charlotte

I'll be working the Pink Slip Truth Tour tonight in Charlotte (see below) and would love to meet any of you attending the Tillis Town Hall. Could also use an extra hand to pass out brochures! Let me know if you'll be around.

This lesson in hypocrisy brought to you by the letters “G-O-P”

This post originally appeared on AFLCIONC.org.

On November 29, the Republican-controlled General Assembly adopted an error-filled, non-binding resolution lambasting the DNC for not doing more to hire in-state, non-union companies to work the 2012 Convention in Charlotte. It falsely claims that the Democratic National Convention is actively trying not to hire North Carolina workers.

“This is such an unnecessary resolution,” objected Rep. Paul Luebke because, in fact, “the DNC has an agreement to hire local people as much as possible.” To say otherwise is “simply not true,” he added.

Charlotte-area Rep. Becky Carney blasted Speaker Thom Tillis for wasting time and taxpayer dollars for a special session on a resolution having “nothing to do with the critical issues in this state right now. We need to be up here talking about jobs for every North Carolinian that’s unemployed,” said Carney. “And what have we done here for three days? We have not talked about jobs.”

Unfortunately for North Carolina workers, state Republicans can’t be bothered to put their money where their mouth is. According to filings with the Federal Elections Commission, the NCGOP has outsourced its video production, logo design, and web services to a company in New Jersey. Specifically, the NCGOP has paid one Mr. Riccardo Diaz, the Director of Media Affairs for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, $5,589.90 to produce web videos attacking the DNC and President Obama, to design the logo for its 2012 campaign, and to create the website for itself and for its own state convention!

How’s that for chutzpah?

The Democratic National Convention Committee has awarded six contracts, worth a combined $7 million. Of those, one went to a unionized firm.

One out of seven? Unfreakingbelievable.

http://clclt.com/theclog/archives/2011/11/09/news-analysis-nc-democratic...

A piece from for Creative Loafing of Charlotte:

Democrats were able to celebrate across Charlotte last night after reelecting Mayor Anthony Foxx, improving their majority on the City Council, and getting two of their preferred candidates elected to the school board. To statewide Democratic leaders, those results were not in a vacuum — they were part of a trend with huge implications going into the 2012 presidential race.

“What happened in Charlotte is a very, very, big deal,” said David Parker, chairman of the North Carolina Democratic Party. “Pat McCrory handpicked those candidates, particularly for City Council, and campaigned for them. And the whole McCrory-Tea Party axis got shot down."

Previously.

At 7:00 PM on Saturday, Former Mayor Harvey Gantt, Congressman Mel Watt, Mayor Anthony Foxx, and Executive Vice President Colmon Elridge of the Young Democrats of America will be the special guests at the Third Annual Gantt-Watt Reception at Aquavina Restaurant.

Early Bird tickets for Young Democrats are only $35; all proceeds benefit the Young Democrats of North Carolina. Tickets and sponsorships can be purchased online at ydnc.org.

As many of you know, the state legislature took it upon itself to ram through its own map for Mecklenburg County commission districts. The reason? Republicans on a citizens' commission were upset that one of the maps under consideration would have split the towns in the southeastern part of the county into two districts.

Whatever you may think about what the citizen board was considering, this strongarm act by the legislature is yet more proof North Carolina needs to bring local government into the 21st century. Specifically, we need local home rule.

An update to last week's post, "Everyone knows mass transit is key: CLT, Raleigh GOPers scramble to assure constituents."

The funding for light-rail projects in Charlotte is back -- at the request of Speaker Tillis. Why? Because everyone knows mass transit is key. You can tell by the way the GOPers scrambled to explain the potential cuts to their Charlotte and Raleigh metro constituents. Lordy be... there's a good feeling that comes 'round from being right.

More after the jump...

(Crossposted from Sex, Cash & Politics)

A new study from the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis (HCRA) at the university’s School of Public Health provides as much reason as we’ve ever had before to support efforts to build public and mass transit systems.

Just as the North Carolina Senate unveils and debates their Charlotte-light-rail-stripping proposals — and as Charlotte and Raleigh GOP politicians scramble to assure their constituents that such projects are still viable — this new study shows a direct correlation between increased traffic congestion and public health costs stemming from premature deaths and other health risks resulting from air pollution caused by vehicle emissions, in particular fine particulate matter (PM2.5), sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxide (NOx).

cross-posted at dKos

This morning, the Charlotte Observer editorial board rolled out the five-inch guns on Franklin Graham, calling him out for his ridiculous statements on Sunday's This Week with Christiane Amanpour.

Evangelist Franklin Graham surely must have forgotten the sage advice from a verse in Proverbs, about a fool holding his tongue and "being counted wise."

Otherwise he wouldn't have spouted the nonsense he did Sunday to ABC's Christiane Amanpour, giving huckster real-estate mogul and television personality Donald Trump a thumbs-up as a presidential candidate and repeating the already many times disproven silliness that President Barack Obama wasn't born in the United States.

After this haymaker, the Observer keeps punching, flat-out calling Graham's decision to join the "Where's the birth certificate?" crowd "ill-informed" and "irresponsible."