Economic Stories of Relevance in Today's World -- July 17, 2011

Why Banks Aren't Lending: The Silent Liquidity Squeeze - Ellen Brown, Truthout - July 15, 2011 - (This is a must read for small business people) - Where did all the jobs go? Small and medium-sized businesses are the major source of new job creation, and they are not hiring. Startup businesses, which contribute a fifth of the nation's new jobs, often can't even get off the ground. Why?... In a June 30 article in The Wall Street Journal titled "Smaller Businesses Seeking Loans Still Come Up Empty," Emily Maltby reported that business owners rank access to capital as the most important issue facing them today; and only 17 percent of smaller businesses said they were able to land needed bank financing. Businesses have to pay for workers and materials before they can get paid for the products they produce and for that they need bank credit; but they are reporting that their credit lines are being cut. They are being pushed instead into credit card accounts that average 16 percent interest, more than double the rate of the average business loan. It is one of many changes in banking trends that have been very lucrative for Wall Street banks, but are killing local businesses.


Greed, Excess and America's Gaping Class Divide - Rolling Stone - Matt Taibbi - July 13, 2011


What Happened to the $2.6 Trillion Social Security Trust Fund? - Forbes - Merrill Matthews - July 13, 2011 - Well, either Obama and Geithner are lying to us now, or they and all defenders of the Social Security status quo have been lying to us for decades. It must be one or the other... Here’s why: Social Security has a trust fund, and that trust fund is supposed to have $2.6 trillion in it, according to the Social Security trustees. If there are real assets in the trust fund, then Social Security can mail the checks, regardless of what Congress does about the debt limit... The answer is that the federal government has borrowed all of that trust fund money and spent it, exactly as Krauthammer asserted. And the only way the trust fund can get some cash to pay Social Security benefits is if the federal government draws it from general revenues or borrows the money—which, of course, it can’t do because of the debt ceiling... Thus, the answer to my initial question is that the president is telling the truth now in the sense that he is conceding there’s no money in the trust fund to pay benefits; but he and other Social Security status-quo defenders have been deceiving the public for decades.


Entitlement my ass , I paid cash for my social security insurance!! - The Rumor Mill News Reading Room - July 14, 2011


How Globalism Has Destroyed Our Jobs, Businesses And National Wealth In 10 Easy Steps - EndofAmerica.com :

#1 Globalism has merged the U.S. economy with economies that allow slave labor wages.
#2 U.S. companies make bigger profits by sending jobs overseas.
#3 Globalism has allowed foreign countries to dominate a whole host of industries that used to be dominated by the United States.
#4 Jobs and manufacturing infrastructure are being lost at an astounding pace and they are not going to come back.
#5 Workers without good jobs can't buy houses or cars.
#6 If American workers don't have jobs they aren't paying taxes.
#7 Instead of receiving taxes, the government must pay out money to our unemployed workers instead.
#8 As jobs and businesses leave our shores, many of our once great manufacturing cities have been transformed into hellholes.
#9 The United States ends up borrowing back most of the money that it sends overseas every single month.
#10 Foreign countries are using up some of the wealth that we send them every month to buy up our infrastructure.

Sadly, neither political party seems concerned about the effects of globalism at all. In fact, both parties continue to push for even more globalism. But large numbers of ordinary Americans are waking up. According to a recent Washington Post poll, only 36 percent of Americans consider "the increasing interconnection of the global economy" to be a positive thing. Back in 2001, 60 percent of Americans believed that the globalization of the economy was a positive thing. So maybe there is a glimmer of hope. But until fundamental changes are actually made, globalism will continue to destroy our jobs, our businesses and our national wealth.


The next big hit to the economy? - Yahoo News - Zachary Roth - The Lookout – Mon, Jul 11, 2011 - The recovery is weak now--but it could be headed for a major hit that will leave it even weaker... At the start of 2012, the extended unemployment benefits approved by Congress in December 2010, which cover a maximum of 99 weeks per person, will expire. Though the benefits are hardly lavish--a little more than $300 a week for most recipients--their total impact on the economy is huge, because so many Americans are currently taking advantage of them. Moody's Analytics estimates that when the benefits expire, $37 billion will be taken out of the economy, the New York Times reports. That's enough to exert a significant slowing effect--at a time when the recovery is already a long way from robust... Government benefits that go to poorer Americans, like unemployment insurance, tend to boost consumer spending more than other kinds of stimulus, because people living paycheck to paycheck have little choice but to spend the money, rather than saving it. So the disappearance of jobless benefits will take money out of circulation when economic growth is seeking to gain some traction.


