verla insko

Received via email from the office of Representative Verla Insko

December 22, 2011

A Special Session

Governor Perdue’s December 14 veto of Senate Bill 9, No Discriminatory Purpose in Death Penalty, triggered a process that will bring the General Assembly into a special session on Wednesday, January 4 at 2pm.

This special session fulfills the requirements in Article II of the State Constitution that the General Assembly shall reconsider bills vetoed by the Governor and in Article III, that, if the veto occurs after the General Assembly has adjourned, the Governor shall reconvene the General Assembly within 40 days to reconsider the vetoed bill.

If there was an award for petulance in the NC House there would be many contenders. The top place might likely be shared by Stephen LaRoque and Justin Burr, and not simply on account of their contempt for the trials of low-wealth citizens. LaRoque is on a crusade to redefine the NAACP as racist. Burr for example, has been contemptuous of the Racial Justice Act, and of opposition to various election law “reforms”. Burr reached a peak of pique when he ran roughshod over Verla Insko in a committee considering the abortion bill.

Burr’s juvenile physique has been tempered this session by the maintenance of a close haircut that is oddly suggestive of an outbreak of lice in the boys' dormitory. Burr grandiosely thinks he needs to educate Judge Howard Manning and Governor Bev Perdue on the need for low-income parents to pay 10% of that paltry income towards constitutionally required Pre-K education.

The latest? In case you missed as relayed via Verla Insko the pm:

Yesterday NC's GOP-controlled state legislature failed to muster the 3/5th majority to overturn Democratic Governor Perdue's veto of a Voter ID Bill. Today the GOP made a back-door procedural maneuver to circumvent yesterday's vote. A series of local bills was moved into the Rules Committee, the purpose being to replace the contents of the local bills with the Voter ID requirements overridden yesterday.

The Governor cannot veto local bills.

Two bills were filed Wednesday that will have a tremendous impact on how our health care system works, or doesn't work, in North Carolina. These are competing bills that offer radically different visions of how to establish a health benefits exchange.

You can read this editorial for some background. Basically, most people who do not get health insurance through work will purchase coverage through this new entity, called the health benefits exchange.

For immediate release
Joyce McCloy, North Carolina Coalition for Verified Voting 336-794-1240

Please join the NC Coalition for Verified Voting
for our
Annual Voting Integrity Meetup
In celebration of the fourth anniversary of SL-323
the Public Confidence in Elections Law

Wednesday August 26, 2009
6:00 - 7:30 PM
at the Busy Bee Cafe in Raleigh
in the upstairs room
225 South Wilmington Street
(plenty of FREE Parking nearby)

The NC Coalition for Verified Voting invites you to join other election integrity supporters in celebrating the fourth anniversary of the Public Confidence in Elections Law, SL 323.

Agenda
Introduction - North Carolina passed one of the strongest verified voting laws in the country four years ago.
"Legislator of the Year" award.
Guest Speaker: David Allen, member of the Joint Select Committee on Electronic Voting will speak

As tired as we all may be about listening to environmental organizations preach about the need to reform our outlook toward global climate change, their message has still not fully been heard. The problems that climate change has placed on this world are very real, and are becoming more and more apparent everyday. Yet still, most Americans are content either giving in to apathy or ignoring these important issues all together.

Hi all, two updates.
1. We have already had about 60 people RSVP for the event!!!

2. To clear up a misunderstanding, we are not funded by a powerful right-wing think tank, so the pizza will NOT be on the house : (
Perhaps when BlueNC starts generating Daily Kos-like advertising revenue we will be able to host events like this. In the meantime....

Greetings Health Care Fans!
Consider this your formal invitation to join Health Care for All North Carolina, the Orange County Democratic Party, and the John Edwards One Corps for A Night on the Town with Sicko.

What: Dinner and a Show
Where: The Varsity Theater in beautiful downtown Chapel Hill, NC followed by an informal gathering at Pepper's Pizza just a few doors down (it's all about the walkability).
When: Sunday, July 15th, starting at 4:20pm
RSVP: Email me so we can have a head count for DINNER.

The event will start with Rep. Verla Insko giving a brief introduction to the state of health care legislation in the state of North Carolina. Mental Health Parity, High Risk Pool, Health Care for All, and more.

Following the movie, at 6:30pm, we'll meander down Franklin Street to Pepper's Pizza for some great food and atmosphere and to talk about THE NEXT STEP. It might be the end of the event, but it's just the beginning of the battle.

I suspect that some of you know the mysterious pundit-turned-public-prosecutor, Joe Sinsheimer, but I don't. All I know about him is what I've read and heard over the past year. For example, Joe was featured this week on the State of Things (WUNC radio), which was reported by the Dome Blog today.

Sinsheimer first showed up on my radar in relation to Jim Black. He was on the case early and relentlessly, a bulldog, so to speak. He's often sought out by the MSM reporters, perhaps because he has a way of forcing dialog and putting elected officials on the spot.

His next foray into Democratic house-cleaning involved Representative Wright, where he called early and often for investigations and action. He apparently sent a letter to Speaker Hackney and, for whatever reason, Hackney felt compelled to respond. (I'm jealous. Hackney never answers my letters.)

And now Joltin' Joe is on a new trail of corruption, as evidenced by his calling out Verla Insko. Here's the text of the letter he sent Verla, posted on Squeeze the Pulp.

that isn't as stupid as the shrub's plan is all right with me. I've plugged Verla Insko's Health Care for All bill, and the National Health Insurance Act (HR 676), and cheered almost any reform idea that comes along, because any step in the right direction is a start.

In an opinion piece that came out today, Phil Mattera of the Corporate Research Project asks,

"Why are we keeping a hopeless, for-profit health insurance system alive?"

You can read and comment on his article here.

Mattera opines on what each of several political figures want to do about health care reform, but basically all he says about John Edwards is that Edwards wants to tax the upper class to help the uninsured. I think Mattera has overlooked the most important features of what John Edwards is proposing to do, and how it could lead to phasing out private insurance companies' involvement with health care. Edwards recognizes that it's just not politically viable for us to jump straight to National Health (a la the United Kingdom or Canada). At this point in time, the insurance lobby is just not going to let fully nationalized health care happen, and Edwards knows that. What he calls for is to have both at the same time; consumers[I hate that word] people can individually choose between private health insurance or public health insurance, but everyone will be required to have one or the other. Because public health, like Medicare, will be more efficient, the insurance companies, in competition with public health, will have to streamline, tighten up, and (though Edwards doesn't say) accept more modest profits. Edwards sees this as a good way to transition, and his vision beyond is that eventually the people will vote on whether to keep a dual system or go fully to National Health. (It'll be a no-brainer.)

Dear friends,

Once again I'm asking you to take action to fix our broken health care system.