The Center for Responsive Politics (aka Opensecrets.org) has this report on the National Rifle Association’s political intimidation machine. It has loads of links to other reports and the major players in the gun-fetish debate. Meanwhile, Chris Fitzsimon of NC Policy Watch has this review of Art Pope’s selection today as North Carolina’s next State Budget [...]
Here’s a link to a short and powerful video that documents the impact of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United (“corporations may buy elections”) decision on North Carolina politics – and what North Carolinians can do about it. The video was produced in conjunction with Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies. Speakers are available to show [...]
Governor-elect Pat McCrory promised to end the pay-to-play culture in North Carolina. You can hope that he will not be as crazy as current Democratic transportation officials who last week named a bridge after Lanny Wilson of Wilmington. Mr. Wilson is the mega-developer/fundraiser in the middle of the 2009 Mike Easley scandal that involved illegal [...]
“If justice and fairness are to prevail, the integrity of the court's justices and the proceedings cannot be influenced by money or even have the appearance of being sold to the highest bidder. Whenever this possibility arises, we must call on the court to examine itself, and if necessary, recuse any justice or judge whose [...]
For the latest analysis of electioneering groups spending money to influence the outcome of North Carolina’s gubernatorial, Supreme Court and other elections, see this updated report from the Institute for Southern Studies released today. WRAL reports that the volume of Republican Party money spent on ads to elect Paul Newby to the Supreme Court puts [...]
An update from the Institute for Southern Studies asks, “What do Big Tobacco, insurance interests, and a D.C. group that's spent millions to help Republicans draw political lines all have in common? In North Carolina, they've all put big money into a pair of super PACs that want to re-elect Justice Paul Newby and maintain [...]
A concise column by veteran reporter and former Raleigh city council member Barlow Herget begins: “There are two, fast-moving major trends in the United States that are changing society and government. And they are connected. The older trend is the increasing inequality of income in the country. It started in the 1960s when CEO’s were [...]
Here are a couple in-depth stories that look at the money involved in a North Carolina state senate race (from the Independent Weekly) and the money involved in this year’s presidential contest (from NPR). A lot more money is expected to flood into the state senate race profiled here (Doug Berger vs. Chad Barefoot), much of it [...]
Something that easily folds into your pocket, that’s smaller than an envelope, that’s widely available but in scarce supply, that gets your attention – that’s what overcame reams of scientific data and stopped the oceans from rising. An astonishing miracle. We witnessed it here in North Carolina, and now a little noticed blog has tracked [...]
The Nation magazine has the definitive article about the impact of Citizens United on US elections – including the gusher flow of Middle East oil money through trade groups green-lighted by the Supreme Court’s political decision. The article is by Lee Fang, the writer who broke the story about the cabal of millionaires recruited to [...]