north carolina

Is This How The Right Views Freedom And Liberty?

For all their talk about keeping government out of our lives and pursuing freedom, the Republican Party sure has a funny way of proving it. First up is this story out of Georgia:

The City Council of Nelson has approved an ordinance that requires each head of household to own a gun. The legislation passed unanimously and goes into effect in 10 days. Nelson, population about 1,300, is about 40 miles north of Atlanta.

So the government shouldn't have the right to force citizens to purchase healthcare, but they should be allowed to force citizens to purchase guns? Something seems funny there.

Then we had east to North Carolina, where this is the news of the day:

A bill filed by Republican lawmakers would allow North Carolina to declare an official religion, in violation of the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Bill of Rights, and seeks to nullify any federal ruling against Christian prayer by public bodies statewide.

Republicans. They love the Constitution, until it interferes with their true ideals of tyranny. But this is nothing new. We saw the same thing happen a couple of years ago when plans were out to build a mosque in New York City. Apparently "freedom of religion" should only apply to Christians.

And finally:

Virginia Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli has filed a petition with the 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond asking the full 15-judge court to reconsider a decision by a three-judge panel last month that overturned the state’s sodomy law.

Economy

Cincinnati Loses An Icon

Cincinnati's iconic skyline has been called one of the most beautiful around. One building that helps make up that skyline is the Chiquita Center. Today Chiquita has announced that they are moving their operations from Cincinnati to Charlotte, North Carolina:

Chiquita Brands International, Inc. will relocate its headquarters to Charlotte, N.C., the company announced Tuesday afternoon. The move is expected to be complete by the end of 2012.

A North Carolina economic development panel approved a $22 million incentives deal to bring the global headquarters of banana giant Chiquita Brands International to Charlotte earlier in the day.

Members of the committee said the move of Chiquita's headquarters, along with research and development laboratories, will eventually bring a total of about 417 jobs to the area. The jobs are supposed to pay an average of about $107,000.

Cincinnati, like many other towns in America, is struggling economically. This loss of high paying jobs and revenue will be a serious blow to the area.

But this story comes as no shock. These talks have been going on for sometime. Even Governor John Kasich's office was involved with trying to keep the banana man here, but they failed. I guess working to strip public employees of bargaining rights was much more important that focusing on keeping a key employer in the region?

Funny Money

This is a real sign of the times:

A small but growing number of cash-strapped communities are printing their own money.

Borrowing from a Depression-era idea, they are aiming to help consumers make ends meet and support struggling local businesses.

The systems generally work like this: Businesses and individuals form a network to print currency. Shoppers buy it at a discount — say, 95 cents for $1 value — and spend the full value at stores that accept the currency.

Workers with dwindling wages are paying for groceries, yoga classes and fuel with Detroit Cheers, Ithaca Hours in New York, Plenty in North Carolina or BerkShares in Massachusetts.

Don’t throw away that old Monopoly set. Chances are you might actually be able to use the money in the near future.

Unemployment Systems Overloaded

A sad sign of the times:

Electronic unemployment filing systems have crashed in at least three states in recent days amid an unprecedented crush of thousands of newly jobless Americans seeking benefits, and other states were adjusting their systems to avoid being next.

About 4.5 million Americans are collecting jobless benefits, a 26-year high, so the Web sites and phone systems now commonly used to file for benefits are being tested like never before.

Even those that are holding up under the strain are in many cases leaving filers on the line for hours, or kissing them off with an "all circuits are busy" message. Agencies have been scrambling to hire hundreds more workers to handle the calls.

Systems in New York, North Carolina and Ohio were shut down completely by technical glitches and heavy volume, and labor officials in several other states are reporting higher-than-normal use.

And with rumors that we could be looking at up to a million jobs lost with this Friday’s unemployment report, things are only going to get worse.

Early Exit Polls - Be Skeptical!

Florida: Obama 52 percent/McCain 44 percent
Georgia: Obama 47 percent/McCain 51 percent
Indiana: Obama 52 percent/McCain 48 percent
Iowa: Obama 58 percent/McCain 42 percent
Michigan: Obama 60 percent/McCain 39 percent
Minnesota: Obama 60 percent/McCain 39 percent
Missouri: Obama 52 percent/McCain 48 percent
Nevada: Obama 55 percent/McCain 45 percent
New Hampshire: Obama 57 percent/McCain 43 percent
New Mexico: Obama 56 percent/McCain 43 percent
North Carolina: Obama 52 percent/McCain 48 percent
Ohio: Obama 54 percent/McCain 45 percent
Pennsylvania: Obama 57 percent/McCain 42 percent
Virginia: Obama 55 percent/McCain 45 percent
West Virginia: Obama 44 percent/McCain 55 percent
Wisconsin: Obama 58 percent/McCain 42 percent

Obama Up By 2% In North Carolina

Obama is now leading in NC and it appears as though he has Sarah Palin to thank for that.

(h/t Sully)

Hey You Bunch Of Racist Cross Burners In W.Va.

Thank you! Love - Erick at Red State:

(click for large view).

Yup - that is the fearless leader at Red State insinuating that everyone in West Virginia is some kind of cross burning racist. I wonder how the people of West Virginia feel about the leader of a blog, which has a bunch of Republican members of congress post on, saying such things?

Erick also seems to forget a couple other states in there. He says this in his post:

Here now, this week, and next week, Barack Obama, the presumptive Democrat nominee, will have lost every election since February except North Carolina and Guam, and lost nearly two thirds of the vote in West Virginia, and yet the media will sweep it all under the rug, flailing about wildly to find burning crosses and white sheets instead of recognizing Obama's significant general election vulnerabilities.

