Red Clay Citizen

Top 10 Reasons Legislators Were Unable to Meet The July 15 Budget Deadline

10. Everyone was watching Jim Black's hearing and busy contemplating the very modest amount of punishment for accepting, and orchestrating a bribe.

9. Legislators were so emotionally exhausted after debating the Racial Justice Act which determines whether racial bias influenced a death penalty sentence.

8. The General Assembly was busy earmarking a $25 million "pier to nowhere."

7. Golf-hating legislators tried to convince the golf-loving state of North Carolina that a 7 percent golf tax was a good idea and would "restructure the tax system" and not hurt an industry.

6. The PETA playmates on the Hill advertising National Veggie Dog Day may have caught a little too much of everyone's attention. Yikes...

5. The Senate were possibly worried about Jeff Wilson's lottery millions so HB 1289, 'No lottery at check cashing sites and no ads at high schools' passed with little debate.

4. Obama's "un-cool" week affected all Messiah-loving legislators, hitting home right here in North Carolina.

3. Worried all your accumulated debt may cost you your home? Move to North Carolina and be sure to thank HB 1058 and homestead exemption.

2. HB 1358, commonly known as the Clothesline Bill actually failed, we can all still use our dryers.

And the number 1 reason legislators were unable to meet the budget deadline:

1. Members were too busy watching the highest rated Raleigh tourism video that they forgot the importance of meeting a deadline.

'Nuff Said

Another Cost of IllegaI Immigration Discussed

While open border advocates continue to push blanket amnesty for illegals aliens in hopes that these newly minted citizens will impact the electorate, more talk is zeroing in on an effect of our unenforced border laws:  the impact on blue collar employment.

Blogger Clayton Cramer really gets at the heart of the native worker issue with this article. 

"However, unskilled illegal immigrants who have flooded across our Southern border the last few years aren’t driving down the wages of well-paid professionals. They are lowering the wages for unskilled U.S. citizens and legal residents. It might not be much, but even a dollar per hour matters for people who earn hardly above minimum wage. For some, it’s the difference between self-sufficiency and needing government assistance."

Rather than taking the jobs that Americans don't want, turning a blind eye to illegal immigration for the sake of good business has resulted in giving illegals jobs that Americans won't want to do for the low pay given to their competitors from south of the border.

This grand coalition that the liberals hope to put together by giving citizenship (and the resulting voting rights that come with citizenship) is really an attempt to force two groups together that have competing economic issues. Low skilled, blue collar workers already have a tough enough time competing for the dwindling good paying manufacturing jobs that their parents and grandparents raised their families on. 

And if you are a felon looking to get hired by a company? Forget about it.  Why hire someone with a criminal record when you can hire an illegal for less pay despite the fact that they have an undeterminable criminal background as well as a questionable identity.  That's right employers, don't ask the questions that you don't want the answers to.

Thank goodness our education establishment has tried to shoehorn every kid in high school into college and an unreasonable career path.  That policy seems to have dovetailed nicely with the arrival of masses of unskilled workers that don't complain much.  American exceptionalism and our sovereignty are at risk, but don't let it get in the way of making a buck.

Annexation and Taxation without Representation

The proposed committee substitute for House Bill 524 (a combination of house bills 524, 645, and 727) is a really bad plan.

If this bill becomes law, cities and towns would be able to annex, with the approval of the Local Government Commission, and collect taxes for three years, but ultimately never provide services.

The LGC is a government board that deals with local governments' financial issues. Board members include the State Treasurer, Secretary of the Department of Revenue, Secretary of State, State Auditor, and a handful of appointed lawyers and former city officials.

Legislators in committee described LGC oversight as “meaningful” and emphasized its power to deny annexation proposals that are not financially feasible. The bill does give the LGC that power, but in reality it is unlikely that the LGC will use it wisely. If you take a good look at the board members, it’s pretty obvious that they won’t be paying much attention to the interests of the annexees.

LGC oversight will probably be a rubber stamp that allows cities and towns to collect property taxes from people they never intend to provide services. The bill extends the window for the provision of services from two to three years. If after three years no services have been provided, cities and towns must stop charging taxes.

In short, this bill allows local governments to use involuntary annexation as a way to fill temporary budget holes. It gives them the power (with rubber stamp approval) to levy taxes on people who will never really be part of the city or town and will never receive any services.

NC needs annexation reform, but this bill is not the answer. 

UNC Crackdown To Come?

Funny thing happened on campus. 

1. Conservative students invite a conservative speaker to address the topic of illegal immigration. 
2. Protesters attempt to suppress free speech by disrupting speech.
3. Protesters that disrupted speech are arrested by campus police.
4. University launches long term investigation of campus conservatives and their faculty advisors since some liberal students "feel" victimized becuase someone said something they don't agree with.
5. Conservative faculty and staff organize a group to promote the ideals of the Declaration of Independence on campus.

Chapel Hill in 2009?  No, East Lansing in 2007.  North Carolina's favorite conservative college professor, Mike Adams tells the whole story here.

