Wingnutties out of control!

[Boatrocker]

Equally- if not more- likely. SC, like most backward-minded red states, is accelerating the march towards irrelevance.

[Boatrocker]

Why the GOP Can't Learn
A piece by Robert Reich.

"The greater likelihood is a steady eclipse of the Republican Party at the national level, even as it becomes more entrenched in particular states. Those states can be expected to become regressive islands of backwardness within a nation growing steadily more progressive."

That seemed appropro given the mention of "Nikki" Haley and the idiocy of SCians.

[Cowboy]

The "big tent" just got that much smaller - no biracials, other minorities, beauty queens, women, lawyers, love children or hookers (who do you think most of their clients are?) allowed.

No women or beauty queens???
What's Momma Grisly gonna do now?

[Stinger]

I think they'll bring Paula Deen in with Palin for a segment on Klavern Kwisine.

Has Fox made an offer to Michelle BatshitCrazy? She'll be out of work too.

[Stinger]

Well, Fox signed Paula Deen. Didn't take long. Fox isn't playing the wink-wink-nudge-nudge racist game to lock down its base, is it?

Must have been her "sincere" apology: “I want people to understand that my family and I are not the kind of people that the press is wanting to say we are. I’ve spent the best of 24 years to help myself and others.”

The press is wanting to say it? How about "You're the kind of person YOU say you are." Your own words.

Klavern Kuisine.

[rstrong]

Via BoingBoing:

Writing in a Time cover story about the virtue of service, Joe Klein took a religious detour: in the relief army helping Oklahoma recover from a barrage of tornadoes, he wrote, "you don’t see organized groups of secular humanists giving out hot meals." He's lying out of his ass, Hemant Mehta points out. But that is the point, isn't it?

It turns out that there were a number of organized groups doing exactly that. The second link is an interesting read.

Maybe Klein didn’t know any of this was going on because, as Tancredi points out, “these [Humanist] groups have no tax exempt status and therefore can’t exactly afford to have the t-shirts for everyone to wear so that you know when they are out in force during a volunteer effort.”

Or maybe it’s because we’re not parading the fact that we’re helping because we’re too busy… helping.

[neoplacebo]

Well, Fox signed Paula Deen. Didn't take long. Fox isn't playing the wink-wink-nudge-nudge racist game to lock down its base, is it?

Must have been her "sincere" apology: “I want people to understand that my family and I are not the kind of people that the press is wanting to say we are. I’ve spent the best of 24 years to help myself and others.”

The press is wanting to say it? How about "You're the kind of person YOU say you are." Your own words.

Klavern Kuisine.

Isn't that Kountry Klavern Kuisine?

[Bungalow Bill]

That's interesting. I can see someone wanting to put the money toward
teacher's pay, but I wouldn't do it. These people were screwed over, to
say the least, by the state. I don't recall how big the expense would be,
but I think a lot fewer people had come forward then were expected. Of
course it it became law, other folks might have come forward too. Looks
like they'll just have to wait, who knows how long. Doesn't say much about
the North Carolina legislature.

[billy.pilgrim]

5/15: North Carolina Advances Bill To Ban 'Foreign Laws,' Including Sharia

Wouldn't European law and religion be foreign, too? Oh well, there's always room to make a bad bill worse:

7/2: Senate tacks sweeping abortion legislation onto Sharia law bill

Unfair

Once again, our General Assembly is up to late-night trouble-making again, forcing their extreme right-wing agenda down the throats of everyone in North Carolina before the sun even rises.

About two hours ago, the North Carolina's state Senate voted to place tougher restrictions on abortion after Republicans in the legislature suddenly, and without any advance notice to the public, tacked the abortion regulations on to a bill targeting Sharia law.

Whether or not you support a woman's right to choose, this is not the way laws are passed in North Carolina, regardless of the reason. We debate, we discuss, and we eventually vote. Ramming through a vote on the cusp of a holiday weekend is wrong, undemocratic, and un-American.

And we need to let the Senate know it.

Join us at 9am tomorrow (Wed.) morning in the Senate gallery. We want to pack the gallery to let our representatives know that we are watching them - and they will held accountable.

Remember, today it is abortion restriction, but next week it could be (and very well may be) elimination of early voting or same day registration. We need to come together and make it clear that our democratic process is always more important that mere politics.

Hope to see you tomorrow (Wed.) morning.

Kevin J. Rogers
http://www.actionnc.org/

when will the chiseling begin at the supreme court – I mean – how we gonna be real mericans with the likes of Muhammad and Hammurabi and Confucius held up fer all to see as sum kinda great lawgivers

[bannination]

A nice compilation of Republican crazyness in North Carolina.

Some of the gems advanced recently in the legislature include an abortion bill tacked first onto an anti-Sharia law and then snuck in through a motorcycle safety law (new TRAP regulations may shutter all but one clinic in the state). Another bill forces all educators to teach seventh graders that abortion causes preterm birth (it doesn’t). Lawmakers also enacted legislation (described here and elsewhere as “the harshest unemployment insurance program cuts in our nation's history”) that resulted in 70,000 North Carolina citizens losing their unemployment benefits. The state is one of the 15 to have refused Medicaid expansion under Obamacare. A proposed education bill would slash teacher compensation, (already ranked among the lowest in the nation), eliminate tenure, and use vouchers to reallocate $90 million of public-school funding to private schools (The school superintendent issued a statement this week saying that in light of the proposed deep cuts to the education budget “For the first time in my career of more than 30 years in public education, I am truly worried about students in our care.”) Don’t forget the embarrassing proposed resolution allowing counties and cities to enshrine a state religion. Or the proposed ban on nipples.

