NC General Assembly 04-08-2009 Legislative Calender

It looks to be a busy day in the General Assembly, with all kinds of bills to restrict the rights and income of North Carolinians being "discussed"...

8:30 AM	APPROPRIATIONS (House) State Hlth Plan $/Good Health Initiatives. (S287)	643LOB
9:00 AM	FINANCE (House) School Board Candidate Filing Fee. (H76) Increase Small Estate Amount. (H203) Affordable Housing for Local Employees. (H206) Kannapolis Annexation. (H422) Extend IDS Copy Exemption. (H447) Use of Funds Received From Parking Meters. (H465) Affordable Housing for Teachers/Edgecombe Co. (H531)	544LOB
9:30 AM	Sen. Queen	Press Room LB
10:00 AM	HOMELAND SECURITY, MILITARY, AND VETERANS AFFAIRS (House) EMS/Fire Dept. Sales Tax Refund. (H511) Remove Restriction/LEO Disability Benefits. (H697)	1425LB
10:00 AM	LOCAL GOVERNMENT I (House) Belmont/Satellite Annexations. (H280) Regulation of Golf Carts in Denton. (H474) Regulation of Golf Carts in Currituck County. (H662) Wendell ETJ Extension Authorized. (H743) Huntersville/Newspaper Advertising. (H772) Durham City Manager/Contract Authority. (H788) Greensboro City Attorney Appointment. (H1010) Est. DV Fatality Review Team/Mecklenburg Co. (S381) Macon Subdivisions. (S385) Make Overgrown Vegetation Law Statewide. (S452)	425LOB
10:00 AM	EDUCATION/HIGHER EDUCATION (Senate) State Bd. of Community College Elections (H485) Require Arts Educ. Credit for Graduation (S66) Modify DPI/SBE Reporting Requirements (S689) Reinstatement of Sick Leave/School Employees (S740) Amend the Compulsory School Attendance Law (S708)	643LOB
11:00 AM	TRANSPORTATION (House) Designate Portions of US 441 a Scenic Byway. (H368) Drivers License Changes/Older Drivers. (H418) Selling Motor Vehicle Registrations Unlawful. (H471) Add VisitNC.com to License Plates. (H487) Support Soccer Special Plate. (H822) Special Plate for Retired Register of Deeds. (H824) Garbage Collection Trucks Parking on Highways. (H825) Children's Home Society Special Plate. (H844) Childhood Cancer Awareness Plate. (H858) Neuse River Foundation Special Plate. (H874)	1228LB
11:00 AM	LOCAL GOVERNMENT II (House) Local Government Surplus Property Donations. (H96) Increase Mecklenburg Force Account Limit. (H507) Denton Mayor's Term. (H550) Midland Retirement. (H560) Edenton/Delinquent Tax - Deny Building Permit. (H563) Statewide Nuisance Notice Authority. (H699) Hyde County Bow Hunting. (H888)	1425LB
11:00 AM	SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (House)	425LOB
11:00 AM	HEALTH CARE (Senate) Increase Transparency of MH/DD/SA Facilities (S799) Rewrite Sanitarian Examiners Laws/Fees (S834) Tech. & Org. Changes/Certain DHHS Facilities (S1042) Amend Rabies Laws (S674)	544LOB
12:00 PM	SELECT COMMITTEE ON ENERGY, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY CANCELLED (Senate) Presentation by Larry Shirley, Director, North Carolina State Energy Office	1027LB
12:00 PM	AGRICULTURE (House) Building Code/Exempt Equestrian Arenas. (H780) Remove Controlled Access Highway Restriction. (H837) Create Exemption/Size-Weight for Sage Haulers. (H838) Motor Vehicle Size and Weight Law Changes. (H880)	1228LB
12:00 PM	WILDLIFE RESOURCES (House) Minimum Caliber of Rifles for Taking Big Game. (H857) No Killing of Grass Carp. (H898)	415LOB
1:00 PM	COMMERCE, SMALL BUSINESS, AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP (House)	1228LB
1:00 PM	ELECTION LAW AND CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM (House) Absentee Voting Improvements. (H614) Avery Tax Collector Appointive. (H701) Electioneering at Early Voting Sites. (H748) Election Administration Amendments. (H908) Campaign Finance Amendments. (H1111)	1425LB
1:00 PM	WAYS AND MEANS/BROADBAND CONNECTIVITY (House) DOT/Fiber-Optic Cable. (H136) Partition Sales/Commrs., Sellers, Buyers. (H578) Partition Sales/Notice, Credit, Appraisal. (H580) Study High-Speed Internet/Underserved Cities. (H595) Regulate Sales of Glass Vials. (H722) Office of Prosecution Services. (H786)	415LOB
2:00 PM	ENERGY AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY (House) Extend Renewable Energy Credit Sunset. (Discussion only) (H284) Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Credit. (Discussion only) (H372) Raleigh Energy Efficiency. (H464) Tax Credit For Energy-Efficient Homes. (Discussion only) (H504) Incentives for Energy Conservation. (Discussion only) (H512) Geothermal Heat Pump Tax Credit. (Discussion only) (H621) Alternative Fuels Tax Credit. (Discussion only) (H905) Alternative Fuels Tax Credits. (Discussion only) (H906)	421LOB
2:00 PM	MENTAL HEALTH REFORM (House) Accountability for State Funding/MH/DD/SA. (H672) Support for Developmental Disab. Services. (H673) Clarify Status of DWI Treatment Courts. (H666)	424LOB
2:30 PM	Session Convenes (Senate)	Senate Chamber
3:00 PM	Session Convenes (House)	House Chamber

