The Senate as you are well aware by now passed a sweetened version of the bailout Tuesday evening. The House voted again today and complied, as I suspected they would. So the dirty deed is now done. Bear in mind that this bill was rife with waist added by the Senate on Tuesday night that had nothing to do with the economical turmoil.
$2 million tax benefit for makers of wooden arrows for children
$100 million tax break to benefit auto racetrack owners
$192 million in rebates on excise taxes for the Puerto Rican and Virgin Islands rum industry
$148 million in tax relief for U.S. wool fabric producers
$49 million tax benefit for fishermen and other plaintiffs who sued over the 1989 tanker Exxon Valdez spill.
People, are you not outraged? If so, ask yourself why you might be going to the voting booth in November to return the same people to office who just voted for one of the largest Federal power grabs in American history and threw almost a trillion dollars of money we don’t have down the toilet. Are those of you in South Carolina prepared to give Lindsey Graham another six years? Think twice. He’s one of the culprits. Richard Burr also voted for it on behalf of North Carolina. Senators Jim DeMint (R-SC) and Elizabeth Dole (R-NC) opposed the measure. Additionally, both Presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama voted for the bailout as did VP candidate Joe Biden.
I can’t get the vote information from the House yet. The Web site must be getting swamped with traffic because it’s timing out on me, but I’ll post it as soon as I have it available.
Update: I now have the House roll. Sue Myrick and Gresham Barrett flipped on this, voting for the bailout today, whereas they voted against it before.
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.
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:
The Charlotte Republican is one of a few dozen people appointed to serve on the “Palin Truth Squad” in the event of “false attacks, rumors and smears” against the GOP vice presidential nominee, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska.
Gee, there are plenty of smears to choose from. You got the daughter’s baby daddy being a black guy rumor. There’s the Palin’s fifth child possibly being her daughter’s child rumor. Then there is the Sarah Palin attended six schools to obtain her university degree story, as if that means something negative. We’ve got the Iraq War is a mission from God quote that is inaccurate. Sue could keep herself busy between now and Election Day doing nothing but defending Palin smears.
Democracy Corps is James Carville’s organization. This poll was taken from August 20th through August 26th.
NC-01
Party
% of Vote
G.K. Butterfield
D
76%
Dean Stephens
R
18%
NC-02
Party
% of Vote
Bob Etheridge
D
55%
Dan Mansell
R
38%
NC-03
Party
% of Vote
Walter Jones
R
67%
Craig Weber
D
21%
NC-04
Party
% of Vote
David Price
D
70%
BJ Lawson
R
25%
NC-05
Party
% of Vote
Virginia Foxx
R
48%
Roy Carter
D
46%
NC-06
Party
% of Vote
Howard Coble
R
71%
Teresa Sue Bratton
D
23%
NC-07
Party
% of Vote
Mike McIntyre
D
56%
Will Breazeale
R
35%
NC-08
Party
% of Vote
Robin Hayes
R
50%
Larry Kissell
D
42%
NC-09
Party
% of Vote
Sue Myrick
R
58%
Harry Taylor
D
31%
NC-10
Party
% of Vote
Patrick McHenry
R
54%
Daniel Johnson
D
39%
NC-11
Party
% of Vote
Heath Shuler
D
66%
Carl Mumpower
R
27%
Now you should bear in mind that the samples were very small, less than 100 people in each Congressional district, so there is going to be a larger margin of error than in most polls. However, most of these percentages seem fairly accurate to me. The only two I question is NC-05 and NC-08. I don’t think that Virginia Foxx is in a statistical tie with Roy Carter, though I don’t doubt he isn’t close to her. I also think the gap between Robin Hayes and Larry Kissell is smaller than the eight point spread shown in this poll. Shuler is crushing Mumpower which I have been saying since the birth of this blog would be the case no matter which Republican Heath runs against. Plus, the fact that Mumpower’s race has been akin to a Barnum & Bailey juggling act only makes it more so. I don’t know why NC-12 and NC-13 were not included on this poll, but I think the conventional wisdom is that neither Mel Watt nor Brad Miller have much to worry about this year.
