Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Four NC Democrats named "Most Vulnerable" (no -- not "Most Valuable") by 'The Hill'

Verne Strickland Blogmaster / August 24, 2011

The result of record deficits haunts incumbent Democrats

RALEIGH, NC – Four members of the North Carolina Democratic Congressional Delegation have been named “most vulnerable” by The Hill, a non-partisan Washington, D.C. publication.

Rep. Larry Kissell took home the top prize of “Most Vulnerable Democrat”, followed by “#4 Most Vulnerable Democrat” Rep. Heath Shuler, and “Honorable Mentions” Rep. David Price and Rep. Mike McIntyre.

These four were members of the 111^th Democrat-controlled Congress that helped pile a whopping $4 Trillion on to our national debt in just 2.5 years under the leadership of President Obama.

It is also notable that the 111^th congress failed to pass a congressional budget to determine government spending, one of the core responsibilities that they are supposed to perform.

NCGOP Chairman Robin Hayes had this to say: “It is interesting to note that there is 1 “vulnerable Democrat” for every $1 Trillion added to the debt under President Obama.

"The fiscal irresponsibility of these four and their Democratic colleagues led to a jump in unemployment to unacceptable levels both nationally (9.1%) and in our state (10.1%).

"The people of North Carolina want responsibility and leadership restored in Washington, D.C., and that happens by replacing these members of Congress next November.”

URL: http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/redistricting/177611-five-most-vulnerable-democrats-from-congressional-redistricting

Paid for by the North Carolina Republican Party
www.NCGOP.org

Here's the nitty and the gritty on Golden LEAF, a scandal-ridden political slush fund still running wild in NC.

Verne Strickland Blogmaster

Want to get really sick and disgusted? Inside information on the swindle known as the Golden LEAF Foundation should do the trick. Sketchy bookkeeping and backdoor deals have been rampant.

Carolina Journal News Reports / August 23, 2011

Golden LEAF has operated often as a political slush fund.

Along with the Tobacco Trust Fund and the Health and Wellness Trust Fund, these operations distribute North Carolina's share of the Master Settlement Agreement with the tobacco companies.

As much as $2.6 billion in unaccountable spending is involved. Check here for updates on the boondoggles these funds underwrite, along with legal and legislative attempts to rein in the spending.

(4.28.11) House Budget Proposal Redirects Tobacco Settlement Funds
RALEIGH — Under the GOP House budget plan, the Golden LEAF foundation would lose its $68-million allocation next year, and the Tobacco Trust Fund and the Health and Wellness Trust Fund would be abolished.

(2.04.11) General Assembly Can Dissolve Golden LEAF, Other Tobacco Funds
RALEIGH — In recent years, defenders of the funds receiving money under the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement with tobacco companies have said the funds could not be transferred or diverted to the state’s General Fund because the use of the funds was directed by court order.

(2.02.11) Senate Committee Guts Golden LEAF’s 2011 Allotment
RALEIGH — For years, Republicans and limited government advocates have criticized Golden LEAF as a political slush fund, but Democrats at the Senate Appropriations/Base Budget Committee hearing defended it as a job-creator.

(12.09.10) Perdue Targets Boards and Commissions
RALEIGH — Appointments to boards and commissions traditionally have been considered a major element of political patronage. Perdue is seeking to eliminate dozens of boards to which Republicans are poised to make significant appointments.

(8.09.10) Golden LEAF Funds Yacht Slips, iPod Touches
RALEIGH — Others grants include funds for renovating a vacant structure in Winston-Salem to house a “green business incubator” and an initiative to encourage consumers to spend at least 10 percent of their grocery budgets on locally grown foods.

(8.02.10) Tobacco Trust Funds Footbridge to Nowhere
RALEIGH — The state-run trust fund was meant to assist North Carolina farmers, farm workers, and related businesses displaced by tobacco’s declining fortunes. It handed out a record number of grants this year.

