Brief notes

I had planned to close with this since its the only important point in this post I' just say Boycott bigotry!!!

Kevin is right, summer is a tough time to blog. The beach calls, there are lots of photos to take, process and post.
Thanks dear readers for you patience.
Herewith some brief thoughts on things political local, state and national:
Local:

• The filing period for municipal elections is over and Monty was right and I was wrong. Far and away the most interesting race will the Mayoral race in KDH. Incumbent Ray Sturza vs. former Mayor Sherry Rollason. Its not clear what the issues will be though I expect Ray's county employment will be a topic that gets a lot of discussion.
  
• I was wrong when I predicted that only one incumbent Commissioner in Southern Shores would run for reelection. All 3 have filed. This will be another interesting race. We'll see if the voters in TTTWlMGttB really want more of Mayor Don Smith's style of leadership or whether they want to the incumbents who value substance over rhetoric. You have to wonder just how much the Mayor's (and I use that term loosely) call for new blood after a budget defeat motivated the candidates. If this were basketball the coach would have cut out the article and posted it on the bulletin board. Those were fighting words.
  
• Curiously, in Nags Head the incumbents have no challengers. This after the voters rejected the current boards plan to raise taxes for beach nourishment. I guess this shows the political wisdom of holding the referendum. No backlash when the voters know they will have a role in decisions.
  (Disclaimer: I am assistant treasurer for the Committee to elect Bob Oakes.)
  
• By the way, congrats to Nags Head and KDH for their cooperative venture in fire protection. If you haven't followed the story. KDH will build and operate a new fire station on the Nags Head/KDH line. The station's primary response area will include the northern part of Nags Head and southern KDH. The costs will be shared.
  Fire service needs don't always break along political boundaries. Each town needs a station in the area of the new plant. This plan avoids a lot of duplication. Fire stations are expensive to build and even more expensive to staff. Personnel costs can run over a half million for a full crew 24/7/365.
  
• The county board won't walk away from extending water lines on Roanoke Island soI guess I am going to have to answer my puzzler one of these days.
  

Some state and federal notes

• I have been reading a new state blog lately. Its written largely by Laura Leslie of WUNC (NPR in Chapel Hill). Its well written, relatively unbiased and provides a good view of what's happening in Raleigh. Read Friday's post on the budget battle between the House and the Senate w/ Gov. Easley kibitzing.
  
• Saw a good story, but I can't find where I read it. It seems that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sent out an urgent call for his staff and the Democratic National Committee to meet. The urgent topic was the fact that the Senate was running out of futile useless gestures and unless somebody come up witn more meaningless political theater the Senate might actually have to do something meaningful or at least talk about it. I don't know about you but I found the Senate's all nighter on Iraq worse than sophomoric. I found it offensive that our nation's leaders would waste all that time to make a point the entire country knows all to well. They need to start dealing with other issues and they need to do more than just talk. They need to develop and implement solutions for the problems that are facing this county. It is increasingly clear that our system is badly broken and in need of major fixing, yet the only people who can fix it are the one's who benefit from its being broken. (More on this topic another time I hope)
  

Ciao