http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/PPP_Release_Wake_1217.pdf

Quote :

"Wake voters call for redo on chair election FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 17, 2009 Raleigh, N.C. – 62% of Wake County voters think that the County Commissioners should have another vote for chair of the board at a time when all members can be present, after the Republican minority elected one of its own last week while one Democrat was sick and another was in the bathroom. 82% of Democrats, 56% of independents, and even 34% of Republicans support having a second election. 66% of voters in the county say they disapprove of the manner in which Tony Gurley was elected as chair to just 24% who think it was appropriate. That includes 40% of Republicans, 62% of independents, and 83% of Democrats. The board election episode could have negative consequences at the ballot box next year for the three Republicans standing for reelection. 56% of voters say the way it was handled makes them less likely to vote for GOP commissioner candidates, compared to only 22% who said it made them more likely to do so. Overall 45% of voters in the county say they plan to vote Democratic in the commissioner races next year to 36% who express an intention to vote Republican. Independents give Democrats a 35-26 advantage. “Wake County’s been trending more and more in a Democratic direction,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. “That alone might make it hard for Republican commissioners to win reelection, but the way they’ve handled the chair election has turned off independents and made it an even tougher proposition.”"

I'm not sure whether to congratulate the Republican minority for pulling of their coup so effectively, or be disappointed at how sketchy that was to hold a vote while someone is in the restroom. But it sounds like its going to hurt them at the ballot box next year and there is no one to blame but themselves.

12/17/2009 6:22:16 PM

I read about this earlier this week. I'd already forgotten about it. Everyone else will by election time.

[Edited on December 17, 2009 at 6:34 PM. Reason : Christ, why do we even have political parties at the county level?]

12/17/2009 6:33:09 PM

^How else will people know how to vote?

12/17/2009 6:39:33 PM

^^Some people will forget. But the kind of people who are really into local politics, as in the kind who vote in these low turn out elections, will remember. And I'm sure it'll be brought back up around election time.

12/17/2009 9:21:32 PM

it was a slimy move. they should have a re-election.

12/17/2009 9:46:02 PM

Was it as slimy as what the democrats pulled in order to get the lottery passed?

no.

12/17/2009 10:05:28 PM

not familiar with that one...do tell

12/17/2009 10:06:49 PM

Quote :

"The 25 to 24 lottery vote came just one week after Senate leaders announced that they were shutting down the session and abandoning efforts to pass the lottery. Despite the absence of two lottery opponents from the Senate last week—Sen. John Garwood (R-Wilkes) was rushed to the hospital Tuesday night with a staph infection in his leg and Sen. Ham Horton (R-Forsyth) was out of town—Senate leaders were unable to muster the necessary votes to pass the lottery. Early in the morning on Wednesday, August 24, following a marathon twenty-and-a-half hour session, Senate President Pro Tempore Marc Basnight (D-Dare) told members of the Senate that the chamber had concluded its business for the year, that they would not consider the lottery until the legislature reconvened in May for the 2006 session, and that no more votes would be taken. It appeared that the majority coalition of 21 Republican and 5 Democratic senators had held off the lottery for at least another year. But, on Friday afternoon, Sen. Basnight sent out a notice to the Senate that, in fact, the Senate would be meeting on Tuesday, August 30 for a full session and the chamber would be taking votes. When the Senate convened Tuesday morning, two key lottery opponents were absent— Sen. Garwood who was at home in bed on doctor’s orders, and Sen. Harry Brown (R–Onslow) who had reportedly left the country on his honeymoon after the Senate purportedly concluded its work the week before. Although absent from the Senate floor, both Senators had the option of pairing their “no” votes on the lottery with the “yes” votes of present members, thus canceling out any difference caused by their absence and keeping the weight of support against the lottery. Senator Brown was unable to be reached prior to the vote on Tuesday. Senator Garwood originally indicated that he wished to pair with another Senator but then reversed his position later in the day. In the end, neither Senator Brown nor Senator Garwood paired, evening the votes in the Senate at 24 to 24, allowing Lt. Gov. Perdue to cast the deciding vote for the lottery."

