 

Here is a video of President Bush observing the holiday in 2003:




HAPPY COLUMBUS DAY!!!

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President Barack Hussein Obama Wins the Now-Worthless Nobel Peace Prize

President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples," the Norwegian Nobel Committee said, citing his outreach to the Muslim world and attempts to curb nuclear proliferation.


The stunning choice made President Obama the third sitting U.S. president to win the Nobel Peace Prize and shocked Nobel observers because Obama took office less than two weeks before the Feb. 1 nomination deadline. President Obama's name had been mentioned in speculation before the award but many Nobel watchers believed it was too early to award the president.


"Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," the committee said. "His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population."


The committee said it attached special importance to President Obama's vision of, and work for, a world without nuclear weapons.


"Obama has as president created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play," the committee said.


Theodore Roosevelt won the award in 1906 and Woodrow Wilson won in 1919. Former President Jimmy Carter won the award in 2002, while former Vice President Al Gore shared the 2007 prize with the U.N. panel on climate change.

Source: Wall Street Journal




Commentary


I note that all the previous Presidential (or Presidential wannabees) who won can be described as "Progressive". That should be the end of the story right there. Right-thinking peoples should recognize that the Nobel Prize for Peace, or anything else, is driven by politics, and not by science. I am utterly disgusted by this decision. 


Obama, like Jimmy Carter, got this prize for sticking it to Israel.

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NASA Spacecraft set for Kamikaze Run on the Moon this Morning Watch LCROSS Hit the Moon Live!!! Updated with Video Replay

**8.03am** Here is the Explo-TV video of the impact.







**7.57am** Here is the first video uploaded to YouTube of the event. It occurs shortly after the three minute mark. I didn't see it, either. There will be a Press Briefing at 10 am EDT, and I'll carry that live as well. --TP














Image Courtesy NMSU/MSFC LCROSS Ground-based Impact Observations










Streaming live video by Ustream


This is the video feed from NASA. It is scheduled to start the live broadcast at 6.15 am this morning. 


**7.00 am**
I have replaced the NASA Feed with the SpaceVidCast Feed because the NASA announcers are annoying. Click here to continue watching via NASA-TV.


Early on Friday morning, October 9th, gravity and momentum will conspire to draw NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) and its Centaur rocket into the Moon. They will strike an obscure crater named Cabeus that's 60 miles (100 km) across and close to the Moon's south pole.


It's the latter characteristic that will have countless telescopes on Earth — and a few off of it — locked in on Cabeus. (Impact site finder charts.) Based on NASA's latest (Oct. 7th) predictions, the rocket body will strike at 11:31:19 Universal Time (7:31:19 a.m. EDT, 4:31:19 a.m. PDT). The smaller, instrumented LCROSS shepherding craft will crash a few minutes later, at 7:35:45 UT, just after flying through and sampling the debris plume from the first strike with nine onboard instruments.


Here are some other places on the Internet to watch the impact...


Explo-TV has a web player.
SpaceVidCast has a live feed of NASA-TV via UStream, so if the other options don't work for you, this is your best shot at seeing it. They also have a large community of people who communicate with each other in real time.
SLOOH Space Camera will be transmitting two video feeds, one from New Hampshire and another from Arizon, and an audio commentary as well.


You can watch NASA-TV three ways:
Windows (works on most systems and browsers)
Real Player
Quiktime


 NASA's LCROSS Page, a Twitter page for the spacecraft and a Facebook Page you can check for updates.


Mauna Kea Observatories will have live video from their telescopes, with two options for viewers
Windows and Flash Users
Mac people can watch it with Quicktime.


I think it is safe to say that millions of people will be watching NASA bomb the moon live today.

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Che Guevara's Whacking -- A Glorious Anniversary

Today is a glorious day for those who love freedom and hate tyranny. 40 years ago today, the murderous thug known as Che Guevara was executed on October 9, 2009!!! (I would support the addition of this day as a national holiday).


In honor of this wonderful anniversary, I am linking to a couple of articles, the first from American Thinker, and the second to The Freedom Fighter's Journal. I hope you enjoy them and have a hearty laugh at the expense of Lefties every where.

Forty two years ago today, Ernesto "Che" Guevara got a major dose of his own medicine. Without trial he was declared a murderer, stood against a wall and shot. Historically speaking, justice has rarely been better served. If the saying "What goes around comes around" ever fit, it's here.


"When you saw the beaming look on Che's face as the victims were tied to the stake and blasted apart by the firing squad," said a former Cuban political prisoner, to your humble servant, "you saw there was something seriously, seriously wrong with Che Guevara." As commander of the La Cabana execution yard, Che often shattered the skull of the condemned man (or boy) by firing the coup de grace himself. When other duties tore him away from his beloved execution yard, he consoled himself by viewing the slaughter. Che's second-story office in La Cabana had a section of wall torn out so he could watch his darling firing-squads at work.