(11.23.09) Golden LEAF Retains Close Ties to Easley
RALEIGH — As federal prosecutors investigate alleged campaign finance violations and other suspected wrongdoing by embattled former Gov. Mike Easley, his law partners and other associates continue to play key roles in the management of the Golden LEAF Foundation, which distributes half of the state’s tobacco settlement money.

(7.17.08) A Lab, A Grant & A Bad Odor
Doing a sales job on a biodefense lab in Granville County hardly qualifies as legitimate expenditure of Golden LEAF funds.

(5.28.08) The Global TransPark’s New LEAF
To the extent they hear the details, most North Carolinians will be angered, not appeased, by the latest TransPark/Golden LEAF deal.

(11.03.06) Nip Venture-Capital Idea in the Bud
Here’s such a bad idea that the right response, as Deputy Barney Fife might put it, is to “nip it in the bud.”

(8.17.05) Teapot Museum Creates Tempest
RALEIGH — A proposed Alleghany County museum that would display 6,000 teapots worth more than $5 million has become the poster child for pork barrel spending in the recently passed state budget. A $400,000 earmark for the Sparta Teapot Museum was frequently mocked in the media in the past week, and by Republicans in the legislative minority. But Rep. Jim Harrell III, an Elkin Democrat who sought the funding in the state budget, said the museum's critics don't know enough about the project to evaluate its worth.

(1.10.05) Golden LEAF Defends Funding
RALEIGH — Gov. Mike Easley and members of the General Assembly will again have to tangle with a large state budget gap when they return to work later this month, and millions of dollars from North Carolina's share of the national tobacco settlement will likely help close it. Policymakers took a combined $240 million from the Tobacco Trust Fund and Health & Wellness Trust Fund in 2002 and 2003. But they have failed to touch the foundation that they designated to receive the other half of the state's tobacco settlement money: the Golden LEAF Foundation, which will seek to protect its funding again in 2005.

(12.20.04) No to Horse Parks, Yes to Tourism
RALEIGH — The Golden LEAF Foundation stopped funding equestrian parks this year, at least temporarily, but instead it found several other tourism-related projects in North Carolina worthy of support in its annual round of grants. The foundation’s board determined that more than $1.5 million should assist community plans to develop local tourist attractions. It funded several off-the-beaten-path projects, including $135,000 to aid Jackson County in “the transformation of the closed…landfill into a regional center for the growth of the arts and crafts community, the local agriculture and native botanical industry, and heritage tourism based on the region’s long history of craft excellence.”

(8.13.04) Golden LEAF Rides New Horse
RALEIGH – After funding the Carolina Horse Park Foundation for three consecutive years, Golden LEAF has found another equestrian organization to support. The Piedmont Equestrian Park and Conference Center, based in Gaston County, is a nonprofit organization that was set up by the county and city to help attract economic development. The slow development of the project has made local officials apprehensive. "Guess who’s going to get accused or squandering this money if this thing flops?" asked one county commissioner. "Everybody on this board."

(5.03.04) This is Not a Parody
It's a story about subsidized entities asking for more subsidies for a profitable industry that's moving North Carolina business out of state. And it's true -- really.

(2.22.04) Separate but Equal -- On Economic Development
The February cover story of Carolina Journal provided evidence of a conflict between economic-development policy and the NC constitution.

(2.13.04) Auditor Reports on Nonprofit Funding
RALEIGH — The State Auditor’s Office has delivered to the General Assembly and the Easley administration a new report detailing grants to nonprofit organizations by state agencies last year. The annual report catalogues all grants made by state agencies to nonprofits such as Smart Start partnerships, economic development groups, and community service agencies. Legislators last year set a deadline of Jan. 31 for compiling the report as part of an effort to increase oversight of nonprofit agencies. Most of the nonprofits met the reporting requirements in time, but a few did not.

