NC Politics

Congressman Kissell already at work.

A provision introduced by freshman Rep. Larry Kissell (D-N.C.), a former textile industry employee, will require the Transportation Security Administration to purchase uniforms manufactured in the United States; most TSA clothing is currently assembled in Mexico and Honduras from U.S.-made fabric. The cost of the requirement is unclear — the agency spends about $3 million on 12,000 new uniforms each year — but labor and trade groups argue that it will create 21,000 U.S. jobs.

I can’t even begin to express my outrage at this statement by Senator Burr on the stimulus bill. When you read generalizations like this you know that no matter what was presented it would be rejected out of hand.

I was suspicious when I read Senator Burr’s rejection of new Attorney General Eric Holder. Sure, it could be on a moral position due to AG Holder’s assistance in the pardoning of Mark Rich. But when you see in who’s company Burr is, it’s the who’s who of the new regional GOP party.

Brownback (R-KS),Bunning (R-KY),Burr (R-NC),Coburn (R-OK),Cochran (R-MS),Cornyn (R-TX),DeMint (R-SC), Hutchison (R-TX),Inhofe (R-OK),McConnell (R-KY),Shelby (R-AL),Vitter (R-LA), and Wicker (R-MS).

This now useless senator is now voting for amendments like deducting dividends on foreign corporations (that’s the kind of investment we need, in foreign companies) or to not spend anything (o ensure that the $1 trillion spending bill is not used to expand the scope of the Federal Government by adding new spending programs.). Huh, how are we going to spend money without adding spending programs?

I’m not a Democrat, I’m a registered Independent, but I am so, damn, tired of the attitude of these few Republican Senators. Unfortunately, Senator Burr seems intent on destroying the nation along with his career.

“President Obama and Congress are currently working on a stimulus bill in the hopes of jumpstarting our economy. The legislation currently being debated in Congress would spend almost a trillion dollars of borrowed money on projects and programs that are unlikely to produce any real broad-based stimulus or create jobs that will still be here two years from now. This spending would be on top of the $1.2 trillion budget shortfall that the federal government is already projected to have in this year alone. If the bill the Democrats have proposed in the Senate does not change drastically, then I will not be able to support it.

Turns out the Dole accusation is worse than a smear. She’s saying Kay Hagan is unfit to hold office.

Turns out that in the North Carolina State Constitution there’s this little item.

Sec. 8. Disqualifications of office. The following persons shall be disqualified for office:

First, any person who shall deny the being of Almighty God.

Second, with respect to any office that is filled by election by the people,
any person who is not qualified to vote in an election for that office.

Third, any person who has been adjudged guilty of treason or any other
felony against this State or the United States, or any person who had been
adjudged guilty of a felony in another state that also would be a felony if it
had been committed in this State, or any person who has been adjudged
guilty of corruption or malpractice in any office, or any person who has been
removed by impeachment from any office, and who has not been restored to
the rights of citizenship in the manner prescribed by law.

Hmmm, I wonder if the atheists know they’re equivalent to felons in the state’s eyes.

I still think this whole issue is to get people to forget that Dole has been an absentee senator. From NCPolico.com
Documented Days Spent by Elizabeth Dole in North Carolina During Her First Term
2003 - 55
2004 - 34
2005 - 20
2006 - 13
2007 - 50
2008 (through Friday) - 97

The country and rural folk, the red of rednecks, really resent Dole for coming in state and taking Jesse Helms’ seat. I’m not sure they’re for Kay Hagan, but at least Hagan is a real native.

Just when I think the ads can’t get any worse, Dole brings out an ad accusing Kay Hagan of being childless. Add Perdue’s ads against Pat McCrory and Hayes’ ad about Kissell being a greedy employer and I think this year has pushed far beyond anything I would have ever imagined.

Is it over yet?

BTW, Dole was a no-show at the McCain rally in Fayetteville yesterday. Seeing she’s already running ads proclaiming McCain a loser it’s probably a good idea.

Is there anything they can’t make more difficult?

Don’t forget that voting straight party on the ballot doesn’t include president. Gee, is someone hoping they forget?

Anyone can get an absentee ballot. But you have to have two witnesses sign your ballot and only a relative can drop it off for you. Is this really necessary? Are we trying to kill the old folks vote too?

Maybe not the type of PR that he’d like. At a recent speech he threw away notes intended to keep him out of trouble, and consequently dived nose first into the deep stuff. Hayes said: “Liberals hate real Americans that work and accomplish and achieve and believe in God.”

Hayes comments have made national news and even earned him “Worst Person in the World” from liberal MSNBC host Keith Olbermann.

McClatchy even mentions the RNC may be pulling out ads .This just as Hayes really steps up his tv presence with an extremely negative ad about Larry Kissell.

The horrible thing Kissell has done? Hayes accuses Kissell of not paying employee comp for five employees, two temporary. Which makes Palin’s reckless accusations of Obama being a terrorist seem serious.

I’ll be so glad when this election is over. And as a small business owner that has suffered repeatedly from Bush and Congress’s ineptness, I’ll be glad to send them packing.

Speaking of instant gratification and rationalizing.

