Fact-Checking Claims on Both Sides RE HB2

We should thank God for PolitiFact for keeping politicians honest. Or for sweeping up after the elephant parade has gone by. You can read full discussions of these fact-checks here.

1. "There are 31 other states and 10,000 other cities that have the same type of policies that we just passed."

-- Rep. Paul "Skip" Stam, N.C. House Speaker pro tem

Rated Half True.

2. "We have not taken away any rights that have currently existed in any city in North Carolina."

-- N.C. Gov. Pat McCrory

Rated False. 

3. "Towns, cities and counties in North Carolina are still allowed to set stricter non-discrimination policies for their own employees if they choose."

-- N.C. Gov. Pat McCrory

Rated Half True.

4. "Will [HB2] threaten federal funding for public schools under Title IX? No, according to a federal court which has looked at a similar issue."

-- N.C. Gov. Pat McCrory

Rated Half True.

5. Charlotte’s anti-discrimination ordinance would have "opened all bathrooms to all sexes at all times" if it hadn’t been overturned by HB2.

-- N.C. Lt. Gov. Dan Forest

Rated False.

6. "The city of Charlotte passed a bathroom ordinance mandate on every private-sector employer in Charlotte."

-- N.C. Gov. Pat McCrory

Rated Mostly False.

7. North Carolina spent "almost as much as it spends on government rape crisis programs in a year" to convene a special session for HB2.

-- LGBT Progress

Rated Mostly False.

8. "There have not been any public safety issues" in cities that allow transgender people to use the bathroom of the gender they identify as.

-- Equality NC Director Chris Sgro

Rated Mostly True.

9. "Attorney General Roy Cooper refuses to do his job" by not defending House Bill 2 in a lawsuit.

-- N.C. Senate President pro tem Phil Berger

Rated Half True.

10. The Human Rights Campaign is "more powerful than the NRA."

-- N.C. Gov. Pat McCrory

Rated False.

What Happens to Sand Castles?

Gov. Squishy tried to put lipstick on his HB2 pig yesterday -- issuing an "executive order" that did precisely nothing but signal to Republicans just how squishy he is. Revealingly, the real dictator in Raleigh -- Republican Senate leader Phil Berger -- immediately jumped in and said that McCrory’s order “put to rest the left’s lies” about the new law ... so that was all coordinated to look like someone somewhere was backing down, while HB2 remains exactly what it was.

Fact: The governor can't change a state law passed through the General Assembly and signed by him, cannot change it by "executive order" or by magical thinking. Can't change a bit of it. What he did was suggest that the General Assembly come back and change some provisions (though not the most offensive ones).

Rep. Paul Stam, the speaker pro tempore of the NC House, wrote in an email to the NYTimes yesterday: “A governor can’t repeal a law, and he did not. He did ask for one sentence in the law to be modified.” Stam, another powerful conservative in the General Assembly, added that he wasn't in the least bit interested in changing the law.

That the governor is now frantic to get this monkey off his back -- after repeatedly claiming that HB2 did not take away anyone's rights who had them previously -- and the fact that Phil Berger didn't stomp on his waffling shows just how spooked the entire Republican leadership has become by the reaction of the business community nationwide.

And the courts haven't even gotten their shot yet at HB2.

Generalissimo Apocada Disposes

Hendersonville Republican Tom Apodaca (that's him to the left) is Chair of the NC Senate Committee on Rules. He's kind of a big deal among the new Republican majority in the Gone-to-Hell NC General Assembly.

Tom Apodaca used to be for independent redistricting commissions when he was in the Republican minority. Apodaca co-sponsored a redistricting reform plan three different times, including in the 2009-10 legislative session, shortly before he became such a born-again big effing deal.

A group of bipartisan General Assembly members -- including (gasp!) the excessively "moral" Paul "Skip" Stam of Wake County -- are planning to file two different bills to move redistricting out of the purely political arena where it is currently wedged like a ham bone in a dog's throat and into the purview of an independent, non-partisan redistricting commission.