A brave new banking system – while public is told banking system is healthy FDIC quietly grows troubled bank list by 180 and adds over 1,600 employees in the last two years to deal with bank failures. - MyBudget360.com - The banking system in the United States rests on a very thin layer of faith and that faith has been shaken by the current financial crisis. The retail banking system is largely a facade that now latches on to taxpayer bailouts to fund speculative investments through their investment banking divisions. The repeal of Glass-Steagall has been an absolute failure for allowing this commingling of financial functions. I find it interesting that while we get a public stance that all is well on the banking front, we find that the FDIC keeps adding employees to handle bank failures and the number of problem institutions continues to grow. Of course this is the kind of information that is buried deep in websites and financial statements while most of the press focuses on distractions.


The Video Congress Does Not Want You To See

A Control Freak Nation

Oak Park GOONS Condemn FRONT YARD VICTORY GARDEN

You are conditioned to have grass and trees in your front yard. Why are front lawns supposed to be reserved for something that provides no value. You should have a right to do what you want with your property as long as it is maintained in a neat fashion. I know the property next door to mine, with abandoned foundations for townhomes that have been there for three years, is not being taken care of and the overgrowth is constantly encroaching on my yard. Now that is a problem, because it has a big effect on my property.

This lady is growing food in her front yard and the Nanny State wants to tell her what she can and cannot have in her front yard. They threatened to put her in jail for 93 days. I wouldn't mind neighbors building cedar boxes and growing plants. It saves them time and money from not having to constantly mow and this lady's yard looks neat and organized to me.

We are in the midst of a food crisis in this country. People have no clue. The bread basket is in a drought. The Mississippi has seen billions of dollars of crops destroyed. Food commodity prices have skyrocketed. Can you eat grass?

What is wrong with having a vegetable garden in your front yard if it is organized and maintained? What is wrong with collecting water? We have seen several communities try and stop this. What they need to do is clean up abandoned properties. That is the biggest issue we face.

The world we are living in is obviously not working. The Powers That Be don't want you raising your own food. They want you forced to buy food from Grocery Stores and Restaurants ultimately controlled by Big Agribusiness. There is nothing wrong with Restaurants and Grocery Stores, but this country was built upon people producing and choosing their own sources of food. The Political Prostitutes and the Bureaucracy want to put a stop to all of this. It is time that we put a stop to their control freak attitudes. It is time that they butt out!!!

What goes around comes around - JR Ewing style

(Two parts to this Dallas chain above) Related to an Oil Field that Cliff's Daddy said was stolen from him by Jock Ewing and this caused Cliff to pursue this property over the years. Control was eventually obtained by Cliff, but was eventually regained by Ole JR.

In life, no one should ever deal the deck of the cards of life in a high handed fashion. As some say, "What goes around comes around" and others, "It all comes out in the wash."

We all have our faults and flaws and when things become personal who knows what the outcome will be. Sometimes you win and many times you lose, but long memories never fade away. Remember that in all of your dealings in life. Some people are better at connecting dots than others.

And never-ever-never count your chickens before they hatch, because they're hatching all the time!!!

Economic Stories of Relevance in Today's World -- July 10, 2011

Geithner says hard times to continue for many - AP - July 10, 2011 - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner (GYT'-nur) says many Americans will face hard times for a long time to come... He says President Barack Obama rescued the United States from a second Great Depression and will keep working to strengthen the economy. But Geithner says will be some time before many people feel like the country is recovering... Geithner tells NBC's "Meet the Press" that it's a very tough economy. He says that for a lot of people "it's going to feel very hard, harder than anything they've experienced in their lifetime now, for a long time to come."


