NYT's Kim Severson Fears 'Controversial' Conservatives Are Shifting North Carolina to the Right

 Via Daily Timewaster

 

 Newsbusters

VERBATIM

 By Clay Waters
 
 New York Times Atlanta bureau chief Kim Severson sounded worried about the "controversial" conservatives taking over the North Carolina governorship in "G.O.P.'s Full Control in Long-Moderate North Carolina May Leave Lasting Stamp," seeing "an increasingly conservative agenda" since Barack Obama won the state in 2008.

With a Republican newly elected as governor and a Republican-controlled legislature, North Carolina, long a politically moderate player in the South, will soon have its most conservative government in a century.

Pat McCrory, the longtime mayor of Charlotte, easily defeated Walter Dalton last month in the governor’s race. Mr. Dalton entered the race after Bev Perdue, a Democratic governor bruised by low approval ratings and battered by the Republican-dominated Senate and House, decided not to run again.

It has been more than 28 years since North Carolina elected a Republican governor and more than 100 years since both that office and the legislature were controlled by Republicans. As a result, North Carolina is preparing for an ideological shift whose effects could be felt for decades.

“It’s pretty much a stunning change,” said Jeanne Bonds, a Democrat and frequent political commentator who served as the mayor of Knightdale, N.C. “The Republicans run a social agenda that’s not what many North Carolinians are used to seeing.”

North Carolina has long been a purple state amid the red of the South, with business-minded moderate Democrats populating much of the political landscape and political power being balanced between conservative rural regions and Democratic strongholds in urban centers.

North Carolina supported, though by a whisper, Barack Obama in 2008. But the state began to shift, and an increasingly conservative agenda took hold in the ensuing years. The Republicans took over the legislature, pressed for tougher rules on immigrants and a voter identification law, and secured a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

Though Severson and her headline writer paint North Carolina as a "moderate," "purple state" in order to portray the latest changes as an "ideological shift" to the right, Times reporter Helene Cooper called North Carolina "a conservative state" in a September 15, 2011 story, and Matt Bai has called it "conservative" twice in the New York Times magazine.

Severson also sees something "controversial" about being "dedicated to conservative and free-market ideas."

“There’s no question that the energy in the Republican Party is coming further from the right and the Tea Party,” said Steven Greene, a political scientist at North Carolina State University. “Which way is he going to go? It’s the big question right now.”

Mr. McCrory first ran for governor in 2008 but was beaten by Ms. Perdue, then the lieutenant governor, who became the state’s first female governor. As a mayor on the moderate side of his party, Mr. McCrory had bipartisan support and was perhaps best known for revitalizing Charlotte with projects like a light-rail system and the Nascar museum.

His large transition team is being studied for signs of whether he will turn more conservative. It is heavy with Republican politicians and business leaders, including former members of President George W. Bush’s administration and former governors. The most controversial figures on the team are the billionaire businessman Art Pope and some of his allies who are connected to the John William Pope Foundation. The group, which is dedicated to conservative and free-market ideas, has given millions of dollars to libertarian and conservative groups, including the Cato Institute, the Heritage Foundation and Americans for Prosperity.

What's inherently "controversial" about giving money to conservative groups?

The Last Hillbilly Hero

Via comment by Horace on Merry Christmas from Corruption NC 

More links

The grave of the last American outlaw sits off a dirt road in the backwoods of Maggie Valley, North Carolina, the hillbilly haven where Marvin “Popcorn” Sutton, the most notorious moonshiner ever, lived and died in the wildest of ways. The most notable thing about the grave? It’s empty.

I’m here to follow the path of Sutton’s exhumed bones and unravel the mystery behind this modern-day legend. A third-generation moonshiner, born in 1946, Popcorn spent his life distilling the secret recipe for corn whiskey that his Scotch-Irish forefathers brought over cen­turies ago. His white lightning wasn’t just potent and sweet—it was illegal. And Pop­corn, who refused to pay taxes and con­sidered moonshine part of his “don’t tread on me” heritage, wore his rebel badge with pride. As Hank Williams Jr. says of Popcorn, “This guy was real Appalachian Americana. He was a folk hero.” Even in death his battles wage on: Popcorn’s whiskey recently became available legally for the first time, but a family feud over his legacy shows no signs of resolution.

