Tag: Thom Tillis

Tillis’ shooting fest

July 12, 2012 at 3:09 pmCategory:Uncategorized

by

I’m sure the gun people will say that I want to trample their rights when I complain about this, but:

a) It’s not true — I really don’t want them to have to give up their guns (though I’m not so sure about their bazookas, bombs, machine guns, armor piercing bullets, and other WMD’s) and

b) This really is weird and disturbing — the Speaker of the North Carolina House is having a fundraiser at a gun range.

The range in question features a “simulator” where you too (a video showcasing it appears to feature a teenage boy) can pretend to mow down multiple terrorists.

On the lighter side of the whole depressing thing, the gun range in question touts itself as a “green” and ”environmentally responsible” so at least that will probably tick off the Locke Foundation and Civitas people who hate that kind of thing.  

Sigh…

 

More on the fracking vote

July 5, 2012 at 2:21 pmCategory:Uncategorized

by

Two things to contemplate on this lovely, globally warm afternoon:

1) Sue Sturgis at Facing South has a fine new post about the questionable industry folk who shepherded North Carolina lawmakers on a fracking “fact” finding mission last fall. As you can imagine, the main company in question is a real paragon of public-spirited corporate virtue.

2) Here’s how the dialogue should have gone between Rep. Becky Carney and House Speaker Tillis  in the aftermath of her accidental and deciding vote in favor of the fracking bill (and how it would have gone had Tillis ever tried to live up to his pledges about transparency of honest government):

Rep. Carney: “Mr. Speaker, I need to raise a point of order: I accidentally voted ‘aye’ when I meant to vote ‘no.’”

Speaker Tilis:  Read More…

Fair process and common decency dealt another blow in the House

July 3, 2012 at 2:14 pmCategory:Uncategorized

by

Picture of Becky CarneyAs I wrote earlier this morning, Rep. Becky Carney deserves a big raspberry for her inexplicable and accidental vote to pass the fracking veto override last night. Progressivees are slapping their foreheads all over the state at the gaffe.

But here’s the thing, it should never have been an issue. Votes in the General Assembly are changed literally dozens of times per day after the fact by lawmakers who were not paying attention during votes and/ or, truth be told, by people who change their minds after the fact.

That Speaker Thom Tillis employed a kind of “gotcha” tactic to seize upon Carney’s error and deny her the chance to change her vote because it would “change the outcome of the vote” — even when she called his attention to it almost immediately – is but the latest example of his ongoing effort to bring the mean-spirited, cutthroat politics of Congress to North Carolina.  He simply did not have to do it and could have allowed her to make the change.

The bottom line: The victory for fracking  proponents occurred even though the proposal did not and does not actually enjoy the support of the constitutionally-required majority of the General Assembly.  Like an athlete who knows he failed to comply with the rules of a sport (or their spirit) and “wins” on an official’s incorrect call, Speaker Tillis took North Carolina yet another step away from cordiality and common decency in governing.

The company he keeps

June 14, 2012 at 4:52 pmCategory:Uncategorized

by

There will undoubtedly be more troubling stories that will come to light in the days ahead about the group of extreme right-wingers that North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis met with yesterday in Raleigh, but here’s one that certainly ought to make people wake up and pay attention:

According to a 2010 story written by Chris Kromm of the Institute for Southern Studies, one of Tillis’ new buddies has some pretty amazing views.

The man in question is named David DeGerolamo. According to this story on WRAL.com, DeGerolamo was one of six or seven extreme conservatives who met with the Speaker yesterday. The story describes him as “David DeGerolamo of NC Freedom/NC Renegade.” You can check out NC Renegade’s post on the meeting (including a photo of the speaker with a couple of the attendees) by clicking here.

According to the Institute story, DeGerolamo appeared on a radio show with the head of a Nashville, Tennessee -based national Tea Party group on November 17, 2010 and called for the repeal of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution.

To quote the story: Read More…

Tillis unplugged (and incomprehensible) again

June 8, 2012 at 5:21 pmCategory:Uncategorized

by

Conservative Raleigh talk show host Bill LuMaye interviewed House Speaker Thom Tillis this morning on his show and, to his credit, gave Tillis a pretty hard time (in his own inimitable and wacky way) about providing severance pay-offs to his staffers (including his chief of staff and roommate) who resigned as a result of their romantic relationships with lobbyists.

If you listen to the spot – which runs about seven and half minutes, you’ll hear Tillis sound an awful lot like Ralph Kramden from the old “Honeymooners” TV show doing his best to come up with something to say other than “homina, homina, homina.”

According to Tillis, he paid off Charles Thomas and Amy Hobbs because if he had fired them, they would have then “qualified for 99 weeks of unemployment [insurance].”

Say what? No wonder Tillis wants to ruin the state unemployment insurance system; he doesn’t understand how it works. The basic standard of the law is that people fired for cause/malfeasance in the workplace are NOT eligible for unemployment benefits. Not to mention the fact that they can’t claim it if they’ve become re-employed. Thomas had already field the papers to start a new “consulting” business even before he left the Speaker’s office.

Add to this the fact that Tillis later refers to the unemployment insurance system as “workmen’s compensation” AND the fact that Tillis claims to talk to Pat McCrory “every day” (McCrory will love that) and it all totals up to another boffo public performance for the Speaker.

You can listen to the entire LuMaye interview by clicking here.