Guarino

Ben Holder's Campaign Event

I had the opportunity to attend Ben Holder's campaign event this evening.  The affair was pretty well attended.  I was glad for Ben.   

It was good to see and speak with some old friends in the blogging community; and also to meet some other folks for the first time.

It seems almost superfluous to say that Ben Holder would be quite an improvement over the incumbent.

Update: Tony Wilkins has a photograph of the five bloggers who were present.

Superhero

Andrew Klavan offers some video commentary spoofing Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

Is the $30 Million Urban Loop Loan Going to Happen?

A source provides me with some information suggesting that it is unlikely that $30 million will ultimately be loaned to the state DOT for the Urban Loop.   Recall that the News and Record editorialized on the matter a couple of days ago; and was dubious regarding the idea.

Some citizens cannot fathom, however, the representation made last year that we had to refrain from paving local streets because a tax increase was not then being approved.  We now are being told that there is $30 million in transportation bond money available to loan to the state for completion of the Urban Loop; but apparently we would have to raise taxes to enable adequate maintenance of existing roads.

FreedomWorks Looks at North Carolina

A national organization called FreedomWorks is asking North Carolinians to contact their state legislators about the looming tax increases we are facing.

It is a bad reflection on our state when we attract attention from an organization such as this.  Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey is one of its leaders.

Government Health Care (Warning: A Bit Graphic)

(HT: Keith)

Tax Increases vs. Spending Reductions in Raleigh

Brian Balfour looks at the budget passed by the North Carolina House, and finds that the amount of tax and fee increases is 2.56 times greater than the amount of spending reductions.

There was a political attempt made by House Democrats to represent this as a "balanced" approach.  But Balfour points out that it is, in fact, out of balance, in favor of tax increases. 

Rick Lazio To Emerge Again?

Newsmax is reporting that former New York Congressman Rick Lazio is planning a run for governor next year.  The current governor, David Patterson, is considered very vulnerable politically at this time.

Recall that Lazio ran for Senate against Hillary Clinton in 2000 after Rudy Giuliani dropped out of the race.  His candidacy imploded when he appeared overbearing with his demeanor toward Hillary during a highly publicized debate.

I find several things interesting regarding this new development.

It has been rumored that Giuliani is also considering a run for governor, so this news raises the question of a primary between the two men.

Lazio appears to be a good man, notwithstanding the error in judgment that he made during the senatorial debate nine years ago.  He is a part of a "tradition" of Republicans of Italian descent from Long Island and Staten Island-- the same tradition from which I myself came, although I have never met Lazio.  His political career began after I moved south, as far as I know. 

One other piece of trivia: "Lazio" is also the name of the region of Italy in which Rome is located.

Keeping One's Own Insurance

Notwithstanding the President's reassurances, one of the key health care bills requires a minimum standard benefit package.  That will raise costs; and force people to pay for things they do not want or need to pay for:

Cops in Black and White, Part LXXIX

Jerry Bledsoe continues to eviscerate the RMA report with his most recent installment.  I will summarize here, but will not attempt to cover all of the details in this segment, many of which have been discussed during previous installments.

Bledsoe's report today focuses on the RMA report's discussion of the various investigations and inquiries into James Hinson's activities.

The following are the false or misleading statements or implications made by the RMA report as reported today by Bledsoe:

1. That Scott Sanders was the primary operative of the "secret police"

2. That Randall Brady and David Wray presided over the "secret police"

3. That James Hinson was relentlessly investigated without cause

4. That Hinson was never a target of a federal investigation

5. That a tracker was placed on Hinson's police vehicle based on "rumor, innuendo and ... frustration" that surveillance of Hinson could not be maintained

6. That Randy Gerringer made an assumption that Hinson was cheating the city when he had difficulty locating him; and that he reported this assumption to special intelligence officers.

7. That Hinson's working off-duty jobs while on duty was a focus of his investigation in the beginning.

8. That the US Attorney's office had investigated Hinson during 2002 and found no evidence against him

9. That special intelligence officers spent 16 months investigating Hinson from 2002-2004 and found no evidence to support criminal charges

10. That Internal Affairs (Ryan Walton) conducted a thorough review of the the criminal investigation of Hinson and found no evidence of administrative rule violations

11. That during meetings with command staff in June, 2005, Wray and Brady failed to notify them of the US Attorney's 2002 investigation and the Internal Affairs review conducted by Ryan Walton

In addition, the RMA report failed to report that Hinson's cell phone numbers had been found in the cell phone of a major drug dealer; and a number of Hinson's other questionable activities.

To read the installment, go here. 

Greensboro City Taxes, Fees and Roads

Two bits of surprising news were in the paper this morning.  First, we learned that Greensboro residents will not face any tax or water fee increase this year.  Second, we learned that Robbie Perkins has maneuvered to use $30 million of transportation bond money for the Urban Loop.

There is something fairly opaque about the city of Greensboro's finances.  Just a couple of weeks ago, we learned from the Rhino that city staff had been obfuscating before the city council in order to justify a water rate increase.  And we also learned that the city has approximately $75-80 million in fund balances-- far above what the law requires.  While this might suggest good stewardship, it also explains why the city manager has had the capability of pulling money out of a hat whenever there might be a desire to fund a pet project.

