Carolina Politics Online

The Charlotte City Council agreed Monday to increase the NASCAR Hall of Fame budget by $32 million to boost exhibits and pay for unexpected building costs.

The 9-2 decision came after council members chastised city staff and other hall planners for not telling them sooner about the price hike. Council members complained of early, “lowball” estimates of the exhibit costs. They asked how the extra money would help attendance. And they said they felt trapped.

The Charlotte Observer

I put some highly partisan postings on this here website. But let it be known to one and all that I’m hardly a Republican apologist. This article in particular is a good example of why I’m not cozy with Mayor Pat and why it’s still possible I won’t vote for him in November.

I’m looking for a good steward of my tax money. I’m looking for someone who realizes that money in my pockets is more important than a government project. And I’m definitely looking for someone who understands that as neato-riffic as a NASCAR museum may be, it’s not the taxpayers’ job to subsidize it.

Council members Patsy Kinsey and Michael Barnes opposed the increase. Kinsey said she could not support it while residents are worrying so much about the economy.

“I just in good conscience can’t vote for $32 million,” she said.

They’re absolutely right. What does Mayor Pat say?

Mayor Pat McCrory said he doubted this would be the last problem with the project. But he, too, urged council not to hold back the extra funding.

“Now is not the time to do a second-rate project,” McCrory said. “This has got to be a sustainable project that has repeat visitors.”

It was only days ago that Wachovia Corp. appeared headed toward a deal with Morgan Stanley, a merger that would have moved a piece of staggering old Wall Street south and further established the Queen City as a new hub of the American financial system.

Instead, only Wall Street’s pain came to Charlotte’s Tryon Street.

Crushed by its disastrous 2006 acquisition of mortgage lender Golden West Financial Corp., Wachovia succumbed Monday to the global financial crisis, agreeing to sell its banking operations to New York’s Citigroup Inc. for a mere $2.1 billion in a deal arranged by federal regulators.

Yes, Bank of America still stands on Tryon Street and is now one of the “Big Three” U.S. banks. But the Wachovia collapse leaves Charlotte bracing for the worst — the loss of thousands of high-paying bank jobs that helped turn the state’s largest city into a booming center of the New South.

The N&O

Like Sam the Admin, I am deeply worried about what effect this will have not just on Charlotte, but on the entire state. I hope all our readers down in Charlotte can make it through the inevitable layoffs that will come from this merger.

A campaign ad for state Attorney General Roy Cooper showcases his dismissal of charges against Duke University lacrosse players last year.

The TV ad includes a videotape of Cooper’s news conference in April 2007, when he announced that the charges “were the result of a tragic rush to accuse and a failure to verify serious allegations.”

The ad credits Cooper for modernizing the state’s crime lab by adding DNA experts. In the lacrosse case, analysts found no DNA evidence to tie the players to an escort service dancer who claimed they had raped her.

The N&O

OK Roy, we’ll play that game. If you’re so proud of taking over the Duke Lacrosse case and coming to the obvious conclusion that those three guys were being railroaded, would you mind telling us why it took you SO LONG to finally act? Where were you when most people around here started smelling rotten fish emanating from the DA’s office?

While you’re at it, any explanation as to why corruption is still rampant in your party even after you’ve been in the AG’s office for the last 8 years would be great.

With the registration deadline now only 10 days away, thousands of Wake County voters have flooded the Wake Board of Elections with applications to register or update their information in time to vote in the Nov. 4 presidential election.

As of Sept. 24, Wake County had 561,279 registered voters — 236,357 registered as Democrats, 179,495 registered as Republicans and the remaining 145,291 registered as unaffiliated.

The N&O

I’ve had a death in the family and have to travel up north for the rest of the week so I will more than likely not be writing anything else until the weekend because I don’t think I’ll really be anywhere that has Internet access.

