Dear Joe
It looks like a letter-writing kind of day.
Dear Speaker Hackney.
When the legislature reconvenes next week to try to over-ride the Governor's veto of the Great Goodyear Giveaway, I hope you'll step back and look at this issue with fresh eyes. From my view, the package offered to Goodyear is wildly out of line with what is reasonable, and you would think so too if you weren't Speaker of the legislative body that came up with it.
I can sense your frustration about being blindsided by the Governor's veto, but you shouldn't have been all that surprised. It wasn't Easley's responsibility to come to the House and weigh in on the bill, it was the House's responsibility to find out where he stood before the deal was struck.
The truth is, the incentive game is out of control in North Carolina, and the Goodyear Giveaway brought that fact into sharp focus. We the People know that it went too far, and I don't just mean the progressive and free-market activists. You know it too.
When you reconvene next week, I hope you'll stay true to your original commitments to ethical, responsible leadership. It's okay to say "I was wrong" on this one. It's okay to change your mind and encourage your colleagues not to over-ride the veto. It's okay to think things through one more time and reach a different conclusion than you did the first time.
This isn't about turf. It's not about the House vs. the Governor in some power struggle. It's about doing the right thing. And this giveaway to Goodyear is not the right thing.
James
PS I am planning to attend your fundraiser on Tuesday night in Chapel Hill. From all I've heard, it will be a crowded event with hundreds of supporters. Among those I know personally who are attending, none are enthusiastic about the Goodyear deal. Not a single one.
- James Protzman's blog
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Fayetteville
obviously has a different take on the bill. And why wouldn't they . . . NC taxpayers would pay the salaries of hundreds of their citizens for the next five years or so.
I'm not saying any incentives are a bad idea . . . I'm just saying that this particular deal crossed a line that shouldn't have been crossed, without providing certainty that the company would deliver the value required. Goodyear out-negotiated the bill's sponsors . . . plain and simple.
Goodyear By the Numbers: Via NCPW
Some great work by Rob Schofield on this showdown
imposing on your thread
Open thread item. Sorry.
FEC says blogging will not be regulated: http://www.fec.gov/press/press2007/20070904murs.shtml
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Learn More about Mr. Leslie Merritt, Toady Extraordinaire
NCDP Photos
Impose freely!
Especially with such good news.
They said the same thing last year
I didn't even know it had come back up. Where have I been?
Robin Hayes lied. Nobody died, but thousands of folks lost their jobs.
More on Goodyear
from NC Policy Watch
Dear George! WTF??????
It's slow today, you need to write some letters* Paraphasing A
Dear George!!!! No doubt you have falled off the wagon again. Whatever you do! Call off the attack on the North Pole. The Russians were just joking about planting their flag under our Polar Bear asses....Max
Dazed Bush forgets what country he's in, what summit he's at
President Bush's trademark struggles with the finer points of public speaking were on full display Friday, when he thanked his "Austrian" hosts for inviting him to this year's "OPEC" summit.
The "Language Mangler-in-Chief" was in Australia attending the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit. Along with misidentifying his host country and the name of the summit, Bush struggled to leave the lectern, trying to exit the stage the wrong way.
"Thank you for being such a fine host of the OPEC summit," Bush said to Australian prime minister John Howard. He quickly corrected himself, "APEC summit," and joked Howard "invited me to the OPEC summit next year. (Such an invitation would be impossible because neither the US or Australia are members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.)
Later in the speech, Bush can clearly be heard on tape thanking Howard for visiting "Austrian troops" in Iraq last year, but White House scrubbers fixed that gaffe for him, changing the official government transcript to "Australian," the Associated Press reported.
As Reuters notes, "There are, in fact, no Austrian troops there. But Australia has about 1,500 Australian military personnel in and around" Iraq.
Bush's struggles from the lectern didn't end when he stopped talking either. Press reports indicate he tried to leave the stage through the wrong door, and the Australian prime minister had to point him toward the proper exit, according to the Herald Sun newspaper.
The scene was reminiscent of a 2005 Bush appearance in Beijing, when Bush was thwarted by a locked door after stepping off stage and had to be redirected.