The Fed Rearranges the Deck Chairs on the Titanic Economy - The International Forecaster - July 2, 2011 - World markets and especially US markets are in a state of uneasiness and it is only a matter of time before they degenerate further. The real question is will everything break loose between now and the end of the year? The answer in part is yes, and it is currently in process... “The President’s Working Group on Financial Markets,” along with elitist insiders normally have the ability to make the stock and bond markets do what they want them to. That is, at least on a short-term basis. We believe the market is being deliberately taken down by them in order to impress upon politicians that if they do not extend the short-term cash debt limit that the market will fall even further and that in turn will reduce their ability to get reelected. If you do not think that is possible then you have no idea what is going on. At the present time with about a month to the August 2nd deadline the two political parties are nowhere near an agreement. As we draw closer to the deadline investors will become more and more concerned and the market will trend lower.


Dollar’s Share Of Global Reserves Continues To Slide, Reserve Status Questioned - Forbes - Agustino Fontevecchia - Jun. 30 2011 - Attesting to the continued global loss of confidence in the U.S. dollar, the greenback’s share of the world’s reserve continued to slide in the fourth quarter of 2010, the latest data show. Interestingly, the trend can be explained entirely by valuation effects, with the trade-weighted dollar depreciating 4%% in that time frame... The U.S.’ share of allocated reserves fell in the first quarter to 60.69%% from 61.53% from Q4 2010. Central Bank reserves move slowly, but the slide in the greenback’s share, which Nomura suggests would be even steeper if China was included in the sample, has been very pronounced if one takes a longer-term window... A year before the latest data, Q1 2010, the greenback’s share stood at 61.64%, while in Q1 2001, ten years before, it stood at 72.3%. While USDs dominance was unquestioned a few years ago, it is anything but rare to speak of a move toward a multi-currency system, with the dollar still a primus inter pares [first among peers]. (Read Central Banks Dump Treasuries As Dollar’s Reserve Currency Status Fades).


BofA's Mortgage-Bond Pact Draws Challenge - Wall Street Journal - Ruth Simon - July 6, 2011 - In a court filing Tuesday, the group of 11 mortgage-bond investors, who call themselves Walnut Place but declined to identify themselves, said the parties that crafted the deal with Bank of America have conflicts of interest that raise questions about the fairness of the settlement accord... "Walnut Place has serious concerns about the secret, non-adversarial, and conflicted way in which the proposed settlement was negotiated and about the fairness of the terms of the proposed settlement," the group wrote in a filing in New York County Supreme Court. The filing also called the deal "inadequate."... Last week's agreement was struck by the Charlotte, N.C., bank and 22 institutional investors that include BlackRock Inc., MetLife Inc. and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Also part of the settlement is Bank of New York Mellon Corp., which as trustee for the bond deals is charged with protecting bondholder interests.


The Real Cause of the U.S. Debt Crisis: Spiralling Defense Spending - GlobalResearch.ca - by Bruce Arnold - July 3, 2011 - Contrary to Kleptocracy-scripted CNN newsbytes, the United States Debt Debate is NOT just the false choice between raising taxes on the few and rich versus lowering Medicare for the many and poor: What always goes unmentioned is MILITARY PORK.


Our Politicians Are Selling Off Pieces Of America To Foreign Investors – And Goldman Sachs Is Helping Them Do It - Before It's News - July 05, 2011 - All over the United States, politicians are selling off key pieces of infrastructure to foreign investors and big Wall Street banks like Goldman Sachs are helping them do it. State and local governments across the country that are drowning in debt and that are desperate for cash are increasingly turning to the "privatization" of public assets as the solution to their problems. Pieces of infrastructure that taxpayers have already paid for such as highways, water treatment plants, libraries, parking meters, airports and power plants are being auctioned off to the highest bidder. Most of the time what happens is that the state or local government receives a huge lump sum of cash up front for a long-term lease (usually 75 years or longer) and the foreign investors come in and soak as much revenue out of the piece of infrastructure that they possibly can. The losers in these deals are almost always the taxpayers. Pieces of America are literally being auctioned off just to help state and local governments minimize their debt problems for a year or two, but the consequences of these deals will be felt for decades.


