The posts in this category discuss our core issues.
The Koch brothers, Art Pope’s Locke Foundation, Americans for Prosperity, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Exxon, BP, Massey Coal and many others understand that if people took global warming seriously as a condition that will kill their children, then government regulation (or just regulating CO2 production) would gain new popularity - and the freedom of [...]
U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-Cherryville) lived up to his reputation as the pit bull for ultra-conservatives during a Congressional hearing yesterday. He went after Elizabeth Warren, acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, ending up basically calling her a liar, which set her back in her chair, aghast. McHenry’s animosity to consumer finance protection [...]
Donna Clark gives a first-person account of what it means to be without health insurance in North Carolina. She expresses the hope of millions for a better system - and the outrage of seeing insurance companies overtake and rig the new system against her. She recognizes the unethical behavior of NC legislators colluding with the [...]
5/19/2011 - The NC House voted to slice a week off the Early Voting period by a surprisingly close 60 to 58, with six Republicans joining the Democrats’ unanimous opposition to the bill (H-658). Backers of the bill said it would save tax money and not inconvenience voters, but after the vote the State Board of [...]
Where do the conservatives and right-wingers in the General Assembly get their worst ideas for legislation? Some of the nutty ideas come from their own heads and a fair number from right-wing outfits inside North Carolina, like Art Pope’s Civitas Institute and John Locke Foundation. But many of them come from the American Legislative Exchange [...]
5/13/2011 - The Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill Triangle has gained a new distinction: Biggest gas guzzling metro area in the nation, according to Forbes. The Triad and Charlotte metro areas are also in the top 10. As Big Oil profits soar and gas prices approach $4 at the pump, more people and politicians are wondering how the [...]
5/11/2011 - After Citizens United, big donors have poured money into a growing number of nonprofit Section 501(c)(4) organizations to finance political attack ads while remaining anonymous (e.g., Karl Rove’s Crossroads conduit). Now comes this irony: The anti-tax, anti-government donors may eventually get hit with a tax bill, courtesy of the IRS applying its gift [...]
We are writing to alert you to a new attack against basic voting rights in North Carolina. A new bill in the NC Senate would eliminate Same-Day Registration and youth pre-registration, slice a week off Early Voting, end Sunday voting, and require other changes that will make it much harder for millions of NC citizens to vote. [...]
Here are two insightful columns related to the fallout from the Supreme Court’s Citizen United decision in January 2010. One by Nick Nyhart and Tova Wang points out that the decision became a green light for a beefed-up assault on democratic values, particularly the right to self-organize, the right to vote, and the right to [...]
The Los Angeles Times and Center for Responsive Politics have produced a model expose of the mining industry’s use of campaign money and high-dollar lobbyists to kill mine safety legislation in Congress. The story documents the close correlation of campaign contributions and votes by Members of Congress, and the timing of when the donations were [...]