But Apodaca likes the way things are now, since he's a big deal. He's such a big deal that he couldn't resist strutting like Mussolini to a WRAL reporter. He said about the proposed legislation, "God bless 'em. I can't wait to get it over here [to the NC Senate] It's dead. It's not going anywhere."

When you've got a big-assed Republican declaring what's dead and what's not, you can kiss your dreams of fairness goodbye.

Jobs? Naw. Gotta Get Women Under Control First

The Republican paint-strippers in the NC General Assembly are not happy with the new abortion clinic rules put out by the McCrory administration a couple of months ago. Their legislative plan had been to impose such strict rules that most abortion clinics would have to close, but the writing of new rules went to Aldona Wos's Health & Human Services department, which suddenly became all squishy and moderate on the topic of women's rights.

The new clinic rules -- turns out -- wouldn't force the closing of any clinics.

The hard right in the General Assembly ain't taking that lying down. They say that they'll now write a new law with their own regulations. With Rep. Paul "Skip" Stam, who intends to end abortion forever for everyone, no matter what, you can guess what's coming down that pike.

The priorities of the Raleigh Republicans: punish gays and sexually active women, keep people who don't agree with them away from the polls, and make sure the poor know their place.

Their notion of getting more jobs into the state seems confined to the mortuary industry.

Brace Yourself, People!

The Republican-dominated General Assembly of North Carolina reconvenes at noon today, and the trouble will start at approximately 12:01 p.m.

Expect a flurry of The Cray-Cray, starting with Rep. Skip Stam's artfully titled "Religious Freedom Restoration Act," which is really a license to discriminate against The Gay, if you feel so led by whatever god you're genuflecting to this week. It's no big secret that Stam's proposed law is meant "to ensure that private business owners have the right to refuse service to customers on the basis of their religious faith."

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2015/01/27/4509542_legislators-expected-to-attend.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

Stam has long been the leading jihadist for theocracy in the General Assembly, a hardliner on women's abortion rights, and he intends to be gay people's biggest nightmare as well as an Olympic generator of lawsuits and taxpayer-funded lawyer fees.

The N.C. Values Coalition, led by the helmet-haired Tami Fitzgerald, is holding a private "briefing" on the new legislation for lawmakers this afternoon. The public and the press ... don't even try to get in.

Not to be out-done, NC Senate dictator Phil Berger "said last fall that he plans legislation that would allow magistrates and registers of deeds to refuse to participate in same-sex marriages if it goes against their religious beliefs."

Because -- you dull-witted citizens out there! -- the biggest threat to North Carolina and the "problem" that outweighs every other issue facing us in 2015 is The Gay and the shuddering thought that they can now marry. And eat chicken-'n-dumplings in your sacred restaurant.

Paul Stam to Pat McCrory: "Not So Fast There, Little Man!"

Governor Pat McCrory grandly announced last week that he would raise teacher pay. Guar-an-TEED. Why, he could do that with one hand tied behind his back.

But last Thursday, House Speaker Pro Tem Paul Stam said not so fast there, Hoss. No need to do that at all. We generous fellows in the NC General Assembly already made it possible for school districts to gut their other budget to raise salaries ... if they want to.

Charlotte Observer calls this "robbing Peter to pay Paul."

We call it "re-castrating an already castrated governor."

Rep. Stam Pokes His Big Nose Right on Up Into Those Lady Parts

Stam the Ram

Most health organizations, from the Centers for Disease Control to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, do not consider prior abortion to be a risk factor for preterm birth, let alone a "cause." Yet the NC House (that is to say, all but two of the Republican majority) has voted to teach -- teach -- 7th grade girls that abortion is a "cause" of premature births and miscarriages later in life.

This large piece of crap (S 132) was aggressively pushed by the nastily anti-choice representative from Apex, Paul Stam, who's never seen an anti-woman piece of legislation that he didn't love.

The even more hateful and regressive NC Senate has already passed a slightly different version of this bilge.

Not only anti-woman but anti-science, all rolled up together in one tidy package. We don't get more 19th century than that, North Carolina.

