Carolina Politics Online

Beverly Perdue says offshore drilling would not be safe.

In a statement sent to the press this afternoon, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee attacked her rival, Pat McCrory, for supporting oil exploration off the North Carolina coast. 

“North Carolina’s coast is in Hurricane Alley and has been called the Graveyard of the Atlantic for a reason,” she said. “I haven’t seen anything that proves to me that drilling there can be done safely or bring down oil prices.”

Echoing recent attacks, she also accused McCrory of “walking in lock-step” with President Bush, and said the state should focus on encouraging conservation and alternative energy sources.

The statement also cited an Associated Press article that noted this federal report said that it would take decades for offshore oil to reach the market and still might not reduce gas prices.

The N&O

Would Ms. Perdue care to guess how much oil was spilled when Hurricane Katrina roared through the Gulf of Mexico and hit the oil platforms that were there?

Would she also care to tell us just what we’re supposed to do for gas between now and the 20-30 years it’ll take to develop whatever-the-hell these “alternative energy sources” are? Are we just supposed to pay $5, $6, $7 a gallon for gas, Bev?

RALEIGH – Gov. Mike Easley accused legislative leaders Sunday of seeking to “shaft” public school teachers in favor of a tax cut benefiting the wealthy.

“The General Assembly cannot ignore reality,” said the statement attributed to Easley. “The very latest numbers verify that we remain short of the estimates that legislative budget writers are currently using. We recommended specific and sensible ways to fill the budget gap. … I am concerned that this message keeps falling on deaf ears.”

The N&O

Now, I’d like everyone to scroll down a few articles to Sam’s post about how Mrs. Governor Asshat spent over $100,000 of taxpayer money to go to Europe for a “cultural exchange”.  As you read it, please keep in mind that Mrs. and Gov. Asshat just got back from a fantabulous trip to Italy, also paid for on the taxpayers’ dime.

Somewhere a circus is missing one of their clowns. Honestly, I don’t care who replaces him- he can’t leave office soon enough.

Okaaaaay…

DURHAM — Allegations that a local Democratic official and her husband were involved in Satanic rituals that included shackling people to beds, caging them and depriving them of food and water have horrified county party leaders.

Joy Johnson, 30, a third vice-chairwoman of the Durham County Democratic Party and vice chairwoman of the Young Democrats, was charged Friday with two counts of aiding and abetting.

Her husband, Joseph Scott Craig, 25, was charged with second-degree rape, second-degree kidnapping and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon for an incident in January and another in May.

During her time as a party official, Johnson was interested in trying to attract more young Democrats and get them involved in the political process, acquaintances say.

Floyd McKissick, a state senator and a Democrat from Durham, said Monday he had been told Johnson had resigned her posts with the party. He, too, reserved judgment.

“I was absolutely shocked and flabbergasted,” McKissick said. “You never would have suspected allegations that she would have had any participation in these rituals.”

The N&O

Last year, Sanford vetoed a bill that would have allowed law enforcement to collect DNA samples at the time of arrest, and the House decided to uphold the veto. Sanford outlined a number of privacy concerns with the bill. If he vetoes the bill this year it will remain in limbo until January, when the Legislature reconvenes.

All states require DNA samples from convicted sex offenders and upon conviction for certain other crimes. Some states allow samples to be taken at the time of arrest, primarily for felony charges.

The bill Sanford is reviewing contains a number of provisions in addition to collecting pre-conviction samples. It also allows prisoners to request their DNA be tested to prove their innocence and a provision that would allow the family of missing persons to have their loved ones’ DNA tested against a database of unidentified human remains.

The Post and Courier

This same provision is up again in a similar DNA bill that has passed both chambers of the legislature.  I think, as before, Sanford should veto this bill.  I don’t like this idea of collecting a person’s DNA based upon an arrest.  Being arrested is not an indication of guilt.  So what happens to your DNA sample if you are found not guilty?

I agree with the provisions allowing prisoners to demand a DNA test to prove their innocence as well as that which allows family members of missing persons to have their DNA tested against human remains for identification.  Those are good ideas and they should have been put up as their own bills instead of being combined with the forced surrendering upon arrest.

The uniform policy requires all elementary and middle school students to wear uniforms by the 2009-10 school year. High school students would follow a similar dress code the following year. Elementary and middle schools would need to have uniform policies settled by individual, school-based committees, and the county’s four high schools would adopt the uniform policy during the 2010-11 school year.