(12.23.03) Golden LEAF lists 2003 grants
RALEIGH — The Golden LEAF Foundation awarded $300,000 each to Columbus County and the Town of Windsor for infrastructure improvements at two new state prisons. The nonprofit foundation, established by the General Assembly to distribute half of the state’s portion of the 1998 tobacco settlement, also decided in 2003 to fund a Southern-Pines-based horse park for the third year in a row. The Carolina Horse Park Foundation began in March 1998 primarily as a nature conservancy group to prevent land development, and changed its name twice as it transitioned into an equestrian events support organization.

(8.08.03) Another Round of Promises & Pork
North Carolinians have also had more than their share of false promises and costly political boondoggles. And now it's happening again, with biotechnology.

(2.12.03) Businessman Sues Group Affiliated with Golden LEAF
Don Carrington breaks a story about a businessman who has sought to build an ethanol plant in North Carolina for more than 20 years and is suing a consortium of interests including the North Carolina Grain Growers’ Cooperative, which is heavily financed by Golden LEAF.

(12.20.02) Golden Leaf Official’s Business, Brother Linked to $10 Million Grant
Don Carrington reports that two brothers, one the chairman of Golden LEAF and the other a director of a grain growers cooperative, own businesses associated with a $10 million foundation grant to build a soybean-processing facility and a related biodiesel fuel plant.

(10.30.02) Easley, Basnight Manipulate Golden LEAF, Papers Show
The Golden LEAF Foundation, which administers half of North Carolina’s share of the national tobacco settlement, claims to operate independent of political persuasion. But documents obtained by Carolina Journal suggest that Gov. Mike Easley and N.C. Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight wield significant influence over the nonprofit foundation, reports Paul Chesser.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Social Degeneration -- a refreshing and courageous essay on race in America

Verne Strickland Blogmaster / August 23, 2011

THIS GET 'ER DONE, CANDID ESSAY IS ONE REASON I AM A FAN OF THOMAS SOWELL AND MAYOR MICHAEL A. NUTTER OF PHILADELPHIA!

08-16-2011 7:35 pm Thomas Sowell - TownHall.com

Someone at long last has had the courage to tell the plain, honest truth about race.

After mobs of young blacks rampaged through Philadelphia committing violence -- as similar mobs have rampaged through Chicago, Denver, Milwaukee and other places -- Philadelphia's black mayor, Michael A. Nutter, ordered a police crackdown and lashed out at the whole lifestyle of those who did such things.

"Pull up your pants and buy a belt 'cause no one wants to see your underwear or the crack of your butt," he said. "If you walk into somebody's office with your hair uncombed and a pick in the back, and your shoes untied, and your pants half down, tattoos up and down your arms and on your neck, and you wonder why somebody won't hire you? They don't hire you 'cause you look like you're crazy," the mayor said. He added: "You have damaged your own race."

While this might seem like it is just plain common sense, what Mayor Nutter said undermines a whole vision of the world that has brought fame, fortune and power to race hustlers in politics, the media and academia. Any racial disparities in hiring can only be due to racism and discrimination, according to the prevailing vision, which reaches from street corner demagogues to the august chambers of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Just to identify the rioters and looters as black is a radical departure, when mayors, police chiefs and the media in other cities report on these outbreaks of violence without mentioning the race of those who are doing these things. The Chicago Tribune even made excuses for failing to mention race when reporting on violent attacks by blacks on whites in Chicago.

Such excuses might make sense if the same politicians and media talking heads were not constantly mentioning race when denouncing the fact that a disproportionate number of young black men are being sent to prison.

The prevailing social dogma is that disparities in outcomes between races can only be due to disparities in how these races are treated. In other words, there cannot possibly be any differences in behavior.

But if black and white Americans had exactly the same behavior patterns, they would be the only two groups on this planet that are the same.

