GOP congressional candidate Ilario Pantano attracts supportive crowds at N.C. Republican Convention.

By Verne Strickland / Saturday, June 4, 2011

"There is real excitement for the conservative movement and the Republican Party here in North Carolina," said GOP congressional candidate Ilario Pantano of Wilmington today.

Pantano was interviewed as the NCGOP convention moved into its second day at the impressive new Wilmington Convention Center. The state Republican event is in Wilmington "for the first time in recent memory," according to GOP leaders here.

"President Obama has helped to accelerate the urgency we feel by his choice of Democrat convention being in Charlotte," said Pantano. "The result is Republicans are not wasting any time, and they’re mobilizing with great speed. The turnout here at our 2011 convention feels more energized than it did in the convention prior to the recent election."

This Republican State convention has drawn over 1,650 Republican faithful -- an all-time attendance record, said NCGOP State Chairman Robin Hayes, who won re-election to the post today.

Pantano, who is steadily gearing up his re-election effort, is enjoying enthusiastic attention at the meeting, which has provided considerable opportunity to address the crowds on hand.

"This convention in an off-year is more amped even than in the last election, and its exciting to see. It's taking place in our congressional district, so there's a great crowd of our supporters here," Pantano said. 

He shared the stage during the opening night banquet on Friday with popular conservative Congressman Allen West of Florida, and noted that West "was very supportive of my candidacy in his speech."

During his own turn at the podium, Pantano said his remarks were devoted to honoring U.S. military men and women serving in harm's way.

"We need to remember the principles they are fighting for, and to protect those principles, because they’re giving their energies and their lives, dying and bleeding everyday for principle. We must honor those same principles here at home in our belief system, and that starts with our trust and love of the Lord. If we abandon that, we abandon jeopardize the social fabric of this country that has made America exceptional."

In closing, Pantano said American citizens "should put men and women in office who are worthy of leading our fighting forces. These young people are America's sacred treasure. We fail them if we don't have strong, honest leadership at all levels of government."

The 2011 North Carolina Republican State Convention concludes on Sunday.

NC Republican State Convention continues in Wilmington with enthusiasm, resolve, and unity.

By Verne Strickland

Saturday, June 4, 2011

WILMINGTON, NC -- The first North Carolina Republican State Convention in memory rolls into its second day today with enthusiasm, intensity and a commitment to hard work and organization at every level of the Party.

A estimated turn-out of over 1,300 delegates and party faithful is gathered at the sparkling new Wilmington Convention Center for the event.

It is clear enough that the GOP does not intend to let moss gather on its stunning victories in the U.S. Congress, the State Legislature and at virtually every level of government.

In a series of interviews by USA DOT COM, the drumbeat was clear – capture the White House, the Governor’s office, and the Council of State, and install Republicans with high values and respect for the Constitution.

Robin Hayes, NCGOP chairman, showed a flinty resolve in an interview for USA DOT COM on Friday evening at the Riverside Hilton.

We had a great day. A lot of people with enthusiasm, with commitment to a one-term presidency for Obama, and for Governor Perdue. We are focused on the mission and how to accomplish the task – preparation, inspiration, perspiration. We have to do the work, knock on the doors, make the calls, put up the signs. 

VS: The main goals I hear you and your fellow Republicans talk about is capturing the White House, Governor’s Mansion, and Council of State. 

Each of these offices is so important. The White House is obviously the big prize. President Obama has done more damage in three years as it relates to debt than all of the previous presidents put together! That’s astounding – astonishing! And in spite of the very clear message from the American people to stop spending, he continues to spend, and our debt increases by about $4.3 billion per day. Somehow he feels that if you tax oil companies and rich people he is free to keep on spending. That’s inherently wrong and it will not balance the budget. 

VS: And what about in North Carolina? What are the main problems we face here?

