scharrison's blog

Toxic legislation alert: SB 229

Submitted by scharrison on

Shifting authority from DENR to Agriculture on water quality issues:

AN ACT to transfer the division of soil and water conservation and the Soil and water conservation commission of the department of environment and natural resources to the department of agriculture and consumer services and to make conforming changes.

Misreporting of veto issues

Submitted by scharrison on

This depends on what your definition of "liberal" is:

Governor Bev Perdue has been liberal with her use of the veto stamp this legislative session and now lawmakers want her to know they don't approve.

In a surprising turn of events, the Republican leadership attempted two veto overrides on Wednesday with mixed results.

They weren't "mixed results"; Republicans got their asses kicked in the House, so they tried to save face by passing a pointless Senate Veto override, which won't mean a damned thing if they can't fix their House problem.

Astroturfing the NC General Assembly

Submitted by scharrison on

Corporate proxies calling themselves the Tea Party stalk the halls of government:

Dozens of people wearing "FreedomWorks Override the Veto!" t-shirts and stickers descended on legislative offices this morning to try to convince conservative House Democrats to side with Republicans to override Gov. Bev Perdue's veto of the health care bill.

"We are the conscience of North Carolina," said Bobby Pittman of Wilson, who wore an orange Tea Party shirt. "We can't afford the health care bill."

But if you want to donate to "the conscience of North Carolina", you have to make out the check to a Foundation with an Arlington, VA national office:

Land conservation pays off

Submitted by scharrison on

A recent study quantified the benefits of public land acquisition:

In today's dollars, the 289,000 acres of land acquired by these trust funds from 1998 to 2010 is worth $825 million. But that same land from 1998 to the year 2020 will generate $3.67 billion in natural goods and services, according to the study.

You can expect to see some sort of legislation by NC Republicans to derail this process in the near future. Government purchasing land as a set-aside is anathema to Free Market fundies who just can't comprehend the idea of a "public good", or that developers just might work against that good.

BlueNC Twitter stream

Submitted by scharrison on

If you scroll down the page you'll see a new feature, a box showing a real-time Twitter feed. This stream gathers Tweets with the hashtag #bluenc, so if you Tweet/reTweet stuff you think would be of interest to readers here, just type in the hashtag and voilà! It will appear in the box. And yes, it is magic.

Deaver still doesn't get it

Submitted by scharrison on

And his lack of comprehension further justifies his firing:

"I'm telling you that I haven't done anything wrong. And yet, my career's over," said Deaver, whom the SBI fired in January.

Let me 'splain it to you again, Einstein: Withholding exculpatory evidence while allowing misleading evidence to be presented is about as wrong as someone in your position could get. The fact you haven't been charged with a crime shows the system is still in need of some tweaking.

The arrogance of Robin Hayes

Submitted by scharrison on

Giving instructions to Democratic Legislators:

Hayes sent out news releases calling on four House members to join with Republicans to join the overrride. They are Reps. Dewey Hill of Whiteville, Timothy Spear of Creswell, William Brisson of Dublin and Frank McGuirt of Wingate. Brisson and Democratic Rep. Jim Crawford were the two Democrats who had voted with the Republicans to pass the bill.

You know, I've tried to be Mr. Pragmatic, and not be so critical of Democrats who jump off the Platform from time to time. But if you choose to side with the GOP Chairman instead of your Party's Governor, that "D" after your name is a sham.

Public money for homeschoolers?

Submitted by scharrison on

Bad legislation further exposed:

The legislation also would eliminate a requirement that charter schools have at least 65 students, said Fisher, who represents Buncombe. “Home-schoolers through Senate Bill 8 can now charter their own schools and draw resources from those charter public schools now in existence,” she said.

If you think that's crazy, check out this bright idea puppet George Leef recently promoted as a cure for our education system:

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