Guarino

New Energy Taxes in North Carolina?

Most people are aware that their energy costs are going to go up significantly if Cap 'n Trade is passed in Washington.  But fewer are cognizant that new energy taxes are also being proposed at the state level here in North Carolina. 

All of this seems to put to rest the premise that the Democrats are not raising taxes on working class and middle class Americans.  They are seeking to do so, with gusto.

Americans for Prosperity has set up a website to enable citizens to express their opposition to the plan to raise taxes on electricity 3% - 6.75% in North Carolina.  This increase would affect individual households and small businesses.  Go here to tell your lawmakers to cease and desist.

North Carolina's Plight

Some interesting items have arisen in connection with North Carolina's precarious situation, and the pattern of leadership we have had at the state level:

Item: Our state has been identified as being among a handful across the nation with dire budget situations.  We are getting unfavorable national attention because of the poor manner in which money has been handled at the state level in recent years.

Item: Because of the recalcitrance of state Democratic leaders on charter schools, we may be losing out on some federal monies tied to this objective.  Recall that when some Republican governors were trying to refuse stimulus money, they were being vilified.  But if state Democrats refuse federal money that would conflict with the demands of one of its key interest groups, there is much less outrage.  It is funny how that works.

Item: Carolina Journal reports that North Carolina would lose more than 2,800 jobs if the plan to raise income taxes passed by the state House were to become enacted.

Meanwhile, we have a governor running around saying it does not matter which of our taxes are being increased.  One common underlying theme is the extent to which the state Democrats' allegiance to its education interest groups is distorting what they might ordinarily be doing on behalf of citizens.  But there are other areas in which spending cuts have been minimized to the detriment of the state's long-term interests. 

Since I began blogging, I have noted how some decisions made by North Carolina leaders have placed the state on the same path as that previously taken by declining states elsewhere in the nation.  I am particularly sensitive to this possibility because of the manner in which New York declined when I was growing up there.

It seems they never learn.

Health Care: The Wrong Fixes, and the Right Fixes

More right thinking on health care:

An Insufficient Response to Annexation Abuses in NC

Carolina Politics Online reports on the activities of the North Carolina legislature.  Apparently there is a new bill to reform our annexation law.  But it would require obtaining signatures from 15% of registered voters in the city in order to block annexation of new territory.

If the goal was to erect a nearly insurmountable barrier to challenging annexation grabs made by larger North Carolina cities, the House Finance Committee has found the formula with this particular bill.

In Connection with Backing Off from Wrongful Positions

Yes!Weekly reports that the city is now conceding the RMA report was inaccurate-- just in time for its defense against Julius Fulmore's lawsuit.

And recall the cancellation of the now-infamous junket to D.C. to lobby for stimulus money for the Guilford County Schools headquarters.  Roch points out that it has been claimed that opponents of the trip had "misperceptions" about the entire arrangement.

In each case, it is important to note that local government leaders and their compatriots felt the need to back off from a previous inappropriate position.  But there is a failure to acknowledge explicitly what went wrong.

It seems we may need a statement of regret, or two.

Cap 'n Trade Exposed

Bubba has a post linking to a NRO article that compiles 50 separate problems associated with the proposed Cap and Trade legislation.   (HT also to Fred).

What is the likelihood of this turkey-of-a-bill passing in the Senate?

The Power of the Declaration

Here is a dramatic reading of the Declaration of Independence by some familiar folks from within the entertainment industry:

The Story of the Star Spangled Banner

Some of us have never heard the story of the circumstances under which the Star Spangled Banner was written.  And for those of us who did hear this story at one point in our lives, we might have forgotten.   Over at MikeTodd.net, the story is posted, and it is a poignant one:

Listen closely to the words and it tells of a highly emotional moment in US history when the war with the British was being fought and of one man's relief in seeing the US flag still flying after a vicious bombardment.

Before the Battle
The War of 1812 had been a particularly nasty conflict with the British. They had burned down the Capitol and the White House in Washington, and were set on taking the port of Baltimore, which was protected in part by Fort McHenry, just to the south.