Ted Stevens trial for not reporting gifts is wrapping up. But when asked about not reporting a chair in his house (an expensive massage chair) his reply was:

I told him I would not accept it as a gift. We have lots of things in our house that don’t belong to us.”

It’s not a gift. We just borrow things from people indefinitely.

“Folks, there’s a real America, and liberals hate real Americans that work, and accomplish, and achieve, and believe in God.” U.S. Rep. Robin Hayes, R-N.C., warming up a crowd for a McCain rally.

Robin Hayes just don’t seem the brightest bulb in the pack. I worry that he really believes this about people. It can’t be that someone just has a different opinion than him. It’s that they’re hateful, destructive, and evil people.

Your choice this election day, but if you’re voting Hayes I’ve got to think you just don’t know much about him.

Can you convince me different?

Now we have Sarah Palin saying

“the real America,” the “hard-working, very patriotic, very pro-America areas of this great nation.”

I guess the “not so patriotic” areas are Democratic. Why is is that these people feel they have to demonize everyone that doesn’t agree with them? Haven’t we had enough bickering, division, and failure already? We have some serious problems here in the US, and we’re all going to fall off the cliff accusing the other of being the more unpatriotic.

Let’s stop, take a deep breath, and like the 70’s book says speak from an adult voice. We need to come together and start building again. Is that really too much to ask?

It’s interesting, They say one of the problems with modern society is that fathers aren’t involved in the family any more. One of the lessons that fathers teach best (not to say mothers don’t, but fathers are normally better at it) is delayed gratification. The idea that if you want something you have to earn it.

Politics also seems to have succumbed to the obsession of instant gratification. The Republicans have shown they will do absolutely anything to win, outside of just work for it honestly. Lying, accuse your opponent of being a terrorist, be deceitful, do anything but wage an honorable campaign about the issues and accept the consquences.

Obama hasn’t always been honest, but I’ve seen him stop a crowd from booing. Of course, once it caught on it took him a little longer to stop the booing. But I’ve never heard him accuse McCain of being a terrorist.

Okay, he’s hinted at McCain being old. Well? How many times has McCain, the supposed foreign policy expert, screwed up Shia and Sunni? But I think everyone will admit the Democrats have run a cleaner campaign this time.

Would they do that if they were losing? I don’t know. Certainly we remember Kerry and swiftboating, but what do we remember Kerrry accused Bush of being?

I won’t hold my breath on an honorable campaign being run. Too much money and power is at risk. But I can always hope.

It was funny hearing John McCain calling for the ouster of SEC Chair Christopher Cox. It seems like only yesterday Republicans were chafing under the picky William H. Donaldson, saying they needed to get away from his heavy regulatory hand. They accused him of siding with Democrats and making sure corporations reported accurately and he aggressively pursued enforcement.

Their hero, the man that would lead deregulation of the Securities and Exchange Commission? Christopher Cox, a California congressman and Orange County conservative.

If you go back to the original Times article on the Cox appointment, it would seem Democrats were fighting for oversight and Republicans were trying to eviscerate SEC regulation.

Under Mr. Donaldson, a Rockefeller Republican whose credentials on Wall Street and corporate America led some to believe he would be a cautious caretaker, the commission responded to a wave of business scandals through a series of restrictive regulations and tough enforcement cases.

On the big votes, he often broke ranks with the commission’s two Republicans, Cynthia A. Glassman and Paul S. Atkins, who complained repeatedly that the rules and enforcement cases promoted by Mr. Donaldson and the two Democrats were unnecessary and overly burdensome.

The deregulation driven Republicans got their deregulation hero. Now it seems we get the bill.

Supposedly Kay Hagan’s advertisiment about Liddy Dole being 93 (ranking in effectiveness, not age) stirred quite a controversy for pointing out Elizabeth Dole’s age. She’s 72, not 93.

But the Republicans responded by putting out the ad featureing ‘Fibber Kay Hagan’. I guess the implication is that Kay Hagan is fibbing about Dole’s age. They don’t really say and she didn’t. But why is the Republican ad making a reference to Fibber McGee and Molly, a radio show that came on the air in 1935?

If you want to downplay your age, why refer to a radio show even older than you are? I guess she’s trying to appeal to all of those 80 year old voters out there.

Speaking of legislator effectiveness, you can go to Congress.org and see the rating for all North Carolina congresscritters.

Effectiveness is based on a variety of indicators like committee chairmanships and legislation passed, and earmarks brought to their home state. Like the $270 million in earmarks that Governor Palin sought for Alaska with the help of Senator Ted Stevens.

Our Senators rank in the bottom third, with Richard Burr at 69th and Elizabeth Dole scraping the bottom at 93rd, unfortunate for someone that has been in politics as long as she has.

Since we have more Representatives there’s more variety there, from 54th to 399th out of 434. At the top is Representative Melvin Watt (D 12th District) and at the bottom is Virginia Foxx (R 5th District).

But what’s clear is that being a Democrat right now makes for a more effective politician. That will probably be even more true if predictions of large Democratic victories in both houses secure even larger majorities.

So while you may be tempted to vote for the party that follows your ideology, would it be better to vote a Democratic federal ticket to help North Carolina? Just asking.