RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — For the past decade, North Carolina Democrats in charge of state government have been successful persuading the public they’re unlike fellow party colleagues who’ve ended up behind bars. Democrats have remained in power in the Legislature and at the Executive Mansion despite the news of illegal activities that sent then-House Speaker Jim Black, Agriculture Commissioner Meg Scott Phipps and Rep. Thomas Wright to prison. They’ve done so while passing tougher ethics and campaign finance laws, and even expelling Wright from the Legislature. At the same time, they’ve had political advantages to get their message out, such as outraising Republicans on campaign dollars, pushing education initiatives and presiding during a span largely marked by growth and prosperity in the state. Read more. Despite President Obama’s long history of criticizing the Bush administration for “sweetheart deals” with favored contractors, the Obama administration this month awarded a $25 million federal contract for work in Afghanistan to a company owned by a Democratic campaign contributor without entertaining competitive bids, Fox News has learned. The contract, awarded on Jan. 4 to Checchi & Company Consulting, Inc., a Washington-based firm owned by economist and Democratic donor Vincent V. Checchi, will pay the firm $24,673,427 to provide “rule of law stabilization services” in war-torn Afghanistan. A synopsis of the contract published on the USAID Web site says Checchi & Company will “train the next generation of legal professionals” throughout the Afghan provinces and thereby “develop the capacity of Afghanistan’s justice system to be accessible, reliable, and fair.” Read more. Trying to guarantee Americans the thrill of the precipice, the president dashed to Massachusetts on Sunday, thereby conceding that he had already lost Tuesday’s Senate election, which had become a referendum on his signature program. By promising to cast the decisive 41st vote against the president’s health-care legislation, the Republican candidate forced all congressional Democrats to contemplate this: Not even frenzied national mobilization of Democratic manpower and millions of dollars could rescue one of the safest Democratic seats in the national legislature from national dismay about the incontinent government expansion, of which that legislation is symptomatic. Because the legislation is frightening and unpopular, Democrats have had to resort to serial bribery to advance it. Massachusetts voted immediately after the corruption of exempting, until 2018, union members from the tax on high-value health insurance plans. This tax was supposedly the crucial component of what supposedly was reform’s primary goal: reducing costs. Read more. The chief of the U.N.’s climate science panel says he isn’t going anywhere, despite calls for his head amid allegations that he is a sloppy scientist who presided over a report that contained intentionally misleading statements. “I know a lot of climate skeptics are after my blood, but I’m in no mood to oblige them,” Rajendra Pachauri, head of the U.N.’sIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), told The Times of London. Pachauri spoke following revelations that an oft-cited “fact” in his panel’s 2008 climate change report — that the Himalayas were on track to melt by 2035 — was sloppily copied from a magazine interview with a single glaciologist in 1999. Like water flowing downhill from a melting glacier, other errors have since emerged from the report, simply titled AR4. Read more. A bipartisan, independent commission on stopping the spread of weapons of mass destruction says that the Obama administration has failed in its first year in office to do enough to prevent a germ weapons attack on America or to respond quickly and effectively should such an attack occur. In a 19-page report card being published Tuesday, the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction, Proliferation and Terrorism, chaired by former Senators Bob Graham, a Democrat from Florida, and Jim Talent, a Missouri Republican, gives the new administration the grade of “F” for failing to take key steps the commission outlined just over a year ago in its initial report. Specifically, the commission concludes that the Obama administration, like the three administrations before it, has failed to pay consistent and urgent attention to increasing the nation’s ability to respond quickly and effectively to a germ attack that would inflict massive casualties on the nation. Read more. They meet across the region in bars, restaurants, churches and fire stations. They’re Republicans, independents, even Democrats. They belong to groups with names such as We the People, Stand Up America and CAUTION. What most share is frustration over what they see as an ever-expanding federal government and a belief that America has drifted from its founding principles. They’re engaged and – like the voters who pushed Republican Scott Brown to victory in Massachusetts – energized. “We’ve been asleep in politics too long. We’ve got to get involved,” says Deborah Walters, 52, one of more than 200 