Sunday Morning Smorgasbord

Paul Stam

Interesting and lengthy analysis of what to expect from the NC General Assembly in the legislative session about to convene, including projected intra-party spats between Republican big-heads. Best quote is from House Speaker Pro Tem Paul Stam, who said that the GA must cut back on state regulations. "I hope, by the end of the session, we'll have the craziest rules whacked down," said Stam.

By "craziest rules," Stam evidently did not mean the various and humiliating intrusions into a woman's right to choose an abortion, including vaginal probing, all of which he enthusiastically supported.

Julia Howard, an NC House member from Mocksville, is leading the GOP charge to reduce unemployment benefits for the jobless. Even though the federal government is picking up the tab, Julia and her friends want to reduce the top benefit by 35% anyway and also reduce the amount of time people can receive benefits. Why? They feel current benefits are "too generous" and make people "dependent" on the government.

To which Progress NC hatches a "what if":

...let's pretend Julia's karma has caught up with her. She's lost her re-election bid and returned to Mocksville only to find that, because she and her peers were too busy passing judgement on the unemployed to address economic development or job creation, her services as a real estate broker are no longer needed. Your mission: tell us, please, what Julia should do to earn a living now. That $350 a week in unemployment benefits won't last forever.

Speaking of Virginia Foxx clones, we came across this album sleeve on Facebook, where people were asking, "Who dat woman?"

The War on Women in NC Will ACCELERATE

A Pew Research Center study released last week found that 63 percent of those surveyed don’t want Roe v. Wade overturned. Only 38 percent of Catholics -- Catholics -- favor outlawing abortion. Almost half -- 48 percent -- of Republicans favor keeping abortions legal (compared to 74 percent of Democrats).

Ain't no thang, though, to NC General Assembly member Paul "Skip" Stam, who promised an anti-abortion rally in Raleigh yesterday to expect more insulting road blocks for women in North Carolina.

Among other things, Stam said that a law will be introduced (and will undoubtedly pass) to exclude abortion coverage from federal health insurance exchanges, which is in itself kinda funny, since this same bunch also doesn't want anything to do with federal health insurance exchanges. But nevertheless, they'll OUTLAW THE HELL OUT OF ABORTION.

They are in control of women's wombs. Let's have no disagreement on that.

How the GOP Leadership in Raleigh Looks to the Hard Right

Thom Tillis

The Thom Tillis consolidation of personal power in the NC General Assembly, as seen from the perspective of Brant Clifton, a conservative blogger who professes a doctrine of skepticism about men in power. Worth reading for insights about...

Why the extreme right of the House Republican caucus grumbles about Tillis.

The power struggle between three GOP members for the Speaker Pro-Tem office, the # 2 spot in the House.

The contempt for women that lingers like unwashable B O in the mainstream of the Republican Party. Clifton himself refers to Rep. Julia Howard and her quest for the Speaker Pro-Tem position as "lady parts," but admits that she's got the inside track to get the job if Thom Tillis wants her there.

Current Majority Leader Paul "Skip" Stam is disliked by some in the GOP because he "plays too nice with the Democrats."

Rep. David Lewis of Harnett County, vying for Majority Leader of the NC House, is "a scandal waiting to happen."

Ruth Samuelson, from Charlotte, is famous in these parts for being a key Republican opponent of Dan Soucek's late and unlamented ETJ bill that targeted Boone. She's considered a RINO (Republican In Name Only) by some.

Sen. Soucek Finally Tells a Truth

From Anna Oakes' most recent update on Dan Soucek's Screw Over Boone Act of 2012, in the Watauga Democrat:

Soucek said, “There has been a developer who has been very, very loud.”

In the senator's individual case, that would have to qualify as the understatement of the month.

In Jeff Templeton's case, that would have to qualify as being forced involuntarily out of the shadows.

We also find unusually instructive the smug self-interest and screw-everybody-else casualness of Rep. Paul Stam of Apex, who said "he would not support eliminating the ETJ in his county of Wake nor statewide, but that he could support a bill doing such in the mountains...."

