Blue Eyed Blog
Posts tagged politics
Voting Rights Retained in NC
Jun 23rd
Seems the last line of defense in this state, the only sane voice of reason left, is our Governor Bev Perdue. She keeps vetoing the ridiculous assaults on sanity and the citizens of this state that the Republican-controlled legislature keep barfing forth. Maybe now the residents of this state will realize why it had been so many decades since we allowed the Republicans to be in charge around here: they are unwilling to act like sane stewards of the people’s trust.
8 vetoes. Keep the veto pen warm Bev!
Friends,
Most days it seems the only thing stopping the Republican legislature from repealing the entire 20th century is Governor Perdue. Just a few minutes ago, she vetoed the single most blatant attack on voting rights in North Carolina since Jim Crow, the Republican Voter ID bill.
North Carolina Democrats have been fighting this bill for five months. We need your help to keep up a coordinated defense of voting rights by making a small donation right now.
This Republican General Assembly, which will be turned out of office in a fair fight, is trying to change the rules to keep the people from being heard. Their attempts at rigging the elections, even before the voting starts, would make it more difficult for seniors, college students, newly married/divorced women, and African Americans to vote. The GOP silences those voices so they can manufacture a majority.
In July, the GOP-led General Assembly will continue to work on bills that propose to eliminate convenient early voting, Sunday voting, same day voter registration and reducing the time frame for early voting– all things fair government advocates and Democrats know increase participation in our Democracy.
The GOP sees our volunteers spreading out through neighborhoods and college campuses, registering new voters. New voters made up the margin of victory for President Obama in North Carolina in 2008 and they will do anything to keep them away from the polls.
The Republican agenda offers nothing to most hard working North Carolinians. Our North Carolina is better than that. Generations of us have worked and fought together for a hundred years to ensure that all people who are eligible to vote can do so without arbitrary hurdles. They know the difference between right-sizing government and doing what’s right by our people.
Thank you, Governor Perdue– for placing your full faith in the good people of North Carolina by protecting their right to vote.
David Parker
If I Had $100
Apr 20th
Friends,
You and I and everyone who ever grew up in North Carolina are the beneficiaries of Democratic majorities who invested in us. They believed that our education and well-being were essential to the growth, economic health, and the overall quality of this state.
Sadly, it is not clear that we’ll be able to say that about the children born during the 2011-2012 Republican majority. The GOP has simply lost all faith in the generations-old contract between the people and their leaders. They have begun to dismantle the state that our parents and our grandparents left us; the one we were entrusted to improve for our own children.
That’s why your attendance at this year’s Jefferson Jackson Dinner is vitally important. Your support allows our party to fight Republican special interests and their regressive agenda in every corner of this state.
With the first 100 days of their control of the North Carolina General Assembly, Republicans have sought to dismantle public schools, deny health care to seniors, kill job creation programs, disenfranchise the voting rights of college students and the disabled, and permit people to carry guns in our parks and restaurants.
Governor Bev Perdue and the Democrats are the only forces standing in the way of this right-wing assault on the middle class.
This year’s Jefferson Jackson Dinner, a celebration of party unity and Democratic tradition, will be held on Saturday, April 30 at the Raleigh Convention Center, 500 S. Salisbury Street in downtown Raleigh. A special reception will be held at 5:30 p.m. The dinner starts at 7 p.m.
Individual tickets are $100. Sponsorship opportunities are available. RSVP to Sallie Leslie at (919) 821-2777 x205,sleslie@ncdp.orgor Jaime Hahn, (919) 821-2777 x206, jhahn@ncdp.org. Click here to purchase tickets online, or go towww.ncdp.org.
U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire is this year’s keynote speaker. She is the first woman in history to be elected a Governor and a United States Senator. A champion of middle class families, as Governor, Shaheen worked to make college more affordable, made public kindergarten a reality for more than 25,000 additional children, and extended affordable health coverage to tens of thousands of New Hampshire Children.
Also, on Saturday, April 30 is the State Executive Committee meeting. It will begin at 12:30 p.m. with registration beginning at 11:00 a.m. The meeting will be held at the Raleigh Convention Center, on the Exhibit Hall Level in Exhibit Hall A. The election of a Democratic National Committee member and break out session are among the agenda items.
Through grassroots activism and your support, we can turn back the tide of Republican extremism in North Carolina. From the school house to the White House, we can restore the American dream. United, we win.
Sincerely,
David Parker
Cutting Education Leads to Stupid
Mar 4th
If you’re not a supporter of MomsRising, you should be. There, that’s out of the way.
I do realize that there are budget problems everywhere. There just sin’t enough money to go around. But firing teachers and weakening education is the single stupidest thing that we could do in the face of these problems. Considering the tax breaks we give to corporations, I think there are other alternatives.