people at this month’s kickoff of Strengthen Charlotte. Read more President Obama, after spending hundreds of billions his first year, now is seeking a partial three-year federal spending freeze that would reduce budgets by less than 1 percent. The drop-in-the-bucket nature of the president’s proposal was underscored Tuesday by a Congressional Budget Office estimate projecting the 2010 federal deficit to hit $1.35 trillion — Obama’s spending freeze would be expected to save up to $15 billion the first year. The president will propose the congressional freeze on “non-security” spending in his State of the Union address Wednesday night, senior administration officials said. The freeze, which would apply to annual spending on day-to-day government, appears to be an attempt to answer widespread voter concern about rising deficits and debt. Read more. Civitas first reported on the now infamous $25 million fishing pier in Nags Head as a Bad Bill of the Week in May. TheAugust issue of Civitas Review featured “Pier Pressure,” an in-depth background of this project and its ties to Senate President Pro Tempore Marc Basnight (D-Dare). As the funding of this project was questioned, Civitas continued to provide the below updates on our Civitasreview.com blog. Although this project was hailed as “shovel ready” by lawmakers, job creation claims were overblown and even downright ridiculous. Yet, despite concerns, the N.C. Aquariums have continued to pursue planning for additional piers in Emerald Isle and Carolina Beach. The December issue of Civitas Review exposed how Sen. Basnight has benefited from his support of the Pier. Civitas continued to update this story, when it became clear that Basnight Construction has received subcontract work on the Pier. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is pushing a $300 billion “fix” to the Senate health care bill, saying that her chamber could approve the Senate’s package if those changes are made first. Senior Democratic aides told Fox News that Pelosi has offered up the new package of changes to Senate Democratic leaders, with the hope that they will be able to pass it using a controversial procedural maneuver known as “reconciliation.” The maneuver would allow Democrats to pass the measure with just 51 votes, without having to first overcome the normal 60-vote threshold. Some Democrats are keen on using that process, since the election last week of Republican Scott Brown to the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts broke the Democrats’ 60-vote supermajority. However, some Democratic moderates — notably Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln and Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh — have balked at using the controversial tactic to ram through health care reform measures. Read more. Leading lawmakers and the governor are shaping a wide range of reforms that promise more accountability and sunshine across state government, fixes aimed at restoring trust after a stretch of scandals. The efforts are moving with speed and are coalescing as another embarrassment commands attention: Ruffin Poole, a longtime senior aide to former Gov. Mike Easley, was arrested and appeared in court Thursday for the first time since his indictment last week on 51 corruption charges. Poole, 38, has not entered a plea. He and his lawyer declined to comment Thursday. Read more. The closure of the military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is beginning to look like a protracted and uncertain project for the Obama administration as political, legal and security concerns Having blown the one-year closure deadline set last January in an executive order, the administration is planning to transfer some detainees to a state prison it hopes to acquire in Illinois. But there appears to be little mood in Congress to provide the administration with either the funding for the prison or the authority to transfer detainees who will be held indefinitely. At the same time, opposition is building to plans to transfer a number of detainees, including Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, to a civilian court in Lower Manhattan for federal trial. Read more. WASHINGTON – Senate Democrats needed all 60 votes at their disposal Thursday to muscle through legislation allowing the government to go $1.9 trillion deeper in debt. Democratic leaders were able to prevail on the politically volatile 60-39 vote only because Republican Sen.-elect Scott Brown of Massachusetts has yet to be seated. Republicans had insisted on a 60-vote, super-majority threshhold to pass the measure. An earlier test vote succeeded on a 60-40 vote. The measure would put the government on track for a national debt of $14.3 trillion — about $45,000 for every American — and it served as a vivid reminder of the United States’ dire fiscal straits. Read more.Bin Laden claims airline bomb attempt on Christmas
