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5/17/2013 7:06:41 AM

Lowest state unemployment rate in 4 years.

I say it is due to the impending changes coming to unemployment benefits. People are realizing they're gonna have to get off their asses and find a job, since the gravy train isn't gonna be dolling out quite as much gravy.

5/17/2013 3:24:10 PM

^Are you referring to national or state unemployment rates?

5/17/2013 3:25:38 PM

Quote :

"Lowest state"

5/17/2013 3:29:03 PM

@ my reading comprehension

I'm glad NC, as a part of the country as a whole, has a lowering unemployment rate. Still along ways to go on both accounts, it'd be nice if NC could get down to the national average.

5/17/2013 3:47:20 PM

Quote :

"I say it is due to the impending changes coming to unemployment benefits. People are realizing they're gonna have to get off their asses and find a job, since the gravy train isn't gonna be dolling out quite as much gravy."

5/17/2013 5:38:05 PM

Anything to fit the narrative in their heads

5/17/2013 7:10:23 PM

Not exactly on topic, but can anyone with more NCGA experience than myself tell me if there's a way to determine if a bill made it past the crossover deadline?

For example, H371 - http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/gascripts/BillLookUp/BillLookUp.pl?Session=2013&BillID=H371&submitButton=Go, a bill co-sponsored by my state Rep. and one I've been following.

Doesn't appear it received a vote, but is there any way to determine its crossover status simply by looking at the bill's page at the NCGA website?

[Edited on May 18, 2013 at 10:57 AM. Reason : .....]

5/18/2013 10:57:02 AM

^ NM, I took my own advice and called the NCLEG and the crossover list was just posted two days ago:

http://ncleg.net/documentsites/legislativepublications/Research%20Division/Crossover/Crossover%20List%202013.pdf

Good primer on the rules of crossover on the first two pages.

5/24/2013 2:02:28 PM

what in the fucking fuck is wrong with these people?

http://www.wral.com/the-price-of-protection-who-should-pay-to-clean-jordan-lake-/12546867/

http://www.wral.com/repeal-of-landfill-restrictions-gets-first-senate-nod/12572865/


The money connection to developers/land owners/etc. couldn't be more clear. There isn't one reason to have any part of these bills become law; except if someone is giving you a lot of money to do so.

6/20/2013 1:57:16 PM

Quote :

"The measure would allow landfills 1,500 feet away from National Wildlife Refuges or state parks instead of the current buffer of 2 to 5 miles and would drastically limit the statutory reasons for which the Department of Environment and Natural Resources could refuse to issue a permit for one."

lol what

Quote :

""This is an attempt to look toward the future and make preparations for our children," Wade said."

lol whattt??

^
right. pretty clear that some developer wants to build a landfill and the property is close to a park. THINK OF THE CHILDREN, THOUGH.

[Edited on June 20, 2013 at 2:04 PM. Reason : .]

6/20/2013 2:01:11 PM

^^Rick Gunn (co-author of the bill to repeal the Jordan Rules) works in....... Commercial Real Estate.

They had a 30 minute special on WRAL last night about the bill that would repeal the Jordan Lake rules, which took over 6 years to develop, went into effect in 2009, and only a few parts of them have actually been implemented yet.

[Edited on June 20, 2013 at 2:16 PM. Reason : ]

6/20/2013 2:14:37 PM

What the fuck is wrong with these people?

6/20/2013 3:12:50 PM

The "environmental rules restrict economic development" claim is getting frustratingly old. There has to be a fucking balance. Let industry do what they want and you're able to literally light a river on fire. The science behind stormwater and E&S controls (e.g. the "Jordan Rules") is sound, and the BMPs used to mitigate and treat runoff work very well. The problem is that enforcement is usually lacking due to budgetary restraints and there are too many exemptions from the rules.