Board members and school officials have expressed a myriad reasons why they favor uniforms. Some say they decrease violence and conflict among students over designer or expensive clothing. Others say it prevents gang members from wearing gang colors to schools. Others say its purely academic — uniforms instill students with a sense of discipline and help them concentrate on school work.

The Beaufort Gazette

This is becoming a popular conversation across the country and I am curious as to everyone’s opinion.  The wheat side of me says yes, go to uniforms.  Kids obsess too much over keeping up with the Jones’s when it comes to clothing and appearance.  Kids from poorer families can’t afford the Diesel jeans and the $150 sneakers.  I agree that dressing better subconsciously implements a sense of discipline and kids need that.  I mean, I am a mature adult (well, an adult anyway) and I have to wear certain clothes to work.  I can’t show up to the office in jeans and a ratty t-shirt.

But, the kid in me loves the frosted side and I say you’re only a kid once and shouldn’t a child’s appearance really be up to their parents?  If some girls are going to school looking like teenaged whores isn’t that their parents’ responsibility for letting them out of the house dressed that way to begin with?

Call Senator DeMint and let him know you support his efforts on this issue!

The housing lobby is frustrated by the delay in passing the Mortgage Bailout Bill and has decided to target Senators Jim DeMint (R-SC) and John Ensign (R-NV).  Recently, lobbyists representing housing industry have started putting pressure on these two Senators whom they view to be the source of the delay.

The motive of the housing lobby should be obvious – if the $300 billion bailout is passed, then they will stand to benefit greatly from not having to take responsibility for their bad loans.  However, Senators DeMint and Ensign have been on the right side of this issue from day one and are leading the fight to expose the bill for what it is: an irresponsible bailout for house flippers and their banks.

Please take a few minutes to call 1-866-928-3035 to express your support for Senators DeMint and Ensign and encourage them to continue to stand firm for limited, responsible government.

Andrew Brown
Federal and State Campaigns
FreedomWorks
601 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
North Building, Suite 700
Washington, D.C. 20004-2601
(202) 783-3870 phone
(214) 336-5273 cell
(202) 942-7649 fax
www.FreedomWorks.org

Twice in the past two years, Mary Easley, the wife of Gov. Mike Easley, took taxpayer-funded trips across the Atlantic to tour museums.

Her travels — a trip to France in 2007 and one to Russia and Estonia in May — were paid for with $109,000 of taxpayer money.

Gov. Mike Easley did not go on either trip, which were not publicly disclosed at the time.

Mary Easley did not respond to requests for an interview, but expense reports and other documents released in response to a public records request indicate the trips were considered cultural exchanges to build links between North Carolina and officials in the countries visited.

The News & Observer

Cultural exchanges my ass.  $109,000 for just two trips?  I could take 20 trips around the world with that kind of money.  This is a clear case of a government official abusing their position to enrich their family and friends.  We see it all the time, but they usually get away with it because too many voters are uninformed and too lazy to do their homework and they put them right back in office to waste some more.

The governor’s office referred questions to the Department of Cultural Resources, which sponsored the trips.

Easley’s been crying about scaling back tax cuts in the budget.  How about instead the General Assembly save some money by eliminating the Department of Cultural Resources.  They obviously can’t manage their money appropriately.  Besides, what is the government’s need for this exactly?

This appeared in the News & Record this morning.

But an FEC complaint from the N.C. Republican Party claiming Greensboro state Sen. Kay Hagan, a Democrat, had taken $185,000 in illegal campaign contributions in her bid to unseat Republican U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole got our attention.

Now get a load of this conversation the N & R had with a spokesman for the NC GOP.

He explained the party thought Hagan had gotten contributions in excess of legal limits because she had a bunch of donations from people who were related to one another — husband and wife mostly — that came in the same amount on the same day.

People can’t do that? Scoop asked.

Oh, they can, Woodcox explained, but in some circumstances they have to write separate checks or the campaign has to do a little additional paperwork.

And you have evidence that wasn’t done?

“No, I wouldn’t say there’s direct evidence,” Woodcox said. “But we think the Hagan campaign should have to show their work.”

Scoop called a few folks of nonpartisan stripes to vet the GOP’s claim, at least two of whom used words to describe the GOP’s complaint that we can’t print.

Puh…..lease………..

No wonder the North Carolina Republican Party can’t win a governor’s race or a state legislative majority.  If this is the kind of political sleaze they are accustomed to resorting to Dole had better be well ahead of her game.  There are plenty of real issues that people actually care about that they could use to paint Hagan as out of touch with North Carolina voters.  They can hit her on being unwilling to support offshore drilling while we have rising energy prices.  They can go after her on being the weaker candidate on immigration enforcement.  There are plenty of things to pick from.  This kind of obtuse smear campaign makes them look juvenile and petty.