You know, we’ve had a hiring freeze. The only outfit hiring in North Carolina is the State Government. That's a big problem. We’ve got to understand that we don’t spend what we don’t have. That’s what Allen West made clear tonight, that’s what people who are voting understand more than ever, and that’s what’s going to take back North Carolina in 2012, in spite of the unlimited money and hired people that President Obama already has in the State.

 ***********

Keynoting the evening banquet was celebrated conservative and patriot Congressman Allen West, who hails from the 22^nd Congressional District of Florida.

His appearance created considerable excitement, and he did not disappoint. We interviewed him after the Friday evening convention program.

VS: What would you cite as the main theme of your presentation to our Republicans at the opening banquet?

The high point was talking about the history of this great State going back to the Revolutionary War, the battle fought at Guilford County Courthouse, and bringing us up to today where we have the battle that is being waged in ideological ideas. 

I was just drawing a parallel between the sacrifices and the service that our men and women give that come from this State. From Fort Bragg, from Seymour Johnson, Camp Lejeune, Cherry Point – this is a great military State, and now they need to incorporate that same hope and commitment as the continue the fight to save this country. 

VS: But you remind us that it’s not all guns and glory. What precautions are you challenging your fellow Republicans to keep in view?

I think the main thing is not to lose sight of your principles and your values, not allow the liberal media to select your candidates or your platforms. As Ronald Reagan so vividly demonstrated, he was not going to be compromised on those principles, and I think that’s what the United States of America is looking for.

***********

On tap for the Saturday convention agenda are consideration of resolutions by the voting delegates, elections for the office of Party chairman and vice chairman, and speeches by a roster of GOP gatekeepers, including Pat McCrory, Thom Tillis, Dr. Ada Fisher, Andrew Breitbart, Mick Mulvaney, Jessica Innis, Frank Williams, and others.

The Saturday evening gala honors Tom Fetzer, former NCGOP chairman, and features U.S. Congressman Tim Scott from the First District of Florida.

USA DOT COM coverage of this historic N.C. Republic Party convention will continue with subsequent news posts showcasing information from a series of exclusive interviews gathered at the event.

Pantano Hospitality Suite at NC GOP Convention with special guest Major General Jim E. Livingston   (Tonight)

 

www.pantanoforcongress.com

'If you attack President Obama, you will be called a racist,' says black NCGOP official. 'If I attack him I'll be called a Republican.'

By Verne Strickland, June 2, 2011

“If you attack President Obama, you will be called a racist. If I attack him, I'll be called a Republican.”

Speaking was Dr. Timothy Johnson, vice chairman of the N.C. Republican Party, who keynoted the June meeting of the Lower Cape Fear Republican Women’s Club.

While Johnson is black, his audience was white. Johnson had made his point.

He spoke to a small but keenly interested audience which gathered Thursday at the Mai Tai Restaurant on Wilmington’s Oleander Drive. 

Confident and direct, Johnson is running for re-election to the office he holds. He is being challenged by Wayne King of King's Mountain, NC. King was unable to attend the LCFRWC session. The election will take place at the NCGOP convention June 3-5 in Wilmington.

Here are some of his comments to the Republican women:

“We want to move forward to reclaim the White House, the governor’s mansion, the Council of State, and make sure that we hold onto the General Assembly. We have a lot of work to do, and we have to be serious about getting it right.

“We’ve got to recognize that the Democratic National Convention is coming to Charlotte. This indicates that we are not just a place on the U.S. map anymore, we live in a true battleground state. 

“We will be in the national spotlight.We don’t want to allow Obama to use this occasion as part of his agenda to get re-elected.”