As I’m sure you have heard by now, the $700 billion bailout failed to pass the House of Representatives today by a mere 13 votes.  I was opposed to this bailout, so I am rather pleased, for now.  They’ll try something again.  I just have a huge issue with this theory that corporations can privatize all of their gains but socialize their losses.  That just doesn’t seem quite right to me.

This video pretty much sums up my thoughts.

So how did your representative vote?  Did they vote to use your tax dollars to bail out Wall Street fat cats or did they vote to save your tax dollars?

Voting for the bailout were:

• Bob Etheridge (D-NC-02)
• David Price (D-NC-04)
• Mel Watt (D-NC-12)
• Brad Miller (D-NC-13)
• Henry Brown (R-SC-01)
• Joe Wilson (R-SC-02)
• Bob Inglis (R-SC-04)
• John Spratt (D-SC-05)
• Jim Clyburn (D-SC-06)

Voting against the heinous bailout were:

• G.K. Butterfield (D-NC-01)
• Walter Jones (R-NC-03)
• Virginia Foxx (R-NC-05)
• Howard Coble (R-NC-06)
• Mike McIntyre (D-NC-07)
• Robin Hayes (R-NC-08)
• Sue Myrick (R-NC-09)
• Patrick McHenry (R-NC-10)
• Heath Shuler (D-NC-11)
• Gresham Barrett (R-SC-03)

Boy, the South Carolina delegation sure sucks a nut. David Price is no surprise.  He loves using your money to give special favors to all of his corporate friends.  Same with Henry Brown.  I expected Watt to be on the yea list as well because he is a Socialist.  Overall it looks to be just about split down the middle.  Now you know who is on your side and who is pining for the Rockefellers.

I put it off for as long as I could. Like a man waiting until his toothache became unbearable before going to the dentist. Or waiting until the little arrow on your fuel gauge is on ‘E’ before sucking it up and taking out a second mortgage to buy gas. I suppose it makes more sense to take those painful and unpleasant necessities head-on and get them over with as soon as possible; like ripping off a band-aid or watching The View without commercial interruptions. But human nature isn’t like that, and we insist upon putting off uncomfortable unpleasantness until the very last minute.

 

And so when my Florida car registration finally expired, I knew that the inevitable had come- I needed to suck it up and go to the North Carolina DMV.

 

Let’s cut right to the chase- I have dealt with the DMVs of four separate states: New York, Virginia, Florida, and now North Carolina. New York and Florida in particular aren’t exactly known for high-speed government efficiency. And yet I can say without hesitation or pause that my experience with the North Carolina DMV was the worst I’ve had the misfortune of experiencing. The absolute worst.

 

It’s not the fault of the office workers, who seemed friendly and dedicated to their jobs. No, it was the system in which they worked- a fiendish union of archaic bureaucracy and dumbass rules joining forces to make the average North Carolinian’s day just a little bit suckier. How? Read on.

Continue Reading »

I was dreading this.

NEW YORK (AP) — In the latest byproduct of the widening global financial crisis, Citigroup Inc. will acquire the banking operations of Wachovia Corp. in a deal facilitated by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Citigroup will absorb up to $42 billion of losses from Wachovia’s $312 billion loan portfolio, with the FDIC covering any remaining losses, the government agency said Monday. Citigroup also will issue $12 billion in preferred stock and warrants to the FDIC.

The deal greatly expands Citigroup’s retail outlets and secures its place among the U.S. banking industry’s Big Three, along with Bank of America Corp. and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. But it comes at a cost — Citigroup said Monday it will seek to sell $10 billion in common stock and slashed its quarterly dividend in half to 16 cents to shore up its capital position.

The agreement comes after a fevered weekend courtship in which Citigroup and Wells Fargo & Co. both were reportedly studying the books of Wachovia, which suffers from mounting losses linked to its ill-timed 2006 acquisition of mortgage lender Golden West Financial Corp.