Both sides play dirty. It's laughable that democrats are crying foul over this commission thing.

http://www.ncfamily.org/stories/050831s1.html

12/17/2009 10:41:15 PM

indeed. I didnt pay much attention to the lottery stuff...interesting.

12/17/2009 11:04:22 PM

yea... its natural to only pay attention to the shenanigans perpetrated upon your favored side.

12/17/2009 11:14:06 PM

well my "favorite side" would be the conservative one.

I just didnt/dont give a shit about the lottery.

12/17/2009 11:32:44 PM

^x4
In that case vote for democratic county commissioners in Wake County and republican state senators. I for one like NC finally having a lotto though.

12/18/2009 12:10:42 AM

I've never played. Is it fun?

12/18/2009 12:57:30 AM

I have a few times, not many. But the concept of having something in NC where previously people were driving out of NC to spend their money seems like a good thing to me. As a kid taking 15 minute rides to VA to grab a bite to eat, getting some candy, & playing the lotto was something I did with my dad sometimes so I have pleasant memories associated with it.

12/18/2009 2:32:47 AM

Well aren't you the poster child for poor parenting.
And so now we have another generation that still only looks 1 step ahead when making a decision.

Dad:
I could win $1MM dollars!!
Lets drive to VA kids and spend $30 a week on gas/food/lotto ticket.
To bad your dad didn't put that in a fund for you.
$30 x 52 weeks x 10 years = $15,600
but hey maybe i'm wrong and you hit it big with the lotto right?

Kid:
Now associates the lottery as something positve with pleasant memories, even though same memories could have occured if dad had just be a good parent and gone out with his kids just for the pure enjoyment of family fun.
= Lotto must be fun for everyone, we should support NC while having fun. Lets bring the lotto to NC so we can keep $$ in the state.... how could this possibly not be a good idea? it's fool proof!

Now we have a whole new generation blowing their money under the guise of funding education?
It's amazing that we are now somehow in budget crisis for education?

Keep being ignorant as long as the blissful memories are pleasant.
You're broke, the state is broke, education is broke, and soon someone will stand up and say where did the money go? Que the crying over fat cats and greed

12/18/2009 1:42:44 PM

Wow.

I guess every time the dad spent money on going to the movies, buying a toy, or doing anything besides investing money in some fund he was being a shitty dad.

I weep for your children.

Oh, you were just being pedantic about how his dad spent their time and entertainment money because you're against the lottery, got it.

[Edited on December 18, 2009 at 1:48 PM. Reason : t]

12/18/2009 1:46:08 PM

Oh, i'm sorry i guess i missed the part growing up where the lottery was entertaining for children?

The other things you mention could potentially provide enjoyment or value to the child/family.
However I fail to see the correlation with a trip that's sole purpose is to piss money down the drain.

Maybe I'll go up to the mountains this weekend and chuck dollar bills off the side. This is most certain to be in the best interest of my family.

and i never mentioned investing unless your math skills are so poor that you assumed the only way the end value of my calculation could be so large was with some implied rate of return tacked on.

But i guess maybe i am being pedantic with regards to their lifestyle. Maybe I should be more open minded. After all his dad's gambling problem did provide pleasant memories that could have not otherwise been obtained.

12/18/2009 2:26:28 PM

ladies and gentlemen, your new troll...Norrin Radd, parenting genius.

12/18/2009 2:29:03 PM

Quote :

"Oh, i'm sorry i guess i missed the part growing up where the lottery was entertaining for children?"

Quote :

"As a kid taking 15 minute rides to VA to grab a bite to eat, getting some candy, & playing the lotto was something I did with my dad sometimes so I have pleasant memories associated with it."

Quote :

"The other things you mention could potentially provide enjoyment or value to the child/family. However I fail to see the correlation with a trip that's sole purpose is to piss money down the drain."