 Johnson’s personal biography is truly impressive. These are but a few of the highlights:

Retired Major Timothy Johnson, Ph.D. made history on June 13, 2009, when he was elected Vice Chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, becoming the first Black American to hold the position since the party’s inception March 27, 1867.  Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Dr. Johnson graduated from Benedictine High School and was a member of two state championship football teams. It was there he got the bug to get involved with politics.  In preparation, Timothy earned the Boy Scouts of America’s highest rank, the Eagle Scout Award, at the age of 14; he has continued to be a servant leader throughout his adult life. He is also Founder and National Chairman, The Frederick Douglass Foundation.  Dr. Johnson completed 21 years of military service and received numerous military honors on Active, Reserve and National Guard duties with the United States Army, serving as an enlisted soldier and commissioned officer (attaining the rank of Major). Twice elected Chairman of the Buncombe County, NC Republican Party, Dr. Johnson was a delegate to the 2008 Republican National Convention, as well as a panelist at the 2008 Black Republican Forum held in New York.    For more on Dr. Timothy Johnson and The Frederick Douglass Foundation, please go to: www.talkguests.com/timothyjohnsonbio.htm

 Dr. Johnson had some friends in the audience when he arrived at the GOP luncheon in Wilmington, and it is certain that he added a few more.


Sondra North, a retired Wilmington school teacher, voted for him when he successfully ran for the N.C. Republican Party vice chairmanship in 2009.


"I think he is a very qualified person for this job and I am going to vote for him again," she said. "Tim made a comment here today that really impressed me. He said that we need to refrain from being politically correct, and learn how to be politically direct. I think he practices what he preaches."

Parents upset (surprise, surprise) after school yearbook lists George W. Bush, Dick Cheney as worst people of all time.

Verne Strickland Blogmaster, June 2, 2011

PEOPLE, WHAT THE HECK (NO . . . WHAT THE HELL) IS HAPPENING TO THIS COUNTRY? WHERE IS THE RESPECT FOR DECENCY AND AMERICAN VALUES? THIS STORY FROM LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS, BREAKS MY HEART. IF THIS IS THE WAY OUR KIDS SEE THEIR COUNTRY, WE SOMEHOW MUST START OVER. GOD HELP US.

Cutest couple. Most likely to succeed. Class Clown. Top 5 Worst People of All Time.

OK, so that last list probably isn't seen in most school yearbooks, but it's raising the ire of parents and community members in Arkansas. The Fox affiliate in Little Rock reports the names in the Russellville Middle School yearbook include, in order, Adolph Hitler, Osama bin Laden, Charles Manson, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

Parents were outraged when they discovered the list, according to the station, and, in reaction, the school district had the list with black duct tape.

Superintendent Randall Williams says the printing of the list was "an oversight," Fox 16 reports, and said he was disappointed to learn the tape could simply be peeled off the page.

"I'm furious as a parent and as a board member and as a tax payer and as a resident of Russellville," School Board Member Chris Cloud, who has two children in the district, tells the station. "It's wrong."

Williams tells Fox 16 the yearbook sponsor -- a teacher -- is "very, very, very" upset that she didn't pay more attention the page with the list, and that the yearbook editing process is being reviewed.

"I think she maybe just scanned the whole page and went on," he tells the station, adding that he can't talk about disciplinary action.

WHAT'S GOING ON DOWN THERE? IS ARKANSAS STILL SUFFERING FROM THE DEPRAVITY OF STAR CITIZENS BUBBA AND HILLARY CLINTON? GET WITH IT, HOGS, OR GET OUT! THE TEACHER GOT BURNED, PARENTS GOT FRANTIC. BUT WHO DID IT? AND WHY? WHO IS SHAPING THE MORALS AND 'PATRIOTISM' OF OUR CHILDREN?

http://www.parentdish.com/2011/06/02/school-yearbook-worst-people-list/?icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl1|sec1_lnk3|67696

Obama mocks Jesus Christ and the Holy Bible. (If we knew then what we know now!)

Verne Strickland Blogmaster

June 1, 2011

Video & article uploaded by rosaryfilms on Oct 12, 2008 

(Reported as 'not available' at this time)

 

A top U.S. evangelical leader is accusing Sen. Barack Obama of deliberately distorting the meaning of the Holy Bible. 

In comments aired on his radio show, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson criticized the Democratic presidential nominee for comments he made in a June 2006 speech to the liberal Christian group Call to Renewal. 