AP

This is bad news for Charlotte and the whole metro area.  We are going to lose a lot of high paying jobs because of this.  The financial ramifications this purchase is going to have for the whole region and the way it will trickle down could be bad for our housing market in particular, which has managed to mostly skirt the pain other parts of the country have felt.

Pat McCrory said there would be gas deliveries by this past Friday.  Didn’t happen.  Then the state said it would be early this week.  According to USA Today, that’s not going to happen.  Now it’s going to be two weeks.  I drove to 11 gas stations Saturday evening before I found one that had gasoline.

A Mexican immigrant who was robbed in his Knightdale home last week called 911 for help, but now he faces a criminal charge of his own.

Self-employed mechanic Jose Luis Segura-Rios said he has lived illegally in the United States for at least 15 years. The turn of events that landed him in jail and his brother in the custody of federal immigration authorities for scheduled deportation has Segura-Rios and his attorney questioning the case’s impact on the willingness of illegal immigrants to seek police help as crime victims.

Segura-Rios was charged with a forgery count of common-law uttering after investigators determined he had provided them false identification and misrepresented who he was after the Sept. 16 robbery, according to the Wake County Sheriff’s Office.

The N&O

Sigh… y’know, this is tricky. Rudy Giuliani had this same problem when he was running for President earlier this year. Other Republicans attacked him for his policy of ignoring the legal status of immigrants who were reporting crimes. The idea behind this is that robbery and murder are more serious than illegal immigration. Hence, you want illegals to be able to report robberies and murders without fear of the police. I think he was right.

Now, I’m about as hardass as you can get on illegal immigration. I want illegal immigrants to go back from whence they came. But I’m even MORE of a hardass on robbers and murderers. I’m all for finding illegals and swiftly deporting them, but if the cooperation of an illegal is the only thing between a murderer and a jail cell, I’m for looking the other way on the illegal status.

I have a purely platonic man-crush on N.C. State Auditor Les Merritt solely because of articles like this:

The state auditor’s office is questioning the expenditure of $300,000 for aviation courses at Robeson Community College, saying the money could have been put to better use.

The aviation courses have served 28 students over three academic years, state Auditor Leslie W. Merritt Jr. said in a news release and audit report issued today. As of May, no student had completed the eight courses that make up the aviation curriculum.

Currently only five students are enrolled in the aviation courses, although $41,000 has been spent to advertise the program, Merritt said. He said the community college’s president, Charles Chrestman, had threatened to terminate admissions workers unless 15 or more students enrolled in the program this fall.

The N&O

Can you imagine the sort of government waste and ethical violations that would occur if Les Merritt wasn’t State Auditor?

It’s just platonic. I asssure you.

Johnston County commissioners have brushed aside calls for the resignation of Sheriff Steve Bizzell over his derogatory comments about Hispanic immigrants by issuing a statement supporting him.

Leaders of about two dozen immigrant and civil rights groups signed a letter Friday urging the commissioners to ask for Bizzell’s resignation after The News & Observer published a story this month in which he made derogatory comments about Mexicans and illegal immigrants.

Commissioners said their show of support for the embattled sheriff was meant to respond to county residents concerned for Bizzell’s future as sheriff — not the state and national civil rights groups that sent the letter.

The N&O

I discussed this in an earlier post. Bizzell’s comment were not appropriate and he did the right thing in apologizing, but these activists need to drop it. He’s the sheriff, he’s going to remain the sheriff, and now you’re all just looking like a bunch of whiny little prepubescents being told you can’t have candy too soon before dinner. You made your point, now knock it off.

A state transportation board member who steered $375,000 worth of work to roads near his property resigned Thursday, the day he was supposed to host a fundraiser for the Democratic nominee for governor.

Since a story Sunday in The News & Observer highlighted the actions of Louis W. Sewell Jr., he has gone from a relatively obscure political fundraiser and board member to the subject of an ethics investigation and a flash point in the governor’s race.

Sewell, 73, is a fundraiser for Gov. Mike Easley and gubernatorial candidate Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue, both Democrats. Her opponent, Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, a Republican, has attacked Perdue for her ties to Sewell.