The Tea Party and Goldman Sachs: A Love Story - Truthout.com - Robert Scheer, Truthdig - July 6, 2011 - In the midst of a jobless recovery, those same corporations are sitting on more than $2 trillion in reserves, refusing to invest in this country, as increasing percentages of their profits are garnered in tax-sheltered operations abroad. And the bankers who caused the economic meltdown have turned against President Barack Obama, who saved them; instead they favor a tea-party-dominated Republican Party that seeks to limit any restraint on corporate greed while destroying the ability of state and federal governments to bring some measure of relief to ordinary folk... The whole point of the tea party is to focus concern over our stagnant economy on something called “big government” while ignoring the big corporations that have bought the government as an accessory to their marketing strategies. Big government is big precisely because it now exists primarily to make the world safe for multinational capitalism, whether through a bloated defense budget, trade pacts like the North American Free Trade Agreement, or monetary policies that serve the interests of the largest companies... It was their lobbyists who got Congress to end sensible regulations of financial shenanigans, and now, with the new tea party members of Congress as their most stalwart allies, they are yanking the teeth from the very mild regulations that Obama got through the last Congress. As The Associated Press reported: “Congressional Republicans are greeting the one-year anniversary of President Barack Obama’s financial overhaul law by trying to weaken it, nibble by nibble.”... It is nothing short of demagogic for the Republicans to be complaining about the debt when it was the radical deregulatory policies that they pursued which caused all that governmental red ink in the first place. What a hoax to pretend that teachers’ pensions or environmental protections are responsible for a debt that increased by 50 percent as a direct consequence of the banking collapse. Yet they want to gut even the tepid regulations that became law under the Obama administration, foaming at the mouth about sensible regulation as job killing when it is the uncontrolled greed of Wall Street that is at the root of our high unemployment.

Economic Collapse a Mathematical Certainty - Top 5 Places Where Not To Be

My letter to the UNC Board of Governors about the UNC-CH Football Scandal

Here is my letter to the entire UNC Board of Governors that I finished late last night and the response from Hannah Gage who is the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the UNC System. I did have two typos that I have corrected in this copied version, they are in red italics. I wish my proof reading were better at 2am (haha):

Members of the Board of Governors,

I am writing this letter to you to ask why you have let this scandal at the University in Chapel Hill become such an embarrassment to both the State and our University System?

You are the overseers of all of the institutions within the UNC System. Oversight is an inherent responsibility related to your position within the UNC System. You have a fiduciary responsibility to operate in the best interests of the citizens of this State and the Alumni of every institution within that system. It is your responsibility to be fair and just when questions of the honor and integrity of the system arise. It is my contention that as a body you have failed to properly exercise your authority towards accountability in relation to the out of control happenings with the sports program and administrative duties of the Chancellor and the Board of Trustees in Chapel Hill; and to a lesser degree, the Athletic Director and Football Coach that the school.

This matter should have been expedited a long time ago. As the weeks pass, we are treated to more embarrassing revelations and challenges of integrity related to the University in Chapel Hill. We see more and more lawyers entering the scene and most of those lawyers are high profile attorneys who graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill. We see them providing consultation to students of the University who have been charged with wrongdoing in relation to the Amateur Athletic Bylaws of the National Collegiate Athletic Association and academic improprieties which are supposed to ultimately fall under your purview, because you are at the top of the pyramid. You are ultimately responsible. You are the ultimate administrators and guarantors of the Bylaws of the UNC system.

Two questions: (Actually More) 1) Where is the money coming from to pay these legal fees? 2) Has anyone asked if these students can afford these fees? 3) If these fees are paid by someone else, is someone asking about the connections? 4) If these fees are being provided pro bono, then would this not be considered an extra benefit and therefore render these athletes ineligible to compete? 5) Are these attorneys all charging their standard rate or are they discounting? 6) And finally, how is it that all of these lawyers appear to be graduates, big supporters of their Alma Mater, and athletic boosters associated with UNC-Chapel Hill? Sure does seem like a conflict of interests to me... The recent cases of Michael McAdoo and Quinton Coples sure spring to mind in relation to the questions above. And there are certainly others.

By looking at the UNC system website, it is obvious that most of you have close ties to UNC-Chapel Hill. Most of you graduated from there. It doesn't take a scientist from Cape Kennedy to understand that there are definite conflicts of interest related to this issue and a fact that UNC-CH connected board members hold the numbers when it comes to any votes taken towards action on this subject matter and any investigations related to this subject matter. Tell me I am wrong. Is the personal interest related to UNC-Chapel Hill the predominate variable in this equation?