A Rumanian journalist named Stefan Bacie visited Cuba in early 1959 and was fortunate enough to get an audience with the already quasi-famous Ernesto "Che" Guevara. Upon entering Castro's chief executioner's office, Bacie noticed Che motioning him over to the office's newly constructed window. Bacie got there just in time to hear the command of FUEGO!, hear the blast from the firing squad and see a condemned prisoner crumple and convulse


The stricken journalist immediately left and composed a poem, titled, "I No Longer Sing of Che." ("I no longer sing of Che any more than I would of Stalin," go the first lines.)


Even as a youth, Ernesto Guevara's writings revealed a serious mental illness. "My nostrils dilate while savoring the acrid odor of gunpowder and blood. Crazy with fury I will stain my rifle red while slaughtering any vencido that falls in my hands! With the deaths of my enemies I prepare my being for the sacred fight and join the triumphant proletariat with a bestial howl!" This passage is from Ernesto Guevara's famous Motorcycle Diaries, though Robert Redford somehow overlooked it while directing his heart-warming movie.

Source: American Thinker Che Guevara's Whacking -- A Glorious Anniversary

This is the fourth article in our "Leftwing Monsters" series, the first of which featured Humberto Fontova's profile of Fidel Castro. "Leftwing Monsters" is a feature of www.discoverthenetworks.org where the entire series will be archived -- The Editors.


In August of 1960, a year and a half after Che Guevara entered Havana ahead of his "column" of "guerrillas," Time magazine featured the revolutionary comandante on its cover and crowned him the "Brains of the Cuban Revolution." (Fidel Castro was "the heart" and Raul Castro "the fist.")


"Wearing a smile of melancholy sweetness that many women find devastating," read the Time article, "Che guides Cuba with icy calculation, vast competence, high intelligence and a perceptive sense of humor."


"This is not a Communist Revolution in any sense of the term," The New York Times had declared a year earlier. "Fidel Castro is not only not a Communist, he is decidedly anti-Communist."


"It would be a great mistake," Walter Lippmann wrote in the Washington Post that same month, "even to intimate that Castro's Cuba has any real prospect of becoming a Soviet satellite."


A few months earlier the London Observer had observed: "Mr. Castro's bearded youthful figure has become a symbol of Latin America's rejection of brutality and lying. Every sign is that he will reject personal rule and violence."


Time magazine was in perfect sync with her major-media peers -- utterly wrong. Guevara was no more the brains of the Cuban Revolution than Cheka-head Felix Drezhinsky had been the brains of the Bolshevik Revolution, or Gestapo chief Himmler the brains of the National Socialist Revolution, or KGB head Beria the brains behind Stalinism. In fact Che performed the same role for Fidel Castro as Drezhinsky performed for Lenin, Himmler for Hitler and Beria for Stalin. Che Guevara was the Castro regime's chief executioner.

Source: Freedom Fighter's Journal The Life And Death Of Che Guevara




Commentary


When you see someone wearing a piece of clothing celebrating Che Guevara, you can know that that person (most likely a college student or a Lefty professor) is honoring a murderer who gloried in killing people. 


An odd thing I have noticed is that many Ron Paul Supporters also seem to love Che Guevara, or at least they have promoted Ron Paul as a Che Guevara type of hero. These types of people are as clueless about the world as their Lefty Cousins who celebrate Che's murders.

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John McCain: Enemy of the Conservative Grassroots

**4.01am** I just noticed that this is my 4,000th post here at Thunder Pig, made sweeter that it is an anti-McCain piece. WooHoo!!! 

The timing was impeccable. On the day after HarperCollins released the cover photo for Going Rogue — Sarah Palin’s highly anticipated autobiography — Steve Schmidt, John McCain’s former chief campaign advisor, predicted that if Palin were to win the 2012 GOP nomination, “we would have a catastrophic election result.” It was Schmidt, a veteran Republican strategist, who first advised Senator McCain to select Palin as his running mate in 2008. And it was Schmidt who first criticized Governor Palin within the McCain camp as “going rogue.” Asked how Palin’s book might describe their relationship during the election, Schmidt suggested that perhaps he was the “anti-rogue in the running of the campaign.”


Schmidt’s comments provide a nice backdrop to a recent report at Politico (”McCain’s Mission: A GOP Makeover.”) It turns out that the Arizona senator has been positioning himself as a major power broker within the Republican Party hierarchy. He is identified in the article as the party’s titular head; and the erstwhile presidential nominee has been raising money for moderate GOP candidates and hitting the campaign trail for pragmatic allies. As noted in the article:


“I think he’s endorsed people with center-right politics because he has an understanding that the party is in trouble with certain demographics and wants to have a tone that would allow us to grow,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican who is McCain’s closest friend and ally in the Senate.


