Blogs

I think that it is important to note that even though this amendment passed, those of us fighting for LGBT equality aren't going away. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then I have 5000 words on the eastern North Carolina experience that you might want to see, if you'll kindly follow me below the fold.

Here's a quick video to give you guys a look at what you missed today if you did not show at the NCGA for the AFL-CIO sponsored Pots & Spoons Rally. Turn your speakers up to 11 for the full effect. Americans For Prosperity tried to respond by handing out ear plugs, which only perfectly symbolized the failure of their elected leaders to listen to anyone but their own base and helped publicize our cause, so that kind of backfired on them.... I suspect a better video will be forthcoming soon from Jeremy at AFL-CIO NC.

And it could be short yet painful:

This year legislators are taking on what promise to be contentious issues, ranging from “fracking” for natural gas, competing proposals to ensure that our students get a good education and oldies but goodies such as annexation and Voter ID, a solution in search of a problem.

And they're also going to be plugging a $200 million hole in Medicaid funding, which in GOP-ville will probably entail cutting Medicaid spending or putting malnourished children on a diet. Also, from the Twitter:

You might recall that Federal and state officials reached a $25 billion settlement with five big banks in February over abuses in their mortgage and foreclosure processes. A report from Enterprise Community Partners, a national affordable housing group, has found that many states are diverting the money to other purposes. The NY Times reported yesterday on how those monies are being spent. North Carolina received $60+ Million dollars...supposedly to be spent to provide mortgage relief to the affected homeowners. Well....guess what...along with a lot of other states this money isn't going where it would do the most good in NC. Some of it is being diverted into the General Fund to be pissed away..and a lot more (in NC) is going to be spent doing things that will likely accomplish nothing.

A perfect example of what businesses do when left to clean up after themselves. Nothing.

As the Democratic Candidate for N.C House in District 37, running against the Architect of Amendment One, I was curious as to what the results of the Amendment One vote were in Paul "Skip" Stam's district. The results for what has been commonly referred to as a "conservative district," were extremely encouraging:

For Amendment One: 50.1%
Against Amendment One: 49.9%

With nearly 30,000 votes, the difference in For/Against was about 80 votes.

The Observer's editorial board which is pretty good on our issues, blisters Parker and the events of this past Saturday

Parker’s self-centered decision to stay on as party chairman despite his role in it (sexual harassement scandal), are embarrassing the Democrats and threaten to hurt the very candidates Parker is supposed to help elect.

read more at: Charlotte Observer

They also ran a pretty good editorial cartoon:

I'm starting to go over to the dark side on taxes. Yes, I think taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society. Yes, I think a progressive tax structure is appropriate and the very wealthy should pay a bit more... But, I'm finally getting fed up. First, I'm fed up because our tax code is not equitable...and generally speaking it favors the wealthy with many loopholes and the lower rate on capital gains than the rates on sweat-earned wages. And, most of the many OTHER taxes also impact the poor and middle class more than the rich.