How is going to the movies not "pissing money down the drain"? What did you actually get from your money? The answer is entertainment, which is exactly what you're buying when you play the lotto, scratch card, or go to the arcade and blow 20 bucks on video games. Are you against all forms of entertainment where there is no tangible value associated with what you're paying for?

I also like how you extrapolated that his dad has a gambling problem because he played the lottery.

12/18/2009 3:11:11 PM

Playing the lottery isn't "fun." It's just a waste of money. The only thing fun about it is the thrill of thinking you might win a lot of money, but most of the time, you will lose.

12/18/2009 3:20:01 PM

there's no defending what happened

it demeans the entire process

12/18/2009 3:20:20 PM

$1 scratch-off tickets were pretty fun to do when I was a kid... then again, part of that might have been from the fact that they weren't sold in NC, so I'd only get to do them when on vacation anyway.

It was enjoyable, even though I knew that I'd win AT BEST another free ticket.

Quote :

"The only thing fun about it is the thrill of thinking you might win a lot of money, but most of the time, you will lose."

You might as well say that the only thing fun about bungee jumping is the thrill of free-falling (but most of the time, you will bounce back up). Granted, it's a more intense thrill with bungee jumping, but the point still stands.

No one can just declare something to be objectively not fun (well, they can, but they'd be wrong. They'd also be an arrogant ass). People can have fun from a wide variety of emotions and feelings, and "thrill" is certainly one of them. Shit, children can have fun with a box full of dirt.

[Edited on December 18, 2009 at 3:35 PM. Reason : .]

12/18/2009 3:25:36 PM

Having sex isn't fun. It's just a waste of time. The only thing fun about it is that it feels really good.

I love your logic, destroyer.

12/18/2009 3:39:28 PM

waiting for rebuttal from either norrin radd or destroyer about their idiotic definitions of fun.

12/18/2009 3:46:47 PM

You should simply watch what actually happened at the December 7, 2009, Wake County Commissioners' meeting--instead of believing the left-wing bullshit noise machine:

http://wake.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=7&clip_id=574

Lindy Brown--a Democrat--suggested that the commissioners continue and they did. And neither Brown nor Stan Norwalk--another Democrat--pushed for a delay on the vote until Betty Lou Ward's return from the bathroom.

12/18/2009 3:55:29 PM

Quote :

"$1 scratch-off tickets were pretty fun to do when I was a kid... then again, part of that might have been from the fact that they weren't sold in NC, so I'd only get to do them when on vacation anyway. It was enjoyable, even though I knew that I'd win AT BEST another free ticket."

You know what else would probably be fun if you were a little kid? Lighting dollar bills on fire. Busting out the car windows with a baseball bat. Killing some forest critters (oh wait, that one is socially acceptable). Here's the point: just because something is fun doesn't mean it's as good of an idea as anything else that's fun. If "fun" involves destroying valuable stuff, it's a good idea to find another activity.

Quote :

"You might as well say that the only thing fun about bungee jumping is the thrill of free-falling (but most of the time, you will bounce back up). Granted, it's a more intense thrill with bungee jumping, but the point still stands."

You're right that something can't be objectively "not fun." When I said that playing the lottery wasn't fun, I'm saying that from my own perspective. I understand math and the odds of winning. I know that the more I play the lottery, the more money I will lose. For that reason, I don't play it at all. Becoming rich for a small fee is fun to think about, but any fun that might have resulted from buying a lottery ticket is quickly counteracted by the feeling of disappointment when I discover that I have not won anything.

Quote :

"Having sex isn't fun. It's just a waste of time. The only thing fun about it is that it feels really good."

Having sex is fun because it feels really good. The investment (the act of having sex) yields a great return (orgasm) almost 100% of the time. It's not a waste of time, because what you get is worth the effort. The same can't be said for lottery tickets.

Quote :

"waiting for rebuttal from either norrin radd or destroyer about their idiotic definitions of fun."

I'm not defining fun. I can tell you what is and is not fun for me. I can list a lot of things that would be fun, but not smart. Back to the burning dollar bills thing, if every week you took your child out on the deck and burned three dollars, and made it a tradition, and the child really enjoyed watching the bills burn, would that be a good idea? Why would you teach your child that gambling is a good use of money, when you could teach them how to have more fun for their money?