The huge fund balance led John Hammer to conclude that the city could have given us a significant tax cut.  Mike Barber later echoed this sentiment at the council meeting this week.  And after Hammer's report was published, the City Council dug further-- in spite of staff's efforts to becloud the situation-- and found the water fee increase was unnecessary.

And then, lo and behold, Perkins finds $30 million for the Loop.  It makes one wonder whether it is regarded as a development project-- in spite of the protestations we have recently heard that the city did not mean to withhold information from unsuspecting homebuyers in the vicinity of the now-storied road.

We have traffic back-ups and bottlenecks in various parts of Greensboro.  All that bond money has been sitting around, and has not been used to alleviate those situations.

In any event, I suppose we should count our blessings.  Local taxes are not going up this year.

Addendum: Sam Hieb has more.

Some of the Detestable Aspects of Health Care Reform

Health care reform might sound good to some people.  But one of the sordid aspects of pursuing reform is that Democratic interest groups already appear to be lining up to demand inappropriate considerations.  Some examples:

1. La Raza is demanding that illegal aliens be covered.

2. One of the proposals being circulated is to tax employer-provided health care benefits above a certain threshold value.  But now there is also a proposal to exempt union members and their families from this tax.

3. It is my understanding that there is a possibility that any new plan(s) may be required to cover abortion on demand.  I have read online about language in at least one of the proposals requiring that "family planning services" be covered; and we have to presume that abortion would potentially be a part of that.  Pro-abortion groups were invited to the table when meetings were held regarding health care reform several months ago.  Pro-life groups were not.

This is all awful stuff-- to require that taxpayers and premium payers subsidize the prerogatives of these interest groups; and to demand that they pay for items on which so many folks have basic political or moral disagreements.  But that is one of the prices associated with politicizing health care at the federal level.

What is the Source of the Problem with the Urban Loop Mess?

The News and Record has been running a great series on the Urban Loop mess.  An article on Sunday attempted to discern who is to blame.  The verdict?  An uncoordinated system in which communication fails.

Let's look at one key passage:

So who’s at fault? DOT and city government point to each other as the bulwark against such problems.

“We lean on the city and the county; they get these things (planning updates) and they know what’s coming,” said DOT division engineer Mike Mills. “We depend on them to tell the developers and I’m sure they do tell the developers.”

City officials respond that state DOT controls where the road goes. The city can’t tell a developer not to build simply because DOT knows some additional land will be needed there, they say.

“There are a lot of preliminary things that get kicked around,” said Adam Fischer, acting city transportation director. “We hesitate to make those official, because they are preliminary.”

“We’d hate to tell a property owner, 'Oh, here’s this preliminary plan that’s going to take place,’ ” he said, “when we know full well, from experience that plan could change. And the final design actually may impact him more, it may impact him less, we don’t know.”

Now let us consider all that we have learned about our city government over the last several years.  We know that we have machine government in Greensboro in which the Melderec forces hold considerable sway in conjunction with the Simkins PAC.

Put yourself in the shoes of a city staffer, or even a department head.  Let's say that you learn a major road may be running in the midst of some land that might be suited to development-- or that is in the process of being developed.  How likely is it that you are going to jump up and down, and call for a time-out? 

Remain mindful that development interests have considerable pull at the Melvin Municipal Building.

That staffer or department head is going to think back at the auditor employed by the city who wanted to look at Project Homestead.  He might think about David Wray or Mike Baron-- and contemplate what happened to them.

How likely is it that staffer or department head is going to be sensitized to the need to apply the brakes-- to make sure things are done right-- at the risk of his own neck?  This is one of the corrosive aspects of machine government that, unfortunately, the News and Record did not discuss. 

It seems if you are going to do "analysis" in the news section, you might want to look at the total picture.

The "Right" to Health Insurance

I had the opportunity last night to read a great article co-authored by Lee Kurisko, MD, a Canadian radiologist who moved to the US after years of enduring the system north of the border.  He has some important insights with regard to how socialized medicine affects patient care, and how it compares with the American system-- because he practiced in both environments.

Dr. Kurisko had some particularly good comments regarding the "right" to health care.  This is a concept that is critical to understanding the oncoming blitzkrieg of Obamacare:

The United States is unique among nations in that it was originally based upon the value of individual liberty: freedom from coercion. No individual or government had a presumptive claim to the property or labor of others.

Liberty requires rights. Rights are a just claim to freedom of action. The original rights as recorded were "negative" in that they implied the absence of interference. The only individual obligation was to refrain from interfering with others. In contrast, positive rights impose an obligation for someone to do something for others. The Bill of Rights is a list of negative rights.

A "right to health care" implies that someone has to provide it. But what of the liberty rights of physicians, nurses, and other medical workers? Or the property rights of taxpayers and entrepreneurs? Some rights must be abrogated to meet the demands of a positive right. President Obama and other politicians who call a professional service a "right" do not understand the founding principles of the United States.