CAIRO (AP) – Osama bin Laden claimed responsibility for the failed attempt to bomb a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas in a new audio message released Sunday threatening more attacks on the United States. The United States said there was no indication to suggest that bin Laden or any of his top lieutenants had anything to do with the attempted attack and that the claim may have been motivated by the wish of the terror network’s leaders to appear in control of al-Qaida’s offshoots. “They offer strategic guidance and rely on their affiliates to carry out that strategic guidance,” State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in an interview. Read more. NC Democrats must again overcome corruption rap
Obama Administration Steers Lucrative No-Bid Contract for Afghan Work to Dem Donor
Democrats on the precipice of failure
Climate Chief Staying Put Despite Calls for His Head
Obama Gets ‘F’ on Stopping Spread of Weapons of Mass Destruction
Sense of frustration awakens activists
Obama Seeks Partial Three-Year Spending Freeze
A “Fishy” business: Sen. Basnight, Basnight Construction and the $25 million dollar state pier
Thomas Jefferson’s Words of Wisdom
When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe. The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not. It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world. I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government. No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government. The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical. People Said It didn’t Matter
God Save Us From Those Among US Who Are Too Stupid to Know the Truth And Worse: They Don’t Care! The Fundamental Transformation of America When Obama wrote a book and said he was mentored as a youth by Frank, (Frank Marshall Davis) an avowed Communist, people said it didn’t matter. When it was discovered that his grandparents, were strong socialist, sent Obama’s mother to a socialist school, introduced Frank Marshall Davis to young Obama, people said it didn’t matter. When people found out that he was enrolled as a Muslim child in school and his father and step father were both Muslims, people said it didn’t matter. Read more. Gloves come off after Obama rips Supreme Court ruling
Washington (CNN) — The political furor escalated over President Obama’s high-profile rebuke of a recent Supreme Court ruling on campaign advertising Thursday, as Democrats pounded the high court decision. Democrats rallied around Obama the day after the president committed a rare breach of political etiquette, criticizing the controversial ruling in his State of the Union address as members of the high court sat only a few feet away. The court’s 5-4 decision, issued last week, removed long-established legal barriers preventing corporations from spending unlimited sums of money to influence voters in political campaigns. Democrats fear the decision has given the traditionally pro-business GOP a powerful new advantage. Read more. Pelosi Pushes $300 Billion ‘Fix’ to Senate Health Care Bill
Poole’s arrest puts reform in fast lane
Gitmo closure looks increasingly uncertain
Senate votes to raise limits on national debt
Friday, January 29, 2010
Saturday, January 23, 2010
A new documentary about Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in North Carolina discloses that former Gov. Jim Hunt urged Obama to distance himself from his controversial pastor. In April 2008, at the height of the controversy over Obama’s pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Hunt called Obama’s North Carolina campaign. He advised Obama to publicly profess his Christianity, love of country and denounce his pastor if he were to have any chance of winning the state’s May 6 primary. “I made it very clear … you can either win this campaign, or you can lose it,” Hunt told the film’s producer, journalist Cash Michaels. Read more. John Edwards admitted this morning to being the father of Frances Quinn Hunter, the two-year-old daughter of his former mistress Rielle Hunter. The admission comes after more than two years of rumors and tabloid hounding and an investigation into campaign money federal authorities suspect circulated around Edwards’ mistress. Edwards, former North Carolina senator and failed presidential candidate, has repeatedly denied being Frances Quinn Hunter’s father since August 2008. “It was wrong for me ever to deny she was my daughter, and hopefully one day, when she understands, she will forgive me,” Edwards said in a statement. That statement was released to NBC’s Today show and The News & Observer. Read more. Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) — U.S. investors overwhelmingly see President Barack Obama as anti-business and question his ability to manage afinancial crisis, according to a Bloomberg survey. The global quarterly poll of investors and analysts who are Bloomberg subscribers finds that 77 percent of U.S. respondents believe Obama is too anti-business and four-out-of-five are only somewhat confident or not confident of his ability to handle a financial emergency. The poll also finds a decline in Obama’s overall favorability rating one year after taking office. He is viewed favorably by 27 percent of U.S. investors. In an October poll, 32 percent in the U.S. held a positive impression. Read more. Ruffin Poole, a longtime senior aide to former Gov. Mike Easley, corrupted his