So, a word to the North Carolina Republican Party.  If you want to win your big races this year you better wise up and ditch the childish antics.  People don’t want to hear it.

The Charlotte Observer did an exposé on Senator DeMint and the growing reputation he has been gaining among conservatives not just in South Carolina, but across the country.  For several months now DeMint has been on the forefront of trying to pull the Republican Party back to its Reagan roots and while among the members of Congress it’s been somewhat of a futile effort, it hasn’t gone unnoticed among Republicans nationwide.

The tipping point for DeMint was the 2006 congressional elections: Democrats regained control of Congress after spending had skyrocketed under GOP rule, while sex and lobbying scandals brought down prominent Republican lawmakers. “There was vastly too much spending, a lot of it in direct earmarks that enriched some of our own members and ended up in scandals and the betrayal of the American people,” DeMint said.

DeMint added: “It’s just time to recognize that we’ve got to reshape the Republican Party if we’re going to win the trust of the American people.”

When Republicans ran on common sense fiscal conservativism and beliefs in limited government they cleaned up across the board in 1994.  They could do it again, but they need to rebuild from the ground up.  DeMint gets it and he will be a strong leader in this movement.  If the GOP does indeed return to their small government ideals who knows.  They may even win me over.

John McCain traveled to Montreat over the weekend and met up with legendary evangelist Billy Graham and his son.  I imagine this is part of McCain’s attempt at courting evangelical and conservative Christian voters which he will need if he wants to win the presidency.  McCain has ruffled the feathers of these groups in the past by making some derogatory remarks directed at the “religious right.”

Republican governors candidate Pat McCrory says North Carolina should consider allowing offshore drilling as a way to meet its energy needs.

The Charlotte mayor said Monday that drilling would also create jobs and bring new revenue to the state.

Charlotte Observer

Do more than consider it.  McCrory should make a promise to roll with it.  Offshore drilling is a winning issue with gas at $4 a gallon and climbing.  The notion that it will hurt tourism is ridiculous.  Those rigs are so far out you can’t see them from the shore.

A teenager was decapitated by a roller coaster after he hopped a pair of fences and entered a restricted area Saturday at Six Flags Over Georgia, authorities said.

Six Flags officials are uncertain why the unidentified 17-year-old from Columbia, S.C. scaled two six-foot fences and passed signs that said the restricted area was both off-limits and dangerous to visitors, spokeswoman Hela Sheth said in a news release.

Authorities were investigating reports from witnesses who said the teenager jumped the fences to retrieve a hat he lost while riding the Batman roller coaster, said Cobb County police Sgt. Dana Pierce. Police have declined to release the teenager’s name until an autopsy is completed.

The teen was struck and killed by the roller coaster “while it was in operation,” according to the park’s news release. Police said the ride was going full-speed when the teen was struck.

WBT

I’ve read about this on a few different message forums and have seen some pretty harsh comments regarding this kid’s fatal lack of judgment.  I’ve seen accusations of this incident being “Darwinism in action,” or “thinning the herd.”  I’m not going to say anything that crass.  Sure, those comments may be true.  What the kid did was totally stupid, but let’s all remember how much common sense we had back at that age.  Anyone who never took a stupid and/or dangerous risk when they were young raise your hand.  (Anyone who raises their hand is a liar) When you’re that age you have a false confidence that you are somehow “bullet proof.”  Generally, you wise up as you get older, though some never do.  It’s a sad tragedy and the family deserves everyone’s deepest sympathies….

For now.

This is where I become polically incorrect.  I guarantee that somewhere right now there is a filthy, blood sucking lawyer who is salivating at the opportunity of calling up this kid’s parents and encouraging them go after Six Flags for tens of millions, all for his own greed.  It doesn’t matter that there were fences up and the kid jumped both of them.  It doesn’t matter that there were signs on these fences noting the danger and indicating the area was a restricted zone.  None of that matters because these are the components of your modern day frivolous lawsuit.  If these parents sue Six Flags, they lose all of my sympathy and deserve to be shredded to pieces up and down the blogosphere and throughout the media.

While the economic is on a down turn and unemployment is up, South Carolina families are making their sacrifices to cut back on unnecessary expenses to make room for rising costs of living.  If the government truly was of the people, for the people and by the people, we’d see the same kind of belt tightening in Columbia.  Sadly, Americans threw away their responsibility a long time ago and government runs amok.