Over the last couple of weeks, some great questions have been raised about the defects in the various proposals to bring more socialism to American medicine.  It appears some in Congress are expressing serious misgivings about what is being proposed-- at least preliminarily.  

Jim Geraghty has provided some analysis about some of the Democratic senators who have expressed various doubts.  He does not discuss Kay Hagan-- and we will talk about her on another day. 

But it is clear that delivering on a putative "right" to health care is turning out to be a bit more complicated than it otherwise might seem.

 

Health Care Cooperatives

One of the new buzzwords in the debate regarding health care reform is the formation of non-profit "co-ops" as an alternative to a new public plan.  Michael Tanner of Cato has some observations:

A closer look suggests that the only thing intriguing about the co-op alternative is whether it is a completely meaningless construct or simply camouflage for the “Public Plan” option...

Supporters of government-run health care have no intention of letting the co-ops be independent enterprises that operate by the same rules as other insurers. This is not really about creating more choices and competition. In fact, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) makes it clear, for example, that the co-op's officers and directors would be appointed by the president and Congress. He insists that there be a single national co-op. And Congress would set the rules under which it operates. As Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) says, "It's got to be written in a way that accomplishes the objectives of a public option."

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks likes a duck, it’s probably a duck...

If a "co-op" is run by the federal government under rules imposed by the federal government with funding provided by the federal government, it’s simply government-run health insurance by another name. Opponents of a government takeover of the health care system should not be fooled.

City Aquatic Center Deal Raises Questions

A headline on the front page of the News and Record yesterday reassured us that Greensboro's new aquatics center is "speeding along".  As one reads the story, however, more questions are raised than the headline would suggest:

1. It was always questionable whether the city should be responding in this manner to a relatively small interest group.

2. Recall that the center was originally proposed to voters in a bond issue as a stand-alone item.  The voters rejected it.  So what did the city do?  They saw that the 2008 election was going to bring many unthinking voters to the polls, so they put it on the ballot again.  But this time, it was nestled within a larger Parks and Rec bond proposal.  Because there is much local support for the Parks and Recreation department, this was a more sure route to passage.  Overall, the manner in which this was handled was ethically questionable. 

3. After having been placed on the Parks and Rec bond issue, the project was instead given to the Coliseum.  Its previously touted status as a Parks and Rec project therefore turns out to have been dubious, in spite of what voters had been led to believe.

4. One of the problems with the swim center has always been the location to be selected.  It would be very difficult to find a location acceptable and easily accessible to residents from all parts of the city.  Many parents will refrain from bringing their kids to the High Point Road region regularly for swimming.

5. The Coliseum location makes us wonder about the very purpose of the facility.  Is it supposed to be a community swim center, or is it supposed to be a venue that attracts regional swim meets?   The Coliseum location would suggest the latter.  But it appears from the N&R article that the city is trying to have it both ways-- both a regional swim meet venue and a community swim center.  This would raise the price tag well above what the bond issue provided.  What does that mean?  Even more money taken from the taxpayers.

6. The construction plan is being pursued on a no-bid basis, so there will be little way for us to know what kind of value we are getting.

In aggregate, all of the above circumstances suggest a pattern of deceit and trickery.  These circumstances suggest contempt for the voting public in at least a couple of ways, and also for the taxpayer. 

This is the price of machine government.  We deserve better.

ObamaThug II: John Kass

With the Inspector General scandal now enlarging to at least two or three individuals that the Obama administration has targeted, the mainstream media has for the most part remained silent.  But John Kass of the Chicago Tribune has offered his interpretation (ht:Stormy):

It's amusing to watch the Washington political establishment feign shock, now that President Barack Obama's reform administration has used a clay foot to vigorously kick one inspector general and boot another out the door...

The use of political muscle may be prohibited in the mythic transcendental fairyland where much of the Obama spin originates, sprouting green and lush, like the never-ending fields of primo Hopium.

But our president is from Chicago. Obama's Media Merlin David Axelrod and chief of staff Rahm Emanuel come right from Chicago Democratic machine boss Mayor Richard Daley. They don't believe in fairies...

It's the Chicago Way. Now, formally, it's also the Chicago on the Potomac Way.

One fellow who seems surprised is Walpin. He was transformed from dogged inspector general to alleged drooling incompetent last week in just a few spin cycles...

During the presidential campaign, the message expertly spun by Daley's mouthpiece, Axelrod, was that Obama would bring hope and change and transform the cynical politics of the past.

The Washington Beltway media pack, exhausted after the cynicism of the Bush years, was eager for change. Many fired up their Hopium pipes and waited, glassy eyed, for the rapture, all but chanting "Yes We Can." Now they're coming down hard.

So here's my question:

What's the big surprise? What strange, exotic land do they think Obama comes from?

Do they think Obama learned his politics in Narnia, while cavorting with gentle forest creatures, some of which have hooves and serve tea and cakes to journalists and well-mannered English schoolgirls on snowy winter afternoons?

Did Obama learn politics in Camelot, the magical kingdom where federal czars sit at a great round table, all for the good of the simple peasants? Or did he learn politics along that famous highway, you know, the one that's always paved with good intentions?

No. Obama learned his politics in Chicago.

And now all of Washington can learn it, too.