I hope that you don't think that I take pleasure in writing this letter to you, because honestly I don't. I understand that many of you feel that you have a vested interest in this representation of your University and the promotion of "The Carolina Way." Honest people will admit that this has never been reality. It was all a marketing ploy to justify elevating Chapel Hill above other similar institutions. Chapel Hill has always had something to be proud of in relation to its history as the first born of our fine university system. All of the grandiose promotion at the expense of others has been completely unnecessary and has led to a lot of resentment, not from the jealousy as many of the Chapel Hill vested surmise, but instead because of the arrogance and belittling that has been fostered, whether implicitly or explicitly, by the Powers That Be who are associated with UNC-Chapel Hill.

My questions to you are 1) Are there different sets of rules in relation to UNC-Chapel Hill versus the other UNC institutions? 2) If there are then why and how can this be justified? 3) If laws have been broken (Federal, State, Felonies, Misdemeanors) in relation to this scandal, is the BOG going to ensure that those infractions are fully adjudicated or is there going to be some sort of plea bargaining or immunity process? 4) Why has there been no independent investigation created to get to the bottom of all of this?

In the end, I believe that the release of the Notices of Allegations and Infractions is your final chance to act in accordance with your responsibilities as the Governance of the North Carolina University System. In too many cases, we see leadership in this State that wants to sit on their hands and wait for issues to be brought to them on a silver platter. Folks, that is not leadership. You may hope that this situation is minimized and just goes away, but the momentum has been building for over a year towards a negative conclusion. Do you really want to chance a disastrous outcome, while people see you sitting on your hands? What is that going to look like. What will the value of that perception hold?

I implore you to please do the right thing and expedite this investigation towards its conclusion, because this is harming the asset of University Higher Education in what has been looked upon as one of the greatest Higher Educational systems in the world. Do you really want to risk that over a Football Coach who has no ties to this State and a bunch of players who  chose the low road over doing the right thing.

What example are you setting for the future? What legacy are you leaving for the future generations of people who have ties to the State of North Carolina? Step up and do the right thing.

Sincerely,
James Thomas Shell

Hickory, NC 28601
hickoryhound@gmail.com
UNC-Wilmington 1989
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The response of Mrs. Gage:

Mr. Shell,

Thank you for taking the time and sharing your concerns with us about athletics at UNC Chapel Hill. I can assure you we take this issue very seriously. The process is moving forward and we've been asked not to comment by the NCAA.

Thank you for your concern.
Hannah D Gage

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If anyone would like to write a letter to the UNC Board of Governors, regarding this issue and your concerns, here is the e-mail listing to cut and paste when sending the letter to the entire UNC BoG :

<hgage@ec.rr.com>; <peter.hans@nelsonmullins.com>; <flood_dudley@bellsouth.net>; <brent@barringerlaw.com>; <president@uncasg.org>; <lbissette@mwbavl.com>; <maedog@bellsouth.net>; <pgb0902@aol.com>; <lbuff@embarqmail.com>; <billd@daughtridgeenergy.com>; <wcdavenport@nc.rr.com>; <jdeal@dealmoseley.com>; <phildixon@daglawyers.com>; <fred.eshelman@ppdi.com>; <jfennebresque@mcguirewoods.com>; <paulfulton@triad.rr.com>; <ann.goodnight@sas.com>; <renee@fairproductsinc.com>; <thomasharrelson@aol.com>; <lawyers@pinehurst.net>; <leroylail@hickoryfurniture.com>; <amax2@suddenlink.net>; <emcmahan@littleonline.com>; <charles.mercer@nelsonmullins.com>; <fgm@millsconstructionco.com>; <bmitchell@wcsr.com>; <hnath45@yahoo.com>; <powersd@rjrt.com>; <alroseman@endo.net>; <tarheel111@nc.rr.com>; <raiford@autumnhall.com>; <pwalker@bbandt.com>; <brad.wilson@bcbsnc.com>; <david@youngandassociates.com>

Where are the UNC Board of Governors? - (Part 2) - Everybody knows "The Carolina Way" - July 1, 2011

Where are the UNC Board of Governors?!?!? - UNC-Chapel Hill athletic scandal - October 1, 2010

State of North Carolina University System -- We've Got a Problem Here!!! - September 18, 2010 

North Carolina Congressional Redistricting plan renders Hickory Irrelevant

The redistricting proposed by the North Carolina legislature splits the immediate vicinity around the City of Hickory into three different districts. This area will now be represented by the current 5th District - Virginia Foxx, 10th District -Patrick McHenry, and 11th District - Heath Shuler.