[O Really]

GOP wants to require "food stamp" (there are no "stamps" anymore) recipients to work. Opps - turns out 80% of SNAP recipients are in fact employed. And most of the rest are kids, etc. And guess who among the employed is a major recipient of SNAP - Ummm, that would be Wal-Mart workers. Yeppers, you can really live the high life on and average $130/month of SNAP.

[bannination]

NC Teachers on assignment: Looking for jobs in other states

[Bungalow Bill]

As far as I know, there were no changes concerning absentee ballots, which
are usually used more by Republicans than Democrats. Just a coincidence I'm
sure. I'll bet Eric Holder already has NC in his sights. Go get 'em.

I wonder if the Walmart Employee Handbook, if they have one, lists SNAP as
part of the "fringe benefits" of working there.

[rstrong]

I wonder if the Walmart Employee Handbook, if they have one, lists SNAP as
part of the "fringe benefits" of working there.

Wal-Mart's shining example of private sector employment practices made News of the Weird this week.

In Wisconsin alone, taxpayers wind up paying out $75 to $130 million a year in "safety net" assistance to the state's Wal-Mart workers (food stamps, Medicaid, school lunches, earned-income tax credits, etc.) because the company's wages and benefits are so meager. Wal-Mart's 75 Wisconsin stores account for more than 9,000 Wisconsin Medicaid enrollees.

I'm sure that China appreciates it though.

[billy.pilgrim]

I wonder if the Walmart Employee Handbook, if they have one, lists SNAP as
part of the "fringe benefits" of working there.

Wal-Mart's shining example of private sector employment practices made News of the Weird this week.

In Wisconsin alone, taxpayers wind up paying out $75 to $130 million a year in "safety net" assistance to the state's Wal-Mart workers (food stamps, Medicaid, school lunches, earned-income tax credits, etc.) because the company's wages and benefits are so meager. Wal-Mart's 75 Wisconsin stores account for more than 9,000 Wisconsin Medicaid enrollees.

I'm sure that China appreciates it though.

add it the subsidized costs to maintain ports, rails and roads for ships, trains and trucks loaded with their cargo and the numbers go into the billions without adding in the military cost to keep shipping channels safe for their use – and all provided to the republicon creators of nafta by the newly jobless taxpayers of America
the con leaders will stop at nothing in their greed – including treason and the destruction of our country

[bannination]

Shhhhhh the cons like subsidized businesses. They just don't want the subsidized employees.

[rstrong]

Shhhhhh the cons like subsidized businesses. They just don't want the subsidized employees.

The hallmark of the modern Republican Party is it's anti-socialist free market vision for the middle class and the poor, while being rabidly pro-socialism and anti-free market for the wealthy and large corporations.

[rstrong]

and all provided to the republicon creators of nafta by the newly jobless taxpayers of America
the con leaders will stop at nothing in their greed – including treason and the destruction of our country

NAFTA? NAFTA created more jobs in America than it took away.

Yes, America has lost a lot of jobs to China, but that has nothing to do with NAFTA.

[billy.pilgrim]

and all provided to the republicon creators of nafta by the newly jobless taxpayers of America
the con leaders will stop at nothing in their greed – including treason and the destruction of our country

NAFTA? NAFTA created more jobs in America than it took away.

Yes, America has lost a lot of jobs to China, but that has nothing to do with NAFTA.

only when you compare living wage manufacturing jobs as equal to below living wage service jobs

nafta and the so called globalization of jobs is nothing more than an a con way to avoid the environmental and workplace regulations we have established over the past century in this country. it continues to pit American workers against slave wages and brutal conditions in other countries, with the only end in sight being when the ceo types have sucked all they can from what once was a prosperous middle class

[rstrong]

nafta and the so called globalization of jobs is nothing more than an a con way to avoid the environmental and workplace regulations we have established over the past century in this country. it continues to pit American workers against slave wages and brutal conditions in other countries,

Seriously? We have "slave wages and brutal conditions" in Canada?

Under NAFTA, the US EXPORTS far more manufactured goods to Canada than it imports. That trade surplus accounts for nearly 600,000 high-paying manufacturing jobs in America, but is hurting Canada. (citation)

The agreement also gives America guaranteed access to Canadian oil. Even Canadian companies don't get preferential access. It helps America that in Canada a trade agreement becomes the law of the land. Meanwhile the U.S. simply overrides NAFTA - from softwood lumber to durham wheat to livestock to trucking to manufactured goods - at the whim of any lobby group.

As for THE ONLY OTHER COUNTRY in NAFTA, Mexico: Remember Michael Moore's movie "Roger & Me", a post-mortem on Detroit and the auto industry jobs that disappeared to Mexico? That was **BEFORE** NAFTA. NAFTA helped level the playing field, and send some exports in the other direction. Since then auto manufacturing has sprung up all over the US south.

And if you don't believe that jobs went in the other direction, just take a look at the effect of the tariffs Mexico imposed on a few items, in retaliation for the US not honoring the trucking part of the agreement. According to a report from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers, those tariffs have resulted in the loss of $2.6 billion in U.S. exports and 25,000 American jobs. Texas agricultural products have been particularly hard hit. (citation)

Again, yes, America is losing jobs to China. But that has nothing to do with NAFTA.