That Rules Committee meeting on Monday brings new meaning to the term "circle jerk."

And where, by the way, was Rep. Jonathan Jordan? Hiding behind the door?

Thom Tillis Said It, and We Believe Him

At a recent townhall meeting in Asheboro, Republican Speaker of the NC House Thom Tillis said this:

I understand that Majority Leader [Paul] Stam has said that his goal would be to ultimately eliminate public schools, and I categorically disagree with that for a variety of reasons. Right now with him being Majority Leader and me being Speaker, I like my chances.

Chris Fitzsimon quoted this amazing little let's-pull-the-curtain-back-and-show-you-who's-jerking-the-levers-of-power moment to underline the year-long war by the new Republican majority in the NC General Assembly against the very institution of public education, a war that Mr. Tillis has most certainly participated in, despite his protestations to the contrary. The fact that Tillis sez he does not want to eliminate public schools altogether, like Mr. Stamm, he's certainly done what he could to cripple them.

Repeatedly.

Fitzsimon provides a partial primer for that warfare:

The [Republican] budget fired teachers and teacher assistants, slashed funding for textbooks and supplies and locked thousands of at-risk kids out of nationally recognized preschool programs.

Funding for mentoring and professional development for teachers was drastically cut. Support for the N.C. Teaching Fellows was abolished.

The overall cuts dropped North Carolina to 49th in the nation in per pupil spending. Funding for public schools as a percentage of the state’s General Fund is the lowest in more than 40 years....

Fitzsimon didn't even mention Tillis's cynical Midnight Maneuver to cripple the NC Assoc. of Educators nor wade into the layoffs and abandoned programs in our public universities.

It's fairly clear that the battle at the polls this fall will be a battle to restore North Carolina public education, from the local level on up through governor. If the voters approve of the war of attrition on the ability of the state's children to cope in the 21st century with a 2nd-class education, then they'll vote to continue it by keeping Mr. Tillis and Mr. Stamm in their seats of power.

NC House GOP Off to Kiss Koch

Mark Binker has uncovered the names of the 30 Republican members of the NC House (and the two Democrats, both members of the Five Goobers) who are off this week to attend the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) conference in New Orleans.

What is ALEC? It's the secretive, Koch-funded clearinghouse for state legislation that -- surprise! -- helps immensely in the Billionaire's Coup that has taken our federal government and is taking, one by one, all the state governments. The photo voter ID bill, for just one example, emanated directly from ALEC and was introduced and pushed by Republicans in several state assemblies and most especially in ours.

The 30 Republicans going this week to eat steak and get their orders from The Matrix:

Marilyn Avila
Jeff Barnhart
Hugh Blackwell
Jamie Boles
William Brawley
Harold Brubaker
Rayne Brown
Justin Burr
Bill Cook
Dale Folwell
Kelly Hastings
Mike Hager
Craig Horn
Julia Howard
Linda Johnson
Stephen LaRoque
David Lewis
Darrell McCormick
Chuck McGrady
Tim Moffitt
Tim Moore
Tom Murry
Ruth Samuelson
Paul “Skip” Stam
Mike Stone
Fred Steen
Sarah Stevens
Thom Tillis
John Torbett
Harry Warren

The two Democrats (both of whom played patty-cake with the Republicans in the veto overrides last month):

Bill Brisson
Bill Owens

Among other contributions ALEC has evidently suggested to the new Republican majority in the General Assembly is the idea for gutting environmental regulations.

Photo ID Veto Stands; Women Under New Abortion Restrictions

The General Assembly, again with Democratic votes in the NC House, has overridden the governor's veto of the new restrictions on abortion. Young women, get ready for being treated as wards of the state.

But tweets coming out of Raleigh say that the veto on the Voter Photo ID bill has been upheld, but then House Republicans maneuvered to vote 68-51 to allow the veto override to resurface at some point in the future. "It’s not settled till it’s settled right," said the remarkably arrogant Paul Stam.