All and all, I don’t see any of the Congressional districts in North Carolina switching parties this year. I think all of the incumbents are going to be retained. If Kissell loses, I’m afraid my friends at BlueNC will become suicidal.
Update: I mistakenly had the Fifth District Democratic candidate listed as Roy Cooper instead of Roy Carter. That has been corrected.
Citizens Against Government Waste is a taxpayer watchdog group that ranks our Congressmen on their effectiveness of responsibly managing our tax dollars and not spending it on frivolous pork barrell spending. Overall, the current Congress sucks the toejam off a homeless man’s foot in this regard, but our representatives from both North and South Carolina were a little better than most. A rating of 100% is a taxpayer hero and a rating of 0% is a government elected thief stealing your money in order to pander to his constituents at reelection time. Our two states received no 100s or zeros, but came close on both ends.
Our four Senators did a pretty good job. Both Burr and DeMint received an honorable mention by the CAGW, each scoring a 97%. Graham came in with an 87% and Dole with 73%. Overall, these scores are acceptable. The House? Not so much….
The Republicans did decently for the most part, which surprised me because southern Republicans typically are some of the worst abusers for earmarking in Congress. The Democrats all performed abysmally and Henry Brown, Robin Hayes, and Walter Jones could use some work themselves.
Congressional candidate Harry Taylor called Sue Myrick “a hypocrite” Friday, accusing her of inflaming voters over immigration without addressing the issue within her own family.
Taylor held a news conference outside Blue Restaurant & Bar, an uptown eatery owned by Myrick’s stepson, Alex.
Taylor, a Charlotte Democrat, said the congresswoman has looked the other way as her stepson employed illegal immigrants at Blue. Taylor called on her to return $10,000 the restaurant’s investors had donated to her campaigns.
This is a cheap shot by Taylor. He is referring to the article here. The entire article is nothing more than speculation, with no proven allegations, so I am left wondering why it was even written. The racial overtones of it are disturbing. Because Alex Myrick has several Mexicans working for him they must be illegal?
Even if these accusations are true, of which I am not convinced, Myrick has nothing to do with the operations of a restaurant run by her step-son. Taylor is trying to smear Myrick’s family for his own political gain. Bottom line, Taylor doesn’t have a chance in Hell of winning this race so he is pulling every stop he can possibly think of. It’s dishonest and dishonorable, but that’s what dishonest and dishonorable people like Taylor do.
U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick announced today a bill that targets federal funds at colleges and universities knowingly admitting illegal immigrants.
Myrick, Republican with a passion for immigration issues, said she would introduce the bill in September, when Congress reconvenes. She said lawyers were still working out the details, but the bill should be released to the public within two weeks.
But the congresswoman said the bill would not deal with student loans. Instead it would focus on grants and federal dollars that go specifically to the schools.
I think this is a reasonable bill, but I doubt it will pass the Congress assuming it’s even allowed to get a vote. It’s another form of waste of our tax dollars being funneled to help educate people in this country illegally. It’s just common sense to put an end to this but common sense isn’t synonomous with Capitol Hill.
With an unemployment office as a backdrop, Democrat Harry Taylor Thursday ripped Republican U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick for voting this month against extending jobless benefits by three months.
“Either she doesn’t know what’s going on or she doesn’t care,” Taylor said at news conference at a south Charlotte unemployment office.
Myrick was among 137 members, all Republican, who voted against the Democratic-sponsored bill.
Myrick made the right vote. Taylor evidently would have voted for bigger government. The government isn’t there to take care of you and shouldn’t pay you because you lose your job. Our entitlement spending is already way out of control.
I’m not opposed to Taylor’s idea of giving tax cuts for buying hybrid cars or for gasoline, but I’d sure like to know who “working families” are. I mean, if you have a job, you’re working, right? A CEO works for a living, doesn’t he?
