McCrory announces exciting new jobs!

With North Carolina quickly becoming the toilet for the rest of America, this is what Pat McCrory calls a "game changer."

Nothing to see here: McCrory ethics investigation

Pat McCrory's pattern of deception around his financial contributions continues, with no sign of the "transparency" that candidate McCrory promised way back when. With a simple, written directive from the governor's office, all of the Ethics Commission proceedings currently underway could be made public.

Fat chance.

McCrory's ethical troubles continue

If you're following the ethical trials and tribulations of our hapless governor, you already know that he's not smart enough to fill out a disclosure form that thousands of others have managed to complete just fine. But "not smart enough" is just a red herring. The truth is, McCrory has been trying to cover up his ties to special interests (most notably, Duke Energy) throughout his career. What most people don't seem to understand is that Duke Energy simply paid Pat McCrory to run for governor for more than a decade. His only job was glad-handing and ass-kissing.

WHAT: Progress NC Action files second ethics complaint against Gov. McCrory
WHEN: Monday, March 9 at 10:30am
WHERE: State Ethics Commission, 424 North Blount St., Raleigh

From Progress NC's press release:

RALEIGH -- Progress NC Action will file a second formal ethics complaint with the State Ethics Commission on Monday morning, further outlining Gov. Pat McCrory’s pattern of deceptive omissions of clear conflicts of interest from his ethics forms. As the complaint shows, Gov. McCrory has failed to properly disclose a number of luxury hotel stays at partisan political conventions which were paid for by the Republican Governors Association. These summits were held behind closed doors at some of the country’s most luxurious and expensive hotels, with unknown corporate donors. Despite Gov. McCrory’s repeated claims that he filled out his Statement of Economic Interest (SEI) forms correctly, the governor now admits that he should have disclosed the trips as gifts.

McCrory’s admission that he should have disclosed the gift of luxury hotel stays comes after he failed to report ownership of Duke Energy stock after the Dan River coal ash spill, and his failure to report over $185,000 in income from Tree.com during his first year as governor in 2013. McCrory made more money from Tree.com in 2013 than he did as governor.

Progress NC Action will file the second complaint around 10:30am Monday at the State Ethics Commission in Raleigh. The group will also deliver more than 11,000 petition signatures asking Gov. McCrory to allow the Ethics Commission to make its investigation public.

McCrory picks MBA to lead EMC

Not unlike asking your lawyer what that lump on your back is:

Gerard Carroll, a former senior vice president at National Gypsum in Charlotte, will replace Benne Hutson as chair of the Environmental Management Commission. The 15-member commission makes rules for North Carolina’s air and water resources. Hutson, a Charlotte lawyer, resigned in January. He cited the time demands of chairing the EMC.

Carroll, who is known as Jerry, worked at National Gypsum for more than 22 years. He’s an Air Force veteran who completed 222 combat missions in Vietnam and earned a masters of business administration from Harvard.

From a lawyer to a business administrator. Not sure if that's a step forward, backward, or simply a step off (the cliff). Whatever the case, neither are even remotely qualified to Chair the Environmental Management Commission. Unless they're planning some bombing sorties to degrade the capabilities of fecal bacteria swimming towards Raleigh. That being said, Caroll's promotion may not be just another random act of idiocy by McCrory. National Gypsum is a big player in the reuse of coal ash residuals, and their wallboard contains some of the nastiest elements of such:

The perils of counsel in North Carolina

An award for renowned lawyers either in or connected to North Carolina and her politics is long overdue. There should be posthumous recipients; too numerous to list here. Three living, breathing law school graduates have now come to mind. First up is Bob Stephens, counsel to Pat McCrory. While helping the Governor complete his 2014 Statement of Economic Interest form for submission to the North Carolina State Ethics Commission, the apparent misunderstanding of how to define "date" and "time" became an issue; still is. Not too far behind Stephens is an attorney named Tom Harris. Anyone who has kept up with the State Employees Association of North Carolina along with the trials and tribulations of Dana Cope knows Mr. Harris both counsels and lurks in the shadows. As an alternative to confession at Our Lady of Lourdes, Harris, Cope and others went to the News & Observer several weeks ago seeking pats on the head in exchange for repentance. We now know how that turned out.

The budget surplus that isn't

For Pat McCrory, lying is like breathing.

State lawmakers are making a major change to the budget process in an attempt to mask the fallout of their recent decisions. The change also allows them to claim a “surplus” that merely reflects revenue growth – and revenue growth that’s far under the long-term average.

State of the state

Listening to His Magnificent Presence tonight is like falling through the looking glass. From all his happy talk, I thought I was in heaven for a moment. Then I realized that he really believes his alternative version of reality.

A blast from the past:

WRAL tracking McCrory's campaign promises

Not that voters are really paying attention:

WRAL News identified 33 specific promises McCrory made while on the campaign trail and, through our Promise Tracker feature, have been keeping tabs on whether he keeps his word. Of those promises, McCrory has accomplished 17. Another four are marked "kept so far," which means he will achieve that goal if his office's policies don't change. Combined, that's a full two-thirds of the promises we're tracking.

During McCrory's two years in office, the tracker has rated only two promises as broken. One relates to additional abortion regulations; the other relates to developing an ethics plan at the start of his term.

There are a couple of major problems I see with this approach to "rating" the performance of McCrory. The first is evident from the sentence above: When issues are broken down into sheer numbers, the importance of some are diminished. He gets a "No" on adding abortion restrictions, but a "Yes" on allowing industry to be more involved in their own regulation. In reality, the abortion statement he made was a bald-faced lie that seriously compromised the rights of both female patients and doctors, and it deserves more than just a check-off on a list. The second problem with this approach is it only tracks campaign promises, as opposed to promises he's made as Governor. Like holding Duke Energy accountable for the Dan River coal ash spill, and then allowing them to claim "mission accomplished" while 90+% of the coal ash remains in the River. If we're not going to track all of his lies, what's the point?

Why did Mercedes dump NC in favor of Atlanta?

Another swing and a miss by Team McCrory has everyone wondering WTF happened? I like this explanation from the Charlotte Observer:

Pat McCrory's War on Ethics

In an email blast this morning, Progress NC takes Pat McCrory to task for his continuing War on Ethics, chronicling the host of transgressions and lies that Guvnor Pat has committed over the past week. The email (below the fold) does a great job explaining what has transpired and why it matters:

Gov. McCrory attacks media with accusations of “malicious” and inaccurate reporting -- but McCrory’s own comments are riddled with false claims.

“I’ve been very up front in my documentation”... “I followed the instructions on all the questionnaires” ... “I have followed all the rules and regulations required of public officials,” McCrory told a Charlotte TV station, as McCrory has failed to report Duke Energy stock ownership, failed to report Tree.com dividend income, and failed even to report that he was on the board of Tree.com.

BlueNC

Pat McCrory