Year-End Awards

AND The WINNERS ARE:

Tin Woodsman Get a Heart Award: Chamber of Commerce for their refusal to endorse Green bonds. Aaron what were you thinking?

Cowardly Lion Get Courage Award: Anonymous and pseudo anonymous posters to OP.org (includes myself but is awarded especially to the folks posting about the homeless at http://www.orangepolitics.org/archives/000118.html )

Scarecrow Get a Brain Award: Fred Black campaigned hard for this one (see above) but nearly disqualified himself by showing that he can indeed count up to 3 http://www.orangepolitics.org/archives/000115.html#001196 His continued ability to add extraneous "facts" to the discussions overcomes that accident.

Great OZ Man Behind the Curtin Award: James Moeser and Carolina North. Nuff said.

Horse of a Different Color Award: Each Carolina North Master Plan, which changes shape and color at each presentation.

Emerald City Award: Carrboro the place most likely to have munchkins (and more according the the highly observant Todd http://www.orangepolitics.org/archives/000115.html#001208 ). BTW Public places need not be publicly owned as defined in say "The Good Great Place" by Ray Oldenburg.

Toto Award for Watchdog Role In Orange Politics: orangepolitics.org as nominated by Mark http://www.orangepolitics.org/archives/000115.html#001199 -- unless we anonymice polute it completely with our inanity.

Witches – Wicked and Good: All nominees accepted without designation.

Gregor Samsa,

First, read what I wrote: Bill Strom is a member and he didn't get an endorsement. Your focus on just Chapel Hill Town Council is much to narrow; why don't the Mayor, the Carrboro Board and the School Board not count? Thus, your charrge in being "inbred" just isn't accurate.

Second, "google" your name and you will learn a lot.

Third, enjoy the "roach hotel."

Hey, how about that Toto Political Watchdog award going to Ruby Sinreich and OrangePolitics.org!

-Mark Chilton

I'd just like to point out that WSM is NOT a "public gathering space." It is part of CARR MILL MALL and is PRIVATE PROPERTY. People can, and are, "trespassed" (banned) from CMM on a regular basis--by mall management. To be banned from PUBLIC areas one needs a court order.

Just pointing out the facts.

Melanie

(No, I've got no beef with CMM--just the concept that is public space...)

Melanie

WSM may be "private property", but they allow women without underwear to hula hoop during family concert gatherings. I love it.

I would give OC Commissioner Barry Jacobs two awards this year

Fuzzy Headed Liberal Without a Real Job Award - for his efforts to portray himself as a conservative in a year that he will run for State House.

Agricultural Excellence in Cannabis Sativa Award - for his gardens at Moorefields.

Fred,

Love the way you work with numbers. 75% of the CAN endorsements for Chapel Hill Town Council were for CAN members or former members. All CAN members or former members that were candidates got CAN endorsements. Not having CAN members as candidates in some races lets you tell yourself that it's not so inbred.

But what I really envy is your apparent knowledge of porn stars! What is going on behind that curtin?

Don't act like a winner; you're only a nominee.

Peace,

Gregor (writing from the roach hotel)

Nominees for The Wizard of Oz Awards for Orange Politicians

Tin Woodsman Get a Heart Award

? Roger Perry for his clean sweep of the native trees at Meadowmont

? Bruce Runberg for his win-lose approach to Gown-Town relations

? Chamber of Commerce for their refusal to endorse Green bonds

Cowardly Lion Get Courage Award

? Ed Harrison for his “gun at my head” excuse for his chiller plant vote

? Other council members who voted like Ed but were not nearly as honest about their situation.

? Anonymous and pseudo anonymous posters to OP.org

Scarecrow Get a Brain Award

? Open for nominations – too large a field to name individually

Great OZ Man Behind the Curtin Award

? James Moeser and Carolina North. Nuff said.

? Fred Black and his CAN for their charade socials and forums that were followed by endorsements of CAN members. (Not to be confused with CAN of Durham).

? Don Hartman for his stealth management of the stealth Jim Ward campaign that could not report contributions on time despite years of experience in local politics

Horse of a Different Color Award

? Seabiscuit representing the transportation plan for Carolina North. Never looks the same at any given time and vanishes from the storyline very early on.

? Each Carolina North Master Plan, which changes shape and color at each presentation.

? Mayor Foy before and after the election.

Emerald City Award

? Carrboro. The most bike friendly. The best farmer’s market. The best public gathering spaces – Town Commons and Weaver Street. The most trees on public and private spaces. The most likely to have Munchkins.

? Hillsborough for their resistance to the cement plant and a new environmental awareness.

? Chapel Hill. For their new tree ordinance. And for having the color green stand for the same things that red white and blue stand for in North Raleigh.

Toto Award for Watchdog Role In Orange Politics

? WCHL

? Chapel Hill Herald

? Chapel Hill News

? News and Observer

? Independent

? None of the above

Witches – Wicked and Good

Await OP.org contributors to name them

Some might be

? Howard Lee for placing into potential legislation the removal of zoning power of the Town. A ghost that still haunts Gown-Town relations.

? Jim Heavner for the return of WCHL to town politics

? Jim Protzman as the Queen of England

I also wish to create an award, the "Please Don't Confuse Me with the Facts Because I'm Not Really Interested in Facts" Award. One nominee is Gregor Samsa (and I'm not sure which one it is - the one from Prague or the porn star) and the other nominee doesn't even need to be named.

Gregor nominated me for an award, the "Great OZ Man Behind the Curtin Award," and stated: " Fred Black and his CAN for their charade socials and forums that were followed by endorsements of CAN members. (Not to be confused with CAN of Durham)."

First, it's not my "CAN."

Second, here is who the CAN Board endorsed and their membership status at the time of the election:

Kevin Foy - No

Jim Ward - No (has been a member)

Dianne Bachman - Yes

Terri Tyson- Yes

Andrea Rohrbacher - No

Michael Nelson - No

Joal Broun - No

Alex Zaffron - No

Mark Chilton - No

Elizabeth Carter- No

Gloria Faley- No (has been a member)

Edward Sechrest, Jr- No

So let's do the math: 12 endorsements, 2 members, for a whopping 16.6666% of the endorsements to members, or 83.3333% to non-members. If we count both current and former members, we get up to 33.3333%, not even close to a majority.

Third, the only charade seems to be Gregor Samsa prentending that he knows what he is talking about.

Oh, by the way, member Bill Strom was not endorsed. Now, Gregor Samsa, tell me who your group endorsed and what was/is their membership status.

Dan

Go back and read Weath of Nations, and the Marxist Manifesto and you will see who has it right on this one.

How have we "shirked their responsibility" in this area by allowing the market to determine pricing of homes, which are higher than the rest of the state?

Todd

In the spirit of my crusade to destroy the school system as we know it & consign millions of hapless children to ignorance I would award the:

Wizard of Oz Award: To the real estate community and go-go growthers for their role in the school merger issue.

Mark

In memory of Karl Marx, I would give the Karl Marx localized socialism award to both Carrboro and Chapel Hill for "affordable housing" regulations that simply re-distribute income, and destroy the markets natural supply and demand dynamics. Adam Smith would be rolling over in his grave, but Karl would be proud!

Actually, Todd, you have it backwards. Smith believed that capitalism required a social infrastructure to succeed. It is he who would be proud of Chapel Hill/Carrboro efforts but be disappointed in capitalists having shirked their responsibility so as to require government intervention..

Marx would see these efforts as symptomatic of a corrupt economic system. He would roll in his grave at the suggestion that such minimal efforts to deal with the damage from capitalism would make him proud.