(Do you ever notice that no one on the Left has any original ideas anymore?  They just copy it down from a web site or hear about it at a conference and voila! Insta-protest!)

While we have had step #1 ,#2 & #3, UNC has yet to target the conservatives on campus.  They may have a hard time finding the hand full of conservative faculty.  If they did, I wonder if conservative professors would take a stand like their collegues at Michigan State.

Marriage Rally Draws a Crowd in Grifton

The fine citizens of the eastern North Carolina town of Grifton held a little rally for the defense of traditional marriage and 400 people show up to support marriage between a man and a woman and calling on the legislature to allow a vote on HB 361.

Given Grifton's small size, the fact that rally organizers managed to get 20% of the town's population to get up off of the couch and take to the street is a remarkable feat.

The article above cites one of our polls on the issue from last May that showed 71 percent of likely voters statewide support the passage of a state marriage amendment while 26 percent in the poll said they were opposed.  If you drill down into the cross tabs on that poll you find very strong support for the Marriage Amendment from African American voters, somewhere in the neighborhood of 80%.

With the crossover deadline looming in the legislature this week, will lawmakers hear the cries of the people and allow a floor vote on HB 316?  Not likely.  It will take several more rallies to get the attention of the power brokers in Raleigh that continue to block the Marriage Amendment.

Dan Blue Elevated To NC Senate

Former Speaker of the House, Dan Blue has been selected by local democrats to replace the late Senator Vernon Malone.  His addition to the Senate is making for some interesting rounds of the what if game? 

Should there be a vacancy in the position of President Pro Tempore of the Senate in the near future, would Blue shakeup the match ups?  For a man that was out of government just a couple of years ago.

The question remains how will Blue adapt to the very different atmosphere of the Senate.  The leadership runs the place with an iron fist and rarely allow debate, even when they hold a clear majority of the votes.

Polling the Death Penalty

With today's NC Supreme Court ruling clearing the way for capital punishment to resume, I thought I'd revisit the polling Civitas has done on the question of the death penalty in North Carolina.

We polled it three different ways last year and all received at least 60 percent support:

Most recently in August 2008:

Do you support the death penalty for first-degree murder in North Carolina
Yes - 64%
No - 24%
Not Sure - 12%

April 2008:

Do you support the death penalty in North Carolina?
Yes - 60%
No - 27%
Not Sure - 12%

The highest results for the death penalty came when we asked in July 2008 on something that isn't allowed:

Do you support or oppose the death penalty for raping a child?
Support - 65%
Oppose - 24%
Not Sure - 11%

When digging into the numbers, African-Americans are just about the only demographic who says they are opposed to the death penalty (34-52% Aug 08).  It is favored by a plurality of Democrats (49-37%), and a majority of both Republicans (82-9%) and unaffiliateds (67-20%).

This issue is now back before the Governor and the General Assembly.  Governor Perdue could instruct the Department of Corrections to resume executions or the General Assembly could attempt to pass a moratorium (our ban).

We'll poll it again next month, but I doubt we'll see much difference in the numbers.

Tea Party Protests Taking Off!

Elected officials beware! Last night a "Tea Party" in Wilmington drew up to 1,000 people to protest against against ever expanding government. You can watch video in the above link from WECT-TV and in this story and this story from the Wilmington Star-News.

Local folks along with radio host Curtis Wright from "The Big Talker FM" and Americans for Prosperity North Carolina organized the tea party and dumped 80 pounds of tea into the Cape Fear river. The protest drew hundreds of people who had previously never attended a public rally. They came together to protest events at the national and state level and to protest a specific local issue - Forced Annexation (along with high local taxes) of the Monkey Junction area of New Hanover County by the city of Wilmington.

The one thing elected officials at all levels of government fear is an educated and engaged electorate. They count on citizens being too preoccupied with the chores of daily living to pay attention to what they do and hold them accountable for their actions. In most cases they feel that only they "understand" the problems and the solutions and will take action with the belief that by the next election the voters will either not vote or have forgotten their anger.

We can only hope that the people who are taking time out of their busy schedules to attend the "Tea Party" in their local community will stay engaged. For a listing of Tea Parties around the state in the coming weeks click here.

Tea Parties in North Carolina

 Michelle Malkin says “share it,” so here it is: have a look!

The map lists North Carolina Tea Parties on April 15th in Franklin, Asheville, Charlotte, Raleigh, Fayetteville, Morehead City, Wilmington and Stella Bridge(?).

There are also some more scheduled for 4/15:
Edenton          Elizabeth City    Greensboro   Greenville
Hillsborough    Mooresville        Newton        Roanoke Rapids
Rutherfordton  Smithfield         Wilmington  Southern Pines    

I hear the Edenton Tea Party will be a blast, literally.  Revolutionary re-enactors will muster on the village green.  No word on the involvement of Redcoats.

For more information about your nearest Tea Party go to taxdayteaparty.com