office by taking trips, liquor, money and other gifts from people he helped with state government action, a federal grand jury charged Thursday. In a wide-ranging indictment, Poole was charged with 51 counts that include extortion, bribery, racketeering, fraud, money laundering and engaging in transactions in “criminally derived” property. Many of the charges in the indictment from the grand jury flow from Poole’s interference in environmental permits, in some cases for projects in which he had invested. Read more. WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama, two days after signaling retreat on a massive health care overhaul, discounted the small-bore approach Friday and pledged to press for ambitious changes despite running into a “bit of a buzz saw” of opposition. Even as the president sought to bring the public and nervous Democrats back on board, a leading member of his party suggested Congress slow it down on health care, a sign of eroding political will in the wake of Tuesday’s Republican election upset in Massachusetts. Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., who ushered the overhaul legislation through the Senate’s health committee last year after the death of his friend, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, said Obama and lawmakers could “maybe take a breather for a month, six weeks.” Read more.After Rocky First Year, Geithner Faces Another Test in AIG Bailout Hearing
The Treasury secretary is back in the hot seat, for bailout decisions he made about AIG while he was head of the New York Federal Reserve — and it has created a firestorm that some critics hope will mark the end of his tenure. Timothy Geithner’s tenure as Treasury secretary got off to a rocky start, to say the least. There was the revelation during his Senate confirmation last year that he once failed to pay taxes. There were the questions surrounding his role at Freddie Mac during an accounting scandal. And later, there were the calls from some lawmakers for his resignation for what they deemed as a poor response to the U.S. economic crisis. Read more. House Democrats don’t like Plan B
House Democrats privately worry that the rank-and-file would reject a doomsday strategy that requires them to approve the Senate health care bill if Republican Scott Brown wins in Massachusetts on Tuesday. “Progressives and conservatives in the caucus won’t go for it,” one aide predicted on Monday. But they may not have another choice if the party loses its critical 60th vote in the Senate. If Brown beats Democrat Martha Coakley in the special election to fill the seat recently occupied by the late-Ted Kennedy, one alternative has the House passing the bill the Senate approved just before Christmas last year, with a promise to make additional changes through the upcoming budget process. Read more. Hunt urged Obama to put Wright behind him
Estimates shore up Marco Rubio’s claim about illegal immigrants with visas
The statement “Close to half of the folks in this country illegally, entered legally (but) overstayed (their ) visas.” Marco Rubio on Thursday, in interview with Glenn Beck The ruling Florida U.S. Senate hopeful Marco Rubio has hit the big time — Glenn Beck’s radio program. During a wide-ranging interview Thursday, Rubio said that he thinks Republicans need to be the party that supports and promotes legal immigration. Then, he added: “Close to half of the folks in this country illegally, entered legally (but) overstayed (their) visas,” Rubio said. Read more. Under Obama, U.S. has taken a step back in war on terror
Why is the Obama administration providing a despicable Nigerian Muslim terrorist named Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab with sacred American constitutional rights? Why is Obama going to prosecute him in an American civilian court? Why did Team Obama read this scoundrel his Miranda rights? On Christmas Day 2009, nearly 300 people escaped death solely because the terrorist’s detonator failed to ignite his underwear bomb. In just one year the Obama administration has made America significantly less safe. I stated before Obama’s election that he would weaken America. It was my theory then. But it is certainly no longer in doubt. Obama is so busy trying to socialize America that he has completely taken his eye off of his most important duty: to keep America safe. Read more. Scott Brown roars to Senate upset win
State Sen. Scott Brown has pulled a Bay State bombshell by upsetting his Democratic rival to capture the open U.S. Senate seat by a 5-point margin. Brown, 50, of Wrentham, will roll into Washington as the nation struggles with health-care reform. But Brown has vowed to be “the 41st Senator” that will defeat the measure. Democrat Martha Coakley, the state’s attorney general, has gone down in a stunning defeat. Brown has won 52-47 percent, with 89 percent of the precincts reporting. Independent Joseph L. Kennedy finished way back with 1 precent of the vote. Read more. Senate Democrats Propose $1.9T Increase to U.S. Debt Limit
