It takes a billionaire, maybe two or three, to fight the obvious notion that burning huge quantities of oil in vehicles, homes and factories is fueling climate change. The secretive, mega-billionaire Koch brothers are ready for the challenge. As mentioned earlier (August 24 LINK), David and Charles Koch are beginning to get more attention as [...]
Speaking of false claims made to discredit (per yesterday’s LINK about the fibs IRV opponents tell), check this out from the Washington Times, which is like Fox News in print, using a mainstream format to package its propaganda. The newspaper is so opposed to Election Day registration and similar measures that it grabbed a tidbit [...]
Ready or not, Instant Runoff Voting will be used to fill the recent vacancy on the NC Court of Appeals created when Judge Jim Wynn stepped down to serve on the federal court. Gov. Bev Perdue appointed Judge Cressie Thigpen a couple weeks ago to fill the seat temporarily, until a winner in November begins [...]
On this Labor Day, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich succinctly describes how Americans are working longer hours for less pay while the benefits of increased productivity flow to the top 1%; this distorted distribution of the wealth we create means consumers don’t have the money to buy what the economy is capable of producing, and [...]
Want to get a picture of how big money in politics is crushing real people? Watch this short video from Brave New Foundation about a farmer in Iowa, oyster harvester in Louisiana and coal miner in West Virginia. (Explore the Fair Elections website for more Good Stuff.) The message is clear: people suffer when wealthy [...]
Real Jobs NC, the 527 committee backed by Art Pope, Fred Eshelman and the national Republican Party, has begun sending tons of attack-ad mailers to voters in the districts of several state House Democrats who face tight elections. (See August 18 LINK entry.) Mark Binker of the Greensboro News & Record looks into the claims [...]
A Texas judge has ordered the national Republican Governors Association to pay $2 million to the state’s Democratic candidate for governor in 2006 because the association illegally funneled $1 million to Republican Gov. Rick Perry from the nation’s biggest individual campaign donor that year. The donation came from Bob Perry, the Houston mega-builder and patron of the [...]
At the close of filing today, 13 candidates had signed up to replace Judge Jim Wynn on the NC Court of Appeals. That means North Carolina will host the nation’s first statewide election using the Instant Runoff Voting method in decades. Voters can select up to three candidates in order of their preference, 1st, 2nd, [...]
Three state Senate races to fill vacancies in southeastern North Carolina could decide whether Democrats or Republicans win majority control of that body. The majority party will use the new Census data to redraw the boundary lines for Congressional and legislative districts for the next decade, with an eye to securing a partisan advantage in [...]
Mother Jones magazine gives this factoid from a new series by the Center for Responsive Politics: Environmental organizations spent a record $22 million lobbying Congress and federal agencies last year, but for every dollar the groups spent, the oil and gas industry spent eight dollars. Exxon alone spent more on lobbying than all the environmental [...]