ncga 06

Adam Searing is the Director of the North Carolina Health Access Coalition. My one experience with Adam was watching his downtrodden and negative take on healthcare at a Chapel Hill forum. That and he doesn't support the push for UHC at this time, which I disagree with. He's been fighting for healthcare reform longer than any of us, but I think maybe he needs a change of scenery.

That aside, he has put together a good postmortem on why the high risk pool died a lonely death (PDF). It is easy to see why Mr. Searing (his resume says graduate degrees in law and public health, but I don't think they are Ph.D.s, if so, I apologize) is downtrodden on healthcare reform in North Carolina. The high risk pool would have covered somewhere between 9,000 - 20,000 North Carolinians. There are 1.5 million uninsured. This bill would have covered 0.1% of them, and it didn't pass. I'll cut and paste a few things after the break, but the PDF is a good read.

Friday, Meredith Norris, Jim Black's former political director, pled no-contest to charges of unregistered lobbying. Jim Black had a legal setback Monday when a judge ruled that certain contributions funneled through the Optometry PAC were illegal and must be forfeited. This follows Michael Decker's August 1st guilty plea to conspiracy to extort, mail fraud and money laundering and a clandestine meeting at a Salisbury IHOP, widely considered to be with Black.

Last Sunday NBC17's At Issue local political panel had Nelson Dollar, Joe Sinsheimer and Bill Faison discussing the Black & Decker events. Dollar had little to add to the discussion.

As a true-believer in the Democratic Party, I hate it when I am let down by the party. One of the things that I believe will make us a greater country is universal healthcare. When Americans are healthier they are better workers, better parents, and better citizens. Just as with education, healthcare is a right that all North Carolinians have inherent to their being – it is not a privilege bestowed upon those with the most money. Yet, in our society we too often kill off our poorer citizens by denying them healthcare. Make no mistake, the inability to have preventive care leads to lethal illnesses that could be stopped earlier in the disease progression. Look no farther than curable childhood diseases, which under a universal healthcare plan could be screened for in every newborn. Instead, many of our children suffer through their whole lives with physical and mental retardation all for the lack of a blood test at birth.

So, what have we as Democrats in North Carolina done for better healthcare? Well, not much. Certainly not as much as the Republican governor of Massachusetts. More below the fold.

Chris Fitzsimon gets it over at the NC Policy Watch. I have recently said here that the NC legislature is a "old boys" club that happens to allow women. If you don't already have your money, you ain't getting in.

The Fitzsimon File below the break.

The 2006 legislative session ended on Friday and with it so did the career of Richard Morgan. Now I would not normally bemoan the loss of Republican member of the NC House, but this one seems to the harbinger of a bad tide in North Carolina politics.

First, it should be recognized that the position of legislator in North Carolina is not a coveted job. Being a member of North Carolina's General Assembly is not a well paid position and is still considered to be a part-time job, even though the members spend many hours fundraising and attending events to even be able to run for this part-time job and must uproot themselves for many months and head to Raleigh each year. The legislators then work late into the night and get heaped little praise, usually being overshadowed by national events or state-wide elected officials. But the legislators are ones with their hands in the fire crafting policy for the state that affects the lives of many on any given day.

Greg has done an excellent job keeping everyone informed about the ethics/lobbying efforts. I felt that needed a new home. From the N&O:

All together, the new rules would:

* Eliminate many perks of privilege -- ACC tickets, expensive dinners and golf trips provided by lobbyists and their clients.

* Stop the practice of spending campaign money on cars, computers or cash to family members.

* Limit the influence of lobbyists on raising campaign money for lawmakers and top state officials.

* Impose new criminal penalties for those who break the rules: Lie about your financial interests on a public disclosure form and face a felony. Hide them and face a misdemeanor.

An AP Story on the Technical Corrections bill in the NC State House has this little nugget:

There are some nontechnical changes. One provision would allow company police officers authorized by the state to make arrests to carry concealed weapons without receiving a permit. There is no opposition to the change, Hackney said.

This seemingly innocuous provision is a union-busting gift to the hog industry.

According to the NC Council of Churches the Smithfield Company Police have wide powers to arrest and intimidate workers. This provision would give them the ability to carry concealed weapons without a permit.

  

The News and Observer does a good job today covering the push by waste management companies to buy the heart and soul of North Carolina to site their mega-landfills. Here's my Saturday morning quarter-backing:

Some legislators say the state needs to stop and think about whether North Carolina wants to become home to a group of huge landfills.

Really? Stop and think about the future? There's a novel idea, but don't expect it to gain any traction with the free-market anti-planning government-haters who'd happily sell our state to the lowest bidder.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

RALEIGH - NC legislators can create advantages for citizens by investing carefully in good governance, encouraging school excellence, and focusing on the legitimate strategic needs of our state. Those are a few of the recommendations outlined in Progress 2006, a dynamic new initiative by Blue NC.

“As we enter the 2006 campaign season, candidates for public office in North Carolina are faced with the daunting and possibly overwhelming task of developing informed positions on dozens of public policy issues,” says James Protzman, who helped start Blue NC. “Progress 2006, is designed to help those candidates by combining the expertise of Blue NC analysts and contributors to address state and local budgets and taxes, education, state regulation, local government, and health and human services."

Cross-posted on the Brock Log.