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Congressional Black Caucus Visits Ideological Allies in Communist Cuba Update: They Loved Castro, and Castro Loved Them!!!

It is my firm belief that the members of the Congressional Black Caucus are traitors to the very ideas that are enshrined in the United States Constitution, and should be treated as such upon their return.

Why the fiery and over-the-top language?

They have visited their ideological brethren in Cuba in an attempt to help prop up the murderous government of Cuba, and to support the continued torture and imprisonment of political opponents of the Cuban government.

The people of Cuba deserve to be liberated from their Communist oppressors!

Here is a Press Release from Bloggers United for Cuban Liberty, Inc.



And here is a factoid from the Bloggers United for Cuban Liberty:

Afro-Cubans in Cuban Civil Society

• Afro-Cubans comprise over 60 percent of the island’s population, yet…

• Black and dark-skinned multiracial Cubans constitute only five percent of hospitality workers catering to Europeans and other tourists' international joint ventures with foreign firms (which tend to offer the highest wages by Cuban standards), while making up nearly 70 percent of the state-run labor force.

• Moreover, only about 35 percent of managerial positions in the state-run sector are held by black and biracial (mulatto) Cubans.

• Afro-Cubans are disproportionately represented in the prison population -- 80 percent of Cuba’s inmates are black or mulatto.

• Cubans of European ancestry receive as much as 250 percent more in remittances (cash subsidies) from family abroad than their Afro-Cuban neighbors. Growing income disparities may in turn be affecting the educational opportunities as well as occupational options of many Cubans of African ancestry.

• In terms of higher education, Afro-Cubans are already perceived to be woefully underrepresented – accounting for as little as three percent of university enrollments.

**8.27pm** update (It was a commie love-fest!)

Lee and others heaped praise on Castro, calling him warm and receptive during their discussion. But the lawmakers disputed Castro's later statement that members of the congressional delegation said American society is still racist. 

"It was quite a moment to behold," Lee said, recalling her moments with Castro. 

“It was almost like listening to an old friend,” said Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Il.), adding that he found Castro’s home to be modest and Castro’s wife to be particularly hospitable. 

“In my household I told Castro he is known as the ultimate survivor,” Rush said. 

Rep. Laura Richardson (D-Ca.) said Castro was receptive to President Obama’s message of turning the page in American foreign policy. 

"He listened. He said the exact same thing" about turning the page "as President Obama said," said Richardson.

Richardson said Castro knew her name and district. "He looked right into my eyes and he said, 'How can we help? How can we help President Obama?'" 

Source: The Politco

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Lefties Whine About Wastewater Treatment Plant in Rabun County

The Rabun County, Ga. Board of Commissioners called a special meeting on Monday, March 9, to inform newly-elected board members of the status of the former Fruit of the Loom textile plant. (Newly-elected commissioners Katheryn Granberg, Will Nichols and Tom Garrison joined Max Watts and Chairman Virgil Kilby on the board.) The county is planning a new municipal water plant on the site and is in the process of getting permits from the Environmental Protection Division. A discharge permit was applied for in February, and a 30-day public comment period for the permit will be announced soon.

