NC GOP

NC Senate Republicans spoil effort to increase school psychologists

Submitted by scharrison on

Because they've never met a bill they didn't want to hijack:

Lawmakers focused on improving school safety for months have planned to address a significant shortage of school psychologists, but none of the related bills filed by legislators look like they are going anywhere during this legislative session.

The proposal had broad support, and passed unanimously in the House, but the bill failed after the Senate tacked on a controversial and unrelated healthcare provision. Then the Senate stalled the House's attempts to resurrect the psychology provision in another bill about licensing regulation in various industries. That bill did not make it past the legislature's self-imposed deadline to send all statewide bills to the governor's desk.

That's pretty much all you need to know about how Berger and his acolytes roll. No matter how needed and necessary a piece of legislation is, if they can't use (abuse) it to get something else they want, it's no longer worth their effort. The sheer arrogance and selfishness is breathtaking. And it's not like this is a "nice to have" enhancement of our schools, it's a crisis that has deadly consequences if not addressed:

Republicans blame Cooper for judicial redistricting confusion

Submitted by scharrison on

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As usual, Melissa Boughton is on the case:

The Senate voted along party lines Tuesday night to overturn a partial judicial redistricting bill in an apparent attempt to flex its political muscle at Gov. Roy Cooper. Sen. Ralph Hise (R-Mitchell) told his colleagues it took Cooper 243 hours and 20 minutes to veto Senate Bill 757 and that he (Cooper) wanted to make sure he caused confusion for the election.

“I promise you, he knew the moment it passed the first chamber whether or not he was going to veto this bill,” Hise said. “But instead he wanted to create some chaos. … That’s the way this Governor likes to play, so we’re going to send the message back.”

That's right, they are accusing the Governor of following the law, which specifies how much time he has to sign, Veto, or allow a bill to become law without his signature. Make no mistake, those judicial candidates who are forced to refile know exactly who to blame, the meddlers in the General Assembly:

Tuesday Twitter roundup

Submitted by scharrison on

The folly of sending a pastor to Congress:

Mark Walker is quite possibly the emptiest suit we've ever sent to Congress, and we've sent a few doozies.

Constitution Party fields small group of right-wing extremists for 2018

Submitted by scharrison on

And leading the pack is a GOP Sore Loser of course:

The far-right party, which promotes limited government and the Second Amendment while opposing abortion, selected Allen Poindexter, a freelance writer, to challenge Sarah Stevens, the Republican speaker pro tem, in state House District 90, which covers Surry County and part of Wilkes. The 41-year-old Poindexter ran against Stevens in the Republican primary. Stevens easily defeated Poindexter with two thirds of the vote.

“I got disgusted with the [Republican] party because the leadership lost their way,” said Poindexter during an open question-and-answer period at the convention, which was held at Calvary Church of the Nazarene in suburban Charlotte. Poindexter said he would support legislation to allow small communities to form independent school districts, and supports allowing teachers with proper training and screening to carry firearms in schools.

Dude, you were just a Republican like five minutes ago, got beat in the Primary, and now you're concocting a story about leaving the party because the leadership "lost their way"? They lost their way back in 2011 when they took over the NCGA, have been stumbling around since then grabbing whatever power they can, but somehow between May and June of this year they *really* lost their way, and you decided to change parties? Here's the rest of their "slate" of candidates:

All you need to know on GOP Early Voting shenanigans

Submitted by scharrison on

NC Republicans pushing junk health insurance as alternative to ACA

Submitted by scharrison on

The free market might just kill you if you're not careful:

The legislation would allow nonprofit organizations that have existed for at least 10 years, and which offer membership in all 100 counties, to offer their members health benefit plans. Unlike other health insurance plans and coverage offered by employers, these benefit plans wouldn’t be required to cover a minimum set of health care services. And plans could be priced at different levels so that people with pre-existing health conditions would be charged more or else not have their pre-existing conditions covered.

“It creates a false sense of security,” said Peg O’Connell, a lobbyist for a number of public health organizations, including the American Cancer Society. “If you think you’ve got insurance and you don’t, or you think you’re insured for something like cancer or heart disease. And then you file a claim and they suddenly say, ‘That was a pre-existing condition, we’re not going to cover it’ or ‘We might not cover it for a year, like we did before the Affordable Care Act was passed.’”

Honestly, I'm surprised it took them this long to come up with such an "initiative." This is not radically different than the GOP's support of payday lenders and other borderline fraudulent activities, since the responsibility for making the "proper choice" falls directly on the shoulders of those who will be suffering. That's the Republican way: Sink or swim. Of course, they're not going to be standing by to help when you start drowning, because teaching you to swim is not their true goal. Walking away from responsibility is really all they're after. But this isn't just a belief in the non-existent invisible hand, it's part of a concerted effort to destroy Obamacare once and for all:

Fifteen minutes to read and analyze forty pages

Submitted by BlueNC on

$3 Billion for roads but only $1.3 Million for contaminated water

Submitted by scharrison on

On the plus side, when you drive to the store for bottled water, the ride will be smooth:

A method to accelerate local and regional road-building projects in North Carolina by authorizing up to $3 billion in debt has made it through the General Assembly.

The legislation that permits the borrowing is heading to Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's desk following Tuesday's House vote of 94-21. Cooper is expected to sign the bill, which passed the Senate unanimously last week and would represent a rare moment of bipartisanship between the executive and legislative branches.

There's little doubt we need to spend more money on our roads, but we should also dedicate a healthy chunk of that to alternative forms of transportation, like buses and trains, and even bicycle-friendly roadways. But when you have billion-dollar private industries contaminating our fresh water resources, and developing new chemical compounds faster than we can try to pronounce their titles, regaining control of that situation is a government imperative. We need to see some bi-partisan movement on that a hell of a lot more than we need cooperation on road building and maintenance. And low-balling DEQ on their desperately needed equipment is a recipe for disaster:

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