The Chinese minority in Malaysia has long been more successful and more prosperous than the Malay majority, just as the Indians in Fiji have long been more successful and more prosperous than the indigenous Fijians. At various places and times throughout history, the same could be said of the Armenians in Turkey, the Lebanese in Sierra Leone, the Parsees in India, the Japanese in Brazil, and numerous others.

There are similar disparities within particular racial or ethnic groups. Even this late in history, I have had northern Italians explain to me why they are not like southern Italians. In Australia, Jewish leaders in both Sydney and Melbourne went to great lengths to tell me why and how the Jews are different in these two cities.

In the United States, despite the higher poverty level among blacks than among whites, the poverty rate among black married couples has been in single digits since 1994. The disparities within the black community are huge, both in behavior and in outcomes.

Nevertheless, the dogma persists that differences between groups can only be due to the way others treat them or to differences in the way others perceive them in "stereotypes."

All around the country, people in politics and the media have been tip-toeing around the fact that violent attacks by blacks on whites in public places are racially motivated, even when the attackers themselves use anti-white invective and mock the victims they leave lying on the streets bleeding.

This is not something to ignore or excuse. It is something to be stopped. Mayor Michael Nutter of Philadelphia seems to be the first to openly recognize this.

This needs to be done for the sake of both black and white Americans -- and even for the sake of the hoodlums. They have set out on a path that leads only downward for themselves.

---------------------------------
Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute and author of The Housing Boom and Bust.

©Creators Syndicate

http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2011/08/16/social_degeneration

Thursday, August 18, 2011

When Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) shouted "You lie!" at President Obama -- Joe wasn't lying!

Verne Strickland Blogmaster / August 17, 2011

By Justin Sink - 08/17/11 03:19 PM ET

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) on Wednesday said his infamous cry of “You lie!” at President Obama has been vindicated.

Wilson said an Obama administration decision on healthcare centers proves the president wasn’t telling the truth during a 2009 address to a joint session of Congress.

In that address, the president pledged that the healthcare reform law would not cover illegal immigrants, prompting Wilson to shout, “You lie!”

Wilson said Wednesday that a recent award of $28.8 million to 67 community healthcare centers around the country would inevitably end up benefiting illegal immigrants, contrary to Obama’s pledge.

Of that $28.8 million, $8.5 million is earmarked to target migrant and seasonal farm workers — a group that Wilson claims is comprised of illegal immigrants.

"It is clearly providing money -- that should be going to American citizens -- to illegal immigrants," Wilson said on Fox News's "America Live." "It's even worse than I thought, they won't even ask for status."

The clinics will provide discounted health services to all residents of their target areas, and are aimed at providing services to those who cannot afford other primary care.

The Department of Health and Human Services said the healthcare centers are operating as they always have.

“The Program’s authorizing statute does not affirmatively address immigration status, rather, it simply states that health centers are required to provide primary health care to all residents of the health center’s service area without regard for ability to pay," Health Resources and Services Administration spokeswoman Judy Andrews told CNSNews.com. "Health centers do not, as a matter of routine practice, ask about or collect data on citizenship or other matters not related to the treatment needs of the patients seeking health services at the center.”

Nor will the more substantive aspects of the law — including the “affordability credits” designed to allow the purchase of healthcare plans by those who cannot afford them — be open to illegal immigrants, according to HHS.

Still, Wilson believes that healthcare dollars will inevitably help people who are in the country illegally.

“This is just more doublespeak from Washington," he asserted.

'Unaccountable Congress' author Joe DioGuardi signs copies of his book at Pantano office event.

By Verne Strickland / August 17, 2011

At the grand opening of the Pantano for Congress office at Wilmington this past week-end, Pantano faithful were treated to a full bill of fare, including patriotic speeches and singing, a pig-picking, a celebration of Ilario's fortieth birthday, and a book signing by Joseph J. DioGuardi, author of "Unaccountable Congress: It Doesn't Add Up".