The N&O

Sewell did the right thing in resigning. And let’s be clear- there’s no evidence that he intentionally used his position to enrich himself. But there’s no doubt that he should have shown greater discretion either.

Here’s a question I wish someone would ask of Perdue (and McCrory too): Will you support a law prohibiting fundraisers from being appointed to certain offices? Offices like say… the state transportation board. It would be a good first step to cleaning up Raleigh.

Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue, the Democratic candidate, recently deployed a television ad featuring Sarah Witt of Raleigh, a former marathon runner now paralyzed by a neurological disease, who speaks from a wheelchair, with the aid of an electronic voice box. Witt criticizes the Republican nominee, Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, for opposing embryonic stem cell research.

McCrory returned fire with an ad featuring his sister, Linda Sebastian, who scolds Perdue for suggesting McCrory is insensitive to suffering and highlights that their parents died of “long illnesses” — Alzheimer’s disease and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Robert Pittenger, Republican: “I support [non-embryonic] stem cell research. To date, there have been 73 medical findings improving the health of individuals with serious diseases from adult stem cell research. There have been no discoveries after 27 years of research with embryonic stem cell research.

Walter Dalton, Democrat: “I believe that stem cell research, which includes amniotic, embryonic, and adult stem cells, is going to be an important part of saving lives. That’s why I was proud to sponsor legislation to fund research in this vital area through our first class universities.

Elizabeth Dole, Republican: “I do not support embryonic stem cell research, and I do not support state or federal funding for it. However, I support numerous stem cell research methods – such as adult and cord blood stem cell research – that don’t require destruction of life.”

Kay Hagan, Democrat: “I support [embryonic] stem cell research, which could help those suffering with cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, juvenile diabetes and many other diseases.

The N&O

I realize that for people with diseases that could be cured through embryonic stem cell research, what I’m about to say is highly offensive, but that’s what I’m here for. This issue is a crock. It’s a joke. It’s a fake issue designed to entice your heart into overriding your head.

Robert Pittenger is right: Everyone talks about the “potential” of embryonic stem cell research. Notice how none of its supporters ever talk about the “results” of embryonic stem cell research. That’s because there are no results. Meanwhile, legitimate advances have been made with adult stem cell research.

That Perdue and friends are actually trying to make this an issue shows that they care more about scoring cheap political points than on keeping up to date on actual science news. See, the great thing about competition is that it leads to innovation. And here in America, we like to innovate. That’s how researchers developed a new way to take skin cells and turn them into embryonic-like stem cells. So keep talking Bev. You’re just showing how full of it you are.

I know I say this a lot, but it bears repeating- THIS is why I’m against the death penalty:

Erick Daniels spent nearly a third of his 22 years behind bars for crimes a judge said Friday he did not commit.

When he walked free Friday afternoon, one of the first acts as a freed man was something he might have done as a teen: He went to the mall with his mother to buy new underwear and clothes.

Judge Orlando Hudson threw out the case and ordered his release Friday after a day and a half of hearings.

Carlos Mahoney, a Durham lawyer who took on the case several years ago, argued that Daniels had ineffective legal representation at the trial and appeals level. Mahoney also said Daniels was the victim of prosecutors who withheld evidence that would have helped his defense, and of police who used a flawed photo lineup to identify him.

The N&O

This kid will never get those seven years back, but he’s still got the rest of his life ahead of him to enjoy his new freedom. Had he been wrongly convicted of murder and already been executed, all we could have given him is a posthumous “oops”.

FORT MILL, S.C. — Fort Mill Mayor Danny Funderburk says he was “just curious” when he forwarded a chain e-mail suggesting Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama is the biblical antichrist. “I was just curious if there was any validity to it,” Funderburk said in a telephone interview. “I was trying to get documentation if there was any scripture to back it up.”