Caldwell County and portions of Burke County will move from the 10th district to the 11th district, about two-thirds of Hickory, but excluding Longview will move to the 5th with Watauga and Alexander. The balance of Catawba County stays in the 10th and will now be associated with Asheville and Gastonia.

Some people have pointed out that this will cause our area to lose political clout. My argument is that we don't have any political clout to begin with. Look at the fact that the local "Formal" media is more interested in mixing articles with advertising in relation to local Professionals and businesses, instead of doing any investigative reporting about what is going on around here in relation to local governance. Has anyone heard anything about this issue on WHKY or in the Hickory Daily Record?

In my conversation with Harry Hipps, related to this issue, he quoted the Ted Turner book, "Lead, Follow, or get out of the way." Hickory's political leadership has proven itself to be all to unwilling to exercise any initiative on anything that would be considered innovative or outside of the box thinking, because that would be considered too risky. Another serious problem is the arrogant attitude of our leadership that seems to feel that the City of Hickory is entitled to be the focal point of the attention of this area through infinity without taking action to express the City's importance. This dissolution of the current electoral paradigm will neuter Hickory as far as being a politically viable cog in the wheel of North Carolina politics; at least for the time being.

We have zero political clout, because we don't stand for anything. We have zero in the way of leadership on the local level politically. Our local political establishment is defined by glad handing and status. Tell me where there is a game plan on getting some things done?

Every time we have a local election people talk about how they don't want it to be too partisan or vitriolic. In my opinion, in Hickory that is the reason why you have that Status Quo, all of one mindset governance and that is the reason why all of this is happening.

The thinkers have a gameplan, but the thinkers aren't in office. Critical Thinkers aren't allowed a seat at the table. They are labeled trouble makers for asking too many questions of the establishment. The people who are in office have to be "Doers" and because of the rules that I set forth above, the leaders aren't going to be challenged and if they aren't going to be challenged, then where is the energy that forces them to do anything going to come from? Where is the accountability going to come from?

Look at the Hickory Daily Record and WHKY, one or both have been expressly given stories that they will not touch. I don't understand the thought process, but empirical evidence shows that they will not report on anything that could shape a political thought process. They will report on murder and mayhem and fluff, but anything that could affect political decisions they will not touch.

Personally that is the reason why I have moved away from writing opinion pieces to the HDR. I am sorry, but I don't look at what they do as being a valid news organization at this point. I beg them to change and become more involved. It is like a colleague has stated that they are usually the only "formal" presence at Hickory City Council meetings, but what have they really discussed? All they seem to do is take the City's information from the meetings and run with it in different blurbs over the week following the meeting. There is no in depth analysis and it leaves the public ignorant of the facts of what is happening in the community.

That is part of the multi-level negligence that I describe above. They have been given the story related to the malfeasance at the airport. They haven't ever talked about the bankruptcy of the operators of the airport. They were given details of interest related to the rental property task force. They will not devote diligence on the issues related to downtown. No one from the HDR showed up to the proceedings of the Hickory By Choice meetings. They barely touched the issue of the redistricting of the wards in the City of Hickory and won't touch ward specific elections with a 10 foot pole. There were factual discrepancies that tilted towards city management in relation to the pool issue.

It surely seems that when someone tries to hold an elected official's feet to the fire in our area, you have one of their buddies toting their water and making excuses for them and they don't have to lift a finger to defend their record. And that is a big problem. The apologists need to stand down and let us have a real election for once, instead of another processional pageant where no one participates, because the fix is in. We need to have a series of real debates and serious dialogue where the people who have the best ideas can get their message out, because from ideas we get action and from action we get things done!!!