The county purchased the water and sewer treatment facilities of the former Rabun Apparel, Fruit of the Loom plant in Rabun Gap in December 2007. Gibbs International of Spartanburg, S.C. bought the textile plant after Fruit of the Loom closed in 2006. Gibbs buys vacant plants to resell them. An agreement was made by Rabun County with Merrill Trust (the developers of Sky Valley Resort) for wastewater treatment.

Source: Macon County News (read the article for more info)
Hat Tip: Don Yelton (via email)

Commentary

Lefties are going to oppose this, and they are going to try to trick as many "Republicans" as possible to help them kill a possible source for new jobs for the people of Rabun County and Macon County.

The Rabun Fruit of the Loom plant employed many hundreds of Maconians, and when the plant was shut down, it hurt thousands of people in our county, including businesses that benefited from employees who spent money in our area.

Now, there is a chance that the site could be rehabilitated, and a new industry attracted to the area...or at the very least, infrastructure could be built up for Rabun County that would support an increase in population and new businesses that would benefit them, and by extension us.

The agenda of these lefties is to raise the cost of building the Waste water Treatment Plant beyond what is affordable so that the plan will be abandoned. This is a classic Alinsky Tactic and must be opposed by all right-thinking, reasonable people.

Download a pdf of the draft permit.



Here is a portion of the plan that the opposition to this plant are implementing (from the Little Tennessee Watershed Association website):

30 day Comment Period on Fruit of the Loom Plant now open!!

For over a year, we have been bringing you news of Rabun County's plans to convert the former Fruit of the Loom plant in Rabun Gap, Georgia to a municipal waste treatment plant. They have applied for their permit to dump 2 million gallons of treated sewage per day into the Little Tennessee River and that permit is now open for public comment.

***To review the draft permit, please click on the link at the bottom of this page and download the PDF file.***

Please submit a letter to the Georgia Environmental Protection Division with at least the following three requests no later than April 13, 2009:

1. Rabun County plans to use a chlorine treatment system. Please request that the Georgia Environmental Protection Division require that an Ultraviolet (UV) Treatment process be put into operation to ensure that the water quality will be good enough for the Town of Franklin to use as an alternative water supply and to protect aquatic life.

2. The State of Georgia just completed a Statewide Water Plan that outlines impacts to consider before an interbasin transfer of water is completed. Please request that these guidelines be written directly into Rabun County’s discharge permit.

3. Please request that the Georgia EPD hold a formal public hearing so that all of the various concerns and questions can be adequately addressed.

Mail your written comments to and make sure to reference Draft Permit #GA0039152:

Georgia Environmental Protection Division
Attention: Jane Hendricks
4220 International Park Dr., Suite 101
Atlanta, GA 30354

It is best to submit your comments in writing to the EPD to make sure that they become a part of the official record. To read background information, click on the "news" tab (above) and browse past LTWA newsletters, available as a PDF.

There is so much more that you can do with your request! Please click here for a more elaborate description of suggested talking points and for a list of additional people to send copies of your comments to.

I suggest that you counter their effort by writing in support of the construction of the plant, and state the economic need of the plant for the area as I have stated earlier in this post, and add additional ideas of your own.

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PROOF National Socialized Health Care is a FAILED System

Straight from the newspapers

UK:

NHS 'failings' over elderly falls
- March 25, 2009 [BBC]

Learning disabled 'failed by NHS'
- Nick Triggle, March 24, 2009 [BBC]

Cancer survivor confronts the health secretary on 62-day wait
- Lyndsay Moss, March 21, 2009 [The Scotsman]

Culture of targets prevents nurses from tending to patients
- Claire Rayner, President of the Patients Association, March 21, 2009 [Telegraph UK]

Children being failed by health system, says head of watchdog
- Sarah Boseley, March 21, 2009 [Guardian Unlimited]

Our cancer shame: Survival rates still lag behind EU despite spending billions
- Jenny Hope, March 20, 2009 [Daily Mail(UK)]

Failing hospital 'caused deaths'
- March 17, 2009 [BBC]

Health gap drive 'wasted money'
- Nick Triggle, March 14, 2009 [BBC]

Longer GP opening hours branded wasteful 'PR exercise' by doctors
- Lyndsay Moss, March 13, 2009 [The Scotsman]

"Political meddling" threatens general practice, warns GP leader
- March 13, 2009 [Management in Practice (UK)]

Source: Red Stater, who has several dozen more of the same types of links.