Corporations need tax breaks in order to operate efficiently? Ok, maybe. But here’s an undeniable fact: Corporations need educated workers in order to operate AT ALL. Without an educated population, we don’t have a competitive workforce. Hell, we don’t have a workforce. All we have are “Tea Party Patriots” without the sense to come in out of the rain.
So let’s look at ending Corporate Welfare and overfunding education. Corporate profits are up to record levels. the quality of American education is down to record levels. So let’s take some of that record corporate profit (in the form of the taxes they actually owe but do not pay) and fully fund education.
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Public education is on the chopping block at our N.C. Legislature. Let NC lawmakers know why small class sizes and teachers’ assistants in the classrooms matter to your family. Write a note about why education matters to your family and we’ll deliver it personally! |
Dear David,
I’ve often wondered how teachers do it. As a mom, I struggle enough to get my own kids to listen- let alone a classroom full of 25 kids!
That’s why class size and whether there was a teacher assistant in the classroom were important to me as I looked at school options for my son.
It’s also why I’m so scared when I think about the potential damage that budget cuts can do to the of North Carolina’s children. The majority of state legislators have said they support taking a cuts-only approach to addressing North Carolina’s budget shortfall. With education making up the largest portion of the state budget, there’s a real threat for damaging cuts.
A 10% cut to public education funding would result in the firing of 5,000 teachers and 13,000 teachers’ assistants. This would mean an increase in class sizes statewide by three students per classroom.
Take one minute right now to send a quick note to NC’s legislators. MomsRising members will deliver your note personally to your legislators’ offices.
Our NC legislators need to hear that firing teachers and teachers’ assistants and increasing class sizes is not acceptable!
http://action.momsrising.org/go/770?akid=2586.1823111.34VcpP&t=4
We know that a solid education is key to a successful future for our kids. We rely on our schools to ensure that our children learn the essential life skills of reading and math in addition to the many other things we expect our teachers to accomplish every day.
Yet, North Carolina has consistently underinvested in public education. We rank 42nd nationally in per pupil expenditures in public schools according to the US Census Bureau. Now, our legislators are talking about cutting public education even further!
Last year education experienced cuts of just over ten percent. But the demand for education continues to grow. During the Great Recession, North Carolina’s K-12 student population grew by 33,000 students.
We’re already asking our schools to do more with less. We can’t keep cutting the investments that will determine whether our children and our state will be able to compete in the future.
We’re headed back to the General Assembly next week to take state legislators a train car to go with the NC Little Engine that Could for Kids we delivered last week. This car will be marked “Keep Teachers in the Classroom”, and we’ll deliver it along with your stories about why it’s important to you that we keep teachers and teacher assistants in our schools. Send in your note now!
http://action.momsrising.org/go/770?akid=2586.1823111.34VcpP&t=6
We’ll be letting our legislators know that we support a balanced approach to the budget that protects the public investments we’ve already made in education and doesn’t pass the buck to local school districts to make hard firing decisions.
Help stop these cuts. Send a note to your state legislators!
http://action.momsrising.org/go/770?akid=2586.1823111.34VcpP&t=8
And please pass this link along to your friends and family.
Together we are a powerful voice for women and families,
– Beth, Felicia, Sarah, and the whole NC MomsRising.org Team
P.S. Can you join us and help deliver the education train cars? We’ll be delivering them next Wednesday, March 9, starting at 9:45 AM at the General Assembly in Raleigh. Send us a note at NorthCarolina@momsrising.org to let us know if you can make it!
Like what we’re doing? Donate: We’re a bootstrap, low overhead, mom run organization. Your donations make the work of MomsRising.org possible–and we deeply appreciate your support. Every little bit counts.
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What should MomsRising tackle next? Tell us what’s on your mind.
Practicing Douchebaggery Without a License
Feb 3rd
So the lesson here is, apparently, make sure anything you turn in to the North Carolina State Department of Transportation is low-quality, dumbed-down work. If it looks “too good” State Traffic Engineer Kevin Lacy will report you for doing engineering without a license.
Lacy said he had told the group last year that it should hire an engineer to make its case. He said he was surprised to see engineering-quality work in a report that was not signed by a licensed professional.
“When you start applying the principles for trip generation and route assignment, applying judgments from engineering documents and national standards, and making recommendations,” that’s technical work a licensed engineer would do, Lacy said.
(Via Citizen activist grates on state over traffic signals – Traffic – NewsObserver.com.)
Seriously. But “I’m not trying to shut him up,” Mr. Lacy added. No, of course not. Who would ever get that idea? A group of citizens opposes your findings, and their work is as good as, if not better than, yours. But rather than say “wow, good work. Maybe you’re right” you respond with “Hey! That work’s too good! I’m reporting you!”
I think Mr. Lacy is practicing professional douchebaggery without a license. Appears he’s fully qualified, and doing the work with skill, but let’s see your license.