DioGuardi, a former New York Congressman and Certified Public Accountant, served two terms on the House Government Operations Committee and one term on the Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs Committee. He currently serves on the Board of Directors and as Chairman of the Audit Committee of several corporation.

I interviewed him during a few spare moments as he signed copies of his new release at the Pantano for Congress event:

One of my claims to fame is that I am the first practicing CPA ever elected to the U.S. Congress. I donated my books to Ilario's campaign for interested people in attendance here, and I was very pleased with the demand for the signed copies.

It’s time people understood that there is a phony way we do the books in Washington, so that we don’t really know about the true size of the national debt, and that’s what I came here to speak about.

I know that Ilario is a conservative, and I wanted to be here with him in order to make the point that we have to stand up to this group in Washington that’s lying about the real size of the national debt. It’s much more than $15 trillion. That’s just the bonded debt. If we used the generally accepted accounting principles as I have, it’s in the neighborhood of $60 trillion.

That’s what’s killing America. Andrew Tyler Frazier in 1790, and here’s what he said about democracy: “A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy may be in jeopardy of collapsing due to loose fiscal policy.”

Does that sound familiar? Well, we have to be careful, because we have a lot of loose fiscal in policy, and I don’t want to see America continue down the road to ruin.

VS: What are you doing now?

I’m a human rights activist. I made 30 trips to the Balkans to help the Albanian people avoid the same fate of the Bosnians. I testified against Melosovich in The Hague, and we got him indicted as a war criminal. I’m at this time a practicing certified public accountant, so I’m a consultant, have been on the boards of corporations, but I’m not a paid lobbyist, nor do I want to become one.

And I write, and I speak, and when I see the opportunity to get my message out, I accept that opportunity.

The bottom line on my message is to stop spending money we don’t have, borrowed from countries we don’t trust, like China, and we could be giving up the American dream that brought my father here as a poor farm boy from Italy in 1929 at the age of fifteen.

So when I see people like Ilario, whom I met in New York, and he asked me to come down here to this rally, this grand opening of his office, I gladly came.

I said, “You have values, you have energy, and you have the firm conservative beliefs and core values that the country needs. I’m disappointed you did not win in 2010, but I’m here for you, like so many who believe in you, and you’ll be the last man standing in the 2012 race for Congress from North Carolina’s Seventh District.”

DioGuardi's attack on Congress' clumsy and embarrassing handling of the federal government's books is attracting praise from the likes of William E. Simon, former of the Treasury: "Joe DioGuardi has written a courageous and practical book about the phony budgeting process Congress uses to sustain its financial profligacy. He has both a keen understanding of its accounting gimmickry, and some excellent suggestions about how to straighten out our budgetary tangle."

Unaccountable Congress was originally published in the United States by Regnery Gateway, 1130 17^th Street NW, Washington, DC 20036.

COMING SOON ON USA DOT COM

At the Pantano for Congress grand opening of its new office, I talked with Jude Eden of Leland, who wore a Pantano campaign tee shirt emblazoned with the words: “I am a cancer surviving, Jewish female, Marine combat veteran for Pantano.” You'll want to get to know this interesting lady.

Also interviews with Diane Ellis, Pantano for Congress operations manager, and other highlights from this event.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Black Caucus: Tired of making excuses for Obama. (Ahem -- Would you please repeat that?)

August 17, 2011 1:39pm

By Byron York

Follow on Twitter:@byronyork

During a sometimes-raucous session of what's being called the "For the People" Jobs Initiative tour, a key member of the Congressional Black Caucus told an audience in Detroit Tuesday that the CBC doesn't put pressure on President Obama because he is loved by black voters.

But at the same time, Rep. Maxine Waters said, members of the CBC are becoming increasingly tired and frustrated by Obama's performance on the issue of jobs. Even as she expressed support for the president, Waters virtually invited the crowd to "unleash us" to pressure Obama for action.