“At a time when our party is struggling and has a lot of shrill voices and aggressive voices, he’s one that can expand our party,” said John Weaver, a longtime McCain friend and strategist.


This meme of McCain’s reemergence as the GOP’s elder statesman and centrist savior is not likely to go down well among grassroots conservatives. As Bruce McQuain has noted, with reference to Schmidt’s comments above:


Good lord … that’s like Jimmy Carter wanting to reshape the Democratic Party. McCain stands for everything that is wrong with the GOP today. If ever there was someone who found the wrong message for presenting the GOP to the voters, it was John McCain. And the economic problems the country has gone thorough since his defeat have only made his message less acceptable. Schmidt can bellyache all he wants about Sarah Palin, but without her McCain’s election night returns would have been much more dismal than they were.

Source: Pajamas Media (Donald also has an excellent blog called American Power, which has become the go-to site for us NeoCon bloggers)




Commentary


Be sure to read the whole thing at Pajamas Media. As a grassroots activist, I can testify that John McCain is the second most detested Republican on my list. He is exceeded only by the charlatan snake oil salesman from Texas, Ron Paul..


In my eyes, he threw away the 2008 Election when he supported HR 1424 (TARP, aka Troubled Asset Relief Program) and voted for it's passage on October 1, 2008. He showed me that he couldn't be trusted to make the right call when it came to our economy...that vote was a signal to me to keep my recently withdrawn money out of the US Stock Market because, no matter who was elected in January would be a friend to those who wished to invest in the Free Market. 


A personal anecdote regarding McCain being bad for the conservative grassroots. The team of people he had working for him in Western North Carolina (especially the person leading the charge in  Buncombe County...a young college student from SC) could not have been any worse had he gone out and asked the WNC For Change people to run his campaign. They seemed to be more focused on establishing a patronage system for after McCain won the election than actually getting the guy elected. 

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Carolina Sunset

I shot this earlier this summer after a thunderstorm and was amazed at the beautiful orange color of the sun reflecting off the clouds. I think there must have been a volcanic eruption a few days before in Alaska that contributed to the color.

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Last Night's Winners in Asheville Determined by Get Out The Vote Efforts of Progressive Campaigns

I've been crunching the numbers precinct by precinct and have found some interesting things, the foremost of which is the success of the Get Out The Vote (GOTV) efforts by the Progressive Community in Asheville.


There were 7,113 ballots cast (almost 1 in 6 of them in early voting via One Stop).


Every voter had the opportunity to select from three candidates from a field of ten, with the top six vote getters advancing to the General Election. With the addition of Robin Cape's Write-In Campaign, this will make it seven people competing for three seats.


Cecil Bothwell and Gordon Smith received votes from more than half of those voting yesterday, and Esther Mannheimer was close to breaking that Fifty percent barrier. Carl Mumpower barely scraped by with just under one in three voting for him, and J. Neal Jackson getting votes from just over one in six voters.


Here is a simple table demonstrating these numbers, and some other comparisons:

Candidate	# Votes	% Votes	% Ballots Cast	% Registered Voters
Cecil Bothwell	3,718.	19.63	52.70	5.80
Gordon Smith	3,573.	18.87	50.23	5.58
Esther Mannheimer	3,275.	17.29	46.04	5.11
Kelly Miller	2,479.	13.09	34.85	3.87
Carl Mumpower	2,330.	12.30	32.76	3.64
J. Neal Jackson	1,270.	6.71	17.85	1.98
Ryan Croft	1,034.	5.46	14.54	1.61

Turnout was very light, with only a little over 11 % of voters bothering to vote. With such a low turn out, the campaigns with the better GOTV efforts cruised to the next round. I've included Ryan Croft, who didn't make the final cut, as an example of how just a tiny GOTV effort could have changed the results of yesterday's elections by the conservative candidates.


I see Mumpower as being in serious trouble in this re-election bid despite the spin put on it by the BCGOP on their website that touted his strong showing in several precincts. Those precincts he did well in were small precincts that will mean little in the General Election. Mumpower has said that he won't spend more than $3,000 on the election (as has the other conservative, J. Neal Jackson) so...unless they have an army of volunteers hidden away that I am not privy to...we will see the strengthening of the already strongly progressive Asheville City Council.


Here is Carl Mumpower on last night's results:

I wanted to drop a note of thanks to my supporters and the good folks who did step out to vote. I appreciate the consideration I received and am comfortable with the outcome.


It is interesting to note that we came in first in more precincts than any candidate (15) but placed 5th in the overall standings.


What’s next?