In the speech, Obama suggested that it would be impractical to govern based solely on the word of the Bible, noting that some passages suggest slavery is permissible and eating shellfish is disgraceful. "Which passages of scripture should guide our public policy?"

Obama asked in the speech. "Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is OK and that eating shellfish is an abomination? Or we could go with Deuteronomy, which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith? Or should we just stick to the Sermon on the Mount?"

Obama continued, to cheers from his followers: "So before we get carried away, let's read our Bible now," Folks haven't been reading their Bible." 

He also called Jesus' Sermon on the Mount "a passage that is so radical that it's doubtful that our Defense Department would survive its application."

Dobson said Obama should not be referencing antiquated dietary codes and passages from the Old Testament that are no longer relevant to the teachings of the New Testament. "I think he's deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own world view, his own confused theology," Dobson said, adding that Obama is "dragging biblical understanding through the gutter." 

Obama asksk: "Am I required in a democracy to conform my efforts in the political arena to his bloody notion of what is right with regard to the lives of tiny babies?"  

Dobson said the suggestion is an attempt to lead by the lowest common denominator of morality:"What he's trying to say here is, unless everybody agrees, we have no right to fight for what we believe.What the senator is saying there, in essence, is that 'I can't seek to pass legislation, for example, that bans partial-birth abortion, because there are people in the culture who don't see that as a moral issue,' 

 Dobson continued: "And if I can't get everyone to agree with me, than it is undemocratic to try to pass legislation that I find offensive to the Scripture. Now, that is a fruitcake interpretation of the Constitution." 

In a stunning display of ignorance- and in a speech you will NOT see in the mainstream media, because even they apparently understand how ignorant Obama was on the issue, Obama exposes his disdain for Christians, and exposes his disdain for the word of God, by taking the typical, petty, ignorant position, that the bible advocated slavery and the stoning of children, apparently implying that Christians should live their faith by reinstating customs that were obviously secular laws that were in place in a time long ago. 

Obama not so subtly implied that Christians are hypocrites because they dont agree to put themselves back under the laws of Moses that are no logner relevent to Christians today! The laws of Moses were a Jewish-only set of laws. 

Barack Obama claims he found the Lord, whatever that means to him, but his obvious contempt for Gods word exposes the fact that Christ is not the one in control of his heart. His speech was a blatant misrepresentation of Christianity, and it was a speech whose intent was to malign and denigrate Christians, and to denigrate this great nation of ours. 

Stoning children for blatant disrespect of parents and of God, was a Jewish-only commandment meant to purge evil from among Gods elected people. Nowhere in the bible does God command anyone other than His own elected people, the Jews, to purge evil in such a manner. 

Barack Obama however is apparently too ignorant of biblical truth to realize this fact, and apparently he feels that he is big enough to call God's commandments toward the Jews into question. 

Obama is also apparently too ignorant of God's word to understand that Christians today are not under the law of Moses, and that many edicts in the bible were meant to tell the people that they needed to obey ALL laws, even the secular laws which included laws that allowed slaves, and that the Jews were not just bound to the laws that God instated, but also to the cultural laws at that time.

Obama may not like that- because it completely refutes his petty attempt at maligning God, God's Word, Christians and this great nation of ours. Obama may claim to be a Christian, and he may even succeed in fooling a couple of people, but to those who know better, we see very clearly that his words betray what he claims his heart stands for.

www.youtube.com/user/rosaryfilms 

Obama again declares June 'Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month'.

Verne Strickland Blogmaster   June 1, 2011

THE DAILY CALLER
President Barack Obama has proclaimed June 2011 “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month,” painting the LGBT experience as the “story about the struggle to realize that all people can live with dignity and fairness under the law,”

Obama highlighted the steps his administration has taken for gay rights, including passing the repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” legislation and giving the LGBT community more access to federal housing programs.

Obama made the same proclamation in June 2010, picking up where President Bill Clinton left off in 2000, when he marked the month “Gay and Lesbian Pride Month.”