The Chesapeake Bay is the perfect example. "Cleanup" has been underway for decades now, with only marginal reductions in sedimentation and nutrient levels. Given the tremendous development within the watershed, I suppose you can call this progress of sorts. However, the biggest water-polluters have been and continue to be farmers (with regards to nutrients, i.e. nitrogen and phosphorus), but guess who gets the biggest breaks from the rules?...you got it, farmers. The methodologies are there, they just have to be evenly enforced for everyone; Jordan Lake is no exception.

6/20/2013 6:45:58 PM

Pay to Play McCrony at it again. If you don't think it is a Plutocracy you are kidding yourself: http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/06/21/2980912/nonprofit-linked-to-mccrory-to.html

6/23/2013 1:24:50 PM

newsandobserver.com is a paywall to secure browsers. Didn't read.

6/23/2013 1:41:16 PM

^^ out of curiosity, do you feel the same way when Obama holds similar fundraisers? Just curious

6/23/2013 2:59:05 PM

Thanks, Senate! Welcome to the Old North Dump State.

6/25/2013 6:42:04 PM

I have to pity the NC GOP on the unemployment issue. They're getting an avalanche of shit for it, but I don't see any other course of action for them.

6/29/2013 11:35:15 PM

^^^ Yes! I feel that way regardless of party. Obama is plagued by big money influence just like the rest.

6/30/2013 11:50:30 AM

^^ every other state in the union was able to figure something out. Save your pity for the long-term unemployed trying to survive in our shit economy.

6/30/2013 11:53:43 AM

He's also one of the few politicians who has spoken out against it, like in his 2011(?) SOTU address. His actions have not necessarily been in line with that. But in this world, talking is more than nothing.

6/30/2013 11:54:09 AM

Oh irony. The Senate rolls strict abortion measures into a bill prohibiting Sharia Law... I guess it's only okay if it's Christian fundamentalism that's forced onto everyone.....

7/2/2013 9:21:13 PM

Anti abortion does not mean ultra Christian nut job. It just means you don't want helpless unborn children killed.

7/2/2013 9:39:28 PM

But a Sharia Law bill, on the other hand...

7/2/2013 9:48:36 PM

So once again, Constitutional rights are cool and all as long as they are the ones endorsed by the Ruling Regressive majority....

7/2/2013 10:37:16 PM

do fetuses get due process during abortions?

7/2/2013 10:40:07 PM

slimy fucking bastards

ashamed to be a North Carolinian

7/2/2013 10:52:44 PM

They should also ban mosaic law from government...

Seems somehow unconstitutional to single out one religion.

7/2/2013 11:06:34 PM

7/2/2013 11:18:38 PM

Quote :

"do fetuses get due process during abortions?"

Nah you just give them $400 and they suck it out of your girlfriends cunt with a hose.

But man good thing that happened before this bill. Would have sucked to drive to another state.

7/2/2013 11:30:40 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tupRoFUFf9Y
Watch This! Sen. Josh Stein is the fucking man!

7/2/2013 11:52:39 PM

that was fucking beautiful

7/3/2013 1:22:01 AM

I think this one was right before Stein's

http://video.msnbc.msn.com/rachel-maddow-show/52379980#52379980

7/3/2013 8:16:46 AM

Jesus titty-fucking Christ.....

7/3/2013 10:50:30 AM

?

7/3/2013 10:53:20 AM

Quote :

"It just means you don't want helpless unborn children killed."

Not to devolve this into an abortion discussion, but in my experience, the people that usually use this argument are the same that complain about thugs and welfare mothers, the ones that are first to demonize a "bad kid" or teenager, when the kid never really had a chance because of the environment he was born into (an unwanted environment with absent parents).

7/3/2013 11:04:34 AM

how long will the debate go, anyone know how long the session is?

7/3/2013 11:09:56 AM

Quote :

"?"

Just flabbergasted by my state senate. I would have expected trying to sneak anti-abortion measures into a "Sharia Law" bill from Mississippi, not NC.

7/3/2013 11:31:04 AM

apparently Gov McCrory said the abortion bill process was "not right. Regardless of what party is in charge...process must be appropriate and thorough."

too little too late

7/3/2013 11:32:45 AM

They just finished up a few minutes ago. Gallery was getting a little unruly, they ordered the gallery emptied, then ended the session to reconvene on Sunday I think. Used the holiday as an excuse.