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats on Wednesday proposed allowing the federal government to borrow an additional $1.9 trillion to pay its bills, a record increase that would permit the national debt to reach $14.3 trillion. The unpopular legislation is needed to allow the federal government to issue bonds to fund programs and prevent a first-time default on obligations. It promises to be a challenging debate for Democrats who, as the party in power, hold the responsibility for passing the legislation. The record increase in the so-called debt limit is required because the budget deficit has spiraled out of control in the wake of a recession that cut tax revenues, the Wall Street bailout, and increased spending by the Democratic-controlled Congress. Last year’s deficit hit a phenomenal $1.4 trillion, and the current year’s deficit promises to be as high or higher. Read more. John Edwards admits paternity
House Democrats reluctant to take up Senate health-care reform bill
Determined to enact a health-care reform bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi struggled Wednesday to sell the Senate version of the legislation to reluctant Democrats, even as party moderates raised doubts about forging ahead without bipartisan support. Republican Scott Brown’s victory Tuesday in a Senate special election in Massachusetts blindsided President Obama and Democratic leaders, who had nearly reached the finish line on an ambitious overhaul of the nation’s health-care system and were beginning to turn their attention to other challenges, namely creating jobs and lowering the deficit. Read more. Obama Seen as Anti-Business by 77% of U.S. Investors
51 charges for former Easley aide
Obama concedes health overhaul hit ‘buzz saw’
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Muslim Mafia: CAIR’s Ties to Terrorism
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, has long been accused of having ties to terrorists. Now the group may be facing its most serious charges yet.
Four Republican lawmakers, led by Rep. Sue Myrick of North Carolina, are calling for a federal investigation into CAIR. At a press conference on Capitol Hill, they cited explosive new documents contained in a new book about CAIR called “Muslim Mafia.” View video.
Rules change as Congress’ veterans depart
WASHINGTON — Congress is breaking down under the pressures of a number of modern, rapidly changing political dynamics.
Among them: the rise of hyper-partisanship magnified by today’s Internet, talk radio and cable TV ideologues; the drawing of legislative district lines to maximize partisan purity and to avoid making lawmakers have to appeal to voters of all stripes; and the passing from the scene of legislative veterans who came of age politically in the pre-technology age and who were schooled in the art of compromise.
This week’s news that veteran Sens. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., wouldn’t seek re-election added their names to a growing roster of old-timers who once made the Capitol tick. Read More.
Myrick talks terrorism in a series on YouTube
U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick says the American people aren’t being told the truth about terrorism.
In the wake of a failed attack on a plane bound for Detroit in December, Myrick warns on two new videos that citizens haven’t been told that some people are willing to blow themselves up to hurt Americans, that jihadists exist who want to destroy western democracies, that extremists are being radicalized through the Internet.
Myrick, a Charlotte Republican, has launched an ongoing YouTube video series. In the first video, called “Beyond Terrorism: The Whole Story,” she warns that extremists may live in our midst, perhaps even in our government. View video.
GOP: Response to Reid remark shows double standard
WASHINGTON — Republicans on Sunday accused Democrats of a double standard by accepting Sen. Harry Reid’s apology for racial remarks about Barack Obama instead of demanding Reid’s ouster as majority leader.
In a private conversation reported in a new book, Reid described Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign as a “light-skinned” African-American “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.”
Reid, D-Nev., apologized to Obama on Saturday, and the president issued a statement accepting the apology and saying the matter was closed. Read more.
Soles decides not to seek another term
TABOR CITY – For the past 42 years state Senator R.C. Soles (D-Pender, Columbus, Brunswick) has had a seat in Raleigh in the General Assembly but all that will change this year as the state’s longest serving member has decided not to seek another term.
Sen. Soles’ announcement came last week in a press release where he stated, “After careful consideration I have decided not to seek re-election to the Senate.”
For the past several months Sen. Soles, 72, has been under the investigation by the SBI in regards to the shooting of a former client at his home outside Tabor City in August, and allegations a few weeks earlier that he tried to molest a teenager 12 years earlier. Read more.
Stimulus money sent to phantom ZIP codes in North Carolina
RALEIGH — The federal government sent 2.5 million stimulus dollars to North Carolina ZIP codes that don’t exist.
