Top 10 Dinner Party Guests We Would Invite: Meet Bruce Bruce

Greetings to our blog readers in South Korea, France and Canada........

This is our very first entry of this kind; it is an idea that was inspired both by a regular column in the magazine "Washingtonian" http://www.washingtonian.com and the NPR show "Dinner Party Download" http://www.dinnerpartydownload.com which airs on radio stations such as WFDD (88.5FM; Winston-Salem, NC) http://www.wfdd.org

We would like to see a collection of politicians, entertainers, dignitaries and people with radically different politics, such as right-wing pundit George F. Will and liberal documentary filmmaker Michael Moore http://www.michaelmoore.com

Those pictured here are: 1) Film director Paul Thomas Anderson ("Boogie Nights," "There Will Be Blood"), 2) stand-up African-American comedian Bruce Bruce and 3) young adult fiction writer John Green ("The Faults in Our Stars"). As it turns out, we actually know none of these people:

1) Paul Thomas Anderson

2) Bruce Bruce

3) Cong. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah)

4) John Green

5) Zola Jesus (a musician-performer)

6) Ambassador Serdar Kilic of Turkey

7) Valerie Kondos-Field, UCLA women's gymnastics coach

8) Michael Moore

9) Cong. David Price (D-NC)

10. George F. Will

Hooray..........the Shutdown is Over

Park rangers, Washington DC-area taxi drivers and museum guards can rejoice, the federal government shutdown is over.

WRAL-TV out of Raleigh, NC, listed all the House members who voted for and against the House bill that ended the shutdown. Every Democrat in the House supported the measure, but a fair number of Republicans decided enough is enough as well.

In the Tarheel State, the three Republican congressional members who voted to cease the shutdown were Congs. Howard Coble, Robert Pettinger and Patrick McHenry.

The Republicans who towed the arch conservative party line were: Renee Ellmers, Virginia Foxx, Walter Jones, Richard Hudson, Mark Meadows and George Holding.

The Democratic members from North Carolina are: David Price, Mike McIntyre, Mel Watt and G.K. Butterfield.

Both the Great Smoky National Park and the Wright Brothers National Memorial will now be in full operation once again.

http://www.ncdp.org

http://www.ncgop.org

http://www.thehill.com

For a look at how Virginia Congressional members go to our sister blog: http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com