On September 7th, 1814, during the build-up to the attack on Baltimore, two Americans, Colonel John Skinner and a lawyer and part-time poet by the name of Francis Scott Key, had gone out to one of the British ships. They had come to negotiate the release of Dr William Beanes, a friend of Key who had been seized following the attack on Washington. The British agreed, but all three had learned too much about the forthcoming attack on Baltimore and so were detained by the British on board the frigate Surprise until it was over.

The Defense of Fort McHenry
The attack started on September 12th, 1814, and after an initial exchange of fire, the fleet withdrew to form an arc just outside the range of Fort McHenry's fire.

Skinner, Beanes and Key watched much of the bombardment from the British deck. The major attack started in heavy rain on the morning of September 13th. Just under three miles in the distance the three men caught glimpses of the star-shaped fort with its huge flag - 42ft long, with 8 red stripes, 7 white stripes and 15 white stars, and specially commissioned to be big enough that the British could not possibly fail to see it from a distance.

In the dark of the night of the 13th, the shelling suddenly stopped. Through the darkness they couldn't tell whether the British forces had been defeated, or the fort had fallen.

As the rain cleared, and the sun began to rise, Key peered through the lifting darkness anxious to see if the flag they had seen the night before was still flying. And so it was that he scribbled on the back of an envelope the first lines of a poem he called Defense of Fort M'Henry:

O, say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming

Yesterday, Lex posted over at his blog a Dixie Chicks rendition of our national anthem as his favorite.  On this we disagree.  Whitney Houston captures and conveys powerfully the message of our nation surviving and overcoming-- and thereby prevailing:                                                        

 

The Real Test of Health Care Reform

Barack Obama recently appeared on Nightline, and was asked by a physician a very revealing question that raised a red flag regarding his plans for health care reform.  Dr. Orin Devinsky asked him what he would do if his wife or daughter became seriously ill, and the proposed new insurance plan would not take care of the problem.  His answer was at once illuminating and evasive:

(HT: Mickey McLean, WorldMagBlog)

Rebutting Obama on Health Care, Point-by-Point

Michael Tanner and Michael Cannon, both health care experts at the Cato Institute, are featured in the video below.  Excerpts are taken from Barack Obama's town hall meeting on health care.  The two men rebut the President on each point highlighted. 

It is a pretty sharp video, so check it out:

Tea Party Saturday in Greensboro

The Rhino reports that a Tea Party event is being held in Greensboro on the 4th of July. 

The Tea Party is being held at Country Park picnic shelter Number 7 at 1:30 PM. 

Attendees are being asked to attend first an Independence Day observance at the General Nathaniel Greene monument at the Guilford Courthouse National Military Park.  It begins at 12:45 PM.  No protests are permitted at the military park. 

Catchy Tune

HT: Brenda Bowers

Support for Sotomayor Falls

Rasmussen reports.

The number of people who think she should not be confirmed now exceeds the number who think she should be.

The North Carolina Beach Plan and Amazon: Raleigh Follies

I received a letter in the mail from my homeowners insurance company.  It was a letter of warning regarding some things that are taking place in our state capital.

North Carolina apparently has a Beach Plan that initially provided coverage for Outer Banks property owners.  It later was expanded, and provides insurance for half the residential properties in the coastal counties of North Carolina.

The plan does not nearly have enough assets and reinsurance to cover the aggregate value of all the properties it insures. And the problem has been that the state has not permitted the state Beach Plan to charge adequate rates; and our esteemed legislature had not provided a solution. 

We are now warned that all of the state's property owners will face significant insurance rate increases, and/or the prospect of more insurers leaving the state.  This will particularly be true if the state Beach plan is unable to cover all the damages it theoretically insures against; and if there is a severe hurricane affecting the coast. 

Here is the modus operandi: keep insurance rates low for those on the coast-- a politically favored group-- and make the rest of the state pay.  It is good, old-fashioned redistribution via inaction.  There is an effort afoot to fix the problem, but I am not sure that it is the right fix.

