Monday, March 6, 2006 - 12:22pm

My first thought after reading this article in The Washington Post , was that an earthly judgment day, of sorts, is arriving for Tom DeLay. My second thought was that some people in Texas must have awfully thick skulls. Maybe they are just not very bright in DeLay's district, or maybe they just happen to like people who are accused of multiple felonies and under indictment for some of them.
More below the fold

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Monday, March 6, 2006 - 9:05am

The Charlotte Observer had a short piece in Sunday's paper giving a few details from a survey of 500 CMS teachers. The survey confirms what most of us who have been involved in the schools could have told CMS free of charge. I will quote the entire article, because this is sad.

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Friday, March 3, 2006 - 1:31pm

Robert started our week with his piece on Medicaid. I thought I would include my take on it to start our weekend.

A program essential to the health, even the survival of many of our most vulnerable citizens has been targeted for massive cuts by the Bush administration and the Republicans in congress. The poor, the elderly and disabled children will be particularly affected by these cuts and in many states are in a more tenuous situation than ever before. These groups may fare a bit better in North Carolina than in other states, but the possibility of a negative impact looms in the future.

Keep reading . . .

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Sunday, February 26, 2006 - 6:40am

The Charlotte Observer is running a piece this morning about the GOP Lincoln-Reagan Day dinner where Senator Richard Burr spoke about the GOP's chances in November. He doesn't think there's a chance for Democrats to take control of the House.

With most congressional districts favoring one party or the other, he said, only 32 House seats are actually competitive. Democrats need a net gain of 15 seats to take control.

"I find it hard to believe Democrats are going to take over the House," said Burr, of Winston-Salem.

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Friday, February 24, 2006 - 7:26pm

In his plea, defense contractor Mitchell Wade, admitted to paying his employees to make campaign contributions to two Republicans, though he says these two did not know the contributions were illegal. In the 2004 cycle Katherine Harris(R-Fla) received $32,000 from employees of MZM, Inc and Virgil Goode(R-Va) received $23,551. Goode also received $34,625 in the 2006 cycle. The above information is from Open Secrets.

According to Paul Kiel of TPM's Daily Muck:

After Wade made the campaign contributions, Wade asked that one of the Representatives and his staff request appropriations funding for an MZM facility. The Representative's staff later confirmed to Wade that an appropriations bill would include $9 million for the facility.

Corruption
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Wednesday, February 22, 2006 - 3:37pm

The Associated Press

has a story out that confirms what many of us have suspected for some time now. President Bush is not in control of his White House and has divorced himself from the responsibility of running this country.

President Bush was unaware of the pending sale of shipping operations at six major U.S. seaports to a state-owned business in the United Arab Emirates until the deal already had been approved by his administration, the White House said Wednesday. Defending the deal anew, the administration also said that it should have briefed Congress sooner about the transaction, which has triggered a major political backlash among both Republicans and Democrats.

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Friday, February 10, 2006 - 4:04pm

The State Board of Elections has determined that Jim Black's campaign did break election laws by accepting contributions over the legal limit, by making contributions in the name of another contributor and by accepting over $27,000 in contributions from businesses.

While no action was taken against Black, Rep. Michael Decker (R-Forsyth) and Scott Edwards, treasurer of the optometrists' PAC were referred to the Wake County District Attorney's office for possible prosecution.

From the Charlotte Observer:

Investigators concluded that Decker, a Black ally, failed to disclose contributions, transferred campaign contributions for personal use without reporting them and filed false campaign reports. Edwards, a Murfreesboro optometrist, was accused of violating campaign contribution limits and filing a false report

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Monday, February 6, 2006 - 12:55pm

The Charlotte Observer has a piece this morning that makes the future of North Carolina's 8th Congressional District appear bleak. The financial numbers aren't looking good for Democrats Tim Dunn and Larry Kissell.

According to the FECinfo data compiled by the Observer, Robin Hayes had $733,837 in the bank as of 12/31/05. Tim Dunn had $47,118 and Larry Kissell had $3,653. It's a good thing the numbers don't tell the whole story.

Dunn and Kissell are running against each other in a primary. This means that the money will leave the campaign as quickly as it is coming in. I haven't seen anything by Tim Dunn that is out locally yet, but Larry Kissell is running a traditional grassroots campaign with a twist. He has also reached out to the netroots for support.

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Saturday, January 28, 2006 - 10:24pm

The Charlotte Observer has an excellent piece on the editorial page from a couple of weeks ago about the gas tax and the state highway budget funds and how they are used. It gives a lesson of fairly recent legislative history that serves to shine a light on the ignorance of many critics of the gas tax and how the money is used by the legislature.

Revenues for roads/highways goes into one of two funds in the state budget. The Highway Fund is used to pay for general maintenance and repairs of state-owned roads. It also pays for some smaller construction projects and transportation programs. Revenues that support this fund come from the state motor fuel tax and vehicle registration fees. No money from this fund is transferred to the General Funds in the state budget.

nc house taxes
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Wednesday, January 25, 2006 - 11:20am

(front-paged by Anglico . . .)

In preparation for Jane Hamsher's live chat with the Washington Post I am cross posting here and at MyDD a post from my blog Americans Deserve the Truth.  It is time for the truth to be more easily found in the traditional media outlets especially about the political scandals currently flourishing in Washington.  I'm tired of the media trying to artificially balance the news they deliver.  You can't turn a Republican scandal into a bipartisan affair just by pretending it is so.  My diary follows........

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