3rd reading passed.

7/3/2013 11:41:19 AM

^^He promised in his campaign to veto any "new restrictions on abortions." So hopefully we can expect that. Hell it might not even make it through the House, which has proved to be relatively moderate (when compared with the senate).

also

SHAME!!! SHAME!!!
http://instagram.com/p/bTwMJCPgRT/?igref=ogexp
I usually hate that as a protest chant. In this case, regardless of how you feel about abortion, I think it fits pretty well.

[Edited on July 3, 2013 at 11:45 AM. Reason : arrers]

7/3/2013 11:45:01 AM

I tend to think all protest chants are ineffective, as they're usually silly enough to give legislators an out from listening to the ideas behind them.

Same thing with all the pejorative buzzwords that Facebook liberals (as opposed to Sunday Christians) like to use, such as "teabagger." Even if they were open to discussion, why the hell would someone take that sort of criticism seriously?

7/3/2013 1:13:35 PM

Maybe the idea is ridicule, not discussion. Not all philosophies are worth debating.

[Edited on July 3, 2013 at 1:16 PM. Reason : .]

7/3/2013 1:16:27 PM

you people who advocate for the killing of the most defenseless people in the world make me physically ill. that's what abortion is. this is not coming from the religious right... this is science. the most logical place to identify an individual organism is at conception.

7/3/2013 1:21:44 PM

^^yes

I was going to say that in our current environment (hyper-partisan, winner-take-all, cheat to win, etc) no one really expects there to be a meaningful discussion. It doesn't matter if there is potential to meet in the middle or not. Debate these days is more about screaming louder than your opponent, the lines have been drawn and most of us know where we fall, even if we have a few issues we are undecided about.



[Edited on July 3, 2013 at 1:23 PM. Reason : ^ I recommend you take it to the million page abortion thread]

7/3/2013 1:22:29 PM

Quote :

"advocate for the killing of the most defenseless people in the world make me physically ill. that's what abortion is."

pro-choice does not mean pro-abortion, idiot

[Edited on July 3, 2013 at 2:32 PM. Reason : added idiot]

7/3/2013 2:31:43 PM

If the Republican Party were truly pro-life, they would support women who chose to have a child by addressing the real life obstacles women face, such as poverty, lack of affordable child care, and healthcare, etc.

The philosophy of "pro-life" republicans is that society's duty to protect life ends once a baby is born. And Republicans have been cutting funding that helps actual children, while criminalizing abortion and even some forms of contraception-- not to mention their obtuse refusal to allow sex education to involve educating people on contraception.

So you're left with an overwhelming majority of impoverished women who would choose abortion due to economic factors that the GOP goes out of its way to exacerbate, and forces them into a position that ensures they never escape poverty. To me, it's equally ridiculous how many pro-abortion folks can claim that a baby is alive only after it passes through the vagina as it is how many pro-life folks perceive an unborn child as precious lives that must be saved... until it crosses that vaginal boundary and becomes a leech on society if that baby has the bad luck of being born poor.

Personally, I believe abortion is a repulsive act. However, legislation like this isn't meant to solve a problem, but rather to exert power over a specific class. If the pro-life zealots want to stop abortion, it's pretty simple. Take away the obstacles that lead a woman down this path, starting with actual, useful sex education and resources that provide basic medical care.

7/3/2013 2:55:59 PM

The NC GOP has targeted just about everyone except wealthy old white men. Good luck in 2014 guys!

7/3/2013 3:27:23 PM

^^once outside the uterus the "sanctity of life" starts to cost money. We all know the only thing more holy than a love of Jesus' teachings is a love of money.

its simple, helping kids costs a lot of money and regulating vaginas costs almost nothing.

[Edited on July 3, 2013 at 3:27 PM. Reason : just my $0.02]

7/3/2013 3:27:29 PM