Hypocrisy Watch

This morning's editorial by Steve Ford in the Raleigh News & Observer dings Republican hypocrisy in the matter of campaign finance. His opening:

"As Paul Stam, the illustrious Apexian who is majority leader in the state House, noted in a letter we published Friday, 'Campaigns cost money.' He could well have gone on to echo another Paul, who wrote in his first letter to Timothy (6:10): 'For the love of money is the root of all evil...'

"Stam was defending his Republican colleagues from our editorial criticism of a fundraiser conveniently timed to put potential contributors over a barrel and loosen up their checkbooks.

"Have Tar Heel Democrats done the same when they've had the chance? Absolutely, as the editorial said. But it was the Republicans who mounted atop their high horses and boasted about how putting them in charge would send a bracing breeze of propriety through the capital. Well, there's no law against the kind of soft-core shakedown they conducted. But let's not pretend it wasn't the same old money-grubbing that fueled GOP complaints about Democratic sleaze...."

Giving Quid Pro Quo a Bad Name

John Deere Inc. induces members of the NC General Assembly, particularly Republican Majority Leader in the NC House Paul Stam, to pass legislation that will favor the company in state contracts (previously), and the company reciprocates by giving the bill's sponsors (including most particularly Paul Stam) $20,000.

One of the bill's other sponsors is Republican David Lewis, a Harnett County farm equipment dealer who carries the John Deere line.

This a.m. Carter Wrenn, the conservative Republican operative and now blogger, had this to say about the confluence of influence and money:

"...any way you look at it seven legislators taking $20,000 from John Deere [and] then sponsoring a bill to help them get state business doesn’t pass the smell test."

If you're emitting a foul odor to one of your most ardent supporters, you're emitting a foul odor.

Do Teahadists Love the State Constitution as Much as They Do School Vouchers?

Tim White in the Fayetteville Observer takes on the Republican scheme to shift spending from public to private schools in North Carolina:

When we elected a new, Republican majority in the General Assembly, I expected conservative principles to be a guiding force. To me, that means paying attention to what the Founders had in mind -- in this case, North Carolina's founders.

That's not what I'm seeing as our new legislative leaders tackle education reform. What we're getting instead is a dose of dogma that's popular with some folks on the right, but doesn't at all square with what our state constitution's framers had in mind....

House Majority Leader Paul Stam has filed a bill that would provide $2,500 tax credits to many parents who move their children from public to private schools. The measure would essentially subsidize private schools and would surely cut funding to public schools. Critics of the plan also point out that it's a fine recipe for funding "white flight" and creating a new system of segregated schools....

Let's go back to basics here. Let's go to the state constitution, Article IX, Section 2: "The General Assembly shall provide by taxation and otherwise for a general and uniform system of free public schools, which shall be maintained at least nine months in every year, and wherein equal opportunities shall be provided for all students."

And then there's Section 5: "The State Board of Education shall supervise and administer the free public school system and the educational funds provided for its support ..."

I don't pretend to be a legal scholar, and Rep. [Paul] Stam [House Majority Leader] will doubtless disagree with my conclusions, but my simple reading is that the state is not empowered to subsidize private schools, and that is exactly what a tax credit would do. It's a passive variation on vouchers. Nor is the state in a position to create an unlimited number of charter schools that aren't accountable to the State Board of Education....

Dismantling Public Education in North Carolina

The NC GOP intends to do several baneful things to the citizens of this state (unnecessarily "card" them when they vote, deny abortion rights to women, unleash polluting industries from environmental laws), but one of the worst is the wholesale assault on public education. Raising the cap on charter schools is part of it; worse is NC House Republican Majority Leader Paul Stam's bill to give $2,500 in tax vouchers to any parents wanting to put their children into private schools. It would be a disastrous step toward privatizing education in North Carolina, the very opposite of what democracy promised from the age of Thomas Jefferson.

The public has shown itself (see below) lopsidedly opposed to vouchers for private schooling, so Rep. Stam told a crowd of his supporters to never ever use the word voucher when referring to his plan. (See the video of Stam uttering the words.)