Funderburk apparently sent the e-mail from his business account at Gastonia Sheet Metal where he works as a business agent.

Charlotte Observer

Do I even really need to comment on this? Oh, brother………

The e-mail, which has circulated in the last six months since Obama secured the Democratic nomination, claims the biblical book of Revelation says the antichrist will be in his 40s and of Muslim ancestry.

There is no such scripture. And Obama is not a Muslim. But that hasn’t stopped the e-mail.

Well, you know, why let facts get in the way.

Now in all honesty, this really isn’t a big deal and I can’t imagine why a major metropolitan newspaper like the Charlotte Observer would even bother doing a story on this other than to embarrass someone with religious beliefs because we all know how the extreme left feels about God.  I mean really, does anyone actually care about this?  I imagine this is why the Observer is having to lay off 100 employees.

I get these kinds of emails forwarded to me all the time from friends and relatives, but I usually don’t forward them to anyone else unless I know that they’re actually credible.  Mayor Funderburk hasn’t done anything that a lot of people do when they get stuff like that in email.  It’s amazing how many people believe everything they read on the Internet.

The U.S. Senate today overwhelmingly sent President Bush a spending bill of $634 billion to keep the government “operating beyond the current budget year.”  If only that were the case.  This budget passage, as every other, consisted of a hogfest of a Congressional pen of pigs in starched white shirts feeding from the trough that you and I provided.  This thing is stuffed with thousands of earmarks in addition to $25 billion of taxpayer funded loans to help bailout the automakers.  The bill was presented in its final form from the House to the Senate as H.R. 2638, Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2008, sponsored by none other than our very own Representative David Price (D-NC-04).

How did our representatives vote?  As usual, in the Senate Jim DeMint stood up and vocally opposed the legislation.  Lindsey Graham joined him in voting against it.  Richard Burr made a rare and unusual move, voting Present, Giving Live Pair.  What this means is that somebody else who not present at the vote and knew they wouldn’t be who planned on voting the opposite way Burr was made a deal with him to vote present so that the outcome wouldn’t be altered by their absence.  In other words, for the sake of argument, let’s say Burr was hypothetically going to vote No, but John McCain was absent and was planning to vote Yes which would cancel out Burr’s vote anyway.  McCain would ask Burr to vote Present then so that the same result is produced.  As I said, this is just a hypothetical.  Burr may have intended to vote Yes and made a deal with an absent Senator who wanted to vote against it.  And we can’t forget Liddy Dole who as usual voted for her pork.

In the House we had the following voting for the waste:

• G.K. Butterfield (D-NC-01)
• Bob Etheridge (D-NC-01)
• David Price (D-NC-04)
• Howard Coble (R-NC-06)
• Mike McIntyre (D-NC-07)
• Robin Hayes (R-NC-08)
• Sue Myrick (R-NC-09)
• Patrick McHenry (R-NC-10)
• Mel Watt (D-NC-12)
• Brad Miller (D-NC-13)
• Henry Brown (R-SC-01)
• Joe Wilson (R-SC-02)
• John Spratt (D-SC-05)
• Jim Clyburn (D-SC-06)

Voting against the waste were:

• Walter Jones (R-NC-03)
• Virginia Foxx (R-NC-05)
• Gresham Barrett (R-SC-03)
• Bob Inglis (R-SC-04)

Heath Shuler did not vote.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Sept. 25, 2008

Lawsuit filed in Pitt County to stop illegal campaign practices by national political committee

Press Contact: Kieran Shanahan
Office: 919-856-9494
Cell: 919-264-7515

COURT SET OCTOBER 10th HEARING

GREENVILLE, N.C.-The Pitt County Republican Party and an aggrieved voter have filed a lawsuit today in Pitt County Superior Court against the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee ( a Washington, D.C. based “527″ ) and the DLCC North Carolina PAC (a North Carolina “Campaign Committee.”) The lawsuit accuses the 527 D.C. based organization and the NC PAC of engaging in illegal campaign activities.