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Turkish Demonstrators Give Obama the Shoe on the Face Treatment

This photo from Reuters show Turkish demonstrators showing their utter disrespect for President Obama by putting their shoes on a photo of his face.

I wonder if the lefties on TV and in the blogosphere will laugh and chortle about it...or will it just disappear down the memory hole because it does not fit their agenda for telling lies to the American people.

The truth is as plain as the shoe in Obama's face!

**12.57pm** President Obama has told the Muslim world that America is not a Christian nation.

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Snowball Earth

In honor of our brief flurry of winter weather today, I have embedded the Snowball Earth special from the BBC:

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Flurries at WCU

And this time it is not a prank!

Check out the video below...



**8.44am** It will take a little bit to process for the full HD video to become available..

**9.02am** View larger size video.

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Newt Gingrich Joins Catholic Church

Gingrich previously had identified as a Baptist, but two Saturdays ago in Washington, DC, the former House Speaker was officially confirmed into the Catholic Church.

-=SNIP=-

Other high-profile Catholic converts from the political realm include Sam Brownback, Bobby Jindal, Jeb Bush, and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Source: One News Now

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Boycott the Associated Press!

The Associated Press just doesn't get the Internet, like most of the Legacy Media, and has renewed it's idiotic war against people who use a portion of their stories, and link back to the original source.

My personal response has been to not link to AP Stories where ever possible if I can find a non-AP source for the story. If I can find no other source, I will put the story in my own words, and not link. 

I cannot understand why the AP is acting this way, other than to ascribe a supreme sort of arrogance or ignorance to them...and both of those characteristics often go hand in hand as far as I am concerned. The way I understand it, the Internet lives and breathes when people link to each other. I get a great deal of traffic via links, from people who may or may not agree with me. I try to return the favor, regardless of political affiliation. The AP acts like 

Even lefties have been up in arms over the Associated Press.

If I ran a newspaper, or an online news site, I would not subscribe to any AP services. I would use some of the alternatives out there,  such as Agence France-Press, Google News (just watch for AP content), Reuters, Yahoo News (again, watch for AP content) McClatchy, Breit Bart (watch for some AP content), or IPS for your blogger news and stop driving traffic to AP!  Also, if a news service uses some AP content, I only use them if I can find no other alternative as a way of denying those who use AP what little link love I can. If a lot of bloggers and online news sites did this, we might have an impact on the AP. 

What set me off on this little tirade is the news that the Associated Press is at it again, this time threatening to sue news aggregators:

I'm a bit curious what those "misguided theories" are... because copyright law and rules concerning fair use seem pretty clear, and search engines aggregating info and sending people to your site has been ruled fair use before. So, perhaps the AP chairman is talking about some other "misguided" legal theory? Another AP person claims: "This is not about defining fair use. There's a bigger economic issue at stake here that we're trying to tackle." But she neglects to say what that is, other than our old business model sucks, and we've got no freaking clue how to adapt to the changing market place, so this is the best we've got... 

Source: TechDirt (I bet they don't try to sue me for lifting part of their content and linking to where I found it).

The biggest threat to the Associated Press (other than their idiot behavior and bad business model) is the rise of citizen journalists who provide local coverage of news and events on a first hand basis, like I try to do, and some others locally are doing on blogs or social networking platforms and the local alternative papers who have websites. 

I would love to see an aggregated list of sources by geographic region, and have been building one for the past couple of years that I use for sources of information for my News Feed. I also run a widget of it on my sidebar. One day, when I have what I feel is a definitive national  directory of local sources, I'll put it up on a website I've been building for the purpose. Like so many other ideas I have, somebody has probably already done this...I think DMOZ comes close to what I have envisioned.

There are a couple of idiot bloggers who also act like the AP in their ignorance, and even put warnings in their RSS Feed against using their feed on other websites. So, I never link to these websites or blogs (except in this case to point one of them out). These people are AP-wannabes.

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