[Edited on December 18, 2009 at 4:27 PM. Reason : ]

12/18/2009 4:18:07 PM

Quote :

"Well aren't you the poster child for poor parenting. And so now we have another generation that still only looks 1 step ahead when making a decision. Dad: I could win $1MM dollars!! Lets drive to VA kids and spend $30 a week on gas/food/lotto ticket. To bad your dad didn't put that in a fund for you. $30 x 52 weeks x 10 years = $15,600"

It was more like a couple times a year. I'm not sure how you're including food as a waste of money in that, but lets go for it. $30 x 2 or 3 times a year x 10 years = $600 to $900 Given the entertainment opportunities in the small town I grew up in, not too bad for some pleasant memories and the occasional scratch and win which is fun as a kid and the eating which I would have done somewhere anyways.

12/18/2009 4:41:00 PM

Quote :

"If "fun" involves destroying valuable stuff, it's a good idea to find another activity."

The $1 bill spent on that scratch-off ticket has hardly been destroyed. It's simply changed hands and is now in the cash register at a gas station. If your idea of destroying money is giving it to a business in exchange for goods or services... well, you basically wouldn't be able to function.

It's just cost vs reward, nothing more. The simple joys (or fun, or entertainment, whatever you want to call it) of scratching off a ticket to see if you managed to get three identical values in a row is in this case deemed to be worth $1 by the people buying. If you don't think it's worth that much, you don't spend the dollar... simple as that and just the same as every other entertainment source in life. No different than looking at recent movie releases and thinking "would this movie be worth $X of my money and Y hours of my time?" The idea that "it's gambling, that makes it wasteful" is absurd and irrelevant.

Now, I agree with you with regards to people who compulsively gamble and actually expect to win something or expect it to be profitable to them. They're making terrible choices and do not know how to manage money. For a middle-class family with a bored child who's been sitting in the back seat of a car for hours, it's just a cheap source of entertainment, nothing harmful about it.

[Edited on December 18, 2009 at 4:46 PM. Reason : .]

12/18/2009 4:44:33 PM

OMG

you win hooksaw

jesus christ

and did you see Brown pull a Jar Jar Binks up in that piece

...

the fun begins at about 1:14:30

[Edited on December 18, 2009 at 4:47 PM. Reason : .]

12/18/2009 4:46:18 PM

also, the GOP chairman has man accusations of political maneuvering on the part of the democrats

that this was all a ploy anyways...

I don't know what to think, honestly...

[Edited on December 19, 2009 at 4:22 PM. Reason : /]

12/19/2009 4:22:28 PM

Quote :

"Well aren't you the poster child for poor parenting. "

Wait, what was the poor parenting part, I'm confused. Was it the spending time with the children? Feeding the children? Or was it the spending $1 on a simple game of chance that bought a few moments of fun for the child? I'm going to presume you also thing parents who take their kids to the fair and play the games, or buy a raffle ticket at their kid's school play are also guilty of neglect and abuse?

12/19/2009 4:37:19 PM

i'm not going to read all the mess up to this

but you should NOT be playing the lottery

nor should you be setting that kind of example for your child

the lottery is a tax on stupidity

you should be teaching that playing such a game is a waste of money... it's a good reason to explain the basics of statistics and good money management

12/19/2009 4:51:07 PM

Quote :

"Having sex is fun because it feels really good. The investment (the act of having sex) yields a great return (orgasm) almost 100% of the time. It's not a waste of time, because what you get is worth the effort. The same can't be said for lottery tickets."

As you said, the only thing fun about a lottery ticket is the thrill of thinking you might win a lot of money. Depending on one's temperament, they will get this great return on investment 100% of the time. It's not a waste, because the thrill that one gets from buying a ticket is worth the $1 spent. Maybe not for you, but other people may find it enjoyable - and if they do, then its worth it (for them).

12/19/2009 5:25:33 PM