I will not be doing anything different over the coming month. As I said early on - after 8 years the people of Asheville know my name and what I stand for. I will return for a third term with enthusiasm or depart with gratitude per their decision.


In terms of campaigning forward, I will participate actively in all forums, respond to surveys, be available for questions, and come anywhere to meet with any group of citizens. I will not be spending any money on my campaign - either my own or anyone else’s. I am not interested in purchasing a seat on Asheville’s City Council.


The question has come up about my needing to campaign harder. I have been campaigning hard - by serving my office in a principled, energetic, creative, and persistent fashion. As the only conservative member of the Council (as measured by voting records) I have been given generous opportunity through the media to illuminate my positions. No one could have asked for more and no one has had more visibility on political matters in our community.


My standing in the vote outcome comes down to voter turnout and voter choice. Although I have a demonstrated unwillingness to seduce voters, there is no issue with name recognition or visibility - the things that most candidates are spending money on. The voters of Asheville have quietly said that they may want other leadership - either with their vote or by staying home.


Looking back, my consistent stance has been toward being careful with other people’s money, supporting traditional values, and resisting the expansion of socialistic governance at the local level. I would not change a thing and will not change a thing going forward.

Source: BCGOP (read the whole thing there)




Commentary


I am dismayed by Mumpower's decision. I remember how well the non-campaign worked in his "campaign" for the 11th district congressional seat. 


The Buncombe County Republican Party has been through a rough few years with leadership that has not focused on building the voter registration rolls locally in favor of getting involved in regional and state politics, and it has come back to bite them pretty hard. 


I am confident that the new leadership is seeking to correct those mistakes, and will emerge, in a few years, in a stronger position.

**1.19pm** Welcome MountainX Readers!

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Asheville Election Results (All Precincts Reporting)

Asheville City Council Race (Top Six Advance to the General Election)

Candidate	Percent	Votes
Cecil Bothwell	19.63%	3,718
Gordon Smith	18.87%	3,573
Esther Manheimer	17.29%	3,275
Kelly M. Miller	13.09%	2,479
Carl Mumpower	12.30%	2,330
J. Neal Jackson	6.71%	1,270
Ryan D. Croft	5.46%	1,034
Jenny Bowen	2.85%	540
César Romero	2.14%	405
Larry D. Chastain	1.66%	314

Asheville Mayor (Top Two Advance to the General Election)

Candidate	Percent	Votes
Terry M. Bellamy	76.22	5,150
Robert W. Edwards	17.12%	1,157
Shad Marsh	4.19%	283
Denise C. Pendleton	2.47%	167

You can see these results and more on the North Carolina State Board of Elections Website.






Commentary


The turnout was very low in Asheville, with the following numbers telling the tale...



Registered Voters: 64,061
Ballots Cast: 7,113
Voter Turnout: 11.10 %





#1--Voter apathy appears to be at an all time high, and it looks like the candidates will have to engage in some serious Get Out The Vote campaigning if they want to win.


#2--Mumpower and Neal have said that they wouldn't raise more than $3,000. I think they better rethink that if they want to win.


#3--Robin Cape will be in the race as a Write-in Candidate, and should shake things up quite a bit. 


I'll have a more detailed analysis of the race later this weekend.


**10.57pm** Edit--Thanks to an anon commenter who noticed that I forgot César Romero. I have fixed the oversight.


**7.29am 10/07/2009** Update


Leslee Kulba of the JLF Blog Wild West recognizes the primary as a "Progressive Landslide" she comments, in part...

...the semi-progressive mayor beat three contenders with 76.22% of the vote. The top four vote-getters in the city council race were progressives. A progressive who dropped out too late to get her name off the ballot got more votes than two of the nine remaining candidates.

Source: Wild West




The BCGOP posted a very remarkable spin on the story, commenting, in part...

The results are in! Robert Edwards easily made it into the general election with 17.12% of the vote. Carl Mumpower and J. Neal Jackson will also be on the Asheville ballot for City Council. Mumpower was the highest vote-getter in quite a few precincts.

Source: BCGOP Website (I have taken a screenshot in case it disappears down the Memory Hole. 


I hope that that organization can recover from errors made by past leadership, and that they will focus on building their precincts before they toss rocks from their glass house.

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Asheville Elections: Preliminary Results

Asheville City Council Race (Top Six Advance to General Election)


Candidate Percentage
Bothwell 19.5 
Smith 18.8 
Manheimer 17.3 
Miller 13.3 
Mumpower 12.3 
Jackson 6.7 (on the bubble) 
Croft 5.4 

Asheville Mayor (Top Two Advance to General Election)




So far, Mayor Bellamy is leading handily and Edwards will advance with her to the General Election.












You can see the results from other counties at the State Board of Election Website.

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