Daily dose

SEQUESTER FESTER DAY 37
FAA delays airport tower closures that would affect Concord, Hickory (Charlotte Observer) -- The Federal Aviation Administration announced Friday that it will delay planned closures of control towers for two months at airports in Concord, Hickory and 147 other cities across the country.
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/04/05/3962169/faa-delays-airport-tower-closures.html

FAA delays shutdown of airport control towers in N.C., nationwide (Raleigh News & Observer) -- Acknowledging safety concerns, the FAA postpones until June 15 a plan to close air traffic control towers at 149 smaller airports across the country. The Kinston airport tower had been scheduled to close Sunday, followed in a few weeks by four more in North Carolina.
http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/04/05/2804360/faa-delays-shutdown-of-airport.html

LEGISLATURE

A generous interpretation

The most generous interpretation of Larry Kissell's vote on the Affordable Care Act is his "I am a representative" defense. Having had his district gerrymandered to become even more white and Republican, he seems to be saying that his vote reflects the wishes of the majority of uninformed bigots he will have to represent if he's re-elected. The same applies to his unwillingness to say that Barack Obama is a better president than Mitt Romney would be.

The more ominous interpretation, that Kissell's moral compass points in the direction of more uninsured poor people and more corporate greed, is hard to stomach, but may nonetheless be true.

In either case, it's a sad state of affairs. Going along with selfishness and bigotry in service of racist constituents is unconscionable. Actually embracing that philosophy is nothing less than evil.

More on the subject at Progressive Pulse.

Facts and furious

Time to adopt a "Throw the Bums Out" policy for members of Congress who are running scared of the Tea Party crowd or the GOP witch-hunters. We sent Democratic Congressmen Larry Kissell and Mike McIntyre to Congress to represent us. By shamefully chosing to vote to find Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress when all evidence supports the fact that it was Holder who shut the Bush-era operation down; suggests that these two North Carolina congressman lack the moral backbone needed to stand up to an increasingly partisan, and yes, racist GOP.

The leader of this "which" hunt, Congressman Darrell Issa has stated that he was going to investigate President Obama out of office, although Issa has got lot's of skeletons in his own closet. In a profile, the New Yorker" dredged up a series of scandalous allegations from the House Oversight Chairman's criminal past. Among them: Issa has been accused of burning down a building, arrested for carrying a concealed weapon, and stealing a red Maserati. And this is the horse Kissell and McIntyre chose to hitch North Carolina's wagon to?

13 Seats in Congress, 70 Candidates on the Ballot

13 Congressional Seats
24 Democratic candidates
43 Republican candidates
3 Libertarian candidates

The list of candidates for Congress from NC is now final, with D and R candidates in every race.

- David Price (D-NC-4), Virginia Foxx (R-NC-5), and Mike McIntire (D-NC-7) are the only incumbents without primary challengers.

- There are 11 Republican candidates for the NC-9 seat that Sue Myrick is walking away from. It ought to be fun seeing who can get the farthest to the right in that crowd. The same can be said for NC-11 (Shuler), which has 8 Republican candidates.

Even with a gerrymandered map, we got Democratic candidates in every race.

Stanly County has a complete Democratic slate

I've just received an email that Stanly County has a complete slate of Democratic candidates for the May primary. That incudes two Democratic challengers and two Republican challengers to the two incumbent Republican Commissoners. This could be interesting! (No, James, Alcoa is not behind it.)

They're promoting their facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Stanly-County-Democratic-Party/345610325471070

I like the Inside Stanly blog: http://insidestanly.com/ This is the best example I've ever seen of a blog that posts everything, without bias. If you want to know what's going on, they've got it.

Updated list of candidates:

Jennifer Roberts to run in NC-09

In a sign that Charlotte-area Dems must smell blood in the water, former Mecklenburg County Commission chairwoman Jennifer Roberts announced she's running for the 9th congressional district.

Calling this a huge, huge get would be an understatement. The Democrats haven't put up a reasonably well-funded candidate here since 1986, back before most of Charlotte's blacks got drawn into the 12th. While the 9th is still undeniably Republican-leaning, Charlotte is turning bluer by the minute.

Only bad thing is that Charlotte-area Dems are going to be stretched pretty thin, between this race and Larry Kissell in the fight of his political life in NC-08.

Kissell's weekly column

Damn this guy really pisses me off.
(emphasis mine is emboldened)

January 24, 2012

Energy costs have risen sharply in recent years, fueled by everything from rogue foreign governments to too many people in the United States government lining their own pockets. Few people recognize that we're an oil producing nation, and this past year we've set new records in oil and gas production—but I believe more must be done. For every step we take in the right direction, it seems that failed policies and political games take us three steps back. I want to take this opportunity to lay out some aspects of a comprehensive Energy plan that I support and believe will show positive results immediately—lowering costs, creating jobs and giving working families and small businesses the only thing they really want from government: a fair shot.

Keystone XL will create American jobs

North Carolina in the 1980s: a Congressional history lesson

I originally posted this diary at DailyKos, but James asked me to cross-post here, and I'm more than happy to comply. I just purged a few errors from the diary that DailyKos users pointed out.

Let's start with a short discussion of how North Carolina Politics worked: Then as now, both Republicans and Democrats had a strong presence in the state. Throughout the 80s, Republicans carried the state on a Presidential level, although Jimmy Carter came close in his national landslide loss to Ronald Reagan in 1980.

Comparison of 8th District GOP field

Rebublicans are lining up to challenge Congressman Larry Kissell in the newly redrawn 8th Congressional District. Despite his conservative leanings, the gerrymandered districts drawn by the Republican legislature will make it more difficult for Kissell to win reelection.

The following is a cursory glance at the candidates who have declared their intentions to run in North Carolina's 8th District. Stu Rothenberg has said it would take a miracle for Kissell to win. So folks....which one do you want in Washington in his place?

Richard Hudson

The little man in the Brooks Brothers' suit

If there was an award for petulance in the NC House there would be many contenders. The top place might likely be shared by Stephen LaRoque and Justin Burr, and not simply on account of their contempt for the trials of low-wealth citizens. LaRoque is on a crusade to redefine the NAACP as racist. Burr for example, has been contemptuous of the Racial Justice Act, and of opposition to various election law “reforms”. Burr reached a peak of pique when he ran roughshod over Verla Insko in a committee considering the abortion bill.

Burr’s juvenile physique has been tempered this session by the maintenance of a close haircut that is oddly suggestive of an outbreak of lice in the boys' dormitory. Burr grandiosely thinks he needs to educate Judge Howard Manning and Governor Bev Perdue on the need for low-income parents to pay 10% of that paltry income towards constitutionally required Pre-K education.

BlueNC

Larry Kissell