The great paradox of North Carolina is that during the same that Republicans have been dominating elections for federal office, statewide offices have been controlled overwhelming by the Democrats. That is why in North Carolina we can do this:
Under Easley’s plan, teachers in North Carolina will continue to receive salary increases over the next few years, until their pay is at the national average by the 2008-09 fiscal year. Over each of the next three years, the governor and the legislature has committed a five-percent annual salary increase.
The comparison of the state plan to the No Child Left Behind Act shows the different philosophies of the parties in control. The Democrats do something to attract better teachers by paying them a reasonable salary. Better teachers directly benefit students in the classroom.
The Biography page on Robin Hayes's campaign site calles him a "business man." I guess that sounded better than "multi-millionaire." A letter to the editor in the Charlotte Observer (free registration required) has some frank words for Hayes regarding his sudden concern that he's making too much money:
U.S. Rep. Robin Hayes, a Concord Republican, announced recently that he had proposed legislation to reduce the salaries of members of Congress by 5 percent, in response to the federal budget deficit and the spending demands created by Hurricanes Rita and Katrina.Rep. Hayes, a hosiery mill president and member of a wealthy textile family, probably can afford to cut back a little. In a recent financial report, he listed assets of between $34 million and $88 million.
A new survey shows that the burden of paying for healthcare in North Carolina increasingly falls on individuals, not employers. That means that a lot more North Carolinians go through their days just hoping that they and their families don't get sick.
The report, Prognosis Worsens for Workers' Health Care, published by the Washington, D.C.-based Economic Policy Institute, found that the proportion of North Carolinians with job-based health insurance fell by 6.7 percent between 2000 and 2004.
A quick search for information about Lloyd Scher—who may run against ethically challenged Republican incumbent Robin Hayes in NC's 8th Congressional District in 2006—reveals that during his time on Mecklenburg County's Board of Commissioners, he often stood in opposition to the politics of Commissioner Bill James.
For instance, when James wanted to make sure that school counselors couldn't discuss sexuality with students unless the parents were notified, Scher was one of the commissioners who voted "no." When James floated a "proposal to eliminate county funding to any agency that provides information about homosexuality and other 'crimes of nature,'" Scher was one of the bare majority that defeated it, saying: "This isn't about homosexuality. The main purpose for this is to do a scoreboard . . . to determine who's really a Republican and who's not."
Karen Kwiatkowski (a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Air Force) says that American troops coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan are changing the way we view those conflicts and the way we view the administration that sent them in the first place.
We still won’t see this level of honesty in all the major national papers, but we no longer have to rely solely on the independent or international news for the truth. Talk to the reservists and guardsmen and active soldiers and marines who have returned home from Iraq and Afghanistan, on leave and between tours. Hear their words across your kitchen table and your local bar, listen to their pillow talk and their advice to their children, nieces and nephews.
There is a fascinating article in the Christian Science Montitor today. The article looks at research that examines the relationship between natural disasters over the last 45 years and federal relief of the disasters. One important finding of the article is that different states received different levels of aid. In particular North Carolina did a poor job in receiving aid.
When she looked beyond the trends in losses, "what struck me was how ineffective certain states have been in getting presidential disaster declarations" over the past 40 years. For example, she continues, North Carolina and South Carolina have seen significant losses, yet have garnered relatively few disaster declarations, while North Dakota also has endured similarly high losses and has been "very good" at getting the declarations.
The article goes on to note that one difference in the amount of aid has been whether a state is seen as crucial for reelection.
The Asheville Citizen-Times is kind enough to point out the difference between working on solutions to a problem and simply throwing money at it. Unsurprisingly, the 11th Congressional District's Charles Taylor is in the borrow-and-spend camp.
The best starting point toward a sane immigration policy is the bill introduced last spring by U.S. Sens. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and John McCain, R-Ariz., an odd couple if there ever was one. The bill has something for everyone, ranging from a border study to more money for English language instruction.
Based on Raleigh's News & Observer's report, "glitch" is perhaps a word too mild:
CHARLOTTE, N.C. --
Hundreds of Hurricane Katrina refugees face possible eviction because their federal relief checks haven't arrived - four weeks after the money was promised.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency was to send checks of $2,358 to cover three months' housing. But evacuees said FEMA has mailed checks to former addresses in New Orleans or to the wrong address in Charlotte, which never reached their intended recipients.
Garance Franke-Ruta at the American Prospect Online offers some analysis about the Democrats' prospects next November.
Just how many of the 435 House seats will be competitive in 2006 is a matter of debate. Charlie Cook, editor of The Cook Political Report, puts the number at only 28, including 11 Democratic seats and 17 Republicans ones. Stuart Rothenberg, political analyst for Roll Call, pushes the number to 37, which is also the figure accepted by National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) Chairman Tom Reynolds. To win back control of the House, Democrats would have to keep all 11 of their contested seats and win 15 of the Republican ones, for a virtually impossible 96-percent win rate under the Cook scenario (Republicans retook the House in 1994 with a 75-percent win rate). Yet the political environment has also changed so radically over the summer and fall that Cook says he now thinks that there are “literally dozens of Republican-held seats, that, based on presidential voting patterns, credible Democratic candidates in a pro-Democratic year might win.â€
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