Really - every one? I guess Wyoming, Vermont and Mississippi don't count as actual states anymore? Perhaps they won't count either in November.

Presumptive Nominee Obama

It sounds more like Clinton is facing the fact she can't win, without screwing over the process. Even if Michigan and Florida get seated as is, Obama wins the popular vote, and she has no way to catch up with pledged delegates.

A lot of speculation has gone on that Clinton has been holding on, waiting for some big controversy to emerge about Obama. Well following Rev. Wright, Obama has shown he can muster through the controversies.

What happened last night was the exact opposite of what Clinton needed. For it to have been a good night for her, Indiana needed to be called early with a decisive lead and North Carolina needed to go on into the wee hours of the morning, and end up being a nail bitter. That didn't happen. All her arguments for winning are now moot.

It also looks like some of her supporters are starting to think the same way. I kind of expect to see more super delegates declare for Obama in the next couple of days. They may wait a couple of days, to see what Clinton does, but the party wants this thing over with so we can focus on John McCain. The DNC doesn't want to dump all it's money into ads against McCain, and having the Obama money machine will be of great benefit.

Finally, speaking of money, Clinton may not actually drop out. Instead she will probably do a suspension of her campaign so she can continue to try and raise money. She is in major debt, and this would give her a path to nibble away at that.

Will It Be Over Tonight?

If Obama wins North Carolina and Indiana, do you think Clinton will do the proper thing and concede to Obama? I highly doubt she will. She seems determined to cheat and steal her way into being the nominee, even if that means John McCain becoming the next President.

Debate #22 Axed

It looks like ABC's poorly handled debate might have made an impact on the decision:

The North Carolina Democratic Party has dropped plans for an April 27 debate, which would have been moderated by CBS's Katie Couric.

Clinton had agreed to the debate; Obama did not, and the party said in a statement that the clock had run out to organize a debate. The party also cited worries about "party unity," after last week's combative debate in Philadelphia, a focused grilling of Senator Barack Obama on topics he would have preferred to avoid.

The only other debates I would support would be ones handled like the days of old - ones were ratings and profits didn't matter. It's time to let the League of Women Voters handle our debates again and keep the corporate greed out of it.

Things Are TIght In Nevada

This is good news for Edwards

A new poll finds a tight three-way race among Democrats and a narrow lead for Arizona Sen. John McCain among Republicans ahead of Saturday's Nevada caucuses.

Among Democrats, the poll by Maryland-based Research 2000 for the Reno Gazette-Journal found Illinois Sen. Barack Obama at 32 percent, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton right behind with 30 percent and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, who many professionals and pundits have already written off, at 27 percent.

Republicans Want Blackwater Hearings Postponed

The party of life - unless it involves corporations. Then the true meaning of the GOP comes out; the party of greed:

Seven House Republicans have urged Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) to postpone a hearing about Blackwater USA until the State Department and a separate commission report on the most recent incident involving the North Carolina-based security firm in which Iraqi civilians were killed.

The Republicans sent Waxman a letter Friday, urging him to reschedule a Tuesday hearing into Blackwater's role protecting U.S. government officials in Iraq.

They want Waxman to postpone the hearing until the State Department and the U.S.-Iraq Joint Commission unveil their own separate reports about a Sept. 16 shooting in the Mansour district of Baghdad in which nine Iraqi civilians were reported killed and another 15 were wounded.

Of course they want you to believe that this should be delayed so the State Department can investigate. Like this administration has been good at investigating anything. If these members of Congress do not want to do their constitutional job of oversight then they need to quit. They are violating the simple oath they took when they were elected.

GET OUT TO VOTE: This Week's Primaries

Tomorrow (Tuesday, May 2nd) there will be primaries in Indiana, North Carolina and my own state of Ohio.

I will be keeping the blog up to date on the returns here in Ohio. We have a couple hot races that are gaining some national attention.

First we have Jean "Full Of" Schmidt running against former Congressman Bob McEwen in the OH-2 race. This race has already been dirty on the part of Schmidt with her receiving a reprimand from the State Elections Commission last week for lying.

On the state front we have a heated primary for Republican Governor. The race is between Ken Blackwell, who helped Bush get the White House in 2004 and Jim Petro. We also have a primary for Democrat Governor between Ted Strickland and Bryan Flannery. I officially stand behind Ted Strickland as he seems the best choice. Current polls how that Ted Strickland has a strong lead over Ken Blackwell in the November election.

If you live in one of these states then do not forget to go out and vote. If you know someone who does not have the means to get to their polling station then by all means, please offer them a ride. The larger turnout for Democrats the better.

Deibold Back In NC

Diebold is back as a bidder in North Carolina. According to the

AP they are amongst three companies trying to win the final bid for
supplying election equipment. Diebold is still not in the clear when it comes to
the source code.

Keith Long, who is advising the elections board with the voting equipment
changes, said after talking this week with the three winning bidders that
"none of them have the source code for all of their software they use."

Computer experts still will be able to review any changes the machine
manufacturer has made to the outside software to check if those revisions
may have caused the problem, Long said.

The question still remains as to what Diebold is possibly hiding in their
code. For something as vital as our voting, companies should develop all their
software in house and not use commercially available software. Considering the
track record of Diebold and the other documented failures of these machines,
North Carolina could end up wasting money if they choose the company only to
experience failures and have to find a new supplier.