The information came from the government’s own Web site — Recovery.gov. The site was set up to track the distribution of the $787 billion made available by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
It lists 479 North Carolina ZIP codes as the destination of $4.2 billion in grants, contracts, and loans. Four of those ZIP codes — 24858, 28389, 23854, and 27600 — are nowhere to be found on U.S. Postal Service maps. In the four ZIP codes, the Web site reports, the $2.5 million created 0.5 jobs all told. Read more.
N.C. Rep. Sandra Spaulding Hughes won’t seek re-election
N.C. Rep. Sandra Spaulding Hughes won’t seek re-election in House District 18 this year, she said in a news release.
Hughes, a retired teacher and consultant, cited “personal and family reasons” for deciding not to try to go back to Raleigh for another term. She said public service is an important part of her life and that she appreciates the support and trust of residents in the district, which includes parts of New Hanover and Pender counties. Read more.
N.J. to vote on bill to let illegal immigrants pay in-state tuition
(CNN) — Both houses of the New Jersey legislature plan to vote Monday on a controversial bill backed by Democrats that would qualify illegal immigrants for in-state tuition at public colleges and universities.
Supporters hope to pass the measure before Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine leaves office. Gov.-elect Christopher J. Christie, a Republican who takes office January 19, has said he opposes the bill.
On Thursday, a Senate vote on the legislation was postponed.
After hours of heated debate January 4, the bill passed the Assembly Appropriations Committee, 7-4, and the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, 8-6. Both votes were along party lines.
To qualify under the bill, New Jersey high school graduates who are illegal immigrants must be enrolled at a public university or college and file an affidavit with the institution stating that they have applied for legal immigration status or will do so when eligible. Read more.
Obama Team Has Too Many Vacancies, Report Says
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama has filled key government jobs about as fast as the Bush administration, but too many top positions — about 40 percent — remain vacant nearly one year after Obama took office, says a report being released Wednesday.
While the study by the Partnership for Public Service praised Obama for a well-organized transition last year, it also knocked the president’s team and Congress for filling top posts too slowly. Among them: the Transportation Security Administration and the Customs and Border Protection agency — two agencies tasked with keeping terrorists off planes, a key area of failure in the attempted Christmas Day airliner attack. Read more.
Small Business Owners End 2009 Downbeat
The sentiment of U.S. small business owners stalled in December, hurt by weak sales and worries about government policies, according to a survey released on Tuesday.
The National Federation of Independent Business said its small business optimism index fell for the second straight month, dropping 0.3 point to 88.0 in December.
“Continued weak sales and threatening domestic policies from Washington have left small business owners with little to be optimistic about in the coming year,” said the federation’s chief economist, William Dunkelberg, in a statement. Read more.
The Man Who’ll Kill “Obamacare?
(Weekly Standard) Ask a typical 50-year-old Republican running for office when and why he became a Republican, and you’ll likely hear a nostalgic story related to Ronald Reagan. Ask GOP Senate candidate Scott Brown, and he replies, “I’d really have to check that far back. I really don’t have the time, nor do I care” to do “all this self-analysis. “He says he’s “fiscally more in tune with the Republicans,”but hastens to add that “recently Republicans have kind of lost their way” on such matters.
Welcome to Massachusetts, where Democrats outnumber Republicans three to one and where state senator Brown, who’s making a bid for Ted Kennedy’s seat in the January 19 special election, would rather point out similarities between himself and JFK and sometimes even Barack Obama. Republicans and Tea Party activists are nonetheless flooding the phone banks and knocking on doors for Brown. “The pro-life movement is really excited,” says John Rowe of Massachusetts Citizens for Life. Yet Brown declares on his website that abortion is a decision that should be made by a “woman in consultation with her doctor, “i.e., he’s (moderately) pro-choice. Read more.
Time For A Change? Obama’s Mistakes Say So
I’ve been focusing on how President Obama’s radical ideology and programs are destroying America, as we know it. (“Wake Up Before Obama Destroys America” and “Obama and His Aides Dismantling U.S.” (Dec. 13 and Dec. 19, 2009, respectively) in The Bulletin). Recent developments, however, have suggested that America is not only in danger from Mr. Obama’s ideology and programs, but also from the sheer incompetence that Mr. Obama and his appointees have brought to the White House and that the Democratic Congress has brought to recent legislative misadventures. After the Christmas day terrorist attack, Mr. Obama and his Homeland Security Secretary demonstrated gross incompetence beyond belief and beyond imagination. This means America faces a deadly cocktail of gross incompetence combined with radical ideology, running contrary to American values and America. Read more.