As I discover over several sweltering days and clandestine jugs of moonshine, Popcorn left a twisted trail: scorned women, abandoned kids, com­pli­cit cops, even homemade sex machines, exploding stills, and the tale of a throat-slit fiddler on the side of the road. At the center of it all was a guy who, right up until his bizarre death, defied his stereotype as much as he seemed to fulfill it. To the fans and celebs who came from around the world to buy his booze, Popcorn was the banjo-picking cracker with the long beard, grimy overalls, and bawdy stories. But to those who knew him, he was something more: a brilliant self-promoter and chemist who ultimately despised the persona he had crafted as expertly as his booze. “He hated the persona,” says his widow, Pam Sutton. Through it all, there was just one thing that guided him: his likker (as he liked to spell it). “I can brag about one thing,” Popcorn once said in his thick Southern drawl. “Making likker. They ain’t no damn body that can beat me making likker.” And, in the end, he chose to die rather than get beat.

More @ Maxim

"We are outnumbered."

Via Michael   and WRSA

 

Don't think so this time, as there are more than Southerners who are fed up.

 Deaconmatson's

This was confirmed by dinner last night with a colleague from the NYC are when conversations turned toward current events.

CommieRat looks around at Mid-Town Atlanta and says, “It’s funny to think this was all burned to the ground once. There’s talk of secession again by some people. Those bastards ought to get fire insurance cause we will just come down here and burn it all again. We could probably even find one of Sherman’s relatives to do it for us.”

Not kidding in the slightest. This came out of the mouth of an early fifties white male who makes six figures.

Plan accordingly.

TSA's Grip on Internal Travel is Tightening

Via Don

 

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is tightening its grip on domestic travcel. I don't mean the random, unpredictable security checks at bus, subway and train stations which already exist. I mean a coordinated and systematic police control of internal travel within America. Groundwork is being laid.

Application to Make U.S. Into an Airport Screening Zone

The application was tucked away on page 71431 of Volume 77, Number 231 of the Federal Register (November 30). It was surrounded by soporific references to forwarding "the new Information Collection Request (ICR) abstracted below to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA)."

The application for funding from the TSA constitutes a preliminary step toward systematically expanding TSA's authority from airports to highways and almost every other means of public travel. The expansion would erase one of the last remaining differences between the US and a total police state; namely, the ability to travel internally without being under police surveillance. The total police state you experience at airports wants to spill into roads and bus stops, to subways and trains. Or, rather, the TSA wants to solidify and spread the fledgling and erratic presence it already has.

More @ Safehaven

NBC Editor Denounces “Religious” Part of Christmas

 

Brain-dead liberals

NBC’s medical editor denounced the religious part of Christmas during a panel discussion about the holiday on Today.

“I don’t like the religion part,” said Nancy Snyderman, the network’s chief medical editor. “I think religion is what mucks the whole thing up.”

The “religion” she was referring to is celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ.

The outburst came during a panel discussion with Matt Lauer, Star Jones and Donny Deutsch. Her response came after Jones said she focuses on the religious meaning of Christmas.

“That’s the only reason why — that’s the only reason for me to have the holiday, quite frankly,” Jones said.

“No, I don’t like the religion part,” Snyderman countered. “I think that’s what makes the holidays so stressful.”

 Instead, Snyderman said she wanted to focus on green trees during the yuletide season. 

More nonsense @ Fox

Corker introduces bill trading nearly $1T in entitlement cuts for debt-ceiling hike

 

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) introduced a bill Wednesday to trade nearly $1 trillion in entitlement savings for an equal hike in the debt ceiling.

Corker said the Dollar For Dollar Act would include $937 billion in savings from Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, with an equivalent, dollar-for-dollar hike to the debt ceiling.
Corker said his plan is based on recommendations from the Bowles-Simpson Fiscal Commission and the Domenici-Rivlin Debt Reduction Task Force.

Corker offered some details about his bill during a speech on the Senate floor Wednesday. Corker said his bill would raise the age of Medicare eligibility to 67 and would include the Medicare Total Health package that would increase private-sector competition for covering the elderly. Corker also said there would be a form of means-testing, making wealthy Medicare recipients pay more of their healthcare needs.

More @ Townhall

Alinsky 101: Left Accuses Conservatives of Being Violent Against Themselves in Michigan

 

Yesterday we brought you news of union members in Michigan becoming violent against conservatives. First, there was the tearing down of a large Americans for Prosperity tent while women and elderly people were inside and then conservative activist Steven Crowder was punched in the face four times and threatened with murder. Now, straight out the Saul Alinsky playbook, the Left, the Teamsters Union and MSNBC's Ed Schultz are accusing AFP of tearing down their own tent down and are accusing Crowder of provoking union workers to attack him. The Teamsters have gone so far as saying the protest in Michigan was peaceful until disruptive right-wingers turned it violent.