The rest of his ideas are just a bunch of fluff. You can’t require every car sold four years from now to be a hybrid unless you really want to stick it to the poor and lower income Americans. Hybrid cars are expensive because they are expensive to manufacture. As far as the national pledge he refers to, that will be about as useless and naive as high schools that do the “Prom Promise” to not drink on prom night.
Taylor is in error to say that Myrick’s plan won’t be effective. American consumption of gasoline has already dropped over the past year and gasoline prices have skyrocketed. It’s not just our consumption that is the problem; it’s also the rest of the world, primarily developing nations like China and India that are using more oil. You need to increase the supply to be greater than the demand to bring down the prices and that is what Myrick’s plan helps do.
In Congress, there is a tiny glimmer of hope on the horizon. Representative Sue Myrick-R, NC, 9th District has introduced legislation called the Deep Ocean Energy Resources Act, or DOER Act, which aims to lift the federal ban on offshore drilling on the states, and put the decision in each individual states’ hands. However, any profits produced will have to be shared with bordering states if the drilling site is within a certain distance of the neighboring state. Another contingency protects the first 50 miles of offshore area from drilling (to appease environmentalists) should the individual states choose to do so. This would ultimately leave the decision to drill for oil, with the allure of producing profits and helping the struggling economy or the side effect of “destroying” the natural environment to the states, as it should be per the Constitution.
That last part about the Constitution is key. Drilling anywhere should be a state decision, not the Federal Government. There is no reason why Alaskans should not be able to drill in ANWR on their own accord, nor any reason for North or South Carolina to not be able to drill off our own shores.
With the price of gas skyrocketing I think the push from Republicans in Congress to start drilling domestically is going to being gaining momentum unlike in the past. With $4 per gallon gas, the angry cries of the American people will begin to overshadow the hold environmental extremists have on many of the D.C. politicians.
U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick is at Carolinas Medical Center with what staff describes as “extreme flu-like symptoms.”
The Charlotte Republican checked herself in last night. Spokesman Andy Polk said she’s getting needed rest and fluids. He did not know how long she would be hospitalized.
Myrick acknowledged that her 10-point plan, “Wake Up America,” might hit stumbling blocks in Washington. But she thinks it’s time to start demanding answers. She said she was releasing her agenda now after carefully researching which issues had the potential for solutions.
“We put this together really to try to get a dialogue going,” she said. “It’s a beginning point.”
Myrick’s 10-point plan
1. Investigate all military chaplains endorsed by Abdurahman Alamoudi, who was imprisoned for funding a terrorist organization.
2. Investigate all prison chaplains endorsed by Alamoudi.
3. Investigate the selection process of Arabic translators working for the Pentagon and FBI.
4. Examine the nonprofit status of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
5. Make it an act of sedition or solicitation of treason to preach or publish materials that call for the deaths of Americans.
6. Audit sovereign wealth funds in the United States.
7. Cancel scholarship student visa program with Saudi Arabia until they reform their text books, which she claims preach hatred and violence against non-Muslims.
8. Restrict religious visas for imams who come from countries that don’t allow reciprocal visits by non-Muslim clergy.
9. Cancel contracts to train Saudi police and security in U.S. counterterrorism tactics.
10. Block the sale of sensitive military munitions to Saudi Arabia.
I don’t really find any of this unreasonable. I don’t see any civil rights or Constitutional violations here. One thing I wish she would add to her list, however, is profiling at the airport. If they really want to be serious about keeping flying safe they need to stop frisking 85 year old men.
Despite how many people are too chained down by the weights of political correctness to admit the truth, the War on Terror is very much a religious war against radical Islam. They want to kill non-Muslims. It’s that simple, so we may as well get down and dirty because no amount of kissing their ass will change that.