Specifically, the lawsuit alleges that the NC PAC is really the alter ego of the 527 D.C. organization. The 527 D.C. organization accepts and spends corporate contributions, which are unlawful for North Carolina political committees. The lawsuit also alleges improper reporting and failure to report by the organizations.

The lawsuit also alleges the unlawful activity of “giving in the name of another,” a crime which ultimately led to the incarceration of former Speaker Jim Black. It is noteworthy that Jim Black was at one time the Finance Chairman of the 527. The lawsuit is asking a Pitt County Superior Court Judge to enter an injunction prohibiting the 527 and its alter ego from making expenditures in this year’s election.

Kieran J. Shanahan, Principal of the Shanahan Law Group, who is serving as legal counsel to the Plaintiffs said: “The injunction sought in this lawsuit is essential to the voters in North Carolina if we are to have a fair and honest election conducted on a level playing field.” Shanahan further stated: “It is regrettable that the Board of Elections has ignored its own staff’s warnings about this situation and that it has failed to act to protect the integrity of the voting process in North Carolina.”

Some of the charges in the lawsuit include:

• That the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, which is based in Washington, D.C., accepted corporate contributions and illegally transferred them to the DLCC North Carolina PAC in an effort to influence legislative elections in North Carolina.

• That the Washington D.C. based Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee failed to properly file any disclosures with the N.C. State Board of Elections.

• That the Washington D.C. based Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee raised and accepted money in its name, then transferred the money to the DLCC North Carolina PAC as contributions purportedly under the original contributor’s name.

Kimberley Hendrix, the Plaintiff suing as an aggrieved voter, said: “The people of North Carolina are tired of folks from outside of North Carolina trying to influence our elections. And, if you are going to get involved, you need to play by the rules.”

THE COURT HAS SCHEDULED A HEARING ON PLAINTIFF’S MOTION FOR PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION ON OCTOBER 10 IN THE PITT COUNTY COURTHOUSE, GREENVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA.

###

I was excited to see Daniel Johnson enter the race early on because of his more centrist views and that he seemed like breath of fresh air in a bureaucracy that desperately needs change. However, in the past month I’ve been losing my interest in him. He has made a noticeable turn to the left now. I don’t know what the reason for this is but it’s disappointing. I was further dismayed when I received this video from the McHenry reelection campaign that shows Johnson voicing support for The Employee Free Choice Act which is deceptively named. It eliminates the mandate for a secret ballot when voting to unionize a place of employment, thus opening the door to the days of yesteryear when unions would intimidate and threaten workers into submission. Instead of your vote being private, all of your colleagues and organizers from the union would know whether or not you are supporting them. Does this sound like the American way to you? The only reason this legislation exists is to give a kickback to the unions on behalf of the Democrats who have received their support over the years. This is a garbage piece of legislation that has no place in a free society.

Senate Republicans on Friday blocked a plan by Democrats to pump $56 billion in government spending into the economy through public works projects, help for the jobless and money for states struggling with their Medicaid bills.

The bills follow a bipartisan plan enacted this winter that shipped $600-$1,200 tax rebate checks to most individuals and couples and awarded tax breaks to businesses investing in new plants and equipment.

With the economy still sagging, Democrats have long pressed for a follow-up plan that focused on more spending to extend unemployment benefits, boost food stamp payments and build infrastructure projects like roads, bridges, water and sewer projects and school repairs.

Breitbart

While the Congress is ready to debt spend another $700 billion on a Wall Street bailout for the wealthy elite and spend another $630 billion on the military industrial complex over the weekend, Liddy Dole was ready to blow another $56 billion of our money on welfare entitlements.  Gee, is someone pandering for votes?  Sure looks like it.  And what on earth made her think that supporting this wealth redistributionist handout would curry her any more favor with its intended socialist beneficiaries?  Real leadership means standing up for what is right and opposing what is fundamentally wrong.