June 30, 2010
Eshelman Rings in New 527: Real Jobs NC
PPD executive Fred Eshelman rings the NASDAQ bell Thursday morning, a carefully orchestrated media event to mark the PPD’s 25th anniversary (optional confetti $500, balloon drop $4,000). If the name Eshelman rings a bell it’s because he’s the force and the finance behind RightChange.com a conservative political committee active in the 2008 races run with NC State Senator Fletcher Hartsell and State Representative Jeff Barnhart of Cabarrus County. Their most recent contribution to political dialog was “Attack of the 50 Ft Pelosi”, a cartoon world where Democrats have long skinny necks and Conservatives have none.
In the past 10 years PPD has been awarded over $600,000,000 in federal government grants and contracts. Between 2006 and …
April 28, 2010
The Long Road to Brown, the Long Road Beyond
The Long Road to Brown, the Long Road Beyond is a 2008 documentary by the Southern Oral History Program at the University of North Carolina. The film uses oral histories and other sources to trace the long history of segregation in America’s public schools and, North Carolina Schools in particular, from 1865 through 2008.
The video is split into four sections below. The fourth and final section of the documentary covers 1970’s and Jesse Helms through to present day school integration:
From Desegregation to Resegregation: 1969-2008 (part 2)
September 23, 2009
Plenty for Blue Cross, None for Me
We need health care reform with a public health insurance option now. Someone needs to cover people who are denied coverage and claims.
July 21, 2009
NC Growers, Men of Mystery
The Truth Squad appeared on the political radar in 2008. The Truth Squad is a 527 Political Committee set up by C. Stan Eury, head of the NC Growers Association which is the nation’s largest employer of legal migrant workers and the largest agricultural employer in NC. The 527’s activity was initially limited to attacking Republican State Senate candidate David Rouzer in a local feud related to immigration law.
On November 3rd, 2008, the day before Election Day, a 1/4 page ad ran in the Raleigh News & Observer obviously supporting Steve Troxler for NC Commissioner of Agriculture, paid for by The Truth Squad. The NC Commissioner of Agriculture election is a statewide race. No reports have ever …
July 9, 2009
State Funded Org Joins Pharma on Public Option
It was no suprise to see a full page advertisement in the News&Observer this morning advocating Big Pharma’s position on Health Care Reform. It was suprising to see state-funded North Carolina Biotechnology Center as one of the sponsors along with GlaxoSmithKline, Bayer HealthCare, Wyeth, Merck, NC Bio, the NC Chamber and PhRMA, (the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America). NC BioTech has an annual budget of about $15 million, virtually all of which comes from NC General Appropriations.
The ad is a warning shot to the NC Congressional Delegation about Big Pharma jobs in NC. The superficially supportive but ambiguous message had enough code words surgically implanted in the body of the text to send …
July 7, 2009
Builders Make Great Case For Transfer Tax
It is generally accepted that the housing bubble precipitated the current recession. Easy access to money and low interest rates fueled housing inflation that made housing speculation profitable without growth in the underlying economy. In 2007 the Chief Executive of the National Association of Homebuilders acknowledged that overbuilding during the boom years was a factor in the housing meltdown.
That same year NC Realtors and Homebuilders fought tooth and nail at the Legislature to prevent counties from having a transfer tax option to pay for the infrastructure demanded by housing growth. Although unsuccessful at the Legislature in 2007 they have since spent millions to defeat transfer tax proposals at the polls in local …
June 22, 2009
Bullying Anti-Bullying
North Carolina Conservatives are lying about sexual orientation and gender identity to bully the anti-bullying bill into submission. To defeat SB 526, the School Violence Prevention Act, Republican House Minority Leader Paul Stam and the Christian Action League have been claiming the existence of 30 sexual orientations as listed in the DSM-IV, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR) of the American Psychiatric Association. No such list exists. It is a fabrication of conservative Christians used to defeat any legislation that can be presumed to protect the human rights of gay people.
Whether through ignorance, invective or indifference, Stam and the Christian Action League have been falsely equating sexual orientation and gender identity with sexual disorders or …
June 5, 2009
Kabuki House Theater
NC House Republicans Thursday morning performed another act of the Kabuki theater that is the State Budget process. Standing behind a pile of budget reports at a press conference Rep Skip Stam called out for transparency, without any trace of irony. Stam was trying to make a point that Republicans were shut out of the process. He claimed to have been personally turned away from a closed meeting in committee room 612, next door to his own office, but on questioning could not remember by whom and he did not describe the nature of the meeting.
Rep Thom Tillis called for a show of hands from Republican Appropriations Sub-Committee members …
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