The Competitive Community Grants Committee doled out $10 million on Friday all over the state to what are more or less legislators’ pet projects.  The Governor has been fighting this process with the legislature for several years but like everyone else the same Republican legislature that continuously lies about being conservative won’t give up their greedy lust for taxpayer pork funded waste in their own districts so they can buy their reelections every two years.  While voters did manage to dump some of the swine in Columbia, plenty of them were given a mandate to continue their waste and abuse for at least another two years.

The Post and Courier has a list of what the allocated funds will be spent on in the greater Charleston area.  A few things on that list are legitimate infrastructure spending, but most of it is unbridled waste.

CHARLESTON

–$100,000 for the Maritime Heritage Foundation

–$85,000 for Middleton Place projects

–$75,000 for Drayton Hall improvements

–$65,000 for Trident Outreach Ministries Inc.

–$40,000 for the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition

–$20,000 for the Charleston Academy of Music

–$15,000 for the National Council of Jewish Women

–$10,508 for School’s Out!

–$5,000 for the Powder Magazine living history program

DORCHESTER COUNTY

–$18,000 for an Upper Dorchester County Historical Society restoration project

GOOSE CREEK

–$20,000 for a hiking and biking trail at the municipal center

JOHNS ISLAND

–$42,000 for Rural Mission Inc.

MONCKS CORNER

–$40,000 for a new sports complex

MOUNT PLEASANT

–$100,000 for Tri-County Project Care Inc.

NORTH CHARLESTON

–$50,000 for Closing the Gap in Health Care Inc.

–$50,000 for Hospice of Charleston

RAVENEL

–$20,000 for a town sewer line and pump station

ST. GEORGE

–$30,000 for upgrades to the Eastport Industrial Park pump station

–$30,000 for Keeper of the Wild

SUMMERVILLE

–$30,000 for Eagle Harbor Children’s Home

–$25,000 for Pine Ridge Fire Department

–$2,975 for the Veterans Affairs office

WALTERBORO

–$50,000 for the Great Swamp Sanctuary Discovery Center

–$38,000 for Colleton Improvement Collaborative.

RALEIGH — Gov. Mike Easley, seeking cost savings to head off a potential revenue shortfall in the coming fiscal year, urged Democratic legislative leaders Friday to consider scrapping some agreed-upon tax relief and spend less on state employee salaries.

The governor’s appeal to fellow Democrats came a day after he warned lawmakers that tax collections would probably be $70 million less than projected last month when the current fiscal year ends Tuesday.

Charlotte Observer

Because God forbid we could just back on the spending instead, right?  Imagine the horror if we cut back on some of that corporate welfare.  Picture the terror if we cut back on some Medicaid entitlements.  It’s always stick it to the working folks instead.

The party, which asked for correspondence since 1995 between the mayor, the city manager and three companies that have a large presence in the city, defended the request. Democrats said residents have a right to know how he has performed on the job.

“The North Carolina Democratic Party is not ashamed to hold Pat McCrory accountable,” party spokeswoman Kerra Bolton said late Friday. “He ought to answer for how he is a steward of taxpayer dollars.”

McCrory, who is still mayor, said City Attorney Mac McCarley told him it would cost more than $100,000 to comply with the two requests and take 1,000 hours for workers to complete. The requests were dated Wednesday.

Asheville Citizen-Times

Yes, it is a fishing expedition, but I also agree that voters should know how he had handled the Charlotte coffers during his tenure.  What is funny though, is listening to the Democratic Party actually claim to be concerned about how tax dollars are spent.

Host:
Americans for Prosperity – NC
Type:
Causes – Rally
Time and Place
Date:
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Time:
11:30am – 1:00pm
Location:
Halifax Mall (Behind the General Assembly), Raleigh, NC
Street:
Between Wilmington Street, Salisbury Street, and Lane Street
City/Town:
Raleigh, NC

View Google Map
Google
MapQuest
Microsoft
Yahoo
Contact Info
Phone:
9198391011
Email:
info@afpnc.org

Bank of America has taken more than $6.5 billion in write-downs of securities linked to shoddy mortgages and has drastically downsized its investment bank and cut more than 3,000 jobs. Wachovia has posted $5.3 billion in market-related write-downs since last summer and is downsizing its own investment bank. It has cut 500 jobs so far and slashed its long sacrosanct dividend.

Since Mr. Thompson’s ouster, rumors have whipped through Wall Street and Charlotte’s Tryon Street – which divides the city’s downtown into unofficial Wachovia and Bank of America territories – that Wachovia was open to a buyer. Charlotte is fretting over whether it can remain the last great U.S. banking center outside of New York.

