Doug Clark has a great column today that discusses the culture of political corruption we have both in Raleigh and here in Guilford County. He discusses the matter of Ruffin Poole, but also the recent episode involving Skip Alston.
An extended excerpt:
If North Carolina truly wants to reduce opportunities for elected officials to use their power to win public support for projects through which they personally profit, it must enact tough new conflict-of-interest laws. One suggestion: If an elected official has a financial connection to a project, then that project should be ineligible for public support of any kind.
This must be backed by strict financial disclosure reporting by elected officials, with heavy penalties for violations.
Some politicians will protest. That would require them to give up too many business interests and sacrifice income.
"Happy talk and wishful thinking are for children, fools, and leftists. We are conservatives. We know better." -John Derbyshire Progressive domination of the media, academia, Hollywood, and pop culture is the equivalent of Chinese water torture: the incessant drip, drip, drip of "enlightened" left-wing opinion takes its toll on those of us who are blessed (or is it cursed?) with a right-of-center worldview. We are force-fed a daily diet of global warming, "green" this and "eco-friendly" that, gay rights initiatives, race- and class-based grievances, new Nanny State programs, Bush-bashing zealots, the coddling of terrorists, the appeasement of Third World dictators-you get the idea.
Despite (the) warning and the hundreds of millions in grant funding at stake, Democratic legislators in our General Assembly in 2009 blocked several bills that would have raised or lifted our state's charter school cap. As in past years, the problem was that a handful of powerful and well-funded special-interest groups, led by the N.C. Association of Educators, colluded with state education leaders and the Democratic legislative majority to block attempts to raise or lift North Carolina's cap. Legislators in Illinois, Louisiana, Tennessee and California took heed of Duncan's warning and embraced pro-charter laws and policies. The General Assembly chose the business-as-usual route.
We learn over at Dome that North Carolina Medicaid is facing a possible $250 million shortfall this year. Certain cuts may be forthcoming. What has caused the problem?
Raleigh – Late on Friday afternoon as North Carolina braced for a major winter storm with Governor Perdue still out of the state vacationing at a mystery location, Governor Perdue’s campaign for the third time disclosed illegal flights that she previously failed to properly report. This time, the campaign reported eight additional flights valued at $4,534. This brings the grand total of improper flights to 31 totaling a value of $25,000. “The committee already had disclosed 17 other flights from Perdue’s successful 2008 campaign for governor in August, followed by six more in December.” (“Perdue’s campaign finds 31 undisclosed flights,” Greensboro News & Record, 1/29/10)
Review by Charles Davenport Jr.
