A year ago Civitas analyst Chris Hayes presented the results of a Civitas poll suggesting that state salaries should be capped, and that no employee should be paid more than the Governor's salary, (then $135,000, now listed as $139,590). In a year with layoffs and without state employee raises Hayes, now a policy adviser to House Speaker Thom Tillis, recently got a 17% raise, from $70,000 to $82,000, more than anyone at Smart Start makes. Among other raises and additions at the Speaker's office Tillis' Chief of Staff got a 25% raise to $150,000 which is more than the Governor makes.

Great dissection of Vinson's faulty opinion by Neera Tanden, Ian Millhiser, Tony Carrk of the Center for American Progress entitled Interactive Assessment: Judge Vinson’s Affordable Care Act Decision

Judge Roger Vinson's decision striking down the Affordable Care Act is wrong on so many counts that it’s hard to begin counting. Nonetheless, we did.

CAP created an interactive graphic of Vinson's order, embedded below the fold. Yellow highlighted text is clickable for explanations of why Vinson is wrong.

PPD executive Fred Eshelman rings the NASDAQ bell this morning, a carefully orchestrated media event to mark the PPD’s 25th anniversary (optional confetti $500, balloon drop $4,000). If the name Eshelman rings a bell it’s because he’s the force and the finance behind RightChange.com a conservative political committee active in the 2008 races run with NC State Senator Fletcher Hartsell and State Representative Jeff Barnhart of Cabarrus County. Their most recent contribution to political dialog was “Attack of the 50 Ft Pelosi”, a cartoon world where Democrats have long skinny necks and Conservatives have none.

I don't expect Bill Graham to know the difference between a falafel and a loofah any more than Bill O'Reilly. Nor do I expect either to know the difference between a pita and a parantha.

It's safe to say that when Bill Graham named a company PITA Raleigh, LLC, he wasn't planning on starting a chain of Middle Eastern restaurants. To give him credit he may have been thinking of this description:

The "pocket" in pita bread is created by steam, which puffs up the dough. As the bread cools and flattens, a pocket is left in the middle.

- An empty pocket that is, reminiscent of the failed and drained campaign for Governor masterminded by Tom Fetzer.

It seems more likely that PITA is the acronym that is patoi for "major annoyance" and that the annoyance is likely Tom Fetzer.

State Senator Fletcher Hartsell accepted campaign contributions from billionaire David Murdock in excess of the $4,000 per election limit. In the 2008 election cycle Cabarrus Republican Hartsell received a $4,000 Murdock contribution 5/01/08, during the primary. Hartsell received another contribution of $4,000 from Murdock 10/17/08, during the general, apparently maxing out legal contributions.

However, Hartsell had also participated in a joint fundraising committee known as the Cabarrus-Rowan Leadership Celebration. The committee was shared by five candidates equally: Jeff Barnhart, Linda Johnson, Fred Steen, Bob Crumley and Fletcher Hartsell. Murdock contributed $4,000 to the joint fundraising committee 11/15/07. Of that $4,000 the amount of $800 is considered a contribution to Fletcher Hartsell by David Murdock during the primary.