Santa Barbara News-Press

This really worries me.  I don’t work for either Wachovia or Bank of America, but I do work for a bank in an office on Tryon St just a block away from BOA’s headquarters and another two blocks from Wachovia’s.  What’s going on with these two banks should concern every man, woman, and child in the Greater Charlotte region.  Yes, there is more to Charlotte than Bank of America and Wachovia, but let’s face it.  They made this city what it is.  They started the mass migration to Charlotte by people all over the country.  Other industries in the area have prospered through their success.  What will happen to this area if they collapse?

Former newspaper publisher Bill Collins announced earlier this month that he was collecting signatures to run against former Sen. Mike Rose as an independent in November. Rose defeated Sen. Randy Scott in the Republican primary.

Collins said he would join the Republican caucus if he wins the election. He then announced several locations where people could sign the petition, including Mr. K’s Piggly Wiggly on Cedar Street.

Some Republicans started urging people not to shop at any place that had one of Collins’ petitions. They were motivated by a resolution the Dorchester County Republican Party’s executive committee unanimously passed urging Republicans to oppose the petition by “all legal and ethical means.” The resolution urged opposition “by all means possible” before some party leaders said that was too much and toned it down.

The Post and Courier

Can somebody clue the Dorchester GOP into what a Representative Republic is.  You don’t own that Senate seat!  The man has a right to run and these childish antics by members of the county Republican Party are going to alienate voters against them.  Collins is a third party candidate.  Odds are he’s going to lose.  The odds are really, really good that he’s going to lose because third party candidacies rarely catch on.  Right now the Dorchester Republicans are helping to lessen those odds and their state party chairman is encouraging to keep it up!

The American Civil Liberties Union is opening an office in Charleston next week, the first in the state.

The location at 12 Liberty St. and the timing of the opening ceremony were planned to highlight the organization’s mission, Interim Executive Director Graham Boyd said Thursday.

The Wednesday ribbon cutting is two days before Independence Day. The ceremony will be at the Old Exchange Building on East Bay Street, where South Carolina leaders ratified the U.S. Constitution in 1788.

“It symbolizes our mission, which is to defend the Constitution,” Boyd said. “A lot of organizations raise their money by trying to vilify the ACLU, and that’s fine if that’s what works for them.”

The Post and Courier

Wow.  I had no idea that South Carolina didn’t have an ACLU office.  I am neither pro-ACLU nor anti-ACLU.  I think they have done some good things, but I also feel that they go overboard at times too.

Update: I was contacted this evening by Mr. Boyd and he was gracious enough to send me their official press release on this event.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 26, 2008

CONTACT: Graham Boyd, ACLU, (843) 720-1423; gboyd@aclu.org

CHARLESTON, S.C. – The American Civil Liberties Union will announce the opening of its new South Carolina Office July 2 at a press conference and ceremonial ribbon-cutting that will include Charleston Mayor Joe Riley and a host of other political and community leaders.

The press conference, intentionally timed to coincide with Independence Day as a way of highlighting the ACLU’s historic commitment to preserving the principles contained in the Bill of Rights, will be held at Charleston’s Old Exchange Building – site of South Carolina’s ratification of the U.S. Constitution in 1788. The event will mark the official opening of the South Carolina Office and the creation of a new powerful voice on behalf of civil liberties across the state.

At the press conference, Graham Boyd, a native South Carolinian and the Interim Executive Director of the ACLU South Carolina Office, will announce the details of what will be a broad, non-partisan approach to

defending constitutional rights in the state and new commitments to engaging the state’s civil liberties community and seeking and responding to the opinions of all South Carolinians.

WHO: Graham Boyd, Interim Executive Director of the ACLU South Carolina Office, Charleston Mayor Joe Riley and other South Carolina political and community leaders.

WHAT: A press conference to announce the opening of the new ACLU South Carolina Office.

WHEN: Wednesday July 2, 2008, 2 p.m. ET

WHERE: Old Exchange Building

122 E. Bay Street
Charleston, S.C. 29401

Additional information about the ACLU can be found online at:

www.aclu.org <http://www.aclu.org/>

Motorists traveling on Broad River Boulevard near Robert Smalls Middle School and Stuart Point Road near Whale Branch Middle School will be stopped and asked to produce their driver’s license, registration and proof of insurance.

The checkpoints are conducted to enforce all South Carolina state laws with an added emphasis on violations related to driver’s licenses, vehicle registrations, and insurance, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

The Beaufort Gazette

This was yesterday.  Now they’re going to stop us just to make sure we’re even supposed to be driving.  Papers please!