President George W. Bush angered many gay rights activists by saying no to the June celebration, and then-Attorney General John Ashcroft’s Justice Department barred a group of employees from celebrating the month.

June was chosen in honor the 1969 Greenwich Village riots at the Stonewall Inn where gay rights advocates clashed with New York City police over alleged discrimination.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/dailycaller/20110531/pl_dailycaller/

GOP's Ilario Pantano says Congressman McIntyre violated election law. Oh, my!

Verne Strickland Blogmaster   May 31, 2011

StarNews file photos

Ilario Pantano (left) and Mike McIntyre ran a contentious congressional race in 2008.

By Kevin Maurer & Shelby Sebens
Kevin.Maurer@StarNewsOnline.com

Published: Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 6:19 p.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 6:19 p.m.

( page 1 of 3 )

Columbus County Department of Aging Director Ed Worley shot a video last year as part of Rep. Mike McIntyre's "Mike Works for Me" campaign.

The spot highlights several issues that McIntyre, a Democrat, was championing for Worley and senior citizens, including federal funding for a new building for seniors. While "Mike" might be working for him, when Worley worked for Mike by shooting the video, he may have violated federal law.

It is illegal to have a state employee to use "... his official authority for the purpose of interfering with, or affecting, the nomination or the election of any candidate...," according to page 126 of the Federal Election Campaign Laws.

McIntyre's opponent, GOP hopeful Ilario Pantano, accused the congressman last week of violating the law during an anti-corruption rally in Columbus County.

"Mr. Worley appeared in Congressman McIntyre's video, in his office, with his name badge on, using his position as a public official to affect the outcome of an election," Pantano said.

Worley confirmed in a phone interview Tuesday that McIntyre's campaign visited the Columbus County senior center in June 2010 and shot the video in his office. He declined to comment on the legality of the video, but did say that McIntyre visited the senior center several times and helped get the county $450,000 for the new building.

"We could not find help nowhere else," Worley said.

Officials with McInytre's office said campaign workers were looking into the allegations but as of 6 p.m. Tuesday the StarNews had not received a response.

Federal Elections Commission spokeswoman Julia Queen said the agency investigates elections violations on a complaint basis. She said the agency had not received any complaints about the McIntyre video. 

She also said the state board of elections could be the agency to handle the alleged violation since it involved a state employee. 

State law prohibits public employees from doing campaign activities while at work or using state equipment or resources for political purposes. Violating the campaign law is a Class 1 misdemeanor. Officials with the state board of elections could not be reached for comment. 

Pantano argued Tuesday that the $450,000 federal appropriation mentioned in the video was conveniently presented to Worley on Oct. 17, the first day of early voting. McIntyre was in attendance in what Pantano said was little more than a campaign stop.

"If $250 dollars in the economic threshold that triggers (Chief District Court Judge Jerry) Jolly to action, as it was in the case of his impugning of District Attorney Jon David's integrity, then surely he will be compelled to ferret out the details of a potential $450,000 ethical violation that happened under the Judge's nose and was reported in his local Whiteville paper," Pantano said.

Last month, Jolly nixed traffic court because of what he deemed an inappropriate campaign donation of about $250 to David's campaign. The donation was made by the operator of StreetSafe, a hands-on driving program that aims to teach young drivers the costs of risky behavior behind the wheel. Jolly stated in an administrative order he issued that he believed the donation relationship was inappropriate and could throw the court into "disrepute."

Pantano's accusations are the latest in what will likely be a nasty and contentious election season.

The 2010 race between McIntyre and Pantano became one of the most talked-about races in North Carolina. Pantano gave McIntyre his toughest re-election contest in seven tries.

McIntyre won with 54 percent of the votes, but Pantano garnered nearly 100,000 votes in the 7th Congressional District, which includes all or parts of 10 Southeastern North Carolina counties.

Shelby Sebens: 343-2076

On Twitter: @ShelbySebens