Recent polling on the issue conducted by the North Carolina Association of Educators:

Should North Carolina use taxpayer money to underwrite the cost of educating a child at home?
Yes: 82 (5.8%)
No: 1,333 (94.2%)
Total: 1,415

Should North Carolina use taxpayer money to underwrite the cost of tuition to private schools?
Yes: 90 (6.4%)
No: 1,326 (93.6%)
Total: 1,416

Do you think families of current private/home school students will take advantage of this voucher by enrolling their children in public school long enough to qualify for the voucher program?
Yes: 1,119 (80.2%)
No: 276 (19.8%)
Total: 1,395

Will a voucher bill help jumpstart the North Carolina economy and get its citizens back to work?
Yes: 74 (5.3%)
No: 1,327 (94.7%)
Total: 1,401

That last question was asked, apparently, in RE the Republican promise to tackle jobs and jumpstarting the economy in North Carolina. Instead, they've driving every wedge they can lay their hands on.

You Go, Joe

Former Speaker of the NC House (and new Minority Leader) Joe Hackney, calling out new Republican Majority Leader Paul "Skip" Stam on his redistricting hypocrisy:

My friend, House Majority Leader Paul Stam, twisted himself into all sorts of knots in his recent letter to the editor, trying to wriggle out of his decades-long previous position that North Carolina should have a Citizen Redistricting Commission.

Not enough time, he says. Needs a constitutional amendment, he says. Neither of these claims is true.

There is plenty of time for a commission to be appointed, to meet and to make recommendations. The General Assembly could then ratify or reject the plans. No constitutional amendment is required for that.

Choices in Our "No Choice" World

New Republican grandees in the General Assembly, and their willing followers out in the boonies, seem not at all resigned to making citizens of North Carolina suffer. They seem eager. What does it say about a political philosophy that is positively giddy about the prospects of "austerity," when that austerity will fall disproportionately onto the heads of the poor, the disabled, the homeless, the hungry?

We happened to drive by a downtown Raleigh park yesterday morning where that city's homeless were gathering for Xmas-Day handouts. At first we thought it must be some sort of rally, there were so many people. But no ... it was a stark visual manifestation of the world the Big Banks have already wrought so that a few thousand robber barons could get fatter. Our new Republican overlords in the General Assembly intend, evidently, to make things much much worse.

An excellent editorial in the Richmond County Daily Journal pretty much summed up the ridiculousness of these leaders -- along with Guv Perdue -- in saying they have "no choice" but to make more people suffer:

...It's all quite absurd of course, that somehow the hands of our policymakers are tightly tied and that raising new revenue next year to protect public education and lessen the severity of the budget cuts is a suggestion that is unfathomable.

The comments from [incoming House Minority Leader Paul] Stam and [Speaker-to-be Thom] Tillis are especially telling. Stam admitting that the Republican budget will be unpopular seems like an admission that people don't want their child's teacher fired or services cut off to a family member with a developmental disability or mental illness.

Tillis is openly saying that suffering won't matter to the new legislative leaders because there's no room to consider it in their narrow ideological agenda marked by no new tax pledges and all sorts of hyperbolic rhetorical claims about big government and state spending.

It's not clear where [Gov. Bev] Perdue's recent no choice pandering comes from, most likely bad advice from a political consultant urging her to sound more conservative to out-Republican the Republicans with an eye toward the 2012 election. It rarely works, but it has become the safe advice to give a Democrat struggling to find their way.

But Stam and Tillis and Perdue all know they actually have many choices before them as they prepare to tackle the state's massive budget crisis. They could extend the temporary taxes passed in 2009 that would raise $1.5 billion to protect teachers' jobs and keep programs in place that help at-risk kids.

They could reform the states antiquated tax system by expanding the sales tax to include more services. That would bring in more revenue even if rates stayed the same.

They could make multistate corporations pay the taxes they owe by changing the law that allows them to play a shell game with their profits to lower their tax bill.

They could raise excise taxes on alcohol and cigarettes.

Some of these approaches are better than others as tax policy goes. But they are choices and there are plenty more....