Link-of-the-Day – Page 41 – Democracy North Carolina

Wisconsin Ground Zero for Rights Assault

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and the Republican-controlled legislature have stirred national passions with their bold attacks on long-held rights of workers to organize. Now they’re making the state, once a leader in voter participation, the new ground zero for the national movement to restrict voting. There’s a connection between attacks on labor rights, voting rights, [...]

By Bob Hall| 2017-01-03T12:05:40-05:00 May 6th, 2011|Civic Engagement, Link-of-the-Day, Money in Politics, Voting Rights|3 Comments

Basing Redistricting on Race?

In a moment of unthinking transparency, US Rep. Patrick McHenry told a Politico reporter that the Republican redistricting plan for North Carolina will use racial data to pack African Americans into three Congressional districts and thereby make several surrounding districts more heavily white and more Republican friendly. This strategy to isolate (or ghettoize) black voters [...]

By Bob Hall| 2017-01-03T12:05:40-05:00 May 5th, 2011|Link-of-the-Day, Redistricting, Voting Rights|7 Comments

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Yesterday, after hours of debate on the House floor over the proposed state budget, Rep. Edgar Starnes (R-Caldwell County) suddenly introduced an amendment to kill North Carolina’s public campaign financing programs. The mood in the chamber dramatically shifted. With blistering intensity, several Democrats plummeted Republican leaders for using the devious tactics they campaigned against to [...]

By Bob Hall| 2011-05-04T09:08:56-04:00 May 4th, 2011|Link-of-the-Day, Money in Politics, Voter-Owned Elections|2 Comments

Monday, May 2, 2011

You can tell NC House Republican leaders what you think of their budget proposal before it gets a final vote this week and goes to the state Senate. The House budget fires tens of thousands of workers, crowds our schools and health centers, and at the same time protects tax loopholes for big-money donors worth more [...]

By Bob Hall| 2011-05-02T08:20:11-04:00 May 2nd, 2011|Civic Engagement, Link-of-the-Day, Money in Politics|3 Comments

Friday, April 29, 2011

As the price of gas moves toward $4 a gallon and oil company profits soar, US House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) declared that Big Oil should pay its fair share of taxes and the industry’s lucrative federal subsidiaries should be reviewed. That was Monday of this week. By Thursday, he was in retreat and echoing [...]

By Bob Hall| 2017-01-03T12:05:40-05:00 April 29th, 2011|Environmental Issues, Link-of-the-Day, Lobbying, Money in Politics|1 Comment

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

The Charlotte and Raleigh McClatchy newspapers have a story today about the new voter suppression bill in the General Assembly, featured in our April 21 Link of the Day: S-657. You can read the lame reasoning of the Art Pope-funded legislators who are the bill’s chief sponsors. Saving tax money can’t be a justification for [...]

By Bob Hall| 2011-04-27T12:28:51-04:00 April 27th, 2011|Civic Engagement, Link-of-the-Day, Voting Rights|5 Comments

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Former Sen. Alan Simpson, a conservative Republican from Wyoming, uses a supply-and-demand market analysis to dissect why governance in Washington is broken. It’s broken because the campaign finance system is a private monopoly controlled by wealthy special interests. Everything favors their private agenda, not the public interest, and as a result the nation is going [...]

By Bob Hall| 2017-01-03T12:05:40-05:00 April 26th, 2011|FENA, Link-of-the-Day, Money in Politics|6 Comments

Monday, April 25, 2011

The Sunlight Foundation provides a valuable overview of President Obama's draft executive order that would require federal contractors to disclose their direct and indirect political spending. Indirect means donations made to other groups (like 527 committees, trade groups or c-4 organizations) with “the intention or reasonable expectation” that the money would be used for independent [...]

By Bob Hall| 2017-01-03T12:05:40-05:00 April 25th, 2011|Citizens United Case, Disclosure, Link-of-the-Day, Money in Politics|1 Comment

Thursday, April 21, 2011

A trio of state Senators introduced a bill this week that hits each of the goals of the Art Pope-Civitas-Americans for Prosperity agenda for voting: Senate Bill 657 would kill pre-registration for teenagers, repeal Same Day Registration, cut down the days and hours for in-person Early Voting, cripple out-of-precinct provisional voting, but allow organized campaigns [...]

By Bob Hall| 2017-01-03T12:05:40-05:00 April 21st, 2011|Civic Engagement, Link-of-the-Day, Voting Rights, Youth Vote|0 Comments

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

A year after the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, Congress has not passed any major law to prevent another disaster. Why? “The opposition to new legislation that requires stricter oversight largely stems from the anti-regulatory zeal of conservative lawmakers and from the influence of the oil industry, say congressional staffers from both [...]

By Bob Hall| 2011-04-20T11:42:24-04:00 April 20th, 2011|Environmental Issues, Link-of-the-Day, Lobbying, Money in Politics|2 Comments