What implications will this Congressional Redistricting hold for our area? The goal is what Congressman McHenry pointed out a couple months ago in the Politico article from May 4, 2011 entitled Race politics hit North Carolina redistricting. In this article the Congressman states:

“It’s politically probable that there will be a new minority influence district. … It’s logical based on the demographics of our state,” said Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), who has become the point man in Congress for the state’s redistricting.

McHenry and other North Carolina Republicans defend their redistricting efforts, saying the Tar Heel State’s booming population and the surge in Republican voters — not to mention the fact that Democrats drew the current districts — justify a new map that could give the state nine Republicans and four Democrats in Congress.

“Republicans should pick up three seats under any fair and legal map,” McHenry said. “That is huge. No other states in the nation would gain as many Republican seats. This would be in a state that Barack Obama won in 2008 and where we have had a Democratic governor since 1992 — the longest such period in the nation. A 9-4 delegation is pretty good and would attempt to avoid the risk of a bad year for Republicans. Clearly, Reps. Kissell and Miller are serving their final term.”

The swerving of our Congressional district lines serves multiple purposes. It most likely puts a Democrat seat out of the reach of Heath Shuler, because they are going to add Republican strongholds to the 11th district, while taking away Asheville and sacrificing some of the wide two-thirds support that McHenry now receives in the 10th district. Congressman McHenry also remembers that he had a tough go against Daniel Johnson in the City of Hickory in 2008, while he blew him away in the rest of the district. For that reason, I can see why as a strategy he doesn't mind trading in the City of Hickory. It also helps Virginia Foxx maintain the current wide support in the 5th District. Her district seems to be the least affected district in our area with only modifications affecting sparsely populated areas north of Winston-Salem, while allowing her to keep her centrifugal force centered around North Wilkesboro. IIt is also going to most likely spell doom for Larry Kissell, because the heavily Republican area in south Iredell County moves from Congressman McHenry's district to his 9th district. (EDIT: My mistake - Sue Myrick is the 9th District representative and inherits South Iredell from McHenry, while giving up parts of Gaston County, which is McHenry's home county. Kissell inherits parts of Rowan, Davidson, Randolph, and Robeson County, which I presume to be more Republican and loses some constituents to Mel Watt's gerrymandered minority district. Still making it harder for him to be reelected. The results of my hypothesis still don't change.)

The effects on Hickory, I believe, are related to our bad economy here. These Congressional representatives don't want the Hickory Metro's bad economy hindering their personal political efforts; so why not split it up? It can be good for Hickory if we find some leadership, because we would have three advocates for our interest, if we could ever focus on a gameplan. The one thing that I believe is that it essentially renders it nearly impossible for a candidate from the City of Hickory to ever be viable, because Hickory is on the fringes of all three of these districts and its population is split amongst those districts. In general, I believe that most candidates come from the heart of their district or the most populated areas within their district.

There is also the fact that our metropolitan area is taken for granted, because for the most part it automatically supports the Republican candidate. We do not have a valid two party structure in our area. We are the milk cow of North Carolina politics. Two-Thirds of the people here can be counted on to go in and vote straight Republican. I doubt that most of these people can even tell you who they are voting for. If we are going to not even have any expectations, then why shouldn't we be ignored. As the old saying goes, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. The only time we have ever squeaked was in relation to the Inter-basin transfer from the Catawba River. We took notice on that issue, but have never chirped on the issues related to the loss of our local industry due to "Free for All" trade and the devastating effects it has had on our area.

So, in the end, we are getting what we deserve. This cannot be good from the standpoint that our Metropolitan area is being sliced and diced by Raleigh and Washington. Essentially they are saying that our metropolitan designation is unfocused, irrelevant, and not politically significant. As my colleagues have stated and I have conveyed in this blog, Inaction is an Action and that is what we are guilty of from the top to the bottom of our area.

Whether people are scared of retaliation or whatever the excuse, the fact is that there isn't much getting done around here. There isn't much movement, much less energy. People are scared to rock the boat and if you don't rock the boat and make waves, then you aren't going to get moving. That is where our problem lies. This is just another in a long list of  issues that can be labeled as "the same ole story, the same ole song and dance, my friends."

The attack on our Liberty

The Reaffirmation of Independence of the United States of America

(Click the link above)