BlueNC

Congratulations to the new frontpage team ... you are seriously kicking butt. Readership was up significantly last week, with more than 4700 unique visitors reported by Google Analytics. Very cool to be closing in on 5K again.

I was told this evening that anonymous people from here, I presume, complained to Laura Leslie (why her I have no idea) that I post as "others" on this site. I am me on this site and unafraid to use my name and say what I think as I know many others do. I know many others who post as themselves. And I know a few who use other names. I do not agree with the latter because I do not think you hide behind anonymity to lob bombs at people.

I have complained on here (because if you are going to complain, use your name and put it out there) about anonymous comments that come very close to slander here and at a minimum are character assassination which has nothing to do with "blue" or "nc"

With the new year just one week old, it feels as though North Carolina has stepped onto a new ride at the State Fair. The Tarheel Tornado – a sickening rollercoaster through Dante’s seventh level of political hell.

Republican incompetence in the NC Department of Agriculture is costing North Carolina millions. They can't even create a spreadsheet? Pathetic.

This year we want BlueNC to be a more valuable resource for people in search of insights and information. One simple way to do that is to operate as a point guard, sharing content smoothly and purposefully.

Right now, we have a short list of North Carolina-focused "Places to Think" under the Right Rail. What sites should be added to that list?

We also want to create a new list of what might be considered "essentials." What sites should be on that list?

This is your chance to help set the agenda.

Pretty please?

Can you have student loans forgiven if you are a teacher?

Do good. Be nice. Have fun.

When it comes to all things progressive, 2011 pretty much sucked. Tea Party Republicans went on a rampage, with business interests and religious fanatics taking the public agenda in a stranglehold. Decades of North Carolina progress swirled down the toilet in a single legislative session under Thom Tillis' leadership. Will 2012 be more of the same? Not if we can help it.

The BlueNC feature below is an automated Twitter feed. You can get your stuff included here simply by adding #bluenc to whatever Tweets or retweets you ordinarily write.

Think of this as our gossip column. Feel free to flood the place.