Meanwhile, we are also witnessing the impact of the state legislature moving to tax computer click transactions.  Amazon.com is severing its relationship with North Carolina-based businesses that had been relying upon these click transactions for income.

Brian Balfour cites an effort by North Carolina businesses to oppose this tax.  He points out that jobs will be at stake because of it.

Update: Now another internet company is following Amazon's lead, and pulling out of North Carolina-- Overstock.com.

Honduras

President Obama's reaction to the situation in Honduras is indicative of the overall problems with his foreign policy.  That he would express leanings toward leftist governments in our own hemisphere is a major source of concern. 

Ordinarily, I am trying to avoid blogging about international affairs.  But I find Obama's bahavior on this matter particularly appalling.  It is a bit reminiscent of Jimmy Carter's sympathies for Daniel Ortega and the Sandinistas in Nicaragua.

Andy McCarthy:

Now that the president has decided it's okay to meddle in Honduras (where they are fighting to keep preserve their democracy against the Chávez-style thug who Obama wants to re-install) but not Iran (where thousands of Iranians who seek democracy are being killed, maimed and jailed by a regime which has been at war with the United States for 30 years), the president's tack is to say that Honduras's action in removing Zelaya is "not legal." 

What on earth makes Obama think he knows better about what is legal under the law of Honduras than the Supreme Court of Honduras and the law-writing legislature of Honduras?

Cliff Kincaid:

The so-called "military coup" in Honduras was a successful effort by Honduran patriots to preserve their constitutional system of government from an international alliance of communists and socialists backed by Iran. Not surprisingly, America's Marxist President has come down on the anti-American side.

Mona Charen:

Neither Secretary of State Clinton nor President Obama has breathed a word of condemnation of Chávez’s slow strangling of freedom in Venezuela, nor his export of Chavismo to Nicaragua, Bolivia, or Honduras. But without a moment’s reflection, the secretary of state and the president offered crucial diplomatic support to Chávez disciple Manuel Zelaya.

Death By Cell Phone

The National Safety Council is spearheading a new campaign.

That such a campaign might be necessary is a sign of the times, and a reflection of our culture.

Junket for Guilford Schools HQ Raises Questions

We learn over at Ed's that a local developer is funding an expedition for Yvonne Johnson and Skip Alston to go to D.C.  The purpose?  To fish for stimulus money to fund construction of the recently conceptualized consolidated Guilford County Schools administrative building.

Keith Brown is precisely right to raise questions about the propriety of this arrangement.  We have to wonder what any given developer might have to gain by stepping forward and funding this effort.  It is wrong for Johnson and Alston to accept this type of funding.

But the News and Record reports today that a non-profit subsidiary of one of our local foundations is greasing the skids on this effort.  It is called Gate City Co.  There is flowery language about non-profits, developers and governing boards acting in coordination.  But that sounds to me as if certain elites and oligarchs are facilitating things--  and perhaps with an agenda to get the taxpayer to pay for it?

It is appropriate to question whether the stimulus money is going to fund the whole thing-- the entire construction effort.  If not, local taxpayers will be stuck with the remainder of the tab.  This is a difficult economic time for taxpayers, and there is ample pressure on our county budget. 

It is also appropriate to ask whether this particular edifice is truly needed.

Some of us regard it as dishonorable when our local and state governments go to the feds looking for stimulus money.  We all pay for federal spending, directly and indirectly; and the mounting debt is a serious problem for our nation.  Why should we think it is good for our local units of government to participate in the nationwide grab for stimulus money?

It seems some leaders within our local units of government have their priorities wrong.

Update: Some additional perspective from Piedmont Publius, who asks why the downtown ballpark has not attracted much additional development.

The Kay Hagan Health Care Shuffle

There has been much discussion over the last week on the topic of Kay Hagan's position regarding health care reform.