"We don't put pressure on the president," Waters told the audience at Wayne County Community College. "Let me tell you why. We don't put pressure on the president because ya'll love the president. You love the president. You're very proud to have a black man -- first time in the history of the United States of America. If we go after the president too hard, you're going after us."

The problem, Waters said, is that Obama is not paying enough attention to the problems of some black Americans. The unemployment rate for African-Americans nationally is a little over 16 percent, and almost twice that in Detroit. And yet, Waters said, the president is on a jobs-promotion trip through the Midwest that does not include any stops in black communities.

"The Congressional Black Caucus loves the president too," Waters said. "We're supportive of the president, but we're getting tired, ya'll. We're getting tired. And so, what we want to do is, we want to give the president every opportunity to show what he can do and what he's prepared to lead on. We want to give him every opportunity, but our people are hurting. The unemployment is unconscionable. We don't know what the strategy is. We don't know why on this trip that he's in the United States now, he's not in any black community. We don't know that."

As she discussed her dilemma -- frustrated with the president but hesitant to criticize him lest black supporters turn on her -- Waters asked the crowd for its permission to have a "conversation" with the president.

"When you tell us it's alright and you unleash us and you tell us you're ready for us to have this conversation, we're ready to have the conversation," she said. Some members of the crowd immediately voiced their approval.

"All I'm saying to you is, we're politicians," Waters continued. "We're elected officials. We are trying to do the right thing and the best thing. When you let us know it is time to let go, we'll let go."

"Let go!" some in the audience yelled.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

UN: Aid will still go to Somalia despite fraud. Business as usual?

Verne Strickland Blogmaster

By JOHN HEILPRIN Associated Press / Aug 16, 2011

The U.N. World Food Program insisted Tuesday it won't reduce emergency aid shipments to Somalia despite allegations of fraud, saying that though such complaints are frequent it doesn't believe there have been big losses.

WFP said it is bringing 5,000 tons a month of food into the Somali capital of Mogadishu to help the famine-hit nation. Tens of thousands of people each week are fleeing famine in Somalia to neighboring Ethiopia and Kenya.

An investigation on the ground by The Associated Press found that sacks of grain, peanut butter snacks and other food staples meant for starving Somalis are being stolen and sold in Somali markets, raising concerns that the unscrupulous are stealing from international famine relief efforts. One official in Mogadishu estimated to the AP that up to half of the recent food shipments may have been stolen.

WFP officials disputed that figure Tuesday. Lauren Landis, the new director of WFP's Geneva office, said it seems "implausible" that a large amount of food is being diverted because it would pose a huge logistical challenge.

"Large losses of food is abnormal, because we know how to do this," Landis told AP, without elaborating further.

She said theft worries are common with WFP operations in Somalia and around the world.

However, WFP officials rely on third-party monitors on the ground to make sure that aid agencies and the Somali government fight corruption and don't allow diverted aid to help fuel Somalia's 20-year civil war. AP journalists went into the markets to see for themselves.

Families at a large, government-run camp where aid groups distribute food told the AP they were often forced to hand back the aid after journalists had taken photos of them with it.

In Mogadishu markets, vast piles of food are for sale with stamps on them from the WFP, the U.S. government USAID agency, the Japanese government and the Kuwaiti government. The AP found eight sites where thousands of sacks of food aid were being sold in bulk. Other food aid was also for sale in numerous smaller stores.

Meanwhile, the United Nations said the mortality rate among young children at a camp for Somali refugees in Ethiopia has reached alarming levels, with an average of 10 children under five dying every day since the Kobe camp in southeast Ethiopia opened in June.

The camp holds 25,000 refugees. A suspected measles outbreak combined with acute malnutrition is thought to be the cause of deaths, said Adrian Edwards, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

http://apnews.fimc.net/showarticlewptf.asp?id=1132896&url=www.wptf.com&site=wptfam&catg=headlines_intl&headlines=1&images=1&show=5&w=300