(Washington, D.C.) – Today, Rep. Sue Myrick (NC-9) called on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to revoke former President Jimmy Carter’s passport. This is in response to the former President traveling to Syria to meet with Hamas, an organization officially designated by the United States as a Foreign Terrorist Organization
“Former President Carter has acted in contradiction of international agreements to isolate Hamas. He has acted in defiance of both United States policy and international policy. His actions reward terrorists, lend support, and provide legitimacy to their belief that violence will eventually get them what they want,” said Rep. Myrick.
After Hamas won the 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections the Quartet (US, UN, EU and Russia) called on Hamas to renounce terror, recognize Israel and recognize the previous agreements between the Palestinian Authority and Israel as they seek an agreement to make peace. Hamas has categorically rejected these three conditions for more than two years.
Congress granted the Secretary of State the power to grant and verify passports. In 1981, the United States Supreme Court held in the case of Haig v. Agee that the Secretary of State has the implied power to revoke passports as well (453 U.S. 280).
One of two bills Dole will introduce, the Safe Roads Enhancement Act, would force legal and illegal immigrants - including permanent legal residents and those here on student or work visas - to begin deportation proceedings if they are convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol.
The same bill also would classify repeat drunk driving as an aggravated felony. Such a classification could be taken into consideration for people hoping to either obtain a visa to visit the United States or have a visa renewed.
The bill is a narrower version of the Scott Gardner Act first introduced by Rep. Sue Myrick, a Charlotte Republican, in the House. Dole and Sen. Richard Burr of Winston-Salem introduced companion bills last year in the Senate, but they have not passed.
Dole’s second bill, a companion to one already introduced in the House of Representatives, would reverse a Clinton-era executive order requiring federal government services to be provided in foreign languages if requested.
Twelve other bills to be introduced by other senators today include measures that would require the United States to finish the fence on its border with Mexico, maintain a National Guard presence at the border, expand immigration enforcement partnerships with law enforcement and set English as the national language.
These are good bills and Dole is on the right side of them. Would her potential Democratic opponents also support enforcing our immigration laws?
This may just be electioneering, but if they pass and are implemented then the result will be positive. The American public has been more than patient with the Feds on this issue.
Rep. Sue Myrick, a Republican from Charlotte who’s been pursuing a detention center with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, says the facilities are proven moneymakers and play a role in tackling the nation’s illegal immigration problem.
Gaston officials say they have much to learn about whether a facility would be a good fit. ICE has invited them to tour a state-of-the-art facility near Buffalo, N.Y. The agency pays the jails a negotiated amount per day for each occupied bed.
“We want to see how it’s affected other communities — are they happy with it, do they think it’s a good thing or a bad thing,” said Gaston County commissioner Allen Fraley.
“We already have a jail run by our sheriff, and he does a good job. We haven’t had any problems there, and I don’t see why we would with this. … Those are the things we’re going to have to look into.”
A Charlotte-based organization that opposes private prisons nationwide objected to locating a county-run detention center in Mecklenburg County and opposes a Gaston facility as well.
“It’s a very short-sighted decision to say, `Wow, 300 jobs, let’s grab it,’ ” said Si Kahn, executive director of Grassroots Leadership. “Having a major prison is not an attraction.”
I imagine when the decision is made on this detention center that nobody in the decision making circle will really care what Grassroots Leadership thinks, but is Mr. Kahn seriously suggesting that if this prison is built in Mecklenburg or Gaston County it will hurt tourism? Nobody will even know about it. No, it isn’t an attraction, but it’s not something you advertise either. They aren’t going to plop this prison down in the middle of Uptown or next to Lowe’s Speedway or parallel to the ugly brown dough-nut discs on South Blvd.
I think some people just need something to complain about in order to give themselves some purpose or fulfillment in life.
Taylor’s public scolding of the president made news around the world. It brought him interviews on network news shows and made him a darling of the liberal blogosphere. He prompted one blog called simply: thankyouharrytaylor.org.
Now the Charlotte businessman plans to run for Congress against Republican Rep. Sue Myrick.