First, we saw Mark Binker pen a prominently-placed piece in the News and Record asserting that Kay Hagan's handling of the issue is a reflection of her overall political moderation.  Hagan had been expressing some degree of opposition to the costs associated with health care reform, and also to the "public insurance option".

Of course, in the perspective of the media, moderation is good, even if it is a cover for liberalism.  And in the eyes of the local media, Kay Hagan is also very good.  Placing a label of "moderate" on a liberal politician like Hagan might make them appear more acceptable in the eyes of the masses.

It turns out that she has a record at the state level.  She was a legislative leader during a time when state spending rose dramatically; and we are now seeing massive budget shortfalls because of this record of profligacy.

In any case, there has been a passionate reaction from the political left to Kay Hagan's display of so-called moderation on health care reform.

We saw a flurry of commentary that suggested liberals were quite unhappy with Hagan's "moderate" stance.  The media reported she had a significant equity interest in certain health care companies.  The liberal blogs began profiling her in a manner to pressure her to conform; Move-on.org got involved; and an ad or two was produced to apply even more political pressure.

And Hagan responded.  She told us that her goal was not to defeat health care reform; but rather her goal was to produce a better bill that could pass.

One of the interesting things about this whole discussion is the liberal/moderate continuum.  It was always to their political advantage for the liberal Democrats to paint Hagan as a moderate-- and for Hagan to pose as one--- because it would help her get elected in a state like North Carolina.  However, the moment she begins to talk about governing like a moderate, the liberal forces move to squash her like a bug.

It seems moderation will only take you so far in the Democratic Party. 

But there is yet another interesting dimension.  Some of us observing from the sidelines have felt that Kay Hagan will vote in favor of whatever Democratic health care reform package reaches the floor of the Senate--- regardless of the noises she is making now, and regardless of whatever might be in the final bill.

Some of us feel that we are observing a delightful political shuffle in which the local media is complicit.  Create the appearance of moderation, then vote as a liberal.  Vote as a socialist. 

I hope that is not the outcome, but if it is, I hope everyone will recognize it, and acknowledge it vociferously.  Indeed, I hope everyone will shout it from the rooftops if it happens.

We simply cannot permit a huge deception to be inflicted upon North Carolinians without letting the people know what is truly happening.

Sotomayor Reversed on Ricci: What will be Impact on GPD Case?

A couple of commenters here had predicted that Sonia Sotomayor would be reversed with the Supreme Court soon deciding on the New Haven Ricci case.  But it turns out to have been even worse, according to Wendy Long:

Frank Ricci finally got his day in court, despite the judging of Sonia Sotomayor, which all nine Justices of U.S. Supreme Court have now confirmed was in error.  She essentially committed judicial malpractice. 

That even Justice Ginsberg and the dissenters would have remanded — undoing what Judge Sotomayor did — confirms that Sotomayor is a far-left liberal judicial activist who ignores the law and rules on her own personal agenda, even beyond the current liberals on the Court.

There is nothing moderate, mainstream, or nonideological about that. This demonstrates that the White House spin on this nominee is a pure fabrication.
 
Usually, poor performance in any profession is not rewarded with the highest job offer in the entire profession.
 
What Judge Sotomayor did in Ricci was the equivalent of a pilot error resulting in a bad plane crash. And now the pilot is being offered to fly Air Force One.

There is already some discussion that this decision might have limited applicability to other cases.  I suppose we will see, in the long run, how it will affect the recent complaint against the Greensboro Police Department being explored by the federal Department of Justice.  That particular complaint also was with regard to preemployment testing.

Update: Sam Spagnola thinks this decision will have significant repercussions beyond the case that was decided upon.

Christian Aid Worker from Tennessee Reportedly Killed by al-Qaeda

Was told by a friend that a Christian aid worker from the United States has been killed ostensibly because he was attempting to spread the Gospel in the northwest African nation of Mauritania.  Mauritania is an Islamic nation.  Apparently, al-Qaeda is taking responsibility for the murder.

The name of the deceased is Christopher Leggett; and his hometown was Cleveland, Tennessee.