Big BIG news in North Carolina.
See, there is a guy in the United States House of Representatives that votes with Nancy Pelosi. A lot. I mean, a REAL lot.
Like 98.9% of the time David Price votes with Nancy Pelosi. That means that we have a member of Congress in our District voting as if he had the interests of California at heart. CALIFORNIA!
David Price has got to go!
And some good news:
So, fascinating expereince the last two weeks.
As I mentioned, I’ve been working on a plumbing problem at my house; the main line broke near the water meter and I needed the whole reun replaced. It was just too expensive to continue to dig and patch.
So, I obtained estimates from 4 plumbers and chose 1 of ’em.
Now, with the plumbing project complete, I am working on repairing/replacing the gutters on my house.
Same song, different verse. Obtain 3 estimates and pick 1.
Lemme’ tell you that there is an incredible difference between the customer service in gutter guys and plumbers.
While the plumbers were late, ill prepared and in 2 of 3 cases failed to deliver a quote on time, the gutter folks were not only on time, they called to confirm. They were polite and engaging. Further, the quotes, when not delivered on the spot, were on time professionally done with photes and diagrams. All neatly done on a PDF.
I got to wondering why this was. My conclusion?
Plumbers are licensed. Gutter guys aren’t.
Licensing is just another method to keep new competition from entering the market.
To be honest, I don’t know why we elect people to government positions. I mean, in the larger sense I know that we NEED Senators and such; Nationally and on the State level.
But why do we elect that guy to the job?
I have zero idea.
Maybe because we hate him and want to condemn his life to one of a meaningless suffering?
It certainly is not, simple CAN NOT be, that we think he is smarter and more able to lead and govern than us.
Right?
I suppose there’s nothing illegal about this. And maybe it’s even natural that someone who’s spent a umber of years building experience and contacts would make a career move that makes sense.
In fact, it happens in Corporate America all the time.
But still, this rubs me wrong:
Raleigh, N.C. — Tom Shaheen, who has headed the North Carolina Education Lottery since its inception four years ago, has resigned his post to take a job with a company involved in the sale of lottery tickets through ATMs.
Lottery officials said in a statement Monday that Shaheen will be vice president of business development for Linq3, which has developed solutions for the sale of lottery tickets through automated teller machines and other point-of-sale terminals for distribution both in the U.S. and abroad. His last day at the lottery will be Sept. 17.
Good work if ya can get it!
Posted in Lobby/PAC, Politics: North Carolina
Tagged Abuse of Power, Lottery, North Carolina, North Carolina Politics, Politics
Even if you’re against gay marriage, the time has come to move on.
No one wants to run on this, and they shouldn’t. It’s a loser.
So this just makes us look dumb:
RALEIGH, N.C. — A national group touring the country to show support for traditional marriage is holding a rally in North Carolina.
…
The event is one of more than 20 stops on the organization’s summer bus tour.
But there is hope:
North Carolina is the only Southeastern state that hasn’t approved a state constitutional amendment restricting marriage to between one man and one woman.
Carolina may be resisting the dark side.
Just this afternoon I experienced a classic fundamental of economics: Consumption.
I had lunch at a pizza buffet. All the pizza and soda I could consume for the low low price of eight dollars American. of course I had to render to Caesar, so it REALLY was about $8.50, but I digress.
At some point I pushed away from the table satisfied; I was fat dumb and happy. Full.
Posted in Economics, Health Care, Politics: National
Tagged Abuse of Power, Barack Obama, Democrat, Leftist, North Carolina Politics, Politics, Socialism
Then why would you fund your worst performing school? 
Consider a business owner with 3-4-5 stores. Every year, she evaluates her business in an effort to determine which store is doing well and which is under performing. I can see her ranking her stores, best to worst.
Now imagine if she were to take that list, identify the worst performing store and reward its manager with a raise.
That’s what we do with our public schools.
North Carolina Governor Bev Purdue recently Tweeted on a blog entry regarding North Carolina High Speed rail:
Today, NCDOT’s Rail Division officially received the first $20.3 million of the $545 million allocated to our state for high-speed rail improvements under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. North Carolina was granted the sixth highest award to any state as part of President Obama’s high-speed rail plan, demonstrating the growing strength of our rail program.
Jeez. Here we go…
Posted in Politics: North Carolina, Transportation
Tagged High Speed Rail, Leftist, North Carolina, North Carolina Politics, Politics, Stimulus
In this morning’s News and Observer, Opinion writer Alexandra Forter Sirota from the N.C. Budget & Tax Center had this to say:
Late last week the U.S. Senate failed to move a bill that would extend essential fiscal relief to states, as well as fund temporary unemployment insurance provisions passed under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
As a result, the Employment Security Commission estimates that 20,000 North Carolinians will lose unemployment benefits that they would spend quickly and close to home, boosting the local economy and helping local businesses avoid layoffs.
In addition, North Carolina won’t receive more than $340 million in federal assistance, forcing even deeper spending cuts than we’ve already endured in the face of an unprecedented drop in revenues brought on by the recession.
Basically what she’s saying is that it’s good economic policy to continue to remove money from the hands of people with jobs and continue to shovel into the hands of people who’ve been out of work for more than 99 weeks. Now, I’m not saying that these aren’t good folks. That they don’t deserve the money or wouldn’t appreciate the help. All I’m saying is that Ms. Forter Sirota thinks it continues to make sense to shift money from “A” to “B”.
Further, she mentions in the 3rd paragraph, that she feels it’s wise to continue to tax people in States other than North Carolina to help the state of North Carolina pay our bills. I, for one, resent having my tax money sent to California for them to continue to spend foolishly. I imagine that somewhere, someone feels the same about their money and our State.
If we don’t have the money, then we need to cut our spending.
Period.
When, Ms. Forter Sirota, will enough spending be enough for you?
I resonate with getting and keeping things safe; I do.
But I wonder if everyone does.
RALEIGH — About 85 people held hands on a footbridge over Lake Johnson on Saturday afternoon to lament the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and to urge the transition to cleaner forms of energy.
What does that even mean? This “transition to cleaner forms of energy.”
Who decides what “cleaner” means, and how do you measure it?
And then, who measures the damage done by transitioning OFF of oil? Who’s gonna be in charge of that?
The spill in the gulf is a catastrophe; it’s horrible.
But it doesn’t mean oil is over.