More @ Townhall

TheTeaParty.Net, Sen. Rand Paul and Congressional leaders present 160,000 signed petitions demanding that Congress not raise taxes

Washington, D.C.-  TheTeaParty.Net joined GOP Congressional members on Wednesday to present 160,000 signed petitions demanding that Congress not raise taxes on Americans. The grassroots tea party group were joined by Sen. Rand Paul and Reps. Tim Huelskamp, John Fleming and Louie Gohmert.

 

Sen.Paul (R-KY) led the conference, saying, "I was elected because the voters of Kentucky want less spending, limited government and less taxation."

 

Congressman Paul Broun (R-GA) added, "I will not cave in. I am going to vote against raising taxes on anyone. Period. So not looking forward to any particular race. This is all about just what makes sense financially for your children and your grandchildren's future."

 

"What happens in the next few weeks could very well determine if the Republican Party survives as a coherent political movement," said Todd Cefaratti, founder of TheTeaParty.Net. "If the Republican Party can't hold the line on taxes, what usefulness does it have anymore? And If these leaders aren't willing to hold the line, we'll find someone who is."

 

"We are here to make clear to Congress that the tea party elected many of them.  The tea party has not gone away.  And the tea party has a long memory," added Scottie Nell Hughes, news director of the Tea Party News Network. "Our leaders need to stop worrying about the New York Times and start worrying about the people who elected them."

 

As the fiscal cliff negotiations linger on, speculation is mounting that GOP leadership is considering new job-killing taxes.  Despite calls from conservative leaders to demand spending cuts in lieu of any tax increases, Republicans still continue to consider tax increases an option.

Dark Corner: 50 Years Ago in Saluda, NC

Via comment by Horace on Merry Christmas from Corruption NC 

 

 The infamous Dark Corners area is a little south and west of this map. But maybe the corner has grown. I've been reading up on it.

by Herbert E. Pace

Dark Corner 50 Years Ago

I was raised in South Carolina, Greenville County, Glassey Mountain Township School District No. 141, in the edge of what people called the “Dark Corner” of South Carolina. Nobody would claim they lived in the Dark Corner. We always claimed the Dark Corner was further on over the mountain.

One time during World War One when the Army Rifle Range was near Glassey Mountain, there were two officers riding horse-back coming from Spartanburg to the army camp which was supposed to be in the Dark Corner. They met a man and asked him how far it was to the Dark Corner. The man said about 10 miles. They rode on several miles - met another man, asked him how far it was to the Dark Corner. This man said about 10 miles. They rode on about 5 miles, met the third man - asked him how far it was to the Dark Corner. This man said about 10 miles. One of the officers looked at the other and said, “Thank God we are holding our own”.

The revenue officers used to come to our house and leave their horses and say they were going over in the Dark Corner to cut a still. They would be gone all day. I remember one of the officer's name was Guss Aikens of Asheville, NC. All the stills then were copper. The officers would cut holes in the still with a little pick they called a devil. The people did not like the revenue officers. One time the officer and the men at a still got in a shooting scrape and one of the officers got killed. The other officer went to a man's house and asked him if he would take his wagon and take the dead man to Greenville. The man asked the officer how many were killed. They told him just one. He said, “No, I won't go for just one” - if there were a load he would go.

Most all the people then made whiskey, they were good citizens. They thought it was nobody's business i f they made whiskey. They went to church and were good neighbors. I remember my father always kept a little whiskey for medicine. In the spring of the year he would send word for someone to bring him a little whiskey. They would come and bring it. My father would swap some potatoes or corn for the whiskey. The man sometimes would stay for dinner.

This area produced some early NASCAR drivers, bootleg liquor for my uncles to sell in the Asheville area in the thirties and forties, and a lot of real Americans.

NC E-Verify Law

The new NC e-verify law puts the burden of reporting employers squarely on the shoulders of NC citizens. There are no "illegal employer cops" looking for companies that hire illegal alien workers however, if we report an employer to the NCDOL, they MUST investigate, its the law. Click on the following link to report them. It's your duty as a North Carolina citizen: http://ncfire.info/E-VerifyComplaintForm.pdf James Johnson President-NCFIRE NCFIRE@ncfire.info 1-888-885-0879