Onine advertisers: Boucher putting Internet
infrastructure at risk
The online advertising industry’s top lobbyist blasted Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) for “misunderstanding” how interactive media work, saying his proposed bill to protect consumers’ online privacy is horribly misguided. Interactive Advertising Bureau president and CEO Randall Rothenbergsaid in an op-ed that such a bill will stunt the growth of the online media market and put 3.1 million jobs at risk. “Advertising is the engine of the consumer economy, and fundamentally the only way American shoppers can compare prices, discover products, and learn about new stores and sales in their neighborhood – and the sole way businesses can get this information to them,” Rothenberg wrote. “Yet the Congressman wants to legislate its elimination.” Read more.
Senator’s Company Receives a Slice of $25 Million Pie
Basnight Construction was awarded subcontracted work on part of the new $25 million Jennette’s Pier project currently under construction in Nags Head. The amount of money the construction company is being paid and the scope of work being performed are currently undisclosed.
President Pro Tempore Marc Basnight (D-Dare) was the leading advocate to push the multimillion dollar project through the General Assembly in 2009. Due to his efforts, House Bill 628, “Aquarium Satellite Areas Funding” was able to fly through the Legislature and receive unanimous approval from lawmakers. Later attempts to strip funding for the pier were blocked through procedural motions by House and Senate leadership. Read more.
Critics Question $705,000 For Art
View video.
Perdue Silent on Unfunded Medicaid Mandate
RALEIGH — In July, Gov. Bev Perdue said she would oppose a federal health care bill that placed additional financial burdens on the states. “We are all hungry for a solution,” she said, “but the absolute dealbreaker for me as governor is a federal plan that shifts costs to the states.” Six months later, Congress is finalizing a bill that would do just that by expanding Medicaid — the government health program for the poor. The federal government and the states share the costs of Medicaid, so any new obligation eventually would be borne, at least in part, by state taxpayers. And so far, Perdue has neither opposed the legislation nor stated any strong objections to the financial toll the bills being negotiated in Washington would take on North Carolina residents. Read more.
Democrats’ Rocky Mountain high takes a tumble in Colorado
Barack Obama claimed the party’s presidential nomination at a football stadium here, in a state where Democrats had won the governorship, both houses of the state Legislature, and were about to pick up both U.S. Senate seats.
Now President Obama and his party’s approval ratings in the West are lower than elsewhere in the country. Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter Jr. abruptly announced last week that he would not seek reelection. The state’s junior senator is, like Ritter, trailing badly in the polls. Analysts think Democrats could even lose their majorities in the Legislature.
“To lose this state at this moment, almost across the board, is a pretty profound statement that that party is in deep trouble,” said Floyd Ciruli, a Denver-based independent pollster. Read more.
Brown Takes Lead Over Coakley in Massachusetts Race, Poll Shows
Republican candidate Scott Brown has taken the lead over Democrat Martha Coakley in the race for the Massachusetts Senate seat formerly held by Ted Kennedy, the latest poll shows.
The Suffolk University/7News poll showed Brown leading Coakley by 4 percentage points. Brown had 50 percent, Coakley had 46 percent and independent candidate Joseph Kennedy, who is not related to the late senator, had 3 percent.
The race is still within the 4.4-point margin of error, but David Paleologos, the university’s political research center director, said in a statement that the survey shows Brown has “surged dramatically.” Read more.
NC state Sen Charlie Albertson won run this year, adding to list of Democratic departures
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Another long-serving Democrat in the North Carolina Senate isn’t seeking re-election this year.
Budget-writer Sen. Charlie Albertson said Friday he won’t seek another term so he can spend more time with his family.
The 78-year-old Duplin County Democrat said he’s tired after being in the Legislature for 22 years and wants to see if there’s something else out there that interests him. Read more.